Visiting Layla

We got to visit with Layla (our puppy) again today! It's hard to believe that we'll be taking her home in just over a week! Here's some photos of her and her littermates. The larger dog is Madison (not related to our pup).

Christmas Night

BJ took this awesome photo of the moon and the view up our street last night. Not touched by photoshop!


Our tree from outside...


Our house lit up...


Our house lit up (moving camera)...

Countdown to Colorado!

We'll be in Winter Park in just four days! We can't wait to go skiing (Jessie) and snowboarding (BJ)! We'll have pictures to share soon! Also, tomorrow we visit our puppy one more time, before picking her up for good after Colorado. :) We can't wait to see how much she's grown. :)

Murphy Family Christmas

Summer wants to turn off football.


Santa arrives...


Grandma Murphy talks about being a very good girl.


Maria and Heidi cracking up.


Summer's not too sure about Santa...


BJ on Santa's lab...


BJ, Brian, Maria, and Grandma Murphy

Christmas Morning

Yesterday morning BJ and I headed over the BJ's mom's house to open gifts. Here's some of our photos! :)

Eating breakfast cassorrole.


Guess who's ready to open presents!


Jessie, Maria, and Linda.


BJ and his new bike! I love the bow! How cute!

Mosaic Christmas Party

Last weekend we had a few of our small group students over for a Christmas party! Here's some photos!

Aw crap...

Now we'll never get work done!

This Morning...

Putting up the Decor

She is veerrryy sneaky...


The result...




















Annie approves...

Cats Make Peace

In other news.... in a commendable show of peacemaking last week... Annie and Sid decided to put aside their differences (for the sake of just one small piece of blanket to share)... and spoon. Annie's all "I'll be the big spoon!" Sidney's all "I'll be the little spoon!" :)

Congratulations Jess and Ryan!

Sadie is adorable!!! Jess has been my great friend since ninth grade biology class. She and Ryan are going to be such wonderful parents! We can't wait to meet her! :) Love you Jess!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

Not too much time to write, but just wanted to give an update on Thanksgiving! BJ's dad and sister Maria joined my family (Julie, mom and dad) for a nice Thanksgiving dinner at our house. It was my first time making the big bird, and it turned out pretty good (although a little late). Thankfully everyone's bellies were patient with me! My brother Eric and his friend Megan joined us after a quite a time getting here (getting towed twice!). We also got to meet Julie's friend Jason who came up for the weekend. :)

The table ready for some grub.



Julie making fun of my photo taking...



Julie and Dad hanging out with Oliver in the backyard...

Our New Puppy!

We got to meet our puppy today! She's flippin adorable - a little brindle female boxer. Now we can't wait to bring her home - just over a month now until she's old enough! Right now she's just about two weeks old.

Click here to see the slideshow larger.

Photos from the Weekend

BJ and I had a great time this weekend visiting with Oliver, my parents, grandparents, and uncle Bill, who was visiting from England.

Watching Survivorman on DVD...



Getting ready to eat Bill's birthday cake...



Dinner time...

Make that 5...

pregnant friends! Man, you people are BUSY! :)

Lady Bugs Invade

Fall Photos From Our Street

Welcome to Blogging!

Our great friends Jess and Ryan have a new blog... and a new baby coming soon! Congratulations and much love from us!!!

A Few Updates!

So we've been busy! Two weekends ago we had planned to go camping with Chris & Chrissy, Kristi & Cary, and Mike & Megan... unfortunately there was a fire ban so we scrapped our plans and hung out at our house for the weekend. It was so nice to see everyone again! :)

This past weekend, while BJ hung out here, I took off for 'the Bend' with Jessica and Ryan for Jess's baby shower! She's adorable! I can't wait for her baby to come (and to find out if its a baby girl or boy)! It was also great to spend some time with my family before they took off for their NC vacation. :)

Also... yesterday was Kate's birthday!!! Happy 28th babe!

Here's some photos.... Jess and I...



Jess and a camo onesie from her brother Andy (who's overseas)...


Jess's sister Val, her mom Kathy, and Jess...



Julie and Oliver...



Mom and Oliver...

Here's a Tip

Just like not grocery shopping while hungry... buying cookbooks can have the same effect. Sausage pie with onion gravy sounded great yesterday. Today... not so much. :)

Updates coming soon!

Hiya!

So BJ and I have a wonderful weekend with Tim and Erin. We always say this, but we wish so much they lived closer. We had some unexpected fun finding purebred puppies on the side of the road, flattening pennies, rounding up caches, and riding dinosaurs! :) About the puppy... we didn't have a camera, but it pretty much looked like this. In the end, it turned out to be a Great Pyrenees (i.e. one huge dog)! Needless to say, BJ was pretty glad we found the owners. :)

Life update... BJ and I have now tried sushi. BJ bought some fresh from Jungle Jims and surprise surprise, it was actually good! I'm guessing that's because you couldn't really taste the fish under the rice, seaweed (?), other unknown greens, and soy sauce. :)

Here's a little nonsense for your day (in honor of our little road side find, Tim, & Erin). Sound is key... so turn it up. :)

Busy with FUN

Starting (hopefully... are we still on Erin and Tim?) this weekend BJ and/or I will be gone every weekend for a month! Here's our lives in weekend order... 1) Campbellsburg, 2) Indianapolis (just Jessie), 3) Lafayette (go Boilers!), 4) Clifty Falls, and 5) Granger (baby showering... just Jessie)... Whew! :)



This Thursday BJ and I start back up with our (now) high school sophomore group. By the end I'll hopefully won't struggle so much trying to spell sophomore!

More Costa Rica Photos

If you'd like to see more photos from our trip, we've got them all online. :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/mrsjessicamurphy

Lessons from Costa Rica...

1. Rice and beans may sound strange for breakfast... but it's one of the best things about Costa Rica food (even better than rice and beans for dinner).

2. White faced monkeys can't be trusted.

3. Two toed sloths are 3% excrement. (We actually overheard another tour guide stating this fact, because sloths only do number 2 every 2 weeks.)

4. If you're wondering what the weather's like in Costa Rica during rainy season... it's sunny and stormy and beautiful.

Costa Rica Photos

BJ and I got home last night from our ten day trip to Costa Rica with Caravan Tours. We had an awesome time! We spent the trip traveling all over Costa Rica, getting a chance to see a wide range of landscapes (ocean, hills, volcanoes, mountains, rain forests) and animals (monkeys, sloths, huge spiders, poisen dart frogs, scarlet macaws, toucans, coati).

One of our favorite places was Tortuguero (which you can only fly or take a boat to get to), where we stayed in open air cabins in the jungle and were awakened each morning by howler monkeys. This is not one of our videos... but this does give a great idea of what it sounded like in the early morning there. We were able to see a lot of monkeys each day just by walking outside.



Here are some of the white faced monkeys...



Also in Tortuguero (and in Jaco) we were able to see sea turtles come in from the ocean to lay their eggs. We have a video of it from Jaco that we might post later.

In Fortuna we stayed in this hotel with an incredible view of the Arenal Volcano, which is still active.



We could see plumes of ash and smoke coming from the top. At night we took a tour of the volcano to see the hot lava and rocks flowing. It looked like an amazing fireworks show... but the real thing!



There's so much more to share but I don't want to just type on and on. We would definitely recommend this tour if anyone is considering a trip to Costa Rica!!

Here in Costa Rica

Hey Everyone! BJ and I are currently at a coffee plantation near San Jose, CR. We have been having an amazing time and will be home tomorrow. We leave bright and early. Miss you all and wish you were here! No time left.

- Jessie and BJ