June & July

I am sooo behind in blogging, I don't always try to make up for lost time, but I am going to now because I finally decided that I am going to make a blog book... so I will try to hit the major events from the last 5 1/2 months that I haven't blogged.

 

We Headed out of Memphis in the end of May.  It was so sad to leave behind a place where we had built a "home" and where we had so many memories. I miss it almost every day. We spent June and part of July in Utah.  Josh's parents live in Utah now too, so we were able to spend time with both sets of grandparents! It was fun for our kids to get to spend that time with grandparents!

The reason we went to utah was for Josh to train for his (3rd) olympic trials.  His coach is in Utah (at BYU) so he wanted to be there with him. Josh and I always jest over where our kids will go to college. I say Utah State, he says BYU... so the above photos are kindof controversial.

 

 In the end of June we headed out to Eugene OR. for the olympic trials. Josh's parents came, and his  sister had just come home from her mission the week before so she got to come too!  Josh had an awesome prelim race and made it to finals, but didn't make the cut for the olympics.  This was bitter-sweet for us.  Josh had a crazy year with several sets of boards and his rotations and figuring out a job and having a hard new baby (is that mean to call him that?). He trained hard and really wanted to make the team, but at the same time was kindof feeling "done".  He had an amazing running career.  In the last 5 years he has won Nationals twice, and had a 3rd place finish and 2 4th place finishes, he won the Pan Am games (like the olympics for all of N. and S. america), made 2 world teams, and made it to the Bejing olympics! I am very proud of him! (but happy to be in another chapter of our lives)

Outside of the track stadium they had some fun things to do.  Millie, who is our FEARLESS 3 year old, (a true McAdams) went repelling way up in the tree. she did it a few times because she liked it so much.

After the racing was done, we headed out to the coast.  This is at the "sea lion caves." Hundreds of sea lions living in these caves on the rocky coast.

Oregon is such a pretty place!!!

 

 After the trials we spent out time enjoying some of the things there are to do in utah... this was our mini hike to bridal veil falls.

 This is just a cute chubby picture of Logan that I liked.  11 months and busy!

 Millie's and my 4th of july project (every post of mine seems to have to contain something about food. haha)

 We went out to this fun little man-made beach & pond with many of the McAdams cousins.  The kids loved it, we could have stayed all day! Millie has 4 cousins within a year of her, and she LOOOoooVes her cousins!

10 months

This little guy is now 10 months! He is busy, busy, busy! He started walking a couple weeks ago... but still doesn't crawl (just scoots). He likes to hear his own voice, loves other kids, loves to explore and chase Millie around, loves patty cake, eating, and jumping on the tramp- but is starting to refuse baby food.  It's so fun to see his personality coming out more and more.

Graduation

Josh has finally graduated!  Congrats to this new Doc., we are proud of you for all your hard work!  excited to get on with another phase of our lives... Look out all you citizens of  Pinetop/Show Low AZ., you are about to get some stellar eye care!

Enjoying Memphis

 One stop we had to make before leaving Memphis was the Peabody Hotel... the Peabody is a super nice hotel downtown. They have some ducks that live in their lobby fountain.  If you go there at 11, or 5  you can hear the 'duck master' tell the story of how the ducks came to live in the fountain.  Then they have the ducks travel down the elevator (from there palace on the roof of the Hotel) and march down the red carpet into the fountain where they stay for the day ! 

This is the view from the top of the Peabody hotel.  (You can go up there to see the 'duck palace', where the ducks spend their nights).  You can see the Mississippi river and all of "downtown". Very pretty.

We LOVE our zoo! this is something that we will really miss!  They have a dino exhibit at the zoo now.  The dinos move and make noises etc. I kinda think Mill thought some of them were alive. haha.

                                                                     camel ride at the zoo

Logans favorite part of the zoo is sitting in the grass and trying to eat it.

