Monday, November 21, 2016

Girls' Weekend

Well, now that I have mostly recovered from our girls' weekend, I can finally blog about it! 😁 

The kids and I walked down to the fountain Thursday night to meet them at the parking garage. (Brett was in South Carolina for work for the second time in a week!)

They had invited Erin to come with them, but she was unable to come. So, Tracie printed out a picture of her head and they brought her along on a stick. It was hilarious. We even tucked her in at night! 😂

We ate at Best Italian for supper. The pizza was delicious but I would highly recommend carry out. The service was horrible and we were there forever. At one point the waitress left a pitcher of water on the table across the aisle for us to get our own refills because she didn't want to come back. Seriously!!! The boys were exhausted by the time we left. Luckily, we were all able to cram into Mandy's truck so we didn't have to walk the entire way back home.

Mandy rode along with me to take the kids to school Friday morning. I loved showing her where the kids go to school and some of the other places in town!

Erin rode along, too. 😂

We went to the Apple Barn for breakfast. The food was delicious and they gave us samples of apple fritters, apple muffins and julep. Here's a pic the girls sent me on their way down where the restaurant gave Aimee tons of samples. Sampling is our new favorite thing. 😁

After breakfast, we went to a few boutiques and then to Tanger Outlets. We shopped alllll day. We had so much fun and I have never laughed so much. We all got a lot of Christmas shopping done, too! After shopping, we met Brett and the kids at Timberwood Grill at the Island for supper. We were going to eat at Paula Deen's but found out it is only family style and $22 a plate. Not really in our family food budget! Timberwood Grill was really good. I would highly recommend the pork barbecue nachos. Yum, yum! 

I woke up Saturday morning with a terrible sore throat. Not sure if it was from all the talking and laughing or the 30 degree drop in temperature! We had tickets to go to the LIFT ladies' luncheon at church though, so the show had to go on! The food was all prepared by ladies in the church and it was delicious. A few of us at our table even won door prizes! Then the entertainment began and the only word I have for it is WOW!!! It was the Country Tonite cast singing and playing a wonderful selection of Christmas songs. 

This lady sang my favorite, "Mary, Did You Know?" She was waaaay better than me. I almost feel like I can never sing this song again because she was soooo good! 😂

They included a hilarious skit with this guy, or should I say lady? We had tears in our eyes!

This girl has been performing with Country Tonite for 6 years and is only 16. She just graduated from high school at 16. She was very talented!

They also had a little boy perform who was 11. He was very entertaining. 😊

We had such a fantastic time. I told the girls they are going to have to come back for the next luncheon in January. 😁

Here is Erin enjoying my door prize. 😂

After the luncheon, we walked into Gatlinburg and did some MORE shopping. Mostly we were on a hunt for a bear hat for Sophie and we found one! Apparently it roars, too. Oops! 😂

We then all went to church. The girls all loved it. I am so glad they approve! We went out to dinner at Billy Goat Tavern. We will 100% be returning there. I had the best burger I have ever eaten. I like mine medium rare and not many places can cook it to perfection. They did! 

We came home and talked and talked, since apparently we hadn't talked nonstop for two days😂, and then it was time to say goodbye. 😞 The girls got up early in the morning before we were up. I was soooo sick all day Sunday and spent most of the day sleeping. I'm feeling a lot better now, and hopefully I'll be 100% for Thanksgiving!

Oh, one more thing... Erin stayed behind! Yay! We miss you and love you, Erin!!! 😘😘😘

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Visitors are Coming!

I know, I know. It's been a while since I blogged. Why? Honestly, I just haven't felt like it! Ha! I started two new fitness routines and have been focusing more on myself and trying to get myself into a routine. Now that I've got that figured out, I'm back! Here are a few things we did this week:

On Saturday before church, we decided to do some of our own family pictures. 😂 We take soooo many pictures, but I rarely get them printed. I really need to get back to scrapbooking them. It's nice to have this virtual kind of scrapbook, but I would like a tangible scrapbook too! I used to scrapbook with Jamie and Linda once a month. Oh how I miss those times! 😞


There are still so many leaves on the trees. Seriously, how are they still there?! We have so many fall on our decks and driveway, then Brett gets out the leaf blower, then they're back again in two days. We don't get it! They fall, fall, fall, but the trees still look full. 




There are still wildfires here in Tennessee, as well as North Carolina and Georgia. The smoke has been thick and we have been under air quality alerts as well as burn bans. The kids have also not been able to go outside for recess. Please pray that we get some rain. We need it desperately! 😞

Janae has been working hard on a science fair project. Brett and I both hate science, so we weren't much help when she had questions! Ha! We took this picture the day of the science fair. There's Janae behind her project board. 😂

Pumpkin has been back several times and I am not happy with him! He has chewed more holes in our hot tub cover! We're pretty sure he's looking for water since the creeks are pretty much dry, so Brett filled a bucket of water and left it by the hot tub for him. Of course, he hasn't been back since he did that! 







