allie has a blog

Allie has been asking to start a blog for a while now. Now that all her younger cousins are cool, hip bloggers, I had to give in. So check her our at:

http://alexandraelizabeth44.blogspot.com/

Mother and Daughter

Allie decided she wanted to try a 5K. Various members of our family have participated in 5Ks before, but it seemed Allie was always injured and so she had never raced in one. She heard about the "run for the schools" downtown and even though she had not been running lately, announced she wanted to do it. After some contemplation, I realized that I needed to step up and make this a mother-daughter bonding thing. She did great for having never run in one before and I got 4th for my age group! (am I really in the 35-39 age group?! Wow.)

Easter - 2

With Trey and Allie gone on a trip to New York with their grandparents and cousins, Carter and Jared, we had a quiet Easter with Tanner, Connor and Sydney. This also marks the first year ever that I had an Easter dinner at my house, ham and all. Allen, Julie and Claire joined us, making it seem more festive. I have to admit that small groups with holidays just seem strange.

Father and Son

David and Trey love a lot of the same things. Everything David loves he shares with Trey and it seems that Trey then loves it too. They both love reading, history, video games, and sports (watching and playing). When Trey was a little kid he didn't like basketball right away. He played it for fun, but did not the have the passion that David had for the game at an early age. David never gave up though and by about the time he was 10 or 11 he started to love basketball too. Through the years David has coached Trey pretty much every year (except when the triplets were born). David would set goals for Trey, play one on one, help him work on skills, etc. One day I found them outside with these "beauts" on. What are they you ask? They are glasses that make it so you can't see the ball when you are dribbling, so you can work on ball handling. David used them when he was a kid and thought Trey would enjoy them. It just cracks me up. Trey is up for anything his dad suggests. They played some one on one like this for a while, then Trey showed David his new dunking abilities.

My little buddy

Connor likes to play school. A lot. His room is an ongoing classroom with different areas set up. He really likes to set things out on a "desk". I may find random items such as a pencil, books, some mail, all set up at the island where he was eating a snack. He likes to pretend he's the teacher and likes to set things up around him that a teacher might have. One thing that he always has on his desk is a drink. Sometimes this can bother me, especially when he's left his mess and moved on, or he has a drink in his room, which he knows is against the rules. Lately, however I have enjoyed his need to "set things up". A few times he has found me reading somewhere he will get a big smile and he tells me he'll be right back. I know exactly what he's going to do. Go get a book, 2 drinks and a snack for us. When he gets back he puts everything in it's place, settles in with a big sigh and starts to read next to me. Every once and a while he may make a comment like "isn't this nice mom?". Yes, Connor it is.

My birthday

I feel a need to write down my appreciation for my family. Birthdays are magical. Especially when you're a child. I remember getting to a point where I thought, "birthdays have lost their magic." Then I got married and had kids. Even though getting older is not so fun or magical, my family makes it so. Their complete love, attention, devotion and affection is so much better than birthdays. Thanks for always making me feel like the luckiest, most spoiled mom and wife in the world!

Laurel Falls

After looking into several hikes in the Smokies we decided to fall back on the trusty Laurel Falls trail. 3 miles round trip, paved gentle incline, the reward of seeing the falls when you reach the top....... it had been good to us in the past. And it did not disappoint this time either.

Our faithful scouts lead the way, on the look out for indians.

David, the ever cautious outdoorsman, points to the sign that validates what he has been trying to tell us all these years: people can die if you're not careful