Our Weekend

This weekend was packed full of holiday activities. Friday night was the Annual Murphy Christmas Party (see my next post) which is always such a great time!! Sunday, our church had their Christmas program where the choir and orchestra performed pieces from the Messiah. There was some great feed back on the service. I sang in the choir in both services and Eric played the timpani. There was also some drama to go along with the service and the kids choir sang. Sunday night, Mom's church had their Cantata, "Sing Noel". It was so good! The choir and orchestra did a fantastic job! Eric played drums and percussion for them, too. I've posted a few pictures of their performance.


Mom is the one to the right of the "big guitar" (that's what Levi calls the harp). Good job Mom!

Eric playing percussion - isn't he cute in a tux?

After the performance, we all went to Pizza King for pizza. Here's a cute shot of Levi, Bailey and Griffin!

Annual Christmas Party

This weekend, the Murphy's had their annual Christmas party. Once again, Melanie outdid herself! The food was amazing, fellowship was fantastic and the decorations were beautiful. Each year, I look forward to seeing how Melanie will outdo herself from the previous year. Melanie - it was wonderful. You did such a great job!! Thank you for all the hard work that you do to make your party the best of the season! You are better than Martha Stewart! ;)

Here is the hostess with the mostest! Thanks again, Melanie for your hard work!! (Love the belly!!)

The tables were all so pretty and there was Christmas spirit all around!

Each person had a decorated glass filled with homemade goodies to take home.

The table in the dining room...

1st course...Appetizers...crab dip, small ham and croissant rolls

2nd course...salad (so yummy!)

3rd course...creamy tomato basil soup (very, very good!)

4th course...fillet Mignon filled with blue cheese dressing, glazed carrots, smashed potatoes and rolls (wonderful!!)

Our table (thanks Steve for showing us your food!) Very cozy sitting by the Christmas tree and fireplace. Paul, Gretchen, Jami, Steve, me and Eric

The third table consisted of the hosts, Matt and Melanie (Melanie is MIA), Janna and Josh and Matt

The grown up table (tee hee) in the dining room: Jenny, Bucky, JR, Kim, Aaron, Michelle, Crystal, Chris, Donnie and Amanda

The girls at the cool table...Gretchen, Jami and me ;)

Me and my honey!

After dinner, we headed downstairs for dessert. OMG - such wonderful stuff! Cookies, truffles, tarts, and the list goes on...

The annual gift exchange - everyone brings a $5-10 gift and we get busy! It is so fun to see what everyone brought and each gift can be "stolen" up to 3 times. A few of the highlight gifts were a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, tools, adorable glass coasters (that I got!), a "hot guys" calendar (LOL) and more!

And for after dinner entertainment, there was a little ROCK BAND! SO MUCH FUN!! Thanks, Josh & Janna for bringing it. :) Eric rocking the guitar...

Matt getting wicked on vocals...

Matt Mc on the mic and Matt kickin' it on the drums...

Josh getting wild on the drums...

Bad mom...

Earlier this week, I took Levi to the doctor. He wasn't really acting sick during the day, but he wasn't sleeping at night. He would wake up once an hour crying. Usually this means he has an ear infection. My child doesn't get the normal symptoms when he is sick - fever, loss of appetite, fussy, pulling at his ears - instead, he doesn't sleep. I don't know about the other parents out there, but I have this little argument with myself in my head. "He's sick" "No, he's not...it's a cold" "I think he just pulled on his ear" "You're an idiot...he has a cold" blah blah blah. After a sleepless night, I called the doctor. On the way to the office, I continued arguing with myself thinking the doctor would tell me I'm crazy and a paranoid mom! Instead, her exact words were "Wow, he's a pretty sick little guy!" Levi had a double ear infection, sinus infection, pink eye and she said his throat was red and irritated. So, no I wasn't a paranoid mom, I was a bad one for not taking him in sooner! LOL! We got him on a strong antibiotic and he seemed to perk up overnight. Now, here's where the "bad mom" comes in to play. I had choir tonight, so Levi was home with Daddy. I told Eric instructions about his medicine (that went in one ear and right back out the other!) His antibiotic is once a day and I already gave it to him this morning. I told Eric he just needed Ibuprofen and his eye drops. I left his antibiotic sitting out and Eric thought he needed it, too. OOPS! He got a double dose today! I immediately called my sister-in-law Jenny in a panic! She and my brother (both nurses) basically told me to chill and said he would be okay. Thanks, Jenny for always calmly talking me through things like this! ;)

Enough rambling. I wanted to post a couple of pictures that Eric took of Levi while packing this week. Who needs toys?

