One night in Nashville

After my parents party, Kevin, Morgan and I packed up and spent the night with my friend Elizabeth and her husband, Lee in Nashville. We got their close to midnight and Morgan was wide awake and ready to play with their dog, Bela. The problem was, Bela wasn't quite sure if she wanted to play with her. Morgan would walk towards her with her excited toddler "scream" and Bela would take off. It was so funny to watch. By the next day I think Bela warmed up to her and they were friends.

After we got some sleep, we woke up and got ready for the day and headed out to brunch. We ate at Monell's restaurant. WOW! It is a historic house that was turned into a restaurant and what I love about it is the friendly feeling. You sit at a table with complete strangers and pass the food around the table like a family dinner. It literally feels like you have been invited to eat with them, instead of paying for it. The food is pretty awesome too. It is a fixed menu, but there is so much food you have more than enough to choose from. I would recommend anyone try it if you are ever in the Nashville area.

After brunch we went and saw the new "Winnie the Pooh" movie.  It was the first time we took Morgan to a theater and I think she did pretty well. Before the movie started she just wanted to run around the chairs and basically anything to not have to sit still, but once the movie started she did pretty good.  It fell right around her nap time so at one point she wanted to fall asleep, but would open her eyes quickly after they had closed to see what was going on with the movie.

When the movie was over we took her back to the house so she could nap, and we relaxed and hung out.

When Morgan woke up it was about time to have dinner so we headed out for some tasty Southern Barbeque.

After our delicious and filling dinner, we drove over to a lake that is right next to their house.

And then I looked over and I noticed that their were hay bales across the street. Don't ask me why because I really don't know, but I have always wanted to take pictures on top of hay bales. So...

Those suckers are A LOT harder to get on top of than I thought. Kevin had to give us a little boost. Now I can check that off of my weird list of places I want to take pictures.

Thank you Elizabeth and Lee for letting us some and stay with you. It was so good to visit and catch up, and Elizabeth I am so lucky to have lifelong friends like you in my life. You are awesome!

Party on

My parent's 50th anniversary. What a great reason to celebrate!! Their children tried their best to make it a fun day for them, and I think we succeeded :)

I mentioned before that they received tons of cards from old friends and family. It was fun to see my parents open them up and feel so loved. 

My sister, Melissa put together a list of "momisms" and "dadisms".  Basically, a list of different quotes or sayings we remember our parents saying to us growing up.  My dad had a little longer of a list because he tends to reuse his material a little more. Anyone that has ever called my house to speak to someone other than my dad has experience some of this first hand.  Melissa also put together a list of songs that represent different moments of their life together. What was great is as she was saying a song we all started singing the song out loud together. It was completely unplanned, but made the presentation even better.

Ted, my brother-in-law put himself in charge of the food and made some great barbeque.

I interviewed my parents individually and asked them some questions about when they first met and how the proposal happened. What their favorite vacation was, what they believe their spouses best quality is etc...  It was kind of fun to see what answers they came up with and it made me realize that I didn't know about their first date or anything like that before so I learned a lot.

My other sister, Lezlea printed a couple of my parents wedding photos and had them framed for them because we noticed that they didn't have any around the house.

My brother, Brent made a video using pictures. He made one section that was all about my parents dating, wedding and then their kids and then he made one with EVERYONE in our family as a child. He even asked me to send some pictures of Kevin as a kid to sneak in there. It was great because as we were watching it Kevin was completely surprised.

Although the party was mostly just family we were lucky enough to have a few close family friends come as well.  One being my friend, Elizabeth. She lives in Nashville and was able to drive over and celebrate with us.

I think the party was a huge success and I know my parents saw just how loved they truly are :)

Family Pictures

My parents 50th wedding anniversary was this year and the whole family (minus one sister) met up in Tennessee to help celebrate with them. It had been a year since I had seen everyone so I was really excited for this trip to come. The day before the anniversary party we had some family pictures taken. I haven't gotten all of them back yet, but here are some that I did get.

 

 My parents with four of their five children

 

 The siblings...Heather, Brent, Melissa, and Lezlea

The whole family...(minus one brother-in-law, plus one kid I have no idea who he is...Carmen is pointing to him :)

The grandkids and two great-grandkids

Melissa's family

Brent's family

And my little family

It was HOT outside and it was hard to get everyone (especially the kids) to look at the same time. I am  hoping that we got a really good one for us to frame. I can't believe it, but I still haven't gotten any professional pictures taken of my little family since Morgan has been with us.

Home again, home again

I just got home from the East/South and I have TONS of pictures to go through and post, but I wanted to thank all of you who sent my parents a card for their 50th anniversary. The last I heard they had received 94 cards! It really made their day special. Thanks again :)

Good Hygiene

Morgan LOVES her toothbrush. The problem is, a lot of the time when you are trying to help brush her teeth she will just bite it. So...there you are trying to clean her teeth and she thinks it is a game to make it as difficult as possible for you to actually complete the task. The other day it was Kevin's turn to get her ready for bed and when she started biting the toothbrush he came up with a new way to get the job done.

She is trying to say "cheese" like she does now when I bring out the camera.

 

 It is important to have good hygiene at a young age :)

The 4th

We had a nice, relaxing fourth this year. We started off the day by taking a walk around our neighborhood. Then, we went swimming in our community pool.

Morgan's hair looks red like her dad's in these pictures :)

Just a side note **The swimsuit Morgan is wearing was given to us by a family friend, Sherry Walker. She recently lost her battle with cancer. Sherry we miss you and appreciate your kindness, openness, and all around sassiness :).**

After swimming we came back home and enjoyed some Jello jigglers,

 And played some games :)

We had a great day together as a family!

The fourth is also my father's birthday.
Happy 70th dad! I love you and I am so thankful to have you as my father :) We can't wait to visit with you in a couple of weeks.

Pictures at the park

Ok so I have to admit it...last night and this morning were pretty rough for me.  Some of it because Morgan is teething and feeling uncomfortable which causes more screaming and crying than normal.  Some of it because I am feeling stressed over bills and money.  I had a good break down this morning, picked myself and Morgan up and headed to the park.

First, we played with chalk and then I followed her around taking some pictures as she played.  For a while I have been looking forward to the time when she was more stable and could (for the most part) get around the playground by herself.  Although, I am excited we have gotten to that point, It also reminds me how fast we got here.  It is hard believe how big she is sometimes.

I must say...playing with her and taking these pictures made me feel a little better :)

sidewalk chalk

This past weekend our friends came with us to Old Town Temecula.  They were having a sidewalk chalk drawing contest.  They divided it up by ages. It was pretty cute to see the elementary school kids drawings, and it was impressive to see what 18 yrs and up could do. Here are a few of my favorites.

This one of the Elephant was my favorite!

After seeing all of these I thought Morgan and I should have a little fun with some chalk ourselves. Ya know get our creative juices flowing? (Or just desperately try to entertain an 18 month old who is feeling stir crazy :)

I consider operation entertain toddler a success!