Congrats to the Arthurs!!

I am beside myself excited to announce Dave and Shannon Arthur are expecting in June! Hooray!!! <3

Goofy goofy children

Yes. They are insane.

Max is 38 weeks

Max is truckin along. Should be close to 7lbs by now and is the length of a leek. (very important info) I am dilated to 2cm and can go any time now. We are hoping he lasts another week because Michael's Grandpa Chambers passed away yesterday morning and he has to make a mad dash to Indiana for the funeral. Please keep Michael in your thoughts. <3

Snowish

We got a little bit of snow the day after Christmas. VERY exciting for the people of Sumter County. I'm sure the Pig was out of milk and bread. But it didn't really stick that great b/c the sun kept coming out. As long as I got my photo op I don't really need anymore than that.

Santa came to town!

Santa came to see us! He went a bit crazy this year. Its amazing how it adds up when you start stashing stuff in the attic in August. The boys got up at 7 and were extremely excited over all the goodness. I think Bat Cave was the winner this year.
Mom and Dad got here around noon and we played and hung out (and snacked on more cookies) till the giant lasagna was done. It was so good...not to toot my own horn or anything but...DAMN! It tasted like the veggie lasagna Za's took off the menu. Sorry I digress... Then we watched the dragon movie and laid about under the new blankies. Mom and Dad left and we had a dancey dance party. Merry Christmas Friends and Family!! <3 you!

Birthmus 2010

We had Christmas and my birthday celebration at Mom and Dad's house this year. Catherine and Adam made roasted beef brisket with veggies for dinner and it was VERY yum. Mom made a life time supply of cookies (which this pregnant chick is super grateful for).

We let the boys open presents first and they were very happy with the loot. Lucas thought the Robin costume was the coolest thing ever and stayed in character the rest of the night.

Thanks fam for all the lovelies. The ukulele was a huge surprise and made one lil Murley's day! :)

Max is 36 Weeks!

Lil baby Max is 36 weeks OR 9 months for those dividing by 4. OH Happy DAY!! He is measuring right on track and doing good. I have been having contractions quite a bit getting ready to rock and roll. My Dr. said I am dilated to 1cm...which means nothing. I could be at 1 for months. Jan 12th is my due date but my office will induce me a week b/f. I'm shooting for Jan 7thish. He'll be a New Years baby unless he decided to crash Christmas. Either way I'm ready. :)

Festival of Lights

Holy frozey toesies! We went to James Island again this year for the Festival of Lights. But this year we decided to outsmart everyone and go during the week so the traffic wasn't as bad. And it was PERFECT. Hardly anyone was there and we could take our sweet time driving through the three miles of lighted park.

Santa hangs out in the middle of the park so we stopped to get pictures taken with him and to roast some marshmallows. Lucas decided Santa is better from afar and wouldn't sit for a picture. He did throw "booboorangs" at him from the other side of the stage. I don't know how that will effect his gift getting. Dylan (after a pep talk) decided Santa was ok and they had a lengthy chat.

We warmed up by the fire pit and roasted marshmallows b/f booking it back to the car. It was a million below. Had to be. Lucas took my scarf and nobody had any feeling in faces or hands. But the kids loved it and thats all that matters.

Only ten days left till Christmas. Hope everyone has a safe and warm and cozy holiday. Big hugs and smootches!!!

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!

My mom is nifty fifty! Had lots of celebrating on her behalf. Her lake friends threw her a party at The Store complete with cake and shrimp and grits. Brianna was my date and Michael stayed home with the boys. Today the boys and I went and got her a cake, balloons, and flowers for a mini-sing along. Happy Birthday Mom! Love you!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and your tummies get full. Our nephew Garett will be down from Indiana and Randy and Charlene will be up from Florida so we should have a full house. Travel safe and we love you!

November So Far...

Boys are doing great! They are both getting excited for Christmas. Everytime we see a tree, wreath, Santa...you name it and they are both beside themselves. Dylan had another bout of pneumonia. Luckily we caught it really fast this time and he was fine after a antibiotics shot and a week long script for antibiotics and cough meds. No hospital stay! Hooray!!

Michael's band Mean Wiener got to open for Marcy's Playground! So cool. Michael said they were really nice guys and he had a great time being a grown up in a bar for the evening.

