Holiday Randomness

We had a ton of stuff going on leading up to the holidays, which I never posted about, so I figured I would group them all into one long post....

I present: holiday random...

My friend Sara send me the first two pictures from the holiday sing along... she was right in front of the boys and could get better pictures than I could from my spot.  

For the past few years we have done a girls party...I host it with several other girls.  I didn't take many pictures at the party (at all....), um, this is the ONE I took:

 Me and Tricia!

And someone else took this one of the hostesses and sent it to me :)

On a random day off from school, I took the boys shopping to get a few last minute things and they were surprisingly good.  Andy fell in love in Nordstrom...

And as I was checking out at Athleta, he was rearranging the window display...

Manning upped his game a little bit this year.  He started off kinda lame, but once he heard some of his buddies antics, he started improving his ways.  He tp'd the kitchen...

 ...and then posed on a toilet paper roll:

On another day during Christmas break, I thought it would be smart to take the boys to Costco.  They started off sitting side by side in the cart (please take a second to notice Andy's socks.  He INSISTS on wearing "big boy socks" and shorts.  Every day.  #hotmess). 

And soon they were out of the cart and riding it on bellies....

I was SPENT after that shopping trip!

We had a party at the Carolina Inn bar--- another annual party, and this year, Tommy and Tricia got to come since they live here now! We have had so much fun with them here now.  Eddie and Tricia at the bar...

Me and Tricia at the end of the night...

Thanks for the photo bomb, Ed.

With some of my favorite girls at the bar....

And, our sweet friends have a new born and didn't want to leave her at home...so they brought her! And, obviously, I was fighting for that baby and ended up holding her for quite a while.... sooooooo sweet! She has the thickest jet black hair you've ever seen-- I mean THICK-- the exact opposite of my blonde tresses... we were comical, ha!

With another love:

Another tradition we have is decorating gingerbread houses.  My mom buys loads of candy....

 ...and then we decorate gingerbread however we want.  I made a church...ish.... thing...?

Then my dad comes up from the basement when we are all done and he judges them.   Sadly, my church didn't win anything.  I call BS. 

Speaking of BS, this is so random... I have a friend who is very soft spoken and somewhat shy... she also has two boys...she sent me this as a Christmas card this year.  I about fell out....

Andy helped me cook his lunch and had to wear his chef hat because, #duh.  

And, on one of Manning's  last days with us, he ziplined through the kitchen... the boys thought this was hilarious...

 I think this week might be a good week to CLEAN MY HOUSE and take down Christmas...... will it happen???


 

Coast for the Holidays

The beach is my happy place. Every time I cross over the bridge, I sigh and smile.  It sounds SO cliche, but it is true.  I love being down there.  And being down there with family is even better!

It was cold when we woke up Friday morning, but the sun was shining and we were outside soaking it up! First up was a trip to the "pirate house" so Andy could check and see who was there..... this time he saw Tinkerbell AND Captain Hook- it was exciting. (the pirate house is the little security stand/house at the entrance of the neighborhood-- Andy is obsessed with visiting it).

We headed out to the "CA-zeebo" to see what we could see-- got a cute picture of CB and Cal...

We continued our ride until the boys decided they wanted to run.  There were no cars down there, so they ran ahead of the cart and we paced ourselves behind them.

Then there were some football games on so these three pulled up a seat to watch outside:

As we were cooking dinner that night, the sunset was amazing.  I grabbed some people and we ran over to the gazebo to check it out.  It was truly stunning!

I came back and sipped on some wine and loved on my pup-- who flat wore himself out every day! He ran and swam and ran some more-- the dog went until his legs wouldn't go any more! He was SO well behaved with all of that puppy energy out!

For Christmas, the boys got mufflers for their bikes as well as some lights for their wheels

Tommy got lots of love from these two....

Seriously, Bruce played so so hard the whole time. He was clamming at one point...nonstop fun for him!

CB let some exercises outside with the boys--- then they went on a job together!

Andy did some swinging...

And the girls did some paddle boarding!

On another golf cart ride, we found a random A sticking out of the ground.   Random, but cute for a picture with my little A boy.

Then, the girls got to go for a walk-- on the beach! It was amazing out!

The sun was beautiful and the beach was just perfect-- so we took some jumping pictures!

This one is CB:

This one is me:

This is Tricia:

And Mimi didn't want to jump so she raised a leg!

Eddie took a boat ride with Cal.....

And the plaid girls took a picture together...

Then we worked on a Williamson family New Year's Card...

And the siblings...

That night, Andy wanted to wear the same shirt as Tommy to bed.  We took a picture of the twins...

My sleepy pup got in my lap while I was puzzling....

Safe to say this is Bruce's happy place too!!!

SUCH a fun weekend with family!!!!!