The Crews Wedding

I'm a little updating this thing...but here goes.

My cousin Laura and her long time love, Chuck were married July 4th in Tennessee. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. We were so glad we got to make the drive up and experience this special time with them. Enjoy the pictures!

The Arnold and Crews Families

Ganna, Morgan, Auntie Diane and Madilyn enjoying the band playing.

Rock City and Downtown Chattanooga

We had all day on Friday to explore the touristy things the city had to offer and there were many fun things to choose from. We decided to leave the girls with Diane, Ron and Mom and venture up Lookout Mountain and see what it was all about. Rock City is a garden/lookout area on the top of the mountian. Sam and I really enjoyed walking through the big rocks and tunnels to get to the beautiful lookout point where you can supposedly see like 7 states. I of course didn't see states lines or anything, I just saw beautiful Smoky Mountians!

After that, Sam and I met Diane, Ron, Mom and the girls downtown Chattanooga to eat dinner and walk around. We ate at a great place, Big River Brewing and Grill. Then we walked all over the place and got some neat pictures. Enjoy!

Our Cabin On The River

We finally arrived in Chattanooga at the cabin we had rented. I decided that instead of staying at a hotel, we should try and find a cabin/house to rent. I found this great place that slept like 12 people and was a great price. We only had 7 sleeping there but there was plenty of room for the girls to roam. The view wasn't too bad either! Here are a few pictures of the river and the cabin.

A Quick Trip to Nashville

On our drive we decided to take a quick detour to see the Grand Ole Opry. We didn't have a lot of time and we didn't want to spend the money to actually go inside so we just walked around the grounds and went into the museum part of it. We got to see some interesting things and stretch our legs. Hopefully we can go back at some point and see someone perform there.

Tennessee Here We Come!

After spending a few days in Denison, we left out on Wednesday on our cross-country drive to Tennessee for my cousin Laura's wedding. The wedding was in Chattanooga on Saturday, July 4th. We drove about halfway the first day and spent the night at a great hotel with a pool so the girl's could swim and release some energy.

We could not have done the trip without the TVs for the girls. They wore out all our Baby Einstein and Elmo videos.

Morgan on top and Madilyn on bottom enjoying an evening swim at the hotel.

Stretching our legs at one of our many stops along the way.

Morgan and Auntie Diane enjoying a stroll in front of a Cracker Barrel.

Madilyn just a rocking...

Hanging out in Denison

Some other random pictures from our trip to Denison...

The girl's really enjoy swimming in Aunt Kodi's pool. Madilyn is with Dylan and Morgan is with Mommy. Yeah to SUMMER!

We took the girl's over to my dad's house to visit and they really enjoyed playing with his puppy dogs. Abby the black lab is getting her ear's scratched by Morgan and Brownie the bird dog is trying to pet Madilyn. The girl's really enjoy puppy dogs and kitty cats!

Trip to Denison and beyond!

I've been really bad this month about posting, so I'm going to try and play catch-up! I really want to share our vacation pictures and adventures with everyone, even if they are a month late. As some of you may know, we took our first LONG road trip with the girls. To begin the trip, we drove from our house in Magnolia up to Denison the last weekend of June and spent a few days with family there. As always, we enjoy seeing all our family and friends and having extra hands take care of the girls.

The girls really enjoyed standing up on Auntie Diane's bridge over her Koi pond. It looks like it was made just for them. They should really have fun over the next few years feeding and looking at the pretty fish.

Happy 1st Father's Day!

This weekend, we celebrated Father's Day. Sam and I decided we would get something we could all use. So, we went and bought us both bikes and the girls a trailer to ride in. We went for a long ride on Friday after we bought them and the girls loved it. We couldn't stop riding.

Saturday morning, we got up and went for another ride. This time we put our swimsuits and sunscreen on and loaded up the girls and their floats in the trail and we rode up to the neighborhood pool. The pool is about a mile and half from our house, so by the time we got there we were ready to jump in and cool off. The girls really enjoyed the ride and the swim. The trailer is perfect for putting all the stuff in. Thankfully Sam is the one having to pull it...I wouldn't want to carry all that extra weight. The ride home from the pool on Saturday was just as nice. The girls went to sleep a block away from the pool and slept for a while after we got home too. It was a fun morning. We will be doing it again sometime soon.

