Slide Slip-Up

Today we had our family birthday party for Ashton. If you are going to have a party at the end of July, you have got to break out the water slide. I was embarassed that we bought this thing a couple of years ago, but we figured it was cheaper than renting something like this every year. The best part about it is that big kids can get on it too. Here is a video of our little mishap today. I did learn an important lesson. There is a reason why they insist that you stake it down.



Obviously, it did not stop the fun.

Knoxville Zoo

Ashton had her 5th birthday this week. I was supposed to go to Knoxville for work, so I took everybody. I was working a pretty early shift, so what the heck. Family Trip. I did not want to miss her birthday. I think that it worked out pretty well. My work paid for our hotel and gas and my meals. Then we had zoo passes to Nashville's Zoo, so we were able to get into Knoxville's Zoo for free. Why not bring everybody. I was a little nervous about traveling with the twins again, but they were very good.

The first evening we were there, I called ahead to my office in Knoxville and was told by two people that we were staying in the hood and they would not take their family there, so I cancelled our reservations on the way there. Who would've thought that you can't believe what you see on the internet. It looked nice on their site.

When we got into town, we called some friends from high school, Matt and Brandy Rappe. We were actually trying to check into a hotel when we first spoke, but he told us that we could find something closer to my office and we would take care of it after dinner. So then we went to their house where he grilled a wonderfull dinner. As you can probably predict, there was not another room to be found that was not in the hood. So they invited us to stay. They were obviously crazy and did not know what they were getting into. We had a great time there and the accomodations were much better than we had planned on having. We taught them a big lesson, don't invite friends over from out of town without making sure they will leave.

Later the second day, we went to the zoo after I got off of work. Here are a couple of video clips of our encounters there. First is our experience with the camels. You just have to watch.

Then Jackson decided to throw poop. I promise that I did not teach him this.

Wordless Wednesday...

Momma's Day Off

Tonya is always complaining that she never gets a day off, well she finally got it. At the last second, she got invited to go to Atlanta to hear Beth Moore speak with some church friends of hers. She left Friday morning and is hopefully coming back late Saturday night. She will not be gone for very long, but it feels like forever. Mom's have it rough. I have to work alot of hours and fight computers all day, but you can at least smack them and turn them off if you get to upset with them.

We had a really good couple of days. I was really trying to do things right. We had just eaten our lunch and I looked down and Will had eaten some lunch of his own. He was sitting in the floor chewing on a tube of desitin. Hey, look on the bright side, he should have a clear face for a while.

Here is a picture of one of our lunches. I promise that is a green been on his head.

Wesley was good except for Friday night. I went to the bathroom for a quick trip (I promise that it was only #1) and when I came back to the living room, he was shoveling fireplace gravel into his mouth. He saw me coming and started doing it even faster. I got several out of his mouth, but I couldn't have gotten them all. I am hoping that they are like doves or pigeons. They eat gravel every day to help digest their food. Maybe babies are the same way.



Saturday evening, the Carpenters came over to visit and play for a little while. Chloe and Ashton had alot of fun dressing our new kitten. I am afraid to go up to her bedroom to see what else they have gotten into.

Happy Anniversary

Well, almost a month has gone by. I guess that it is time to blog again. Alot has happened lately and I will try to get to them at some point, but I have got to tell you about my wonderfull aniversary. Well truthfully, it stunk, but hopefully we will have many more to make up for this one. Our story begins in 1993. Here is a picture for proof. Look how skinny we are. If you look close, you can see my "butt" chin as Tonya so lovingly calls it. No wonder I have a gotee.(I've never tried to spell that before) Tonya looks like she is 12, but I promise that she wasn't.

Who knew that we would later get married, have about twenty kids and always have wonderfull aniversaries. Well it really wasn't that bad. Ya'll settle in close ya here and I will tell you all about it. (That is my Uncle Remus imitation).

