Latest & Greatest News – Page 12

Our Merry Christmas

December 29, 2013 casademurphy

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope yours was a good one! We had a nice, quiet holiday, this year.

Mr. Elf made his last appearance on Christmas Eve by bringing Liam a bucket of reindeer food. While we tried to move him about once a day throughout this last month, we definitely didn’t go crazy with this little guy, as Liam was just starting to “get it” with him. Most mornings as we got closer to Christmas, he would ask where Mr Elf was, so I would say he enjoyed him. We also kept the whole experience with the elf fun & light-hearted, so I think that helped. For us, it was more about finding the elf everyday and not that he was “watching” Liam. I’ve actually felt a little bad these last few days, as he’s asked where he was a few times & I don’t think he understands that he doesn’t come back ’till next year. However, we did have a good time sprinkling the reindeer food out in the front yard before bedtime on Christmas Eve. My flash on my camera was being testy so unfortunately I didn’t get a good pic to share. I got the idea here from a pin off of Pinterest. I ended up finding the cute reindeer buckets at the dollar spot at Target the week before Christmas so it worked out perfect!

Christmas Eve, we just hung out at home & did a few fun things like putting up Christmas window clings & baking cookies for Santa.

That evening, we headed over to Stephen’s family for dinner. Liam got to visit with his aunt Heather & new baby cousin, Sierra — it’s her 1st Christmas 🙂

When we got home, it was PJ time, feeding the reindeer, and putting out milk & cookies for Santa. As soon as the plate of snacks were set out, we didn’t even blink before little man was helping himself to the treats! LOL …it was so cute that we just let him go…he enjoyed a cookie AND some milk!! I guess you could say that he wanted to make sure that tasted okay for Santa 😉

Once he was fast asleep…..SANTA.FINALLY.CAME!!

Liam’s big gift this year was a tricycle. I spent a long time scouring over Craigslist trying to find one that we thought he would like. We knew we didn’t want to buy it brand new because (a) if you look hard enough, you can find great deals on Craigslist and (b) we weren’t entirely sure he would like the tricycle so we didn’t want to splurge on it, just in case. One day, literally a few months ago, I found this Schwinn blue trike & knew it was THE one. Best of all, the family we bought it from said their son never really liked it, so he didn’t use it. It honestly looks brand new still AND it still had one of the tags on it! Definitely a steal! It was so hard to keep this hidden for months!

When we heard Liam wake up and stumble into the living room, I peaked out of our room to see his expression. He walked up to his trike & looked all around it. Then, he walked to the side of the tree and checked out the presents.

So cute!!

When he walked into our room next, the 1st thing he said was, “I got my bike! …and my presents!” ….melt your heart!

Going for a test ride right away!

Little People Wheelies track — another fave from Santa

Papa Murphy & family sent him a Rudolph jack-in-the box. This has been a huge hit. He calls it his reindeer music box. It plays the Rudolph theme song when you wind the crank to make Rudolph pop out.

Great Mimi was so thoughtful to send him this teddy bear. As you can see, he gave it lots of love right away!

One of his presents was the Fisher Price Medical Kit. Here he is giving Christmas Mickey (a present from Mimi & Papa D) a check up!

There was so much excitement from the morning, we were all tuckered out. Especially Timber….as you can see 🙂

I’ve been trying to get some good shots of Liam riding his tricycle, as we’ve taken it out for a few spins over the last few days. Here is one pick above from Christmas day. Below is a quick snippet of him riding yesterday. If you push him around, or, as in this video below, let him go down a driveway, he gets the concept of pedaling. However, we are still working on learning how to do it solo on a flat surface. That will take some time still & that’s ok!

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We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, as well!!

Much love….the Murphy’s

December 2013, Latest & Greatest News

Countdown to Christmas

December 23, 2013December 29, 2013 casademurphy

The countdown is on! Just a few days to go 🙂 …are you excited?!?! Having a child definitely brings that magical feeling from your own childhood back & we are finding ourselves wanting to start re-creating memories that we once did, as well as think of new & fun traditions to start.

During the week, we were pleasantly surprised with this awesome wine gift set from Stephen’s dad & family. It comes from out their way in New Mexico, so we’re excited to try this very soon!

On Thursday night, I put together a little gift for each of Liam’s teachers. He went shopping with me earlier in the week & helped pick out the soaps. He was cute. He clearly did NOT want to be shopping {I didn’t either, really…but I’m a terrible procrastinator}, and after we picked the 1st soap, he says, “Ok, are we done now?” LOL.

