So Long, Kindergarten!

How did this sweet little baby........................

Turn into this sweet grown up girl???????????

Hollace's last day of kindergarten was today. It really wasn't a real school day I guess. Her class had a family breakfast, got their diplomas and played a couple of games. Then they got to leave early. We all went to her breakfast, but I didn't get a picture of us all together. It was kind of crazy.

Hollace just LOVES her teacher, Mrs. Talbot. She was wonderful. Hollace asked me if I could "pull her back" so she could be in Mrs. Talbot's class again.

Her school doesn't have a formal kindergarten graduation, but here she is getting her little diploma.There's just something about kindergarten. They still seem so young,.... babies. But 1st grade? That seems so old, so grown up. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. They all are.....I know.

They did take cap and gown pictures even though they didn't have a graduation.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Little Vacation

During the last week of Hollace's two week Spring Break, we took a little trip over to East TN to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. This is a very popular tourist location (for those of you in OK). Pigeon Forge is the home of Dolly Parton's amusement park, Dollywood.


These pictures are out of order, which drives me crazy, but it wouldn't let me move them like usual.

Here are the kids at Dollywood.

This was one of their favorite rides. We rode it several times. The park was not busy AT all. We just walked right up to all the rides and got on.

This was after a little water battle ride. We got SOAKED!! Poor Thad cried to whole time.

This was the cabin where we stayed. It was very nice and secluded, yet very close to everything. It had a hot tub on the deck which the kids loved!

This picture is for my Dad. It is inside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, which we drove through on our way home. This picture does not do it justice. It was just beautiful.

These next few are at a Cars museum that Brent and the boys went to in Gatlinburg, while Hollace and I shopped a little.

This is the car from "The Adams family" wait...or "the Munsters"? Which is it?

The car from "Days of Thunder"

From "Back to the Future". I loved that movie.

and of course Herbie

This was actually at Dollywood, and Rhett wanted to take a picture with this car because it looked like Sheriff from "CARS".

Here is Hollace on one of the mild rides. She much preferred the fast, up-side down roller-coasters and rode all of them at least once.

Rhett was not quite tall enough for a lot of the rides. Next summer he'll be able to do a lot more.

Brent and the kids on the Shooting Star

Grandparent Visit #2

Nana and Papa Brown came for a visit two weeks after Brent's parents were here. They got to be here for Easter which was fun. I didn't really take many pictures, but here are just a few.

Hollace and Nana made Resurrection cookies, the night before Easter. I had never heard of them before. My mom found the recipe/story and it was really neat.

Rhett spent some time one evening on the Barbie skates. I think he wore Nana and Papa out going up and down the sidewalk.

Skating off into the sunset
Thad was sort of left out of this post. I couldn't find any picture of him with Nana and Papa. We didn't do a very good job taking pictures this time. Here he is on the bike. He was on a bike ride with Dad while Rhett was skating.

Grandparent Visit #1

Grammy and Papa Hubbard came for a week long visit in March (Yes, March. I am aware that it is May). Of course we had a great time and the kids got spoiled. Uncle Scott got to fly in for the end of the week and drove back with them. We didn't take many pictures, but got a few cute ones.

Here is one example of the "spoiling" that went on. The Schwann man came by one afternoon and Papa thought we needed 2 huge boxes of ice cream bars and cones. This was a treat for them. Here is Thad enjoying his ice cream. Oh, how he enjoyed it!

He was Oh so sticky!

We are so glad they got to come visit and are looking forward to their next trip to TN!

Devastating Nashville Flood

I don't know if you all from Oklahoma have heard about the devastating flooding that went of this last weekend in Tennessee, but it is just terrible. It rained- a down pour- from Friday night until Sunday evening. About 12-13 inches, 28% of our average yearly rainfall in one weekend. There have been something like 22 confirmed deaths and others are still missing. Many peoples homes are destroyed. There are a lot of lakes, rivers and creeks around here and they just couldn't keep up and overflowed everywhere. The Cumberland River which goes right through downtown Nashville didn't crest until last night at about 56 feet. Much of the area I ran the marathon in last weekend is now waist high water. Many famous landmarks of Nashville were seriously damaged or destroyed.


Luckily, we survived without any damage. The little creek behind our house was like a raging river! It was crazy. I have never seen so much rain in my life. Schools have been cancelled all week because of damage and closed roads. Brent has been at work almost continuously since Sunday morning. They had millions of dollars of damage to their Women's Hospital.


Please lift up in prayer, those who were less fortunate than us and lost their vehicles, property, homes, or loved ones!

Here is the intersection at the Creek beside our neighborhood.

This was in front of Hollace's school
Two of the people who had to be rescued. This was about a mile from our house, in front of Hollace's school.

(The previous pictures were taken by Rick Murray of Memories by Murray)

Take a minute to look at this video. The destruction is so sad!