Yo Mama, My Mama

 

Mama visited both of us this Mother's Day weekend. She started at Julie's house on Friday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. I love this picture of them. My big mama and my little mama. Being eight years older, Julie is truly my little mama. She learned from the best.

Mama and Julie's crew (minus Samuel who was on a youth trip) ate catfish and had a big time. I love my sister and the example she sets for me as a mother. She is one of the best.

Mama arrived at our house Saturday evening. We had fun playing in the backyard. Henry showed her all his tricks and toys. She was excited to be able to watch him in action.

Mother's Day is so fun with a little one. His daddy has trained him for 3 days to be nice on Sunday, to not tell me what they bought me and to say "Happy Mother's Day" on Sunday morning. He has tried his best, bless his heart. It is hard being 3 and being a mother of a 3 year old is not an easy assignment either. I love the challenge though.

Spending this sweet day with my mama is a nice little gift. I have not spent Mother's Day with her since I was pregnant four years ago. It was time to celebrate with her in the flesh. I love this woman!

Friday night Randall, H and I headed to the mother-in-love's to celebrate with her. I thank God for the love she has shown my husband, my son and myself and I always appreciate her sweet smile.

Henry was so excited to give me my gift. He got me rubber duckie soap that smells like Kool-aid, the perfect plate for my kitchen and he planted some seeds of some sort. He even signed his card himself. I loved it so much. Randall said it is a $7 bar of duck soap. I just laughed. Only Henry, only Henry!

I had to share this little funny. Julie greeted Mama at her house with her favorite drink and then ragged me about it on Facebook.We love to battle back and forth on things like this. So, I decided to try and one up her with a lemon chiffon pie that Mama loves, but it is very hard to make.

 

I thought my chiffon was pretty fine looking and like to think I won the contest.  I failed to tell Julie that I had rind in my chiffon and it is pretty bitter to taste. I also failed to tell her I had to use 12 egg whites to get 5 to peak to stiffness for the chiffon. I also failed to tell Her Henry was asleep in the den and I had to beat the egg whites in the bathroom in order not to wake him up. Honestly, she won with the Perrier, but I won the A for effort...and I will never make that pie again. Mark my words. Oh, the things we do for our Mother!

 

 

Abby

Bluff City Business

Last week I was in Memphis quite a bit and I loved every minute of it! I was able to eat lunch with Sassy (Mrs. Carolyn) and laugh. That is what we do best...laugh. She is me in 30 years, if I am lucky enough! We are twins in a lot of ways and I love that woman. She teaches me to just be me and laugh through life because when it is all said and done, "who gives a hairy rat!" The visits are never long enough, yet I cherish every little laugh we can share together when we get the chance.

I was in Memphis all by myself for 24 hours. It was very unusual and wonderful! I failed to take photos of all I did there, but when Henry is not with me I tend to forget about my camera. I stayed with my Aunt Babs and Uncle Joe the night before I took my real estate exam. I got there early in the day to eat with Sassy and then I was able to go pick up Claire from school and attend her AAU game with the fam. Hollye, Claire and I then went to eat dinner. It filled my love tank and made my heart happy. My Aunt Babs and Uncle Joe reassured my confidence before my test and I aced that sucker! I then met my sweet daddy in north Mississippi for lunch to celebrate the passing of my exam before heading back to Arkansas to retrieve my wild child from my mother-in-love...who is always on-call to stop everything and keep that fine boy for me. It was a fabulous 24 hours!

This above photo is daddy and me after my exam in the Arby's parking lot. Arby's. He chose Arby's. He said he loved their french dip but he ordered a Reuben. I am still confused, but I was happy to eat anywhere because I was starving and who gave a hairy rat at that point! I love an Arby's  roast beef though, I cannot lie. I would eat anywhere with that old mine of mine. I am blessed to have him.

Over the weekend we three went back to Memphis to see our cousins from Wisconsin. My Meemaw and her sister Grace each had a girl first and then each had a boy. Barbara, Bob, Dick and Nancy try to see each other at least once a year. They grew up in Wisconsin and daddy and Babs grew up in the Delta. They have always been very close, despite the miles. I had not seen them in about five years so we made a point to head over and see them this time.

All of the bedtime stories my daddy would tell me when I was little referred to playing on the family farm in Mississippi with cousin Dicky from Wisconsin. When I see these two maturing men all I can picture are those stories I was told over, over about two little city slickers causing trouble on the farm. It still makes me laugh after all these years. I love that we laugh...alot.

