Highly Recommended!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to read! My boss lent me a book to read, thought I'd enjoy it. Boy, did I ever! I started it at lunch Tuesday, then picked it back up after the kids went to bed that night. I didn't really put it down until almost 1:00 this morning, as I finished it!! This was an awesome book--the story of what these families went through and the testimony of their love for Jesus Christ and their dependence on their God and Savior. I highly recommend you read this. * * * *

Great Kids!

The Pana School System does something each month called Kindness Kounts. There are a few kids from each grade (K-8th grade I think) awarded for being....kind! Neither of my kids have ever received this award and here, they both got it for April!!!!

Then Hannah got an award for Band, for being the Most Improved in 7th Grade. Mr. Dean commented to us at the Band Concert how hard she has worked this year. We are so proud of her and how beautifully she plays!!

Busy Friday through Monday

Last Friday was the kids' last actual day of school. They went today for report cards, but I had to get a pic of them on the last day!! Don't they look "thrilled"!?!?!?!
Elly stayed all night with us Friday night. We bought some fireworks and did that after it got dark. Elly loved throwing the sparklers on the ground!
Noah with some kind of fire hazard!!
Elly had a blast!
Noah trying to light brush on fire!! Ugh!
Monday we had a cookout at mom and dad's house.
Here's Nick, Ashley, Gma Olive, Gma Barb, Gpa Kim
Tyson and Noah outside "eating". Ha! More like wasting time and making look like they were eating! They wanted to go fishin'!

First Day of School--August 21, 2007

Last Day of School--May 23, 2008

Lunch with church family

Last Sunday, we had lunch at Tres Compadres with a bunch of church family. Had a great time!

Here's Lainey and Aubrea. So cute!
Cutey Nathanael
The bigger kids
The girls
Aubrea and Traci
Hannah and baby Luke
Lainey, Tori and Fayth

Pana Heritage Days

Last weekend was Pana Heritage Days. I've never been one to go to this event, but Hannah wanted to go with her friends, so.....I went. Now, Hannah, Lucy and Taylor said I could NOT walk with them, so thankfully, Ashley and the kids wanted to go as well! Actually, Tyson wanted to go and wouldn't stop talking about it so I think Ashley gave in!! :)

The evening was interesting. While we were eating our dinner, we got to see a fight on the street between some kids and watched a cop take a guy down. Pretty cool! Never saw anything like that before!

Hannah, the girl that hates rides, found that she loved the Scrambler and this other ride with bird cage type things. So she rode over and over and over that night. After Ashley and the kids went home, I rode with the girls and I had a blast! I hadn't rode any of those rides since I was a teenager! It was fun.

Here's Tyson waiting in line for the jumping house. He is soo adorable!
Awwww! Ashley and Tyson (and the sword!)
Ty and Aunt Traci
Tyson liked the jumping house!
Tyson and Elly riding the cool car!
This was Elly after getting OFF the cool car. She did NOT want to stop!!!
Lucy, Taylor and Hannah at Pana Heritage Days

Lucy, Hannah and Taylor on the Scrambler.
Hannah and me waiting in line for the Octopus
The girls had a sleepover at our house after spending all evening uptown (or is it downtown??) Lucy got quite silly!! :)
Hannah and Lucy in bed
Taylor on her bed on the floor. I can't believe I got this picture. She hates pictures taken of her!

Hannah's Band Concert

Hannah had a band concert a few weeks ago. She did an excellent job! There was a song where you could only hear the flutes, and I know the best one was the Cutler chick!! LOL!
This is Hannah and her friend, Allison Jones
Waiting for the concert to start--Mom, Noah, Linda

After the concert, Mr. Dean came up to us and remarked on how excellent Hannah is and how much she has progressed this year, having just began playing the flute in August. He said she has been his hardest worker!! ***YAY***

HOORAY!!!!!

He won!!!!!!

He's IN!

Ooooh, the object of my obsession is in the finals!!!!! I just adore David Cook on this year's American Idol. He is just awesome. Joni Foor and I are both in agreement--we'll be the first ones to buy his first album!!!!

Go David!!!!!

I made a ham for dinner, had some left over and just threw it away because I knew it would just sit in the fridge for the next week or so if I kept it! I was sitting at the table with Noah later on and saw Jinx out of the corner of my eye, sniffing the trash can. He usually doesn't do anything like this. It was so hilarious! Look how tall he is! Silly guy!

Busy weekend

Saturday was a busy, busy shopping day!!!! Some of ladies from church (along with two newborns) loaded up in a couple of vans around 9:30 a.m., headed to Springfield, shopped, ate at Olive Garden and got back to Pana around 7:00 p.m. I'm getting too old for that! Happy to say though, Ashley was tired too!! :)

Here's our group...front l-r Becky, Jessi, Tammy, Ashley....back l-r Karen, Rachel, Missy. Karen's son, Luke came--he was born on February 29. Tammy's daughter, Adrian came--she was born March 14. Both were very good---until they got hungry! Boy, they let you know when they were hungry!!!! I couldn't help either of them!! hahahaaa!

I talked to Lyle during the day and he was so excited. He'd been working with Noah, playing catch. I guess that boy has an arm! They had to show me when I got home. And of course, I had that camera close by!!!

Here's me and my babies on Mother's Day! This is my 13th Mother's Day.

Hope you all had a very happy mommy's day!!!!

Elly turns 3 !!!!

I can't believe Elly is three years old already!

I clearly remember the night she was born!!

Isn't it wild how fast time slips away from us.

Here's Elly playing outside. It's funny--I got a picture of her like this at her second birthday. Ill have to find that one....
Mommy made Elly's cake. She did much better than I do!

After opening this, she didn't want to open anything else!
The Hall girls' men...Nick, Aaron and Donny
Tyson was helping Elly blow out her candles
Mmmmmm!!!!
Here's your mentally challenged picture, Nick!!!!