A Tennessee Christmas

1 cute little girlie

1 white Christmas

1 first birthday

1 amazing couple (the junior Westons)

1 very encouraging family (the Waltmans)

1 happy New Year's

1 trip to Cades Cove

1 ice skating excursion

Yep, it was a good 1. :D


Mom and Dad in the airport, ready to roll. Added note, the airport is the perfect place to watch people. You see all kinds, from punks with wild hair to camo-clad red-necks. Mm-hm, it's a feast for the eyes. :P
An epic shot of Rick.
It was a rainy day...Layover in Phoenix. These captions are brilliant, I know. :P

And then we we were there. Addie didn't even know what hit her, poor thing. :D But seriously, isn't she THE cutest baby ever??

Trying to get her to walk--she wouldn't have it. Who needs to walk when you can crawl all over and scrounge for little goodies on the floor? ...I'm thinking about converting. ;)
"Mm, not sure about this one." Seriously, she loved Rick. He could just scratch his nose and she'd break out in smiles. :DDoesn't she have beautiful eyes?

And drool over this one, too. :)The adoring-Addie smile.
Addie and Daddy. Kev, you make a swell Dad.

If Addie had a penny for how many times she's made someone smile, she would be a millionaire.

We had a white Christmas!! It couldn't have been more perfect--waking up Christmas morning and watching the snow softly falling outside the window. Beautiful. I love it how the Lord hears our hearts' desires, even in the little things.
Since it's been exactly 7.5 seconds since you last saw an Addie picture, here's the second batch. :DIt's really hard to think of MY mom being a grandma. She doesn't have the perm and sparkly jingle bells sweater! I guess that will all come in good time... ;)1 very pesky cat. And I do mean pesky. It was sightly photogenic, which helped in preserving its life. ;) jk, you know. :D

Cute defined.I think the most mind-boggling thing about Addie is, that I'm actually related to her! I'm related to that little ball of adorable-ness. Whoa, did that blow a fuse? I'm sorry. ;)

:)On the count of three, everyone say, cute! 1-2-3-CUTE! Eeek, I'm running out of creative ways to describe her darling-ness. :S

I don't think there's anything cuter than a rugged, handsome guy like Steve, holding a baby. It's so sweet. P.S. I think she approved of the beard. ;)Then we went to Cades Cove for the fourth time in two years. I think it's so beautiful there...and there's nothing quite like leading on some gawking tourist. Kev would stop the van and pretend to look at "something," and the car behind us would stop and try to find the "thing" that we were supposedly looking at. Slightly mean, but oh so fun. :D

Benji, man of the hour. Or should I say minute? He is easily distracted. ;)
An old church building in the Cove. Very beautiful, indeed.

Me and my pal. :D Besides, we both had furry jackets, so we had to have a picture of that. :)Confession: The beard has definitely grown on me. ...well, technically not ON me, but it has started to creep into my affections. ;) 'Course Steve is downright handsome no matter what. I'll probably get killed for this post. ;)

After running around in Cades Cove, we drove up to Gutenberg to go ice skating. It was SO much fun. Joleen and I had a blast together, and not just with ice skating... My throat fairly tickles when I think of the powerful talks we had together, Jo. ;) And that, my friends is a very INSIDE joke. :D (Eeek, that wasn't supposed to be a pun, trust me.) Kidding aside, Joleen, you are a very amazing, Godly young lady. I love you so much. Can't wait to see you again sometime soon, I hope.

Waiting for the Zamboni machine to finish clearing the ice.

Mum is the word. :)More waiting.

The carousel across the way.

While we were skating, Addie got some Grandma and Grandpa time. :)

Changing subjects a wee bit, back at Kevin and Darleen's house, we got to play some pool. We definitely aren't pool sharks by any stretch of the imagination, but it was fun to mess around with it. My theory for getting the balls in is, hit as hard as you can, and you'll probably get something in. :D

Taking aim.While we were there, we had a party for Addie's first birthday. It was a bit early, but I don't think she minded too terribly much. And hey, cake is cake no matter what. :)

Lots of smiles.Lots of shutter moments.Lots of hugs. P.S. For the record, Darleen makes an incredible Mom. :) Darleen, you never cease to amaze me.

Kevin surveying the festivities. Opening her gifts. Isn't she darling?

One of the last nights, we had a bonfire and burned up the Christmas tree. It wasn't quite the blaze we were hoping for, since the ground was pretty wet, but it had its epic moments. We did try to get it going with some not-so-generic methods (think: blower), but nothing seemed to get it going. ;) Eventually, we decided enough was enough, and trooped back inside. End of story.

The last morning of our stay, there was a brilliant sunrise.

Definitely the crowning moment to an incredible trip. I'm already looking forward to going back.

God is so good. His love never ceases to thrill me.

The End