Pappy and Melissa Visit

Pappy and Melissa came to visit for the weekend, just a few weeks after school started.

We took them to our favorite local food trucks and we spent a day hiking the trails around our museum and downtown.

We got to browse the Farmer's Market. Tommy and my dad played a morning round of golf and we even got to go on a date, while they watched the kids. Perfect, as War Room had started that weekend and we were anxious to see it.

After a few hours of hiking, we wondered in to the museum to cool off. The kids told Pappy, "It's just alot of naked people!". They have yet to develop an appreciation for fine art. They do love this little area, though. They always have different still life stations set up to practice drawing. Gracyn is hard at work in this picture. Her left hand is all balled up because she has a cricket in there!!! She found him on our hike and carried him ALL DAY! She even some how managed to go to the bathroom with it. He came home with us, hours and hours later, but I'm not sure he "made" it.

Here they all are hard at work on their drawings. My dad joked later that they she got to bring in her cricket, but the museum workers made him throw his empty water bottle away. We had a great time showing them around NWA and can't wait for their next visit.

August Things

We discovered the perfect place to hunt for crawdads. They could do it for hours! We collect them in buckets and turn them all loose before we go home.

After the first day of school. These girls were tired.

Reagan's sweet friend Mallory came over to play. We walked her home and she way dying to walk Maggie.

A little Sunday lunch. The other side of the table was equally as cute, but I'm not supposed to post pictures of the guy on that side. This was at a new little place here called Joe's Italian. It's dark, quiet and fancy-ish. The little guy calls it, "The place where everyone is quiet except us"!!!

I sprung Reagan from school to get a spring fixed on her braces. She was teaching me where to look for a selfie, while we waited.

Leaving the orthodontist, the school nurse called for this girl. She went to the nurse, said, "My head hurts, my stomach hurts, my throat hurts and I have strep". And, she did. The nurse was skeptical to send her home, since she didn't have fever, but she said, most kids don't walk in diagnosing themselves. We had a quiet afternoon watching Fixer Upper. 

The adopted outside cat. On my bed. We love her. She's in my lap right now.

Gracyn spent a good portion of her summer up the neighbors tree in front of our house. 

Our neighborhood is almost done with construction.
Praise the Lord!!! New neighbors are moving in all the time. There is always fun to be had outside. I LOVE when loads of kids and their Mamas are in my driveway all afternoon.

Hip Hop class. Poor girl, she hardly has any personality.

My girls love to read and that love just keeps growing!!! Our most recent read together book was "Wonder". It was amazing. I highly recommend reading it with your children. You will all learn some things about compassion. 

Screamers Softball. We have a tournament this weekend, which ends our 2nd season. They have grown so much and are such fun to watch!!! Reagan hits great, plays a pretty great outfield usually at first, shortstop or catcher. And, she manages to squeeze in a lot of dancing in the outfield in between balls, it nearly gives her Daddy a heart attack!!!

With the girls back in school, I squeezed in a little one on one time with this guy at the children's museum. We had a fun morning and he loved being able to call all the shots. This was our favorite part.

A little hammock time with Anna at our church tailgate party.

She finally lost her first tooth!!!Her teeth are so crowded I had to tie the floss around it to get it out. They are too bunched in there for me to grab and pull.

Just a Friday afternoon house full.

Whataburger came to Arkansas. It has been a BIG hit around here. It took some perseverance to eat there in the beginning, but things have settled down some now.

Reagan was home sick and had a little Scrabble challenge with me. She tried to use "Veds". She said it was how French people say beds with their accent.

I wasn't falling for that. She can beat me, without cheating!!!

And then, Addison got strep again. I had kids home sick for about 25% of the first few weeks of school. 

Gracyn's journal writing. I told you she spent all summer in the tree!

Her First Love

Final Day of Summer

Deb and Phil came to visit during our final days of summer vacation. We packed in a few days with riding lessons and softball and then did some fun Arkansas things! 

Saturday we headed to Eureka Springs for the day. My children were introduced to a new culture....the over-served biker! It was an interesting place to walk around. Some of the buildings are really pretty and there are lots of cute shops. I will say it was better for the girls than for the 4 year old boy. There wasn't much there he had interest in and pushing the stroller through old, broken, crowded sidewalks was interesting. We always love to see new places and experience what is around us, so I am glad we went.

