Happy Easter

We had such a great Easter, we have started a tradition of hiding the Easter basket (like my family did when we were kids), and Austin got into it, you could tell he was processing it all as Tony took him around the room "looking" for the basket.

After finding Easter Baskets and eating Blueberry muffins we went to Tom & Gretchen's where we had an Easter egg hunt. Austin loves looking for Easter eggs! He was even talking about it this morning on the way to school. He was fine with just finding them but then Tony introduced him to the fact that there was stuff inside! Now he wants to open all the eggs and see what is inside.

Colored Eggs

Saturday we colored easter eggs with Emily and Levi. I wasn't sure how Austin would do and he LOVED it! I also had fun taking pictures of them.

My Cousin Levi and the Odyssey of The Mind

Odyssey of the Mind....doesn't that just sound cool. My cousin Levi is on this extracurricular club/team at his school called Odyssey of the Mind. His mom, my Aunt Gretchen, just sent out an email about a competition that his team was in. She said I could repost it here and I'm going to because I'm proud of him and his team and wanted everyone to check it out.

"Family and Friends,

I wanted to fill you in on a major success for Levi. He is on the 3rd grade Odyssey of the Mind Team at Grayson Elementary (extracurricular team or club, if you will). OM is a creative problem solving program for kids 3rd grade through college. Teams consist of up to 7 kids (Levi's team has six kids) usually in the same grade (his team are all 3rd graders).

Each year the team chooses from a pool of 5 or 6 Long Term problems to solve via an original play written, produced and performed by the OM team. They have coaches, but the coaches are only there to guide. The team members do all of the creating (script, costumes, props, scenery, etc.). The team also practices Spontaneous problem solving on a regular basis in three different categories - verbal, verbal hands-on and hands-on. For more information, you can visit www.odysseyofthemind.com.

I tell you all this because last weekend his team went to Regionals to compete. They competed in Long Term and Spontaneous. And - insert drum roll - his team came in 2nd place and will move on to compete at the State competition April 19th at Columbus State University in Columbus, GA!

We are so proud of him and his teammates and wanted to share the fun news with you. We'll keep you all posted on how they do at State. Worlds (at the University of Maryland in June) is the next chapter beyond State - though that would be nearly remarkable if they advanced because they are a 3rd grade team and their division consists of 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teams. We anticipate that State will be our final stop this year. Regardless, it will provide a lot of great experience should the kids decide to stay together as a team next year and compete again.

I've attached a picture of the kids and their coaches after they won 2nd place. Keep in mind, we had been at Flowery Branch High School for going on 12 hours by the time this picture was taken. And, we had experience some phenomenal weather (tornado warnings, hail, high wind, thunder, lightening, serious rain) to the extent that they stopped the tournament several times so that hundreds of us could pile into locker rooms, bathrooms and janitors closets to ride out the storms, just to start it all up again once we received the 'all clear'. It was QUITE at day!

Anyway, thanks for letting us share Levi's success!"


WTG LEVI! (Btw, Levi is the one in the picture on the far right holding the ribbon in front of his face... ;-P)

Video's of Austin at the playground

Here are a couple short videos (very poor quality that I took with my cell phone and Blogger makes them look even worse actually) of Austin playing with his cousins, Levi and Emily, at the Bay Creek park playground today. He LOVES slides. He'll even go down the biggest ones without a problem.

Grandma Jenkins, We will miss you!

Please pray for my family. My Grandma Jenkins pasted away today. She went peacefully surrounded by family. The Lord has granted my family this very special time to share with her. They will never forget that. Pray as my mom and sister prepare for service arrangements, pray for strength and focus on the tasks ahead and for all those traveling in the next few days.

Grandma was very special to us, she supported my mom as she went to school and work when we were very little. Taking care of Jessica as an infant and keeping track of us after school. She is more than a grandma, words cannot express my gratitude for her sacrifice to come take care of us at our time of need. She has left her mark on all of us and I know I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for her giving of herself!

We love you Grandma and will miss you.

