Two signs of fall

1.Leaves changing color
2. SEC FOOTBALL

Okay, experiencing fall in the south this year was breathtaking. Amazing shades of bright yellow, orange, and red were seen everywhere! Whole hill sides and roadways were painted these gorgeous colors. I truly can say I have never seen a more beautiful fall. I LOVED IT! The kids loved watching as the trees changed colors. We took family pictures and let the kids play in the leaves! I love this time of year!

Another sure sign that fall is here is FOOTBALL season. Wow! We have never experienced anything like football in the south either! This town goes football crazy! I'm not joking when I say it is people's religion out here. Games are on Saturdays and as early as Wednesday we start noticing the bright Tennessee orange start appearing. Everyone from little old ladies to the tiniest newborn can be seen wearing UT orange. Orange and white are the colors of the University of Tennessee. Not just any orange, it is BRIGHT ORANGE! Jason and I were able to get tickets for the last home game here in Knoxville. Neyland Stadium is like the 2nd or 3rd largest college football stadium in the country. The attendance the night of the game was 100,000+!!!! That is like 2 populations of Idaho Falls!!! Wow, and it was just a sea of orange at the game. Way cool! Anyway, here is a picture of the "Power T" at the game. Go Vols!

1st trip to the ER to see dad

Unfortunately our first trip to see Jason at work was for a trauma. Okay, nothing big, just an eyelid that got split open after Logan was running down the hall to brush his teeth. Somehow, Parker tripped him with a toy truck on his journey to the bathroom. Logan fell either onto the banister railings or the truck. Parker was the only eye witness to the trip and fall. I'm not sure Logan knows exactly what happened either. Jason was at work (of course!), so I had to take Logan to the hospital for Jason to look at his eyelid. Luckily he used dermabond and steri-strips. Definitely a procedure that Jason could have done at home if he were home. We were in and out of the ER in less than 30 minutes. This all took place Halloween night after trick or treating. Luckily my parents were here visiting so my mom stayed with Macee and Parker while I took Logan to the hospital with my dad in the back seat helping Logan hold gauze to his eye.

Halloween costumes

That witch is our cute Macee. The red power ranger is Logan. And Parker is too cute in that lion costume. If only you could hear his darling growl! It would make you melt, I swear!
We had to do all of our trick or treating in the rain this year. That's right all you Las Vegans! RAIN!! And not just a drizzle, not a down pour, but a constant light rain. It really was awful trying to keep three little bodies in costume under umbrellas. They didn't seem to mind one bit! The kids still had a wonderful time! After collecting all the loot, we came home and had hot cocoa and cider and donuts. Krispy Kreme of course. With chocolate and sprinkles! Oh and did I mention, Jason was working Halloween night! Bummer, I know!

pumpkin carving fun

Look at these messy kids! They had a great time choosing what kind of jack-o-lanterns to create this year! Macee made a witch, Logan wanted a pirate, and Parker got a cute grinning face. They were all so cute lit up on our porch! Thanks for the carving help Papa Joe!

Daddy's home!!

Yeah! Daddy's home! Quick, let's go do something before he falls asleep or has to leave again! Intern year of OMFS residency is TOUGH! This is probably why I haven't posted much in the last 5 months. I am trying to figure out this new and incredibly difficult schedule we have now. Jason takes call 10 days out of the month. This means I go a little crazy some days. Whenever Jason is home on his post call days- (days he gets to come home from being at the hospital from his sometimes 32 hour work day) we like to get out and do fun things with the kids. We have quite a few parks close to our house and we have an awesome zoo we go to frequently. The kids LOVE their daddy! We are so grateful for all his hard work and...I love him too!

Macee's cute tote bag

For kindergarten, Macee's school wanted them to bring a tote bag rather than a backpack. The only ones I could find were plain canvas bags at Walmart. NO FUN for a cute girl to take to her first year of school...so, I asked a sewing genius I know to help me make a bag for her. Macee loved picking out the fabrics and she knew she wanted a flower on it. So, my good friend Cally designed and made this for her! I think it turned out so darling! Thank you so much Cally! Macee is the most stylish girl in kindergarten!
Cally also has a super fun blog http://www.cally-cruze.blogspot.com/. You have got to check out how talented she is! She is also doing a giveaway this month! Look under "bags" to see "macee's kindergarten tote" close up!

Macee's first day of school!

First day of Kindergarten!

