recent readings

I love Kendra Wilkinson.

I think she is the cutest thing.

My heart broke when Jenn and Brad called it quits so many years ago.

Hank and Kendra, please don't cause me that pain again.

On the way back from D.C. Sum and I picked up two books we have both been wanting to read. I finished Kendra's Sliding Into Home within three days. It is a super easy read. Plus it is very entertaining and intense. She doesn't hold anything back and I respect her for that. I couldn't put it down.

Summer is currently reading, heart of the matter by Emily Giffin. Hurry and finish it, Sister! =) She is one of our favorite authors. I have read and loved every book of hers. (Check those out here.) I have also read baby proof and love the one you're with both by her. Sorry, didn't blog about those. Her book, something borrowed will be a movie very soon and I cannot wait!

Books I am currently still in the middle of....

Summer, Amy, Lauren, and I are all reading A Woman After God's Own Heart together. Summer sends out questions about each chapter. We are still working our way through this book. It's been very helpful. Elizabeth George tells it how it is. She's been there, done that so she knows where you are coming from. My suggestion? Get some friends together and read it!

True Believer by Nicholas Sparks. Julia, thanks for letting me borrow your collection. I love his books. Some more than others, but they are all worth reading.

eat, pray, love has been difficult for me. I have finished book one, Italy. I am finding it hard to pick back up. I think I need to wait until I am done with a few others so I can concentrate on it and it only. I do want to finish it before I see the movie. I love Julia Roberts.

So, now you know what's in my library at the moment.

What about Travis?

He is about to kick off a bible study with a few of his dental school buddies. Their leader, JB, suggested this book to help get them started. He is really enjoying it so far.

Happy reading!

being Josie

Josie is in love with Dinosaur Train. She goes into a tv coma whenever she hears the conductor say, "All aboooooard!" Last Saturday, Buddy, the main dinosaur was at the Knoxville Zoo. Of course, little Miss Josie was there.

Sum and Josie heading in to see Buddy!

She couldn't wait to meet her favorite dinosaur.

There he is!!

(Sid the Science Kid was there, too.)

The Mattmanns with Sid the Science Kid and Buddy.

The Hudsons came too. Ella is a huge Sid fan.

After meeting Buddy and Sid, they walked around the Zoo for a few minutes. It was too hot to see a lot of the animals. Come to Memphis and we can go to the Zoo here. (It's much better anyways.) Seriously, come to Memphis.

She loved the animals even though she was burning up!

Loving on Cooper.

My little bestie.

Mom and I picked her up from daycare and she went wild.

She ran around the room screaming and laughing. We put her in the car and the crazy behavior continued! She entertained us the whole way home. We joke that once she really starts talking she will never stop. I'm afraid that is going to be soon and true.

She's a nut.

We love having slumber parties together.

Maybe she'll be an artist?

We had several slumber parties while I was in East Tennessee.

I basically kidnap her whenever I am in town.

I love every minute I spend with her.

I was in charge of bathing her.

We had a lot of fun.

Baby Mohawk.

Trying to drink the bath water.

Sweet Baby Blues.

Going to drive the boys crazy one day.

She is obsessed with this old baby doll. Whenever she is at Granny Janny's and Papaw's house she plays with her. The doll is as big as she is and very heavy. She doesn't mind, she drags it around everywhere.

Check back soon for more Josie pictures. =)

4 years and counting

Thursday, July 22, Trav and I celebrated our fourth anniversary!

We have loved the past four years together.

I've been traveling a lot lately and Travis is now back in school so Thursday we decided to lay low, order pizza, and just hang out at the house! We don't need fancy smancy things to make us happy. It was great laying on the couch, with Reecie in the middle, and talking. (Mom and Dad brought me back to Memphis late Wednesday night.)

Saturday we went out to celebrate.

We had dinner downtown at the Majestic.

Our dinner and dessert were delicious!

Travis has been battling an allergy attack for the past week. So after dinner, we headed back to the house for drinks out on the patio...

I love our new patio lights!

Thank you Garden Ridge.

What's a party without Reecie Lou?

Four years as Mr. and Mrs.

Showing Reecie Girl some love.

I don't know what I would do without her!

She has loved crawling in bed with me when Travis leaves for school in the morning.

(Shhhh...Our little secret.)

My perfect family of three.

Travis,

Thank you so much for the past four years. You are the best husband I could ask for. You show me the meaning of love every day! I am proud to call you mine.

143

-Me

change of plans

Our plan for Friday night: dinner downtown and then Redbirds game.

What did we end up doing? Neither.

