Grandma Kia

Thank You for coming up two weeks in a row to spend a few days with us! We loved having you here and all the help you supplied us with...

Mom, you are so fun...and such a trooper...we love you!

napping?

They take naps in separate rooms. Or so we thought. This is what Randy saw the other day after being alerted by banging on a wall...

Rody got out of his room, came into AK's room and got in her crib and they were both jumping with delight

They sure are cute!

**NEW POST BELOW**

Happy 3rd Birthday, Rody! (Happy belated on the blog birthday)

I feel so behind on blogging. But, I definitely want to document Rody's 3rd birthday! Happy 3rd Birthday, Rody! Our celebration started on Thursday the 24th when we met Randy's parents in Pigeon Forge for some time at Dollywood. It was opening day of the season on Friday. We spent Thursday afternoon hanging out, going to dinner and then swimming in the indoor pool for hours!

We woke up Friday and it was COLD! The days prior were in the 80's, but a cold front came in and it was a high in the 50's that Friday. Needless to say, we were not completely dressed for the weather, but we managed.

We had fun afternoon at the park...along with all the other thousands of people that were there. We have never seen it so busy...

We rode the carousel!

The coal-fired train...the kids LOVE this! It is an old WWII Engine...named Klondike Katie :)

The flying elephants with daddy

the teacups

And we saw Dolly! Yes, she was there and rode her antique car through the park. We did not get that great of a look, but here is the back of her hair :)

took a nap!

Rode the cars with grandpa

Then came home...Saturday was a rainy day. We made do though. Rody got a bike for this birthday and he loves it!

and a real bat with a nice 360 degree tee and glove

We had his cake made with a water tower design. He loves water towers!

We had a few friends come to help us celebrate too! Here are James and Elijah

and then we enjoyed left over cake the next couple of days too!

It was fun few days that we got to celebrate our little boy. He is three years old now! Happy Birthday, Rody!

Spring Break Glimpse

The weather has been BEAUTFIUL this week during my spring break! Very warm for March (80's) and sunny...we've been soaking it up. We've been meeting friends for play dates, going on walks, playing outside...I even got the water table out and introduced AK to it....

Ha ha...this is what I get when I prod and beg for 5 minutes for them both to look up...

I've been cleaning, organizing. As I was doing something, I heard nothing, which alarmed me. I found the kids on their room reading books by themselves..it was precious!

Anna Kate really loves books right now...which is fun! I love reading to both of them. She will find a book and toddler over to me handing it to me...she really loves Dora books right now--she even pointed out "map" and said "map"...she walked more than she crawled yesterday! She is getting so big...and she is communicating more and more..she has new words all the time..she loves her blankie and I caught her counting "one, two" the other day--it was really precious. She has started shaking her head to my questions--even if she means yes! ha! I've enjoyed this time at home this week--makes me thankful that I am a teacher and have so much time off during the year--

**Another NEW Post below**--it is your lucky day :)

camping

Last Friday night we loaded up the jeep, the trailer and the children and set out for a family camping night out...

The weather was warm, it was a full moon and the children were excited!

We had an eventful time--it seems as though everyone else also wanted to camp that night. The free sites we were thinking of were all taken, so plan B...we stopped along the Hiawassee River to eat our hot dogs and smores before it got too late... Rody loved throwing rocks

Anna Kate chilled in her pack-n-play

And Randy started the grill

We did eventually find another free site up on Chilhowee Mountain. I tried not to think about the fact that a little boy was killed and a mother attacked by a bear up on Chilhowee about 3 years ago....I guess that is why I love going camping with my husband...needless to say, we definitely had the means to protect ourselves...ha ha

Anna Kate seemed to like it! but she did NOT like the family style sleeping---uck...I was up most of the night with her or she was sleeping snuggling on me...

Loved that we had this one with us too!

And Randy's friend, Aaron, literally "hang" out with us too...

Do you see Rody snuggled in that corner? He actually slept really well! We had to wake him at 8:30...

I did lots of laundry on Saturday and we recovered from no sleep...but it was SO much fun...will definitely do it again...once Anna Kate turns two!

He's *ALMOST* Three!

A little post on Rody. He is so funny--keeping us busy! He loves to organize things...like sea shells, his cars, his boats. I saw this on the floor the other day and he had organized the shells according to type of shell--pretty impressive

Here he is showing me some of his shells

And the humidity is back! I know this because of his sweet curls...

In about one week we'll be singing Happy Birthday to this little man!

Another NEW POST below!