Blog Post: First Day of School

They boys have officially started school at their new school. Reed is in Second Grade and Nash is in First Grade.

Nash was really excited about his new teacher, Mrs. Crouch. She is really great.

Reed has a super cool teacher named Mrs. Jones. He really likes her alot.

Reed is excited to be back with his BFF from babyhood, Britton, but he really misses his first school BFF Connor.

Nash has enjoyed seeing lots of his church buddies, but I think he misses his buddy Quintan.

All in all, we are very happy with their new school. We are happy with our the boys have adjusted to their new school.

Honey We Got a Dog

The boys were really excited for us to move to our new house. We had promised them for a while that we would have a dog when we moved. I don't know why we promised such outlandish things. Anyway, at some point, it came up that we told the boys that we would get a dog in July.

Well, we knew that we wanted to adopt a dog that was already trained and we didn't want a pure-breed. We had always thought that we would adopt a big dog like a lab, but our new house didn't have a fence and we really like the openness of not having a fence. So, we decided on a small dog.

We got on the Website for "Death Row Dogs" and we found a dachsund/beagle mix. She lived with inmates for 14 weeks while she was trained to do tricks, live in a crate, and not have accidents.

On July 15, we got Sadie. Abbey and I went to the medium security correctional facility and met the inmates that had trained them. She is a really sweet dog and the boys love her.

The first few days were a breeze, but the next week her "protective" side came out and she started hating anyone not in our family. It took a while and a shock collar, but we have taught her how to be nice to other people outside our family.

She's finding her place in our house and our hearts.

Big Bugs

Abbey, Reed, Nash, Will, and Tuck joined Caitlin, Wyatt, and Aly on a trip to Cheekwood's Big Bugs exhibits.

An artist created giant bugs that were placed all over Cheekwood's beautiful gardens.

The boys loved climbing the walls and enjoying God's creation.

The exhibit had some interactive bugs that the boys loved playing on.

They also enjoyed the snacks that Abbey remembered to pack!

The bugs were really neat.

Ever the gymnast, Nash enjoyed climbing on everything in sight.

Will enjoyed the bug slide.

I think that all of the kids enjoyed hanging out with each other.

We really love living in an area where there are so many unique opportunities. It's so funny our boys just think it is normal to have exhibits and museums and zoos right around the corner. Abbey and I definitely didn't grow up that way. It was a major deal when we would go to one of the aforementioned as kids.

The giant beehive was a neat attraction that kids enjoyed.

Tuck enjoyed almost everything.

The giant spider was scary!

Strawberry Picking

 I don't remember ever going strawberry picking as a child,  but since we have moved to Tennessee, strawberry picking has become one of our favorite past times. Fresh strawberries are so much better than anything you can buy in the grocery stores.

The boys love finding and picking strawberries. We all went out strawberry picking one Saturday morning. I think the boys enjoy eating the strawberries as they pick them as much as they enjoy picking them.

Reed has become a professional strawberry picker after so many years of practice.

Sweet brothers. These two guys love each other so much. They are best buddies.

Because Abbey had already gotten her main stash of strawberries, we just picked a few on this strawberry hunt. Abbey made some delicious strawberry freezer jam. Just like Mrs. Mazella's.

We are a pro-strawberry family.

Maybe if you come and visit us, we will have fresh sourdough bread and strawberry jam.

Agency D3 - 2014 VBS

 We had a great year at VBS! It was a great theme and the kids learned a whole lot. All four of our boys had a great time.

Abbey coordinated the snacks again this year and they were all very tasty. I was able to help teach the 5th and 6th grade VBXers and I loved it. The curriculum was great and I'm not just saying that because Abbey wrote it. It really was great.

The kids all worked hard and we had a fantastic family night performance. I loved seeing all of our kids up there. If you look really closely, you will find Nash and Reed.

Will had fun with his performance too. Since we have listened to the VBS music for months, it wasn't any difficulty for them to know every word to every song.

Will was very animated as always. It was fun to see him.

Nash enjoyed spending the week with his buddies Christopher and Kooper.

I love that face.

Nash's Kindergarten Graduation

It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were at Reed's kindergarten graduation and all of a sudden we found ourselves at Nash's.

Nash did such a great job during his class' performance. He is an amazing kiddo.

Nash got the aware for "Amazing Creativity". We love that Nash is so creative. He is definitely an artist and loves to build and paint things.

Nash was a little tired after all of the performances, so he needed a break at the fellowship in his classroom.

The kids were all so excited to be at Kindergarten Graduation.

One of the worst parts of moving was knowing that we would have to change the boys' schools. We really hated the idea of leaving Mrs. Sarah. I cannot tell you how much she means to our family. She absolutely had everything to do with the fact that Reed and Nash had amazing first years' of school. She is a wonderful, wonderful person and any child who is blessed enough to get in her class is in for a real treat. She truly loves our boys.

Uncle Bill told Reed all about how he had been at his graduation last year.

Nash's best little class friend Quinton is a sweet kid. I think that Nash misses him at his new school.

We are SOOO proud of Nash. He did great in kindergarten and his amazing dimples continue to steal our hearts.