Winterfest in Sevierville TN

On Monday we attended our first outdoor Baptist rock concert :). On my way home for lunch I heard an advertisement for "Winterfest". I didn't really know what it was but they said there would be Christmas lights, music, and lots of games for the kids. After work we were already on the South side of Knoxville looking for mattresses for the kids new bunkbeds, so we decided to head on over to Sevierville.

We didn't know exactly where we were going so we asked some high school girls at a stoplight if they knew where we were supposed to go. They gave us very simple directions and we arrived ~6 p.m. The city of Sevierville was hosting the free event. There were booths, inflatables, carnival games, and live music. Local businesses provided free food and drinks in the booths and local christian bands were playing music on stage. It was a lot of fun to be standing outside on a chilly fall evening singing Rocky Top and dancing with the kids.

We had popcorn, cotton candy, hot chocolate and cider. Santa came and turned on the lights and then there was a firework show with Christmas music blasting in the back ground. We had a grand old time :)

Grandma Stoehrs funeral

Grandma Marjorie Stoehr passed away two weeks ago. We drove up to Shawano Wisconsin last weekend for her funeral. It was great to see all of the aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, etc. that came. It was perfect rainy Wisconsin weather. We LOVE you and miss you grandma but know that you did all that you were called to do in this life and that you are happy. Thank you for your wonderful example of faith, service, and selfless charity.




Sadie was cute as can be.


We spent quite a bit of time together with family before and after the funeral. Uncle Kelly took us to an awesome museum/zoo/harley store. We all loved the 7 motor motorcycle.


After the funeral we headed south again. We spent the night in Chicago. SunCoke Energy is moving to Chicago in the Spring and I've been invited to go so we spent a little time on the way up and back to explore the area. We stopped by a chapel and talked with a church member for a while. Then we went to the temple. Since it was Sunday the gates were closed but some more members drove by and stopped by to speak with us for a while.




I don't know if we'll end up moving to Chicago or not but it is really quite a beautiful city in the fall.


On our way out of town we went to the zoo at Lincoln Park. It was a great great memorable trip.


I had meetings in Middletown Ohio on Tuesday and Haverhill Ohio on Wednesday. Cindy and the kids were shopping at IKEA outside Cincinnati when a tornado warning sounded so everyone went down into an underground hallway for a little bit. Luckily I was able to get there and we were able to travel to Haverhill without incident.

October - Sadieville, Sue Bennett College, and fall colors

Earlier this year we drove through the Smoky Mountains and stopped into Cades Cove so last week on our way up to Wisconsin we had to stop and get a picture just outside of Sadieville :)


Right after high school a few friends and I attended Sue Bennett College in London Kentucky and played football. On our way to Wisconsin last week we drove through London so we stopped in to show Cindy and the kids where I stayed.


and the sweet practice field :)


I LOVE fall colors!!! Growing up in Arizona I thought fall colors just meant a different shade of brown.

Good bye Grandma Stoehr

A couple of weeks ago we went over to Oklahoma to visit my grandma Stoehr. I'm very glad that we did because I was able to talk to her, give her a couple of priesthood blessings, and tell her that I loved her a few more times. Marjorie Stoehr passed away yesterday morning. I love you grandma!!!!! Thanks for your wonderful example of a good Christian life. Give grandpa a hug for me.

Echo Valley Corn Maze - Oct 16th

Today we drove over to Jefferson City and went to the Echo Valley Corn Maze. We had a great time. They have 2 different size slides, 3 different hay rides, swings, 2 different hay bail mazes for the kids, a little petting zoo, a corn box (like a sand box but with corn. It was a big hit), cow milking :), 3 different corn mazes, etc.


Sadie got to pick her first pumpkin (kind of.... I'm pretty sure I picked up the one she wanted :))


I'll bet Cade went down the tube slide 30+ times. Man I love lifes simple pleasures.


It was fun watching the kids try to find their way through a hay bail maze. Eventually Kaitlyn, Cade, & Sadie all made it through (Devin & Lilly Pulver made it too :))

Cader is 3!!

Cade has asked me at least every other day if it's still his birthday. He also asks if he's still three. We had a great birthday party for him with bike races, water gun fights, jumping on the trampoline and getting sprayed, and having a big picnic outside with all of his friends.






Sadie was in on the race too...in the stroller.




Sadie was reliving her birthday party with a whole cupcake all to herself.


Kaitlyn showing off the latest trend.


Cade sporting some new Sunday clothes and Kaitlyn showing her missing tooth.

Cade is such a joy and puts his whole heart into everything he does...especially eating cereal and playing with cars. He loves having Nate flip him on the bed, climbing and jumping off the couch, and anything outside, especially swimming. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he said "rocks". I think he had in mind of rocks he could go through in the lake. He is a sweet little guy and so fun to have around!

Family Picture - August 2010

Nate's on the news

Here is a link to see the news clip from our emergency preparedness fair we had on 9/11 at our church. I'm the emergency preparedness specialist and we decided to put on a preparedness fair for our ward and invite the community. Other than the pouring rain, it was a great day. Didn't know it would make the news (: Knoxville still has that small town feel.

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/102699254.html

Kaitlyns first day of pre-school

Kaitlyn is finally in pre-school and she was so excited that she went to bed early on her own so that she could be rested for her first day of school.






and she was still smiling when it was all over :)

And here are a few favorite pictures too

Cade just got a bike and LOVES it! As you can tell by his PJs he wants to ride it all the time. Nate "caught" a turtle right by his door leaving work one day. He brought it home for the kids to see before they released it again. Sadie is always making us laugh nonstop!

This is for all the Grandma's and Grandpa's

Here are some featured videos of the last couple of months.
Sadie goes from her balancing act to walking anywhere she wants.



