Obviously got a little busy there at the end of 2009.
The Ganotes came from Louisville on December 23 and stayed until Sunday, December 27, 2009. We had a great time. This year all 3 kids got to go back to Grandmom and Grandfather's for a few days after Christmas during their Winter Break. Sounds like they had a nice quiet time. They had a good time going to the bookstore. Layne is "totally in to chapter books".
I went to Knoxville with Melanie on Tuesday, December 29 - without any kids! Whoo Hoo!!!!! We had a leisurely drive on Tuesday and then got out our scrapbooking stuff. On Wednesday we slept in a little until about 9:30 and then ran some errands. I finally go to go the cool scrapbook store in Knoxville - Scrappin' in the City - this time. It was really nice. They had a lot of unique product and a great layout to the store in this great historic home. Looking forward to being able to get back there sometime.
Doug and Susan brought the 3 little Ganotes to Knoxville on Thursday for our Layne Christmas plans. It is always a bit hectic of a transfer and didn't get to speak with Doug and Susan much - but sounds like everything went okay.
The adults went to dinner for New Year's Eve. Melanie, me, mom and dad, Linda and her husband Tom, Linda and her husband Andrew, and Sue and her husband (can't remember his name) - which are neighbors / friends of Melanie. It was a great dinner (thank you very much for the treat Melanie) and then we rushed to get to the movie theater by 8:00 p.m. Matthew was able to meet us at the theater - he was the only one to get to see the 1st 15 minutes of Sherlock Holmes. I didn't really care too much for it - but it was nice to be out with adults.
Sounds like the kids had fun. It was a little too much for Joshua - all of the changes - and he was not asleep by the time we got back (sorry Seth and Kathryn the babysitters - they didn't get to watch their "older kid" movie this year).
We woke up on New Year's Day and said it was Christmas all over again. The kids rushed downstairs about 8:30 a.m. (after telling Jacob and Layne every hour and half hour since 5:00 a.m. to go back to sleep). It is a little crazy with 5 kids opening presents to keep track of everything - but they loved it all!
We had a game day - played Sorry sliders, Sponge Bob Uno, Yahtzee, and Monopoly Jr throughout the day. Grandma was "surprised" how competitive Layne can be at times :) That evening we drove in to Knoxville to watch a light show that a family had coordinated with music of lights in their yard. It was pretty cool. (until we started getting gassed out by the girls in the very back of the van - ewwww).
On Saturday we had the "all about Mitchell Birthday Day". From the moment we woke up he wanted to know when he was going to get his cake - poor kid ended up waiting until almost 8:30 p.m. to get his cake! But - that just means he had a very long, very fun day. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. It was a really nice acquarium - and Joshua's first. We got to see a Diver go into the big tank and feed some of the fish. He blew water bubbles, pretended to sit in a chair in the middle of the big tank, and then did Spiderman on the glass - which the kids loved.
We had dinner at the Apple Barn Restaurant in Pigeon Forge. Aunt Melanie planned ahead and had a "build your own aquarium" sticker set for the kids to play with while waiting for dinner and she brought "fish noses" for everyone. Obviously wasn't enough for Jacob, though, as about 10 minutes in he asked "Aunt Melanie, do you have anything else in your purse?". Gotta' love it!
Got back to Melanie's house about 8:00 p.m. and set up for cake and presents. Mom and I both had a hard time buying for Mitchell this year. So mom got to pick from the "bag of presents" that Melanie had at the house she was saving. Mom picked some monster that Mitchell had been wanting from Spy Kids - a movie he had never seen. I picked the Disney movie about animals on planet earth - Mitchell LOVES animals. When he opened mom's gift he was ecstatic!!! "thank you grandma - this is awesome - I have wanted this soooo long". He opens my present and screams "we will never ever see this movie - this is a bad movie - this movie is bad". I guess there is a part where an otter gets eaten - and that is something that he has never forgotten.
Sooo - Thanks a lot Aunt Melanie - made me look bad. Soooo not gonna' let my sister forget this one.
One picture for today - with all of this going on I did not bring a camera to Knoxville. I need to get pictures from Melanie.
Joshua got his rocking chair from Grandma. He loves having his own chair. This one is awesome - Layne spent a good ten minutes showing Joshua where Grandma and Papa Jack are on the chair and where the puppies and letters and numbers are located.
We are all still feeling the chill of 30 degree and less weather - hence the blanket and big slippers - but you can still see the awesome chair. Oh - and this little look on his face - his new Smile.
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