Calling Knoxville Home

Mom took this picture of our new home; she's not the camera buff. The right side of the house isn't showing, but it's just the other garage door. Anyways, it was tough finding a one story home around here. Most of the homes we saw were two stories. We're slowly getting settled in.

Can't wait to enjoy the swimming pool. It needs a bit cleaning up, and the yard needs some grading and lawn work. It's coming right along though.

Granddaddy and the kids chillin out on the sofa. Usually he has them all riled up cause he's been picking at them. This was just a good quiet moment to take a photo.

Decorating easter eggs for the Holiday with Grandma. It was lots of fun. The next day we had an easter egg hunt, but both cameras had dead batteries, so there won't be pictures of that festive moment.

End of Year Update

The ending of 2008 was bitter sweet. We'd planned a week long trip to Disney World for Thanksgiving; however, with the loss of Tim's job at the end of September we scaled our trip down to a one day visit. We visited with Roger, Paula, and Danielle for Thanksgiving, and then went to Disney the following day. Roger, and Daniel went along too; we were even able to stay in the same complex, and have character dining together too. Although the trip was scaled down, we had a wonderful time.

It's not that often you see these siblings sitting beside each other and smiling. This was a magical moment to say the least. Our character dining was at The Liberty Tree Tavern. We had an all you can eat Thanksgiving feast. The food was wonderful, but most enjoyable were the characters that greeted us through dinner. At first, Aaron wanted no part of this -- but after everyone else got into the action, he followed suit.

What a Christmas family photo? This was as good as it was going to be this year. At least we're all facing forward, and our eyes are open. We had a great time trimming the tree.

All Aaron wanted for Christmas were his two front teeth. He got a Nintendo DS instead. He lost his first tooth, and then the next one came out a couple of days later. The 2nd tooth that came out, already had a permanent tooth coming through. Both permanent teethe are trying to squeeze there way into the small space left open for them. We'll definitely have to save up for braces.

Lauren wanted, and needed a new bike for Christmas. She's been dong very well riding it; however, the weather hasn't allowed us to practice much. We got a couple of bike rides in during Christmas break, but the rain kept us from going as much as we wanted.

We know that 2009 will be great! Keep us in your prayers, and hopefully Tim will find out something definite this week. He's got a really good prospect we're dying to hear about.

New Pets & Summer Fun!

We said goodbye to Sophie! We really hated to give Sophie back; however, we had some issues with her that we couldn't resolve. She was close to being completely house broken, and crate trained, when she bit Aaron in the face. He was trying to pick her up (I was standing right by them), when she growled and bit at his face. Luckily, Aaron's reflexes kicked in, and she only left a long cut, and a small puncture from her teeth. It really could have been worse. To this day we still don't know what went wrong, but coulnd't take the chance of her getting after Lauren, since Lauren was really rough with her. Aaron was the gentle one. We've since gotten a kitten, that was suppose to be indoor only -- he wants to go outside lots, so we let him go in and out. He'll be 6 months in October, and his name is Riley.
Here is a picture of Aaron & Lauren at the Living History Park in downtown North Augusta. We decided we'd check it out; they were hunting butterflies. This picture was taken just before Lauren's big girl haircut (shown above). We didn't stay long because there were no bathroom facilities.

Hope everyone's summer has been great! We're glad school time is approaching, and won't be vacationing until Disney during Thanksgiving week!

Oh Baby!

Our new baby! We may as well have had another child. This little girl is high maintenance. She is now 9 weeks old; the picture was taken at 6 weeks. Her momma is a golden retriever, and we think her daddy was a boxer????????? We are crate training her because we really want to have her as an inside dog that goes out. Yes, I'm looking into puppy kindergarten and obedience training. I told Tim he should have slapped me when I mentioned getting a puppy. Our sweet little Tiger (cat) passed away. He died tragically, and Aaron wasn't getting over it very well. Wish us luck with this, and pray for patience.

Upward basketball started, and Lauren was ready to cheer -- well almost ready. She did really well for the first couple of games, then decided she rather lay on the floor in the middle of cheering. We decided she'd just have a pretty little cheer outfit to play in. She went and just watched the games and was fine with that. Next year we'll try again.

