Secret Baby Closet

When we got home on Sunday - I found this awesome onesie in the mail. Staci had sent it to me! That was so extremely thoughtful Staci!!!! Scott thought it was the greatest thing ever. I can't wait to put the baby in it!!!

My father-in-law was here in town for a meeting he had so he stayed with us last night and we took him to dinner at his (and our) favorite restaurant - Doe's. They have the BEST steaks!
Afterward we dropped by to see Laurie and Steve and the girls. Emily really entertained us - she danced around the living room and tickled Scott and Bill. She took a big liking to Bill. She wanted to sit with him and when we left she said "Bye Bill". She was cracking me up. I forgot to take my camera in to take their picture.

Scott's dad brought us a package from Scott's mom and his aunt. His aunt sent us a blanket, the razorback diaper bag (and after I took this picture I realized she also sent us a razorback pacifier, razorback booties, and two razorback onesies). I think she knows what we love. Scott's mom sent us a picture frame, two GIRL outfits and a neat little mother/child figurine. I am LOVING getting these sweet baby gifts!!!
I thought I would show you my collection of razorback baby things! This picture gets me so excited!!!!!
And here is a small glimpse of a few things in my secret baby closet. As you can see - I am up a small creek if it turns out to be a boy. I will be thrilled - I just seem to only have things with "Harper" on them. ha! (Just wait until I show you the rest)

And here is my 15 week picture. Baby H is now the size of an apple. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that there is a living, breathing thing the size of an apple floating around inside of me. It is such a miracle. I also love that in all my belly pictures - Dawson is right next to me trying to get a bite of whatever I'm holding. ha!

I had an appointment today and we heard the heartbeat. It was so great to hear! It was around 150 so my doctor said now she was leaning towards boy. So who knows? We find out in 27 days (on August 19th) what it is and I am counting down the minutes! I just pray it's healthy.

Do your remember what your baby's heart beats were before you found out what they were? I'm curious to see if the heartbeat matches the sex for ya'll or not? I'm doing my best to guess pink or blue!!!!

Hurricane Dolly

On Saturday when we were in Corpus Christi, we were driving to lunch and I was looking at all of these beautiful homes across the street from the water and it reminded me so much of how Mobile, AL looks (only I know how Mobile looks after Hurricane Katrina). And all I could think about was how horrible it would be if a hurricane came through and how I would never, ever want to live near water after seeing the devastation of Katrina.
My family all went on and on about how hurricanes NEVER hit Corpus and it would be so rare for a hurricane to come through but I just kept thinking about how the weather has been so bizarre lately that anything is possible.
And sure enough, just 2 days after leaving there - Hurricane Dolly is heading that way. Please pray for the people who live near the path of the storm. I'm thinking of all my new friends I made at my brother's wedding who live there.
I'm sure we are in for a rough hurricane season and I pray for all of those who live near any type of coast. It's when you see people go through these kind of things that makes me be so grateful for the home I do have to sleep in each night. We may have a cabinet door that has fallen off or a window that leaks or whatever other little issue that nearly every home has - but God has blessed us with a home and I can't help but thank Him every night before I go to bed for my home and for my health and for my job and for each blessing He has given me - especially this baby! How can I NOT be thankful?

What are you thankful for today?

My little brother's wedding

We just got back from being in Corpus Christi,TX for my brother's wedding. We had SOOOO much fun. It was just a great wedding. I want to share a few of the hundreds of pictures we took so settle back - this is a long post.

We flew out very early Friday morning and arrived in CC around 9:30. We got checked into our hotel and it was time for me and my mom, aunts and cousin to go to the bridal lunch while Scott and my dad and my brother and uncle picked up their tuxes and ate lunch.

This is my mom, her sister Linda, me, my cousin Molly and my dad's sister Kathy

This is Carrie (the bride) (front row on the right) and her college friends from the University of Texas where she was a Kappa

The cute gift table and paper mache bride

Carrie and her mom

At the rehearsal dinner - this is the bride and groom

Carrie, Chris, Me and Scott (their wedding was in an art museum)

We had the rehearsal dinner at the Yacht Club. After the bridal lunch - my mom, Aunt Linda and I raced over to decorate tables. We worked most of Friday afternoon and got back to the hotel with barely enough time to get ready for the rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner was SO much fun. We had a mexican buffet that was so good and everyone gave wonderful toasts to Chris and Carrie. Chris' friends gave some hilarious speeches that had everyone rolling. My dad gave a wonderful speech that made everyone cry and then Chris spoke and cried and cried (my family is VERY emotional family) and it was so sweet. I heard several of Carrie's friends telling him they wanted him to give them a speech next. ha!

