Happy Birthday Jon!!

We miss our son Jonny and we celebrated his birthday on November 9th surrounded by family and close friends.  We ate Jonny's favorite dinner, pizza followed by Jonny's favorite birthday cake, an ice cream cake.

We each wrote a note to Jonny and put it inside a balloon.  We took the helium filled balloons and let them go outside.

A visit to Jonny's grave...

We went last Sunday as a family to Jonny's grave so everyone could see his headstone for the first time.

Emily sat down and traced every letter on the headstone

Brothers....

I have been working on a new project for my wall in my family room and going through photos for that project. This is one of my all-time favorites of my children. We have over 30,000 photos on my computer (not exaggerating) and this is one of the top favorites. It captures so well the love between these two boys and their personalities too! It can be overwhelming, the volume of photos I have to go through for projects, but I am so glad that my husband is a man of MANY shots! I miss the big hugs Jonny gave! I miss my boy!

Jonny's Headstone

Jonny's headstone was finally placed on Sept. 22nd. Steve has driven by his grave everyday on his way to and from work, hoping to see work being done on the headstone.

We are so very grateful for how well it turned out. We are grateful to all those who generously donated to Jonny's memorial fund. We were able to have exactly what we wanted for his headstone because of the many kind donations. Some we were able to thank, but many we don't know as the donations were anonymous through the memorial fund. We can only hope they know who incredibly grateful we are!

Logan's Eagle Project...

We finally have finished with Logan's Eagle project. He has two merit badges to complete and he is an Eagle Scout! Logan was able to complete Jonny's project he had planned and had approved to do and then he was in the hospital on the day we scheduled to do it.

Logan had 75 storm drains to label in West Boise. We had a good turn-out and all the drains were labeled in about 2 hours.

When Steve and Jonny picked up the project supplies from the Boise Watershed they stopped and found one of the drains on the map and placed one of the medallions. I am so glad they did that. Jonny did get to prepare all of the paperwork and did get to participate, even if it was only one. Jonny will get a posthumous award called "The Spirit of the Eagle" which is award to young men who qualified but passed away before receiving their Eagle Scout Award.

One more Eagle project to go for Carson!

Bond, James Bond (aka Jon Murphy)

Bond,

James Bond (aka Jonny Murphy)

Jonny donned his first tuxedo for his first concert in Men's Choir at Rocky Mountain High School. He joined choir second semester having never sung in choir before. I was really proud of him standing on stage, very seriously, and performing! It warms this musical mom's heart! Not to mention he is a good looking young man!

Happy 16th Birthday Jonny....

Jonny had a friend party too, the first one ever he announced to his friends during the party.

We had a small family party too on his birthday.

I can't believe he is 16! Where does the time fly....

He hasn't really asked to drive much yet either......lucky me!

Have fun guys....

Kristina left yesterday for Girls Camp. She was so excited I am not sure she slept much the night before. I hope she has a blast, I always did!

Today, Jonny is off to High Adventure. Completely outfitted with a paintball mask and camping gear and a mountain bike he is set to go! He too was up at the crack of dawn ready to take off. Summer is so much fun!

I am down to three kids at home now....so quiet!

Dissecting a chicken wing...

Jonny had to dissect a chicken wing for a Science Lab. He is so happy to eat them when they come out of the oven. However, dissecting one almost made him a vegetarian!

November Birthdays...

(Jonny's 15th Birthday)

We have 3 birthdays in the month of November, all about one week apart. By Thanksgiving we have celebrated 5 birthdays since September 1st. I really love decorating cakes and I get some good practice in this time of the year.

(Kristina's 13th Birthday)

The kids get to choose their kind of cake and their favorite dinner too. As they are getting older there is more variety to the choices. Jonny wanted pizza for dinner, Kristina wanted Aunt Tami's homemade noodles in homemade chicken soup. And Katie wanted my homemade bread bowls with homemade broccoli & cheddar soup.

(Katie's 11th Birthday)

Katie chose an ice cream cake made by Aunt Tami. I got to write on it but that is it! Whew... (Katie received gifts too, I just don't know why we didn't get pictures...birthday burnout maybe, sorry Katie!)

Steve was in Arizona for Jonny and Kristina's birthdays and so he participated in the celebrations via Google Video Chat! It was fun when he showed them their gifts over the video. After 12 hours of intense driving Steve made it back to actually eat some of Katie's ice cream cake! Having Daddy home was a great present for all!!

Back to School....

On August 17th, with tissue boxes in hand and backpacks packed full, the kids boarded their buses headed back to school. This is our last year for grade school (for a couple of years anyway), our last year before I have a high schooler, the last year of split bus schedules, our last year of senior primary (until Emily gets up there). It is Emily's first year in nusery at church. It is the first year that Emily waves and says goodbye as the kids get on the bus. The first year for Kristina in Middle School. The first year that Katie and Carson are not in the same class. The first year that Jonny liked the first week of school. The first year that we don't go to the fair!

We have been to two class presentations since school has started. Carson gave his "I am an Influencial American" presentation during the first week of school and Katie gave hers at the beginning of this second week of school.

Goofy kids....

A little OCD don''t ya think?

Recently, Jonny had the crud that was going around our school.  He tells me he needed more tissue, he was going through it so fast!   When I opened the pantry door this is what I saw!  I just had to take a shot of this.  That is at least 1/2 of a box of tissues!

Happy 14th Birthday Jonny!

Jonny turned 14 this last Sunday. I can't believe how time just flies by! He is a good boy who is taller than me, his mother, and almost as tall as his father. He is working on his next Scout rank of Life and trying to conquer the 7th grade! He has always loved building with Legos since he was a toddler with the Duplo blocks. He gets Legos for every birthday and Christmas. He had put specific things on his Wish List and he was happy with all he recieved! One word, SPOILED!The kids can request their dinner and cake on their birthdays. The newest craze at our house is the ice cream cake. My sister makes a three layered ice cream cake with Oreos as the crust and the filling between the layers of ice cream. The ice cream flavors she usually uses are chocoloate, mint choc. chip, and oreo cookie. I tried decorating the top with my regular frosting and it froze and fell off. So the only frills on this cake was the traditional Happy 14th Birthday Jonny!