Sorry Its Been So Long and Even Sorrier It Will Be a Bit Longer

Hi All,

The saying is that pictures (and videos) are worth a thousand words and we plan on using those "words" since Ella came down with a double ear infection and then she decided to share her cold with her parents. Here is the "quick and dirty" in bullet points because didn't all of our teachers all tell us that you can use bulletpoints to get your message across succinctly? :)

Ella:
*laughs alot
*crinkles her nose
*loves edamame
*hates sippy cups and avocados
*only rolls over for puffs or cell phones
*is absolutely addicted to her puffs (see Gerber advertisement video below)
*loves the feeling of Daddy's goatee when he kisses her face (see video above)
*loves going out for dinner with Mom, Dad, Aunt Jill, Grampa Steve and Gramma Sharon
*enjoyed her visits with Grandma Carole, Grandpa John, and GranFran
*has three teeth out and one more are about to make an appearance

We'll write more when we are out of our NyQuil induced state. Happy Holidays to all! Here are the latest photos... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/

Here's a video of the puff (aka "baby crack") addiction...

Clapping and Rocking Ella

We took this video about a month ago but thought it would be fun to post. She's even changed so much since then but her smile is the same. :) Ella loves to clap even if her parents help her out a bit! Don't mind Mike's narration and we promise we only minimally abuse our child by doing things like this to her... :)




Also, had to add one more of my favorite photos... She's our little rocker chic!

The Cutest Lobster/Vegas Girl in the World (According to Her Parents)

Hey All,

Ok, so my grandiose plan of writing more often lasted maybe a week. Amazing how life keeps you busy. In past little while, we have enjoyed visits from our parents/Ella's grandparents. Ella had wonderful visits from both of her out-of-town grandmas and Pops. I think she got spoiled from all the attention because now she only has one face to wake her up in the morning singing the good morning song, not at least two. Also, a big thank you to both grandmas who allowed Mike and I to sleep in and take some nights on the town. Anyone without children, seriously, enjoy sleeping in as there is no break from it. You cannot put a 6 month old on snooze. :) We had fun dates going out for dinner (later than 6 pm which also is a huge treat) and drinks with friends.

Ella gets more fun by the day and is getting so old. She smiles alot especially at her daddy who she thinks is the funniest person ever. She had been eating solid foods now and seems to like veggies better than fruits, she especially peas and loves green beans and peas (which smell terrible and are really fun to clean off of her:)). She still refuses to roll over. If she wants a toy, she'll reach for it and right before she'll roll over, she decides it isn't worth and rolls back. Parks and walks seem to bore her but the petroleum jelly box we use to moisturize her face gets her extremely excited. Ella is also trying to hold her own bottle and doesn't like it when you move her arms and legs, she wants to move them herself. Finally, she had found a way to watch TV even when we face her away from it (see attached pics).

Here are the latest pics of her from the month... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157602395568393/
Check out the lobster costume for Halloween and her styling rocker chick outfits! Gosh, we are the most nauseating parents, totally infatuated with our child...

Ella's and the Rockies First World Series!

She is very excited!

Ella is teething

Every blog needs a picture with baby wearing a bowl on her head!

Hark, here is another blog posted by Mike and thus the slaughter of the English language shall continue. Well, Ella had such a fun weekend with her new Hawaiian friend Jenni. I think that both Jenni and Ella had a blast hanging and Ella was on her best behavior. She was all smiles and giggles for the weekend. She had such a good time if she could speak I know she would be asking when we can visit Jenni in Hawaii! Anyway, you can read about it over here --> http://jenniandbryan.blogspot.com/. I think the name of Jenni's post says it all. I have also posted a few more pictures on the flickr site for everyone to check out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157602238647636/

As for the picture up at the top of this post? Well, somethings just need to be done, and a baby with a bowl on their head is one of them. After all, when Les is in away, Ella and I shall play!

OOO My God, is this a new post!

Yes it is...Finally, a new post about the ever changing world of Ella (and maybe her parents). But, before I start, I would like to add a disclaimer. This post was entirely created by Mike and thus not proof read by anyone (mainly Leslie). All grammatical and spelling errors are the sole property of Mike and do not reflect the views of management!


