Annual Spring Breakathon

Sara and I and the boys took our annual spring break trip week recently. We make a trek across Arkansas and into Oklahoma to visit all the parents, siblings, grandparents, greatgrandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We always work in our favorite food stops, my favorite hot dog stand in the world not to be left out. The weather was not very cooperative this year, but we made the best of it anyhow. To save on gas this year, we did our best to cram in my car with all three carseats safely secured in the back seat, not to mention how handy the DVD players came in handy. We used everyones smaller carseats and they fit. It was VERY tight, but we managed. We visited, ate, shopped, and drove a lot. We were happy to be back home, but we were glad we went on our yearly trek. Every year we say we are not doing this again and this year was no different, but I am sure we will go again next year.

STANDING OVATION~enough said

Sorry Matt, but I am lovin' Adam Lambert! I know I should probably me more loyal to our very own Kris Allen from Arkansas, but Adam is awesome!

Rhett Goes to Wal-Mart! Well, Almost

I was scrounging through the cabinets, as I do most nights, trying to figure out what I was going to cook for dinner tonight when this began to unfold... I decided to make creamy nachos (which is super easy and good, so I will post the recipe) for dinner and realized that I was short a couple ingredients. Rhett was sitting on the other side of the bar and I was making conversation with him and asked him jokingly if he would run to Wal-Mart to get some cream of chicken soup and a can of ranch beans. He said that yes he would, but that he would have to go get dressed. As he was walking away, he also said that he did not need any help or anyone to go with him. I thought it pretty funny, so I walked in where Matt was on the computer to tell him and we got to talking about something else. I had actually forgotten about mine and Rhett's conversation when we heard the front door open and then shut. We both jumped up and followed Rhett around to the garage where we found him sitting in the front seat of my car trying to put his seat belt on, at which point I am thinking, at least he is a safe driver. He then says to me, "I don't know how to drive." So needless to say, we have now had the conversation about how he can't go anywhere by himself. He has been so independent from the get go, it really comes as no surprise to me that he would think that he could go to Wal-Mart all by himself. I really figured he would have taken off walking though. Not till you are 16 buddy!

Pictures from Carmen

29 pictures
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Ski Town USA

Matt and I just returned from a ski trip with 3 other couples. We went to Steamboat and had an awesome time! One of the couples would not fly on the same plane with one another, so the girls flew on American and the guys flew on Continental. We arrived in Steamboat within 10 minutes of eachother. On the return trip the guys weren't so lucky. They kept getting layed over. We got back to Batesville at 10:00 and the guys got back about 1 am. Sorry guys, it could have just as easily been us. We ate some GREAT food (pizza really). If you ever have the opportunity to eat at a Beau Jo's Pizza, I highly recommend it. I am working on finding a recipe for a similar crust. I will be sure to post if I am successful. They give you honey to dip your crust in when you get to that part. Soooo good! Matt was really good, and I was just fair. We had some BIG laughs and one BIG cry (yes, it was me-I was sooo tired). No major injuries to speak of. We got up early each morning, had a big breakfast in our condo, and left out for the lifts early, skied till we could ski no more, melted our muscles in the hot tub on the back deck (awesome view), then got dressed and went to dinner. I added a couple of pics of Matt and I acting silly posing action shots and check out the pic in the slideshow a couple of posts down of a pic of a hot air balloon that was high in the air, and we were looking down on it. Pretty cool. Matt and I also skied by a moose on our last run, but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to take a picture, but it was pretty cool. I could have ran my hand down its back as I skied right beside it. Beach next year anyone???

Playing Catch Up

I know, I know! I have been a terrible blogger. The last post was from November, sheesh. I will try to recap the past couple of months into one and vow to do better (for a while anyway).

I'll start with the boys birthday party. Can you say nightmare??? Everything was set to go for them to have their party together at a local venue, known at our house as the jumping party place. All is going according to plan, when Grant comes down with a stomach bug. After much discussion about who is going to stay home with Grant, Matt's sister graciuosly volunteers to stay home with him if we will take Alex with us to the party. I say, it's because Grant is her favorite, but she will deny it to the end of time-haha. So, off we go to "local venue" where we wait, and wait, and wait (you get the point) for someone to show up. 15 minutes into the actual party time, and us calling everyone we can think of, we decide to change venues. Luckily, by the grace of God, it was a beautiful day! We all caravaned down to the city park. However, being the nice day that it was, all the "good" playgrounds and pavillions were taken already, so we were left with the crappiest park area. I was making it pretty well until Rhett from the back seat says, "but mom, I thought it was my birthday." Talk about breaking your heart:( At that point, I began to sob. We got all unloaded and the kids had a blast, I think because no one ever takes them to that one, they thought it was new and cool. Thank you to all my friends who continued on the journey to find an open park in our caravan! Mrs. Linda, thanks for the awesome birthday cake. It was perfect. Grant was feeling much better by that night. However, the next day, we all started coming down with the bug, even Laura. What a weekend!