Cousin Nancy and Henry bonded. He calls her "Pancy" and I have not corrected him because watching him say it is just too precious. They ran around the house chasing each other until they got in trouble and had to stop. Nancy also beat me at basketball, but I am short, so I figured as much. She is a lot of fun and I wish we could see her more. It was great to visit and introduce Henry to she and Dick. I am certain he made a lasting impression!

Claire gets exicted about Henry and enjoys entertaining him. I love and enjoy it too. She has taken a babysitting certification class so I just say she is better fit then me in the safety department so I just let her have him when I am over there and I just sit inside and drink a cold can of Diet Coke!  I did venture out once or twice and I took this photo of him rebounding her shot. He would yell "I got it" each time. He was a sweaty mess afterwards, but he had so much fun.

This week we are back to a new normal at our house. I loved my week last week and the change of pace, yet so excited to be on track again. I am now waiting on my real estate license to come in the mail so I can get to work. I am all set up at Remax and reporting in everyday, getting acquainted with everything and everyone. All we are waiting on is the license so I can run on out and sell, sell, sell!

Abby

Agent Abby

 

If you live in the state of Arkansas, that agent would be me! I passed my test this morning and the feeling of accomplishment when they told me I passed was almost parallel with earning my college degree, without the pomp and circumstance. That sucker was challenging! For 6 weeks I took an online course, teaching it to myself and then today I took the exam in Memphis.  I am excited about this new adventure and SO glad the endless studying has resulted in a happy ending/beginning!

 

Abby

The Stings Of Love

Henry loves his Hollye. I think he thinks she is mine and Juju's sister, and I am totally cool with that! Henry had so much fun eating ice cream and shopping the dollar bins at Target in Memphis with her, while Randall and I had our pre-cancer spots frozen off at the dermatologist. A little annual event at our house. Fun times. Henry loved it, so that made our stings and ouchies bearable.

We met up with them at Target. Henry was entertaining everyone and had Hollye in stitches. He is truly a funny guy and runs his mouth nonstop (Hollye said she wonders where he gets it?! ha). He scored these blue sunglasses and put them on upside down and performed "chicken, airplane, soldier" in the entrance to Target. I love the laughter he provokes in all of us.

Before we headed back over the bridge to go home we stopped at our favorite BBQ joint for a late lunch/early supper. The Commissary is the "bomb-dot-com" and the banana pudding is not too shabby, as you can tell in the above photo. I love the flexability of these days and the memories we are making in the stings and dollar bins of life.

Abby

Anna's 9th birthday

After about 15 days of Anna waking up each morning with a countdown of how many days until her birthday, the day finally came.

When she woke up on Saturday as precious as I've ever seen her. She came into my room with a sweet smile on her face, so excited about being 9!

We all ate donuts for breakfast and watched as she opened her presents. She was so cute! We then headed to Beebe for Awana games. She enjoyed being with her friends so much. She didn't have a party this year because we were busy with other things, but she managed to have a pretty great day.

As our tradition holds, she chose where we ate dinner Saturday night. She first chose El Chico and then switched to Outback. We were all very pleased! However, I have a deep deep love for El Chico so that would have been terrific too.

Happy Birthday Anna, we love you so very much!

Julie

A Little Spring Fling

I love the weekends in the spring. They are usually really random for us, not knowing if Randall will be planting or  be at home. It all depends on the weather and lately we all know what that has been like, so he happened to be home all weekend. We all enjoyed going to an opera about Noah's Ark on Friday night at  First Methodist (this is where Henry goes to school).  We then had friends over Saturday night. We love our church and the friends we have made. We grilled burgers and I made a fruit pizza. I must share that recipe sometime. I was left with a clean pan after supper. It was wonderful and super easy!

Sunday after church we headed to the Little Rock Zoo. We had never visited that zoo. Randall and I grew up going to the Memphis Zoo and that is the only one we have ever visited. We decided to branch out and take Henry. We loved it. It has just enough animals, more compact and easy to walk with a 3 year old and a stroller.

Henry was so cute admiring the zebras. Just like his mama! I love a zebra, you know. Henry wants to be just like his daddy. Hat, glasses and all! I love it more than words. If there was ever a man to be like, his daddy is the man. God give me a keeper of a man!

