Chase

At this point in life, Chase clearly knows how to make people laugh. He even knows that he's the "funny one." It just happened so naturally. He truly is a funny kid. So it's worth it to me to keep track of his little sayings because all I need to do on a dreary day is sit down and read through them and just immediately cheer up!

So today I get home from work and see Bailey. I said, "Come here my little 'sugar lump'!" Chase came flying around the corner and yells, "Mommy, call me 'sugar bump'!"

And last night Randy was teasing Chase and told him he better read his homework or Mrs. Carmody will be mad at him. He said, "Oh, she doesn't get mad. She just looks at me with 'SERIOUS EYES'." I can't wait to tell Mrs. Carmody - she's sure to hoot with laughter!

Gotta love that boy!

Bluff City Wind Storm

I still can't believe the crazy wind storm that blew in on Christmas Eve night. About 2 am we heard very strong winds. It was difficult to sleep. Around 6 am the power went out. When we went downstairs, we realized that a tree had fallen behind the house, at the pond, and on the power lines up at the road.

When the sun came up, we were finally able to let the kids open their presents. It was barely light enough to see. The power finally came back on that afternoon. We had to postpone our turkey dinner till the next day. But that was ok. We spent some time walking around the woods and surveying the damage. Several trees came down, shingles were blown off the roof, and there was a lot of debris around the property. I'm amazed that there wasn't any worse damage.

Randy and his dad walked to Jim's property and they weren't as lucky. A tree landed right on their shed. I think we all had a lot to be thankful for. It could have been so much worse!

Bluff City Christmas '09

We had a WONDERFUL time at the farm for Christmas. There was still some snow on the ground when we got there. The kids really enjoyed that. It was so great seeing everyone again, and having the whole family together. Great memories!

East Brainerd Christmas Program

East Brainerd Elementary held their Christmas program at Ridgedale Baptist Church. Each grade got up on stage and sang a Christmas song. Chase's class sang "Christmas Don't be Late" (Chipmunk style) and Bailey's class sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." It was a lot of fun to watch.



Chase is in the front with the red sweater vest on.

Bailey is in the very top row with a Santa hat on.

♪ ♫ All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...♫ ♪

Let it snow!

We had our first (and only) snow this year. And it was beautiful! It came on a Saturday morning and was gone by about 11 am. It's a good thing the kids got out and played in it before it was gone!

Are we CRAZY?????

When we went to mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving, we got to see mom's new puppies. Her Yorkie had a litter of puppies that just turned 6 weeks old. The kids LOVED playing with them. They kept begging to take one home. And Grammy kept offering for us to take one. So guess what? Randy and I finally gave in. We had recently decided that Mocha was not a good fit for us. We realized we would rather have an indoor dog. So this fit just perfectly, I thought.

We picked the last female of the litter and named her Dixie. She is SOOOO adorable. She barely weighs 2 pounds and is unbelievably tiny.

After a few nights at home though, I felt like I had just had a newborn. She cried all night long. I had no idea what to do with her. I have never had a puppy before. We tried to get advice from the internet and from friends and family, but I was exhausted. This was just a bad time for me to be losing sleep - since I'm a working girl now.

That next weekend Phillip and Trussie came to town. I had a great idea. I called mom and asked her if she would be willing to take Dixie back for a few months and train her for me. That way, we could get her when she was a little older and she hopefully wouldn't cry as much. And since I don't know the first thing about training a puppy, I figured this would be the best thing possible.

So that's exactly what happened. And the funny thing is, we had made an appointment with Mckamey Animal Shelter to come pick up Mocha that next Tuesday. But when Phillip saw her, he fell in love with her and asked if he could take her home. Yahoo! We were so excited that she would be able to be on all those acres with other dogs. She would be so much happier. And we would still be able to see her and keep in touch with how she's doing. A win-win situation for sure!

Anyway, we miss our little Dixie, but we know she's in good hands. We can't wait to see her again!