Blue Jays

Whenever I sit down to eat a meal, I look out the window and see beautiful blue jays flying around the trees at the back of our yard. I've wanted to get a picture of them for awhile. Well, finally this morning I saw the blue jays at the back of our yard again, and I managed to get a picture. I zoomed WAY in and then cropped it to get them this close, so it is a little blurry! Next time I want to get one in flight. Their wings are SO pretty!

Yesterday it got up to 81 degrees! We actually turned the air conditioner on because it was so hot upstairs last night. Then, this morning when I took the girls to school it was 40! Wow, what a drop in temps, but at least it got the spring ball rolling around here!

I signed the 3 older kids up for spring soccer, and we had our first practice last night. It was great weather. I'm not sure I'm ready for practices every night and multiples some nights plus 3 games on Saturday. But, we did have a nice break! Alex has 2 practices a week this time (neither of which are on Sunday), so that makes me very happy!

Tennessee Trucks

Here in Tennessee, I've noticed that there are a lot more camouflaged or nature designs in the paint of jeeps and trucks. I'm sure that it is due to this being hunting and gun country, but I find it kind of funny and interesting too! This particular jeep had a wolf scene printed on the back window (I hope you can see it). I realized that I had kind of gotten used to seeing these types of trucks until Marti came and pointed them out. I know she got at least one good picture of a hunting truck while she was here. Anyway, I know Susan thinks Eric is going to get one of these now we are in Tennessee, so here's to our next truck!

Spring!

After our weekend of weather in the 60's and 70's, a lot of the trees are budding and starting to blossom, and the daffodils are blooming! I love seeing the changes of the seasons! This will be our first spring here, and it looks like it will be very pretty. Here's a few pictures of trees and flowers near our house. Jesikah took the pictures of the daffodils yesterday near the little white church at the front of our neighborhood. She got some great pictures. I'm only including a couple of them.

Magnolia tree (for you, Susan)

Looks like popcorn popping... I never understood that song until we moved to Missouri.

Visitors!

We were fortunate enough to have some visitors from Washington for the weekend! Marti and Ally Fourtner came Thursday night and stayed through this morning. Ally is Jesikah's best friend from Washington and Marti is my great friend, so we were both very excited.

We celebrated Ally's birthday (late) the first night they were here. We took Ally out to Red Lobster for dinner and brought everyone back for cake and ice cream. Ally really enjoyed the scrapbook Jesikah made of all the pictures of them together in Washington.

We showed them a little around Clarksville on Friday. Jesikah had to go to school Friday morning for benchmarks, but we picked her up before lunch and took a picnic lunch to the Riverwalk park and we let the kids play and enjoyed a nice little walk. The kids explored a bit and had fun on the play area and the park swing. They even talked Marti into pushing them. The weather was warm, but could have been a little less windy!

The girls eating cake and ice cream!
The girls collecting flower bouquets for their moms!

The girls next to the Riverboat model in the museum near the riverwalk

Poor Marti accidentally tipped her water all over her pants while trying to help the kids with their food. She was a good sport and just laughed. It dried quickly with the wind.

The kids next to the big boat propeller

Swinging with a little boost from Marti

Jesikah found a cool rock (it's hard to see, but it had a neat pattern in it). There were a lot of rocks with what looked like a stripe of a different type of rock through the middle.

Jarem was worn out, and quickly fell asleep once we got in the car.

Opryland Hotel

On Saturday, we took Ally and Marti to Nashville to explore the Opryland complex. We went to the Opryland Hotel, Opryland Museum, and Opry Mills Mall. They were all very interesting. It was our first time visiting the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center! It is AMAZING!

We loved it! There are 4 different huge garden rooms, with even a 1/4 mile river inside the Delta Atrium. We were able to take a ride on the Delta Riverboat around the loop. It was very fun. For those gardening enthusiasts, like myself and Marti, it was heaven, but the girls really loved it too. Inside the hotel were many very nice restaurants and the balconies of the rooms faced the huge garden atriums. It's beauty is absolutely breathtaking! We treated ourselves to some gelato at a Italian parlor inside the hotel. It was very yummy. Jesikah and I had raspberry cheesecake while Ally and Marti had pumpkin pie. They were both delicious.

Here's some interesting facts about the hotel:

*They are the "largest hotel and convention center under one roof in the world" without a casino attached!
*There are 2,881 guestrooms, five presidential suites, and 600,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.
*In the Delta Atrium alone, the ceiling contains 6,200 panes of glass. This would equal the size of about 7 football fields if laid flat. Each pane is 1/2 inch thick and weighs 250 pounds.

*Gaylord Opryland Hotel has the largest ballroom in Tennessee. The Delta Ballroom can seat 4,000-6,000 guests for dinner. The ceiling is painted to look like the sky and with special lighting, can have small simulated stars that come out in the evening.

