Summer Time and the Living is Easy

I hope ya'll have had a good Memorial day! We have had a very low key one here at home. We bought a new grill this weekend and we were ready to try it out. We have always wanted a grill but there has always been something else we needed inside the house so we finally broke down and got one - I have a feeling we will wear this thing out this summer. We cooked hamburgers for lunch today.

Harper played outside with bubbles while we cooked lunch.

A sweet reader gave me the idea yesterday to get Harper stickers to play with so we tried that out today and she really liked it.
This morning we made a family trip to Wal-Mart to get groceries and we also picked up a swimming pool for our backyard. Harper LOVES water - border line obsession - so I know we will have so much fun out there this summer.
We finally got it blown up and filled up later this afternoon and we tried it out! The water was a little cold but we had a great time!
Me and my bathing beauty in her all American Memorial day bathing suit! ha! Scott took pictures of us swimming and it was very clear to me that I need to start running - as in tonight. Harper and I share the same nose, the same cheeks, the same smile and the same thunder thighs. Only it's cute on her. (and Y'all aren't seeing the thighs - I promise they ARE bad. I'm fairly thin above my waist and knees down between the waist and knees - it's not good). ha!

She played with some little pool toys.

Daddy - why are you just now getting me a pool?

And while we played - Dawson found a nice shady spot to stretch out in and he looked the most content out of all of us.

It's been a nice day.

Let the summer begin!

Spoiled Rotten

This weekend Scott's parents came for a visit. Harper has been SPOILED rotten with attention. She loves her grandparents. She is a lucky baby to have so much love!

She has had a great time!

Saturday morning we headed to our local farmer's market. It was my first trip this year. I didn't buy anything because I forgot cash and also we had 3 dogs with us and it was crowded so we just strolled through. But I will go back next week to get some things! Afterwards we walked to a little park for Harper to play and then we ate lunch.
It was nice having Gigi and Pap-paw here because they entertained Harper while I got to just rest and get a few things done around the house. Can you tell she feels like a movie star with all the attention she got?

Harper and her Gigi

Saturday night we went to eat at Outback. Steve went with us because Laurie and the girls had gone to visit her family for a few days. Harper was pretty wild so I ended up taking her outside while everyone finished dinner. It was a nice night and we had fun hanging out on the porch.
This morning we went to church and then to Copelands for lunch. Harper was a handful there too. This may have been our last weekend to go out to eat for a few years (how many times am I going to say that? ha!) We had a nice church service and they did a good job of focusing on what this weekend is all about - thanking and remembering our veterans. I know I can not thank enough any man or woman who has served our country so I can live in a free country and worship freely and live such a wonderful life. We are SO blessed to live in our nation. Both of my grandfathers served in wars and they were my heros. I know many of you are wives of soldiers (or maybe you are soldiers yourself) - THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!

Show Us Your Life - Things that you LOVE/Make you happy

Today's Show Us your life is all about things that make us happy - things we love!

Here are just a few of mine:

• Clearly - these two make my life SO happy. Also our parents and the rest of our family.

• Sonic vanilla diet cokes - especially at happy hour

• Hearing a favorite song on the radio - especially an old random song you haven't heard in years.
  

• Wonderful, sweet friends make my life SO great

• Girls trips are the best!

• Laughing with friends
  

• A church family who I love

• Seeing people serve in the church with no recognition - giving their time, talents and money with passion - that is something I love more than anything!
  

• SEC football in the fall - especially Razorback games and winning makes me even MORE happy!

• Wearing a new dress! Or wearing something that makes you feel good about yourself!

• The beach - especially just relaxing all day in the water and sun and then getting dressed up to go out to eat that night somewhere good. I love vacation!!!

• Honeysuckle - did you ever try to get enough in a jar to drink when you were a kid? I saw some the other day and wanted to let Harper taste it but I'll save that for when she is older. That and Lightening bugs are great summer memories for me.

• Doing a random act of kindness for someone

• A clean house!
  

• A weekend with NOTHING to do!!!
  

• Going to the movies - especially in the summer

• God's word - especially these verses:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:4-10

What makes you happy???

Little Black Dress isn't cutting it?

