Friends – Page 2 – Casa de Murphy

Week-In-Review

December 10, 2014 casademurphy

Last Friday, we had the amazing opportunity to go to the Marvel Universe LIVE! show at the Amway Center.

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Don’t have to tell you that little man was pretty captivated 😉 ….full show review with fun pics coming soon on Orlando Mom’s Blog!

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Saturday, we were excited for our Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party with our gang! I can’t believe this is the 5th year we’ve gotten together to do this. So fun!

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For a look back on last year’s festivities, check out our post here.

Lisa is AMAZING because she collects ALL the gingerbread house kits from us beforehand and works hard to build them & puts together this beautiful spread for the families. All we have to do is show up & have fun 🙂

Daddy & Liam kicked off the decorating.

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Someone might have been eating more candy than what was going on the house, at one point 😉

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Working hard…..

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Mommy helping out with the action

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All done & proud of his work of art ❤

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So much fun!!

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And then, peeps…..there was this 😉

Lisa & Stephen continued their crazy {yet hilarious} tradition of decorating their own house after the kids wrapped things up. Let me tell you….it was serious business. They even recruited Haven this time around to help them.

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Gettin’ crazy!! LOL! 🙂

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Ta da! ….they are not proud or anything…ha!

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The Bengel’s neighborhood has a fun tradition in December of a surprise visit by Santa. We were thrilled that he came by after the party…great timing!! Liam was SO surprised that he came all the way down from the North Pole just to say hi to them! 🙂

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After that, he discovered the Bengel’s Polar Express choo-choo train {again} & that was all she wrote, folks. If you recall, he found this last year & we couldn’t pull him away. He LOVES trains!

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It was a fantastic evening at our Gingerbread Party with friends!! We laughed that we’ll be doing this each year until at some point, the kids will be sick of it and it will be just the adults on the patio decorating the houses 😉 …

Until next time, friends!

Latest & Greatest News, November 2014

Recent Happenings

November 21, 2014 casademurphy

Remember me? It’s definitely been awhile….this momma was sick these last few weeks & honestly, the thought of sitting at the computer (for anything other than what I had to do for work) was just not appealing.

In the meantime, life moved on, as it always does, right?!?! LOL…I just tried to keep up. Thankfully, I had Mr Murphy there to help and lucky for him, he didn’t get it. Liam got a touch of it, but I’m happy to report that we’re all feeling much better now.

So, here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks….

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Halloween was so much fun! Liam was ALL about it! He was allowed to dress up for school, but yes, I was afraid his costume would get messed up soooooo he wore a back-up {go ahead & laugh….it’s ok}. He had a great time sporting his ‘Sheriff Woody’ costume all morning. We even saw from the cameras that he kept his hat on! — way to go, dude! 🙂

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Halloween night, we went over to our friend’s, the Bengels, and hung out for dinner {delish homemade pizza!} and then the kiddos trick-or-treated together. The ‘Hulk’ made his appearance for this main event!

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Getting ready to hit the neighborhood! Liam walked the entire trip. Such a little trooper! He loved going up to the doors & saying, ‘trick-or-treat’ …he’s still talking about it, a few weeks later 🙂

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The next night, we headed back out to gather with our friends for a 2nd Annual S more’s Roast. It was the 1st cool night of the season, so it worked out perfectly! The adults attempted a roasted marshmallow Kahlua shot….pretty tasty, I must say.

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The kiddos had a blast roasting marshmallows & making s more’s out back once it got dark.

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Last weekend, we headed downtown for the Touch-A-Truck event. This is a community event where the kiddos can explore various big trucks, construction vehicles, and public safety equipment. Liam LOVED it!

Here he is checking out a steam roller.

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There were a few mini monster trucks there. He thought they were the coolest things ever.

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We even got to squeeze him into the driver seat of one. Such a big, little man 😉

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Fire Truck!

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Saturday evening, we headed over to Mimi, Papa D & Aunt Heather’s to celebrate baby cousin, Sierra’s very 1st birthday ❤

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Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

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On Sunday, I got a little creative while daddy was watching football & made this turkey with Liam. I asked him for 5 things he was thankful for to write on each feather….He said: mommy, daddy, timber, rainbows, & letters ❤

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It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving will be here next week, but we’re definitely excited & looking forward to it.

