Field Trips

We've taken a few field trips recently and wanted to share our memories with you. This first one was of a train ride we took with our local homeschool group. We had tons of fun, and will probably do it again. Here are the boys with some of their best friends, Jacob and Gunnar. We all rode together which made it all the more fun!

Here's waiting for the train to arrive...

And waiting for the train to start rolling...

We have also gotten to go to the beautiful Schermerhorn Symphony Center recently for a homeschool program, called "Brass Bash," where the boys (and a thousand other kids) got to learn all about the brass instruments and their unique job in the orchestra. It was a lot of fun! Here are Elijah and Isaac with their friend Jacob.

The Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

After the concert we walked across the pedestrian bridge right there beside the symphony center.

The boys in front of the Titans Stadium.

The boys and I enjoying our trip to downtown Nashville for our symphony date.

Elijah's Seven Already?!?!

Elijah turned 7 back in October. 7 years! It is really amazing how fast time goes. That is such a cliche to say that, but it is so true.

Here is Elijah getting ready to eat his birthday waffles (his request).
Clone wars! Thanks Grand K!

Here is Elijah's cake he requested, thanks to Publix. Maybe I need to practice making birthday cakes!

One of the few games we played. I'm not sure what this one was called, but while they were blindfolded, they took turns sticking funny faces onto pumpkins. It turned out very cute!

We had a great time at our party, even though we missed you, Jake, Addie, Jessica, Scott, and Nana and D-dah! Wasn't the same without you.

We are so thankful to the Lord for our precious Elijah. Our first born, one who is very tender and sweet, and an encourager. Our prayer every day is that he (along with his brothers) will know the grace of God in his heart, and turn to Christ as his Savior. We love you Elijah!

Atlanta!

In late July, we took a trip to Atlanta with some very dear friends of ours to visit family, and to do all sorts of fun things. We headed down Friday to make an Atlanta Braves game. The boys had a great time, even through the few spouts of light rain. We had a blast.

Here, two cousins, Elijah and Jake, who love to hang out with each other.

Buddies. These kids have been friends since birth! Great friends, the Heads.

The boys with matching shirts from their Grand-K, ready for the game.

This picture of Joshua turned out a little dark, but I thought it was a great shot of the field with all of the bright lights.

Cotton candy, of course. The only stipulation was that they had to share it with their Momma.

A bunch of crazy cousins having a blast. Here, Isaac in D-Dah's lap, Elijah, Jake, and Addie.

The next day, we hung out at Nana and D-Dah's awesome pool. We swam, ate, talked, and swam some more. Here, Isaac with a rad suit ready to hit the water.

If you've never been to Stone Mountain, GA, it really is a great place to go to see a laser show when it gets dark, to eat some expensive food, and to run around and play with some great friends until late. Here, 4 buddies stop long enough to pose for a quick picture: Jackson, Isaac, Elijah, and Jake.

We had a blast!

Other Summer Happenings

Other noteworthy aspects of our summer:

Isaac played his first season of T-ball. Here he is with his team and coach (all the way on the right--the only one with a baseball hat on). He finished the season even with a broken collar bone. We were so proud of him!


The day to day grind--

Playing the computer while little brother just has to be part of it:


Cooking with Mom and then licking the beaters (this one's for you Kelly--I know how much you love messy face pictures :)

At last but definitely not least, because this is actually a very common happening in our family: gigantic goose eggs on foreheads left from climbing and then tumbling back down again onto the very hard kitchen floor (head first obviously). Poor Joshua. It didn't slow him down too much though.

Playing Catch-Up

It has definitely been a long time sine I've posted about our family adventures. Isaac had just broken his collar bone. Well, he has healed quite nicely. We thought a few weeks ago that he had broken his arm, but that was, thankfully, just a false alarm! I wanted to show a few pictures of some field trips we've taken this summer.

