Good Ol' Rocky Top (lots of pics)

Oh what a wonderful weekend we had. We loaded up the car and headed to the Smokey Mountains for a long weekend. We were looking forward to enjoying the beauty that is so bountiful up there along with visiting some 'kin folk' (as Judson likes to say). Well, Mother Nature had other things in store. It rained inches upon inches! They even asked that people not come to Neyland Stadium because the streets were flooded. So outdoor beauty was limited to our view from the hotel room. We did get alot of visiting in and that was so much fun. It was the first time my family had been able to meet Ansley. She warmed up to them pretty quickly. (especially the men!)


We did have a few meltdowns. Have you ever stayed in ONE hotel room FOUR days with THREE very young children? The key is to keep moving. Do not stay in the room very long. We hit the mall in Knoxville (the 'K' is silent, so Judson tells me), the outlet mall and Christmas village in Pigeon Forge, along with a few eating establishments. Another key is NOT to go to restaurants where the food takes longer than 10 minutes to arrive at your table. All I can say is we left the hotels in one piece and the restaurants just a little bit messier than we found them.



It was wonderful and we're already thinking about what we'd like to do next time!

Observations after 3 months.

Can you believe it has only been 3 months since Ansley came home? It just hit me today, this child hasn't been with us FOREVER. It sure feels like she has. Her communication has grown geometrically over the last 3 months. Don't get me wrong, she still WHINES. Oh boy, does she whine. But she has gotten better. She is saying alot of words: Momma, DaDa, JuhJuh (Judson), SawSaw, bye, hello, wah(water), MeMe (cat), eat, no, bad. She is sleeping thru the nite with minimal waking. She still bites Sawyer every once in a while but she knows that is "BAD". She also knows what timeout means. She loves to GO, just like her mommy. She is very observant. She loves to put puzzles together. She loves music. She loves shoes. She is a little gymnast. She likes to play games: "Where's Ansley?" and "Ring around the Rosies". And she follows Judson around like a little puppy. What a perfect addition to our family!

This Week's Pictures

I had so much fun adding pictures to the collage last week, I decided to do it again for this week. Couple of things: One, Sawyer has a black eye because he fell while trying to cruise aroung the kitchen table. Two, Ansley LOVES music and LOVES to dance. Three, Ansley loves hiding underneath the bed! Four, Judson has a new Big Boy bike, hence the helmet.

Enjoy!!

Odds and Ends

This is just a collage of pics I've taken the last couple of days. EXPLANATION: Ansley is underneath the megasaucer in the middle right pic. While underneath the megasaucer, she was using the seat like a periscope. Thus the picture in the top right.

Judson's Birthday

Let me just take this opportunity to brag on my oldest son. His #4 birthday is coming up. And his Nana and Pop were in town and we decided to celebrate. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. His answer was " His mommy and a cake". Then I asked would he want a store bought cake or would he like to make a cake. He decided he wanted to make a train cake. So we spent a few hours making and decorating the cake. He even cracked the eggs (including some shells) and ran the mixer.
Then we opened presents. I promise you he would have been happy with any 'one' of these gifts. After opening each one, he'd want to play with it. He didn't want to move on to the other gifts. I've seen so many kids just mow thru packages and when the packages were all opened, they'd just say, "Are there any more". Not this kid. He was content just playing with the one gift he was opening. We had to coax him to get him to open the rest of the presents. Gosh, I hope he never changes.

He is an awesome little boy and growing into quite a young man!!!!!