I have to apologize if these pictures look a lot like some I have posted before.  We do a lot of the same activities over here.I thought the grandparents might like to see them anyway :).

Morgan decided it would an awesome idea to spray herself in the face with the water.

Wait for it...

BAM!

She would do it OVER and over again and I thought it was pretty entertaining so I just let her go for it.

We are enjoying the start to the southern summer, but from what I hear we have a HOT one ahead of us.

The Star Cafe

On Saturday Kevin took us to eat at the Star Cafe. The food was awesome and it didn't hurt that their biscuits were shaped like stars.

After lunch we decided to go walk around the mall for a little bit. While Morgan was playing in the kids play zone Kevin and I experimented with his new Iphone by taking some pictures.

This last picture is Morgan's introduction to the Icee. She went nuts over it.

The Hermitage

Nashville is an interesting place to live because there is a lot of history here. Driving around you will see a lot of markers letting you know of specific events that took place at that very spot. Last week, when my mom was visiting us, we went to the Hermitage. Which was the home of Andrew Jackson. It was interesting to see his home and belongings, but learning more about him (I didn't pay attention in school), he was pretty much a jerk. Nonetheless we had a nice time walking around the beautiful property and taking everything in.

Here is a picture of the house from the back. I forgot to take one from the front.

They don't make key holes like they used to.

P-P-P-Pirate face

From what I hear, most kids go through this weird, awkward, smiling phase.  When you ask them to smile and they shoot you these overly cheesy smiles that don't look natural or give they give you this surprised face. Well, my daughter loves to make what I refer to as the pirate face. You ask her to smile or "say cheese" and she squints her left eye and shifts her face. It is ridiculous. I was deleting all the pirate face  pictures and just keeping the "normal" smiling pictures,  BUT then I realized I wanted to remember this phase even if it does drive me nuts from time to time. So...for your enjoyment, I give you-PIRATE FACE.

Outdoor fun

Welcome to Tennessee

It's funny, every time I tell someone I moved here from California the response is one of the following:  "I'm sorry" or "Why would you do that?" Then I go on to explain the different reasons why it just felt like the right move for our family. Then they usually give a nod in agreement.

I titled this post "Welcome to Tennessee" because I really do feel like we got a huge welcome from complete strangers. On the day we moved in, we met our landlords for the first time. We had been communicating by email and phone calls, but had never met in person. I pull up to the house after running an errand to find one of our landlords helping us move in and the other had made us a lasagna! I was blown away that they would even consider doing something like that. Southern hospitality really does exist and I had forgotten what it felt like.

One thing about being LDS, is that when you move into a new area you already have a network of people surrounding you. I called the bishop of our soon to be ward to let him know we were moving in and he made some phone calls. The next thing we knew about 4 or 5 guys came to help us unload so our Senior fathers wouldn't have to help with the heavy lifting :). One of those guys wives brought us pizza for dinner and another day the relief society president brought us a  meal as well. I am so grateful for those generous people that took time away from their day to help strangers unpack and for those thoughtful women who didn't want us to have to unpack and cook at the same time. What a blessing they are.

By our second day here we knew the names of our neighbors on either side of us. I am ashamed to admit that my plan to make cookies and deliver them to the houses on our street hasn't happened yet. I hope to get on the ball and do that soon. One set of neighbors came by on mother's day and brought us this...

She said she tried out a Barefoot Contessa recipe and it made and extra cake so they gave it to us! YUM :)

Almost everyone I have come in contact with has been friendly. When I called to set up the trash collection service, the women I spoke to, started giving me ideas of places I should take Morgan for fun. I think we spoke on the phone for 30 mins. We have also noticed that you really can't be in a hurry here. We have somehow ended up lengthy discussions with cashiers at a few different stores.

One of our favorite things about our little blue house is that it has a yard. Kevin mowed the lawn for the first time the other day.

I think he enjoyed it. I know Morgan and I have enjoyed playing outside.

So far, so good here in Tennessee. I will end this post with a few pictures of Morgan admiring herself in the mirror, because well, it's not a good post unless there are pictures of Morgan in it. :)

We're Heeeeeerrrrree.

Well we have made it to Nashville and are starting to feel settled in. I still have some decorating to do, but we got a lot of stuff done thanks to Kevin's parents. Really guys, we wouldn't have been able to do all of this without you. Thank you so much!

Before we left California we had to say some goodbyes :(  We Said good-bye to Kevin's family at Easter and we had one last play date with our friends the Gleason's and Velasquez's. We miss you guys already! We need to make sure to keep in touch.

It may sound silly, but we had to say good-bye to In and Out Burger too :).

We are also thankful to the Wilson family and P. Lemmie for going out of their way to see us one last time before we left. Luckily we have family in California and know that this isn't really good-bye, it is just see ya later!

It was hard to say "see ya later" to Kevin's parents. We have enjoyed being so close to them these past few years, but we know that this is where we are supposed to be right now. We are excited for this new chapter in our life and look forward to seeing what new adventures will come our way.