November

November has been a crazy month! We have been here, there, and everywhere! Last time I posted we were in Jacksonville. We only ended up staying there a little over a week. But before we left we got to spend some time with a good family friend. My mom has known Ricki since high school, and they've been good friends ever since. We vacationed with their family every year growing up, and she happens to live in Jacksonville!

One day we went to a beach near Ricki's house and stopped by for pizza after. So much fun!

It didn't take Colt long to get into the toys and declare he was taking them home.

The Friday we were there was Veteran's Day. We went to the beach, and it was an absolutely perfect day. We were so lucky because Daniel got to join us! Daniel served in the Army and guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and we are so proud and thankful for him. We were happy to celebrate with him at our happy place!

I had to keep an extra eye on my little fish! She got so far out all by herself, and I had to call her back several times! So proud of her.

Love my people.

Colt was whispering to Daddy what kind of cupcake he wanted. 

Sunday Ricki took us to the Jacksonville Zoo. It is in the top 10 zoos in the country, and it did not disappoint!

Avery with the elephants. We did a big Roll Tide to that!

Giraffes are my absolute favorite! They are so pretty! I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't too excited to feed them, but it was so fun. The kids did perfect, and look how close we were to him!! 

The otters are a close second for my favorites. They are so cute and friendly.

This was the cutest thing ever. The mom (or dad) grabbed the baby by his arm and slung him on her back. So sweet.

Ricki was so sweet to take us to the zoo. We had a blast. Later that evening we took the kids to Ricki's so we could go on a date! I forgot what that was like. We found a cute little seafood place on the beach, and had fun having uninterrupted adult conversation.

Can't remember the last time I got dressed up.

My little redneck children in the big city. Colt decided that's how he likes to wear his flip flops. Fine by me...

Daniel took Colt with him to Paducah, and Avery and I had a girls' night on our last night in Jacksonville. We found this yummy Italian place and ate pizza and spaghetti. The next day we picked up Shorty and headed to Birmingham. We spent a couple days there then went to Paducah for a few days so Daniel could hunt.

Many parts of the southeast are going through a devastating drought, and we went out to Lake Purdy near my mom's house. We were standing in the middle of the lake, and it should have been 8 or so feet high with water. There is barely any water left. A few days after this they had to close the lake. We got a little relief last night, but it will take a while to reverse this.

This is about the only thing to do when we go up to Paducah. Superman is ready for Christmas!

Colt wasn't tall enough to put his head on Superman, and sweet Avery held him up best she could.

 Fun times. That took all of five minutes.

This was cracking me up. Shorty was so excited to be in the house with us. Avery found this pillow and put her in front of it. Shorty was in heaven.

We went to my mom's for Thanksgiving, and we got this gingerbread house for the kids. Daniel was smart and waited til I wasn't there to do it with them. I have no patience. Turned out cute, and they ate on it for days...gross.

Obligatory family picture. Happy Thanksgiving!

My mom and I went shopping on Friday, and Daniel sent me this picture of the kids. He said they were looking for turtles.

We came home Sunday, and I bought some Christmas cookies to bake. Love me some good Christmas footies. This was about 20 minutes before Colt fell out of his chair and almost broke his ankle. Good times.

I'm trying to do better with my homeschooling. It's hard, though. This week's theme is transportation, and I wasn't really prepared yesterday, so Avery made a train with the sight words she knows.

We broke down and got a fake tree last night. I'm pretty sure I've never had one in my life. It is pretty, but not the same. Back to a real one next year.

Looks like we're home for Christmas, then time will tell where we are headed. Just ready for 2016 to be over.

Where Are We?!

Whew! We've been so busy lately, I don't know where we are or what day it is half the time! Let's go back a few weeks and catch up...

Avery and I have started watching the Pioneer Woman, and Avery has begged to make one of her recipes. We made these crazy brownies. It's a layer of brownies on bottom then all this candy in the middle, then another layer of brownies on top. I have a major sweet tooth, and these were even too sweet for me! 

There's an apple orchard near our house, and we went one afternoon. One of my favorite things from Indianapolis was the awesome orchard they had. This one was the orchard, but all the apples had already been picked for you...no fun.

