January

January and February were both filled with lots of sickness for us, So I'm finally getting around to documenting January at the beginning of March. 

Eric worked New Years Eve and Day, so the boys and I hit up Chick Fil A and Moes. Levi was fascinated by all the people getting their drinks behind him, and spent most of his time snacking on chips and leaning back like this to make anyone he saw smile at him.

Mondays are for free Dewey's cake squares :-)

Levi did a lot of nap-skipping in January thanks to his crazy momma who kept him going going when she should have been putting him in his crib (whoops). It kind of paid off though, because a few times he was so tired in the evenings that he just snuggled up on me and did this. I wasn't complaining. 

Baby shenanigans. 

Both the boys were obsessed with this little Christmas ornament from when Eric was in 2nd or 3rd grade. They kept sneaking it off and carrying it around the house. He WAS a pretty cute kid. 

The library is a lot more interesting now with Levi crawling around and pulling all the books off the shelf!

Samuel played basketball on Thursday in January. I don't know how much he *actually* learned, but by the end of the month he was saying he was going to be a basketball coach like Coach James when grew up, so I guess he liked it (even if he spent half his time just running around instead of following directions)

I love making side by sides of my kids at the same age. 

Keeping it real - this is what our house looked like most mornings. 

It snowed! A lot. All weekend and then school was cancelled for 3 days. Thankfully Eric was off to enjoy it with us for the first few days

I love how magical everything looks when the snow is fresh!

Samuel LOVED making snow angels. 

Levi wasn't super impressed. We could make him smile with funny faces and noises though.

Snow ball fight!

Snow cream!

Samuel kept "borrowing" tiny toys from school and doing silly things like this with them.

Snow day antics. We were getting a little stir crazy after a while.

The snow was too powdery for a real snowman, so we just built one into the ground. haha. 

2016/2017

"Please let me hold my brother!!!!!"

One of two or three baby showers in the month of January? I'm losing count. There are so so many babies coming these days. 

Samuel and his buddies playing Candy Land. 

Levi discovered looking out the window.

I got nostalgic and made a bunch of collages like this.

S&L.

I don't even remember where he got this monster from, but man, he was OBSESSED.

Levi's first Five Guys experience (actually eating). Samuel just ate peanuts.

Samuel earned these fruit snacks from the gym as his "pom pom prize."

It's been a really warm winter, so lots of playing outdoors once the snow melted away!

We moved the bookshelf to make room for my new piano on the way!

10 months old! + Outtakes.

Levi is way more interested in Samuel in the mornings than S is in him.

I think this was Day 2 of the sickness that invaded. Samuel got the stomach bug 3 days before his birthday. Eric and I felt sick too, but never puked. Levi got some kind of cold and shared that with us also, so we were all sick to our stomach and snotty. I lost my voice and literally could not talk. It was pretty fabulous. 

Then my parents came to visit for Samuel's birthday. 

Lunch at Fresh Melt.

Samuel's birthday party at Chick Fil A! 

Left to right: Ryan, Walker, Branch, Samuel, John Tyler, Levi

I planned to get a picture of  him with each of his friends. This is what I got.

Real life, guys.

And more fun at home!

My new piano!

Birthday morning "4" chocolate chip pancake.

Legos with Grammy.

Branch's birthday is 2 days after Samuel, so his party at the trampoline park happened on Samuel's actual birthday! He had a blast despite still being a little under the weather.

Lunch at PB's at Samuel's request before Grammy and Pappy had to leave.

Birthday hair cut + Lollipop

A cute pic my mom snapped of Levi.

We closed out Samuel's birthday by taking him on a mommy-daddy-Samuel date to Bonefish Grill. He's been BEGGING to go there for months. He still says it's his favorite place.

I look huge here because of the angle, but oh well. Still a rare pic of the four of us all looking at the camera,.

Some birthday presents: his "body book" and some Finding Dory kinetic sand!

Poor sweet boy basically had a cold in his eyes. He was such a trooper, but this is what he looked like for 3-4 days. He kept waking up with his eyes plastered shut with goop. It was so so so sad.

Another baby shower!

And a few other pics I got from my mom:

Despite the sickness, January was a really fun month! I can't believe my baby boy is 4! It was really fun watching him grow and celebrate this month. Things didn't go quite as we had planned, but they all worked out. God is good like that. :-)