Just January {2016}

I guess I am going to keep doing my monthly summary posts as a way to document the more ordinary days of our lives and to help me get pictures off my cell phone camera.  And hey, now that I finally got a selfie stick, you may even see a bit more of me...or not.  Haha!

January and 2016 got off to a pretty good start with some bubbly drinks for toasting, some great deals on new clothes for Mattox (mostly 18 months because he is already filling out those 12 month clothes), and some coffee and Bible writing. 

I also enjoyed a yummy mimosa with the leftover Champagne one morning. 

We enjoyed trying this new (to us) donut place.  We had been planning on trying this one out for a while.  It is located in Cary although they have many locations along the NC coastal areas.   They were very yummy, but I particularly enjoyed my mint chocolate one. 

This baby has been eating like a little man and even enjoyed his very first kids' meal from Chick-fil-a.  Grilled nuggets and applesauce for the win! 

Daddy surprised us one day while we were at library story time and joined us for lunch at Chick-fil-a.  Brody decided he needed a cool hat while eating so he turned his bag into one.  He went up to get his free ice cream treat wearing his bag hat, and some older kids thought he was so funny.   

Mattox is just getting around anywhere he wants to go now.  He loves his dog, Cocoa, and his big brother Evan.  Evan was showing that he can still hold his big baby. 

Brody and I made it almost all the way through the alphabet with our letter lessons.  We got through T with our lessons before Christmas, but since he has learned most of the rest of the letters (U, V, W, X, Y, Z) in other ways, I decided to change up our lessons a little.  I wanted him to start working on learning to read a little.  We started with some "AT" words this month like Cat, Hat, Bat, and Sat.  The first book we read was "The Cat in the Hat" of course.  

We have really had to "cage" our little man in these days because he is into EVERYTHING.  If he is allowed to roam the house freely, he either attempts to climb the stairs or heads to Cocoa's metal dog bowl where I will hear him banging after he turns it over and spills whatever water is still inside.  Luckily, she never leaves any food in her bowls.  I think he may be my future drum player. 

Luckily, he doesn't mind his "cage" most of the time.  

I just thought he looked super cute wearing Evan's toboggan one day when we took him for another hearing check.  We have to take him to UNC for follow up on his right ear hearing deficiency.  

I usually like to cook pork chops in the crockpot because they are so tender and juicy, but I tried this pork chops and potato bake recipe which was pretty good.  I didn't have any onions so I just used onion powder.  My husband and kids didn't miss the onions.

Brody showing me how he can write some of our names, and me trying to get some cuddles from my littlest man. 

Just trying to get some pictures of Mattox in his new dinosaur jammies.  I like the dinosaurs, but I really love the green and gray colors of these very soft pajamas.  He was just rocking that green!  And that cute face in the bottom left picture is just so Eddie.  Daddy can't deny him! 

On a surprise extra snow day that the boys had off from school because some parts of our school district were still suffering without power and poor road conditions from the ice, I took these boys and our neighbor friend, Ryan, to see a movie.  We went to the cheap theater to finally see Hotel Transylvania 2.  Ryan had already seen it, but he didn't mind.  Then, we went to an old NC State favorite Italian restaurant called Amedeo's.  Eddie and I went there some when we were dating in college. 

It has a lot of NC State memoribilia on display. 

This kid can be a real handful these days.  Here he is pulling some picture frames off the shelf.  When Evan was this age, we had movies on this shelf, and he would always pull them off.  Those two are just so similar. 

One of the last Fridays of the month was a nice day so we stopped for Sonic treats after picking Evan up from school.  Brody got whipped cream all over his face trying to get his cherry. 

Some more of our reads from the month.  I enjoyed another Kristin Hannah book which was such a sweet tale of love between a teenage girl who desperately needed a mom, and a sweet lady who desperately wanted to be a mother.  Again, an emotional tale I can empathize with.  I also read "Always Something There to Remind Me" by Beth Harbison about first love and all of those difficult emotions that can be difficult to get over.  Brought back so many memories from my own teen years.  Brody read some more Stage 1 early reading books from the library, and Evan read some (he has been bringing home and starting so many books lately and not finishing them) of the Journal of James Edmond Pease about a Civil War Union soldier.  He did read some more Hardy Boys books too which he picked out from his school library.

And that was our month with a few snow/ice days and a birthday celebration too.  Now, we are only a few weeks away from celebrating another big and special birthday, and we are enjoying a little more snow this week on a little trip to the mountains with Daddy.