Walking trails

One thing we really loved about living in Wisconsin was the wide variety of walking trails in the city and near our house.  Nearly every weeknight in the summer, we would get in the car and drive to a nearby trail or down to the lake to enjoy the fresh air and gorgeous weather.  Tennessee doesn't have quite the same amenities as Madison, though.  We did manage to find one trail not too far away, and we went a couple times after Henry was born while the weather was still nice in the evenings.

I don't think this picture quite captures just how steep this hill was!  The whole trail was very hilly and very steep at some points.  I'm not going to complain, though, because my glutes could use it and it felt good to put in the effort after being pregnant and sore for so long.  Sadly, the evening light and warm weather didn't last too long after Henry was born so we've put our evening walks on hiatus for a while.  Hopefully we can pick things up again when the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, which should hopefully be by March or so here.  Maybe even by this summer we will live in a house, in a neighborhood with sidewalks.  Then we can just walk out our door and go walking every night like we did in Florida, if we don't want to drive to a trail.  Here's hoping!

Henry's baby quilt

My mom always makes a baby quilt for her new grandchildren, and it's something we treasure!  For Henry, I actually came across this quilt on instagram over a year ago and always had it in the back of my mind in case I ever had a boy.  Thankfully, Mom was happy to make it for me exactly like I wanted it! (she usually chooses out the fabrics and patterns)  She brought it to us when she and my dad came down for Thanksgiving.

 For now it's just a tummy time/snuggling quilt.  It's a big size, though, and will be perfect on a toddler bed someday.

Henry certainly won't suffer from any lack of attention at our house-

Future pilot, perhaps?  

Thanks, Mom, for the beautiful quilt.  We will treasure it always!

Hands On Museum

Something fun we have found to do is the Hands On museum downtown.  I took Olivia a couple times before Henry was born (we bought an annual pass), and Garrett took all the girls a couple times after Henry was born while I stayed home with the baby.

Probably the neatest part is the huge "Make it, Take it" room.  They have all sorts of crafting supplies that you can use to make pretty much anything you want.  Then you can take it home.

On this day, Garrett helped Ellie build a house for one of her little stuffed pigs (his name is Bacon)-

We came across another little art room with some easels downstairs, so the girls set to work on some masterpieces:

Shopping at the "grocery store":

Digging for fossils and shark teeth:

There's also lots of other things.. a pretend "bank", one of those shadow rooms that takes pictures of yours shadows on the wall, a black light room, huge building blocks, a stage for "performances", dress ups, lots of bubble stations, a big water feature for floating little boats down a river, etc.

I'm glad we have found something fun to do while the weather is cold or rainy.  The best part is that there's hardly ever anyone else there, as you can tell from the pictures - even though we mostly go on Saturdays (with all 3 girls, anyway... I've been a couple times with just Olivia during the weekdays and it's just as quiet).  I hear that it gets pretty busy in the summertime so we probably won't go then, but I'd prefer to be hiking or just outside anyway so I don't see that being an issue.  Now we just need some friends to meet up with there!

Christmas Parade

We went to our city's Christmas parade a few Saturdays ago.  It was pretty chilly (in the 40s) so we bought the girls some hot chocolates while we waited for it to start (I think we were near the end, so we had a good half hour wait at least).

It was a pretty typical parade... mostly churches, the high school band, the local university band.  Radio stations and pageant queens.  The girls liked it because they got lots of candy.  

Afterwards, there was a little Christmas "festival" at the old train depot downtown.  We went because they said there would be food trucks and we were all feeling hungry.  Sadly there were only 3 to choose from (besides ice cream and donuts), but we tried out some street tacos from one and they were okay (not nearly as good as our favorite food truck that we visit at least once a month, but it was fun to try something new).

I wore Henry on me in the Moby wrap during the parade, and he slept most of the time.  He was wide awake for the food trucks, though!  He finally started smiling a few weeks ago and it's been so much fun.  Such a cute little guy.  Most of the time he's either sleeping or eating or fussing, so it's nice to get a smile out of him every once in a while.

Baby Blessing

Since my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, we blessed Henry on Thanksgiving night at Garrett's parents' house (we went over for pie after Garrett got home from work).

Henry with my dad, Garrett, Garrett's dad, and Jared (Garrett's sister's husband).  Garrett gave him a very nice blessing.  As you can see below, Henry was a bit fussy afterwards (what's new) but thankfully he stayed decently quiet through the blessing.

I feel really lucky to have these Priesthood holders in my family.  I'm especially grateful for Garrett and the Priesthood that he provides for our family.  I'm thankful that Henry has all these wonderful examples to look up to as he grows.

New glasses

After 4 years of having the same glasses, we thought it might be time for Ellie to get some new ones.  Her old lenses were a bit scratched up, the pink color had faded years ago, and they were just a bit too baby-ish for her (according to her... I thought they were perfect and adorable!).  

We ordered these through Zenni optical, which seems like a nice concept. Cheap glasses that you order online after you put in your prescription.  Garrett had good luck with them a few months ago so we thought we'd give it a try with Ellie.  These were originally listed at like $17, so I planned to get her two pairs in case one didn't work out (or just so she could rotate in between them as she wanted).  However, by the time I put in her prescription and opted for a few of the "upgrades" (like scratch free lenses, etc... plus her prescription is so strong that the lenses cost an additional $20), we were clocking in at $50.  No longer "cheap" glasses, so we just got one pair for now.

We all love them, and she loves them too which is the most important part.  They are a little big, which bugs me because we measured so well and the reviews said they were even a bit small for their 6-year-olds so I thought we would be okay.  But, oh well.  She will grow into them I suppose.

I can't say I blame her for picking out those cute pink frames.  She looks adorable!

O Christmas Tree

When Garrett was growing up, his family always cut down their own Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We were never able to do that until we moved to Wisconsin last year, so it's a new tradition for us.  This year was a bit warmer than last year, but there was still just the right amount of chill in the air to make it feel festive.

My parents were in town for Thanksgiving, so we left Henry home with them and brought Molly (my sister) with us.

I relinquished control of the decorating of the tree and let the girls put the ornaments wherever they wanted.  I think they did a pretty decent job!  It was fun to pull out all the old ornaments that we have collected over the years.  We try to get an ornament each year for the girls, based on something they did that year.  They liked seeing their Disney ornaments (from the year we had Disney passes), their Florida ornaments, etc.  They also have their ornaments they got when they were born, Garrett and I have one from our first Christmas together, etc.  I need to get some Wisconsin ones for them to remind them of our year there.  Someday when they moved out of the house (or get married maybe), I plan to give them their ornaments so they have something to decorate their own trees with.  I will admit, we haven't been great at remembering to get ornaments every year but hopefully we will get better about that (and there's nothing that says it's too late to go back and buy things from years we have missed!).

The random decorations make it look a bit hodge-podge but I'm okay with that right now.  Someday when we have a bigger house I would love to have a "pretty" tree - decorated in matching decor in a way that I really like.  And then we can have the "hodge-podge" tree in a family room or something.

Later that night, Olivia asked me to take a picture of her in front of the tree.  She did several "poses" for me and then looked at my phone to see which one she liked best.

I'm loving the fresh pine scent that the tree adds to our home.  And of course, we love to sit by the glow of the Christmas tree in the evenings.  I love Christmas time!