Quote of the Day

"The grass is greener where you water the grass."

Amen :)

An Arkansas Christmas

We drove through an ice storm in Fort Worth to make it to Arkansas Christmas Eve night. I was a nervous wreck, but we made it safely with a car packed full of luggage, presents, Blake and Benson (our dog).

We woke up Christmas morning with Nick's parents. Here is Blake opening her new Barbie car from Grammie.  


She  didn't waste one second before putting her new dress up clothes on. (And, yes, if you are wondering, her hair looks like this every morning and after EVERY nap!!!)




My favorite gift, a joint effort from Nick and his Mom.



Nick opening a model helicopter.

Christmas lunch we went to my Grandma's.
Here is little Nathan in all his sweetness...I could eat him up.


Blake got a new pair of roller skates!

We spent the day after Christmas with my Dad and the family. 2 years ago we had NO babies, this year there are three sweet little girls to play with!

Me and Charleigh Anne


Blake


Layla





Nana with Charleigh and Layla. I do believe Layla is a Nana's girl.

We spent the rest of our trip traveling from house to house.  Literally.  We didn't stay two nights in a row at the same place. 

Here are pics from the rest of our time with the Barkers.

These two girls LOVE to help their PaPaw cook.

A Grandmother's Love

I have an amazing Grandma. I hope I'm just like her someday.  She loves the Lord first and foremost.  She and my Grandpa spent their lives as owners of a sewing machine/vacuum store (since I was alive anyway) but their passion always was in mission work, specifically in Central America.  Since my Grandpa's passing a few years ago I've seen what it looks like to gracefully get back to a "new" life for her.  

This year she decided to make homemade quilts for every person/couple in our family.  A HUGE endeavor and a HUGE labor of love.  She presented these quilts to us on Christmas Day.  It was so special to get to spend Christmas lunch with her and watch everyone open their quilts (and handwritten letters) from Grandma.  

I wanted to brag a little and show off a few of the quilts here... I didn't get a picture of everyone's but here are the ones I did get.

Derek (my brother)



My cousin Ben and his family with Grandma.

Aunt Nita



Aunt Shelia

My Mom and Stepdad

These are only five, but if I'm counting right she made 10 quilts!  I really thought I did better than that at getting a picture of everyone's...

Our Texas Christmas

We had a Texas Christmas with our Texas family before we traveled home to Arkansas. We had a great night. The girls fed our neighbor's reindeer some reindeer food (i.e. oatmeal and glitter), we had a spaghetti dinner, openend presents, and cooked and decorated cookies. It was definately a FULL night of fun! Blake and Lexi are at the perfect age to be friends, they both get so excited to see each other.


Blake and Lexi feeding the reindeer, It was 70 degrees two days before Christmas and Lexi didn't feel like wearing pants.


Blake feeding the reindeer.


Opening presents, we got Lexi a "Blake and Lexi" snapfish book.





Making sugar cookies











Ready to decorate! This was the best part!







Blake thought Daddy could use a little color, too.









Blake enjoying the frosting! 

Around the house

This is how Blake dresses on any given day around the house....

Nick even let her go to preschool in her house slippers last week (EEEEK!)

Bounce House Fun!!

Last week Baus and I took the girls to a bounce house. They had a blast.
Here is Lexi JUPMING over and over!!




Baus helping Blake up the climbing wall.



Lexi needed no help! Such a big girl.


It's really hard to get a good shot of these two while they are having fun!


This is all the jumping I was allowed to do :( I did go down the slide, but that's about it. Thank goodness Baus has lots of energy!!

Blake Singing