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind. We ate lunch in Batesville, then immediately jumped in the car to Van Buren, where we had Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side of the family. It was seriously like a zoo. We tried to get a group shot which didn't work out so well (you'll see). My dad forefitted his meal for us to leave early and take the boys to the Arkansas/LSU football game on Friday. They had a blast. The weather held out for the most part until half-time. Then it began to rain. We made it to Searcy and watched the 4th quarter from Chili's. Rhett kept telling people, "We're at that football game."

Christmas was so much fun with both boys really being excited about it. We really got into all of the Christmas excitement. We baked cookies, Rhett went caroling, picking out our tree and decorating it (3 or 4 times-it kept falling over), shopping, and wrapping, parading, etc...

We got to see all of both of our families. It was kind of like the never ending Christmas in that we celebrated with a different family every day for almost an entire week.

Rhett really wanted a 4 wheeler and all Grant wanted was a hat. How could Rhett get a 4 wheeler and grant just a hat??? So, both boys got 4 wheelers and a few hats each. They also got an awesome playground at their Mom Tom's and Big Mac's house to play with when they go over there.

I also have say kudos to Matt (with help from his sister) on my Christmas gift. I got a necklace with a tag for each boy with their names (first and middle, which is very special to me because their middle names are family names) and their birthdays. It is something I have wanted for a while and I LOVE IT!!! I also was handed down a family heirloom, I guess you would say. I got a ring of my Nanny's. It is something that I have hoped for since I was a little girl. Oh, and what do you know, we were plagued with the stomach bug again at our house. Lindsey (my youngest sister) came down with it on Christmas Day night. I locked her in my bedroom and was the Lysol Queen. Luckily we kept that one under control. For 5 days in all, sometime in December and January, we ad some snow/ice days. A couple of the boys friends came over for a couple of the days to play so their parents could go to work. Can you believe everyone doesn't get off for snow??? I am so glad I am a teacher! We had fun sledding, baking cookies, playing together! All in all, we had a terrific holiday!

The End!

Tagged

I’ve been tagged by Stephanie to do the following:

1) Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer

2) Choose the 4th picture

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 other people

In this tiny (I have apparently at some point resized this picture and can't get it back to normal size.) picture is my Papa and Rhett, the day he was born. We called everyone very early in the morning to let them know that Rhett would be making his debut. My mom called Papa and he came and surprised us! I was so thrilled he came all this way to be here for Rhett's special day! Now, I tag: Mitzi, Kathy, Laura, and Erin.

Happy Boo Day!

We had a great Halloween! My little Superheroes really got the hang of Halloween this year. We made an early stop at Mom Tom and Big Mac's house~I mean we stopped at the fortune teller's house. It was quite spooky. The boys weren't quite sure what to think. We had our cards read, our futures read in the crystal bowl and our palms read. Mom Tom always has something up her Halloween sleeve.

The boys couldn't get enough trick~or~treating. Every time we would leave one house, Rhett would say, "I want to trick~or~treat again." We made several stops to friends houses and made the circle of "teacher row" over by the high school. We also made a stop to Hattie's Haunted House (which was so cute, by the way) and got to see some of the boys buddies in costume. We are now overloaded with candy. Grant can't eat enough suckers.

The Halloween party and Ms. Linda's is always a crowd favorite around here too. We partied on Thursday. They always make a pinata for the party and have a blast busting it. Grant really got into that this year. Rhett ate up all the junk he could get his hands on (takes after his mom and dad). Ms. Linda has made the boys a new trick~or~treat bag every year that they have been there and this year was no exception. She really outdid herself this year. Check them out in the boys pictures. They are sooooo cute! I hope you all had a great Halloween too!

Me and My Brother/Husband/Son/Dad

We had a special visitor last week that the kids in my class were convinced was a relative of some sort to me. I put this picture as the backgound on my computer at school and they get the biggest kick out of it. Wow! I can't believe I got my picture taken with someone so famous!

Are the Terrible Twos Headed Our Way???

Happy Birthday to Grant! He turned two last week. It is really hard to believe that he is growing up so fast. It really does seem like just the other day he was born. I wish there were some way to slow things down a bit.
We celebrated by having Matt's family over for dinner and cake~cakes on his actual birthday. We got him a little barn with some horses and a little cabin/house for the back yard. He just loves to play in things like that. Now Rhett has asked for one too. We are trying to convince him that we really don't need two of those in our yard, and that they can share. We'll see if he drops it. Grant got a Batman car from Mom Tom and Big Mac. He also loves to push cars around. He does the cutest thing with his fingers when you ask him how old he is. He crosses his first two fingers on both hands holds them out to you and says, "two." It is precious.

Just of the 8 of us immediate family on Matt's side, 5 people have their birthdays right here around eachother (Larua and Alex, mother and daughter, on the same day even), so Tommie also has a family birthday dinner for the special birthday people. Then in addition to that we will have the boys birthday party for their friends to come to. We will also have a birthday dinner on Rhett's actual birthday as well. So, as you can tell, we get birthday'd out around this time of year. It's always exciting around here. Here are a couple pics from Grant's birthday.