First Trip to Dollywood of the Season

Last Friday and Saturday were spent in Dollywood. We love to go to Dollywood, because there is a great variety of rides for all of us. The tulips and trees were beautiful through-out the park.

A newer ride that all of us could ride together is called River Battle. Now, I don't like to get wet but I was talked into riding this because all of this could ride together. I didn't get too wet, but there was a man standing on the side with a water gun pointed directly at me. The kids loved it! It was nice to all ride together...

Here is Faith, after the ride, aiming a water gun at another family.

The other rides that we could ride together were, Blazing Fury, which Faith did not like. The whole time she was crying and saying - "I want to get off, I want to get off" Hannah Grace jumped off the ride saying - "That was awesome, can we do that again?"

The other ride was, Mountain Slidewinder. After the longgggg walk to the top they made the five of us step on a scale to make sure we didn't go over the weight limit for one boat. Thankfully we didn't got over the limit and it was a fun ride for all of us.

One of Samuel's favorite rides is Tennessee Tornado. You can't see Samuel, but Travis is waving as they take off.

Here they are going up-side-down.

And, here they are coming around one of the loops. You can see they close the front of the picture, Travis has on a orange Clemson shirt one.

Another one of Samuel's favorite rides is Thumderhead. I road it first with Samuel and then on Saturday morning, Travis road it with him. It is a great roller coaster!

While Samuel was riding rides, the girls were able to play at Lil' Loggers' Landing.

Our last ride for our trip to Dollywood was Faith's pick, the Village Carousel.

Thanks again to Grammy and Big Daddy for our Christmas gift and we look forward to using it again soon.

I will do another post with pictures from the rest of the week-end.

Holiday Tour

Last week-end, the five of us spent the week-end in Pigeon Forge and we had a great time together. On Friday, we went to Dollywood and then on Saturday we met up with Popeye and Mammy and Nannie Ray for a picnic lunch. But before I get into that, since I didn't get a Friday Family Funny posted yesterday, I will start with that.

We left for Pigeon Forge after Samuel got out of school and headed up I- 40. We got to about the TN line and traffic STOPPED. We found out that there was construction up the road, but we did not know how far up. If you have ever traveled that way, you know that on that stretch of road there are no exits. About 10 minutes into the traffic, Faith starting saying she need to go to the bathroom and then about every ten minutes she was reminding us that she needed to use the bathroom. After about 40 minutes she was crying that she need to go the bathroom. There was a Holiday Tour bus that was traveling along the road with us. Faith was now crying hard...

So, I called the number on the back of the bus and asked the sweet little teenage girl who answered the phone the situation and asked if we went up to the bus, was the driver allowed to open to door for me and a four year old that was about the pee all over herself. There was a long silence on the other end of the phone and then she said...please hold. As someone came back to the line, I could hear tons of laughing on the other end. I again explained to the situation to the lady on the other end and she told me that Mr. Blanton was driving the bus headed to Gatlinburg and he would be happy to open the door for a little girl. She did tell me this was the first time she had ever had this question, but was happy to be able to help us.

In the end, we did not have to ask Mr. Blanton to open the door traffic starting moving and we stopped at the first exit we found, which did not have anywhere to use the bathroom - but we made it work.

Pictures from the week-end coming...

Happy Resurrection Day 2008

We hope that everyone has had a wonderful Easter. We had a great family week-end this past week-end in Pigeon Forge and then a great service at church this morning and a wonderful lunch with family this afternoon - and even great naps for everyone after hunting eggs.

Faith said it all this morning as we were opening our last Resurrection Egg - She asked "Is it Easter" and we said yes and she begin jumping up and down and yelling "He Arose! He Arose! He Arose!"

Happy Resurrection Day!

Another Win For #12

Samuel , or as he is known at church Sam, would like to thank his sponsor and crewchief, Granddaddy and the entire team at Penske Engines for helping him with such a great car that took him to first place in speed and second place in design at the 3rd Annual Awana Derby on Saturday.

Sam attributes his win to Jesus, who he learns about each week in Awana, a great looking car, his fans and the hours that the car spent on the treadmill on Friday night.

Sam with the winning car and trophies

Sam and his crewchief and sponser, Granddaddy after the race

In other Awana Derby racing, ribbons of participation in the "Hot Wheels" race were given to Hannah Grace and Faith .

At one point during the day, it was sister against sister with the younger taking the win. But, in the end each sister could not pull out a final win.

Fun was had by all who attended the race. Samuel , Hannah Grace, and Faith all loving wished their Daddy could have been there in the pits and missed him, but their thoughts were with him.

Friday Family Funnies - My Silly Kids

I took the kids to take a few pictures yesterday in their Easter Outfits. As I was leaving and all three kids were crying, I figured out it wasn't the greatest idea after a long day at school for each of them, but I did get some great pictures and I will share those later, but today I wan't to share some silly pictures.