Aaron really enjoyed basketball this year. His team was the Shockers; Mr. Ben and Bro. Phillip were his coaches. He had some really good moves, and shot quite a few baskets. He starts baseball this week. Practice was rained out last night... bummer!

This is our house as we were putting a contract on it Nov. 07.

This is our house after the dormers were repaired, roof replaced, and house painted. Lots more work to do, but loving every minute of being here.

Fall Fun 2007

Halloween time is a fun time for the children. Lauren made a lovely Cinderella. Our neighbor Robyn graciously donated the dress and shoes to us. A little alterations were made for a perfect fit.
Aaron, Beth, and Lauren did their trick or treating at Sweetwater Baptist Church's Fall Festival. Aaron was Obe Wan Kanobe, Beth was a cheerleader, and Lauren was Cinderalla. They got lots of candy and played wonderful games that were Christ centered.
Lauren visted Mrs. B. They made sugar cookies cut out as little and big roosters. They were really yummy! As you can see Mrs. B had just as much fun as Lauren.
Aaron and Lauren helped Daddy fly a kite at his 20 year class reunion picnic. Yes, we're telling our age. I don't know how much Aaron really helped, but he sure had fun posing for pictures. The picnic was held at the Goodyear Plant's golfcourse in Union City, Tennessee.

We'll update again after the new year. Thank goodness Donnelle keeps hers up to date; when I get hers it reminds me to update mine. Enjoy!

Summer Fun

The Breakers, Hilton Head SC. Our first trip as a family to HH and we had a blast. We enjoyed the beach, but the kids really enjoyed the pool the most.


July 1st at Granny's house in Union City TN. Her family reunion is celebrated every year with a 4th of July picnic and swimming. Lauren is enjoying the pool.


Aaron is soaking up some rays at Hilton Head. Like father like son -- we won't show Tim's pic.

Little Charlotte! She's lauren's kitten. We got her the day after we got Aaron's kitten. The children faught over who was going to pet Tiger and he seemed lonely so we decided one more outside cat wouln't hurt anything. Better get them fixed soon though!

Here's adorable Tiger! He's Aaron's kitten. He's always on the prowl and loves to pounce. He's a little timid -- of course wouldn't you be if a toddler kept throwing you into the bushes. We're working on taming Lauren, but it's a work in progress.

Fishing 'n This & That

Aaron's Big Catch - he caught 5 fish. Dad caught the biggest, and mom caught the smallest. Lauren was a really good girl; she practiced casting her little pole. Hers had a rubber fish on the end so she couldn't hook herself or anyone else. These sure fried up nicely; however, I didn't get any of them. Tim and his stepdad devoured them all.
Tim's mom and stepdad visited. This is all of us at Old McDonald's Fish Camp. The food was great and we had a good time visiting.
Lauren is blowing out the candle on her birthday cake. Her party had a Dora the Explorer theme. We had the celebration two weeks early due to Tim's mom visiting. If you ask Lauren how old she is she'll tell you "I'm 3", but then she'll also tell you her birthday is May 10.
Boy did we get lucky with the fingernail polish incident. Lauren was trying to paint what she calls her "no tails", and painted each toe very neatly. There wasn't a drop of polish anywhere else.

Riverbanks Zoo

We enjoyed a visit to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC. The weather has been rather cold; however, we took a chance and went anyway. Our dress was perfect -- no clothes had to be shed, or added to enjoy the day. Above, Aaron and Lauren are enjoying feeding nectar to the Lorakeets. They had lots of fun doing this. We were some of the lucky few that didn't get bird fecies on us. Those that weren't paying attention to the location of the birds above them got special surprises on their heads and coats. Right, Aaron enjoys a quick rest on a rock. I finally got a picture of him without a fake smile, or a goofy pose. Well, Spring Break is over for us. It's back to the grind tomorrow.

Aaron and Lauren are in our new backyard.






Aaron & Lauren are ready to hunt for Easter eggs at Grandma's church.


Aaron and Lauren are in Maysville, SC.

Hello everyone. This is our first attempt at creating a blog so that we can share special moments with family and friends. This post will be short, but hopefully sweet.