Hippity Hop

Monday was a crazy, crazy day.  We had a funeral to attend, Wade had a wreck, I had a nasty paper due that night.....it was awful.  Later we decided that I would watch Jack's kiddos that afternoon so that one of she could take Granny to the funeral home for a while.  They played outside most of the afternoon, and when it got dark I made them all come up to play beside the garage doors (where there is a flood light).  They were blowing bubbles and drawing with chalk when Hunter found a frisbee.  So, Hannah and Hunter go to the front yard to throw the frisbee back and forth.  We notice Sophie playing in the yard, and then Hunter notices that she has something in her mouth.  "EW! A RAT!!," he says!  Then he proceeds to pick up the "rat", toss it on his frisbee and carry it to me and Chris. 
This is the "rat" that he brought us:

 A very cute baby bunny! A couple of minutes later (while we are awwwing over this baby), Sophie finds another one.  This one is a runt and very teeny...she barely has her eyes open from birth.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here are the babies together:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After a few minutes of research online, we found out that we needed to find the nest and put the babies back right away.  Chris found the next in the front yard right beside one of my dogwood trees.  In the nest was a 3rd baby!  He put all 3 babies in their nest and covered them up so that they wouldn't be found again.  By the next afternoon, momma rabbit had moved them to a safer home.  How sweet!
 
On another happy note, Hannah's caterpillar (in its cacoon) is still alive and well.  How do you know it's alive, you may ask?  If you touch the cacoon, the caterpillar/butterfly wiggles!  Neat!  I can't wait to see what she looks like when she is ready to come out!

Caterpillars and Cars

A few weeks ago, Chris suggested that we start thinking seriously about getting a new car.  We terribly needed something bigger, that holds more than 5 people. 
So...this is what we decided on:      

And, I LOVE IT ! ! ! !  It is exactly what we needed.



Yesterday, Hannah brought home a caterpillar.  She has been on a caterpillar hunt for over a week now, and actually found one last week.  However, while she was playing with "fluffy" outside, she lost him.  She was so upset.  So, after finding one the next day at school, she jumped into the car after school and started picking out names.  Once home, we put "Carly" into a tupperware container and Hannah ran out to find some clovers for her to eat.  When I checked on her last night before going to bed, I noticed some 'web' type material forming on one of the clovers....I didn't think too much about it and I went off to bed.

After dressing Hannah for school, both her and I went into the kitchen to make her lunch.  This is what we found after a quick glance at Carly:

 

Hannah and I are excited to see what becomes of Carly!  What a nice surprise!

Happy Easter!

Ok, ok...I know this Easter blog is a little late.  Better late than never, right??

This year we had Easter here at our house.  Jacqualine and her crew were in Texas visiting Kenny's family so they weren't able to come.  Also, Warren and Ginger had taken all of theirs to Orlando during Easter week.  Mom, Mark and the girls along with Lebron and Ann and their family were all able to come.  Oh, and Dad was here....his first Easter with us!  We all had an amazing lunch and then we handed all the guys huge bags of eggs to hide!

Halle taking a break during her egg hunt:

Hannah and Cheyenne comparing their finds:

Hannah checking her eggs for candy:

I love days (like Easter) when I get to spend good quality time with my family.  Wonderful Easter!

A New Adventure??

Monday morning I went and registered for more classes at NGTC.  Yep, I'm going to finish my RN.  I'm scared to death.  There are so many stipulations and rules...like, before you can even officially enter the program, you have to have at least a 3.0 in all of your core classes.  That means a B in MicroBiology???  Also, I have to take a "nurse's SAT" and pass that before I can proceed. 

Anyway, I'm starting off simple enough: MicroComputers and Psychology.  Well, I hope anyway.

Candy, Candy, EVERYWHERE!!!

A couple of weeks ago, Dad invited all of us to his company's annual Easter Carnival.  So...yesterday, we set off for Cleveland to head towards Mars.  They had a ton of games to play, a bunny train to ride, and best of all, lots and lots and lots of CANDY to eat!

Hannah and Halle bunny hop racing:

Halle with Giggles the clown:

Hannah with Papaw:

After the Carnival, we all went back to Christy's house to have dinner and play!  Christy's house backs up to a field of horses and the girls were able to feed the horses a huge bowl of apples and a bag full of carrots!  They loved it!  Afterwards, we played ball, threw a football, drew with chalk, hunted some eggs....needless to say, by the end of the day, the girls were exhausted! 

I do know that every little bit we learn about Dad, and even Christy, just makes them both easier to love.  They have been such a blessing....and now, I can't imagine life without them!

WOW.

Saturday, Dad invited all of us to a picnic at Coolidge Park.  Some of his good friends were going to be there and we were all excited to get to finally meet each other.  Hannah and Halle ran dad to death.....he seemed to love every minute of it!  According to the girls, Papaw is a lot of fun!  : )

Hannah with her kitty on the carousel:

Halle with Daddy on the carousel:

Evidently, Papaw is a big UT fan.....  And if it is good enough for Papaw, then Hannah is all too willing!

Yesterday, Dad and Christy came to the house and we played in the yard with the kiddos and had dinner together.  It has been nice to really get to know one another.  VERY amazing weekend...lots of fun.....MANY more to come!!!  Wow.

Happy Birthday Halle!

Sunday afternoon the whole Tinker clan met at Chuck E Cheese for Halle's 3rd birthday party.  I love getting a bunch of the family together...I feel sometimes that we all don't spend quite enough time together!  Anyway, the kids had a blast and most importantly, Halle seemed to have a very happy birthday!  It was a special day, not only for Halle, but for Hannah and I also.  It will forever be remembered  : )

Halle eating her Spongebob cupcakes:

Hannah with her PERFECT gift from Papaw:

Halle the birthday girl:

What a blessed day!

