Rough start, but finally settling in...

So we are officially city people and I think I am never going to want to move back!! I love the location and for my job it is absolutely the best place to live. I can probably make it to every MNPS school in 20 mins or less and that is still leaving at 7:45am. It is SO amazing going the opposite of traffic. Can you tell how much I love it? I LOVE IT! I love that you don't have to worry about freezing pipes, there is a garbage shoot (we always forgot garbage pick-up day), there is also a recycle station right by the trash. I love that Cole gets to experience being with his Aunt Tisha too! They are close and I love seeing them together.Things just seem to be a little bit easier and that is always nice. :)

Casey, Cole and Bella on our lot/land

The rough start was that we could not find anyone for Bella. It was getting SO stressful. Everyone that we asked, after putting any thought into it said no. We understood everyones reasonong, but still as the owners  and desperately needing somehwere for our dog, it was so stressful. Casey was living at our nearly empty house and Cole and I were on West End. Csey would get his brother Ben to stay at the house a few times so that he could stay with us. Casey and I both used the term "we feel divorced". Casey was having to ask when he could see Cole, we had dinner dates and dates at Target a few times. Cole was really confused. Another thing that was hard was I was having to drop off and pick up. I was driving anywhere between an hour and fifteen minutes to hour and a half every morning! It was getting to all of us! Then out of the blue someone we didnt even think of, Unlce Lincoln and Aunt Pam said that they would take her. We didnt think of them at first becasue they didnt have a back yard, just had a major add on to there house and don't have any dogs anymore, so I didn't think of them as wanting to be dog people. They have her and it has gone great! We got Bella a wireless pet containment system, so she loves being outside and is enjoying being a Brentwood dog. She has been there since Feb 11th. We are so lucky and blessed that they were able and willing to take her.
Cole has done well. He is definitely happy to have daddy here with us all the time now! He would say things like, "I love having daddy here", "mommy is daddy coming here tonight? I love when my daddy stays here". Casey takes Cole to school about 99% of the time. So not only was the morning route now very long, but it was also wrestling a dramatic, confused and very upset 2 year old. He would sobb and say "My daddy takes me to schoooollll!!!! It was pitiful.


Our little Super ManThe past few day though he has mentioned our house, our old house. He will say "mommy I want to go home" We talk abut it and remind him that someone else is going to live in our house and that daddy is building us a new one. It was interesting that I got an email from "What to expect". I started getting them when I was pregannat and they still send them talking about issues your toddler may have. The one they sent discussed moving. It put things in a little more perspective for our little guy. I know once we start building and he can see the house being built and the progress it will hopefully make a little more sense to him.
Life is good!!

No traffic in the morning and bumper-to-bumper on the other side.

 We went to see the Lego movie! Uncle Ben and Uncle Craig came too! Thumbs up!

Being silly at Loveless Cafe for Tisha's birthday.

Moving Day!

We will actually have a couple of moving days I guess in the next 6 months (fingers crossed). Yesterday we became city folks! :) We will be living with Tisha, Casey's sister, while we sale and build our new house. Its very exciting! We decided since we were going to have to live some where while Casey was building the house that we would go ahead and go now. Hoping that having a staged house and not having to worry about keeping it clean and viewing ready at all times would be easier. So we did it! The only problem was Bella... I had been asking around for a few months and in the back of my mind I thought I had Brad (possibly Craig as a last resort, but he has 2 dogs already) in the back of my mind. Brad didn't seemed thrilled, but he has been our babysitter for the last 9 years when we would go out of town. Any ways, now we are on the search for a foster family for Bella. I know something will work out in time, but for now Cole and I are at Tisha's and Casey is at our house with Bella. Hopefully he can get some things done while he is there too! :) I am excited about our adventure. I feel lucky and blessed to have a wonderful sister-in-law to take us on. I am hoping we can motivate each other to eat well and exercise too!
I took one picture last night of our current view. I will have to add some more!

the view from our bedroom window

Our Birthday!!