Hannah Grace kept scrunching her nose because of the sun in her eyes, so they all decided to scrunch their noses.

The kids were feeding the ducks and Faith got a little hungry and had a little for herself!

Have a great week-end!

Travis was gone to his first training session with Upward this past week-end. The kids and I made the best of him being gone.

I headed back to my "sewing corner" and made these for the girls:

On Saturday we were treated to a morning at Gattiland; we all had a great time!

I didn't feel too sorry for Travis while he was gone, here he is visiting The Alamo:

Thanks to those who prayed for us, by God's grace we made it and had as much fun as we could without Daddy!

Friday Family Funnies - Life Without Faith

Those who know her, know that Faith is our funny little girl. She doesn't try to be funny, she just is; she never misses a beat.

The other day I had the vent down in the house changing the air filter and vaccuming around it. Faith came along and stopped and look and said:

"I don't want to fall down there, then you wouldn't have a Faith and what would you do?"

And then she just walked away.

Funny, funny little girl! I don't know what I would do without a Faith - not laugh as much I guess!

Have a great week-end!

Thing 1

Today was Hannah Grace's day to be the line leader and to take snack to school. They are celebrating Dr. Sesus' birthday so we made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cookies for her class. Here she is ready to go share them.

We had a great week-end this past week-end. Aunt Kendra come up to visit and go to the kids Upward game and she and I went to paint pottery after the game. It was so much fun - although it took us longer to pick out what we were going to paint as it did for us to paint. I will share the finished project with you when I go pick them up.

I still have lots of Upward picture to share with you, hopefully this week...

Friday Family Funnies - Hidden Eggs

Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs are my favorite candy! But, everyone in my family loves them too; so yesterday I went to the grocery store before work and I bought a pack. I took them into work and "hid" them in my desk. Shhh...this is our secret, don't tell my kids!

Anyway, during the day when I was enjoying one of the eggs as my morning snack, I remembered that hiding Peanut Butter Eggs is not something new. I remember Mama hiding them in the van around Easter time when we were growing up. Remember Kendra, we would find Peanut Butter Eggs in the glove-compartment of the van.

I thought is was funny that what my Mom used to do, I am now doing without even thinking about it.

Now, Mama, don't deny it...

Good Morning!

Well, we are all where we are suppose to be this morning. Everyone seems to be feeling better for now and we are praising God for that. We had a good restful week-end. I have a few picture to share and hope that do that tomorrow, but for now I want to share this cool picture of Memama and Granddaddy with the Daytona 500 trophy. We are praying for another win today if the race in California ever gets to start and finish...

Thanks for your prayers!!!!

Not Really A Funny Week

Our house has not really been a funny house this past week, it pretty much has been a sick house. Last Saturday, I came down with flu and Hannah Grace was sick on Sunday and Monday. I returned to the land of the living long enough to get a call from Hannah Grace's school that she was not feeling well and I needed to come get her. The sickness continued when Travis came home from work early coughing, snezzing and a sore throat. He is back at work this morning, but I have the girl's with me because Aunt Amanda was in the doctor's office yesterday. So I don't have anything funny to share - although if I step back, my life is pretty funny right now. I pray next week is better.

We hope you are your families are well and that you have a great week-end!

**By the way, Samuel and Faith have been spared the sickness for now - Praise the Lord!

Granddaddy's Motor

Granddaddy's motor won!

We want to tell Granddaddy and Memama congratulations for winning the Daytona 500. It was a pretty exciting evening at our house on the last few laps. Hannah Grace and I are sick with the flu, but the excitment of the last lap, brought me off the couch, for a few moments.

Friday Family Funnies - Big Hand

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. The five us celebrated together last night eating Mexican - a favorite of the whole family.

The kids each got a small gift yesterday; the girls each got a soft-ball glove and ball and Samuel got the new Dale Jr. race cars. Last night we were talking with Hannah Grace and how she need to call Jaba and tell him about her gift. She started looking around the living room and said - "Daddy get up, your sitting on my big hand!"

We hope you have a great week-end!

Friday Family Blessings

Travis and I both said that this morning instead of our Friday Family Funny we need to give praise and glory to our Lord for the blessings he has given us over the past couple of days.

Tuesday night at Upward we were given order forms for pictures that will be taken tomorrow. This week is what we call a "non-pay week" which means that I only got paid this week and I wasn't sure how we were going to afford pictures for three kids on Saturday. Travis called Wednesday morning and said, "The Lord is good, He has provided our yearly bonus this morning and I wanted to let you know so you wouldn't worry about the pictures on Saturday." So that was our first blessing.

