Anderson: CBFO Basketball

Despite the fact that he is really a football player, Anderson humored us by playing another sport and he had a pretty fun season of basketball. 

One of the reasons that he loved it was his friend, Noah, was on his team!

*So...as it turns out, I am already a pretty intense parent. To be clear, I am not yelling at the ref or other parents or anything crazy, but the games are stressful. Anderson gives so much to each game-he literally plays with all that he has and I can't help but recognize that and get caught up in it. It is hard to be your kid's #1 fan and stay calm.  I am ok with this, actually. I have never been calm, quiet or reserved at anything I have ever done, so why I expected that I would parent that way is beyond me. But, I am still a little surprised at how quickly I have been sucked in to the intensity. Sigh. It is going to be a long 12 years. 

I got very, very few pictures during the season because basketball is a fast moving sport and it is hard to get actual pictures. 

This is me bragging on my kid for a minute-he was a rock star this season, not only scoring the majority of points most games, but he really developed his skills and worked with his team. To be fair, the fact that he can dribble with both hands is totally credited to Brandon who knows how/why to teach him these things. 

Also, Max still requires lots of entertaining on the sidelines, but luckily this bathroom area was right next to the court, so I did not miss too much. 

In keeping with the basketball theme, Brandon took Anderson to a UT basketball game and they had such an awesome time. 

I love that one of our boys is old enough to do stuff like this with his dad. Also, pretty grateful for Brandon being awesome and knowing how to do dad things. 

It was freezing, but they made a stop by the torch bearer! This will be used in the future when we have his graduation party and send him off to continue his quest to be a #VFL.

Anderson's intensity in all things (i.e.: raising him requires a special level of energy) translates into the fact that he is pretty dominant at sports in this age group. Again, this intensity level carries over into all facets of our life, so it is not just a sports' thing. 

He made the All Star team! It was the first year for his age group to qualify and, even though his team did not win the county wide tournament, we were so proud of his hustle, focus and effort which allowed him to make the team.

We celebrated the End of the Season with a visit to Chickfila where the goodie bags had slim jims in them-total win!

February: cousins, more snow , some other things

We got to spend quite a bit of time with our favorite Pieces of the Pie and Max was IN HEAVEN! She did not miss a beat at our house and demanded her "Spidaman" suit (Optimus Prime) so she could beat up the football guy with the boys.

These 2 are seriously so awesome together. They actually love each other in a way that allows sitting closely, playing, talking at normal levels and not bruising each other. All of these are very different relationship traits than their older siblings' relationship. 

Brandon was determined to get Baby Levi to walk to him. Soon we won't have any babies left in the family, which is crazy!

On our snow days, the freezing weather will never keep us inside, so we went off on an exploration. This is 9000% Anderson's happy place and, despite the fact that I was freezing, I was very grateful to be off of work.

There was not enough snow to do much, but we took advantage of every flake that we could find. 

And, all of the mud, of course. 

Without snow to play in, cold weather is just....cold. This is not really any fun for small people who just want to be outside all day long. Max was SO angry that his sand was frozen. He was especially angry because he even made the sacrifice to wear the big coat for the sand that betrayed him. Wearing actual clothing/warm coats is the highest level of sacrifice that Max can make, so his anger was exceptionally high. 

One of the snow days resulted in Anderson's 2nd sleepover! 

(Of course, his first one was over 4 years ago when Jack spent the weekend with us.)

Chloe was super excited because there was an entire extra person to drop random food on the ground for her.   

I never ever sit down. 

I just don't. I eat standing up, I walk around while I brush my teeth, I am constantly walking around just putting things away, taking care of stuff, etc. This is a blessing (where is my crown for being the QUEEN OF MULTI TASKING?) and a curse (sometimes my family members just want me to sit with them.) 

On one snow day, I sat down and watched a good 5 minutes of Paw Patrol with Max and I am not going to lie-I was OWNING parenting at that moment. Max was so happy that I was snuggling with him and I was so proud of myself for accomplishing something while sitting (making Max happy, creating a bonding moment, taking a pic for documentation) that I made it the entire 5 minutes. 

You might remember that the last time I sat down (last Easter-almost a year ago)  Max ended up having to get stitches. This time, all ended well. 

Also, the snow days made me realize something about myself and my dislike of cooking. It not that I hate cooking...I hate cooking at 6:30pm when everyone is starving (they eat lunch at 10:30) and I am simultaneously trying to bring everything in from the house, prepare everything for the evening, unload the dishwasher, talk to my children, etc. On the snow days, I got to cook at 5:30 or so and it was truly a game changer. It was nice because it made me realize that it is not my fault! If I could only have more snow days or get some kind of part job or not allow my kids to participate in activities, they could have better meals! This is what I tell myself anyway!

