Cavern Trip

While the in laws where here we had a pretty great time. Along with Majong which is our family game ever sense my mother in law taught it to us, we took a trip to the Caverns. This was the first time ever for my children to see a cave and I haven't been sense I was a really young child.

We left fairly early with it being more then an hour drive from our house. Coffee in had and snacks in the bag we were ready to go.

Cumberland Caverns

Heres a link if your in the area and you ever want to go

http://cumberlandcaverns.com/

You have to walk to the cave from the gift shop, its about a quarter mile from the gift shop. 

I was worried that the walk to and from the cave plus the 1.5 mile walk in the cave would be hard on the little ones. Thankfully I was wrong.

Shyanne and Amariah walking to the cavern

The door to the Cavern

Inside the Cavern was amazing! My most favorite part which was pretty much at the very beginning was the pool of water. It was Crystal Clear and almost looked fake. The clearness of the water gave an illusion of it being really shallow but they said that at its deepest point it was over 7ft deep.

Impressive. 

Here is the pool of water all lite up

These look so amazing! I cant believe that underground is such beauty

The pool of water is filled with a waterfall and here it is....

The water fall behind the kids and Mother in law, Kathy

I did not dress up for the cave lol but here is proof I was there. ;)

Here is the waterfall again. Better picture. BEAUTIFUL!

more pics....

A bat! Is this batmans cave? lol ok lame joke alert.

This is the longest room in the cave. I forgot how long they said it was but it keeps going and going. Its like 4 foot ball fields or something crazy?

Group Pic!

This was right before we had to walk up as is STRAIGHT UP 350 stairs. Man it was a work out and I was carring a 25 lb toddler to boot

More awesome shots

They had a light show. In the show they narrator the man who discovered it and how he got stuck in the cave for 3 days and 3 nights. Which he didnt know the length of time seeing as how it was completely dark in there and he could not find his way out. If it wasnt for his friends coming to find him he would have died, so they shut off the lights and yeah it was DARK. The youngest two of my babies were not happy about the minute of darkness. 

This is the area lite up and those are called pipe organs in the back ground. They even make nose, hints the name.

 more photos of what we saw on our walk out of the Caverns. which was hard to look at as your trying to not fall from the slippery path and misleading depth of how far away it is. But it was well worth the effort.

The kids and I thought this looked like fingers coming down from the ceiling. Dont say that in front of a 4 yr old. Levi got really scared and didnt want to walk under it after that.

I dont know how they proved it but apparently this wall of graphity is authentic and from the first visitors to the cave.

I dont know who that man is? But thats Allyson standing in front of the grave yard. This isnt really wear they are laid to rest but its in memory of someone who died in the cavern.

This chandelier is from New York where some oprah house shut down and they brought it to the caverns. Apparently this is one happing place to listen to bluegrass underground. They hold concerts once a month and weddings, sleep over tours etc....

Look even the Caverns celibates Christmas.

On the drive in we say this really cool barn that I just had to get a picture of and include here.

And seeing as how it was past lunch time we just had to stop off and get food. Here is my cute 2 year old enjoying a frosty. (She loves Elsa if you cant tell)

So it was a very long day but worth the trip we even had my dad over for dinner which was an easy take and bake pizza as I was exhausted!

And a game of Majong to finish it off!

Shyanne and Santa, I mean my dad.

Majong 

(This is actually a pic of us playing on New Years eve but it just shows this is our game)

Quilt shop and Sewing Fun

Christmas day my in laws flew in from California. We were happy to see them with our last visit being a little over a year ago. We always like when they come because we end up touring the area On top of that with five kids its nice to have a few extra pair of eyes and hands to hold down the troops.

The first day that we actually spent time with them we had our little Christmas celebration and of course just time for visiting fun.

On the second day my Mother in law who is more of a fabric-a-holic than I am wanted to see about the fabric and Quilting shops in the area. We headed to a town that had two places (one is a place she actually gets emails and such from, so she was really excited about that store) that we were both wanting to check out. The first one was more of a fabric store than a quilt shop, but whats better for quilters than fabric! I got quit a lot of pieces there and was very excited to start working on my next quilt.

But before I could do that I had to finish up one that had been sadly sitting in a box for over a year as I never got a chance (or motivation) to work on it while we lives in England.

(Here is the quilt that needed finishing up)

Here it is all finished sitting on my bed

But once that one was finished up then my new fabric was fair game! I had no idea what to do with the fabric, no patterns in mind. I had looked at just doing a bunch of 10in x 10in squares but that just didnt seem to fit my personality or the fabric. What to do? What to do?..... I checked out Pintrest of course but didnt see anything I wanted to really copy, but did pin a ton for later. So I decided to just to the 10 x 10 and I started cutting away. But like I said it just didnt seem like thats what the pattern really wanted to be. So I stared at my squares and then just started cutting, and sewing and cutting and sewing...... I was shocked that I didnt have a single thing to rip or cut or any sewing machine issues. It was like the fabric wanted it and the machine. Ok ok I might be carried away but if your a sewer you know its a big deal to get a project completed and not a single issue. (like the next project where I broke 3 NEEDLES??? and I am still not sure why)

But anyways here it is......My beautiful Quilt top with the new fabric.

