Camryn's 5th Birthday

Camryn turned 5 years old in March! It's kind of hard to believe sometimes. She weighed in at 34 lbs, 39". 10th percentile all around! Everyone always tries to guess how old she is - "Is she 3 or 4?" Kind of bugs me but she doesn't seem to mind. :) She is still a super picky eater but is starting to slightly loosen up so I'm hoping this year will show improvement on trying new foods!

She had a nice birthday. We decided on a "Love Monkey" theme. My mom got her a valentine's monkey when she visited in January and its been by her side ever since. So I got Valentine's Day clearance items for the decorations and made a monkey cake. Worked out great. We didn't do a friends party this year but went to Monkey Joe's as a family and had dinner at IHOP (her request- and kids eat free on Tuesday nights so it worked out great.)

Here are some pics of my cute monkey girl and her party decor. She had a nice day!

Neighborhood Friends

One of the things I have loved about moving here is our neighborhood. The houses are pretty close together and while that makes it not so much privacy, it's great for getting to know neighbors. We live on a kind of loop in the road and I will often take the kids on walks around it. It's only a 10 minute walk but we usually run into at least one group of kids playing and so we end up staying and playing for an hour or more. So fun! My kids have been enjoying it and I think it's going to make for an awesome summer vacation!

Here are some pics of our fun with new friends this year.

Back on track!

It's been a long while since I've blogged and I was thinking today that I really have missed documenting our lives this way. So let's get back on track!

Our house in Tennessee has been becoming more of a home to us. We have done a little decorating here and there so I'll have to take some updated pictures soon.

We've also been LOVING living in a neighborhood. Ours in particular is awesome. We have gone on lots of walks and often run into kids that quickly have become good friends.

We've had a bunch of visitors come. My parents and sister Katie drove all the way from Texas to see us in January and we had a great time visiting Gaylord Opryland, eating at Chick Fil A, checking out downtown Nashville and walking around the Parthenon. We loved showing them around! Merrick's parents, 2 brother, 1 sister, and 1 girlfriend also all came out last week for Easter. We shopped on Broadway and also Main St Franklin, saw the Grand Ole Opry show, the Parthenon, Loveless Cafe, etc. We are so glad they made it!

Avery has been enjoying 1st grade and Camryn is thriving in her PreK at Franklin Christian church. She also turned 5 in March. Lily is talking a ton and has some spunky personality coming through!

Merrick's work has been awesome and he took a business trip to Las Vegas in February. He also just got called as EQ President. Guess they found out he only did that job for 6 months in Wisconsin!

I've been doing lots of cleaning (a big house is a lot of work!), reading (some of my faves lately are Still Alice by Lisa Genova and The Light Between Oceans by ML Steadman), shopping for decorations for the house, returning most of the things I buy, and it feels like I spend a lot of time doing stuff like registering cars, getting my drivers license (took 4 hours in line the other day), etc. I'm excited that its going to be really nice weather this week so we can lounge in the sun a little more!!

Well I'll also post some pics that i haven't posted on instagram and facebook but I'm using my phone so they'll be in random order. :)

New Year, New Home!

We have been our new home almost a week! It has been very busy! There were a lot of little detail things that needed to be done on the house so I've been having painters and repairmen come in and out of the house several times a day- not to mention all the unpacking, organizing, blinds hanging, etc stuff we have been doing! Hopefully next week will be a little more low key. :)

We have a lot of work to do still but our kitchen is functional, the remaining boxes are centralized in the office, and all the furniture is in place. So here is a mini tour of our house. (Excuse the little messes here and there!)

Favorite things so far-
- Gorgeous kitchen! I'm loving all my new appliances, the granite, and the fridge we picked out! Plus we have a pantry now, which is wonderful.
- The sound of the doorbell!
- The walk-in closets in every room! Avery has been taking very good care of hers.
- The big yard and beautiful views!
- Beautiful wood floors in most of the main floor. Adds so much character to the house. I'll have fun keeping those clean though!!
- Having more space to spread out! It's great! Just need to get some furniture to fill it up now. :)

Not so favorite things so far-
- My oven exploded glass everywhere the first time I tried it out. A little scary! Got a new one in yesterday though!
- Finding places to put everything that was in our basement! We have plenty of space but not as much storage so that's an adjustment. We'll figure it out!
- Being paranoid living in a brand new house- feeling like we are going to ding it up really fast! I'm sure we'll get over that soon!
- Construction! Now that its a new year they started building 4-5 houses this week on our street! Will take a little getting used to but we're excited for the new neighbors it will bring!