So, January happened.

January happened, indeed. 

And, I am photo dumping to prove it. 

Brandon is so awesome and so hard core and all of those other adjectives that I could list but they won't do him justice, so I will sum him up with this-when President Obama came to Knoxville, he worked his security detail. He sent me frequent updates such as, you know, Air Force One as his view. 

Ferg moved up to the next toddler class which means new teachers, one less sippy cup for me to bring each day and a new chance for him to cry hysterically every day when I leave him. 

Based on the pics that I get during the day, he is clearly surviving, though. 

As always, many attempts at filling the hours at home with sports, jumping off of things and volcanoes. 

Kid's Liturgy with Jack!

Nicole keeps wondering what having a boy is going to be like and I keep saying SO much easier than a girl (I think? I guess?) because literally all you have to do is:

1. Take them outside

2. Occasionally feed them

Even if it is literally freezing, we must spend hours outside. 

Breakfast with Bop. I realize how lucky I am to have so many loving grandparents in our lives. 

True story-he made this for me at school one day. 

Also, I am officially no longer a Bobble. A little sadness at that loss, actually. 

One Saturday in January we had 2 birthday parties and a basketball game, but still managed to find lots of time to play outside. 

The next weekend we set our family record for activities with 3 birthday parties, church, a basketball game, football practice and 2 football games all in 2 days! 

These are the kind of weekends where I am at Kroger with the boys by 7am. Well, once I went at midnight after I got off work and it was amazing to wake up Sunday morning and know I didn't have to fit Kroger into the mix. 

Another pic of Brandon. One day our boys will be so much in awe of things like this. 

Texas Roadhouse with the Noni & Bop!

We tried out the new telescope one night and it was pretty cool! I love doing all things that encourage my kids to fit in better when they get to Hogwarts. 

The books that Anderson picked out at the library. 

Our favorite birthday celebration of the month was definitely Ms. Goose! Lucy turned TWO!!! Clare had a perfect Minion themed party and we had a great time! I love, love that this girl had a Minion party. So precious. 

We will destroy everyone's house with no shame. 

Max always gets to tag along to parties that Anderson is invited to and at one of them this whole group of girls just followed him around and kept trying to hug him. It was so funny. 

This is from October, but I love how it captures the shocking difference in our hair colors. 

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and paused on an ad because I thought, "I recognize those arms!" 

And, I was right!!! Because he is in awesome shape, Brandon is the "model" for the clothes. 

I mean, what. Yes, I am bragging. 

We all got hit at different times with the stomach bug going around and it was a BEAST! I cannot remember the last time I sat down during the day, much less laid down, but this totally got me. While I was immobile on the floor, I looked up to see a little Bug with a cup of water, advice (breathe fast and you won't throw up) and a snuggle (I will be right here, Mama.)

It made me feel a tiny victory in this kid raising adventure. 

Again, we will go outside in any weather. Tis life with boys.

So much angriness by everyone. 

Every time that we have gone to a pet store for the last year ( a lot-I always have better coupons for dog food at pet stores), Anderson has asked for some kind of pet. 

SPOILER ALERT: we already gave him 2 dogs AND a little brother as pets, so you know how this is going to end. 

The employees always read my quick flash of fingers and give the correct answers to "How old do you have to be to have pet snake?" (9) "...pet frog?" (7) "...pet iguana? (10)

I have arbitrarily made up these numbers in my head based on no reason other than the fact that I cannot feed a mouse to a snake, so 9 better delay itself. 

Anyway, fish was 5 and he has not forgotten it for the last 6 months. He got a tank for Christmas and we just had time to actually get the fish recently. Anderson named him "Fighter" and he really does love him. 

We planned the Super Bowl festivities for quite some time because this kid was obsessed. He knew so many random stats about the teams and the event. I have no idea if he was correct, but I was not fact checking. Anyway, Noni & Bop came over for appetizers and cupcakes. Anderson picked the Seahawks and (like the rest of the country) was disappointed with the terrible last call that prevented his team from winning. 

He celebrated 100 days of school by bringing 100 Legos. 

I will take them with me to the game, I said. 

It will be fun, I said. 

There will be double overtime and senior night, resulting in leaving at 10pm on a Tuesday; Max will escape from me multiple times and run on the court; there will be skittles and popcorn and other sticky things for dinner....is what reality said. 

*Also, to be fair...they had a blast. In fact, for the next few days, every time we got in the car the next few days, Max demanded to go to a basketball game. 

One day leaving their school- a little glimpse of precious. 

*It was the 100 day party, so Pajama day for Anderson. 

Always. There will always be pictures like this of Max destroying things, pouring water all over the floor, writing all over the walls, etc. 

He is so cute that we are going to keep him, but we are also going to keep on our toes. 

We celebrated Curtis' birthday, too! I attempted to make Toni's famous cake and we managed to eat it, while all wishing she was here to make it!

We LOVE Uncle Curtis!

So much FaceTime in our lives over the last few months. Very thankful that Steve Jobs was a genius and knew we would need this technology in our lives. 

You will notice that we had ZERO snow days. I am still angry about this.