Community

One of the hugest blessings for our family since moving to Little Rock is our amazing Community Group. Seriously. These people and their families have been a God-send. Our group consists of seven families - The Penick's, The Martin's, The Darby's, The Lanaux's, The Garner's, The Collins', and us. We love them all!

The best part about our CG is that we all have genuine fun together - even the kids! (All 14 of them!) Last night, the Lanaux's hosted a big Shrimp & Grits and crab boil at their home to celebrate Jan's birthday.  What a fun night!  Here are a few pics...

Amazingly, the 14 kids got along and played GREAT all night long!

Here's Tate singing Happy Birthday to his Mom - Happy birthday, Jan!

Reid and Miley (I think they are holding hands while watching Toy Story!)

Carson, Crosby, & Reid 

If you can't tell, they had a BLAST! 

Buddies! Reid, Cole-Cole, and Crosby 

ALL BOY!!!

...and the dirtier, the better!

Easter Weekend 2012

For Easter 2012, our little family of three headed to Dallas/Fort Worth for a weekend packed with fun family and friends!

On Friday night we had the opportunity to be with Ben's childhood/high school friends celebrating David Hepler's birthday and upcoming wedding (in Germany this June!). It was such a fun night of laughing and eating! David took a ton of pics that I will post as soon as I get them.

Then Saturday morning started off bright and early with Isabella Higgins' 3rd birthday party at ChicFilA. Everyone had a blast and it was so much fun to see our Texas friends!

Brielle, Keagan, Isabella & Reid

My Texas Girls!

(Tiff, Jayme, Jill, Me, Candace, Jen - missing Angie, Jen W, and Jenny F)

Keagan DeLaPorte & Reid = BFF

On Saturday afternoon, we got to spend time with some of my high school friends out at the Gaston home for Harper's 1st birthday party. It was so great getting to see everyone - it had been too long! Reid called it "the best party ever!" because Erin had provided unlimited mini-cupcakes for all of the kids. They were in heaven! I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures, but our 15 yr HS Reunion is coming up in May, so there will be many pics to come!

Then on Saturday evening, my parents hosted a BBQ out at their house for our TX friends and family. Such a fun night! We ate BBQ, let the kids run wild, and had an Easter Egg Hunt - I think everyone had a blast!

Here's Reider... trying to make everyone laugh, as usual =)

Getting ready for the egg hunt!

Did I mention the best part of the evening?? CONFETTI EGGS!!! A new tradition. Even the adults got in on the action!

Happy boy!

Then on Sunday morning before church, the Easter Bunny came to visit Reid. He had lots of fun surprises! Reid got Squinkies, candy, soccer ball, football, play-doh, sandbox toys, pool toys... and the list goes on!

He is risen, indeed! Happy Easter!

For You, oh Lord, have saved my soul.

Spring Preschool Pictures

Are these not the cutest preschool pictures you've ever seen?!? We think so!

Reid LOVES his little class at preschool - all those boys! You can tell his sweet teachers have their hands full!

Train Time at the Zoo

Can you tell it's Reid's FAVORITE thing to do?!?

Love this happy face!

Easter post and pics coming soon!

St. Charles Easter Egg Hunt

I volunteer with our St. Charles Community board to help coordinate socials for our neighborhood - it's so much fun and right up my alley! ha! This past Sunday, we had our annual St. Charles Easter Egg hunt for all of our neighborhood kids. I think that it's safe to say all of the kids had a blast (we had about 75 little ones) and left with lots of candy, cupcakes, cookies, etc!

A pic of Reider and I before the hunt

He's on a mission - Reid totally got it this year!

Going for the older girls! (With Alex Darby)

A very sweaty pic of Ben and I - 92 degrees and VERY humid!

This weekend we'll be traveling home to DFW for Easter festivities, Wedding celebrations, and birthday parties. Many fun posts and pics to come!

The Phoenician - Scottsdale, AZ

Every year in March, Ben and I are fortunate enough to have an adult-only vacation with our Federated friends. I literally look forward to it ALL. YEAR. LONG. Ha! It's such a fun week of relaxing and hanging out with great friends who are scattered all over the country now. (And our parents are WONDERFUL to take all of the kids! Reid spent the week in TX being completely spoiled by Grandma & Pops and KK & Doc!)

This year, we headed out to The Phoenician Golf & Spa resort in Scottsdale, AZ. It is possibly my favorite resort I've been too. It was wonderful! Par for the course, I didn't take very many pictures. But we had a fabulous 6 days of doing absolutely nothing! We laid by the pool every day... the guys golfed... the girls did spa stuff... then we went out to dinners and dancing at night. Fantastic!

Here's a pic of Ben and I

The resort.. amazing, right?!?

Poolside lunch

Our crew - love these people and look so forward to spending this time with them every year!

With the Cromer's

Yes... be jealous.

With my Abigail

It's a rough life...

Jenny and I - so fun!

The handsome guys

This is an annual picture they've taken for the last 5 years together. One day I'll line up all the pictures to see the age progression - ha!

Already looking forward to Maui next March!

Silly Boy

Reid's discovered how to take pictures of himself with the iphone. He said he was taking pictures of his "silly face" =)

Ben's 34th Birthday

So have I mentioned that I stink at taking pictures?...I always forget! That combined with the fact that my husband hates being in pictures... well, that should explain why this post is so lacking. Ha!

On March 10th, Ben celebrated his 34th birthday! (WOW... that sounds really OLD!)

Ben's not much of a birthday guy (and I am the Birthday Queen), but we still managed to get him out to celebrate a little bit. On Friday night, we went out to dinner then Bar Louie with some dear friends here in Little Rock - the Darby's and the Smith's.

Here's a picture of the Birthday Boy (yes...we thoroughly embarrassed him)

And, of course, I forgot a group shot. But here's Mel, Nate, Allan, & Lori

The next day we spent with Reid as a family - such a fun day! We went and did a little shopping...ate lots of good food... and laughed a lot. To cap it off, Reid and I made Ben a Texas Sheath Cake and cupcakes (Reid's choice). Reid was so concerned all day long about where Daddy's birthday party was going to be - ha!

We tried to get a pic of all 3 of us...

Opening cards and presents from Reid =)

Fu Manchu Cake Stache

We are so thankful to have such a loving, wonderful, amazing Daddy and husband! We are some blessed people!

Aunt NeeNee & KK Visit!

Once again, I am behind in blog posts... AAAAHHHH!!! So here we go with the catch-up...

In early March, Aunt NeeNee and KK came to visit us in Little Rock for a few days! We had such a fabulous time! Reid was VERY excited, to say the least...

They got here on a Wednesday afternoon, so we headed out to the Promenade for a little shopping an early dinner. Here's a pic of KK with Reider..

Eating his "sketti noodles" at YaYa's

Me and my little dude

With my most favorite sister, Neely

Showing Aunt NeeNee his golfing skillzzz

te pic

The next day, Aunt NeeNee and KK got to join us at swim lessons. Neely got some really cute pics!

On Friday, we decided to road-trip it (in the rain) out to Memphis and visit Graceland. None of us had ever been and it was really neat to see! Our first stop was Beale Street in Memphis.

We ate lunch at the famous Blues City Cafe - the ribs were AMAZING!

Here we are at Graceland!

Reid even learned how to sing, "You Ain't Nothin' but A Hot Dog..."

The home of Elvis Presley

We had such a great visit and can't wait to see you both again very soon!