Bekah Plays Jingle Bells

Bekah came rushing into the kitchen with exciting news!!

She had learned how to play Jingle Bells - and she wasn't even required to know that song yet!!

So I took a video of her playing it for us.

Lydia's Little Watermelon

You might remember...or you might not...that some time ago, Lydia planted a watermelon seedling in our front shrub bed. 

It was the only place in the yard I didn't think would get run over by the lawn mower.

It was so small, we had to put a marker next to it so that David wouldn't "weed" it from around the bush.  Well, it's not small at all now!

In fact, it's taking over the bush!

We've tried to move the vines around, but they've wrapped themselves around the branches of the bush and we don't want the vines to break.

Plus, the rabbits have been eating the flowers off the vines that are on the ground.  We thought the only way we might see some fruit would be on the vines that climbed the shrub.

Well, we're seeing evidence of first fruits now.  Don't know exactly what will happen when that thing gets too heavy to be up that high in the bush.  But we're not letting that concern us right now.

Because right now, we're enjoying the fact that this plant has thrived!

Lydia Gets Her Cast Removed!!

Today was the big day!!  Lydia's been counting down for over a week!

It's been four weeks since Lydia broke her arm, and today she got to have her cast permanently removed!

So?  Wanna hear the results of the big reveal?

Lydia's arm is 90% healed!

The doctor put her in a brace, to help her until she feels confident with her arm.  But he said that it would take a fall worse than the original one to upset the injury at this point.

So Lydia got a new brace - a REMOVABLE one!! Yea for baths without big plastic bags over her arm!!

Only, I had a little trouble getting her to be un-silly enough for me to take her picture.

Can you tell she's happy to be out of that cast!?

Lydia Getting Her Cast Off

Grandma and Grandpa Peebles

On one of the genealogy sites I check, I posted that I had a photo of George B. Peebles and would be willing to share, asking that any other photos be shared in return.

The above photo is the only one that we had of George Peebles.  He's the tall gentleman with the long white beard.  The lady on the far left is his daughter Martha Lillian (Peebles) Evatt.  The little boy is Lawrence Noblitt, David's grandfather.  I'm unsure who the two adults in the middle are.

A nice lady named Minnie offered to send me some photos she had of George Blackwell Peebles.  She had a ton of them and sent me black and white photocopies of several, including this one below.

This is of George Blackwell Peebles and his wife, Nancy Helen Cox when they were younger.

And the photo below is of Grandma Peebles (Nancy Helen Cox), a relative, and her son Samuel and his wife.

She sent me other photocopied photos as well.  I asked her if I could get professional copies made, or scans sent, as some of these were the first photos we've ever had of these ancestors.

Here's a quick family tree, so you can see how far back we're going here.  Grandma and Grandpa Peebles (George and Nancy) are David's great-great-great grandparents.

Their daughter Matilda Ann "Annie" Peebles married David Jasper Noblitt.

Minnie sent me some of the photos I had requested.  Here is another one of Grandpa Peebles with his long flowing beard.

And this photo shows George and Nancy (Cox) Peebles seated, with their daughters Martha and Matilda standing behind them with their husbands.  Elijah Evatt married Martha and David Noblitt married Matilda.

Here's another photo of David Jasper Noblitt and Matilda Ann Peebles.  I'm assuming this is their first son, Otis.  But I haven't confirmed that yet.

This photo is labeled as the Peebles and Evatt families.  If I recieved correct information, the people in the photo are as follows:

Back row (L-R): Elijah Oliver Evatt, his wife Martha Lillian (Peebles) Evatt, their son and daughter-in-law, John Bunyan Evatt and Savannah Elizabeth (Simpson) Evatt, with their baby Thomas.  The last two people are Savannah's parents, Thomas and Mary Bertha (Hill) Simpson.  On the front row is George Peebles.  The two ladies are his mother (Matilda Huskey) and his wife (Nancy Helen Cox Peebles).  However, the lady sending me the photos was unsure of which was which.  But judging from other photos, I believe Nancy (his wife) is the one in the middle.

