February 2015, Latest & Greatest News

3.5 Years {42 Months}

As we said good-bye to January, we also said hello to 3 1/2 years old for our little man. I can hardly believe that a whole 6 months has gone by since his birthday. Seriously, where does the time keep going?!?! πŸ™‚ — There are so many moments where I wish I could freeze time ….bottle up these memories & make them last forever….I don’t want to forget any of these little details from our everyday…even the ones that sometimes frustrate & make us tired….this little dude is such a gift & a blessing to us ❀

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Keeping with our teddy bear picture tradition, here’s our updated version above. A look back on previous pics are hereΒ – Β here –Β hereΒ (this link has a cool flip a gram of a series of pics!)Β – and, Β here

{Look back soon for all these fun pics on their own page in the blog ….I think it’s time πŸ˜‰ }

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AGE: 42 months // 3 1/2 years

WEIGHT: 40 lbs.

HEIGHT: 38.5 inches

CLOTHES: mostly size 4T ….some 3T depending on the brand. Also wearing a size 10 shoe. The biggest characteristic with his clothes is that he HAS to pick out his outfit. He is all into superheros, so that is definitely a preference in his everyday wardrobe…some piece usually has an Avenger on it πŸ˜‰ ….I really can’t believe it, but I’m already finding it slightly harder to shop for him because I already pause to wonder if he will wear it. How is that possible?!?!

FAV FOODS:Β What he will eat changes with his moods. I say this is part of that “threenager” attitude….lol! Do I wish he would eat more veggies, yeap, but I am sure that will come in good time. He really loves to always eat what you’re eating so my goal is for us to eat healthy things so he will too πŸ™‚ Β …of course, he still loves his chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, orange slices, and cereal.

FAV WORDS:Β I’m sure I have said this before, but we have a little person on our hands, at this point. Sometimes, it’s almost scary ….I mean, he’s not a baby anymore. You can have complete conversations with him about anything! Call us crazy, but that still amazes us 1st time parents. At this stage, it’s fascinating to watch him learn learn and grow with his vocabulary. For example, everything in the past right now is “yesterday” ….we did that yesterday or we were here yesterday ….even if it’s been a few weeks or months. I’m sure in the blink of an eye, that will all change and he’ll “get” the verb tenses and know yesterday, last week, last month, etc. For now, I just enjoy yesterday ❀

As much as we try not to laugh at times, he also enjoys ‘toilet talk’ these days. His current word of choice is nipple. He thinks that is THE most hilarious word in the world. I can only hope he is not saying it at school. He knows what it means and that he’s not supposed to just be saying it….so, that’s why keeps doing it. What a stinker!

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FAV ACTIVITES:Β We have been taking gymnastics lessons since September. It has been a great learning experience for Liam & so much fun! I had read this awesome blog post not too long ago about why preschoolers should do gymnastics lessons….it is so true! You can check it out here.

Liam also really likes to draw pictures now. He is getting really good at it. He is quickly moving out of just the scribbles stage, and we are starting to see actual pictures. Again, totally amazing to watch this happen! He favors his left-hand almost 100%, so I am pretty sure he’s going to be a lefty, like his mommy πŸ™‚

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MILESTONES: At the end of this month, it will be ONE YEAR that we are diaper free! Whoo hoo! You can check back on our potty training adventures, here. I can hardly remember what it was like having a changing table in his room. He does so well with his big boy undies!

By the end of this month, Liam is also officially moving into the Preschool Department at his school! {We had still been in the Early-Preschool Dept} So exciting for him! This means that he will be moving up into a new room with a new teacher. He says that he gets to move because “he is bigger now” Β His other comment about moving up was that he would get to play on the “big kids playground” πŸ™‚

Between now & his birthday in July, we will be updating his room. That’s our next project and we are all excited about it. He is still sleeping in his toddler bed, which is his original crib that’s been converted. His room still has all the original decor from when we 1st designed it for his nursery with the jungle theme. So, this will be a BIG change for ALL of us πŸ˜‰ ….I think we are moving up to a twin bed….but depending on what we find, it may possibly be a full size. We’ll see. Liam has his heart set on a super hero’s room, so that’s the plan right now! We’ll definitely be posting pics of this update when the time comes!!

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Happy Half Birthday, Little Man!! — Mommy & Daddy Love You So Very Much…. XOXO

February 2015, Latest & Greatest News

Valentine’s Fun for the Little Ones

Hi Friends! I’m sharing two super fun posts over on Orlando Mom’s Blog to get you & your little one’s ready for Valentine’s Day ❀

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The 1st one is a LOVE Β Art Canvas Project that you can check out here.

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The 2nd project is cute AND magical! Definitely sure to get some giggles πŸ™‚ …It is Growing Heart Lollipops and you can check it out here.

