Tag Archives: Liam

Bamapalooza Wrap Up

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And now we’re ending our Gatlinburg vacation with group pictures (wipe those tears away, I’ve got some cute pictures of the kids coming up).

Yep, this is par for a family picture. Someone making silly faces. Check. Ceili Rain screaming because she’s hungry and tired. Check. Josiah with his finger up his nose. Check.

This is all but one of the kids. Zoe is holding A and Ace gets the screaming Ceili Rain…although she kind of looks like she’s smiling. One of the kids, R, decided he didn’t want to get a group picture. It didn’t help that we were all getting ready to leave the kids with the BDs as well. Here, we also have Josiah finishing off what was in his nose in his mouth (ewww, gross).
When we all went out to eat, we attacked found an older couple sitting at the gazebo to get our picture. I must say, if you are ever in Pigeon Forge you must eat at The Pottery House at Old Mill Square. Wonderfully beautiful atmosphere! The food was excellent. My only qualms was that it was raining and we couldn’t eat outside by all the pretty waterfalls!
Group picture! Ten couples and nine children six and under!! What a good time!

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Putt Puttin’

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On Wednesday of our vacation, all the ladies (including the baby ladies and BDs) headed out to shopping. The boys’ headed out to play putt putt. It was raining but Gatlinburg took care of that with indoor mini-golf. Mark said everyone had fun. Since I wasn’t there, I’ll let the pictures (mostly) speak for themselves.


J with his daddy R.

M with R and E.
Uncle E discussing his scorecard with his mummy (I crack myself up!).

No trip is complete without finding something to climb on!

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A Bushel not a Peck

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To top off our week, we went to the Apple Barn. It had been raining and we didn’t really want ot push it by trying to go some where outdoorsy only to have to turn around and come back…so we went here instead. It’s an apple orchard/apple cider/yummy apple pies place…with a little bit of a general store thrown in. To top it off, I bought our annual bushel of apples while there. Fresh off the trees and a little cheaper than getting them at the chain stores. While the fried pies and apple cider were awesome…there was not much to do but it was relaxing as is.
What a sweet picture of one of our BDs with Josiah. I wish we could’ve gotten all of Josiah in but you take what you get.
Another BD givin’ some love to the fake birds.

She’s so smart, she can figure out them hard thinkin’ puzzles…I do declare.

See, Cindy, we did have some school!! I actually, I think we bored her to tears with all this shopping.

They had this plastic painted Santa so all the kids just had to sit on him. We humored them, since they’ve never had their picture taken with Santa (gasp all you want to…not a big deal to us, nor them).





In a freaky sort of way, he looks real!

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At the Cabin

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Funny, how they kind of have the same look in their eyes. This is Uncle S with Ceili Rain. He was pretty much a baby whisperer and loved getting another baby in the cabin asleep! Practice for later.
Last minute, I told Mark we needed to take some toys, so we loaded up the box of trains. What a hit! Josiah loved sharing them with R and J who are both close to his age.

We forced the BDs to play Horton Hears a Who. Not sure if they enjoyed it but we enjoyed making them act silly!

My kids enjoyed acting silly too.





Our BDs were delighted that the pool table was right outside their door. They played quite a bit and got pretty good at it. Here is the final tournament as Zoe looked on in suspense.

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The Pool

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Now we come to the scene of the crime…I was a little late getting to the pool. Basically, all our friends and family went to the pool while Ceili Rain got in a good nap. So, I walked up a hill, down a hill, up a hill to get to the pool. By the time we got there, everyone was getting out of the pool. I was determined, after my workout, to get Ceili Rain in. So, in we went.
Not sure what Uncle R was cheesing it for but he was.

All the kids went on the deck with the BDs and the next thing I knew Zoe was screaming. I turn around and see Liam’s little rear running back and forth on the deck. I about lost it. Mark thought it was quite funny too…but he had more composure and told him to clothe himself.
They sure are cute in their towels!

The next day, we were getting ready to go to an indoor water park and Liam informed me, “Mommy, I’m not going to take my swimsuit off again.”

“Great! Liam that’s a great idea. Why did you do it yesterday at the pool?”

“I just wanted to be naked.”

Lovely!!

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The Great Smokies

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Here come our pictures from our vacation. After finishing up a homeschool conference from Titus2.com, I’m refreshed and recharged and focused and ready for the next week. I think.

So, we traveled up to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge for our vacation. This vacation is a sequel to a vacation we took two years ago. A sequel in that we met up with Mark’s college roommates and their families for “Bamapalooza 09.” The weather was a little wet, but we all enjoyed our time together and exploring the outdoors and the towns. Not to mention a girls’ shopping trip!