I found the tags off Pinterest from a free download here, and Liam & I had fun tracing his hand print to also put with the tag!

Friday, we brought the gifts to school, and he enjoyed a holiday party with his class. Later that day, when I asked him what special snacks he had from the party, he remembered, bananas & cheese 🙂

This was the special Christmas handprint project he made for us that he brought home on Friday. LOVE IT!!!

Saturday evening, we headed out to a Christmas party out at the horse stables where Mimi keeps her horses. Liam LOVES animals and really loves to see the horses, so this was great fun for him. I failed epically at taking a pic this time of him petting a horse, but we also had fun walking about the property checking out all the cool decorations.

After we left the stables, we stopped by Light Up UCF to check out the Christmas lights. Liam is still too small for the rides & ice skating they have there, but it was fun to walk around for a few minutes.

It’s almost Merry Christmas Eve, friends!! I am really looking forward to seeing little man’s excitement over these next few days!

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Until next time…..

December 2013, Latest & Greatest News

Holiday Magic

December 21, 2013 casademurphy

Where is this month going, people!?!? Good grief…I can hardly believe Christmas is in less than a week. So much happening in such a short time.

Last week, Liam had “Santa’s Workshop” at daycare {school}. This is the 1st time they have done this and to be honest, I questioned why it was even being done at his age group. I mean, I remember doing this in like, elementary school…taking a few dollars to school to buy presents for mom & dad. Realistically, there is no way a 2 year old is going to understand this concept of shopping for us on his own.

Buuut, me being me ….I didn’t want him to miss out on anything OR feel left out if others in his class went, so we sent him to school on the designated morning with a couple bucks. The report we got back was that one of the teachers helped him to shop & he enjoyed himself. When I asked him that evening how it went, all he remembered was that he ‘touched the tree’ …he LOVES Christmas trees this year, so he was thrilled to see the school’s tree set up in the workshop & apparently he got to touch it. That topped the shopping experience. Ha! Here’s a few pics the school took of it, though, so that was cool.

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The 3 presents he bought us were wrapped & sent home with him. So cute! Now, the story gets more fun. In the spirit of the season, I placed them under the tree when we got home that night, and we began to go about our nightly routine. Let me pause to mention that there were no other presents under the tree. The way we’ve decided to work things in Casa de Murphy is similar to how it was for us growing up. Santa brought all the presents. {Honestly, as a kid, I thought that’s how everyone did it, but as an adult, I’m finding out everyone’s traditions are vastly different…I could write a post just on THIS topic down the road.} Anyhow, Liam was in the living room watching Mickey & we were in the kitchen chatting. Next thing I know, we hear…..riiiiip….’umm, what was that?’ ….RIIIIP …..Yeap, we look into the living room to find our little man sitting next to the tree TEARING OPEN those three little presents ….our three little presents that he bought us. LOL!!!

I said, “Liam, what are you doing?”

“I, open” — with a big grin

“But, those are what you got mommy & daddy for Christmas”

“No, for Liam”

So, we just laughed, and let him go. Stephen got a cute Christmas coffee mug. I got a gingerbread picture frame and a pretty fashion necklace that I will proudly wear to work.

The best part is when he opened the necklace, he goes, “OH, I LOVE IT!!” and put it on! That was the cutest ever. I managed to snap a quick pic of that moment.

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Last weekend, we went down to see Grammy & Papa Rock. It was a really fun day for Liam. Grammy had surgery recently so we haven’t been able to see her in a while while she’s been resting, so we let the two of them spend some quality time together and he loved it….they both did 🙂

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Santa also came a little early this week for Liam from Grammy & Papa Rock. Since he has been quite the little chair stealer of Daddy’s lazy boy, we thought it would be fun to get him a little chair of his own. A few friends have this one from Pottery Barn Kids & I fell in love with it, so Liam is one lucky little dude to be able to have his very own, too.

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We have some fun things planned over these next few days. I hope to have some more posts up between now & Christmas for you!!

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I know I need to take my own advice on this, too …but we should take time out from all the hustle & bustle of this crazy time and enjoy the MAGIC of the season …..enjoy your family & friends…those you hold dear & love.

