The Newest Addition to the Family!!!

Elijah Jacob Brown came into the world and our
family Monday night the 22nd of Feb. He was
8 lbs. 9 ozs. and 21 1/2 inches long. Not a small
baby. Isn't he one of the cutest babies you've
seen. Of course all the grandkids are cute. We
are so blessed to have him in our family. I
can't wait to leave and go up and see him.
We love you Chrissy and Jacob and
congrats on the beautiful baby boy.

Snow in South Carolina!!!

The weather here started to turn cold on Friday,
And the snow started also. You can't tell in this
photo, but it was snowing. This place hardly
ever gets snow, and I'm glad after living up north
for a while. While it's not like when we lived
in Mishawaka and I'm glad, (got tired of
shoveling a foot of snow at a time), it is beautiful
to see every now and again.

Here is a picture of the snow out our back door,
when it was getting dark, I love this picture and
how you can see the snow actually falling.

Also out our back door.

Pictures at night out the front door.This is out the front door.

John and I got up first thing on Sat. morning
and went for a walk around the neighborhood
and also on the glof course, before the snow
began to melt. We got around 3 to 4 inches,
the most most people have seen in some time
around here.

The roads were icy and we stayed off them till
the sun melted most of it away later in the day.

Trees outside in the next lot filled with snow.

Looking down our road again. There were some
beautiful views.

This is on the golf course.

The back of the property.

Out at the pond and up the golf course.

This is John as we were walking back through
the empty lot beside ours to get home.

We did have a few small trees bending over
from the weight of the snow.

This was a beautiful time to just sit on the couch
and have the lights on outside and watch the
snow fall and know it would be gone in a day,
and I wouldn't have to shovel it. Hope all are
enjoying their snow as much as we did!!

Trip to Va.!!!

After leaving the cabin in Tn., I headed north to
spend some time with Jennifer and the grandkids.
It was a 7 1/2 hour drive so it took most of the day.
It was great to get to spend a week with them.
We also had Christmas while we were there. Here
are some pictures of them while opening their
gifts. Jake opening his gift from Great Grandma
and Grandpa Compston.

Autumn opening her gift from Great Grandma and
Great Grandpa Compston.

Bryson opening his present from Great Grandma
and Great Grandpa Compston, Jake checking it out.

Jennifer opening her gift from Grandma and
Grandpa Compston.

Jake opening his gift from John and I.

Autumn opening her present from John and I.

Bryson opening his gift from John and I.

Both the boys checking out Bryson's gift.

Jennifer got her pizza pan that she wanted and
made pizza on it while we were there.

Jennifer opening her gift.

While I was there they happen to get a snow storm.
The electric went off a couple of times, for a couple
of hours at a time. This is Jennifer all snuggled
up in a blanket.

Talking about getting tired of shoveling snow,
Jennifer and I took turns going out about ever
couple of hours to keep the driveway clear.
After it had mostly stopped I got out and cleared
the cars off.

They got around 18 inches. I was going to leave
on Sunday,but delayed that for a day.

Chrissy was able to come spend the week also.
This is a lap quilt that she made John and I for
Christmas. She did a wonderful job on it, also
one of my favorite colors.

I had a wonderful time sitting around talking and
reminiscing. We had a lot of laughs. Thanks,
Jennifer for having me!!!

Waterfalls and Snow in the Smokies

A couple of weeks ago John and I decided
to meet in the Smokies at our cabin so
that he wouldn't have to come as far.
This is one of my favorite places to be,
so I left here on a Thursday afternoon and got
there just as it was getting dark. John
arrived at around 2:00 am. There was a
winter storm warning on Friday starting
at 3:00 pm, so we decided that if we
were to get in any hiking we better
get out Friday morning or we may not
get to go. So we set off to try to get
a little hiking in. We drove up to
Laurel Falls. It is a little over a mile
hike back to the falls. This is not our first
time back there, but the falls was really
flowing, more water than either of us could
remember in a while. It is so peaceful on
those walks, not to many people out since
they were calling for the storm. Pretty much
had it all to ourselves.

We were snowed in on Friday night and opted
not to go out and even try it on Sat. So we just
stayed in and enjoyed the cabin, John made
a fire and of course we hit the hot tub a few
times. On Sunday we decided to venture
out and at least just go driving. This is a few
pictures of a trail that we took, there were alot
of trees down all aver I think because of all the
rain, they had been up rooted.

We also headed out toward Cades Cove, to do
a drive through, thought that the views would
be awesome with the snow. Others didn't think
we should be back there, they had the road closed,
so we decided to just walk back a ways. Of course
we didn't walk all the way back, only a couple of
miles.

The beauty of the earth is in abundance.