Country Learning...

Because things have been changing around here, I have decided to document them in a different blog.... Country Learning is where I will start to blog about life out here in rural Nevada/Utah. I bet your wondering why Nevada and Utah.... Well there is a post coming about that! :)
I will still update things on here from time to time, but for now it will be a blog fest over here.
Stay awesome! A

The new chapter....

Here it is, 5 or so weeks since we have moved and I am just now getting to posting in the blog...

I don't have any pictures to post as of yet, because I'm lazy with taking pictures.

The move went really well. WE love where we are living! The views are indescribable! The weather is cooler than I anticipated, but that is just fine because we have 3 wood burning stoves that keeps us really warm. And I have a lumberjack hubby so that makes it even better! :)

The kids LOVE their school, and so do I. In the High School/Jr High School there is a total of 9 students including Samantha. It is amazing how much Sam loves her new school! Since we have moved here, she has come out of her little "Sammy Shell" and is friends with everyone! She is doing so great in school and loves all of the things she is doing!

In the Elementary there are a total of 10 students. 5 of them are mine, but it is really working out great! All of the kids are achieving so many things and that makes me really happy! Also, I get to help out at the school 3 days a week and that is really awesome! I LOVE IT!

I am also learning so many things about myself! I am having to learn how to cook from scratch and that is so much fun! The kids are really loving all of the homemade breads and goodies that I make. Even though El goes into Wendover 3 days a week and can get groceries it is nice to be able to learn how to improve my abilities with cooking and baking. I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving and making homemade pie crust!

It does get a bit lonely at times, but I try to keep myself busy!

I have lost 15 pounds since the move! I attribute that to not having McDonalds at my beck and call. French Fries are my total weakness!

One of the coolest things that I have seen here is, 2 Sundays ago El and I took a drive up above the property where we are living on the dirt bike and we saw wild horses! THAT was SO amazing! I wish I had my camera... It was so amazing and they were not to far from us! The stallion was trying to show us just how awesome he was/is with kicking and stomping and tossing his mane. It was truly awe inspiring!

Also, the Eagles around here are so cool! We see them everyday and I just love it! What beautiful country I live in!

The adventure continues...

After years of planning and working hard to be able to find a job that will be able to sustain us in the wild desert of Utah, I can finally say that we will be able to see these beautiful mountains daily!

El has been able to get a job out in the west desert and we have a place to call home and we all couldn't be more thrilled! El leaves this week to start the move and we will soon follow in about 2 weeks. I am so greatful for all of the wonderful blessing these last 3 years have been and I look forward to all of the blessings to come in this life! Let the adventure continue!!!!!

Almost Accomplished...

At the beginning of summer Morgan and Kylah decided to see if they could see all of the licence plates for the US... This was a FUN game! It got all of us involved.

The only catch was, they had to get all 50 before school started... We were able to see 47, plus Ontario, Alberta, Winnipeg, Australia and Tonga! REALLY, Tonga! In a Home Depot parking lot. If only any of those 5 could have been the illusive 3...

Hopefully next summer we can get all 50!

speaking of chickens.....

Over the last couple of weeks I have made daily excursions outside to see if any of my loudly clucking chickens have laid any eggs... I was totally surprised to find one at the bottom of the back porch steps. It was cracked, but it was still an egg. I was elated! So yesterday I heard them clucking along with the family and we couldn't find one of the hens.. WELL, my Grandma searched and searched and found this;

Here is one of our hens.. She is one of the friendliest... She was sitting on all of these eggs... I marked them with an X so that we knew they were older. Apparently many of our hens have been laying in this spot and we didn't know it... After I took this picture, she went back into the nest and laid another egg... This is the greatest part of having chickens...

Update! REALLY!!!

Life is busy! Blogging really isn't on the top of the list of things to do!!! It seems like we have been going non -stop since April.

So I will try to give a little break down...

In March we got chickens, got rid of our dog who was killing our chickens, and got more chickens! We have a total of 19. Two of them are roosters! Only one of them is crowing and let me tell you, that is just lovely to wake up to in the morning!!! I don't have a recent picture of the chickens so I will have to get one...

In April we took our trip to San Diego... It was so much fun!!!

