Thankful for Amelia

Thankful for Amelia

Our oldest child, what can we say?

We love you more each and every day.

We love your smile and bright blue eyes

But it breaks our heart when we see you cry.

We are all amazed at every turn

To see how well and fast you learn.

Reading, writing, arithmetic

Just like glue it simply seems to stick.

Your athletic skills we always witness

You dominate the court at tennis.

Gymnastics, soccer, basketball,

Baseball, dance you’ve done it all.

But most of all we have to agree

Our favorite thing about Millie

Is your precious heart and loving ways

And the way you remind us all to pray.

God chose us to take care of you

And that is something we plan to do.

You, us and your little brother Reed

Complete our caring, faithful and loving family.

Love, Mom and Dad

Ijams Nature Center

Rick and I wanted to take the kids for a little hike this weekend since the trees are beautiful right now. I didn't feel like driving all the way to the Smokies so I suggested we go to Ijams Nature Center. Neither of us had been there but I knew it a had a few trials so we agreed that that sounded like a good idea.

It turned out to be a great idea because we only had to drive about 15 minutes instead of over an hour, there were plenty of trails to make Rick happy, lots of pretty trees to make me happy and plenty of sticks to make Millie and Reed happy.

Reed found his favorite stick and kept saying things like "Here, hold my stick", "Oh no, I lost my stick", "Oh, my stick broke", and "Oh, now I have 2 sticks". But, his 'st' sound is more of a 'd' sound so needless to say Rick and I were cracking up listing to Reed go on and on about his 'st'ick for several hours. We are childish, I know.

Pumpkin Festival

Last weekend we were all in Indiana for Millie's fall break and it worked out that we were able to attend the first annual Pumpkin Festival at a local Catholic Church in the Knobs after we watched Jacob's soccer game that morning. Millie, Reed and Jacob all enjoyed riding the horses, having their faces painted, decorating pumpkins for the contest (which my mom won) and bouncing in the bounce house.

Reed's ABC's

Here is Reed's rendition of the ABC song.  He was just a little wild and as you can tell by my appearance I was settled in and ready to lounge while watching the UT game.  Millie was already in bed because she was a brat all day so she went to be early.  The past few days she has developed a bad attitude and has not been obeying us very well.  We intended to snap this back into shape before it gets out of control.

Millie

These are a few days/weeks old. After the symphony, Millie and I headed to Market Square to get some ice cream. On the way, there are some gardens and fountains and Millie was being a good sport and letting me take some photos. She knew ice cream was in her future so she kept a happy face!

Knoxville Symphony

To continue our "Girl Time" while Rick and Reed are gone Millie and I went to the symphony today. The Knoxville Symphony was putting on a performance of Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, a musical setting by Maestro Lucas Richman of 17 different characters created by Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky.

I think Millie's favorite part was Picardy's Playground before the show started where she was able to play several different instruments.

She went in really wanting to play a trumpet but left with the Cello being her new favorite instrument.

She did get some compliments on her dance moves after the show from the couple sitting behind us. At first I thought they were just being polite but they just kept going on about what a great dancer Millie was and was asking where she took dance lessons. They seemed shocked to hear that she didn't take dance. I thought the whole conversation was a bit strange so I found a way to leave, quickly.

Millie and I both enjoyed the show and really enjoyed the ice cream we got afterward. I am beginning to really like Market Square and the Knoxville downtown area the more time I spend there.

Reed Finally Got To Drive Tractors

It's been a long time coming but Reed finally earned himself a little tractor drive. We decided several kids ago that until they were potty trained, they could not ride on the tractors. This was pretty good incentive for all 3 of the grand kids and worked VERY well for Reed. Every time he pottys he says "I potty. I ride GG's tractors???" This is the first time he has been to Indiana since he has been wearing big boy underwear full time during the day so he finally got to ride on the tractors. My mom was nice enough to take the photos and send them to me.

Girl Time

While Reed is chilling with my super fantastic mom and dad for awhile, I have been trying to have some extra fun girl time with Millie. Yesterday we went to the used bookstore to sell some books and Millie got to pick out several new books for herself and Reed. After that we went to eat at her favorite restaurant, Olive Garden.

Today I worked in her classroom most of the day and after school was over we headed to the zoo. She was the boss of the zoo so she got to decide where we went and what we did. Seems she only wanted to climb on the rocks so I suggested we just go to the playground and she was okay with that.

After the zoo we went to McAlisters Deli for supper and enjoyed the company of a few of our neighbors and their boys. She doesn't seem to be missing her Daddy too much yet but it has only been about 24 hours and we have a long way to go. I still have to come up with something super exciting for this weekend.

Hot Air Balloon Festival

The annual Hot Air Balloon Festival was this weekend. We have been the past 3 years and we always have a great time. Although Reed went when he was a baby, this is the first year he really saw what was going on.

We got there just in time to see them start getting all the balloons out for the race. I think my favorite part is seeing them inflate and lift off. Reed and Millie seemed to really enjoy this as well.

My Kind Of Camping

Now this is the kind of camping I'm talking about. The kids are loving it, we are dry, we didn't have to trudge 5 miles both ways to do it and the bathroom is only a few feet down the hall...and I will be returning to my bed in a few hours. I mean, I would stay but I don't want to crowd anyone.

If you notice, we are watching Finding Nemo. If any of you knew us when Millie was a baby, you know we never traveled anywhere without this movie. From the time she was about 2-3 months old, any time I put this movie on, she would stop crying and almost become hypnotized by it. Later on, she found it completely hilarious. I am not exaggerating when I say from the time she was about 3 months to the time she was around 2 1/2 we watched part of this movie EVERY day, if not more than that. Never the entire thing, just enough to calm her down and make her stop crying. I tried it with Reed but unfortunately, it had lost it's powers by then. We decided tonight we should let him watch it since he has never actually seen it.

Millie and I spent a lot of time at my parent's house when Millie was a baby because Rick lived out of town the entire time until we moved to Knoxville. Since he was gone all week, about once a month I would make the 2 hour drive and spend a week in Floyd Knobs. Of course Nemo went with us. My dad would walk in the living room, see that we were watching this movie and proclaim, "Oh hell, not this thing again!" and then he would walk back out. I am pretty sure he wished us back to our house many times during those encounters. I had watched it so many times I even began to watch it in Spanish because I thought I could learn a new language since I knew the words in English by heart.