Time Back Home!

We all had a wonderful time being back home! We got to enjoy some fun in the sun at the pool with Gigi, Grammy and Aunt Whitney!



Fearless Lawson was jumping in off the sides, twisting off the diving board and giving most of us a heart attack a minute with his crazy moves... but he was having a blast!



The boys had such fun with G-Dad, they were spraying each other with the waterhose and running around being chased by him in the backyard! When you can't find a swimsuit, just run around naked!



Their favorite thing to do is to ride Dad's 4-wheeler...they would stay on it 24/7 if we'd let them!


Emerson and Gigi watching the boys get sprayed...he looks so serious!


Friday morning Peyton went fishing with Adam and Poppy! He caught over a dozen fish and thought it was "so much fun!" They tried to get him to put his fingers in the mouth to hold it up, but he'd have nothing to do with it!

We even got some down time at Lake Ouachita. The boys had the best time going out on the boats...just jumping off into the water over and over again kept them quite entertained! We all enjoyed skiing and tubing, Dad got up on the first pull, Adam got up on a slolome ski and Bill did too, thankfully there were no broken bones this summer!






Whitney's nannying and brought one of her sweet little guys down to spend the day with us. Ross and the boys had a great time together...here,
G-Dad was helping to pull them in!




Whitney took these pics from the party barge, even with Mom's zoom they're still far off...but shows that Mama's still got it! Had such a good time sloloming!


Our last night we went into town to have dinner and play! The boys road go carts with G-Dad and Daddy, they really liked it, then we decided to played a few games in the arcade...I love making fun memories!




Playin' a little skeet ball with Dad...notice who has all the tickets!





Summer lovin' had me a blast! I love my family...God has blessed me so richly with a wonderful immediate family and terrific in-laws as well, love you all!

Girl's Night Out!

I had such a great time being back in Little Rock last week. Getting to catch up with friends and family was such a treat! The kids and I got to enjoy a playdate everyday...it was fun for the boys to see their friends and for me to catch up with people!


Friday night I got to celebrate the upcoming birth of Baby Henry with some old and now new friends with a delicious dinner at Cantina Laredo!



A lady sitting at a table near ours leaned over and gave Jenn a lei...saying she'd obviously been laid, how random is that? I carry a lot of things in my purse, but NOT a lei!!


After dinner all of the girls from my old Community Group were going to Hot Springs to hang out at a condo on Lake Hamilton! What a treat to get away with good friends and just have some down time as mom's! We tried to do a little shopping at William Sonoma and Pottery Barn but just as we stepped up to the doors the lights went out...unfortunately all we could do was window shop...but hey that's something I never get to do anymore, so even that was awesome! After we got to the condo and settled in a bit I decided I needed to do my motherly duty with my "friend" the breast pump, I pulled out the bag with my pump only to realize I'd forgotten the bottle and parts that are a necessity so we made a late night run to Wally World...it felt like we were back in college...all except needing parts to a breast pump!!


The next morning we "slept in" which now adays, is somewhere in the vicinity of 8:00 then put on our swimsuits and went to breakfast. We ate a delicious down home breakfast at the English Muffin and thoroughly enjoyed uninterrupted conversation!



Next we headed for the pool to lounge around and relax! It was so nice to simply have to think about putting my own sunblock on, grabbing a magazine that I actually got to look through COMPLETELY and being able to take a relaxing dip in the pool!


When we'd had enough of the suns rays, we got cleaned up and enjoyed lunch and shopping at some local boutiques! I found several fun shops one of which is Material World, it has beautiful fabrics but also great gift ideas and adorable jewelry all with affordable prices which makes me happy!


On our way back to Little Rock we stopped to see Harry Potter, I'd not seen any of those movies so a friend had to catch me up, but I really enjoyed it and the 3D experience!



What a blessing good friends are! Thanks girls for letting me tag along, it was such a blast! I love making memories with you!

Good times in Nashville!

