Bell Buckle and Build A Bear

At the end of May, and while my family was visiting, we kept noticing this little dog running around our backyard. It would never come close, and we just assumed that it kept escaping from its house. Well, my mom kept seeing it for the few days she was watching the kids and thought it looked skinnier, and eventually seemed to be staggering a bit in the heat. My neighbor and I talked about the dog, and a picture had been posted on the neighborhood Facebook page, and no one knew anything about the dog. My mom encouraged me to call animal control, and they brought us a trap to set up in the back. We caught the pup, and the poor thing was so hungry and covered in dime sized ticks. Luke and I talked briefly about keeping the dog, or adopting it if no one came to the animal shelter to claim it. But having a dog would just make it harder to travel, and often I'm out for hours at a time with the kids and that wouldn't be fair to the dog. But he/she was awfully sweet!

My mom heard about Noelle's constant asking to go to Build A Bear and got her a giftcard for her birthday. In true Noelle fashion, it was burning a hole in her pocket and needed to be spent ASAP. We went a few weeks ago, and she had a blast picking out her animal (a rainbow leopard), choosing a name, and picking out a few accessories. It's the first time I've ever done Build A Bear, and it was fun!

A few weekends ago, we heard about the Moon Pie Festival in Bell Buckle. There is a 10 mile race that I had hoped to do, but since getting injured that was out. But we still thought a festival celebrating the Moon Pie cookie and RC Cola would be fun! As is typical for us, we were running behind and missed the parade, but we were able to wander around for a bit to see some of the vendors. It was hot so the kids didn't last long, but while they were slurping up their snow balls, I checked out a few stores full of antique items. It was a super cute town, and I'd love to go back and explore some more! I mean with a name like Bell Buckle, how could it not be cute!

My girls! Sometimes I still can't believe I have two! Noelle is pretty much still just as in love with Clara as she was when Clara was first born. Noelle is a pretty good helper, and I'm curious to see how their relationship develops. I worry that a five year age gap will make it hard for them to be close, but I also know that adulthood shrinks that age gap right up (I love that my sister six years younger than me is more in the same place of life!)

And all three of them together.  Jonah can make Clara laugh, and they both get so proud of her when she does anything- pulls herself up, says mamamama, scoots around on the floor. It's the sweetest!

And a baby on my hip. How we're closing out this baby stage, I just don't know. We did reach a point before I had Clara where I wasn't holding Jonah as often. But then Holden came. And then Clara came. She's no where close to walking- at least another month or two. But for now, I'll wear that girl on my hip! (Also, check out that sass!)

Exploring Downtown, Jack Daniel's, and My People

One day we decided to hit up downtown Nashville in the 12South and The Gulch neighborhoods. Mostly to take pictures in front of (some) of the many murals around those areas. It was a sunny, hot day, but thankfully the kids did pretty well. And were mostly easily bribed by fruit snacks.

Getting pictures with all four of the cousins together was fun. I mean how hard can it be to get four kids, five and under to all look at the camera and smile? ;)

And of course with other people visiting, we were able to get pictures of our whole family! It's rare these days when I have a picture of all five of us. Of course that could also be because the older two in particular don't love cooperating. :)

While we were downtown, we decided to eat at Biscuit Love. I've been following them on Instagram for a little while, and every time I see a picture of the food, I just want to go! The kids got super thick french toast, Luke got some sort of chicken and biscuit combo, and I had a whipped yogurt and berry concoction and a brussel sprout salad. It was all SO good!

After a few hours of wandering around, we took the kids to Centennial Park to play on the play ground. Holden wasn't feeling great, so Heather and Jason headed home. Our kids played for awhile, and as we headed to the car we saw a NoBaked Cookie Dough place (another food place I had heard about!) and decided to go in and look. Which of course turned into us buying something. But we bought one small scoop for the four of us to share, and we still didn't finish it all. It was SO good, and also very rich. But so good.

Having family in town definitely got us out exploring Nashville more than we have since we've moved down here. I'm not a big city person, but I do know there is a lot to do, especially for kids, so I want to be brave and be willing to explore downtown with them. Nashville at least seems like a friendly, more navigable city than Baltimore or D.C.

The next day my mom scheduled a tour for all of us at the Jack Daniel's Distillery. The older adults (aka the 60+ group) went on a 30 minute air-conditioned bus tour, while those of us with little children went on an hour and a half walking tour that was outside and in hot buildings. I think the older adults won that one, especially since they at least got to have a tasting. BUT the kids did surprisingly well- again, there were bribes/distractions with fruit snacks. It was a warm day, but not overly humid, and no one had a complete meltdown.

