This Is Kristin

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!

What is up with me these days is….

- Got to go to the Dove Awards, which was a wonderful priveledge, and an awesome night.  There is a lot of work that goes into that night.

- I am “late” getting my garden in this year.  I had huge plans for it, but am thinking I am going to need to dial it back a bit, but am hoping that it will be more of a family project this year.

- We have lots of mini trips planned this summer, which is exciting, and I am looking forward to them.

- Been taking care of my dog, Luther, this weekend.  He got left outside one night, and chewed himself raw in the back.  I have had to bathe him daily and put medication on him.  Hopefully it starts helping him soon.

- The boys have one more month left of school, and I can not believe it!  This school year has gone by so fast!

- There is my catch up post! Whats up with you?

We had so much fun on our trip to CA. We had not been back to our CA home, in 2 years.  The boys hadn’t seen their cousins in that long either, and it was awesome to see that from the moment they saw each other until the moment we left they were playing, laughing and having fun.  Leaving, was very hard, and continues to be.

Aiden and Zion have always been closest in age, and the bestest of friends, this time was no different!

We have so many great pictures, I can not put them all on here!  I took Blue to my favorite river ever.  It’s a place that I used to go all the time, before I had kids.  Brody and I would jump off rocks and swim, we’d hike with our dog, and just sit and look up at the tall beautiful mountains around.

I also took the boys up to the town I grew up in, up in the mountains.  It’s funny because when I was growing up I never thought that I was growing up in a small town in the mountains, but returning there after living away from it for a long time, I really noticed the steep hills, curvy roads, and the forest that I lived in.  We lived a few minutes from a beautiful lake, that I grew up swimming in all summer long, canoeing in, water tubing, and having my birthday parties at.  It is still so beautiful.

The majority of our trip was spent with family and friends that we haven’t seen in too long, and the time went by too fast.  It is a trip I want to remember, because it was so awesome!  I miss everyone there so much now, and look forward to when we can see each other again!

I love getting ready to go on a trip, and this one is an especially exciting trip for me for many reasons.  I get to go home, to CA, where I haven’t been in about 2 years!  I will get to see family and friends that I haven’t seen in a very long time. They will get to see Cooper, whom they haven’t seen since he was a baby, and see how much the other boys have grown.  We will get to be with Brody on Easter, and for about 5 days. I will get to go places that I’ve missed, and just over all, hopefully be revived!

While I am so excited, I’m also getting nervous- about the flight.  Because I was sick for a week, and am just starting to feel better, I haven’t done much planning or preperation for my trip.  Also,  I am flying with all three of my boys, so I am a little nervous about doing that, because I don’t fly very often, I’m slightly afraid of flying, I get air sick, and I’ll be taking care of the boys, hoping they don’t have to go to the bathroom a million times!  (*For moms or experienced travelers, is there anything I should absolutely not forget to bring them?)

So, the next couple days are about shopping, and packing, then it’s off to CA!

~ So Brody is off on the Rock and Worship Roadshow, and will not be back in Nashville for about a month! It’s a long one, but this tour has proven to be awesome in the past. The coolest thing about it is that we can watch the broadcast live, most every night that they play, the boys love to watch the bands, and dance and sing along…

Best concert, show, I’ve been to. It was amazing. Every single song had so many details with the lighting and the screens above them- almost to hard to explain all that was going on. Seriously crazy good experience…. And it was awesome to be with Brody on a date, right before he leaves Nashville for a month! I was so grateful to my friend Karen for watching my boys, baking them cookies, and keeping them safe and happy!