Recently we spent the weekend in Nashville celebrating my Aunt's 60th birthday, the great part was that she had NO idea that lots of family and friends had come into town, it was a complete surprise for her! My whole family, along with her cousin and his wife (from Atlanta) and two of her best friends (from Ft. Smith) were all at a Mexican restaurant when she came in with her family for just a regular dinner out! She was shocked and it was fun to be apart of it!



The boys did great at dinner, we just kept the cheese dip flowing!


But the surprise didn't end there! My cousin had planned a pretty elaborate party for that Saturday evening. The story Aunt Debbi knew was that she and several friends and family were gonna take a little boat cruise on the lake then stop off at a nice restaurant for dinner...however, the stop off "for the potty" was really to join the rest of us who were at a rented out pavilion in a beautiful spot on the water. She realized what was happening when the band started singing "Happy Birthday!"



Lindsey had a cute display of pictures of her Mom for people to look at and reminisce over!


It was a country western themed BBQ that had a full out band, Loretta Lynn's band in fact, and they were TERRIFIC, with everything from a steel guitar to an awesome fiddler...it was SO much fun and very entertaining!




Baby Emerson enjoyed stretching out on the quilt in the grass!


Gigi dancing with Lawson and cousin Aiden.



I even got a lesson in two steppin' and brushed up on my line dancing too! Aunt Debbi's friend Jill is a dance instructor and after I took a very brief lesson from her she asked the lead singer, Bart, to take me around the floor...he's very good and I am quite the amateur! When we started he said "just trust me" and he had me spinning and twirling all over the place, I had a really fun time! Adam even gave it go with the birthday girl...it's inspired us to take some lessons together, I'll let you know how that goes in a future post!



Dancing with my man!


Two Steppin' with the birthday girl!



Aunt Debbi, thanks for giving us a wonderful reason to come to Nashville, and Lindsey, thanks for throwing such a fun party, you pulled off quite the surprise!

Splash Pad Fun!

We have done a lot of water activities this past week! The kids had a great time running around and splashing in the water, but the hit of the day was getting a treat from the ice cream truck that made a stop at the park!

Let me just say, we will NEVER again get the Scooby Doo ice cream treat, it literally stained Lawson's hands brown, but it was oh so tastey for him! His hands were stained for several hours...luckily the chlorine water helped to fade it a little!

Here are some pictures of our splash pad time at the Birmingham Zoo too! We played with the Lowery kiddos and some friends from Peyton's class at school!





What a fun day we had!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great weekend relaxing together as a family and enjoying time with friends that we've made here!

Saturday night we had several families over for a cookout, the Smith's, the Lowery's and the Griem's (minus Jeremy who was on a mission trip)

I just have to say how amazing God's provision has been for us as He's gone before us the whole time we've been here! It's truly a small world, and He keeps reminding me of that with "coincidental" circumstances! When we moved here, I was introduced to a really sweet girl named Kate Smith who is from NLR, we've gotten to know her and her family over the past several months, the crazy "coincidence" is that she grew up going to church with Ben Lowery, Rebekah's husband! Kate came up to me one day (several months ago) at church and said, "we've got more Arkansans coming to Birmingham!" As we talked about who was moving to Bham and I realized the connection I couldn't believe it!! How crazy is that? I'm so glad to have the Lowery's join us here in Bham, what fun to have a familiar face from home! It's been neat to see how God weaves things together...I am choosing to see these small "coincidences" as His continued provision for me (us)...proving over and over that He's gone before Adam and I and is continuing to pave the way!

With 12 kids (under 7), I don't think there was a toy untouched in our house! The kids had a good time and got to enjoy my recent Craigslist find, a Bounce House! (I LOVE craigslist!)

We had the kids eat outside, some at the table others on a picnic blanket...they did pretty good out there while the adults "enjoyed" the 80 degree temperature in our house...not the nice feel of A/C!!




And here's the evidence the kids left behind, not too bad huh?!


Sweet Blake dressed up as Superman!





We had a great weekend...playing outside, eating good food and spending time with friends...we even got to see the fireworks! The kids did pretty good considering they were up an hour and a half later then normal...they had a blast with their new friends!