Tennessee

It seems as if Gatlinburg/Pidgeon Forge Tennessee was the vacation hotspot this year. I was so excited about this trip, since I was around Kristen's age the last time I was there. There are so many great memories I have of going there: Dolly, riding the trolley and the candy store. All are still there, and much more expensive and a lot more built up. More commercialized than my young brain remembers. I'm sure I was more excited than the kids and really can't wait to go back. 

Our trip started and ended with a visit with my 98 year old grandmother. We are so very blessed to have her to love on for 98 years. Her stories are the best, her smile even better, but her hugs.....I wait all year to get my gran hug. She hugs you with so much love. Although she wasn't feeling well, she was still happy to see us. I cherish my time spent with her.

We spent our first day in Gatlinburg going to some shops. You can't go to Tennessee without going to a boot store. 

I had to post this next picture because of Lauren's expression. Paul told them to look scared and her face cracks me up. She embraced her role as the frightened girl about to get swallowed by a shark. 

This next picture just makes my heart happy. This is my mom and dad, who made this trip possible for all of us. We are so thankful for them and how much they do for us. They love unconditionally and I hope I'm half the parent to my kids that they were/are to me and my sister. Even though my mom was in pain from her back and my dad was tired of all the walking at Dollywood, they still stayed with us when I'm sure they wanted to go back to the cabin to rest. What can I say....they are the best!

Before we headed to Dollywood we went on a mountain rollercoaster. This was the only picture my sister got. It was pretty fun and all the kids liked it. Lauren kept asking to go back. A good rollercoaster introduction for Kristen.

Dollywood was everything I remembered it to be. I really do love that place.

We all had our favorite rides and for many of us there wasn't just one. Dallas liked the little cars. And the carousel.

And the Ferris wheel. 

He loves cars and pretends to drive everywhere, so he really wanted to ride the bumper cars, but wasn't tall enough. I felt so bad for him. But he did like this drop kiddie ride. He rode it several times. The funniest part is Lauren's expression. I was scared for Dallas, figuring he had no idea what he was getting himself into. But then seeing Lauren so scared kinda made me forget all about Dallas. 

You can see panic setting in. She's seriously having second thoughts. And, I might add,  look how small Dallas looks. Surely he is too small for this ride, that's what this momma brain was thinking. Actually it was more like, "He can ride this and not the bumper cars?"

This is her going up trying to look excited for everyone. 

And the descent.

She survived and didn't get back on that ride. And thankful for Uncle Harvey and Aunt Kelly for being so brave to ride this. I can do rollercoasters, but not sudden drops...over and over and over. 

Her favorite was the swings and I tried to get a picture, but they were all blurry. That was the main ride she wanted to ride. She did enjoy the carousel too.

Kristen's favorite ride was the Rampage. It was a water ride and we were all soaked. She did ride her first rollercoaster. An old wooden rollercoaster that was so rough I got an instant headache. She looked terrified and didn't like it much.

We talked her into trying a newer smoother rollercoaster, the Wild Eagle, and I was so proud at how brave she was. She was super nervous, but tried it. I don't think I would after having rode the first one. 

Here are some other random pictures from our time. We had such a great time spent with family. We are so very blessed.

Lauren's 8

Yesterday this little girl was so upset because she was turning eight. Apparently being seven was so awesome she didn't want turn eight, but then she realized that she gets presents and cake, and all was right in the world again. 

She started off the day by waking up to Kristen singing happy birthday to her. It was the first year that I didn't have to remind her that it was Lauren's birthday. Talk about melting my heart.

Where did she want to spend her birthday? Monkey Joe's of course. And she got to spend it with the little brother she wished she had. 

It's always sad to say goodbye.

And she ended her day with CiCi's pizza, a cupcake and a present. 

I wish everyone had the opportunity to get to know Lauren, like really know her. She is the most selfless person I have ever met. Her giving, loving, caring self makes me strive to be a better person every day. From finding three quarters in her piggy bank and giving two of them to Dallas and Kristen so they can get bubble gum from Walmart too. To giving Dallas her only cookie because we don't have any left, although he already ate one! When it's time to choose anything, she always asks which one Kristen and Dallas want first and happily takes what is left. When she gets a stuffed animal and Kristen says, "I wish I had that one", she hands if over claiming that she doesn't really want it any more. That's the awesomeness of Lauren that I get to witness everyday.

She's growing into a wonderful young lady and has changed so much over the last year. It makes me sad when she says she needs new shoes because her Frozen tennis shoes are for little girls. When I asked her if she wanted a Peppa Pig birthday cake and she told me she wanted a hot pink zebra print cake instead...well, it made me want to cry. When she told me she wants to be called LaLa and dye her hair pink, I had to realize she is figuring out who she is, and if she wants to be LaLa with pink hair I'll love her just the same. 

She's awesome, but I already said that. She's always smiling. She loves playing outside, drawing, and coloring. She hates when people cry and will usually start crying too. She's content to play by herself. She still hates bugs, but will pick up frogs and ants. She likes playing Barbies, hide-n-go-seek, and house. She hates people dressed up in a costumes, school and carbonated drinks. She's clumsy and falls or hurts herself at least once a day. She loves to swing, go on "adventures" and she asks the question,  "What are we doing today" at least 50 times a day. 

Happy Birthday Lauren! We love you to the BIG moon and back times a million.

February

Well, I'm glad we got over the Christmas hump and the birthday hump and the sickness hump so that I can now devote some time to school. We have just been doing the important stuff, which becomes very boring. These past two weeks of school have been much more enjoyable and educational all around. Homeschooling....it's a never ending cycle of mundane and excitement.

So much has happened, where do I begin?