Watching the assembly line- probably the most exciting part (aside from the brief video) for the kids. There were some interesting facts told on the tour, and the little town (Lynchburg) was super cute with their town square. But still- I questioned my mom if she would have ever taken us to something like this when we were my kids ages! And she just laughed.

Reaching for that pricey stuff! 

We did more while everyone was here- dinner celebration for my Uncle's birthday at Bishop's with ice cream back at the hotel, Heather and Jason made dinner for everyone at our house one night, we tried to go downtown for the country music awards festivities but kept getting turned away for various things (needed a clear bag! couldn't bring in outside food after I had just paid $10 for an acai bowl!) so we headed home. We turned on the Caps hockey game since my Grama is a big hockey fan. It was good. SO SO good having everyone here.  I'm especially thankful my Grama got to have every single person in her family all in one place.

And I LOVED seeing all my siblings in one place. We're all spread out now. Although Heather and Jason are planning on moving to CO, so I'll be the loner here in the south. But just an excuse for us to make frequent trips to CO!

Happy First Birthday, Clara Irene!

My dear, sweet Clara Irene! My little bug!

My baby girl, you are one year old! My mommy heart hurts to say goodbye to baby-hood. It is such a unique, short time of life with so much change and growth, and I have loved watching you grow!

the moment you were placed in my arms

You make us laugh with your goofy faces, especially as you scoot around on your hiney and peek around at us from corners in the house. Your giggles are contagious and have me laughing out loud!

I love watching you watch your siblings. You want so badly to join in the fun with them, but also have no problem pushing them away when you've had enough loving. Before I know it, you'll be running around with them in the backyard, keeping up with them on your tiny legs.

You LOVE water! Bathtime, the baby pool in the backyard, the splash pad, the neighborhood pool- you kick those little legs like crazy when you know you're getting into the water. Maybe you and Jonah will be our swimmers like Daddy!

This past year has been full of change for our family, and I'm so thankful you were along for the ride. When you were born, little did we know that just a few months later, we'd be moving to a new state. You tagged along on our trip to TN to look for a house, making the drive back down less than two months later to move. You are quite the traveling champ. You even had your first plane ride at two months old to go visit your GG.

You've been the best little tag along as we took your siblings to school,  went to play dates, trips to the library and zoo. In part because of our move, you stayed with me at church the longest, not really going into nursery until recently. While I didn't get to pay attention to the sermon from week to week, I am thankful for the time I had with you. We're attached at the hip, and I'm not complaining. :)

Girlfriend, you are such an answer to prayer. For over two years, I longed for another baby. The caboose to our trio. My heart ached as I prayed and begged God for you. And in His timing and way, He blessed us with YOU. I will always look at you and be reminded of His answering my prayer in just the right way. I pray that you come to know Jesus and love Him with your whole heart. Mama is still learning and growing in Him, and my hope is that you know of His love your whole life.

We love you, our sweet Clara Irene. Happy first birthday, little love!

love,
mama

Birthdays, Tea Party, and Biscuits

The Sunday that the whole family was in town we decided to have a big celebration for the 4 littles for their birthdays. With Jonah's birthday in April and Holden's in August, and the girls in between, their birthdays all happen within 4 months of each other. We ordered pizzas and salads and spread out all over the house and patio (all 23 people!)

We bought cupcakes from Target and set the kids up to sing happy birthday. Clara dug right in to hers and clearly enjoyed the icing. :)

My mom, sister, and aunt were on top of things and had gifts for the kids to open. Which was of course the most exciting thing!

Me and my Grama. 94 years old and she knows how to party. And of course she enjoyed a cupcake because why not??

My poor brother arrived in TN with some really bad back problems- he's not sure if/how he pulled something, but he was having a really hard time getting around. Originally we had planned to have him sleep on an air mattress in the bonus room, but that would have been too uncomfortable, so we pulled out one of the futons in the main room each evening for him. Which of course meant not much sleep for him since at least one of the kids was up early. And the boys especially wanted to climb all over him.

My mom decided to plan a little early birthday celebration for Noelle at the American Girl Store in their cafe. We had an afternoon tea complete with little sandwiches, tiny desserts, and tea (or lemonade for the birthday girl), as well as chairs for our old school American Girl dolls to sit in. Despite Noelle not being much of a doll person she had an absolute blast!

She wore her birthday tiara with pride, dressed up in one of her fancier dresses, and the only "sandwich" she ate was the muffins.

Clara did really well for being there for about two hours, and was mostly entertained by the tiny teacups and plates that were given to her and the dolls.

