It's been so long...

So my parents came to visit us at the end of June, and actually were here and had to leave on my 30th birthday. I have to admit, turning 30 was kind of sad...at least more that I expected. Anyway, now I'm 30, still look 16...with 3 kids. So we did lots of fun things. This is us touring downtown in the trolley. My parents got a hotel room downtown so the kids could swim and getaway and it was a hit!

My mom is quite an Elvis fan. We had tickets to go tour Graceland (his home in Memphis) but it didn't work out for us to go as far as weather, babysitter, and kids go. So, we will have to do it next time. But, we did drive by and get out and take some pictures. My mom was so fired up!

This is a park in downtown that was the sight of a civil war battle. They still have the stone wall up with cutouts where the cannons went.

We met Tim for lunch at the Cooky Canucks which was a restaurant on "Man vs Food" (I think it was called Big Foot then or something else). They have like an 8lb burger on the menu that is free if you can finish it. And, they have BBQ pork nachos with beans, BBQ sauce, pulled pork, and a cilantro ranch dressing. They are real good. I like to make them at home with the "Cafe Rio" pork and cilantro lime dressing.

Grandma and Grandpa waiting for the trolley.

"Not so Little" Ivy, I like to call her, is now 7 months. She is sitting up and rolling around like crazy. No crawling yet, which I am TOTALLY ok with. The kids love her and she is the BEST baby.

Andy starts pre-school in September. I can't wait...he can't wait. We all can't wait! He always brings me things and tells me he is going to show his teacher. Good luck Mrs. Gerianne:)

This little one re-visited the Terrible Two stage last week. It seems if you disrupt her sleeping schedule too much, she just can't recover. We went to the Charlotte area for about 10 days to stay with my nieces and nephew, and she had a hard time towards the end. I'm sure the people of the Nashville airport are grateful we will not be returning for awhile!

Still trucking along with the baby food thing. 7 weeks and counting and we are still struggling. But, she doesn't cry the whole time anymore, and for the most part, she'll open her mouth without me shoving the spoon in there. Hopefully she'll get it soon. Ivy is so chill and easy. I've never had a kid that will just sit on my lap in church or where ever and be totally content. I love it! She has chubby cheeks! We used to think she looked just like Andy but she is changing and looks like nobody now...probably more Tim than anyone. She's fun to have around.

We are doing well here. We made it through the Heat Wave, which I like to call Sweat Wave, and it's starting to cool down....in August.....already. I can't believe it. I am going to freeze to death this winter I think! Seriously, never in my life have I lived in snow. My kids have never touched snow and only one has actually seen it in real life. It doesn't snow too much, but more than good old C-Town. I can't wait for fall and the leaves to change!! It will be here soon:)

Don't adjust your eyes...that is Ivy's chins. At least I can make some good milk, right!? We have been busy here with life. Tim turned 30 on May 30th and we celebrated by going to the car show at Graceland (that's right, the one and only home of Elvis) and to the Sunset Symphony on the shores of the Mississippi River complete with the Memphis symphony playing, a air show over the river, and a fireworks show. It was pretty fun. It did take us 45 minutes to get out of the parking structure afterwards though. Happy Birthday to Tim! He does not like cake so we did a brownie cake with candles.

Last weekend we woke up and decided to do a day trip to Nashville. It's only 3 hrs away and we had not been there yet. We really like it there!! I can't wait to go back and visit a lot. They have a temple like ours on the Stake Center parking lot and we went to Franklin, a town about 25 minutes outside of Nashville. It is AWESOME! The main street/downtown area is soooo fun to walk around and we loved all of the cool houses there. It's been fun to be able to go visit new places and have the time to do things like that here. We are sad we missed the Coombs' annual San Diego trip but have already started saving for next year. And we can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to come soon!!

For the record, it is summertime, and everyone has told us, "Oh, are you guys sooo hot?" or "Oh, the humidity is way worse than the dry heat." Well, as of now, it is not as bad. The kids can actually go out and play outside in the afternoon or evening, it cools down at night and is not 100 degrees at 10:00pm. Today it was 80 degrees. Sure I am more sweaty, and my hair is a permanant frizz ball, but 115 is 115. Hopefully it doesn't get too much worse.

