Scary Storms

Our Tree (above) and the Neighbor's Tree (below)

Last night was extremely scary- what started off as rain, turned into lightning, thunder, and wind within a couple of hours. After I put the boys to bed, I laid awake listening to the rain and branches hitting the house. Just when it seemed that it was starting to die down and just as I was falling asleep, the brightest light and loudest boom I've ever experienced made me jump a good foot out of bed. I was sure that we had been hit by lightening! After running to check on the boys (not even stirring), I sat up waiting to smell burning. Luckily, there was none. The night lasted forever as I laid in bed, listening to the wind gusts, thunder, and tree limbs snapping. I was sure that when I woke up, one of the trees in the back yard would be down.

When I got up this morning, I walked down the stairs to see that our neighbor across the street's tree had split into two, with half of the tree just brushing their house. As I looked at the park, with it's limbs everywhere and an entire tree split into three pieces lying on the ground, I just knew that something bad had happened. After feeding Nolan, I went around the yard. While the back yard was littered with tiny branches of leaves, there was a huge limb that had fallen from one of the trees in the front yard. Luckily, the tree limb fell toward the street and wasn't harming anything. After a few phone calls this morning, I found an awesome company, S&S Tree Service, to come out and take it down. Within 2 1/2 hours, my yard looked just like it did yesterday!

Nolan's 1st Birthday/ 4th of July

Although Nolan's birthday is July 3rd, we couldn't celebrate until the 4th because Don wasn't in Hot Springs. So on the 4th, we celebrated the birth of our nation and the birth of our son!

The day began with a trip in the boat to take Uncle Dave and Cousin Johnathan out on the skis. John was able to get right up on two skis and skied around the lake for a while. When he was tired, Dave got up on one ski (I was highly impressed!) . Nolan and Brennan loved watching them ski on the lake- Brennan even wanted to try it! When we went back to the house, Don wanted to go out on the jet skis. I love the jet skis, but I haven't been on them in two years. It was so much fun to chase Don and Brennan around the lake.

When we returned, we got ready for a huge BBQ. Gram, Elaine, Johnny, Theresa, Wesley, Luke, Rebbecca, Patricia, Calvin, Johnathan, Kimberly, Genna, Shannon, Gigi, Papa, Dave, Teresa, Brett and Sara were all there for the party and BBQ. While Nolan slept, we chowed down on awesome burgers and hot dogs, chatted, and played a rousing game of volleyball. It was so comical to watch everyone go at it and get so competitive over volleyball.

After the game, Nolan woke up and we decided that it would be best to sing to him when he was happy. Nolan had the cutest Blue's Clues cake (complete with musical notes drawn on). He was so enthralled be everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him. It was so cute- he looked around and smiled at everyone and laughed when it ended! He didn't quite get the blowing out the candles part, so Brennan helped. Nolan was a little timid at first about the cake, but he really got into it when we held it up to him to take a bite. He's just like Brennan; he hates to get his hands dirty!

Camp Invention

Brennan showing us his addition to the Green Group Collage. (It's a little boy recycling!)
Brennan couldn't just make a robot for himself- he made sure that he made a robot for Dylan and Nolan too! His teacher thought it was very sweet of him to do!
In the M.A.R.S. class, they designed houses to live on mars and cars to drive there. This is Brennan's Mars Rover- Notice the ball/catapult on the top (he has to be able to protect himself from Martians!)
I think that Brennan was the most proud of this invention: The chopper canister is a bug-catching machine and the sprite bottle (along with various other parts) is the bug feeder. Such a great imagination!




This week, while in Little Rock, Brennan went to Camp Invention. I thought that it would be a great thing for him to experience- I know that when I taught at it, it was so much fun for the kids. The first day, he was a little nervous about going because he didn't know anyone, but when I picked him up, he seemed to have gotten past his moment of shyness. The next morning, we didn't need to be there as early, so I didn't wake Brennan when I got up. About 15 minutes later, he came in and started scolding me for not getting him up because I didn't want him to go to camp and have fun- if he only knew! Each day was so much fun and he would tell me or dad or Gigi about everything he did.

Today was the showcase for what they've made in class. Brennan made 3 robots, a MARS house, a Mars Rover, a bug catcher and feeder, filters and a clean city. We came home with a lot! I know that Brennan enjoyed it and if we can find one in Tennessee, he'll go again next year.

Nolan's Walking!!!

Although I thought it would never happen, Nolan started taking his first wobbly steps away from the furniture yesterday. Papa and I have been working with him on his balance and taking steps. He loves to take a few steps and gets so excited that he just falls down! We worked for about an hour just walking between us. Nolan loved it! When Gram came over for dinner, Nolan was so excited to show her. He started willingly letting go of the furniture and walking to me, Gram, and Gigi. After a few minutes of practice, Nolan let go and took off for Gigi- he took 16 steps on his own and we even got it on video! (I'll post that when I get home and figure out the system). It was so exciting!

