Good Ole' Smokey Mtns.

Approximately one year ago right after I had Graham, our home phone rang and after I answered I was immediately sucked in. Actually, I told them to speak to my husband. Before I knew it, we had booked a trip to good ole Gatlinburg, TN with an added bonus trip of our choice for ONLY $99.00, as long as we attended a 90 minute presentation. Yes, we fell for it. I admit...we did. However, we DID NOT buy into what they were selling. I won't lie and tell you that we didn't spend an hour and half there too long because we were actually considering it. However, when I saw a girl from HS that I use to cheer with as one of the sales people, my mind was pretty much made up!
It just took us a year to actually take the trip. We did have a great time, but it wasn't the romantic weekend I envisioned in my head either....but really, when is it ever?
We started off the weekend attending the UT homecoming game with some great friends. We had a really good time and it was a beautiful day. On Sunday we headed up to the GREAT SMOKEY MTNS. I was determined to do some hiking since we did not have the kids with us. We ventured into Cade's Cove and had a great hike to a nice little waterfall. We worked up a sweat, so that in itself was good.


Michael and I neither one had been to Cade's Cove in ages, but I will admit it makes me a little batty. Going around on one road in a circle waiting for cars to go about did me in. It was these things that brought us to a complete stop.
I mean...COME ONE PEOPLE, I almost hit 4 just last night.

Now, a bear...a bear is a different story. I will stop for a bear. We even turned around and went back to look for one that was perched on a fallen tree. Michael and I are the awesome bear spotters. One crossed the road in front of us in Yosemite. We literally, on foot, chased after it.
We spotted 3 grizzly's in Alaska, and now this one in Cade's Cove. YEAH FOR BEARS...not for deer.

At least we had these 3 little girls in front of us that were hanging out of the back of their car making faces at us. Michael kept pretending that he was going to run in to them, so that was fun. I still wished I would have taken their picture, but I don't think their parents would have appreciated some stranger snapping their kids photo.
When we ended up letting a car get between us, you would have thought we ripped the girls arm off. We have never heard such a loud, pitiful, "NOOOOOO." Michael felt really guilty after that.
After driving back and forth from Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge 500 times because of a hotel mix up, we ended back up at our hotel room. They claimed we were staying in a 5star resort.....yeah, not so much. I was almost ready to go pack up and get the kids and drive home. However, we had our 90 minute presentation commitment to keep the next morning, remember? :) We did try finding a movie theater, but we discovered something new in all the years we have gone to Gatlinburg: there is only 1 movie theater in PF. I guess they think there is plenty of other stuff to do.
We went and picked the kids up and did some shopping, and Christmas light looking. Lila and Graham both LOVED the lights.
As you can see..they were much more interested in the lights and looking at this little train going round and round than they were in having a quality photo taken with their mother. Aww well...one day I will have great family photos.





We had planned to go on another small hike for the kids, but it ended up raining..BOO! Lila kept saying she wanted to go to the waterfall. I feel so guilty! One day I will learn my lesson about telling them we are going to do things until they actually happen.
Goodbye East Tennessee...we will be back next weekend! Stay tuned....

Falls Final Hoorah!

So, after complaining all October about the horrible weather and how I wanted to attend a pumpkin patch, I finally got my chance....barely. We found one that was open on Nov. 1st. as most others closed on Halloween. Besides having to deal with uncooperative weather I wanted to find a time when we could go as a family, because really, all I wanted was a family photo at the pumpkin patch! Weeellll, it didn't quite work out that way.
We actually were invited to attend the Titans game (which ended up being an awesome game btw), but I didn't have a sitter and, by golly, I wanted to go to the Pumpkin Patch, even if it meant going it alone. We had put it off too many times and this was my chance. Michael went on to the game and the kids and I found our way to Eagleville, TN at Lucky Ladd Farms. It really is a neat place and they had lots to do, if only there were more pumpkins and a little less mud. They warned on their website that "along with rain came mud, so dress appropriately". I totally thought taking myself and the kids in our church attire was appropriate. Let's just say, I think my shoes STILL have mud on them. Oh no, Lucky Ladd was not kidding about the mud.
None the less, the kids and I had a great time. I even trekked up the "mountain" and slid down the JUMBO slide with both kids in hand. It even took my breath a little, but the kids liked it, but not enough to go again!
Here are some shots from our fun, but exhausting day! Shew...thank you Lord for giving me a very involved wonderful father to my children. I don't know how you single moms do it.

TAGGED!

