Creston tied his shoe!!!!

Creston tied his shoe today!!! Check out my homeschool blog for the latest on the boys "Home-School" progress!!! (Click on the Home-School link at the top of the page!!)

He was soooo cute! I just showed him a couple of times and then he was tying them himself!!! At his nana's when it came time to put his shoes on, he was all about showing her how he could do it!!! I'm really proud of him!!! (I'm done bragging now!!)

Progress on the Afghans!

Here is the latest update on my Afghan project for the boys! Remember I was wanting to give them these for Christmas! A little late for that!!! I hope to get them done by this summer!!! I'll have to get some more red/white/blue yarn! I ran out!!! AAAGHHHH!!!!

Hanging out with Mom!!

I decided that the boys and I would go see mom today and go by the cemetary.

We went by the Cemetary first...I didn't have any flowers to take, so we decided that we'd see if there were any new ones there and then take some the next time.

Grandma's Grave...

Grandpa's Grave...

My Great-Grandparents Grave (I'm named after Lucy ~ Martha Lucinda Owens-Wislon)

Mom laughed because Great-Grandpa's name was actually Jullian and everyone always called him Jack and her name was Martha and everyone called her Lucy. And that's what was on their tombstone......Lord help anyone who is looking for them by their given names! My Grandma's Sister Ruth's Grave...
After going to the cemetary, we went back to mom's house and hung out. We made Spaghetti for dinner and just sat around talking and letting the kids play with Ron's Wii game.

Mackie likes the "Foxing" gloves!

Creston likes the Chicken Shoot game!

My Grandma...

Today is the year anniversary of my little Grandma's death. It doesn't seem like a year has gone by, but it has all too quickly. As most people do when they lose a loved one, I still miss her terribly each day. I see how my boys love their Grandma's and I remember the special love and relationship I had with mine. She was really something and had been through and seen so much in her long 82+ years. She was truly a woman of God and her example has often been reason enough for me to stop and think "What would Grandma do?" I loved that little lady so very much and wish more than anything that I had been able to spend more time with her these last few years since I got married...but as with anything...life gets in the way and time gets by us and then it's gone.

On this day last year, Mark and the boys and I were going down to see her in the hospital in Johnson City. On the way, we stopped at Wal-Mart so I could pick up a few things and get her a "Get Well" card. I picked out a really cute and funny one to cheer her up. Little did I know at the time, that those few minutes it took me to do that kept me from seeing her before she was no longer responsive to us anymore. By the time we got to the hospital, she had already coded once...I had talked to her on the phone the day before, though...but I would have loved to have been able to have talked to her in person just one last time.

I know that she loved me and that she loved Mark and our two boys. She loved each and every member of her family with extreem conviction. She wanted to know that we all had close relationships with the Lord and she always wanted to know how we were in our relationships with one another. She always offered encouragement and hope when we were down. She prayed for us daily and more often if something was going on in our lives. I always joked with her (because she had the most beautiful wrinkle-free skin) that I would love to inherit her genes to have her skin as I got older! But, what I would most love to inherit from her is that beautiful sweet spirit of hers and the ability to not anger easily...to not judge too quickly, and to remember that everything CAN be made better through prayer and a closer walk with God.

I love and miss you Grandma, but I know that you are sooooo very happy up there in Heaven and one day, (whether it be sooner or later) we will all get to see you again!

Oh!!! and P.s..........Grandma LOVED the song by Kenny Chesney "She thinks my Tractor is Sexy", so HOPEFULLY, it is playing for you in the background!!! It's toooo cute to imagine her singing that, but she would, and her eyes would light up and she'd get a little silly smile on her face!!! Kenny Chesney and the Gaither Band were a couple of her favorites! What a combo!

We love you Hollers People and Isaacs People!!!

We had our good friends over this evening for dinner!! We did a pot luck so we all contributed to our yummy meal!!! It was goooooooo-oooodd!!!

Paulette will kill me for posting this one, but it was a good picture of Dennis!!! :o)

Our Yummy Spread!!

The boys eating!!! Tanner had a slumber party last night, and was tired, so he opted to try to "rest" while everyone else ate!!