That being said, on with Ella news. The past month has been a very busy for our little Ella. She has had her first dip in a pool and loved it. Les, Ella, and myself went to Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sharon's house for a very nice dip in their pool. Ella loved the water and had a great time. She did not even mind the silly hat we put on her. She was able to kick up a storm and seemed to take to the water very well.





Ella has also started eating solid foods. The first non-bottle food that she had was rice cereal. The second non-bottle food was rice cereal with prunes (read into that one all you want). Then it was on to oatmeal and peas! I have discovered, that much like bread landing with the butter side down, a small child with a mouth full of peas will sneeze. On her dad. Often. And right after he changes his shirt. For a second time.





Ella is starting to get more and more of a personality. She flatly refuses to roll over. Peer pressure does not seem to work. We have told her that all her friends are doing it but she will have nothing to do with it. She would rather bend her head and very unnatural angles than roll over, but I am sure it is only a matter of time!

That seems to be enough for now. Les and I will post more later as I am sure she has lots to say about our little Boo. But for now I think I have destroyed the English language enough and will sign off.
There will be a post shortly after this one with Leslie's corrections on this post. So, enjoy the pictures and you can find a few more here http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157602189116661/

Balancing Act

Hey All,

I am trying to maintain this blog a bit more often. I decided I/we are going to try to post at least once every week or 2 weeks or so. I have also decided that while Ella is 90% of our focus it is important to write about other aspects of life so I am going to try to be a more diverse writer. It is amazing, though, with a child you find yourself getting excited over and doing different activities that you used to. Life outside the child becomes more routine as the child plays the less routine part. Also, right now Vegas is still too hot to do anything exciting so as soon as the weather cools down, we will be hitting the town more often.

New things about Ella: While we assume that we know what our child likes, it is reaffirmed when a non-family member notices. We have had a substitute nanny with us this week and without us telling her anything about these subjects, she noticed that Ella likes elephants and responds with all smiles to "good morning." Whenever we give her an elephant toy, she goes crazy and she did this with the nanny. Also, Fernanda (the nanny) said good morning when Ella woke up from her nap and she got really excited. We have this whole routine in the morning where I start with "Where is she? Where's Ella?" and then say "there she is, good morning." When she sees me she goes crazy. In case anyone wonders what excitement/craziness is with a baby, it is legs kicking, babbling/shrieking (Ella is now shrieking which is weird but cute) and major smiles. She also loves to dance around the room with me. This kid is happiest bouncing up and down and again will hit roller coasters as soon as she makes the height requirement.

I started classes again and am actually liking them, particularly property. Big nerd I am! :) For the many non-laywers reading this, it is a class that helps you figure out who has rights to what. This week I found out that if you find something, as a finder, you have rights that entitle you to the item over other people who claim/find it but not over the true owner. The true owner has ultimate rights. I also found out that if you find something, lose it, and then someone else finds it, the law protects your right as the first finder. The law in finding property protects the true owner but also finders because if pure possession of an item were all you needed, people would be swiping items left and right. I love law that follows public policy. This class makes me want to take dated photos of all my valuables in case I ever lose them. I will then have claim to them.

Ok, enough from me...this is already way too long for the average attention span. Love to all and talk to you soon!

A new post? Now that is something to drool over!

I know that it has been a really long time since anything has been posted and that is my fault. Life has been moving along and the last thing I want to do at night is sit in front of a computer. Anyway, enough about me, everyone is here for Ella news. She is becoming a very fun little human! She is drooling, babbling, drooling, grabbing things, drooling, smiling a lot, drooling, and blowing raspberries. It is truly amazing how much she has changes every day.

In the past month she has become a very good traveler. First she went to San Diego to visit Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sharon! While I was busy with work, Leslie and Ella loaded up the car and headed to the West coast. Leslie mainly did this so that she could take Ella outside with out the fear of her melting in the Vegas heat. After that we all headed to Seattle for some time with Gran Fran and Pops! Flying out to Seattle was a breeze for me, mainly because Ella and Leslie went 3 days before me. But, the flight back from Seattle was pretty easy. As soon as we took off Ella passed out for the entire flight and did not wake up until we hit baggage claim.

While in Seattle Ella was very insistent being a tourist and seeing where her mommy grew up and seeing all the sights of Leslie's past. Strangely enough all the sites involved getting and drinking coffee. In between getting coffee we saw lots of friends and sites. Ella had a fun day going to the Pike Place Market.

