Blog

July 2014, Randomness

Throwback Thursday: Murphy Memories!

In continued celebration of my Grampy’s birthday this week, I thought it would be fun to share pictures of his birthday party from two years ago — 2012. This was when we had just moved him out of the house he shared with my Grammy & into his own apartment in the retirement community where he still lives. He quickly made friends there and we had a large group gather together that day to enjoy his cake with us. It was a really nice afternoon. Liam was just shy of his 1st birthday that day, as well. Look at that face….I could just eat him up πŸ™‚

2012-07-14_grampy bday_3

2012-07-14_grampy bday_4

2012-07-14_grampy bday_72012-07-14_grampy bday_6

*************************************

~ H

July 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Recent Happenings

Today, I would like to wish my Grampy a VERY Happy 89th Birthday!!

I am so thankful that are we able to create wonderful new memories with him. For those of you who know, the last few years have been rather difficult since my Grammy passed & we figured out that he was progressing with Dementia. It’s gotten worse more recently, and I give huge kudos to my mom for taking such great care of him. It’s definitely not an easy task on a day-to-day basis.

However, we had a great afternoon with him on Sunday to celebrate his birthday, and I was thrilled that he was feeling good and seemed to really remember everyone. We took him out to lunch and met up with his sister, Frieda and her two daughters (his nieces).

Liam colored a picture on his own birthday card for Grampy. Β It was really cute. We all know you can’t make an almost Β 3 year old do anything he doesn’t want to do, so it was awesome that he said yes to me when I asked him if he wanted to color a picture, and then he told me when he was done πŸ™‚

2014-07-12_Coloring Great Grampy Bday Card

This was our group picture taken at lunch. It came out really awesome!

2014-07-13_Grampy Bday Lunch

The last few times that we have visited with Grampy, I have asked Liam to take a picture with Grampy but he has been too shy. So, I didn’t force. Let me just tell you that he was very loving and affectionate to Grampy on Sunday. It was awesome!! I know that in those moments it really made Grampy feel special. It warmed our hearts! I am treasuring this picture. When we brought Grampy back to his apartment that afternoon, Liam even went over to him and gave him a hug & a kiss all on his own. It was adorable ❀

2014-07-13_Liam and Grampy 1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMPY!! WE LOVE YOU!

*******************

So, I was a little behind last week with my posts & didn’t get a chance to put up our 4th of July pictures. After much debate about where to go to catch fireworks, we ended up going back to Lake Eola & it was a great time for us, again….despite the rainy afternoon. Thankfully, all that cleared up just in time for the sun to go down πŸ™‚

Here is me & my little man hanging out on our blanket and waiting for the festivities to begin.

2014-07-04_Lake Eola 4th of July 001

Snack break!

2014-07-04_Lake Eola 4th of July 002

Even though Liam has seen fireworks on tv several times since we saw them here last year, in person, nothing compares to the BOOM you experience live…well, it scared our little guy at first this year. This picture shows that emotion. I actually think it turned out pretty sweet. After a few minutes he settled down and sat up and watched the rest of the show. Afterwards, he said he had a good time and liked it πŸ™‚

2014-07-04_Lake Eola 4th of July 005

It really was a good show!

2014-07-04_Lake Eola 4th of July 009

Hope everyone’s July is off to a good start….can you believe we are already half way to August?!?! Where is the summer going?? Crazy!!

~H

July 2014, Randomness

Throwback Thursday: Murphy Memories!

This little gem is one of my all time fav videos of our little man. It was taken when he was 1 1/2 years old (Feb 25th ’13), and this was before his vocab really took off. So, this is his rendition, at the time, of singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. That was one of his fav songs at the time and we had been trying our darnedest to get this on film up to this point, so this was a VERY exciting moment.

When I was looking at this video last night, Liam walked up to the computer and looked over at me after watching for a second and said, “he’s cute!” ….hahaha!!! πŸ™‚ …he totally didn’t realize that was him! LOVE IT ❀ …I then told him that was him as a baby and he was like, “yeah” and walked away. Typical.

Love you, ourΒ little dude!

~H

July 2014, Randomness

Throwback Thursday: Red, White & Blue!

In honor of our upcoming Independence Day holiday tomorrow, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the last few 4th of July’s with our little man πŸ™‚

Today is actually “Red, White & Blue” day at school, so here’s a quick pic of him before school this morning…

2014-07-03_Patriotic Boy

Liam celebrated his 1st firecracker holiday when he was just shy of his 1st birthday. Wasn’t this just yesterday?

Β 2012-07-04_1st 4th of July

Last year, 2013, we were inching towards birthday number 2! We decided to venture out to Lake Eola for his 1st experience seeing fireworks. It was magical. He is already talking about it for tomorrow night πŸ™‚

2013-07-04_4th of july with words

2013-07-04_4th of july

2013-07-04_watching fireworks

(notice an old friend, paci, in this one above? ….I have to tell you this quick story…..While looking for a lost train over the weekend, Daddy found a random paci on the floor way in the back under Liam’s bed. When we did the great paci purge, I thought I had gotten to all of them, but this little booger escaped me, apparently. He was gonna just toss it, but I told him to let Liam see it. Liam’s reaction was priceless. He started to laugh & was like, “Daddy found a paaciiii…hahahaha!!!” We asked him to throw it out & he promptly walked over to the kitchen garbage & tossed it in. Nice one! …Was I secretly a LITTLE sad that he wasn’t sad or missing it?? …I shall never tell πŸ˜‰ )

*********************************************************************

We are definitely looking forward to having some fun on the 4th tomorrow. Hope you all do, as well, no matter where your travels or adventures take you! Stay safe & have a fab holiday weekend!

