The chef's table

Our country club offers a thing called "chef's table" where you sit in the kitchen with the chef and he prepares a several course meal and pairs each course with wine, etc... we did one a long time ago and got to do another one Saturday night!

We had the best time with good friends!

The girls before sitting down (we were unable to sit in the kitchen due to Valentine's Dinner at the club being moved from Friday to Saturday-- but it all worked out perfectly!)

The couples around the table:

Susan and Dustin:

Ashly and Scott:

Sally and Bryan:

Me and my man:

We had our last course in the kitchen with the chef-- and it was amazing!

Clearly, wine was involved.  Clearly. 

And we ended the night at the club bar playing cards against humanity with the head of food and beverage and the chef-- and it was to die for funny.  We were ALL crying we were laughing so hard! 

SUCH a fun night with good food, good wine, and GREAT friends!!!


 

#carriedaway: week 6

Week 6:

 Day 36: this one...worked me today. No nap and full of energy and naughtiness.  Thank goodness he is cute!!!

 Day 37: the crack each other up.

 Day 38: fairly certain I couldn't have picked a worse picture of me...But getting kisses from these two makes everything better.

 Day 39: hank feels safer upstairs

 Day 40: he insisted on vacuuming. Who am I to argue?

 Day 41: rain rain, go away...

 Day 42: he was looking so old today. But he's definitely still two. Still a (terrible) two year old.


 

Valentine's Day

thank you for sending this to me, andrea! so so so true...

School was canceled on Friday, Valentine's Day, so we pretty much hung inside the house for the day.  Eddie went to work again, and I wasn't quite able to drive yet.

Thankfully, I spent my 90 minutes on Wednesday before school was released early and got the kids some little goodies for them to have for Valentine's Day! They each got a new car and a bunch of candy...! Andy ate just about all of his candy before 8:00.  

Lollipops for breakfast? Sure.  Whatever.

I left the sugar-crazed beasts inside to let Hank out to do his business.  The snow was so beautiful this morning with the sun rising... 

 Eddie made a run to dunkin for some heart shaped donuts (and to the grocery store to get his woman a card and some flowers hehe).

Andy spent some time mastering the art of wearing heels.   Good luck with that, buddy.

Cal was in need of some sun-- he found a sunny spot to rest.

I hadn't had a workout since Tuesday.  And that might sound ridiculous, but I NEED to workout.  So, a friend posted an at home workout to do and I laced up my sneakers and broke a killer sweat...with my three coaches helping me.  I got down into a wall sit and Andy decided to climb into my lap for a visit-- made the wall sit darn near impossible.... but I needed the challenge after all the eating and drinking I had been doing!

Friday afternoon, it was warm outside, but there was still snow on the ground.  Eddie came home from work a little early and we all headed outside to get some fresh air.  By this point, I was about past my "I can be a sweet mommy" point.  Hate to admit that, but hey, gotta keep it real.  I was pretty much ready to scream at anyone/anything.

Cal took his golf club to the snow-- have at it, bud.  

The streets were pretty much clear so we got out our bikes and rode to the cul-de-sac across from our house so they could get out some energy. 

I was in a rather foul mode at this point (hey, I can admit it!) so I excused myself to have a minute alone.    I went home, opened a bottle of champagne, curled up on the couch with the fire on and sat in pure silence.  It was basically heaven. 

Then the boys came in like hungry little beasts and I had to get moving.  But those 12 minutes were really quite blissful! Eddie cooked up a stir fry for dinner that was delicious!

The boys went to bed and we hung out watching the Olympics! We had a big dinner planned for Saturday night so we were grateful to have a nice night home together!

I am thankful for these boys who love me....even when I need champagne to get it together. 

 

More snow!

A few weeks ago when we got snow, the forecast said 100% chance of flurries by noon.  Well, around 7:00pm, we started to see some flakes. 

This past week, snow was predicted and when you looked at the weather map, it was clear it was going to be quite a bit (for us).  Schools on Wednesday started announcing early release days.  Andy was out at 10:30 and Cal was out at noon.  After I picked up Andy, he was mad about something and wasn't on his best behavior, so when we picked up Cal and several moms were all meeting at Chick-Fil-A for lunch, I opted out since my littlest friend was "acting a fool."

THANK GOODNESS I didn't go.  The snow started right around 12:30 and it came down SO hard SO fast.  All of my friends that went to CFA had such a hard time getting home.  My sweet friend Sally called me and asked if she could come to our house because she couldn't make it home-- the roads were AWFUL! People were abandoning their cars right and left and just walking.  The scenes on the news looked like the Atlanta traffic during their snow storm. 

Eddie has a pick up truck with 4 wheel drive so thankfully he was able to get out and about okay.  He drove Sally and her kids home and then we stayed in for the night. 

At 12:45, when the flurries started, we ran outside to catch a few in our mouths... 

We woke to a LOT of snow on Thursday morning! It was up to Cal's knees in many places.

This kid loves the snow-- I wouldn't be surprised if he moves to a snowy place when he gets older (but, seriously, please don't, Cal....please).  He ran around making snow angels and diving into the snow and playing his little heart out.

Also one to love the snow? Hank Williamson.  This pup was an animal (haha) out there! He also made snow angels and ran like crazy and dove into piles.  He slept for 2 straight days after playing one morning so hard.

Andy liked the snow too! He wasn't quite sure what to do with it all, and he certainly wasn't going to dive in it to make a snow angel, but he had a lot of fun walking around and kicking it up high.

The snow stopped, but then we got a freezing rain and the temps dropped so it all froze.... another day off from school!

We would play outside a bit and then get cozy inside.  Eddie was able to go in to work, so he would leave and we and the boys would find ways to entertain ourselves inside.  Thank goodness for iPads and Olympics! 

We headed over to a friend's house for a snowy play date-- they were excited! On our way there, we saw 40-50 cars left on the side of the road-- so scary for those poor people...!

Jackson was at the play date...

And they figured out it is softer to tackle in the snow!

Andy got there and immediately stripped down out of his snow suit and let himself into their house.  He is not a huge fan of the snow suit!

The snow was really very pretty and we enjoyed it for a few days, but being stranded inside the house is not much fun after the first few days!!! Valentine's Day was on Friday, and by Friday evening, I was over it all! No breaks, no working out, no quiet time with a non-napping two year old (who desperately needs a nap)....

That's the thing about North Carolina... it is supposed to be 70 this weekend! Holla!


 

Where do I begin??

I am SO far behind on blogging right now, I don't even know where to begin! I have so many things to write about that it is almost too overwhelming, so I just don't write about any of them- ha!

The above picture has been my life lately-- all three boys about 4 inches away from me at all times.  I am not complaining-- I love it! I love snuggling and hugging and squeezing their little hands/paws.  It was tough this past week with no school due to snow (post coming!). 

I am trying hard to remind myself that they won't always want to be right next to me and soon, they will only want to be behind their closed bedroom doors.  The laundry can wait. The mess on the floor can wait.  I need to be doing nothing with them right now... at least I need to try hard to!

We have had a LOT of close quarter time the past week, but I am so lucky to have these two sweet little guys in my life.... and I needed to keep repeating that to myself last week! ha!