We spent our 'weekend' on a quick trip to Memphis, TN to check out the area and also to take the kiddos to the Memphis Zoo. The zoo was very nice, big and clean. We enjoyed a large part of the day there seeing lots of animals. It was a first seeing Panda bears for Noah. Oh, and of course, he got to ride on a train - how great is that? I LOVE zoos and the time we spend there.

Playing... Together

Our Silly Guy

Noah was too funny on this night - He wanted me to take pictures of him - lots of pictures - and he wanted to see every one. It was too cute and he was really hamming it up for the camera. He goes in phases - sometimes he still won't look at the camera and sometimes he's like this - all too happy to be the center of attention. I love it when he's like this.

Busy Little Bee

She's definitely moving - crawling, sitting herself up on her own and pulling up. The sitting herself up and pulling up all happened on the same day. There's no slowing her down. Poor Noah - his railroads have been getting trashed daily - Rachel has discovered they make great teethers. Who could get mad at that face though??? (okay, maybe Noah... ;) She also has this new little game she likes to play where she mimics this sound back and forth with us. She's our cutie! Also:
A BIG Happy 1st Birthday going out to Chloe today!!! Hope it was a great one!!!

Fun with Mamaw

The kids had a blast in this little pool my mom keeps at her house for them. It has a sprinkler on the dinosaurs tail that sprays them and a canopy that fits over the top of it for when the sun is at it's worst. The kids think it's like a tent. I love watching all of them play together. We're lucky that all of our kids are so close in age. They all have a blast together.

Four Little Monkeys Playing in the Tub

Poor Em- Olivia and Noah kept drenching her with cups full of water. Good thing she liked it. She poured cups of water over her own head when they weren't doing it!

She Loves Her Bunny

She loves this bunny she got for Easter - Thought this was too sweet to pass up and not take a picture of. We forgot 'Bunny' when we went to Tennessee, but thankfully found another one at Target. We're glad to have a back- up now anyway. ;)

Swimming at the Big Pool

While hanging out with Amie & Chris we braved heading over to the John Sevier Pool for an afternoon. It was a blast and the kids seemed to have a wonderful time. Noah adores swimming and loved doing his own thing in the water. He has really learned to enjoy being in the water at the lake, but that is with his life jacket on. At the pool he got to swim and play without being bulked up by his jacket and he loved it. I even took him over to the 'big kid' pool and swam around with him on my back. He loved jumping in from the side as well. He is getting so big and enjoying so many new things. The babies all seemed to have fun to. I loved that I caught a shot of all the 2005 babies sitting together. They usually are not still enough for that!

Day Out With Thomas

Noah talked about this day for a month before it actually happened and every day since he got to go see and ride on Thomas. Talk about a dream come true. I have never in my life seen a boy that loves trains so much. He likes planes, he likes cars, he likes boats... but he LOVES trains. It rained, we were late, but it was fun. I honestly had tears in my eyes when he first laid eyes on Thomas. He was so excited to see that darn train. There were several things to do besides the train ride. We were joined by Noah & Rachel's Papa & Grammy and also their Uncle Donny, Aunt Dodie, Colin and Eliot for our trip. Good times.

Home

We're home after a 9 day trip to Tennessee. It was a great visit with family and we enjoyed it. It's quite the drive though, so it's good to be back home. LOTS of photos coming...

She's 8 Months Old Today

Rachel is 8 months old today - and she is one busy, busy, busy little bee. She is giving kisses, clapping her hands, 'skooching' all over the place, rocking back and forth on her hands and knees like crazy, saying da-da and will give the occasional wave bye-bye. She adores her brother and wants to do/see everything he does (poor Noah, he's in trouble). She has six teeth and loves to eat. She's still wearing some 3-6 month clothes, 6-9 month clothes and size 2 diapers (hard to believe since she likes to eat so darn much!) and weighs right around 17 pounds.

"Mommy! I'm riding my bike!"

Those were Noah's words to me this evening as he was riding along on the sidewalk. He was so excited to get this new tricycle. In fact, I had way too much 'help' as I was trying to put this baby together. He has had a tricycle for a long time, but the one we had, he had a lot of trouble riding. This one is no problem! He rode it all the way around the block tonight and enjoyed every minute of it.