Fire! Fire! Fire!

Emily and I have had gas fireplaces at every residence we've shared....until now. We have discovered a major advantage of our 50's themed digs in Winston....a real fireplace! We tried it out a couple of times (yes, smores were involved) and everyone loves it. Here are some pictures of the family enjoyment (and yes, I actually read the directions on how to burn a log....occupational hazard.)

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Finally, Lily owes Papa a picture of her two adult teeth coming in....here we go!

Jump Rope for Heart

Lily is participating in a fundraiser at her school.  They are raising money for the American Heart Association by having a Jump Rope festival.  Hear a special word from Lily:

If you would like to help, you can click on the link below to visit her webpage at the AHA:

Help Lily Jump!

Eight Years

On the way to school today, I told Lily about the significance of this day.
The first day, eight years ago, of her Grandaddy's life in Heaven.

There have been so many moments during these last six months, that I have longed to share with him.  I can imagine his excitement watching our soccer Deacs throughout the season.  I know, despite the distance, he would have been here.  In my head, I recapped many games for him, imagining the conversation we would have had.  I feel he would have been so excited about what I'm doing and this brings me comfort.

You are missed, Dad, and loved so dearly.

Finger paint

The girls seem to be up to something that involves finger paint....wonder what it could be?

Glamping

Emily is currently in Honduras on a medical mission trip.  She left early in the morning on Friday (so early, in fact, that is was almost late Thursday night!)  We've all missed her, though I think Lily is at an age when she can understand more of what is happening and felt it a bit more.  CJ was said until she saw the next shiny object.

To help get our minds off how much we missed our Mama, we decided to go on a "camping" trip to Johnson City.  On the way, Uncle Chipper informed us that this is actually called "glamping"....glamorous camping.  When we got to the house we gave it a good showing, particularly with the food.  We ate camping staples such as hot dogs, mac and cheese and smores.  We even camped out on an air matress in the living room....this worked out until the middle of the night when the dog paw tapping on hard wood, refridgerator knocking sound and blinking Christmas tree lights combined with the sheer cold to force us all into the master bed.  We couldn't even handle camping in the living room!

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the fun.

Did I mention that we baked ginger bread cookies too?