Myrtle Beach

We went to Myrtle Beach last week with Gran, Pop, Jenny, our friends Brad and Shana and their kids, and Shana's mom and dad. It was a very eventful trip! We had 4 flat tires on the way down, it rained some every day, we had a leak in our camper and Eric lost his glasses in the ocean. BUT, we had a great time anyway! It was so fun to hang out with our family and friends, and anyday at the beach is a good day! Here are some of my favorite pictures.

We all wish we had Ella's hair...ours looked all pitiful and hers looked great the whole time.

7x7

I know many of you read Angie Smith's blog. If you don't, you really should. She is an amazing woman of God, and yet when I read it I think she sounds just like one of us. God has used her blog to speak to me many times. One of her latest posts came at just the right time. With the election and all that is swirling around us, it is getting harder and harder to be a parent. My friend Shana and I have had many conversations about how we are supposed to raise our children to love the Lord in this Babylon that we live in. Then I read Angie's post and I felt the Holy Spirit speak to my soul, "this is how." We have to bathe them in prayer. If we don't, who will? I added a button on my side bar. Check it out. It is called 7x7 because it is seven prayers to pray over your children each day.

Pumpkin Time

So, Eric has been having severe pain in his tooth. To make a very long story short, he ended up having an emergency root canal done on Sunday. Bless his heart, his face started swelling and has just been miserable. Yesterday, he just wasn't up to going to work. Problem is, if he stayed at home, he couldn't sit still. He would have gotten into some project and would have ended up in worse pain than he started. I have been wanting to take the girls to the apple orchards and the pumpkin farm in Ellijay, so he agreed to go with us. I drove so he could rest. Despite him being drugged, we really did have a great day! Here we are eating apples at Hillcrest. Maddie normally isn't an apple eater, but her front tooth is close to coming out and we told her that eating an apple would help. :) She's already asked for another apple this morning.

I thought these were some cute pictures of the girls in the pumpkin patch.

searching for the perfect pumpkins

Notice, Maddie is still eating her apple.

the final selections

Disney World

Well, finally, here are some pictures from our trip to Disney World. We had so much fun. The girls have said several times that they miss Disney. This was Eric, and Maddie, and Ella's first trip to Disney. It was so funny to see their reactions to everything. Maddie and Ella somehow changed personalities while we were there. Maddie was "chatty Cathy". She couldn't stop smiling or talking. And the amazing thing was that she ran to all the characters and talked to everyone! Ella on the other hand was so in awe that she couldn't say anything to anybody. She walked around with her eyes as big as saucers the whole time. These are just a few of our favorite pictures. Here we are just before we left the house.This was Maddie and Ella's first plane trip. They were sooo excited!

Pop never looks at the camera. :)

watching the Festival of the Lion King...in awe

Princess dinner

Ariel loved that Maddie and Ella had the same color hair as her.

Epcot, or apecot as Maddie first called it

Maddie took this picture. I thought it was too funny not to include!

Maddie and Ella loved the teacups, but I had to include the picture of the 2 big kids!

Fresh off Space Mountain...yes I said Space Mountain. Ella is a thrill seeker, but Maddie surprised me again. She rode lots of rides that I never thought she would get on.

We got to be in the Family Fun Day parade in the Magic Kingdom. Maddie and Ella thought they had won the lottery!Ella's favorite ride. She's a little partial to elephants.I wasn't kidding when I said Ella's eyes were as big as saucers!

4 Generations, 2 Birthday Parties, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

A couple of week-ends ago, we traveled back home to celebrate two amazing women in our lives, Eric's great-aunt Vergie and my grandmother. Vergie is turning 90 in August, but we wanted to go ahead and celebrate while most of the family was down to visit. Eric's brother, nephews and great nieces, Aunts and Uncles, Vergie, and his cousin, her husband and their 8 children came from North Carolina, Missouri, and California. We spent the day at John Tanner State Park, where the kids all had a ball. I could say so much about Vergie. She is an incredible woman of God. At almost 90, she still lives by herself. She has the sweetest spirit of just about anyone I have ever met. She always thinks of others first. In fact, she still drives others to Dr. appointments, and other errands, takes her neighbors food among other things. She ALWAYS asks me about my parents and sister and how they are doing. And, she LOVES babies. In fact, while we were at the park, she went over to talk to a mother with a small baby. They were middle eastern and didn't speak much english, but she didn't care. Eric's aunt Sharon said everybody speaks Vergie's language - the language of love. Vergie is a wonderful example to us all of how Christ wants us to be. Here are a couple of pictures from the day. In true Vergie fashion, she is the one on the front, in the middle consoling a child.

Here is Vergie eating birthday cake with the kids.

That same evening, we had a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandmother. She is quite a woman herself. She has been through quite a lot in her 80 years on this earth. I think what amazes me most is the family that follows her. Including my mother, she had 6 children. Whew! That amazes me. Some days, I struggle to keep up with 2! Only 5 are left now. She has 14 grandchildren. We call her granny. Then the most amazing part to me is that she has 20 great-grandchildren! Wow! My girls call her great-granny. I think that is fitting. We didn't have the entire crew there, but all her children were there and even a majority of the grand-children and great-grandchildren. My cousin Joe was even in from Washington state! I hadn't seen him since before Eric and I had even met, so it was great to see him and meet his lovely wife and son!

Maddie and Ella giving great-granny a birthday card

Getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday"

Granny and her "children"

We didn't get a group shot of everyone, but this shows a big part of us. Of course, we couldn't all fit around one table. We took up the entire back part of the restaurant!

Happy Birthday Granny and Vergie - We love you!!!