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We had SO MUCH FUN with both of these projects! πŸ™‚

Until next time!!

~H

January 2015, Latest & Greatest News

The Moms Magazine!

Hi Friends! I am SUPER EXCITED to share with you that I am a contributing writer for the Winter 2015 Issue of The Mom’s Magazine! πŸ™‚

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I wrote my article — “10 Simple Tips for Positive Parenting in 2015”

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Please check it out from the digital copy of the magazine here

Also, you can request your FREE subscription to the magazine HERE! (includes FREE shipping & handling too….awesome!!) The magazine’sΒ goal is to share the incredible articles and information from every issue ofΒ The MOMS Magazine as far as possible within the continental United States of America!

I am so proud to be a part of this issue ❀

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Until next time, friends!

~H

December 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Happy New Year!!

We were blessed with another year in 2014, and what a year it was!!

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Some highlights from 2014 …..

Our biggest goal was Potty Training & we can definitely check that off our list. Liam accomplished that with flying colors! I am not going to say it was a breeze — hard work for sure, but he was definitely eager to learn. We also said good-bye to the beloved paci.

We even ended the year, today, with our very 1st trip to the dentist for a cleaning…but more about that later πŸ˜‰

Stephen changed jobs in March & is kicking butt! Same kind of business (fabric restoration), just for a different company.

I started blogging for Orlando Moms Blog in August, and it’s really been a joy to be a part of this fab team of moms! Not to mention, the experience I have been gaining is awesome!

HUGE KUDOS to those of you who keep up with us here ❀ ….this little hobby of mine has really grown this past year and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I am still just doing this to mainly keep our family & friends abreast of the latest & greatest news of Mr Liam & the fam, but it’s also led to some new exciting opportunities. Our most popular posts were Liam’s 3rd birthday celebrations (here & here). The most commented on were when we said good-bye to paci. πŸ™‚ We had over 2,000 page views this year!! While that may be small potatoes for some blogs, that is pretty amazing to me! Most of our visitors came from the U.S., Brazil & Canada.

I am anxious to see where 2015 will take us!

Here’s a quick look back as we bid farewallΒ to 2014 πŸ™‚

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{song credit: Dave Matthews — Baby Blue}
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Looking Ahead to 2015 ….

Liam will be starting official Pre-School in August!! Oh my goodness! Where is the time going?!?!

We want to find a solid church home and a place to give that foundation for Liam that is vital so he can learn & grow in our Lord. It’s time & has been heavy on my heart.

Stephen and I have some projects we want to tackle around the house.

Overall, we just want to live each day to the fullest, savor each moment, and be thankful!! ❀

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Happy New Year!!

~H

Latest & Greatest News, October 2014

Week-In-Review

Last week was such a fun week at gymnastics! Liam overcameΒ his fear of flipping upside down and did his pull-over on the un-even bar with Coach Elyssa! He was super proud, as were we! Even more exciting was that his coach sent him a ‘star student’ certificate in the mail later in the week to recognize this awesome achievement πŸ™‚ …that really was such a sweet gesture from her! Much appreciated by this momma & daddy!!

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We enjoyed a busy, but super fun weekend, as we geared up for the upcoming Halloween celebration. The festivities kicked off on Friday evening with our annual bash at the Bengel’s. Liam sported his costume and looked awesome!!

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Lisa had the house all decked out and I was in love with her ‘floating candles’ in their family room. Great touch!

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The kids decided to break out some pretty sweet dance moves. Liam definitely has some moves of his own, people….so cute!

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On Sunday, we took our little guy out to UCF for ‘Trick or Treat on Greek Street’. This was the 1st year we made it out there, and it was fun for him. He definitely was happy about the early trick-or-treating, and he did pretty good participating in a few of the games that they had set up.

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Trick-or-Treating is hard work πŸ˜‰ …..water break!

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Sunday evening, the boys did a little pumpkin carving out back. Even the fur baby got in on the action πŸ™‚

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Posing with his finished ‘jack-o-lantern’ …the smaller pumpkin is a fake one but he insisted that it was ‘the baby’ and that the one Stephen carved was ‘the daddy’, so they had to stay together….LOL!!! Too Funny!! What an imagination!

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By the time the candle burned out on this guy on Sunday night, I was exhausted….such a busy weekend, yet so much fun…..and, so many wonderful memories! Lots more Halloween fun to come this week. We are looking forward to sharing with you soon.

Until next time, friends!

