Happy Post Halloween

Hola Amigos! I hope that you all had a wonderful Halloween.

The Murray House is overflowing with candy now. We still had candy from a parade we went to in Dallas a month ago...like A LOT of candy from that time, we got so much candy that we were throwing it back at the cars. Now with the Halloween candy - OMG I’m over candy! Plus our kids act like straight maniacs on candy. I remember how nice life was before they were introduced to sugar and candy.

If you're like us, you now have an endless supply of candy that you will eventually throw away because: 1) way too much candy is given out at Halloween; and 2) it will be Christmas candy time soon enough and more candy will be flowing. PSA: if you put Halloween candy out at Christmas time, you are INSANE, so def don't do that. I don’t make the rules folks. So do yourself a favor and throw it out or donate it to those who may be less candy rich than you are currently. Anyway, enough of that weird anti candy rant. Stop John..... you sound crazy!

Okay now on to what I was actually going to talk about today. Gonna talk about mi hijos if y’all don’t mind. We will start with Son #1 - my namesake, John Edmund Murray, V.

We lovingly call him Jack, Bubba, Jackster, Jack Attack, Jack the Hack, the list goes on...The name John Edmund Murray has been passed down in our family 5 times. My Great-Grandfather was the original (I never met him, unfortunately). My Grandfather was JEM Jr. (a classic man's man from the greatest generation. Sensitive tough guy. loved him so much). My Uncle Jackie was JEM 3 (he was tragically killed in a car accident at age 16, my poor father lost his idol and best friend at the young age of 10). I am JEM 4 and my boy Jack is Johnny 5 - for all the 80’s movie fans out there, I’ll give you a dollar if you know what movie that is from (it's Short Circuit FYI and I'm not paying you a dollar). All of us have been called either John, Jack or Jackie depending on what the predecessor was called. I’m John and my son is Jack. It doesn’t really make sense to some people and I have also received unsolicited feedback that the names can only be passed from father to son and not uncle to nephew. Well guess what buddy? I don’t care and we do what we want! If Jack wants to name his daughter or dog John Edmund Murray, VI, I’ll allow it.

Jack is our first born. He is very special to us, as he is the one that made us parents. We were also the first parents that he had so we have been on this train together for almost 9 years :). Jack is brilliant, funny, sensitive and empathetic to others struggles and pain. He is a great big brother to his younger siblings and constantly looks out for them - although we do have to remind him sometimes that they already have 2 parents! He is also very much like his mother. He is stubborn, studious, analytical and a logical problem solver. He is also like me in his occasional skirting of responsibility, forgetfulness and his ability to gas light when it suits him lol. Most of all, he is incredibly brave. He is braver than I could have been at 8 years old - to leave all your friends in the US and move to a new country where he doesn’t speak the language to take this adventure with us - I can’t imagine being that brave as a kid. He loves soccer, hiking, surfing, and video games (he is legit competitive level good at Fortnite and Minecraft, shoot me a message and I’ll give you his username so you can get whooped by him). He is picking up Spanish quickly and I bet he will be translating for us in the next 3 months. He is represented by Ironman on my arm because of how tough, smart and brave he is.

Now let’s talk about my beautiful and hilarious daughter, Fiona.

She is our artist, our free spirit, our one who does not give an eff, our tough and cool little girl. At only 6, she is wise and witty beyond her years. She is one of those people who are just cooler than you and you know it. You just want to be around them and gain cool points simply by being in their orbit. She cracks us up every day and has been brave regarding this adventure from Day 1. Jack took some convincing and coaxing, while Fiona has been Ride or Die from the jump. We said “hey we are going to sell the house and move to Costa Rica and you will need to learn Spanish” and she was like “whose car are we taking?” She is smart and witty and fun! Her imagination is unparalleled - she comes up with movie director level prompts when playing with her brothers/friends and sets the scene for some of the most unique storylines you’ll ever hear! She loves to dress up and get pampered, but loves wrestling her brothers and getting messy just as much. A perfect example of her unique personality is her choice of Halloween costume a few years ago - she demanded to be Princess Hulk Smash. As you can see in the picture below, her mom nailed the costume!

Fiona is represented by Anna (from Frozen) with a Hulk arm busting out - a perfect mix of everything we love about her - she is sweet, funny, but also FIERCE!!!

Finally, we get to son Numero Dos. Hop in, this bro's driving. His name is Rocco (or as all his sweet daycare teachers call him Roccito) and he is named after his mother.

Rebecca’s maiden name is Marrocco and her nickname growing up was Rocco/Roc - from friends, coaches to teachers, everyone called her that. It even caught on with her younger sisters who were nicknamed Stone and Pebble in High School! We thought this was a very cool way to honor Rebecca and her family, while also still being a super bad ass name. As we discussed a few posts back, his birth was pretty rough. For all the trauma and drama he caused coming out, he has made up for it since. He provides little to no drama and is the chillest kid ever (outside of 1 trip to Hawaii where Karen was beefing with him). He plays with his older bro and sis, as if he is much older than he actually is (17 months). He is always happy and always smiling. He sees you from a car or across a room and he immediately starts waving. The kid is just such a stud...He is also the 3rd kid, so he is basically raising himself. We send him out into the woods to forage and most nights he makes it home with a full belly (just kidding). He obviously did not care about the move, because he is a baby, so that is helpful. I'm a little jelly and I bet money he speaks Spanish and English simultaneously before any of us and will be the only native Spanish speaker in our family. Kid is going to be very marketable if he doesn’t choose the beach bum life, which woudl be okay with me. His name is Rocco Cillian Murray, which is straight up a CEO sounding name and, if he keeps up with his brute-ness (he is very large for his age), it is also a kick butt pro-athlete name. Big things await for my little Roccito! He is represented by Grogu on my arm (that’s baby yoda to you nerds who are not obsessed with Star Wars like the Murray’s). He is small but his spirit and strength are massive.

All of these gifts from God, where also gifts from my beautiful and amazing wife Rebecca. It’s so amazing all the things that need to go right in order for a successful pregnancy and birth to occur, but they do most of the time and it is truly a miracle. It’s as close to magic as a person can get. You are literally making a human…. It’s so crazy! So thank you Rebecca Marrocco Murray for making these 3 kids and thank you Greg and Patty for making such a great Rebecca. She is represented by Captain Marvel on my arm. She is smart, powerful and is def the boss of this house/galaxy. That's our family folks and every single thing we do is for each other. We are stronger together!

Until the next time amigos. Nos Vemos…. I am sitting at Aqua Sport in Playa Hermosa currently (super amazing beach bar that I will be going to way more now that I know how amazing it is) excited to pick my kids up from school in an hour and spend time hiking, playing and swimming with them. Pura Vida my friends. Life is for living….