Check These Out!

I have a friend I met when we lived in Lowell. We met at church. I was working in the nursery part time so I could make a little extra money, but I had to be in the same room with Lindsey (who was probably 6-7 months old at the time. First kid thing, ya know? I couldn't be away from her for even a few hours, right?! Anyway, I met Angela. She would drop her little girl off in the baby room and I would think "I want to be her friend." We kept talking, I asked her which Sunday School class they went to, we went and have been friends ever since! She's a writer at heart, so her blog is super fun to read. Not to mention she has lots of easy/crafty decor ideas, yummy recipes that she makes with her kids and hilarious stories!

Check her out: http://slaughterhouserules.blogspot.com

A few weeks ago, my brother and his fiance had their engagement pictures taken. Oh.my.word! So stinkin' cute! It was so weird for me to see Taylor in professional pictures. I don't know when the last time that was. ha! They are super cute, so I wanted to share the link to see them.

Check out the cute couple: Taylor and Amber

Just in case you don't know, I am the coordinator for our MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) program here in Greenwood. It is a great group and lots of fun to be apart of! You don't have to go to any certain church, be any certain age, just be a mother of a preschooler--infant thru kindergarten! If you want to join us, you just have to show up at our first meeting, Sept. 8th!

Check us out: http://mopsofgreenwood.blogspot.com

Enjoy your "tour" on some sites I wanted to share with you!

Happy Birthday Courtney!

Is she really 4 years old? I was very pregnant with Courtney when we moved to Greenwood, so when I think about it, I am shocked that she's 4 and also shocked that we still live here (side note: we had moved every 19 months before we moved here, so this seems like an eternity to still be here in Greenwood. Good think we like it here!) Back to birthdays...

We started the morning off with a birthday cinnamon roll with candles!

Do you see this crazy hair she wakes up with every.single.day? I love it!

Dressed for school, looking so big!

This face looks like trouble if you ask me! ha!

Sweet sisters! They love each other so much! These moments are just priceless to me!

Making a chocolate birthday cake together

Dinner was chicken nuggets and tator tots at her request!

Opening presents, the obvious highlight of her day!

Polly Pocket fashion stage

Lindsey picked out Buzz Lightyear for Courtney. She knew she would love it....

and she was exactly right! Can you tell? That is the best smile EVER in a picture of Courtney!

After presents they put sprinkles on the cake

Courtney wanted to put her candles in all by herself...

We sang Happy Birthday....

And she got her birthday spankings from Daddy!

Courtney is a special girl! She's so loved. She keeps us all on our toes most of the time! She's hilarious and loves to be the life of the party (not sure if that will be a good thing later in life, but hopefully she will use this ability that God has given her in a great way!). She's a very tenderhearted girl and most of the time is a very sweet girl! We had a fun day yesterday celebrating her! Happy Birthday Courtney Ann! We love you!

Dexter Li Coston

Yesterday afternoon, I helped host a baby shower for a very special friend, Mischelle! She and I have become great friends over the last 4 1/2 years. We have children very close in age and our kids have become best buds. Mischelle is a very precious friend to me. They have been in the process of adopting a little boy from China. We are all praying that he will get to come home to Greenwood, AR in September. (wow, I have chills just typing that out!)

Cupcakes with "double happiness" sign in Chinese

Favor boxes, Chinese to-go style, filled with gold and red M&Ms

Some of the food on the table. The canvas was painted by my college roommate and good friend Ashely! She is AMAZING! She and I "created" this in our heads together. It is the Chinese flag (in case you weren't sure) with his Chinese name across the top, his name in the middle, and Jeremiah 29:11 across the bottom. It is just perfect!

The rest of the food (didn't take a picture of the red punch that we had! Oops!

Katie, Erin, Mischelle, Sherry and I--the hostesses with the "mommy" (without a prego belly)

Mischelle and her mom

Living room decor (love the lanterns!)

Cute banner made by Sherry! She's so talented. She did all the cupcake toppers and favor boxes too! Maybe I need a Cricut to make cute stuff like this!

I am so looking forward to meeting Dexter, "Dex" as we will call him, hopefully very soon! He is already so loved by his family and friends. He is one lucky little boy (he doesn't even know it!)

FBC Bentonville Shower

This weekend we had a shower at First Baptist Bentonville. It was amazing! These friends of my mom are so special. These ladies are the ones that I grew up knowing, so it was fun to see them and for them to see my sweet girls.

They circled up and prayed for Taylor and Amber before the shower started. It was so sweet!

Lindsey's favorite job was helping Amber!


Aunt Miah, MawMaw and Courtney. It is funny, since Ryan and I both grew up in Bentonville, how sometimes our connections "overlap." Kyle and Miah are friends with Taylor and Amber and hang out in the same circle of friends. So, it was nice to have them there to celebrate Taylor and Amber with us. In fact, Kyle is an usher at the wedding, as well as Ryan.

My big girls and I.

I love this picture of Honey and Whitney! Whitney had fallen asleep in the car, so she was still a little tired. No smiles yet out of her!

Courtney went straight for the cake...of course!


So guess who also wanted some?!

I'm so thankful for Amber and am so excited for her to be my sister in law!

The groom and his mother! What a great pic!
I think he felt a little awkward, but they were all glad to see him.

Here is just some of the things they got. They were so blessed!

They loaded up the back of Amber's mom's car. They have a lot of great stuff to start their new life together. I'm so happy for them!

Mainly for me, but here is my big girl (and her excited little sister) running home from school! You can see Ryan in the back still walking. She was so cute coming home with her backpack on her back. I was waiting at the end of the driveway and could see them coming. It was so stinkin' cute! They had walked and then came running when they saw me.

The report was "Can I go back tomorrow?" That was what she said. I loved it. That was about the best answer a mama could have heard! It wasn't what I would have thought I would want to hear, but it made me happy that she felt that way.

First Day of School

All went well. I'm so thankful. Last night, I was very nervous on how Lindsey (and I) would be this morning. She was very anxious, acting out, admitted she was scared and that was it for me. My baby is scared and I'm not the one that is there to make her feel better. I have a whole other post written in my head about those thoughts, but I will not post it here.

This morning, she was ready to go. So was I. Here are all of our girls! Can you imagine this picture in 12 years: Lindsey will be a senior, Courtney will be a sophomore and Whitney will be a 7th grader! Oh.my.word! I can't even imagine!

My big girl! She looks so pretty!

We love our backpack and lunchbox! She's buying her lunch at school, her choice, but wanted to put her snack in her lunchbox. She took ritz cheese crackers and a new water bottle.

I'm so proud to be her mommy!Can you see the look in her eyes? She adores her daddy! He was so sweet to take a day off today and get to take Lindsey to school with us! He's amazing!


Courtney wanted her turn with pictures and I was so glad! She was raring to go back to school!

She's still trying to figure out her good smile. We are working on it.
So this is what we sometimes get....

We walked to school...

In the rain....(a hard sprinkle)

Then she just walked right in, started playing....

hugged us bye and we walked out. Leaving our baby there! It was a good feeling knowing that she walked right in. But that reality that she's there is still sinking in...hard. I tear up just thinking about it, knowing that this is such a big step in our lives. I can't wait to pick her up and see how her day was. I hope I get more than "fine" as an answer!