Surprise!!

Well this past weekend, dad & I decided we would surprise the children & my mom and take them over to Pigeon Forge and stay at the Christmas Inn. You have to know our family, the children have never spent the night away from home except for my parents and my brother's home. So this was BIG stuff to them, and to top it off they had an indoor pool! So off we went. Our first stop was the infamous Bass Pro shop. Hubby had a gift card from Christmas burning a hole in his pocket so we stopped in there before getting into Pigeon Forge. We then arrived at the hotel and come to find out they were having a Santa Convention!!! Everywhere we turned there were Santa's, it was so neat. The children enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere all over again. Our room was phenominal, we stayed in the suite. It had a full kitchen (I mean stove,fridge,dishwasher,microwave and sink w/all the cooking utensils & place settings!) We then spent Saturday tooling around Pigeon Forge looking for some camp clothes. I think they had a good time, check out the pics.

Check out dad at the Bass Pro Shop!
Momma loved the moose
Do you think the kids loved the room or what?
They were so excited!







One of the Santas
Another Santa

This jeep was sitting in the parking lot of the hotel.. we loved it!
Check this out!! Awesome! Awesome!

Basket Blast!

I am a member of our local basket guild and each month we have a basket class or just get together to weave. This month we were truly blessed to have a wonderful teacher come in from Michigan!! Our dear friend Marilyn Wald brought all her wonderful basket designs and we each got to pick out our favorite one,or two, or three...We began on Friday evening and then met back again Saturday morning to weave and eat and weave! Some took longer than others choosing their basket, like me I took an hour or more (what can I say they are all so wonderful I couldn't choose!) Marilyn is such a patient teacher and she is so eager to teach. If you are interested in basket weaving check out your local guild and please go and check out Marilyn's website and see her gorgeous baskets that you can make yourself!! www.xyzbasketworks.com Here are a few pics of some of the ladies working and Marilyn helping us out.


This is Mrs. Marilyn Wald (aka best teacher ever!)


This is my momma (aka best momma ever!)

Ms. Mary a weaving away, this was her second basket for the weekend

I loved Ms. Brenda's basket, she is a native of North Carolina!

Ms. Marilyn talking with Ms. Sharon our president about her basket

Check out Ms. Charmie's hat she wove out cedar

This is a wonderful cake called Susan Texas Pie one of our ladies hubbies made this for us, he is a boy scout leader. It was wonderful

This is George & Beverly, he is the boy scout leader who made the cake

WATCH OUT!!!

We'll all I can say is watch out, here comes Cassandra! Daddy & I surprised her with the opportunity to get her permit when she turned 15, so I took her on her birthday and she passed her permit test with flying colors!!! We have already been on the road and doing good. We are so proud of her, but she is growing much to quickly for our liking!!!


Here she is filling out all that paperwork

Here she is taking the test, should have seen her face when she got one wrong!! He he

Almost done

Smile for the DMV