Friday, November 26, 2010

Girl Pampering

While in Tennesse we had a little girl time. One night we all put on drugstore fingernails, ate candy, laughed, and sat in the jacuzzi.
Here's all our beautiful hands with our lovely drugstore fingernails - notice Kelsey's hand does not have fingernails on - well she did put them on, but quickly realized she couldn't text her friends and so they quickly came back off.
All the girls.
Shopping in Gatlinburg.
The resort we stayed in had a spa and so of course we checked it out. I didn't get pictures of everyone but here's what I have. Melissa got an Ice Cream Pedicure - so here she is enjoying a big bowl of ice cream smothered in hot fudge while she gets her pedicure.Melanie got a facial (well actually two, but that's another story - it was her lucky day). She thoroughly enjoyed it. I was surprised she didn't want a pedicure, but she said she thinks its creepy to have someone mess with her feet. Hmm, interesting for a girl her chews her fingernails AND her toenails! And I got a pedicure, my first one ever. I know its not a flattering picture, but I was in heaven. That chair was a massage chair -and it was AWESOME! I could've sat there all day! Everyone was surprised when I chose purple and blue with sparkle edges - I haven't painted my toes or fingernails in years so I thought I'd make it good!
Here's Melissa's and my toes after the pedicures. So fun!
Here's all of us after our treatments. What a great afternoon at the spa!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

We saw Black Bears!

To start at the beginning . . . we went on a hike in the Smokies and had a really good day. It was a beautiful Autumn day and it was great to be with Grams and Pops and Kelsey. Here's some footage . . .








It was kind of funny, when we got to the top lookout area, there was a turkey wandering around. A little ironic since this week is Thanksgiving. Ha, Ha.

At the end of the aftenoon as we were heading back down the mountain we saw a bunch of people gathered with a park ranger pointing and taking pictures so we stopped and got out to see what was going on-knowing it must be a bear. It was a little disappointing because I guess the bear had laid down and so all we could see was a black blob, it was too far away and he wasn't moving around anymore, so we headed on down again. Then we ran into another group but this time as we passed, the bear was right there next to the road looking right at us! So we pulled right over and hopped out! It was a mother bear and her two cubs! They had just crossed the road - and when we drove past the mother bear was right at the road because she still waiting for her other cub to cross. We were in two cars and the cub crossed in front of Eric's parent's car behind us. They said it stopped and looked right up at them in the middle of the road! Cool! Once crossed they headed down the hill. I just got some film footage and pics of them heading out, but here it is. . .




Tuesday, November 23, 2010

"Deedle"

Rebekah's vocabulary is immense. She's a talker. Each of our children have learned to talk at their own pace. Melanie fell in at about average. Melissa was late not really starting until about 3. James was early, speaking in clear complete sentences at 18 months and David like Melissa didn't start until about 3. He's come a long way and talks quite a bit now, but we sometimes still struggle to understand him. The rest of our kids tease that he only talks now because Rebekah can speak better than him. Anyway, back to the point of this post. Before she says his name clearer and I forget I need to write this down. Rebekah recently started calling David by name. She calls him "Deedle". She just loves him and he is so good to her. She calls both Melanie and Melissa "Meai", which can be kind of confusing but it works for her for now. I guess I haven't noticed her calling James a name yet

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween. Hope you did too!!





This one looks bad, I hesitated to put it in - but really, no one got hurt and she carved a great pumpkin. I didn't have as many pics of her because she's now a big middle-schooler and so I didn't see her at school for the festivities like I did the others.

Nana's house is always our last (and most fun) stop on Halloween. She spoils us - so this year I thought the kids might be bummed that she wasn't at her house (she recently fell and broke her hip - had hip replacement surgery and is in a rehabilitation center) but they were just as thrilled to go see her. I love that they just love her. She's an amazing woman! The other residents enjoyed seeing the kids as well and one nurse even brought in ice cream for the kids because she didn't have any candy (they were thrilled).

Happy Halloween!