So, both kids have antibiotics and are once again on the mend. Both are doing much better.

Savannah has decided to walk this week. She's still crawling some but when she stands up she walks for awhile before she falls down. Tuesday morning the she and Connor were upstairs playing when I heard Connor yell, "Good girl, Savannah!!!" He then came to the gate at the top of the stairs and said, "Mommy, Savannah's walking all by herse-elf" (he has picked up adding one extra syllable to words from somewhere, which isn't totally uncommon since we live in Tennessee - but Danny and I don't talk like that - too often anyway). He was so proud of her!! She figured out this morning that she could walk backwards while holding on to my finger. She thought that was fun! Last night in the bathtub she stood up and let go and just stood there for the first time. She then clapped for herself!! She's now getting on and off of her ride on toys all by herself too. She's turned into a little jabberer (is that a word?) too. She is either talking or singing a lot of the time. Her favorite song right now is Row, Row, Row Your Boat. She has decided she doesn't like getting her diapers changed so I sing to help her be still. The other day I think I sang that song 20 times. I would sing it, then stop and she would sing, "whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" until I started singing again. She would then smile. Her new favorite word to say is "wook" or look. While riding in the car she is constantly pointing and saying "wook." I think it's because Connor and I will play games while driving and look for certain things - like trucks -and count them and I guess "look" is the first word out of our mouths. She also tries to say "where'd he go?" - I think anyway. She and Connor will climb the stairs. And of course Connor is faster than she is. Once he's out of sight I'll ask her, "Where'd he go?" and she gets the "d" sound and the "go" with the same infliction I do. Its pretty cute I think. Today she learned how to put the lid on a water bottle. Thankfully she can't get it off yet. She puts it on and then wants me to take it off. We did this for about 30 minutes this morning. She is starting to throw tantrums. If she doesn't get what she wants and is in a mood she will whine, roll onto her belly and kick her feet or do this things where it looks like she's trying to crawl but she doesn't move. It looks kind of funny. She's about over her teething finally since it's been going on since before Christmas. That's a good thing because she's is a much sweeter little girl! She has really turned into a sweet, loving little girl, even though she's throwing tantrums now.

Connor is just Connor - funny as always and being a 3 year old, which he will inform you if you ask him how he is. I guess he hears, "How old are you" instead of "How are you" because he always answers, "I'm free." Some days he spends more time than usual in time out, like today, but is still my loving little boy. He's a smart little boy too. He looks at books when he wakes up in the morning. If he sleeps at nap time I put a chair with his cds and cars in there after he falls asleep so he can play with them. He uses his chair to turn the light on. He has now figured out that he can take a book, run it up along the wall and turn on the lights in his room. He and Lightnin' are becoming very good buddies!! I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet, but when Lightnin' is laying on the floor chewing on one of his bones sometimes Connor will go over and sit on him. Lightnin' usually lets him sit there for about a minute and then the playing begins. He has become obsessed with going to see Mickey Mouse aga-ain. He has told me for 6 days in a row he wants to go back and see him. Tonight when I was laying him down and said, "Hey, I have great idea. Maybe next week after a lot of naps we can go and see Mickey!" I'm not so sure I can handle hearing this every day for the next 6 months since we aren't actually planning on going until the end of September.

We are planning on going to Louisiana and Texas next month. So, maybe that will take his mind off of Mickey for a little while. The upcoming trip will be interesting. I will be traveling by myself with both kids in the car. We are heading to Louisiana to see my grandfather and then to a few different places in Texas to visit family and friends. I have a feeling it will be a long, but good trip. Don't worry I'll let you all know how it goes!! But there will be more blogs before the trip - hopefully anyway.

Well, we once again have sickness in our household. I took the kids to the doctor this evening. Savannah's on antibiotics to, hopefully, keep an ear infection away. We know Connor has a virus thanks to a little finger prick that did not go so well. At least he got McDonald's chicken, french fries and sweet tea afterwards!

Up until the past week things have been good. I know I keep saying it that Savannah's getting closer to walking - but she really is!! She'll actually take 5 or 6 steps by herself and the other day even went 10 - 15 feet. I know one of the days she's just going to take off. I'm not sure if that will be a blessing though. I'm pretty sure she'll be happier though - so that will be nice, but I also know she might be into more things, but she and Connor will have a bigger time playing together. All I know is she is getting heavy! She's not quite 20 lbs yet - almost. I'm getting some pretty strong arms though. She LOVES to say "Poppa" & "puppy" - oh and "shooey." She'll say "poppa, poppa, poppa, poppa, puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy." And the shooey is just said over and over again. And all three of these words are very clear. She has actually started saying"shooey" about 1/2 the time after she goes poop. She loves the ABC's and tries her hardest to sing them. She also tries really hard to count. She can say 2 but pretty much "two, two, two" is what comes out of her mouth.