They have some of the prettiest houses in Memphis!!!I love this style, large front porch, shutters, kind of plantation style... I decided I wanted to get some photos of some of my favorites.  But I only got 1 photo before my camera battery died... so I don't have some a lot of my favs. but these are pretty too.

They have really old beautiful mansions!

                                               I LOVE all the German Tudor style houses!

You know you've been in memphis to long when...

1. you back into your driveway
2. you shake out your clothes and shoes (for bugs) before putting them on
3. you use your garrage as a 2nd living room (complete with recliners and plasma screen T.V.)
4. you have hosted a party in your garrage
5. you decorate your house for Marti Gras
6. you take a large stick with you when you go out for a walk
7. you have shared your bed with cockroaches
8. you have a humongous fluffy tool wreath on your door
9. your nike running shorts are worn for everyday apparel
10. your baby boy has a plad jumper with something cheesy embroidered on it
11. you start to use checks instead of a credit card
12. you pay someone to mow your lawn (and fertilize it with stuff that is dyed green so your lawn looks green)
13. you walk your dog from your car
14. you use bbq sauce in place of spaghetti sauce
15. your parting phrase is "have a blessed day"
16. your lisence plate says something like webprasin
17. you know how to pronounce the name La-a

so many good things about memphis! gotta love it.

Time is winding down

We only have 2 more weeks here in Memphis... I'm having mixed feelings about it!  I am for sure excited for Josh to be done with school, excited for us to finally be making some $, although there are a lot of things I won't miss about Memphis, there are many things I will miss.  These last few weeks we have been trying to hit up some favorite places before we head out.

Gus's Fried chicken is one of our favorites.  (We like the collierville location)  the fried chicken is just SOOO good!  the fried green tomatoes and chess pie are also pretty good... and it is cheap too!

 Mill is a little southern girl.  We realized when we got there that they use peanut oil to fry their chicken... Mill is allergic to peanuts.  Peanut oil is SUPPOSED to be free of the peanut allergen.  (Mill is NOT deathly allergic).  Josh is very daring when it comes to allergies (as you will see in a coming post) so we let Mill try the chicken (my epi-pen was on the ready) and luckily she was fine :)

 We also went to collierville town square.  It is a little block of cute little shops, a soda fountain, a old historical cabin, and also a train that you can climb on and tour.  Logans favorite was eating the rocks.  He was very persistent on his attempts to get them in his mouth.

april

My blog posts just get more and more lame... but hopefully someday they will improve in quality :)  for now, I'm just happy to be posting something :)

As most know, I love hollidays.  This easter was sad because I ended up being sick (ovarian cysts- horray) and so my elaborate meal did not get done.  I did however get these done, because I had to bring them to Young Women.  I found the idea last year and have been super excited to make them!  (use a doughnut with the tip cut off and mini oreo for the tomb, set it on a grahm cracker spread with frosting and sprinkled with green coconut)

This was one of the funest things we have done while in Memphis.  We paid the big bucks and went on a "cinderella carriage" tour.  They take you around the city and give you a little tour.  Millie of course LOVED it! (she's been wanting to do it for a while)

Mill in her  new easter dress!  she love all the egg hunts, meeting the easter bunny at the mall, and all the CANDY!!!!

Logan in his easter jumper.  Logan is 8 months old now.  His presonality is really coming out.  He is such a funny boy.  His favorite things to play with are- tooth brushes, the vaccume handle, balls, CD's, and Millies barbies hair.  He thinks he is super big and that he always has to "walk". Still hates his car seat and sleeping in the night. 

Fav. photos of the week

Millie put on her "animal hunting glasses" and went out in the rain to scare the squirrels in our back yard. Awesome hair, awesome outfit, awesome pose...

Logan is a pro at feeding himself now! he just really wants to eat big food but he thinks he's a little more advanced than he is, hehe, any thing you give him besides puffs makes him gag.

