Family in Waynesville, NC

Our family recently took a trip to Wanyesville, NC. It was the whole family! Joe's parents, siblings and their families and our "young" family. Our older two boys had college/school and a football game so they could not join us.

We all stayed in this large house together and we shared the cooking. The kids all loved spending time together, too. We went hiking at Cataloochee two days.

The first day we were on the Rough Fork Trail to the Woody house. The little ones enjoyed seeing and exploring around the house.

When we came back to the parking area the group saw and heard the elk! We also saw lots of turkeys.  I will share some floral, fauna and fungi pictures in a later post.

We stopped at a two-room school house (Beech Grove School) where Aunt Em gave a little class for the family. We had planned to stop at Palmer Chapel to have a little service, but there were signs asking to stay out of the fields because of the elk. Instead we went down to a little area where there was a creek the kids could play in. The second hiking trip was the Flat Creek Trail.

There were several creek crossings and it was a little longer than the first hike. Uncle Wesley got some of the boys to go hide and jump out to "shoot people" along part of the way. His oldest son was determined that he could hike all by himself and did not need to be carried.

Luckily he let us carry him so he could "fly" over creek crossings. Little C kind of started lagging behind and at one point Grandmomma and I stopped with her so she could rest.

After we finished the hike we went to Mile High Overlook to eat some food.

Then we all headed back home. It was an enjoyable trip and the kids were exhausted when we got home!

Meeting a Legend

Earlier this week I was able to attend the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony. There were lots of famous people both locally and nationally there. On a couple of the tables adjacent to us were several local news and sports anchors as well as former UT players and coaches. The guest speaker for the evening was Archie Manning the famous Ole Miss quarterback, NFL quarterback as well as the father of our favorite UT football player, Peyton Manning.

After the dinner and induction ceremony were over Joe and I walked back behind us and ask if Coach Phillip Fulmer would let me get my picture made with him! I was so excited I was a little shaky! :)

Senior Recognition

So in the fall Bubba was recognized as being a senior in the marching band. I am struggling with the fact that my baby is getting ready to be a graduate. He is talking about moving out, going to college and even possibly moving out-of-state. Yuck! I am not liking this "growing up" stuff that is happening around our house!

Summer's Almost Gone?

I have just realized that I have not posted anything since March! I missed quite literally a whole season of blogging! ;) So I thought I would take a moment to catch up before I completely miss summer, too. 

In March of this year Joe and I took the family to the nation's capitol. It was a fun trip for us all. I was a little under the weather so I got worn down about two-thirds of the way through our days. For me it was nice to go back since I was 13 years old for my only other visit to DC. The kids loved the Metro! We also did some trolley rides which the loved, too. They were amazed at how big the statue of Lincoln really is, got to see the White House (from behind the fence), and got to visit the Smithsonian Museum. Also on the way up we stopped by Monticello. I enjoyed seeing that and Otter did as well. She saw pictures of Monticello in Art class after that and got so excited saying, "I've been there! That is Monticello!"  

Virginia Welcome Center

The White House

That was our big trip this year though we did take a quick trip to South Carolina for the family reunion. Most of the summer was spent relaxing and spending time together. I will have to say it was one of the easier summers at home in a while. The kids got along really well most of the time and did not wear out each other's nerves (or mine!). We did a few things closer to home while Joe had a few days off. 

 World's Fair Park splash pad

Fort Kid

Celebrating a birthday for Jo's little girl

 We also went to the Knoxville Zoo

We got to see the black bears out playing

Now school is back in session for the boys and for Otter. I am still teaching Otter at home. She loves being able to stay with us while she does her school. The boys are geared up with marching band again. Butch has also joined a newly formed Jazz Band at the high school.

Warmer Weather and Max Patch

Saturday was a beautiful day so we decided to head up to Max Patch in North Carolina. We stopped and bought kites for the kids and Joe said he just hoped there was enough wind. When we get there we had no problem with a lack of wind. Fairly strong winds blew the whole time we were there and the kites worked well (except Otter's Birds of Prey Eagle kite). The day was very different for our family, too. We had split into two groups when we started to hike. Bubba, Butch and Fox (Bubba was carrying him in the backpack) were one group and Joe, Otter, Bear and I were the second group. 

 

Looking down towards the parking area

The older boys had taken the longer route, took a wrong turn, then tried to correct by going through a field that later had a brier patch. Sandles, shorts and even jeans were no match! Brier Patch 1 The Boys 0. 

Bear's plane kite and the moon to the left of it

So meanwhile Joe, Otter, Bear and I had made it to the top going the steeper direct path and we were working on getting all the kites put together. Joe got Bear's plane together first. It was a great kite and flew well the whole time. I was holding it most of the time since Bear only held it for a couple of minutes before he went to 'help' Daddy. Next Joe worked on Otter's. After getting it together and several attempts to get it in the air failed he moved on to the boys' kite. It was the nicest of the three and had no assembly. It also had no problems flying.   

