Catching Up -- February 2010

Ok. It has been so long since I have updated our blog, I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll be posting about the last few months over the next several days (hopefully). So, here we go.

This winter, we got a couple of good snows. One was about 8 inches deep, with the top inch or two a solid sheet of ice! Too bad that Jason was out of town (he was on the beautiful caribbean island of Bonaire) and missed some of our good times sledding down the icy back yard. Here is a shot in the middle of our big snowfall.


The ice coating everything.

We got this huge drift of ice-covered snow on our front porch (which stayed around for literally about a month).
Since our mound was covered in ice, it made for one very fun natural slide!

Elijah and Isaac all bundled up as it was super cold the day we played in the snow.



One very tired 2 year old falling asleep at lunch.

Also, this winter Elijah has been helping Isaac out with beginning to read. Here they are working together on some new words.

Caribbean Cruise

Last year in June, Jason and I celebrated our 10th year anniversary. We decided that during Jason's off season we would go on a cruise. So, this month, last week to be exact, we went on that cruise, and had a wonderful time. We went with friends, Jason and Kelly, and my brother and sister-in-law, Adam and Lisa. Our kids stayed with grandparents in Atlanta.

Here's our ride from our hotel to the port in Miami. Fun ride!


It had been a while since I had ridden in a limo. Jason and I with Adam and Lisa.


Here we are at the port in Miami ready to board our ship, the Celebrity Century which is behind us.


My sweet friend, Kelly and I with Miami behind us (and the prospect of sailing away across the ocean!)



Here's a look at our crew inside the ship. This area was really the center of the ship. We're sitting in the Cova Cafe, a great place to sit and listen to music, and drink gourmet coffee, and eat delectable pastries.


A great view of Miami from the top of the ship before sailing away.


On to our first port, Key West. Here, a picture of the girls--Lisa, Melea, Kelly. Sweet friends, and sisters in Christ.


This was fascinating to learn about. These trees are called banyan trees. This looks like many different trees. You see the main trunk in the middle, and then other "trees" on the sides. But, really, it is all one tree. The branches actually send down new roots which grow into large thick trunks, and the tree starts multiplying into adjoining yards. It was very interesting to learn about them!


Jason and I in front of our ship on Key West.


Here we are dressed up for our one formal night. It was fun--felt like prom again! Does this dress look familiar Jessica? :)


A beautiful shot of the sun going down over the ocean while sailing away from Key West.

Cruise to the Caribbean Part 2

One thing I will always remember about this cruise was the food--some of the most delicious food I've ever eaten in my life. And the service! To be called "Madame" by the waiters--hmmmm, maybe I should teach my kids to call me "Madame, Mommy." :)
These next several pictures are of the night we ate at the one specialty restaurant on the ship. Delicious food, wonderful service, and great company made for a very fun night. I don't remember all the different names of the foods here, but they were absolutely delightful!



Warm goat cheese souffle--very good.

A salad that Lisa got--fancy huh?

My yummy dessert--white coffee ice cream and chocolate

Our waiter--preparing a seared filet tableside.


These next pictures are of when we were at port at George Town, Grand Cayman. One word--beautiful.
I loved this shot--that's our ship which had to anchor some distance off shore, which we then had to catch a tender to take us back and forth to the island.


Jason and I went swimming with the stingrays at "Stingray City." This is a place probably about a 1/2 mile (or more) out from Grand Cayman Island where, for years, fisherman dumped their scraps. Stingrays would keep coming to feed on them, and eventually got very tame, so much that it became one of the most popular excursions on the island. This was a very unique experience for me. First of all, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I was expecting a small sandbar (out of the water) where we could walk around, take pictures, etc., then get in the water if we felt like it. Not exactly. The sandbar was actually about 4 feet deep, so no cameras, just fighting the waves, and getting used to stingrays swimming against our legs. I kind of freaked out at first, I admit that. But, I got used to them after a while, and even held one and kissed it (something they try to get us all to do), and snorkled a bit watching them underwater. A photographer came with us, and got a lot of great snapshots of us holding/kissing the stingray, but of course it was very expensive to buy, so this is just one shot of Jason after I had gotten back in the boat. It ended up being really fun and a neat experience.
Here you can see a dividing line of where the sandbar is (about 4 ft. deep or so), and the darker color water which is a drop down to about 6,000 ft!
On the way back from our excursion we spotted this iguana getting some sun.
Except for the one night that we ate at Murano, the specialty restaurant, we ate dinner in the Grand Restaurant. We ate at the same table every night, with our friends, and had the same waiters. That was fun--to get to know the waiters a little bit, and enjoying good fellowship with sweet friends.
On the last day of our cruise, when we were actually about to disembark, Jason spotted this plane. His favorite plane of all time, the Grumman Goose, an amphibious plane, meaning it can land both in water and on land. He was very excited.
The last shot of our cruise--can you tell we're sad to leave? But, we were definitely ready to see our kiddos!

