This Is Kristin

~”Sorting and simplifying Life’s Daily Endeavors” ~

The Simple Day, is a new blog, that my friend(s) have started, and has various contributors! It’s a fun, and encouraging read, and has everything from simple recipes, simple organizing solutions and fun ideas for kids, so go and check it out!- “The Simple Day”

We have been exploring the area we live the past few months, and found that there are all kinds of rivers and beautiful places around us.  We went canoeing on father’s day on a 7 mile trip down part of Duck River, just a few miles from our house.

 Then, on my birthday we went down another section of the same Duck River on a 5 mile trip.  It was so much fun.  We saw all kinds of wildlife- fish that would come up and eat chunks of bread, lots of turtles that would sit on logs and as we floated by they would jump in, birds, ducks, frogs, and we did see 2 snakes, after which I did not get into the river after that!

It is so peaceful and beautiful to be at the river and spend the day floating down.

~ I had such an amazing birthday, I loved spending so much time with my family and loved being at the river all day!

It’s been so long since I’ve done one of these! I guess twitter has taken the place of them! My kids are still being cute and funny, and here are some things they have been saying lately:

• Blue was out sitting in the street in a folding chair, eating a popsicle, the other day, and when I asked him later what he’d been doing, he said he was watching the neighbors TV through their window!
• Cooper is always the “ham” of the family and has something to say that makes everyone laugh.  The other day after church, the kids were talking about the songs they had sung, listing off “fishers of men,” “Thanks to God,”  when Cooper yells out, “Lord, we give you our tacos!”
• When we shape Cooper’s hair into a mohawk at bathtime, he says, “Look at my Tony Hawk!”
• Cooper was talking about our vacation to the beach, and described it as- “when we were at the sticky pool…”
• At bedtime we ask the boys, “How much does Daddy/ Mommy love you?”  and they usually reply, “bigger than the world!”  The other night, Cooper replied, “bigger than Disney World!”

~We went on vacation to Florida, and got to spend some time on some beautiful beaches. The boys had fun running, and digging, and swimming, boogyboarding..

We also were able to go crab hunting with some friends, which was such a fun and new experience. All these little crabs come out at night, and you can go down on the beach with your nets and flashlights, and catch these little crabs as they run across the sand.

All in all, it was a great vacation that went by too fast!

I have a facination with “mouse traps” and this is the ultimate one- I love this video..

It was so hard to leave Aiden the first few days of school. He was so sad, and this was the picture I recieved of him from his teacher on one of the days that first week. It took a while for him to warm up to school, to his teacher, and to make friends, but as the year progressed he grew in every way. A lot of that has to do with his teacher. She was amazing. She juggled a whole classroom of pre school children, and payed attention to each child and gave them what they individually needed. I am so happy for Aiden’s growth this year, and so happy that he had such a good year, made so many good friends, and had such a wonderful teacher. It was an awesome way to start his schooling. Here he is on his last day, of Pre-K!

We had the most amazing Mother’s day yesterday! I slept in, my boys brought me coffee and donuts in bed, with a present and cute cards. Then after we sat and hung out for awhile, we decided to go to Fall Creek Falls State Park to go hiking. After living in TN for nearly 5 years, we still hadn’t gone to this place we’d heard such great things about.

It was so beautiful, and a place we are sure to camp at this summer!

The falls themselves were gorgeous…

The boys and I at the top:

Hiking down to the base:

The suspension bridge that went over the river..

Me and Brody…

…And my favorite picture of Brody and Cooper…

It was such a wonderful Mother’s day, just to spend time with my family, and enjoy the beautiful nature. The only thing that wouldv’e made it better would be to have our moms there too! I feel like a very lucky girl to have my husband and my three little boys in my life.

After a lot of work for a lot of people, and many months of anticipation, Mercy Me’s “The Generous Mr Lovewell” is officially out! They have an awesome new site, and an extra site as well. The album itself is also awesome, and available at itunes, walmart, Christian book stores etc. etc.

We have had the craziest weather happening around here! This last weekend it rained and rained and rained. We had a couple tornados pass by our area, and there was a lot of flooding. This is the back of our neighborhood:

There was much worse flooding in Nashville due to the Cumberland river overflowing:

(this picture is from another source)

The Tennessean site has set up a special page, with a lot of pictures and information regaurding the flood. I know that there are a lot of people that have lost homes, including a homeless community called “tent city,” in Nashville. The Red Cross is helping and needs donations. Also if you are local, there are many churches banding together to send volunteers, and supplies to the area to clean up the mess left behind.

…we’ve started digging in our family garden…

… my front porch flower is growing beautifully!…..
… and we are having crazy spring storms, with tornado warnings, floodings etc.. It is Spring!