July and August Recap

I am getting worse and worse about posting. I think about it everytime I check my email and I even read other blogs but can't seem to ever find the time to post myself. I thought I would recap the last few months with a few pictures.

This post is way over-due. My 29th birthday was June 26th and our 9th anniversary was July 1st. Mat took me on a surprise trip and told me it was for our anniversary. We got all dressed up and I didn't know where we were going. He took me to Hot Springs to the Hot Springs Belle where we went on our 1st anniversary. When I walked on the boat, I was greeted by my family and three of my very best friends and their husbands. It was a surprise belated birthday party. Mat decided he would do a big surprise for my 29th instead of my 30th - that way I wouldn't be expecting anything. It was so sweet of all my friends and family to make that trip for me. Jeff and Bridget stayed over with us and Bridget and I had a day of shopping and the spa the next day. It was lots of fun. The sweetest part though was on the boat when Mat had a song played for me. He wrote and recorded the song. It was all about our life together. Oh my- too sweet. Thank you honey, for a wonderful surprise and trip. I love you!!

Me and my oldest. He still talks about momma's party on the big boat.

The whole party.

We drove back on the Fourth of July just in time to get baths, jammies, and go watch the annual Harding display of fireworks. I just love fireworks! Easton covered his ears the whole time but loved to watch and name all the colors with me.

My grandpa had probably his biggest garden ever this year. He worked so hard on it and we all have enjoyed the fresh veggies. He had one very large area of just tomatoes. He let the boys go out one day and pick tomatoes. They loved it!

Pa taught them which ones were ready for picking and which ones still needed to ripen.

This was one day before we went up to Nana's to play outside. I thought they looked so cute in their muscle shirts and hats turned around backwards.

We took a spur of the moment trip to Memphis one Saturday and took the boys to the zoo and to see a baseball game. Unfortunately it rained really hard while we were at the zoo and we could only stay for a couple of hours. They had fun though and we were able to see all the main animals. We all got Zoo Ponchos.

Checking out the elephants.

After the zoo, we ate lunch and went to our hotel and everyone took a nap. How wonderful!! We were fully rested and thankful for the great weather to go the baseball game. The game was lots of fun. The boys thought it was really cool to see the baseball players and the big Redbird Mascot. Although Easton wanted the other team to win because they were wearing blue - and..."blue is my favorite color." They both were so good and we made it all the way to the 7th inning.

Lawson loves to ride the mower with his daddy. Pretty much he will do anything with his daddy, but this day, he had watched him out the window the whole time Mat was mowing saying, "I ide dat." (I ride that.) He was thrilled when I finally let him go outside and ride with daddy.

Ahh.... Easton's first day of Pre-K at Harding. He is going Tuesday/Thursday all day. He has been very excited about going to "big school." He did wonderful! He walked right in to his classroom, found his seat and starting playing. He didn't even blink an eye when I said I was leaving, he just said, "okay, bye." My big boy. He is such an easy, sweet boy. I praise the Lord for him.

Lawson fell asleep on the living room floor. We have been getting up earlier since school started and everyone has been taking good naps. I felt bad this day because he was just watching tv and I looked over and he laid down in this position and didn't move a muscle. Needless to say, he didn't even know when I moved him to his bed.

My little cowboys!! Easton's little children's church had a western day this past Sunday. He looked so cute! Saturday night we were dressing Easton up trying to decide what he should wear. Lawson, "Mr. Monkey See-Monkey Do", said he wanted to be a "ow-boy" too. Even though Lawson was just going to the nursery, we had two little cowboys. They looked so cute!

Thanks for checking in on us. We are doing good - staying very busy but doing good. We are loving the cooler weather the Lord has given us and it is giving me an inching for fall, hay, and football. Easton will start soccer soon. Mat is going to coach his little team. That should be another fun adventure. Lawson is growing up more and more. He is really trying hard to talk and doing very well. He is putting lots of words together and saying new things all the time. He also keeps us all laughing. He is such a ham!! We praise the Lord for our wonderful growing family.

Trip to the Zoo

I have been saying for about a year that I wanted to take Easton to the zoo in Memphis.  I have heard great things about it and knew he would LOVE it. He loves animals of all kinds and I knew this would be right up his alley. As part of a mother's day surprise, Mat bought tickets to the zoo. We drove to Memphis last Friday night and went to the zoo on Sat. morning. It was soo much fun! Easton was so excited about the whole thing. We counted down the days until it was time to go - so the anticipation was enormous.  He woke up that morning, looked around to see where we were, then said, "can I go to the zoo now?" It was so fun to watch him while he saw in person all these animals that he has been looking at in books and on tv for about 3 years now. The animals he wanted to see the most were elephants, giraffes, turtles, and bears. He was so funny though when we saw an animal, he would look at it, talk about it for minute and then run off and say "okay let's go see more animals!" I said he is just like any other man - no lingering - see what you want to see and move on. : ) We saw pretty much all the animals at the Memphis zoo, saw a sea loin show, played on the playground, rode the train, tried to ride the carousel, but Easton decided he didn't like it once we got on and had a wonderful time. Lawson was a trooper the whole time. Although he is too little to care about the animals, he seemed to enjoy being outside and even took a pretty good nap in the stroller that morning. Both kids were fast asleep by the time we strolled them back to the car that afternoon. It was a trip that I hope Easton remembers for a long time. I know I will.