Things in December besides Christmas

We had some amazing weather over the past few weeks and have taken FULL advantage of it by spending every minute outside. 

*There has also been cold weather, which we also took full advantage of by spending every minute outside, but those pictures are not as fun. 

Noni & Bop share a birthday 48 hour period, so we always get to celebrate them together. We went to Wasabi to eat where Anderson enjoyed the show and Max was SO hysterical about the fire that I had to take him to the lobby for the rest of it. 

After I got him calmed down, his little voice told me, "Mama! It is going to get my hair! I have a lot of hair!" 

I know what you are thinking-what kind of poser fire fighter hates fire?

Bop got a coconut pie from this little pie shop in Knoxville, which looked pretty gross, but he said it was good. 

Not birthday related, but I love how my kids fully embrace anything that can be made into an obstacle course. 

Noni had a birthday too and we celebrated by eating Salsarita's (at her house because my laziness won) and having a cake from Aunt Manda. 

They both got a turn with the candles because that is how Noni rolls. 

Anderson spent so long making this picture for GG & JPa; he was so proud of it.

 Brandon even joined in on the fun. 

Chalk crushing. Early morning activity. Boy crafting. 

The sandbox knows no season.

One day over the break, I looked up and they were BOTH asleep. This is the first and only time that they have both ever been asleep at the same time during the day and it was possibly the most amazing 30 minutes ever. I kept looking in there and grinning. 

And, then.....they were both awake until after 10 and I decided that I do not want to be a part of the nap time world because I prefer a 9:00 bedtime. 

But, so cute. 

Our festive random tree. Our ditch. Our boys. 

In an attempt to get out some energy, we pumped it up. 

But, the real savior of the break was when Noni & Bop took A to the bowl game in Birmingham where he got to play in Aunt Manda's new pool!

The Memphis obsession is strong with this one. 

Shout out to Aunt Manda & Noah and Noni for sitting in the rainy crowd to humor this kid. 

Meanwhile, with just Max at home, I had the time of my life (serious, no sarcasm) cleaning out everything I could find from the attic to cabinets to closets. My happiest of places is cleaning out something and organizing and throwing stuff away. 

I also love hoarding, so it is a bit of an oxymoron, I realize. 

Organizing is so therapeutic. 

So much fighting. So much love. Brothers. 

Because we love activities, outdoors and putting up with cold weather, we hit up quite a few parks on quite a few days. Every now & then I would look up and realize that we were alone....

This might be my new favorite picture. These boys and their excitement about our ditch makes the long days worth it. 

It will never cease to amaze me that I somehow managed to snag the cutest 3 boys in the entire world to all live in my house. 

My Best 9 from last year. I did not share on Instagram because I forgot, but I like that each of my boys has equal representation from the year. 

2016: Bring it!

F is for Football, Firetrucks, Family, Food & Festivities

Because my house is always full of early risers, we try to make the most of our time before sunrise. So, on Christmas Eve it was cookie making for the win....

or fail. 

Whatever. At least the icing tasted good. 

Baby Levi in the mush pot. 

Please look how happy Aunt Manda is because she is always chill and how THRILLED Lily is to be sitting in her lap, despite the chaos around them. 

He is not sleeping, but is watching TV all snuggled up with his real mama. 

This.baby.right.here. 

High quality. Always. 

Thankful for my mom's ability to make things festive.

Anderson got a CJ Anderson jersey and was PUMPED. 

Also, he picked these bows out for Reese by himself at church and was so proud to give them to her. 

Lily made cookies and we all noticed that a giant bite was taken out of one of them-no guesses needed: Kyler was there. 

 I love, love the excitement and festivities of Christmas Eve and so grateful for family to celebrate with. Also, I know the holiday is not about the gifts, but the ones that everyone got my boys were PERFECT!! We are so thankful.

Gag gifting/Face Timing. 

Firefighter Max just grabbed a giant bag of skittles and climbed into Pappaw's lap for a snuggle. 

A selfie stick might have made an appearance....

Can we talk about how much I LOVE being Santa? I mean, maybe too much. It's not even about the stuff, it is about the planning, hoarding and magic of all of it. I literally buy stuff all year on clearance and then sort of play the list through my mind at various points. Every single thing in the picture was bought on a clearance sale prior to December except the art set. That was a frantic last minute call to Nicole to exploit her Amazon Prime & 2 day shipping. 

I just love the planning aspect of all of it & the opportunity to clearance shop with a purpose. 

And, my kids. I also love them. 

4:45 is what time my children woke up on Christmas. They went to bed at 9:45 on the Eve.

 That coffee cup in the middle of the picture was the real star of the show. 

As usual, Brandon did an AWESOME job with my stocking & gifts and mostly the celebrating.

Santa is always so good to the girls, despite Chloe's naughtiness. 

Forever grateful to my husband for his ability to make miracles happen-like snagging this jersey, which I think was the last one available anywhere. Apparently there were not many kid jerseys in smoky gray that were made when the switch to Nike happened, so we had to hunt. 

Look at how talented Aunt LoLo is-she made this!! Also, she sells them and has her own website!

Practicing before the cousins came over so that they could be ambushed. 

Also, I got a new coupon holder!!! Giddiness. (Gold Star. )

Family. 

Dissecting owl pellets. It was pretty disgusting, but also so cool to compare all of the little bones to the bone chart. You can just order these on Amazon!

One day he will fully appreciate how I dress him like Max from the Grinch.