Celebrating Ava Jane's Arrival

The week before Ava Jane made her debute, some sweet friends of mine hosted a Girls Night Out Sprinkle for our little lady, I however had so many plates spinning and balls juggling that I never documented that fun evening here on the blog. So, though I'm a bit late, I thought I'd just do a post with several of the different celebrations that people have thrown for both she and I over the last 7 weeks.

Here are some pictures from the Sprinkle. It was such a fun GNO with both family and good friends! We had an oh.so.tastey meal at YaYa's, you cannot go wrong with that place, it is DELISH!!



Sometimes there are gifts that just keep on giving...and this one is still going strong, literally, the child is 6 weeks old and we're still using these!! Diaper cakes are WONDERFUL!


Here's our very tastey petite fores...oh they were ever so good!


And some dear friends...



Thanks sweet Carol, for hosting and helping to plan this fun sprinkle! Here I am one week before Ava Jane was born, this is the best "belly" shot I got (and it's not even a good one)...I can't believe I didn't take a picture from the side to document...but I didn't, my mind was completely full, and that opportunity slipped me by, I didn't take one side picture after about 5 months...I'll blame that on a move, a kid starting kindergarten, and just having lost my mind entirely!!


Then this past weekend some ladies hosted a Sip and See...what fun it was introducing my little lady to everyone!









After she got passed all around to everyone, Grammy finally got her hands on her...looks like Ava Jane was quite cozy don't you think?!!


We had a great turn out, I was too busy talking and visiting to take very many pictures! I didn't even get a pic with my Mom! Thanks to all who came to see her and to celebrate her arrival with us! And a big thank you to my hostesses for all they did to make it a fun Sip and See!

Weekend In Review: Making Memories Part 2

I realized my post would have been quite long so I broke it up a bit.

Saturday, Adam was quite excited because the day he's been dreaming of for many, many years, finally came to fruition! He's longed to have a fishing boat to take the boys out in and make memories with...its been a constant thought floating around in the back of his head.

The hunt really began a couple of weeks ago when he found "the boat"...after he called about it and got all the info, he hummed and haaed then called back and it had already sold, I mean like in an hour or two, needless to say he was totally bummed. So when his Dad sent him the information on this boat down at McSwain's in Scott, he wasn't about to pass it up. The two of them headed down to look at it and "it was perfect" according to Adam, so they called the man right up and bought it!!

In my Bible study on Tuesday's we're talking about the book, The Meaning of Marriage, it is a GREAT book, definitely not an easy read, but a truly great foundational look at marriage. The book is chalked full of challenges and one take away from a couple of weeks ago was to look for things that interest your spouse and join them there. Well, I'm not a huge outdoors-woman, but I do enjoy it from time to time...and with that said I mean, I don't mind to go fishing as long as he'll bait and unhook the fish from my line! I do want to make the effort to join Adam in the things that he gets excited about, so here's what I'm learning about the.perfect.fishing.boat!

I'm learning that the "perfect" boat is all welded not rivoted (meaning it won't ever leak, that's a no-brainer), it is a 16 foot 48" wide modified V, Duracraft with a Yamaha 25 horse powered engine, with a console steer and a trolling motor. How'd I do stating the stats? That's pretty good right?!! I'm sure trying!

All the boys checking out their new toy!


Lawson is real excited about the fishing net!


To say Adam and the boys are in heaven is a slight understatement!

Later that afternoon more memories were made while Adam raked the backyard leaves...the boys loved diving into the big ole pile!


Then Sunday, was my 31st Birthday we had dinner with my family and my Mom made a DELICIOUS dinner of Scallopini De Polo (it was amazing) with roasted asparagus, a scrumptious salad, bread and then came the AMAZINGLY moist chocolate cake, it was OH.SO.Tastey!!


Thanks Mom for all you did to make my day special! I love you and am grateful for you!!


Another memory was made while I was talking at the table. Emerson climbed up into the chair beside me and he leaned over at the waist sticking his lips out...SMACK!! So I got this sweet picture. Oh how I love him! What a little cutie pie he is!!

Weekend In Review: Making Memories Part 1

This weekend we made lots of memories, and that is always such fun! As I'm writing this post I'm realizing that I'm gonna have to break this up a bit so I'll just start with Friday...

Adam took the day off since Peyton didn't have school, so we enjoyed a morning at Schaeffer Collins Pumpkin Patch out in Mayflower. We stopped at the roadside stand and got to ride on the John Deer Tractor train that drove right thru the middle of the corn field...the boys LOVED bumping and bouncing over the muddy tracks and seeing the mud splash...they are such boys and its fun to see them get so excited about simple things.





Sweet Baby Girl, slept in the Baby Bjorn the whole time...she loves to snuggle!!


They have a great little playground that the kids loved hanging out on. Check out the HUGE watering trough filled with corn kernels...they had a blast in there!





And there's a little pumpkin bottom...how cute is he?


There were all shapes and sizes of pumpkins to choose from...the boys picked out a large pumpkin, a green gourd and a teeny Emerson sized Pumpkin.


There were a few animals to see and they thought that was pretty cool.





I must say, by this point Emerson had had enough of the wind, he was starting to get hungry/thirsty, and extremely sleepy...so we decided to head back to the car, where it was a full out fight to get him strapped back into the seat...wish I'd thought to bring his blanket, oh well!!

We really did have a great time. Adam liked being out of the office and out in the country, he loved getting to do something totally out of the norm for him. The weather was great and we made such a fun family memory!! I was grateful to have a day with the Hubs, I really like it when he's around, sure wish he didn't have to go to work...we have such fun together...but I guess all good things must come to an end, its Monday now and he's off again, working deals and bringing home the money, and I really appreciate that too!!

Running A Race

Yesterday was Boosterthon at Peyton's school. Instead of selling wrapping paper or popcorn tins, the kids asked people to sponsor them a certain amount of money per lap they ran, up to a maximum of 35 laps. Its a great way to raise money, keep physically fit and teach character qualities like perseverance.

I was sick and unable to make it to the race but Adam went to cheer on Peyton! He did great, he loves to run down by the river with Adam, so we knew he'd probably do well. And he did, he maxed it! Each lap was 1/16th of a mile so having run 35 laps he ran right at 2 miles, WAY TO GO Bud!!

Here's some pics of him...






After each lap, there were people at the start of the run crossing each one of the laps off on their t-shirt to keep up with how many each child ran.


He ran hard the whole time, never stopping to get water or walk, until right up to the end...he walked over to Adam and said "Dad I'm tired" and Adam said, "Hey Bud, what does Philippians 4:13 say" and Peyton proceeded to quote the new verse he's been learning. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!" And with that, he was off and running again!



Peyton, we are so proud of you. You did great!!

Weekend In Review

We had a fun filled weekend! Friday night we rented the new Muppet Movie Musical, with Amy Adams, it was really cute! We ate pizza and piled up on the sofa while eating warm chocolate chip cookies...does it get any better then that?

Saturday morning we went to Shipley's for some oh so tastey donuts! The boys were in desperate need of haircuts so we went straight to Pig Tails and Crew Cuts then went on to Target for a few items. During naptime Peyton, Ava Jane and I went to the mall in search of some shoes for him...his feet are growing at a crazy rate and all he had to wear was one pair of tennis shoes. We came home with 3 new pairs of shoes, I think that'll do it for a little while! When we got home our neighbors were outside flying kites so Peyton and Lawson got in on the action. We are enjoying our new neighbors, there are 11 kids between 4 houses right here in our circle.




One of the kites landed in the tree...uh oh!


That evening we went to watch the Razorbacks at my parents house with my sister and Rob; the boys had fun playing with Pascha and Psalm. We enjoyed watching the HOGS even though the game was short lived for us...after Emerson had 4 yucky blowouts and had gone thru the extra outfit and all the diapers I'd brought with me, we decided to turn in and head home...its never a dull moment (sorry, that might have been TMI!)

Sunday I stayed home with the littles (because of Emerson, but he seemed completely fine, he had no more issues all day long) while Adam and the big boys went to church. That afternoon we headed downtown to the Statehouse Convention Center where they had a Dinosaur Exhibit going on. The boys were excited to go, but I have to tell you the quote of the day, it was Peyton, when we stepped up to the first exhibit, with a GY-NOR-MOUS dinosaur, he said "I don't like dinosaurs" to which Adam responded, "Buddy, you love dinosaurs" and Peyton said, "Well, I don't like big, moving dinosaurs!" It made us think of those days when we were kids and we were afraid of that big gorilla up on the stage at ShowBiz Pizza!: )

We did have a good time, it was a bit deceiving in that after you paid to get in, you had to pay for each individual thing you did after going thru all the exhibits...ie the bounce houses, riding the dinosaurs, face painting, etc...it would've been nice if they'd mentioned that somewhere in all the advertisements!



He got over his fear...



The Big T-Rex...



Future palentologists...


And yesterday was our little lady's 1 month birthday! We are SO in love with her, the time has been so sweet and its flying by super fast!! She's staying awake much more, I was able to get her with her eyes open, but couldn't get her to look at the camera!!