The Fam Came To Play

Post Date = March 22nd-26th, 2012

These are faces of joy.  My niece Jaelyn and Taryn.  Showing off their look-a-like hairdos.  Our family was so glad to have Vaughn's brother Mark and his family come to visit us for a few days.  We haven't seen them in two years.  Jen, my sister-in-law, has had a new baby since we last saw them and is pregnant with anther.  I loved having them come to visit and hope they come again soon.  We spent the first half of the day at a park up in Farragut, TN while Tyson was a school.

Taryn is a swing girl.  If there are swings at a park, that is all she wants to do.  Undercats and Underdogs are her favorite words on the swings.  Jaelyn and Cole also wanted to swing.

This is my newest niece Madelyn.  She is a cutie pie!  She wasn't keen on letting Vaughn or I hold her until the second night they were at our house.  She wouldn't go to sleep with the other kids and so Jen let her come downstairs to watch a movie with all of us adults.  I had some popcorn and she became my best friend, cause I would share.  She let me hold her and everything.  And then...the next day...she didn't like me again.  How fickle.  HA HA HA  Can't say I blame her, she just met me.

On Saturday, we all went to Tyson's soccer game.  The kids hung out on the blanket to cheer their brother and cousin on.

Vaughn, Mark and Adrian hanging out shooting the bull during the game.

After a while the kids got bord of watching and decided to rid the field of it's dandelions.  HA HA! What ever it takes to keep them happy.

Tyson is the one on the far right.  They were getting instructions from Coach Moro.  He is a great coach!

Tyson takes after the ball.  He scored a goal on this run.  He is learning to understand more of the dynamics of the game and he loves playing it.

Tyson making the corner kick to his teammates.

After the soccer game, we took our cousins to DOLLYWOOD!  We had so much fun because it rained while we were there and so a lot of people left, but we stuck it out and the lines were down to nothing. We got on and off rides fast.  The kids had a ball.  Tyson is able to ride all of the rides.  He and his dad went on the Flying Eagle ride.  The newest ride in the park.  It is a crazy roller coaster ride and at first Tyson was scared but then he loved it after riding it.

Here is a shot of Vaughn, Tyson, Mark and Jaelyn riding a water ride.  They got wet and then were cold the rest of the time.

We took the train ride around the park.  Obviously Tyson was glad.

So was Taryn and Cole.

Madelyn, not so much.  She wasn't too sure about it all.  Uncle Mark had a ball!

Sunday was General Conference and then a day at World's Fair Park.  Madelyn enjoyed the swings.

The dad's played a little game of football.

My cute nephew Cole.

Jaelyn and Taryn loving the tire swing.

Jen, Mark, Madelyn, Cole and Jaelyn.  The time was too short and we wanted them to stay longer.  Taryn even had it all figured out.  Vaughn could deliver Aunt Jen's baby, Uncle Mark could find a job in Knoxville, Jaelyn could go to school with Tyson and Cole could go with her to preschool.  And she could help babysit Madelyn when Aunt Jen has the baby.  HA HA HA.  Seems so simple, right?  Anyhow, we love you guys and are so glad you came to visit.  Can't wait for you all to come back!

Happy Easter

So blogger and I are having a love/hate relationship right now.  I will usually upload my pictures for my blogs
and then blog about them when I have time.  And before, I was able to keep the date the uploads took place. All of the sudden, blogger has changed my dates around and now will not let me access my blog in Explorer.  I have to access it in Google Chrome.  So...This blog post is for April 8th.

The Easter Bunny left Easter candy all over our house this morning.  The kids got up and saw their baskets sitting at the top of the stairs with a note from the Easter Bunny telling them to find the hidden candy he had left.  They were down the stairs and hunting for luscious candy filled eggs in no time.

Tyson was such a generous big brother and instead of finding all the candy and hording it for himself, he helped Taryn find it as well.  Such a good kid.  Just love my little boy!

All smiles, at 7:00a.m.  Their baskets were overflowing with the goodies they had found, and then...it was time to get ready for church.

My handsome son and darling daughter.  Taryn had on such a cute yellow dress, but it was chilly outside as well as inside, and she insisted on wearing her PINK jacket.  (The girl lives for pink)

Church was great!  I sang in the choir, first time in a year, and the kids sat down with the Winters.  Vaughn had to work today, but the ward I am in always steps up when I am alone and helps out if I need it.
After church it was a rush home to change, have a quick little lunch and then it was time to dye Easter Eggs.

Look to the top left...that one broke the second I put it in.  Drat!

Counters lined and ready for coloring.

This is the first time Taryn was actually old enough to dye the eggs pretty much by herself.  She loved the pink one the best!

Tyson was an expert at the dying process.  He is an old pro at this!

We bought glitter eggs this year. One, because Taryn wanted them and two, well...because Taryn wanted them and she was with me that day when I bought the stuff.  So she wins!  This little apparatus is the glitter chamber.

All glittered and done.  Now it was time to get stuff ready for Easter Dinner with the Barnes.  Kyle and Heather Barnes invited our family to join their family over at her mom's house.  It was a great time!  The dinner was fabulous, all made by her mother.  (She wouldn't allow us to do anything and that was great because after eating her delicious home cooking, mine would have spoiled it)  It was yummy!

There family had a tradition of hiding Easter Eggs all over Heather's mom's yard.  They have a "special" egg called the GOLDEN EGG, that if found, contains money in it.  I brought a bunch of eggs to add to the mix and the adults had a fun time scattering and hiding eggs for the kids to find.  Here they all are, running for eggs.

I had to help Taryn out a bit.  She wasn't too sure where to look.

I also helped Winston find a few eggs.  He just wanted to eat the candy he had found already.

This was trouble times two. They were all over the place looking for the GOLDEN EGG!

We hid eggs everywhere possible.  Taryn found some that I had hidden in the branches of the tree.

Tyson thought he found the GOLDEN EGG but it turned out to be filled with jelly beans.  They searched and searched for about 15 minutes.

Finally, Ava found the GOLDEN EGG!  Tyson was a little disappointed that a "girl" had found it before him.  His reaction was comical.  I wish I would have had a video camera.

The kids checking out their "loot."

What a great way to spend Easter.  I didn't have to eat for two days because I had stuffed myself silly.  Thank Barnes Family for the fun time!

Time With the Firemen

Yes, he is riding inside the Metro Fire Truck.  A month ago, Tyson's scout group went to the fire station to work on one of his requirements towards becoming a Wolf scout.  We didn't make that outing due to a conflict in schedules.  Luckily for us, Tyson has a great scout master, Mike Masters, who was wonderful enough to set up a private tour for Tyson.  We were able to fulfill the requirements for scouts and have some cool experiences as well.

They not only allowed him to ride in the fire truck but one of the fire fighters put on all of the gear and showed Tyson what each piece of equipment was used for.  We also got a rare look at their night goggles that they use for seeing in dark places.  They showed us their heat seeker device that helps them find people in a fire.  They were cool devices.

These guys just rolled out the red carpet for us and showed Tyson so many things that his scout group didn't get to see.  That was so kind of them.

The fire fighters showed Tyson how they extend the ladder and use it to climb to tall buildings and to spray water high up on tall fires.  It was neat!

That water pressure would roll you over and over.  It is pretty powerful.

It was a really fun and informative experience.  Tyson enjoyed it and we are finally finished with all of his Tiger Scout requirements.  Now he can advance to a wolf.