Wedding Weekend Celebration

This past weekend we got to enjoy celebrating as Adam's life long friend, Logan, tied the knot with the love of his life.  The weekend was a real treat from start to finish.  We drove to the Big D with Adam's parents and enjoyed being able to visit without any little people interrupting.  We've never taken a trip just the four of us, so that was really fun!

We arrived at The Adolphus Hotel which happens to be the where Queen Elizabeth stayed on her State visit back in 1991 along with many US Presidents and other famous names.  It was definitely an old school, formal and very traditional atmosphere yet was very comfortable too.  There was even high tea offered though we didn't have a chance to do it.  Here is downtown Dallas, its quite different from Little Rock's downtown.

That evening we had the rehearsal at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek; it was a very beautiful location.  The wedding took place on top of the building with a lovely arial view of Dallas.

Here's groom and his entourage of groomsmen!  

We were headed back from the rehearsal dinner at Celebrations, which is a southern, farm to table style restaurant where all the sides are served family style and there is no limit to how many main courses you order.  My husband, who is very concerned with portion size was of course thrilled with this news!

On Saturday morning the groomsmen all went to play golf while Bill, Donna and I did some shopping. There were five or six teams of guys for the scramble, Adam was glad to get to play with his friends and many of Logan's cousins.  As the end of the the round drew to a close the rain that had been falling all morning long got heavier.  Now the golf course was nice on the greens and fairways, but with Texas dirt comes Texas mud with all that rain, and some of the grown men had the "great" idea to start a mud fight on the golf course!  Adam was shocked when he got hit in the throat with a hard mud clod while getting ready to T-off on the 18th hole.  He did have a slight bruise on his throat but that was nothing compared to the young man who'd traveled quite a distance to be at his cousins wedding who got hit squarely in the eye.  To make a long story short, instead of attending the wedding, he ended up in surgery to repair his eye.  How awful is that?  This group of cousins and boys…(uhhmmm…I mean men) are known for their antics and for creating many a crazy story to be told for years to come (these tales become quite funny stories but not usually at the moment that the story occurs.)   Needless to say, it will forever be a golf game that goes down in infamy!

That evening, the weather was perfect!  The rain cleared up, the sun came out and the blue skies were bright and beautiful!  Logan and Amy were precious to watch as they committed themselves forever and whole heartedly to one another.  It was a moment we'd prayed for him for many years and to be a witness to their union was moving for sure!  After they were presented as the Mr. and Mrs. they proceeded to dance down the aisle to "This Will Be".  It was adorable to see them beaming with excitement!

Midway down the aisle they stole another kiss!  I'm so, so, so thrilled for them!  How cute are they?!

The reception was beautiful, the food was amazing and the band…well, lets just say we danced the night away, I think we left the reception at 11:45!   We had two nights in a row where we were up past midnight!   But oh, it was sure fun celebrating with them!

We enjoyed visiting with old friends and meeting their newest little boy.  It's so nice to have relationships that span the course of time.  And since we don't live near one another for these two guys to have seen each other three times in about three months is pretty awesome!  (Let's definitely plan that ski trip once little man is a bit bigger!!)

This friendship that Adam has with Logan is one that I'll forever be grateful for.  They are truly iron sharpening iron, as they encourage one another to live God honoring lives in their work places, friendship relationships and now their marriages and private lives.  I'm so thankful that Adam has someone to help hold him accountable to things and to ask the hard questions.  Congratulations Amy and Logan, may God richly bless your marriage!

Sunday morning we checked out and went to eat at Ellen's Southern Kitchen in West End,    it had been recommended to us and was for sure a delight!  I had Grits with Poached Eggs while Adam went with a more adventurous option-- the bowl of chili with fried eggs on tops.  I was a little concerned with his choice but he actually really enjoyed it!  We had a terrific weekend!  What fun memories were made!

Sip And See

I recently had the opportunity to host a Sip and See for a dear friends of mine whom I've known for most of my life! Katie and I have been friends since second grade.  We have literally lived most of our major moments in life alongside one another.  We went through elementary, middle school, high school, college (as roommates all through college together) and now we're doing married life with kids. I'm so thankful for life long friendships like these that God has so graciously blessed me with!

Stephanie, Christy and I enjoyed helping to celebrate the birth of little Miss Mae. She is such a doll baby! It's so funny that several ladies in our group of friends have three boys each while Katie has been blessed with her three precious girls…we just might have to do some arranged marriages, huh?!!

This is Miss Hazel Lula "Mae", how sweet is she?

Here's a little look into the Sip and See we hosted last weekend.

