Louisiana Livin'

Pumpkin Shine!

2019-10-29T11:56:00.001-05:00

Our pumpkin shine display was super sweet this year! All 3 babies enjoyed contributing to the display!

SK painted these "gobstoppers"

Henry's ice cream sundae was so cute!

Bennett loves root beer and made a root beer float!

Pops loves to meet us for a stroll in the park to see all the pumpkins

Look at this sweet display!

5th grade bonfire and Bennett's first deer!

2019-10-27T11:45:00.001-05:00

We hosted the 5th grade bonfire at the camp and the kids had so much fun! Neil took the kids on a hayride on the dried up lake bed, we did s'mores, and the kids did a fun photo scavenger hunt.

We were out at the camp getting the place cleaned up and ready to host 50 when Bennett went out and killed his first deer with Mr. Adam! He was so proud! Adam hung up the deer and skinned it right at his house. Bennett's favorite tidbit was that the bullet when straight through the deer and ended up in the deer's testicles! OH man! Never a dull moment!

Fall Break Fun!

2019-10-20T11:20:00.001-05:00

When you ask Bennett what his favorite place to go on vacation is-he always says "Mrs. Jill's lake!" It is so much fun riding 4 wheelers, having scavenger hunts, doing fires, cooking, and hanging out with friends! Laid back!

We went a day later than everyone else because Bennett puked and we had to wait the 24 hours until we could be around people. Luckily, everything was fine and we were able to go!

Love this 4 wheeler gang!

Nash got his costume for Halloween and wore it the whole time. Get that money's worth, Nash!

SK packed her essentials

This outfit! She wants to wear it 24/7.

Jill's Aunt Judy did a fun scavenger hunt for the kids and she drew a map! The red stars are prize locations.

Ready with their map!

Everyone was a winner!

pumpkin painting!

How cool is this Teepee that Henry built? He is our outdoorsman!

Run 4 FUNds

2019-10-18T16:42:00.024-05:00

Our only year to have all 3 kids at one school! I love that they are all together and I can be at their events. Run 4 Funds this year was fun to see each of them run around the track.

Henry was up first!

Henry and Shante

Henry doesn't care!

Henry loves Officer Hancock

Bennett's turn next!

Bennett loves running!

He is so dedicated!

Sarah Kathryn had so much fun!

Sweet girl!

Fall Carnival

2019-10-17T10:33:00.001-05:00

Fall Carnivals are so much fun! Being in charge of fall carnival is my jam! Our team planned a super awesome fall event for the whole school! We had games, prizes, a stilt walker, balloon animals, and sweet face painting!

Committee members and college roommates=winning team

Bennett's last year for fall carnivals

Working hard made for hardly any pictures. We looked fancy though!

Random Fall Fun

2019-10-11T16:28:00.001-05:00

We had lots of fun and spent some good times together!

Henry had a project to disguise a turkey. He wanted to make him into a scientist and I think we he did a great job! We were able to do this during the day during school and in pjs because Henry was suspended for 3 days. He brought his Swiss Army knife to school and showed it to friends on the playground. My sweet little knife enthusiast. I guess I never knew I needed to tell my children not to bring a knife to school. So here's my PSA: tell your children point blank-DO NOT BRING WEAPONS to school.

My small group from our women's retreat got together for dinner. I love these ladies!

Not sure how this happened, but we had to go tour middle school for Bennett! Like what? How is my baby old enough for middle school?

For some reason he didn't want to take this picture

Neil and Sarah Kathryn had a fun daddy/daughter bowling night!

Her light up Halloween box! YES!

Jenn's sister and BFF came to town so we had to have a ladies night at Rockin' Rodeo! I love ladies nights!

Mama night!

Bennett has been loving his "Step-Up" ministry at church! It is a special group for 5th and 6th graders only.

We had favorite book character day at school to celebrate our librarian's retirement. We love a dress up day!

Harry Potter, Elsa, and a baseball player

SK and Davis!

Revel 2019

2019-10-02T16:23:00.001-05:00

The best local festival! The Revel!

We dug, shopped, ate, and played. It's the best every year!

Magical Unicorns T-ball

2019-09-22T20:11:00.000-05:00

Sister said she really wanted to play t-ball! We have several little sisters all around the same age who have been going out to Little League for years to watch their brothers and now it was their turn!

Whew! The Magical Unicorns were tough! They were fierce! And they won every game! I think it'll be our last year to play as SK didn't really feel like it was her thing.

As always, we were the best dressed team. Pink jerseys, unicorn socks, and awesome custom unicorn hats. First step: look good.

Here's our girl up to bat!

SK and Adley Kate

Look at that swing!

So cute!

Unicorn themed snacks for after the game: yes, please!

