Weekend Fun

I love this time of year.

I love going to the mail every day to see who sent Christmas cards.

I love the smell of our Christmas tree.

I love seeing all of my decorations over the house.

I love Cal's excitement finding Manning every morning (Manning is our Elf).

I love listening to Christmas music.

I love getting invitations to parties and open houses, and girls nights, and play dates and cocktail parties. Our calendar is CRAZY full for the rest of this month.

Also at this time of year, we find out where we will be going to be bowl game! We won enough games to make us bowl eligible back a while, so we just had to play the waiting game to see where we could be going.  I suck at the waiting game.

Eddie's family is used to this waiting game-- I am slowly getting used to it.  It is hard, though, when we are getting several evites and invitations to various events, and we can't RSVP yet because we don't know if we will be in town or not.  Many bowls are before Christmas and many are after Christmas.  I became the bowl stalker.  Eddie told me I could become the bowl analyst on ESPN because I literally went to about 10 different bowl websites every single day to read the teams they were projecting to go. 

We found out last night that we are going to the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Tempe, Arizona! Wooohooo! The truth is, it doesn't matter what bowl it is, we have a great time.  We are excited about this bowl, and not just because of the buffalo wings you KNOW will be in the hospitality suite! haha

We will fly out on the 26th and the game is on the 29th against Michigan State. 

Now, back to this weekend! Eddie flew out of town on business Friday morning and Eddie's sister, Carrie, flew in Friday night for the weekend.  Eddie got back into town Saturday night, and Eddie's dad came in to town on Sunday morning for a quick visit.  Keeping up?

Here are some pictures of our fun the past few days...

 Thursday, while Cal was in school... this little one just looks like trouble, doesn't he? Sweet potato...

 Cal went over to my mom's and dad's house to play with Jackson Thursday afternoon so Eddie and I bundled up Andy and went for a walk.  This hat is way too small for him, but it made me laugh...

Friday was my mother-in-law's birthday! We made a video singing Happy Birthday to her and then I thought it would be sweet to take a picture of the boys holding signs that read "We love Mimi." Well, it was nice in theory because in real life, it is like herding cats.  More on the cat herding below in the game day pics... Any way, Mimi liked it, so I guess it wasn't a total fail...

Friday, when Andy was in school, I hit the gym and then ran errands like no body's business.  Cal and I hit up Target, Trader Joes, the liquor store (I told you CB was coming to town! hi, CB!), and the bank.  We stopped at Brueggers for a quick lunch and this little guy was SICK of being dragged around town!

During Andy's nap time, I let Cal play, since he was in the car most of the morning.  I walked into the playroom and he put all of his cars around the manger.  He told me that Lightning wanted to visit Jesus.  Also, side note-- he told me today that Baby Jesus was GONE! And sure enough, he is not in the manger... We are on a hint to locate the munchkin...

 After coming upstairs to continue the cleaning spree, Cal brought a bunch of his cars into my room because heaven forbid he play in the playroom by himself.  He would MUCH rather talk to me...nonstop.  I looked down at one point, and he said: "look, mommy! I got all these blue cars!" He had separated all of the blue ones. 

 I was pretty impressed, so I encouraged him to separate them all by colors... he declared they were "just like the number T!" Close, Cal...close...

He really was being a good boy on Friday so I told him to make sure to let Manning know.  I heard him talking in the other room and when I got there I heard him say "I SUCH a good boy, Manning. Make sure to tell Santa, okay??" How sweet is that???

Carrie Beth got in Friday evening and we stayed up WAY too late drinking a yummy bottle of wine (enter Trader Joes, above) and talking.  The boys were up and at um early Saturday morning!

I had to send out the game day picture...

 I have said before it is not easy getting a picture of these two together... here are some failed attempts at the game day picture, just for your enjoyment....

Andy was in heaven having someone to read to him all the time.  He kept bringing books to Carrie and she loves to read too, so she got some good snuggle time in while reading....

After breakfast, we took the boys to a park to burn off some energy before TCU's noon kick.  The boys had a great time and the weather was fabulous!

 This is the biggest slide in the park-- it's really tall (I am holding my phone up wayyy over my head here).  Andy would get to the top and hang his little body dangling down-- it was terrifying. 

Eddie's dad had to go to Virginia to do some recruiting, so he flew through here and then drove up there.  He got here around 1:30 on Sunday and stayed until after dinner.  The boys had a BLAST with him and they played so hard.  

 Cal and Poppy watched some football together and discussed the plays...

Andy, who was a little weary of Poppy last time, was ALL about him this time.  He only wanted Poppy to hold him and he would reach for him constantly. 

 My mother-in-law requested a picture with CB and Poppy... :)

 Sunday evening, CB and Poppy left and we put the boys to bed semi-on time.  Cal was exhausted.  He has gone several days without a nap and he was just spent.  He is napping SO hard right now.  I think all of the fun has caught up with him!

This morning we went to the gym and while I was getting Andy out of the car, I heard Cal yelling about peeing all over some leaves.  Yup. He took care of business right in the parking lot! Oh well....

 I have not started my Christmas shopping yet... going to be a busy week!!!






 

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!