a visit from Grandma and Grandpa! (and Auntie Buh-buh and Uncle Cole!)

We had an AWESOME week this week with my family visiting. They came out here for a week, for Bethany and Cole's spring break. They wanted to go to DC while they were here, so we spent a few days there with them too--which was very interesting with a toddler, since most museums are not super Dane-friendly. But hands down, the best part of having them with us was seeing how happy, happy, happy Dane was with them. ALL week long, he had such a blast seeing "Papa" and "Mama" and "Buhbuh" and "Co!" He said all their names, he would ask for them whenever one of them would walk out of the room, and he was so HYPER all week long with all the excitement of having them around. I kept saying, "He's not always this crazy!" because he really and truly was just going crazy the whole time we were with them. It was adorable and hilarious and a little psychotic all at the same time. So we had a GREAT time with them, and Dane has been asking for them ever since they left yesterday.

So I just wanted to post a few pictures in no specific chronological order, so that I could email them to my two missionary brothers who will be checking their emails soon. I thought they'd appreciate seeing some of these pictures. 

Buhbuh, Dane, and Mama.

Dane and Grandma!

Grandpa and Grandma came bearing gifts, including this cute kid's t-shirt for the University of Albany, whose mascot is the Great Danes. It was adorable to see him running around with this Great Danes shirt on!

Of course, one of the days we were in Durham we had to take them to the Duke Gardens. (We are kind of at a loss for what to take visitors to when they come, other than the gardens...)

In front of the National Archives in DC!

Dane loved all the animals and dinosaurs at the National Museum of Natural History.

It was raining the ENTIRE day on Tuesday, so we were walking around and getting soaked the whole day. But we braved the elements, dang it, and still did some good stuff!

I thought Dallin and Austin would appreciate this.

A Murphy family inside joke: we have a picture of Bethany when she was about two touching a moon rock at a museum in Houston, and she has the grumpiest, poutiest face ever. We wanted to reenact that picture touching this other moon rock at the Air and Space museum in DC.

We took Dane on the little merry-go-round on the Mall, and he loved it!

The last remnants of the cherry blossoms (all the ones that didn't get knocked off with all the rain)--and my parents on their 27th anniversary!

Dane wearing his new sunglasses he got from G and G.

That one time we went to Mount Vernon and didn't go in because it was so expensive and there was such a long line, but we still took a picture outside of it and pretended like we'd been there:

Dane and Uncle Cole at Monticello.

Dane after he'd escaped the SUPER-BORING house tour of Monticello, exploring the beautiful grounds and gardens.

Basically 90% of what went on all week--going to historical sites but spending most of the time talking to Dane instead of looking at the old stuff.

Beautiful southern trees in Richmond.

Grandpa Murphy--this one is for you! This is us in front of the Simon Murphy house in Virginia, just like you wanted us to visit. Do you love it?

Dane was SO SO SO cute, sleeping in the car. He needed his monkey blankie by his face and Sparky the doggie on the other side and then he'd fall right asleep. So adorable. 

So sad saying good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa before they left.

Dane REALLY, really loved my dad. He asked for Papa all day long and wanted him to hold him whenever he saw him (for at least a few seconds before he'd want to get down and walk around again). He's definitely got a thing for the men in his life! (First daddy, now grandpa.)

Right before they left for the airport. We miss them already! Dane has been asking for them all day yesterday and today. 

We owe them a big THANK YOU for coming to visit us and letting us tag along on their trip to DC. It was really fun and we felt really lucky to be able to go there with some family who made Dane's antics seem all warm and fuzzy rather than frustrating. We had a great time with them and can't wait to see them in just another month or so, when we come visit in California.

Easter Sunday

We have a TON of pictures from this week that I want to share, but that will take a while and they are still uploading, so I will quickly share some pictures we took today for Easter.

We made a little Easter basket for Dane, filled with toys that he'd already gotten from his grandma and grandpa and he didn't even notice! He loved it! He was a little confused to be seeing this super early in the morning but he took it all in stride.

We went to church, and Tommy and I both sang in the choir. Dane sat with our friends in the audience for the first song but ended it screaming by the end because he noticed we were gone. He came up with Tommy for the second song and was a little difficult. But then we went to nursery and I brought the camera to take some pictures of Dane's and my nursery class, since we won't be going very many more weeks before we move (especially because of our trip to UT/CA coming up)!

After church, we spent a while making a big ol' Easter feast. Tommy took care of the giant ham and I made some rolls, and we invited some friends over (the Busbys and Vanderwerkens and Bryan Goodliffe) for a little Easter egg hunt and dinner. We stuffed a few eggs and hid them on the grass outside our apartment. Dane totally got it--he was looking for the eggs and every time he would find one, he'd say "egg!" Luckily, he doesn't know the eggs open up (which is totally fine with us). 

Kylie and Emmy were obviously the best at finding the eggs, but they were happy to help the three little boys find eggs themselves.

Running and looking for more eggs!

The five kiddos in the Easter egg hunt (Dane, Benjamin Vanderwerken, Emmy, Preston, and Kylie Busby). Of course, I didn't take any pictures of the adults as we were eating dinner--whoops!

Everyone else in the world takes all these cute matchy-matchy Easter pictures, but this is what we got for today! We still felt pretty cute and happy for this fun Easter.

