Sharing some more of our family pics with Dawn Geraghty Photography that we did with a Christmas theme. LOVE these few with Liam & the vintage fire truck!
Wishing you & your family Christmas blessings! ❤
May your holiday be filled with joy & laughter…
…peace & love ❤
Little man has been busy spreading holiday cheer, and we are eating it up! Look at this super cute angel he made in art class ❤
Last week, I headed over to his school in the morning to catch his Kindergarten Winder Holiday Celebration. Each of the five classrooms performed a Christmas themed song. He had shared bits & pieces of his class’s routine with us at home, but he made sure to tell us that we had to wait to see the whole production in person.
This little smirk is what I get from him often ….sometimes it means he’s being shy (as he was a bit in this pic) and sometimes he’s up to no good 😉
The song his class had was ‘Groovin’ Elf” ….so, of course, they all came in dressed as cool little elves. LOVED IT!
Mr. Mason, his music teacher 🙂
No stage fright for little man Murphy….
At the end of the show, all of the classrooms got on stage together and sang — We Wish You A Merry Christmas
After the show, his class had their holiday party, and they made a few crafts. Last Friday was also Pajama Day at school, so he was stoked to wear those PJ’s to school!
The bell craft was fun, as it’s a countdown to Christmas. He gets to cut a ring off each night. He knows when it’s just the bell left….it will be Christmas!
A few weekends ago, we had also went up to his school for Breakfast with Santa ❤
The cafeteria was decorated so cute by the PTA. Liam asked if the real Santa was there or if this was a helper. {We tell him that the Santa’s that he sees out & about in the malls & stores are helpers that report back to the North Pole}. I told him this was also a helper, but he looked at this guy, and told me I was wrong. This was the real one ❤
Love this boy & all the holiday magic he brings into our home. It’s just THE best!
It’s become one of our family traditions at this time of the year to head over to the Gaylord Palms Resort and check out ICE! This is literally two-million pounds of hand-carved ice sculptures that we can walk through to a different holiday theme each year. There are also ice slides and the whole scene tells a cute story. Not to mention, the attraction is kept at a super cool NINE degrees!! BBRR!!
You can see our fun from last year HERE.
We were so excited to go this year, as it featured A Charlie Brown Christmas. This is one of our childhood favorites, and of course, now one of Liam’s ❤
As we waited in line to enter the exhibit, the staff member literally reviewed this with us. Seriously, this was hilarious!! 🙂
The details in the ice sculptures are just mind blowing. While the chilly temps will literally, at first, take your breath away, lol….walking around looking at these beauties will, too! So, so pretty!!
While we laughed at being told not to touch the ice, little man kept asking to touch it…I mean, look at it….for a kid, even for us….you really do just want to reach out & touch it!
They did such an awesome job of capturing all of our favorites moments from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. LOVE IT!!
Charlie Brown & Lucy ❤
This was the ice slide room! Super fun!!
Schroeder!!
Linus …and he was holding a real blanket ❤
Both Liam & Stephen went down the slides (there were four). My hands were so cold that my phone didn’t register my fingerprints to take the video & it messed up (such a bummer). While I was waiting for them to slide down, another lady’s phone froze….THAT’s how cold it was in there! Really!! So, here’s a screen shot of when I tried to 1st start the video 🙂
Say cheese! …It’s the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!
We were seriously just so in love with all of these vibrant colors & details!
Once again, the last room was the Nativity Scene, and it was breathtaking ❤
Such a fun-filled family day!
Until next time, friends!
Last month, we got together, once again, with our favorite photographer, Dawn Geraghty, for our annual family pictures session. As always, she did not disappoint with the amazing shots & moments she captured of our little family.
We love working with the natural light & elements outdoors, and Dawn does a fantastic job of capturing that vision. We are also just absolutely blown away by how much Liam has grown since last year. That is one of the main reason’s why I ensure we do these pictures annually because our little man is definitely changing right before our eyes. I want to capture every moment that I can ❤
You can contact Dawn at: dawngeraghtyphotography@aol.com // facebook: Dawn Geraghty Photography // http://www.dawngphoto.com/
We were anticipating this would be a fab session, so while we had his Kindergarten pics taken with his school, we really didn’t invest in a package with them. Instead, Dawn captured this image & it really show’s Liam’s true personality…..
Total silliness but LOVE it ❤
And, some more gorgeous updated shots ….
Here is a look back on the family pics from the last few year’s:
Until next time!
As we wrap up this 1st full week of December, I am definitely feeling the Christmas spirit all around. Maybe part of it is because decorations have been out in the stores since August….#kiddingnotkidding
No, but really, we were completely excited to break out the holiday decor as soon as we wrapped up Thanksgiving. It was a busy weekend after coming home from my dad’s for Turkey Day, so it took us a bit longer than I had planned to get everything up, but the house is looking festive now ❤ …Of course, the kitty is keeping us VERY busy with his mischief & antics with the Christmas tree.
