I was so excited to be able to attend the Medallion Ceremony at the Country Music Hall of Fame tonight with Mom and Kerry!!!
Mom, who was inducted in 2012 (along with Pig Robbins and Garth Brooks), had the honor of inducting Johnny Gimble, who went in along with Dottie West and Ricky Skaggs, tonight. It was an AWESOME night of music, and I loved being able to share it with my big brother and my sweet mommy.
The boys and I went to see “The Iron Giant” with Uncle Kerry on Uncle Kerry’s 50th birthday!!!
Xander made his first communion this afternoon. We are so grateful that Grandma and Grandpa were able to be here with us to celebrate. Congratulations on your big day, Xander!!!
We spent Easter this year at Aunt Jean’s…eating yummy food, hunting for eggs, and catching up on life. I love this picture that Heather snapped of all of the kids together (from left to right: Annabella, Jordan, Dylan, Val, Jonas, Xander, and Roman). I can’t believe how big they’re all getting!!!
I enjoyed my post-Christmas dinner/movie outing with Mom, Darren, Kerry, Julie, and Jeanne. We went to see The Darkest Hour (a film about Winston Churchill) and ate a yummy dinner afterwards.
On Christmas Eve, we: made Christmas cookies in the morning, spent the afternoon at MeMe and PaPa’s (where we enjoyed eating Peppermint Ice Cream Cake among other delicious things, playing Naughty Santa, watching the little ones, and just hanging out), went to Christmas Eve mass, sprinkled reindeer food on the grass for Santa’s reindeer, and set out cookies and eggnog for Santa.
On Christmas Day, we: opened presents and stockings from Santa, ate a pancake breakfast, opened presents from us, spent the afternoon at Maw and Pop’s (where we enjoyed eating Coconut Cake along with other yumminess, skyping with Rueben and Kaia and Marina in Norway, opening presents, and sharing funny stories), and hung out in the evening at home by the fire.
I’m so grateful for my family. Here’s my favorite Christmas picture this year…Dylan and Jeanne.
I was so excited when Kerry invited me to help out with Evening in December, Daystar Ministry’s annual fundraising event. It was a beautiful, sparkly night at the Loveless Cafe with music by Michael Tait, Cindy Morgan, Sandra McCracken, The Isaacs, and Alison Krauss. My favorite part, by far, was getting to hang out with my big brother.
We spent Thanksgiving in Virginia this year. Here we are with Grandma and Grandpa, the Northern Seyfrieds (Tim, Mary, Lindsey, and Audrey), the Longs (Rich, Sherri, Kaitlyn, and Andrew), the Paccassis (Dave, Tree, John, Lily, Peter, Sam, Gianna, Philip, Sam, and Gabe), and five priest friends from Ghana (Father Felix, Father Eric, Father Patrick, Father John, and Father Eric).
We had a wonderful Fall Break!!!
On Wednesday, I took the boys to the Patterson Park Community Center indoor pool. It was the first time that Jonas and Xander were tall enough to ride the big, twisty slide…so they were super pumped. Roman was bummed out that he couldn’t ride it but found a friend from school to play with and got to spend some special time in the water with Mommy.
Grandma and Grandpa came in on Wednesday night to spend Fall Break with us. We always love their visits…Petra too, she does laps around the house as soon as they walk in the door.
On Thursday, Grandpa and Tom went golfing, while Grandma and I took the boys to the zoo. First, we stopped to see the monkeys who were spunky and swinging from the branches. Then, Grandma rode the zoo’s zip line ride, Soar, with Jonas and Xander…she’s so cool. The boys were even tall enough to ride it with each other, which was really exciting for them and a little bit scary for me. We rode the carousel several times, and Grandma got to cross two things off of her bucket list (riding on an elephant and riding on an ostrich). Afterwards, the boys ran around on the playground and we snapped some pictures with the pumpkins.
On Friday, we relaxed at home (the boys love playing board games with Grandpa), and then went to Walden Pumpkin Farm. The boys visited with the animals, ran through the mazes, and played in the activity center.
The boys and I drove up to spend some time with MeMe today. She has a HUGE garden that she’s planting and tending to…and I loved that the boys were able to get in there with her. She paid them $6 each to fill up paint buckets with rocks from the garden and let them pick vegetables (onions, squash, and zucchini) to take home. We ate lunch at Sonic (with a little Subway thrown in) and hung out at the playground for quite a while. It was such a sweet time.
On Easter, we celebrated with mass at church and an Easter Egg Hunt at Aunt Jean’s house. Here’s a photo of the whole gang on the steps of MeMe and PaPa’s house and one of me and my dear cousin, Heather. Happy Easter!!!
We spent the first day of spring break with Jordan at the zoo!!! We fed the lorikeets, checked out the fish and reptiles, pet the kangaroos, fed the turtles (Roman got bit…ouch!), rode the train, and played on the playground. The boys loved hanging out with their cousin, and I loved spending time with my niece.
