New Years Eve

Fireworks off our back porch.

Christmas Pics

The kids were really looking forward to Christmas morning, maybe because I threatened a hundred times that Santa wasn't coming to our house. They woke me up at 5:30am and I said they had to wait until daylight, sure enough they were back waking me up again at 6:30 (I accepted the fact that yes it would be daylight if is wasn't raining so yes we can get up).

Christmas Eve

We usually make and decorate cookies on Christmas Eve, the kids didn't mention it this year so I decided we would try something new. I got plain silver ornaments, because I couldn't find clear ones and we painted them. The kids were each going to do 2 and Timmy and I would each get one. Unfortunately Tiffany dropped hers on the floor and broke it so I gave her mine to paint.

Tiffany's Big Smile

Tyler got his gameboy from Grandma Diane yesterday for his birthday. Tiffany was supposed to get her gameboy for Christmas from Grandma Diane.... She was so upset that Tyler got one yesterday and then that the boys received their Christmas cards that we decided to give her the gameboy early. Her huge smile tells it all....

Tyler's Birthday Party

Tyler turned 11 today! We had a small family party and he was very happy.

Tyler loves his new bike

Tyler was very excited about the gameboy from Grandma

Tyler's motorcycle cake

His cake had candles that kept relighting, he loved it and Tiffany thought it was the funniest thing ever!!

Blaine Christmas Parade

Tiffany's Girl Scout Troop participated in the Blaine Christmas Parade today. She had a wonderful time riding on the float and throwing candy out to people.

One of the floats that went by threw out stuffed animals and Santa hats, Tiffany has been wanting a Santa hat so Matthew picked one up for her and she wore it the rest of the day!

Christmas Decorating

Tiffany and Tyler decorated the Christmas Tree. I sat back and thought "its ok I will fix it when they are in bed" They kept putting ornaments so close together, but they were having fun!

Here is Tiffany hanging up her baby first christmas ornament

Tyler put his on the tree too

Then they put together the train

Tiffanys 8th Birthday Party

Tiffany's birthday party. The girls had a lot of fun!!

Pin the banana on the Littlest Petshop Monkey.

They started the afternoon playing outside.

Everyone had a cupcake with a lit candle, I said OK on three everyone blow out their candle... One, (Tiffany blew hers out and thought it was hysterical)

Then Dana dunked her face into her cupcake!

Pop Up Camping

A few weeks ago we bought a older pop up camper that we found on craigslist. We had to wait until we were able to get a hitch put on the blazer before we could go camping. Finally the first weekend in October everything fell into place!! Timmy had the weekend off and the kids were out of school on the Friday. We packed up everything and headed to Greenlee Campground MaySprings in Rutledge about 20 miles from our house. Everyone was very excited!!

When we arrived at the campsite it was raining very lightly, but the weather said it wouldn't last long. We started turning the crank to put up the camper, when it was about a quarter of the way up it slammed back down!! OH no what happened was all we could think of! Well it seemed that the crank was striped and we weren't going to be able to lift the camper, we will have to head home! Timmy suggested that we try to lift it manually and he and TJ got inside and lifted the roof up from the inside (fortunately it is not very heavy). It worked and we were able to lock it in place and enjoy our trip.

The kids fished and played football. Tyler bought his telescope and showed us all the moon at night. It was a beautiful big full moon!

TJ was the only one who caught a fish! We threw it back after its photo shoot.

Ballinger Farm Field Trip

Tiffany's second grade class went on a fiieldtrip to Ballinger Farm.

Since Tiffany is allergic to the inside of pumpkins the teacher and school nurse wanted me to go, I am really glad I did!!


We drove separately because Grainger County Schools insurance doesn't cover parents to ride on the school bus.... Tiffany's friends were very glad when she arrived even though we were only 2 minutes behind them.

We visited the animals- the baby pigs were ADORABLE!!

They loved the "HillBilly Slide" and "Hamster Wheel" before posing for a class picture.

Everyone then took hayride pulled by tractor to the patch to pick out their own pumpkin.

TN Valley Fair

We took the kids to Tennessee Valley Fair today, it was almost empty since it was a drizzily day.


Tyler's first roller coaster ride: He said he liked it but didn't want to do it again!

Busy Day

The boys have both been sick for past couple of days, TJ didn't have a fever this morning so I sent him to school. At 9am I get a phone call to come pick him up and amazingly when he got home he was fine! So he will definately be going to school tomorrow!!

It was Dana's 40th birthday so the girls went out to dinner. I left Tiffany in "charge" to make sure both TJ and Tyler stayed in BED!!

While I was gone, Tiffany made a giraffe out of paper plates... It is sooo cute...