That evening, we took the whole crew (minus Luke who volunteered to stay home with Clara) to Loveless Cafe for food. Luke ate there with his family when we all came down in 2014, but I stayed behind with a then four month old cranky Jonah. Then when we came in November to look at houses, we went so I could taste the goodness that is Loveless Cafe. There were 18 of us for a 6:45 p.m. seating, but they were ready for us and our waiter was full of southern hospitality. After we ordered, my sister and I took the kids out front to burn off some energy until our food came!

After we stuffed ourselves with biscuits, fried chicken, salad, and waffles for my Grama, we hung out outside for a little bit to say good night to everyone, and then headed to our respective beds.

It was a full day for sure, but Noelle felt super loved celebrating her birthday early, and all the West coasters and my immediate family got to experience the deliciousness of Loveless Cafe.

TEN Years

Our 10th anniversary. That right there makes me feel OLD.

Ten years of learning about each other, learning how to be married, learning how to live together, learning the ins and outs of insecurities and struggles, learning to laugh when life with littles just gets bonkers. Learning the age old lesson of communication. 

ah, so young and free

I am so incredibly thankful for God's work in each of our lives and in our marriage. Luke was my favorite on the day of our marriage, and I can say without a doubt he's even more my favorite now. 

As a brief break from jotting down our Perrault reunion memories, I want to dedicate today's memories to when Luke and I were able to sneak away for a few days to celebrate our anniversary. My mom stayed after everyone else left so that we could head on down to Chattanooga. Now, rewind to two years ago when we were celebrating our eighth anniversary and we thought it would be fun to celebrate our tenth in Europe. Yup, little did we know we'd have an almost one year old (though that was most definitely my hope and prayer!), or that we would no longer be living in MD!

finally heading off on our adventure!

So after Luke delivered some of the family to the airport on Saturday morning, and then took our cat to the emergency vet (because of course she managed to get herself into some sort of mess right before we were going somewhere), we drove on down to Chattanooga. 

Our plan for the few days we were there were mostly to just chill and really just do whatever we felt like doing. By the time we got to our hotel, it was 8:30 (7:30 central time, but Chattanooga is just over the line into the Eastern time zone) and we were ready for dinner. But of course nothing but fast food was open, and I still try to eat mostly healthy when we're out, so to Walmart we went. Super classy for the beginning of an anniversary trip. :)

Our first full day was Sunday and we headed downtown to walk around. We wandered around what seemed like a businessy area, as well as right around the aquarium.  We drove to another part of town to eat at a place called Bread and Butter which most definitely caters to vegans, but we both got delicious sandwiches and a yummy cookie. After lunch we wandered around the nearby mall, and went to the movies to see the latest Star Wars movie. (And also the first movie we've seen together since Clara was born!)

The next day we started off at Lookout Mountain to do the tour of Ruby Falls. It's an underground cave with one of the biggest underground waterfalls. After grabbing lunch, we went to the North Shore part of town, and as soon as we parked the car and paid, a thunderstorm hit and we took cover for about 10 minutes waiting for it to pass. It tapered off a little and we dashed to a coffee shop where we sat for about two hours so I could read and Luke could work on some coding. It was so peaceful. And so nice. And so not ever how are lives look now.

Tuesday morning we checked-out of the hotel, and started for home. But since my mom wasn't expecting us back until evening, we headed into Franklin to wander around downtown, ate lunch at Puckett's, got ice cream, and then drove to Carnton Plantation to look around the grounds. We decided not to do the actual paid tour of the garden and house, but we could still walk around part of the property reading about the Civil War battle that took place there. 

The long weekend was filled with delicious food, slowing down and just being together, leisurely eating, we binge watched the final season of Parks and Rec, we slept in past 6:30. It was beautiful, and maybe not exactly how we imagined celebrating our 10th anniversary, but it was good. All we wanted was to just have some time with each other without distractions, and that's what we got.

I'm thankful for 10 years and all that God has done in that time! (And praying for many, many more years together!)

The Beginning of the Reunion

The day after Mom and Dad W left to go spend time with the other TN Wiedemans, my sister and her boyfriend arrived from CO. It was my first time meeting Austin, and I'm SO glad that I finally got to! And lucky him, he got to meet literally everyone in our family in a few days time. After they got in on Thursday night, Luke and I went to the airport to pick up my mom and Holden. Once we got home, it was time to get the kids cooled down in our little backyard pool!

cousins reunited!

