HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Avery and Aidan had their birthday party today. Avery will be 6 this coming Friday (Nov 3) and Aidan will be 4 on the 7th of November. We did their party together this year and it was a GREAT TIME. We have a costume party every year and we do a Fall Festival theme... with games and hot dogs. The kids had a great time. Avery said it was the best day of her life (how cute). Avery was Ariel and Aidan was a Power Ranger. They had such a cute cake! Charlotte (Granny) gets their cake every year (Which was are so thankful for). It's always a half-and-half cake. Half of it is Avery's theme and half is Aidan's theme. We had games like beanbag toss, hopscotch, guess the number of candy in the jar... we had face painting, the jumpy house up. It was a fun party.

TRIP TO THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS

We went to the mountains on Saturday for the day. It was such a pretty day. We got a lot of rain at the end of this summer so we have had an INCREDIBLE FALL. The colors were amazing. It seriously looked like a magazine cover.
While we were there we saw a cub HIGH up in a tree. I am not sure how he got up there but he was high up. Ted and I got out of the car to take a picture of him. I started thinking... if baby cub is up in the tree... momma bear is probably close by. We never saw momma bear (THANK GOD!) but it was so cool to see this bear up in the tree. There was horrible traffic because of the picture takers on the side of road. (oh wait... we were one of those).
We left early yesterday to head to the mountains. We went up to Chimney Tops in the Smoky Mountain National Park. We usually let the kids climb on the rocks and throw small rocks in the water. The water was so high because it rained a lot on Friday - all day long - so the kids didn't get to go exploring like they normally do. It was still so beautiful... The kids enjoyed it... we did too.

WELCOME BURKS

Deanna, Eric, Ryan, Holly and Maddie Grace came to visit this past weekend. They got here on Thursday around lunch time and they left tonight. We had a great visit. We got to go out on a date on Thursday night - just the 4 of us. We sat at Borders book store and visited. It was a great time. Ted and Eric got some time together on Friday and Deanna and I did too on Friday afternoon. We spent Saturday in the Moutains. It was BEAUTIFUL!! The colors right now are INCREDIBLE. Today we spent the day getting ready for Avery and Aidan's birthday party. We went to church, grabbed lunch, and prepared for the party. They got to stay for the party but then headed out afterwards. They have a 14 hour drive. I am so glad they came for a visit. It was good to be with them.

FALL IS IN THE AIR

It is pretty chilli at night right now. We had our first fire the other night. I had my Bible study girls over and we had a fire while we sat in the living room and caught up. I enjoy a fire and a COLD night.

That is Kristin in the picture with Addie and Avery.

Meet TRUMAN

I finally got to meet Truman... such a sweet baby! He is son to my friends Ty and Carri... they live in Coppel, TX. Truman came into the world on Sept 8. SUCH A SWEET BABY BOY! I planned a quick trip down to Dallas (I went alone and went by plane). It was a great trip. I stayed two nights with Ty and Carri and two nights with Deanna and Eric. It was a sweet visit.

We'll be back in the Dallas area in April. Ted was asked to marry Hersson and Amy... we are so excited about it! ROAD TRIP!!!

Princess Beauty Salon

We had the Randalls over for lunch one day last week and I asked Avery and her friends if they wanted me to do their hair. We had a little princess beauty salon and then they put on their costumes. I straightened Avery's hair and curled Tori and Audrey's. Addie wouldn't sit still long enough for me to do her hair but she had her costume on. She'd never miss an opportunity to dress up. She lives in a costume.

LOTS TO BLOG ABOUT!!

I have so many things to blog about but I'll start with this cute picture of Addie... she fell asleep one day while sitting on the couch. I forgot about putting her down for a nap because she had been playing so well with her brother and sister. She just sat on the couch and fell asleep! SO CUTE! She is starting to potty train and I hope I will be blogging soon that she is fully potty trained. We are gonna try again tomorrow.

CHEESE FARM... HERE WE COME!

We took the kids on another field trip. This time we went to the cheese farm in Sweet Water, TN. It was an incredible day!!! The weather was beautiful!!! We went with several other families and learned how they make cheese. I HAD NO IDEA... I really still don't know because I had to take care of Addie the whole time and really couldn't hear what the lady was saying. I know that it has something to do with milk and that cheese sits sometimes for MONTHS before it is packaged and sold. Sharp sits longer than mild... I did hear that. We got to sample cheese and the kids thought that was great! I did too. We had a picnic lunch afterward with our friends and then headed back to Knoxville. It was only about a 30 minute drive. I must say the cows were kind of cute but they STUNK! :-) It was funny to see all the kids holding their noses. The lady said they get 8 gallons of milk out of each of their milking cows a day.... THAT IS A LOT OF MILK!

IT IS TIME TO PICK SOME APPLES!

Last Friday we took a little field trip to the Apple Farm (that is what I call it, I'm not sure of the exact name). We had such a great time. The kids got a little bag for themselves and got to pick away. The only problem.... they wanted to taste everything they picked. We told them they could eat an apple... Addie thought she could taste everyone. I bought several apples with bites taken out of them :-) It was cute! The place had fresh slussies and hot apple pies. We each had a slussie and it was wonderful. It started to sprinkle right as we left so the weather was nice... perfect Fall weather.