Max has become obsessed with hide & seek and his favorite thing to do is climb into stuff (followed closely by onto) like the dryer. I let him, send Anderson in and then document the whole thing. 

Because she is Noni, Mom made Max his own Fireman book and he LOVES it. 

Because he is only the greatest person ever, Brandon received a huge, very important award given to him in D.C.! I was so jealous of his visit, but also so proud of all of his hard work!

One of my favorite pics ever of Max-he is so proud of having stolen Anderson's rec specs and I just love his smug expression. 

When I sneak in and catch them reading, it reminds me that we are doing something right in this parenting world. 

One of our weekends in Feb was spent helping GG move and I managed at get exactly one picture to document the occasion-Aunt LoLo entertaining the boys. 

He has now been sporting the fire gear for 4 solid months-every day.

 Public is still as madly in love with him everywhere we go. 

"Student of the Week" and "Valentine's Day"

First, we have actually had a pretty enjoyable February, despite the fact that I have a grand total of one post-which happens to be about January.

First....Anderson was "Student of the Week!" We have been talking about the "Student of the Week" since August; it is a pretty BIG deal in kindergarten.

 He found out the prior Friday afternoon that he was the chosen one for the next week and he demanded to make the poster that night. I am a hoarder of all things, so I was ready with all of these fun poster making supplies-letters, poster markers, borders, a weird sound recording thing, etc. He wanted none of it. Well, he did want one strip of the snake skin tape, but that was it. Another parenting lesson learned-quit trying.

He worked SO hard on it. He kept adding to it and picking out new pictures.

I think it is pretty safe to say that we let him do his own work. Also, he wrote the Super Bowl stuff BEFORE the game. I told him that Denver might lose, but he was not concerned because he knew they were going to win. 

I feel like this poster sums him up perfectly. 

One expectation of the celebration week is that parents bring in snack, eat lunch with their kid, honor them in other ways, etc. In the real world, I can't just get off of work with only a few days notice, so Noni & Bop to the rescue once again. They brought in his requested snack (Little Debbie heart brownies and barrel drinks) and hung out with the class. I feel like the fact that he requested this snack also sums him up-and, it made me happy because it required zero effort outside of our normal Kroger trip. One less thing is always nice. 

And, they did balloons for the class! I am pretty sure that he is the only kid in kindergarten (the school? Knoxville?) who has a balloon man as a grandfather. If that is not winning, I just don't know what is. 

Also, he slept weird on his neck and could literally not move it that day, so he was being a trooper posing with the helmet. 

Next up was our celebration of Valentine's Day!

We got LOVE treats for the teachers. 

ALWAYS GET THE TEACHERS A PRESENT WHENEVER THERE IS A REASON! 

As an educator, I cannot stress this fact enough-teachers are raising your children; they deserve a gift on many occasions. I don't give them much for the minor holidays, but they get something because I am SO grateful for the fact that they are part of our village. 

I had an interesting conversation with another mom on a field trip once where she questioned "Teacher Appreciation Week." She said, "Teachers chose their professions; I don't get an appreciation week."

I kept it calm (HUGE win for me, if you know me at all) and explained that they did choose the profession, but we need them to keep choosing it. I asked her if she buys her own staples when she runs out or if she attends athletic events a few nights a week for her job or interacts with literally hundreds of little people every day-all of whom NEED your best at all moments. There can be no off day when you are a teacher; the future depends on unlimited positive energy, constant grading and an ability to multi task 50 things at once. Don't get me wrong, I cannot imagine any other job more amazing, more rewarding and more fun than working with kids. But, I can imagine occasionally eating lunch at work, sitting down or being well rested from not staying up late working. 

Buy them a $5 gift card and Valentine's dish towel. Just listen to me on this one. 

The boys' Valentines: Anderson did sports ones (same as last year....I bought them on clearance, hoping he we would want them and he did) and Max did Ninja Turtle (also a last year's clearance buy.) I did treat bags, but couldn't commit to the actual decorative bag, so Ziploc bags in the pantry came through for me this time. 

Anderson was so sweet and hijacked some of Noni's flowers to give to me with this sweet card. 

Brandon, as usual, came through in a  BIG way....12 delicious, fancy cookies ALL FOR ME. And, yes I ate them all that weekend. 