Leslie and I did take advantage of the top notch baby sitting provided by Gran Fran and went to the Inn at Langley on Whidbey Island for a night away to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We took advantage of the amazing six course meal they offer and Leslie even tried duck (which she liked but will not try again due to her loyalty to Donald and Daffy). We laughed because anniversarie usually entailed activities and being on the go but now it is about catching up on sleep. We took every opportunity to nap.

I know that I have droned on long enough and I know that you are all here to see pictures of Ella and not really hear what I have to say. So, without further ado here is a link to a month's worth of pictures of Ella!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157601562928247/

Cheers
Mike

Smiling Ella

Hey there,

Mike plans on posting a blog soon but I just thought I would share two of my favorite photos. This is what she looks like when she wakes up. Can life ever be bad when you wake up to this face???? :)

What Stays in Vegas, Melts in Vegas

Hey All,

Last summer the weather didn't bother me but now that I have a child who will either literally melt (which I don't care to see) or become dehydrated and cry (which I also don't care to deal with), it is a bit of a pain. This is Vegas's winter. Instead of being stuck indoors because because you'll freeze, instead you'll fry. Thus, Ella and I are now staying indoors. If I didn't have classes and didn't love Daddy that much, we would skip this popstand for the summer. We'll just have to suffice for taking weekend trips to San Diego and a week or so in Seattle.

Other than having all the liquid sucked out of us, the Murdock clan is great. Ella is changing from a little baby to a girl. She still loves TV and is now talking to it. She seems to really like sports and when there is a player interview, she coos at the player. Daddy is happy for the interest in sports but when I point out she may be flirting with men already he isn't happy. He reminds Ella that she is grounded until age 18.

She is also so smiley that we cannot get through a bottle without her breaking concentration to smile at the feeder. It is really funny. Mike is trying to get her to focus but she has her own ideas. That's my independent girl! She also wakes up with a smile in the morning, it melts my heart. Every morning we have our lovefest where she smiles and I tell her she is my favorite person in the whole world (don't tell her daddy...).

Finally, Ella has decided that she would like to become a Vegas entertainer and is currently working on her opening act of putting her entire fist in her mouth (see above photo). We're working on her disappearing act... She also inherited a new toy, her Bumbo. For those without children, Bumbos are crazy seats that help kids learn to sit. My mom thinks they look a bit like toilets and I think they look like those teacup rides at Disneyland. Regardless, she looks really cute encased in her Bumbo. The crap they have for kids...

Attached are some more recent photos of Ella, Ella with and her homies and gal pal (the above photos is with her boyfriend Jonah and is definitely Anne Geddes quality), and Ella in her Bumbo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600635099625/

Our Pop Culture Diva

Ella has asked that we post a quick shout out to Grandpa Steve and Gamma Sharon who are traveling (without her and her parents, she wanted me to say) in Europe and a welcome back to Grandfran and Pops who just got back from Europe (without her and her parents again) and whom she cannot wait to see! She requests that her grandparents no longer leave her for long periods of time and thinks that she and her parents should accompany them whenever they travel abroad. Hey, I am just the messenger...

We are posting some new photos. We actually captured her "pooping" face. We have a very polite child who informs us of her happenings by her face. While it is not the most attractive face, it serves its purpose. The peeing face is cuter, we'll try to get a photo soon. We also have photos in her ballerina outfit from Aunt Jill (Thank you Aunt Jill for keeping Ella fashionable!). Here's the link... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600422042557/

This week Ella has discovered her new favorite thing... TV! She cannot stop staring at it when it is on. Both Mommy and the ceiling fan are no longer intriguing. She particularly enjoys Dawson's Creek and loved Staying Alive the movie. She kept cooing at John Travolta who maybe was hot in his day but a little cheesy back then. I have deduced that she either likes retro music, is hoping for a polyester bodysuit, or wants to be a dancer. I'll have to look into tot ballet. The issue with the TV is that we had her friend Shira Polikoff over who wanted to hang with her and grab her head and but since One Tree Hill started, she didn't feel the need to entertain. This habit will have to be broken as we need to chose live people over actors and the TV screen (although Dad disagrees and plans on introducing her to his weird non-ficition shows about sea creatures and planets soon).

