(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!

Cow Parade & Bulls.

Saturday was the first White Out game for the Tarheels against Va Tech. They wore all white, including new white football helmets, for the first time since the '60s.

The Cow Parade is in town and there are several throughout campus. You can bet that the kids are obsessed with them. So we had to get pictures taken with some of them.

This is Alex. He sits behind us. We have sat near his family since he was a baby.

He has a little crush.

He held my hand the entire walk to the stadium from our tailgate.

When we saw the cow he was adamant that we take a picture together...with no one else in it.

 After the game we took some family pics with the cow in the stadium. He is painted as Moo Moo Justice after Tarheel legend, Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice.

On the way back to the car we stopped at the cow outside of the Carolina Club.

How is that for a picture... the boys on the Tarheel cow where we had wedding reception pictures taken.

And since we're talking about cows, we went to the Efland Rodeo after the game. I thought Deuce was going to sleep through it because he hadn't napped all day, but as soon as the horses came flying out of the gate he was wide awake. He has become slightly obsessed with bulls too. Can you tell?

And for those of you that have been asking.

Here is Daniel riding the mechanical bull at Arizona Pete's last month.

His thighs were bruised for days! Comical.

Sorry I've been MIA. We've hit the terrible twos for real and it's mentally exhausting.

I need to write a good post about all of the things he is doing so I can document it for him later in life.

And I need to document all of the funny things he is saying right now.

Like how he points to the kangaroo in his Curious George book and says "Kanataroo."

Or how he has to listen to The Temptations over and over again in the car while he plays his "Tanerine" (tambourine). And he is fierce with that thing. Head bobbing and shaking it hard.

My friend Carrie posted a day in the life on her blog where she took a picture of herself every hour documenting her average day. That was such a good idea and I totally need to do it like once a month. Everything is changing so often and going by too fast. I need to write it all down!