Nashville

 Road trip!  We went to Nashville for the Eastern Lifferth German Dinner.  We went up on a Friday and came home on a Saturday but it was great!  We packed a lot of fun into 24 hours!  Nashville is a 3 hour drive from us and there is plenty of family to stay with making it a quick, inexpensive trip.  This time we stayed with Uncle David and Aunt Shirley.  They are the sweetest!  Matt even got to drive Uncle David's electric car (Nissan Leaf).  We had some recommendations to go to Hattie B's Hot Chicken.  Yum! And it was hot!  We walked around downtown for a bit and saw the Parthenon.  I think we would have walked around longer but it was so cold!!

 Cousin Shauna hooked me up with a race entry to the Hot Chocolate 5k in downtown Nashville on Saturday morning.  Best 5k I have done because the treats afterwards were awesome!! Also the coldest 5k I have ever done!  At the water station I grabbed a cup of water and it was frozen solid all the way through.  I just set it down and kept running.  At least the chocolate chips they were handing out kept their form perfectly!  

Visiting with family was the best! We got to visit with quite a few cousins and Uncle Ernie came from Indiana.  The German food was really tasty and it was great being reminded of our ancestors and their stories.  Even though I have heard a lot of the stories before I am so glad to hear them again.  I am always amazed of their strength and courage to always do what is right and what the Lord would want them to do.  I learn a lot from them every time. 

Leaving sunny Alabama ready to hit up Nashville with my plaid on!

And actually in Nashville.  I never took my coat off, as you can see in the pictures! This is the Parthenon.  It is an exact replica as the real one in Athens, Greece.

 We kept Yvonne nice and warm!

This was a huge race!  Lots of people!  Me with my cousins Shauna and Jeremy!

Post race goodies: Hot chocolate and chocolate fondue with all the dippings-totally worth the freezing temperatures!

Aunt Judy and Uncle Ernie

   
For Valentines Yvonne and I made cookies and we took them to Matt's work hoping to surprise him...but he was in a meeting!  We didn't even get to see him! So we left all the cookies for his coworkers to enjoy! Sometimes my surprises backfire... But Yvonne is a cutie!

We went to a friends house for a Valentines party.  They decorated really cute and they made special drinks that were inspired by Matt's missionary story.  In one apartment Matt lived in on his mission he would here some techno beats every morning at 2 am from the apartment above him.  Every night no fail it was the song Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams".

A few other things that are happening...Matt is applying and interviewing for many internships for this summer.  He doesn't have school on Fridays so I am substitute teaching that day so I can get some hours to keep my teaching license renewed.  Yvonne is crawling! It is a lot of fun but a lot more work for mom and dad.  I started my hot yoga classes and I love it!  I would not recommend it to everyone though.  If you enjoy that burning hot car in the summer feel then I would suggest it for you! Heat is my element.  The room is heated to 95-105 degrees and 40% humidity.  It makes you sweat all over.  Matt is swimming before school a few mornings a week because he has a gimp leg and can't run right now.   

Birthday Bananza(s)

Matt gave me the best birthday week a wife could ask for! He has been wishing me "happy birthday" since January 2nd.  Usually I give him a hard time during January by telling him "it's my birthday month, week , etc."  Now my fourth birthday being together he has finally caught on! he he.  This past week I was really spoiled though...I ate at my two favorite restaurants (in Birmingham), went with some girlfriends for a manicure, had lunch at a friends house, got a month pass to do Bikram (hot) yoga!?, and received many birthday wishes from friends and family!  It was a great week.  Oh and to top it off I enjoyed 65-70 degree weather! Woot! Woot! I didn't get a picture of everything but...

 I was totally surprised by this onesie when I was getting Yvonne out of her pajamas on my birthday!

                                                                And the bottom view

Biggest birthday candle ever with these lovely ladies at the delicious Babalu (so glad we discovered this place when the Browns were in town)!

Yvonne enjoyed this balloon so much more than the birthday girl!  I'm happy to share!

I ended my birthday week with a hike in Oak Mountain State Park to Peavine Falls.  It is the largest waterfall I have seen since Utah!  And do you notice the crisp clarity on that picture of the waterfall?! Oh yeah! I finally ditched my iphone 4 and got a phone with a much better camera.  Better pictures to come!

Yvonne is about to crawl.  She will get on all fours and just rock back and forth.  Sometimes laughing because she is having a great time and sometimes crying because she is really frustrated because she can't move herself forward yet.  She sure gets onto her belly in an interesting way... Yoga Master!

We attended our ward chili and dessert competition.  We brought Grandma's Beans and Matt's favorite peanut butter cookies.  I got second place for Grandma's Beans.  I really think I would have gotten first place but they gave first place prize to some 10-year-old!  Or I just lost fair and square to a 10-year-old....And the peanut butter cookies, well, the winner of the dessert competition told me that I should have won.  Basically we like food around here!

One last story.  Matt has been going crazy from the squeaky faucet in our master bathroom sink and he brought it upon himself to fix it.  He got a screw driver and proceeded to unscrew the left nob of the sink only to realize very quickly that he should have turned the water off before he had started.  GUSH!!!!!  Water shot up out of there like old faithful! The water pressure was so strong it ripped a huge chunk of wallpaper off of the ceiling! Matt, soaking wet trying to cover the exploded faucet, finally reached under the sink (luckily he has long arms) to turn the water off.  I couldn't stop laughing but I did help by running to get bowls for the leakage (that sink is in a carpeted area). Luckily we didn't totally ruin the apartment. On the other hand, he did fix the squeaky faucet... for about a week.