Wonder Woman

Sanna found our shin guards and was messing around with them. She was wearing this dress that I normally hate but when I looked at her I laughed out loud because she looked like Wonder Woman! So we put a headband on her and got her into character (though she hasn't even seen the movie yet, ha ha)

November

November was a busy month! We started out the month with Chico getting a big gash in his arm while playing on a chain swing. We had to take him to the ER and that story is on Instagram.  Sad part of the story is he didn't get to participate in swim team that month.  He didn't seem devastated by that at all but it bummed me out.

Griz did the swim meet solo that weekend and he did awesome.  He's so funny, he can swim really fast if properly motivated but often lacks the motivation.  He's only 6 so that's okay I guess. Ha ha.  I had to go to that meet by myself so I didn't take the nice camera so that is on Instagram as well.

I tried to keep up with homeschool with the kids during the month.  I was quite stressed with packing for the move so it wasn't happening quite as much as I'd like and when we DID do it I wasn't a very good/nice teacher so it was better that we skipped days than force it.

We had one of Brent's classmates, Rachel, staying with us for the month.  She was really fun to have around. The kids loved her and she even tended for us occasionally.  It was nice especially because Brent was gone for long hours again on this cardiology rotation. 

We went on a lot of walks at the park where the boys were on their bikes and I was pushing Sanna in the stroller.  Those were the really good days of November and kept us going through the stressful month.  It's amazing how being outside and using your body positively can do that for you!

If I could describe MY November in a few words it would be:  packing, working out, and eating healthy.

If the kids could describe it in a few words it would be: playing, snapchat, playing with Rachel, and staying out of mom's radar 

If Brent could describe it in a few words it would be: Cardiology, Studying, and Driving

These pictures are from a particular day that Brent had off. I was packing up the game cabinet and the kids wanted to play with the puzzles. They were being really cute so Brent got out the camera.

Then a little later they started a fire in the grill.  They love doing that.

The day before Thanksgiving the kids decided they wanted to do some lego building tutorials. There are a bunch of videos they created but they and I took a few stills too. Cute kids.

Thanksgiving day came! Brent went and played some football with the boys.  They had a lot of fun.  Chico got into the game halfway through and helped out his team a lot.  They won the game! The Branch members that were playing were really fun with the kids.  I wished I could have gone and played but somebody had to make the turkey! :)
I hate dealing with raw meat but I'm willing to do it occasionally when the need arises.  Wrapping bacon around a turkey is so very delicious.  The oven isn't the best but it all worked out in the end.
I made brussel sprouts, asperagues, sweet potatoes (my favorite), and homemade cranberry sauce.  I also made super delicious rolls.  Only thing I didn't make this year was the pies.  I didn't have the energy and I didn't want to be tempted by them.

 We had the Taylors over for our Thanskgiving feast and that was fun.

 Brent had the boys do ALL the dishes.  It was amazing to sit back and relax after cooking all morning.

The day after Thanksgiving is one of our most favorite days of the year. This years was no exception!!! Our friend from church Chad agreed to tend for us from 2:00-9:30 or so.  He was so awesome to do that for us. It's such an important day for us, remembering all the feelings of falling in love and the goofy fun we had on our first date is so good for us.  Especially good for me to remember how I was before I had children and became a stressed out mommy. (Pics on Instagram) Since we couldn't recreate it exactly like we did it in Salt Lake we did the best we could in Nashville! We saw an art museum at the Parthenon.  The Parthenon was cool but there were only a handful of paintings that I would consider gallery worthy, kinda disappointing but still a fun time.  Next we went to the Cheesecake Factory which was really yummy.... I got Salmon on this really awesome salad, and then we got a chocolate hazelnut slice of cheesecake, oh man it was good.  Next we drove up to the Cumberland river in Clarksville and walked along the river looking at the lights.  That was really fun.
Then we went to Cold Stone in Clarksville and shared a little ice cream (since we had already had cheesecake).  We couldn't skip Cold Stone though, it was such a fun part of the original date 10 years ago.  It was a wonderful 10th anniversary.