We are alive!

We are alive, we are not underwater like everyone has called to ask! Memphis has been crazy because of all of the floods. Tim and I went downtown last weekend and the Mississippi River is packed with people just taking pictures of how much water there is. It's the highest it's been since like the 1930's. Everyone here does say it is unusual to have this much rain. The weird thing is that it stopped raining like a week ago, but is still getting higher. There is an intersection downtown that is closed off bcause it is half way underwater, and it's started to come up on the street on some parts. I've never seen anything like it. But, we are surviving fine and haven't been directly affected by any of it. So, things are same old same old. These 3 are making me a little crazy this week, not gonna lie. Ivy just started rolling over and the kids get so excited. We chant, "Go, Ivy Go" until she does. Maybe she can start to burn some calories and get that double chin in check:)

We have also been hanging out with these kids. The Thomas family is in our ward, and they have really helped our transition to Tennessee a lot! It's weird to feel so comfortable around people we just met but I am so thankful for them. My kids love their kids, they are close in age, and they know all the ins and outs of living here! Brennon is Minnie's age, Jadyn is 6, and Hadley is 4. They are so fun!

We've also been doing a lot of coloring. Surprisingly, Anderson requests it a lot. He is getting excited about writing letters and his name. I signed him up for pre-school and he asks me alllll the time if he is going yet. I hope the enthusiasm doesn't wear off when he actually starts in September.

This one is hamming it up as usual. If you ask her what her name is now, she says, "Minnie Mouse." I actually heard them call her that in Nursery at church. She's so dang cute sometimes, and is so crazy other times. Last Sunday Tim spoke in church, so , I had all 3 kids on the bench by myself. Happy Mother's Day to me, right. And, it'll be the same this week for Stake Conference...2 hrs...kill me now. Minnie just walks around to the benches behind us and makes herself comfortable with whoever. We are gearing up for summer time, interested to see the dry vs. wet heat! Wish us luck...the Coombs' sweaty genes will not be helpful here...

Easter

Happy Easter. Ours started at 3 am when Anderson woke up and found his Easter basket and ran in to tell us that the Easter Bunny brought him a new monster truck. It took some doing but finally, I got him to leave it alone and go back to sleep. We went to church, burned our dinner, smoked ourselves out of the house, and made some memories....good or bad right?! Since we live out of town, my mom and dad want pictures, so here you go! We did a mini photo shoot in the backyard. I think we may start Ivy on a diet tomorrow.

Our First Visitors

The last few days, we had Tim's brother Justin's family in town with us for their Spring Break and we had such a good time. We were able to go downtown and check out all of the touristy spots, eat at the recommended restaurants, and even take a river boat on the Mississippi River. My kids LOVE their cousins, and they were no exception. I promised I didn't even see Anderson for like 4 days. He was Spencer's little buddy and Spencer was so good with him. This is all of the kids in front of the Gibson Guitar Factory. You can do tours, but you have to be at least 5 years old because of the level of sound during the tour. So, the big kids did that one without us.

Little buddies on Beale Street. Beale Street is the main street to hit here with all of the Blues Clubs and night life. You can't even drive down the street. It's pretty crazy.

And the girls. Minnie was in heaven too. They also came bearing gifts...Minnie got a new stroller and doll that she LOVES and Anderson got 2 new nerf dart guns that we used for a few "gun games". At one point, we had all of the kids (including 3 of my friend's kids that we were watching) all lined up along the fireplace vs. the adults. It was fun!

While they were here, I had the pleasure (just kidding) of speaking during church. And it was just me, not Tim. Weird, right?! I'm glad it's over, and that we had 6 helpers to keep my kids quiet in church. That was barely enough.

Anderson has been begging to wear his tie and church shirt with his "white pants". He asked me if he could wear his church shirt to bed tonight. Geez, must get it from his dad. (see the stroller in the background...she LOVES IT. It has to be parked next to her bed every night).

I learned a few things about Memphis this weekend. Half the time I forgot I lived here...