Harper and I had a little play date at the mall food court today with some friends. We ate and then played on the little rides inside.
Harper getting help from Braxton. Little flash forward of boys fixing her car in the future?
Then we took it outside to a little play area at the mall. Harper and Neely finally pulled up chairs and sat down. It was SO hot. I know summer doesn't officially begin until June 21 - but let's face it - in the south once school is out and it's 85 degrees or more regularly - it's SUMMER. We were all talking about how we were going to just melt this summer. At least the sun and playing in it is draining which is only adding to my sleeping success! :-)
Harper and I went to a few stores after (mostly just to cool off in air conditioning). She was so good. This was a day I really wasn't looking at anything and was more or less just walking around and she was so still and good. If I had been trying to find something or try something on - she would have screaming and wiggling. ha! I took her picture at Gap in front of some outfits that I'm pretty sure were in my closet in 1988. Overalls? Not sure about that.

(First 2 dress are from Ann Taylor Loft, next 2 from Talbots and last one from Lands End Canvas - all online)

Yesterday I had on something that wasn't typically "me" - a razorback tee and a jean skirt. I looked pretty grungy actually and that was the day Scott decides to compliment me. ha! He then told me he wasn't crazy about all the black dresses I normally wear (he said it in a nice, joking way but I think he was serious). "Raw Row Riley = that's like 75% of my wardrobe." ha! I really have tried to buy only colorful things lately. I was looking today for some cute colorful dresses. I thought these were all cute! It's interesting about what we like to wear and what our husbands think we look pretty in. It's not always the same thing, is it? ha!

Famous People

So this morning Harper and I hit Wal-Mart for an early shopping trip and I was in the produce section picking up some squash when I looked over and saw a group at the front of the store. I recognized this woman and got SO excited!

It's Susie - a judge from the Next Food Network Star (which I LOVE!!) and she works for the Food Network. I totally hung out in produce stalking and of course this was a day I left my camera at home. I live in the home of Wal-Mart so I think there were several people from the Food network meeting with several Wal-Mart people and touring the store. I wanted to so run up and say "I want to be the next food network star" but then I realized they would glance in my buggy and see it was full of weight watcher frozen meals and I'm pretty sure they would know not a lot of cooking was going on at my house. ha! SO chawed!
(This was also a morning I kind of rolled out of bed and threw on a razorback t shirt and dabbed a little lipstick on. Not my best day to meet a star! ha!)
I used to work for Wal-Mart and I met several celebrities. One day I went out in the hall to get a coke and ran into M C Hammer (yes that's me back when my hair was still black). I also met Paula Abdul out in the hallway and several other country stars and people not terribly exciting.
My favorite celebrity sighting was when Scott and I went to Kauai in 2008 and ate at a little restaurant and as we walked in Pierce Brosnan (who lives in Kauai) held the door open for us and spoke to us and then sat at the next table over. I was FREAKING out but too chawed to ask for a picture. So Scott took this blurry one while we were trying to play it cool. Pitiful.

I don't know why - but I love seeing celebrities in person. Who have you met?????

Tuesday

Harper and I went to church this morning for Bible Study. A big bunch of my friends are meeting together this summer and it has been SO good. The best part is we have asked a different woman from the church to come each week and share their testimony and they have been AMAZING! Each one so far has been so good and so different. I told Laurie I wished we could just keep it going for as long as it took to have every woman in our church come and share. It's just so neat to hear the different ways God has worked in their lives and the different things He has brought them through. We serve a BIG God!
Count EVERYTHING that you go through as joy because you don't know what kind of testimony God is building in you and who in your life you will be able to encourage and how you will one day be used because of what you have faced.
This afternoon I got my Mother's Day gift! I got to have our house deep cleaned. What a HUGE blessing! I like to clean and I try to keep a really neat house but with a busy schedule and busy, busy, busy into everything toddler - I don't feel like I keep things as clean as I would like to. So it was nice to have someone come and kickstart me! (and I was on a mad rush to clean our house last night BEFORE the cleaning ladies came today. Isn't it crazy that we do that?)
Harper and I ran errands while our house was being cleaned and at one point she sacked out in the car so I just pulled into a parking lot and enjoyed a Sonic drink and checked my email. I took this picture of me while I was bored. ha! I was just glad she got a little nap.
I do have to share that the love affair with the noise machine is still going on - she slept ELEVEN straight hours last night. PRAISE THE LORD! Seriously - Praise Him. I have prayed so hard that her sleeping would improve.
I don't have a lot of time for blogging this week - I am too wrapped up in all the season and series finales going on. I am on TV overload. Between Lost ending (sad, sad, sad) and American Idol (I like Lee and Crystal so I don't care who wins but I am SOOOOOOOO sad about Simon leaving - I don't know if I can watch without him) and Biggest Loser .................. it's a busy week!