Uncle Adam, Michael, the boys and I road tripped to Columbia for the day to see the pirate exhibit at the State Museum. Its quite AMAZING how nothing changes. They have finally dusted the mice in the display case. Dylan and Lucas thought it was neat seeing a giant mammoth and train. The pirate exhibit was nice. They had puppets and pirate garb for the boys to dress up in. After the museum we hit Cupcake so we could have dessert later (HOLY YUMOLA!!) and went to Eric's San Jose for lunch. It was nice to hang with Unc. The boys love him to pieces.

We pulled off a near miracle and got the Saur's, the Kennedy's, the Arthur's and the Murley's together for dinner. ALL of us. Even Allen. Seriously. So all the grown ups and kiddies met at Panchos and ate and chatted it up. It was great to see everyone! And even bester is Ami brought Max homemade chocolate chip cookies! It is good to be preggo! :)

Halloween 2010

This one pic will have to do until I can find my pics. I don't know what I did with them. Anywho: October was the longest month EVER! We Halloweened our hearts out. Michael was Captain America, I was Luigi, Dylan was the Joker and Lucas was Mario.

MMT had their first annual Halloween party put on by Lisa Thomas. She did a great job and all the kids had a BLAST! They bobbed for apples and cake walked. All the food was super yum so thanks for everyone coming out and bringing goodies.

We went to Boo on Main again this year with Nana and Poppa. The boys got a bucket of candy and Momma got an elephant ear. Woot! Poppa had to settle for a chili dawg b/c no corn dogs this year. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO I ASK YOU?! After that the gparents went to their gig at the lake and we went to Bethesda Baptist to bounce house. The straight up static cling hair was proof the Murley boys had a great time.

Michael and I had a grown up night and went and saw the Columbia City Ballet perform Dracula. They came to the Sumter Opera House and did an amazing job! Who knew Lady Gaga and ballet went together but it does. Lisa and Dan invited us and we had great fun. Michael decided beer and half naked chicks is pretty ok stuff. We are looking forward to a Midsummer's Nights Dream in spring.

On actual Halloween Michael and I were sort of over Halloween so we didn't have any plans to go out BUT Dylan ran into the neighbor kid Cherokee at the mailbox and we ended up at Alice Drive Baptist for more bounce houses and games and candy.

Aunt Brie Turns 31

Happy Birthday Brianna!! Love you!

Max is 33 weeks

Lil baby Max is getting big. He is the size of a pineapple and has very sharp elbows. He spends a lot of his time in my lung. We are as ready as we can get. His bed is clean and set up, his car seat is washed and put together and we have a new-to-us Tahoe to bring him home in. In the Escape we would have had to travel in shifts. Looking forward to holding his little hiney. :)

Go Gamecocks!!!!

The University of South Carolina Fighting Gamecocks beat the University of Florida in the SEC East division game! Soooo exciting! Go Cocks!!!

Dylan Michael is half way to SIX!

Biggun is five and a half and thinks he is grown. He is doing good in school. His report card was good. He needs to work on counting backwards and he gets n and h confused. The great news is he has really started loving to draw. He spent 8 hours drawing on a marker board we got. He's hooked on Humpty Dumpty. They did fairy tales at school and now he loves all things Humpty.
Dylan has become a really good big brother. He has started trying to get Lucas to say things right. He's getting excited about Max coming and swears he is going to take care of him. Dylan remains a Daddy's boy. There is NOBODY on this planet as cool to Dylan Michael as his dad. He likes showing him off at school and can't wait for him to walk through the door. I can't believe how big he is now. He is missing his two front teeth and has freckles across his nose. Feels like we just brought him home. Don't blink or you'll miss it! Dylan keeps us on our toes. He is determined and very opinionated but always has been and always will be. He is his own man and we are very proud of him.

Lucas gets his .5

Lucas is now two and a half. He is practically a man. His speech is getting better every day. He is a big helper and likes to do laundry and put things in the trash for Momma and Daddy. He is a bit of a copy cat and will repeat everything that comes out of Dylan's mouth in about a six second delay. He is still one of the happiest children I've ever seen and loves to snuggle his Momma. He has his Daddy's sense of humor and makes us laugh every day. "What does a bear say?" ~MOOOOOO! (with a big grin on his face) He still refuses to go on the potty. Turns me down flat but that is the only baby thing we have left. No pacifier, no crib, and he drinks from a big boy cup. I guess I'll really attack potty training after Max gets here. Can't be TOTALLY perfect right? ;) Lucas is a joy and we love him so.

Our 8th Anniversary!