Henry has an inflatable pink flamingo "mink a mingo" from Bible school last year. He has beat it to death and it no longer holds air. He saw real live ones and he was most excited. He was talking about them in this photo...always talking, just like his mama!

 

Henry and I went to ride the train and Randall headed to get a funnel cake. He came back with some cotton candy for Henry. He had never tasted it and Randall wanted to introduce him to it. He loved it, of course. I just snickered thinking about my Peep trying to find me cotton candy at the arena where Jerry Clower was performing when I was little. He missed the whole first half trying to find me pink cotton candy. I loved that man and hope Jerry has performed the first half for him in Glory!

The zoo trip ended with a little photo in a cowboy hat, on a red tractor, in a field of corn. It gets no better than that, I say!

That speck of black is me in front of our state capitol. I have lived in Arkansas my whole life (except for about 6 years when I lived in Oklahoma while in college and in Tennessee and Mississippi after we married) and I have never seen it except from the interstate. Isn't that sad?! Randall insisted I see it and he take my photo in front of it. It was funny stuff.

We left Little Rock and headed to see Randall's grandmother at the nursing home and then we stopped and ate at the Bulldog. Henry and Randall are big fans of shrimp night and it is strawberry shortcake season, so we all scored big. If you are in Bald Knob during the spring, you must stop and get a shortcake and Sunday night is always fried shrimp night.

Now we are into another week of planting, swimming, and preparing for new things around here this spring. I look forward to what this next weekend might bring our way...you just never know around here!

Abby

Bring on Birthday Week!

In honor of birthday week for Anna, David and Daniel, I pulled up some old digital files on my computer. I found this one with Claire in it. It was at my house in Byhalia. They all spent the night with me and we made every large mess known to man. It was a fabulous time and such a precious memory.

So, now on to sweet birthday memories with my favorite niece and favorite twins. I have not missed many of their birthdays. I have several pages in a scrapbook of birthdays, pre-digital days, so these are all I have on my computer. They are too cute for words!

 

Anna loved ducks at this age. I believe it was age 3. Henry's age now. Hard to believe. I made her birthday hat and the hats for all her little friends. It was such a heavy little hat. I have no idea how she held it on her sweet little head. I miss that chubby little face!

I belive this was age 7 for David and Daniel. I made this cake. Yes, I did. I have no idea how I ever did it, but I did. I rock. I am the best aunt EVER! They had a Blue Angels party and asked for this cake. I think I laughed in disbelief, but I made it happen. Mama helped me alot with it, so I have to make sure she gets SOME credit! I put sparkler candles in the back for the exhaust flames but the wind was so bad that we could not get them to light. It looked cool though and they looked super cute in the t-shirts I bought them for their birthdays.

Oh, the little princess of the family. She requested this cake for her 4th birthday. It was fun to make and super messy. I think Julie left Star City with pink sprinkles still in the grout. I hope she did anyway. (did I just type that...I did. Slap me!) The crown on top of the cake blinked purple and pink and Anna had a matching one for her little head. It was a fun little celebration for our little princess.

This was the year David requested a soccer cookie cake. This was also the year I was newly pregnant and had acid reflux like the devil! Oh, I was really tired too. I knew I had never had success with making a cookie cake so, I cheated and had Kroger make an undecorated cookie cake for me. I then decorated it so I would not have aunt guilt. I am not sure if he knows the truth yet!? This was the first time I had made two seperate cakes for them. They wanted different kinds of cakes and Julie thought they each deserved their own. Not a good year to start that trend, I say. Sweet little birthday boys.

This is what Daniel chose that year. A big orange 8. I thought it was the cutest and funniest request for a cake. He was so excited with it. I even colored the cake orange. I covered it with Skittles too. It was easy for me. 1 color and 2 rounds. Daniel is so funny. I love his little sense of humor.

Oh, the princess! Anna requested another princess cake for her 5th birthday. She had a spa party and the whole bit. I did a tiered cake for her in her favorite colors...pink and purple. She requested it be tierd, by the way. She is ALL girl and sassy as it comes. I love that girl. I was also newly pregnant at this time and prayed as I added more and more pink to that cake that God was making that baby in my belly a boy!

So, the 9th birthday rolled around and what did they do...they BOTH requested cookie cakes. I had a fussy infant at the time and just called Kroger to do the whole thing! ha. I asked the bakery to not put any stickers on the cookie trays so I could front like they were from my kitchen. I still am not sure if the boys know or not...?!

