The Boy Is Now A Scout

I am still in utter shock that I have a son old enough to be a Tiger Scout. We were fortunate enough to have one of Tyson's good friend, Davis, from school ask us to sign up with him for scouts. Davis's dad is the scout master for the Tiger Den. Tyson has all of his friends in his den with him and so scouts has been a blast so far. He was officially made a Tiger Scout tonight at one of their outings, where he received his neckerchief and his Tiger Trail badge. He is pretty proud of himself. He has been working for several weeks to memorize the motto and promise of a boy scout, and to understand all about scouting. I am one proud momma! Way to go buddy!

Happy Birthday Vaughn

At the beginning of this year, I didn't know if we would make another birthday, but my sweetheart has come back fighting and is doing so well. Vaughn turned 34 today. We were fortunate enough to have the Winters watch Tyson and Taryn for the afternoon so that we could enjoy a date all by ourselves. We about didn't know what to do without kids, since we take them everywhere with us. We settled on a movie and then a later lunch out on the river at Calhoun's. It was such a nice day that the waitress talked us into eating outside and I am grateful she did. It was peaceful and just the right place to eat and talk. (we are usually talking over the kids or at the kids during any kind of conversation) After our nice afternoon it was time to pick up the kids at the Winters'. They had a ball with the kids and vice versa. They even told us that anytime we want to take off and go out on a date they would watch our kids for us. That was so kind of them! I hope this is a sign that there are many more birthdays for us to celebrate.

It Is Orange Time in Tennessee

"Rocky Top Tennessee!" Yes, it is that time again folks. Time for Tennessee VOLS football.

We had an amazing opportunity to watch the VOLS play Cincinnati last Saturday. Around 1 p.m. Vaughn received a text on his phone from Dr. Belack that he had four, 5th row tickets to the game and he wasn't going to go. Anyone that wanted the tickets needed to text him back, first come-first serve. We jumped on that one! In no time at all we had the tickets and were putting our orange on for the big game.

We were directly behind the team. It was awesome. You could see their faces. (that is how close we were). The seats were amazing. I have never been that close to a game before and neither had Vaughn or the kids.

Through out the game I kept trying to get a picture of Derek Dooley, the head coach for Tennessee, but he was a moving all over the place. So I got this back of the head shot as he passed by the microphone. We were so close to the team that I could see his brown penny loafer shoes with his bright orange pants.

Like I said, the seats were incredible.

The camera man kept going back and forth along the little path down in front. The kids enjoyed watching him film the game. Also, look at that sea of orange. It is so completely awesome to see all the fans in that place. There were over 98,000 people there at that game. WHOA!In the huddle. What a great shot. They were on fire that day.

I was so close that I could take this picture of the punt teams' helmets.

GO VOLS!

This is kind of an odd picture to throw in there, but during half time, this bride and groom came down out of the stands to be married on the steps of the stadium. Love it! Nothing like being married at a Tennessee football game. I was just surprised her dress wasn't orange!

The boys! Tyson had a ball cheering for his team. And we loved the fact that we got to spend a whole afternoon with Vaughn. He has been working his tail off lately, so this was a needed family outing.

The "princess" was not amused that I wanted to take her picture. She wore her cute little Tennessee cheer leading outfit. Everyone around us said how cute she looked.

Taryn's eye's are priceless while my face is contorted in a grimace. I couldn't get the camera to do what I wanted it to do. ARG!

During half time the band and dancers came out on the field. My little cheerleader danced right along with them for about half the time. Then she decided that it was "too loud" and placed my hands over her ears while she continued to grove around. HA HA HA priceless!

By the middle of the third quarter, she had passed out. Thank goodness the great tickets came with padded seats and back rests, or else she wouldn't have been able to sleep for the rest of the game. Momma's arms would have given out.

This was a massive pileup.

Another game shot!

After the game, Taryn woke up. How she slept through all the noise, I will never know. We all had a great time and ended the night with pizza. Thanks Dr. B for the tickets. Love watching the VOLS play!

This Is Where I Found Her

During the course of the afternoon I couldn't find Taryn upstairs. She was very quite and I began to wonder what my "Little Miss" was getting into at that moment. Down the stairs I went and this is what I found. She had passed out asleep on the first three stairs. I giggled!