These girls are some of my most favorite people!  I love the transparency and deep friendship that we have.  Being able to share and encourage one another as wives and mothers is one of my biggest blessings!  Motherhood is hard, being a good wife is hard, but having women who support and pray for me regularly is truly an encouragement.  Galatians 6:9 says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  Ladies thanks for not giving up, for always striving to do your best and to honor God with your lives!  I love each you!  And Kate, congratulations on that sweet new bundle of joy!

Ava Jane's Pool Party

Since all of our kids have fall and winter birthdays, Ava Jane's is the only one that is remotely close to summertime, so we decided to celebrate her birthday a few weeks early.  We chose to do a pool party at the end of summer and I do believe it was a hit!

This was the invitation (I ordered it with the coordinating party printables from Etsy).

I knew that I wanted to do a simple, easy to pull off party, so I thought having a pool party with family and friends would be a fun way to celebrate, and it was!  Sometimes its hard to come up with party activities to do at a home party, so this was a super easy solution, however, when you choose a different location, the transport and setup is what's the hard part.  Usually you just have a 15-30 minute window of time to get everything put together.  In this case, I was a sweaty mess by the time everything was in place, luckily, I was at a pool!!  I knew I wanted the colors to be very girly, not the traditional primary colors you usually see with pool stuff.  So here's what did.

We served sub sandwiches (turkey, ham and clubs) along with chips, fruit cups and "pool water".

On the dessert table I had little blue "pools" (of Jello) with cute umbrellas to top them off.  I ordered adorable sugar cookies and of course had cupcakes.  All of these sugary treats were a hit by all the kids!

I'm pretty sure all the kids had a great time, I know Ava Jane did!

We had a fun time with friends and family as we celebrated Ava Jane's birthday!  We sang Happy Birthday with everyone sitting on the steps, which was my attempt at getting everyone in one general location so that we could try and get a group shot.  This is pretty good for having 24 kids kids 8 and under.

Can you tell Ava Jane loved her cupcake?

We love you Ava Jane and are so glad that God chose us to be your parents!  You are a joy to us all and we can't imagine life without you!!  Happy Birthday sweet one!!

Wrapping Up Summer…Welcoming The Start of Fall

The past two weekends we have tried to soak up every last ounce of summer that was left.  Two weekends ago we wrapped up our last trip to Lake Ouachita with my family and sweet nephew.  I'm pretty sure the kids had a terrific time!  We were literally one of ten or so boats that we saw all day long, we literally owned the water.

How cute is this little "Captain" of our ship?

How about this candid shot that Whitney took?  Mom and I were planning upcoming events that I was putting into my calendar, Dad was keeping covered up from the sun and Adam was stretching out his biceps prepping to slalom ski, all while the kids swam around and enjoyed the last day at the lake.

Ava Jane thoroughly relaxed out on the boat as you can see!

We had fun being together!

This past weekend we hit the pool one last time and enjoyed playing football in the water and floating around in the warmth of the sun.  Hanging out with the Grands is always a real treat, we enjoyed doing dinner with both sides of the family!

We also packed one more fun treat into our Labor Day weekend, as we welcomed the start of fall with the Razorbacks football season.  We got to enjoy a wonderful day away with some of our dearest friends (you can read Carol's rendition of our trip here).   We weren't sure if we could pull it off, since we only decided to try and go three days prior to the big day, and since between our two families there are eight precious little people to care for, we knew it would all hinge on the sitter situation.  Thankfully, after several (as in about 14 tries at finding someone) I was able to get it covered with only one "hand-off" mid day from Adam's parents, thanks so much Poppy and Grammy as well as Whitney and Rob.  Here's three big cheers for family who save the day!!

It was fun just driving up to Northwest Arkansas and being able to chat about any and everything with no distractions from our sweet people.  We enjoyed two fun sit down meals, lots of laughs, some very hot but awesome seats on the 10th row at the 50 yard line.  And we even had a lady sitting beside us say that Carol and I look too young to have four kids each, that was a score for sure!  I loved being in HOG country, its just fun having everyone dress in red and white, sharing an experience and being one with the desire to see our beloved razorbacks beat their opponent, and thankfully they did!!

It really was fun to be back on our old stomping grounds and to show Carol and John around the beautiful campus that is the University of Arkansas.  Sharing about our college experiences was interesting, since theirs was quite different from ours, being that they went to a very small Christian university, but we both very much liked our time in college and look back on those years with many fond memories.  It wouldn't be a visit to the U of A without showing them Old Main, which is just one of the many beautiful buildings on campus.

 Just being away, having space and time to visit uninterrupted was such a sweet treat. Adam and I are so thankful to have the blessing of such great friendships! We love you Spensts, lets do it again!

So there went summer, here comes fall!  I must say that I am looking forward to a little cooler weather and the changing of the leaves.  I do enjoy seasonal changes and Arkansas never disappoints in that category!!