December 2013, Latest & Greatest News

Visions of Sugar Plums

December 11, 2013 casademurphy

Here comes Santa Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus….yes, friends, last week we tackled a visit with the big man, himself. I have to admit that we were skeptical going into it as to whether or not we would find success, as last year was NOT a winner {there is no pic …MANY tears were shed}. Also, thinking back to his 1st Christmas in 2011, I wasn’t sure we could top that Santa pic ~ it was epic by my mommy standards & totes adorbs!! Here’s a look back on that one before I get to this year’s:

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Back to this year’s adventure, we decided to go after work on Wednesday. My original plan was to see Santa at Millenia, but time is precious & since we’ve had luck with Oviedo in the past, we decided to give it another whirl there. Amazingly, no one else was in line when we arrived. Liam was in great spirits UNTIL we got up to Santa. Then, it was not fun & games. We didn’t want to be “those parents” who force a crying kid pic. HA! The photographer was super nice and since no other family happened to be waiting, she was able to work with us for a short time to get Liam comfortable to sit next to Santa. I want to note {in the most hilarious way} that Santa was NOT allowed to touch Liam. Snoopy even had to act as a safety barrier. Notice in these pics below that no part of Santa is touching Mr. Liam. LOL! We tried a few different poses but Liam caught on every time. Overall, I would say we had pretty good success and these came out really cute. Such the little man!

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ok, Santa, you can read me a quick story….

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impromptu family shot….

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Next up, we had the super fun, 4th Annual — Bengel Gingerbread House Decorating Party!!

The 1st year I was just newly pregnant and I honestly don’t even think I realized it at that point. 2nd year, Liam was just a few months old and we were just there to have a good time 🙂 …3rd year / last year, we decorated a house together but he had no idea what was happening. So, this year I was a little more excited to do it. I knew he still wouldn’t fully grasp the concept but could still have fun with it.

I have to say I was surprised that as Stephen & I began showing Liam how to decorate the house, and choose the candy that he wanted to put on it, he began TO.EAT.THE.CANDY — our child does not really like candy OR chocolate, so you can imagine our surprise when he began shoveling the M&M’s in his little mouth. HaHa! What a kid!

Let me also mention that little man had spied the Bengel’s super cool Polar Express Electric Choo-Choo Train that circles their Christmas tree when we walked into their house. Sooo, the whole time we did the gingerbread house, we kept hearing, “i wanna play choo-choo” …hahaha. Niiiice!!

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train-tastic!! Now THIS is where Liam spent a LOT of time after we finished his house. While the adults chatted in the kitchen, we just kept hearing the whirling of the train going around the track 🙂

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Both sides of the Murphy’s finished house!!

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Buuut….let us not forget…

After all the kiddos where done with their houses and playing in the house, I went back out on the patio and this is what we found:

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Stephen & Lisa were decorating the leftover {pink} house and let me just tell you…it was INTENSE. Here’s what they came up with:

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These two are already planning next year’s masterpiece….sad or exciting? not sure yet …LOL

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Always fun times with these crazy friends!! Love ’em

December 2013, Latest & Greatest News

Wonderful Christmas Time

December 2, 2013 casademurphy

No sooner did we put our forks down from our tasty turkey dinner, did we start breaking out the Christmas decorations. It seems like Thanksgiving was so late this year, and in a weird way, December feels like a short month so no time to waste!

In previous posts, I’ve talked about our obsession with Fisher Price Little People (now, the ‘old’ style, plump kind), so no surprise, this year’s new decorations involve the Little People Nativity Set (thank you to my mom!). It seriously is one of the cutest things ever! Of course, I set it up to display but Liam has had other plans and it’s a new fav toy. It actually works out perfect to help explain the real reason for this most magical season!! 🙂 …hearing him say, ‘baby Jesus’ is totally adorable, too..can’t get enough of that!

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We (correction “I”) decided it would be fun to have all 3 of us decorate the tree together on Friday night. Hahaha!!! …can we say, exhausting? …it was fun, but little man did not make it an easy experience 😉 …happy to report, though, that no ornaments were harmed during this decorating process.

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Saturday morning, our very own elf made his 1st appearance in Casa de Murphy. As pictured above, he was waiting for Liam while perched in the Christmas tree. His book was positioned on Liam’s picnic table in the living room. Mmmm, let’s just say that we got more of a reaction out of the book than out of the elf. The naming process was pretty funny. Stephen & I ran through at least 10 different names from our top picks that we were sure Liam would like, but each one got a “no” response from him. Finally, he said “yes” to ……Mr. Elf.

So, there you have it.

Welcome to Casa de Murphy, Mr. Elf

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So far, Liam & Timber both are loving sitting by the tree. Liam LOVES the Christmas lights, so I see us going to see some places with lights hopefully in the coming weeks. We hope to make a trip to go see the guy in the bid red suite soon but not sure if he’ll even go for it…last year was a no go. You’ll see it here, if he does 🙂

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Until next time, friends!