Here are some pictures of the beach!!! It was so much fun! April was the perfect time to go, because the weather was so beautiful! The kids all LOVED the beach so much! But if you were to ask them to swim in the ocean the way they did then, the wouldn't because we have been watching "shark week" all week... :)

Here are just a handful of pictures I took from all of our "park adventures".. I seriously took about five thousand pictures during the trip.. I didn't want to overwhelm with the pictures....

So here is the break down of the parks.. We went to San Diego Wild Animal Park, Lego Land, Sea World, San Diego Zoo & Knotts Berry Farm... It was a lot of fun and I lost about 18 pounds from all of the walking... I just wish the pounds would have stayed off... :)

El and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary on June 1st... It has been such a wonderful time being married to this crazy guy.. He really makes everything worth while! El planned a big old surprise for me.. He took me to dinner, then decided to drive me around the town to see the Temple and then he surprised me with a night stay at the Anniversary Inn.... It was so awesome! I just wish I could have been a bit more cooperative... It was totally freaked out that all of the kids were going to be left with my Grandma and I was worried they would all be to much for her.. But things went well and everyone had a great time!

Also in June we made our first attempt at getting out to the 240 since March... In March when we went, it was too muddy and wet. We barely made it to the Norman Ranch without incident... So this June trip was way over due! We did make it kind of and got stuck in the Motor Home... It was a chore getting unstuck. We had to wait for El's dad to get there to tow us out... But it sure made for some great memories....

July was our annual Murphy Family Reunion.. It is always a lot of fun! The only problem is, I only took a handful of pictures and none of them turned out.... :(

Now here we are in August... El left for the 240 yesterday.. He didn't get out there until 3:00am... Because of some problems... Hopefully things are going well today... I'm hoping to pack the kids up on Tuesday for our final trip of the summer out there...

SO there it is.. TADA! Not really all that exciting.. But exciting enough for me....

Have a happy day!

Birthday Boy

My sweet Gannon had his 5th birthday on Monday April 25th.. He is such a special boy and I enjoy him so much!

He really brings so much joy to our family.. I often tell him that I want him to stay little. He will give me a weird look and say "okay".

On Monday when I was giving him his bath, I told him that on that day 5 years ago he got his first bath ever.. I then asked him who gave it to him and he said "me?" I let him know that daddy was the one to give him the bath.. He then said "I like when daddy gives me baths"..

Gannon's favorite things right now are Ben10 toys and his ultimate favorite is Lego Ninjagos.. This past week when we were in California we took a day trip to LegoLand California.. It was so awesome and Gannon thought it was the best birthday ever!!!

and then???

So much to say... I haven't really felt like blogging to much over the last little bit. Life gets away from me and before I know it, it is the end of April...

So, I will try to catch up on all that has happened..

March: Was a real craptastic month! Really! My Grandpa got really sick and was in the hospital for 3 days. He was going down hill, so we brought him home to be with his family. And WOW there was alot of family here.. It was so good to have everyone here to be with him in his final days. He passed away on March 18th 2011 at 12:18 PM.. It was such a sad day for all of us, but such a wonderful day for him...

Time kind of stands still when you loose someone you love so much... I don't know how to really deal with the loss of him. He was more than my Grandpa. He was my Dad.. He taught me so much in this life and I truly miss his presence here!

April: Has been a whirl wind of crazy! El and I decided to take a vacation with all of the kids to California for spring break... BUT, those are other posts! The thing that I really wanted to mention is, on the day that we were leaving April 15th, my baby sister had the cutest little baby girl... Her name is Ellieann... SHE is so cute! I was afraid that I wasn't going to see her before we left town, so I dropped by the hospital on our way out just to see my sister.. And low and behold, the baby had just been born!!! I was so excited to see her!!! I didn't get to hold her until yesterday (easter) because we had just gotten home!!! She is lovely.. I love snuggling her! Pictures to come soon...

Arizona!

We had such an amazing time in Arizona.. If I had my way we would move there tomorrow... It was wonderful! The weather was great (anything is better than SLC right now).

The kids all thought it was the coolest thing to be able to play outside. At the Mangums they were out every chance they got.
Here are pictures from our trip to the Park.. It was awesome.. LOTS of pics... Enjoy!