I made a yummy apple cobbler from them, though.

Halloween weekend was a busy one for us. Sunday we went to church with my mom. It was All Saints Sunday, and all of the church members, family, and friends who had died this year were remembered. We remembered Susannah and Memaw. After church my mom, Avery, and I went to a memory service/walk for Susannah. It was held at the Botanical Gardens, and there were so many people there who had experienced the same thing we did. It was a nice service. Afterwards we walked to the Little Ones Garden which was made for babies like Susannah. They gave us two envelopes with butterflies in them. We didn't stay for the release, but we let Avery and Colt release them.

This is the only picture I got of Colt...

A nice way to remember our sweet Susannah.

After that we got into our Halloween costumes and went to Trunk or Treat at Asbury.

Wonder Woman and Superman! I was happy with the way Avery's costume turned out.

So much candy and it wasn't even Halloween yet!

All the Halloween pictures turned out blurry. I think I was in a funk that night. We went around my sister's neighborhood. The kids had a good night and got way too much candy!

On Tuesday I left the kids at Meme's so I could go home and pack. Meme always does fun stuff with them. They went to Mr. Mack at the library. It's a blurry picture, but the one of them dancing is my favorite. So sweet.

Back to the packing...while we were on our Fall Break trip, Daniel and I decided to make a big change in our life. We are leaving TN for the foreseeable future to travel and do tree work. The hardest part was deciding to pull Avery out of school and home school her. We love South Lincoln and Mrs. Monks, but we have to do what's best for our family.

Avery's last day was the Friday before Halloween. She will miss her friends and sweet teacher, but she was excited for me to be her teacher.

This past Sunday we loaded up the van, Shorty in tow (we had to find a new home for Wrigley), and headed to Jacksonville, FL. I'll spare you the details of the horror that was that day. We are loving Jacksonville, and especially loving the beach!

Early on in the trip. Shorty likes being in Avery's lap.

This was Monday. After a super long trip the day before, you can't imagine the relief and joy I felt getting to relax at the ocean and see the smiles on the kids' faces.

Our hotel has free breakfast...yay! We like going down each morning and eating a nice waffle. Or jelly by itself, if you're Colt.

And we went to the beach Tuesday. I was freezing, but the kids were having the time of their lives in the ocean!

Wednesday was rainy and gloomy, so we got out to explore. This is where I remember coming when we used to visit as a kid. My parents' best friends live here, so we vacationed here a lot growing up. We found a pizza place for lunch, and it was the absolute best pizza I've ever eaten! I'll be dreaming about it for weeks.

Next we went the Avenues Mall. My kids are spoiled rotten. This added to our collection of about 5 million "pets". But they were buy one get one for $2, so I didn't feel too bad. We also saw Santa at the mall!!

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I was shocked and relieved to see Donald Trump will be our new president! I don't completely agree with everything he stands for or some of his words, but I am so thankful Hilary didn't win. I'm excited to see where Trump will lead our country, and I think he has a lot of awesome folks helping him out. I read Franklin Graham's response, and his prayer will be my prayer: "I pray that President-Elect Trump will surround himself with godly men and women to help advise and counsel him as he leads the nation." Franklin Graham led prayer rallies in all 50 states in the months before the election. You can't tell me prayer doesn't work! I love my country, and I know Trump will put everything into making the changes we need. P.S. This was part of Avery's schoolwork this morning. She spelled all of that almost completely on her own. I'm so proud of her! Her art skills, on the other hand, came from me I'm afraid. 

Today we went to a different beach in Ponte Vedra called Mickler's Landing. It was very shelly, but the kids loved it. And Colt's beach hair was on point. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and nice...a definite beach day!

Yesterday I asked Google where a good cupcake place was. It told me about Sweet by Holly, and oh my gosh, this place is heaven. They have 30 flavors of cupcakes, and they come in mini sizes. Perfect for these little hands! We went yesterday and today, and we've checked six flavors off the list: coffee, lemon, mint chocolate, plain jane, red velvet, and tiramisu. Back at it tomorrow...our time in Jax is limited!!

Possibly going to Savannah and Orlando next. Excited to see where this takes us and what we can get into next!