We also hold conversations together now which constitute her babbling and my babbling back. Often I am left holding the conversations as she gets more interested in smiling at me (see photo above for example) that talking in the middle of our chats. Luckily I have alot to say to her. She did mention the other day that she loves her new shampoo we switched her to (Noodle and Boo) and enjoys smelling so yummy.

That's about it. We have plans this weekend to see some of Ella's little friends and their parents which will make more photo ops. Have a great weekend everyone!

Obsessed Parents

Hey All,

Ok, so it seems we are obsessed with our child based on the blog so far. Yes, its true but in our defense we also have obsessive grandparents who look for photos all the time and this is our means of showing them Ella as she grows and develops before our eyes. She is like a new toy. Now that she is over 2 months, she smiles alot especially when I greet her in the morning and when she does her baby exercises with me. Mike recently discovered she loves her head massaged. One things she seems not to like is Neiman Marcus'. Everytime we go for lunch and meet folks she cries. Silly girl needs to be taught the joys of Neimans. She also has a new routine - smiling, eating a bit, passing out in the middle of feeding for a nap (takes after dad who loves to sleep), crying when waking up and then smiling. Sometimes she cries for quite a while but then smiles again and my heart melts. I have become the biggest sucker.

I am also trying to get into more of a routine myself. We are lucky - Ella sleeps around 6-8 hours a night but sometimes we go back to bed. When I do this, we don't get moving until 11ish which is late. I am now trying to go for a walk with her in the mornings when she first wakes up. That way she gets fresh air before it gets too hot (did I mention we live in an oven?) and I get exercise. Oh, and conveniently we walk right by a Starbucks. Daily coffee makes mommy very happy. Routines seems to be really important for getting things done when a little one comes around.

Other than that, all is good. I am taking Professional Responsibilities in law school which teaches us how to be ethical while yielding our legal power (oxymoron?, you decide!). In case anyone needs legal advice, I can now give it and know my boundaries. It is interesting how professional conduct fluctuates between elliciting info for the sake as ethics and confidentiality that protects clients and allows them to the space to disclose everything for proper legal representation.

Happy Fathers Day to all our favorite family and friend dads. Here are the latest photos of Smushie.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600366145267/

I'm Too Sexy for My Play n Pack

Ella had her two month check up yesterday. Here is her vital stats for those keeping track at home - She is almost 10 lbs (25% for weight), 22 1/4 inches (75% for height) and her head is in the 25% percentile. As if we didn't know already, our little gal is destined for modeling or some sort of athletics with her skinny and tall bod and pinhead. She did very well getting her shots - better than Mommy did who had to close her eyes through the whole thing.

She is starting to smile alot too - especially during the four am feeding and when she sees her friend the Bug and favorite site, the ceiling fan. Ella has been on many adventures with us - dinner and lunches with friends and even to an Areas 51 baseball game (vegas' minor league team named for a secret test place where aliens landed in the 1950's and with an even scarier mascot that looks like a cross between Jar-Jar binks from Star Wars and a donkey). While Ella used to just sit in her seat and sleep, she now loves to sit on our laps and look at everything. She is turning from a newborn into a little baby girl.

Other than that, all is well. Mommy is back in classes, working and balancing it all with staying home with Ella and Daddy is working hard.

To see more photos of the newest Murdock, click here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600333334242/

We tried to showcase her personality in this one... check out the smiles!

Life According to Ella

Hey All,

Our little darling (nicknamed "Smushie" due to her favorite curled up position or "Little Stinker" as we have recently been calling her when she is crying) is now 6 weeks and we continue to see amazing amounts of personality in a tiny ten pound body. While squeaking, cooing, and crying are her main means of communication, if Ella could talk, here is what we guess that she would like to tell the world.

1. High end stores are overrated. To get out of spending time in places like Neiman Marcus and high end baby stores, cry so that someone will take you out of them and your parents won't waste money by buying you expensive things that don't fit right and you will ultimately spit up on.

2. To make the most of burping, make a face that looks like your eyes shoot out of your face and turn bright red. It'll freak your parents out.

3. Don't be fans of the French. Everytime Mommy puts me into my French onesie and sings to me in French, I either spit up or cry to show my dislike.

4. If you want to stop crying, have someone bounce you to the point of abuse. I promise it won't make you nauseous, it will make you laugh and smile.

