Says Nashville

The kids enjoyed hanging out the whole weekend with their cousins. Roe is so used to being the younger one & littler one, it is nice for her to be the mentor.

Jude & "Charwie" were best buds as well.

A little silly string fight that lasted about 30 seconds.

The kids ventured out to the pet store to replace goldfish that were snatched from the pond, I really wanted them to get some ducks. They have the perfect yard for Kingston, our little explorer.

Thank you Randy & Aimee for the fabulous stay!

Rockin Good Time

We are home & pooped, thankfully on the 12hr trek home my kids were great, my legs were stiff, we got stuck an traffic for over an hour, dodged a few storms.

Post-race girls night out on the town in Nashville, celebrating Aimee Achilles 20th marathon, Kimmy's 1st marathon, Crystal & Jenny's 1st half marathon, so many reasons to celebrate! Hot & Hilly race, my first rock & roll series event, bands at every mile that needed to do more singing and less talking, it was one of my favorites for sure, loved it, when it was over mostly.

Pre-race pic with Aimee, one of our awesome weekend hosts who I am blessed to have as a sister n law! More pics to come, thanks to Uncle Randy:)

Music City, here we come….

Nashville bound with 9 other friends, (who are flying) to run a half marathon & visit cousins!

Only missing, dance ticket sales, Xanders school music performance x 2 days that he had a part in of course, Jude's field trip to the zoo & soccer game. The kids are thrilled about going so it wasn't too difficult of a decision.

Cute boots & slogan provided by my sister Tia, thank you.

18 months & Nursing Graduation

Kingston turned 18 months on the 22nd, he is 24 pounds & loves to throw balls (left handed so far) & swimming in the bathtub. His vocabulary is growing with his best pronounced words STRUUUUDELLL of course. He is a carbo loader and loves pasta, not a milk fan except for his moms. Speaking of, 72 hours with no nursing= 2 bad nights & 1 really horrible night. If you have been informed, your babies wean on their own IT IS NOT TRUE!! Maybe its just mine…. I am a little nervous what a 12 hour car ride & house guests at Says Nashville will bring the next few nights, we probably won't be invited back.

Baby Love

I guess they are not babies anymore, but I refuse to let them grow up, so stinkin cute!

Itsy Bitsy Spiders

Monroe & Caroline, who she adores and has been dancing with for years.

Every year I feel like I say, "this is my FAVORITE dance yet", this dance is my ABSOLUTE favorite!! It happens to be Kingstons favorite song, but it is a little funky age appropriate version of Itsy Bitsy Spider. What I love about it most is the girls have a blast doing it. Unfortunately, we are going to be in Nashville when the dance tickets go on sale, so looks like we may be in the cheap seats this year!

Kindergarten Round-up

We headed to kindergarten round-up tonight, Jude was a little nervous. We have gorgeous new classrooms this year that are awesome & smell clean!

Jude & our principal Mr.Nelson, wow what a more warm welcoming experience than with Xander 5 years ago.

We were thinking no need to request a teacher, just the classroom with the kitchen, this was Jude's biggest interest.

This is my favorite, Xander talking school business with Jude.

typical Jude face in new situations, chin down & bashful

Piercings

I am sad that these once little girls are growing up, but so grateful they are maturing into respectable young ladies. They have chosen piercing their ears over their noses.

Farm Eggs

We spent Easter with brunch & church service with friends & on to the farm for the kids favorite Easter egg hunt.

Mother Hen

the best picture of how you mother is watching your daughter with her younger siblings, so sweet sometimes & also so humbling


We took our younger 3 to a couple of egg hunts this morning while Xander was out washing cars for baseball. Kingston squeeled with excitement at just the sight of the eggs, I love watching the 45 second egg hunts, even if it is brief.

can you guess who is smiling with a tootsie in their cheek?

Water Party

Jude's party was planned a few days earlier, so we could look at the weather and see it was supposed to be high 80's, bring on the water!

Mostly 4 year olds, combined with water balloons & water guns = plenty of crazy fun! We had pre-made water balloons, but Trav had to fill up a few more rounds.


Jude ate all of the frosting and left the cupcake, the only part I made of course.

Sorry about so many pictures, but gosh my friends have such cute kids, I love them all!

There were a few problems of course, like that I left half of the cupcakes in the car while I unloaded party goods and the little monsters melted everywhere.





God bless my friend Taira, who stayed and helped since I sent Trav back home for the camera battery.


just admiring my nice line of preschoolers, the water balloon relay wasn't quite as successful

If your thinking about getting a pinata stick, don't do it, not quite strong enough to bust into the pinata dino, had to call in Trav, the college baseball player, who reminded me "he didn't bat".

Kingston got 2 pieces of choking hazards from the pinata and carried them everywhere around the park with this cute grin


the water balloon "games" turned into them throwing water balloons at one another, or just squeezing them until they popped.