This was the view from the yacht club

Saturday - we slept in and then went and ate lunch with my family. Scott and I hit the beach by our hotel for a little bit but it was not the beautiful beaches like they have in Gulf Shores or Destin or Hawaii. It was kind of dirty and very crowded and hot so we didn't stay long.

It was picture fiesta before, during and after the wedding. Here are Scott and I.

Chris' groomsmen picking him up

My beautiful new sister-in-law - her dress was gorgeous

Here she is with her bridesmaids

And with her house party

The reception was held in another part of the art museum and it was set up so pretty in her colors of green and brown. They had a GREAT band and it was just so much fun.

Chris and Carrie and my mom and dad

Our new family

The kids - and yes - I'm the only one looking at my camera

The buffet table at the reception

The first dance

Cutting the cake

Throwing the bouquet

This was their surprise get away car her dad set up for them. It's an old, old truck and they rode in the back to their hotel. It was so cute.
Chris and Carrie are just perfect for each other and they both looked SO happy on their wedding day. I'm so glad they are finally married and their wedding was just so much fun!

Hope you all had good weekends too!

45 more days.......................................

I started off my morning by a large exchange of e-mails between Scott, our friend Guy, and our friend Mike (and me) concerning a recent speaking engagement for our old departed coach and Ole Miss. There is no love lost between him and these guys so they were enjoying mocking the article that was written about it. These e-mail exchanges go on constantly during football season. And I love them! I love our Sunday School class in the fall - because there is always a lot of football discussion before we start our lesson and because there are several teams represented in our class from the SEC - there is a lot of good ribbing going on.
Then I clicked over to Boomama's blog and I have been laughing at all the SEC rivalry going on at the beach in FL.
This is the south. We love us some football and we have strong rivalries with the other teams in the SEC. It's almost my favorite time of the year and I'm counting down the days.

Do you have a favorite college team and are you excited for football to start?

Calling all NWA Bloggers

A few of us in NWA have decided we would like to try and have a Bloggy get together so we can all meet in person!

If you have any interest in this - we are trying to find a Saturday in August or September (a non Razorback home game Saturday) and we will probably have it at the Jones Center in Springdale and it will be a potluck - families welcome!!!!

If you have interest - please e-mail at nwabloggers@yahoo.com and let us know what Saturdays would NOT work for you and how many in your family would come. Once we pick the day and time - we will send out an e-vite to those who have sent e-mails. You MUST have a blog to participate.

Please put the e-mail address on your blogs if you would like to spread the word! Thanks!

UPDATE: If anyone who has a blog is interested in coming - you are all welcome - you don't have to live in NWA. I love all towns in Arkansas (or TX or MO or LA) - we are not discriminating. I just didn't figure many people would want to drive several hours to meet a few bloggers ........but COME ON! :-)

My Fruity Baby

At 13 weeks - our baby was the size of a peach

And at 14 weeks - our baby is the size of a lemon!

So many of you have asked me if we will find out the sex and if we have names picked out.

YES and YES!

I am not a patient person (thus why God seems to like for me to wait for things like husbands and babies) and I'm also a planner (another reason God laughs at me) so I can't WAIT to find out what the baby is. We will find out in five more weeks if we will be having a future football player or a future cheerleader. (or as Scott loves to say - if they want to play in the band that's okay too) ha! You will have to vote on the top of my blog and tell me what you think it is - I swap back and forth every day. We really don't care - we are so excited either way!

And we have had names since before we got married. You can read here about why we chose the names we did but if it's a boy - it will be Hudson Walker and if it's a girl - it will be Harper Brown. So I refer to it as "Baby H" right now!

Weekend

When I got home on Friday, I had a package in the mail. Betsy had sent me the sweetest thing - a baby blanket that says "I prayed for this child" - she wrote me a sweet card and told me she thought of the verse from 1 Samuel 1:27-28 where Hannah says "I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord". I couldn't think of a more perfect verse to describe how I feel about this baby God has blessed us with. Thank you Betsy - that was such a sweet and thoughtful gift. Betsy has four beautiful teenagers and I like to read her blog because I hope for the kind of family she has one day, you can tell what a special mom she is.


Thankfully - this was another very laid back weekend with no plans. It was pretty cloudy and stormy yesterday so it was a good day for another Lifetime movie marathon - yesterday's theme seemed to be cheating husbands. Which worked as a nice life lesson for me to point out the importance to Scott that he never cheat on me or as in the movies - I would kill him, humiliate him or leave him. :-) Just kidding. I mean - all those things are true - but I'm pretty sure I never have to worry about Scott cheating on me.
I did get manage to get a few things accomplished. I pulled weeds until I worked up several blisters on my hands. ( I really need to invest in some garden gloves).

I realize Christmas was almost 7 months ago - but I FINALLY got around to taking all of our cards out of the basket I keep them in for the holidays and putting all the picture cards in a scrapbook album. I have been doing this since we got married. It's a fun way to look at how all of our friends' families grow each year.

