Forever Young

Friday, November 30, 2007

A Cinderella Party

Our little girl recently turned 4 years old! She had decided several months ago that she wanted to have a Cinderella party for her birthday, so that is what she had. Here are some pictures from her special day!
Cinderella greets the guests as they arrive.
The room is ready for a party!
When Bekah arrived at the party she got to open a gift from Mommy and Daddy. It was a Cinderella dress and crown that she changed into and wore for her party.
Mrs. Sonja made the yummy cake!
Bekah with her friend Maddie who also wore a princess dress!
Make a wish and blow the candle out!
Everyone wants cake!
Present time!


Bekah is very blessed and had lots of friends attend her party. It was a special time for her that she will always cherish. Thank you to all of those who had a part in it!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Travelling Week

The week of Thanksgiving was a week filled with travelling for us, but we had a very nice week. I have so much to be thankful for at this wonderful time of the year.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we drove from home to my parents' house in Columbia, Tennessee. It was my dad's birthday, so when we got there we had a party for him as well as for Bekah because her birthday was on the 26th.



On Monday, my dad had to drive to Nashville for 2 days of meetings. So, on Monday night, we took my mom and drove up to Franklin, Tennessee to meet him for dinner. We met at Chuck E. Cheese so the kids were thrilled!
Then on Wednesday, we drove down to Ringgold, Georgia to spend some time with my Pap Paw. We don't get to see him very often, so it is always nice to see him!

Then on Thursday, we drove over to Lebanon, Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with Todd's parents and his extended family. He has a cousin who has children very close to the ages of Brandon and Bekah so they always enjoy seeing them.
Brandon and Andrew had a "battle" with the army men.

This is Maggie who is just a few months younger than Bekah. She is such a cutie!
On Friday, we stayed at my parents' house and had our family Thanksgiving. My brother and sister-in-law were there as well as my aunt and uncle. As usual, we had lots of yummy food and I ate way too much.

Bekah enjoyed her dessert that Aunt Cat made!
Then on Saturday, we drove back home. Total time spent in a vehicle this week.....approximately 20 hours!!!!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Monster Jam

Recently our pastor got 4 free tickets to the Monster Jam in Louisville. He took his son and invited Todd and Brandon to go with them. They had a boys' night out and had a blast! Here are some picutures from the evening. I guess it looks like fun if you like to see big trucks smash cars. It was also very loud, so Todd and Brandon did wear earplugs.








Wednesday, November 07, 2007

A friend reunion

Recently me and the kids spent a week in Maryville, Tennessee, with Todd's family (and Todd spent the week at home working and studying and going to class). Todd and I used to live in Knoxville, Tennessee, so we have a lot of friends in that area. I tried to spend the week catching up with old friends that we haven't seen in a while. We've been gone from there for a little over 5 years and some of my friends I haven't seen in that long. It was a great week for catching up and letting my kids make new friends!

We usually visit with Michelle and her kids at least a few times a year, so my kids always love the chance to spend time with them. The girls are all dressed up.

The boys are ready for a battle.

This is my friend Angela from college. We hung out at the BSU together. She makes me laugh like few others can!


My friend LeighAnn has 3 boys. We spent an afternoon at the park and my kids really enjoyed making new friends. We hadn't seen them in several years!

LeighAnn and her crew of boys!

We got to spend an afternoon with my friend April. She was Brandon's babysitter when I was working part time after Brandon was born. She kept him the first year of his life and was a wonderful babysitter!!

Brandon and Bekah both enjoyed playing with April's 2 dogs!


My friend Julia has a 4 year old named Zoe that I had never met in person (only seen in photos). It was great to finally meet her and spend an evening together!
A new friend!

Julia and Zoe

Melody, Julia, Dana and I have been friends since junior high school. We have tried to get together as much as we can over the years. It had been a long time since we had all been together, so we decided to all spend an afternoon together at Melody's house

Melody's triplets

Julia's oldest, Madie

Julia and Melody with Julia's youngest, Noah.

Melody's back yard was filled with fun toys.

Melody also has guinea pigs that the kids loved!

Dana and Melody chatting

Melody's indoor playroom was as much fun as the back yard!

After spending the afternoon with 10 kids between the 4 of us, we decided that we needed an evening out without the kids! So, we went out to dinner and brought along the ever popular rook cards!!

A nice dinner with rook cards on the table! I won't mention who won, but I'm sure Julia and Dana want a chance for a rematch :-) !

"Reading"

Bekah has learned all the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that they make. She still gets confused on a few lower case letters, but she is doing very well. I have been using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for her school time (by the way, I highly recommend this book). It is just starting to click with her about how to link the sounds together to form words. She is reading simple words like rat, me, see, etc. She is at the stage where she notices letters everywhere and loves to tell you what they are. Reading is still a chore for her, so she likes to try to guess what a word is at times instead of sounding it out. Yesterday we all went out for breakfast (Todd took the day off) at A Nice Restaurant. I love the name of the restaurant because it is so confusing. "Where do you want to eat?" "A Nice Restaurant." "Which one?" "The one I just told you!" Reminds me of the ""Who's on first?" routine! Anyway, we were eating there and Bekah noticed some letters above the door. Todd asked her what letters she saw and she replied, "E-X-I-T." Then he asked her what do those letters spell? And she replied very quickly and proudly, "Come in!" Todd and I got a chuckle out of it!

Monday, November 05, 2007

Trampoline Fun

Bekah and Brandon have both been enjoying our trampoline this year (thanks to our great friends the Peters). Recently our friend Kara was over and snapped some fun photos of Bekah on the trampoline. By the way, you should check out her website, http://www.karaguffeyphotography.com/, sometime! She does a great job if you are wanting some new pics of your family!



Sunday, November 04, 2007

A Weekend in Maryville

Recently we got to spend a weekend with Todd's family in Maryville, Tennessee. We always look forward to those weekends when the whole family can be together. Todd is one of 4 children, so it can be difficult to get everyone together all at the same time. Usually we can manage to work it out at least for a few hours.

Brandon loves Tessa's dog, Bailey!

Usually when they get together, there is going to be the shooting of guns!

Travis teaches Ty at an early age how to shoot guns!

Brother vs. brother in dueling pistols!

The girls just watch the show!

Ty got a birthday present....only 2 months late!

Brandon loves Grandmom's stash of toys from when all her boys were young.

Grandmom got a present too.....hers was actually a litte bit early!

Just hanging out with Uncle Trey.

Bekah is just being cute!!

The happy couple!