Life lately...wrapping up November

BRACE YOURSELF. This isn't going to be short.  I have got to be better about blogging. I will regret if if I don't keep up with it!

Here is a quick look at some of November... it was a busy month; aren't they all??

Bruce got a new outfit- he is clearly ready for the holiday season to begin. This is an XL and it is too small on him. But it is funny and he clearly loved it.

He (Bru) got in trouble the other night for getting up on the boys' beds and then not getting down when I called him- like he picked his head up and look at me and then totally ignored me. Oh, no sir. But this is pretty sweet:

 Suuuuuper excited Eddie's sister is pregs with their first baby!! This was their "social media announcement" which I thought was adorable.

 My brother and his wife are expecting baby number FOUR, so there will be lots of baby fun coming up in a few short months!

This is random, but we finally painted our powder bath downstairs. I went back and forth over wall paper or  paint and I couldn't pull the trigger on paper #shocker, so we painted. I hate the before color:

 and the after: ahhhhhhhh

 It's actually grey, but with the lighting, appears to be a greenish color. It doesn't look this green in person.

We celebrated my dad's birthday with all the grandkids-- it was loud and fun and chaotic (and loud!), and my dad was happy happy.

The boys were over due for dentist appointments and after spotting a few dark spots on Andy's teeth, we were very worried cavities were in our future. SHOCKINGLY, he was cavity free! Eddie didn't believe me when I told him! hahaha

Cal had a great check up too, and is also cavity free- how in the world that happened, this close after Halloween is beyond me. 

 Random, do your kids smart rinse? We use it and the dentist said it is probably what kept us cavity-less. I might start using it for me. I get cavities like it is my job. We use this kind primarily, but will use this too.

We left the dentist and hit up the mall for some new shoes. Dear lord, these boys go through some shoes. It is unreal. We could seriously buy a new pair once a month and still wear through them.

But the mall was decked out for Christmas, so that was really fun for the boys. 

 SIX stores later, we found some shoes at Dicks. Hard not to find Andy's shoes. They weren't subtle.

 His outfit for school the next day was very, very....quiet.

pardon the half asleep face.... but Bru got to ride carpool the other morning and he was SO happy. He loves riding in the car, I should take him more often....

It reminded me of Hank who loved nothing more than a car ride. Miss him so much every day. 

I got to go on a field trip with some super cute 2nd graders a few weeks back. Cal was pumped to have me there and was super lovey, which won't happen much longer, I'm afraid. I am glad I went so I could soak up the time with him. 

 He has some darling girls in his class! (side note- There was a group picture and Cal was several inches taller than all of the other kids.... I have no clue when this happened! He looks crazy tall to me lately)

he churned butter...and was grateful that we can go to the store to pick some up instead of all that mess. 

 With his buddy Jackson!

I also popped by school for lunch with the kiddos one day. They both were happy boys, which made me happy. 

Andy BEGS to buy lunch every Friday. I assumed it was because it is pizza day. Nope. He likes the peas. Seriously. Passes up the pizza for the peas. hahaha

Sometimes, they play so hard and I look at them and can't believe that they could get so dirty, so fast. Andy's knees the other night were impressive, to say the least. 

Some early morning snuggles. 

A picture from Andy's fabulous teacher makes my whole day. I think he was having tummy issues on this day, so I got the picture as proof that he was okay. 

this time hop about made my ovaries cry. 

 The kid loves a hat.... the picture he drew below was on the back of his homework. It has some dirty qualities to it, but it is actually a santa hat.

 See? He loves a hat.

Also, this month, we were THRILLED beyond words to find out our dear friends were named the HEAD coach at Ole Miss! Matt was named the interim head coach for this season after the head was fired just before the season...they took away the interim part and we couldn't be happier for them. Can't wait to cheer for some Hotty Toddy!

Cal has a really smart class this year...like, there are several kids who are crazy smart. The class competed in a spelling bee and the top three in each class will go on to the grade level spelling bee. Several of the kids in Cal's class won their class bee, won their grade bee (the top 5 went to the school bee) and then went really far in the school bee- as first graders. So I prepped Cal that he more than likely wouldn't make it out of his class level (I am a dream crusher, y'all...). So imagine my surprise when I got a text from Andy's teacher letting me know Cal made the grade level bee! (I told him if he were to make it, he needed to find her and have her text me-hahaha thank goodness she is so wonderful!)

