An early Christmas present...

Well, it's finally time... Jessica and I decided to upgrade our camera. Our old Kodak digital has been great, but it's time to be replaced. We decided that would be our Christmas present to ourselves... and then we decided to get it early so we could get some pictures of the kids doing their things, like Calen playing his indoor soccer.

So, we went and purchased a Canon Rebel T1 DSLR- we love it so far!

Hey, Where's Mama?

Well, last weekend was a first in the Lewis household. For the first time, Daddy took sole possession of the children (sort of...) for the weekend while Jessica took a much deserved Girl's Weekend Out in Pigeon Forge, TN, with nine other women from our Sunday School class. I say "sort of" because it turns out I brought in reinforcements in the form of my father and brother. Ostensibly they were there to watch Calen's marathon soccer weekend (two games in 16 hours), but they were certainly a big help.



The afternoon began with Jessica departing on Friday afternoon at 2PM. My father and brother arrived about 4PM, with a soccer game beginning at 5:30. For the most part, things went well, other than having to round up three children happy to see their "Papa Carlie" and "Unca Johnny" (Jax's version) and get them ready for a soccer game. We made it- only three minutes late. Of course, the game didn't start until 15 min after the scheduled start time, so we were ok. I did think to put the White Chicken Chili (that Jessica had pre-prepared and left for us) in the crockpot before I left-- maybe this won't be so bad after all!



Calen's game went well, ending in a tie, and we only had minor difficulties keeping up with Jax and Riley during the game- more difficulty with Riley's shoes, it seems. We made it home and managed to feed the kids some of the delicious White Chicken Chili, and send them all off to bed. Calen did well, because he slept with Papaw. The other two? Not so much. It normally takes Jax a while to fall asleep and stay in bed, but, with all the excitement of the day, this drug on for two hours. Since he shares a room with Riley, he kept her up as well- although, I have to say, she sometimes would be the instigator, standing and saying "Hey..." I would have pulled some hair out- if I had any to spare.



Saturday provided another soccer game (a win by the Rangers with Calen playing an excellent Defender role), hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, and a birthday present for me from my Dad- a very handy air compressor! Thanks Dad! We even managed to watch the UT-Vandy game on Saturday night, with Calen picking up several pointers from my brother about the finer parts of the game. Again, the great thing about homeschooling as Jessica has pointed out- you can fit it in anywhere! Calen practiced subtraction by telling us how far the teams had to go after a play (four yards on 1st and 10 leaves 6 yards to go!). I managed to short circuit the bedtime blues- by sending Jax up with my Dad, leaving Riley in her own crib, and bringing Calen to bed with me (Shush- don't tell Jessica).



Sunday morning involved getting the kids ready for church, along with sad goodbyes to Papaw and Uncle. I managed to get all the kids to their classes and back without any major catastrophes. We then had some lunch, and the younger kids took a nap while Calen and I continued our Dad's weekend while watching Dallas pull out a squeker over the Redskins. Thankfully, around 4PM- Mommy arrived! Yeah!



We managed to survive the weekend, with a very helpful assist from my family. Jessica says she had a wonderful time, and I'm very thankful she got to go! I don't think I always appreciate just how much she does every day to keep this house up and running. She certainly deserved such a break, and I hope she gets to go again soon- as soon as I can build up the nerve to try it again. Next time Riley might actually have enough hair for bows- I don't think I can handle that...

A day in the life of...

Funny, entertaining, interesting. These are just a few words that could be used to describe a typical day in the Lewis household. Here Jax has discovered that a simple, plastic, baby-toy can be turned into a nose ring.

Riley discovered that markers dropped without their lids make wonderful lipstick.

A frequent question I get is "What do you do with Jackson and Riley while doing school with Calen." Well, the most simple answer is I try go with the flow. Some days are easier than others. Riley finds some type of mischief or another. She can go off a play for long periods of time if Jax wouldn't torment her so. In his defense, she is dramatic. Here she took everything out a box so she could get into it and play.

Jax is getting into "doing school." He loves to get some paper and whatever writing or drawing utensil is laying around so he can "draw pictures." This particular day he built lego towers while Calen worked on his math.

Then he moved on to building a "sit-ee."

Some days he sits in the same seat as Calen and watches while Calen practices his handwriting.

