Elaina, Funny Poses, and Daddy/Daughter Dance

We took one of O & I's friends to the Living Christmas Tree.  The show was a little long so we left early and had some fun around the Sunsphere. This is the beginning of our outing in the car.

I love our son!

We ran around in circles inside the sunsphere, although not very long because it was like a furnace up there. They stopped for a group picture.

The reason I like this picture is because it reminds me of being at the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset with Justin 6yrs ago. Smooch!

To the playground we go! Then dinner at Taco Bell. It's fun to watch the kids play together. They all get along so well.

Funny poses: This is us waiting on Justin at Home Depot.

Now he's ON the dishwasher. Maybe next picture will be him IN the dishwasher???

This is apparently how you are supposed to brush your teeth.

And then...

Singing to his food before eating. I have really enjoyed Elias because he "sings" with me a lot, especially cuddling at nighttime.

We went to a Christmas parade a while back. Actually, two. Our candy stash is now full again.

We found Elvis. The other funny float that went by was a boxing ring with 2 WWF wrestlers really hamming it up. It was so entertaining I forgot to take a picture.

And the most precious of all....Justin took Olivia to her first Daddy Daughter Dance at school.  They had lots of fun and Justin made her feel very special.

Catch Up and Mustard

These are a little out of order....and from Thanksgivingish time....but still wonderful memories!

We took our first family bowling trip over Thanksgiving break.  Kids LOVED it! Although, Isaac may have loved the deer hunting video game a little more.  At times he would roll the ball, run away and starting shooting the deer with the gun before he ever saw how many pins fell over.  Maybe he'll get a shooting scholarship for college???? Elias liked the big colored balls!

 Her pushes were ever so gentle and took the longest to go down the lane. Thank goodness for bumpers!

 What a spin on the ball!

 Decorating for Christmas the day after T day. I thought this was cute. Elias now officially can climb all the way up the stairs all by himself! What a blessing it was the other night when Isaac & Olivia watched him crawl up the stairs and then all went into the playroom and played for 15min while I was able to get dinner started!

 Hanging out with G&G to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree downtown Knoxville.

 Thanksgiving Day.  Olivia made all these things at school.  She was supposed to be in the picture, but had a meltdown with something and opted out of it.

 We played washers outside since it was such great weather.  Do you like our nice tuffet of grass?  J planted grass where the trampoline had been all summer. That's the kind of grass we wish we had all over the yard! We will get there...one circle at a time! 

 Awww....

 Laughing at something...

 The table without any food. I finally pulled out my china & crystal we've been trying to sell for 5yrs. They may just become our everyday dishes!

 Sitting around thinking about soccer.

 How does every kid know how to use the dishwasher at such an early age?

 Amazing he only took out 1 book to read.

 Justin took all the kids to the zoo one day while I had to work.

 He's also into cooking & dishes now. I'm so glad he can stand!

 This is the best shot I could get since he REALLY didn't want me to take his picture. But his outfit and shopping skills cracked me up.

 Visit with G&G on Grandpa's birthday.

 Birthday Straw Blowing.

 Getting cleaned up for Grandpa's birthday party.

 Birthday Bike Ride.

 Making Grandpa's cake. The Hickox favorite!

 Doing the birthday work in the yard.

 There's the birthday boy! 60something!

And just a random game of family candyland. Seems like Isaac always wins everything.

It's THE BIG 01 !!!

Elias had 3 small baseball cakes that Tami made; two with white icing and one with chocolate.  Yum!  They were AWESOME!  Nice job babe!  One for Elias and two for the rest of us.  Grandma and Grandpa joined us for the party.  Thanks for being a part of it!

Happy Birthday to ELIAS JAMES!!!  We love you!!!

Elias didn't want to leave anyone out.  What makes me smile even more at this picture is that Elias's tongue is out too.

(Tami will probably add more pictures of the birthday soon.)

Yep, here they are... his cake before it was destroyed.

The onlookers cheering him on.

Carefully opening presents.

 It didn't take long to learn this one ('flute').

 We're waiting on more balls to fill the new pool.  It was a little bigger than our last one. Makes for a fun wintertime activity.

 He got a puzzle that makes animal sounds from Gramp and Nana. It works by light vs dark and scared me the first time I turned the lights out late at night and the cow mooed.

Gramp & Nana Visit

I haven't been able to update my blog for a bit because of space issues. My sister finally helped me get it worked out.  So this is an entry from early November. The Fords stopped for a visit on their vacation to FL.  

We made pizzas. Yum!

 We went to the Missouri vs Tennessee football game.

 They made a big moving T for me! (Ok, so it's for Tennessee....not Tami...even still...)

 There we are! The game went into 4 overtimes and MO won! It was great!

 We also played in my neighbor's leaves. Total funness!

 We went to a park.  However Olivia's favorite was going to Froyoz (make your own frozen yogurt sundae) with Nana & Gramp. 

3rd Annual Gingerbread House Making

The Stringfellows came over for the best gingerbread house making yet! Here's the final product for the adults who combined all of our creative juices into one beautiful house! We could have had just a little more 'glue' to finish it off.

Front view, just in case you didn't get the full affect!

 We even let the kids help a little!

 They got to do their own too.

 Next year it can be at your brand new house my friend!