Christmas Card Fail

Since I don't have anything new to post I'm putting these pictures from a Christmas card photo shoot gone bad. Looks like it was 2008. I had the two kids' aprons and mine already so thought it'd be cute to get Paul a Christmas apron and do our picture for the card wearing the aprons. I tried to use the self timer and do it ourselves but never got a good shot so abandoned the idea and took Paul's apron back. Funny to look at how much we've all changed. Mallory was not amused until the end when she does make a come back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Happy Day!

According to Paul today is the one year anniversary of our bringing Peaches home to be our family dog. I wrote about how he came to be our puppy from Heaven here. We have loved him so much for the past year and look forward to many more years with him. He is absolutely the best dog a family could ask for! Thank you again to Ms Heath, our principal for rescuing him off the streets and to the Lord for answering the kids' prayer for a dog!!!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update: I pulled up this post I did on the day we got Peach and it was actually the 23rd so yesterday was one year. Oh well, today starts a new year!

First Day of School-Fall 2013

The kids (and I) had a great first day of the new school year today. Mallory started 3rd grade at a new school across town, AJ Martin Elementary. Doyle where I work and where Mallory and Michael have been the past two years only goes through 2nd grade. Martin is 3rd-6th grades so Mallory will be there a couple of years before Michael joins her. Michael started 1st grade today. Hard to believe my babies are in these grades already!
 Our school district serves every child in the district free breakfast. For Doyle and Martin they eat in the class room. Since they do this and the kids like eating at school most days this is what we do. It really makes the getting ready in the morning routine run smoothly. All they really have to do is brush their teeth and hair and get dressed and they are ready to go.

Mallory and Michael both have Christian teachers again this year and we are so thankful for that! 

 

 

 

 

 

End of the Summer Fun

Mallory is having some friends over tonite for a little end of summer/back to school sleepover. We still have the fire pit in the back yard from Michael's camp out party so we had a bonfire and s'mores. We also had some leftover fireworks so set those off tonite. Michael hangs with the girls but his time's coming. These girls are all in the same grade with Mallory except one and they all go

to church with us. I hope they all stay friends all the way up thru school here in the Prairie. 

More on Branson

I didn't take many pictures in Branson so I just downloaded a few of some of the attractions we saw and things we did! I don't know what's gotten in to me! I used to be so good about taking pictures.

The first two days there we went to Silver Dollar City. I had gotten the three day-two park Splash and Play ticket that got you in to Silver Dollar City and Whitewater water park on three days during a five day period so we would have some flexibility. Most say you really only need one day at SDC but this was a good value and we were going to be in Branson a whole week so I thought it would be nice not to have to rush around the park trying to get everything in in one day. We loved SDC and had a great time there! The kids are a bit skittish about the big roller coasters and even Mallory who rode all of those type rides last year at Disney wouldn't get on them this year. But there are plenty of other rides and our favorite was the Lost River of the Ozarks. It's the raft type ride where you get wet!



Speaking of getting wet, on the third day of our trip we went to Whitewater. We all had a great time. We got Michael on the slides after much coaxing and he loved them! There is so much to do there and we were there from about noon to 7 but could have easily stayed longer. This was our family's first time to a water park and we plan to do more of those in the future!
Mallory and Paul did the mat racers ride you see in the picture. Michael didn't want to do it so I waited with him at the bottom.

One morning it was raining so we visited the Titanic Museum. The kids were begging to go and though we had heard it was a lot of reading we consented. It was neat for Paul and me but I really wouldn't recommend it for small kids. Costs us 68 bucks to get in there and the kids were just buzzing thru each exhibit room. The boat looks so cool from the road and it is neat but to really appreciate it all you have to read each of the placards at every display and the kids just weren't going to do that. Their favorites were feeling the water that was the temperature of the water that night and trying to walk on the mock decks that were slanted to show how it would have been as the boat was sinking.

Branson Landing is a neat development right on Lake Taneycomo and touts a 7.5 million dollar light, fountain, fire and music show every hour on the hour. We caught in one night right at 9 and went back the next day to see another one but it was the same song, Kung Fu Fighting! Ha! There are lots of shops and restaurants along the Landing and we enjoyed just walking around.

My mom treated us to Shoji Tabuchi. He is the famous Japanese violinist who has a theatre there. He's in his 25th year. He was born and raised in Japan and saw Roy Acuff in concert in Japan when he was a child and decided he wanted to be a country fiddle player! He came to the US and was actually in Louisiana for about 11 years and Paul's best friend, Billy's brother Tillman helped Shoji get his start. Tillman was a music promoter in Louisiana and worked with many famous musicians including Hank Williams. The show was awesome. Kids loved it too.

We went to see Joseph at the Sight and Sound Theatre. This is a Christian theatre company that does huge Bible themed shows like Noah and Daniel and the Lions Den etc. Next year they will be doing Jonah. We hope to go back to see it. The kids loved Joseph. We did too. My mother and Lothar and my brother joined us for this one. They use live animals in their productions which is always great.

 

I have already mentioned how much we loved the Showboat Branson Belle. Well worth the money at 49 per person. Thankfully we got our tickets for 30 since we had gotten those Splash and Play tickets. A steal at 30 really.

Before we left town we went to The Track and rode go-karts courtesy of my cousins who gave us some credits before they left. It was a fun way to end our trip. Michael wanted to ride the Heavy Metal highrise pictured below. Daddy drove of course! Mallory and I rode on the classic track!

On Sunday morning while we were there we went to a local church to worship. We saw the guy who played Joseph and the featured pianist from the Branson Belle at church that morning!

Go to Branson! There is so much to do we didn't even scratch the surface!
We hope to see the Dixie Stampede and ride the Ducks next time.

Big Ol Tractor

Look at the size of this tractor! It's not uncommon to see  huge farm implements like this one where we live. They never cease to amaze me!