Lucy and SK

The hottest coach around: Neil! He owned it!

Henry and year round swim

2019-09-20T16:15:00.003-05:00

Henry "decided" to do year round swim. By decided, I mean he hates swim the least and he needs exercise. Henry would be content to play video games all day, but his whole demeanor changes once he finishes!

This is his first meet with his Christus crew!

Hudson and Henry

We love cheering you on, Henry!

Bennett's last grandparents day!

2019-09-20T16:07:00.001-05:00

Bennett's last grandparents day was super fun! All 4 grandparents came to celebrate with him! Nana and Granddad even brought lunch to Henry and Sarah Kathryn. What a special day!

FUMC Women's Retreat

2019-09-15T15:58:00.000-05:00

The weekend we've been planning for a year is finally here! Our FUMC Women's Retreat! This retreat was just what I needed to feel recharged and refreshed. The theme was "rest" and boy did we get some rest in!

I was honored to be on the planning team with some amazing people. We had 2 missionaries fly in from Costa Rica and Romania to speak and pray and they really brought the word! It was just so uplifting to be in their presence.

I got to arrive early to help "set the stage" and do a mic and music check. A microphone is my love language.

Ashley (one of the most amazing godly people ever, Stefania (from Romania), me, and Sweet Yolanda from Costa Rica)

We put these on each lady's pillow before they arrived

We had lots of small group time and it was just so good to be together.

Look how sweet! ladies able to relax and rest while looking at the lake

The breakfast at Pine Cove was out of this world! I had to send this pic to my breakfast buddies because they know I'm an oatmeal junkie!

When Ashley and I started talking about the retreat-we both started praying that 20 ladies would want to join us. We didn't tell each other this number until later and we ended up with 72 ladies! We filled up the whole camp and we were just praying for 20! God just worked it all out for us!

So happy to have my besties there!

Retreat team!

Girls from my Sunday school class: Emily, Crystal, Kay, Christy, Stacie, Brigette, me, Ashley, and Emily

Me with the fabulous Yolanda!

This is the song that was sort of the theme song for the weekend. When I got in the car to leave-this was on! Coincidence? I think not!

Dad is 70!

2019-09-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

We went on our annual dinner for Dad's birthday with his BFF Dwight. (As I type this, Dwight passed away a couple weeks ago in March 2020-he will be missed.)

Neil and Bennett had baseball so the 3 of us went to celebrate at Bella Fresca!

We got Dad a custom made Smathers and Branson belt and he loves it!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Dad 's oFISHal 70th birthday party!

2019-09-07T15:43:00.000-05:00

We had a super fun 70th birthday party for Dad. We hosted it at his house because his house has away better party lay out and it just worked. Dad loves to fish and loves fried fish so that was our theme!

His cake was a "favorite things" cake and had all of his favorites! fishing, AA, root beer, travel, chick o' stick, reading, horses, ice cream, tea, golf, and dogs! Such a fun cake!

Kids table of all things fishing bait and adorable cookies

Kroger made the flower arrangements and they were perfect!

Since dad has been in the paper business for 40 years we had custom notepads and fish pens for the favors.

Cousin Sue Sue and Dad

The best! I couldn't have pulled off this party without them!

Pops and his favorite people

My best girl!

So glad Nana and Granddad came!

The best guests/helpers ever!

Cousin Abbie and Dad

I love taking pics of people mid bite! We love Jerry Hodge!

My brother was in charge of table decor

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate Dad's 70th! We had a great time!

Celebratin'

2019-09-06T15:29:00.000-05:00

A few of us went to the ALTAPL golf tournament dinner and prize portion of the night. So glad we went as we were big winners!

Jill won a box of golf balls, I won a golf bag that I sold to someone for $100, Justin won whiskey, and Neil won yet another yeti cup!

We got up and at 'em the next morning for Paul's 2nd birthday party! It was balloon themed-his favorite! So happy to be able to celebrate one of my favorite little boys!

Amy and I gave him this Jon Hart dopp kit! Essential!

Career Day

2019-09-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

We had a fun career day at school for Junior Achievement. Henry dressed as a scientist, Bennett a baseball player and SK dressed as a cheerleader because her Vet outfit didn't fit.

2 soccer players and a baseball player

2 scientists!

We met Dad and Uncle Mike at Marble Slab for an after school treat! It's always a treat when Uncle Mike comes to town!

Fun with Daddy!

2019-08-31T15:12:00.000-05:00

Daddy is the most fun! He took the boys fishing in Arkansas with my dad.

They caught this 1 fish.

And Neil and Sarah Kathryn are participating in Adventure Guides with the Y. It is such a cute Father/Daughter program!

Outfits and Playdates

2019-08-24T15:17:00.000-05:00

Girl uniforms are sooooo much more fun than boy ones. We have so many options for Sister!

a little game of "I have never" with the boys is a tad different than when I played in college.

