Lawson's Patriot Football Season

Well, its only taken me FOREVER to get these pictures uploaded to the blog.  We have been finished with the season for a month of so now---I'm just a tad behind.  This year Lawson asked to play Life Champs flag football and this was his first season.  We played with a handful of friends and it was such a lot of fun.  These boys practiced hard, played hard and almost made it to the Super Bowl--they were just one game shy of the bowl game.  It was hard to see them teary eyed and heart broken, but they put their all into it and we were so very proud of their efforts!

Here's a few of the Patriot fans.

These coaches were amazing.  They encouraged, taught and challenged the boys all season long!

This team played so hard it was fun to watch them learn to work together and to win all but the last game!  Way to go Patriots!

Thanksgiving 2017

There is always so much to be thankful for.  We usually do a "thankful tree" but that didn't get done this year.  Instead, the kids and I reminded ourselves of what we were thankful for while in the car, driving to school most mornings.   We tried to stay away from the every day, run of the mill things to be thankful for (i.e. our home, health, food, etc) so one of the kids might mention the beautiful blue sky on the way to school as being something to be thankful for, or maybe the beauty of the changing leaves on the trees.   Although we didn't write our "thankful things" down, we enjoyed sharing them with one another and observing regularly, the things that are right around us that we can take notice of in our every day, mundane moments.  There truly is so much to be grateful for and we are blessed for sure.  I was grateful to have gotten to be apart of the Thankful Feasts for Ava Jane, Emerson and Lawson's classes.

I was however, very thankful to have a week out of our every day routine to play with the kids, enjoy time together and have no schedule to keep! Leading up to Thursday, there were pies to bake (of which Emerson and Ava Jane helped me), pumpkin cookies and bowl licking to be had as well as squash and hot corn casseroles to prepare.

On Thanksgiving Day we were able to see both sides of our family and enjoyed catching up with everyone. My cousin Kim and her son came to join us. It was wonderful to get to chat and let the kids play together. We even had a piano recital of sorts, all the boys played their pieces and did a great job! It truly was a fun time together as more memories were made.

Mom outdid herself with this perfectly golden-brown (and may I add delicious) turkey! The live centerpieces on all the tables were gorgeous and perfect tablescapes for our Thanksgiving celebration.

I'm grateful for a Mother who desires to gather with family, to make it not only a lovely and fun experience but a truly meaningful one as well.  Because we were a little bit smaller of a group we were able to actually take time to go around and let everyone share some of the things that they are thankful for.  We had so many things to mention but the ones that stand out in my memory was Ava Jane's five years of continued heart health, Lachlan's saying, without hesitation, that "Co-co" is who he is thankful for--melt my heart, I sure love that little boy!  What Kim said that she was thankful for, is "her Lord and Savior"--isn't that the truth, where would we be without Jesus?  Who would we be without him?  He is who has saved us, leads us, and directs us.  I'm so thankful for His saving grace and for His constant pursuit of me.  Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving!

CARTI: Festival of Trees

This past week was filled with wonderful events that all benefited CARTI. CARTI, is THE cancer treatment facility that provides hope and healing to Arkansans statewide.  This was my first time to experience all of the Festival of Trees and I must say, each night was truly fun for a cause.

It kicked off with Ava Jane and Adam getting all decked out for the Sugar Plum Ball.  To say she was excited about this soiree is a huge understatement, she was elated!  Since this Daddy Daughter evening happened to fall the exact day that Emerson was in the hospital with his severe allergic reaction, and I was in the hospital with him, this is the only picture I got this year.

Festival After Dark, on Thursday night, was an evening of casual mingling mixed with some of the tastiest restaurants in town serving some of their most decadent items such as truffle oil mac and cheese, asiago cheese and bacon tater tots and miniature chicken tacos with the freshest salsa that was all very delicious.  There were silent auction items to bid on and I believe it was Arkansas Circus Art who performed for the evening, they were quite talented.

I have never been to a live runway fashion show, so I was in for a real treat on Friday evening at Festival of Fashion.  It was a high energy, upbeat show filled with trendy items from some of the most prominent boutique clothiers in town.  Whitney was my plus one, it was fun to spend an evening together kid free!

The week culminated at Tux n Trees, which was a beautiful affair and one I was glad to be apart of. There are so many wonderful things happening at CARTI that Adam and I are both excited to be involved with and to see come to fruition. The physicians are excellent, their care and concern for their patients is evident and to be apart of an organization that reaches all four corners of the state, treating all forms of cancer, makes it an amazing organization to be apart of.  It was a very busy week, but these four nights were filled with fun!