~H

Awesome Fireworks!!
Awesome Fireworks!!
June 2014, Randomness

Throwback Thursday: Murphy Memories!

Today’s post is throwing it back allllll the way to…..May 23rd….of this year πŸ™‚

LOL!!

Yes, I know….not, really that much of a throwback, but I had never posted this & I wanted to share. It’s a really cute exchange between Liam & Daddy. Definitely no secret that our little guy has been a lover of all things music since birth. So, now, he’s trying his little hands at playing Daddy’s guitar AND singing.

LOVE IT!!

Happy Thursday, Peeps! Until next time….

~H

June 2014, Randomness

A Year Gone By!

So, yes, this may be a bit corny, but I’m going to say it….

Happy 1st Blogiversary To Me!!! πŸ™‚

2014-06-24_blogiversary

That’s right…it’s been exactly one year ago today since I published my 1st post here on Casa de Murphy. Now, today, we’re celebrating with post #45. Not too shabby, I’d say. I can honestly say that I wasn’t sure where this little journey would take me, initially, or that I would even stick with it. However, I have come to really enjoy it, and if you’ve been hanging out with us….THANK YOU! I really do appreciate the love & positive encouragement that I’ve received to continue on with it. It’s all been for fun, and I may try some new things this next yearΒ so we shall see! πŸ™‚

***********************************

Cheers!

~H

June 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Recent Happenings

We recently headed over to Downtown Disney to check out the Cars Master’s Weekend Show. They had life size versions of Lightening McQueen & Mater, as well as these fun topiaries. Let me tell you that this expedition spawned a new marathon of watching the Cars movie, peeps. Liam hadn’t been really into watching the movie before this, however, we have watched it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY since πŸ™‚

2014-06-14_Disney Cars Weekend 026

Super excited to find his pals Woody & Buzz. We love us some Toy Story!

2014-06-14_Disney Cars Weekend 023

This show also had many cool race cars & older hot rods on display. Little man was NOT pleased that he couldn’t get in these race cars. LOL!

2014-06-14_Disney Cars Weekend 009

Daddy tried to appease him by having him sit in this supped up Camaro….while we thought it was cool…. he still asked to go back over to the race car afterwards. Hmm…I wonder if I have things to worry about down the road?? πŸ™‚

2014-06-14_Disney Cars Weekend 013

Lightening McQueen & Mater. Got to say, I was less then thrilled by Disney’s choice to make you stand in line to take your picture with these guys. The line was SUPER long, so Liam was not interested in waiting for that. Luckily, he was fine with just catching a glimpse as we walked by.

2014-06-14_Disney Cars Weekend 003

On Father’s Day, we had our community pool to ourselves for a bit. That was SOOO nice!!

2014-06-15_FathersDay_Pool Time 007

I found this FREE download on Pinterest here. I laughed my bootie off asking Liam these questions. We gave it to Stephen on Father’s Day. If you can see the scribbles at the bottom of the page…that was Liam asking to also write on the page. So cute!

2014-06-15_FathersDayInterview

Last but most definitely not least….Liam recently moved into a new classroom at school to start the summer off. He is still in the Early Preschool Department. Β I was hesitant for this move because there was no transition period, as in other moves he’s done, and I thought it would be hard on him. However, he has totally proven us wrong! He is doing awesome & we are loving his new teacher, Ms. Laura.

I have to brag now a bit because Ms. Laura (in just the 1st 5 days that he had spent in her room) taught him to count from 1 to 10 in Spanish. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty incredible! She’s working on getting him to go to 20. I’ll keep you posted! Here he is on our drive to Downtown Disney showing off his new skills:

Until next time, friends!!

****************************

June 2014, Randomness

Throwback Thursday: Murphy Memories!

This week’s video may not be as funny as the last few I’ve posted, but it sure does bring back some memories. As I was scrolling through our archive trying to make a selection, it really stood out to me, so it was a keeper for me this time.

This was taken back on May 20th, 2012. Liam was experimenting with learning to crawl. Hilarious that he would do movements & turns that looked like a windmill….at least, that’s my interpretation πŸ™‚

Forewarning that this video is a little long, as well….but you know I’m biased, so of course, I’m going to tell you that it’s still super cute! HA!

June 2014, Latest & Greatest News

A Potty Star Is Born

If you’ve been following us, then you know that we’ve been in this potty training race for about 4 months now. I kept promising an update on our progress, but we were running into different obstacles along the way, and I just didn’t feel we were “there” yet.

Then, recently, a NEW exciting opportunity came my way that allowed me to share our potty training adventures! I am SUPER EXCITED to share with you all that I am a GUEST CONTRIBUTOR today on the ORLANDO MOM’S BLOG!!!! Please click here and go over and check it out!

Here are some additional pics that I did not share as part of that post:

Throwing the last of his diapers away back on the "Potty Training Boot Camp Weekend in February....Liam was VERY excited to do this!
Throwing the last of his diapers away back on the “Potty Training Boot Camp Weekend in February….Liam was VERY excited to do this!

 

We quickly got rid of the changing table and gave little man a nice, new bookshelf!
We quickly got rid of the changing table and gave little man a nice, new bookshelf!

 

It took awhile & some diligence, but we have a Potty Star at school!!! :)
It took awhile & some diligence, but we have a Potty Star at school!!! πŸ™‚