~H

Latest & Greatest News, October 2014

Welcome October :)

Happy 1st week of October, friends! With temps here in Florida dipping below 70 for the 1st time this season over this past weekend, it finally felt like fall was whispering in our ear. It was definitely enough for this Murphy family to throw open every stinkin’ window in the house we could πŸ˜‰

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When we hit the end of September last week, I realized that I skipped Liam’s teddy bear picture last month. Granted, not a huge deal. Especially, since I did remember for his birthday, but I had wanted to do it because we didn’t go for his 3 year check up until the end of August {oops!}….oh well! Catching up this month πŸ™‚

We kinda knew {expected} that little dude had grown a ton since last year, but I was down right shocked to hear his doctor say that he grew THREE inches and gained SEVEN pounds. WOW!!! Quite the growth spurt, right?!?! πŸ˜›

So thankful that all checked out a-okay. Every kid learns & develops in their own time, but on the average, he is doing just fine. He really is getting into the imaginary play. We LOVE to hear him play with his toys and make up stories as he is playing. It is fascinating to watch. We are working on teaching him to pedal his little tricycle that Santa brought last year, and I would like to focus over this next year on learning what educational activities and crafts we can do together that are fun but also help him learn……especially since he will be in Pre-K at this time next year (yikes!!).

The sense of humor he is developing truly seems to be a combo of both Stephen and me…..this may prove to bite us in the a$$ down the road πŸ™‚ …..already I hear sarcasm and have seen slight eye rolling {omg! lol} …For example, he has already picked up on the fact that I will call him by both his 1st & middle name when I am trying to get his attention. At Publix, on Saturday, after calling him in this manner, he looked up at me with a very matter-of-fact tone of voice and stated, “Mommy, my friends call me, ‘Liam Murphy’.” …well, excuuuuse me!!

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If you would like to check out the last few posts of these ‘teddy bear pics’ I had posted, please see here, Β hereΒ and here.

Happy Fall, ya’ll πŸ™‚

~H

Latest & Greatest News, September 2014

Week-In-Review

I am that mama who always has the camera in hand (or within reach), and is ready to take a picture at a moment’s notice. I am not ashamed of that, and I literally have thousands of pics of this amazing little man, at this point, in his young life. One day, he may think I am a crazy mama, and I am totally OK with that:)

That said, yes, I am also THAT mama who has been stealing moments at gymnastics. I can’t help it. It is just too cute….and we’ve only just had our 2nd lesson! I am SO in trouble! Last week went much better than the 1st….in that, I mean, Liam was much more comfortable with the class & listened well. This class focused a lot on the balance beam. He was not a huge fan of that, but we were really proud of him for giving it a 100% effort. You can really see it on his little face….how focused he is & how hard he is trying. At one point, he came over to us and said, “I can’t do it” …*sigh* break my heart…we are softies, this is true…but, we stayed strong and told him, “Yes, you can. Just go back out there & your teacher will help you.” And, she did help him. She held his little hand as they walked across the beam. Then, he “beamed” because he was so proud of himself and jumped up & down and said,

“I did it, I really did it!”

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On Saturday, Daddy had to work {bummer}, so Liam & I decided to go check out Bithlo Park. Umm, hello…..this place was so cool! A park AND a splash pad! Liam had a blast! There was hardly anyone else there and at one point, it was just us in the splash pad area. Awesome!!

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The splash pad was so big! He called that feature in the middle the “shower” because of how much water it dumped on you….it looked like a shower to him πŸ™‚ ….He literally ran laps around this place.

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Under the “shower”…lol!

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Had to get some swinging in before we headed back to the car.

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On Sunday, we decided to get a bit creative with our grocery shopping outing to Publix. Lately, Liam has boy-cotted any kind of ride in the shopping cart. He wants to walk. MR. INDEPENDENT! — OMG! It definitely has made shopping….umm, challenging? Getting him to hold my hand while Stephen pushes the cart or vice versa doesn’tΒ always work. Usually, one or both of us would end up completely frustrated by the end of the shopping adventure. For some reason, we glanced at his shopping cart Sunday morning on our way out the door and thought, yeah, why not take this with us? He could push it and it would keep him busy. He was game for it, so we went with it.

It ended up being a great success! He loved it and pushed the cart around the entire store. He also loved ALL the attention he was getting …people thought he was just THE.CUTEST.THING …..I thought his little head was going to explode by the time we were done. Such a little hamm!

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We also got some power-wheels fun in this weekend. I did not realize how long it had been since Liam had drove his Jeep until he sat down in it….Wow, he looked so much bigger sitting in it. We practiced with him to show him how to steer this time, instead of just driving in circles. He did pretty good!

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Sunday night, Daddy & Liam baked cookies. Yummy! Don’t judge, peeps, but yes, they were “break & bakes”…lol! That’s as fancy as we were getting up here in Casa de Murphy this weekend! Ha!

Liam loves the Macadamia Nut cookies so that was the flavor, but it was hilarious when he blurted out & called them “Mouskadamia” cookies. It was too cute for us to correct. So that’s what we’ve been calling ’em!

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Until next time, friends!