Latest & Greatest News, November 2013

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

November 28, 2013 casademurphy

Happy Thanksgiving to all you, our family & friends!

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I am thankful for my little Murphy family…for my three boys that give me love & laughter every day. I am thankful that I have this blog to share our crazy antics with you. I am thankful for our family, near & far, and all of our friends….we love you ALL.

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One year ago, as we were all turkey drunk, our little man decided to take his very 1st steps! In a way, that seems like so long ago….he was so proud of himself, as were we! Looking back at this picture below, he was a lot smaller & was just starting to get his teeth. He even looks a lot chunkier than he does now. I think I had forgotten how much he’s grown & changed over this last year…wow!!!

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Now, of course, he’s off & running and you can’t keep him down for even a few minutes at a pop most times of the day…..full.on.preschooler.

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Today, we enjoyed spending some time with Stephen’s side of the family. Here is Liam with his Great Grandma, Betty —

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Tomorrow, while some of you are gonna brave the crowds at the stores (some of you may be out there now), we are excited to put up the Christmas tree. Liam has already been pointing out the one that they put up at the daycare & those we’ve seen up at the stores, so I’m excited for this season!

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Hope you all enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!!

We are THANKFUL you have taken the time to stop by our little spot on this great big cyberspace.

Love, the Murphy’s

Latest & Greatest News, October 2013

Green Meadows Farm 2013

November 5, 2013 casademurphy

Mid-October, we met up with some fun new friends, as well as one special friend from Liam’s school to visit all our animal friends & pick pumpkins at Green Meadows Farm in Kissimmee.

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Liam was excited to spend the afternoon with one of his besties, Kenadie. I tried hard to get the two of them to both smile at the camera…but, well, ya know how that goes with kiddos…HA! These two have been buddies since they started at daycare in the baby room….they love hanging out together. It’s super cute!

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Liam’s face in this shot is totally like….”mom, aren’t you done YET??” 🙂

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Kisses for Baby Duckies!!!

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I’m not 100%, but I think these are all the goats we saw here at the farm back in March as babies. Obviously, they were much bigger this go round. I think Liam walked the entire pen and touch every.single.one! He kept saying, “Hi, goat!” to each one…lol.

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The sheep were in the same pen — each one got a little pet, too!

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Chicken Coop!! Daddy actually helped Liam to hold this one on his own! O.M.G. — THAT kinda freaked him out RIGHT after I snapped this picture!

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Absolutely cannot forget the pony ride! Giddy-Up!!

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Quick family pic on the hayride! Liam was fascinated that the tractor was pulling us along.

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We wrapped up the visit with getting to pick our pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. Liam carefully selected which two he wanted.

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If you have never checked out Green Meadows or haven’t been in a while, you should definitely give a whirl….it’s a pretty neat place for the little ones to explore & learn. Definitely recommend!

Latest & Greatest News, October 2013

Halloween 2013

November 3, 2013 casademurphy

October was such a fun month for this little Murphy family. By far, we had the most fun yet with a holiday with little man, Liam. Definitely can’t wait for Turkey Day & Christmas!

Liam loved all the Halloween decorations, especially the ‘punkins’, as he called them, and the jack-o-lanterns.

This pic below was all posed & arranged by him. It was too funny! I use the purple witch hat as a decoration but he wanted to wear it and then grabbed scarecrow Minnie & said he was gonna stand next to “mr punkin’ 🙂

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So, I said in a previous post that I was super excited about Liam’s costume this year & it’s true, I was. I knew he wasn’t gonna 100% get it this year so we could still pick his costume this go round, but I wanted it to be meaningful to him. He has a Dalmatian puppy that he sleeps with every night, and when I found this costume from Pottery Barn, I knew it was THE one. However, it was priced way higher than what I was willingly to pay so I kept looking. But, you know how it goes….after you find, THE one, nothing else is as good. Then, one Sunday morning, I couldn’t believe my peepers when I came across the SAME costume listed on Craigslist. Long story short…a few days later that Craigslist costume was in our hands for a mere $20!! SCORE!! ….if you don’t take advantage of Craigslist, you’re missing out….I love it!!

We had a super fun Halloween Party to attend at the Bengel’s a few weeks ago. It gave us a good practice run of the costume and a chance to take this awesome costume pic. I was loving that Liam loved being his puppy!!

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That night, after the party, I submitted this pic via #disneybabyhalloween to the BabyCenter’s Instagram Halloween Photo Contest & I was siked that they picked it up & posted it! The contest ends today, 11/03, and we have a chance to win a $100 gift card. As of this update, his pic has 134 likes on Instagram and 783 likes on Facebook….All in good fun, but I’d say his our little celebrity!! You can check his entry out by navigating to the photocontest link on the BabyCenter’s FB page.

