Fall Happenings

Emily's Glasses!At the beginning of school, Emily told me she couldn't read the whiteboard... this is the end result! She is nearsighted, just like me!

AUSTIN & FLAG FOOTBALL
Austin wanted to do something active so we signed him up for flag football. He likes it a lot and he is really fast. All but one of his games has been rained out so far... hopefully this Saturday he will get to play!


EMILY CHEERLEADING!

We decided to sign Emily up for cheerleading. We figured we were going to be at the field anyway and she would be able to cheer for her brother. She is reallly cute and she has a lot of fun!

TOGETHER

OWEN
This seems to be Owen's expression of choice when we take pictures. He is such a funny little guy.

AARON
Aaron stole Austin's apple and carried it around for about 30 minutes munching on it. Anytime Austin tried to get it back, Aaron would cry. Aaron and Austin seem to be forming a pretty good bond lately. Austin can usually cheer Aaron up when he is down. They are pretty fun to watch.

Last week of Summer Break AND...

So, the last week of summer break, my friend and I decided to go out for an adventure EVERY DAY and we did, literally! We went somewhere all day, every day. We had such a blast playing all week. Here's a look at what we did!



DAY 1: Beach Park- I don't have any pictures of this but just close your eyes and imagine a lake with a swimming/ beach area and kids swimming and splashing. We were there for hours. The kids loved it.



DAY 2: CADE'S COVE- an area in the Smokey Mountains with an 11 mile one way road, primitive houses, hiking trails, streams to play in, black bears, deer, wild turkey's and all sorts of other things.

Austin playing in the river

Aaron making faces at me. We were in the car a lot!

On our hike, Owen got tired of walking and he got in the basket of the stroller. He fell asleep! I couldn't believe it. I thought he was tricking me at first.

This is most of our group outside of one of the houses. They were supposed to be taking an "Old Time" photo.

This day was filled with playing in the rain, wet hot dogs, sunshine, kids being statues, running around in just swim suits, deer, wild turkey and...

BLACK BEARS!
This is actually a cub. The mom and another cub were in the same tree! We saw about 7 different bears this day. It was pretty cool.

DAY 3: SWIMMING POOL & Backyard Science

The kids did some "science" experiments in the yard this day. Cornstarch w/ water and...

eHhL89s/Spfoy4CRAuI/AAAAAAAAAKg/_BwUy6jpQXY/s320/2009+August+006.jpg" border=0> Coke with mentos! They loved this one!

DAY 4: DOWNTOWN, fort kid park, muesum, and the fountain

Austin sliding down a piece of wood?!

Fountain downtown. The kids had fun with this!

DAY 5: ZOO!

Emily and Aaron playing in the water area of the zoo.

Emily, Owen and a few others in the gorilla nest.

89s/SpflArRq-ZI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/hYcWggdPYCU/s320/2009+June+057+(3).jpg" border=0>Austin dressed up as a monkey in the "We play Zoo" area.

DAY 6: CADE'S COVE (again)

I think Casey was jealous that we saw so many bears so we went back to Cade's Cove on Saturday with him and Grandmother and Pop.

Owen in a little stream. (By this day, Emily and Austin were tired of playing in the water so they just watched.)

Emily, Grandmother and Pop waiting for hot dogs to cook.

DAY 7: Sunday= Church

Day 8: THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

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Emily ready for 3rd grade.

And so, we are finishing the secound week of school and I am so glad we had so many fun adventures over the summer. I have to say I am kind of sad the kids went back in school.

Austin turns 7!

Austin turned 7! He was so excited. This is the "cake" he wanted... cinnamon pizza. He loved it.

Austin loves legos, star wars, riding his scooter, playing outside, swimming and playing with friends. He is such a special guy. He is very sweet and loving. When Aaron was born he would tell me, "Mom, I think we have the cutest baby in the hold world". He is very sincere and observant. One of his favorite current past times is listening to music... almost any kind. He is such a sweet guy and we love him so much. We are so glad that he is a part of our family.

Happy 1st Birthday!

Aaron turned 1! Here are a few pics from his birthday!

Aaron is a very happy and easy going guy. He is up and walking around. He chatters and talks all day long. We are so glad to have him as a part of our family!

The aftermath of the cake. He loved it!

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TWO visits to the ER!

In May, we had two ER visits. We went to the park as a family to ride bikes and Emily took a little spill. She missed a turn and ended up in a little creek. Casey found her and there was blood and mud all over her. We believe that she flipped over her handle bars and her bike landed back on top of her. Her chin was split open and we knew immediately she needed stitches. We took her to the ER and she was a champ! She got 8 stitches but no broken bones. We were grateful for that!

