Maison's First Deer!

This weekend we made a last minute decision to drive to my parents' house to pick out a Christmas tree and let the boys hunt for the afternoon. It was very fun and quite eventful! My mom gathered the whole fam together for dinner and, while hunting, Maison was able to kill his first deer! He was grinning from ear to ear. John and Justus enjoyed Maison's success and had fun celebrating with him. Kenz enjoyed helping Gracie (my mom) decorate the Christmas tree and she also got to play with my brother and sister-in-law's dog, Mally.

Hope this finds you all doing well!

Camping Fun!

Just thought I would share some fun camping pics. The weekend before Thanksgiving we took a trip to Arkansas to make some fun camping memories. It was a cold weekend so the campfire was our home base. Here is a picture of Kenz in the tent trying to stay warm!











The kids had fun fishing, exploring the woods, riding bikes and throwing the football.

We also had a family slingshot competition (I cannot remember the last time I used a slingshot, but it was lots of fun) and played a game of two hand touch football. John and I had a slight height advantage over Mais and Justus, but they seemed to have fun playing anyway and we switched up teams part way through the game.
Kenz played too, which consisted of her dancing around a good distance from the ball...I'm not sure she ever knew the ball was in play!

We enjoyed some incredible camp fire cookin by the one and only dutch over master, chez juan! Some yummy peach cobbler, chili dogs and the mountain man breakfast with sausage...I told John we should make fires in the back yard just for the yummy food.

And last but not least, we did what all good campers do and cooked us up some tasty smores...can I have another please!!! :o)

Fishing and Laundry and Statues...Oh My!

These are some pics from the fishing trip John and Justus went on a couple weekends ago. They only got to spend a half day there, but hopefully they will get to enjoy some more trips this winter!
A fun pic of Justus showing off his catch!

Justus and Chuck enjoying some fishing!

Our halloween was super fun! We had an M&M and a hunter. Only the M&M would pose for a picture with our lovely pumpkins we carved at the birthday party!

Kenz getting the laundry did!!! She had been saving it up for just the right time...like when she ran out of clothes to wear!

And...finally, one of the funnier moments of my last days of work, was driving by this fine display in front of World Overcomers Church in the finer part of Memphis. I just think this is the funniest thing.

Better Late Than Never...

Just had a little fun time and thought I would post some pics from our honeymoon. This one was taken at one of the restaurants on the resort property.

This picture was taken on the guided kayak, snorkel and hike we took one day. The views from the hike were beautiful!

John at the Baths. This place was on Virgin Gorda, and until everyone else on the island showed up, we had it pretty much to ourselves. There were huge boulders all around. It was beautiful to see the light shining through.

Dinner at The Balcony one night. It is in the tiny town on St. John and overlooks the harbor.

Beautiful sunset.



This was the second level to the outdoor restaurant on the beach at Caneel Bay.

John and I after hiking on the dutch road our to a fun snorkel spot out to Watermelon Kay. We saw lots of pretty fish and hung around a while to admire a sea turtle.

These are some of the sugar ruins on St. John.

Just relaxing at dinner one night as the sun was setting.

Triathlons and Football

Here are some fun pics from Maison's triathlon. He did very well and had a lot of fun. That was about the last time we saw his bike...he left it outside one day at the neighbors house and someone was seen picking it up, putting it in the back of their truck and driving off with it. Kenzie's bike disappeared too, but it was back at the house last night when we got home from Justus' football game. Justus plays on the eighth grade football team. They won, and it was a great game. A few of John's co-workers even came out for the game in support of Justus!

Kenzie and the Bean Stalk

The other night before we even sat down to eat, Kenzie expressed her disatisfaction with the fact that there were black beans on her plate. Now, everyone in our house is well aware of the fact that Kenzie does not like black beans. That said, in an effort to teach her not to comment on what is put on her plate and to try everything she is served, we not only put them on her plate, but being the mean parents that we are, we had her take one painful bite of them. You would have thought we were making her eat something off of fear factor. The gagging begins and the tears roll down her face, but slowly this time she actually got about 3 beans down. We were all waiting with anticipation to see if she would actually swallow them this time...and relief came when she did.

We then noticed that Justus, who was finding such great humor in watching his sister eat the beans, had not tasted them either. Thus began yet another crazy night at our kitchen table. Justus took a big bite of black beans and then proceeded to act like he was gagging and choaking and running out of oxygen and then fell out of his chair onto the floor knocking all the leaves off of our dying tree...and shaking the tree some more just for added effects. And then at some point he initiated himself into the black bean tribe when he smeared black bean juice all across his forehead. Now I recognize that all of this probably should not take place at the supper table, but you try not laughing at that! :o) Just another day in our crazy lives!!!

Talk of Pirates...

My pirate name is:

Dirty Mary Flint

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network