Our Day

So meet my new best friend................................

I made a desperate trip to Target yesterday in search of some kind of sound machine/white noise maker for Harper's room. I bought this and so far I could just kiss it. It may have been a one night fluke but we let her cry it out for 30 min when she woke up the first time and combined with this little beauty - she went on to sleep for 9 straight hours after she woke up. I couldn't believe it. And she has been SOOOOOO happy today. And so have I!

We spent most of the day at home doing this. Well - I was doing this.......

Harper was playing with her new stroller. When we went to Laurie's the other night she spent the entire night playing with Sarah Kate's doll stroller so I decided to get her one and she LOVES it. She has played with it all day.
She pushes it for a few minutes and then stops, gets her baby out and kisses the baby and then puts her back in and pushes some more. It's so sweet.
She even took a good afternoon nap and then we headed to a nursery (plants not babies) and met our friends Amanda and Laurie to look at flowers.
I took about 30 pics of the four girls and this was the best of them all. It's just about impossible to get 4 girls from 1 to 4 to look at the camera.
Tonight I took a meal to our friend Mike and Kacy who just had new baby Davis. He is so tiny and precious! I always hate for families to wonder what on earth I've cooked for them so I try to put labels on the pans. I got these as a gift from here and I think they come SO in handy!
Harper's favorite time of the day is bath time. She would stay in there all night if I let her. She loves to play in the water. She is always so happy. She usually gets me as wet as she is because she loves to splash and dance in the water. ha! She is such a mess!

Lately........

Friday we tried to take it easy and stay home. Harper's Gigi and Pappaw sent her a candy bouquet with this lamb on it when she got tubes. She loves this lamb.
She took a 4 hour nap and when she got up we went to the park and played and then shared a pina colada cupcake! It was a nice day.
Saturday we spent pretty much all day re-working our landscaping. It needed to be done badly. I kept waiting for all of our neighbors to write us letters it looked so bad. I let it go last summer when Harper was a baby - I just couldn't get to it and this year I haven't had much time but we finally tackled it and it looks so much better. Scott got us a dogwood tree he is planting in our back yard. I'm so excited. I love dogwoods.

Saturday night we went over to Laurie and Steve's for dinner.

We weren't there long before all three girls were dressed like princesses!
Steve fried fish for us and we had boiled shrimp. It was SO good. When we got there he was playing Jimmy Buffett because he said he wanted us to feel like we had come to a gulf coast restaurant. I felt like we were on one of our gulf shores vacations!

Laurie and I chowed down on the shrimp

After dinner Emily wanted us to watch one of her princess movies. I'm laughing at this picture because we were deep in conversation. ha!
We get a lot of tornados here and I am terrified of them. But apparently not as much as Steve - we found out not only does he get them all in the closet when there are storms - but he wears a helmet. And the girls have one too. Actually it's a pretty smart idea! He modeled his helmet for us.

This morning our church service was dedicated to our graduating seniors. Our church does a great job of really focusing on children and youth and we have AMAZING kids come out of our church. So many of them have gone into the ministry or are just inspiring Christians. They are always impressing me. They sang a lot and showed slideshows of pictures of each kid and videos of when they were little. I was SOBBING. I cried so hard I can barely see right now because my contacts are all blurry.

We have had a rough few days lately. Harper has been SO happy since she got her tubes but she hasn't slept a WINK. The last 2 nights she has been up every single hour. I've probably had 4 hours total sleep and she wouldn't nap yesterday either. I've been so tired and frustrated but then today they showed those videos and this one senior girl who I think is precious - they had a little video of when she was probably 2 and she had on a smocked dress with little curls in her hair and she was making faces that reminded me of Harper and I just lost it. Yes - sometimes the days (and nights) are long when you are raising toddlers but I don't want Harper to ever grow up and I realized how quickly time will pass and she will be on that stage in a cap and gown. I'm sure all the parents of these kids were thinking about how it just seemed like yesterday their kids were Harper's age. I could not quit crying.

Or maybe I was crying because I realized these seniors were born when I was in college. ha!