Why did the mummy go to the doctor? Because he was coffin 😜

Kristen has been reading book 3 of The Magic Tree House series. They also have companion books that help you dive a little deeper in the topic, so with Mummies in the Morning we did a little unit study on mummies.

Kristen enjoyed trying to figure out the hieroglyphics and creating some of her own. 

She did a book summary written on a mummy. At first she didn't think she would be able to fill up all of her blank spaces, but at the end she didn't have enough and continued on the back. I told her that was a good problem to have. 

She also did a gummy bear experiment for science. Science and experimenting are her favorite things to do. She had some pretty good predictions.

Lauren has really taken off this year. Some of the things I was very concerned about with her, seem to be falling in place. She has always done things in her own time. Not sure why I would expect any different.

One of our favorite beginning reader books is Katy Duck.

We love Katy Duck and all of her books and Lauren has been able to read more words in her book now than ever. We have been mainly focusing on site words, but she has also been sounding out words on her worksheets and getting them! This makes me so excited!!!  

We have been playing a lot of fun games to help her learn her site words. It does help, but she also benefits from writing them too. She really enjoyed playing the site word island game and was helping Dallas find the site words I was calling out. 

I've also been working with her on recognizing nouns. She knows the definition, but hasn't quite mastered putting nouns into categories, so any activity I find that seems fun we try. Since she loves balloons I thought I would try a fun game using them. 

She really thought about it, but when given too many options she usually just picks something. They did enjoy playing with all 15 balloons after school though. Dallas liked popping them for me.

While her progress in reading has really made me excited, her progress in math has made me ecstatic. She now works on math worksheets pretty much all on her own. She can add numbers like 48 + 7. She and Kristen played a game called Sailor Math and she was adding and giving Kristen a run for her money. Of course, I may have been giving Kristen the harder ones, but she still did great and had fun. 

She's also starting to write words all on her own by sounding them out.

I am just amazed at how far she has come from the beginning of the year. This time last year I was tearfully contemplating enrolling her in school. I really didn't know what else to do. But hard work has paid off.

Dallas is still enjoying his pre-school. Even when he was sick, he wanted to do school.

He has been learning how to cut all on his own. This is quite an accomplishment!

We also read one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, Green Eggs and Ham. He had to match the rhyming words/eggs.

We are working on letter sounds and matching upper case letters with lower case letters. Thank goodness for the web, because there are a ton of ideas out there. I thought this was a cute game. The lower case letter was written on the back of the egg and he had to flip them over with a spatula and put them on the correct plates. 

Everyone had to try this game. Kristen also read him the Green Eggs and Ham book. 

Since he doesn't like eggs, we made green eggs and ham out of white melting chocolate and green m & m's. His favorite color and favorite candy.

We had a fun February and are looking forward to all the fun times ahead in March.

Happy Birthday Dallas!

It's amazing how fast four years go by. It seems like just yesterday little Dallie was born, especially when I go through pictures of him as a baby.

It's also amazing how long some days seem when he is being particularly ornery. But I love this kid.

He really does keep us smiling and laughing, when we aren't yelling that is. Even when he is bad he is so darn cute! 

We celebrated his birthday this past weekend. He loves Paw Patrol and wanted some cupcakes "with the things ticking out the top"...and that's exactly what he got.

He also got a lot of cool presents and has been riding his new "cooter" all over the house.

We celebrated his birthday today by going to the candy store. This kid loves candy, especially jelly beans. He was able to get some root beer flavored jelly beans! We also rode the train around the mall.

We were lucky Aunt Kelly had a doctors appointment and could spend the morning with us. She always makes things fun. We love hanging out with her. 

We ate some yummy burgers at Red Robin.

And I was even able to get some snuggle time in with my big 4 year old.

He ended the night playing with friends at growth group. A great birthday indeed!

Dallas has grown so much this past year. He is so smart and doing well with his school. He loves candy, root beer, Paw Patrol, trucks, four wheelers, hats, break dancing, his Papaw, candy, socks, pop tarts, playing outside, running super fast, the color green, playing the matching game and puzzles. 

He doesn't like eating his dinner, drinking water, people messing up his room, green beans, cutting his finger nails. He is a particular little boy.

Happy Birthday Dallas! We love you to the moon and back.

Nine

Nine...9...NINE!!! It seems like yesterday we were bringing a 7 pound 15 ounce baby girl home from the hospital. 

Now she's a 70 pound big girl with such a gentle joyful heart. I am extremely blessed to be her mother, but also blessed to get to spend my days with this awesome child. 

We celebrated her birthday with a small party this past weekend. I made her an Ever After High Raven cake. That's her favorite. Madeline Hatter is mine. 

She got lots of great presents. Here is a picture of her with her new bike and shooting her pink BB gun. 

We started the day with a birthday waffle and sang happy birthday to our sweet girl. 

She wanted to go to Monkey Joe's, so they spent the morning jumping, climbing and sliding down inflatables and playing games.

Meme and Papaw treated us to lunch at Friendly's and they ended the day getting to spend the afternoon and evening playing with their favorite cousins. It's been a very wonderful birthday. 

Kristen loves drawing, painting and just being creative. She is always doing little crafts with Dallas. She loves to pretend that she is the teacher with Dallas and Lauren as her students. She loves riding her bike and being outside. She loves playing Barbies and watching Jessie and K C Undercover. She is still obsessed with stuffed animals. Her favorite subject in school is reading and science. Her favorite foods are chicken (on the grill), tacos, yogurt, fruit and popcorn. She is such a helper and is always doing little things to try to make my day go smoother. 

She doesn't like going to bed, peanut butter and potatoes (whose child is she?), wearing jeans or tie up tennis shoes, waking up (yeah..I know), and having to share her bedroom. 

Daughters hold our hands for a little while, but hold our hearts forever.

Happy Birthday Kristen. We love you so very much.