Catching Up With More Friends

After we left Gatlinburg I headed over to Knoxville for a few days to visit a some of my friends that still live there. I got to catch up with Patricia, who I used to work with at Nova and a few other friends we had in common. We all went out to eat on Friday night to Altruda's and had a blast just laughing and talking about old times and new times. Saturday I headed over to Tammy's house to spend sometime with her. Her two boys and husband were actually gone for the afternoon and evening so we had a girls night out. Went to see Ghost of Girlfiends Past, cute movie, and then afterwards we headed back to her house cooked some dinner and watch a few more movies and got a chance to relax. It was a fun weekend to see everyone, but it also makes me homesick to be back in Knoxville. Chris and I had so many good times there with our friends Maybe one day God has it in our plans to get back there. The only negative is that I didn't get any pictures while I was there. I had the camera just fogot to get it out for pictures.

Vacation Time

Last week the girls, my mom and dad and I headed up to Gatlinburg TN for a little vacation with the girls. I wanted to take some time while I was in TN to spend with the girls and my parents. On Saturday we left for our vacation but before we headed to Gatlinburg I wanted to take the girls to the zoo in Knoxville. We spend Saturday there and the girls had a great time. Lots of animals were out and it was a beautiful warm, not humid day. The week in Gatlinburg we spent plenty of time swimming. Katie learned how to swim all by herself with her arm floaties on. She is so proud of herself that she can get in and swim without me being in the water with her. Bree started to swim on her own but isn't quit there yet, but I think by the end of the summer she will be. We went into Pigeon Forge several days to let the girls ride some of the rides and Katie got to drive a go cart all by herself. Another big moment for her. Bree's big moment was that she rode the rides at all. Last year you couldn't get her on them and this year you couldn't keep her off of them. On Wedndesday we decided to go up to Ober Gatlinburg, I had not been up there in years so I wanted to see what it was like. Katie and Bree saw the ice rink and wanted to go ice skating. So I laced up my skates and took Katie out first. The first time around was very wobbly for her but after that she got the hang of it. She was skating right with me only holding my hand. It was so awesome to watch her pic up on something so quickly. I think we will have to try it again when winter comes around. Bree tried it out also, but she wanted me to actually skate while holding her. I am not that talented so she tried skating while I held her hands but it didn't last long. She gave it her best shot. We made lots of great memories and had a blast spending time with my family. I will post the pics on picasa there are lots, plus my blog is given me issues on attaching photos. Having problems figuring out why it won't let me.

Weekend with Friends Cont....

After I left Joy's house on Saturday afternoon, I drove down to Chattanooga, TN to see my other good friend Cara. On the drive down to Chattanooga the girls slept the whole way, they were so worn out from swimming that they just crashed, which was good for me because I got a nice peacefully drive. Cara and I have been friends since we lived in SC together. She has two girls Becca and Anna and both of them are the same ages as Katie and Bree. All four of them had a blast hanging out and playing together. Sunday morning we decided since it was going to rain about all day to take the girls to the Children's Museum in downtown area. This museum is so awesome. I just couldn't get over it how nice and clean it was and all of the things for kids to do. There was just so much stuff for them to play with and learn. We hung out there for a few hours to let them play, grab some lunch and then it was time for me to finish the last leg of my trip to my parents house. Even though my visit was super short with Cara and James everytime I see them it is like we just pick up were we last left off. It is always so much fun to had around them and what our silly girls play together.

Katie and Becca jamming out to Hannah Montana

Little Miss Anna....she has so much personality that she just keeps you laughing.

Bree was supposed to be in the pic but she took off running when I took the pic.

Bree getting her turn on the Hannah guitar

Katie and Bree trying out the puppet stage and the CM

Weekend with Friends

On Thursday I packed up girls and I and we headed out for a long drive to my mom and dads, but along the way I stopped to see some of my good friends. First stop was to see my best friend Joy, she lives in Franklin TN which was a 10 hours drive for us, but we made it in one piece and I still had my sanity. :) Joy has a litte girl named Chandler and she is few months younger than Bree so the girls had a great time playing together and I enjoyed catching up with my friend. We don't get to see each other very often so it is nice when we get to visit. While we were there we took the girls out to do a few things. Friday we went over to a place called Jump Zone, they have tons of indoor inflatables, and then after good afternoon naps we all headed out to Chuck E Cheese to play some games and eat some pizza. Saturday before we left we headed to their neighborhood pool, or should I same mini water park to let the girls play. This pools is so amazing and has lots of great things for kids. It was just thing thing to wear out Katie and Bree so they would sleep in the car when we left Satruday afternoon. As we were getting ready to leave Joy and Chandler gave the girls a little traveling gift. It had lots great things to keep them occupied in the car as we continued our trip to Kingsport. Thanks Joy and Chandler! Below are a few pics of the our time with Joy and ChaCha.

The girls on our way to Jump Zone....they were jamming to Veggie Tales songs.

Katie and Bree at the Cheese on Friday night.

Joy and Chandler enjoying a ride together.

