Dance Party

We were blessed to meet our new nephew (the kids new cousin), baby T from Nebraska over the weekend.  He is such an adorable little guy.  Little J loves babies, so he was enjoying examining his new cousin.

After pizza together, daddy put on some fun music and the children started showing off their moves.

This is Baby T's older sister, cousin L.  She was cracking us up with her dance moves.  

Of course, if you know her mom, I guess you wouldn't expect any thing less.

Busy Bee wasn't afraid to jump right in and dance.

All the children were having quite the fun time together.

More moves from Cousin L!

Big J showing his creativity with dancing:

For the longest while the children were dancing and the

adults were sitting and watching.  But, this Grandpa

couldn't take it any longer.  He joined the children showing off 

some funky Grandpa moves!

Once Grandma saw adults were allowed, 

she joined right in too!

It was a fun evening!

New Floors = New Fun

We had new wood floors put into some of our rooms in our first floor this past week.  

With new, slippery floors, comes a new way to have fun!!

Field Trip

We went on a field trip earlier this week to a nature center about 45 minutes away. 

 The children had a lot of fun.

They got to go on a nature hike with a guide.

They listened to a short presentation and

then watched a video.

Finally they walked through a museum.

The Views

The views from our cabin were amazing. 

 It was so wonderful to wake up to these views every morning.

Little J

Little J stayed at Uncle and Aunt Fell's home!  Yes, they had the busy one year old!  Little J might have shook up the Fell home a little bit.  Let's just say, the Fell children don't normally get up until close to 7am and eat breakfast around 8am.  Little J had everyone going by 5:15am some mornings and was heading to his high chair for breakfast by 6am.  The Fell children are used to having hugs and snuggles from their mom without much competition - Little J did NOT like if any child was in Aunt Fell's lap.  The minute one of her children would crawl up, he would come over and start crying and trying to pull the child out. 

What can I say - He loves his Aunt Fell (and he likes having snuggles).

Little J helping his Aunt do her laundry

(all that laundry might have been nicely folded on the table

just moments before this picture was taken):

Going for a ride:

Playing at the park with Big Brother:

At the library:

Going for a ride in the wagon

(notice the Pepsi he is holding -

Grammie was on the walk with him)

Over visiting Grammie and Big Sister.

Little J did a wonderful job with the Fell's - despite

his early morning hours and need for constant snuggles.

He is a busy little guy, and we really appreciate his 

Aunt and Uncle and cousins for taking care

of him and keeping him safe and happy while

we were gone!

Busy Bee

Busy Bee spent some time at both her Aunt's houses here in town - but she mainly stayed at Grandpa and Grandma's.  The first couple days while Grandma worked, she went over to Aunt Fell's.  You may had seen previously on the Blog how she loves Clifford at Aunt Fell's house.  So, she took Clifford for a walk.

She slept every night at Grandpa and Grandma's.  

So Grandma had her looking all beautiful in the mornings.

And then Grandma too her shopping.

She came home with new Minnie Mouse PJ's and

this new dress:

And Grandma took her out for

ice cream!

Busy Bee wasn't sure about us leaving,

but once she saw Grandma coming to pick her 

up, she couldn't wait to go.  She had a lot of fun

and had stories to tell us when we got home.

Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa for

spending this time with our sweet little girl.

Purple Girl

Purple Girl got to stay at our home with Grammie. 

 She was so excited to have this special time with her Grammie.

She went shopping.

                                         

She put on her fancy scarf and glasses and went cruising in Grammie's Purple car.

                                              

She enjoyed playing Grammie's I-Pod.

She spent some time with Little J (Little J stayed at Aunt Fell's - so sometimes they came over to visit).

                                  

And she even slept!  For those of you who know Purple Girl - she doesn't like to go to bed.  However, I think Grammie wore her out enough every day that she went to bed pretty easily.  She got to sleep on the floor next to Grammie - so that was an extra treat as well.

Purple Girl didn't want Grammie to leave.  She

had so much.  Thank you Grammie for spending this 

special time with our little girl.

What were the Kids Up to? - Big J

Big J was blessed to stay at our friend's house here in town.  They have a son who is just a year younger than Big J - they are best friends.  They also have 4 and 1 year daughters.  Big J kept very busy and had a lot of fun.

He received special snuggles from their one year old.

He had picnic lunches.

He enjoyed a fun obstacle course in the backyard.

He enjoyed special treats. 

He met up with his little brother one morning

at a park.

And he enjoyed some hiking of his own.

Needless to say Big J had fun.  I think

he missed us - we missed him.  But he sure had

fun and made some wonderful memories!

Thank you friends for keeping our son and loving

him like one of yours.  

Trip Highlights

In case you didn't get a chance to view the past few blog post, 

I thought I would give a quick overview of the trip with the highlights.

White Water Rafting:

Cruising around and seeing the sights: 

And zip lining:

And now for the unseen photos here you go...

Yes, we are expecting!  We are excited - I am only six weeks along today,

so we have a ways to go.  This puts me due sometime in February.  

Back in  February (around our 10 Year Anniversary), I had started to 

make Nathan a video with pictures from the past 10 years.  Since it took

me longer than I thought to make the video, I saved it until the trip to show him. 

He had no idea, so I was able to surprise him with this news while on our trip

with the picture of Little J above at the end of the video.

All praise and glory to God for another blessing.  

We just can't thank HIM enough!

Day 4 of Trip

On Day 4 we headed out for another hike to a waterfall.

This was only a 3 mile round trip hike.

This waterfall was neat because you could walk

behind it.

After hiking to this falls, 

we then walked around Gatlinburg.

My husband thought he was funny

taking this picture with the bunny ears on my head.

More funny pictures :) 

Later that evening we headed out for dinner.

This was the cabin we stayed at.