It was great to have good friends there to spend the evening with.

Peyton: Celebrating 11 years

Oh my word, how can we have a child that is ELEVEN years old today?! I'm not really sure where the time has gone but I can say that I have loved almost every minute of this young mans precious life!

Every year I try to plan fun, themed birthday parties, but this year we for-went the party and pulled out another idea.  Peyton loves watching the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry is his favorite athlete right now.  So when this Momma found out that the Golden State Warriors were playing the Memphis Grizzlies, we couldn't pass up the chance to surprise him!  We decided to tell the kids we were going to run errands and needed to go by Home Depot for a few things around the house.  We pulled out of the driveway and headed toward the store but we drove on past it, we continued onto the interstate and got all the way to the Maybelline factory on the other side of North Little Rock when Peyton finally asked, "Mom---where are we going?" To which I responded, "I thought you might never ask!  Matter of fact, I have a gift right here with your name on it."  He opened the sack and inside was a blue and yellow Golden State Warriors jersey the he'd been requesting.  Peyton was thrilled!  We told him, "hey we aren't driving to run any errands, we're driving to Memphis, Tennessee to see your favorite team play the Grizzlies!!   He was shocked and beside himself which was so fun!! Here's the video of how the surprise went.

The game wasn't until later that evening to I thought it'd be fun to do the Memphis Zoo.  The kids always enjoy it and we had really nice weather, not too hot or too cool.

This boy has my whole heart.   Peyton Thomas Head is THE most caring, thoughtful, kind, servant-hearted young man that I have the privilege of knowing.  He takes initiative in helping around our house when he sees something needs to be done, he cares for his siblings, he's obedient and all around a joy to parent.  Peyton-- Daddy and I love you so much and are so incredibly grateful that God saw fit to put you into our family!  I hope you feel loved today, for you surely are!!

That evening we ate some BBQ at The Neely's restaurant then Adam and Peyton headed off for the game.  He had a great time watching Steph Curry and the whole team.  Unfortunately Steph Curry and Kevin Durant got side ways with the refs and ultimately got ejected from the game.  It was a win for the Grizzlies but Peyton LOVED seeing his team unclose and personal!

While they were at the game the other three stayed with me at the hotel and enjoyed the indoor pool--that is, they enjoyed the pool once we located some swimsuits, purchased some pajamas, clothes and tooth brushes!  In our hurry to get all the bags and gifts hidden away in the suburban, Adam forgot to stick the kids suitcase in the back of the car, so when we determined that we were in the hotel room without a car and no kids clothes I quickly called Adam and said, "either you're gonna have to come back here and we'll all go to drop you off at the game and then I'll have the car or I'm going to have to call Uber to come get me and the other three children to take us to the nearest Target or Walmart." Thankfully he wasn't far from the hotel so he came back, we dropped them off, we found some shorts for the boys and the one loan swimsuit on the Target clearance rack for Ava Jane.   Our night was almost ruined...Emerson was in tears but within the hour our plan was back in business....thankfully! There were tears and nashing of teeth when we had gotten to the room the first time after having been talking up the idea of swimming, only to find NO BAG and NO CLOTHES! That was not a good moment! Thankfully it was redeemed though!  They were all smiles after that!

I think our surprise birthday celebration was super de-duper fun! I was thrilled to get him something he really wanted and to surprise him with it to boot!  It felt like a real win all the way around!

Halloween Fun

This year was a little ho-hum for me, as far as Halloween.  Usually I try to coordinate the kids and have some sort of theme, but this year I was just not into it too much.  Honestly, I told the kids, "we have lots of costumes to choose from, so lets just pick out one of the costumes we already possess." The boys naturally chose a Star Wars theme and Ava Jane wanted to be Rey at first.  So here were our before pics.  (Ava Jane decided to change costumes right before we left for our family friendly halloween party.)

How about this sassy britches--pointing at the boys while they have a light saber "war".

Carol hosted a great party as always, we had some fun themed food and of course a witches brew of spooky punch.  You can see more pics here.  We loaded some of the kids up in the car while some of us walked several streets collecting a mother load of candy in the misty rain.

As I said, Ava Jane decided she preferred to dress up as Anna, so we did the quick costume change and added braids...I let the themed costuming go without a fuss, I was not up for a debate.

Partying with friends is always a treat and time well spent!  I love all these kids and the families they represent!

I'd say Halloween 2017 was a hit with or without the rain.  Candy of all varieties were collected and today, this Momma enjoyed one too many chocolate bars while folding laundry!

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