Choo Choo, College Tours, and Memphis

Merry Christmas to me: Zach planned a whole little get-away to our favorite city of Chattanooga the night before we left for Memphis and Nashville. We stayed at the gorgeous Choo Choo Hotel downtown (it's an old railway station that has been converted into a hotel. It is so amazing!). And he totally proved that he listens by taking me to the Enchanted Garden of Lights at Rock City- I have been begging to do that!

At this point it was about 30 degrees and dropping by the minute.

(although you can't tell from what Zach is wearing)

This pic was actually taken at the end of the night and Aidan was so OVER it.

The whole thing was a lot of fun to walk through- they did a great job!

Aidan actually looking at the camera = success

Favorite picture of the night.

Whole family in front of the Fairy Land Caverns.

Aidan kept leaning to the left the whole night- my left shoulder started hurting!

On our way to Nashville Aidan started getting cranky = food time! So, we stopped off at the exit that MTSU is off of. So we figured we would make a mini-stop out of it and go see the campus and stadium.

Here it is~

In Nashville we stayed the night with Sherry and John and got to see Kathleen and Mickey. It was so good to see them since it has been TOO long since the last time!

Since Zach has a thing about seeing all of the SEC stadiums we had to drive by Vandy and check it out too. Aidan is starting the college tours early!

The stadium

Pretty cool wall mural on the way out of town.

Off to the FedEx Forum to see the Tigers play Corpus Christi on Monday night.

Before we went to the game, Emily, Ally, Zach and I went to Silky's on Beale Street where we met a nice man who has been sober for 19 months :-)

Also, Dear Morgan Freeman: (since he is an avid reader of the ZSDarling blog) can you please update your website to say that your restaurant on Beale Street has been closed for TWO YEARS??? We had great plans and had already checked out your menu- come to find out your restaurant no longer exists even thought the outside light was still on.

Emily and Ally at the game

Seriously Memphis? This is your performance going into Georgetown on Thursday?

Zach and I at the game.

Funniest thing I have seen in a while at the Tiger bookstore.

A pic of Calipari (the old coach at Memphis who totally jumped ship and went to Kentucky and never got even a slap on the wrist for all the crap he violated yet Memphis got all their wins taken away the year they went to the Finals- boo Calipari!)

Finishing out the college tour.

My mom and dad both went to Rhodes and played basketball there in Memphis.

Papa and Aidan in the Memphis Tiger gear- complete with a basketball rattle.

Memphis Christmas.

Nana and Aidan (his great-grandmother)

4 generations. Dad, Nana, Aidan, and me.

More Christmas

Modeling the new backpack/book. SO cute!

Puppy dog from the Andersons

(he slept with it the whole way home from Memphis)

Papa and Aidan

'Tis the Season

Aidan Christamas Photo Session by mommy!

He has found his feet now!

Already eating the ornament

Really wants that ornament so....

....he falls at it.

Really wants that out of his face so.....

....he eats it.

Surprise!

So cute!

The official conclusion of the photo session!

Keeping up with the Darlings

To catch everyone up since I haven't been on in a while...

In between reading about our boring lives I have at least put in some cute pictures! :-)

Aidan - "Seriously? Are you kidding me with this crap right now?"

A Halloween unhappy pic.

We tried to put him in it again, but it is already too small!

Shawn:

Currently hitting a wall with the master's program. I was mislead when I went into my adviser's office last spring and was told that I could transfer in my last two education courses- WRONG! I have now been told otherwise so I am scrambling trying to get directed studies organized through Cameron so I can at least graduate in June.

Just started club volleyball practice and am excited but also a little uneasy about the time that I have committed. I am already being pulled in ten different directions and complain that I don't see Zach and Aidan enough- so why did I sign up for this??? But it is going to be a lot of fun, and if it is too time consuming this season, then I won't do it next year. BUT at least I can say I tried it. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I think, and I will be able to do it in the future too.

Loving life and everything in it right now. I have been so stressed in the past weeks trying to finish my classes for the semester, trying to get ready for exams in the middle of December for Heritage classes, and trying to balance it all- but our family is having so much fun right now. We are constantly doing something- visiting family, playing games, going out to dinner/parks/museums. It has been a great October and November and I am loving every minute of it.

Can't wait for Christmas to get here- and yes it has already exploded in my house- and yes I will put pictures up soon. (especially since I don't think I have put up any at all of the apartment)

A little happier in the bat outfit.

Zach:

Basketball has been going well for him. Right now he is 1-0 with his JV team. They beat Tucker a few weekends ago in an awesome overtime win! It was a very exciting game! Afterwards, he told me his legs were sore from standing and tensing them up the whole game. haha. The Dunwoody Varsity team is off to a slower start- they are 1-3 right now, but they are really young and have played some pretty good teams. They are going to be an amazing team next year and the year after that.

He just started a new section of his masters and is taking three classes right now-which is a lot for the program he is in. He got 2 A's in the past two classes and couldn't be happier! He said those might have been his first A's in real classes since high school. He is working so hard on it right now!

He finally gave in and let me have a REAL Christmas tree this year and even helped me put ornaments on it (well, he put hooks on the ornaments so that I could put them up- but close enough....)

Aidan sleeping on his tummy.

He never sleeps like this so it was picture-worthy!

Aidan:

Eating everything in site right now- even the high chair and water bottles!!! He is eating two small jars of baby food, a little rice cereal, and a little bottle at each meal. In between bites he likes to lean forward and suck on the high chair tray.... really??

We have entered the phase of not being able to eat with our plates right in front of us. He will sit in our lap and reach for everything on the table and anything that goes to our mouths (including our water glasses/bottles- he will suck on the side of them)

He is having some problems sleeping lately- I believe we are entering the teething era so Baby Orajel here we come!

He is rolling all over the place to get where he wants to go, sitting up (sometimes with a little help) and is pushing up onto his knees. I am afraid we are soon to see some crawling- but hopefully not until Christmas break so I can for sure be there for it.

He was 18 lbs 4 oz at 5 months so we are also about ready to get into a new car-seat. I am sooo not ready for that one- I still need to buy a cover for the next car seat that we already have.

SOOO- there you go! That seems to be it in a nutshell- for now!

Confused Baby

We have a confused baby on our hands. One moment he is in a Memphis t-shirt, then in a Tennessee t-shirt, then in an Illinois t-shirt, then in a Georgia Tech t-shirt, etc., etc. We are teaching him right though- don't worry. He will love his Tigers and his Illini -even though the Illini didn't pull it off last night :-(

Cell Phone Pics!

Every time I take a picture with my cell phone the flash light goes on and he makes this face. Seriously, every time.

All this confusion wears a baby out :-)

Halloween Festivities

We took Aidan to the pumpkin patch at Berry Patch Farms in the middle of October- sorry for he lateness!

Pumpkin Carving with Aidan in the Bumbo and a cheat-sheet from the internet!

Not happy about it.

I had to do the dirty work while Zach was the artist.

STILL not happy about it

MR. ARTIST

Finished product

Halloween cupcakes on my cute cupcake tray that I painted at Wired and Fired in Virginia Highlands a few weeks ago on our date afternoon.

Sorry for no Aidan Halloween pics. We need to get him back in his outfit and relive the momet because we have no HAPPY pictures of him in his bat outfit from Target.