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 🙂
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. It was really cute. We all know you can’t make an almost 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 🙂
This was our group picture taken at lunch. It came out really awesome!
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 ❤
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMPY!! WE LOVE YOU!
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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 🙂
Here is me & my little man hanging out on our blanket and waiting for the festivities to begin.
Snack break!
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 🙂
It really was a good show!
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!!
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 🙂
Super excited to find his pals Woody & Buzz. We love us some Toy Story!
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!
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?? 🙂
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.
On Father’s Day, we had our community pool to ourselves for a bit. That was SOOO nice!!
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!
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. 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:
Hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day Weekend 2014! It was for sure a H.O.T. one in our neck of the woods. My, oh my, were we feeling the summertime temps, or what, already?!?!
When Liam gets a little older, we will explain to him the real reason for the holiday this weekend. Until, then, it was just an extra long & fun weekend for him. Overall, though, we kept it pretty low-key. He & I battled a stomach bug most of the week, so we spent the 1st part of the weekend playing catch up with chores & what-not. Daddy was a trooper with helping to take care of both of us & the house!
Once everyone’s bellies were feeling better, we indulged in some yummy ice cream cones after dinner. 🙂
Daddy says this was Liam’s FIRST ice cream CONE …I haven’t been able to locate any other pics of him eating a cone, so he may be right because ya know I would have documented that! LOL …He wouldn’t stop moving while eating this one, so it’s not the best shot, but here ya go:
On Sunday, we decided to head out to Cocoa Beach for a day of fun in the sun. Two things I learned after our trip. One, Liam needs a bigger sun hat (last years is too small….yet still so cute). Two, if we’re going to frequent the beach this summer, we need an umbrella. The Florida sun is brutal.
Liam loved the playing in both the sand and the water. While he would be in the water with us, he would sing, “we’ll be swimming in the ocean all day long…splish, splash”.
The other highlight of our weekend was that Mr. Liam taught himself how to do a somersault. Well, I guess, I should 1st clarify to say that I believe one of his little friends at school helped show him how, as I observed this from my glimpses on the camera. It was actually pretty hilarious and I wish I had been able to catch that on video. He must have felt confident in his new skill to show it to us because this is what he did on Saturday.
To end our weekend, last night, after bath, he proceeded to tell us that he loved us & that we were “the best day ever” ….I don’t think it gets much better than that, folks!
Believe it, or not, I started this post about 3 weeks ago. It was definitely not my intention to be just sharing about our super fun Easter holiday almost a month after the fact, but it’s been crazy times around Casa de Murphy, peeps. Both Stephen & I have been working hard & on the weekends, swim lessons are still in full swing, and life has been charging on 🙂
Liam got to participate in his 1st real Easter Egg Hunt with our Meet Up Group of friends, the Sunshine Babies. This is a super fun group of parents and we really enjoy spending time with them! He had a blast!
The park we went to was in Baldwin Park. Really great space & this fountain was beautiful. Of course, little man was hamming it up for the camera.
Special buddies since they were babies…so cute!…Kenadie & Liam
Family pic!
The Easter Bunny came!! …all of Liam’s current favs…Thomas the Train, Toy Story & Tinkerbell.
The Easter Bunny hid some eggs in the yard for Liam. He also planted lolly pops in the ivy…WOW! 🙂
A couple of eggs had treats for Timber in them. The boys were sharing them directly after coming inside. HA!
We had dinner with Grammy & Papa Rock on Easter. It was also great to spend time with my Grampy (Liam’s Great Grampy). The Easter Bunny got a tad bit carried away with his delivery here…lol.
Liam was SUPER excited (hence this expression below on his face) to see that he got an Olaf from Frozen. We are loving that movie in our house right now.
He had also been asking us EVERY day (really, NOT joking about this) for a vacuum. He had one that was a hand-me-down from one of our friend’s & it recently broke. This kid loved to use that vacuum around the house and was pretty upset about it. So, every day, he had been telling me he needed a new vacuum, and he wanted one like our Dyson vacuum. Well, unbelievably, they actually make a toy version of our Dyson Animal that we’ve had for years. It was love at 1st sight 🙂
The afternoon would not have been complete without another egg hunt, right?!?!
