Tumbling gym with friends

One free Friday evening this past month, we decided to meet up with some friends for some tumbling gym fun. Parents got to chill most of the time while our crazies got some energy out. Win-win for everyone!

Weekend visit to North Carolina

 For Labor Day Weekend, we headed down to Cary to hang out with Dan, Richelle and boys. Played football in the backyard, went to a few parks, played some sports, then ended the week at a State Park that we could rent paddle boards, sailboats, and kayaks! I didn't go on the sailboat because it was pretty tiny, but Sam took the kids and they loved it! Except for when Ivy had to go potty and Sam said she had to hold her bum over the side and pee or just wait until they were done with the hour rental. Haha! Anyways, pretty low-key, but super fun weekend! Thanks again, Dan and Richelle for having us!! We love spending time with you guys!

 Delicious Hummingbird cake that Richelle made:

Stitches for Ivy

Welp, the dreaded day finally arrived-- when one of my children would require either stitches or a cast. I have a feeling it's not the last time we will visit the doctors for this sort of event. 7:30 in the morning, Ivy is dressed for school and Sam and I are getting ready for the day. Ivy is "frolicking" (aka jumping around) in our bedroom and she trips, falls, and her head connects with the corner of the nightstand. Even before Ivy had a chance to open her mouth to cry, I heard Sam say right next to her calmly, "that's going to be stitches." Not funny, but sort of funny how it all happened. Haha! Next thing I knew, Ivy came into the bathroom with a look of shear panic on her face, not crying, but scared. Her head wasn't bleeding too bad yet but it was definitely a deep wound. I asked if it hurts, she said really nervously, "yeah." I said, "Ok lets see if daddy can put a bandage on it." Sam bandaged it up and told me to just take her to either the ER or urgent care. He couldn't come with because it was the first day of a very important rotation. I liked the urgent care place around the corner because they were fast so I opted for that one. Dropped Marshall off at a friends house, took her in. She got a shot of local anesthetic, then gave her 3 stitches! She was so brave. Didn't even cry!

This girl is hilarious. After all was said and done, I asked her if she wanted to take a rest day at home or if she would rather go back to school. She said she didn't want to miss seeing her teacher and friends so she'd rather go back to school. Ha! With her incision still somewhat bleeding, I hesitantly took her in 2 hours late and called the nurse to let her know what happened. Later that day around 3, I got a call from the nurse saying she came in for advil around lunchtime and that they ended up putting a bandaid over it because it was still bleeding a little. She said she was concerned because the wound had opened up a little and to just be aware that it wasn't quite held together very tightly. Well wonderful. Ended up taking her back to urgent care, per Sam's recommendation, and they said it was too late to redo the stitches so they gave me the number of a plastic surgeon to visit the next morning. We went the next morning and he simply cut steri strips to hold it a little tighter and told us to be sure to come back to him one week later to have the stitches removed. He was SO helpful and SO wonderful. Told us that if it doesn't heal up very well,  that he would do corrective surgery to fix the scar. He was an amazing doctor! Very blessed we came across him. Anyways, super proud of Ivy and how brave she's been through the whole fiasco. Her stitches are now removed and other than being fairly sensitive around that spot on her head, she's doing much better. 

Greatest part about this whole story... it all happened two days before school picture day. Hehe! What a memory.

Playing with Mema

 I found a few more pictures from Mema visiting that I wanted to include! We took Marshall to the cutest park with a train one morning while Ivy was in school. It was called Steel Creek Park and we met some of my Mom's Club friends there for lunch.

 And just a few pictures of playing games together..

Mema and Grandpa come to visit!

Mema and Grandpa drove in to visit for a week earlier this month! They drove all the way up to visit Eric and Sarah for a few days in Ohio, and then headed down our way! It was so fun to see them and show them where we live here in Kingsport! It's such a gorgeous area and I'm glad they were able to experience some of it. Throughout the week, we took them for walks on the Greenbelt on the river, and out to Bristol for some yummy Blackbird Bakery. It just so happened that there was a classic car show in Downtown Bristol so it was super fun to walk around for that. We also showed them Warrior Path State Park and one of our favorite places down in Johnson City- Tupelo Honey. Stopped by the Kingsport Carousel, which the kids always love. It was fun to catch up and for my kids to have their Grandpa and Mema to play games with! Thanks for visiting, Mom and Dad! It was a fun week!

 Bristol:

 Tupelo Honey:

 Carousel:

 Last walk on the Greenbelt, my mom snapped that last pic: