Creed

Look what my wonderful hubby bought me for my birthday in September:


You guessed it.....tickets to see one of my favorite all times bands. I'm guessing since this is my third time to see them that I shouldn't be so excited, but I AM! And my parents are coming to spend the night, too! What a birthday gift! I can't wait!

Wedding Party Boogie

This is just AWESOME!

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Zoe's New Bench

One of Mark's steel customers is actually making some benches for Dollywood. Mark saw the designs and decided that we had to have one for Zoe. So, he ordered one and I must confess I'm soooo glad he did! I love this little bench for our Zoe girl!

Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July is a big deal in the Lawrence household. My husband and his brothers have all served in the military and we think this country is the greatest on earth!

And this was Zoe's first time with a sparkler! Of course, Mommy had to capture the occasionon video! She LOVED them!

Swimming with Uncle Poopy & Aunt Patty

While we were visiting Uncle Poopy & Aunt Patty, we were fortunate enough to get to go swimming at Patty's parents' house, which is next door to Patty's house. Our Zoe girl LOVES to go swimming and had a blast!

Hi Mommy!
Swimming with Daddy!

This float is too cool!

Daddy & Zoe in the Hammock

Zoe zonked out in the hammock! Plus - Daddy's model face!

Uncle Poopy fell asleep after swimming, too! He literally looked like a Hobo on a park bench! Too funny! I'm sure he's going to shoot me later for adding this video, but it's hysterical!

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Nana & Papa

On our way to St. Louis, we stopped and spent the night with Nana & Papa. Papa LOVES to take his baby for a ride on his John Deere. When we got there, Papa had given the John Deere a new name.....

Sweet, isn't it?
Papa & Zoe Riding the John Deere

Watching a movie with Papa & Nana!

We love Papa & Nana and our visit with them was entirely too short! We're going to have to schedule another trip to see them real soon! We love you!

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Grant's Farm

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Cranium

I know you've read all about my favorite game before - CRANIUM!

If you missed out on it and need a refresher course, just click HERE!

Now, how could we possibly let our friends come to our house and not play a fabulous game of Cranium! Of course we played in our usual fashion, which is always the guys against the girls. I'm sad to say that the boys did beat us, but just barely by the skin of their butts! AND I have to tell about the funniest part of the evening. Both of Mark's childhood friends are engineers. Carter is an engineer in the Air Force and Lueken is an engineer and part owner of his own land surveying/engineering firm. That means that they are SMART! In fact, both of them are scary smart sometimes. But....I digress.

You know when you draw a Sensosketch (drawing with your eyes closed) that the team giving you the card reads what you are drawing and then passes the card to the designated team member who will be doing the drawing in the hopes that their teammates can guess the object. Cam volunteered to draw. Well, I shouldn't say "volunteered" but he was "forced" to participate by his teammates. So, Cam looks at the card that the gals have passed to him and proceeds to draw. As time runs out, the boys failed to guess what he had drawn. He was supposed to have drawn a "Snowshoe." However, Cam.....being the engineer and smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart boy that he is.....drew the actual picture from the "Creative Cat Category." We laughed until I think we had our adult beverages running out of our noses. AND I just had to keep that drawing beside me for the entire evening. Anytime Cam would say the phrase "I can't believe you didn't guess that" I would simply hold the drawing up for everyone to see. AND what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't snap a picture of it to share with everyone?!? Here you go.....

And the picture he drew actually looked like a mouse more than a cat! And the teeth are a little off the mark! HYSTERICAL! We love you Lueken Boy!



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Downtown Nashville with The Carters & The Luekens

After we ate ice cream at Ben & Jerry's in Franklin, Tennessee, we headed to downtown Nashville for dinner at Merchant's Restaurant. If you're ever in the area, you should definitely check them out because the food ROCKS!

Daddy & Zoe walking to the restaurant (I love these photos of them together)
We didn't know we owned a record/souvenir shop!

Merchant's Restaurant

Mark, Chris Carter & Cam Lueken
By the way, these boys grew up together and can tell some pretty funny stories!

I have it on good authority that Carter actually had a mullett back in the day!

Meet the Mulletts!

Zoe with her mullett!

Talk about some sunglasses!

Zoe posing with Baby Jaguar (from Diego)




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Zoe's First Ice Cream Cone

Following our visit to The Carter House, we decided we would hit the Ben & Jerry's in Franklin before heading out for dinner in downtown Nashville (backwards I know). Anyway, Zoe had her first ice cream cone. The child LOVES ice cream (just like her Daddy), but she had never had an ice cream cone. I honestly didn't want to have to clean up the mess. Anyway, I figured she could go to town with an ice cream cone as long as it wasn't in my house. So, here's our girl. I think you'll agree that she absolutely LOVED it!

That's a pretty big ice cream cone for a little princess!

Cheese Mommy!
And this photo........

Reminded me of this.......

Don't you think they look alike?!?

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The Carters & The Carter House

Our great friends, The Carters (Chris, Renee & Maddie) and The Luekens (Cam & Andrea), came to visit us. Anyway, Chris Carter has managed to trace his geneology all the way back to the Civil War; however, he hasn't been able to go back further. What do you do to entertain your guests? Why you take them to The Carter House in Franklin, Tennessee. Here are pics of our visit. It was amazing to say the least. Of course, I minored in History in college so this was fun for me. And I'm glad it was fun for our friends, too. It would be so awesome if Chris were actually related to these individuals!

This was a marker telling you all about Captain Tod Carter
My little princess posing in front of some beautiful flowers

The Carters

The Historical Marker at The Carter House

Real bullett holes. This structure is one of the only remaining structures from the Civil War that is still standing with this many bullett holes. Pretty neat, huh?

Another placard telling you about The Carter House

The actual house itself.

Zoe & Maddie posing around an actual well. Could you imagine having to dig this without the use of the modern tools we have today?

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Zoe's Singing

Zoe has a class she takes at McKendree called "Music-n-Motion." That child LOVES that class. Anyway, she was singing one of the songs from that class like crazy on the way to work the other day. Daddy was driving the car and I pulled out the camera to get it on video. She wouldn't let me "take her picture" and would stop singing every time I turned around. So, what do you do when all else fails? You still record your child singing, you just get a nice view of Nashville scenery while driving down the interstate! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.



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