February 2014 – Casa de Murphy

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2014 casademurphy

Happy Valentine’s Day!! Pardon the pun, but I really LOVE this holiday …I love the colors, love the hearts, love the warmth we feel, love the decorations, and LOVE making valentines. I have such fun memories from being a kid and making the shoe box to bring to school to fill with valentines from my friends. Now, I’m excited for Liam to experience that.

Here is my little valentine from this morning. All dressed up with a special shirt for his party at school today. So handsome!

2014-02-14_valentines

Thank you to Riley Reigh for this fab design especially for our little dude. You can check out her page on Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy. She also designed the shirt we had for him on his birthday, and I am sure this won’t be the last. LOVE IT!!

2014-02-14_vday shirt

Thanks to my obsession with Pinterest, I created this fun valentine for Liam to pass out to his friends at school today. I was inspired to do the cereal idea from a few different pins I came across, but ended up making my own template via Publisher. I found mustache washi tape at Jo-Ann’s and used that to affix the valentine notes to the mini cereal boxes that we bought at Publix. I hope the kids “cerealsly” like them as much as I enjoyed making them 🙂

2014-02_school valentines_collage

Then, I couldn’t stop….so, I found a FREE printable “hugs & kisses” tag here on the MAKOODLE website, so I modified it a bit and used the front half only. On the back side, I wrote a personalized note from Liam with heart shaped stickers I purchased at Target. I tied these tags to small treat bags filled with Hershey’s hugs & kisses chocolate candy’s. Perfect!

2014-02-14_teacher valentine collage

At drop off this morning, Liam’s teacher gave me this sweet card that he made for us. ALWAYS LOVE the hand-print projects…

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The elephant was an early Valentine’s present that we got from Mimi & Papa-D over the weekend. Clearly, he was a fan. Big hugs!

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My mom started the tradition of a few gifts on Valentine’s Day with my brother & me when we were small, so, of course, I am carrying it on…it only feels natural. Last year, he got a few books & his little oven mitt for his kitchen. This year, since Thomas is quickly growing in popularity, we thought it only fitting to go with that. So, these will be waiting for him when he gets home from school.

2014-02-14_vday gifts

And…..last, but CERTAINLY not least. The most wonderful surprise to my afternoon, so far. My better half made a surprise appearance at lunch time with this wonderful arrangement of flowers {they smell heavenly!}. We are usually always focusing all of our efforts on Liam most days, so this was a wonderful surprise and MUCH appreciated 🙂

2014-02-14_vday flowers

I know that showing love to family & friends is all year round …but ya got to admit, it’s extra special AND fun today. I think that’s why I like Valentine’s Day so much. Not because it’s the only day of the year to show your feelings but because it’s a FUN day!

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So, go out & have some FUN people….and LOVE!!

XOXO

February 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Our Week in Review

February 12, 2014 casademurphy

Last week sure was busy, right?!?! I feel like I start off each week with the greatest of plans to get ahead with cleaning & organizing throughout the week and then, the week gets by me before I know it…Oh well!

Friday was the National Wear Red Day 2014 to raise awareness against the No.1 killer for us, ladies — heart disease. So, in honor of the cause, I sported my red for the day. However, I will also share that I’ve been making many lifestyle changes over these last few months to improve my health for not only myself, but also, for my family. One of these changes included a trip to the cardiologist and getting a stress test. VERY THANKFUL that my results came back clear but I will admit, that it was scary waiting for them to come back because you never know what could be found. If you can get checked, I would recommend it. It can’t hurt. I did it for a few reasons, but mainly because I want to better myself and FEEL BETTER — be more healthy. I want to see my child grow up …he’s my main motivation to be a better me!! 🙂

2014-02-07_wear red day

In other news, potty training has been a huge focus in Casa de Murphy, as of late. You will most likely hear me talk about quite a bit coming up, as we are gearing up to do a FULL ON switch over from diapers to underwear with little man. Whew…pray for me! LOL …I think Liam is totally ready….just not sure about me.

Up until last week, while Liam has done wonderfully with going potty at home very often, he has flat out refused to even set foot in the bathroom at school. Then, last week, he had a break through! He used the potty at school a few times!!! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Never thought I would be so proud to hear him say, “mommy, I used the potty”, but I was when he came running up to me at pick up & said that.

