Tuesday, November 27, 2012

life lately

We have been busy around here.

In between all of the Thanksgiving festivities, life has been going on too.  I have been taking a ton of pictures with my phone, so I figured I would do a big ol' update here with pictures.  I was going to do a bunch of small posts, but I don't really have the attention span for that today.  Sooooo...

These two boys are SO MUCH FUN.  Of course, they are wild and handfuls and exhausting, but my LORD, y'all, they are SO so fun.  I can't get enough of them and I just want to kiss on them all the time.  (except when they are screaming, hitting, fighting, throwing their little bodies on the floor....) (but even then, I really want to just squeeze them to pieces).  


Andy really enjoys food.  He's going to be a big'un. 

We have a fabulous playroom in our house, for which I am very thankful.  It is filled with wonderful toys, for which I am, again, very thankful.  Andy, however, prefers to play with the plunger.  The white thing is the "holder" of said plunger, which Andy also believe is his hat.  Yes.  That's right. 

Cal riding his helicopter car (also known as a plasma car) while dragging his suitcase through the house.  Whatever works, right?

Andy also has a helicopter car, so we can take pics of them in matching jammies on their rides.

I built a fort one day.  Cal thought it was the coolest thing ever.  He tried to get Hank under there with him.  It didn't work.  

These boys love to play rough.  Their little legs are covered in bruises.  I guess that's part of having boys... they also like to play rough with their momma.  Can you find me in this picture? I had both of them on me- Andy on my chest, Cal on my tummy- and they were bouncing.  It hurt. But they were happy, so whatcha gonna do?

They also do this to Eddie when he gets home from work.  In this picture, he had just taken off his suit pants and the boys tackled him.  Hank wanted in on the fun too.  I just love that all three boys couldn't get close enough to their daddy.  I also love that Andy is dropping 'bows on Eddie's face.

We have this art easel in our dining room.  One morning, I heard Andy laughing hysterically.  I couldn't find him anywhere, but I could hear his laugh echoing throughout the house.  When I did find him, he was under here with his feet sticking out, laughing like someone was tickling him.  Cal wanted to see what was so funny so he joined him under there. 

Don't tell Dad that Andy found his clubs in the garage.  He was really excited to try to play... maybe this summer he will be old enough to join Cal and Eddie on the course.  I don't even know what I will do with myself with all of the boys gone for 4 hours at a time! Seriously?!?!

Nugget has more personality than I can even begin to write about.  He is freaking hilarious.  The stuff he imitates is priceless and he still has that "Honey Badger" I don't care what you are going to do attitude about him and it makes us laugh daily.  It's like in the past few weeks he has gotten to be really funny and full of personality.  He has a mind of his own, that is for sure!

I've written on here before about Ava.  The other day after school, we were walking to the parking lot, and I heard this little squeaky voice shout "Cal!" And Cal spun around to see Ava running towards him.  I pulled out my phone as fast as I could and caught this.  I mean.... is that sweet or what???

A few weekends ago we had a birthday party for a little guy in Andy's class.  They were kind enough to invite the whole fam and we all had a blast! Brad was there so you know Cal was in heaven.  They also had a firetruck show up...




After everyone looked at the truck outside, the firemen came inside to show the kids their uniform and showed them how not scary they are when they are fully dressed (apparently, a huge problem they have is when there is a fire, they look scary in the smoke all dressed in their uniform so kids go and hide from them...scary!).  I told Andy to go sit down and he immediately sat his little rear down to watch the firemen.  He did NOT take his eyes off of them.  He sat just like this the entire time.  He is really starting to listen to and understand things being told to him.  It's really neat to watch him grow up. 

We got Cal's soccer pictures in the mail... how cute is this? Think he was happy?

 This past weekend, we took the boys to get haircuts.  Cal needed one desperately and Andy needed a little trim in the back-- which turned into a pretty big trim, but they both turned out good.  Andy had to sit in my lap, which is always a treat for me, and refused to wear the cape, so he was covered in hair.  It was all over him and me and down his neck and in his shirt.  We went to lunch right after and he was having a fit with his collar, so I said SCREW IT and took it off! Right there at the table, sitting in the highchair, was my half naked little guy.  Whatever.  Didn't seem to bother anyone! And honestly, his screaming would have been much worse. 

 My mom's best friend had to put her Golden to sleep this past week.  Mom called to tell me and I just started crying-- I am a sap, I know.  I babysat for this family, pre-kids, and loved this dog.  He was such a sweet guy who just wanted to have a little attention.  Well, those stories always make me think of losing my pup and I just can't even fathom that thought.  He is very much a part of our family and I love him sooo much.  After hearing about Jack (the friend's dog), I couldn't say no to Hank.  He loves to ride in the car, so I said sure.  He usually sits in the back, in between the boys' seats, but he crawled right up to the front seat, and I didn't have it in me to say no.  So he rode through town up front with me.  It made him so happy-- I could tell!-- I really should do this more often.  Especially since it is cold out now, he wouldn't be hot sitting in there while I ran errands. 

