Murray Christmas Letter: 2011 Edition

Another year has come and gone.  8 years of marriage has flown by, but the mileage doesn’t quite add up to the amount of travelling Brett did this year for CVS/Caremark, training all the unsuspecting victims the in and outs of Pharmacy Benefits. 

We also had to give him up two nights a week and Sunday mornings when he was called as the Second Counselor in the Bishopric.  It wasn’t so bad though.  It turns out Brett has been the bad influence on the kids all these years, so Kelly got a few nights off while he was serving.  Never the less, it was nice having him sit with us in church again.  Minus having to pack more snacks so the kids didn’t have to share with daddy.

Much of the year was spent recovering the birth of Chloe and living through the life of Kembry.  Cohen graduated Kindergarten with honors, and a 2^nd grade reading level.  So much for c-o-o-k-i-e-s after the kids go to bed. 

Cohen cannot only read anything and everything, he can also spell and do math like a little whiz.  We had to stop giving him alphabet soup, it was getting ridiculous.  The boy has been promoted to accountant, and we’re expecting our first million by second quarter.  “Cohen, can you explain to me what I just wrote?”  “Ugh, yes.”

Kembry has moved on to bigger and brighter things in the world of Kindergarten.  There she ooh’s and ahh’s all the five year old ladies and gentlemen, and has, of course, learned the inevitable “Miss me, miss me, now ya gotta kiss me” song.  Heaven help us.  Lucky for her, but mostly us, she’s following close behind her brothers smarty pants.  She can read and write as well as any first grader.  Unfortunately, she maintains her on again/off again love affair with knives, though we haven’t had any recent trips to the ER because of it.

Chloe is fat and happy.  She doesn’t talk, she doesn’t walk, and she has no desire to try either.  At this rate, times her excessive weight gain and height growth, Brett and Kelly will be due for back surgery in February.  Which is just fine with Chloe, as long as it doesn’t interfere with her one hour a day of “Blue’s Clue’s” (the only word she does say, actually.  “Blue”.)

The big news of course was the half year move south.  We are loving Arizona, and we can say that now because we are a month outside the heat wave.  The three month heat wave.  The 120 degree for 6 days straight, heat wave.  We have a feeling it’s going to be a love/hate relationship.  But as for December in Arizona, the weather is fine, and we haven’t had to put away our flip flops or unpack our winter coats.  Which is a good thing, because we didn’t bring any!

We miss our families like crazy, but they’re crazy so we can’t miss them too much.  We visited Utah in September for Kelly’s sister’s wedding, and November for the annual dipping/eating of chocolates.  The drive isn’t as awful if you do it at night and avoid the dreary desert scenery.  Well, plus the kids sleep the whole time.  Sweet.

We’re moving into a lovely three bedroom home while we search out the perfect house, and hopefully snag it before it’s sold.  They go like hot cakes down here!  We’re learning a lot about the wild life, and the fact that every home will have termites, so deal with it.  Plus, scorpions are always fun.  Or not.

We wish you all a happy and warm Christmas by the fire.  As for us, we’ll be going for a bike ride this holiday season, decked in our red and green flip flops and sun hats.

Merry Christmas from the Arizona Neffs!

November Edition

            Cohen Reads

Cohen loves reading and, of course, is well ahead of his fellow first graders.  He’s also getting his own “taste” for books.  He didn’t really like reading the “Juney B. First Grade Finally!” books, because they were all about a girl.  So we’re going to get him a “Diary of a Whimpy Kid” book for Christmas.

He’s also ahead in math.  The teacher has “after your assignment is done work”, and then after that is done work.  Cohen usually does all three.

He’s also loving Karate!  Every other week we forget he has karate, cause we’re awesome parents like that, so he usually ends up staying for two hours to do a make-up class.  This class is with the yellow belts (he’s a white belt) and he does really well with them, according to his Séance.

He also just lost his first tooth, thank heavens, because that thing has been grossing us out for a long time!  Plus, his adult teeth started growing in well before the baby teeth were even loose.

Gross.

Kembry and Kindergarten

We were really worried she would struggle and that we would actually have to do homework with her, yuck.  But it turns out Cohen’s smarts weren’t just a fluke.  Kembry has ‘em too!  She can write all her letters, and most in the right direction! 

Kembry Writes Her Name

She can read a lot of three and four letter words, and loves the spelling game, just like Cohen did.  She especially adores her teacher, Mrs. Maldanado.  We think it’s because she wears really cute high heels to school every day, and of course Kembry would LOVE that. 

Every day Cohen picks her up at “The Ramada” and walks with her to “Parent Pick Up”.  He takes really good care of her.  Kembry beats up the bullies for him, in return.

She’s doing really well in ballet, as well.  She loves it, and her teacher, Miss Robin, is excellent.  (Coincidentally, Cohen is in the same class with Miss Robins son.) 

Kembry as Miss  Scarlett O’Hara for Halloween.

Chloe Found Her Niche

Chloe loves, loves, LOVES taking everything out of the kitchen drawers and throwing them on the floor.  She also loves doing this as we’re loading/unloading the dishwasher.  It’s been real fun.

Chloes favorite time of day is when the kids come home from school.  She gets excited just to have them in the same room with her.

She also loves Mommy’s new calling in the Nursery.  She gets to have snacks, color, do puzzles and sing songs for two solid hours.  Plus, she gets to be with other kids, which she loves. 

Chloe has also discovered a new outlet for her emotions: the tantrum.  She arches her back and kicks her feet and hits and screams like a pro.  We’re welcoming in the “Terrible Two (Years)” already.  Let’s just say she’s a lot like Kembry.  Heaven help us.

Chloe empties Mommy’s wallet, again.

Our New Home (For a little while, at least)

Cousin Emily lives just a few minutes from here.  We went trick-or-treating with her kids.  She mentioned to us that her Aunt had a vacant 3 bedroom house if we were interested.  Well, OF COURSE! 

It works out really well for us, because they’re really laid back and don’t mind that we can’t move in until January.  We don’t even have to pay rent until then, even though we’ve already started moving in =)

Here are a few pictures from Kelly’s phone.  We finally got the camera working, so we’ll take more.

This is cute little wall that separates the hall with bedrooms from the large living room.  In the back are the kids’ rooms.

Cohen’s room.  It has really cute shutters and Cohen loves the paint job.

The girls room.  It’s small, but pink. 

We’re going to try to do monthly newsletters for everyone since we’re not that great with phone calls =)