SOOOOO...for the first time ever, I was officially "tagged" with an award, from awesome Mama Brown! I only hope I will be as wonderful a mother as she is.
About 4 weeks ago when reading her blog, I actually blushed a little when I saw that my blog had been tagged. I kept telling myself that I had to really think about this challenge and make it a good one. Well, in my world these days, there are not extra minutes for thinking of things about myself. As part of the tag, I am suppose to tell you 6 things about myself that most people don't know. I am pretty much an open book and everything that I did happen to think of, I figured most people already knew. For example, I am really not that organized. Yeah, well...most people know this. Or that cheerleading was my life in high school. Well, if you didn't know that you could probably guess it. Not to mention that my children usually get cheered to every day!
So, here are 6 things that maybe not everyone knows about me. Boy...this is hard.
I will start off easy:
1. I am the baby of 4 girls. I love being part of a large family! Although we are all so different, it is kind of scary how alike we all are.
2. I took piano lessons for 9 years. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to show for it. My love for cheerleading and gymnastics took precedence over practicing my piano. One year, due to finances I had to quit either gymnastics or piano. My mom chose for me and guess which one had to go? She told me that when I was 40 I would still be able to play the piano, but I wouldn't be able to do a round off backhandspring. I wish I would have listened to her. Although, I am now going to make it my goal to still be able to do a round off backhandspring when I am 40! YIKES!
3. My nickname when I was little was "white lightning" because I could run so fast. Many times I was the only girl racing against the boys in field day and in the 7th grade I broke our school record for the mile run. Things changed in the 8th grade when my 200 time considerably slowed down after I "developed", in the words of my track coach. I still like to pretend that I can run really fast. However, when playing adult league flag football a few years ago, I realized that just isn't so. If you can't already tell, I LOVE sports!
4. Michael and I went to elementary, middle and high school together, but separate colleges. We never dated until after we had both graduated from college and saw each other at my sisters wedding. (His brother was a groomsman.) Our parents live .8 mile away from each other and when we were little Michael would ride his bicycle over to my neighborhood. We did go on one date in high school to a hayride and bonfire after a football game. Michael said it wasn't a date and doesn't even remember. I can tell you what I wore. Sebago's, my Guess jeans, and a cream colored sweater with a hot pink rose that covered the whole front. GEEZ...no wonder he doesn't remember. I would block out something has horrible as that outfit too! :)
He did announce to the whole lobby after a basketball game that we were going to "get hitched" as he carried my suitcase out of the varsity room for me. Really we were just on our way to a church retreat in Gatlinburg. Everyone else had gone up early after school, but since we had a basketball game that night, we were going later.
5. After writing all these details about high school, that brings me to another thing about myself. I tend to remember every detail or nothing at all about an event. Mainly I am just weird with remembering dates, especially birthdays, and especially people that have been in my life for a long time.
6. I have a strong desire for missions. There is so much I want to do, and I don't always know where to start. This is hard for me right now, because of having 2 young children and one on the way. I want to GO, but I also want to do so much right here in our own town and surrounding counties. Showing houses in very poor conditions and seeing how some people live just breaks my heart. I also want to adopt. I am not sure Michael is quite there yet, but we are definitely praying about it. It is such a scary path, but I know that there are SO many children out there in search of a home. I just pray that God will use us the best way needed.

So there you have it my friends. I hope you learned a little something about me that you didn't know.
So, here are my tags. (I hope these people even read my blog to know they are tagged!)
My sweet friend, Jenny, who surprised us all and is expecting a baby boy in March! Her Belly Blog will be sure to make you giggle. She is one of the funniest, most creative people I know.
Miss Pam on the run. I just can't wait to hear what she will come up with. What can I say? This girl just makes me laugh.
Our dear "Miss Rachel" She has been such a blessing to my children and I am so thankful they have her in their lives. We also are expecting number 3 together right around the same time!
Awesome Amanda over at One Sweet World. She is the best I know with keeping up with this whole blog thing, especially having 2 young ones close together of her own. I am hoping that Will and Lila work out, but if not, G is going to have to step it up and make some moves on Caroline!
I am adding my friend Allison! Go check out her site, as she is super creative and has lots of cute stuff on her etsy site.
I am not sure if anyone else actually reads my blog, so consider yourself tagged if you are reading this!

I'm a Chickee....Graham's a scarecrow!

The cutest ones I ever seen!
We had a great Happy Halloweeeen!
By the way...I am still finding little yellow feathers all over my house. The Nashville Zoo, S.M., TSC, and K.M are probably too....OOPS! Sorry!


I will be honest, I have never been the biggest Halloween fan, but more of a "Happy Harvest" kind of gal. Although, now that I am older and I know I am not doing anything "evil", I have really started enjoying this holiday. It is fun for me to do pumpkin crafts with my kids and come up with ideas for costumes.
This year, thanks to Mrs. Brown, Graham was this adorable little scarecrow.
After thinking I could talk Lila into being a kitty cat, she announced to me she wanted to be a froggy. I was ok with this, because I would be making her costume the same, just changing the colors. Then she said she wanted to be a "CHICKEE"! Well, that was it. I headed to Joanne's to get yellow tulle and feathers! She turned about adorable as well!

