Trip To Alabama

Here are some pictures of our recent trip to Alabama. We had such a fun time visiting and trying to surprise everyone. We wanted to surprise my mom, but it is such a small town that she found out before we got there. Oh well we had a blast anyway.

Bill Bill Update: My granddad will have surgery, on five arteries, and a leaking mitral valve on March 8th. I ask for continued prayers as he goes through this surgery.

Dinner with Friends

Last night we were able to have dinner with some old college friends. Stephanie was in town with her husband Scott, and a group of us got together for dinner. It was also Stephanie's birthday! We has so much fun, and we look forward to Stephanie and Scott moving back to NWA this summer.
Mauree and Nate:
John, Jennifer, Christy:

Stephanie and Scott:

Rise And Shine Kindergarten Program

Last week Taylor’s class hosted the Rise and Shine program at his school. His whole class got up on stage and sang and spoke in front of the whole school. I was very proud of my Taylor man. We had practiced his lanes for two weeks and he knew them backwards and forwards. He has been telling me for two weeks that he was nervous. (For those of you who don’t know he does not like to get up in front of people in public settings.) He got up on that stage and stepped up to the microphone and got ready to speak, and then he took a step back. His teacher tried to coach him though his lines and he said “I know what to say, but I am scared.” He was so precious, he eventually got them all out and was very proud of his self. His Daddy and I were very proud of him!

Taylor's Biggest Fan: Lucy:

Bill Bill Update

I am actually looking at the most adorable thing I have ever seen in my life, right this minute. I have been here in Alabama with my family this weekend celebrating my Bill Bill’s 80th Birthday. On Saturday Mary, Emily, Taylor and I snuck down here (on our $118 round trip plane tickets!) to surprise our family and to have some good old fashion time with our grandparents. So back to what I am looking at (at 5:00 am) is my Bill Bill trying to catch some sleep in his tall back chair, while wearing his with Long John’s. Cute I tell you – I don’t dare take a picture but this is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.

I love my all of my grandparents so very much, but my Bill Bill has always had a way of making me feel so very special. And right now I feel helpless, for he is so sick and down in his health. On Wednesday he will go in and talk to the heart surgeon that will potently do his surgery this week. Last week he had a Heart Cath, and the results were not what we wanted to hear. All 5 of his major arteries are blocked, and his mitral valve has a very bad leak. He is looking at having to have some major surgery in order to get all this repaired, and he is very scared. He is not sleeping at night, and he can’t sit still. He tears up all the time, and I tell you there is nothing heard than seeing someone who has been a rock in your life tear up.

We could certainly use continued prayers right now as we face this upcoming week. Prayers including: that the doctors can fix Bill Bill’s heart, and huge prayers that would help him and my grandmother find peace and the ability to calm their nerves through this experience.

I don’t think I have ever shared how Bill Bill got his grandfather name with my blog. As tradition would have it the first grandchild always gets the rights to name the grandparents. Well in this case my cousin Travis was about a year old, and he was over at my grandparents house, and Memaw (my grandmother) was trying to get my granddad’s attention. She said “Bill”, and he did not respond, so she said “Bill” again (he has always been really hard of hearing). And for then on out Travis has always called him Bill Bill.

A special thank you goes to my wonderful husband Ryan. Over the past three weeks I have been in Arizona, Colorado, and now Alabama. And on Friday I will be back in Colorado. Ryan does such a phenomenal job with the kids while I am traveling, but I know what a hard time it is to be a “single parent” for a few days.

Prayer Request

Dear Friends and Family-
I have a prayer request that I would like to share with you. My Bill Bill (aka - Grandfather – my mom’s dad) is likely to undergo some sort of open heart surgery tomorrow or Thursday. He has been very weak and the doctors have determined that he has a leaking valve in his heart, so they will likely go in and try to fix it sometime this week. His last surgery which was about 2-3 months ago was very hard on his body, but we all know that he is a fighter and he will make it out of this just fine. My Bill Bill is very special to me and my prayer is that we can celebrate his 80th Birthday on Saturday!

If you would please say a special prayer for him today and tomorrow while he is in surgery. Thank you and much love, Laura

Lent

Thank you Jesus for all that you sacrificed for each one of us. I am committed this year to give up something very special to me for Lent. I am debating between Chocolate and Coffee. Both are staples in my everyday life. Where these are not nearly the sacrifice that you gave to me, I want to show you that I too can sacrifice for you.


I am writing this down so that hopefully my friends and family will one help me decide what to give up. And two warn my friends that I will be giving up something that is very important to me, so watch out I may be cranky.

