The anticipated trip with "the girls"

Please excuse the blurriness of this pic, I still love it! Obviously I was taking it. Does it hurt your eyes? Yeah, mine too. :)


This past weekend was spent with my dearest and nearest friends. There are four of us that have been close friends for oh about 14 years. If you read all of our blogs then you will be probably get 4 different versions of this trip but just bear with us. We left on Thurs. night (later than we wanted to, sorry Naomi) and arrived at our cabin in Pigeon Forge about 11:30 PM. Rachel came the next morning due to several other scheduling difficulties. We really did have a good time. Sometimes it seemed like we were 90 but we had a wonderful time, relaxing, catching up, eating out without children, shopping and whatever else we could find to do. Of course my pics aren't that good since they are taken with my phone. So, I'm sure the other 3 blogs of this trip will have better pics. But I'll post what I have.
Friday, mostly, was spent shopping at the outlets in PF. I love those outlets. We hung out in our PJ's until about 11ish until we were hungry for lunch and waited on Rach to get there. Once we left the cabin, we headed for Olive Garden. Wow, I forgot how much I like that place. Sometimes its good, sometimes its not. Merica and I split a seafood fettuccine dish with shrimp and scallops and man, it rocked! Besides that, their salad and bread sticks are awesome.
Shopping then took over until later on in the day when we were, yes, hungry again. This time we opted for TGI Fridays. Haven't been there in so long!



We laughed at this meal more than we've laughed in a long time and you know what entertained us the most? We were taking pics with our cameras/phones and sorting out which ones were terrible and which ones were decent or if we looked 900 pounds or things might be flying thru the air over our heads. Anyhow, laughing with those girls was so much fun. It's the most I've laughed in a long time!














These girls know me. And we know each other well enough to be brutally honest with one another, sometimes maybe even when it hurts. I cherish the fact that I have these close life-long friends that I know I can count on to see me through the struggles of life.






We all turn 33 this year and it seems like yesterday when we were 19, 20 and getting married. We've come a long way and been through some stuff but we've stuck together like glue. We also have 11 children, and one on the way between us.





After our shopping day on Friday, that night for dessert, Rachel brought her fondue pot. How fun! I only have one shot of this and it's pretty dark but here it is.


Then, for Saturday, we planned to see a movie and that's what we did. We ended up seeing one I had already seen but it was fine to see it again with those cats. Did I mention the weather? Terrible. Drizzly and yucky the entire time we were there and cold. It did not stop us from having a great time though. Saturday night we chose Outback and we did that early, like 5. We did some appetizer sharing and laughed some more and discussed life.







My friends are notorious for dressing up in heels and jeans when we go out together. I went against the grain this time and sported tennis shoes and a sweatshirt one day. I told them, I dress up every other day of my life for work so when on vacation, I'm dressing down. Got it?










So, all in all, we had a super good time and it was time well spent catching up on the ups and downs of life with lots of children. I can't wait until we do it again. This time we have to wait for Rach to have her fourth and final baby and get that one nursed and ready to go. But it won't be long before that happens. Baby Jones Hicks will be here before we know it.





Here's my most recent favorite pic of us from Sarah's wedding last May. I didn't get a good group shot from this weekend. Again, please refer to the other 3 blogs when they get this post up there.



One more thing, thanks to my wonderful husband, this trip was possible. He was a rock-star and kept up with our children for 2.5 days! Way to go honey. Kudos to all of the husbands for allowing us to get together as often as we can.

Visit from mamaw & papaw

Mom and dad came to visit us this weekend. Will had to go out of town on a golf trip. When he does that, mom and dad try to come and help me so I can have just a few moments to myself. I managed to get 8 miles in today, so it was nice to have them here. Last night, mom decided to let the boys help her make cupcakes. Ha! Funny stuff. Here's the pics to show the proof.

BTW, Blake went to Mountain State with the T. Brown family to watch the Lee men's basketball team play. So, he wasn't home for the cupcake making party.




At this age, one has to have enough stools available for each child to stand on and watch/help. Mom allowed them to do lots of the parts to the actual cupcake batter. Each took part in cracking the eggs and dumping the water and oil. Then when the batter was in the pan, the boys took over the bowl/beaters/spoons and had a hayday.
































After G set his beater down on the counter, he decided that it would be fun to sort of paint with chocolate batter. And that's what he did. Thank goodness, mamaw was monitoring or we could've had some batter-art on the walls and everything else.