Dinner at Logan's

Another Birthday in the books! It was a nice relaxing day with my two boys, then an early dinner with the family at Logan's, then off to met some friends to go to Jellystone Lights at Opryland. Apparently they have done the lights at for 4 or 5 years now, but this was the first year that I had heard of it. Since Brad and Karen were gone for the holidays and we saw that it was running until January 4th we decided to go. We also decided because it is $25 a car or bus or truck. Brad drives the church bus once a month, so he asked the guy if we could use it and he said yes! So we asked the Wray's, Greer's and Matlock's to go with us! We had a party bus! :) We had a fun time! We went to the mall afterwards for sweet cece's and to ride the carousel. Party's aren't what they use to be, but we had a good time!

Bus driver Brad

The crew

Cole saying my flash is to bright

Oh no! Brad let Cole help drive once we got in the park

Karen made cupcakes! Ella was giving her approval

Cole with the birthday boy

My birthday ice cream date

Carousel fun

The group minus Casey (he took the pic)

ICE!

Our lazy day! Worn out little buddy

So Aunt Tisha called us this morning and said that her friend had given her 2 free tickets to ICE and was wondering if we were interested?!?! Which we were! We had no plans for the day. It was basically a lazy day for us. So we were lazy pretty much all day. Cole was obviously worn out from our 3 days of celebrating. He slept until 9:30! We played and watched movies. Cole fell asleep on the couch and then we met Tisha at 4pm at ICE! This year the theme was Frosty the Snowman. It is amazing! Truly amazing to see what these people are able to sculpt out of ICE. It is 40 ice sculptors from China who come and do it. Who knows what it all cost, but with the prices they charge, I am thinking it is A LOT! So glad we had free tickets! It is $27 for an adult, which starts at age 13 and then kids are $17.95 for 4-12 years and then 3 and under are free. Don't get me wrong it is amazing, but the whole thing only last around 20-40 mins depending on how slow you walk and look at everything. Oh well, we had free tickets and it was AWESOME! I highly recommend you to go if you get the opportunity for free! hahahaha....

ICE fun at Opryland

Mexican dinner date after ICE with this silly boy

Christmas 2013 in the books!

Soooo.... It was wonderful! Feeling very blessed. We had 3 days of busy, busy, fun! It started on Christmas Eve when Cole and I went to Aunt Tisha's "building" to make cookies for Santa. We had a fun time. I was so glad Aunt T was there to help guide us. I have never made cookies where you roll them out and use cookie cutters. Aunt T had lots of fun shapes and we brought the sprinkles so we were ready!!

Christmas Cookies!

That night we got ready for Santa and ate our Christmas Fettuccine!  Ha! Yes, Fettuccine. A few years back we watched the movie "The Holiday" and on Christmas Eve they eat Fettuccine and refer to it as "Christmas Fettuccine" and act like that is what everyone eats as a tradition on Christmas Eve (either in London or California). Casey thought it was a great idea and thought it should be a tradition of ours! We set out the cookies and took a few pics before going to bed. The next morning around 8am we heard on the monitor "did Santa come, did he come, did he??" It was so funny and so cute! Cole was so excited, but a little overwhelmed with it all too! We had a great morning playing and just enjoying the moment. That night we went to Papa and KK's house to celebrate some more. It was minus Brad and Karen since they are on there honeymoon. We did face time them on Christmas Eve while they were at the beach!!! Well Uncle Craig hit the jackpot with a Batman bat cave and bad guy figures. Cole was SO excited! and Papa and KK gave him a DVD system for my car. Cole was so funny. There are two monitors that came with it. When I put it in the car he said, "mommy there is one for me and one for Bella!" hahahaha....the things this little boy says crack me up!

My sweet little family

Then on the 26th we went over to Uncle Lincoln and Aunt Pam's. We just hung out all day! Casey had to work but got there around 5pm, but the rest of us where there for lunch until about 9pm. We missed the Herren's, but Jennifer broke her foot so she was propped up and had to go to the doctor. Cole was hilarious opening presents. Of course we didn't have the video going, but it was classic. Uncle Lincoln gave him this box and said this is from me, I think you are going to like it. He opened it up, squealed with excitement and said "its just what I wanted!" and then ran to Aunt Pam, almost tackling her, and squeezing her neck. It was a t-shirt that said University of Arkansas, but it had spider-man, hulk and wolverine on it. When Uncle Lincoln said "Cole that was from me, where is my hug?" Cole replied with "not yet!" but then a few minutes later Uncle Lincoln got a big hug too!!
We had a wonderful Christmas and we are looking forward to 2014!!! Thank you Lord for this beautiful life you have blessed us with!