They love the maps; especially Jax. Calen was telling Jax about Africa. How do you know a younger sibling of a homeschooler?

They don't know their shapes and colors, but can show you "Tex-ee" on the map. We are currently in the "e" stage. Everything seems to end with it. Horsey, drinkey, milkee, cupee, snacky, blankee... You get the picture.

Some days are just plain exhausting. By 10:00 you need a nap!

Fall in the Smokies

Danny had a meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians last week. Conventions can be so much fun- especially during October, in the Great Smokey Mountains. Tuesday was a miserable rainy day, perfect for a trip to the aquarium. The coolest thing- homeschool rates. This family of five got in for under one regular adult admission price. Whoo-hoo. Jax wasn't too keen about the fish that were bigger than him. He would hide behind Danny's legs to watch them. He also wasn't sure about those funny looking Stone Crabs. Otherwise, we couldn't keep up with him.

Wednesday was a gorgeous fall day and the foliage was breathtaking. We loaded up the car and went for a ride in the mountains to the top of Clingman's Dome. It is the highest point in Tennessee and the second highest east of the Mississippi. On this clear, sunny day you could see for hundreds of miles and into seven states. This picture was the first pull-off along the road. We had been under a canopy of trees until this point. We had just rounded the curve to this view of the mountains. From the backseat we heard Jax say, "Oh, wow." Followed by Calen's, "That is fantastic."

Here is the view from the lookout.

This is the top of Clingman's Dome.

Our views along the way...






Not a road sign you see everyday. BTW 20 MPH is too fast for this loop!

Thursday brought us an afternoon of Trick or Treating in the convention hall. We have Optimus Prime, a cowboy, and a little ladybug. After our candy raid we headed to Cades Cove. We saw lots of deer (around 100), a couple dozen turkeys, several horses and no bear.




The bandit is making his getaway with his loot.




The most magnificent deer we saw was this massive 10 pointer.

Friday morning the kids and I headed out for a stroll and enjoy God's handy work. That afternoon before we headed back home we went out for another drive. Calen had mentioned maybe seeing a bear. I told him that most likely not because most were down for the winter except for maybe a few stranglers, but even then most likely not. Not three minutes later...

The Corn Maze

A couple weeks ago, the family headed to one of the local corn mazes for an evening of fall fun. We had to postpone it several times due to all the rain. Even though it hadn't rained in a few days, there was still lots of mud in some parts of the mazes. Typical picture- Calen's looking at Danny, Riley's looking at me, and Jax has just spied a bug.


The hayride on the way to the mazes.

Just hangin' out.


"Go thatta way"

"Which way?"

"No, that way!"

Country boys

A country princess?

Has anyone seen the boys?

The Big Oh-One

We're not sure when or how it happened, but last Tuesday we awoke to find a one year old in our house, and not a happy one year old at that. She was in the throws of cutting her second tooth. She didn't even smile while her bubbies sang Happy Birthday to her. It's her birthday and she'll cry if she wants to.
A quick note about this picture. That onesie Riley has on is the size newborn that she wore last year at four days old!

We left that morning to go to Gatlinburg for a few days, so we celebrated her birthday Sunday afternoon with our families. Our first girlie party- ladybugs. This ended up being appropriate since my mom's house has been invaded by them. I'm glad I didn't buy the expensive balloons with little ladybugs on them because we ended up with the real deal, all natural ladybug dotted balloons. This time Riley enjoyed everyone singing to her.

Here's the "tablescape."

Riley really enjoyed the pizza.

Pizza face



The ladybug theme cake.





Riley with her smash cake. It was the ladybug on top.

Yum-O

Who needs hands?

Excuse me, is this washable?

We were really surprised that she demolished the cake. We weren't even sure she would touch it, let alone try it. That is Jax's head in the picture. He was standing there trying to stick his finger in the icing. Riley keep saying, "mine...mine...mine...."

Riley's Statics:

Length: 29 1/4

Weight: 18.2

Head: 17 1/4
Teeth: 1

Pacifiers: 10

Diapers: ~2200

Feedings: ~3000 nursings; ~300 bottles ~320 jars of baby food; 7 boxes of cereal.
Baths: ~150 (not including sponge bathes, hose downs or quick dips)