Ava Hope Murray

Ava Hope Murray was born August 23rd, 2009 at 27 weeks. She weighed 1 lb 12 oz and was 13 3/4 inches long. See http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/avamurray for updates on how she is doing.

Naperville Triathlon

Congrats to my brother Colin for finishing 2nd out of about 2200 over the weekend at the Naperville Triathlon! What a rockstar! Three more weeks til Chicago Tri!

Alicia and Enoch

Alicia and Enoch
Originally uploaded by Pierpont Photography

I did an engagement shoot with my friends Alicia and Enoch. They were a blast to shoot. They even hopped in the fountain! Check out the rest here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamie_murray/sets/72157621857717045/

24 weeks

Here I am at 24 weeks preggo!

It's a......

GIRL!!!!

Baby Murray

I know a lot of people are wondering if we're finding out what we're having and we are. I'm 22 weeks today and go to the doctor this Thursday for the big ultrasound (finaly...I've been waiting weeks for it!) At my 18 week appt she said it'd be another month and I about wanted to strangle her when she said that because that meant I had to be patient for another 4 weeks. But I made it and it will be this Thursday. So I'll be sure to post the big news once we find out. We won't be telling any names, so don't ask! :)

20 weeks pregnant

I'll be 22 weeks this Sunday but here is my 20 week preggo picture.

Aaron and Darcy

Aaron and Darcy
Originally uploaded by Pierpont Photography

Here is one of Aaron and Darcy's engagement photos.

Bella's Injury

We went to Chicago this weekend for a wedding and a friend of ours was watching Bella for us. He called on our drive home tonight and said she had gotten a cute on her paw and he was going to bring her back to our house so she was here when we got home. When we arrived poor little Bella was limping around on 3 legs instead of 4 and when I got a good look at her cut, realized it was pretty deep. Jamie called the after hours vet clinic and the lady on the phone said it might be a good idea to bring her in to prevent infection. So at about 8:00 we drove across town and took her in to the emergency 24 hour vet clinic. We waited a little bit and finally saw the veterinarian and she said she probably needed stitches. They took her back and we waited in the waiting room for about 45 minutes. They brought her back out to us pretty groggy and out of it (they had to sedate her) with a big cone on her head and a little doggy cast on her little leg! She looked so sad and pathetic! She has to take an antibiotic and they gave her some pain medication and no running, jumping, or playing with other dogs (sorry J.J. no playing this weekend!) until she gets her sutures out (10-14 days). Here are a few pictures of our poor little girl!

Colbie Caillat Concert

Last night we saw Colbie Caillat in concert in Des Moines. She was playing at the Simon Estes Ampitheater downtown which is an outdoor theater right down by the river. There was a threat of rain and we were a little worried it would just start pouring in the middle of the show, but the rain held off til later in the evening. A guy named Jason Reeves opened for her and he was pretty decent. Apparently is from Iowa City but very good friends with Colbie Caillat. I had stopped at Palmer's Deli on the way home from work to grab some dinner to eat at the concert. We had an amusing time people watching as we waited for the show to start. There were many teenage girls there and after Jason Reeves played they all wanted his autograph. It was kind of a hilarious time. Colbie put on a great show and we had a really good time. The venue was perfect for her and her type of music too.

Copper Creek Triathlon

Colin and my mom came to town over the weekend for the 2nd 1st annual (it got rained out last year) Copper Creek Triathlon. I had told Col about it a few months ago and wasn't sure if he'd be interested because the big HyVee Triathlon is in a couple weeks and he was already planning on do that one in Des Moines, but he decided to sign up for it. The total prize purse was pretty enticing...about $5000 divided among the top 3 men and women. So he had a goal: top 3. But we had no idea what the competition would be like. This was a sprint triathlon so it was a shorter distance than some (not an Olympic lenght or a half Ironman like he's done a few of recently): 750m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run.

The race started at 8am so we headed over to Pleasant Hill around 6:30am so he could get his bike set up and warm up a little. There ended up being a lot of fog that morning so they delayed the race by about 15-20 minutes. Colin was in the first heat of athletes to start so we watched them start the swim then walked over to near where they would exit the water so we could see what place he was out of the water (you can't tell who is who in the water anyhow because there are so many of them). He ended up being 8th out of the water and we ran over to the transition area to see him get on his bike. I guess he passed a couple people in transition but ended up being passed while biking so came back 8th to start the run. The funny thing was the first guy in on his bike was ahead of all the other athletes by a good 4 minutes. We were wondering where everyone else was? After Colin left transition to go run, we walked over to the lake where the finish line was and were looking for him across the lake. They had to run up a road into the neighborhood and then back down again and then go around the lake to finish. The guy who had the lead still had the lead and won with a time of 56:05. We kept watching for Colin (usually we can tell which one he is by his stride and his outfit but this time we couldn't). We finally saw him come up the home stretch in 6th place! He had passed 2 people on the run which was really good. We stayed around awhile after that for the awards ceremony at 11:00 and he ended up finishing first in his age group (20-24) although technically he was second since one of the guys who finished top 3 was 24 yo. But he got to stand on the podium stand so that was pretty cool! Colin's time ended up being 1:00:55 and we had found out later that the guy who won who was ahead of everyone else was also a professional triathlete so that made a little more sense. Maybe next year!