We had a super time together, and are thankful that the Lord gives us times of relaxation and fun with friends.

Isaac's 5th Birthday

On January 2, Isaac turned 5! He has quite the year ahead--he will be starting kindergarten, which he is looking forward to.

Isaac on his birthday morning with his breakfast request, waffles.


A fun set of blocks and marbles--Grand K and Pappy got him this too, so he has a double set, which he can use to make a HUGE tower, then roll the marbles through it to the bottom. Really fun.


Isaac with his birthday cake request--strawberry cheesecake--very obvious he's Melea's son!!! It wasn't the most beautiful cake, but it was delicious.



We have boys who LOVE to watch nascar races. So, we have gotten accustomed to watching them pretty regularly. Because of this, the boys know a lot of the drivers, and the cars they drive. For Isaac's main gift from us, we took the boys to the annual "Sound and Speed." It was a combination of a country music concert Friday night (which we did not go to), and on Saturday several Nascar race car drivers came to sign autographs, also with some country music stars. We were there only for the cars and drivers. There were also about 12 different race cars to check out.
This one is Joey Lagano's car--one of Jason's favorites.


Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car...


"The King," Richard Petty's car, who of course is retired.


Tony Stewart's car...


The way it was set up made it difficult for us to get any autographs and meet any of the drivers, but we did get to see a couple of the "bigger name" drivers up close and hear them speak in a Q&A session. From the left, Kyle Petty and Carl Edwards. The other guys were some country music singers who we don't follow, so we weren't familiar with their stuff.

Isaac (and Elijah) totally loved getting to look into all the cars, and imagine getting to race them. Isaac also had to go around all of the cars and pretend he was changing their tires. The boys love racing, so they had a great time. This might just have to be an annual birthday trek for us.

We love you, Isaac, so dearly. We pray that you will know Christ, that you will love him with all your heart, and that you will grow up to be a man of God who follows His Word. You are very special to us. We love your fun personality, and your wonderful laughter. We love you Isaac!

Joshua's 2nd Birthday

On December 10, we celebrated Joshua's second birthday.

Kawasaki four wheeler from GrandK and Pappy!
What's a party without party hats?
Opening his golf clubs--he loves to play ball outside, so now he can whack golf balls (but hopefully not his brothers!)

What a blessing this little guy is to our family. We are thankful for him, and pray every day that he will believe in Christ, and love Him with all his heart. We love you dearly Joshua!

Christmas 2009

I'm finally posting pictures from Christmas!
Following are several miscellaneous pictures from the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas Day.

Early in December, we were able to be a part of our homeschool group's Gingerbread house party. There were pounds and pounds of candy, icing, and loads of fun. Here's Elijah focused on making our house perfect (perfectly tasty). This is also a good shot of our almost finished house. It ended up with a pretzel fence all the way around it.


And here's the taste tester.


Elijah, Isaac, and Joshua with cousins Noah and Drew.


Tree-decorating night. Christmas music playing, lots of fun.


In mid-December, we drove to Chattanooga to meet Jason's family to take a ride on the Polar Express train. Nana got them all matching pajamas and robes. They had chocolate milk during the ride, and got to meet Santa. It was a fun time for us all.

Gotta try on the antlers!


Christmas morning...
Isaac's favorite gift--Nascar movie. Isaac LOVES nascar--so he was jumping for joy when he opened this gift (thanks Lisa :))


And, I just liked this one and wanted to share.


This year, the boys' big gift was a loft, made by Jason, with a lot of help from our friend, Larry. They did an excellent job, matching it almost perfectly with the bed that was already in their room, the bed Jason grew up sleeping in. For a couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, Jason had to work on it in the garage, and since it is almost impossible to do that with 3 little curious boys wanting to know what is going on, we just told them it was a chicken house. I think they starting believing us eventually, but when they ran into their room Christmas morning, they were very surprised and excited. We told them it WAS a chicken house--a bed for our 2 little chickens to sleep.
Here's Jason putting it together Christmas Eve. We had them sleep upstairs in the bonus room in sleeping bags so we could put this together after they went to sleep.

Finally put together and awaiting the boys!

Christmas morning--saving this gift until the end. They loved it!!

Pappy's Fun House

Back a few months ago, my dad wanted his family to get together for a fun "Fall" day. He had a surprise in store for his grandsons, which was a huge maze constructed out of extra large appliance boxes. The boys were ecstatic to try it out! The adults were also very excited to climb through it, and feel like a kid again. In particular, one adult, climbed into the very back (dark) corner and quickly became known as the "monster," and would chase the boys back out, grab them, and pull them back in again, throw out their shoes, socks, shirt, etc. It was very funny to watch, and boys all had a great time. This first video is when they first started really getting into letting the monster get them. In the second video, well, you will notice they had really gotten warmed up. And you will see the monster that had been torturing them.