~H

Latest & Greatest News, September 2014

Week-In-Review

Last week was a busy one inΒ Casa de Murphy, but we had some super good fun πŸ™‚

If anyone follows me on FB, then you know that I posted a few weeks ago that we had a challenging weekΒ at daycare with adjusting to Liam’s new teacher. As an update, that teacher unfortunately decided his school wasn’t a good fit for him & peaced out. I like to believe everything happens for a reason, so I am trying to take this as a good thing. The good news is that this turn of events hasn’t seemed to phase little man {pic below is of him playing at school last week}. The really good news is that the teacher filling in for his room is probably my most fav teacher at his school right now, so I can rest easy while at work knowing he’s in the best hands. I just know that all the ladies in his dept are working overtime making up for the extra time needed to take care of all the kiddos, so for that, I am grateful πŸ™‚ …fingers crossed they find an awesome new teacher for Liam’s room soon!

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On Wednesday, we started GYMNASTICS!!! whoo – hoo!! This is a completely new venture for us. Liam is doing a Preschool Level class and will be going with one of his besties from school, Ms. Kenadie….he is very excited.

His class will meet once a week & is about an hour long. It’s entirely structured so this will take some time for him to get accustomed to. He was kind of a rebel & kept trying to go off and do his own thing a majority of the time this past week, but I think he will catch on soon enough. This long trampoline was, by far, his most favorite part! ….there were MANY tears shed when it was time to get off πŸ˜‰

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Saturday evening, I had some mommy time, and met up with the fab group of ladies I will be working with for the Orlando Moms Blog for our 1st meeting. It was a great night! I am super excited to be a part of this team and get started on this new adventure for me. Orlando Moms Blog is a part of The Moms Magazine, so if you haven’t checked out one or both, please do!! While you’re there, be sure to “like” their Facebook pages, too!

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On Sunday, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to take Liam to see Disney On Ice: Frozen! It was actually the first ice show for all of us {hee, hee!}. Nothing like a Disney show to bring out the kid in ya, right?!?! It really was an incredible show. Have to give HUGE thanks to our friends, the Bargnesi family for sharing the tickets they won through a radio show giveaway. Can’t thank you all, enough!! πŸ™‚

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The show started with all the fav Disney characters skating out to say hello. You can imagine that Liam was over-joyed to see Woody & Buzz!

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Opening of the show…Arendelle

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Kristoff & Sven

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We got a popcorn & this is what you saw for the entire 1st half of the show. This kiddo was an eating maching…no joke! I have never seen him eat popcorn like that before. He just shoveled it in while being mesmerized by the show.

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Olaf!! {our fav!!}

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I wish I had video-taped him dancing to “Summertime” {Olaf’s little theme song} …it was so cute.

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The big finale at the end….Queen Elsa was bringing summer back πŸ˜‰

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Β Such a fun week, peeps! Hope you all had a great one, as well. Ooh, yeah {not pictured} ….I had my 1st pumpkin smear of the season from Einstein Bro. Bagels on campus….YUM! Could that mean that I am being persuaded that Fall is on it’s way?!?! …..maybe so πŸ™‚ ….Now, if we could just talk to someone about this weather…..lol!

Until next time!

~H

July 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Happy 3rd Birthday Liam!

Happy 3rd Birthday, our sweet little man, Liam Michael!

We love you SO much & are so proud of the strong individual you are becoming. It is definitely amazing to watch you grow right before our very eyes. Many times, I wish I could freeze time & hold you tight just a little longer before you take that next forward πŸ™‚ …you are the light Mommy & Daddy’s lives!

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A few nights ago, we sat down & “interviewed” Mr. Liam. That was pretty fun. He was both very thoughtful & serious with his answers. HA! We are going to start doing that from now on each year on his birthday.

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I found this FREE printable interview sheet here via Pinterest (my fav!).

Other notable things these days….

1. He has started to do “pretend play” with his toys. He will talk to (or among) his toys as he is playing. Cutest darn thing. You can hear him making up stories now as he is playing.

2. He wants to do everything himself… or at least try. Makes for some difficult decisions, at times, but we manage. Gone are the days when I can pick out his outfits, too (insert my sad face…LOL).

3. Most recently, we have entered what I’ve been calling the “why” phase. He has started asking “why” to EVERYthing. Since we don’t want to diminish his inquisitiveness, we are answering him as best we can, but oh my gosh, dude….sometimes, it’s just because we said so πŸ™‚

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Thanks to my obsession with Pinterest, we put a bunch of balloons in his room last night while he was sleeping and streamers on his door so he had something fun to wake up to this morning. He also got his present from us — his 1st watch (he had requested that).

When he came into our room this morning after waking up, he said: “Santa brought me balloons & a present” ….hahahaha! That was so cute!

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Lots of fun planned for this little man the next few days. I’m sure he’ll be all tuckered out by the end of the weekend πŸ˜‰

~H