Rumors (not proven) around the genealogy sites are that Nancy Helen Cox was a Cherokee squaw (although she doesn't look it in the photos) and that she was born on the Trail of Tears.  However, the Trail of Tears ended in 1839 and Nancy was born in 1843, so I haven't been able to find any definitive proof of her Indian heritage as of yet. 

But I just wanted to share this new genealogy news!

Conduit Kickball Tournament

Sunday afternoon, after church, everyone gathered outside for baptisms.

Then everyone gathered at the soccer fields for a kickball tournament between the different small groups.

Because that's how we roll at our church.  LOL!

We had such a blast!  Rebekah and Lydia ended up on a team (with Chris and Ally), playing against David's team.  Bekah (in the red/black shirt) played shortstop.

Lydia got her first at bat, and made it to first base. 

David was playing second (with Chris on second with him), and Lydia was on third.  I had to laugh because when Lydia was running to third, she didn't quite make it there before getting a little distracted.  The third base coach literally picked her up and placed her on the base! 

Soon, someone sent Lydia running for home plate!  She was so excited! 

David and Bekah got several "at bats" as well. 

However, they both got out each time, unfortunately. 

David's team ended up winning, with the girls' team coming in a distant second (17-7, if I remember correctly).

But bottom line, we all had a great time playing and relaxing (with some smack talk thrown in there) with our new church friends.

Youth Serve Event: Cottage Cove

Saturday night, David and Rebekah headed into Nashville for a Youth Serve Event at Cottage Cove - an after-school program for underprivileged kids.

They arrived at the house (that's been converted to the after school center) and got the run down from the director on what work needed to be done. 

David said the kids worked HARD!  And they got a LOT done! 

Bekah worked with a team in the crawl space under the house, wielding a pickax of all things! Some of the floor joists needed to be replaced, so the team was digging out from underneath. 

The teens did some painting, and moved some mulch for the playground.  They also leveled out some ground and did some routine cleaning.

At the end of the evening, they shared some pizza and laughs. 

Bekah came home filthy, tired, and grinning from ear to ear!  She had SUCH a blast!  So loving this youth group!

Bekah's Karate for Christ Tournament

This morning, Rebekah participated in a karate tournament. 

Bekah goes to Karate for Christ, and they held their own intramural tournament so that participants would gain some tournament experience before the next Wado Ryu Federation tournament to take place in March.

The federation tournaments are huge, and a little overwhelming, so it was nice to participate in this smaller, more instructional tournament.

I would estimate that the federal tournament had over 200 participants.  The Karate for Christ tournament was just for the middle Tennessee Karate for Christ dojos and had between 40-50 participants.

This was a lot less stressful, and there was time for explanations of how the scoring and awarding of medals works in the tournament.  They encouraged the participants to relax and do their best.  It was a really great experience!

The first round was the weapons round, so the everyone gathered around the ring to watch the competition.

After that it was time for the katas (a routine series of punches and kicks).  Bekah lined up around her ring with her fellow colored-belts.

All of the yellow belts competed, performing their katas.

Bekah did a FABULOUS job!  Her punches and kicks were sharp and accurate.

She definitely showed much more confidence during this competition...

and it paid off with a much higher score!

After the katas had been completed by the yellow belts, medals were handed out by age group.  And Bekah got a silver medal!  I'm so excited for her!

It even has a place on the back that can be engraved.

After the kata competition, several participants left.  But we had friends competing in the sparring, so we stayed behind.  The last fight of the tournament was between two instructors: the blonde on the left, and Sensei Stevens (Bekah's instructor) on the right.

There was much hooping and hollering as the kids cheered on their own senseis.  Sensei Stevens gracefully went home with the silver medal after this match.  =)

Although many participants had already left, everyone gathered around for a group picture for the webpage.  Bekah's in the second row, far left.

And after the tournament, Bekah accomodated me with just a few more pictures of her with her shiny new medal!  =)

So proud to see such improvement for Bekah!