Thanksgiving Preparations!

Homemade place cards made from leftover wine corks!

Elephant napkin rings for the "kids" table!

BIG mess in the kitchen making Mimi's "soon to be famous" (although it's already famous in our family) sweet potato casserole!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Double Ear Infection :(

Fever, runny nose, cough, ugh!.... Up at mid-night then 3 am it was almost like having a new born again except that Lukie was totally pitiful! After a terrible night last night, a trip to the doctor this morning was a MUST! The MD saw that Luke has an ear infection in BOTH ears. I was totally shocked b/c Luke never said his ears hurt or pulled at his ears at all last night. Now that we have to take "the pink stuff" two times a day, hopefully, Luke will be MUCH better by tomorrow's Thanksgiving lunch!

After a nice LONG nap, Luke's appetite had picked up a little. He asked for a hot dog and then after I made it he said he wasn't hungry. A few minutes later, he came up to me and said "Mommy, come have picnic!" and took my hand and lead me into the den where he, as you can see, had put together a nice picnic in the den. This kid cracks me up on a daily basis and I am SO THANKful he is in my life!

Weekend in B'ham

We spent the weekend in B'ham doing all sorts of fun things. Mimi, Mommy, and Aunt Liz went to visit one of Mommy's best friends, MMGK, and her new one month old son, Thomas. Mommy was so happy to meet him and to be able to visit while I was hanging out with the boys (see below).

She told me that their dog, Beau, was a total watch dog and was VERY protective of the baby! I bet Thomas and Beau will be great friends one day!

Interestingly enough, we had lady bugs in our hotel room. They were on the ceiling and Mommy had fun catching them and I loved to watch them crawl on my hands and arms. I think it's totally cool that Mom isn't afraid of most bugs! (The only one she hates are roaches and I don't blame her on that one! Roaches are scary!)

While Mommy, Mimi, and Liz were busy with babies and shopping, Daddy, Doc, and I went to the Alabama game. It was fun to hang with the boys! We stayed for half the game, ate hot dogs, cheered for the team, raced across the quad, and had a grand ole time! After getting back to the hotel, we all took a much needed nap.

No trip with the Murphy's would be complete without a nice dinner snuck in somewhere. We ate a Highlands on Saturday night and it was delish. I was a COMPLETE angel during dinner. You would have NEVER known there was a two and a half year old in the restaurant. Guess what I was chowing down on?......

If you said grilled quail, then you were correct!

Nope, it's not my birthday, but since I was such a good boy, I got a "surprise" after dinner and got to blow out a candle. Did I mention how much I love to do this?

It was a great weekend even though we were missing a few key players (Kyle, Paddy, and Alan). At least, we will all be together in a few days on Thanksgiving! What a great weekend!... Now on to a new week!

Base Ball

Last Friday, Mae Mae came and babysat while Mommy worked at the hospital for a few hours. She brought me a little "happy." She knows how much I love to be outside, so she got me this base ball set. It was great fun and I caught on so fast. I loved pretending to run around the "bases" after I hit the ball! I would run off saying "I HIT IT! I HIT IT!" Thanks again, Mae Mae!

Oscar, the cat!

Luke: "I can't believe Oscar is posing for a picture with me!"

Oscar: I can't believe I am posing for a picture with this kid! I mean I am 17 years old, haven't I had to deal with enough kids in my time?"

Luke: "Maybe if I squeeze a little tighter, he will stay longer?"

Oscar: I don't know how much longer I can stand this!"

Luke: "Hahahaha.....Ok, Oscar....GET"

Oscar: "You don't have to tell me twice!"

Too early for Santa???

This weekend was the Christmas Jubilee, a Christmas shopping event put on by the Junior League. As one of their events, they have a breakfast with Santa and I got to wear one of my new outfits from Mimi!

It was sponsored by Chick Fil A, so the cow was there!

Mmmmm....who doesn't love mini-chicken biscuits, fruit, cinnamon rolls, and juice for breakfast?

There was story time (where I last about 3 seconds before standing up turning around and stating "I all done story!" We headed back to our table for more food :)

And cookie decorating.....

But best of all...... SANTA was there! Mommy and Daddy have been telling me about him for the past few days and this year I am not deathly afraid of him (like I was last year!) When we talked about it earlier today and the conversation went like this.

Mommy: Luke, what are you going to ask Santa for Christmas?

Luke: a BIKE!!!

Daddy: Do you want anything else?

Luke: CANDIES!

I was mesmerized by the Jolly Ol' Fellow!

Whispering what I wanted....you could barely hear, but I told him "bike!"

Have a safe trip back to the North Pole and p.s. don't forget the candy!!!

Mr. Grady's Farm

On Wednesday, Great Grandaddy Jack and Great Grandmother Betty took, Mommy, Mimi, and me to Mr. Grady's farm. Mr. Grady was one of Grandaddy Jack's good friend who owned a lot of land out off Dawes road. Since he passed away, his two sons manage the property and told GJ that we could come out any time and pick pecans. Since Hurricane Ida blew through Monday and Tuesday, there were pecans that had fallen all over the place.

The above picture is Mommy's favorite of the day! I can't believe over 70 years separate Great Grandaddy and I. I thought the farm was WAY cool!

Mimi shelled a pecan for me and I tasted it and immediately said "I don't like it!".....

But what I did like was gathering the pecans! We started out the day just picking them up by hand...

Then Grandaddy Jack got us these nifty contraptions, that you just roll over the ground and it magically picks up the pecans!

It made the gathering process go much faster!

After it was all said and done, Grandaddy Jack weighed all of the pecans and we had gathered over 125 pounds of nuts!!!

Besides gathering the pecans, the other awesome part of the day was getting to ride around the grounds in the back of Grandaddy's truck!

Here we are taking a break and Grandaddy told us a story from when we was a little boy. He said that when he was little, he and his family would pick pecans around this time of year to help pay for their Christmas. He said that the pecan trees yielded a good crop just about every other year. He said that on the slim pickin' years, they had a much smaller Christmas.

Here's the working crew after a long days work!

Have you ever seen a more delighted child? What more could a little boy want than to spend a gorgeous fall day outside picking pecans with family?

Hurricane Ida...

We started getting the first of the rain from Hurricane Ida after lunch and Mommy thought that it might be fun to play in the rain for a little while before the winds start picking up. This storm looks like a relatively mild one and it just seems like a typical rainy day so far.

No rainy day would be complete without splashing in puddles......

or playing in the gutter! Rain Rain Go Away....or maybe not!...hehe :)

The Leaves are falling...

Down here in LA (Lower Alabama) most of the trees are still green and will stay that way all season long. However, my Great Grandmother Betty and Great Grandaddy Jack have a huge maple tree that actually DOES change colors. Since today was another gorgeous day with highs in the mid 70's, we headed to their house after play school. Mimi and Mommy raked a few piles of leaves for me to play in! It was awesome!

I wasn't actually too interested in "playing" in the leaves, but I LOVED running through the piles.

And I thought it was pretty cool when Mimi started throwing them up in the air too. Mommy loves these pictures of Me and GB b/c of the looks on our faces. Priceless!

Mommy actually got one of me sitting in the leaves, but it didn't last long.

I did enjoy doing "Ring around the rosy" and then getting to "all fall down" into the leaves!

I was also mesmerized by an ant hill in the yard. I kept trying to stick my whole hand in it.

I even got to the ring the bell and pretend to be the train conductor. I would hop off the stool and say "ALL ABOARD!" and then jump back on and start ringing the bell.

I also picked some berries and put them on this rock so the birds could have a snack.

Now I see why the fall is my mommy's favorite season! Happy Fall everyone!