Happy Birthday, Granny!!

Saturday night, we celebrated my Granny's birthday. :) My Aunt Frances hosted the party and (as always!) outdid herself with the meal. She makes the BEST tossed salad and I could have eaten a bucket full! The little kids always have so much fun playing together and I'm so thankful that Levi has so many cousins to grow up with!!

Granny & Papa....opening her cards and gifts
Eric & Levi playing air hockey

The cake - I seriously ate so much this weekend!!

Mom & Dad :)

What family function would be complete without Daniel getting all the kids wound up?? :)

We did miss Griffin and Miss Emmy - Griffin was a little under the weather. Oh, and we missed Travis & Jenny, too :) Happy Birthday, "Great Granny Miller". We love you!!

Annual Murphy Christmas Party

The Murphy Christmas Party is one of my favorite times of the year! I look forward to it each time the Christmas season rolls around. Actually, when we start filling up the calendar with all our "to do's", we usually contact them right away to get the date set on the calendar. :)

I think my most favorite thing about the party is seeing how Melanie decorates!!! She has such neat ideas each year...and it's always something special and new. The dinner is always fabulous and you can tell that so much thought is put into each and every course.

This year, the menu was Italian. The first course consisted of some yummy meatball soup (I'm sure there's an official name, but I forget it!!) and bruschetta. Following the appetizers was a main course of fettuccine noodles, eggplant Parmesan mozzarella, and some very yummy gorgonzola cheese chicken. All of this was served with some awesome garlic cheese bread.

Here are some pics of the beautiful tables and decorations...

After dinner, we played a REALLY FUN game to go along with the gift exchange. I think it was called Snoop! So much fun. :) Great idea, Melanie!!!

Here is the dessert table. YUM!!!

And, my chocolate milkshake cocktail - oh my...outta this world!

The beautiful hostess, Melanie - YOU DID A BEAUTIFUL PARTY once again!!!!!

Didn't get a lot of "people" pictures this year - I was too obsessed with eating! :)

Here's a cute one of some of the girls...Jami, Janna, me, Gretchen

Matt & Mel, thanks for the fabulous party. Already looking forward to next year's!! :) Love you guys!!!

May I brag?

Of course I can!! It’s my blog.

Levi is so bright! In fact, I think he’s the brightest little boy I know. Maybe a prodigy… Ok, maybe not a prodigy, but I certainly thank God that he has a loving, growing, curious little spirit and that he enjoys learning new things.

Here’s the part where I brag: Eric brought home a new praise & worship CD that the praise team is working on at church. One of the songs is Worshipping You by Deluge. If you haven’t heard it…fabulous song!

Take this offering that I bring
Humbly I fall on my knees
To proclaim you’re everything.
My life’s nothing without You
Take my hand and lead me through
You are my sustaining love.

Levi calls this the worship song and he loves to sing it. He told me the other day, “Mommy, we’re singing about Jesus.” Yes, baby, we are!!

His favorite part is the chorus:

I’m gonna worship you forever
I’m gonna worship you
I’m gonna worship you forever
I’m gonna worship you

It makes me tear up to see my child already starting to worship Jesus at the young age of 3. I am so thankful.

Sprinkles!!!

Levi decorating some yummy sugar cookies with sprinkles :)
Ok, goofy picture, but Levi wanted to take one of me holding the cookies up. Too funny "Pose Mommy!" The finished product!!

A little chillaxin with Daddy afterwards. Melt my heart...

Disney on Ice

This past weekend, we went to Indianapolis to visit some of my Mom's family. We had our annual Christmas dinner and really had some nice time hanging out with them. :) My Aunt fixed a wonderful ham, hashbrown casserole, salad, rolls and mac n cheese - the funny thing is that she thought it'd be cute to do green Christmas tree macaroni and none of the kids would touch it because they thought it was a vegetable!

The highlight of the day was when the cousins took all the kids to see Disney on Ice. I was nervous about taking Levi because he doesn't like characters. I could tell he was a little uneasy as we were waiting for it to start, but once the show started, he was mesmerized. It was PRECIOUS. He clapped really loud after each song and had the biggest smile on his face!! I'm SO glad we took him.

"Mommy, look. It's Mickey Mouse....ON ICE!!!"

Those two make my heart melt...

And when these two fellers came out, I thought my child was going to have an anxiety attack! He loves Buzz Lightyear and Woody!!!

Such a fun day! Thanks "Auntie" Gail, Uncle Kevin, Dan & Robin for once again being wonderful hosts!!! We love you guys. :)

And there is movement...

I felt the baby move for the first time last night!! Eric and I were watching The Amazing Race and I started feeling these little "movements". It wasn't flutters, like I've been waiting for. It was more of a thump...kind of like a slight heartbeat feeling.

Our ultrasound is two weeks from today, which will put me at 20 weeks! I'm just amazed at how fast this pregnancy is going. It's a little scary to think that in 20 more weeks (give or take a few), our lives will be forever changed.

The Elf on the Shelf

Growing up, we always got one big gift from Santa under the tree. My mom still says “When you stop believing, you stop receiving…” so, I STILL BELIEVE!!! While Santa was a fun part of our Christmas growing up, my parents always made sure the focus of Christmas was about the birth of Jesus.

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Jenny, we started a new tradition at our house this year. I’d never heard of The Elf on the Shelf. She called me last week and told me about the Elf and said she was at Walnut Ridge and they had 3 left and she would buy me one. :) Thanks, Jenny!

Our box came with "Frank" and a book

Here are a few of the specifics:

Each child can name their own elf. Levi named ours Frank!

At night time, Frank flies to go visit Santa and let him know if Levi’s been a good boy! Sometime in the early morning, Frank flies back and hides somewhere in the house. So far, Frank has hidden in the toy room, Levi’s bathroom, the van, and on top of the fridge.

Levi gets to look for Frank after he wakes up. It's very cute! The first thing Levi says after waking up is “Mom, let’s look for Frank!”

Little kids can’t touch their elf or he loses his “magic” and can’t go visit Santa.

On Christmas Eve, Frank brings a letter from Santa to Levi. In our letter, Santa will tell Levi how important it is to be a good boy and always listen to his Mommy and Daddy. It will tell him how much Jesus loves him and how he needs to keep learning the words in his Bible. It will also tell him how important it is to treat his friends nicely and to do the things that God wants him to do.

I love Christmas time!! It's so much fun...