This is my favorite pic because Tuck's face is all innocent looking with the huge spoon in his mouth with batter all over it. Please note the shirt he has on is decorated with permanent marker. It's been that way for a little while now. I can't throw it away, its a perfectly good play shirt so who cares, right?

More photos, finally

I finally figured out how to post a few other photos from my phone, so here they are. Please bear with me until I get my new camera. It's soon, so very soon! How exciting.

This is G&T waiting at the dr. office to go back. We were actually there for Brett this day but I had all three little ones with me. It was crazy in there waiting and getting back there and trying to keep everyone out of trouble in the room. Every door and drawer was open and shut, open and shut and the rolly stool thing, banged into every wall. The paper on the table, ripped to shreds. Hmmmmm, what else happened..that's all I can remember BUT I do remember that I was a frazzled mess by the time I left there. That is the story of my life if I am alone with my children. Two 2 year olds and a 4 year old can be overwhelming at times, then add a 7 year old in there that has homework every night, its always a circus.







This morning I decided to make chocolate chip pancakes, a family favorite. What a mess it was but they loved it and so that makes me really happy.

Training for the Nashville Half Marathon

Okay, so I am deep into my training for the half marathon coming up in April. I did this last year but only walked the 13.1 miles. This year, I am challenging myself to walk half and run half. So I have to do my training that way too. What I do is, run the first mile and then alternate from then on. I do those on T/Th and Sat. On the off-days I like to do strength training. Today was supposed to be 7 miles for me but since I've only been doing 3-4, I decided to do 5. I enjoyed it so much. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it because I was by myself (with my Ipod) or because I was on the greenway (usually I'm on a treadmill). BUT, I thought to myself, this is actually fun to me. Once my body realizes we are running, it gets used to it and its enjoyable. I was glad because I still sort of dread training now that I am forcing myself to run half.

All that to say, here we come Nashville in April!!! Shout out to my friends training too, keep it up!

I thought I hated Valentine's Day

So, we celebrated V-day yesterday since Will's gone today at a golf qualifier. I learned something yesterday. Will Campbell might be the sweetest man God made, he's definitely the sweetest one I've ever known. Let me explain what he did. I stayed home half a day yesterday because Amber's daughter was sick so she needed to be with her. So, when I arrived at work around 1.45. There was this lonely one rose on my desk with an envelope taped to it. It was labeled 1997 and 1998. Inside was a card and it had a couple of things written that went on in those years....started dating, got engaged (in Cambridge) and got married, August of 1998. Then, every 15 minutes a random student (thanks to the new Chi guys) came to my office with another rose with another year on it with something written inside that went down that year. Some made me laugh, some made me cry. It was so sweet, holy smokes, how did I get such a romantic? It was priceless and I'll never forget it. How thoughtful that was, he had to think of all the stuff on the inside and had to coordinate all of the deliveries etc.

We also had a sitter, went to this restaurant called Dinner In The Diner in Chattanooga and saw a movie. What a great day! Thanks honey, I loved it!!

Long time, haven't heard anything?

Okay, so I know it's been a very long time since I've blogged and you are sick of us going to St. Augustine right? Okay, me too. Problem is I am not taking pics right now so I don't have anything fun to post. I have a few random shots from recently that I can post. Good news is I am getting another camera very soon. I hope within a week or so. We are ready to bite the bullet and buy another one, this one we'll do our best to try and keep up with. I probably will be neurotic about this one and be over the top protective but hey...you gotta do what you gotta do.




Okay, just kidding, this photo is WAY old and I accidentally clicked on it so I thought I'd leave it up. Look how young and skinny we were!!! This was before anyone was married and we were out working a camp in Nebraska.

I've been sucked into Facebook recently and have posted some of this old stuff. I scanned in several old school photos the other night and this was in the bunch. Sorry girls, but it's fun to see these pics.

Okay, back to 2009 and my family these days.

Bad news, I can't figure out how to get the few pics I've taken up on here. I took them with my phone and I think I'm just an idiot and I see them but I can't get to them. It was only a few of G&T eating chocolate chip pancakes.

Anyway, as for what we've been up to, just chugging right along in life. Graham and Tuck are still going to Parent's Day Out at Lee 3 days a week. Amber's very pregnant but still seems to maintain my crew and her small crew on Mondays and Fridays. She'll be leaving us at the end of April to have another baby. Will's deep into golf season again which he loves. Blake's getting signed up for baseball again this year. And, drum roll please....Brett's getting signed up for soccer this spring. He's going to play Greater Cleveland because its so close to our house now at the Mouse Creek complex. It's going to be a trip, from the beginning, with him, and we can't wait. I'm sure I'll post funny stories and pics of those events. Spring fever has hit and I'm so ready for it. I like winter but I like it when its getting close to spring. Can't wait! As for me, I'm good, still doing about 8-10 loads of clothes a week and still wonder how in the world we can eat an entire box of cereal at 1 breakfast sitting...true story! We love it.

