International Baby Shower

Congratulations to Scott and Midori 

on the birth of their first son (our nephew) Gannon Frederick!!

My step-brother, Scott, and his wife live in Japan.  Scott is in the Navy and is stationed there.  This is where he met his beautiful wife many years ago.  Last weekend we had an international baby shower for them...what I mean by this is we set up the X-box live so that we could see Scott and they could see us.  We did this at my parents house in Nashville and invited all their friends and neighbors.  This was a really cool shower...we all opened our gifts live so that Scott could see what we got them.  My dad plans to ship all the gifts to them this week.  Of course my dad and Nell had to play the part.  They dressed up in Japanese fashion...let me tell you how thrilled my dad was ha ha!!! We had Japanese food and sake of course! Midori wasn't able to be at their house in Japan because she had the baby the night before.  Scott was gracious enough to come home and participate.  This was a really fun and unique baby shower. We love you guys and wish you all the best with your first baby!  Now go get some sleep!!!  HA HA!!!

Arlo comes to visit

Last weekend we received a special visit from Arlo, the penguin.  It was Taylor's turn to bring home Arlo from school and stay for a few days.  They had a blast and he even went on a trip to Nashville with us.

Taylor and Arlo having an afternoon snack of goldFISH...get it? goldFISH!

They played the Wii together and Taylor said Arlo beat her

He was a little dirty from jumping on the trampoline so taylor gave him a very COLD bath

On our way to grandparents house in Nashville

Arlo with Taylor, her brother, and all her cousins

Arlo and Taylor outside the Adventure Science Museum we went to on Sunday before heading back to Knoxville

Taylor FINALLY looses 3rd tooth

Taylor lost...well actually pulled out her loose tooth last week. This is the second time she has done this.  I guess she just couldn't wait and needed money from the tooth fairy I guess.  we have been waiting a long time for another tooth to fall out.  I was really hoping she wouldn't be in high school by the time her front ones came out!

SWEETEST VALENTINE'S DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where do I begin?  Tony and I woke up on Saturday (Valentine's Day) to breakfast in bed. Taylor and Mason made us a special breakfast of Fruit Loops and brought it to us on a tray with the sweetest card in the world.  And since my mom was in town visiting she came up with this great idea for all the kids to cook me and my sister and our husbands a special lasagna valentine's dinner cooked by them.  How sweet is that?  A lot of time and effort went into this night.  The kids starting planning weeks ago for our special night!  On Saturday mom even dragged them all to the grocery store to buy everything...appetizers, salad, decorations, roses, etc...At about 3:00 our phone rang and Taylor called us from GRAN'S RESTAURANT to let us know that we had a reservation at 5:30 p.m. that night.  Tony and I couldn't wait!!  When we arrived at the restaurant (a.k.a. our house ha ha!) there was a wait.  There is a picture below of us waiting.  We were finally able to go inside where Tony and Trebor were greeted by the hostesses then handed a rose to give to us.  We were then escorted to the "lounge" (a.k.a the living room) where we munched on appetizers of shrimp cocktail and cheeses and crackers.  They had jazz music playing so we all decided to start dancing.  This was just like a real restaurant...I couldn't believe it...We were having a blast and hadn't even sat down for dinner yet.  Finally our table was ready!! The wait wasn't too long, about 5 minutes or so thank goodness ha ha!  We were then greeted by our servers Taylor and Ally to take our drink and food orders.  They even had MENUS!! Can you believe it?  How cute!  Oh did I mention the decorations on the table and the beautiful roses?  Oh and candlelight too!  This was a very relaxing evening...we had a babysitter come over and keep the babies upstairs while we ate.  I couldn't imagine trying to have a romantic dinner with Baker trying to crawl up in my lap! After dinner we were offered dessert...prepared especially by Taylor...a Mr. Goodbar pie she made all by herself.  Unfortunately my camera battery died and I didn't get a picture of it but it sure was good.  I can't tell you how special this night was for us.  These kids put so much time and effort into making it a night we will always remember.  It sure does beat going out somewhere and being waited on by someone else!!  I love my kids to death!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Hope everyone had a special valentine's like we did!

Mom with her servers at GRAN'S RESTAURANT

The table set with the flowers Tony got me 

Here we are waiting to be seated

Waiting in the lounge

Dancing the night away

A visit from Grandma

Seriously Mom!  Are you kidding me? Pop Pop was right I think you do need elbow pads, knee pads, a neck brace, ankle brace, shin guard and a nose guard!

Watch Out Tarheels...Here comes Baker!

SLAM DUNK!!!!!!!!!