Colin before the race

Getting out of the water (8th)

Getting on the bike in transition

Rachel, Colin, and Mom

Getting his award for first place in his age group

Baby Bump 17 weeks

Do I look pregnant yet?

Tree in the Street?

So I was driving home from work today, headed down my street. At the corner where I usually turn there is a white van sitting there jutted out in the middle of the intersection. I'm thinking to myself, what is that moron doing there half out in the street where I need to turn? I get a little closer about ready to turn right and what do I see in front of me?? The neighbor's 50 foot tree in the middle of the road. Quite the sight! Actually I've never seen anything quite like it before in my life. Jamie, along with the whole neighborhood were standing outside staring at this giant arboreal monstrosity. We knew this day would come at some point, didn't think it would happen this soon but it did. This tree had been rotting out, you could visibly see it near the top, but apparently it was also rotting out at the base too. And today was its last day standing.

Our Baby's First Pictures!

First Anniversary 3/29/09

For our first anniversary, we took a long weekend trip to downtown Chicago. We took the train in and stayed at the Sofitel Hotel Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry and spent the afternoon watching chicks hatch, learning about genes, and being disappointed that the Crime Lab was closed (the only thing that Jamie really wanted to see that day). Friday night we had dinner at McCormick and Schmick's seafood restaurant which was conveniently located across the street from our hotel. When he called to make a reservation, they asked if we were celebrating anything and he said our anniversary. When we arrived, they had a little notecard wishing us a happy anniversary and our menu had been specially printed for us wishing us happy anniversary. Definitely a nice touch (and something fun to put in the scrapbook). The food was really good and so was the dessert.On Saturday, we were thinking about going to the Art Institute but decided to save a little money so we ended up hanging out at Border's in the afternoon, people watching and reading magazines. Plus the weather was pretty cold and windy and rainy and we didn't feel like being outside, even to travel in between. Saturday evening we had gotten tickets to go see Second City, the improv group in Chicago where greats like Steve Martin, John Belushi, Bill Murray, etc. got their start. The skits were good and we had a good time. So by this point, we knew I was pregnant (!!) and I ordered a couple virgin drinks...pina colada, strawberry daiquiri and the second one I ordered ended up having alcohol in it. I asked our server about it (after he had brought us our bill and charged us for an alcoholic one) and he took it back and brought me a new one. I was a little surprised that he still charged us for it (especially after I told him I was pregnant) but oh well.
We also decided to try on the hotel's bathrobes since we were staying at a fancy hotel (it's apparently ranked #95 in the world for luxury hotels). This isn't something we normally do. =) And on Sunday we had to come home =( Happy First Anniversary!

Positive!

Windmill

Windmill
Originally uploaded by Pierpont Photography

We stopped on the way home from visiting Aaron in Minneapolis to take some pictures. Here's the first one I've processed....more to follow. I promise.

American Idol 3

Haven't posted in awhile who we think will be the bottom 3:

1. Lil Round

2. Anoop Desai

3. Matt Giraud

Our favorite this week: Kris Allen! Jamie has already listened to his song "Falling Slowly" from the Once Soundtrack about 100 times on repeat. :)

Painting the Kitchen

We painted our kitchen last weekend. There was definitely a debate over the color choice but we ended up compromising on Coriander by Martha Stewart, a lovely shade of yellow. Jamie's original choice was lime green which I initially thought I would like as well but then we realized when we went to the paint store that we actually had differing opinions of what "lime green" actually is. I ended up going back later and picked up about 50 paint samples in various shades of yellow, orange, and green. We finally decided on yellow and bought a few mini sample cans at Lowe's to test on our walls. We painted the 4 we had chosen in 3 different places on our kitchen walls (to see what they would look like in the various lights) and then numbered the cans and the wall samples to decide which we liked the best. It's amazing what a coat of paint can do to freshen things up and just make everything look cleaner. We also repainted the trim in the kitchen to touch it up as well.