Welcome to the world!

On Monday December 9, 2013 at exactly 3:00 in the afternoon, Abraham Joseph “AJ” Murray entered the world.

He weighed in at a hefty 8 pounds 6 ounces and reached a whopping 20 inches long.

We are thrilled beyond measure to welcome this sweet baby into our family.

2 years ago Ella attended a birthday party for one of her friends.  While there she was admiring a newborn baby.  She stood by his carseat for several minutes just looking at him and talking to him.  A woman came up and asked Ella, “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”  Ella replied with complete confidence, “Not yet, but I will soon.”  Joe and I were shocked by her statement.  She had been praying for a little brother or sister, but had God given her an answer?

Well now here we are, a family of 4.  Things are going great so far!  Ella is completely smitten with her baby brother and kisses him and cuddles with him as much as possible.  Joe is thrilled, I am thrilled, the grandparents are thrilled, and even Sabrina seems to be accepting this new little creature.  This is going to be a great Christmas!

 Ella holding her brother for the first time.

 It was love at first sight!

 Our first picture as a family of 4.

 GiGi holding AJ for the first time.

 Paw Paw holding AJ for the first time.

 Daddy and AJ.  This is the norm around here.  Daddy always falls asleep with the kids.

Letter to Santa

Ella wrote a letter to Santa this weekend.

For those of you who can’t read first grade, phonetic handwriting, allow me to interpret:

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I would like a Junie B. Jones chapter book when she loses so many teeth and Santa please put something in our dog Sabrina’s stocking because it is her first Christmas!

Love Ella

First off, don’t everyone run out and buy Ella a Junie B. Jones book about losing her teeth.  Santa has already taken care of that purchase!

I love this letter!  It’s so cute and shows so much of Ella’s personality.  Ella is a really hard kid to shop for at Christmas and for her birthday because she really doesn’t ask for a lot.  I mean seriously, she only put down one item for herself, and it’s a book that costs about $5.  She only asked for one other thing…clothes for her Build a Bear.  Ella’s gift requests for Christmas total around $20.  I realize that this won’t last long and that soon she’ll be asking for high priced items, but for now I’m happy she’s so easy to please.

I did ask her if she wanted to include her baby brother in the letter since it’s also going to be his first Christmas.  She said no.  Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Santa doesn’t forget about him.