This year was super fun for us because Lila was really starting to get into the Trick or Treating.
We kicked off Halloween by heading up to Ghouls at Grassmere at the Nashville Zoo.
They even had a "costume pageant" that I HAD to enter Lila in. All they did was line up and walk across the stage and then they received candy at the end. I must admit, Lila was super cute when she stopped in the middle of the stage and waved at everyone! :)
Lila loved riding the monkey on the carousel, but Graham was not too crazy about it. She also loved dancing in the lights and playing games. She is quite the cheater though!!




On actual Halloween we went to our church's Fall Festival. I tried to snap some pictures of them before heading out, but G was not having it. (Do you find I say this alot?) That boy is set in his ways and is either really happy, or really MAD! It was super fun and Lila had the best time playing all the games. As mentioned before, she will find anyway to win. Graham was not too happy about being stuck in the wagon and only wanted to eat Lila's cupcake that she won at the cakewalk!








We then went to our sweet friend's, Hope and Maddie's. Let me just tell you, Lila was SO excited to go trick or treating with them. An added bonus was seeing another one of her Kindermusik friends. She finally got the hang of saying "Trick or Treat" and getting her candy. Watching them just totally melted my heart. We went back to the house and once Graham was free, I fianlly got a smile out of him. Too bad he has both his jacket on and his paci in his mouth. He was just glad to be down and playing. Lila, Hope, and Aiden enjoyed a Dora movie. I have noticed since that day, that Dora has become one of her favorite new characters! :)We were so thankful to be invited to such a fun little Halloween Party! As usual, everything was perfect and so sweet and thoughtful! Thank you Martins!



After heading back to the neighborhood, we of course had to stop and visit with our neighbors. It was a long day, but boy did we have fun! Lila loved the load of stuff in hers AND Graham's "booket." (we can't figure out why she started calling it this....sigh, KIDS.)

One day I WILL get really good photos of all my children together. One day.....

We don't want to forget the Tacky Wacky Wigorama party that just Michael and I got to attend without little chickee and scarecrow. Now these are some tacky wigs if I have ever seen some. Don't ask what we are dressed as, because, well...I don't know. We were still trying to find something to wear an hour before the party. We sure had a great time though! I still want a recount on our Guestures game!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HAPPY HARVEST! Whatever you want to call it is fine by me!

Trick or Treat?!?!

June 20, 2010!!

Our little bean!

8 weeks

Tickle Me Tuesday

I was folding laundry in my room, and Lila wanted to help. I noticed that she had been gone for a while into my closet. I yelled for her and asked her what she was doing.
This is where I found her sitting on my step stool:

And this is what she said she was doing:
I am picking out dresses and shoes. DRESSES AND SHOES MOMMY!

Also while folding the sheets, she took a pillow and said, "This pillow is driving me crazy over here." MMMM...wonder where she got that from?

That's my GIRL!

ALL FOR THE HALL

The night before we left for the beach, we attended another great concert. After going on a great date night to see Keith Urban and Sugarland, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed me some Keith. So much that when some awesome friends asked us to attend the Keith and Friends show, we jumped at the chance! This was a benefit concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame. Along with Keith, there was S.M.'s favorite, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley (who I am still disappointed only sang 1 song), Little Big Town (I think they named their band after her BIG hair), Faith Hill (lets just say..I was not impressed), Lady Antebellum(loving their new song), Dierks Bentley(who either took a few shots of an energy drink beforehand or ate a lot of chocolate), Jason Aldeen(What can I say, "Big Green Tractor" is all I have to hear to get fired up!), and of course, Taylor Swift(I just like that girl.)
We had a Great night and great seats thanks to these folks:

Please take note of the camera hanging from Sonja's neck. For those of you that think that I don't go anywhere without my camera, this girl doesn't go anywhere without her camera! She even has a handy dandy backpack to carry it in. See, this camera takes awesome pictures like these:


My camera, well let's just say I won't be posting pictures of the performers from my camera because they are so inadequate to that Canon 50D. Canon 50D, Oh how I love thee. Michael tells me to keep dreaming. (I knew I should have never told him about leaving my camera out in the backyard all night long.)
Our seats were really good and close to the stage. We sat more to the side and Michael could practically reach out and touch the JumboTron. I never realized how much I looked at that thing until I couldn't see it.

Here Sonja and I are with Mr. Urban in the background. We took so much time taking this picture that we basically missed his solo for us on our side of the stage. He forgave us because I am 100% positive that he looked directly into our eyes and gave us a wink! I mean, who else would he have been looking at other than these two hot girls!? :)


Bobby enjoyed serenading his beautiful wife along with her favorite artist. I'm sure this picture was taken somewhere around the words, "I get weak in the knees, and I loose my breath...." :)

And finally, the best concert-going crew and me and my hotty hubby!



GOOD TIMES!