prima ballerina

i have been wanting to get ella "into" something. the gymnastics is great- but fisher and ella can do that- she wanted to be a karate kid (thanks for the movie honey!) and i don't think that is a good idea until fisher can do it to (for his own defense)

so a dance place opened up right in our area- just dance- is the name-- i didn't know if she would be old enough- or interested- but she is ! i am the happiest momma out there! i took

ballet from a very young age (2 or 3) and loved it! i am proud to pass on the love of dance to both of my kids-- but especially ella-- oh how proud i am!

chris took her for her first class on monday (after we got home from our g'burg trip) she loved it and was so happy that she was a ballerina- with her own ballerina slippers!

gatlinburg take 4

BYE EVERYONE!

leaving is always a little sad- we only get to see everyone once a year. but we always have a great time and love that the little crew is growing up-



chris, mandy, and camryn

april and mike

us

john, lacey, and jb

we got to do some really great things- that i don't have pictures of-


april and i walked both mornings (lacey and jb came for a walk too) on the walk april found a baby snake in the road- i got to save the snake by getting a stick and pushing it off the road.

the next walk april saw a deer (i only saw the butt of the deer running down the mountain side)

we played lots of cornhole- chris and i only got beat once (by lacey and john)

i am the female cornhole-er of the weekend- april and lacey couldn't take me!

mandy didn't feel well most of the weekend so she and chris missed out on the couples cornhole challenge-

just getting to be with everyone is always such a treat-
thanks everyone!

gatlinburg take 3

ripley's aquarium

we all went to the aquarium on sunday- chris and i have talked about taking the kids there for a long time...

the kids did really well considering that the place was PACKED!

ella didn't like having the fish behind her- she was needing to keep her "eyes on the fish momma"

fisher loved every second! i think that he would have ran through the entire place if we would have let him!

this is what happens when we say "say cheese" to fisher- he makes this great- great- great face! check out the HUGE fish behind him!

the shark tube ella wasn't crazy about. she was fine as long as you were saying things like "look at that huge sting-ray sleeping" or "what fish should we take a picture of?" it was a long tube of sharks- some of the sharks were "sleeping" on the top and some were swimming just too close for ella's comfort.

after the aquarium we went to lunch with john, lacey, and jb at pizza hut - it was so hot, humid, and the entire town was packed- bad weekend to try and be touriesty. here are some of the highlights from the tour of the aquarium.

ella didn't want to stand infront of the sharks mouth- can you tell?

later that night... after dinner... we went creek walking. we passed some this creek on the way into g'burg. lacey and i were very anxious to get back down there and look at all the great rocks. the night was beautiful and the kids really enjoyed it.

look! a tree hugger!

now that i think about it... i wish that i would have taken a couple of those rocks- they were beautiful!

he was so brave! he didn't want to stop!

we were trying to make it all the way to the ducks

gatlinburg take 2

day two was daddy day care/football day-

ladies... let's head to lunch and shop!

oh- camryn got to stay at daddy daycare with that runny nose- (she didn't feel great that day and mandy made the excellent decision that staying at the cabin with dads was a much better choice than heading out all day for food and shopping) but- give me a problem... and i will solve it! mandy has been having issues with camryn's faux-hawk hair-- well i invite you to take a gander at my beautiful "up-do" later in the weekend it gets a bow and everything! the look was inspired by ella- circa 2006

it worked out really well actually-- ella, me, mandy, april, and lacey all went to lunch at the usual spot- olive garden- (right across from the outlets) and then we went shopping- we had quite the shopper with us (ella) and they have a disney outlet, and old navy (selling bouncy balls for 25 cent is a bargain for happiness) the shoe store, the infamous silver horse (pictures to follow) and best of all an M&M machine!

later that day we did hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner followed by a Go Vols! cake (everyone's favorite)

and no trip to the mountains would be complete without my famous tennessee bath!

after bath time- ella decided that it was "sparkle time" the sparkles come out of a tube (like a mini-mascara tube) and you brush them on your hair... well- she had clean hair so chris, mike, john, and chris all got ella sparkled that night. they we such good sports about it too! she even put it in their eyebrows! thanks gentlemen for being so wonderful to a little girl!

gatlinburg take 1

april and ella (ella's best friend for the weekend)


that's right everyone-- we went to gatlinburg again! we have been going to gatlinburg with the same crew now for uh... several years :) it started after chris and mandy got married- we arranged a trip with four couples total to meet in gatlinburg for a weekend- get a cabin and hang out with everyone- boys- football, golfing, x-box games, etc... ladies- lunch, shopping, shopping, and more shopping. so, with the addition of a few children and some tighter budgets- we still go- but, we get a few games of cornhole going... grill dinners... and the ladies still shop and the boys still watch football!
fisher the cornhole game referee

yoga baby!

ella has started doing some yoga with me- we have been having a blast together! i am starting to realize how much one-on-one, just she and me, something very together, something that fisher

cannot do- time she really needs! so... we yoga baby!

tennessee baths

chris went to the race. i planned on going to roanoke for the weekend... but with kids under the weather it just would have been more work than if i just stayed at home. so chris went to the race. he took with him shawn and beau. jenn and emmie stayed with me as well as kendra, farley, and sandler. bath time friday night... my house had me, ella, fisher, jenn, emmie, kendra, farley, sandler, bubba, gracie, aly grace, and neighbor seirra. as i am starting the water for fisher and emmie... kendra says "farley smells like urine" well- my solution... throw him in with fisher! it worked out pretty well! so bath time went something like this...

farley and fisher

get farley out and dried-

emmie and fisher

ella and aly grace

we had a really great time dispite all the chaos. here are some highlights from bath time friday night. we opted for a dip in the pool on saturday-