My grandma sent us a gift card for Texas Roadhouse, so we walked down there one night this week. It's at the complete opposite end of town from us, so it's a pretty good workout just getting there! I was smart and did not eat any bread, because I didn't want to be miserable on the trek home. The kiddos did not show that restraint! I'm pretty sure Easton had four rolls and Janae had five. Five! 🐷🐷🐷

Janae came home yesterday with lots of good news. She was one of the two finalists in her class spelling bee, so she gets to compete in the school spelling bee. She also won first place in the individual science fair! They only place the top three, and she won! We were beyond excited for her! She can take her project to the county science fair if she wants to. She says she doesn't want to, but we aren't giving her the choice. 😁

Easton brought this home from school. 
It warms my heart that he still thinks about God and his family when he's at school. He also told me that he was thankful for presents because he knows that some kids don't get any. 😞 

When I started my workout, Easton decided he wanted to do it with me. He did the entire thing. I had to push him a couple of times and tell him he could do it, but he made it through! It's nice having a workout buddy. Brett does weights with me, but I'm usually on my own for cardio because he hates it. Thanks little buddy! 😍💕😘

Today was the first day this week that I didn't smell any smoke and the sky was crystal clear. Absolutely gorgeous and 76 degrees. Too bad we are supposed to have a high of 42 on Sunday! I'm not going to complain though, because I know it's supposed to be much worse back in Indiana. That was one of the main reasons we moved, so please keep your snow up there! 😂

Tonight I have some special visitors coming for the weekend! My cousin Mandy, cousin-in- law Jamie and good friends Aimee and Tracie are coming for a girls' weekend! Yay!!!! I have been waiting, waiting, waiting ALL day for them to get here. A few more hours and they will be here! Can't wait to share all of the fun things we have planned for this weekend! 

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Three-Day Weekend

Thursday was such a nice day. The sky was so clear. Not a cloud in sight! 



Brett had to take some samples to a customer downtown, so I walked with him. Most of the pumpkins, scarecrows and straw bales have disappeared and have been replaced with Christmas trees and other winter decorations.

They also have flags everywhere for Veteran's Day. Sevier County does not let the tourists down when it comes to decorating for the holidays. There is so much to look at. It's gorgeous!

After school I was able to get a picture with the sun above the mountains. I think that's the first time that has happened! It looked even better in real life!

After dinner we piled in the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We went up a road by our house to see where it led to. It's called Loop Road so we were pretty sure it would come down somewhere! Most of the roads that lead into the mountains around us are dead ends, but we were confident this one would not be! We drove up, up, up the mountain, around curve after curve. About fifteen minutes in we starting descending down a bit and finally after about a half hour we could see downtown lights. We ended up right downtown, completely opposite of where we thought we would be! There were a lot of houses up the mountain. Some of them were in locations that I would never DREAM of leaving. I thought our driveway was steep and narrow when we first bought the house. Ours was nothing compared to some of these! I'm so glad we found a house where we did. We have the perfect location, in my opinion!

Once we got downtown, the lights most definitely did not disappoint! I was only able to get photos when we were stopped, or they were blurry. 😑 Here are a few though!


We decided to make a whole night of it and drove in to Pigeon Forge to see their lights too. Easton must have had a long day at school. He didn't last very long!😊


I found a new store called New York, New York. I only ran in for a few minutes since the boys were waiting in the car, but I will have to make another trip back there. They had great clothes!😁 When Janae and I came out, Easton was awake and the boys were ready for some frozen yogurt, so we stopped at Sweet Frog. Talan gets really excited about frozen yogurt. 😂

Easton doesn't really like frozen yogurt, but he was happy to pose with Dolly. 😁

All three of the kids were tired by the time we got home. 😊

The kids didn't have school on Friday because of Veteran's Day, so we slept in. Yay! The boys still had boxes of toys sitting around in their room from the move, so we went through all of those and got things more organized. That was a job! I remember when Janae went through the stage of keeping every little thing. She was a mini hoarder! She grew out of it and hardly keeps anything and is SO organized. Please, please, PLEASE tell me the boys will get to that stage! 

Janae and I went to Sevierville to get the oil changed and then went shopping at some new stores. I'm getting closer to getting all of my Christmas shopping done! I'm hoping to get the rest finished when we go Black Friday shopping. My mom, Janae, Madi and I have a tradition of going after Thanksgiving dinner. We are looking forward to that again this year! Madi reminded me today that we will be up in Indiana in just 11 days! 😁 Not sure if I am quite ready for that drive again! 😑

Last night we went to Dollywood for the first time since they put up their Christmas lights and decorations. 


The lights were gorgeous!

These trees absolutely amaze me. I have no idea how they get all of those lights on each tree. There are sooooo many! And they go out to the very tip of EVERY branch! Stunning!

Every building is lined with rows of lights as well. I heard on the radio that they have a team of people that walks through the park every night checking for bulbs that are out and immediately replace them. That must take forever! It's so worth it to come to Dollywood this time of the year just to see the lights. The boys rode just three rides last night and they were happy with that. The best part was just seeing the lights!

Oh and the cinnamon bread. We can't forget the cinnamon bread! It's the best thing you will ever taste in your life. Except I did notice that they raised the price by a dollar for the holiday season! Good thing I have a Gold Pass and get 20% off or I may have not bought two loaves. 😂

The perfect ending to our already wonderful evening was going home and watching some IU basketball. I have been a huge fan since third grade. It's by far my favorite sport and I am one of those fans who yells at the tv. 😁 I think I must have woke Brett up ten times yelling during game. 😂 IU opened up the season with an amazing overtime win over #3 Kansas. Sweet! Looks like we are going to have a great season of basketball!