Until next time, friends! 🙂

Latest & Greatest News, October 2014

Green Meadows Farm

October 24, 2014 casademurphy

Last Sunday, we headed out to Green Meadows Farm with our Sunshine Babies group for another fun-filled fall adventure! It was an absolutely gorgeous day & we had the most perfect weather 🙂 …so thankful for that! You can look back on last year’s fall trip, here {so cute to see how much little man has changed / grown up }

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Our 1st stop was the hayride around the property. A nice, easy way to kick off the morning.

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How cute was this sign?!?! For some reason, I didn’t see it last year, but we got him to stand in front of it this time. Yeap, we’re clearly at the 3 foot mark 😉

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Oh, the goats! He wasn’t as thrilled to pet them this go around, but this little guy was a cutie! He was one of a set of twins that was only ELEVEN DAYS OLD!! ❤ ….we were saying HI to him, here.

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Definitely got a kick out of feeding the goats! Look at the joy on that face 🙂

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Ponies for days!! I think you can tell by the sweet expression on that face that he was IN LOVE!

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Well, hello there baby duckie!

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Ah, the pumpkin patch! One of the perks of heading out to Green Meadows during October is that each paying guest can take home a pumpkin….sooo, we filled our wagon with 3 lovelies that the boys will be carving up this weekend. It was MUCH harder {compared to prev years} to get this lively 3 year old to pose and/or stay still in a way that suited my photo-crazed ideas….the out-stretched arms with a cheese was the winner of the afternoon. I’ll take it ❤

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Another one of my stolen moments….searching for the perfect pumpkin for Liam {he wanted one of the smaller ones}

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Loved this one!

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Last but not least….I was super excited to see the same SPOOKY sign this year, as we had come across last year….so, I attempted to re-create last year’s shot. You can DEFINITELY see the difference in how much this little man has grown.

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It was a great day with our friends from the Sunshine Babies group! Liam had an awesome time exploring around and checking out all the animals. It’s, for sure, one of our favorite places to visit during this time of the year.

Until next time, friends!!

August 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Liam’s 3rd Birthday Party {part 2}

August 13, 2014 casademurphy

If you missed yesterday’s post with the 1st part of our birthday party fun, you can catch up here.

The kids really had a ball at My Gym with the staff and all the train themed activities that were intermingled with their free-play time during the 2 hour fiesta. Stephen & I honestly didn’t have to worry about anything. It was perfect!

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Bubbles — Bubbles — Bubbles Everywhere!!

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It’s a “train wash” 🙂 …this was so cute! The kids could ride through the bumpers to “wash” their “train” with the bubbles….lol. Gotta love that. Very creative!

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This is a few action shots of another creative activity. Just before this, all the children were sitting in a circle on the carpet, and Ms. McKenzie told them that one of the train’s, Diesel, came by and made a big mess. Ms. Kendall then scattered all these bean bags , balls, and pom poms across the gym while they had their eyes closed. The kids were then asked to help clean up the “train yard” by putting each type of item together in it’s own bin (e.g., all the bean bags in one bin, all the balls in another, etc.).

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They all did so good and enjoyed helping to clean up. Again, really cute! ….even the smaller kiddos liked to join in 🙂

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So happy to have cousin, Sierra, to celebrate with us ❤ ….although impossible to get these two to look at the camera together 😉

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Taking a spin with our friend, Brandon, on the “birthday train”

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Way to go, Kenadie! Great balancing!

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I caught this little gymnast hanging from the uneven bars like this several times. Ha! Perhaps he is trying to tell us something?

The ball pit was a huge hit with all the kids!

Below, Crosby was getting a kick out of his big sister Kenley playing around.

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Nathan & Liam plotting mischief 😉

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Brandon!! 🙂

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I ,most likely, was telling him to NOT fall in while snapping this shot 😉

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Trampoline! This was the very 1st thing Liam ran over to once he got into My Gym. The ladies at the gym even complimented how good of a jumper he was….haha!

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Activities ended with this super fun ride on the zip line! Liam actually did not enjoy it that much, but he had just taken a little spill just before this began so I think that played a part. Poor little dude.

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What a great celebration for this little man! We could not have asked for a better time. To everyone who came out to play with us — THANK YOU!! It meant so much to us and to Liam. He really did have the best time. To others who were not able to make it there, but celebrated in spirit and/or helped out in other ways, we thank you, as well, and you know who are!!

I know I said it before on my personal Facebook page, but I want to say it again here…..thank you ALL for the sweet birthday wishes to Liam over his whole birthday weekend. We really felt the love for our little guy and his tender heart appreciated it, as well. It was awesome ❤ ❤

We could not have asked for a better 3rd birthday celebration!! So blessed.

