Life with my sister

I'm pretty sure I've written a post to moms of young children before, but here is another one.  Stephen, the kids and I went to Little Rock to run a couple of errands Saturday night and stopped at a burger joint. (Shout out to David's Burgers, yummy!)  A young family came in. The parents were so cute and the kids were too. They were dressed in all the right clothes and would have made the perfect picture. Things were going great for them until they needed the little girl to sit in the high chair. She wasn't a year old yet, but she could show her will! She arched her back and screamed. The mom pushed from the top, the dad pulled on her legs. (You've been there right?) and she didn't go anywhere. And she let all of us know it.  Her brothers were either covering their ears or wearing earbuds playing video games. And their parents  were working as a team but not showing themselves to be successful.  I was laughing. As I sat with my 15 yr old, twin 12 yr olds, and 9 ...

I know you probably think I'm talking about my kids, but I'm talking about myself. I spend way too much time looking at a screen. Mom and Abby griped at me for the longest about how much time I spent looking at my phone. It was true. I checked Facebook, twitter, and my favorite blogs on my phone. Always. Now I have an iPad, phone and my Kindle. And I think I've made it clear here that I'm obsessed with tv. It seems like I'm always checking Facebook or twitter or reading, pinning something on Pinterest, or just surfing the web all while the tv is on.  It's crazy. And what's crazier is that all six of us are this way. When we didn't have satellite we would all sit in the living room on our electronic devices doing our own thing. As strange it sounds, getting satellite actually helped us all focus on the same thing! But it's still a screen!  As I was sitting outside this evening, while the kids played in the pool I wanted so badly to watch tv, or check ...

For five summers we had a pool in our back yard. We started off with the smallest blue inflatable ring pool and as the boys grew the size of our pools grew too. In the five years, we had three pools and loved them. We swam morning, noon, and night. Many memories were made in those pools. It's where all our boys learned to swim. We moved and joined our neighborhood pool that we could see from our backyard. That was wonderful. But we couldn't swim anytime we wanted. Last year was our first summer in Pine Bluff and we joined a pool. It was fun, but there were daycare kids there everyday and again we couldn't swim anytime we wanted to. So this year I lobbied for a pool. I lobbied hard. I mean I could get a job in Washington, I was that good. I started early and kept on. Stephen knew that even though I said I would do all the work of cleaning it and keeping it up he would be the one to do the work. It took him a while to finally give in, but he did and we couldn't be more ex...

I was thinking today that we didn't mention our grandfathers this weekend. And we had/have awesome ones! Papaw is mom's dad. Unfortunately Abby, Sarah and Zach have very few memories of him because they were so young when he died, but I was 13 and have a ton of memories. Papaw was a loving, sweet man. When I look at pictures of him he looks kind of gruff and hard, and he might have been to some, but I remember having fun with him. Laughing and playing, and having to be quiet when golf was on. Ha! He was a good man, I'm proud to have known him and to have been loved by him. Grandaddy is day's dad. As you know daddy's family adopted me a their own, and Grandaddy led the pack! I always knew he loved me. I enjoyed spending time with him during the week in the summers Abby and I spent with them. He was a preacher and I know he would have loved me being a preachers' wife! Abby called him Peepaw, or Peeps. He loved that name more than anything. Uncle David is Mamaw...

Our dad is a barrel of laughs. If you have ever met him, you know this. He can turn the stickiest, stressful, and even saddest situations into something funny. He taught us both the love of laughter and we both picked up this funny little trait. We laugh...even when it just ain't right to do so! We can embarrass our spouses, our friends and even our extended family. Some don't know how to take us and avoid our outbursts, but we can't help it. We like to laugh. We come by it honest and it cold be worse...just sayin!  While growing up he would embarrass the fool out of us and he took great pride in doing so. It taught us great humility, for sure, and helped us realize that nothing is above us or beneath us. We can master any situation we are put into. Nothing is too bad for a little sunshine on the face. Laughter is a language we all share. It is also a great coping mechanism. As adult women, we look back and laugh at all...

Its Father's Day weekend. I am fortunate to have two men to celebrate on this day. One gave me life, the other gave me a life. Daddy married Mom when I was just 3 years old, and took me in as if I was his very own. He didn't have to. He could have been a step-father who I shared a home with. But he wasn't. He was my daddy. He gave me his name, his family, and his love. He never treated me as anything other than his daughter. Happy Fathers Day Daddy, I love you so very much!! Thank you for loving me too.