5. You eat better when making a clicking noise.

6. To go to sleep, get a sound machine to listen to and watch an aquarium. Don't forget to put your hands above your head, it helps the circulation.

7. Hands belong on faces all the time, especially when someone is trying to feed you. What else should you do with them when you are my age?

8. If around lots of people, fall asleep and then they won't bother you. Make them wonder if you truly have eyeballs.

9. Dream of good things. It will keep you smiling when you are asleep.

10. If you look cute, your parents won't get mad at you... check me out... (see above for examples of cuteness and below for new photos).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600285617810

11. Life with me is unexpected. Get ready for a bumpy but fun ride ahead! :)

The things that I have learned after a month of Ella

Since Leslie pened her thoughts on Ella at a month I figured I would do the same. It is amazing how much she has changed and grown. She is starting to become our little Chunky Monkey. We have started taking her out into the world and she will promptly fall asleep. I think that fresh air is like a baby version of Ambien. Ella has also found her voice. She squeaks (kind of like what it sounds like when you eat fresh cheese curds), she cries (mainly when she has a wet diaper) and she chatters to herself. She now really seems to be smiling, and not just because of gas.

We had a very fun first Mother's Day with Aunt Jill, Grandma Sharon, and Grandpa Steve. As we all ate, Ella slept, but looked really cute while doing it. Check out the pics by clicking the link below....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600216506000/

Life at One Month

The above is a pciture documentary of our lives thus far. We are all either trying to sleep or making faces at each other to keep our crazy lives fun. :)

Ella is about to turn one month and has already changed quite a bit. She now has fun little things she does. It took me a while to figure out what were "Ella faces" versus what faces babies made (thanks to spending lots of time with other friends' babies, particularly Ella's new friends Kylie Polis and Jonah Stone) but no matter what faces she makes, she still looks darn cute to me. :)

New "Ella-isms" include sleeping with arms up in the air in a surrender mode, not liking to be peed-on diapers (one of the only time she cries), her famous burp face that looks like her eyeballs are going to shoot out of her head, sucking on the side her hand, and smiling alot when she is dreaming (which I like to think is her thinking of what fabulous parents she has!). We'll update with photos of these soon.

Stay turned for pics of our first Mother's Day together as well as her baby naming coming up. She has very girl-y outfits picked out. :)

Cute as a Button?

As Ella's third week comes to an end I have learned a couple of valuable lessons. The first one is that just because we think it is time to change her diaper it is advisable to wait 15 or so minutes. The second one is that a little spit up is cute, a lot of spit up is not! I am not sure how something that weighs less than most bowling balls has the ability to spray that much liquid with such force out of her mouth. She was just head spinning short of the exorcist. If you check out the pictures on the link below please pay attention to two photos. The first where Ella is in her French outfit (courtesy of Les' super duper fun cousins from Geneva, The Cadieux Clan) was taken a mere 20 minutes, one bath and a change of clothes (for both dad and daughter) before the Cute as a Button black onesie.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600181592098/

Its Saturday night, it 3:00 AM, and I am awake!

I think the title says it all. It is 3:00 am on Saturday night / Sunday Morning and guess what, I am awake. Did I go out to some great Vegas Club tonight? Did I go to a rocking concert and now just stumbling home and need to post? Nope, little Miss Ella decieded to see what it would be like to stay awake and cry everytime we tried to sleep. How do you ask do I now have time to share this with the world if I am trying to calm a crying baby? Well, let me tell you. For some reason Ella really likes to bounce up and down. Up and down, up and down, bounce, bounce, bounce. That is where the big green exercise ball comes into play. Yes, the same type of ball you might see at a gym works great for calming our little bundle of joy. So, for the past 30 or so minutes while watching really really bad tv I have been bouncing up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. She is finally asleep and guess what, it is time to wake her up to feed her!

It is truly amazing how life can change in less that 2 weeks. We've lived most of our lives without Ella and now cannot imagine life before her. We are already raising a genius as in the past 2 days she has found her hands and legs and even tried to put her favorite toy bee's leg in her mouth. She is also a pretty good sleeper so Mom gets a stretch of 3 hours at a time (for anyone without a child, enjoy your sleep - you don't realize how great it is until you lose it). Ella also loves going with Mommy to Starbucks for a morning coffee and to get some exercise. Here's one of my favorite pics... forget pacifiers, fingers rule!

