6 Years Today!

And a Happy 12 Year Anniversary to Jamie and Tara!  Love that we were married on the same day, just 6 years apart!

Discovery Place Kids!

As an early Christmas present to Emery, Kyle and I decided to buy a year membership to Discovery Place Kids here in Huntersville.  It is amazing inside to say the least, and I'm so thankful we are less than 5 minutes away so we can go at least once a week.  

On top of all the different play rooms, they also have story time/puppet shows/music time every hour which provides a great break to sit down for a couple minutes to rest.  Emery absolutely loves it, so if you live close to this area we would highly recommend it!

They have a Town Market to go shopping in:

I love this next picture... can't forget the chocolate cake -- that's my girl!

A Cafe:

A farming area and whole underwater room:

Bottom right picture is of the puppet show:

An entire craft room where she loves to play with this foam:

Water play!

One happy girl!

Taking us back to college days

After procrastinating for almost 2 months (hard to find the right time for Ky to take off work and watch Emery!), my time was running out before needing to get an NC drivers license.  When Kyle went in for his new license, he had to take the drivers knowledge test (and aced it with no studying of course!), so we just assumed I would have to as well. I haven't had to study since college, so it brought back a ton of memories of Kyle helping me the night before my exams.  I've always been the type of person who has to write things down to remember them.... so 3 pages of notes later I had that whole book memorized!

 
By the end of our study session, I was hyper and kept asking for quiz questions, but Kyle on the other hand was very ready for bed.

After waiting 2 and a half hours in line at the DMV the next day, my number was finally called I walked back to take my test... except I didn't have to take a test, ha.  Since I've had a NC Drivers License before the man said there was a chance I wouldn't have to take all the tests again and he was right!  All that studying for nothing!

Guess it turned out to be a lucky day for me!

Quick trip to ATL!

Two weeks ago, Kyle had another short business trip to Atlanta planned, so Emery and I decided to tag along!  After dropping Tyson off at Molly & Marshal's house (thank y'all again!) we headed down on a Wednesday morning and were in ATL by lunch.  We dropped Kyle off at the office and after a quick nap in the hotel, Emery and I headed out to a nearby playground!  So glad to see our girl finally feeling a little better!

Before we knew it, it was time to pick Kyle up from work and get some dinner at Willy's (oh we miss that place!). I met Lacey a little later for dinner at Atlanta Bread then we headed to a nearby theater to see the FINAL TWILIGHT SAGA movie together!  Lacey of course kept our tradition and saw it opening night, but gladly offered to see it again with me when I told her we were coming in town.  It was really really good, and I loved that we have now officially watched all 5 movies together!

Miss you Lacey, thank you for such a fun girls' night together! 

Thursday morning, Emery and I headed up to our old stomping grounds in Marietta for music class!  It's a drop in class, and we had a blast.  It was awesome to see Emery back in her element where she knows the songs, environment and get to visit with old friends and family!

 Gunney was showing off all his new tricks to us too during open play time!  Here are the cousins taking a rest together after jumping on the trampoline:

 Emery was WORN OUT and fell asleep on our way back to the hotel!

After nap time we headed back out to meet Jeneane at a nearby park in Smyrna to catch up!  We stayed there around 2 hours and Emery of course had a ball showing off for Jeneane and playing outside.  Loved catching up with you, girl!

We then headed back to go pick Kyle up from work (we were busy little bees the whole time!) and head up to our old house in Marietta.  The new owner graciously let us come pick up a piece of our security system that we forgot so while Kyle was in the house getting that I snuck away to go visit Chris & Serina, our old neighbors two doors down.  We then hurried to LA PARILLA to meet the Arnolds and Craigs for dinner!  We had the best time with them, I love this picture and how our families all keep growing!

Friday morning, Emery and I headed to the Zoo since I had bought a groupon a couple months ago and wasn't able to use it before we left.  We didn't have a ton of time as we were heading out of town around lunch, but we still had a lot of fun seeing all the animals, and riding the train and carousel.

A fun trip to the zoo just Em and I!

We headed back to Charlotte around lunch.  Very quick and jam packed trip but it well worth it to see so many friends.  We hope to tag along again soon!

1 week until we close!

We've been spending a lot of time at our new house over the past couple weeks!  Swinging by to measure windows for new blinds, rooms for new carpet & hardwoods, and to pick out paint colors.  Luckily the house is currently vacant, so we've been able to go whenever it fits our schedule best.  It's getting real now!

The view from the kitchen window!

Emery's been having fun with all of our trips to Home Depot too!  At one store they were having a Kids Workshop making Christmas Frames, so Emery jumped right in, put on her apron and helped us hammer in the small nails.  What a cutie!

Carrie Concert with Ash!

A couple weeks after we first moved back to NC, Ashley invited me to go to the Carrie Underwood concert with her!  We are so excited to live close to each other again and it was the perfect girls' night out!  We went had a delicious dinner in NoDa at Crapes Cellar and then headed to the arena to watch the concert from the suite that the company Ashley works for owns.... what a treat! Most of my pictures are blurry but you can see the set here!

And don't you worry, Carrie is just as beautiful in real life as she looks on tv and her voice was perfect the entire time too :)

A piece of her stage came apart and floated above the center of the arena.  Pretty cool!

Thank you again so much Ashley for treating me to such a fun night out.  I don't know how we are going to top this one!

Thanksgiving - "G" Side

Friday, Emery really started feeling bad as she was still fighting off an old cold and at the same time had a pretty high fever.  Sweet Kyle slept with her yet once again in the recliner in Boone.

The next morning we packed up and headed to Raleigh to have Thanksgiving with Kyle's family.  Kerry and Brad hosted everyone at their house, and the food was so delicious.  Thank y'all again for feeding us all and making it so easy for the rest of us traveling in.  Emery was still feeling horrible (which she later was diagnosed with bronchitis), so unfortunately I didn't take a ton of pictures but here are a few that I did capture and also borrowed that others took during our visit!

The whole clan infront of Poppa's car:

The girls:
The boys:
Grandparents and grand kids: 

Look at those eyes:
Caleb & Gunney:

Hiding in the bushes: 

Cuddling with Poppa:

Sisters:

And here is some exciting news that we can finally announce!  Kerry is pregnant too!  Rachel is due in January and Kerry will follow soon after in May.  So excited for them!

We headed out a little earlier than planned on Sunday to get Emery back home and more comfortable.  A wonderful Thanksgiving