One More Photo....

The boys joined me for a photo shoot for a friend in the Battlefield last weekend. I got one half way decent image of them. They thought this cabin behind them was a jail, haha.

From Snow to Short Sleeves

It was warm yesterday when I picked the kids up from school, so we decided to ditch the housework and head to the park! It was pretty much the most perfect day. It was one of those days where I was able to look past the busy-ness of everyday life and realize how lucky I am to be a mom to these boys. We walked, we blew bubbles, we climbed on the bridge, we ran in circles, we walked more and blew more bubbles...we threw rocks and sticks in the river, we rolled down hills, we climbed on every statue we could. Just perfect.

Snow Again!

Well this time it snowed good! We had 4-5 inches and the kids LOVED it! The first evening it was wet and cold, but the next morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. It was absolutely beautiful!

Before the roads got bad on day 1 of snow, Brent stayed with the kids and I went out and did a few photos.

Here are a few!

The Times Free Press shared one of my photos, which was very exciting for me! It had 1321 likes and 100 shares :)

I didn't really take a lot of photos of the kids this time, but I did take some video! Enjoy!

Weekend Road Trip!

Thursday, I was dreaming of taking the kids somewhere fun for a weekend, when I ran across a special to Wilderness in the Smokies. The only catch is we had to go that day! Brent was at work helping them catch up from being closed from the snow, so I called him up and he agreed to go!

I highly recommend this place, especially with toddlers and elementary school aged kids. There were only 4 big slides. Logan was big enough to ride with us on 3 of them and Nate could ride with us on 1 of them. They had 2 kiddie areas, one for smaller babies and one larger one for toddlers/preschoolers. They also had an indoor/outdoor hot tub and a wave pool. Kids eat free at their restaurants and they also gave us a free ticket to Ripley's Aquarium. Friday morning we spent at the waterpark. The kids were in love. Nate conquered his fear of slides and even went down an enclosed water slide by himself, stuck his head in a waterfall (boy has serious issues with water, especially on his face/head), and floated with a lifejacket, where he couldn't touch, without holding onto one of us. Nate even went down the big water slide with us. It was one where we could all ride in the same float, so Brent and I took turns going down with Logan and Nate while the other sat and played with Graham in the kiddie section. There were no lines and it wasn't crowded at all. Of course the outdoor waterparks were closed, so I imagine it's way more crowded in the Summer when they are open. Friday evening we went to play mini golf on their indoor course. I thought Logan would enjoy it, but it was pretty much a disaster, haha. Then Brent and Logan rock climbed and we played a few arcade games.

Nate conquered another fear that evening, by approaching, touching and talking to the resort mascot. He is usually afraid of anything in costume. He's beginning to be such a big boy.

Later that evening we went out to dinner and went to the boot outlet, where cowboy boots are buy 1 get 2 free. We all got a pair of boots and I got Elsie a pink pair for her birthday!

The next morning we ate breakfast, checked out and headed to Gatlinburg to use our free ticket to the Aquarium before we went home. The kids loved the aquarium. We forgot our stroller, but it wasn't crowded and Graham did great without it.

After the aquarium we got lunch, stopped by the candy shop and headed home. 

This weekend was so much fun. I hope we can do more weekends like this soon!

SNOW!

2 inches shut down the city! Last Tuesday was crazy. Took the kids to school as usual. There were a few flurries, but according to the news, that was all it was suppose to do. I had intended on running by the bank after school drop off, but forgot the check, so I went home to get it and head back out to the bank. By the time I got back to the subdivision the entrance was a little slippery. I decided to get the check, run to the bank and then go ahead and get the kids from school, just in case. It was the craziest thing. Everytime I've seen it snow, it's never laid on the road before the grass. The roads were always the last to go...I guess because usually when it snows, the ground hasn't been frozen for days, like it had been this time....so the roads are warmer. By the time I got to Gunbarrel to the bank, I was terrified. No one was prepared for this. The county salts the roads when ice is predicted, schools close when snow is in the forecast, but this time there was no prep. So it was chaos out there. The interstate was the clearest road. Gunbarrel was going 5 mph. I made it out of the bank at the same time both kids teachers were texting me to let me know they were closing and to come ASAP. What was normally less than a 10 min trip from the mall area to Ooltewah, took about 30 minutes...which turned out to be nothing compared to everyone else's trip. So I got the kids at 11 and headed for home. Every road was going about 5-10 mph. It took me over an hour to get to our subdivision....where I found THIS!!