Michelle is wondering "What have I gotten myself into????"

This is a really good look for Mark!!! Dazed and confused....... Giving Michelle and Paulette a hard time!!!

Michelle is getting ready to give Mark a special treat!

She is explaining it to him in terms that he can understand........

Hello Mr. Plunger-Snowman!!!!!

At a loss for words...

Moved to tears nearly!

Soooooooooooo happy!!!

No....Michelle was not drinking...

And now....Paulette wasn't drinking either!!!

Or here either! Here we all are looking excited to be alive!!!!! I love you guys!!!!!

Paulette Isaacs, Michelle Hollars and ME!!!

We had such a great time tonight, all of you'ins!!! We'll have to do it again soon!!!!!!!

Underwear Pants and Bath-tub Fun!!

Since the weather has been so bad for the last..........well.....forever, mom was able to make it up to see us before we could get down to see her. She brought Creston his Birthday Present....Underwear and Socks!!! YAY!!! Now.......some of you might say "Underwear and Socks?" To that I reply "YES!!!" He got sooooo many toys for Christmas, Underwear and Socks were a blessing! He liked them too! The Underwear pants (as Creston calls them with a giggle) had the Incredibles, Cars, Wall-E, and a couple of other cute cartoon characters on them.

Sorry mom, but this was the only picture I could get of the two of you!!! Still better than your ETSU I.D. badge!!! :o)

And here is Scuba-Mackie! He found Creston's "Gobbles" and decided to give them a try! He even made me get Daddy to come and look at him too!!! So silly!!!

Too bad we don't live near the deep sea! This could be the start of a GREAT Hobby!!

just some....stuff....

O.k.! First of all.....I want to know WHY it is that when your husband has been up all night at the Fire Department and comes home and needs to sleep (uninterrupted) for a while, do the kids automatically get 10 times louder than normal, have 15 times more accidents than average, and decide to yell, holler, and scream at each other more than usual?????????

Kids are aliens sent from other planets to drive us crazy, aren't they????

Thought so!

Anyway......been trying to keep them quiet this morning...we decided to let Daddy rest instead of going to Church this morning. Playing hooky! In the meantime I'm updating my blogs and trying to clean out our computer room....(TRYING is the key word there!!).

I finally updated our Home School Blog and added some other sites to it that I had on THIS blog. Took those sites off of this one to clean up some clutter and have decided it all looks better now! Yay!!

Anyway......hopefully we will have an uneventful day here today and we wish the same for all of you! (Sometimes BORING is soooo much better!!!)

Playin' in the snow...finally!!!!

It finally warmed up enough to let the boys go outside and play! Boy! These sub-zero wind chills have been HORRIBLE the last few weeks!!! I think it got up to 40 or maybe a little better on Thursday, so we let them play and play and play!!!

This is the hill between our house and Mack & Dorothy's house...it's really good for sledding.....Mark lets them slide down and then goes to pick them up with the 4-wheeler!

Paw-Paw wanted to play too!!!

Look at that sky! Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

Here they all goooooooooooo!!!!!!.............
And here they are all flopped over!!!!!! :o) Poor Mackie got the short end of the stick there. His little face was allllll in the snow!

Paw-Paw finally got up! Yay, Paw-Paw!!!!!

Jumpin' on the bed and a REALLY BIG Dresser!!

While in High Point for Mark's Uncles funeral, we "allowed" the children to get a little wild and crazy on the Hotels beds.....I know....I know.......we were setting bad examples (we jumped too!!), however........they don't weigh much, and we didn't jump tooo hard, so no harm was done!!! The boys enjoyed it!!! Now.....all we'll have to do is explain why they CAN'T do it at home!!

They took some time out to wrestle!

And then they took more time out to pillow fight...

...and THEN they jumped some more!!!

LOOK at this Dresser!!!!!!!! Look at those socks!!! This is the Front side of an actual building in High Point! (I think sometimes it's been known as the furniture capitol of the world). Talk about giving directions to that one! "Go 3 red lights, turn right....go straight until you see the BIG DRESSER. That's us!" :o)