Happy 3rd Birthday Jeffrey!

Jeffrey is a happy boy.  He's been looking forward to this all day.

Mommy cuts the Dora cake.

Looks good.

Oh no, he's got Dora and Boots!

The carnage!

Let's eat some cake.

Ben isn't shy about helping himself.

Juliette got some cake too.

Yumm.

Yes, I was there too.  Just mostly behind the camera.

Time to unwrap presents.  Ben is all too happy to help.

The Little Tykes Classic Coupe was the big winner of the evening.  Jeffrey just jumped right in and made himself at home as we've seen him do at many other friends' houses.

Jeffrey gets a push from big brother Ben.

But little sister Megan got the last laugh.

Jocelyn and Juliette visit us

Ben and Megan give kisses to their favorite "cousin", Juliette Skousen.

Megan gives loves.

Maybe too much loves!  She's a big girl.

Ben is very sweet around "the baby".

Daddy Brian singlehandedly handled all four kids so that Shelly and Jocelyn could get out on the town.  Impressed?  I thought so.

Juliet's got a tortilla and she's not letting go.

Field trip to the Knoxville Zoo

The bus carrying Ben and his Northside elementary class arrives at the zoo.

Ben grabs a bite to eat with some of his friends before starting on the zoo trail.

Daddy brought Jeffrey with him to follow Ben's class. Nice, Jeffrey.  Very nice.

Ben is excited to see the penguins...

as is Jeffrey.

Ben thinks the camels are pretty cool.

Got to feed them out of our hands.  This one tickled Ben's hand and made him laugh.

Jeffrey liked the camels, but kept his distance.

Jeffrey caught a peak of the elephants.  They were indoors because it was a hot day.

Ben liked the zebras.  He named the colors black and white.

Overlooking the giraffe pen.

All the kids crowded onto this old beat up safari jeep.

You can see Ben standing in the background too.

Look carefully, there's a lion on that table looking at you!

Got to see the big gorillas.

Ben looks on as one comes inside.

We finished off our trip riding the ferris wheel.

The End.

Goodbye Elder Thomas

We loved having you with us and wish you all the best in your new area!

And welcome to our crazy home, Elder Jarman!

Also, we got to see Elder Kreyling, the brother of Shelly's sister-in-law Janice (make sense?)

Elder Kreyling (right) with his new companion.

Green looks good on him, no?

Brian welcomes Elder Kreyling to the mission.  Too bad he didn't come to our area and live in the basement.

There he goes!

WEATHER

We've received a lot of phone calls and e-mails about how we are doing in relation to the nasty weather in Tennessee. It is very bad in Nashville, but that's about 5 1/2 hours from us. We are in far East Tennessee, right next to the Virginia border. Usually those storms either head north or south of us. We only had a little rain last night and that was it. But for those of you who need living proof, I've uploaded a video HERE so you can see what it looks like out here. -Shelly-

p.s. Just for fun I'm posting a picture of Megan doing child labor.  Gotta love the blankie and binky!

A fun, sunny day at Watauga Lake

We got the kids out to Watauga Lake yesterday.  There's a nice sandy beach and the water was freezing but that didn't stop the boys from wading out in it.  They saw butterflies, geese and baby ducks and played with our friends the Davidsons and the Staceys.

Benjamin and Jeffrey can't believe their eyes.

Megan comes to Daddy to get warm

Isn't she cute in her little bathing suit and hat?

All the kids playing together

Some butterflies we saw on the beach.