Leaves, leaves GO AWAY

Today is the day for us to see our grass again. We have 6 trees in our front yard and they have lost their leaves. While they must be feeling naked, our grass is feeling smothered! So today Mr. Bruce came over to help us blow the leaves. They got them all moved out of the yard and into a GIANT compost pile in my neighbors back yard (she told us to dump them at the bottom of her hill). Ted was shaking the trees because there are more leaves and we will be doing this again next weekend.... it won't be as bad though.

They blew them all into one HUGE long pile and are moving them out one tarp load at a time. The kids had a blast playing in them. The Randall kids were over and a few neighborhood kids as well. Our house was the place to be. It was like a giant ball pit but with leaves... and on the street (which is kind of dangerous)... WE WERE WATCHING...
HAPPY FALL YALL!

Cold Nights... our favorite!

Now that the nights are cold our favorite thing to do is put a fire in the fire place and all lay down in the living room. It's our favorite time of year. The other night we all (except for Addie) fell asleep in the living room by the fire. What a sweet family memory.

Some friends just gave us some fire wood to last us a while (Thank you to the Rankins!).

I LOVE THE FALL!!

Women's Retreat

I went on the Women's Retreat last weekend. It was SOOOO enjoyable. I didn't take too many pictures (I wish I would have). We had 40 women from our church go up to the mountains and stay in three different cabins. It was absolutely beautiful. Our topic for the weekend was living FULLY ALIVE. The speaker, Kimberly Waldron did an incredible job. I had a wonderful weekend.

The group picture is my discussion group that I faciliated after each lesson we attended. The other pictures are of Charlotte (aka Charli).

THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS

We went up to the Moutains on Friday (before we went to the Nascar place). We drove up to the
TN/North Carolina border which is at the top of the mountains (it was COLD). It was Avery's birthday on Friday. She so enjoyed being all together and getting a day away. Ted took the day off and we headed out at 8:30am
and didn't get home until like 6:30pm. It was absolutely beatiful. When we left we went so Becky and Gwen could get a rock from a stream. They about froze their hands off getting the rocks out of the water.

NASCAR HERE WE COME!

Nanny Beck and Nanny Gwen treated Avery and Aidan to a day at Nascar. They had a blast (we did too!). The Nascar place is a place in Pigeon Forge. You can ride in the race cars.
Ted and I got to drive them in the bigger cars. They had a little ride they got to ride (Ted and I rode it too). They also got to ride in a train (which Addie loved!). Even Nanny Gwen and Nanny Beck drove in the race cars. It was a fun day!

Ted's sisters come for a visit

We had such a great time with Gwen and Becky... Ted's sisters. They both live in Port Arthur, Texas. They drove the long 14 hours to be with us and we SO appreciate it! They are incredible with the kids. They both spent lots of with the kids. Becky painted a jewlery box with Avery. Gwen and Becky took all three kids
and went to Wal-Mart (they are brave :-). They took them to McDonalds. The kids had a great time... and that was all the first day. They surprised us and made us a BIG POT of VERY YUMMY gumbo. On Thursday we took a drive and saw the beautiful colors of Fall here in East TN. We had lunch here at home and then Becky and Gwen kept our kids while we had Life Group. On Friday we headed to the Mountains... it was SO MUCH FUN. It was a sweet time bonding with our sisters.... They are two special ladies!

Meet Ruff-ie

This is Ted's sister's dog... Zoe that Addison insisted on calling Ruffie - by the time Ted's sisters left... I was calling the dog ruffie too....

Ted's sisters Becky and Gwen came for a GREAT visit. We had such a good time with them. The kids enjoy being with their Nanny Beck and Nanny Gwen. Ted and I did too!

Trick or Treat

We went to the Blockers for their 4th annual Fall Festival gathering. Amanda way out did herself this year. THE FOOD WAS GREAT... she had all these cold cut trays with incredible breads and all kinds of goodies. There must have been like 50 or more people there hanging out... it was so much fun. We then hit the neighborhood and went trick or treating. Ted and I went as high school sweet hearts (haha). We both wore our stuff from high school.
My favorite was Johnny and Becky dressed as Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical... very creative.