All of us at the park..

Little Miss Ali.. She is the cutest!

Brook and Morgan...

James!

I love this picture of Kroban running.. It is like I have never let him outside before!

Kylah & Sam in the back ground..

Gannon with his cute black eye..

PRICELESS!!! I love the look on Helams face.

Little Miss Monkey bars... Emer had tunz of fun!

excitment!

When reading this, please sing in your loudest voice, or your head "I'm so EXCITED" by the pointer sisters...

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it! We are going to our BFF's next week and I couldn't be more happy! I am looking forward to hanging out and just doing nothing!

It reminds me of when I was in the 3rd grade and my Grams and Gramps took me to California to pick up my Aunt Lynda and Michael and Bryan.. We decided that during that trip we would go to Disneyland. It was the greatest time of my life! I rode home with my Aunt in her car and almost the entire way home we listened to the pointer sisters on tape... It was SO awesome! I wish I knew how to use my scanner so I could scan in some pictures of that trip..
California trips as a kid were the best. I loved going! That first trip we drove in this little grey Toyota. It was such a little fun car. (I inherited that car when I was 17)... Then about a year later my Grandparents got a motor home.. THE COOLEST! We took that thing to California every chance we got (at least that is how I remember it!) O how I miss that motor home! The funnest thing to do during trips was to sit in the overhead and watch all of the world before me.. Such great memories!

I am so excited to take this long road trip to Arizona with my family. I am more excited to go towards the warmth... This Utah weather is crap!

Lost in Translation...

I seriously feel lost! I keep looking at other peoples blogs and I feel like I have alot to write about. BUT, the words just don't flow! I feel I have missed the opportunity on posting big events that have happened this month. But then I look over my calendar or other journal entries that I have and there were really only two big events...

The first event: Helam turned 2... TWO... But in reality it feels like my baby is 4 going on five.

Then I remember that my baby that is 4 going on 5 is Gannon..

The second event: Emer got Baptised. All I can really tell you about that day, was Helam turned two and I was busy doing so many other things that I feel I cheated my son out of a party. But then again, if he even has a memory of his second birthday it will be that there was a party and hopefully he will remember that he was the center of attention. O WAIT! He was, because he is a million miles and hour and I am sure he stole all of Emers thunder!

The worst part of the day, was that I forgot my camera! SO, I don't have a single picture (at least one that I would have taken) of El and Emer together...

It was an amazing day! Not only did my baby girl get baptised, but I got to hear El's amazing testimony. The love that he has for our children is so amazing! It really is one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in this world. He is such an amazing person!

I wish I could remember all of the wonderful things that were said on that day. But all I could really think about was this family that I have is awesome!

As I sit here and write this, I just have to post something that I think is so cute. But all of my 2 readers will think i'm a meanypants.. Helam is sick with a cold and a cough.. The thing that is so cute about it is this: When he talks, his voice is all raspy and when he giggles it just makes my heart melt~! He sounds like a 90 old man whos voice box has had its last whisper.. :)

I know! MEAN! But to make it all better, just know this: I have been sick too..

Proud!

With all of the hussle and bussle of the last month, I have forgotten to tell the Internet that:

EL got a 4.0 last semester! He took 6 classes (18 credits) ALL online!

Whoot, Whoot!

waiting...

Happy New Year!

Winter! BLAH!!! I am ready for Spring already!

The sun is so awesome today, but it is so deceiving. I feel like we are on the top of the hill looking down towards warmth, fun and life!

I can't wait for all of the amazing things that the spring, summer and fall will have in store for us. I can't wait to be out at the 240. I can't wait to ride 4 wheelers. I can't wait for Helam to eat dirt again.

Speaking of Helam, he turns 2 this week. TWO! I know I say this alot, but how is it he is growing so fast? He is such an amazing person who tries my patients each and every day. He makes me want to pull out all of the gray hairs he is giving me. But I LOVE HIM so much, it makes my heart ache.
Also on Helams birthday, Emer will be getting baptized. She is so excited and so am I!

I love this journey. I love my family. I love winter too, but spring, summer and fall are my true loves!