The end of the month was busy with packing but Sanna forced me to slow down a bit here and there for cuddles.  She wasn't feeling well on the night Rachel was going to take us out to dinner to Jasmines up in Murray so Rachel and I took the boys and Brent stayed home with Sanna, though we took him a sushi roll home at the end.  Rachel was great to have at our house, I was worried it would be a little extra stressful having someone stay with us the month that we were getting ready to move but it really turned out to be great.  She is so laid back and non judgmental about the state of our house that it made it nice.  She was also fun to talk to for me, ha ha, probably should have let her study more.
Anyway, that was November! It was a beautiful month which made it harder knowing we were about to say goodbye to this home that we had of our own (not that we owned it but you know what I mean, we weren't in an apartment).  It was also hard to say goodbye to our friends we have loved and grown so close to out here.

September

My cousin got married and she asked me to be her photographer at their reception. It was beautiful, she was radiant and it was fun to be a part of it.

I loved hanging with the family during the dinner.  I have some dang cute nephews.  

 Seeing my uncle Kelly in these pictures reminds me of my Grandpa so much, I just had to include these pictures on here.  Kelly, I'll try not to cry when you remind me of Grandpa but it's going to be hard.

 My sisters both had fun dance partners.

 My camera was my only dance partner for a while until my brother in law cut in and took my camera instead and let me dance with my nephew.  We didn't dance though, we just cuddled. I had to get my cuddles in because I was flying away the next day and was going to miss this little guy!

When "O" is being babysat and I walk into the room and say "Hi Owen!" he gets all excited thinking I'm his mom and then a split second later he's like, "Oh.... it's you".  Jenni and I must have similar sounding baby talk and we definitely look like sisters.  He always warms back up to me after the initial disappointment of me not being his mom but it's still makes me laugh.

***

There were a lot of peaches, like a LOT of peaches, at my parent's house so we had ourselves some peach dessert.  In fact this peach dessert was made possible by me taking a couple shoeboxes full of peaches home in my carry on luggage... they got a bit smooshed but not too bad! 

I'll have to share the recipe on here someday, it's divine.

***

A week or so after we got home from Utah I told Brent I really wanted to go hiking.  We decided on the Nathan Bedford Forest outside of Camden.  It should have been called the Spider Trail.   We were waving sticks in front of us the whole time so we didn't walk right into a web.  Poor Brent was forced to lead, none of the rest of us were willing. He sure got a lot of webs in the face. Our friend from church, Chad, also came along and it was fun having him there and nice having equal adults to children ratio.

Look at that Monster of a spider.  Gives me the creeps.

I felt a bit like a cow, the kids kept stopping me for drinks from the pack.

Such a handsome husband.

Wish we hadn't walked through here.... I'm almost positive this is where we got the seed ticks on us.

We sure had a fun time with Chad along! He's good in the outdoors and funny with the kids.

On the drive home I took off my shoes and noticed the specs of dirt on my feet were moving around and THAT's when I discovered the microscopic ticks.  Brent dropped me off at home while they went to launch the rockets and I immediately set to scrubbing off the microscopic ticks.  I think I was in the shower for half an hour with that loofa trying to get them off. I had to scrape them with my fingernails half the time.  It was awful.  You will see pictures of it all soon. 

Chico's says: "When we got home from Utah we saw a birthday present from Chad. When we opened it that night we discovered that it was a rocket set.  We wanted to put it together right away but Daddy didn't have time right away.  So about a week later he started working on it. We didn't help very much with the rocket but when we got it all together it was very cool. When it was together we went to the Eiffel Tower park  with Chad and launched it.  Then we used the button to launch it and it flew up into the air with a sulfur smell. It had a parachute with it.  It was fun doing all of that.