With that bonus we were also able to get a new living room suit - that was much needed. We are all very excited about new couch and love seat!

I will tell you a funny story about putting the couch together. Once the couch was delievered, Travis had to go back to work for a meeting and I was left with the old couch in the garage and the new set on it's side, without feet, in the living room. So, I decided, I could put the feet on - my Dad and Step-Dad are both very "handy men" and I was by their sides growing up. I was using the electric screwdriver to put the screws in each of the feet. After I put the first screw in, with a big smile on his face Samuel said - "Mommy you are your Daddy's daughter - you can use tools!"

So, we are very thankful for our new couch and loveseat and tables!

Our second and third blessings came this morning.

One of the tires on the van has seemed to be slowly leaking during the week, but we couldn't fine anything in the tire, so we just kept putting air in it and checking it. On the way out the door this morning, Samuel informed me that he needed make-up sponges for drama class today and we were rushing out the door and yep - a flat tire on the van. We jumped in the car - which had NO gas - and headed to the store to get make-up sponges and a gas card. As we were heading back to the car, a van stopped to let us cross the parking lot. In that van was our neighbors (we pick each other's kids up sometimes). I asked her if she could take Samuel to school and told her that the Lord has sent her our way.

As I was heading back to the house, Travis was pulling out of the neighborhood to see if the tire store up the road was open yet. I followed him to the tire store to find that they didn't open until 9am - it was 7:30am. We were getting ready to put fix-a-flat in the tire and what did the Lord send? He sent a man who works at the store who was coming in early! Praise the Lord!

By this time we had found a screw in the tire. He was able to patch the tire right then and only charged us $10.

So today we are thanking God for the blessings He has sent our way in the forms of meeting financial needs, neighbors and a man at a tire store!

The Greatest Show On Earth

I know, three post in one day...I'm at home today and just sitting here listening and watching the girls sing and dance in their princess outfits. I had to take Faith to the doctor yesterday and she has strep throat and I had to take Hannah Grace for her five-year-old well check-up this morning. Faith is feeling much better and Hannah Grace's check-up was fine. I'm just using this time to play catch-up; I don't know when I will have the time to post again.

This past Saturday night we went to "The Greatest Show On Earth" - the circus. I'm not sure it is the Greatest Show On Earth, but it was fun! It is a pretty well known fact that my tall, handsome, manly-man is not too fond of clowns - so that made it a pretty good "show"! At one point when a group of clowns came out on the floor he leaned over to me and said, "I think that might be the scariest thing I've ever seen!"

We had a great time. It was nice to do something that all three kids enjoyed. So much of the time now days, it is either something the girls want to do or something that Samuel wants to do; so it was nice that all three of them enjoyed it, not to mention, Mom and Dad too!

Upward Basketball and Cheerleading - So Far...

Here are my photo's of the Upward Basketball and Cheerleading year so far, enjoy!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

The Lord Has Done Great Things!

I am doing Beth Moore's new Bible Study, Stepping Up, and last week we studied Psalm 126; verse 3 says, "The Lord had done great things for us; we were joyful" (HCSB). The Message says, "God was wonderful to us; we are one happy people."

We were asked to share something wonderful and great things that God has done for us. I want to take this chance to share something great and wonderful that God did for us this past week-end.

You know that we have been attending New Prospect Baptist Chruch and have been able to jump right into the ministries there and are kids are enjoying Awana and Sunday School and we are able to play Upward there.

This past Friday evening, we had the music minister, his wife and their three kids over for supper. From the very beginning we all "hit it off". Their oldest son is 10 years old (the same as Samuel) and they have twin boys that are four. Samuel and their oldest son have become great friends and our girls love playing with their twins.

After supper Samuel and Micheal went into Samuel's room and we didn't know they were in the house and we were graced by a "show" by the other four kids. As we sat and watch them I was "one happy person". I have great childhood memories of Steven, Miranda, Amy, Laura, Kendra, Tara and I putting on shows for our parents - we charged them a penny each to come. I have desired that for my children. It was a great night and I praise God that He led us to a church where our children are happy and have such great fun and friends.

Friday Family Funnies - Cute Upward Kids

Not much funny going on in our house this week. Hannah Grace has not felt well again this week. She goes for a "well" check-up on Tuesday, so please pray that we can figure out what is going on with her. Travis is preparing to start traveling in about month with work. Samuel is busy with school work, he had two projects due this week. Faith is as spunky as ever. I have been fighting a cold for about two weeks and my work load at the church has doubled. So as you can tell, we are a busy family.

We have been having fun at Upward on Saturday's and I just wanted to share with you a couple of pictures of my cute kids for today's "funny".

I know the quality of this picture is not good, but I love it!

I can not promise that I will get more pictures posted next week, but I will try my best. Have a great week-end!