Of course I couldn't resist a st. patrics meal. One thing I made was this rainbow jello. It was much cuter in person. just layer the different colors of jello with cool whip (with a little jello mixed in)... chill after each layer. Millie LOVES j-e-l-l-0 so when I saw a this, it was a must!

Our Logan

This post is for you family (as per kelly's request). They have only met Logan once (and that was 4 months ago), and I have been a terrible blogger lately. So, here is what Logan is like these days.

-7 months today!
-19.4 lbs
-loves balls!!!!!
-loves millie and josh
-loves to "chase" millie around the house and watch millie jump on her bed (yes, we let millie jump on her hand-me-down dorm bed)
-loves water, and being outside
-loves door knobs
-doing pretty good at sitting up, not crawling yet but can manuvere himself around by rolling, and pushing himself around in circles.
-very wiggly and kicky
-hates his car seat, and sleeping durring the night
he's getting to be alot of fun, it's fun to see his little personality coming out!

banana sushi

I heard about this Banana Sushi from the "friend" magazine last year. We made a valentines edition. Wrap a thick slice of banana with a strip of fruit roll up (or fruit by the foot) and put some sprinkles in the center!

felt valentine heart clips

I just made these for M. and they are super easy and fun!

How To:

1. cut 2 red circles out of felt. Mine are 1.5 inches (generally you want to cut the circles just larger than the clips you are going to cover- but I had large clips on hand and didn't want to go to the store for smaller ones, so my clip ends just hang out.

2. cut 2 pink hearts out of felt.

3. center heart on red circle and stich around with a machine embroidery stich (of course you could do this by hand if you don't want to use the machine.) The embroidery stich is usually located at the same place as the regular stich, (it's indicated with the 3 gold lines, under the regular stich) all you have to do is switch the length to "stretch" (hope that makes sense) but I love this stich. it tripples over so it makes the threads pop out. cute.

4. cut a hole in the back piece of felt. slip the aligator clip through. (again, ideally your clip would be enclosed, but I was lazy)

5. put top on sandwiching the main part of the clip inside.

6. hand stich around edges of circle with 3 strands of embroidery floss (I like to do this with the clip open so I make sure I don't stich over the outside part of the clip) ALSO**** if you are making a set, make sure your clips face 2 different directions so that your clips will be right side up when pinned in your hair!

7. when finishing I don't like to tie the knot near the edge in case the extra thread pokes out so I thread the embroidery floss through the clip and have it come out near the center and knot it off there.

I posted this quick so let me know if it doesn't make sense :)

spring

Who knew it was spring? These little beauties have been blossoming all over town! Can't wait for the warmer weather!

last years wreath

wow! I feel kinda famous. I was apparently featured on some random crafty blog, unbenounced to me. I checked my my blog stats and saw that there were a bunch of hits from this web site so I visited it and there was a photo of my valentines wreath from last year! check it out! ha ha!

http://diycraftstomake.blogspot.com/2012/01/valentines-wreath.html

Words on Religion by Millie

Millie is at the age where she just says all sorts of silly and rediculous things. These 2 that I want to share might be a little blasphemous so please forgive me, but they are just funny.

I came back from a run and millie runs over to the door and says "I want to go for a jog with you. Go get my racers" (her "racers" are pink canvas shoes). As I'm putting on her shoes I comment to josh that we need to email Jon (Josh's New Balance Rep) to send her some real "racers". Millie overhears and says, "yeah. John the Baptist. We need to go for our running race so we can catch up with him"

a couple days later....

brushing millies teeth and she is standing on the bathroom counter. She looks really close at the light fixture and asks with a confused face. "mom? is that heavenly father" then she peers around the side of the light fixture and says "hum. no mom, it's not heavenly father. It's just his roomates, Ilah and Ilena."

what ???

For Kelly

My sis is making a family calandar (with shutterfly) and I tried to send her some photos for her to use, but my email is slow- slow-slow and so I'm posting thses photos here because it is quicker-- and so you guys can take a peek of some more of our fam photos (from October) taken by my little sis., Tracy