So now we have the grade level spelling bee coming up. No telling how that will go. But I was proud of him!

And one final picture-- Andy was waiting for the bus and spotted his teacher with her shoes off.... he slipped them on and went into sass mode. She doesn't get to see this very often so she was dying laughing. He's a character, that one.....

PHEW! that was a lot lot lot......!



 

Turkey time at the beach

12 years ago, I got engaged on Thanksgiving and it was a pretty epic Thanksgiving, to be sure. This Thanksgiving was right up there, in my opinion, on the level of epic-ness.  It was just so so special.

Eddie's parents, sisters and sister's hub were all down at the beach. My parents were there, along with my mom's two brothers and their significant others. My mom's younger brother hasn't been down to NC in FOREVER and we realized I haven't seen him NOT at a funeral in a really really long time. Which is awful. And he had never met my kids before!

So it was a very, very special time at the beach for sure.

We all got down there at different times.  Eddie, my dad and my uncle Pat took Cal out fishing Wednesday morning early. And they had a BIG time.  

Cal caught the first fish, but it was definitely not the only one. Eddie thinks they caught close to 30 fish (and threw them all back) that day. Cal was in heaven!

Andy went to the golf course with Poppy to hit some balls so he was pretty thrilled too.

 And I took Bruce over to the beach to wear him out a bit. The beach was gorgeous and it was empty so he ran and swam and ran some more. He was smiling, I swear.


The men all coughed up a dollar to Cal for catching the first fish-- he was proud, can you tell?!

He then proceeded to bet everyone a dollar in arm wrestling- hahaha! Thankfully my uncles are good sports and paid Cal and Andy both a dollar when they "won."

 Andy made a placemat at school, along with a turkey hat. He insisted on wearing the hat and eating off of the placemat (it had fact families on it, which is just funny to me- he thought it was great!)/

We learned on Wednesday that much, much more champagne would be needed, so Thursday morning, a special trip was made to fill up the cooler. 

 We headed over to my parents house for lunch and these fools put on "nice" clothes and it was a battle. I ADORE these shirts so so much. They are super soft- once they put them on, they both agreed they felt good.

 Okay, so Cal's hair. I think swimming must be taking its toll on his hair. We wash it every night and brush it before bed- and it usually dries before he falls asleep. He wakes up looking like he stuck his head in a tornado. He got it cut this week and the barber commented on the "unruliness" of his hair. He's still cute.... I just don't know what's happening with his mop.

Walking over to grandma's house!

We had to take a quick Williamson family picture before eating so we ran down to the water to snap it. The boys both wanted Tommy to piggy them in one way or another- he came running down like this:

My in laws! Love!

Then there's these two....

We ate some of the yummiest food......my stomach is growling just thinking about it! 

 Of course we had the paper crowns!

I was just so happy at this point. I was looking around the table and everyone was just....happy. And smiling and laughing and my kids were being well behaved....and it was just......great. I know I sound hallmark-y, but it really was just so special. 

Andy was enjoying his food so much, he didn't notice his crown slipping down over his eyes. 

After dinner, we ran to chance clothes and it was time for the ultimate baseball game. Cal divided up the teams: pilgrims and the turkeys and we were given bandanas to separate us.

i mean.... we had some FUN out there. It was cold, but no one seemed to mind too much. 

 The Pilgrims....

 Happiness is......

 And the TURKEYS! (aka, the winning team.....)


 We went inside to warm up and continue drinking. Andy lost a critical lego piece under the stove and it required a whole lot of people to get it out.

Friday, some neighbors had a big oyster roast so we went over there for a bit. It was a lot of fun! My MIL and my two SILs...

 My baby daddy. He's a cutie, y'all.

We went to mom's house for some serious cookie making and decorating. I am not sharing any of those pics here because I am not sure they were share-worthy, but it was a LOT of fun...like, a LOT.

We headed back to the house, where Nuggie fell asleep on me on the floor. I didn't want to move. Ever. until my back started cramping. 

Saturday, we decided to hit the beach. The boys donned their wetsuits and were determined to get in the water. 

 They didn't hesitate.... they were right in there. Along with Bruce!

Three happy, salty boys!

I know that was a long post.... and it was cheesy.... but it really was a special holiday. I loved seeing my family from Michigan and I can't wait to see them again!!!

We came home from the beach on Sunday and got our tree and then went into full blown decorate it all mode. I might share pics from that soon too! Are y'all decorated?