I don't usually (ok never) blog twice in one day, but I'm so excited because I took some pictures and was able to get them off of Tad's camera and onto the computer by myself. He will be so proud! Usually I have to wait for him to get them off the camera because his camera is sooo complicated. There are so many buttons and so many different settings to shoot pics that he will have to set it for me before I even take the pictures.

Drennan normally loves to read. I mean really loves to read. But for some reason he's been in a reading slump since school's been out. I guess he just needed a break. So I was trying to think of ways to motivate him to read this summer. My sister, Kelley, was telling me about her local library passing out papers to fill out for every so many minutes that you read. When you've filled up the whole sheet you get a free book. Well, what better way to motivate Drennan than to offer to get him a new book?

So I made "bookworms" for both he and Micah.
For every 10 minutes that they read they get to fill in one triangle on the worm. Once the whole worm (including the head) is colored in, they get a trip to the book store.
Micah doesn't quite understand the process so I've been filling in his, but he will be excited when he gets to go to the book store.


It just so happens that Tad's parents got Drennan a gift card to a bookstore for his birthday. So for Tad's last day of vacation (yesterday) he took the boys out to the book store. Drennan has been reading quite a bit since they got back.


He is trying to get his worm filled up so he can go back. Who knew a bribe to the book store could be such a good motivational tool?

I walked into the living room the other day and found this:



Tad had a fan blowing right on them so they were all cold.

Drennan's birthday party was a lot of fun. Some of his cousins weren't able to make it, but we still had a good time with those who were able to come.
I still can't believe he's 7! I can still vividly remember the day he was born.




Lila posing for the camera.




These two have a love-hate relationship. You can see from Lila's box that the theme for the party was Mario Bros.


For some reason, this picture looks all green. Probably because Tad's not the one who took it. "User error" as he would say. Right after everyone left, Lila passed out. She hadn't had a nap yet. Apparently the party was too much for Tad as well.

This past week was Vacation Bible School at our church. It's always fun, but exhausting. Not only do you have to be there every night for hours, but if you're in charge then you have to spend each day making sure every is ready for those hours.

We didn't seem to have as many kids this year as we normally have. There are too many other things to compete with Bible School these days. But we still had fun. The theme was Bible Times and the kids got to wear costumes and pretend they lived during Jesus' time. It's all outside, which is good, and they get to make cool crafts that date back to Jesus' time.

It always takes a lot of people to pull off a bible school with this theme, but again everyone seemed to enjoy the week. I'm going to take a break from VBS for awhile and not think about it again til after Christmas!

Our internet has been down for several days so I haven't been able to get on hardly at all.

I woke up this morning to a nudge and someone saying, "Mommy, I'm seven." I can't believe Drennan is 7! He's been so excited he couldn't wait for everyone else to wake up so he could open his presents from us. And apparently this week has been dubbed "Drennan week" due to his birthday. I laugh because I was always the same way when I was younger and having a birthday. I'm a little better about it now. : ) But I still think birthdays should be celebrated no matter if you're a child or not. A birthday is the day God let you come into the world and everyone deserves a good birthday!

I still need to put icing on the cupcakes for his party so I need to go.
I wanted to show this picture of Tad and the boys. He took them to a Chattanooga Lookouts game Saturday. They had a blast. I really wanted to go but I overdid it earlier in the day and Lila and I had to stay home. They saw the Famous Chicken, got helmets, and foam fingers.

We have been so busy this week. I haven't hardly had time to check e-mail, much less blog. Tad is off this week and I haven't had a chance to even catch my breath. We've been working on the house, well actually Tad's the one doing projects like that. Most daylight hours he's outside doing something that he's had on his to-do list.

I received a huge bag of hand-me-downs for Baby Lila. I need a bumper sticker that says I *heart* hand-me-downs. I've been going through those clothes for two days. So thankful to get them though, being the only girl in the family for a few years, she hasn't had many clothes handed down.

We've also gone swimming a few days. Well they've gone swimming. I don't have a maternity bathing suit. Need one desperately. Drennan and Micah are doing great in the pool. They LOVE it!


We've got two birthdays in the family coming up. Mine is tomorrow and Drennan's is Tuesday. We also have VBS next week. It's usually exhausting but always fun.

My feet hurt so bad by the end of the day. Each night we all just fall into bed.
I've gotta keep taking my iron pills and prenatal vitamins to keep up the energy.

Not exactly sure what's in store for today. No rest for the weary.

I realized that this is my 100th post. Some people do special giveaways or have special posts for their 100th post. I'm not really into any of that so I thought I would change the blog up a bit.

As mentioned earlier, I've been doing a lot of housecleaning lately. I've also been working quite a bit on our church's VBS. It's coming up soon and there's still a lot to do.
Tad's going to be off again soon and I'm sure we'll be having more pictures to post of our happenings.



My Mom gave me this "Surprise Lily" a few weeks ago and it has bloomed. I love the blooms so I asked Tad to take a photo of it for me.

I didn't realize how much time "schooling" took until we stopped for the summer. I've come to the realization that my house is never really going to be super clean while school is in session (and while my kids are too young to help out a lot.) It takes so much energy just to do the basics such as meals, laundry, and daily straightening up that I don't have a lot of time to do the deep cleaning that needs to be (and used to be) done.

But I must say that it helps tremendously that I'm not nauseous anymore. I can't say I have tons of energy, but being tired AND being nauseous is a lot worse than just being tired.

Gee how old does it say I am that I'm actually posting about being happy to have more time to clean? Now if I can just stay inside the house long enough instead of outside in the sunshine...

It comes in handy having a graphic designer for a husband. Tad made these certificates for the boys for the end of the school year. It's a little hard to read what they say on this post. Micah's says "M. E. has passed speech class in 2009. Now he gets to have a party." Drennan's says "D.E. has passed 1st grade in 2009. He gets to have a party."

I can't believe Drennan will be in 2nd grade and Micah will start kindergarten.

Tad decided it was time for a vacation so he has taken off all week this week from work. We didn't want to go away for a whole week so we thought a mini-trip would be fun. Since we have zoo passes the Knoxville zoo is free so that's where we went. We left Monday headed for Knoxville. The weather was great. No rain, thank goodness.

We drove straight to the zoo and had a lot of fun walking around seeing the different animals that the Chattanooga zoo doesn't have. If you'll look closely you can see elephants behind us in this picture. A news camera man happened to walk by and see Tad's camera and volunteered to take our picture.


Drennan is pointing to the zebras. They were lying down. I'm guessing it was because of the heat and not because they were dead!


Again, someone volunteered to take our picture so we took them up on it.


They give camels ride at this zoo and Micah was the only one wanting to do it. At first we told him to wait til on the way out thinking maybe he would forget or change his mind, but no can do. I've said it before that he has no fear. He hopped right on the camel and rode around with the most serious look on his face. He loved it!!


The hotel was as much fun for the kids as the zoo was. There was an indoor swimming pool with a jacuzzi. They went back and forth. We were so tired after the zoo that they only swam for about 45 minutes Monday evening, but Tad noticed the pool opened on Tuesday at 7am so they went back and swam again Tuesday morning. No rest for the weary!


We left Knoxville Tuesday afternoon headed to my Aunt Tammy's house in Norris, Tn. It's a short drive from Knoxville and my kids love seeing her kids.
The boy to the left of Drennan is Zane. He looks very similar to Micah They could easily pass for brothers. Cullen is next to Zane. He and Micah are the same age and really loved playing together. They kept us entertained.





We had a lot of fun but we are very glad to be back at home. We're all exhausted and I can't wait to go to bed. I'm thankful Tad is off the rest of the week. : )