These pictures I took before we left for Ritta Elementary this morning at 7:20 am. That's right, she needs to be at the school at 7:30 and school starts at 7:45am. We got there on time today-hopefully a good sign for things to come! She had a WONDERFUL day! Her most exciting stories were about eating school lunch (pepperoni pizza, orange slices, apple, salad, and strawberry milk), playing on the playground swinging, and reading a list of words and the letter sounds. She told me she knew every sound and only missed 2 words on a long list of words!

Today is Tuesday and she doesn't go back to school until next Tuesday. It will kill her to not go back tomorrow! She loved it. She will find out who her teacher will be next Monday. She said all the teachers she worked with today were really nice, so she would like any of them.

This last picture I took of her after her first day. I guess she had a great day and lots of fun! She wanted to do a silly face!

Pictures of our new home

Home Sweet Home!

These are some pictures of our new home as requested by my mom. I promised her these when we first moved in. Thanks for being patient!
A quick side note: the lawn looks nice and green right? Well, all it is is a bunch of weeds with a few patches of grass. For new homes here, they seed the lawn and then cover it with hay. So, grass begins to grow, but so do tons of weeds. Quickly the weeds take over and the grass patches get devouvered by the fast growing weeds! We don't water the lawn, becuase it would only fuel the growth of the weeds! We will have to wait until fall to overseed and kill out the weeds, so in the meantime we just mow them down as they grow. No one seems to mind around here, because that is what most people do! We all go outside and mow the weeds!



1.*Front View-moving day! 2*Pond next to the house:
we often see turtles and hear frogs!
One day a turtle was in our yard and
we carried it into our backyard for the
kids to watch. It wandered around and
made its way back down to the pond,
under the fence!

1*Close up of the bricks 2*Front door!

and one of the shutters




1*Backyard! 2*Back view of the house

The dirt out here is red clay

that is what the orange/red stuff is

on the foundation.

1*Living room-main level 2*Front room-right inside

front door

1*Dining room 2 *Kitchen



* One of my favorite places

in the whole house! Our jetted

tub in the master bath!

Summer nights in the south

Lightning Bugs!

*This is a lightning bug by day. Just your average looking bug, but it has magical powers!*

I guess it has been close to a month ago that we saw our very first lightening bug. No joke! We truly have never seen real life lightning bugs...and it was AMAZING! We were at our friends house when we first laid eyes on the miraculous little bugs. Jarom and Laura could not believe it was our first time seeing them. Jason and I were all in awe. I'm sure it is what people must feel when they see snow for the first time! Amazing! Anyway, ever since we have been hooked and intrigued with them. Every night we watch with wonder and anticipation of seeing a small flicker of light flash through the night sky.

Tonight we laid on our trampoline and enjoyed the colors of the sunset, watched for the first stars to appear, and saw our favorite southern friends dance around us! It's what summer is all about. Jason and I had so much fun with the kids! We got pillows and blankets out-Macee's idea. She was trying to convince us to sleep outside all night! They do sweet little things that make us smile and laugh. They really are so much fun.

*These are ligtning bugs by night! This is what they look like when they are flying around lit up!

We have never seen this many all at once though!*

Happy 3rd Birthday Logan!

Logan turned 3 on July 19! He was born at 1:38am in Las Vegas, Nevada. He weighed 7lbs. 5 oz. and was 19'' long! Look at how darling he is now! He is such a sweet boy and we love him!

He had a WONDERFUL birthday! I showed the cake pictures first, becuase "the cake" is what he was most excited for and thought the cake was the whole birhday and the most important. He choose Spiderman for his cake this year. He loves all boy things!

He got a bike this year and was so excited for it! Also other big hits were pirate swords, spiderman helmet (which got worn during the remainder of present opening!), a cool race track for cars, and new sunglasses that replaced the ones got devoured by the lawn mower earlier in the week!:)

Some fun things he does that make us laugh and cry:

* He is always touching Parker's head-to stroke, rub, kiss, but mostly poke, prode, and occasionally slap and pound. Maybe he just loves Parker's red hair!
* He is in the "why" stage. "Why mommy, why?" "Why daddy, why?"
* He has taught himself to snap!
* He loves singing primary songs to Parker at bedtime
* Logan and Parker share a room and most nights, after they have fallen asleep, I will check on them and Logan has crawled in bed with Parker. Sometimes Parker will be in bed with Logan. Super cute brothers!
* He loves making mom and dad happy
* He is our bashful boy!
* He hates to eat meat, but could eat snacks and treats ALL day!
* His favorite primary song is "I love to see the temple"-which he chooses to sing every time it is his turn for song for FHE
* He climbs on everything, jumps off anything, and eats crayons and play-doh in nursery

***What would we ever do without him?!***

This 3 took us multiple shots!!

Can you see how excited this little guy was?!