August 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Liam’s 3rd Birthday Party {part 1}

August 12, 2014 casademurphy

We had a fantastic time at Liam’s 3rd birthday party a few Sunday’s ago!

I have been dying to share the invites that went out but wanted to wait until after the party, for obvious reasons {note: my contact info is whited out for privacy}. I ordered these from the most wonderful little shop on Etsy, MaitriDsigns. The shop owner, Rhianna, was so great to work with & had excellent customer service! She was super speedy with her design and delivery. She even custom designed the cute inserts that we used for the party info that some of you all received. I highly recommend for any party needs and we will definitely use her again!

My regular local gal for Liam’s holiday & special occasion shirts was on hiatus this summer {to spend more family time….can’t blame her for that}, so I had to seek out someone new for little man’s party shirt. I found someone via Etsy. While I was happy with this shirt, below, overall….I have to say there was absolutely no customer service. So, that was disappointing. No acknowledgement of my order….not even a business card dropped in the bag with the mailout. Bummer…but, again, super cute shirt.

With the help of Liam’s Grammy & Papa Rock, we were able to order these yummy Thomas the Train decorated cookies to distribute as party favors. They came from Favor Bakery in Winter Haven. What a wonderful job these ladies did! They tasted as delicious as they looked ❤ ….Liam’s 1st pick was Thomas, of course 🙂

The idea for a Thomas the Train themed party really 1st came from Liam {naturally}. It sprouted from him seeing this Thomas Signature Cake on display at our Publix for the last few months. Everytime we went by it while shopping, he would tell us that he wanted THAT cake for his birthday. So, once I eventually asked him what kind decorations he would like for his birthday party, he matter-of-factly told me, Thomas, and asked if he could have this cake. There was NO WAY, he was forgetting about this cake.

When we 1st went to order the cake, the bakery told us they thought it was discontinued. Talk about a heart attack….long story short, Publix came through and did a FAB job. It really was an awesome cake….and deceptively large {very tall}. We ate cake for a week, peeps! LOL 🙂

Liam’s party was held at My Gym in Maitland. It was amazing! What a great facility for little one’s to play. As part of the birthday package, Liam & his guests received free passes to enjoy another class, and we can’t wait to bring him back! The staff that assisted with our party were so friendly and worked great with all the kids.

I love this pic above! We literally had to snatch Liam up really quick as he was running around the gym & tell him to say ‘cheese’.

The kids had free time to explore and play throughout the facility, but then the staff would also periodically gather them together to conduct group activities that were all train themed. It was such a fun time!!

Liam dancing in center stage during once of the activities 😉

During this activity below, the kids went for a ride on the “choo-choo train”. Liam wasn’t too sure about this one, at first, as you can see him checking out Kenley & Karsten in this pic, here.

However, then he decided they were having a great time. so he hopped on & it was all smiles! Kenadie, Thompson & Brandon also enjoyed the train 🙂

It was so nice to have Great Grandma & Uncle Kenny come to the party, as well!

We have a lot more pics of the kiddos to share & I have decided to break those up into a 2nd part post for tomorrow, so this one isn’t as long.

However, let’s skip ahead to the CAKE …yum!

Look at that face when the girls brought it over…..is that priceless, or what?!?! {I didn’t even notice the super cute folded hands until I was looking at these pics days later…..heart.melted }

Lighting 3 candles for the 3 year old birthday boy!!!

Singing Happy Birthday! Again, I LOVE his face…..there is nothing better than the sheer joy you see. All the planning & prep for the day — THAT makes it ALL worth it.

Make a wish….Blow out the candles little dude!!!

Everyone hanging out …enjoying yummy cake & pizza!

One of my fav pics of the day ….so hard to get everyone smiling at once but that’s okay. Wonderful memories!

Stay tuned for Part #2 of the Birthday Party tomorrow!! 🙂

Note: The reviews expressed are solely my opinion & I do not receive any compensation or kickback.

February 2014, Latest & Greatest News

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!

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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!!

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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 🙂

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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!

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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.

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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 🙂

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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

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Liam really got into the music toward the end of the show. Stephen filmed this clip, and Liam was hamming it up!! Check it out:

As always, the weekend went by too fast, but we enjoyed ourselves & had a great time spending time with our friends. Hope you had a great one, too!

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Until next time!!

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