Michael and I have been together for 12 years now and Sept 21st was our 8 year wedding anniversary. We got gussied and went to eat at The Cellar on Greene (cause we looove that place). We did NOT however get a picture of us to commemorate the occasion. So thats Todd and Michael. Anywho dinner was fab as always and then we walked around World Market b/f coming home to relieve Gretchen our Wonder Sitter. Lovely evening. Love hem! :) (Michael, not Todd. lol)

Max the Monkey

Nicola makes babies AND knits dolls. Who knew?! She made me the CUTEST monkey for Max. He may get it when he's old. We'll see. Thanks Nic.

Midlands Med Tech

The biggest thing Michael has going on right now is the start of his company Midlands Med Tech. He, Todd, AC and Mrs.Ann (and Lisa, Fawn and the rest of the MMT crew) have been hard HARD at work getting this company up and running. I am so proud of them and the many successes they are having. Things are going GREAT! Michael is living his dream and not many get to say that.

Happy Birthday to Gavin!

Congrats to our dear friends Nicola and Chad Daley (and Emma and Silas too) on the birth of their handsome boy Gavin Shaw Daley!!!

20 Weeks!!

I'm 20 weeks and halfway to getting to hold lil Max. My prego calendar says he is the length of a banana. He's a pretty good kicker and likes to roll over. He's still way high so makes breathing after I eat a challenge at times. But I'm feeling a ton better and am trying to do lots of things with the boys b/f my energy is gone again. I figure I have till end of October. LOL! Thanks to all my friends for our goodies!! Ami and fam got us a whole bag of monkey gear and Carole and fam got us Hey Diddle light switch covers!! (Not to mention Max the monkey that will get his own blog) I have great friends. Love y'all!!

Dylan's First Day

Dylan Michael is now a man. He started his first day at Kingsbury Elementary School. He is in Mrs. Bradham's class and will be a Noble Knight. He was SO excited and all set to go in his Mario backpack. We all went to McDonalds for breakfast and then dropped him off in his class. He wasn't nervous or scared but he did want his Dad to wait in the car. He had a great time and couldn't wait to go back. Lets just hope it stays that way for at least 12 more years. :)

A and C are baaaaaaack!

My brother and sis in law are back from the left coast! Welcome home to SC!! Lurve ya!

Hilton Head...Murley Style

We decided to try and squeeze one more trip to the beach b/f school started and our lives are over so I booked an overnight at The Westin in Hilton Head. We should have known it was going to be interesting when the AC craps out half way there.

Our hotel is really nice, giant and hard to find w/o GPS but VERY nice. We got to swim and play on the beach. Lucas had a major breakthrough and actually would put his feet in the sand. So he sat in my lap and threw sand in while Dylan swam and splashed around with Daddy. It was great. Very relaxing and loads of fun! AND THEN...

We went back up to the room planning on going in search of food. Everyone went in ahead of me and I was closing the door, looked back at Lucas and shut my finger in the gold lock thingie. Slice half of my nail off. (I wont post a pic b/c it makes Brie's mom queasy) HURT!! Holy smokes hurt so bad. I didn't cry but I did have to sit down or fall down. So Michael calls the lobby to get a first aid kit for his bleeding wife. In comes a EMT and the front desk manager to make sure I wont sue. Only me. I swear I need a keeper. Anyway later we went to eat at the Hilton Head Diner and it was very yum.

The next day we took the boys on a pirate voyage! They dressed the boys as pirates and loaded our vessel to go in search of Stinky Pete and his treasure. Dastardly Dylan and Lead foot Lucas had the time of their LIVES. Take your kids to this!!! It was so much fun.

We LOVE Savannah!!

 

Michael has been working like a dog for Midlands Medtech so I thought the only way to get him to relax (and not kill himself) was to make him leave town. We went to Savannah!!

 

Mom and Dad kept the boys so we could go spend two days in the beautiful city alone. We stayed at the River Street Inn, a historical hotel that was really neat. It was like going a bit back in time.

 

We went and walked around town and ended up watching a jam band down by the river (insert Farley joke here).

 

The next day we took a tour of the city and had a fantastic tour guide. We drove out to the Bonnaventure Cemetary and then finished up the trip with some PAULA DEEN!!! It was tasty y'all!!

Its a...Max!!

So because I am such a crappy blogger if you know things about me ONLY through this blog you'd have no idea that sometime between Lucas' birthday and our trip to Savannah we found out after 6 mths of trying we are going to be having another Murley. But since you all are on Facebook this is a non-issue and my suckitude matters not. We are very excited to find out its a boy. Max Garrison Murley is due Jan 12th.