Here is a good back side shot. I figured as soon as I took the pictures she would wake up, but I was wrong. It took a good 5 minutes to get her to wake up. And she wasn't happy that I had woke her from her nice nap.

Taryn Started Preschool

My little princess is off to preschool. Today was Taryn's first day at preschool and right at first it was a little touch and go. Yesterday and this morning she was convinced that she was not going to school. She flat out told us that she didn't want to go to school. We kept asking her why and she would just keep saying "I don't want to go to school." Okay. This morning she wasn't much better. I got her up and dressed before we took Tyson to school and she didn't really like that very much. She was less than happy to eat breakfast before being able to watch cartoons. It was only after her dad made such a BIG fuss about how much fun school was going to be that she decided that maybe it would be okay to go. Then it was all business. She wanted her new shoes, pants and shirt with a flower in her hair and let's not forget the backpack and her school supplies. (Thanks dad).

I couldn't drive to Abby's fast enough for her, and when I dropped her off she said, "bye mom" and was gone. I thought I would break down like I did when I first took Tyson to school, but I was just glad she went without any tears or tantrums... My baby is growing up. How exciting! Love you baby girl.

Tyson Turns 6

My little guy isn't little anymore; in fact, he is a big boy who turned 6. Tyson wanted a big birthday party this year. Well...this mommy had a heck of a time trying to find a place to host a party that was under $150.00. All the places I checked were $200.00 or above. HOLY COW, for a kid's party? I figured that we were going to have to just have another family party and that would break his heart. Then we went to the YMCA for our daily swimming and I saw a flier about their birthday parties. It was under $150.00 and he could invite 20 people. Perfect! I called and booked our reservation and sent out the invitations. Tyson was thrilled to be having a "real" party.

It was wonderful for me because all I had to do was bring some drinks and cupcakes and let the kiddos swim for 2 hours. Great! Everyone we invited came, and all had a good time swimming and going down the slides. Tyson even coaxed me to going down the slides with him. I probably looked a little silly coming out of the slides, but it was fun.

My little man showing off his muscles. He invited his buddies from school and church and their mom or dad. So we had a gathering of people. The best part of it was that our party was the first of the day, it was nice and warm and there were hardly any other patrons but us. The kids had the run of the pool all to themselves.

After the hours of swimming were coming to a close, the kids were eyeballing the cupcakes and asking, "When do we get to eat?" Here are Taryn and her friend Ella, picking their seats by the goodies.

The YMCA was so good to us. They had these fun signs up for his party and they came and gave him a YMCA party t-shirt, which Tyson thought was so cool. All the life guards were so accommodating and fun. I sure was glad that they were so nice, it made my life a lot easier.

We have never been lucky enough to have grandparents around when it has been the kids' birthdays, but Grandma and Papa Jackson surprised us and came into town on the weekend of his party. YIPPIE! That was a great present for Tyson and for me as well. I had help from Sue with making the cupcakes and frosting them.

I think the cupcakes were a hit. What do you think?

Kids enjoying the cupcakes and Capri suns. Olivia, Rylan, Anna, James and Zack--all kids from church.

Tyson opening his gifts. James gave him a football, just for little guys like him. He was excited. It has been hard to throw daddy's BIG ones. Davis and Brody and Andrew are sitting next to Tyson. They are buddies from school.

More gifts...

And more gifts...

And even more gifts...

Tyson was spoiled by all his friends. We have never had such a fun, big party and so many gifts. We have such good friends!

Taryn enjoyed just eating cupcakes and playing with Ella. The pool party was a success and I was glad Tyson and the other kids enjoyed it. After it was over, the clean up was easy and then we were done for the day. (Other kids that came, not shown in pictures: Noah, Xander, Sarah)

Since we had the party the weekend before his "real" birthday, I decided that he still needed some kind of festivities for his birthday day! So... I decorated his door, like I always do, and I decorated the kitchen with balloons and streamers and Happy Birthday signs. I made pancakes and stuck birthday candles in them.

Tyson had to go to school on his "real" birthday, but he was okay with that. He took party treats to his class and enjoyed the day. When he got home, he was able to open up gifts from Grandma T, Aunt D and us. I think this was a birthday to remember.