Ella...The Second Week

Today (this is Mike) I went back to work and Ella just hung out at home eating and sleeping with her Mom and Grandma. I figured I would take a quick second to post some more pictures. You can check them out here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600117908472/

A little tummy time for Ella. Which really means right now she just kind of hangs out on her tummy for about 10 min. and then we flip her over.
Ella found her fingers today and loves to suck on them.

Like my new hairdo?

Big day for Ella. She had her first trip out into the world since coming home from the hospital. We loaded her up in the car and headed off to her first Dr. appointment. She passed with flying colors (mainly a bit of brown and yellow when she pooped before being examined). After a hard core day of napping and eating and swinging and then some more eating and napping followed by eating and then winding up with a nap, Les and I took her out to check out the 'hood. Check out the snazzy stroller courtesy Grandma and Papa John.
I also posted some more photos so just click the linky...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600088302193/

Funny Faced Ella

Its been 3 days and she is already looking older and more alert. As most babies do, she looked like a typical newborn (with lots of hair). Now she has expressions we are starting to read and understand. We love this picture of her. This is the cross eyed look she gives us in her few hours of waking time. She definitely resembles her dad, he often gives me the confused look! :)

Photo Time

After only about 2 hours of sleep I figured I should post some pictures. Ella seems to be able to sleep like a champ durning the day and then, BAM, wide awake at night. We are giving her shots of espresso until about 2:00 pm today and then will switch to wiskey at night. From what I read that is supposed to help (an yes, I am kidding).
I have uploaded up some photos for all to check out. So, check out this site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/

Hello World, ready for my close up?

Hello Everyone, just a quick post to introduce everyone to Ella Allyson Murdock. She was born on 04/13/2007 at 4:50pm. She is very cute and has a big old mess of hair.

Leslie did a great job and she was a rock star during the labor. Our Dr. and the nurses were all fantastic and were a huge help. I will update up more later but wanted to post a few pictures of our new little gambler.

My mom just arrived

Mom just arrived for the big day and we are getting things done around the house.

Our Last Getaway as a Twosome

Happy Easter/Passover to all! Ok, so we are enjoying this whole blog thing and promise not to bore you all things we do but we figure we may not be on top of it in the next few weeks so we thought we would post again.

Last night we escaped to Lake Las Vegas (a beautiful completely man-made lake with a fake European Village to it) to have our last Sat. night out without lining up a babysitter. We spent the night at the Ritz out there and lounged by the pool, ate good food, and went to the boutiques in the Village. The hotel also had an R&R package that included breakfast (in bed if you wanted it), 2 movies, movie snackies, resort fees, and valet parking. It was fun taking a babymoon! Highly recommended for anyone with an impending little one.

This week we are prepping for baby. According to the doctor, it could be any day now. Leslie is ready to be able to put socks on herself again without groaning and Mike will get more bedspace with less pillows. Trying to have good meals and get last minute things done before we go to the hospital. Folks have been asking us where we are delivering so FYI we will be at Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas. We'll keep you updated on our little Helga Lou! :)

Final Countdown

Hey All,

Trying my first post... finally up with the 21st Century.

As Mike stated, just waiting the arrival of our little one who will be making her way into the world in a week or two. We are just excited to meet her and get the anticipation of the birth (yikes!) over with.

We already found out that Helga Lou (our affectionate nickname for her that my dad came up when he had a bad dream that was what we named her) has lots of hair (dad is already jealous) so we bought a brush to make sure she doesn't look like Don King on arrival! We are also curious to see if she recognized our voices as I have been reading to her in utero and Mike has already been giving her life lesson such as "get a job" and "no dating until 18."

One week to go and time to share.

Both Les and Mike here (Mike is typing so all words that are misspelled were typed when Les was not looking).

Finally, we will start putting up info and pictures about the newest Murdock to join the world right here, so bookmark it. We are about a week or two out and are officially in the "Wow, we have lots and lots of stuff to do before this happens" phase.

As of today when the baby is born we will be able to bring her home as we got the bases for the carseat installed. Who would have guessed that it requires a nursing degree, 40 hours of training, a two square foot piece of anti-slip material and a chopped up pool noodle to get the thing in correctly.

Here are some photos of Leslie and myself until I get my butt in gear and get more posted.

Cheers

Mike and Les.....