Halloween Playdate

***I MADE LOTS OF POSTS TONIGHT SO KEEP READING***
My sweet friend Leigh Ann had us over to paint pumpkins last week. It was so much fun to meet some new people here. I really don't know what we would have done without Leigh Ann to help us throughout our move. She and her family and friends have made us feel so welcome here!
The kids had a great time painting pumpkins and playing. It was chilly and rainy outside, but by the end of the playdate most of them were running around barefoot having a ball!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Circle Y to get pumpkins this year. The girls always have so much fun there. It has a petting zoo, a great play area, a cow train, and a hayride to the pumpkin patch. I don't really think it's an actual "patch;" they just set the pumpkins out and let you go get them. I actually like it better because it's so much easier to get the pumpkin you want. Gracie is our animal lover (or at least she likes them more than Lindsay), but she didn't want anything to do with the goats or chickens this time. Both girls loved riding the cow train. I was so worried that Gracie would try to come out, but I should have known better. If I give Lindsay the job of keeping Gracie in one place, she will just about tackle her if she has to. Gracie did keep disappearing down into the train and sticking her hands out the bottom though.
We all had fun picking out pumpkins. Lindsay and Gracie had very different strategies. Gracie spotted the one she wanted the minute we put her down, and she carried it around the entire time we were out there. Lindsay is more like her mommy though and kept changing her mind.

Feeding the Geese

I took the girls to a great park here one afternoon. It has a wonderful lake with lots of ducks and geese. While we were there, I saw a family taking autumn pictures down by the lake so I convinced Tanner that we should do it with our girls. Unfortunately, photo sessions never go well for us. I think it is practically impossible to get two small children to look at the camera at the same time. I swear it's like there heads are attached by a string and whenever Lindsay's head is up, Gracie's is down. The second that Gracie's head begins to come up, Lindsay's is pulled down. It's really maddening.
Nonetheless, I did get some great pictures of Tanner and the girls feeding the geese. The geese here must be very accustomed to being feed by humans because they will certainly come right up to you. Gracie was so funny about the whole thing. She did not want to be near the geese, but she wanted some of the bread that Daddy was throwing them. At one point, she was trying to get the bread off the ground before the geese could.

Sorry for the delay

I'm so sorry I've been away from blogging for so long. We have been so crazy busy that I just have not been able to sit down long enough and do it. I thought since tonight is the time change that I would go ahead and stay up late and do it (just kidding...the time change means nothing to a 3-year-old and 1 1/2-year-old). Anyway, we are in Mississippi now and absolutely loving it. It feels like we are back home. Lindsay has started school and ballet here. I had some really cute pictures from the first day of each, but I accidentally deleted them from my camera. I have shed tears over it and finally moved on. Luckily, she had a school project that required pictures so I do have this one that I downloaded to get printed. It was the best one of the bunch anyway.

A lot of people have asked for pictures of our new house so here it is...

We've done lots of fun things since we've gotten here so keep reading for more updates.

Weekend Full of Fun

Tanner had a three-day weekend this weekend so we decided to do as many things as possible since we won't be in Chattanooga for much longer. Friday morning we went to Apple Valley Orchard. I thought it would be really neat for the girls, but it did not live up to my expectations. The website said that there would be a hayride, but when we got there we discovered that they were only doing school field trips now and really did have anything for the general public to do. Lindsay and Gracie still had a great time running through the orchard.



On Saturday, Tanner had a company picnic at Lake Winnie, an amusement park near us. The girls had a ball there. The only time Lindsay has ridden rides was at Disney World, and we haven't been there since her second birthday. Gracie had never seen anything like this in her life, but she ate it up. Lindsay's favorite thing was driving the Antique Cars, and Gracie just loved sitting with her sissy and driving past Tanner and me to wave at us. The only thing Gracie didn't like was the huge slide that she went down with Daddy. She screamed the entire way down. Lindsay and I had fun on it though. We really had a wonderful day with our precious girls.

Sweetie Pie!

I thought I would post a few pictures of our sweet little Gracie. She is getting so big and looking more like a "little girls" than a baby. She is starting to talk a lot and has developed a deep love for babies. Many times while I'm busy doing something with Lindsay, I'll look over and see Gracie hugging a baby or rocking one and "singing" to it. She is such a sweet girl! Her hair has just gotten long enough that I can pull it back out of her face so a few of these pictures are when I tried to get a picture of that. I feel like I don't have as many random pictures of her as I do of Lindsay so I'm trying to do better. Hopefully, I'll have more to post soon.


This next picture is so funny to me. She reminds me of a mom standing out on a front porch holding her baby and calling her other kids to come in for supper.


I love this one of the two of them having fun outside in the backyard.

Clifford's Birthday Party

This week at Lindsay's preschool, they have been reading Clifford the Big Red Dog books, and yesterday was his birthday party. When I drove up to get Lindsay after school, this little puppy dog greeted me!


Last night, we went to Open House at Lindsay's school. She was so proud to show us her classroom and all the work that she has been doing. She was the line leader yesterday and her name was still up on the board where she had had the chance to use the pointer and spell her name to the class. This really excited her too! School has been an absolute joy for her so far. The last pic is of Lindsay with her good friends the sweet Baggenstoss girls, Kate and Lydia.

Rock City

Our girls were sick all last week and had to stay indoors. Both of them (along with their Mommy) were stir crazy by the weekend, so we decided to go to Rock City on Sunday afternoon. We're trying to do all the tourist-y stuff before we leave. I was a little nervous about it because you can't take strollers, but we ended up having a great time. We started by having a picnic lunch and letting the girls run around. Tanner took Lindsay across the swinging bridge, but I was too chicken to walk across it holding Gracie. Lindsay and Gracie both loved the afternoon and had such a fabulous time running around when they could. The experience made Tanner and me look forward to extended family vacations when the girls get a little older.

Helping Daddy

Well, we have had so much going on lately that I just have not had time to blog. I really haven't even had time to take many pictures, which I hate! I did manage to snap these Monday afternoon after our trip to Corinth. Tanner took the girls out to help him water the flowers. They are such big helpers!! And yes, Lindsay is just in her panties (her shorts were bothering her from sitting so long in the car so we just went without them).



Gracie got bored with all the plant watering and decided to get her little pink car. Lindsay had a great time pushing her. Hopefully, Gracie enjoyed it too even though her sister isn't the smoothest driver!