Friday Friday Friday!

Holla! It's FRIDAY!

I am packing my bags and catching an early flight to Austin with some amazing girlfriends to celebrate a birthday.  And I can NOT wait!

My favorites this week are short and simple:

1. This shirt-- it popped up on my facebook feed and cracked me up.  I am certainly OUTNUMBERED in this house.  Big time.  How does facebook know this? Is that freaky? Are those of you with both boys and girls seeing this in your feed too? hmmm....

2.  My friend's new blog! My friend Tiffani is super cute and trendy and adorable-- and she is wrapping all that up into her new blog: Tiffani at Breton Bay.  And you can follow her on instagram here.

She's on bloglovin, so those of you who use bloglovin app, you can follow her there! If she looks familiar, she was with me on my Ole Miss trip back in September.

3. New bedding!!!!

I picked out new bedding forever ago-- like maybe for my birthday back in September...? And it finally came in! I was so excited to make the bed. The pillow shams aren't in yet-- but the new, clean sheets and duvet cover make me want to crawl right into bed!

4. Bruce.  He is a favorite of mine this week.... (he isn't always-- often he drives me up and wall...)

 He wants to be with the boys, wherever they are, all the time.  As close as he can. 

He got into bed with Cal Wednesday night and was so into the story Cal was reading-- talk about sweet!

This dog looooves his boys.

  And his momma.  

 5. Andy can work my nerves like no other.  He is trying. He has fits. He screams. He refuses to do things. He yells.  He is not easy.  But that is mainly all reserved for me.  He made this for Mimi Thursday-- just because he thought "it might make her smile."

 I had his parent/teacher conference Thursday and it was all great things.  Academically, he is doing super-- but even more important to me, he is NICE.  His teacher made a point to tell me a story where he was extra kind to a boy in their class who was having a rough day.  He looks out for his classmates and is very sensitive when it comes to them-- when they are sad, he is very concerned.  This matters more to me than anything else- I want to raise kind-hearted children, and then young men.  So I took his fit he had this morning over socks (him not wanting to put them on by himself and me digging in my heels refusing to help him put on said socks), and put it aside to focus on these positive traits his teacher was sharing with me.  They are way more important them him asking for help putting on socks (even though he is FULLY capable of putting them on himself....haha).

After a good conference, we went on a date to Andy's favorite spot: firehouse subs!

Happy favorites! Can't wait to do an Austin post! Or maybe not...maybe what happens in ATX stays in ATX...??? hahahaha



 

Insta Funnies

Oh buddy, I have a lot this week...maybe I am just overly tired and therefore finding more things humorous.  Maybe I have the sense of humor of a 14 year old boy.  Either way, these made me laugh this week:

You can laugh too-- it's almost Friday!!!!! whooooopee!


 

Life Lately

Life lately is ALL about snow/ice!

We went to the beach Thursday-Sunday and missed a lot of the snow, but we are getting all of the ice-- and no school!

School was canceled last Friday, Monday and Tuesday-- we tried to go in Tuesday to school (me to work, and Andy to school), on a delay, but when we got there, the parking lots were terrible.  So they decided to cancel after all.  I got there and worked for a bit, tackling our current to do list, then headed home.

Here is a look at life lately!

What we are reading:

I decided to do another audio book-- I just love these! And I picked The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand. 

It is so so so so good! This is my favorite of her books so far, I think.  I had a hair appointment this week and I had to resist the urge to pop in head phones and listen while sitting there.  It is that good.  I highly recommend this book!

With the lack of school, Cal has been in a rut reading books.  We just haven't been making him read every night-- but he is still reading....EVERYTHING.  He is at a really fun point, where he reads every sign he sees, every commercial on TV, every ticker tape on the bottom of the screen.... it is constant.  It is really neat to see him put together words.  He read Andy's book to us the other night and there were some hard words in there!

What we are eating:

Well, this weather has thrown this part off as well.  We were at the beach, and I made fajitas one night with home made guacamole. We came home and ordered pizza Sunday night.  Monday night, I made a huge batch of homemade spaghetti sauce and we had everyone over for spaghetti, salad and garlic bread with cookie cake for dessert.  yummmm...

Their dinner wasn't quite ready one night, so I fixed a salad for them-- Cal likes his plain with just lettuce (spinach) and dressing...

I was cutting up a tomato for Andy's salad and he grabbed it and ate it basically whole.  

What we are watching:

This was the picture we sent Tommy when the Broncos won last week-- putting them in the playoffs for the super bowl. He sent a similar one back of him and Tricia and the dog- hahaha

Did anyone watch Bachelor Monday night? Whew!
Ben is hot, y'all.  I never thought it before.  But, I swear, he was swoon-worthy last night.  Darn right sexy, I think.  He seems super genuine with the girls-- which could totally be an act (I know it's reality tv with lots of producers "helping" him), but it is a really good ACT if it is.  He seems so kind-- which makes me think he will have his heart handed to him, but what do I know?

We have also been watching loads of football and the boys are beyond excite to see the Panthers in the SUPER BOWL! Love him or hate him, Cam Newton is G.O.O.D.  And he loves playing the game-- which is great! He is out there having fun.  He is laughing and skipping around-- makes me appreciate him even more.

