four years old...

Dear Deuce,

You are four years old!

I am so full of love for you.

My favorite time of day is first thing in the morning when you crawl into my bed, wrap your arms around my neck and tell me you want to snuggle. I don't want these days to end.

You tell me you love me frequently.

You tell me I am the best mom in the whole world.

You tell me you love me thiiiiiiiisssssss much, with your arms stretched out wide.

You make me smile every day.

You make me so thankful that He chose me to be your mommy.

You are smart, funny, silly, sweet and independent all in one.

You are so full of energy and you are loved be so many.

You really enjoy playing soccer.

You like baseball, but I think the pace may be a little slow for you right now.

I often find you playing in the dirt in the infield instead of watching the batter.

You have so many great friends.

You consider Carter, Harrison and Chase to be your brothers.

And you tell us that Zaria is your girlfriend.

You love to play the drums and listen to hip hop and country.

Your favorite group is definitely Florida Georgia Line.

You can sing all the words to their songs.

And you love Hot Girls in the Country by Honeysuckle Ridge.

Mommy is so proud.

Your favorite restaurant is the "Peanut Place."

Texas Roadhouse

You also like to eat pizza, hot dogs, cheeseburgers and masghetti. Yes, masghetti.

I love you so much Christopher.

Happy 4th Birthday.

Hi.lar.ious. video of Ed....

Ed had his wisdom teeth taken out this morning. Check out this video of him in the recovery room immediately after. He was quite loopy and kept making faces at this little nurse behind me. He is now laying next to me, knocked out, sawing logs.

Urgent Care - Tyler Hansbrough Style

I can't believe that it took us 3 years and 10 months before Deuce had his first visit to the Urgent Care for stitches. As active as he is and as hard as he plays, it's a miracle that we haven't ended up there before. It was the afternoon of the Duke/Carolina game and Ed and TJ stopped to pick Deuce up from school. He was so excited to see them that he took off running across the classroom, tripped and smacked his head on the edge of a table. He hit his brow bone perfectly so that it split open, much like a boxer when they are punched. Ed said it immediately started gushing blood and he started crying. I was leaving work so I rushed back to Greensboro to meet them at the Urgent Care. Deuce is a momma's boy so I could only imagine his terror being stitched up and me not being there. I am sure I was making it much worse on myself than necessary but isn't that what we do as moms? So by the time I got to the Urgent Care they were still in the waiting room. Deuce had a single band aid over his eye that was soaked red with blood. But he was as happy as a clam. The first thing he said to me was, "Mom, I got bleed on my tarheel shirt." I think that was the most devastating part for him. He was finally brought back as the last patient of the evening and the only time he really cried a little was when they took the band-aid off. Other than that he was fine. We made it home just in time for the basketball game (thank goodness because it was a great one).

After they stitched him up, I ran to CVS to get some gauze pads. I was worried that he would try and pull the butterfly band aids off or scratch his eye while he was asleep. So I covered him in gauze and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. He couldn't stop looking at himself in the mirror and smiling. He tried to stay up for the basketball game but only made it to half time. He crashed in my bed. He is all healed now and just has a little line over his eye.

Winter Snow 2014

We had so much snow hit us in 24 hours that I have now seen enough to last me for the next couple of years. The snow is so fun for this first couple of hours and is so pretty when it is coming down. But when you live in the south where there is not enough city equipment to handle the amount of snow that we got, it is a huge burden. Fortunately, we all knew it was coming so I worked from home on Wednesday. Thank goodness I was not over an hour away from home because I  never would have made it. It started coming down a little after lunch time and I was assuming that Ed was going to leave work and scoop Deuce up on his way home. But no, he's goes by the book so when his work didn't officially dismiss anyone, he didn't leave. So I checked the cameras at school and saw that Deuce was in the middle of a nap. It had just started snowing so I thought I would let him sleep and then go get him. It would take a little while to stick to the roads because it wasn't sticking to the grass quite yet. After about an hour I kept looking outside and I could no longer see the road. I freaked and left immediately. My little civic is not made for snow and ice. Deuce's school is about 10 minutes away from the house. It took me 2 hours to get to him and get home. Some very kind strangers even pushed my car (and everyone else's) up an icy hill in the middle of a huge intersection because we couldn't get through. When we got home I swore I wasn't leaving. And I didn't for almost 3 days. We got about 10 inches at our house over the next 24 hours. By the end of the next day, I was over it. I was trying to work from home (as was Ed actually) and when you have a 3 year old who doesn't understand work and only understands sledding, it's super hard. Friday I decided to clear the driveway so we could attempt to get out. The main road in our neighborhood had been plowed but the front yard is blocked from the sun by our house so hardly any of the snow had melted. And of course when they plow, they pile up like 2 feet of snow in front of your driveway, like that helps at all. My little guy loves to help out so he got his little pink sand shovel and went to work.