They had the cutest sports party at church. It got real messy. I loved it. It was Henry's first birthday party to ever attend. What a sweet little memory.

Can you tell I had an infant and traveled 3 hours with this cake? This 6 year old smiled just as big, thankfully. She asked for a pink cupcake cake. I produced it, but it may have been the saddest looking cupcake cake ever.

I thank God for these look alikes.  They were soaking in my tub with bubbles up to their ears. I love that the simple things make them smile.

I thank God for this little toot of a girl. This may be my most favorite picture of her. She was refusing a photo. I am so glad we have her in this sea of boys. She is the soft God knew we needed.

So, last year they came to my house to celebrate and I had one cake for all 3 of them. This year they are not coming, nor did they ask me to come. I think they are calling Kroger on their own now! I just love these children and I am so excited about another year to celebrate them and all the ways God is going to bless them in their new year.

Happy Birthday Week To You!!

Abby

Batman Boy

Riding home from school this week, while stopped at a stop light, Henry proclaims  with a huge smile on this face, in an excited tone and loud voice:

"I'm going to be Batman with my face when I grow up. I'm going to have a mask. See. Like this." (while making mask eyes with his hands)

I assured him he was already my little Batman because he in fact was wearing Batman underwear. He then tried his hardest to try to see the back of his underwear while buckled in his car seat. I love these little moments in the car with this sweet child of mine. Never a dull moment and always full of laughter.

He proclaimed this about an hour after the bombing in Boston. I thought of how many real life Batman's there were at that moment helping the hurting. So, when Henry says he is going to grow up and be Batman with his face, I truly believe he will. I pray that he will be a helper, a real life hero.

Henry of course has no idea what happened in Boston this week, but one day he will be aware of the unnecessary evil in this world. I hope he remembers to always be Batman with his face, mask or no mask. That little face is bound to do good, I just know it.

Abby

Lessons In Love

 

 "I want to get more trucks out, Mama...please?!" My house is dominated by toy trucks. I pulled only these out of the garage and he sat there and whined for the ones in the den, his bedroom closet and in his toy cabinet. Yes, he has that many spots in the house full of toys. It is pitiful, really. His face was priceless as he whined. I had to capture it, of course.
How can this not be enough? I guess we are all guilty of wanting more than what we have in certain areas. I cannot get too mad at him about it because I have the same problem sometimes. It is funny how our children teach us lessons. I could do without all the whining, but I am sure God feels the same way about me at times. Ouch!

I want to lock this image into my heart forever. Henry LOVES to push and race his dump trucks. This is his largest one and the most fun to push. He giggles and screams with each step. I love his excitement for the simple things. It also teaches me a lesson about slowing down and soaking up the little mundane things in life.

 Walmart. I dislike this place in a LARGE way. Henry LOVES it. His Daddy was gone planting and we were at home playing after supper. He begged to go to walmart. BEGGED. I knew I needed a few things so we loaded up and went. I am not one to jump out in the evening. I am like a hermit after supper. He wanted to wear his Daddy's "football game hat" and ride in the big side of the cart. He had big plans. I made sure it happened. He was happy...and I got the few things i needed. Sometimes it is fun to step out on the wild side (sad that this is wild...I live such crazy life, I tell ya!) and makes a fun memory. We then drove home the long way, per Henry's request.

This is growing in my flower bed. It is what we call the "Aunt Mitt" because it is from my mother's great-aunt's yard many moons ago. My Mawmaw has had this plant for years. She gave us a little bit of it about five years ago and here it is...still going strong at our house . I love the history of it and the love that comes with it.

Abby

Running Fun

 

 

 

We started our weekend with a little 5K Friday night in downtown Memphis. We decided to do it last minute and had a fun time. I love a night run, especially in the Bluff City. Good times, good times. The start line was on Beale and ended in front of Gibson Guitar and FedEx Forum. Henry liked running by the river the best. I was disappointed in my time but Randall reminded me that it was 7 minutes faster than the Elvis 5K last August. I was all grins then. The simple things, I tell ya.

 

 

I love these small people. These are Henry's Sunday School friends. We had extended session this week and they all wanted me to take their picture when they saw my camera in my purse. It thrills my heart to know they are learning to love Jesus together. What a blessing it is to go to church!

Henry loves working the puzzles at church but will hardly touch the ones we have at home. Children are so funny that way. I love this little face and all the smiles it brings me each day. We had a fun weekend and hope you did too!

Abby