ICE!

The day before Thanksgiving we headed to ICE! at Gaylord Opryland with Christopher, Brandy and Hunter. It was such a beautiful, warm sunny day- we had so much fun!

3 kids, 9 degrees, and ice slides? Sign us up!

Before you go in they give you parkas because it is COLD! and we brought gloves for the kids. Adalyn's head full of hair served as her ear muffs and we put Landon's shirt hood on his head :) When you forget hats, you make it work! The theme this year was The Nutcracker and it is truly one of the neatest things to see. Adam went with my family when I was probably in 10th grade so it had been a super long time since we had visited. It is SO cold inside but also refreshing.(as weird as that sounds!)

Landon specifically asked me to take his picture by the soldiers so he could hold the sword

Adalyn of course wanted her pictures taken by the ice ballerinas

BOO!

Here comes Adalyn!

hahaha and Landon!

Before you go in they give you a briefing on what to expect and they said there was someone currently inside carving. I think the ice artist are from China (or Japan?!) and he said they don't know English so not to be offended if you ask them a question and they don't respond back to you. It's amazing to think they carved each and every sculpture we saw with their hands! Talk about talent.

Hugging it out ;)

The last thing you see before you leave is the manger scene. 

The real meaning of Christmas is right there in that manger!

We thawed out and walked around the gift shop then let the kids ride on the train. It was a hit!

You can't see little Hunter in there but he was riding, too. :)

Next, we explored Opryland Hotel. I have always enjoyed visiting this hotel. Everything is just so beautiful no matter what time of year it is, but Christmas is extra special! 

Such a fun day!

That was ICE!

 

Reading Night at school and random pictures from my phone!

Halloween Reading Night is always so fun for the kids. They come dressed in their costumes and split up to different classrooms depending on their grade. They have a few Halloween stories read to them, then they go to the gym to "trick or treat", then head into the cafeteria for crafts and a snack. 

Sleepy head! 

He was sitting on the carpet with the other kids during story time but must have thought his dads lap was much more comfortable. 

I didn't straighten Rapunzel's hair that night. Takes way too long

haha

He chose to be Iron Man on this night.

The rest of this post is random pictures off my phone.

This view makes me smile. We have such good helpers!

You can always find something to climb on!

Beautiful sunset at the farm

Ready for FALL!

Love this boy!

11 baby pigs joined our farm family!

 How precious is this?

 And 2 weeks later, our other momma pig had babies. We had 2 very excited kids!

I'm thinking I took this when we arrived home from gymnastics one night. 

The 15 minute car ride got to them apparently.

She had to "disguise" a turkey for school and she chose to turn the turkey into Elsa! I thought it was a great idea so I cut some fabric I had and we cut Elsa's body out of a notebook of some sort( don't worry, she has plenty), and ta-da! She was so proud :)

Last night as my 5 year old.

She looks real bummed about that, too. 

;) 

Good morning to my 6 year old!

WHAT?!

I have a 6 year old?

We made cupcakes for her class. She chose purple frosting with yellow sprinkles to "match" Rapunzel's colors. lol 

I snapped this as her class was singing to her

Love my daddy!

This girl can drop like a fly if she is remotely still once school is over.

Adam took this from his desk.

It was windy and decently warm one afternoon so Adam helped the kids fly their kites. 

We helped do a food basket and the kids loved scanning the items at Wal-Mart. They thought that was too cool.

Home Depot is always an adventure when we bring these two...

I specifically remember taking this picture only because Landon asked me to. It was a Sunday after church and lunch and right before their naps, I snapped this and it is one of my favorites of them to date! 

Adam turned 30 on November 19. The big 3-0 is worthy of a celebration! We started early October with a trip to Turks and Caicos and then I surprised him with The Escape Game in Nashville. I had it planned for weeks and he thought we were going shopping for the day and out to dinner. When we both walked outside to get in the car, Dustin and Christina had pulled up and he was shocked!! 

Surprise! A day with our best friends is a great day! So we shopped, pigged out on Sonic cheese fries at some point during our day, played The Escape Game (and we escaped with 13 minutes to spare!!!), ate dinner at Toot's, shopped some more, then finished the night with ice cream. I wanted to do something fun for him to celebrate and with his birthday being in winter, I couldn't really come up with anything extraordinary that we could do for fun until I remembered all the hype about this game. Everyone should play! SO so much fun!