I was so excited to finally run the half-marathon today that I’ve been training for for three months now!!! It’s been a great way for me to keep my spirits up over the winter (spending time alone, listening to music, being in the great outdoors, boosting serotonin, and having a goal to work towards). I’ve had good days and bad days…fast days and slow days…feeling good days and feeling rough days…running through all of them. I’ve been learning how to pace and race myself. I even felt like Rocky a few times…haha…running in the freezing cold, crossing over snow-covered bridges…and running in the pouring rain, finishing up those last few miles. I felt somewhat young while I was running and really old when I stopped.
The last (and only) half-marathon I ran was about 14 years ago. My goal after Roman was born was just to get back to where I could run 3 miles 3 times a week. This fall, I started bumping up the mileage on the weekend a little bit just to see if I could do it. I’m so grateful to my chiropractor, Dr. Todd Smith, for inspiring me and encouraging me at that point to “resurrect the dream” and try to run another half-marathon!!!
It ended up SNOWING the day of the run. Crazy. Tom was so great and set up a course for me at Crockett Park, where I did the majority of my training. He and the boys met me at different points along the way with precious signs and exuberant cheers which really helped…especially past the halfway mark and beyond. It was so beautiful running in the snow…even though at times I could hardly see for all of the snowflakes blowing in my face. I was surprised but not to see quite a few other runners out there on the trail, grinning from ear to ear. Tom even set up a finish line for me, complete with dear friends and family cheering me on and a medal!!! So fun. So grateful.
Tom had the winning idea of getting Xander an aquarium for Christmas…which was the best gift EVER for our aquatic animal lover. His Aunt Sherri helped him set up his aquarium while we were in Virginia, and he was so excited to pick out some fish for it when we got back to Tennessee. He chose three Tetras…a white, a longfin serpae, a bloodfin…and a platy. Their names have changed since the beginning, but he’s settled on Pearl, Splash, Flip, and Echo (named after his favorite dolphin characters in the Dolphin School book series).
Petra’s favorite place to be when we are out of town is at Camp Beans!!! She stays with my sister, Jeanne, and her dog, Riley. They have so much fun that when she comes back home…she mopes (she misses Jeanne and Riley so much) and she sleeps A LOT (she’s exhausted from playing with Riley). Thanks so much to Jeanne for always taking such good care of Petra for us!!!
We spent Christmas in Virginia this year with Grandma and Grandpa Seyfried, the (Northern) Seyfrieds, the Longs, and the Paccassis. The boys had a BLAST playing with their cousins…exploring the woods, playing pool, decorating Christmas cookies, playing Wii games, going to mass, and opening and playing with their Christmas presents. Highlights for me were: catching up with everyone over after meal conversations; learning to sew a pair of pajama pants from a pattern with Sherri; watching all of the kids play together; family prayer time; continuing my half marathon training by running my first 8 miles in 13 years; and seeing Gabe, in his little man Christmas pajamas, hug Joseph and kiss baby Jesus in the nativity.
For more pictures, click on the “Christmas in VA 2016” picture page to the right.
We have LOVED visiting with Uncle Darren, who is here from Norway for the holidays. He spent a day and a night with us for which we were so grateful. I enjoyed having some one on one time with him before we picked Roman up from preschool and before Jonas and Xander came home from school on the bus, kicking off the Winter Break. I loved sharing our daily life and catching up with my big brother and watching him spend special time with each one of the boys. His rousing rendition of “Ooey Gooey was a worm…what a worm was he…he climbed upon the railroad tracks…the train he did not see…Ooey Gooey” was just as much of a hit with Jonas, Xander, and Roman as it was for me when I was a child. Yay for Uncle Darren!!!
We loved having Grandma and Grandpa visit with us for Thanksgiving. We played games, went shopping for a nice outfit for Jonas’ 1st Reconciliation and 1st Communion (thank you, Grandma!!!), watched a Predators game, celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, decorated for Christmas, and went hiking at Henry Horton State Park.
Audrey visited with us this week, and we absolutely loved having her…she is such a blessing. We played Pokemon Go, swam in the pool, went to the downtown sprayground, ate a sweet treat at Rita’s, had a pajama day, did some antiquing in Nolensville, etched and made journals, went bowling, played volleyball, and floated down a lazy river. We’re already looking forward to our time together next year.
For more pictures, click on the “Audrey’s Visit 2016” page to the right…
My dear cousin and friend, Heather, bought us tickets to see Ray LaMontagne in celebration of our 40th birthdays!!! It was SUCH a treat to walk around downtown, eat dinner and listen to bluegrass at the Acme Feed and Seed, and hang out together on a summer night catching up on life and taking in the sounds of some of my favorite music downtown.
