Welcome to the World Mackenzie!!

Our dear friends, BJ and Wendy, welcomed their first child, Mackenzie Kay to the world on 8.23.12.  We have been soooo excited for her arrival and have prayed diligently for this precious little girl.  So happy to finally get to meet and hold her!  It made my heart so happy to see BJ and Wendy so thrilled and proud of their sweet little girl.  She is definitely a cutie and so tiny!  She only weighed 5 lb 1 oz!  The boys were so in awe of her, especially Carter.  He kept wanting to hold her. :-)  Congratulations BJ & Wendy and welcome to the world sweet Mackenzie!

Proud daddy with his sweet girl

Oma Irene with Mackenzie

Proud momma. :-)

First Friday on the Square-August

I know I've said it a zillion times, but I love our square.  It's about as "all-american" as it gets and it's centered around what started it....The Walton Five & Dime.  Every first Friday of the month, Downtown Bentonville hosts a First Friday Event that includes, activities, live music, food vendors and tons of activities for the kiddos.  We try and make it each month because the boys love it.  All of these pictures are of Carter because the boys each wanted to do different things so Josh had Collin and I had crazy man Carter.  It was a night of great fun and entertainment!

Carter wanted to go up by the stage and dance with all the other kids.  He broke out his break dancing moves.  This kid doesn't have a shy bone in his body.  He was great entertainment for all. :-)

He then wanted to get his face painted and of course he chose Spiderman.

He then wanted to do this bungee cord/trampoline jump.  Both boys begged to do it last time and we didn't, so I bit the bullet and waited in line with him for and hour.  Yes, crazy.  The next day we went to the Promenade Mall and they have the same thing with no wait.  By the next day when he did it there, Carter was doing back flips on it and everything!  He was pretty proud of himself for that big accomplishment and we were all shocked that he could do it!

Funny Friday!

We took the boys to play miniature golf at Golf Mountain in Rogers before the start of school.  Collin did really well, in fact, he got like 3 or 4 hole in ones!  Yeah, put me to shame.  There were a group of about 12 boys aging 10-12 years old behind us.  A few were pretty impressed with Collin's skills and made the comment, "Hey, come look at this kid!  He's a beast!"  Collin took offense to it at first thinking they were calling him names, but after Josh explained to him that it was a compliment, he thought he was "too cool for school".  A few days later, Uncle Josh took Collin golfing with him (which he loves!) and Collin says, "Hey, Uncle Josh, did you know that I'm a beast at golf?".

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Collin at the end of his first week of Kindergarten

The first week of Kindergarten went pretty smoothly.  After the 1st day, here was our evening conversation....

Collin-"Mom, do I go back to school tomorrow?"

Me-"Yes"

Collin (with a big sigh)-"It's like ALL day.  I go to school all day just like daddy goes to work ALL day.  Is first grade going to be different?"

Me-"No, not really. You will still go the same times, just learn different things."

Collin-"But it takes like forever!  Can I watch tv now?  I haven't got to watch tv all day.  Mom, all I do is go to school and do homework.  I'm never going to get to play again."

Me-chuckling inside thinking, man, this kid doesn't know how easy he has it right now..... :-)

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Happy 1st Birthday Hayes!

My nephew Hayes turned "1" on August 1st.  I can't believe the "baby" of the family is officially 1!  My sister threw him an adorable Beach themed birthday party.  The kids had so much fun playing outside in their backyard in the water and eating pizza and cake.  Josh Landreth's family was there from Oklahoma as well.  We love them just like our own family, so it's so nice to get together with them when we can.  

Happy Birthday Hayes!  We love you so much buddy!

Beach ball fruit pizza....so yummy!!

Uncle Austin & Hayes

Pa-Pa, Me-Ma and Hayes

Mommy and Hayes

Brothers. :-)

Hudson & Faith

This boy LOVED his cake! :-)

Kolton wrestling with Carter & Hudson

Mommy & Daddy with Hayes

Nikki, Faith & Hayes

Great-grandparents Choc & Shirley with Hayes

Us

Pa & Nana with Hayes

Uncle Kolton with Hayes

Hayes, Uncle Austin & Logan

Showering with Love

Back on July 21st, I hosted a baby shower for my dear friend, Wendy.  She is expecting sweet Mackenzie very soon and so I was so thrilled to be able to throw her a shower and for everyone to shower her with love and wonderful things for her soon arrival!  I went with a light pink/hot pink/gray theme and had so much fun doing it.  Being in a house full of boys all the time made this extra fun for me!  Thank you to all who were able to shower BJ, Wendy & Mackenzie with love!

The invite

Wreath I made...courtesy of Pinterest. :-)

The mommy-to-be

Beautiful cake....courtesy of Shelby Lynn's

Wendy with her mom and mother-in-law

Wendy & I

My nephew Hayes sure enjoyed the cake. :-)

Sarah & Jessie

Wendy & Eileen

Hayes loved playing with my teeth. :-)

 Instead of games, I had a couple of activities where I had everyone write some "words of advice" and then I also had a place set up with diapers where everyone could write some "Diaper Thoughts".  The idea was to write funny little notes on the diapers so that during those middle of the night changings, BJ and Wendy will be able to get a good laugh.  There were so many funny ones!

Then, for favors, I went with the "Sugar and Spice" theme that goes with little girls and gave away Warm Vanilla Sugar lotions from Bath and Body Works. 

I have prayed for a long time for the Lord to bless BJ & Wendy with a baby.  After the shower was over, I happened to stumble across my prayer journal from years past and on July 22, 2009, was the first time I ever wrote down my prayer for BJ & Wendy to have a child.  How awesome is it that it was almost 3 years to the day that I was able to throw them a baby shower (July 21, 2012)!  God is good!  I am SOOO looking forward to meeting Mackenzie and for BJ & Wendy to experience parenthood!