Her cool stitches or "whisker's" as she called them!

Emily the day after! She was a little sore and her chin was swollen but over all she was fine. Now her stitches are out and she is healing well.

Owen! I took Owen to the park (the same one) to play with some friends. He was running around on the tennis courts and cut his ear. I looked at his ear and immediatly knew he needed stitches. I called the doctor and learned they don't do stitches at our doctor's office so off we went to the ER. Owen got three stitches. He wasn't excited about it but he did great.



Owen liked to touch his stitches but now they are out.

This is Owen the same day. Now his stitches are out and he is doing well. He has a little infection but it is beginning to clear up.

So, the 8 year old got 8 stitches and the 3 year old got 3 stitches. Hopefully there will be no more ER visits for us for a while.

April 2009 Easter (a little more catch up!)

Austin waiting to hunt for eggs.

Austin in his Easter outfit. He really wanted to have a suit and we found a great deal! He was so excited.

Owen being so cute!

Emily and her outfit. She loved this little dress. It seemed to fit her personality!

Aaron! This is the first time he had cake. I think he liked it!

MARCH 2009 (a little catch up!)

Owen and Aaron sporting their cougar shirts sent by grandma and grandpa!

The Fruit pizza Emily and Austin made for my birthday! Thanks! They also threw a surprise party for me! It was a delight.

Aaron and a classic dinner face!

Our family in the Great Smokey Mountains! This was during our spring break.

Pictures from February 2009!

February brought snow and lots of days out of school! This is a snowman that Austin built- Emily helped a little. He used Whoppers for the buttons and nose, jolly ranchers for the eyes, and twizzlers for the mouth. The kids loved the snow.

This is a picture of Austin taking me out on a date! He entered an essay contest of, "Why my mom deserves a night out" and won! He won dinner for two from Chic-fil-A, two movie passes and a little gift bag. We had a lot of fun together and the essay is priceless.

This is Owen. He decided to decorate himself with stickers. It was really funny, he had them all over his body. This was my favorite picture because of his smile.


Here is Aaron. He is constantly taking his socks off and eating them. It's almost a daily thing! On Sunday I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and realized I had not seen him in a while so I went to investigate... Casey found him halfway up the stairs! I can hardly believe it. He is only 9 months old. He's going to be a mover and a shaker.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OWEN!

Owen turned three on February 27th. I can't believe it! He is such a great little boy. He always says the funniest things and he always puts a smile on my face... well, most of the time.

This year he is really into Kung Fu Panda so he got a bunch of toys from the movie. He loves them. He sleeps with them and takes them where ever he goes. He carries them around in his, "little box". He loves to act out the movie and be characters. He'll come to me and say, "Mom, you my Tigress and I your monkey." I love it!

This is from grandma and grandpa. Mostly I am putting it on to encourage them to get online and look at these pictures.
Anyway, he is a sweet little boy and I love him so much. I am glad he is a part of our family!

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was so much fun. Two family's came up from Georgia to stay with us. We celebrated with the kids early at about 9:30 then put them to bed. Then the adults stayed up and played games. We celebrated with confetti but all of the husbands stayed out of that. We had so much fun and are looking to make this a new year's tradition.
All of the girls with confetti... good thing the kids were in bed!

Christmas Fun!!

Christmas was so fun this year! We love staying home and enjoying our traditions. We love seeing the glow on our children's faces when they realize that Santa has brought them some treasures. This first pictures is Christmas Eve. Some of our friends- the Allred's invited us over for appetizers and the nativity. This picture is all the kids waiting in anticipation to open their Christmas Eve Gift (pre- matching pajama's).

Here is Emily. She got a Beauty and the Beast snowglobe to add to her collection. She
also got lots of clothes... which she loved!

Here is Austin. He hit it big this year. He got a new, much needed, bike. Santa also brought him all of the things to take care of a hamster. He went to the Pet Store the day after Christmas and picked out the hamster he wanted. He named it Rocket but Rocket figured out how to get out of his cage, so we traded him in for a less adventurous hamster whose name is Punk.

Austin loves Punk. He is his new best friend.

Here is Owen. He got a tricycle for Christmas. It was unwrapped and he went right to

it and rode it around the house all morning. We actually had to bribe him to

open his other presents. He loves is tricycle.

Here is Sweet Aaron. He was content and happy all day! This is him in the stroller. It

was a beautiful day so after all of the presents were opened we took the kids outside to

try out their new bikes and we went for a walk. We had a great Christmas, it was

wonderful to spend time as a family.