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Last week, we kicked off the season with our annual Gingerbread Decorating Party. This is always a great time with our friends. A few of us girls gathered together a couple nights before the party to put all the houses together & have a few laughs 🙂
Liam was excited to get to work on his house. It was hard to even snap some of the pics this year because almost every time you asked him to stop and ‘say cheese’…he would reply with “I can’t, I’m busy.” …hilarious!
I might have bribed him to get this pic ❤
This was his, ‘can I eat another piece of candy?’ face 🙂
He wanted to spread the icing himself this year and he picked out all the candies. He’s getting to be so big and he’s very creative. He also knows exactly how he wants things to be & look.
Finished!
And, of course, as soon as the kiddos wrapped up, the big kids jumped in. Lisa & Stephen have gotten very serious about their joint decorating adventure over the last few years. It’s quite amusing!
We joked around this year that this party is going to turn into the kids just playing & only the adults decorating houses. Hahaha!
I have to say that their house turned out pretty amazing! They were impressed with themselves, too, as you can see from their pic below 🙂
The Bengel’s neighborhood has a cool Santa that comes by, and the night of our party was actually the night he came! It was SO exciting for everyone.
We grabbed all the kids really quick and headed out front. Santa came up the driveway, greeted everyone, and gave each kiddo a little box filled with small trinkets & candy. It was so sweet ❤
Afterwards, we headed inside & had our gift exchange for the kids with a few of our friends.
Liam was stoked — he got his 1st NERF gun! ….P.S., Daddy was too 😉
We’ve really enjoyed attending our new church home this past year, as I’ve mentioned in past posts. It’s such a blessing to share a deeper learning and understanding of the Advent season with Liam.
We had a guest speaker, Brad Gray, last Sunday for the 1st of a two-part series about the meaning of Advent. Let me tell you ….it was so good!! He covered so much education & history about the Bible and what was happening in the world at the time of Jesus’ birth. I honestly had no idea. I can’t wait to hear the rest of his message this weekend!
It’s called the Fullness of Time and I highly recommend you take a listen, as it’s available online HERE
Sunday morning, before church, Liam popped up & immediately declared he had to write his letter to Santa. So, that’s what we did ❤
Had to grab a pic of these two putting the star on top of the tree 🙂
It felt good to finally have the house decorated by the end of the week. This pic is kinda dark, but the living room looks so cozy with just the glow of the Christmas lights & the fireplace.
Some of our other decorations….and Christmas cookies about to bake!
Can’t forget the outside decor, too!
And, this gem! If you read my last post, you know we went to see the big guy last month, so I’ve been saving this for awhile now. We LOVE our Santa at our local mall. Liam was a little nervous again this year, but he went up to him without any forcing. He asked him for Hot Wheels. Afterwards, you could see the excitement in his eyes, and he said to me, ‘that wasn’t bad at all‘.
We have a lot to look forward to this month & much to share! This is truly a magical time. Especially when you share it through the eyes of a child. Hope that your Christmas season is off to a fantastic start, as well!
Until next time, friends!
Happy Thanksgiving! Our pastor said the following sentiment at church on the Sunday before turkey day, and I thought it so appropriate & super cute…..
We hope you & your family had a holiday weekend filled with the five F’s:
We took a road trip for the holiday & headed up to Jacksonville to my dad & stepmom’s. Keeping with tradition, we kicked off our morning with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was so cool that this year’s parade was it’s 90th anniversary!
He drives us nuts at times, as any 5 year old does, but this boy is the most loving kid ever. Definitely take pause on this day to celebrate just how blessed and thankful our family is. There is MUCH to be thankful for each and EVERY day….all the little things that we all too often take for granted.
As I look back on year’s past pics — HERE , HERE , and HERE ….I am amazed at just how much Liam has grown. Especially since last year. What a growth spurt! His little baby face has changed so much ❤ …definitely tugs on this mama’s heart strings.
These two silly boys 🙂 …They were permanent begging buddies in the kitchen. Hilarious!
Cooking up some yumminess in the kitchen! Almost time to eat!
We had a great spread for our Thanksgiving Day meal — all the traditional trimmings, and including both a turkey and a ham. Stephen helped with keeping an eye on the ham, which we cooked on the grill. So tasty! Liam even helped baste it at the end.
The day after Thanksgiving, we took full advantage of living in the Sunshine State and went for a walk on the beach. It was a little cool but definitely refreshing. We even took the dogs with us, and Timber had a ball! It was his 1st time with his paws in the sand in years ❤
Timber followed Stephen out to the sandbar and then swam back to me. So cute!
Buddies! 🙂
We headed home on Saturday. I had full intentions on putting away the Thanksgiving decor and putting up ALL the Christmas. LOL! — it was a good plan. It ended up taking me most of the week but no worries.
What was super fun was that Mr. Elf flew back to see us from the North Pole on Saturday night! Liam woke up to him hanging out here on Sunday morning ❤
He brought him some new pj’s and some candy. More about that next time!
It was a great weekend, overall. We hope you all had a restful & fun holiday weekend, as well.
We are THANKFUL you have taken the time to stop by our little spot on this great big cyberspace.
Until next time, friends!
Casa de Murphy 