First: to the Peach Orchard! We headed south (not too far) to a beautiful peach orchard with our local homeschool group. It was a beautiful place, that I hope we can visit every year to pick fresh peaches.

Yes, that is a 2.15 pound peach. It was gigantic. I think it was a record, at least for that orchard (no, it was not one that we picked--they had already picked it when we got there).

Here's a view of the orchard from the top. They took us on a tour to show us all about how they run their orchard. This was taken from the back of a tractor.

The boys on the back of the tractor, learning loads of facts about peaches, and anxious to pick them.

Finally, time to pick. It doesn't take long to fill those buckets when you pick big ones!

And, finally, each of the boys enjoying their delicious peaches!

I made a couple of peach pies, that we enjoyed with vanilla ice cream. But, I forgot to take a picture! Well, we sure enjoyed them anyway!

We also took a trip to the library when it held the finale to our summer reading program. We got to speak to police officers, fire fighters, and EMS workers. The boys even got to push lots of buttons in the police car, which set off sirens and lights, which was something they thought was totally cool, and Mom thought was totally loud!

Here are the boys (minus Joshua who was in the stroller beside me) with Officer Beth.

Elijah in the police car, pushing all those buttons, making all of those loud noises. Hopefully the only time he'll be in a police car!

The boys inside the huge fire truck, ready to put out fires!

And, inside the ambulance. Need I say, hopefully the only time inside one?

Our First Broken Bone

Well, I am actually a little surprised that it has taken this many years with this many boys to have a broken bone. Isaac was pretty excited last night, as they usually are, when Jason came home, and was therefore running around outside, running to tell Jason something. He lost his footing on the driveway, and down he went, right onto his shoulder, and snap! went his collar bone. He was definitely not the happiest of boys last night (he didn't even want a popsicle, jello, or yogurt, which are some of his favorite things to eat, which told us something was DEFINITELY wrong).

Turning this situation into something educational, we tried to get Isaac excited (not very easy to get excited about going to the doctor when you are in pain), but definitely got Elijah excited about the prospect of seeing what Isaac's insides look like (his bones anyway). The x-ray room was most definitely the highlight of our trip to the doc, where we got to see Isaac's bones, all of which were perfectly intact, except for his collar, which was snapped like a twig.

And the funny thing is, that they don't seem to do much in regard to splints, casts, etc. for collar bone breaks, because this break that Isaac has, heals itself pretty easily, and the doc said he will keep his shoulder protected naturally by the way he will hold it. So, here's our makeshift splint, which he may not even wear, or we may be able to improve on later.

What a sad, sad face...

But, God is in control! He will heal me -- and I'll be just fine!!!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day from Jason's three boys!
After church on Sunday, we headed to Melea's parent's house to hang out with Dad and family. Here are some family photos of us together.


Two new grandsons born two days apart, Patrick and Sam (already buddies holding hands!)

A shot of the SEVEN grandsons. SEVEN! After about SEVEN (or more) times of trying to get all these boys to look at one place, at one time, and smile. This is as close as we could get! Where are the girls in this picture, you ask? Maybe one of these days!

My sweet grandmother, with her son, grandsons, and great-grandsons.

And last, not but not least, a picture of the whole crew. What a blessing!

Publix!

Well, here are my totals for this week at Publix and Harris Teeter. Everything I bought is not pictured because some of it has already been eaten or used. But, this gives you a good idea of my excellent savings this week. This sums up about 4-5 trips to the stores.