Dinner Celebration

Tonight we got to celebrate a new milestone in Ryan’s career at Wal-Mart and we are all very happy for him!!!

Valentine’s Day Celebration

We had such a wonderful Valentine’s Day with our children!!! I actually love Valentine’s Day – mostly the colors (light pink, hot pink, and red) that are associated with the “made up holiday.”

Taylor’s Valentines Day Party

Young Love:

My little valentine:

Taylor's teacher Ms. Eubanks (on left), and Amy (on right).

Amy and I are co-homeroom moms together, and we get to plan all of the kids parties.

Preston’s Birthday Party

A couple weeks ago Taylor was invited to his friend Preston’s birthday party. Preston and Taylor are both in Kindergarten together, but in different classes. I love that Taylor is making so many great friends in school.

Emma Grace and I just tagged along:

Play Date with Evan

Today we had a play date with Taylor’s buddy Even from school. These boys had a blast playing Wii, and playing Wii, and playing more Wii. Ryan and I tried to be the really cool parents and we talked Uncle Aaron into coming over in his police car so that the boys could clime around in it, but guess what the boys did not want anything to do with Uncle Aaron or his police car. Then we thought we could bake cookies, but when it came time to eat them the boys did not want anything to do with them either. Emma loved them though! Oh well I guess the boys just really enjoyed the Wii!

Too Sweet Sisters

As many of you know my sister Mary and I have been experimenting with these wonderful little desserts that we call "Cakelettes". What you might not know is we have formed a business called "Too Sweet Sisters, LLC" and we are working to broaden our customer base. Today, February 13th from 10:00-2:00 we had our very first demo at the Bentonville Butcher, and it went great!!! We were supposed to be there for 4 hours, but after an hour and a half we had already sold 200 of our Cakelettes!! It was such an exciting day for Mary and me.

I am so sorry to all of you that showed up after we had already wrapped up. We will let you know when we do our next demo and we will plan on bringing a whole lot more Cakelettes next time. Thank you Emily for all of your help and for all of the pictures that you took today.

Dick and Jane is Done Baby

Lately all Taylor wants to do is play his Star War’s Wii game. So in order to sprinkle in some fun learning in with our video playing Ryan and I challenged Taylor to read his 400 page Dick and Jane book. We told him we would buy him the game of his choice for this Wii. Well Taylor finished his book yesterday, one week before his deadline!!! Taylor we are so proud of you, and how very smart you are. You and daddy went to Wal-Mart today and you picked out the Indiana Jones Wii Game.

Two funny things:

- If I ever hear another Dick and Jane story I will poke my own eyeballs out.

- Taylor is so very frugal. He has all kinds of money and gift cards saved up (in his wallet fund), and he refused to buy anything with it. He has enough money saved up that he could buy several of his own games but he will not do it. This is why Ryan and I choose to bribe him with a video game, well that and we thought we would shoot ourselves in the foot if we had to watch anymore Star War’s Wii! We really are so very proud of you Taylor. For you know that you are supposed to give your money to the church, or put it in your collage savings.

Valentine’s Day Cookies with the Kids

Yesterday the kids and I spent the day making Valentine’s Day cookies. Which I must say turned our really well. They tasted great and they look great! I have never been successful with both before, so I am including this recipe that is was in this month’s issue of Southern Living (see below).

Lemon Butter Cookies:
Yield: Makes about 4 dozen (2 1/4-inch) or 2 dozen (3 1/4-inch) cookies
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup powdered sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Parchment paper

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 325°. Beat butter and zest at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well.

2. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Shape dough into a disc.

3. Roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut with a 2 1/4- or 3 1/4-inch heart-shaped cutter; place 1/2 inch apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. If desired, cut 1 or 2 holes at top of each cookie (to hang or thread ribbon through after baking).

4. Bake at 325° for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; cool completely (about 20 minutes). Decorate as desired with Royal Icing and Colorful Glaze.

Royal Icing:
3 Cups powdered sugar
¼ cup water
food coloring

Mix together

Award – WhiteWave Sales Meeting Fall 2009

Last fall I received an award at our National Sales Meeting regarding some work that I had done, and saving that I had identified and worked to capture for our company. I was not able to make it to the National Sales Meeting, due to a Supply Chain Conference that I was attending, so Kellie (my boss) captured part of the announcement on her phone camcorder. Just last week she showed it to me, so I wanted to save it her so I would always have it to remember. I was really honored to receive this award because there are only six of them that are handed out each year, and last year I was one of the recipients!!!