Sweet JM and Henry

A sleepover with Camilla!

Ladies Night

2019-08-17T15:05:00.000-05:00

We were invited to a Chief Prator fundraising party and since Neil and the boys were out of town fising-we made it a girls night! What a fun event!

After the event, my brother was playing at Bear's so we all went to watch!

Sarah bought some of his swag!

Sweetest Lillian turns 1!

2019-08-17T11:04:00.000-05:00

We've been so excited to celebrate Lillian's 1st birthday! This year really flew and we loved watching her grow! We also loved watching the cousins love on each other every chance they got! Lillian is truly Bennett, Henry, and Sarah Kathryn's favorite person!

Since Lillian is basically allergic to everything she got to have a sno-cone party because she isn't allergic to ice! And she happened to not be allergic to watermelon at the time so she got to have a little syrup on her cone! So much fun!

Of course, Boodle had the party looking like something out of a magazine and it was perfection!

These favors! She had custom cups made and I did the tags

Cookies! cupcakes! Oh my!

She had the party catered by Uptown Downtown and it was all so good.

Sweetport did the snow cones

Beloved Aunt Lindsey and Beloved Uncle Neil and Uncle Andrew

Boodle made the fab balloon decor

Happy 1st birthday!

Well loved!!!!

Back to School Friday

2019-08-16T14:57:00.000-05:00

Whew! Back to school is so much fun and a little bit tiring!

We were able to celebrate Henry's 8th birthday with his class and Nerf themed cookies!

Sister got to have her first class of Art and the teacher sent me this pic!

Bennett had a back to school swim party with all the 5th graders! What a fun event!

Sarah Kathryn goes to school!

2019-08-16T14:42:00.000-05:00

Sarah Kathryn has been wanting to be at Fairfield for as long as I can remember! She has been my little sidekick at FEM for 5 years! This will also be our only year to have all 3 kids at one school together. What a dream.

Sister got to stay home for 4 days until she started on Friday. It was fun to be together until school! We had fun doing a couple projects (she loved!) and we even got her ears re-pierced!

So brave!

Arden and SK got their ears pierced together and the lady gave each of them their own lip gloss!

Her favorite: the library

Pops even gave her a set of pearl earrings for Kindergarten!

It's time! The night before Kindergarten!

She wants to be a vet!

Our sweet baby bulldog!

Our fab principal and SK.

Mrs. Fajardo (her teacher)

Mrs. Fajardo taught all 3 of ours kindergarten!

So proud!

Her table: Lucy, SK, and Mumtahina

She got a little scared as we were leaving, but ended up having a great day!

Henry is 8!

2019-08-11T17:57:00.000-05:00

This tiny little new born baby is 8 years old!

Happy 8th birthday Henry!

We brought donuts to Sunday school to celebrate!

And he wanted Whataburger for dinner. mmmmm

Back to School Breakfast

2019-08-11T14:23:00.000-05:00

I like to celebrate Back to School each year with a breakfast. It has evolved over the years and I think we finally found the best way to do it! Breakfast for dinner the night before school starts! Everyone scarfs down the entire meal because we are big breakfast fans. They each get their special Back to school prize-o and it is so much fun!

Their last year at FEM!

Can't believe these babies will be heading to middle school!

Henry and his sweet teacher, Ms. Tanner.

William and Henry

Back to school breakfast for the moms!

Henry's 8th birthday party!

2019-08-09T17:27:00.000-05:00

Henry wanted a Nerf party and we were excited to deliver! We had it at D1 and it was such a fun time! I like doing parties on Friday nights because it gives other parents a date night and your whole weekend isn't taken over by a party. The earliest they do parties is 7pm! It makes it hard for little ones, but we made it work for us!

Nana and Granddad came over for lunch and gave Henry his gift. They don't love the parties because the birthday kid is always running around not spending time with the grandparents. This way they get all the attention. I get it!

Daniel is always up for a good time!

one of the first birthday parties my brother has attended and we've had about 25. So glad he came!

Love these FESTIVE FAVORS!

What a good friends: she brought cocktails.

Lewis cousins! We are obsessed with Lillian!

Daniel, Henry, and Lillian

Caden and Henry

So much fun!

Nash!

Gammy came in town for the party!

The girls kept hiding all the darts in the tires!

Invite and cupcakes

Back to School Parties

2019-08-06T17:15:00.000-05:00

We went to Sarah Kathryn's Kindergarten back to school party at Air U. The turn out wasn't that great, but the kids had fun!

The 5th grade back to school party was so well attended pretty much like it has been the last 6 years!

We headed over to Ruston for a princess day for SK at 2 High with Aunt Becky!