Sadie loves to sing and dance to music. Grandma Price is playing the piano in the background.

Cade is the stunt man. He's also starting to show promising skills for future football days the way he carries the ball and runs.


The kids had a great time one day playing outside in the rain. The rain snuck up on us but no need to do in when it's the middle of summer.

Sadie

Last night I was walking down the hall with Sadie, holding her in my left arm and asking her to give me five over and over again. Each time she would swing her left hand at mine and giggle. I turned around, placed Sadie in my right arm and asked her to give me five. She lifted her left hand, swung it straight forward, smacked me in the face and giggled. :)

This morning she woke up before I left for work so I got her out of bed and took her downstairs with me. She was sitting on my lap and I was feeding her yogurt. After each bite she would look up at me, smile with her BIG cheesy grin and squinted eyes, and giggle. She is so dang cute!! I love being a dad!!!

Summer vacation 2010 - Johnsons visit - Day 1

My sister Corri and her family came out to visit for 10 days. Day one was spent out on Telico Lake and then having a BBQ at the Pulvers house.

April in a nutshell - ok 10 nutshells

I don't expect anyone else to watch the full 10 minutes but we've just had such a great month I wanted to remember it and I'm not doing very good at frequent posts so here's the whole month in one shot.

2010 Easter basket scavanger hunt

Whata March

It's been a pretty eventful March. The weather is finally nice out so we went camping (turned into the kids first slumber party), cooked dutch oven potatoes & bbq chicken, took a day trip to Fort Loudon, went fishing, went out on the boat (1st time of the year), spent lots of time on the trampoline, got the rabbit fence up around the garden, & went paintballing with the scouts.

From 2/20 to 3/5 Nate was in India (Mumbai, Pune, Kolkatta, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Haldia, & Delhi. Trains, plains, & automobiles. Quite the experience (cows, poverty, monkeys, CRAZY drivers, festival holi, missionary experience (not the sharing the gospel kind :), very productive business trip)).


For spring break the Tanners came over. We went skeet shooting, paintballing, to the jump house, to Johnson City to eat dinner & visit with Brian and Kathy, and started our own polar bear club for Jordans birthday :) Good times.

Quick catch up

So we haven't posted in a really long time but I want to bulletize some of the things we've done over the past few months and hopefully I'll get around to writing more later. Since last post:
* Nate went to India for two weeks for work.
* The Tanners (Cindys sisters family) came to visit for spring break. We went skeet shooting, paintballing, to the bounce house, and to see Brian & Kathy in Johnson City.
* Camping / paintballing with the scouts above the Tellico Trout Hatchery (17 boys & 7 adults). Great time!!
* Slumber party at the Pulvers :)

Making up for lost time

Cade had a rough time last month starting off with an ear infection, then the stomach flu for a week, then RSV to top it all off. He was miserable and hardly ate a thing for 2 weeks. Well, now he's catching up and putting on the few pounds he lost. Yesterday for breakfast he had 8 bowls of rice crispies. No joke. He had another bowl for lunch with some pizza. He ate a couple more bowls in the evening plus whatever else he ate. Then this morning he at 4 pieces of french toast. He just kept asking for more and more and how could I say no? Needless to say he is feeling so much better and is back to his normal, happy self.

January 2010 events

January was a really fun month (other than the fact that the kids have been sick for 1/2 of it. Ok the beginning and end was fun :)). We went over to Nashville and spent the weekend with some friends. We'd gone to the temple and when we came back it was hilarious to see how the kids fell asleep. We also went around the Vanderbilt campus looking at the geese and the squirrels.



We went for a walk the other day and it was cute to see Kaitlyn pushing Cade & Sadie in their strollers. Then this weekend it snowed so I pulled the kids up and down the street in a laundry basket. Our neighbor saw us and brought our a real sled for us to use for a while :)



"THANKS AUNT CATHY FOR THE NEW DRESS!!! I LOVE IT!!" Kaitlyn

Mover and a Shaker

I was out of the room for no more than 3 minutes and this is where Sadie ended up. When I walked into the room I saw Cade and Kaitlyn but no Sadie. That was a weird feeling because she doesn't walk, let alone crawl yet. I knew she couldn't be far but I didn't know I'd find her under the chair. She rolls, slides, and shimmies to anywhere she can get to. Time to keep a closer eye on her I guess.

Sorry honey :)

Tuesday I went home for lunch, packed a bag and headed to Ohio for meetings. I'd been driving about an hour when Cindy called and said that Cade had puked five times since I left. Twenty minutes later she called to tell me that Kaitlyn had whoken up from her nap and puked twice. Later that night Sadie puked. By the time I called to tell everyone good night Cindy was beat and I pictured all the kids were sleeping with her with their puke bowls.

The next day Cade and Sadie had diahria and were both extremely needy. I got home that evening, ate dinner and headed to scouts/YM/YW.

Then I came home yesterday and had to tell Cindy that I'm going to India for a couple of weeks in February.

Needless to say Cindy's had better days. I think I need some flowers :)

Hang in there hun!!!

T'was the week after Christmas break

We had a great visit with friends and family over the holidays. We did the cross country treck from Knoxville to Idaho Falls in 30 hours. We spent a very fun week in IF where we tried to become Ninja Warriors, played games, had parties, stayed up late, ate & ate & ate, celebrated Kaitlyns 4th birthday, and had a fantastic Christmas surrounded by family.




We left ~11:00 pm Christmas night and drove 8 1/2 hours to my parents house. There we played a lot of rock band mario kart on the Wii, played a bunch of board/card games, ate like kings again, went paintballing, went to the temple (very nice with family), & just had a fantastic time!!



Finally we started the 30+ hour trip home. Luckily we were able to stop and visit family in Oklahoma City for a day (very fun and a much appreciated break).