Morgan & Madilyn

Yesterday evening, we took the girls for another evening ride around the neighborhood. The ride ended the same as the day before...with both the girls asleep.

What We're Doing NOW!

Madilyn Virginia

Morgan Rose

The girls are busy and are keeping Mommy and Daddy pretty busy too. They are enjoying trying new foods. They pretty much eat anything we put in front of them. They really love strawberries, cheerios, watermelon, banana, green beans, peas, carrots and chicken spaghetti. They tend to make some pretty big messes too. When the mess gets to much for me to clean up, that's when I let Roxie in to do a more thorough job.

The girls are standing up at anything and everything. We have a couple empty diaper boxes set up in our kitchen and they love to stand at them and push them and walk behind them around the floor. The girls also have gotten pretty fast at this crawling thing. I am constantly chasing after one of them. Thankfully we have baby gates set up so they can only travel so far. They love to stand at the gate and shake it. They look like little prisoners. Madilyn -left and Morgan-right.

The girls have the "dada" ,"mama" & "baba" sounds down. Not sure if they know what they are saying, but it sure makes Mommy and Daddy smile when we hear our names.

Madilyn pushing her baby buggy

The girls are also sleeping well. They go down for bed around 9pm and wake up around 6am for a bottle then back to sleep till around 8am. They are also doing pretty well on the naps. They take one around 11am that lasts around an hour then another one around 3pm that lasts between 1 and 2 hours. But some days, things don't exactly go as planned, but most days we have it down. I have learned that you must put them in bed when it's time for nap and let them put themselves to sleep. They may fuss for 10 minutes or so, but they will take a longer nap that way.

June 13th Weekend

Uncle Bubba and Morgan

My Dad and Stephen came down for the weekend to do a little fishing with Sam and Capt. Dodgen. On Saturday evening, the girls and I took a trip over to Huffman to see the boys after their fishing adventure.

Pee Paw and Morgan

Morgan, Richard Dodgen and Madilyn

So while we were in the area we took the girls over to Aunt Diane's house to visit. Diane, Chris, Katy and Dawn got to see the girls for the first time and they took them for a little evening swim. The girls slept really good that night!

Chris, Diane and Madilyn

Katy, Dawn and Morgan

Just a Swinging!

The girl's Great-Grandpa Snider or Papa JD, got them this really cool swing. They really enjoy going outside and swinging on it in the evenings. The people who lived in the house before us had the brackets already attached to the garage frame for the exact same purpose. Pretty soon we're going to be needing a swing set for the backyard...hint-hint Pee paw!

Morgan Rose

Madilyn Virginia

Swim Swim Swim!

The girls have really enjoyed swimming this summer. We have gone to our community pool here in our neighborhood a few times now and the girls really enjoy it. We had bought them these really cute floats that they love to splash around in. Mommy and Daddy love it too! Nap time is always great after playing in the pool.

Morgan - ladybug and Madilyn - lily pad

Peas and Carrots

The girls are starting to really enjoying eating food with their fingers. I am constantly giving them new things to try. They enjoy carrots, green beans, macaroni and cheese, peas and of course all the baby puffs. The girls always make a huge mess. Sometimes I wish I could just take them outside and hose them off when they're done. I'm sure when we start eating spaghetti and other messy things, that's what we'll do. Enjoy some of the pictures we've taken of them eating the last couple days.

Morgan- left and Madilyn-right

Madilyn eating her carrots

Morgan enjoying a sip of water from a straw. Man they are growing up fast!

Memorial Day Trip to Denison

Memorial Day weekend we went to Denison to spend time with our family and friends. On Saturday, Sam's family had a pool party and cook out. The girls were able to go swimming again. This time they went with their cousin Maci. The girls also got new swimsuits to show off.

Madilyn - left

Morgan - right

The weekend was fun and we really enjoyed see all our family and friends. Sorry it took so long to update!