Happy Father's Day!

I know I have said it before, but I have to say it again.....I am sooo blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is the most spectacular father to our boys. I am so thankful that our boys have such a wonderful Christian man to look up to as they grow up. I love Josh so much and watching him with Collin & Carter each day makes me love him even more!
We love you so much Josh! Happy Father's Day!

I also have to give a shout out to my father, Howard, as well. He has always been such a hard-working man on the dairy farm. He loves Courtney and I beyond measure and has spoiled us more than we ever deserved. We love him besides all that though. It's such a joy to watch him with our boys now and to see how much our boys enjoy spending time with him down at the creek, riding the tractor or riding the 4-wheeler.
I once saw a picture frame that said, "Great Dads Get Promoted to Grandpa".
That holds so true for my dad.
We love you!

And last, but definitely not least.....I thank God today not only for all our earthly fathers, but also for him being our Heavenly Father.
Thank you Lord for loving us and for the hope you give, knowing that you will always be there for us.
You also love us and spoil us more than we will ever deserve.
We love you Lord!

Carter's One Year Pictures

I finally had Carter's One Year pictures taken last weekend at Blowing Springs Park in Bella Vista. I am so blessed to have such a talented friend, Katie, that I go to church with who takes such adorable pictures of my boys. Please check out her website, The Peekaboo Image.

This one is my favorite...

Check out that bottom lip.....little stinker....

Collin's First Fish!

The boys and I spent all last week at my mom and dad's since Josh was out of town most of the week with work. My dad decided he wanted to take Collin fishing one evening, so we all went down to the creek and Collin caught his very first fish! The fish started biting as soon as dad threw in the line. Collin reeled it in all by himself! It was pretty exciting! All was going well until Collin realized that we were using the worms he had hunted for and collected as bait. He didn't like the fact that we were "killing his pets and feeding them to the fish" (as he put it). That pretty much was the end to the fishing trip after that. Think we'll stick to plastic worms next time.
Mommy likes those better too.....less "icky".

Here's Pa-Pa baiting the hook

Collin's First Fish!! He was so happy.

I got in on the fun as well.
Please pay no attention to the frazzled hair and lack of makeup....come on people....give me a break....we were out in the country ok? :-)

Ways to Keep Cool.....

Splash Park!

Collin & his friend Carter Wayne

Carter chillin' in the stroller basket

One of our favorite ways to cool off....Popsicles!!
Carter loves them! I love all the extra he lets drip down on his chubby little belly. :-)

Gettin' Jiggy

Wednesday night after church, Josh went out with the guys to go bowling. I went home with the boys and promised to keep them up until 9:30 so Josh could see them before they went to bed. Well, at about 10:00, both boys were still completely wired, wouldn't go to bed and Josh wasn't home yet. I was desperate to get them to wear down for the night. I decided to try something new and it worked great! A lot of you may think I'm crazy, but it was pretty fun. I turned the tv to the Hip Hop music channel and we started dancing out little hearts out. Josh walked in around 10:20 and couldn't believe what he was seeing......he just started laughing but joined in with us. Not sure how late our little party lasted, but we had a great time! Enjoy!

Happy 8th Anniversary!

I can't believe Josh and I have been married for 8 years. It seems like a lot longer than that....I guess since we dated for 5 years before we got married. We've packed a lot of adventures into this 8 years, and I wouldn't trade any of it! We have truly had so much fun together and love each other more now than we did 8 years ago. I am so thankful that God blessed me with such a wonderful husband who loves the Lord so much and models that to our boys. It's definitely hard to remember our married life before kids.....wait....no it's not. :-) We still ask ourselves, "What did we DO with all our time before we had kids?" We are so blessed to have Collin & Carter in our lives and just hope that our marriage will be a great example for them to follow later on in life.....ok....I better stop before I start crying.

My sweet husband surprised me with this note this morning. I was a good girl and followed the instructions. Before I could read it at 4:30, my doorbell rang around 4:20 and it was my mother-in-law, Kate. She had come to babysit for us for the evening! The boys were so excited and so was I! I totally forgot about the note until about 5:00! I was so excited to have a date with my sweetie! If you can't read the inside of the note, it basically says, "A babysitter is on the way, be ready by 5:30 and meet me in the church parking lot by 5:45 because we have dinner plans.
I love my sweet husband!

So, I met up with Josh, and he had made reservations at Basil's in Rogers. We enjoyed a nice, quiet meal. It's always nice to go out where we can just take our time and enjoy our meal without having to scarf it down in fear of a breakdown by one of the kids. ha! You all know how it is, right? After dinner, we walked around and then went to Cold Stone Creamery where I enjoyed some Chocolate Cake Batter ice cream. Sooooo yummy! Tasted just like my mother-in-law's famous French Silk Pie! I was in heaven, but felt totally miserable after eating so much.....yep, it was still worth it. :-)
Thank you sweetie for a wonderful evening and for always making me feel special.
I love you so much and can't wait to share many more anniversaries with you!

Cousins

My cousin Kim and her son Christopher came to visit this week from Brenham, Texas. Christopher just graduated from high school and is going to be moving up here to be a Razorback and study architecture! We are so excited! We spent a couple of days with them having cookouts, shopping and teaching them how to Call Those Hogs! Kim even videotaped Courtney and I doing the Hog Call, which I hope doesn't end up on youtube somewhere! ha!
We always have a blast with them and can't wait to see more of them!

Courtney, Kim & I

Christopher & Collin

Collin hanging out in the pool. He asked me to take this picture of him. Such a poser!

Carter showing us his best side and also that he doesn't like to miss a meal! ha!

One evening while everyone was over to our house, someone got one of Collin's airplanes stuck on the roof. We all made a big game out of how to get it down. We had several unsuccessful attempts. I suggested that they use a fishing line to reel it in, but we found out pretty soon that it might be a danger........ouch Josh!

Thanks Kim & Christopher for coming up to see us!
We are so excited to add another Razorback to the family!

Survivor!

I am a reality tv junkie, and I love to watch Survivor! The past 2 seasons have been my favorite because of the man pictured on the right, Russell Hantz. I had the opportunity to meet Russell who was on Survivor Samoa and Survivor Heroes vs. Villians as well as Natalie who won Survivor Samoa. I was so excited! Josh just laughed at me, but was a great sport and tagged along with me and the boys to go meet them today. The best part was that there was no one else there, so we got to talk to them for like 10 minutes. It was pretty awesome. I wanted to tell Russell that he was my favorite Survivor, but really couldn't talk about all that since Natalie was sitting right there and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. :-) Natalie was a super nice girl and very talkative. Russell was nice as well.....despite his reputation. He was pretty quiet at first, but broke out of his shell and started talking to us more. He said he lost 65 lbs while out on Survivor and between the 2 shows he starred on he only got a 10 day break in between to go home. I can't imagine being on there for almost 80 days straight, but sounds like a great weight loss plan! ha! Russell told me that he is definitely going to play again in the future. I guess he just doesn't want to give up trying to win, plus he said that they want to get good ratings, so having him on there with all his crazy antics makes them want him back. I'll look forward to that! For those of you who watched this past season, he even had a copy of the note that JT sent to him along with the immunity idol. It was so funny to see that, and we talked about that crazy move as well. So much fun!