Thanksgiving and Alec's 11th Birthday

Thanksgiving was held at our house this year. We had a great time and everyone was sufficiently stuffed by the end of the evening! We also celebrated Alec's 11th birthday since the whole family was together. It's hard to believe that he is 11. Where did the time go? My little blue eyed boy is now my cute young man, with the same big baby blues!!

Daddy's Girl!

Pawpaw and his girls!

Aunt Tricia and Her Ry-Guy!

We are SOOO cute!

Alec opening presents with a little help from Jack!

Two of a kind!

Brotherly Love!!

The Fox

My Aunt Sandi took my girls to the Fox Theater to see Billy Elliot. The girls loved getting dressed up for a night on the town. They said the dancing was phenomenal, the language. . .not so much. They had a great time. Don't they look so grown up! Olivia at 13 is becoming such a lady. And Taylor is 19 and turning into a wonderful young woman!

Moby Dick

So what do you do if your a 9 year old homeschool boy who has read Moby Dick with your older brother and you've watched the movie??? Why act it out with your Imaginex. . .of course!! So Jack used his pirate ship as the Whaler and his shark as Moby!! Great imagination, that one!! He also used two of Ryan's camp pads as the ocean since they were blue. Told ya, he thought of everything!!

Family Field Trip!

Our family got an incredible opportunity Friday, to get up close and personal with an F/A-18. Our friend Kathy called and said her son Zach, who happens to be a Navy pilot, would be making a stop-over on his way to San Diego. She wanted to know if the kids would be interested in getting to see Zach's plane. WOULD THEY EVER!! I think Bobby was the most excited to get to see the bird. Those of you who knew him before wife and kids will remember that this was what he wanted to do before he met me and God changed his flight plan! Check out the pics, they are great!

This F/A-18 is painted to resemble a Russian fighter. Zach is part of the Aggressor Squadron that trains other pilots to attack.

Above is the picture of the gatling gun which can fire up to 6000 rounds per minute! But Zach said they only carry about 600 rounds so they are also very accurate!
Alec and Jack in the foreground, Zach in the background.

Alec was impressed with the tailhook. That tiny hook is what stops the aircraft upon landing on a carrier. It's not very big!!!

Bobby trying on Zach's helmet! He was happy to get to see his favorite plane! The gear that Zach is wearing weighs about 80 lbs. He said that when they are flying missions they carry about 20 lbs. more on them! That's about the weight of another person.

How we play with our food!!!

Here is Alec enjoying a bowl of potato soup!!

Say CHEESE!!

Dad and Jack go Camping. . .in the rain!

Jack wrote out a list he and his dad would need to go camping. Bobby has carried said list around with him for almost a year. So he finally decided it was time to let Jack fullfill his camping dreams. So they headed out and the weather called for rain. And it did, almost the whole time. But Jack didn;t care, he had a blast! So did his dad :-)

Jack getting his rain gear ready to camp.

Check out the smug grin on the face of a boy having a great time camping in the rain!
A very tired boy on the way back home.

Dirty feet that belong to a Jack that had a great time with his dad!

Boy: noun. Noise with dirt on it!!

Riding Around

After we got done with the horses, Ryan gave the girls a ride on the RTV and the 4-wheeler.

Horse Crazy

Olivia, Ryan and Taylor have been working with the horses at their Pampaw Bob and Grandma Darlene's. We had a chance to take the twins and my sister, Kristen, out there one afternoon and we had a ball!

Taylor and Teagen on Rose. Aunt Kristen is holding the rope.

Taylor riding Star.Taylor and MoMo riding Rose.

Olivia and MoMo on Star.

Jack and MoMo.

Jack and MoMo on Star. If you haven't noticed, Mairin liked the horses a lot better than her sister did!

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack be asleep under the bench!

Ever have one of those moments as a parent where you feel about 1 inch tall? Come on, I know you all, don't lie!! Well, I must confess that I was hollering for Jack to come back and get his schoolwork done. I was getting really angry, and to my chagrin, he had fallen asleep under the table! He was actually snuggled up with the dog, but she left when I bent down to take the picture.

Johnson Shut-Ins and Elephant Rock

When we went to the Shut-ins we had a lot of fun playing around on the rocks. At one point Jack heard thunder and he freaked out! We had to get out and chase after him because he was racing to the van. Once we had changed clothes the weather was clearing up and we decided to stay and eat dinner there at one of the picnic spots.

Here's me trying to drown Ryan!

Just kidding!

The Jack-Attack. . .pre-thunderstorm FREAK OUT!


Me and Olivia

Alec catching some rays.

We all decided to relax after eating at a picnic area just outside the Shut-ins.

I feel asleep on this rock and had no idea anyone was going to snap my picture!

The boys goofing around!

These are pictures from Elephant Rock. We had fun climbing and running all over the rocks in the beautiful sunshine.

We all climbed on the tire swing after lunch and had Ry push us as fast as he could. Everyone except Jack liked the spinning. Jack was screaming the entire time. The rest of us got a good laugh out of his hysterics.

We had a fun filled day and hope to go back to see the beautiful paths they have there in the fall.

Happy Belated Birthdays!

Olivia turned 13 in June. She is in 8th grade this school year. She received a Kindle for her birthday and loves to read from it as much as she can. She can't wait to take an online Anatomy and Physiology class in January. While she is waiting for that class to start she is building a battery powered racecar with Ryan.


Jack turned 9 in July and as you can tell he is very smug about almost being 10. He is in third grade this school year. Mom is having him use Heart of Dakota - Bigger Hearts For His Glory. He loves the "get-up-and-move activities that the author puts in the curriculum because he gets to "work out" during school.