Friday Favorites!

Y'all ready for a whoooole lot of random?!

 

I am linking up and here are some of my FAVORITES this week:

1. HANK

This dog is so dang sweet.  He has always been so tolerant of these wild boys. Always.  He is the most loving animal and at 90+ pounds, he tries hard to be gentle.  I have a million pictures of the boys on Hank.  But this week, I looked over at Cal and saw this:

It got me thinking about how many pictures I have taken of this boy and this dog.  But then I got sidetracked and didn't think about it again, until the next day when I walked into my room and saw Cal in his favorite position:

And then the next day....

Hank is like a big gigantic furry pillow.  And, let me tell you- Hank loves this just as much as Cal.  

So this last picture got me thinking about when Cal was a newborn and we introduced Cal and Hank. Of course Hank was overly intrigued by the baby and when Cal would cry, Hank would cry right along side of him- haha.  I remember taking these pictures like it was yesterday.  Same boy, same dog, same bed.  

You can see Eddie's hands in the above picture, ready to pounce and grab Cal if Hank decided at the last minute to hop up and run.  But he never did.  The most he would do is lift his head and look back at Cal while he cooed.  

Pretty amazing these two have been such buddies all these years.  

I have a million pictures of both boys on top of Hank loving on him.  I took several just today.  But there is something so sweet about the fact that they are on our bed together... makes this dog definitely one of my FAVORITES today, and every other day!

2. BOOK CLUB

I am sooooo excited about this!!! I always read when I am on vacation, but when I am home, I just don't find the time to read.  I know I have the time-- I just need to MAKE myself read.  But I just didn't.  When I had down time, I would sit and look at instagram, read blogs or (gasp) play candy crush.  ewwww. 

Well, these two lovely ladies, Andrea and Jackie....

and I geeked out in Aruba talking about books we have loved. We came home and continued texting about books we were reading.  I admitting I wasn't reading anything currently, and Andrea said she was about to start a new book, and Jackie said she was looking for a book.  I suggested a little book club, and we are doing it!!! I am SUPER excited (and geeky!) about this!

The first book we are reading is Saving Grace by Jane Green.  Jackie blew through it in one weekend and Andrea is making great progress too, so it is making me want to read-- and read quickly!!-- so that we can talk about the book! I went to the car wash today and instead of staring mindlessly at my phone, I read.  And it was lovely! I am about halfway done and I can not wait to discuss what is happening in this book. 

If you have any good book suggestions, please send them my way! We will be doing this again when we all finish and we will need new books.

3. Homemade Spaghetti Sauce-- yummmmm

I posted this picture in my Weekend Update post:

And promised to share the recipe.  I am not a cook.  At all.  I make some yummy desserts, but I am no cook.  This sauce is bomb.  It is my mother in law's recipe and it is delicious!

In a crock pot or on the stove top:
1 small can tomato paste
3 one pound cans tomato sauce
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 small onion chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp salt
****note: I do not use measuring spoons when making this, and I can assure you I use WAY more than a teaspoon of all of those spices... I use more like a heading tablespoon.  Either way.  It's delicious***
Brown ground beef- we like ours extra meaty so we use 2 pounds of lean meat
Throw it all in the crockpot and let it simmer all day.  The longer it simmers the better it gets. 

 It freezes really well too!

3. Poppy!

Eddie's dad is keeping this boys this weekend-- all of them, Cal and Andy and Bruce and Hank...!-- so that we can go and relax in Miami.  He is soooo kind, and maybe a little bit crazy to do it and we are extremely grateful! He's my favorite this week!

5. Swimmers!
Ever since Aruba, Andy has had his mind made up that he is doing swim team this summer.  He has been holding this firmly in his head and there is no arguing with him.  I fully support it! I think it is awesome! I certainly wasn't going to push him into it until he was ready. 
I told him he had to swim a full lap before he could do swim team, and he has been talking about this lap a lot!
Last week at swim, he wanted to do it, but there wasn't enough time at the end of their practice for the to do it. 
This week, Andy and Lee walked in and told their coach they wanted to swim a lap.  So, at the end of practice, their coach got in the water with these boys and one at at a time, they took turns swimming a full lap! I was SO proud! Andy hopped out at the end and said "I'm going to do it again!" and then ran down to the end of the pool, ready to go again.  There wasn't time for him to go again, but he was ready to go!

After they did it, they were ALL smiles!

SO proud of these little swimmers and they are definitely my FAVORITES this week!

Have a GREAT weekend!!!

 

#carriedaway: week 15

Week 15:

 Day 99: we dress alike, we smell alike....love you, Sally!

 Day 100 (!!!): his first tennis match! He didn't bring home a W, but he had a blast and I am super proud.

 Day 101: Cal tackled Andy. Andy got mad and threw a car at Cal's face. A trip to the urgent care to "glue" two spots back together again. #lifewithboys

 Day 102: wonder what kind of damage he can do to his brother with this...

 Day 103: "mommy, I am not fishy fish any more.  Call me DIVER."

 Day 104: This kid... love his sweet self.  Lauren and Robin, y'all tell your husbands they are doing something right with their coaching this season! We love soccer and we love our coaches!

 Day 105: I searched everywhere for a replacement for Andy's "lala" in case it ever got lost.  Couldn't believe when I found it today.  Also can't believe the amount the original has been through.  That's one loved lala.

Follow me on instagram here!


 

Weekend Update!

I was a blog slacker the past few days... can't make any promises this week either.  We are flying out Friday morning at the crack of dawn so this week is going to be cah-razy trying to get everything ready.  It's all superficial stuff for the most part (getting nails done, getting bikini wax, etc etc....), but all things I would like to take care of before we go. My to do list for the week is packed already! Can't wait to get to Miami and get a drink in my hand and relax!!!