All the girls playing so nicely together

Time to play in so water...at the pool on Saturday

Rooster Days

Every year in our town the main street area has a festival called Rooster Days. They have rides, petting zoo, parade, fun, games, etc. We took the girls last year and they loved it so we thought we would go again this year. This year Katie was actually tall enough to ride her rides by herself, so she thought she was such a big girl being able to go the rides without mommy or daddy. Well, one ride is a slide and you have to climb about 12 flights of stairs to get to the top of the slide and then you go down. Last year she loved this ride and between Chris and I we rode it with her many times. This year she wanted to go up on her own. I was terrified to let her do it, but daddy said she would be okay and Katie was so determined to do it on her own. I let her go and up she sent went to the top without any hesitation. She also came down without any problems. I was afraid she would get to the top and see how far down it was and wouldn't slide down but she proved me wrong. When she came down she had the biggest smile on her face and was so proud that she just did that. We were proud of her also. This year she was finally big enough to ride the kids roller coaster, so on she went and at first she had a smile on her face but by the second time around on the ride she was covering her eyes. She didn't like the one part of the ride were it tilted you a little , she said she felt like she was going to fall out. Bree was still our conservative rider but sticking with her few rides the carousel and the cho cho train. She was content with those two rides and wanted nothing else to do with the others. She thought she would ride some cars with Katie but changed her mind once we put her on them. The girls had fun and so did we. Here are a few pics from the day.

Katie and Bree enjoying good ole carnival food....yummy corndog.

This is the big slide Katie climb to the top and came down all by herself

Down she goes....weeeeee.....I almost missed her in the picture she was coming down so fast

The girls on a ride together....this was as far as Bree went. Before the ride started she wanted off.

Birdies In The Grill

On Friday, we finally got a little break from our two week stint of rain, so I thought I would grill out some steaks. I asked Chris to go out and check the grill becaues it had taken a few beating from the Oklahoma wind, plus I had see some birds flying in and out of the back of our grill so I figured they had made a little home in there. Well, when he opened the grill the birdies didn't just make a home they made a dang mansion in our grill. As you can see below the entire inside of our grill is their nest. We were going to move it out then we noticed four little eggs in the nest, so the animal lovers Chris and I are we didn't touch the nest because we didn't want the mommy and daddy not to come back. So as for now, the birds have rented our grill for their living space. Hopefully, soon the baby birdies will be here and we can have our grill back, but until then I guess it is inside grilling for us. Kaite is so excited about see the baby birds hatch so hopefully we can sneek a peek at them when the arrive.

Easter Weekend Festivities

Saturday we took the girls to a community Easter Egg Hunt that is at the elementary school up the road from us. Last year Chris took Katie to this same hunt and it was totally disorganized and all the big kids pretty much took all of the eggs so she only came home with 3 or 4 eggs. This year it was much better. They had the hunt organized by age group so that each kid had more of a chance to find eggs. They had lots of eggs and asked that each kid only take 30 eggs. I thought good grief that is a lot of eggs. The girls were excited because they go to fill up their baskets with so many eggs. Saturday was the nicest day of the weekend. It was sunny, windy and in the 60's. So it was a beautiful day to be outside and enjoy some sunshine.

Saturday evening we had our friends Jeremy and Stefanie over for dinner they have a boy, Breaden, Katie's age and a little girl, Lydia, that is a little younger then Bree. The kids played, while the adults got to chat and catch up. After dinner my friend Stefanie and I left the kids with the dads and her and I went to see a play at Broken Arrow High School. One of the girls in the play, Jennifer, is a senior and is in my SS class at church so we what to go and support her on the final night of the play. The play was called "How to Succeed at Business...Without Really Trying". It was so amazing.. I felt like I was watching a Broadway play. I had to keep reminding myself the kids were juniors and seniors. It was a fun night out and was so proud of Jennifer for her performance.

Sunday morning, the girls woke up with excitement to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them. They had Tinker Bell baskets with some dress up clothes and candy. Chris and to run off to church early on Sunday because he was Jesus in our church's Easter cantata "He's Alive" so he had to be there early to get ready. He was so nervous about this play, he has never done anything like this before but he did such an awesome job. I was so proud him. The girls saw him in his dress up after the play and needless to say they did not like it at all. I think it was the long hair that they weren't sure of. We had a great day even though it was very cold and pouring rain all day. The girls still wore their Easter dresses, but they weren't being very cooperative when it came to picture time, plus since I was on my own getting the ready for church we were running a little behind because I wanted to get to church to get a good seat for the play. So here are a few pics from the weekend. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend!

Katie at the Easter egg hunt....with a full basket
Bree getting her eggs...she wasn't quick as everyone else so Katie helped her.

Checking out the eggs to see if they won a big prize....60 eggs to open and no big prize but lots of candy.

Easter Bunny hopped by our house Saturday night and left some goodies.

Katie happy about what the Easter Bunny left her and Bree.

Bree checking it out what she got....with her crazy morning hair.

The girls all dressed up in their Easter outfits....best shot I could get with a 4yr old and 2 yr old.

Bree looking too cute in her green dress and piggy tails... I love that she lets me fix her hair.

My big girl Katie, she picked out her Easter outfit this year. Evidently, momma doesn't know what looks good. :)