Our Blessings.

Isaac - 2yr 9mo.

Olivia - 4yr 5mo.

Clinch River Float

Ron (Tami's dad) and I (Justin) went floating down the Clinch River about 20 minutes north of our house this past weekend to see the leaves....most of which seemed to have fallen off the trees since I had seen them a couple weeks ago.  Darn!  After a quick decision to change our get out point (note to self...don't do that again) we ended up doubling the time we were on the water....wups.... At least it was pretty and relaxing.

Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we went to a pumpkin patch with some friends and their small group.  A few photos from the fun... 

This is Elaina.  Both of the kids absolutely love her.  And they all get along so well.  Plus Elaina is a trooper for taking all the tackles Isaac has given her...we're still working on that.

A tip on how to feed animals for free: Look in the grass and pick up all the dropped food from everybody else.  You can get quite enough to satisfy the "I want to feed them" desire.

 Isaac kept yelling "I FOUND ANOTHER ONE!"  He was excited.

 Apparently most of the good orange ones had already been taken...so we ended up with 3 green ones and 1 smallerish orange one.  Nice change on the back deck. 

 These were all the kids in the group.  They had made the t shirts the week before.  My friend Erin was super kind to make I & O one since she knew we were coming to the patch.

 Family Photo.  7 weeks till tiny tot comes out by the way.

 There was a really cool slide down a big hill.  The kids went down over and over again.

 And we went down a time or two ourselves!

 Kids got to play in a corn box...MUCH better than sand.

 Just a big tractor tire.

Finally, a random tooth brushing photo.  Too bad they didn't get in their pjs first.  Isaac likes to watch Olivia and brush how she brushes.  She's a great teacher!

Mem-reez.....At The Corner Of My Mind......

This is the first time Isaac has played in the dirt with cars.  The garden is a great spot.  And since I (Justin) moved the trampoline over the garden to discourage the dog from walking in it, the shade is an added bonus.  The sentimental value of this moment is that he's playing with the same cars I used when I was 7-8yrs old.  I used to play under the deck of our house in Oregon, MO.  Cool....

We went to a local Civil War Reinactment last weekend and arrived just in time to see the two battles.  The first was a fight that occurred just west of town on Kingston Pike (a road I drive often).  The second was a battle for Fort Sanders (a hospital here in Knoxville).

Union troops marching to the fort on what was Kingston Pike.

The Confederates caught up to them.  It was interesting trying to explain this to Isaac and Olivia. 

This man is the son of an actual Confederate soldier!!! They announced his name, etc.  There aren't many sons and daughters of Civil War soldiers still around!!! Cool stuff!!!

This was cool just b/c I happened to get the fire coming out of one of the cannons.  There were a few people around me with several thousand dollar cameras trying to get this shot (shooting in rapid-fire mode) and none of them got it.  Haha!  Oh, forgot to mention that all I had was my point and shoot. 

This was the beginning of the second battle we watched that occurred at the actual Fort.  Apparently, before the Confederates attacked the Fort, they shot cannons for several minutes.  Didn't help much in the end; they still lost....bad.

Here are the Confederates trying to get into the fort.  According to history, there was a BIG ditch in front of the fort that really slowed the attacking soldiers and you can see what happened to them in the below picture.  Yikes!  To signal the end of the fight, one of the soldiers played taps.  It was pretty cool.  A local farmer agreed for some historical preservation group to build a replica of the actual fort on his land a bit east of Knoxville and then for the past 4 years has agreed to have the reinactment there too.  Pretty neat.  Most reinactments don't have neat forts/structures like this.

If I remember right, there were something like 2,000 Confederates VS. a few hundred Union soldiers during the 'real' battle.  The Union side won.  There were only around 500 total reinactors at this event.

The reinactors were all very thankful for the spectators coming to watch.  I had several thank me for coming.  If you've never been, they're pretty cool.  The only downside for us this time was that we didn't get a lot of time to walk the event site to talk to the reinactors, see demonstrations, do the wagon ride, and explore the Union/Confederate campsites.  Maybe next time.

Please Pray....

My daughter, Olivia........has become.......a pothead.  When they're young you're trying to get them on the pot and when they're old, you're trying to keep them off the pot.....this parenting stuff is tough!!!

Update: The Latest Baby News!

Today we went to the baby doctor and got an ultrasound.  We didn't pay for it, but our doctor said we could look at a 3D of the baby.  We didn't get any really good pictures before he moved, but here's a sample.  His heartbeat is normal (140).  During the ultrasound we got to see him yawn.  That was pretty neat too.  Can't wait!
No.....no name yet.  We didn't decide on Olivia or Isaac until after they arrived either so this is par for the course so far.

Rain, Mud, Bird Feeders

Last Monday I was looking for Isaac and Olivia to get them in the car for swim class.  They had not been responding as I was calling for them.  I found them here, totally engrossed in watching it rain with their Clifford dogs.  Aww...

 So since it rained, the next day we (meaning Olivia and mom) played in the garden.  We made a mud pond.  Isaac didn't care for the mud too much, so he played ball on the trampoline.

 We made vegetable soup.  We poured in brown sugar, salt, broccoli, and an actual real tomato.  We topped it with the meatballs that you can see sitting there.

 Luci couldn't figure out if it was a toy or something to eat, but she wanted it.  She ended up bobbing for (and obtained) a tomato in the mud puddle.

The cleaning up was a chore, but totally worth it.

 Ever since J took Olivia to Lowes to build a fire truck (Lowes and Home Depot have very cool build-it/take-it free workshops for kids on certain Saturdays each month), she has been wanting to build something.  There is a reason why I said she had to wait for Daddy to help her.  I just couldn't see how to build a bird feeder from these left over fence pieces. 

 They measured, marked, hammered, and J sawed and screwed. (The chair that Isaac is standing on is new by the way and he LOVES it.  He's even slept with it...multiple times.  Best $1.87 spent in a long time.)

 I held one piece of wood in place.

 The almost finished product.  They will add a perch for the birds and possibly decorate it somehow, although Olivia said she saw on a show that birds don't like the smell of paint. 

Up close shot.  Since I started this entry real shingles have been added to the roof.

First Round of Putt Putt

One of the 'many' perks of being a teacher here is the once a year free day for all the Ripley's attractions in Gatlinburg.  This year we took the kids to their first round of putt putt and the aquarium. 

The place where pigs can fly...   

He's not upset or tired.  Once he got the ball in the hole, he would go lay down over it, look at it, and then pick it up.

Olivia did a great job and wanted to do it by herself.  We liked this hole because we could wack the bunnies.

This time when we were at the aquarium, the kids were more fascinated with the turny spinny thing we stood on instead of the sharks.  Still a very fun family day.

Mr. Fix It

After his car repair license, Justin is going to get his appliance-fixer license.  Our dryer has been squeaking and making funny noises for a while now.  He decided to order a repair kit, grease up some parts, and see what happens.

The result.....the sweet purr of a fine tuned machine.  Beautimous.

Thanks J!