Welcome Kenneth, Andrea, and Jacob!

Sunday night we went to Grandpa Gary (Steve's dad) and Karen's for dinner and to let the little guys have some playtime. Kenneth is Karen's nephew and his family is moving here from Miami. The tricky part is that Kenneth is already living here and his wife Andrea and their son are stuck in Miami until their home sales. Andrea and Jacob came up for a couple of days to scout out the area and meet everyone. Here is Jacob on the porch. Isn't he a doll. He has the most beautiful eyes.

All of the little guys got some play time outside and I was able to get this picture of Kade by the banner.
Once the adults were tired of being out it was back to the house. Here is Luke rearranging Karen's spices. This is favorite thing to play with. Forget the toys...I want spices!!!
After Luke was finished with the spice rack it was over to the fridge covered with magnets. Luke loved the letters while Jacob was more interested in Kade's picture hanging on the fridge. Here the guys have their innocent faces on, but we all know better.

Anyway, Welcome again Kenneth, Andrea, and Jacob!!

Life is a highway. I want to ride it all night long!!!

I thought this would a be great title for this blog since Kade walks around singing this song all day!!. Gotta love Cars the movie. Here you can see the guys cruising around the yard together on the Gator. We made both of them wear their bike helmets in case someone decided to jump!! Luke kept a tight grip on the "Holy Crap" handle in front of him. Luckily there were no accidents.

Go Volcanoes!!!

Soccer season has begun again. This is Kade's third time playing soccer with the YMCA. Here he is with two other teammates at the half taking a break. (Kade is the blonde on the right.)

The second quarter Kade was moved to try out the goalie position. He was very serious. No one scored a goal on him!!! Here you can see the team mom giving Kade instructions.

Since they do not keep score we are not sure who actually won. They were all great and it is so funny to watch the kids on the field. GO VOLCANOES!!!!

Six Ladies and a Gentlemen

On Friday night me and the gals meet for dinner at Chili's. Luke was the only male in the group and he was great!! This was our first dinner in several weeks so it was nice to go and catch up on the joys of motherhood. Here is my crew at the table before we left.

This was Morgan's first dinner with all of us and she did great. She is such a trooper and we were honored to have her with us. She is so cute!!!!

Here is Beth and Olivia sporting their matching spaghetti sauce stains. (Sorry that was so funny!!).
Luke was such a little gentlemen on the trip. He shared his toys with Olivia and Morgan. He even waited until Olivia was finished with her dinner before he started begging Beth for the rest of her food. By the way I do feed my children, but Luke is a bottomless pit.

Here Morgan is telling everyone good-bye. It was everyones bed time so it was time to pack up and go home. We had a great night and hope to see you again soon.
Love you guys!!

The Great Smoky Mountains

This was such a last minute trip. We decided on Tuesday that we were going to go away for the weekend and Thursday we left for the Smoky Mountains. We had a great time. We visited alot of the shops, The Dixie Stampede, Ripley's Aquarium, and some other local places. Here is a photo that Steve took at one of the overpasses. This is a photo of the city of Gatlinburg.

Here we are in the city of Gatlinburg walking the strip. The guys stopped by the water fountain for a quick photo. Say Cheese!!! This was Luke and Alex's first real ride in their new double stroller. Luke kept hitting Alex. She is such a good sport.

The next two photos are the boys doing their favorite thing in the cabin. We could not keep Luke off the stairs (thank God we have a ranch style home). Every time you would turn around he was either climbing or sitting on the stairs. Kade on the other hand could not stay away from the pool table. He was too short to play with the sticks so he would roll the white ball to play. He was pretty good.

Mom and the guys hanging out on the porch before we left for the Aquarium.
Before we headed home on Saturday we took the kids to Ripley's Aquarium. They loved it. Here is Dad and the boys checking out one of the exhibits.


Alex also liked the aquarium. She would look up at the exhibits and smile. She really like the tunnel. I carried her in the baby sling and she would lay her head back and look up with the biggest smile on her face.

Of course we could not leave without letting the boys play on the indoor playground.

At the end of our trip in the aquarium we went into the new Mars exhibit. As you can see in the photos below Kade and Luke became astronauts during our trip or as Kade said a "Space Ranger" to infinity and beyond!!!!!

Well after our trip to the aquarium we hit a few more shops and then it was time to come home. It is always nice to take a trip but there is no place like home.