The cow print trim was fabric I already had, man I am glad I keep that and if you look close their is a matching cow print pillow that I made the cover for on the couch. I have now sandwiched the fabric together and started quilting but I haven't got it completely finished. I will post a pic update when its all finished. 

All Finished:

I LOVE IT!

Its not what I had in mind when I started, But that's ok because its so much better then I thought it would be.

~Jesus is the Reason for the Season~

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV)

(In our Christmas Jammies)

Here all 5 of the kids are in there new Christmas Jammies

With this being our very first time in Tennessee for Christmas we needed to figure out where to look at Christmas lights???

A friend of ours gave us three suggestions. So we headed to a town about 30 mins away.

WOW were we blown away. Unfortunately I only had my camera phone and the photos do NOT do it Justice at all.

But here is what I got.

1st location Fair Grounds

Fair Grounds

Fair Grounds

 Fair Grounds

Second Location. I think this is enough lights to cover the whole state! 

But its just one house

Live Animals at the 3rd location

This was the 3rd location with a Live Santa

And a Frosty

Which My son is FREAKED out about anyone in costume (except Santa?)

I took so many more photos but they just came out worse then these ones. Boo-Next year my night vision Camera is for sure going to be there.
But we spent the night doing what most people do. In our house its Potato Soup, Christmas story, Night before Christmas story, and Christmas Jammies! But we added on a gift exchange where each member of the family drew and name and did a gift exchange. I got a cute little book from my 2nd oldest daughter that was all about how lucky she was to have a mom like me. Heart melting!! And the kids all got some toy they wanted lol My memory is already fading so here is some pics.

Legos for Levi

Baby Doll for Amariah 

(Oh and each kid got marshmallows and a hot chocolate pack to take with us to look at lights)

Anika a Art box full of different art supplies

Shyanne got a Doc McStuffins "Stuffy" Dragon

Mike got a Something he wanted? I have no idea really what it is?

But he is apparently really excited about it

Allyson got some 5 headed dragon

And I guess I didnt take a picture of my book but I need to get one and put it on here.

Then after all the excitement and looking at the lights we sent the kiddos to bed. 

Mike and I knew that no matter what we did we probably would not be getting much sleep. I finished watching the rest of the Nativity movie that we had started before dinner time. Then when we thought the kids might be asleep, or at least pretending well we started packing the bottom of the tree with gifts and stocking the stockings!

One little sneaky kid was peaking. I wont say who this child was but SHE is not the first born, or the third, or the 5th. This little sneaky got caught though and ended up in a room with a closed door. I was thinking I might need to add something black and hard to her stocking. But I guess its the season of showing Grace to others. So I let her slide this one time.

Like most Christmas mornings the kids are up way to early. In fact I found out later on in the day that a Ms. Allyson was up at 2 am thinking the day should start. Luckily for me her oldest sister Anika told her it was way to early and sent her back to bed. I heard the kids get up around 5:30am and tried ignoring them to the best of my abilities. But I couldnt go back to sleep. So instead I spend about 30 mins in God's word reading John. I used to think John was my favorite book in the Bible but now I have so many favorites I couldnt possibly choose. Nothing like starting Jesus's Birthday off with his word and story of his birth.

About 6am I rolled over in bed and told Mike it was probably about time we got up and let the kids get out of misery of waiting to open stuff. We said they could do stockings but after stockings they needed to wait tell I had breakfast in the oven. Breakfast consisted of a Bacon-Cheese Quiche and Carmel Cinnamon rolls. Heres the link to the Quiche is your want to make it. It was my first attempt and ended up being a crowd pleaser.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/272327108693635725/

Oh and that mug I got in my stocking from Mike. It says, "Instant Human Just add Coffee"

He knows me all to well.

After a torturous 35 mins or so I had everything in the oven and the kids were ready to roll with the gifts.

Things I enjoyed the most was my mom hand made 4 American Girl doll dresses for the girl's dolls (Amariah doesnt have one yet so her dress will have to wait tell shes older) I cant believe how much time she must have put into them and they are amazing. They really need there own blog!  Once the kids get them on their dolls I am sure I will post that blog.

Thanks MAMA! 

Heres a few pics to show off the goodies.

 

 
  I know I said a few. But with 5 kids a few ends up being 13-ekkk

That was the majority of the kids goods and Mike got a bunch of AHA stuff and I got a water bath cooker (canning yay) a cook book to go with that. New knives set, and a cow hide rug (not real fur) So it was pretty good! :)

This Christmas has been one of our Laziest ones with the fact that we arent hosting anyone at our house. Which usually I would say it doesnt feel like Christmas but this time around it has been very nice. I get to just kind of lounge around. We hate left over soup for Lunch and I threw in some cornbread. But dont think we are being completely anti-social as we are heading off to my Aunts house for dinner.

Also Mikes parents are flying in from California and Land some time around 8pm tonight so we will be seeing them tomorrow and spending the next few days with them. So I am sure I will have a lot more to Blog about. Until Next year-
Remember that the true meaning of Christmas isnt about presents or bows but about the Savior who humbled himself enough to be born of a virgin and give us all the best gift of all Grace and Salvation.  That is why we exchange gifts. To remind us of THE gift of Jesus for each and everyone.


(If you want to know more about Jesus and what the Gospel is check out the link http://www.thegospelistrue.com/)