Rolling the cookie dough out

Aunt Tisha!

Putting cookies for Santa out!

He came!!!

Batman with his bat cave

Cole playing scrabble

Getting Uncle Lincoln

Someone found the icing bowl

Thanking Uncle Lincoln for his cool new shirt

Present from Uncle Craig

with Papa!

Even Super Heros brush there teeth

Winter and "why"?

So the temperature has definitely dropped! This past weekend we were under a ice possibility/scare. We actually got out of school 2 hrs early on Friday because the threat was to start coming in at 4pm. Nothing happened, but it is always nice to get out of school 2 hrs early on a Friday.

My sweet boy

Cole is NOT in the Christmas spirit. If you ask him what he wants for Christmas he says "nuffin". I said you don't want ANY toys? "No mommy! I don't want any toys!" I guess I should just take advantage of this time, right? He is just so adamant and funny about the whole thing. We did go see Santa as well. He was not a fan at first, although he did not really resist, fight or even try to get out of Santa's lap. He just sat there crying. Me and the assistant were jumping around hollering things he stopped, looked at us and we got a little smile. The photographer laughed and said "well, mom you got both shots. Cry and Smiling"
So just in the last 3-4 days Cole has started saying "why?" to any and everything. Even when there is nothing else to even question, he does! Oh my goodness! It has been a long 4 days of "why?" hahahaha...
He is ALL about super heros and bad guys. Although in his mind the super heros are bad guys. Not sure why he thinks that? but he thinks they are great. He talks about them ALL the time. He is also really into TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). So Santa is a little scary, but not turtles that have mutated into the size of humans?!?! hahaha... It's really funny how much he is into them when he really knows nothing about them. We started watching a few, but they are just so rough for 2 year olds. i mean he is only 2. Casey did find a cartoon that has like baby/little heros on youtube and Cole has liked that show. I am not sure what it is called though. Since he has this love Uncle Craig has become a HUGE fan. Cole talks about him ALL the time. Craig is a big comic book fan. He has a whole room of his toys and comics. Cole has seen this and now talks about Craig all the time. Seriously, if you did not know Craig you would think he was Cole's imaginary friend. Anything and everything is "and Craig too mommy?" and then of course " I miss Craig", "I want Craig", etc... Craig is loving being the #1 Uncle right now for sure! :)
Cole and I went  to Alabama this past Saturday. We had it planned for a little while. Cole had been asking to see the girls and then Julie got tickets to  go see Disney on Ice. I want sure what Cole would think of it, but he really liked it. It was really good. The theme was Princess' and Heroes. The Heros were the Prince characters from the movies.

Being goofy!

Not liking Santa :(

Realizing he isn't so bad :)

Fun at Disney on Ice

Worn out from the weekend on AL

Its Fall and Wedding Time for Brad and Karen

So we had a big weekend...Brad and Karen got married on November 9th. Everything went well. They are married and it was very nice. It all came together in 10 weeks! That part is still a little crazy. Karen's whole family came down. There were about 75 people there. It was sweet. Cole was the ring bearer and Maggie, Karen's niece who is 3 was the flower girl. Maggie loved Cole and wanted him to hold her hand ALL the time. There was a little drama right before the wedding when he did not want to hold her hand anymore! but all ended well and two cute, sweet kids came walking down the aisle.

Ready to blow bubbles as the new Mr. and Mrs. leave

Mr. and Mrs. Brad Parnell

I love this time of the year. The leaves are SO pretty right now. Cole is officially 2 and a half and testing his luck with us. He is SO funny. He is a very opinionated little boy who knows what he wants, that is for sure! It is really hard to not just laugh at him sometimes. Right now we have been talking a lot about Santa, trying to get him ready for pictures this Saturday. He is VERY adamant that he is not going to see Santa, he does not want Santa to come see him or bring him ANY toys. He said that "Brad, Karen and Craig will bring me a present!" Where does he get this?!?! We did a little Christmas mini session with a friend of mine, but Casey was gone and not able to be in them. We got a cute one of Cole and I though. He is such the little boy, ALL boy! We are having a fun time and enjoying him SO much!! Looking forward to the Holidays!

Being a boy and finding all the sticks!

Me and my mini :)