We stopped on the way up at Thorn Crown Chapel. It is stunning!!! They were just beginning a wedding in a few hours. If you are a Duggar fan, this is where Ben proposed to Jessa. It is breathtaking to see, but again, it is VERY quiet and there isn't really anything to do  past looking at it for a second, so if you have a carload of kids, it might not be your first choice. :)

It was Christian Family night at the Arkansas, Naturals game. There was a concert beforehand and then the game. Foster Families could go for free. We had fun!

We watched a little bit of baseball, rode the train, played on the playground, ate some snacks and then headed home for bed.

I had to post this to remember this summer of Gracyn and the bugs. This girl has had a bug in her hand most of the summer. She carries them around for hours at a time....sometimes even in to the ice cream shop!

First Day of School

Happy 13th Anniversary

Sometimes my children amaze me. At times, it can be tempting to miss those sweet baby days, and then I stop and think about the amazing little people they are becoming and I LOVE it. The girls knew that we had our anniversary in Ohio, but didn't really get to celebrate much. The Little Guy can only be left with a babysitter in our home and is required to be with Tommy or I every second when we travel. We were fine with that, every season is different, but those girls had big plans!!!

The first full day we were home Addison was asking me lots of questions about the dinner I had in the crock-pot and they were asking if they could make a dessert. I finally figured out they were planning something. They pulled off a candle light dinner, they fixed up and served along with dancing and clean up after.

They worked quietly all day. They made the menu, decorated the table, prepared the dessert and side items for the dinner I had started and even called Tommy and told him to bring home flowers. They planned "fancy" outfits for each of us. When Tommy arrived home from work, they took him upstairs to get him ready and Addison took me to my room to put on a dress and she fixed my hair and make-up (no matter I hadn't even showered on this particular day!!).

They worked so hard to make dinner "peaceful" and "quiet" for us. Addison was especially concerned with keeping everything going and reminded the Little Guy 100 times not to ask us for anything. :)

We shared our wedding album with him and spent some time talking about what marriage and anniversaries mean. We danced, we laughed and we just soaked up  the royal treatment from our children. I love their hearts to make our day special. We pray that they learn now how important marriage is and that we do our very best to provide them a good example.

O-HI-O

We made a summer trip to Ohio and had the BEST time. It was hard to imagine that it had been 1 year since we had seen most of our friends. We caught back up instantly. The girls were delighted to see their friends and the Little Guy was thrilled that there were boy friends with boy toys!!! Here are some highlights!
~The Bowles new backyard forest with rope swings and a creek.
~Spontaneous BBQ's in the Janzen's backyard, just like old times.
~Fishing and riding big wheels at the Sphires house.
~Leaving the Dad's with all the kids while we Mamas headed to Melting Pot.
~Both girls lost teeth, by tying dental floss to their tooth and a big pillow, then throwing the pillow off the Sphire's balcony. It works!!! The only hard part was finding the teeth.
~The girls had sleepovers with different friends every night.
~Tommy and I celebrated our 13 year anniversary! We celebrated with a 30 minute trip to the outlet mall with Little Guy in tow. We shopped in a hurry, because he wasn't feeling well and was starting to run a fever. We didn't have a stroller and he is like a small linebacker. 30 minutes was pretty much as long as we could carry him.
~Swimming at our old neighborhood pool.
~Gracyn choked on a cheesestick at a restaurant on the way down, couldn't breathe or make a sound and had to be heimliched.
~Addison choked on cheese pizza in a restaurant the next night and had to be heimliched. Hopefully we never have to do that again!!
~The little guy threw up in the car on the way home. Doesn't even phase us anymore. We had a bag ready, pulled over to throw it away and kept going.
~Addison got to take a lesson with Chloe at her riding school.
~Reagan and Gracyn got to go to an art class with Olivia.
~Watching the Little Guy learn what a basement is. It was extra fun because the basement he discovered is one big playroom for 3 boys.
~5 days of non-stop fun with precious friends!!!