That's the entrance to my subdivision. The cars are the top had slid and were blocking the entrance. The other cars were other residents who had stopped to help or attempted to go between the others and got stuck too. There are 2 other entrances to the subdivision, but they are steeper than this hill. One didn't have as much snow on it, so I attempted it and slid down backwards even with my wheels spinning the other direction. So I went to the gas station to park while I tried to get ahold of Brent to figure out options. We decided that I could either go to Mom's, but I didn't really want to chance driving out there, get a hotel room in Ooltewah, or park and walk home (with the 3 boys, who were not dressed for snow). I drove down the main road one more time to see if anything had been done. The main road had been salted/sanded but not the entrances to the subdivisions. I stopped and asked one of the men trying to direct traffic and asked what residents were doing. He told me they were parking at the next subdivision down and walking. I decided that's what we would do too. Of course as soon as we got out of the car, Graham face-planted and is now frozen, so I have to carry him. I happen to have my newborn props in the back of the car, so I grabbed a blanket and wrapped him up and we headed up the hill. Remember where I said the other entrances were steeper than the first? Yeah, we had to go up the steepest of them to stay out of the way of cars. A nice man met me at the main road where all the traffic was and helped me get all 3 boys across and he blocked any cars from attempting the hill so they wouldn't slide into us. I saw him later taking people home on a 4-wheeler. If I knew who he was, I'd definitely bake him cookies or something. That was so nice of him. I thought I was going to die carrying Graham up the hill, haha. We cut through some yards and made it to the road that our subdivision is on and down and up one more hill to home. The big kids did great and didn't complain at all. There were several neighborhood men out with ice melting spread and shovels, trying to clear the entrance. I guess they were successful because a few hours later, when Brent got home, they had got the cars out and Brent was able to make it up the hill and home in the car and he walked back to my car and was able to get it home as well. Whew. What an ordeal. I left the kids school at 11, I didn't walk in the door until 2:00. It's usually 20 minutes from home to school.

The next day, Brent's work was delayed until 1:00. He was going to leave around 11 to have lots of extra time to get there. So we headed out soon after the boys got up to play in the snow. It takes forever to get them all layered up and out the door, plus finding gloves for everyone is near impossible. Graham didn't like the snow too much. His gloves prevented him from touching the snow, which made him really mad. I turned around and noticed him going up the back deck steps. As soon as I said "don't climb up there, you'll fall" he goes tumbling down. He hit is nose/face HARD on one step. Blood everywhere! None of the kids have ever really had a  bad nose bleed, so this was new to me. I know noses can bleed a lot, but I was shoked! I was running into his mouth and down his throat, he was spitting it back up. Finally it stops. There's not really any bruising or anything from it, but everything kind of went down from there. Nate decided he was cold, Graham didn't want to go back out, so we all came in to thaw.

Brent got word that work was cancelled for the rest of the day so we took a long nap and then went back out to sled some more! Our neighbors have an awesome sled they let us borrow and it seriously flies!

Graham :)

Christmas Pics!

 Christmas Eve...getting their Christmas PJs. 

 The only one that would let me take his picture.

 Santa! Wii, train sets (wrapped), superheroes, transformers, movies, flashlight pals, etc.

 Flashlight pal.

 Scary Monsters, Inc!

 Jake the Pirate, definitely a favorite.

 Train set.

 Another train set.

 Learning the Wii.