On the way up the mountains, this was a view Mark, the kids and our borrowed daughters (two teens who agreed to come with us and be attacked help out. I, however, was waffling through cigarette smoke and listening to motorcycles roar by while trying to get Ceili Rain to pay attention enough to nurse. We got to spend about 45 minutes in Cherokee in a car, in traffic while looking at every kind of motorcycle known to man (apparently there was some kind of convention going on there).

On Monday, we hiked. You just got to click on the picture to read the sign. It’s enough to make a mama paranoid. Very grateful for our borrowed daughters (oh, we’ll just call them BD for short) then!

I love seeing the sun through the trees and since this was one of the few days we saw the sun, I’m glad I got this picture.
A nice big rock for my boys to climb on!
One of our friends.


Zoe enjoyed the climbing too but was never too involved to not stop and pose for the camera.

The BDs themselves!! Such beautiful and responsible young ladies! Except they hiked in their Converse. Which looked cool but I don’t think was that comfortable.

Sorry, I forgot to turn J rightside up. Not one of mine but he was adorable in his hiking gear.

Made it! To the top of the rock. Not the end of the hike.


A view of on eof the mountains. Some of the leaves are starting to change too…as can be seen by the picture.

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The Great Smokies Part 2

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Still hiking, but Liam, being ever so cute, bummed a ride from this beautiful lady (one of the wife friends).


At the falls! This was a fairly moderate hike. And, even though Ace didn’t want to hike, it was a great one to do. I don’t think he complained much on it…which is a surprise. And the reward of a cool breeze and pretty waterfall was great. Josiah kept pointing at it saying, “Wa wa fall”


A man pointed out this salamander before we left. Slimy, no? Thankfully, there was a barrier to keep my little gooey ooey boys (and girl) from touching it.

On the way back down, taking a rest.
Yes, it took two to walk with Liam. I’ll admit that.
Liam kept waffling back and forth trying to decide if was going to marry one or the other.

And the big reward was we got to see a bear when we got back to our car!! One of our friends said she saw two small bears. We were trying to figure out where the mama was as this bear was quite small in black bear standards (I think). At any rate, we had talked about paying about $10 per person to take the kids to see a bear and other animals but free was waaaay better. He was very high up in the tree just chomping at the branches. Very cool!

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And we’re off

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and, so far, in one piece. This week I’ve been to the doctor twice and Wal-Mart twice. Not too bad. I wasn’t anticipating the doctor trips but I overestimated the Wal-Mart trips.

I took Josiah in to the doctor on Tuesday for congestion. Turns out he’s got an ear infection.

Somehow, Ceili Rain gouged or had her eye gouged and has a big scratch on the side of her eyeball (no where near effecting the vision…she hasn’t even acted like it bothered her…tough being the fifth kid). This happened Thursday and as the day progressed it began to look worse and I just didn’t feel I could wait until Friday(per the doctor’s orders) to take her in. So we trekked it to after hours. By God’s providence, there were very little actual sick children in the office. The doctor looked at her eye for five minutes and then told me his story about travel ordeals while going to Ireland…very interesting and made me want to go (but not use the airline he had used). So, she came home with an eye antibiotic. I’m very grateful that the cut wasn’t close to the cornea or pupil. I can’t really say when she did it or had it done to her (by a sibling who can’t say that he actually did it because he’s two and doesn’t talk much, is this a run on sentence? Are you cringing mom?). If I can get her to turn her head, I’ll post a picture for all those who like gruesome pictures!

And, I forgot to mention that Liam climbed onto the changing table, got down scissors I use to cut up wipes, and proceeded to chop up things in Zoe’s room…with the help of Ace. They didn’t get big things like clothes (except some ribbons for one of Zoe’s dresses) or bedspreads or curtains. This was while trying to get Zoe taught up before leaving. Mama was not happy!

All that to say, with antibiotics, tylenol, motrin, thermometer and what ever other drugs we can squeeze into our overstuffed van, we’re off! Oh, and no scissors thankyouverymuch.

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Antioxidants…Yumm!

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Grow your own pomegranates!!

Our tree was getting a bit droopy and while most of the pomegranates still are not ripe, we needed to get some off the tree in hopes they’ll ripen off the vine and to get the others a chance to grow. This looks to be one of our best “crops” this year. As we’ve never really done much to cultivate or help them grow, I use the term “crop” loosely. We do cut back from around the tree and Mark prunes the branches back.

One is the loneliest number…

I’m thinking Josiah thought we were doing some sort of weird Easter egg hunt.
Pick pomegranates. Check.
Bury pomegranates to make more trees. Check.
Unfortunately, plastic buckets do not make fertile ground for pomegranate trees!

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