Bentonville, AR Earthquake

I thought I would just go ahead and jot this down for my own reference. Yesterday there was an Earthquake (2.5) in little old Bentonville, AR. I did not feel it but Mary and Lucy did while they were at home. Can you believe that – there have been so many natural disasters and earthquakes lately that it really makes me worry. Not in a fictitious Armageddon type way, but in real environmental human impact type of way. I have to wonder are we humans the ones that are bringing these types of situations on ourselves?

Weekend fun with Family

Emma and Mommy at Bass Pro:
Emma Grace and the Bear ("roooooor", says Emma)

Precious Lawson

Little Britain

The three Musketeers:

Aaron, baby Lila, and Nene

Feeding the honkers, Emma Grace chasing after the big kids:

Taylor and Britain have the best time playing together. Britain is growing up to be such a beautiful little tom boy!

Have you ever seen such a beautiful little girl? (Ignore the snot)

Last Friday night our family packed up late in the evening (due to my business trip to Denver and not getting in until 9:00) and headed to Branson. We finally got on the road about 9:30, and it was so cute both the kids were asleep within 30 minutes into the drive, and Ryan and I got to talk the whole way there. It is not often that we get to have a lot of alone time! Once we got there we were met by Ryan’s mom, John, Sean, Britain, Lawson, Aaron, Audrey and Lila. It was so much fun; we always have so much fun spending time with family. It did rain most of the trip, and of course there was the tornado that went overhead while we were shopping at the outlet malls, but nonetheless we had a wonderful time!

Here are some pictures of our tip. We were able to detour to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, MO where we spent about 3 hours walking around with Sean, Lawson and Britain. It was a great time – the kids had a blast. Taylor just loves his cousins “Law Dog, and Brit!”

Havenwood Charity Event

My company has been working with a local non-profit organization "Havenwood" here in Bentonville, and this month our project was to help clean out and organize their storage clothing closet. Havenwood is a living facility to help single mothers get back on their feet and learn to live in society and provide for their children. It is such a great organization. This month we thought that we would do something special with their closet and make it into a boutique for the women to use as a community closet.

This is a before picture:



These are some after pictures:

During:

Sunday Night With Nene and Poppy

Last night we packed up and headed to Nene's and Poppy's to have dinner and spend sometime with their surprise visitor "Uncle Tom" (Char's brother). Tom called his sister Char on Thursday night and said "I am coming to visit you tomorrow (he lives in Montana) - hope you are at home." I thought this was so very sweet. I pray that one day Taylor loves his sister and will go visit her from time to time.

Char, with her grand babies and her brother Tom.
Lawson, Taylor, and Britain - these three play so hard when they are together, and I just love watching their little minds work.

Emma Grace and Little Lila. I am actually Lila's favorite Aunt and I love it. She kept putting her little arms up to me last night motioning for me to pick her up. It made me feel so very good!

Sunday with Family

We had such a fun time on Sunday evening; we made a huge pot of Gumbo (with fresh Lousiiana andouille sausage and crawfish), and a few of our favorite people came to play. I love this time of year with we can play outside and invite people over. Taylor has been begging for a play date with his cousins Lawson and Britain, so this was the perfect time for them to come over with Pop Roy!

Youth of our Church

On Sunday Taylor and all of his "Kids of the Kingdom" friends and "Choir Friends" lead our church service. They were so very sweet and my precious Taylor did such a great job singing and passing out communion. Taylor has debeloped such a comfort level with his youth teacher Ms. Sara, and our church. There are not too many places that Taylor will go up in front of hunderds of people, but he will at church and it makes his daddy and me very proud.

Taylor when you were little you loved to walk around the dinner table and pass out "God Bread." This was your homemade communion that you made everyone participate in. I love you little boy! You make my heart so very happy.

Ms. Sara took all the kids to McDonalds afterwards to celebrate such a successful year.




These two little girls are so very special because, one Taylor (the little girl sitting next to my Taylor) is Taylor's best friend at church. These two are so very sweet together. Two, these two little girls are twins and when Taylor was about 3 months old he modeled for the Wal-Mart circular with these two little ones. They were on the front page together! I will have to post that picture on our blog at some point.

Taylor’s Standardized Testing

I am so proud to report that my baby boy loved his first day of Standardized Testing today! His response to me this afternoon was "it was easy mom, I think I only missed one question." Taylor you are certainly you daddy's little boy - you are as smart as a whip and you love to learn.

Today you gave me a lecture on a "ball" that is actually a sphere and not a circle like I referred to it as when describing it to your sister. You told me that "if it had been a circle it would be a 2 dimensional figure and you would not have been able to touch it and hold it, but since you are able to hold a ball it has to be a 3 dimensional shape, which would make it a sphere." I lov eou little boy - you surprise me everyday with all that you know and how much you learn.

Easter Sunday

We had the best Easter weekend. G-Daddy was in town, and we had lunch with him, Nene, and Poppy!!!! The kids had so much fun hunting eggs and eating candy. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter!!!!

Everyone dressed in their church best. Thank you Lord for all that you have done for each and every one of us, what a gift you are!

Baton Rouge Part 3

Taylor, G-Daddy and me Canoeing on the lake in front of G-Daddy's condo:

Baton Rouge Part 2

Pretty Girl:

Emma Grace loves color:

Taylor loves to color with his Aunt Emily:

New Orleans street, so pretty:

Emma Grace and her Beignets from Cafe Du Mande

Emma Grace and Lucy - BFF

Pretty Pretty girl: