Clayton is the 4th child to sleep in this crib converted to a toddler bed. I remember when Dawson put teeth marks in it as a baby, and I was mortified! Fast forward 8 years and I hear a loud noise from Clayton's room one morning in early January. I go running in to see Clayton laying on his bed and the toddler rail broken off! All I could do is laugh. Oh Clayton!
The beginning of January was COLD and so we enjoyed warm pajamas and fires!
One of Nora Kate's Christmas presents was a Baking Box. We got her a dessert cook book, her own purple mixing utensils, and ingredients to bake several different recipes in the book. She LOVED this gift. These are the first cookies she chose to bake out of the cookbook. That's white chocolate drops in the middle of these red velvet cookies. She had so much fun!
January meant Basketball Games started for both big boys.
This is Carter's first year playing, and he invited his awesome kindergarten teacher to come to his first game-and she came!
John is super-Daddy and coaching BOTH basketball teams!
After I wanted a picture of the basketball boys and Coach Daddy for their first game...Nora Kate and Clayton decided they needed a picture with Daddy too.
Sometimes you just need to go to Claire's and try on tiaras!
The kids went to our neighbor, Lane's birthday party on Sunday afternoon in January. They got their faces painted. Nora Kate requested a unicorn!
Carter wanted a rainbow.
I've been cleaning out and organizing this month. Clayton discovered that this cabinet now has enough room for him to play inside it. Haha! Look at that face!
After too many cold days, we were thrilled to see the sunshine and a little warmth! Nora Kate wanted to run while Clayton chilled in the stroller on our walk around the neighborhood.
More baking with this sweet girl.
Nora Kate loves her Barbie house....and it appears that Clayton is equally interested in playing Barbies.
Dawson got invited to his school friend, Dylan's birthday party at Laser Tag. He had a blast!
After a dusting of snow one Sunday afternoon, we decided to visit Cades Cove.
We saw several deer (you can see two in this picture above), a coyote, and turkey.
We had to check out the icicles!
yThis month was One Book Blitz at the boys' school. The book the entire county and city read this year was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Here we are on the treasure hunt for The Golden Ticket around Maryville.
Dawson lost a tooth and scored a Gold Dollar from the tooth fairy!
SNOW DAY!
One day the kids' school was canceled for ice, the following week they were out two days for snow! They loved all this extra time home and out of school.
They also enjoyed lots of playtime in the snow! We made snow angels, sledded, went on a snow walk, made snowballs, made snow cream (they're eating it in the picture below), and played with friends (including some neighbors who had a snowboard and let the kids try it out-they loved it).
We have enjoyed watching many birds at our feeder through all this cold weather. The kids kept saying this cardinal was looking in the window-and every time I looked, he really seemed to be! Nora Kate requested I take a picture.
More baking with this sassy baker!
yI asked Nora Kate to go get ready for Dawson's basketball scrimmage. She comes back with a purse, many bracelets, rings, and necklaces...yup, she's ready! Haha!
yCarter wrote me the sweetest note: Mommy You are a wonderful Mommy. I love you.
yFinally it warmed up a little bit (mid 40's), so I could get in a long run. 8 miles! It felt great! I'm hoping/planning to run the Knoxville Half Marathon in March (we will see!). The run felt great, but unfortunately about 2 hours after my run, I quickly came down with the flu....along with Nora Kate and Clayton.
The tooth fairy has been busy-now Carter lost a tooth! It was his 2nd!
yCarter loves writing. He made this sweet list I found.
What I like:
Bottlecaps, art, legos, laser tag, football, climbing trees, soccer, switch, family, fishing, candy, snow, exploring, lovie, blankey, beach, park, donuts, games, fireworks.
Class picture day...so I made the boys new bowties to wear.
As I mentioned, Clayton, NK, and I had the flu. Yuck...I hadn't felt this bad in a long time. They were pretty pitiful too. Nora Kate ended up developing bronchitis on top of it, and then Clayton got an ear infection.
yNora Kate has been requesting french braids some and she always wants me to take a picture so she can see the back and side.
It's not easy braiding her curls, but I think I'm getting better with all the practice I've had lately-thanks to numerous requests.
This month the boys' school celebrated their 100th day!
yWhen Nora Kate was sick with the flu, I asked her one day what could make her feel better. She quickly answered, "Braids and decorating for Valentine's Day." So I braided her hair, and then we decorated.
yClayton NEVER, I mean NEVER, falls asleep with us holding him anymore. But one Saturday morning at the boys' basketball games after we were in our 3rd hour of being at the games, Grandad was snuggling Clayton, and Mr. Baby fell asleep. So sweet!
The last weekend of January we took the kids hiking. We hiked right at 2 miles roundtrip. We hiked the Metcalf Bottoms Trail from Metcalf Bottoms to the Little Greenbriar School. Even thought you can see gravel paths in this picture it was all gravel. There were a couple of steeper parts, but it was not bad at all-the kids did great!
In front of the old school.
Their favorite part of this hike were the 3 bridges.
yJohn surprised us when we were getting packed up to leave our house for the hike, and said we should packup to spend the night at one of our favorite places in Gatlinburg-the Park Vista. So after hiking we headed on to Gatlinburg. When we checked in we got 814 which is also our favorite room/view there. Here's the view from our room!
The kids love their room because it has two bunkbeds.
They're in their swimsuits here because we are about to go to the pools.
yAfter hours spent playing in the water...Clayton was exhausted. He didn't sleep here, but he laid here while I was getting everyone's beds ready and was so exhausted he didn't even move.
We had so much fun on our surprise weekend getaway as an early Valentine's present. The kids LOVE the pools and water slides, elevator, mountains, and everything here.
Here we are loaded up to head back home after a super fun weekend!
Saturday was 2 basketball games, a hike, then hours in the pool and waterslides. Sunday we got a late checkout and spent a few hours in the pool and waterslides before loading up to leave. It's safe to say everyone had a great time and was exhausted-if you can't tell from this picture!
These are out of order-but they're from the snow days earlier in January!
