Nashville Blizzard

Well, it’s cold enough to do some damage in Nashville, but the 3 inch “blizzard” that closed schools (at the mere thought of snow I might add) never really came. It was a bit of a bummer because most of us in the South love the thought of a good covering of snow. Regardless of how thick the snow is, the kids couldn’t wait to get out in it… and apparently walk back and forth in the road!

Livie Lives to Two… and Beyond

Our little girl turned two today. My folks always told me that time really flew once they had kids, and I now believe them whole-heartedly. She had a great day that started with a few presents before Daddy left for work, and ended with the whole family celebrating at her favorite, fancy restaurant… Chick-Fil-A.

Livie at 2 months

Livie at 2 years

Dinosaur Train

While James watched one of his favorite shows this morning it made me think. James, over the past year, has been obsessed with two things: trains and dinosaurs. Anything train related (Thomas, model trains, The Little Engine That Could, etc) and/or dinosaur related (Juarassic Park, dinosaur YouTube videos, every book that our library covers on the subject, etc) piques his interest. When we stumbled across a cartoon called Dinosaur Train, we thought we hit the mother-load. Sure enough, he has really enjoyed watching it.

I was thinking of his awesome find, and I wondered what would be my Dinosaur Train equivalent. My obsessions for years have been related to music, acting, and my family. Whenever I find a movie like Once, That Thing You Do! or Across the Universe that deals with music within the movie I am instantly intrigued and usually like them a lot. Even when a good movie has a great soundtrack (Garden State, Pulp Fiction, Oh Brother Where Art Thou)I am drawn to it as well. I am always interested when a movie has subject matter that is pro-family, or even music that is safe for all of my family to listen to in the car.

With all that in mind, what is your Dinosaur Train?

Host of Christmas Past

Today we drove down to Fayetteville’s Host of Christmas Past which has become quite a tradition for the last three years. We love this time of year and Tennessee’s various Christmas festivals. Our own Franklin holds a great one in December called Dickens of a Christmas, and although we will visit it as well we couldn’t wait another month to get in to the Christmas spirit! Below is a quick clip of us riding the street train. Although we all liked the train, it was especially fun for James.

New Old Blue Tribute

This week, after 5 years of reliable transportation, I sold my 1999 Ford Ranger. It was a good truck, and I hate to see it go. Above are a few of our memories.

Mother’s Day Cowpokes 2009

Here is a video of the kids being cute for their Mommy, but honestly moms everywhere will enjoy it… maybe I’m biased though.

Come On Ride That Train

Teri and I from the very earliest of our relationship have talked about how we want to take a time or two a month and have one on one time with our kids. We think that Daddy taking James on a guy’s trip, or Mommy spending the evening with him at MacDonald’s Play Land are very worthy pursuits. We feel the same about Liv and any other children that we may have, but James is just getting to the stage where he can appreciate it. Some may call it “dating” their kids, and when our children are older we will want to take them out and show them how interacting with the opposite sex is supposed to look like, but right now it is jut fun time for the sake of undivided attention with Mommy and Daddy.
Today, James and I broke away from church a little early (oops), and went to the Nashville Model Train Show. He is very enamored with trains and specifically Thomas the Train. He loved it, and I had a hard time in the end pulling him away from the convention center. The only thing that could get his mind off of leaving the show was a statue of Billy Graham at the Lifeway building in downtown Nashville that he wanted to high-five!

Oh yeah, James quote of the day (and also a phrase he is saying a lot right now about various things he sees…
“Daddy, what’s that?”
“That’s a train track.”
“Daddy, I want to eat that train track!”

Livie’s First Time Out

This is a picture of Liv being cute and hanging from the oven. While it is cute, we as parents realize that kids and ovens don’t mix. So Teri had to go against her instincts of staring at her daughter when Liv does cutsie things around ER associated appliances, and punish her to teach her that those activities are wrong.

Liv decided not to heed Teri’s warnings so now we have a few pics from Liv’s first time out. Notice the rug she is sitting on. This is the official murphy time out rug. If you ever see it in a picture you can bet that it is warm from children’s bottoms. It is used often these days. Oh the toddler stage… gotta love it!

Fall Foliage Fun

On Monday afternoon, we trespassed into our neighbor’s yard to grab these shots of the kids playing in the leaves (We have our own hardwood trees, but their leaves are pretty lame).

This is one of the reasons that autumn is our favorite time of the year. I mean look at those colors!

Our kids loved playing in the leaves, and a few times James forgot that they don’t always cushion your fall like pillows do. He jumped into the pile, rump first, and popped to a stop right on the hard ground beneath. It didn’t phase him much, though. He would get up, shake it off and move on with his job of trying to kick every leaf in the neighborhood.

Liv on the other hand, really enjoyed the hearty, earthy flavor of the leaves.

Coldplay Sings For Chris and Teri’s Anniversary

This month marks ten years since Teri and I went our first date. So to commemorate the milestone, Teri and I made a last minute trip down to Atlanta to see Coldplay. Those guys put on an incredible show. It was two hours worth of live music that is in heavy rotation in our iPods, computers and car stereos anyway so how could we go wrong? Since we got tickets so late we were in the nose-bleeds, but it didn’t matter. Part of me felt like the folks down on the floor who paid $400 a ticket were suckers when Coldplay made the show feel so intimate anyway.

The trip as a whole was very fast. The whole round trip of driving south to Birmingham to drop the kids off with my folks, on to Atlanta with dinner and the show, then waking up the next morning to reverse the path to get kids and get home took less than 36 hours. It was definitely a whirl-wind, but it was so rejuvenating for me. It was a time of great food, great music and great hanging out. For anyone who isn’t married it is worth getting hitched for the road trips and the conversation alone! Teri and I will just talk for hours while driving, which we never get to do at home with kids and life and randomness. In my old age of 29, nothing is more fulfilling than sitting and talking to my wife. She is a great encourager and listener.

We both realize that taking time to get away with each other and taking trips with the kids are vital to our family. We are going to try and be more intentional about carving out time to get out of our routines and getting away a few times a year.