Winter Basketball 2013 - 2014

Deuce finished up his second season of basketball at the beginning of the month. He really enjoyed playing with Carter and the bigger kids. The boy never stops, he is super busy. Starting next month he will be playing soccer and baseball, basketball at school and taking karate. He wants to try everything and I will definitely let him. Although he has the sports he really loves (football), I want him to grow up playing it all and not focus on any one thing in particular. I think that makes you a better athlete in the long run and there is less chance of burn out. And who knows what his size will be and what he may end up being better at. As long as we can afford it, I'll encourage him to try.

Happenings

So TJ's 12th birthday was this past Sunday, the 19th. Ed and I decided to do an overhaul on his room to make it a little more "middle-schooler-ish" as a gift to him. We created an organized closet, got him a new desk and bookshelf, moved his bed and added decor to the walls.

(I made the wall hangings out of Ed's old t shirts that are too big for him now that he's the Hulk and in the gym everyday. I have since added a big "T" and "J" in the space above and below the middle picture.)

We asked his mom to keep him Saturday night so that we could clean his room (it was seriously disturbingly disgusting) and pull it all together. Well Nana was out of town so I didn't think too much about having Deuce at the house as a major distraction. He was such a good helper, throwing away trash and moving stuff where we asked. However there were a few times when he would disappear and I would realize that he had been gone for awhile. I found him at one point in the bathroom using the Vaseline that Santa brought in his stocking to make sure he was keeping his lips from getting chapped. I mean how can you be mad at that?

I think that half of the container was gone after this one use. Then on Sunday I found him in the bathroom yet again and when I saw him I scared him. Ed has not seen this picture yet. He almost started to cry when i gasped so loud and said "What are you doing???" As soon as I saw his face I immediately felt bad as he choked out "I just want to have paint like you, mommy." So then I laughed and told him he had done a great job and when he was done could he put the dry-erase marker back on the easel. (He had only done his nails at this point.) I walked back out of the bathroom for a few minutes when he hollered, "mommy I am putting make-up on too!" So I just shouted back, "Ok, come show me when you're done." The below is the end result. I died laughing. He did too. Then he took a shower and it came right off. Whew.

We took some of TJ's friends out to Kick Back Jack's Sunday night for his birthday, since the NFL playoffs were on. We had a great time watching Deuce and Chase run throughout the restaurant cheering with random people.

Check out my little guy's basketball pictures. He looks so grown!

And since it's so cold outside he is thoroughly enjoying his time riding his new bike from Pop around the garage!

(photo heavy post...)

So I had off a pretty decent amount of time from work for the holidays (December 13 - January 6th) and I was super busy, as usual. First we went to Knoxville for my cousin's graduation from UT. We had a blast. My family is amazing. One of the best time's I've ever had with my dad. Then the following Wednesday, me and Laura took Deuce to Virginia for our annual holiday trip before Christmas. It was nice and relaxing although Deuce brought the 24 hour rota-virus with him from school, that we all managed to get. Gross. We came back that Sunday night, I did last minute shopping on Monday and we took Deuce to a kids Christmas party with a bunch of friends in Chapel Hill. Tuesday was Christmas Eve and we had our annual party with the Smith family. My dad came in to town and we had a nice Christmas day at our house, then my parents and then Ed's parents. Deuce was back to school on Thursday and Ed was back to work so I was lazy. Friday me, mom and Laura took a trip to IKEA in Charlotte. Ahhhhhh. It was the first trip for me and mom and it was awesome. I came back ready to remodel and redecorate our entire house. The next day we all headed back to Charlotte for the Belk Bowl where we had a blast. We had awesome seats, saw Blake Shelton & Miranda up close and watched the Heels play great. Then I had a whole-nother week off. (That is totally not a word but that's how I say it and a whole another week just ain't right.) I did some shopping and cleaning around the house and organizing and napping for sure. I hung out with mom a couple of days and we had some great conversations about life and parenting and love that I will hold on to forever. So I used my new camera some but not as much as I wanted to because I have to remember that I have it. Especially since it's so small it just hides in my purse! I took all of these pictures after we had Christmas morning at my house because I opened my camera as one of my last gifts...

 Seriously, he loves this thing. It is one of those light things that shines stars on the ceiling but it's a Rameses like the big was he's holding above. He now has 2 of those AND a panther's one.

 Mom is going to kill me for this but I love her expression. She was beyond excited to get her kindle from my bro.

 The best in-laws ever.

 Our buddy Jabari Price (#4). He's such an awesome kid.

 Sorry, I had too. There was no light in the porta-potty (obviously) and it was super dark in the parking lot. I was using my phone so he could see while saying "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!"

 He dressed himself and said "I match!"

 Val & Davis are expecting baby boy #2 in April so we had a surprise shower for her.

 Lia Foster Lewis, the best baby ever.

 Love these girls.

 Warming up before his game.

 You can see him and Carter are obviously not 5-6 like the rest of the kids but they still play along just fine.

 Weston turned 4 so we headed to Wake Forest in the tornado's for his party.

 I got my baby Bowen time in. After he spit up all over Laura, lol!