I will try to get another post in this week about the trip.  We are suuuper excited!!!

Okay, so here is a look at our (rainy!) weekend!!

Starting on Friday.... I signed up to chaperone Andy's class on a field trip to Duke Gardens.  I got a text Thursday night from his assistant teacher asking if I could sub for her also.  So I ended up subbing on the field trip and it was a lot of fun!!!

This was in the class room while we were waiting for the rest of the class to arrive.  They were some excited little squirrels! They were so stinking cute. 

There are a lot more kids in the class, but these were the first ones to arrive.  My friend Sara also volunteered to chaperone so she and I rode together with Andy and Charlie. They were SO excited to be in the same car! They were seriously giddy.

More of the class.... not everyone yet, but close enough!

 Andy has a sweet little friend in his class and they adore each other.  I love seeing them together-- Andy is a happy, happy kid when he is at school  and for that I am forever grateful.

They got to dig in some dirt looking for worms...

And plant a few little seeds in a tiny container... his face in this one cracks me up.

 CalBoy didn't have a field trip planned for Friday, but he was still having a GREAT time at school...

It was DADS and DUDES day at school-- all the dads (or special friends) came in and they participated in relay races with the kids and then the kids sang them some songs.  There's no moms allowed or else I would have gotten more pictures.  When we pulled back in the parking lot from the field trip, we could see them all in the courtyard running with hula hoops-- and the quick glance I got was adorable! I love this preschool so much.

Eddie and Cal went out to lunch after school and when I picked Cal up, they had a quick hug in the parking lot-- this warms my heart.  

We came home from school Friday and everyone was falling apart.  Cal cried like 5 times in an hour- which he never does- and Andy asked for a nap- ha!

Cal did some serious resting with Hank-- more on this picture in a later post!

And Andy was a man of his word and passed out.  He slept HARD.

We had a last minute birthday party popup that was supposed to be on Saturday, but because of the rain, they moved it to Friday night.  Thankfully we didn't already have plans and we could make it! I had to wake Andy up for the party and he was not quite ready to wake up.  But seeing Charlie there made him cheer right up...

Saturday morning we had a 9am soccer game.  Eddie and I both ended up coaching the fields so I don't have any pictures from the game.  The other team didn't have a lot of kids there, so we ended up doing a scrimmage on one field while the other game was going on.  It worked well for the most part.  Andy scored a few goals on the scrimmage side, which bumped up his confidence when he went into the real game.  Cal scored several goals in the real game too, and was excited. 

We came home and it was a rainy, cold day. I did laundry and the boys did some of this....

Can you tell they are brothers?! haha Even their thumbs are doing the same thing.  They didn't spend much time on the iPads though.... they built all kinds of cool stuff in the playroom.  Eddie and I were downstairs listening to them talk to each other and let their imaginations go crazy.  It was pretty awesome. #Iamadork

Saturday night, we got a babysitter and went out with friends for Susan's birthday.  We don't go out like this very often (and I felt it on Sunday....), and it was SUCH a fun night!

We went to dinner at City Kitchen and had some yummy sushi and then went to a bar on Frankin Street. 

I look like I am pregnant in the above dress.  I am not.  But, funny story- when I got dressed to go out, I originally had on another dress and when Andy saw me, he said "mommy has a baby in her belly!" Yes.  He did.  Might be time to start up the weight watcher train again.  #sigh #thestruggleisreal. So I switched to this dress, which looks terribly unflattering in pictures.  Clearly.  

We were taking a selfie in the alley when this dude photobombed us...and it was Tommy! Tommy and Tricia met us out to celebrate the birthday girl!

We had so much fun and I took a million pictures.... and I stood really weird too... what is happening in the next picture...??

A blurry selfie...

Tricia and I took a picture together to send to her parents and sister saying heyyyyyyyy

 And Sally and I took some selfies in the bathroom together. Because, why not?!

We got home late and as our sweet sitter was leaving, she goes "oh yeah...Andy is asleep on your floor!" hahahaha He woke up and told her he wanted to go in our room, so he did! We weren't even in there-- but whatever, kiddo! He slept great in there and didn't make a peep until the morning.  Just what we needed.

Sunday morning came around and everyone was a little slow moving.  We went to breakfast downtown since we had to retrieve Eddie's truck and then came home and cleaned house.  It was a mess this week and I needed to devote some serious time to cleaning and laundry and all the other really fun things we get to do as adults.

Are y'all familiar with Air Bud? He is a golden retriever who plays all kinds of sports with his owner.  We own the soccer movie and it is super cute.  We have been watching it on repeat in the car for weeks.  I told them that there are many more Air Bud movies and they begged me to order another one.  So, I ordered one from amazon and Sunday morning around 11, the doorball rang and it was the mail man-- the actual mail man...not UPS or FedEx... and he left the envelope with Air Bud football! I thought Cal Williamson was going to flip out. I am not sure I have ever seen him so excited!

We immediately went upstairs and the boys got all set up for the movie screening:

I ran to the store and got some groceries for the week and came home and did more cleaning-- it's a glamorous life, y'all.  Andy randomly asked if he could take a bath and I didn't blame him one bit.  It was a cold and wet day and a warm bath sounded great to me too! He had fun playing in there for a long time.

Once he got out and clean, he tormented loved on Bruce for a bit. 

I mad some yummy homemade spaghetti sauce which Cal gave a big thumbs up.  I will share that recipe this week too!

And I spent forever sewing up some of Bruce's favorite stuffed animals...which he then tore apart.  He loves these things...and loves ripping them to shreds.  

We've got a fun and busy week ahead! Plus I am reading a good book I can't put down.  Not sure I can wait until Miami to finish this one!