Shortly after ordering at Huey's the power went out. We thought it would come back on and then we would go on with our night. Everyone in the restaurant waited and waited and waited. After about 15 minutes or so our waitress came over and said, "Sorry guys, free drinks on us." No luck with our food. We left and noticed that half of the downtown was without power. Red lights were out and most places were shutting down. We walked over to the Redbirds stadium. We were starving! We snacked on bbq nachos waiting for the game. Again, we waited. The game was delayed due to the power outage. Eventually the game was canceled. Seriously? No dinner and no game.

We took pictures anyways...

We were all starving and didn't care where we got food. We just wanted something to eat! Our night didn't turn out the way we had originally planned but we still had a great night with great friends. Hopefully, the next time we plan to see the Redbirds play we will actually see a game.

girl trip to D.C.

I haven't been to Washington, D.C. since May 1998. My middle school used to always take the 8th graders every year. One of my best friends, Lauren, just recently moved to Frederick, Maryland with her husband. Nick is working there and Lauren just took a job downtown D.C.

Being so far away from Lauren makes my heart sad but I am so happy for them and their new adventure! Summer and I wanted to visit before they got too busy with work. We flew into Dulles Airport Thursday afternoon.

Lauren picked us up and had lasagna waiting for us when we got to their apartment. After dinner, they took us to downtown Frederick. It is a beautiful town. We walked around for a while and then went to Brewsters for some yummy yummy ice cream.

Friday morning, Nick went to work..boo and the girls went to D.C. We rode the metro into the city. Once we were there, we rode the Old Downtown Trolley. It has 19 different stops and one comes by every 30 minutes. We would pick and choose which sites we wanted to explore or which we wanted to just see by trolley.

On the Trolley

Side view of The Cathedral

I know this sounds terrible but I don't remember the name of this building. We were looking at all of the different Embassys and I don't remember what this building was called. Don't think any less of me. =)



Streets downtown are mainly numbers, letters, or states. Of course, this one was my favorite.


Barack Obama's current place of residence.
(Not too shabby....)

We asked this cute little tourist guy if he would please take our picture.

He said, "Ok, 3...2...1..."

Security is tight around this place.

According to Lauren, every President has had a drink in this bar.

United States Archives


Navy Monument


Water fountain at the Navy Monument.



The Newseum
Every morning about 600 newspapers from around the world are sent electronically to the Newseum.

They are displayed outside.

The Chattanooga Times representing for TN.

President Obama made the front page in Italy and the oil spill made the front page in Canada.

The Capitol.

Such a beautiful building.

We didn't go any closer. It was a long hike and honestly, we were tooo hot.

Our 8th grade memories started flowing when we saw these steps. Every class from CMS that went to D.C. had their picture taken on these steps with the Capitol behind them. All of the different pictures are lining the halls at the school. We wanted to recreate the picture.

On the other side of the steps, the Washington Monument.

We got back on the trolley for another ride.

This is the very first Smithsonian Museum in D.C.

The Holocaust Museum

Check out our soon to be 1oo dollar bill.

The Jefferson Memorial

Another view.

It is amazing how tall it really is.

All the way across from the Capitol....in front of the Lincoln Memorial you have this view of the Monument.

Trying to pinch it.

Good try, Kayla.

Don't prick your finger, Lauren.

Sum, trying to push it over.

At the Vietnam Memorial there are books with names of all of the volunteers. We looked for our last names and our maiden names. I am the only one who had both!

Lauren's maiden name, Burr.

Lots of Hatfields were on the list.

The Lincoln Memorial

There he is. Honest Abe.

If you want, Lauren will read this to you in a great voice.

Glad to be in the shade with Abe.

That was our last stop before heading out of town. It was great walking around seeing so much of America's history.

Travis has never been, so the next time I visit the Jochums he will be with me.

We went to dinner downtown Frederick.

Before eating our delicious dinner.

After dinner we walked around town and Lauren and I did some shopping. They have the cutest stores. We then ate ice cream, yes, for the second night in a row. This time it was Ben and Jerry's!

Saturday morning the girls went to an outlet mall in Virgina. We each bought two pairs of boots. Charloette Russe had a great sale going on. Buy one, get one for $10. We couldn't resist.

For dinner, we went back to downtown Frederick. It is literally 5 minutes from their current apartment. We walked around before dinner and decided to have a mini-photo shoot.

Thanks Nick for being so patient and being a wonderful photographer.

Our wonderful hosts for the weekend.

I loved spending time with my sister. We never really have "alone" sister time anymore. I loved every minute of it!!

Sorry, another photo shoot picture.

We like having our picture taken, if you can't already tell.

Downtown

Here you can see the town a little bit better. Such a neat place. I loved all of the shops there!





Sunday morning, we were on our way back to the airport.

That picture was right after we saw these pretty people strolling through the airport.

Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, and their baby.

Thanks friends for a fabulous weekend! We had an absolute blast hanging out with you guys and touring your new city. Love you and see you soon.