Things I Learned (or re-learned) in 2017 - by Marc

1. My wife is so smart.    

2. When your 7-yr-old daughter pranks her older sisters by putting saran wrap over the toilet, you know that you’ve succeeded as a father. 

3. Renting a really big RV for a week-long family vacation sounds like a great idea if somebody else is driving.

4 .Even if you don’t change, everything around you will eventually change... which means you’re dealing with change anyway. 

5. My wife is a phenomenal teacher. Look how far I’ve come!

6. Despite what everybody was saying, our nation has survived another year. And God is still in control.

7. There is no such thing as too much facepaint on a 7-yr-old.

8. When I read books to the girls (ok, “a book” - just one a year), I can only insert fake sentences successfully about 10% of the time now that they’ve caught on to me.

9. When you build the house that you are going to retire in, make sure you save all the paperwork and planning spreadsheets... just in case it’s not the one you retire in.

10. My daughter is the best clogging giraffe I’ve seen in my entire life!

11. Make every single day count.

12. Just when you get settled in and comfortable, God may decide to up and move you.

13. After 1538 miles in our week-long RV trip, many memories were made. I would have been okay if more than half the memories were good ones, but the girls said that 95% were good!

14. Six Flags is a very appropriate place to reinforce life lessons to your kids about personal space etiquette.

15. Sometimes when you go to a foreign land, you run into people that share your family name... and other times you run into your work family.

16. A leader worth following is one that cares about other people.

17. Hooking up an RV’s black water tank is best done in daylight and with a stuffy nose.

18. My wife’s tolerance for my work is amazing!

19. A single leaky toilet seal can quickly create new backyard water features.

20. People in England apparently don’t wear shorts in October.

21. Driving an RV next to a 2500-ft cliff is no different than a 50-ft cliff. Being blown off the road has the same ending either way!

22. My wife really can go camping, especially when friends and peer pressure are involved.

Christmas 2017

Christmas was spread out for us this year. We had an early Christmas with Marc's family, a low key Christmas morning at home, and then we celebrated with my side of the family. We tried to keep things simple this year, but we still managed to surprise the girls with a few things.

Season passes to Dollywood

And we finished off the morning with a gymnastics beam, a new bike, and a fish. It was a wonderful morning together as a family.

Winter Fun

December is a busy season, and we have had a lot of fun. Brooke had a Christmas music program at school.

She also got to showcase some of her gymnastics moves. She really is loving her class.

We did some Christmas baking together. School didn't get out until the 20th, so we had to split our baking into two days.  I don't think the girls minded that much. :)

We prepared for our annual Christmas Eve brunch.  Because Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday we opted to shift our brunch to the 23rd.

We had a great big crowd this year, and I love having a home full of those we love. Another last here in this home, but the tradition will remain.

Ummm... I don't know.

We enjoyed a Christmas Eve candlelight service at church.

The girls are excited for Christmas tomorrow morning! I love making memories with my tribe!

The First Snowfall of the Winter

The girls were so excited to hear that we were going to get some snow even if only 2 inches max were predicted.  The snow came in a little earlier than I expected and we were on the other side of town.  The traffic to get home was terrible and the roads were beginning to ice. A journey of 30 minutes turned into 2 unpleasant and stressful hours. Thankfully once we made it to the interstate things were looking better on the roads and we were able to zip home for the last stretch. 

The snow kept falling all night, and when it was all done we ended up with 9 inches! That is crazy for us in the south. It ended up taking a week to finally melt.

Snowman #1

I spent most of that night and the next day right here. 

Nine inches of powdery snow was something new to all of us. The girls had the best time playing.

That snow was deep!

We all had some fun sledding down the front hill.

This one had a little trouble walking at some points in the backyard. 

Snow tower, I mean snow man #2. This guy was about 7' tall!