8 Pics

Just eight random pics from our night. Carson is seriously the best sleeper ever. He's still in a crib b/c we just can't bear the thought of not having it as good as we do with his sleeping. He still goes to bed willingly almost every night and sleeps until we go get him around 7am. He's usually awake when we go in there in the mornings, but he's laying there smiling. He does insist right now that Darrin put him to bed every night. He still says "Daddy do it" 100 times a day. I'm not mad about it.

I'm a little obsessed with It's a 10 products. They smell so good. I wish they made lotion.

Our elf, Cranberry Stripyboughs, is still hanging around. Miles put out that mason jar on the table hoping he would jump in tonight so he could take him to school tomorrow, but then he decided that he's rather take him to school on Monday for Polar Express day. We'll see what happens.

Carson is getting a train table for Christmas. Miles and I started working on the tracks tonight. It's so fun to work on this with Miles. We are going to design something fun and then glue it down b/c I don't enjoy picking up train tracks in all my spare time....and then putting them back over and over.

Carson wouldn't let me get him out of the high chair tonight. "Daddy do it." He's serious about this.

Carson has been playing with Miles' Batman caves. It's pretty cute to watch. He doesn't have the same amount of love for them yet, b/c that would be a whole lot, but he might one day.

Miles had his first basketball practice of the season tonight. He was so excited to go.

He has the same coaches as last year, which is great. They were so nice and helpful. He is #5 and his team is the Badgers. I'm excited to watch him play, but I have to say that I'm not looking forward to chasing Carson around. I'm sure we'll find a way!

Less Words Wednesday

His selfie game is still strong.

Weekend Wrap Up

It was the weekend of parties....four to be exact. Before the weekend got crazy busy, we started off with a little playing and snuggling in bed.

They both love to play on our bed. It kind of drives me crazy b/c they always mess up the sheets, but I've learned to just get over it.

Then, it was time for breakfast. We had eggs, turkey bacon, and homemade biscuits. Carson has had a big appetite for a couple days now, which is kind of unusual for him. He had a ton of ham too.

Darrin took Carson to Walmart after breakfast so I could get started on some things around the house. Carson loves to go to Walmart especially with Darrin. He says "mallmart". Darrin actually went tonight without him and Carson was deeply offended. Miles said, "It's hard to find a kid that likes to go to Walmart, but we've found one!"

Miles made some cookies for his baseball party which was that afternoon. We think it's time he started learning how to cook and read recipes. He likes it for now, so we need to seize the moment. Everyone loved his cookies, so I made sure to tell them that he made them. I think he liked that. After all, he is my child and nothing makes me happier than when people like my cooking.

Carson enjoyed licking the beater.

I made these for the adult baseball party on Saturday night. They are always a favorite.

This is his team and a couple siblings. We include the siblings in things like this and birthday parties b/c they put up with a lot of hours at the baseball field too.

Coach Roger was explaining the rules of Dirty Santa. He concluded his instructions with "get what you get and don't throw a fit". Surprisingly, there were no melt downs. Of course, all the gifts were great, so there was no reason for a fit. Miles brought a huge bag of Sour Patch candy with a $10 bill taped to it. He ended up with a Nerf gun which he really liked.

They ended the party with a couple games.

They are a special group of boys that have been together for 3 years now. I hope they have many more years together...selfishly I love hanging out with their parents :)

Because we do love hanging out, we had a little party of our own. Like Friendsgiving, we played Left, Center, Right. Sadly, Darrin and I didn't win.

Missing a couple, but I love these ladies.

We ate, played Dirty Santa, and then played a couple other games. Darrin was in the middle of the games...

...while I snuggled up with their dog and the blanket I got during Dirty Santa. In fairness to me, I think this was taken close to midnight. Our babysitter text about this time and asked when we would be home, so we left soon after.

It was another fun night with great friends.

On Sunday afternoon, Miles had a birthday party for one of the baseball boys. His best friend, Mason, was also invited to the party too. They were quite happy to spend two hours together since they don't get to see each other as much now that Mason doesn't go to afterschool anymore. I didn't go to the party, but his mom said they were inseparable all afternoon.

And the last party of the weekend was a dinner for the volleyball team at our house. They wore Christmas pjs and played Dirty Santa. We fed them lasagna, salad, rolls, carrot cake, and Dirt Pudding. We also had a couple gluten free options for two of the girls that can't have the good stuff.

It was a fun weekend and the exhaustion didn't hit until I got home from my work out this morning. It was then that I laid on the floor and couldn't move. I finally pulled myself together and made it to work, but I was so tired all day. All I could think about all day was relaxing all night and going to bed early. But, here we are at 9pm and I haven't sat down yet. That's all about to change as soon I hit publish. Good night!

He Did It!

Darrin decided in late July that he wanted to lose weight. He talked to a friend that had success with a program called Ideal Protein. He made an appointment the following week and got started immediately. In four months, he's lost a total of 62lbs and 24 inches. His transformation has been unreal. These pics are from his first and last day.

The program helps you lose weight and then transition to maintaining it. That's where he is now. He has been so committed to this. I'm sure it hasn't been easy, but he's made it look that way. We are so proud of him!

Less Words Wednesday

2018 school pictures.

(3rd Grade)

(2 year old room at PDS)

5 Pics

Just five quick pics for tonight. I'm a sucker for holiday pjs...Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day....I love them all. Carson loves to eat his snacks in a bowl. At night, he says, "Bowl".

They were both wound up during the Titans' game last week. This was after a touchdown. They were both running around screaming. That is life with boys.

Miles picked this gift out for Carson's 2nd birthday. This could be his favorite gift ever. He loves to play with cars, so he puts all his cars on here and it entertains him for a while. It's a rarity that he plays by himself, so he clearly likes the toy.

Yesterday it was a Johnny Cash kind of day for the McClure boys. That's what we say when someone wears all black. Check out Carson's face. Even when he's not up to something, he's thinking about it :)

A new elf came to see us over the weekend. I was in Nashville when he arrived. Miles named him Cranberry Stripyboughs. He and Darrin always pick the name based on some name match chart. Supposedly he was named after me this year. So far, he's been pretty chill. He just moves around, but doesn't get into much. Looks like he's keeping an eye on the boys. 

Weekend Wrap Up

I spent the weekend in Nashville with four of my favorite people. This was the third year in a row for six of us to plan a Christmas shopping trip together. We missed one of our friends this weekend due to a death in her family. We missed her so much and thought about her a lot during the weekend.

We shopped until we dropped....and until there wasn't any space left in the car.

Seriously, by the time the weekend was over, I don't think we could have fit one more thing in my car. The entire back was full and everyone had bags at their feet and in their laps. It was humorous.

We've already talked about having to plan a little better next year. We are contemplating moving this trip to the summer and going to the beach for a long weekend. We would love to do a longer trip, but we all have children and most of them are little. It's hard to get away at this phase in our lives.

We didn't take many pictures b/c we really were just enjoying the weekend. I don't live in the same town as them anymore so I loved catching up. We always pick up where we left off. We stayed up late, talked, ate, shared, shopped, and laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was fantastic. This group is perfect to travel with. We are all completely comfortable with each other (maybe a little too comfortable at times...you know the conversation I'm talking about ladies :) and we just floated between conversations and time with each other all weekend. I enjoyed time with each one of them together and individually. We all looked forward to the weekend for a long time and it totally lived up to the hype. Until next year ladies!