I love to read blogs. Each morning after I read my Bible, check Facebook and twitter I read all my favorite blogs. And then I see what our breakfast choices are and begin the day.  My favorite blogs are mostly mom blogs. You know, Kelly, Bigmama, Boomama, Lots of Scotts, etc. I mostly agree with their lifestyles, we seem to have the same beliefs, and moral compass. I also read a couple of preacher blogs and preachers wives blogs.( I mean I write for our state one it's the least I can do!) But once again, the writers have the same worldview as me. Yesterday I clicked on a couple of links of blogs mentioned by people I follow on Twitter. And I have been struggling ever since. Both bloggers called themselves Christians and I know they go to church and serve God there. They are wildly popular bloggers and have a great following. But what struck me was their lifestyles.  They didn't seem to be living any differently than non Christians I know. And one was beating up the local churc...

This is what is happening at the Beavers' house this Friday evening. ...David says he feels like he has mono again. Sad to say, he kind of looks like it too. ...Anna's throat is very sore and she seems to loose her voice from time to time. ...Samuel has been gone to church camp since Monday and I've forgotten what his voice sounds like. ...Daniel is here and seems to feel good. For now anyway. ...Stephen got new hours at work. He doesn't have to go in as early anymore, I'll enjoy that! The alarm at 5:00 was not my friend. ...I was fitted for a bra today and am pretty sure the 18 yr old me would have never ever believed the size I bought today. ...We ate at Chuy's tonight. I've been wanting to since they opened a few weeks ago. It was really good, but the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is really hot! ...Once again the Southern Baptist Convention has loved on this church planter family. For those of you that tithe to Southern Baptist churches, Thank You! ...I love bl...

  Henry and I went to Walmart to get a birthday gift for Charlie Kate's birthday. I figured he would be resistant to the girl aisle and it would be a tough shopping trip, but I was wrong. He told me he wanted to get her a Barbie because "She likes Barbies, Mama, because she's a girl!"     Yay for "Chardie Cake's" birthday party! Henry was so excited to take her the Disney Barbie and play. They now live in Benton. At about North Little Rock he sighs and says, "Chardie Cake's house is far, far away!". It was cute. He can say Charlie Kate but I am a bad mom and don't correct him because I like how he says it. I will correct him at some point. Paige had the ice cream truck come to her party. They drove up playing the Happy  Birthday song. It was so fun. Henry had never seen one in person, so it was big stuff! He walked right up and yelled, "I want the turtle one. THE TURTLE ONE!" It was so funny and made me laug...

Our little family started a strawberry picking tradition last year. We have a love/hate relationship with making traditions. We swear we are not going to not do it, and then here we are with too many to count! Henry loved it this year. He would have picked the whole farm if he could have! We bought 2 $12 buckets and filled those up to the rim. It was a nice day and the berries were very pretty and easy to pick. Last year we had to walk around a lot to find good ones. This time it was plentiful. I loved this photo of Randall and Henry's hands. Henry wants to be just like his daddy and I think that is the finest thing he could ever want to be. When God blessed me with a husband, I never dreamed he would be the best daddy a mama could ever ask for! Summer is in full swing. We have already started our cookouts and started spray-n-washing Henry's clothes like crazy. I love summer and all it stands for. It may get hot, but the memories are always in abundance. Bring...

"I am not so sure about this Preschool thing, are you?!"   This is from Henry's first day of Preschool 1 at FUMC last year. He has been at this school since he was an infant, but moving to preschool was a big step. A new hall, a new agenda, a new schedule, etc. He was not ready last year but adjusted quickly. I loved this photo sooooo much.   And here we are ready to go to Preschool 2. Last year he reported to class in an Elmo diaper and this year a fabulous new pair of Batman undies. The boy is a man now, I tell ya! He rules his school. I love seeing him grow up and learn so much, yet sometimes I really miss that baby leg fat and those thick, chubby feet that were still smelled good enough to kiss. He now asks if he can snuggle me and grabs me like a grown man and pets my hair while he has me in a tight headlock full of snuggle love. My sweet Henry is soaring into this world way too fast! What a precious gift it is.   Abby

Memorial Day weekend we headed to the Redbirds game in Memphis for a little all American fun and fireworks. We just needed apple pie to make it complete. We ate BBQ nachos, hot dogs, popcorn and ice cold Coke. It was truly authentic business at the ballpark. We love doing things with these cute people. We all loaded up in Randall's truck and headed to Memphis together. Emily's boys are WAY nicer about a photo than mine. My guys try their best to bomb each one they can. I still love them though.  Quinn and Henry were wearing matching ball caps with their daddy's. It was not intentional so it made it even extra cute. A little lineman and a little seed specialist in the making. I may have to put this one on my memo board in my kitchen this summer. I just adore it. While traveling to the game I realized it was our year anniversary. We first socialized with them on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend last year. The boys pretty much made fun of us, but we were pretty e...