Hello!!!!!!!

Mormor and Caleb opening presents

Two christmas nuts!

We went over to Aaron and Olivia's house and Meradeth opened up her presents. This balerina dress was one of them. Then they both got in a picture and this was the result. I couldn't stop laughing.

A FUN morning!

We had some rip roarin' fun this morning!
Kaleb opening a present from Mrs. Barbara...

Aunt Susan crocheted this cute baby doll sleeping bag...

Movies from Uncle Eric and Aunt Katie...

Soap from Uncle Kevin, Aunt Kristin, Meradeth, and Silas...

The aftermath...

Kevin and I enjoyed watching! Our children are blessed w/such sweet aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends! Thank you! You gave us a very special morning!

where's the fire !

Having a good time shopping for Christmas

Gingerbread House

Allyson and Kaleb beginning to put together their gingerbread house...

Putting on the roof...

Building and eating...

The finished product!

It didn't take long for Kaleb to take a bite right off the chimney!

Flowers from Joe

Joe brought me these flowers today because he said I need some cheering up after my dentist appointment the other day. You just cannot tell how beautiful they are in this picture.

Mera at Najoqui falls

This is our favorite water fall which is about 35 min. away from us. When it rains good it starts to flow good. Mera loved standing right under it.

Allyson's Birthday

Her "birthday meal"...chicken fillet sandwich!

Then in the afternoon we took a trip to the American Museum of Science and Energy. Great educational place.
Click on the picture and see all the things we discovered!

Opening presents! :)







Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

beautiful!

A little bit of Iowa...in TN

Kaleb looked out his bedroom window this morning and yelled, "Snow!

Our backyard...we got about an inch of snow. It's noon now, and the snow has disappeared! :)

Little Eric - Isn't He Adorable?

New Office

This is my new office! Note the my lovely work station area and the polka dot furniture I picked out for the lobby. The view of the van and the men in striped jump suits across the street is the inmate work crew waiting to get back into the jail for dinner. The jail is the big white building you see. When Eric is working and he arrests someone, he pulls his car into that garage door and takes the prisoner into the jail.

Some other things...

Allyson made these cookies all herself and decorated them...and then was the perfect hostess and served us all!

Mrs. Barbara was our guest on Friday! Allyson is chatting in her room.

It's time for those awful goodbyes!

Here is a link to 3 videos I took while Daddy and Mama were here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/candacemarie29/Fall2009?feat=directlink

Mera waiting to go to church

Thankful Thursday

We lounged around in the morning...Travis and Allyson playing w/an empty box...Grandaddy and Kaleb laughing...Mama and I chatting.

We drove to one of the many marinas on Norris Lake that's about 20 minutes from our house.

Cooking a late night snack...New York strip steaks...

Eating, laughing, and loving...

Be our guests!

Allyson explaining something very important to Grandaddy and Grandmother!

Kaleb and Allyson tucking Grandaddy and Grandmother in for the night. Gotta get our rest for another BIG day of nonstop FUN tomorrow!

what you looking at Mera?

The butterflies are back for the winter, so we went yesterday to look at them.Mera was able to see them this year through the scope.
She thought that it was pretty neat.

The Little Ponderosa Zoo

Travis' favorite thing to do at the zoo...feed the animals grass and leaves.

We live about 5 miles from this zoo...very convenient.

Baby goats are SO cute!

Watch closely near the end of this video...he wasn't hurt...it mainly scared him!

Refugio beach

Last Saturday was real nice so we went to the beach.This is one of my favorite spots for surfing and just to visit. Mera had a great time playing in the water,she was so tired when we left that she passed out by the time we got to the freeway.

Fun Friday

Allyson and Kaleb have been doing such a super job in school that we made today a field trip to the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge, TN. The pictures below are just some of the rooms. I didn't get pictures of the other rooms we went to such as The Rain Forest, Bird Room, The Gym, Pioneer Living, and International Gallery.

Spaceship Playscape

Waterworks...which operated on a system of dams. Giving a childlike example of all the dams that TVA built.

Child size kitchen and living room

The outside of the full scale dollhouse...Kaleb going through the front door. In the upstairs was a child size bedroom and bathroom w/all the furniture to go w/it.

The World of Trains Room

Puppet Room

This fascinating room...well, fascinating for a history enthusiast like myself...was very interesting...

In 1942, a "secret city" sprang up in a Tennessee valley, as Allied scientists raced to beat the Germans at developing enriched uranium to fuel the first atomic bomb. In 1942, partly through Einstein's influence, President Roosevelt authorized the top-secret Manhattan Project. The "Secret City" grew to a population of 75,000, was the fifth largest city in Tennessee and was not even on the map. That city is Oak Ridge...about 10 miles south of Clinton.
This room gives all the details about that period of history. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory still exist today and researches computational sciences, biological sciences, and neutron sciences...whatever that is. :)
The kids climb up that lookout tower to search for spies in the secret city that have been placed around the room.

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