On Saturday morning, we had some time before everyone else would be arriving, so we took my mom and Holden to The Factory. Definitely our go-to for something fun to do! The farmer's market is on Saturdays, so we got Ellie's Donuts from the food truck and enjoyed those outside before wandering around inside.

I'm pretty sure in the course of the week that everyone was here, we got donuts four times. I mean, how can you go wrong with donuts? :)

It was so good having the four cousins together and Holden fit right in. Running around with them, playing in the water, and he LOVED Clara! She at this point has learned to just push people away when she doesn't want the attention. But Holden was always so sweet with her! I really miss that kid and watching him grow up!

I'm so thankful for the week that we had and for the time that these kids got with each other. I only saw my two cousins every so often when we were growing up, and now that's how it will be for our kids with their Perrault cousins. I so hope that they see each other often enough to always jump right back in to their friendships with one another.

The rest of the family- my Grama, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and dad all arrived throughout the day on Saturday and we ended the evening with a cook-out. Our house was loud and chaotic and it made my heart happy to have everyone together. I can only imagine how my Grama must have felt being able to see her entire family gathered in one place! It happens so rarely, and she's 94 so I hope that this trip was good for her!

Father's Day 2018

Happy Father's day to Luke! and my dad! and Dad W!

Luke had an early morning today to go help with setup at church. I had planned on just meeting him there, but they finished quickly so he came back home, and was able to come to Starbucks with us. :) Noelle had her sugar cookie, Jonah his donut cake pop, and I got my vanilla sweet cream cold brew. Then we headed off to church for a great sermon that I was able to hear the entirety of because Clara was in nursery!

I made very last minute plans on Friday for Luke to spend a few hours at a vintage arcade game place a few towns over. I texted with my sister-in-law to see if Luke's brother would want to join in, so now they're out there hopefully having some kid-free fun! And hopefully I'll make it out to the store to buy steak so Luke can grill himself some yummy dinner!

I asked the kids some fun questions about Daddy in honor of today!

Noelle (age: almost 6)

My dad's name is Luke.
My dad is 32 years old.
He is as big as a baby tree.
His favorite food is cereal.
His favorite color is blue.
He is good at playing games on the upstairs t.v.
He likes to go to the zoo!
For fun he likes to play with all of us.
My favorite thing to do with my dad is play games.
I love my dad because he is the best dad!

Jonah (age: 4)

My dad's name is Luke.
My dad is 22 years old.
He is as big as an elephant.
His favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs.
His favorite color is purple.
He is good at work.
He likes to go to the mall?
For fun he likes to race with me!
My favorite thing to do with my dad is race around with him.
I love my dad because he plays with me.

Luke, we are so thankful for you! You are a great dad- the calm when I'm frustrated, the voice of reason when I worry, the example of hard work and love for the Lord, and the one who can turn whining and complaining into giggles!

The First of Lots of Family Visits!

Phew! The last three weeks have been full of family! It's been fun and busy and crazy and I let myself get a little stressed and anxious, but now that everyone is gone, I miss them and just want them to all come back!

Luke's parents came for about a week right when Noelle finished school, so they got to be here for her kindergarten graduation. It was so good to be with them after not having seen them since we left MD at the beginning of January.

It was a mostly chill week, although the Friday they were here got a little stressful for me so I was thankful they were here. Jonah had a fever on and off all day that day, Clara was getting fussy, Noelle had her last day of school and I knew I couldn't really take them anywhere since Jonah was sick. So we ended up driving up to Franklin to say hi to Luke, and he got to show his mom and dad around his office. We hung out for a little bit, and then we stopped by The Factory on our way home. We grabbed Chick Fil A for dinner, and then Luke didn't get home till after midnight because of a deadline at work. The combo of sick child, fussy baby, and long work day for Luke was stressful, but having Mom and Dad W was so helpful!!

Jonah's sick face while visiting daddy

and Clara's happy to be out of the house face

That Saturday we met up with Caleb and my niece at the zoo, which was of course fun for the kids! Noelle especially just takes charge and loves to lead the way to the next animal. Jonah's favorite of course is the rope bridge, which he gladly took Grandpa across three times.

Luke and I got to escape for an afternoon date on Sunday, and we tried the Thai sushi place in our town, which we liked a lot! Our first date since moving! And quite possibly our first date since Clara was born?? We planned for Caleb and Debbie to come over for Memorial Day, but of course Noelle woke up with a fever and was down for the count, so they stayed home to avoid the germs.

escaping the littles!

Mom and Dad W were able to spend a little bit of time with a realtor looking at different areas/houses to get an idea of where they might want to buy! Hopefully they get down here soon!