St. Augustine in the winter...fabulous

We have a little tradition now and it's one that I could keep forever. Will's mom and dad, his sister and her children and us head down to St. Augustine, FL right after Christmas. We stay all the way through New Years and it's a blast. The weather was gorgeous this year. We did bathing suits and the pool everyday but 1 and I actually got sunburned one day. It was a very pleasant get-away and one I'll remember for a long, long time.

The photo above is the one day that it was pretty chilly. We went over to the beach but as you can see we had sweatshirts on. Also, each one of my family members are looking at the camera. Can I say this NEVER happens anymore, so I'm pretty proud of this photo. I decided to enlarge it to an 8x10, (shut up Merica).





I will start with all the shots of the pool activity, we stayed here all during the day until it was nap time. Usually we started early, about 10 am, at the playground. Then the pool. We stay at a place called World Golf Village in St. Augustine. It's a great place to take small children, lots of things for them to do.








This pool has a walk out so the twins stayed pretty much in that area. G&T did floaties this time really well, I was impressed. It should make it so much easier this summer. I have a goal, also, to get them potty trained before Amelia Island.









This pic cracks me up, you probably can't tell, but the boys are enjoying candy canes but poolside. This isn't normal in the parts that we live in so for them to be eating candy canes end of December is funny to me.











These are a few shots of just hanging out, relaxing together and just enjoying being away. This is Megan, Tucker and Ethan.
















Tucker is Will's favorite football watching partner. This is what he does, he just crawls up beside him and just lays with him. However, the "mine" or "bankie" is a must in order for him to be still. Again, props to our friend Steph for this blanket that has been so great for Tucker (although she made it for Brett, funny).





This is Will's dad a.k.a. Grand-daddy. He's trying to pretend Graham and Meg are asleep but it's really not happening. Although Meg is pulling it off for the camera.








Below are just some playground pictures. We went to a public park/merry go-around there and these are all from there.

This is aunt Cathy and Graham, aunt Cathy is also known as Graham's girlfriend. He loves Cathy and always wants to be with her.






Carousel-city, the kids loved it. The twins were too little last year but no way this year, they were all about it.



































Graham loved it so much that this was his reaction when he had to get off. Note the face, so unhappy.


Another thing World Golf has is putt-putt and we've never done it until this year. Grand-daddy, Will and Cathy decided to take all of the older ones (everyone but G&T) to play. These are photos from that adventure.

































NEW YEAR'S EVE

We have a few traditions in St. Augustine, as of this year. We like to grill out on the grills there and eat chocolate fondue for dessert on New Years Eve. Another tradition we have is to only watch Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve a few seconds at a time. Instead the channel stays locked in on this silly racing bike thing where this guy races his bike up a ramp and does this jump thing. Anyone else watch that mess? Will and Lee were glued to this and it was so boring to me. I would much rather watch the stars and freezing people up in NYC. But...whatever.




This is the scene of grilling out. Grand-daddy is pointing at a friendly possum that was out there watching them grill. They were hoping it would show its face but it never did. I never saw it but let's be honest, I don't need to see it to believe it.



















While the grilling was taking place, the kids took Twister outside and played until dinner was ready. Some adults played later, those pics will show up soon.








After dinner, onto fondue. We tried the dark chocolate this year and it was fabulous, it's a keeper for next year.




We had fresh fruit: kiwi, bananas, strawberries, pineapple. We also had marshmallows, graham crackers and pound cake. What a treat!!




















G&T enjoyed it too, we dipped for them and then let them eat. I believe it would've been way too messy for them to dip themselves; maybe next year. They went to bed about 10, I decided they'd be monstous to stay up to ring in 2009. Good decision.





When we got so tired and silly, Ethan and Blake thought it would be so fun for Cathy and me to play Twister with them. Man, I am not in shape enough to last very long at that game. We were all twisted and laughing so hard at ourselves.

This was towards the beginning when we were just getting started.

This was right at the end and when we're all about to crash onto each other. Fun times. I totally recommend this old game to any families up for a good laugh.


Below is how we rang in 2009. Blake didn't make it to midnight and Brett half-way made it there. The twinks were fast asleep in their bed. We're a blessed family and have high hopes for 2009 and what it holds.

As for St. Augustine, we'll see you next year!!