TA-DA!

Lila and I have been taking a parent and child class at Let It Shine Gymnastics at their Spring Hill location. (Just a little plug here for them...all the proceeds go to Missions, so go sign up today!) Lila loves it and walks in like she owns the place. If I do say so myself, she really is quite good. Just the other night while playing in the yard I asked her if she wanted to do her forward roll. She squatted down and did it perfectly. Of course all night long I was already planning and discussing with Michael if we were going to move our family to an Elite gym and how we would save all the money for her to compete in the Olympics! :) But then I remembered she is not even 2 and anyone who was ever a gymnast knows that you really don't want your child to be one. Yall KNOW what I'm talking about. I quickly decided I would settle for G being a professional baseball player.

Kidding, kidding!

This week was trophy week. (Technically it was ribbon week for our class since none of us have been there long enough for a trophy.) Here is my little gymnast now. The lighting was not very good and I didn't even get a decent picture of her with her ribbon. Oh well..I am still so proud!








We have also been playing hard the past few weeks. Let me just tell you, this kid is fearless (although you couldn't tell by the look on her face in this picture! haha!)

I am so glad she is busy though. There usually isn't much downtime in our day.
Lila got to go to the awesome Jump Zone with her buddy and wonderful neighbor, Coben. He showed her all the ropes and just what to do. The slides were SO big! I thought there was no way she would actually go down them. Boy, was I wrong! The only picture I was able to get of her coming down the slide is the one above. All the others ended up being a big white blur from where she went by me too fast. She would just giggle and laugh and want to go again when she got to the bottom.




Even G-man got into the action:




We are looking forward to lots of sunshine and playtime this summer. That will also hopefully mean lots of long naptimes!

Wedded Bliss

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May 17 marked 6 years of wedded bliss (ok, it hasn't ALL been blissful, but pretty close) I have spent with my beloved. I feel as though I am at the point now to where I don't remember life before Michael. Yes, things certainly have changed since the days we hopped on a plane or in the car and just went.
Such as this night on our 1st wedding anniversary standing on the cliffs of the pacific! What I trip. It is still one of my favorites. San Fran, Napa Valley, and Yosemite.

Our second anniversary was planned by Michael. We left Nashville and went straight to the home of the KING! Michael is a big Elvis fan, and I will admit, I had no desire to visit this place. However, I ended up being the one who was very interested in Graceland. (On a side note: the older folks who come to visit are SERIOUS about their Elvis. Don't put it past them to throw an elbow here and there just to make sure they don't miss out on anything. Sheesh.)
We spent an amazing weekend at The Peabody hotel. We watched the ducks do their famous walk. I have never seen such a crowd over ducks. And you better believe I was right up there in the action. :)

Notice I am holding Michael's ring in this picture. That is because I had just pretend proposed to him with this ring. He had lost it 8 months prior to this date at the UT/Florida game. We had yet to replace it until I found one exactly like his original. It just so happened that the waiter walked up to our table to hand me my steak knife right as the words were coming out of my mouth and I was opening the box. (I thought I had chosen the appropriate time because we had our drinks and had placed our order. I didn't know I was getting a super fancy knife for my steak that they would be bringing ahead of time.) Anyway, it was just a funny little story. He walked away quickly and then when he came back he couldn't stand it anymore and had to ask if I just proposed.
On our 3rd anniversary, we spent a great weekend in St. Louis. We went to a Cards game and did all the touristy things. Here we are between the Arch. By the way..do not go up in that thing if you are claustrophobic.

Here we are on our 4th anniversary enjoying dinner at Maggiano's. I was about to POP with baby Lila. Several weeks prior to this we enjoyed a baby Moon in San Diego that we kind of counted as our anniversary trip.

Last year, we were in Atlanta finding out I was carrying a baby BOY at the Braves game!

This year we went to the local Rodeo (with the kids) and just hung out helping friends move and being at home for the weekend.



Honestly, we had a sitter lined up for Saturday night and were just too lazy to go out. We had a fun work function to attend at the Schermerhorn hall on Tuesday, so we spent that as our night out. See...I told you things have changed!
One other thing that I am adamant on doing on our anniversary is putting on my wedding dress and dancing to our first dance song. I also like to play Canon in D on the piano. :) Michael is going to kill me for spilling the beans on that one.
I haven't been able to put on my wedding dress the past 2 years because I have been pregnant, so I was anxious to see if it fit this year. Here I am over the years.
(For some reason I can't find year 1 in my pictures.)
Year 2:

Year 3:

Year 6:


But no matter what we do, I just enjoy spending quality time with my Groom!
Happy Anniversary Michael! I love you!

Happy Mother's Day...

To ME!!
This year was my second Mother's Day. Michael had just returned from Nicaragua, so to be honest, I felt a little guilty about making a day about me when he just returned from such an amazing experience. I also knew he was really tired from the whole week, but I was also quite exhausted from having the two babies for the week. All I really wanted was a BIG long nap and to not have to change any diapers for the day! :)
We enjoyed a nice morning at church and a yummy meal at Outback for dinner.
Here are me and my sweet babies. I am SO blessed to be chosen by God to be the mother of these precious angels! Tears come to my eyes when I think of what these two mean to me. (I also get a little nervous when I think that I am responsible for two human lives! )

Here is beautiful Lila is her dress Michael got her from Nicaragua. Notice, she is also carrying her new baby doll.

It was a little easier for me to get pictures taken with Graham than with Lila. She is at the age where she is a wiggle worm and not cooperative for the camera. :)

Daddy's Home!

I am hoping that Michael will do his post about Nicaragua for all of you soon. I think he is still processing so many emotions from his experience. So many of you gave to his trip and we cannot thank you enough! This has truly changed our lives. Yes, I said "our lives." Michael is changed, therefore we all are changed. I can't wait for you to see his pictures and hear his stories.
I made it through the week. I couldn't have done it without the help of my family. We packed up and headed to Morristown after dropping Michael off at the airport. Although it can be difficult getting everything ready and traveling with 2 babies, it was well worth it! Lila and Graham had so much fun with her grandparents and cousins.



Since we are typically running back and forth the whole time we visit our parents, I actually got to see some friends this time while I was in. It was so fun to get together again with these girls and their beautiful children. I have known these girls since elementary and middle school. Tonya was so nice to host us, right after her own sweet Josie's 2nd birthday party. It was neat to go through pregnancy with these girls, and to now watch our own children.
Here we are all with our babies! They all played great together.
My camera didn't take the best pictures, but I can promise you, we all have some really cute kids! :)


I know who to call whenever Graham is fussy. He loved Miss Tonya!

It is probably a good thing that we all don't live near each other, because if these three are anything like their momma's, it would be trouble!

This was the best picture I could get of Ava and Lila. They were so sweet giving each other hugs, but I kept missing the picture. It is so funny to see how each of our children resembles us as kids.

It was so great to see you girls! Let's do it again soon!

We also got to visit with my dear friend Jenny. She also had the magic touch with Graham!


We did come back home midweek to spend some time here and to get ready for daddy's arrival. We were so excited!
Here are a few pictures while we were waiting and of us welcoming home daddy!







He brought us some really neat gifts from Nicaragua. Lila got a beautiful dress and a precious baby doll and hammock. Graham got some really cool maracas, which left his face red after he tried putting them in his mouth...whoops!
Michael brought me home a really cute shirt and a gorgeous piece of pottery. I love it. He did very well!!!







Thanks again for all of you who supported our family on this mission trip. Not only are the people of Nicaragua truly blessed because of you, but so are we.