Quick family pick before Liam ripped his costume off at the Bengel Halloween Party 😉

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Treat-or-Treat week brought some challenges to Casa de Murphy. Liam ended up spiking a fever on Wednesday afternoon & had to be picked up from school. Obviously, that put a damper on the Halloween plans for the next day, but the most important thing was making sure he was rested & feeling better. We spent the next few days resting & make a trip to the dr ….but doing better this weekend.

We were feeling ok on Thursday evening and no fever so we did take him out for a bit. He had a great time but he was a little scared to walk up to the doors by himself. Either Stephen or me had to usually carry him. And, he had his wagon charriot to get him from house to house. He was quiet at each door until the door closed and then he would unleash with everything you could tell he had been thinking….”I got more candy….I saw a pirate puppy….I go trick or treat” Love him!!

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Out & about in the neighborhood….

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Celebrating his haul with his bff, Timber!

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I’m sure next year, he’s going to tell us what he wants to dress up as, and then he’ll be running from house to house. That will be fun.

Up next….a recap of our fun trip to Green Meadows Farm! Here’s a few pics from Liam in the pumpkin patch that was there….he carefully picked in his own pumpkins!!

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Latest & Greatest News, October 2013

Adventure Week!

October 15, 2013 casademurphy

What 2 year old doesn’t love a big truck, right? Well, what’s better then getting to see one in real life?!?! Umm, nothing?? Liam’s school had our local Fire Dept come out on site to visit the kids & teach them about fire safety & prevention. Very cool!! Liam’s teacher & the staff told us that he LOVED it! The kids in his class got to go inside the truck to check it out, and sit in the seat & wear the seat belt. When we asked him if he saw the big red fire truck that day, he replied with, “I climbed in” ….so cute. Kudos to his school for doing this 🙂

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Over the weekend, we had a birthday party for a fabulous 5 year to attend. Liam was very excited to help celebrate another little friend’s special day. He was singing to her on the drive there…haha! It was a Jake & the Neverland Pirates theme, and he’s pretty fond of that show, so that made it extra fun.

There was a pool AND an inflatable water slide…oh.my.goodness….almost too much fun for this little guy. First, let me tell you that we forgot to bring his swimmy vest (fail!!). We still did pool time but he was convinced he could swim. The kid has NO.FEAR…I have fear, though!! Swim lessons are definitely in our future for spring or else my poor heart & nerves may not survive.

The water slide took several tries but he was brave with this, too. Once the bigger kids were all in the pool, he gave it a whirl….

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And, of course, what birthday party isn’t complete without cupcakes AND a pinata? Last year, Liam was too little to take a swing at the pinata but this year, we helped him to take a whack at it 😉

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Hope you had a good week, too! Definitely enjoying the “slight” dip in temperature here in our neck of the woods over this last week and looking forward to hopefully some continued cooler temps in the weeks to come! It’s probably crazy that as soon as the morning lows got below 70 last week, I was immediately like, omg, I’ve got to get Liam some clothes (nothing from last fall/winter fits). HA!

Until next time….

Latest & Greatest News, October 2013

Latest & Greatest Fun!

October 8, 2013 casademurphy

Welcome October!! So many fun things planned to do this month. We’re looking forward to sharing our adventures with you.

This pic was taken in a quick moment after a ride in Liam’s jeep on Saturday, but it’s definitely one that I am loving! These boys have our heart….& they have grown to be bestest buddies….it’s really THE cutest thing to watch. So proud of Timber for adjusting to being a big brother after so many years being an ‘only child’ 😉

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Good Morning, Sunshine! Daddy had to work on Saturday morning for awhile so little man & Mommy had breakfast & watched cartoons together.

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The highlight of our weekend was going to see the Sesame Street LIVE show. Since we’re pretty hooked on Disney, we don’t really watch Sesame Street too often but Liam does know all the main characters thanks to a few books we have that he loves & his Pampers….lol, I know…but it’s true. Pampers has always put the characters on his diapers so we talk about them all the time with him because of that! He had a blast with the show…clapping, laughing, & even dancing…well, stomping…haha!!

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Got a little more driving practice in over the weekend, too. Still driving in circles but they are good circles!

We ended the rainy afternoon on Sunday with a little cake baking. I let Liam pull a stool up in the kitchen & he helped me…it was fun for both of us! Although, it was hard for him to wait for it to cook…he ran around the house yelling “caaaake” while it was in the oven 🙂

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