Skeleton!

Posing in front of our happy pumpkin house!

Visiting our next door neighbors, Barren, Elizabeth, baby Paxton and Monte the dog.


Ready to get my spook on!

Heading out with Daddy!

Happy Halloween!

Daddy: What was your favorite part of Halloween JR?

JR: Eating all that candy!

Halloween: the preparation begins

To prepare for Halloween, JR decided to do some very good exercises in the spirit of all things spooky. Step one: dress like superhero at BFF's birthday party and run around like a crazy person. Check.

Step two. Sit on pumpkin at Nana's house to test its strength and endurance. Nana, this one is ready for your neighborhood festivities. Check.

Step three. Review and approve Nan's super spooky spiderweb on front porch. Yep, this looks good.

Step four: Give lots of love to pumpkin. After all, it has a tough job ahead!

Step five: Build up trick-or-treating endurance by taking a trial run, literally, through neighborhood with Daddy and Pop. Run with umbrella in case we have to prep for a rain plan. Rain won't stop him!

Step six: Pick out Daddy, Mommy, and JR pumpkin. Of course, Mommy's pumpkin rots before Halloween eve, so we are left with the best pumpkins (from Hall Family Farm) that we picked ourselves. Baby pumpkin gets painted.

Daddy pumpkin gets cleaned out and carved. Check.

Step seven: Try on Mommy's witch hat. It looks pretty good, I think.

I am ready for Halloween. Bring it!

Found: New Favorite Playground

Alas, Charlotte does have worthy playgrounds! JR and I ventured out and found one at William Davie Park one weekend! It is affectionately called the "red, white, and blue playground" by locals. Even Batman was impressed (yes, my kid was the one on the playground with half of a Batman costume on).

Goodbye, Dupre Drive

Our house closed on October 14th, 2011. We sold it to a great family--a single mom and 3 year old little girl. The mom was so excited and cried at the closing. She was having a "yay for me" party the night of her closing, which made us feel great. I know we will miss our little home of 8.5 years, but we will always have our awesome memories!

App State v. Wofford

It was great to tailgate with our best buds for App State v. Wofford! GO TERRIERS!

Yay for fall!

Wofford v. Clemson: A BFF Reunion and more

On Saturday, the mighty Wofford Terriers took on the Clemson Tigers in Death Valley. The Terriers played the best they could and led through the entire first half of the game. Clemson took the first lead of the game in the 3rd quarter, and we ran out of steam. So proud of them and glad we made the trip!

The game was amazing, but what was even better were the friends and family that we spent time with! Emme rode with us, and Remsen's brother Clayton and his frat brothers were there, too. JR was able to hang out with his BFF, Elliott, and Elliott's parents, Miles and Renee. Several folks asked if the boys were twins!! From the pictures, they do look alike--and they even had the same shoes on!! The boys made some lasting memories on their first trip ever to a BIG college football stadium.

So glad football season is here....cool mornings and sunny days, tailgating, friends and sports! Who could ask for more?

Movin' on UP....to Charlotte

It is official; we live in Charlotte now. On Labor Day weekend, we packed up a Uhaul and drove up to our rented townhouse in South Charlotte, near Ballantyne. Nana and Pop came up to help unload (after loading the night before!) and help entertain JR while we hunted for some small space furniture at Ikea. Once we got back, even JR lended a hand in putting together our new couch!

The week after we moved, we received word that we had a buyer for our house! woohoo! After negotiations, we have agreed to a price, have survived the termite inspection and home inspection (punch list to come tomorrow) and are awaiting word from the buyer's appraiser tomorrow. It is bittersweet to sell our sweet, cute house that we love so much, but the buyer is a single mom who LOVES the house and will be an awesome homeowner. She is excited, and that has made the sting of selling a bit more bearable. If all goes well, we will sell our house by mid-October.

JR started Omni Montessori today and had a super day! Now, we have to finalize our decision of which nanny to choose, and hope that the candidate doesn't back out at the last minute--this has happened to us once already, and we would really like to avoid a disruption in his schedule and life.

I start work on Monday, September 19th at Omni and could not be more excited. Staying at home has been nice, but I really need a challenge and purpose (not to mention the $$!). Can't wait to make money for my family by making money and fundraising for the school. I have a lot to learn about the community and am really blessed to have this opportunity to do it!

HHI: July with the Brannons

Parrish and Brannon Family vacation: AKA....adventure that we will never forget! The weather was great, but we were robbed, had a flea infestation and overall bad luck! Lucky for us, the beach was our savior and the kids had a great time! AND, last week, the police found Adam's stolen laptop and the bad guy is in jail!

July 4th with family and friends!

We had a wonderful July 4th celebration at Nana and Pop's house and had the Perry Family and Emme over for the fun. JR and Ava Grace had a wonderful time picking tomatoes and eating yummy hot dogs and fixins!

HHI: June, 2011