February

Well we have had a busy month this month. At the beginning of the month Austin and I flew to see Grandma Jenkins (Mom's Mom) in Virginia, whose health is failing quite quickly. Mom and Steve generously flew us up to spend some days with her. She is a strong woman and a wonderful person, I love her so much. My Mom and Sister have been doing a great job taking care of her and sacrificing much to make her comfortable and relaxed. I pray that the Lord gives them strength for this very difficult task. I will keep you posted on any changes.

This last weekend we drove to Missouri to see John, Carol, Kim, Jeff, and Aroa. We arrived on Friday and stayed until Monday. Aroa had her 1st birthday celebration while we were there. It was nice to see everyone and enjoy some time together. We even saw some Georgians there! How is it that we have to drive 10 hours to see family that lives 1 hour away! :)
While in Missouri Austin got his first hair cut by Gynette. He did a great job!

(It looks worse than it was)

Happy 1st Birthday Aroa!

On Austin's first airplane ride.

At the Airport

My Sister

My sister looks sooo good! I haven't talked about this but she had gastric bypass surgery last Nov(06) and she has done such a great job being dedicated and is making changes in her life necessary to keep the weight off for good. Take a look at a before and after picture. Keep up the good work Jess!!

Dec 06 Dec 07

Coloring Pictures

Austin is still practicing coloring. He got these markers for Christmas, (Yes, I put markers on his Christmas list!) Tony did most of the coloring but Austin enjoys trying, and getting it on his hands. :)

Finally Snow!

Well, Snow finally came to our part of this country! We only got a little bit, Austin was very excited about the falling show, so over the weekend we went out in the snow and he did NOT want to stand in it! He wanted to go back inside! O'Well soon enough we won't be able to drag him away. Until then I have pictures like these!

Our First Show fall

The "Big" Snow

Per my dad's request, I won't be posting any more updates about his treatments on this blog. If you are family or a close friend of Jen and I, my sister, or my parents, I can send you updates via email or phone if you'd like. Send me an email at tony_mimms(at)yahoo.com. I am also looking into possibly either creating a password protected website for updates or finding a place on the web that provides a password protected section that I could put updates in. I'll let you know how that goes.

I want to thank all of you though for your prayers and thoughts for my mom and dad and our family during this time.

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2007

We had a great Christmas this year. It was really fun to watch Austin open presents. He didn't start out wanting to do it but once he figured out that there were cool things inside the paper he got into it. We've posted pics from the different Christmas celebrations we've had that started as of Saturday on our Flickr site. Below we put up a few videos from this morning of Austin opening his stocking and a couple presents. We hope you and yours had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Lights, Lights, Where are you?

Austin has been lots of fun so far this Christmas season. When we are in the car going to somewhere during the evening or night, he will start calling out for Christmas lights and when he finally sees some he'll cry out "LIGHTS!" He will even point at stoplights and car lights. It is so funny. I smile everytime. He has started calling out looking for either Tony or I and sometimes Annie (the dog). This is a favorite thing to do when he is in the bath. Whoever is giving him the bath, he will call out looking for the other one.

He is so funny we crack up all the time.

We had a tremendous problem getting our Christmas pictures taken but we finally got a great shot. Boy was that A LOT of work!! Austin was not having a good day that day. Look for it in the mail soon though!

Exploring the Tree

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Christmas in Georgia

Welcome to Georgia winter!

This is crazy it has been at least mid to upper 70's all week, I am praying for some cool weather for Christmas Day.
It is REALLY hard to listen to Christmas music, and get into the mood when we are wearing short sleeves and shorts!
Some boys across the street took matters ito their own hands and made the most of it!

New Look For The Blog

Jen and I have been wanting to change up the look of the blog for a little while now. We finally found a template that we both liked so we went ahead and used it. All the things that were on here before, like subscribing for updates to the blog, our links, and flickr pictures (in the sidebar) are all still here. We just wanted to update the look. Hopefully you all like it.

Giving Thanks

We have had such a great time with family and have enjoyed having John and Carol with us this long weekend. Austin took to them pretty quickly, seeing them Wed night after we got back from my dads house. We are so blessed to have such a great family here and afar. I of course took lots of pictures so please take a look at all the pictures on Flickr.


