NEW CAR!!

Hooray...so excited about my new car...to be completely honest this is the EXACT car I have been secretly building online for the last 2 years!!! I LOOOVE IT! I am so thankful for this amazing gift...I had been very patient driving around that dang jeep forever...thanks honey!

This is our good friend, Kirk, the night we got it! I love this picture...he is giving us his best, "What?!? Umm, hell yea!" face! It is fun to have such great friends to share stuff like this with, friends that get as excited as you are for great things in life! BLESSING!!

Woops!

Ok, wow, it has been too long. So, I am realizing that when you go too long without blogging, you don't know where to start, so you just keep putting it off. Kinda like the thing I do with my ironing or my filing...til my mom comes and kicks my butt in gear! So I have a million things to share but gotta start somewhere. So here we go! Here are a few fun new things and happenings in our life:

Happenings!!

My Son is gorgeous...I mean look at those blue eyes!! Oh and he is so fun! Smiling at us all the time, making lots of funny noises, laughing at his "silly sissy" and LOVING him some MOMMA!!

Dad and Finley cooking breakfast on the porch during all the crazy rains. We were without power and water for almost a full day! So glad I have such a resourceful husband!

We lived through the worst flood ever recorded in Tennessee!! This is a picture of the river, I mean street in front of our house! We did not have any water damage thankfully but it was pretty crazy in our town for awhile!

Family Movie Night!!
I love this picture and yes, I know we aren't normal, our snack that night was sardines on top of an avocado spread on baguette! Yes it was delicious and yes, Finley ate it too!

Franklin Main Street Festival Fun!

Finley being brave, riding the pony! (Probably mostly because Samantha, her BFF, was doing it with her!) Oh and we all did a little advertising for Little Star with our new matching shirts!!
My favorite street vendor treat! Krazy Kut Taters!!!!!!! We also had kettle corn, roasted ears of corn, corndogs, and polish sausage, ugh! We had so much fun with our good friends the Lees and we all left with stomach aches, so, I'd say, mission accomplished!

MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN!

Well, this has been a major parenting breakthru week for us! Finley went from Zero to Full speed on potty training. I have been floored by it all, FLOORED! Potty training used to be my nemesis, people would say when she is ready, she will just do it...it will be easy! I DID NOT believe them for one second! We had tried, oh we had tried, but when she decided to do it on her terms...it was sudden and immediate. It has been so fun getting to praise her all week and see her be so proud of herself. It is crazy how much more grown up it makes her seem! Wow, where did the time go!
Secondly, Cason FINALLY decided to start taking a bottle! This has been a major issue too, he would get so mad and no matter what we tried we could not get him to take a bottle (which has made for some serious challenges as a working mom!) It all feels rather magical and like a HUGE GIFT! Thank you Jesus! You heard my desperate mommy cries and amazingly you even care about potty training and bottles!

DeTrays in Mexico!

We had a really nice vacation in Mexico...definitely not long enough and very different vacationing with kids but so fun! The kids did great and Finley loved every minute of it! She is such a delight right now...so thrilled with everything, so full of wonder so full of WORDS! She is hilarious and getting SO into fairytales and pretend play lately! She has taken to referring to herself as Ariel and dad is King Triton. So obviously I couldn't just stay mom and she decided I would be Sleeping Beauty and Cason is Desperaux! It is really funny she does it all the time and won't allow us to call each other by any other names. This was an especially big game at pool time where she would where her Ariel swimsuit that she just HAD to have. So much fun!


Cutie Beach Babies!

SOO our life right now...Cason is crazy fast at grabbing sister's hair! And our hands are full pretty much most of the time!!

Amazing View from our Private pool deck!

My "Pool Boys!"

Funny Finley Musings!

We are still in Mexico, really enjoying our family time! Had to share some fun Finley stories so far on this trip.
First, we had been telling her lots about the trip...she is a girl who wants to know all the details! So we left out crazy early 4:30am on Wednesday morning and Fin couldn't sleep...so excited! Well, she asked us several times that morning: "when are we gonna see your ami?" Well, it wasn't til about the 3rd time that we finally understood what she meant...because we had told her, first we fly to Miami...Chris and I were laughing in amazement, of course My Ami, Your Ami!! HA!
Second, when we finally got into Cancun and trying to get off the plane...Finley was saying "Hola" to everyone (such a great little spanish speaker!) Well, the nice French couple behind us thought she was adorable and said, "Do you speak French too?" To which Finley replied without missing a beat, "French Fries!" So funny!
Third, we were ordering at the pool bar yesterday with lots of other vacationers around and after ordering our drinks, the bartender said jokingly to Cason, "and what for you little baby, tequila?" And Finley yelled back at him, "NO, HE WANTS BOOBIE MILK!"
Such a funny age, she certainly keeps us on our toes and laughing!

WOW!! This is where we will be tomorrow!

Ok, so my husband is amazing! He is REALLY good at his job and often times that carries over into being "Super Manager" for his family too...like when you get an email 3 days before you are supposed to leave on vacation saying that your resort has overbooked and you have to be moved to another resort! So he handled it all...they were giving us great options very fair swaps but we had booked a suite since we were travelling with the kids and wanted a seperate room so we could nap them and put them to bed earlier and we could still hang out and they weren't finding us another suite. SOOOO, Chris researched it and found this SWANKY resort that did have a suite available and shot it to him as an option, aaannnnddd THEY DID IT! It is a way more expensive place (not for us...they are paying the resort to move us there) And we have the Platinum Suite with this amazing balcony and our OWN PRIVATE POOL! WHAT?!?!? It is kinda hysterical to me and I am sure we are ruining Finley since this is our first major vaca with kids. Anyway, we are so excited...our family really needs the time away and we all need the rest. We all need to unplug from the craziness for a bit and just be together!
We will post more pics!

We are open!! I can't believe it! We have worked so hard and we are SO tired but our 2nd store is officially open! Hope you all get to see it sometime. It is so fun and exciting. Our husbands and families have worked so hard and are very tired too, we are so lucky to have such amazing helpers! I am thankful, thankful, thankful!

Finley "Reading"

This video really makes me laugh...it is Finley "reading" one of her Valentine cards. She is hilarious the things she makes up and she tries to sound so formal too! Enjoy!