Publix

Tostitos Family Size chips BOGO no coupon

22 Ziplock $1.99 $1/1 manuf. q + $1/1 target coupon--free

5 Bounty paper towels $1.25 $ .25 manuf. coupon + $ .50 target coupon ( .25 ea.)

Publix jelly 1. 79 no coupons

7 Glad $1.59 $ 1/1 manuf. coupon + $1/1 FLIP (free +)

2 Publix apple juice $2.49 mystery item-- ($.01 ea.)

Publix premium ice cream $3.99 free coupon -- free

Publix milk 2.25 -- no coupon

2 Whitewheat bread 2.29 -- no coupon

7 Raid ant/roach spray $3.89 ($2.00 manuf. q + $2.00 publix coupon (free +)

7 Tylenol $3.48 ($2.00 manuf. q + $2.00 publix Q (free +)

4 Reach Floss $1.49 $1.00 manuf. Q + $1.00 publx Q (free +)

4 Sundown Vitamins $2.99-3.59 $1/1 manuf. Q + $6/2 publix Q --( free +)

3 Crystal Light BOGO 2 free Q + $1/1 manuf. Q ($ 1.00 for all 3)

Publix Black Beans $.83 no coupon

Bag of apples 2.49 no coupon

5 Kraft barbecue sauce BOGO $1/1, $.75/1 (free)

3 Apple and Eve juice boxes $1.39 $1/1 manuf. Q + $1/1 publix Q (free +)

12 French's mustard BOGO $1/1 manuf. Q (free +)

6 Ragu BOGO $.75/1 manuf. Q ($.35 ea)

Publix Oatmeal $1.39 no coupon

Harris Teeter

1 Hot Shot bug killer BOGO $1.50 manuf. Q (free)

1 Klondike bars BOGO (should have had a $1.25 Q taken off, which would have made it free, but he didn't deduct it, but can't really go back now and try to get that $1.25 back since I live 30 minutes away, and I've already given them the Q)

6 Activia yogurt 4 pks. $2.00 $1/1 doubled-- (free)

Archway cookies $2.99 $1/1 doubled -- (.99)

Total spent: $19.34 (should have been $17.54) Total saved: $239.41

Ten Years and Counting

It's truly amazing to think it's been ten years since Jason and I got married. We never imagined that God would have given us 3 healthy boys; a business that has flourished and has allowed me to stay home with our boys, and begin homeschooling this past year; and a marriage that, by God's grace, is strong in so many ways. For this we are truly thankful to the Lord.

For our anniversary, we were planning on going to the lake place for a couple of days, spending time hiking and wakeboarding, and relaxing. But, I knew Jason had something up his sleeve when he told me to pack a very nice dress, because he had a surprise in store. I had an inkling of an idea of what he was planning, and I turned out to be right about one part of it. . . first, we headed downtown to a hotel where we had originally stayed our first night as a married couple, Union Station Hotel. Here are some pictures of inside the hotel. It is a great place to visit. We didn't walk around inside as much as we would have liked, but there is a lot of history in that hotel (a restored 19th-Century railroad station).

The ceiling made up of beautiful stained glass...


Where we ate breakfast....

Our beautiful, high-ceiling room overlooking Broadway (a great view, but not so great for sleeping on a Saturday night as those partying downtown are heading home).

For dinner, Jason had made reservations at the Melting Pot. Um, only one word comes to mind when I think of the Melting Pot, delish.

I should have taken pictures of each course, but this one was the one that stood out from all the rest. Cheesecake, brownies, bananas, strawberries, pound cake, all dipped in warm chocolate and peanut butter fondue. Again, I say, delish.

After our oh-so-wonderful dinner, Jason took me to the Symphony in the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center to see a piano concerto. This was a very nice experience. We had a great time.

The Schermerhorn Symphony Center

The next morning, we woke up and headed to the lake place where we first headed to Burgess Falls State Park to hike to the waterfall. Here are some pictures we took on the way down.

Altogether, it was a wonderful time, celebrating this special gift God has given us -- it is amazing to think of how God can bring two sinners together to glorify Him. After all, it's really a picture of the gospel -- that God would reach down and reconcile sinners, enemies of God, to Himself, through Jesus Christ by His atoning sacrifice. Because of what God does in the hearts of believers, we are able to love our spouse, confess our sin to them, to forgive and be forgiven, and grow in the knowledge of God, together. What a blessed gift!