Dinner and a movie..

Last night I called my cousin, Kristy at 5:00 pm to see if I could talk her into dinner and a movie. This was not an easy thing to do since Kristy normally goes to bed at 9pm. She is an elementary school art teacher and I think it takes all the rest she can get to deal with all the kids! I convinced her it was the end of the year and they were only half paying attention anyway so dinner and a movie was just what the principal ordered. I picked her up at 5:45 and we had a great dinner at Whole Hog Cafe and then we even had time to run into Hobby Lobby and check out the scrapbook items on sale. Nothing much this week so our wallets were safe!

Next we went to see "Baby Mama". That was a very cute movie. If you have ever wanted kids and not had them you understand her dilemma. Everything around turns into babies and children. I remember the year prior to getting engaged the "baby fever" hit me and it hit me BAD! I think my now hubby was afraid to call me between 2:00-3:00 pm every day. I would watch "The Baby Story" and cry and then watch "The Wedding Story" and get extremely angry! It was his fault I did not have a baby and definitely his fault I was not married! ha! Luckily for the both of us things worked out; the wedding and the baby were soon to follow and I have been so blessed since that time.

I think Kristy and I will have to make this a monthly event. I talked to her husband first so that softened the blow and he was already prepared for her to go out by the time she got home. That worked out well! :) Kristy and I have been so close every since we were little. She is the only cousin I have that is even close to me in age and we definitely have a lot of the same ideas on marriage and kids. This summer we both plan to catch up on our scrapbooking, which also means catching up on some much needed girl talk!

Hope you are having a great week. Today we are off to get a hair cut (Ethan told me he had "hair cut" on his calendar for today) and gymnastics.

Proud to be an American...

This has been such a wonderful weekend! Monday we went to Russellville to my friends house and we had a massive cookout! There was enough food there for at least four families. The "boys" smoked all sorts of different meats from pork loin to beef brisket we had it! I met Kelly at Conway Regional and we become fast friends. I just love her and her family. Her kids are so cute and the little one Griffin is so full of life! :) As I am sure you can tell from these pictures... We stayed in Russellville all day and left just a little too late to avoid the down pour of rain. This is what it looked like driving home.. I still managed to somehow fall asleep! That always amazes hubby how I can fall alseep while he is "white knuckle" driving. I told him that just shows my immense level of trust in him to get us home safely. Either that or I was really tired.

Of course with it being Memorial Day you can't help but pause and think and appreciate what our women and men in uniform do for our country. The fact that we are free to cook out and relax and enjoy the day is a true testament to what they have sacrificed. I am so honored to know men that have died protecting our country and thankfully I am blessed to know men like Derek that have protected our country and came back home safe. Thank you Derek!

My friend Jamie lost her brother, Donovan, fighting in Iraq and I know she is so proud of her brother. He gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Currently we have another friend, Collin, that was recently deployed to Iraq. So when you think about your freedom or see a veteran tell them "thanks", and remember the families of those that are currently fighting or those that have lost loved ones on duty for our freedom.

Memorial Day Weekend...

I am SO excited to be off this weekend. It has been a while since I have had a full weekend to just sit and relax.! and that is just what I did. Saturday hubby smoked some ribs and grilled hot dogs and we were going to have a picnic outside but then the rain came. We just moved everything under the carport and still ate outside and had a great time. The kids just love "picnicking".

Saturday afternoon we went to Riverfest and had a blast! We walked across the new "River Trail" bridge which is nice except for the massive narrow staircase on either end. There were way too many people on the bridge and the staircase was way too crowded. I always get nervous about my kids around such a crowd. They love Riverfest and look forward to it every year. I don't know if any of you have seen the "Jack Links" commercials for beef jerky but Ethan thinks that is the funniest bunch of commericals so he was thrilled to see the big "monkey" out at Riverfest! :)
Sunday we played outside and grilled again. This was our grillin' and chillin' weekend. The kids had been begging to go swimming and my parents finally got their pool open so off we went at 7pm at night. We tried to convince the kids it was going to be cold and they wouldn't last five minutes in the water, but no convincing the two of them. They jumped in the water and played and swam for TEN minutes! Not Five.. so Ethan was quick to tell us we were wrong.

Lastly, we went to watch the fireworks on Sunday night. We went up to the VA Hospital and watched them the rest of North Little Rock. What a great way to top off a great weekend.

Catching up...

Sometimes I get so busy I forget to blog about all the fun things we are doing. I have tried to be diligent about blogging but sometimes it falls through the cracks with everything else going on. I have a few pictures to share from some of the things that have been going on over the past two weeks.

First off and the best fun was a play date! YEAH! My kids LOVE being outdoors. They would stay outside from sun up to sun down if we let them. They just love going to the park and going with Maddy and Fletcher is the best! Ella Grace and Leigh Ann joined us today and Ethan just loved EG! He had the best time playing with her. He is so sweet to little kids. He likes the "big brother" role and takes it very seriously.

The weekend was filled with a lot of nothing which can be a blessing. We stayed around the house for the entire weekend! Lots of R&R.

Spring soccer came to an end and Ethan had his "end of season" party. He was asked to play summer league but I think we are going to take a break until fall. He needs a rest from being SO busy.

The rest of our week was filled with baseball and softball and my monthly pokeno game with the girls from Sunday School.

Do they offer a class on toy organization 101???