The really cute thing about his walking is the facial expression he has while doing it. He gets so excited that he squints his eyes and opens his mouth as wide as it will go- it is so comical! I've tried to get it on camera, but he won't do it while I have the camera in my hands. I think he's tired of me documenting his life on film.

Life at the Lake

When we finished with our house hunting trip, we drove back to Hot Springs, AR where Don's parents have a house on the lake. It is the boys favorite place to be.

We picked up Dylan on Fathers Day and brought him to the lake, where he and Brennan just wanted to play. Over the course of a few days, the boys spent most of the time in the lake swimming of the dock or at the sandbar, riding the jet skis, taking boat rides, feeding the ducks, running through the sprinklers, or fishing off the dock. Life at the lake revolves around the water, which is the way that it should be for boys.

Brennan's favorite thing to do was jump off the dock and into the lake. He and his second cousins Genna and Rebecca would run off the dock holding hands and jump as far as they could into the water, swim around to the stairs and do it again. Brennan could do this for hours!! Brennan also enjoyed catching the fish, though he wouldn't touch the bait or the fish! He caught 4 fish in less than an hour.

Dylan's favorite thing to do was fish, or to put it better, to play with the crickets they were fishing with. Dylan wouldn't bait the hook, but he loved to drop the line and try and reel in the fish. Dylan caught 3 fish in about an hours time and wanted to keep each as a pet. We don't eat fish, especially the little ones he was catching, so we released all of them, much to his disappointment.

Nolan's favorite thing was the water. He wanted to spend all his time with his daddy playing in the water. He really didn't like his life jacket, but he was willing to put up with it for the sake of getting into the water, and I wouldn't let him in the water without it. At least while we were on the lake. At the dock, Don took Nolan into the water without a life jacket, but that was only because Don could touch the bottom. He cried and cried when he had to get out. The worst part about having a baby who loves the water is the constant need to know where he is. If you took your eyes off him for one minute, he was out the door to the lake. He only made it out the door once when Don wasn't looking behind him and Nolan followed him out. It scared the daylights out of me!!

We've gone Country!

Yes, we've gone country! Country at least in location. We found our house in Nashville! Our house hunting trip this past week was hugely successful! The house we found is located in Drakes Point, a very upscale community in Hendersonville. Brennan will be going to the top school in the area and we'll be living close to shopping and Don's work. Things went so well!

About the house- it is 3286 sq. ft with 4 bedrooms and 3 full, 1 half and 1 3/4 baths, with a large rec room for a great play room! All of the bedrooms are on the bottom floor, along with a large great room, dining room, office, kitchen and master bedroom. The master bedroom closet is huge, bigger than the boys rooms. I've never in my life seen such a large closet! The best part of this house is the character of the outside. The entire house is bricked, then covered with plaster and painted to produce a very old world feel. You can see it in the picture- I can't wait to get into this house!



Our side garage- notice the brick treatment and sidewalks. Isn't the stained concrete beautiful?
This is the front entry to the house. It has full double front doors.
This is the kitchen-
We have been very blessed to be able to afford this home- Luckily all of Don's jobs have worked to bless us, and for that I'm extremely grateful.

Self Feeding but not Self Cleaning

This past week has been full of wonderful experiences (meant both seriously and sarcastically).

Serious: Nolan has been learning to self-feed with real people food. So far, his favorites are bananas, pears, and mac and cheese. I'm still feeding him baby food (because we have to use it up), but when we get done, he wants part of what Brennan and I are having. Watching him feed himself is the funniest! About half of the food makes it in and the other half makes it on.


Isn't Nolan so cute with bananas all over his face and hair? It took a lot of soap to try and get the dried banana out of his hair.



Nolan likes peaches and the spoon, but not necessarily together. I'd put the piece on the spoon, but he would freak out and flip it off. Quite comical!

Sarcastically: This new baby is NOT being all peachy! I've never been this sick before. With Brennan, I had no morning sickness at all (too good to be true). With Nolan, I only got a sick feeling when I hadn't eaten (which I thought was normal). But with this one, I've been throwing up like there is no tomorrow!!! And it's not just in the morning! In the last week, I'd say 5 of the 7 nights I've been worshiping the porcelain god. It is horrible!! At to that the dizziness and queasiness- I've been a wreck. In fact, my friend Ginger has commented that I've been green in the face and did I need her daughter to come over and sit with the boys? Ginger is so sweet, she even brought me Sprite to help ease my nausea. When will it end?