Easter Fun

Easter weekend started off with coloring eggs. The boys went through almost 3 dozen eggs at home.

Then the fun continued with some more egg coloring with the cousins. So many colors to choose from they all had a blast!

We all got dressed up Sunday morning for church. They cleaned up pretty well considering all the fun they had playing outside in the beautiful weather.


We continued the fun with an egg hunt after church. The kids had a great time running around on the front lawn finding their eggs and seeing what was inside. Penelope did a lot of watching but she poached an egg or two from her brothers' baskets.

Happy Birthday and SNOW!!!

LOTS and LOTS of snow!! When it was all said and done we've had about 14 inches of snow and we're on our 3rd snow day from school! Even Matt had off on Wednesday. The snow drifts were the most impressive. The boys got to sled in our driveway before we cleared off the snow. It kept them busy for quite a while.




Today is Connor's 6th Birthday! WOW!! That went fast! He's growing to be quite the guy. We can see his sense of humor and his love for learning ever day. We love you Biggest Brother!!


We had our traditional birthday party to celebrate Connor's, Grandpa's, Kristen's, and my birthdays a few weeks ago and it was a fun one. Connor loved his present from Grandpa and Grandma! Grandpa built him a model train table. Boy is he excited. He runs his train everyday and we're starting to build up the table to resemble Grandpa's. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!!


Penelope has changed so much too. It's been awhile since I updated our page and realized she's 6 and 1/2 months now. Here are a few recent pictures of our pretty girl!

Our Pumpkin

It's already been two weeks and boy has our little pumpkin Penelope changed! She's the center of our activity and we love it. Her favorite activity is sleeping so it's been an easy transition for everyone. We've even ventured outside a few times and she loves looking around and the fresh air. I have a feeling she'll keep up with her brothers just fine.
3 days old


5 days old

6 days old

7 days old

11 days old

12 days old

Two weeks old!!!

Penelope!

Our newest blessing: Penelope Taisia Drake!!
She made her arrival at 7:14am on July 13th weighing in at 8lbs and 6oz. She is 19 and 1/2 inches long. She's a great eater and a bit of a night owl. We made it home this afternoon on the 14th and we're all doing well. She's such a wonderful bundle of joy!!

Florida or Bust?!

So, since we're expecting our third child - (pause here for gasps of shock) - we decided to take one last vacation, to Florida. On a pleasant Thursday afternoon, we saddled up and headed out in the trusty minivan. Lucas started practicing his methods for getting attention from the ladies on the beach:

We learned from our last trip that driving to Florida takes a long time. So we wisely decided to make some stops along the way, starting with an overnight stay in Clarksville, Tennessee and following up with the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

The Chattanooga Choo-Choo used to be a train station, but now it's a hotel. Behind the main building are restaurants and shops, scattered around a garden which is framed by a retired engine and passenger cars.

Lately Connor has been trying out our camera. He takes some really good shots! One of these days, his gallery will be on display in the sunroom.

Next we went to Lookout Mountain, another Chattanooga landmark. Trolleys running on steep tracks carry visitors from the bottom to somewhere slightly higher than the bottom.

Apparently, there were lots of people who had the same idea to head to Florida, because we had a tough time finding a hotel. We finally snagged the last room at an Ocala hotel and, after fighting traffic, made it to Treasure Island on Saturday afternoon.

Carl, Kristen, Ben and Ella had arrived the day before and stayed a couple of days. All of the boys got along pretty well. Connor and Ben were particularly inseparable, and Lucas compensated by being particularly hyper during the day and particularly exhausted at night.

We were down there on Easter Sunday, so we assembled gift baskets and hid plastic eggs around the condo for the boys to find. We learned that 1) there are not as many sanitary places to hide eggs in a spartan condo as you might think, and 2) putting candy inside each and every egg was definitely overkill.

An obvious perk of Florida was having swimming pools at our doorsteps. When we last swam in Grandma & Grandpa's pool last summer, the boys were getting around well with water wings. This time around, Connor finally gave them up after some gentle suggestions from his new friends at the pool. Lukie wanted to do the same, but we vetoed that suggestion.

The beach was just as much fun. There were fishermen reeling in baby sharks, pre-dug holes to host monster truck races, and pre-built castles to play with.

Ella even got in on the action!

The last couple of nights, we visited the beach at sunset. There were fewer people around and the kids could be more active and loud. It was the perfect setting for the last hurrah before bedtime.

Lest anyone think that we ran the boys ragged all the time, there was plenty of downtime as well:

On our way back, we stopped in Murfreesboro to see Finn and Brody (and Mike, and Jaimie, and Anne and Jeffrey and Gina!) Finn and Brody are both adorable and Finn is quite a talker!

Mike casually mentioned that they had a swing set which needed assembly and Matt offered, or maybe demanded, to help. We ended up spending an extra night in Murfreesboro (thanks Anne!) to finish putting it together. Both days we were there were gorgeous and we were outside a lot of the time.

We got back at 9:30 on Sunday night, and it was great to be home. Matt had work the next day and Connor had school, but we wouldn't have done it any other way!