Busy Week!

We have been busy this week! Today is our first day to just stay at home, so I thought I'd post a few pictures! On Monday we went to Nana and Papa's house and canned tomatoes! Papa planted over 100 tomato plants this summer and they are all coming in fast! So, I had my turn to get some tomatoes and Bettye and I canned 13 jars of tomatoes and 6 jars of salsa! Yummy! We will certainly enjoy all of these tomatoes this winter! Thanks Nana and Papa! Beckett and Helen enjoyed playing with Lillie and Connor while we worked on the tomatoes! It was a good day!

On Tuesday, we went to the last free family movie at Regal cinemas and saw "Firehouse Dog". Beckett loved it! He says it is his favorite movie of all time! After the movie we met our friend Julie and her nephew Mark at his neighborhood pool and swam all afternoon until the storms rolled in! That was a lot of fun! Thanks to Mark and "Jujy" for inviting us to swim with you! Sorry I didn't get any pics for the blog!

On Wednesday, we went to Dollywood with the Kirklands. "Kids Fest" will be over on Sunday and we wanted to get up there to see the Kratt brothers from the PBS kids show "Zoboomafoo"! Beckett has always enjoyed that show as well as their National Geo shows for kids, so we didn't want to miss them "live" at Dollywood! We are so glad we did! It was a great show! Very well done! Unfortunately, no flash photography was allowed in the theater, so we didn't get any pictures, but I did include some other pics from our day. It was very warm, so the kids wore swimsuits and did all of the water rides!

While we were there, we ran into our friends, "the heaters" aka The Baileys! Wheat, Lake, River and their mom and dad were at Dollywood too, so we had a quick picture with them!

Helen, the Man and the Horse

Beckett wanted me to blog about a funny thing that Helen said last night. Our family went to a wedding shower and when we got there, we quickly realized that we had made a mistake by bringing the boys! It was an "all ladies" shower! So, Sean and Beckett stayed for a short time and then decided to leave and return later to pick up Helen and me. So, when they were getting ready to leave, Helen heard us talking and said, "Where are you going, Daddy?" and he replied, "We are going to see a man about a horse." We all just laughed and they left not long after that. Helen and I enjoyed watching the bride open her gifts and after about an hour, Sean and Beckett returned to pick us up. As we were driving home, Helen looked over at Beckett and said, (as serious as she could be) "So, how was the guy riding the horse?" Beckett LOVED it! He laughed so hard and we all enjoyed it. She was a little embarassed and kept her arm over her eyes for a minute when she realized that she had said something silly, but she honestly thought that they had been to check on a man and his horse! Finally, Sean told her that the man and his horse were well, and Helen was happy again! Just a fun story to hopefully make you smile today! Have a happy Tuesday!

Blackberries

My Aunt Marilyn (or as we have always fondly called her..."Auntie Mame") came over today for a visit. We went out to Sean's mom and dad's property and picked blackberries this morning. She is planning to take them home tomorrow and make her famous blackberry jam! We got to drive Nana and Papa's "Gator" all around to find the best blackberries and we had quite an adventure! Let me just say that blackberry pickin' ain't easy! You have to work hard for those little berries! We all wore our long sleeves and long pants and it was HOT! And did I mention all of the briars? We all have lots of little scratches! But it was worth all of the work! Beckett enjoyed the competition of seeing whose bucket filled up quickest and Helen enjoyed eating all of the berries! She did not contribute any to the bucket! If you've ever read the story, "Blueberries for Sal" then you could compare Helen to "Sal" who ate more blueberries than she put in her pail. Helen would pick one and put it in the bucket, then pick one and eat it, then take two out of the bucket to eat and so it went all morning long! She loves blackberries! We had a fun time and we want to thank Nana and Papa for letting us use the Gator and for sharing their blackberries with us! Thanks to Auntie Mame for driving over to spend some time with us! We enjoyed having you visit!

Even though Helen is holding a bag of pretzels, she was eating blackberries!
Beckett was determined to get more in his bucket than Auntie Mame!
Our first time to see a passion flower growing in the wild! Very unusual and pretty!

Mother-Daughter Dress-Up!

Just Playing Around.......

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but I just figured out how to use my scanner today! My wonderful husband helped me load the software onto our computer and I was able to scan some old pictures. So, in the following pictures, you will see Helen wearing an old dress that my mom made for me! (38+ years ago!) Then, you will see pictures of Helen playing with the Noah's Ark that my grandfather made for me with the animals that my grandmother made to go along with it! (Yes, my mom saves EVERYTHING and I'm grateful for these treasures!) So, we had a little photo session the other afternoon and I was trying to re-create some pictures that mom had of me wearing this dress and playing with Noah's Ark. The neat thing is that now, with my scanner, you can see the pictures of me as well! I was 2 and a half years old when the pictures were made of me, and Helen is 3 and a half, but I don't think the dress would have fit her a year ago! Obviously, I was a bigger child! Anyway, hope you enjoy!

First, Helen!

Then, me!

Helen again!


And me again! You can see Mickey's (my grandmother who made the stuffed animals for the ark) reflection in the glass!

One more! Pulling the ark!

Last one!

Sean says that the one noticeable difference that cannot be re-created is the mullet!

Fun in the Mountains!

This afternoon we headed up to the mountains to play in the water (which means fly-fishing for daddy) and to have a picnic supper! We had a great time and Sean caught several trout! Beckett and Helen had fun sliding down the waterfall that you see behind them. Beckett also enjoyed climbing up the falls. He felt like he was Bear Grylls from the Discovery Channel show, "Man vs. Wild"! We recently saw an episode of that show where Bear was climbing a waterfall, so Beckett had fun with his own version!

"Boy vs. Wild"!

Helen always rode down the falls with Sean holding her tight. This time, she wanted to go by herself! I was a little nervous, but Sean was right there to catch her!

Last video clip! I just couldn't choose, so I put them all!

Water Fun on a Hot Day!

Beckett and Helen both had dentist appointments this morning. When we were finished with that, we went to a park by the lake that has a "splash pad"! We had fun swinging on this swing and having a snack before they played in the water! It has been a beautiful week!

We're goin' in!
Follow the leader!

Beckett getting dumped on by the water bucket!

Happy Half Birthday, Helen!

Yesterday (July 14th) was Helen's "half" birthday! She can now officially say that she is three and a half! We have a family tradition of celebrating half birthdays with a trip out for ice cream, so this year we went to Dairy Queen! Helen enjoyed her vanilla cone (which ended up in a dish after a short time!) She really wanted a cone, but it is hard to keep your ice cream from melting too fast when you are three and a half!