Give thanks to God for each day and all the things we are able to do!

My Cute Guys!

Beautiful Boy, I am very thankful for you!

Grandma Carol and Grandpa John

Austins favorite pastime- Reading as much as he can!

Mommies sunglasses

Atlanta Zoo

We had a bast at the Zoo last weekend. We all had a very busy weekend. Austin spent the weekend at Aunt Evelyn's and Aunt Fran and Uncle Dave's houses. I dropped Austin off Friday night, Tony and I went out, just the two of us. On Saturday we all met at the Atlanta Zoo and spent a great day visiting all the animals. Austin really is at a great age to start these outings. After the zoo, Austin returned with his Great Aunts' and Tony and I went home. I had a great night of scrapbooking and Tony a better night of peace and quiet (no one was home!). On Sunday we did some Christmas shopping and then picked up Austin, and STILL had time for church!!! A busy weekend! Enjoy all the pictures on Flickr. Here are my favorites.

Tree House Nest

Our Little Family

First time on a Carousel Train Ride

Halloween 2007

Austin had a great time 'Trick or Treating.' Really all he did was walk around with Emily and Levi. He went up to the door and said his version of Trick or Treat and then said Bye. He had soo much fun. We did have to carry him from house to house just to keep up.
Check out all the pics on Flickr.
Here are my favorites!

Getting Ready

Waddle, WaddleLove the Glow Stick!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Holloween!

Emily Levi and Austin setting out for Trick or Treating!

Austin did a dry run this year, he went up to the door with the kids and said "Hi! Trick or Treat," and "Bye!". He had more fun running after the kids! He did a great job! More pics to come.

Getting Ready For Halloween!

Yesterday, Austin's daycare hosted a Halloween/Fall Festival at his school. We went and Austin rode in a little train and seemed to really enjoy everything. He participated in a Halloween costume contest as well. The winner would win a free week of daycare. He came in second for his age group. We, of course, are biased but he should have won. Just this experience made me realize that I am so glad we don't participate in pagents, etc. Here are a couple pictures from that festival:

Riding the train

Austin in the costume contest

We even had the Pope show up!

Then today we visited the Washington Farms Pumpkin Patch. Austin had a really fun time. We got to see different farm animals, slide down a PVC pipe slide, go through a little hay maze, ride another little 'train', had a hayride, and of course picked out and played with pumpkins! Here are a few pics from that:

'I want THIS pumpkin!'

Sliding down the PVC slide

Getting ready, with mommy, for a hayride!

Riding the 'cow train' with daddy

Of course we put all of these pictures plus more of them up on our Flickr site.

A Music Video I Helped Make

At our church we have had a video production team that films short movies for use in Sunday services, etc. I've always been interested in working with them but don't have that much (read...ANY) experience in doing video production. Well, about a month or so ago a lady at church put me in contact with a new member of the staff who was forming a second video production team. Long story short, I'm now on that team and helping to create short videos/films. Below is a music video we shot about a week and a half ago and was shown in church last Sunday. Another video I helped work on will be shown this Sunday at church. Hopefully I can either get a copy of it or a link to put up and I'll share that one with you all as well.

Typical

Our Muscle Man

Austins new favorite thing to do to make us laugh!
He came up with this all by himself (we think).
One day I was angry with him and he looks at me and does this.
Then he looks at me to see how I am going to react.

Sugar Hill Fall Festival

This weekend we went to Sugar Hill Fall Festival, the school I work in is in Sugar Hill and our school had a 'float' and a Teacher of the Year car. It was a lot of fun. It was Austins first parade, and I think there were more people in the parade than watching it.After the parade we went over to the Festival and walked around. It was great weather and Austin had a great time, of course I forgot the camera in the car, so no pictures of Austin petting the animals at the petting zoo.

Our Teacher of the Year and her sons.

Our teachers and some students

A really neat tribute to our Soldiers (these are real boys/men!)
They stood still the entire time! They really did a great job!

My New Shoes For School!!