Such a sweet picture between Liam & his Great Grampy!
And, if this little dude is not spoiled enough…..
He got ANOTHER Easter basket from his Mimi & Papa D. He loved his Mickey cup, puppy & the baking set for his kitchen.
It was really exciting for us to see Liam get into the Easter holiday this year. He enjoyed all the decorations and the eggs (and, most surprising for me…the CANDY…lol). I guess it’s another sign of the times….our baby is getting bigger…growing up some more!
Today, April 13th, Stephen & I celebrate 12 years since we said, “I do” 🙂
Extremely thankful to have been blessed to share that wonderful day with so many special loved ones. We were babies back then, and have grown together so much over the years.
So, we blinked & another month has gone by. Liam Michael seems to be growing by leaps & bounds here lately, so while I don’t do this each month, I thought it would be fun to give you a 32 month update with 32 fun facts about our little guy.
1. I have been taking pictures of him periodically with the same teddy bear since he was born. I thought this would be neat way to measure his growth as time went on. Enjoy this Flipogram of these pics, including this week’s picture!
2. Liam shares the same middle name as his daddy 🙂
3. He has just recently gotten interested in watching Disney movies, or any cartoon movie. I have to admit that I am secretly excited about this…even though, we are now watching the SAME movie like a broken record. His current favs are Toy Story 1 AND 2, and Frozen.
4. One of his favorite parts in Toy Story 2 is when the Toys are trying to figure out where Al took Woody. He loves when Hamm, the piggy bank, says ‘picky, picky, picky’ …. in reference to the Etch-A-Sketch drawing of Al. He giggles & recites that part.
5. His favorite character from Frozen is Olaf the snowman. I admit, as well, that little snowman is pretty damn funny. Liam really gets a kick out of the summertime song that Olaf sings. He will also give a pretty mean rendition of ‘Let It Go’ 😉
6. He has a small white dalmation puppy that he sleeps with every night. His name is, “puppy”. Daddy got it from a local drugstore one day last year when picking up a Rx for him after a visit to the Dr.’s. A very random purchase that has turned into the greatest bond 🙂
7. Current fav foods: Publix popcorn chicken, Cheez-It Snack Mix (or, as he calls it, ‘cheese crackers & pretzel & puffs’), Reese’s (special treat for going potty), french toast with syrup (P.S…this kid gets COVERED in syrup..omg! ha!)
8. Current fav drinks: water & milk are still our staples, so that is good. We did introduce apple juice because of potty training so that’s a new choice at home but I am still grateful my kid loves his water.
9. For some reason, he loves soccer balls. He has a few pairs of socks with soccer balls on them & he will always ask for them. Really have no idea where this comes from, as neither Stephen or I play or watch….but we will foster that.
10. Liam has been in sports classes at school since early Fall 2013, called Playball. They not only teach the basic concepts of many sports activities, but they also teach the kids about physical education, health, and teamwork. We really like that and he definitely enjoys the lessons. That may be where his love of soccer is coming from. He also is developing quite the little arm on him!
11. He loves our dog, Timber. He is so gentle with him and we always tell him that Timber is his big brother. He calls Timber his ‘white doggy’ …It really is the cutest thing when you hear that little voice say, ‘I want my white doggy’.
12. About 2 weeks ago, Stephen & I realized that our little guy’s toes were about to bust out of his shoes. Yeap, he’s a growing, peeps! So, we paid a visit to my fav children’s shoe store, Stride Rite, and got his feet measured — 8 1/2 wide! He picked out his new kicks. Check ’em out:
13. So, some of you know that we have camera access to him at daycare. I like to peak at him when I can to see how he’s doing. Sometimes, I catch some pretty darn hilarious tid bits. For instance, a few weeks back, it was one of his little friends birthday & the class was having cupcakes for snack time to celebrate. Yes, this may seem crazy but I snapped a pic of the camera to capture this very comical moment of my child literally shoveling cupcakes in his mouth with both hands….
