The Nashville Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo this week. It was such a nice day! Sunny in the mid 70's. Perfect weather for walking around the zoo. The first animal Jude wanted to see was the giraffe.

Jude's trying to put his sunglasses on John. Apparently, he thinks John's mouth needs some sun protection:)






Jude's face after one of the birds landed on him. His face stayed like that for a couple of minutes.

Checkin' out the tigers.


Taking a nap in the stroller. Notice the fingers-always in her mouth:)




Jude always puts his sunglasses on upside down:)

Family Update

I thought I'd give everyone an update on what's going on with the Lauries.

John: Got a promotion a few weeks ago to Lead Mechanic. This comes with a lot more responsibility, but also a pay raise so that is nice. He's enjoying it, but often comes home mentally and physically exhausted. He loves spending time with Jude and will always try to make time in the evenings to play with him. Jude get's so excited when daddy comes home to play with him. John is a very good father and Jude adores him. John is also the leader of our small group from church. We meet every Thursday, shuffling among the members homes. We really enjoy our small group. We are like a family. Right now we're going through Hebrews.

Beth: I'm still at home with the kids. I love it so much. Don't get me wrong, some days I want to give them away, but then they go and do something that reminds me why I do what I do. The other day Claire was fussing so Jude asked to hold her. I put her on his lap and he started to comfort her by rubbing her cheek and saying "it's ok Claire, shhh, it's ok" just like he sees his mommy do. It melted my heart. I've also started spending a couple hours a day making phone calls for Joann (mom's old cleaning lady). She and her husband own an auto repair shop and I call to thank the customers for coming in and to make sure they were satisfied. It's nice to make some extra money, but it's definitely hard to find 2 hours of peace and quiet around here.

Jude: Or should I say Mr. Personality. He's so much fun! He's constantly making us laugh. He's really into cars and trucks. He also loves to be outside and plays in his sandbox a lot. I'm glad that we have a fenced in yard. He's getting so independent and one day I couldn't find him and realized he had gone out back to play without telling me. He's all boy and always comes back dirty from head to toe. His favorite TV programs right now are Max & Ruby and Team Umizoomi. Luckily, Dora has moved down the list of favorites:) He also like's Franklin a lot, but we don't get that channel anymore so we got him the movie "Franklin and the Green Knight". He now goes around the house using the wand attachment to the vacuum as a sword and saying "green knight to the rescue" or he pretends to be a pirate in search of treasure (learned that from his Dora movie).

Claire: What a sweet baby she is! She started out so fussy and high maintenance, but now she is such a good, happy baby. She's very content most of the time and smiles every time you look at her. I love her smile with those dimples. She's getting up on her elbows and knees and rocking back and forth. She can roll onto her back, but still can't get back onto her belly. She can't seem to figure out how to get her arm out of the way. Actually, I think it's that she wont take it out of her mouth long enough to move it. She always has her hands in her mouth. She enjoys sucking two fingers. She sucks her thumb occasionally, but seems to prefer the fingers. It's usually the middle two, but sometime she sticks all four in there:) She's fascinated with John and will just stare at him whenever he's near her. John thinks it's because he's so good lookin':)

Well, that's our family and now you're up to date:)

Back Interior

This is an online photo, but it looks exactly like our interior. I love that the interior is in just about perfect condition.

Interior

2007 Chrysler Pacifica

The van was having transmission issues and the cost wouldn't have been worth it for that van so we decided to trade it in for something else. We went with a Chrysler Pacifica. It was a great deal and a really nice suv/crossover, whatever you want to call it. It's a 4.0 liter V6 seats 6 and has 49k miles and get's the same gas mileage as the van. It drives great! Has way more get up and go than the van. So far we like it a lot. Jude cried when we left the old van behind. He kept saying "van", "van":( I think it was just because the van has a dvd player:) We kept telling him we would put one in this car too, but he didn't seem to get it.

Me with Ty Pennington and my friend Courtney

Shoes in a row

Jude spent the morning taking every shoe out of the closet and lining them up. I don't know why we buy him toys.

Chair

I reupholstered this chair last weekend. Should have had a before pic too:(

VIP Tent. This is the tent where Lighthouse members and workers can come, eat and relax. It looks over the work site.

Mr. and Mrs. William Terry Hill II

This weekend our dear friends Terry and Aunna got married. John was a groomsman and I was one of the photographers. Here are some of the pics I took.


Jude's dollar dance with the bride.

Some pics from the makeover

The new site. The framing is already up just since the time I took this Saturday afternoon. They sure work fast. John has taken Thursday and Friday off so he can work at the site a full day and then be there for the big reveal on Friday. We're not allowed to post any pictures from on site. Sorry:( They don't want to spoil the surprise. Any pictures will have to be from a designated area.

The old preschool all gutted. They demolished it this weekend. They asked a preschooler how they should do it and he told them to drop a truck on it. So they did:)

The September 26th airdate must have been some sort of rumor because they said it's sometime in November. I'll give you an actual date when I know it.

Extreme Makeover!

Extreme Makeover has decided to rebuild our church's preschool that was destroyed by the flood this past May! Ty and the crew showed up today in their big bus and surprised everyone. God is good:) John is taking off Thursday to go volunteer.

I believe it will air September 26th.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Tired Boy

After not hearing Jude for a while, I went upstairs to check on him. I found him asleep like this on the futon.

Feeding the Ducks

We've finally been getting a break in the heat and humidity so we decided to take Jude to the lake one evening to feed the ducks. He had a blast. I love living so close to the lake.

Percy Priest Lake

Smoothies

I've started making smoothies for breakfast in the morning. They're delicious. This particular smoothie had Trader Joe's whole milk french vanilla yogurt, milk, banana, applesauce, strawberries and blueberries. Jude really likes them too. He calls them "movies":)

This is what Claire does instead of sucking her thumb