Between Ethan and Scarlett we have WAY too many toys in our small house. I have tried finding creative ways to organize the toys but no matter how you organize too many toys it is still too many toys. I have put them all in bins with pictures on the bins so the kids knew which toys went where.. that didn't work. I have tried just letting the bins overflow and be totally unorganized.. that didn't work. I have now decided to move toys over into the closet, along with bins under the bed and along the wall. The toy bins are all organized and each bin has a specific purpose (at least for a brief time) but it is still TOO MANY TOYS. I would LOVE to hear your organization ideas for your kids rooms. What kind of storage ideas you have for you kids things. This has all come about just prior to a weekend trip to The Container Store. I am hoping to figure out what I need to do and get it done this weekend. This is our current system after just being organized. I need to take pictures day three and let you see what is looks like after Scarlett has played and then put her "toys away". I am hoping that as soon as the playset outside is finished the kitchen and all the accessories will be moved to the fort area. That kitchen has been a wonderful toy and served as great entertainment for three years but I think it will be just as useful OUTSIDE. That would free up a lot of room. That whole wall is the kitchen and the big bin full of food and dishes. All of this and this is not the bins underneath the bed. How do you organize your toys? What ideas have you come up with that have helped your kids in putting their toys away? The pictures on the bins helped but they were often ignored.

Lastly, I am excited about THIS:
We can get our hair into pony tails! YEAH! This was our ponytails prior to Scarlett's self imposed hair massacre. :) So, even a small ponies have made me VERY happy! It makes summer time so much easier. Her hair is growing really fast but now I am torn between getting it cut off into a cute little style. I love the wedged bob haircuts and figured while it is still short I should try it and see if I like it on her. I think she really wants her hair long again so that is probably the route we will take. She still ask "when is my hair going to grow back!". I think she thought her haircut was not near as final as it was. I had to laugh to myself as I was cleaning her room and moved the big toy bin and against the wall I saw something golden and reached for; only to realize it was a strand of her hair from the night she cut it. I guess we missed it as we were trying to recover from the massacre! ha!

Hope you had a great day!

Ramblings..

This has been a SLOW couple of days. Monday we had our usual Monday night baseball game. Ethan is doing so well! I received the nicest email from one of his coaches, I was so proud of him I had to share a part of it. "Carey and I are both delighted with Ethan's play - he really has great hand-eye coordination and understands baseball so much more than most kids in that age group. And he is a real pleasure to have on the team...maybe the most coachable kid I've seen in the 4 years we have played at BPAA. " It feels so good as a mom to hear great things about your child. I am so happy that Ethan is enjoying the game but it is so nice that he is learning how to work as a team and how to get along with others and respect the adults. Emails like that just reaffirm that I am doing a few things right when it comes to my kids.

Tuesday was SLOW, too! :) We were going to pick strawberries with our friends Abby, Maddy and Fletcher but the orchard wasn't "picking" that day. I was disappointed, Ethan and Scarlett were so looking forward to going to the orchard. We are going to try again Friday, so I hope it works out this time. Instead of picking strawberries I cleaned house. Not my idea of fun. I had to find a organized place to put all of Scarlett's new toys. It is organized for now and looks neat.. but tomorrow that will be a whole different story.

Lastly we watched American Idol. I am so sad that it is coming to an end. We watch very little regular television but we are hooked on AI! I just LOVE David Cook! He is no Chris Daughtry..but he is pretty good. In honor of our final week of AI Scarlett sat down today and sang a little song for me.. you may recognize it. She was in quite the singing mood and acting SILLY! She has a natural flair for drama. :) Hope you have a great Wednesday.

Such Wonderful Times...

Scarlett's birthday party was this weekend and we had a blast! The weather held off.. THANK Goodness! It did rain for about 15 minutes just before the party but quickly stopped. Scarlett prayed a sweet little prayer and sang a little song about how God wouldn't let it rain since he could see everything and knew her friends were coming over to play. I was very glad it didn't rain, we had far more people coming to the party than our little house could hold so it HAD to be outside. :) My sweet friend Abby called to see if I had a "back up plan".. and of course I really didn't so I was growing very worried as the skies turned dark.


The kids played and played and had the best time. They all were dirty and probably tired by the time they left. Scarlett and her little friends were SO CUTE! It is so cute to me to see all the little girls playing. I have been so blessed to still be close to all my high school friends and then we all got so lucky as to have little girls around the same age. It is so much fun to watch them all play together.


My mother always makes the cakes and this year was no exception. We tried out the tiered look and I LOVED IT! My mother really gets into the whole party scene. She kinda takes over a lot of the duties and helps me SO MUCH. I am so grateful for her help. Mostly I am grateful for her cake making abilities. There is no telling how much money she has saved me over the years making cakes for me rather it was a shower, birthday party, or a "just because" cake. She is a wonderful baker and that gene was not passed on to me. Here is a picture of the cake. I thought it turned out really well.


Our playset was not finished but the kids never seemed to notice. They played and climbed on it all afternoon. There is not a lot of work left to be done, so I am guessing it will be finished this week. Ethan and Scarlett already have planned out all the things the playhouse will "be". It will be a pirate ship for boys and a restaraunt for girls.



It was a wonderful Saturday and Scarlett had the best birthday. I am so lucky to be blessed with such wonderful family and friends. By 8pm Scarlett was so showered and cleaned and ready for bed. She was so tired from all her fun. She told me before going to bed that she was "the happiest girl" and that was worth everything. Just seeing my kids happy is what it is all about!



So thanks to everybody that came and shared her birthday with us. She was the happiest! and that makes me the happiest mom.