Because I like celebrating all events/moments, we live it up as best when we can on a holiday. I got the boys goodies-a Paw Patrol fire truck for Max & Nike shorts for Anderson-and they were PUMPED. 

Also, photobomb Gabs. 

We made a visit to GG's where the boys' faces were so stuffed with their gifts from her, they could barely smile for the camera.

Back in August, we were given a list of dates for the year and I took a half day on the day of his Valentine's party so I could attend....then it snowed on that day and I spent the entire weekend stressing out about the reschedule date because it is really difficult for me to have time that is not completely scheduled at work. 

As luck (love?) would have it, the reschedule date was perfect and I got to go! I really wanted to because Anderson wanted me there, but I also had a pretty good sized amount of cooked decorating supplies and I was unsure what we were going to do with all of that sugar besides feed it to Max.

I "borrowed" those little containers from a fast food place and each kid had their own little station with decorations and their own utensil with icing. It was so efficient and made cleaning up so nice. OCD is a real thing, my friends. 

It's nice to see that I got some high quality pictures of Anderson looking at the camera to sum up the party. 

Some January randomness

Y'all. 

In the top 5 events that have changed my life, Harry would actually be # 1 if it didn't sound bad to choose a wizard* over things like marriage and children. So, when I had the chance to visit Harry Potter World when I was in Florida for work, there were so many tears of happiness.

*A wizard who defeated evil and saved the world. Also, a wizard who wore glasses. When I put it that way I think it makes my preference ranking sound a little better. 

The entire place was amazing-it was so authentic, so true to the story and the characters, the butter beer was heavenly, the shops were adorable, the wands worked, the magic was real. 

I still cannot even believe that I was there. At Harry Potter World. What on earth. 

And, I got to go with one of my friends/coworkers who also loves Harry and we basically spent hours planning our short time there to make sure we fully lived up the experience. 

And....things continued to be awesome in Florida when we met an astronaut! He shared his story about overcoming obstacles to play in the NFL, become an engineer and join NASA. It was so inspiring and Denise & I are trying to figure out how to get him to come to AE to speak to our kids. 

After leaving my friends at Farragut 4 years ago, I am so grateful that I have a true friend at work again. It definitely makes life better. I mean, nobody can ever replace Yellow Wing, but Denise is a pretty nice addition. 

The Harry/astronaut visiting was awesome, but only about 1/11 of Jan, so back to the real fun.  We have been trying to get out the energy , so we take advantage of our Y pool. I love this pic of the big face at the top and the little face on the bottom left. They had as much fun in the lockers as they did in the pool. 

Doughnuts after mass are one of their favorite things. Also, I am so grateful that Max loves the church nursery because he willingly plays in there for over an hour, which allows me to spend time with Anderson, volunteering in his class,  and actually attend part of mass. 

Birthday party at a gymnastics place= so much fun for the lithe brother. 

Always. 

One of Anderson's favorite things to do is to play with ice. 

He loves to measure it, destroy it, throw it, build stuff with it....so much entertainment. Max also loves the idea of it, but refuses to actually go outside if it means taking off his fire gear, so Anderson brings it in for him. 

About 3 weeks late, we finally managed to find time to go to dinner for Anderson's birthday. 

(January 2016 took our sanity)

Where did he choose? Texas Roadhouse, of course!

With a little help from Noni, Anderson made this "show." I thought he did such a good job on it and my favorite part is the little guy in the eyepatch in the corner. 

So much emotion in this picture. I had no idea of the magnitude of the moment when I took it or I would have really relished in it-maybe even allowed Max to wear his fire jacket and get sprinkles all over it. 

This was our last visit to one of our favorite places on earth-Krispy Kreme. It closed! It is like a little piece of their childhood has been ripped away and I cannot even process it yet. I mean, how can a place that made an entire $1.20 off of me every week close!! (I brought their own drinks and always had a coupon for at least one of the doughnuts free, so I was not really a big spender.)

We will keep you posted on our mission to find another doughnut place that can even remotely do justice to the fried dough that our bodies demand. I will tell you this- Kroger doughnuts are NOT it. We tried and it was failure. 

For now, we have the memories. 

Uncle Curtis got a bunch of chips for his bday; I think he was pretty happy about it, too!

Speaking of birthdays, Lucy turned 3!! I mean, I very vividly remember when she was born and now she is THREE!!! And, she is the best kind of 3-adorable, sassy and rocking her own style. We love spending time with her because she is hilarious. 

We also love that Clare invited us to Chuck E Cheese for a Sat afternoon because the boys had SO much fun!

These 2 are so stinking cute together. 

Happy Birthday, Goose!