Tonya had strep throat and as you can probably imagine, when momma is sick, it is no fun around here. Daddy is just no replacement for Momma. I try, but I'm outnumbered. I made it all better by getting her the perfect .............card. Isn't that what every woman wants on her 12th anniversary? For the record, I had already gotten her two truck loads of mulch the week before. You know 5th anniversary you are supposed to get something silver, the 8th is a birth stone or something and the 12th is definitely mulch. Here is a picture.

And the inside...

I know you ladies are jealous....But then, that evening my wonderful wife gave me a gift.

That's why I love her. She loves monkey cards! Or she has given up hope of me being romantic.

What A Day!!

Poor Tonya has had a heck of a day. I can usually tell how her day is going by the phone calls that I recieve at work. This morning I could tell that it had not started too well. She then asked me to go to lunch and I was glad to accept the invitation. Then she told me they did not get out of ballet until 1pm. I could tell she was having a bad day, so I still went. We enjoyed our lunch and I am sure being with her wonderful husband really helped. Later, the phone calls started again. Every one with a baby crying in the background. If I hadn't mentioned it before, she does a great job. One that the state would not let me do for long.

Then on my way home from work, I went to the grocery to get a healthy dinner. (I will discuss our new diet another day, if it lasts that long.) When I got home, the babies were not happy and neither was momma. The babies are going through their seperation anxiety stage and are jealous of each other when you pick the other up. (Did that make sense?) Anyway, we had decided to cook a pizza for supper and try to deal with all of the crying babies around here. Tonya went upstairs for a little bit and I was left consoling Will while we were preheating the oven for our pizza.

I was starting to get a handle on things until I smelled something that was not pizza. Last night we had an ultra healthy dinner. We even handed out those cool plates that seperate all of your food.

After dinner we went for a walk and hid the kids plates in the oven so that our new cat would not eat any. You have probably guessed the smell by now. I then ran to the kitchen and saw our oven billowing with smoke. So we evacuated and ran to Sonic for dinner. Here is a picture of the two plates that we left in the oven. If anyone knows how to clean this up, let us know. The plastic should be easy enough to pick off, but we are not sure how comfortable we are about cooking in it for a while. This place stinks.
Then when we got home, Tonya got peed on I got pooped on and we are ready for this day to be over!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Well another Mother's day has come and gone. I did not do very well this year as far as gifts go. Tonya had been hinting that she wanted a bike and maybe a stroller to attach to the back of it. This is probably a part of our healthier habits that we have been trying lately. I'll save that for another blog. I had been checking Craig's List regularly and had seen that if you watch, you could get these pretty cheap. As a backup plan I found them at Academy Sports as well. Long story short Craig's list did not come through and I was too afraid to go buy it without her seeing it first. It's a good thing I did, because she decided that she wasn't sure that she could still ride a bike or would trust herself with putting the babies in the stroller behind it. Sooooo, this means yet again I am left without a gift to present on Mother's Day.

She was great though. I expected to get a little bit of lip for not having her anything. I didn't even get her a card. I did however have the kids make her a card, but I lost it. I found out later that they had given it to her last Friday. I am very lucky that Tonya would much rather have something done for her than to recieve anything.

I was given just that opportunity lastnight. Mr. Wesley decided that he wanted to pee everywhere lastnight and then stay up and watch some tv. Then the kids were really good getting ready for church. (That is more of a miracle than a gift.) Then I tried to clean the house as much as I could when we got home. Somehow, this was enough.

I have to hand it to her. She does alot. I could never stay at home and do what she does. I am so tired of changing diapers and gettting everyone ready, but it I have not even scratched the surface of what she has to do everyday.

The best thing that I got her was to FINALLY kill a turkey. Season ends today and I killed me one yesterday. I have never went a year without killing at least one and I was probably getting a little hard to be around. I really get obsessive in turkey season, if you did not already know. For you fellow rednecks out there, it had almost an 11 inch beard and 1 inch spurs. If that doesn't mean anything to you, that's a dandy.