Last night - we went and got a little patio set. We have been wanting something for us to sit on outside and maybe eat out there when it's cooler (as in NOT July). I really like the way it looks and our little patio looks so much better now that it's not so bare.
We went outside this afternoon and there was this HUGE turtle on our patio. I have no idea where it came from but Dawson was obsessed with it. I'm very surprised the turtle didn't snap his nose. It was fun to watch him watch the turtle.

Next weekend will be a lot more interesting for me to report on because we will be in Corpus Christie, TX for my brother's wedding! I'm so excited! I know we will have so much fun and I'm excited to see some of my family I don't see very often. I'm also excited to finally get my new sister-in-law in the family. And I've never been to south Texas so I'm excited about the heat and humidity. My hair isn't - but I am!

The Land of a Million Smiles

Thanks for sharing your camp stories with me! If you went to Siloam between 1991 - 1994 then I probably sold you a coke at the snack shack or gave you your mail at the office or helped you in the first aid station or gave you clubs at the putt putt place.

We had a lot of fun tonight. We met my parents for dinner at Marketplace - yum! I gave my mom her birthday present. (I'm sorry I didn't get my dad in this picture).

And mom gave us more baby presents. I have a feeling this will be a never ending stream of baby things she will keep buying. Do you think she is excited?
We were off to Siloam. My friend who was the pastor is Doug Compton. Sorry Doug - I had to post this picture because it is so you!!! Amy is so cute - she is due with their second little boy in September - little Lane. They already have the CUTEST little boy, Levi.
Here we are with the Comptons. It was so great to be back at camp and it's always a great time of worship at the service. Doug did a great job preaching and they had great worship music. It made me want to be a teenager all over again. Well - okay - maybe not!

Ya'll picked me out of that staff picture. I didn't know if you would recognize me with that huge dark hair but there I was.

O Next to My home - I love you Siloam

When I was in the 3rd grade - I went to church camp in Siloam Springs, AR for the first time. That began a love affair with one of my favorite places ever. I went to camp there every summer in junior high and high school and then for the 4 summers I was in college I worked there as a staffer. Those were the most fun summers of my life. I worked with a lot of kids from OBU and we had SO much fun. I worked a ton of hours in this snack shack. :-)
This is a picture of the staff one summer that I worked there. Can you find me????? :-)

So I'm excited because one of my friends from college (who I met the summer before my freshman year- I was a staffer and he came as a counselor) - is the Camp Pastor this week. (Boy do I feel old when my friends are now camp pastors). ha! And his wife was one of my good friends at OBU. So I had planned to go over to the evening service tonight and see them. Plus, I love to go every year or so and just see how camp is going.
My parents church is there this week also. My parents went with the youth for about 20 years but in the last few years - they have gone to the children's only camp instead. So when the youth are there - they normally drive over and attend the night service to see the kids. So I'm going to meet up with them for dinner and celebrate my mom's birthday and then we'll go on to camp. And Scott is going to get to see my camp for the first time. I'm excited for him to experience it.

Did you go to church camp? And did you love it? Did any of you work at camps?

Rain, Rain Go Away

It seems like we are having the rainiest summer ever. I know we should be thankful for rain and I am and I love that everything is still green and we don't have to worry about drought but it's July - it shouldn't rain this much. I especially hate storms. I don't sleep a wink if it storms. I just sit up in the living room. Scott always gets up and comes in to check on me and gives me a pitiful face because he knows I can't rest if it's storming.
But as much as I hate storms - something I love so much is after a rough night when I sat up and didn't sleep and it was hailing and blowing and I was so scared...............the next morning I wake up and the sun is shining and birds are chirping and that horrible night seems like a long time ago and I wonder why I was ever so scared.
Isn't life like that? We go through storms where we think there is no hope and no light ahead and then God answers our prayers and we look back and wonder why we have worried or feared or were sad.
There is an old Christian song from the 80's/90's by Ray Boltz that I have always loved called "Seasons Change". I try to think about it a lot when I'm facing tough times. I try to remember that after every cold, dark winter - there is always a beautiful spring. And after long, hot summer - there is always a gorgeous fall just around the corner. No matter what you are going through - it will not stay that way. God will bring about change.

Seasons change

Barren fields will bloom again

Seasons change

Gentle rains will fall

Seasons change

Better days will come and then

You will find the blessing

Is worth the pain

So just believe

And let the seasons change
Hearts grown cold

May be warmed by the summer sun

Dreams you hold

May be closer than you know

Let the Seasons Change

P.S. My mom wanted me to thank everyone who left her a birthday message yesterday! Ya'll really made her 60th birthday special! Thank you!!!!