Ahoy there, super hero.

Andy is taking his lovey shopping.

 Andy loves books and loves to have people read to him.  We were trying to get ready to go somewhere so we asked Cal to read to Andy.  Cal said "SHORE!" (he says sure all the time, but it sounds like shore).  We told Andy to sit down and he scooted as close to Cal as he could get and Cal read to him.  Good stuff. 

 I was decorating for Christmas and Eddie was in charge of getting Cal down for his nap.  FAIL.

 I love these two little wild things...



I sat on the couch for a rare second to talk to Eddie.  Hank laid at my feet and then shoved his head up (in between my legs), then Andy got jealous and came over.  Here, you see the calm before the storm.  Andy got mad trying to get to me and started shoving Hank, who wasn't budging. 

Do they look like trouble, or what? I am in love...

Andy has really fallen in love with Mickey lately.  He loves the show and we went into Walgreens where they had these little Mickey dolls for sale.  He went ballistic when he saw them.  Jumping up and down, clapping his hands, grunting (haha), pointing, you name it.  They were $4.00 so we got one.  He loves him!

Hank should win dog of the year. 

Sunday, we had a birthday party for another little guy in Andy's class.  They own a brewery in town (local folks, Top of the Hill), so they had the party in a back room there, which is awesome.   They had a ton of people come so it was a lot of fun.  They had three jump houses and all kinds of activities-- sticker books, coloring books, cars, trucks.... it was a LOT of fun!

They gave each kid an apron with their name monogrammed on it so the kids could each decorate their own cupcake.  These were SO cute! My boys were really excited so it was hard to get a picture of them where they were standing still. 



After we got home, Andy was being super sweet and snuggly...

That's a long post right there.  I swear, I will try to be better about posting more frequently so I don't do long ones.  I should be getting my new camera this week, so I won't past (as many) iPhone pictures!

 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Full of Thanks (and food)

Thanksgiving this year was on for the history books, in my opinion.  It was SUCH a great day.  I am not just saying that either.  We all had the most wonderful day enjoying each other and great food....oh, and lots and lots of bubbly.  Mom and I have a love affair with champagne.  And I am SO thankful that she enjoys it like I do.

On Thanksgiving Eve, we had my parents over for a little pizza making party on the big green egg.  It was a fun way to kick off the weekend.  



Thanksgiving day, we were in low-key mode when it came to cooking.  We scaled it way back this year, which was perfect, and we made things that could be made the day before.  We put the turkey in the roaster at noon and we ate at 4!

We loaded up the car with a TON of ride on toys and our pup and headed over to mom and dad's house around 9:00.  


While we weren't in the kitchen cooking, we were playing our hearts out outside! It was one of those holy cow the sky is so beautiful kind of days. I love fall in NC.  Just gorgeous!


The boys had a ball riding on cars and just playing together.  The weather was perfect for playing outside.





 Mom and I popped the bubbly around 11..




Cal loved riding this jeep and opening the hood to "get gas" which was a handful of mulch-ha!


 He rode around the circular drive way-- and thought this was just too fun!


Hank was in HEAVEN.  We knew we were going to be gone all day and we really didn't want to leave him home, so he got to tag along.  He ran and ran and ran and played so hard-- he is STILL worn out from all the fun!


 How cute is my mom?  Super cute.  I know. 

The boys had some lunch before "naps."  I use that term loosely... Andy didn't want to go down so he screamed like crazy for 45 minutes and Cal rested in Grandma's bed for about 20 minutes.  He was having way too much fun to rest!

I should also mention my dad and Eddie because although you don't see them in any of the pictures, they were both a part of our Thanksgiving!  They went and played golf while we played in the driveway (with champagne).  THEY had screw drivers while they played so when they finished, we were ALL feeling super happy! :) haha! Hate I didn't get any pics with them, but they were there! Promise!

TCU had a HUGE (I mean, H-U-G-E) game Thanksgiving night, so I got a picture of the boys both attempting the Frog sign while eating.  Also, for the record....TCU won beat spanked texas, IN Austin.


We went home Thursday night in time to watch the game/scream like crazy.  I spent Friday bringing down my Christmas bins and decorated all day Saturday.  We got our tree on Sunday and now our house is done! It's feeling like Christmas!

picking out our tree! It was CHILLY!

I am so blessed to have so many things for which to be grateful.  I have a wonderful, loving family, two amazing, healthy little boys who I just adore, and I have my health, among many MANY other things.  My heart was filled with Thanks this Thanksgiving!

 
 
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