We really wanted to have a fun time with Dane this Easter, but we didn't really talk too much about Jesus or the Resurrection with him. Since I am his nursery teacher, I did teach him the nursery lesson about Easter today, and I felt like that was enough (since he and the other kids all are basically only capable of saying "Jesus," not really understanding something as complicated as death and coming back to life). We do want to establish good traditions and especially teach Dane the importance of this holiday, but this year it definitely was just fun for him to find Easter eggs and talk about Jesus a little bit in nursery. We really are grateful to believe in a Savior and his Atonement for us.

a couple things

Dane has learned how to spit, and he thinks it is hilarious. Okay, it IS hilarious. He'll screw up his face like this and spit for five or ten seconds at a time, while drool is dribbling out of his mouth all over the place. We try not to encourage it but how could you not laugh when he is making this face, with those cheeks?

He has also learned how to manipulate us even more than he has already been doing. If he doesn't want me to put him down for his nap, he'll wrap his arms around my shoulders and then pat my back with his tiny little hands, both in rhythm at the same time. He knows we can't resist that and will never put him down if that's what he's doing.

Sometimes Dane will walk around saying, "Mama... Daddy... Dane!" Just walking around thinking about the three of us being together. Having both of us home is his favorite thing in the world. It's like it just makes him happy to be thinking about mama and daddy and when he's thinking about us he'll talk about it.

I LOVE HIM.

Dr. Leininger!

The last few weeks have been a little crazy around here in our apartment because Tommy has been cramming and working frantically to finish his thesis. His defense was scheduled for this Tuesday, and he had to get a final draft ready for his committee to read at least a week beforehand. Once he finished that, he had to get the actual presentation for his defense ready. He felt pretty good about it and was just ready to be DONE with this project he's been working on for over a year now. He had his defense in the afternoon on Tuesday and he passed! (Obviously and unsurprisingly!)

It's developed into a tradition in his department for people to prank people's desks when they defend their thesis, so they come back to the office and find their desk completely changed. Tommy's officemates decorated his desk with trees and a Texas theme, since he'd told them we were sad about leaving the trees in North Carolina to go to Texas. 

Before Tommy actually did his defense, I sneaked into the office and brought balloons and a cake to add to the decoration of his office. I found one of his officemates and got her to help me hide them and she brought them out when he was finished. I wasn't able to actually be there for the defense (it was during Dane and Indie's naptime) but Dane and I came up as soon as Indie had gotten picked up in the afternoon. 

One of the previous pranks to a different student was that they replaced his desk with this child's play desk, and it's been sitting in the office for the last 1.5 years ever since. Dane found it and loved coloring on it. We might just take it home with us even though it is pink and purple--it's the perfect size for him and he loves having little chairs to sit on.

After we cleaned up Tommy's office a little, we went to get a celebratory dinner at Bullock's BBQ, just north of Duke campus in Durham. We'd never been there but it's always one of those NC BBQ places people list as one of the best and most authentic places you have to go to! Dane did really pretty well at the restaurant (he's not usually very good) and we really enjoyed our barbecue and sides. I have to confess--I finally, finally actually like hushpuppies. I hope that we can find some in Texas too.

AND, it's also a tradition for the advisor of the student to host a celebration get-together at a restaurant or bar for people in the program to congratulate the successful new PhD. Tommy's adviser, Alan, had another student defend her thesis the day after Tommy's, so Tommy and Maria had a joint celebration at Geer St. Gardens, a restaurant in north Durham. There were a ton of people there and we had a good time talking to everyone. 

Dane was BEYOND nice--he sat in the high chair and ate french fries for about an hour. His little friend Benjamin came and sat next to him, but they basically ignored each other except for trying to steal each other's food.

Tommy and his adviser, Alan Gelfand. I've only met him a few times, but he has been such a great adviser for Tommy--helpful in getting him to graduate on time and very understanding about Tommy taking time to spend with me and Dane when needed.

All in all, we are SO SO happy that it all went so well. It's unbelievable that Tommy is really and truly done. (He still has work to do to turn his thesis into several papers that he and his adviser are hoping to get published, but we know he will be able to graduate!) It has gone so well and we just need to get more realistic about the fact that we are moving so soon. I can't wrap my mind around it--but we are so close to being done!

12 Dates of 2014: March

For our March date, we used a groupon that Tommy bought to go to the Raleighwood Cinema, which is one of those movie theaters where you get to order dinner and it's brought to you at your table while you watch a movie. (I guess I misspoke there--we TRIED to use a groupon that Tommy had bought for this place, but we were unsuccessful. It had expired the DAY BEFORE we went to use it, and we thought they'd still let us at least use the value we had paid count towards buying our tickets, but they said we'd have to call their office during normal business hours and get a coupon mailed to us. Grrr. BUT anyways...) I remember very clearly going to a dinner movie theater in Panama with Denice and sitting in these huge comfy armchairs and having the waiters bring us our delicious meal while we watched our movie, and it all cost about $6 and it was awesome. This place was slightly LESS awesome--because it cost more and the chairs were definitely not cozy La-Z-Boys for us to relax in. But it was still a fun experience to have. We watched the second Hunger Games movie (which we'd already seen) and enjoyed a big ol' pizza all to ourselves. 

And we took a few pictures (but of course, since we were watching a movie, not that many):

The other notable thing about this date is that it was the first time we'd ever paid a babysitter to come to our house while we were gone, instead of swapping with friends or dropping Dane off at their house to sleep there. We asked one of the young women in our ward to come over, and Dane went to bed before she even got there, so it worked out really well. It did make the date more expensive, but it was so nice to not have to pick Dane up from a friend's house and wake him up to bring him home! Maybe once Tommy's job starts (and we have an actual income) we'll do that all the time, haha.