CAMPING

We went camping this past Friday night and had such a great time!!! A friend from church invited us and we went for a night. Several other families
joined us as well. We had a great night. It was such a beautiful day. When we got there the weather w
as PERFECT. Then that night it got chilly. We had to wear sweat suits (which I love). During the night my feet felt like ice cubes! It was a great time. Addison talked most of the night so we didn't get much sleep but that's alright. I didn't mind so much. She was clapping and singing and talking up a storm. We let Avery bring two friends and they stayed in a tent together. In fact, they put their own tent up (with the help of a few other kids). I was so impressed (I took pictures of it!). That night we all sat around the camp fire and roasted hot dogs and made smores. Then the next day we had a WONDERFUL breakfast. It was such a sweet time. I really enjoyed it. The kids didn't want to leave (I didn't either!).

The Adventures of Paddington Bear

Avery's Children Lit class is doing a class project. They are all taking turns taking home Paddington bear and letting Paddington live life with them. Then they are going to write a book about the "Adventures of Paddington Bear". Paddington has gone with us to dinner at a friends and today Paddington had a tea party with Avery and her friends, Tori and Audrey. Poor Paddington has spent a few days in his suitcase. It's been a busy week.... sorry Paddington.
The boys in the bottom picture are 2 of my friend Robin's 4 boys (Braden and Westin). The girls in the picture with Avery are her buddies, Tori and Audrey.

VOLUNTEERING AT BALL CAMP

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO SEE THEM BETTER).
Today we had our church service serving a school in our community. Ball Camp Elementary is the school our church adopted this year. We have had several Saturdays that we
have met up there to do some clean up around the school. This morning we met out at Pelissippi (where we have service) at 9am and had a devotion time. Then we all loaded up our cars and headed to Ball Camp Elementary... kids and all. We served there for a few hours and then headed back to Pelissippi to have a picnic by the pond. We had it catered by Blue Coast Burrito (which is a restaurant that just opened in town that some church members/friends of ours just opened!- GOOD FOOD!!!)

Growin' big and tall... and LONG HAIR!

We are growin' Aidan's hair out (not real long, he just usually has a SHORT buzz). His hair was damp after being outside for a few hours and had a natural spike to it. He is such a precious boy... He is talking so good now and loves to PLAY HARD. We just got home from a picnic and he played with all his friends from church. He loves to run and play ball. He loves to hang out with Ted. They have a blast together.

He is really into Spider Man and loves to play with cars. He saw the Cars movie and has a big wish list for all the car stuff they now have at the Disney store. Every time he sees it we say "put it on your wish list". He can sit for hours and play with his toy cars.

GO VOLS!!!

It's Football time in TENNESSEE!!! What fun it was to drive around town today and see all the ORANGE! It was every where... including ON US! Today was the first game for the VOLS and the game was here in VOL COUNTRY! The first 4 games are here in town. Ted was given tickets to the homecoming game for his birthday by our friends the Greenes. We will be going to the game on the 23rd and we are PUMPED! We love the way it feels in Knoxville in the Fall. We are excited for this football year. (Click on picture to see it better)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TED!

Ted's 34th birthday was Friday. We had a great day! We celebrated his birthday by going out to dinner to P.F. Changs. Johnny and Becky Mazon joined us for this outing. I put together a homemade version of "Cash Cab". It's a game show from Discovery Channel. Ted played that game on our way to dinner. We also took him to Target and made him wait in the snack bar area while Johnny, Becky and I were given $5 each and 10 minutes to see who could come up with the BEST $5 gift. Ted got board shorts (swim trunks), PJ shorts, a mini screwdriver kit, several candy bars and a spider man lunch box. It was hilarious!!! We had a great night. The Cruze's babysat for us... which we so appreciated! Then on Saturday we continued our celebration by meeting the Cards for lunch and going swimming. We had a GREAT weekend! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TED!!!

PICTURES

CLICK ON PICTURES TO SEE THEM BETTER


I took the kids to have their pictures taken on Tuesday. What an outing! We survived it... Addison had a difficult time. Once she realized she had to pose for so many pictures she was DONE. We tried everything. Candy, jokes, everything!!!! I was glad to get what we got... there were several pictures that turned out great!! Here are the ones we picked.

Avery's first day of THURSDAY CONNECTION

The picture with Avery holding the folder with the "school days" on it is in honor of my dad, Lee Guidry. Every year I went to school he had us hold a folder that said school days on it. We took one EVERY YEAR. I sure miss my dad.. I'm sure he's looking down smiling! I actually found a picture of me and my brother my Kindergarten year... how crazy is that?

Avery is taking 3 classes at a local church in a homeschool co-op called Thursday Connection. She is taking a Legos class, a Children's Lit class and a Bible class called Kingdom Come!. She was so excited this morning ... mostly about having her lunch packed. We all went as a family to see her off to her first day. She waved and smiled... no tears.

IT'S SOFTBALL TIME IN TN

Ted is playing softball on the Fellowship Bible Church Softball team! THEY ARE 2 and 0. They won Tuesday night 10 to 8. It was a GREAT game! The first game they played Ted got the game ball! It was such an honor because he's never played before. He caught a great catch out in right field and hit the ball each time he got up to bat. We had a great time cheering in the stands and the kids have discovered the world of concession stands. Tuesday nights are the family highlight of our week. It's fun for all of us! GO TED!