Almost bithday girl....

Ainsley turns one on Thursday. Her party is next weekend. Had to bump it a week because of Labor Day. Which is great, gives me another week to get it all finished up. : )

Invitations have already been mailed out.

Now onto the birthday outfit. Decided to go with fall colors for her clothes and party theme. Needed a break from the pink and brown combo.

This is the top.

This will be her shorts. Actually thinking of maybe changing this up a bit. Time will tell.

Oh, and I have other birthday crafty thingies I've been working on. Will share those when I finish em up.

Germ Cover

I started this project back in June. I realize that it has taken me much longer than I'd like, but it was an unusal summer for us. For those of you who, like me, cringe at the thought of touching a shopping basket (much less putting your child in it), then you'll appreciate this one! : )

It is reversible. Only down side is it won't fit the basket at HEB. : (

She loves it!

No more nasty baskets...

Back to School...

Today is the first day of school for Tanner. He started 2nd grade this morning.

I had my alarm set for 5:30 this morning, but didn't need it. I woke up before it went off...but couldn't drag myself outta bed. With these two kiddos in the house I probably wouldn't have to bother with alarms! Why do you ask? Tanner got up at 5:45am. Said he was too excited. He is gonna be beyond tired by the time bedtime rolls around tonight.

I decided last year that no more school bus rides to/from school. He came home asking a whole bunch of questions. Needless to say, Ainsley and I took him to school this morning. He was all wrapped up in seeing his friends that he nearly forgot his backpack when he jumped outta the Yukon. Hopefully this enthusiasm will last all year, again!

Meet the Teacher

Friday the 20th we had Meet the Teacher at Tanner's school. He was not pumped about this at all! Which, if you Tanner at all, is very unlike him. Once we got inside and met his teacher, that all changed. He talked even more (wasn't sure that was possible) once we left! She (his teacher) has a rat! Oh, so gross! And all kinds of bugs! Any apprehension and reservations about school were gone in the blink of an eye! He was now ready for Monday!

Vacation (Part 5.....finally)

On our last full day of vacation we hit two new places (for us)! Yes, I know. I'm a creature of habit, so this adventure was even more exciting!

This amazing thing is a replica of Titanic. Built from the blueprints of the actual ship. There is a museum inside the boat. Of course, no cameras are allowed. Amazing, that's all I can say. Here is the web link, so you can take a gander at it yourself:

http://www.titanicpigeonforge.com/

For lunch we went to the Applewood Restaurant. Yummy!! This is where we had the most scrumptious, delectable, mouth-watering, fried nuggets, ahem......also known as apple fritters. Can ya tell how much we enjoyed those little pieces of heaven? I'll share the recipe with you soon. Your recipe collection would not be complete without it! Your welcome! ; )

Not only were there 2 restaurants, a gift shop, apple orchard but there was also a winery. Michael and I had our first wine tasting together. It was made with apple and raspberry! Oh it was tasty alright! So good we brought home 3 bottles. No joke!

Here is another link....just in case you were curious:

http://www.applewoodbarns.com/

Vacation (Part 4)

Sunday (the 8th) we all slept in and didn't really start moving around till close to lunch. Felt SO good! The kids were up at normal time,mind you, but was nice not to be rushing somewhere!

We loaded everything we'd need to grill burgers at the park. Having a creek to play in was just icing on the cake!

Michael grilled some fabulous hamburgers! YUM!! Nothing like the smell of charcoal in the summertime!! : )

Nana trying to teach my lefty to skip rocks.

She LOVED the water! Was so mad when I took her out of it. Oh, by the way the water in the park is a nice 50 some odd degrees. Burrrr......

Busted Michael catching up on some work.

Didn't think we'd miss the opening game for Preseason NFL, did you?

So ready for football....but mainly college football!!

Don't ya just wanna pinch those little arms?

Guess he was needin' some R&R. Hehe!!

Vacation (Part 3)

Too much excitement for Ainsley! Haha

After we devoured our funnel cakes we walked down to River Battle. I didn't get any pictures of this....my mistake. You laugh SO hard at the poor folks getting drenched.

An amazingly fun day. Had a blast! Mom laughed SO much. Funny how laughing can release what has been built up inside.

Vacation (Part 2)

After visting The Hermitage we headed east. It was another 3 hours to get to the cabin.

We pulled up to the cabin, got out of the truck and saw this. It was creepy. Thought we were in for an awful storm, but it rained for awhile and quit. We unloaded the truck and headed for dinner. We ate at The Old Mill. Food here is unbelievably good. The corn fritters were probably my favorite. So good that I bought the recipe. Don't ask how much that one cost! Haha!! Oh, the amount of fried food that was consumed on vacation......

View from the balcony.

Another...

In the National Park headed for our favorite picnic spot. Kinda sad that we've been enough that we know where we're going.

Playing along one of the little creeks.

In Cades Cove headed up to John Oliver's house. This is where Michael, Tanner and Ainsley saw the bear. The only one we'd (they) see this time

This is the view from Mr. Oliver's cabin. Not too bad, huh?