#1 Justin Timberlake grew up here...who knew? I love him...mostly because he is HILARIOUS on SNL

#2 Man vs. Food comes to Memphis a lot! We ate somewhere where you could order a 6 lb hamburger and try to eat it with another person in under 60 min. I think it's only happend 2x

#3 A guy in my ward went to High School with my mom...how RANDOM is that?

#4 There is full on tornadoes in Memphis. Like, it's no big deal to have the craziest thunderstorms and have to go in the hallway with the kids underneath a mattress. Who knew? Tonight there was 70mph winds in the area. Crazy! Guess I need to get batteries for my flashlight!

Anderson's 4th Birthday!

Today Andy turned 4! I can't believe it. He's getting so old. We had "birthday donuts" (our little family tradition we started...when we lived a mile from Krispy Kremes). Then we got ready and went to the Memphis Zoo. We have been told to just get a membership so we can go whenever and I think it's totally worth it. We loved it. These are the tigers that we saw as soon as we got there. They had a lot of different animals that we don't have at the good old Phoenix zoo and it was nice weather and the kids were really good. This is the area that is like Yellowstone. Ivy was asleep in the stroller by the random lady who took our picture. They had timberwolves and bears and elk here. It was really cool. The kids love the zoo. We rode the train around the petting zoo area and saw polar bears for the first time. They are HUGE. We will definately be going back. Minnie and I rode the carousel and she kept asking to go see Minnie Mouse and Snow White. I guess we trained her well. I had to explain, for probably the 10th time, that Snow White and Minnie Mouse were far far away.

After the zoo we came and did cake and presents. Andy made out and got everything his little heart desired...except a pogo stick. Do they still have those? He's been asking for one and I have no idea where he even saw one. I did look at Target and didn't see one. Weird request, right?

He was so fired up all day and had so much fun. He's done so good here and for being used to playing with his cousins A LOT, he has adjusted well. We've made some good friends here that he loves to play with, and I'm so grateful for that. I signed him up for Pre-School and he is soo excited. Anderson is a handful at times, but is starting to grow up and is a good big brother to his sisters. I will always have ENDLESS stories of his shenanigans though!

We moved!

So we did it. We moved to Memphis. I'm exhausted! Tim drove out with his friend Tyler and both cars. They had Anderson and surprisingly, the busiest kid in the world did great. The whole trip (a 24 hour total drive), he watched 45 minutes of one movie. He just sat in his seat and watched the window. Tim said he kept asking if he wanted to watch a movie and he would say no. I guess he just needs to be strapped in once in while. We also blessed Ivy before we left on our last Sunday in my parent's ward. It was nice. Because things have been so crazy with Tim's job and selling our house, I haven't been able to really enjoy Ivy yet. Now that things are starting to calm down, we get to play and enjoy having a little baby in the house again.
While unpacking, it was like Christmas for the kids all over again. They re-discovered their long lost toys and were happy...for about 2 seconds. There are too many other things to mess around with and play with in a new house to worry about those boring old toys. Finally I ended up saying, "Don't touch anything that is not a toy". I'm sure you can guess how long that lasted.

Tim, Tyler and Andy stopped at Cadillac Ranch on the way. Crazy.

This was our backyard last week. Now the trees are getting green leaves. This is a sight I've never seen before as a AZ lifer. It's so pretty and green. It's been in the seventies if not lower since we've been here. Definately will take some getting used too! It snows a few times in the winter which I've never done before. Anderson and Minnie actually have not even seen snow yet. It's going to be crazy!

This is my view as I sat in Relief Society last week. The Memphis Temple is a smaller one built on the grounds of the church building. You have to make an appointment if you want to go other than the already set session times. I can't wait to go. It's awesome to be able to go to church every Sunday and see the temple right there. Our ward was super nice, and much smaller than we are used to. We already were invited to someone's house for dinner and made a few friends. Seriously, how or what do people do when they move somewhere and don't have the church? How do you meet people? Who do you call for help? I am so thankful for it and wouldn't know what to do without it! Especially now that we will be relying on ward members and visiting teachers and home teachers much more:)