What's making me happy:

Several things are making me happy this week-- I love this candle holder my mom got me with a W on it.  I put one of my favorite smelling bath and body works candles in there and it glows right up!  

This kid-- we have officially broken the finger sucking and the hair twirling habit.  And now....I am not jinxing myself, I hope....we are working on sleeping through the night.  I swear to you, it has to be HIS idea to break a habit.  We've been begging him to sleep in his bed all night for the longest time.  I have offered every reward under the sun.

And then, he slept through the night. So as I was praising him, I said, if you do that 7 times in a row, you can take two friends to Chuck E Cheese with you.  He raised his eyebrows and goes "I can easily do that!" And so far he has done 4 nights in a row....! WHAT???? I feel like a new woman! Let's hope this forms a habit and he will start sleeping... consistently....!

And, this kid... he still has not lost a tooth.... but he has one officially loose.  Eddie doesn't think it will be out within the month (I am begging him not to lose it when I am gone this weekend).  So we are excited about that...!

These two dogs make me happy-- they are a handful, like big time.  But I love them both so much.  This bed continues to be a HUGE hit in this house. If Bruce is on it, Hank will go get a bone and drop it in the middle of the room and wait for Bruce to get up and go get it, then Hank will pounce on the bed.  So sweet...

Bru tried to go to bed with Cal the other night-- nice try, buddy...

Last week, Cal's school was out, but I had to work.  So Kristen and I brought our kids into school with us to "assist" in the mouse class.  Cal was actually really helpful-- he loved being in there with the kids! Maybe he will be a teacher some day...? 

What we have been wearing:

It is COLD here. Super cold. And my children insist on walking around like this:

 They strip down to boxers as soon as they get home and stay that way-- it's the craziest thing! And, Andy is living in front of the fire.  I mean he is there 99% of the time he is at home.  He isn't stripped down yet in below pic, but we had just walked in, he walked straight over to the fire, turned it on and settled down on the floor, about to take off clothes.  It is cracking me and Eddie up. 

I used some of our days off to break out some Valentine's decorations-- my mom made these little chair backers, that are really little pouches and I added some hearts to my topiary on my table. 

The mantle also got some hearts... I love this banner-- it makes me happy. Thanks, Target! (similar stuff)

Monday, when we got the call for no school, we decided to have a kids pop class... I pulled into the country club parking lot and it was an ice skating rink.  Couldn't get in and out of spots, so I just pulled in and left it there- haha.  

We did a wall sit competition-- these kids took this seriously!!! This went on over 10 minutes.  

And then on Tuesday, Andy and I headed into school for a 10am start.  I got there early and pretty much slid all the way from the top to the bottom.  After sliding all the way down, the director decided school wasn't a great idea, so we ended up canceling.  

It was a sheet of ice out there!

Sweet Bruce just wants to be with everyone. All the time.  As close as possible.  All the time.  

Weight update:
So I lost 4.  And then I gained 2.  And then I lost 2.  And then I gained 2.5.  And right now, I am hovering at the -3 pounds mark.  Ugh.  That is gross.  I have got to do something. 

I am going to Austin this weekend with some of the very best girlfriends I could ever have and I am BEYOND excited to get there and have so much fun. I will not stress about weight gain or loss and I will focus more when I get home.

So that is a look at our life lately! 


 

Weekend Update

Well this weekend update isn't quite as fun as they normally are.

We got news of Gran's passing Thursday morning.  After doing much weather checking, we headed to the beach Thursday after school.  And we are glad we did! The triangle got hit HARD with some snow/ice and schools were canceled on Friday.  So we didn't miss much.

I really did not take many pictures at all, obviously.

But it was a great weekend with family celebrating the life of a wonderful lady!

We talked, cried, laughed, and shared a lot of stories of Gran.

We did a private viewing for the family and we all got dressed in our rooms and walked out and we all were matching-- everyone wore the same jacket :) I got it in NYC and patty loved it and got one for all of the girls.  It is the coziest jacket ever.  You can find it here.   I love it so much, I might order another color....

We had the funeral service Saturday afternoon.  The boys looked adorable in their blue blazers.  I tried to get a picture of Andy before the service started, but he was mad at me and wanted Mimi's phone to play with.  

We got up on Sunday and cleaned up and hit the road.  The roads were fine the whole way home, until we got to our neighborhood.  Then it was like ice.  Hank got out of the car and ran around like a puppy.  He looooves the snow and loves to make little pup angels in it.  

 The boys were itching to get to play in it because we had zero snow at the beach-- but it was so so so so so cold.  There was zero outside play time while we were there. 

 Bundled up and ready to go!

 Andy has decided he wants to learn to snow board.  He asked Eddie to teach him how to do it on his sled.  He is literally begging Eddie to take him to the mountains to do this. 

Sunday afternoon consisted of laundry and playing catch up for the week to come.  Eddie's parents are here until Wednesday. We got the call around 4:30 that Cal is out of school for Monday.  He has an early release day Wednesday and Andy doesn't have school Thursday or Friday.  I might hit up the liquor store tomorrow.