Getting the boy's kite out

When the boys finally arrived they were scratched up and Butch was cold. They decided to go get a blanket from the van. Poor them! They seemed to be gone for quite a while and we started to wonder if they just decided to stay at the van. We decided we had been there long enough and when they got back we were packing to head out. We ended the trip with a good dinner at Cracker Barrel. Chicken and Dumplins make it all better! ;)

 

Fox played with his cutie rather than eating it

 The younglings all piled on Daddy

Catching Up

So much has happened recently and I guess I need to update on what is going on in our family. Fox is now over a year old! He had his first haircut before he turned one. He was getting kind of shaggy again so I finally gave him the second haircut. He also started walking and very quickly has progressed with trying to run away from us or chase after the older siblings. He started climbing up onto the couch this past week.

First haircut in Nov

Second haircut in Feb

Joe grew a beard and did not trim it for over a month! For those of you who know me, I love beards and this thrilled me to no end! This was when he took all the boys out for breakfast.

We had a snow over the last couple of weeks and Fox, Bear, Otter, Bubba and Joe all went out sledding on our road. Fox was not happy sledding with Joe. The others all loved it, though!

Introducing the 11th month old Fox!

Here is our little Fox! Yes he has a nickname, though the older boys are not too fond of it. He is cute, but awful sneaky! He loves to climb under, thru and over anything and everything. Sadly he is also 11 months old now! Soon we will be celebrating his first birthday. What a stinker! 

Fun in the Summer Sun!

We had our annual vacation to the beach last week. Here are some of the highlights.

Bear was saying "Tada!"

Mamaw helping Bear bury himself in the sand

The big guys went on a Segway tour at Huntington Beach State Park 

Siblings having fun at the beach

Little Fox did not like the beach. He did find it relaxing, though!

Daddy carrying his youngling boys

Six Months of Smiles

Compare the Babies

I thought I would add some pics up so that people could compare our newest little man to some other family members. I don't have one of Joe scanned in at this young of an age, but I will try to add one in later when I get one out.

Fourth Month of the New Man

Here are a couple of the recent pics of the new little man. I have told Joe that I like to call him Beauregard since he has such a bright, beautiful smile and is very expressive. No nickname yet, though. :( He started rolling over on his Papaw's birthday (Mar 13th). He loves to play and laugh.

My Own Knaffl Madonna

Several years ago I first mentioned the picture called Madonna and Child by Joseph Knaffl. I love this picture just because the beauty of the art, but I had a personal interest because both of the models married into my family. I have been wanting one for years, but I never did purchase when I saw one for sale from time to time. This year my husband got me one of these for Christmas. I was so excited! I will have to update a little later with a picture of my own Knaffl Madonna!

Another Son

This month we were blessed by the birth of another son. This little man has been a wonderful addition to our family! He is sweet and has a very good schedule for a newborn! We do not have a nickname picked out yet for him, but I hope we can figure out one before too long. I was nervous as to how Bear would react to him, but no fear. Bear loves his baby brother and loves to kiss on him all the time! First thing he does when he wakes up is to come to give the baby a kiss. The baby gets more kisses than Mommy now!

Give A Little Whistle

Tonight we got a huge kick out of hearing one of the boys whistling. The funny part was not that one of them could whistle, but more of which one it was. Otter had just gone to bed and Joe had the older two boys helping to pick up the living room a little before they went to bed and Bear was sitting in the floor watching. Then the next thing I know I am hearing someone whistling. Joe was over by Bear and the other two were on the other side of the room. I asked about who was whistling and we all look down to see Bear sitting there whistling! This made me and Joe immediately turn and look at Bubba then bust out laughing! Bubba has shown frustration in the past about being unable to whistle especially seeing that Butch can whistle very well. So here was the 18 month old younger brother whistling right in front of him. You can imagine his reaction! We were all shocked, but he was so upset to see that his baby brother can do something that he has not been able to do yet. I doubt that Bear realized exactly what he was doing, but it was cute. His mouth was a perfect little circle and he was just playing around. After the laughter had died down he was trying to figure out how to do it again so that he could make us all laugh again!    

Otter's first field trip

Last week we went on our first field trip with our home school group to a local Childrens Museum. Inside they have this kid size doll house. It was Otter's favorite room in the building. She was on the second floor playing with the baby dolls most of the time. Bear decided that he wanted to play, too. I let him play in the lower level which consists of a living room and kitchen. He like the chairs in the living room. Typical of most of the men in his family he found his reading material and a comfy chair!