Turns out I wasn't the only one that got the ticks.  We all did.  Griz got them the worst followed by Brent and I.   Griz had them ALL over his body, that poor kid.  We felt so bad for him.  But how could we have known? They were this big: 

Yes, that speck of dirt in the highlight on Brent's thumbnail was a tick. These "seed" ticks caused itching that rivaled the chigger bites of last summer.  

***

Sanna being particularly cute as a pirate with a flower eye patch, "rrrr".

(They had a pirate story time, hence the pirate playing, we're not actually that big into pirates at our house)

***

Lots of studying and math going on around these parts lately....

It must be a good day, he's still smiling...

One of the best things about this school  year so far has been swim team.  It has been awesome seeing how hard the kids work to improve and get better at their strokes.  We went to the pool a lot even outside of swim team to get ready for the first meet.  They only knew front crawl and back stroke when we started and before the meet they learned from swim team, butterfly and breast stroke.  They are hard core man (a.k.a. adorable in my eyes)

This is them at swim team practice:

(Chico is always tightening his goggles)

Chico has just taken to the pool so naturally.  He says he feels like he was made for the water! It makes me so happy that he has a sport that he really truly loves.

And this is their first swim meet down in Millington:

 They write the events on the kids arms so you can keep track of when it's your turn to go up.

Griz can actually dive quite beautifully without hardly a splash.... and then most of the time he looks like a horse jumping into the water, lol.

Chico tightening those goggles again... so glad they didn't break until the week after the meet.

Coach Sarah reminding him how to do breast stroke I think. He seemed to forget in the pool during one of the races so she needed to remind him.

Chico says: "The swim meet was really scary

Griz says, " I was going to dive off the diving board and I had this weird feeling in my mind that I would drown and when I felt like I was going to drown I wanted to not be there. That day I was not happy."

Scratching those dang tick bites.

This cute almost 6 year old amazes me.  He is so hardcore, butterflying across the pool.

 I can't tell you how happy I am that they have this sport they can do together.
Griz says, "And when I got to that swim meet I felt the same feeling that I was going to drown. I was glad it was over."
Ha ha, I guess we have mixed feelings about this... ha ha.

***

I gave Sanna a much needed haircut.  I've never tried a bob cut before and I was pleased (for the most part) with how it turned out.  She went outside for some soccer and the light was just too good, I had to get some shots of her new do.

I wish I had put Sanna in soccer this year, it would have been so fun for her.

 "Soccer Sanna"

 Griz wanted in on this picture taking action.

Griz had a fun birthday party.  I can't believe he is 6 years old. It totally blows my mind. He picked out all the components for this cake... the halloween "orange" frosting (way lighter than it appeared on the packaging), halloween sprinkles and batman gummies... oh yeah and the inside was a blue velvet cake.  Totally random but he actually ATE the cake instead of just the frosting.  So unlike him! Guess you only turn 6 once and bright vibrant colored cake must be tastier.  

 I couldn't think of any fun games to play for the party (didn't want to do a pinata, or normal kid games) but then I thought of a donut eating contest.  I think those are fun this time of year.  With the party actually being out our house this time it worked out well to do it (thanks to Sandra's help tying them up).  I was busy making pizzas the whole time but Brent got some fun pictures.  I think the continuous pizza making was good for me so I didn't stress out about the amount of children running around in my house.  And it helped me resist eating all the food too, ha ha. I made WAY too many though.  I think total there were...12 pizzas made...? I estimated that it was how many we would need based on the amount Brent and I eat... I guess not everyone pigs out on pizza like Brent and I do.... or maybe they just don't do it in public. ;) am I right? (please tell me I'm right and that we're not the only ones, ha ha)

 There were also cute pictures of the friends eating the donuts but I haven't asked permission from their parents to post them so it's just my kids for now.

The adults also had a donut eating contest and maybe it's good we didn't have the nice camera out for those.  I was holding a baby and so I couldn't take any of the pictures myself.  There were some taken with the phone that I might use for blackmail later, ha ha, just kidding.

And a couple random ones of our beautiful girl that is growing up too fast!