Discovery Museum

Thursday night, Jack and I took all of our kiddos to the Creative Discovery Museum in downtown Chattanooga.  They had a Free Family Night promotion, so all of us got in for FREE!  The kids absolutely had a blast and Hannah was begging me to promise that we would go back even before we pulled out of the parking lot.  After the museum, we took them to McDonalds for dinner.  Over all, a very kid-friendly day!  Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying the exhibits:

Hannah enjoying one of the many music rooms:

Halle playing in the Riverboat exhibit:

Hannah and Hunter in their Riverboat Captain gear:

Halle digging for bones in the Dinosaur exhibit:

All the kids together (wait, minus Hunter) before we left:

I know they all had a great time!  This is definitely something that we will be doing again very soon!

Slumber Party

Last week, Jack asked if I would keep her kids Friday night so that she and Kenny could go to a B&B and get some couple time.  She owes me big time!  : )  Friday afternoon, Granny, Jack, Kenny, kiddos, Ann, Rachel, Penny, Ginger, Warren, Bella and I had lunch at Logan's.  After lunch, I took the kids home with me.  I was surprised at how good they all were.  I really, really enjoyed all of them being here together!!

After Jack came to pick up the kids, Chris and I went and bought our first new mattress set....I am so excited!!!  We should be picking it up this weekend and I CAN'T WAIT!!!  Funny how we "old" people get excited over things we once thought 'mundane'.  Pics of new mattress soon to come  : )

Snow Days

Friday the school called to let us know that they would be letting the kids out at 12 noon because of the impending weather.  I left a little early and arrived at the school at about 11:30 to pick all of the kiddos up.  By the time I dropped Ginger's kids off and headed home, this is what the road looked like (I was about to cross over the railroad tracks):

I do NOT like driving in the rain, much less snow!  Thankfully, we all got home okay. 

The schools also let out on Monday, so we took a trip to Walmart.  This is one of the things we came back with:

We immediately thought of the 1920s when we saw this and just had to get it!  Halle calls it her "flapper" dress (because we tell her that she looks like a flapper girl).  I really enjoyed having them home for a few days....made me realize how ready I am for summer!!

Granny's Back!

Yesterday, Granny came home from a month long stay in Florida.  Needless to say, my kids were very excited!  They really miss Granny when she is away from home.  After picking her up from the airport, we (Ginger, Jack, and myself) took her out to eat as a coming home present.  I'm glad she is back...things just aren't the same without her downstairs.  We all missed her!

I was scanning Facebook the other day and found an old family friend's profile.  On that profile, he had pictures of the early days of The Bluegrass Harmoneers.  Papaw looked so young!  Some of the pictures were taken at festivals that I used to go to when I was very small.  Seeing all those pictures brought back some great memories...they also brought back the fact that we all still miss him very much.  Here is one of the pictures from one of my favorite festivals:

The Bluegrass Harmoneers:

I'm glad that I still have his music to go to when I feel like I'm missing him too much...hearing him sing brings back all the great things about my childhood.  I guess losing a loved one is never easy, but I'm grateful that we have the assurance that we will see them all again one day!

Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere!

After a long day of doctor appointments and running around, I think all of us needed some time to unwind.  It has been pretty windy today, so I thought that it would be a perfect time to pull out the bubbles!  They didn't have to blow very hard...the wind did most of the work.  However, Halle felt the need to put some extra "umph" in it :

Hannah and her bubble:

I must say, it was a wonderful way to unwind from a hectic day!

Tooth Fairy!

My oldest, Hannah, has had a couple of teeth that have been really loose for a while now.  She has really enjoyed wiggling them and showing everyone that she will eventually "pull them out".  Last night, as she was playing Wii, she was wiggling one of them and OOPS! it popped out!  I think it scared her a little at first, but that soon turned into excitement!  She promptly took her little tooth and put it into a ziploc baggie and placed it under her pillow : )

Oh, the joy of being young!

Little Minds

Every morning, my aunt Ginger picks up Hannah and takes her to school.  Every afternoon, I pick up her children along with Hannah.  Yesterday, Ginger had went to run an errand and it took a little longer than she expected....no big deal, I just brought all the kiddos home with me. 

I had a load of laundry to do when I got back home and my girls love to help with laundry.  Ginger's kiddos jumped right in and started separating whites/colors and taking clothes out of the washer/dryer!  We were almost finished and I started loading the last load into the washer.  This is what happened as the washer started to aggitate:

I couldn't help but watch in amazement at how amazed they were at how the washing machine works.  You may be wondering about where Halle is??  She is standing on the very front of that laundry basket in front of all the kiddos....she thought it was pretty cool too : ).

The Beginning!

Ok, here it is...my very first blog!  I'm so very excited!

My sweetheart forgot to set the alarm this morning as he left for work and I overslept quite a bit.  After waking, and panicking for a few seconds, I debated on whether I needed to get Hannah up and ready to be taken to school (late, of course).  I decided to let them both sleep in...they were both sleeping so soundly.  I'm glad I did, we had a great day together!

The weather was so warm today so after our chores I let the girls out the back door to head for their playset.  I sat watching them from above on the deck w/ the laptop to keep me company.  It did get a bit cooler as the evening went on, so I came back inside just long enough to grab a throw and curl back up on the sofa outside.

After dinner was made and cleaned up, Hannah asked if we could make some kind of dessert.  That doesn't take much prodding : )!  We made cupcake brownies...and as a matter-of-fact, we are waiting on the second batch to come out of the oven.  Chris worked late tonight, so it was a good way to keep the girls busy.  All-in-all, we had a really fun day!