Christmas in Indy

This morning, we headed to Indianapolis for Christmas with my mom's sister and her family. We used to do Christmas here, but after Granddaddy passed away, we started a tradition to travel to Indy since they all come here for Thanksgiving. On the way, it started snowing! It was very pretty. Once we arrived, my aunt had a wonderful appetizer spread set out and we all settled in for a fun afternoon of food, fellowship and kids running around like animals! :) For lunch, there was a wonderful ham, green bean casserole, hashbrown potato casserole, strawberry spinach salad, rolls and then an adorable cake and peppermint ice cream for dessert. The kids got to decorate their own cookies - what a riot!! They loved it. Levi got a fun bowling game for Christmas and Eric and I scored on a gift card from Olive Garden. It was a wonderful afternoon and I kind of got camera happy, so don't fall asleep! :) Enjoy the pictures!


The snow begins!
Levi enjoying the tree!

Auntie Gail sucking up to Levi

Aunt Gail's pretty tree. She has collected Christopher Radco ornaments for many years and they are the only things allowed on her tree.

Cute little breakfast nook

Doesn't the cake look wonderful? My aunt had it made for today and it was SO tasty! The icing was divine!!

Isn't the living room pretty?

Pictures of the snow after we arrived.

Pictures of the family: Dad and Daniel

Eric, Dan and the kids: Levi, Abigail, Nicholas and Noah

Cousins Robin & Tracey

Jenny & Emily

A little Wii time...

The kids got to decorate their own cookies! They did a great job. I'm sure Aunt Gail will be finding sprinkles for a long time to come! Bailey & Levi...

Good idea to confine Casey and Emmy to their chairs! LOL

Mom and Aunt Gail relaxing after lunch

Proud mom moments

Tonight was the first time Levi said he wanted to say the prayer at dinner. Usually we all just fold our hands and Eric or I pray. Levi said "I do it." So, Eric and I let him pray. I gave him a little prompt and he said "Thank you for food. Jesus. Amen." Talk about a proud mom moment! =)

Before bed, Levi was sitting on the couch with Eric and they were practicing saying different words. Eric was teaching him to say "Indiana" which Levi pronounced "In nee ann nee ann nah". Of course, it was the most adorable thing ever!

Grammy is a sucker!

Eric and I had rehearsal tonight at church. (Here's my plug for our Christmas program: Graceland Baptist Church, Dec. 14, 8:30 and 10:30 am services; Eric plays timpani and I sing in the choir) Mom offered to come over and watch Levi for us. Aunt Gail was coming in tonight from Indy, so they took him to Cracker Barrel and then brought him back to our house.
me: Put him in bed at 8
mom: On the floor? (in that grandma "are you sure?" voice)
me: Yes, on the floor. Just tell him to lay down and he'll be fine
mom: Okay

I call mom at 8:15 to tell her we are on our way home. I asked if Levi was asleep and she said yes. Great! Good job mom!! As we pulled up to the house, I noticed that Levi's bedroom light was on. I told Eric he probably said "light on, Grammy" and she folded! We entered the house to find Levi asleep on mom's lap on the couch. (cute) Mom gave me those grandma puppy dog eyes and said "well, he wanted to sleep here." I guess when you are the grandma, you can do that kind of stuff. =)

So, now Levi is awake in his room talking to himself. He's been up once to potty, called us in once to cover him up, and keeps peeping is head around the door to check and see if we are still here. Thanks, mom! LOL! Since he's so cute, I'll forgive you!!

Done deal...almost!

We officially signed the purchase agreement on our current house tonight! Woo hoo! The papers will be submitted to both mortgage companies tomorrow and then the closing date will be set. The home inspection is at 2 o'clock tomorrow on the new house and at 2 o'clock Wednesday on our current house. The next step will be for the bank to do an appraisal on our current house. Once those steps are done, then we should be closing and moving. This has all happened so fast! Two weeks ago tomorrow is when she first looked at our house and now we are less than 25 days from moving! Eric and I agree that this is a blessing from God and Him alone because of the way that it has fallen into our laps! It has been effortless and can only be explained as a gift from God. There are so many little details along the way that have confirmed that we are doing the right thing. It's been an amazing 2 week journey and I can't wait to see the rest of the process. Prayerfully, everything will continue to work out and we'll get the house! Then, we'll get to have a rockin' winter party!!

Here are a few pictures I uploaded of the house: