The kiddies and I love visiting Chattanooga.  It’s only a few hours away and there’s always a lot of kid-friendly activities.  Before going into the Tennessee Aquarium, we found this neat, reflective building.  We stopped to take a quick picture together. 

(Right after this shot, Ross says to me, “Now come on, Sweetheart.”  When your 4-year old son, who you adore more than anything, calls you ‘Sweetheart,‘ you gladly put your camera away and forget about the other shots you would have loved to have tried in front of that cool building.)

Ross’ 2 favorite things: 
1.  The butterfly that attached itself to his shirt
2.  The fish that caused him to start screaming, “HEY!!!  ‘Dat fish looks like Nana’s pajamas!!!”

As we approaced the small stingray exibit, an employee gave Ross and Rayna a piece of shrimp to hand-feed to the stingrays. 
My thoughts at this point:  Awesome.  Great.  Totally excited.
Then, as I moved away to take a picture of the kids, I hear the same employee instructing them both to get their hand out of the water because the SHARK (yes… SHARK) was wanting the food and it would bite their fingers. 

Below is Ross’ face when she said the words ‘SHARK’ and ‘BITE YOUR FINGERS’ in the same sentence… 
Is it just me or is it a little odd they would add a shark (small, but shark, none-the-less) to the interactive ‘feed the stingray’ kid exibit?

Snow Day… No preschool!  Wouldn’t a movie be fun?

Ross and Rayna were happy looking for a movie in Ross’ DVD case… 

Until Rayna remembered she had her own DVD case with her own girly movies…

Then, the unthinkable happened… Ross told her we were not watching her movies…

But, little does Ross know, he actually doesn’t make all of the rules.  

Time for a lesson:
Girls pick first.  Yes, that means “Sleeping Beauty”.
“Flushed Away” is next.
Popcorn for both movies makes everyone happy.

Since Thanksgiving, Ross’ favorite thing to talk about was Frosty the Snowman.  When a stranger passed by us at a restaurant a few weeks ago, Ross interrupted our conversation by standing up in his chair and yelling over our table, “Hey… UMMM… I love your Frosty shirt!!!”   Can you imagine how excited he was when we arrived in Arkansas to see Nana and Grandaddy’s pasture and yard covered in snow!?!

After Ross and Matthew finished Frosty, Ross told his Grandaddy, “Today was a great day!” 

Each year, we see how many weeks we can spend in NW Arkansas with Matthew’s parents.  While most people are packing for the beach, we are loading up the car for a 11-hour road trip.  As we talked about our options for Matthew’s extra vacation week this year, the choice was obvious… Pack-up the car!

When we arrived, there was snow on the ground, pecan pies were made and a house-full of super-excited cousins were ready to play in the snow!

We didn’t know why all the horses couldn’t get enough of Rayna.  Then, Matthew smelled her hands.  She still had pancake syrup on her hands from breakfast!When is the last you’ve seen a horse stick out his tongue?  Joseph… Ross’ cousin and best friend  

I always looked forward to the day when Rayna would get her ears pierced.  Although we really considered doing it when she was a baby, we thought it would be fun to wait until she could understand and ask to have it done.

Because I had envisioned taking her when she was 3 or 4 years old, I was very surprised when she woke-up one morning with her mind already made-up.  Unlike most mornings where she’s happy staying in her comfortable pajamas, she jumped out of her bed and eagerly started to get herself dressed.  By 7:20am, she had her shoes on and was pointing to her ear saying, “Ears Pierced.”

Just a few hours later, eleven people stood in a very small corner at Claire’s watching Rayna’s big moment…

She cried and cried and cried.  She also yelled, “Go.  Please!”   Luckily, the chocolate chip cookie afterwards and her sweet support group made everything better!