Connor got his hair cut the other day and actually sat in the chair on the booster seat all by himself for the first time. And he didn't cry. He's gotten used to the lady that cuts his hair. He wasn't too sure about it but she was great - she kept bragging on him and how well he was doing. By the end he had a big grin on his face (see the web album - I'm being lazy and not putting the picture on this time. :-) Sorry) I had told him if he did good and didn't cry we would go get Pinocchio. So, we had to make a trip to Target and get it. Danny and I along with Danny's dad - Granddaddy - took Connor to the last home UT men's basketball game. He did much better this time and actually had fun. He was singing Rocky Top by the end. He was very excited to see Smokey. He even wanted to go give him a high five. (Sorry for the blurry pictures but it's all Danny's fault. He told me I couldn't use my flash but I saw other people using theirs so I finally used mine.) I can't wait 'til next year now. I think he will really like them. He's even learned what Bruce Pearl (the head coach) looks like. He saw him on tv the other night and he got all excited and said, "Look Mommy, it's Tennessee basketball." He's getting pretty good and writing his name. We haven't really worked on all letters, just his name. There's a picture on the Web album of what he wrote on his chalkboard. We went to the park Wednesday and had a great time. We went a little before lunch and played then ate at the park. They both had a good time!

He is all the time saying funny things. When I put him to bed we have this routine where after I read him his books, I'll lay down with him for 3 songs on his "night, night cd." After I get up I have to go back & give him a hug and kiss. The other night he was more awake than usual. He had to give me a kiss too. At the end of the he informed me, "I'm a goooood kisser!" Of course I had to agree with him! And tonight before he went to bed he and Danny and I were in the kitchen. Him and Danny were playing one of the words games. As Connor was getting off the bar stool, Danny playfully smacked him on his bottom. I think that was the first time he had ever done that. The look on Connor's face was shock and he told Danny, "You can't spank me only Mommy can." He was very serious about it too!

It's amazing where God can find us!

OK, so usually this blog is mainly about the kids. But I felt I wanted to share some about Danny's and my camping trip this past Friday night. So, I'll apologize now for the length of the blog, because there will be a lot to talk about. So, here it goes....

We headed out Friday afternoon heading to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to go tent camping - the first time for me. I was very excited!! Our plan was to stay at Elkmont because we could stay right on the river. There website said they were open year round so that's where we were going to go. Once we got there, we found out they are not open all year. So, plan B - go to Cade's Cove campsite. We get there and they are open - somewhat. The ranger station isn't open but you can pay in an envelope. So, we grab a map and try to figure out which campsite is on the creek because A was open, but B was closed. Once Danny talked about staying on the river - I had decided that's what we were going to do no matter what! Here we are - both looking at the map and trying to figure out where we are and where we need to go. Now, I feel both Danny and I are smart people - especially Danny. But after driving in circles or turning around in the parking lot no less than 5 times we finally figured out that the creek campsite was closed. We decided to try to call a place since we were wasting precious daylight. Now, we were in the mountains so there was no cell phone coverage. We scrounged around and found $.50 to use the pay phone (side note: I thought we would only need $.35). Called Lazy Daze and yes, they were open and yes they had river front campsites available for the night. Yes!!

I really thank God for allowing us to run into those "issues." We found the perfect place - a place I needed to be. We had perfect weather - in the 60s. It was a nice sunny afternoon. We got everything set up and had a little time. We were waiting for the firewood to burn so we could have some coals for Danny to cook on. Danny went down to fish and I decided to walk along the river and try to work on my photography skills. What a walk God led me on. First I just stopped and stood there and listened to......quiet.....all I could hear was the river. It was completely awesome!! I walked on down the river and there was a big rock sticking up out of the water.

I stopped to take a picture and thought - that's how I feel a lot of the time - like I'm treading water, not going anywhere, and barely keeping my head above the water. I was reminded Friday morning at MOPS that a lot of that comes from me being unorganized. I don't have a schedule with the kids other than meal times and nap times. I don't plan other things or cleaning or down time. Toddlers and preschoolers like schedules and boundaries. I had forgotten that. But, back to my walk....

I walked a little farther there was a root from a big tree coming out of and running across the top of the ground. It looked like a snake to me which reminded me of Satan and how he tries to worm his way into our lives...which is part of my problem right now. I feel I have allowed Satan to get into my head and I don't focus enough on what Christ did for me....for all of us......

died on the cross(which I saw in two trees on the ground) to save me (us) from our sins

The trees were directly across the river from our campsite. So, I was often reminded of it! I loved that I could sit at our campsite and look across the river and see it! I also saw on my walk three quartz rocks together on a another rock......

which reminded me once again of Jesus on the cross, His sacrifice for me, and the defeating of the "snake" - Satan!

As I turned around and headed back up the river I saw the path I had just come down. What struck me was most of it was in the shadows - not very dark shadows but something just a little different -but at the very end was a tree with the bright sunlight shining on it. I felt like it was calling me back - just as I felt God was doing to me on this trip. Not that I had gotten so far away from Him that I was doing bad things or didn't believe in Him. I just haven't focused enough on Him and Him guiding me in ALL of my life - including what to do with my kids everyday. It seems so small but when you are as tightly wound as I am - you need all the help you can get with guidance!! So, I came home very renewed from this trip. When we left to go camping I was totally not looking for that but very thankful for it!