14. Apparently, Liam picked up on me telling him that I am not happy with him at times when I felt he was misbehaving. I say this because now when he knows he has done something he is not supposed to do, he will look at me and say, “Soooo, you not happy with me right now??” ….I almost cracked up laughing the 1st time that munchkin voice spit that out….where do they come up with these things?!?! …oh yeah, from us!! LOL
15. A few of his fav phrases right now: “I do it myself” ; “Five more minutes” (response to anything when you tell him it’s time to stop doing something, go to bed, eat, etc.) ; “I want a snack”
16. It’s pretty much amazing to me that you can now have a full out conversation with Liam. I love to ask him questions about his day at school and see the responses he comes up with. Really hilarious sometimes. I hear about reading stories, finding frogs on the playground, how funny he thinks he & his friends are (literally, he says that), and that he thinks a few of the girls are beautiful (aww!).
17. Potty Training — we are in week 6 now of this lovely process. I stand by my previous comments and will still have a separate post about it SOON. I will say this for now, though, I think Liam has done amazingly well and we are still diaper free!
18. Anytime Liam sees crumbs in the car or his car seat, he always tell me that we “gotta vacuum” …without fail, I get told that…basically, mommy, your car is dirty & you should clean it.
19. Yesterday, we got out of the car and Liam saw that our driveway was covered in the pieces of pollen (we have FOUR oak trees in our front yard). He looked at me and said, “We gotta clean up this mess. Daddy needs to mow.” LOL!!! I about died laughing!! Where does this little person come up with these things?!?!
20. He ate his 1st bowl of cereal on March 23rd. In my book, this was a momentous occasion, as he asked for cereal with milk. I don’t know why, but that just seemed like such a big boy thing. So, of course, I took a picture 🙂
21. The boy LOVES music, dancing, & singing! Here he is belting out “Let It Go” in the car with Daddy …or, maybe eating the air conditioning…I’ll let you be the judge.
22. We are in a comfortable size 3T clothes now with a mix of some 4T here & there.
23. Liam is starting swim lessons on Monday and we are VERY excited for that. More details & pics to come in future posts!
24. He is a pro at turning the speaker bar on & off for the TV. I think he thinks that’s one of his little jobs because we always ask him to do it now. He can also turn the TV off if you ask him.
25. Gone are the days when we can pick out any outfit we want for him. He is a mini fashionista and already has to have a say in what shirt & shorts he is going to wear. Not to mention, his socks and undies…hey, the patterns, on those matter, too, ya know?!?! It even goes all the way down to his shoes….Tonka Trucks, Captain America, or Lightening McQueen? 🙂
26. He is very independent when out at the stores and is hard-pressed to ride in the shopping carts anymore. He “wants to walk”.
27. He is a little bookworm. Can’t get enough of his books!
28. Thomas the Train is one of his favs and we are slowly building quite the collection of the wooden train cars. He loves learning all the names of the different engines.
29. He has always had the most pleasant & mellow personality, but we are definitely starting to see small spurts where he tests us to see what he can get away with. Very interesting how quickly their little demeanor can change when they aren’t getting their way.
30. His fav place to eat / snack at home is his picnic table…Timber’s fav place to sneak is underneath it!! ….no crumb is left behind!! Dangerous duo, those two!
31. He is learning how to brush his teeth on his own. He likes to watch himself in the mirror while he does it. Of course, we brush for him 1st or after, but he likes to try & it’s good for him.
32. Last, but DEFINITELY NOT LEAST, Liam is THE MOST loving child EVER!! If I’ve said it once, then I’ve said it a thousand times….we are blessed!! Nothing is better than those little arms going around your neck and getting a hug & a kiss. He will often ask you for a “big hug” 🙂
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Whew!!! Are you still with me?!?! Did you make it ’till the end? Kudos to you, if you did. That was a lot of writing! Hahaha!! Well, I enjoyed bragging about our little guy for a bit, so if you are reading this, then I hope your enjoyed reading it just as much!!
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!
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!!
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 🙂
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!
At drop off this morning, Liam’s teacher gave me this sweet card that he made for us. ALWAYS LOVE the hand-print projects…
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!
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.
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 🙂
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!
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!! 🙂
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.
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.
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.
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!
We’re looking forward to Valentine’s Day at the end of the week!!
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!!
Casa de Murphy 