*All of the trees and plants in the atrium are real, including the pineapple, papaya tree, black olive trees, orange and lime trees too.

The girls in the huge Delta Atrium. Check out the ceiling...all glass!

The River in the Delta Atrium

Jesikah and Ally getting on the boat

Marti on the boat

A pineapple growing next to the river

A papaya tree along the river banks

An orange tree

Hotel balconies from the Delta Atrium

A cool sea dragon in the river

All of us taking the Riverboat ride

When we were at the end of the boat ride, there was a huge blue catfish just sitting down in the boat track. The employees were using a broom to try to and get it to move. It eventually did.

The big catfish in the boat track

Jesikah and Ally near the elevator in the Delta Atrium

A waterfall in the Garden Conservatory

These are the double waterfalls in one of the rooms. I went into the lounge to get the best picture and Marti said, "Look at one spot and see if you notice anything," And sure enough, I panicked when I realized the floor was moving under me. It was a rotating lounge, it moved around slowly. That was a little weird, but cool after the panic was over.

The girls next to one of many waterfalls

Jack Daniels outside the Jack Daniels Saloon. We joked that all that drinking must have stunted his growth. He looked like a very short little man.

A beautiful flower that looked to us like a daffodil, but it wasn't. I'd love to learn what it was.

The girls by the country singin' horses. Jesikah looks a little nervous...

A cool little rotunda behind the girls...they were preparing to have a wedding there. We saw a lot of the wedding party including the bride.

I have a lot more pictures of beautiful flowers and views, but if you got to the end of this much, congratulations! It was such a neat place I couldn't stop taking pictures.

My Blog Book

During the last few weeks I have been working on editing my blog book so it can be published. I finally received the finished copy in the mail yesterday! I love it, so I wanted to share a few pages with you.You can actually "slurp" all your blog into a book using their program and publishing through blurb.com. On a suggestion from a friend, I plan to publish a new book once a year. This one I started in July with our move to Tennessee since that is when I started blogging and went through the end of December. I love having a printed picture journal of the events of our lives! The kids have really enjoyed looking at it already. It may not be as fancy as scrapbooking, but a lot less time-consuming.

Pop for your Penny!

Jesikah just finished her science project this morning...even two days early! She picked her very own project. For her project, she determined which type of pre-packaged popcorn leaves the least amount of un-popped kernels when popped. She enjoyed it because she got to eat lots of popcorn. She loves to be crafty, so the poster was fun for her which also made it fun for me. I'm glad to have it going off to school this morning though.

Jesikah's Glasses

Jesikah has been complaining for a few months about not being able to see well. Lately, she has missed some math problems because she didn't copy the problems down correctly from the board because she couldn't see them, so I thought it was probably time to get her eyes checked. I took her to the optometrist this week and her eyesight was 20/50 in both eyes, so we ordered some glasses for her.

She was a little nervous about how she would look in glasses, but she tried some on and quickly decided which ones she liked. We picked them up yesterday, and I think she looks cute. The best thing about them is that she can see now! She was amazed when she looked at everything through her glasses. She asked me if she had to wear them all the time, and I told her she only had to wear them when she wanted to see (thanks Tami)!

Can't Keep 'Em Up!

I'm not sure who got Jarem dressed today...not that I'm complaining. All I know is that once we got to church and sat down, Jarem came to me and was holding his pants up in desperation. I looked to see what the problem was and noticed that he could pull out the waist of his pants a good 3-4 inches in front of him and if he dropped them, they would have been gathered around his ankles. Then I noticed, his shirt was too small and when he looked up his belly showed. His mommy obviously didn't check him over before he left the house.

Well, first things first, he obviously needed a belt badly, but I didn't happen to have a spare one lying around. :) I looked over to Eric for inspiration, and he miraculously pulled out a ball of twine from his bag and went about cutting and putting it through his belt-loops with a knot in front. (He claims the twine was for an object lesson in Young Men's)... Even leaving the shirt out, it wasn't long enough to cover the twine, so it was pretty obvious how his pants were staying up. Well, it kept his pants up all of church, so it was a success. I bet all the boys will be wearing twine instead of belts next week...it was SUCH a fashion statement!

A Cardinal

This morning, I went to take the trash out to the street for pick-up and there was a cardinal that flew by me and landed on the neighbor's roof, so I ran to get my camera and amazingly it was still there when I got back. Luckily, I already had the big lens on so I was able to get a closer picture.

One thing I love about living in different parts of the country is there are different birds everywhere. I've always enjoyed looking at birds. I especially like the bright colored ones, like in Washington I liked the Gold Finch. There are a lot of beautiful birds here. I hope to get a picture of a blue jay soon...they are SO pretty! I'm always admiring them from a distance.