2014-02-07_used potty at school_rm300

Another milestone is coming up…we got word last week that Liam will be moving on up to the 2 1/2 to 3 year old room on Monday, the 17th. He’s already been spending a little bit of time, here & there, in that room, and it’s right next door, so it won’t be a shocker. Another plus, is that he LOVES his new teacher, Ms. Candice. She’s the one who got him to use the potty at school for the 1st time AND in her room..well, the boy’s potty room in there….haha!! I think he will do great in his new room, so we are all excited for this new change.

2014-02_transition to room 300

The weather over the weekend was not the most fun. I guess compared to snow in most other parts of the country, we can’t complain….but the rain get a big thumbs down from me. Aunt Heather & baby cousin, Sierra came to visit for awhile on Saturday afternoon. Getting any pictures with Liam & Sierra was a big fail on my part.

After they left, we took Liam to Barnes & Noble to play with the Thomas & Friends train table. Since we got the train table at home, oh my goodness, this little dude is obsessed with Thomas the Train and his choo-choo’s!!! WOW…totally didn’t see that coming, but it is super cute to see him getting into them.

Since we only had a few Thomas trains with what we got with the table, we had taken him there to buy James the train, as he saw him on one of the movies we watched {yes, we are also watching Thomas on Netflix….lol}. HOLY COW, no one told us that Thomas & Friends as so pricey!!! Granted, they are very good quality trains {we are sticking with just the wooden choo-choo’s} but, oh man!! Definitely an investment.

2014-02-08_thomas_trains_BN

On Sunday, the sun finally made an appearance, so we took advantage of that & played outside! Liam enjoyed using the bubbles in his bubble mower for the 1st time. He kept wanting to stop to look at the bubbles & not realizing that if he did that, the bubbles would stop coming out….funny!

2014-02-09_bubble mowing

We’re looking forward to Valentine’s Day at the end of the week!!

Until next time!! 🙂

February 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Latest & Greatest

February 5, 2014 casademurphy

Last weekend, our Friday night started out with a trip to Publix to grab some dinner & a few groceries. From the back seat, we hear a little voice, say: “I want a big sister” ….say what?!?! THAT was an interesting conversation to have with a 2 year old and not one we expected at that moment. We proceeded to talk about how Liam could not have a BIG sister but he could say Timber was his big brother {he thought that was amusing}, and that maybe one day he would be a big brother. We also talked about our own siblings to him and how we were big brothers/sisters to them. Not entirely sure he got all of that, but we wanted to be honest with him. I think his curiosity & questions stem from him seeing siblings coming to pick up his friends at school with their parents. Very observant little dude!

The weekend’s festivities included a super fun 1st birthday party to go for our friend’s Matt & Michelle’s little guy, Brandon.

2014-02-01_bday party family pic

Excuse me, I MUSTACHE you a question! LOL…LOVE this!! He was so cute!

2014-02-01_bday party_mustache pic

There were several wee one’s there so Liam had a good time playing. Although, for some reason, this ball pit was called, ‘the crib’ by him…ha! The birthday boy is in grey 🙂

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He found one of their dog’s balls in the backyard & practiced his future soccer skills a bit. Daddy was quick to point out that he was only kicking with his left foot.

2014-02-01_bday party_soccer play

On Sunday, it was time for the Superbowl! And, of course, cleaning & grocery shopping {fun, fun}. After nap time, I took Liam to Jo-Ann’s to pick up some new drawer storage units to do a little re-do to his play kitchen. I am very excited for how it came out. I got two three-drawer units using my coupons. One side holds all his play food, and the other side holds all his utensils, bowls, and cookware.

2014-02-02_play kitchen update

We had our friends, James & Steph, over for to watch the Superbowl later that afternoon. Amazingly, Liam was totally cool with having football on ALL DAY {daddy.was.in.heaven}. We even let him stay up a little late to catch the half time show since he loves music so much. I am a big fan of Bruno Mars and I knew he would like his music, too. He did not disappoint! As for the game…well, I may not be a huge fan of football, overall, but wow….not what I expected.

2014-02-02_super bowl_half time