A Visit From Rachel, Adde, and Payne

My sister-in-law, Rachel, came in town to surprise her friend who was graduating.  She and her sweet kiddos stayed with us so we got to see so much of them!  Let's just say we got very spoiled and the time flew by too quickly!

Adde and James hit it off great!  These two are best buds ;)

Payne was a trooper and kept up with the big kids!  I could not believe how well they all got along!

Constant playing and laughing...

LOTS of "cheese" smiles!

being silly :)

These kids sure are cute!

Reese just tagged along whenever she could.

(Looks like she could be a blondie after all??)

Double Trouble

Yes, this is Reese trying to keep up, deciding to try and tackle crawling up the stairs.

Play time outside in the pool!

Me and my sweet girl

The night that Rachel went out to surprise her friend, Justin and I kept all the kids and put them to bed.  Here is Justin doing story time ;)  So sweet 

Adde just loved Reese!

Did I mention how well they played together??

such a sweetheart ;)

Payne and Uncle Justin

Girl time!

Justin and Rachel ran a 5k race together to support St. Jude.  The race was at 3pm on a Sunday.  It was one hot race, but these two did great!

We took a one day road trip to Nashville to see Papa Blair who is in rehab for an injured knee after having a fall.  Papa gives Reese a kiss Hello!

Reese wasn't a very good sport about being passed around ;)

Giving Daddy a hug and feeling very comfortable in his arms :)

Most of the family was able to come!  

We love you Papa!  Hope you continue to grow stronger and get better!

Little stinker :)

After visiting with Papa, we went to a park and had a picnic!

Nonie went out and got all the food and set it all out for us... THANKS Nonie!

Relaxing and just hanging out

Their was a great playground where the kids played for a long time.

Of course, James and Payne found a drain and were fascinated by it.

What a long day!  On the way home, the boys fell asleep.

James couldn't even finish his snack...poor thing!

Adde and I had a blast in the back.  We played with princesses!

More to come!!

Country Music Half Marathon

At the end of April, I ran the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, with my sister, Michelle, and friend, Lauren.  We had such a great time!  What a fun girls weekend!

We left on a Friday afternoon.  Here we are at my house before our road trip!

(There was no phone call before we met to decide what to wear!  The three of us just happened to all pick jeans and a white shirt to wear for the day!  haha)

We made it to the Convention Center around 4:00/4:30pm and picked up our race packets.  We then left there and went to Maggiano's to eat a yummy pasta dinner, then headed to Mt. Juliet, where we were staying the night.  

We had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning to get ready and head out the door to catch our shuttle which ran from 4-6am.  We were just trying to make it by 6.  But we got caught in terrible traffic and worried that we wouldn't make the last shuttle.  Then we looked out our car window on the interstate, in our stand-still traffic, and realized how many cars around us had "runners" in them.  So we worried less knowing we weren't the only ones running behind!

The race began at 7am, although our corral didn't cross the start until nearly 7:45.  The Nashville half is a great race and the three of us girls stayed together the majority of the time.  Michelle and I walked a bit, and Lauren kept running because walking hurt her knees.  But somehow Lauren managed to run ahead of us, then back to us (yes, that would mean she ran over the 13 miles), and ended up finishing with us!  We all crossed the finish in about 3 1/2 hours.  

Here we are back at the house after the race (a little sun burned!)

So much fun!

And when I got home, I found James' letters put up on the wall in his room (which I have been wanting to do for months).  While Justin watched the kids Friday night and Saturday, he managed to do a little something that he knew would be meaningful to me.  :)  Thanks Justin :)

Reese is 11 months!

Our little munchkin is 11 months already! 

She is SLEEPING great!  11-12 hours at night.

She still takes 2 naps each day (1-2 hours each)

She is crawling faster, sometimes with one foot and one knee ;)

She gives HUGS!

She follows James EVERYWHERE.

Pulls up to her knees all the time.

When excited, she looks like she is doing sitting V-ups :)

She will NOT eat baby food with a spoon, although we sneak extra veges in when we can.

At 11.5 months she started pulling to stand.

Also at 11.5 months she began fully drinking whole organic milk.

She is getting two more teeth on the top!

 Loves to watch James in the bath.

 And yep, finally found that toilet paper roll!

(and the dog food and water bowls!)

Yikes!

Easter in Nashville 2012 (part 2)

James got a kite in his Easter basket.  It was the first time he had really seen one.  Pop's and Nonie's yard is the perfect place for kite flying!

Daddy got it started...

James even held on to it for awhile ;)

The sun was a little much for James' eyes.

Naw...he's ok ;)

Mommy got to give it a try.

James' favorite part was running after the kite tails!

Love this face!

Nonie and Pops hid eggs for James to find in the yard.

Here James is shaking the egg to see if this one has a piece of candy in it.  If it didn't, he would throw it back on the ground!  (hmm...I think he might have learned that from some of his cousins!)

Here is Pops trying not to be obvious, but being VERY obvious, as he points out eggs to James that he had missed!  hahahaha.

Playing on the play set :)

So during naps one day, I decided to try out Reese's kite.  It was a mini kite, and it was seriously the funniest thing you ever saw.  This tiny little kite flying in the sky.  You can't tell how tiny it is in this picture, so you have to try to find it in the picture below.

The yellow kite is the normal sized kite.  The mini kite is the red one in front of the tree kind of above my head.  (I guess you had to be there :)

Boy, Kramer has it made here in Franklin, TN

It's his home away from home :)

Yeah, this is the life!