Sunday, April 27, 2008

Safari in Arkansas


we had too much fun on our trip to the safari out in gentry this last week. the best part was getting to play with our new monkey friend, kiwi. she was the cutest thing ever! hadley loved seeing all of the "cows" that is what she called everything on four legs.















Wednesday, April 23, 2008

ok so i have said for a long time now that i want to travel around on the back roads of the south and take pictures of old barns. i love old barns i think they are so simple and rusticly pretty and they make me think of a simpler time when families just worked together to survive. nobody builds real wooden barns anymore they are always the cheap meatal buildings.
anyway...i was driving home the other day and i passed a field that i seriously have passed thousands of times before and back behind the fence i saw a beautiful old barn. i decided that i should start taking pictures of the barns right next door to me. all of these different barns are within a 5 minute walk from my house! i just have never taken the time to really notice them. my favorite one is the red barn in the big green field. i went out on wednesday evening b/c there was a big storm brewing and i knew the lighting would be great. hadley waited in the car while i took the pictures with lightening all around me. i kept thinking that it probably wasn't the smartest thing to walk around with a metal tri-pod with lightening striking all around. oh-well. i had a lot of fun doing it.






Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Life Changing

why, why, why has it taken me my whole life (at least it feels that way) to figure out the laundry and the laundry room?? ell...i think i finally did with the help of mark. we started using bins for everyone and added another laundry basket/sorter in the laundry room. then i made myself a wrapping paper station using pegboard. i love it! it has been a little over a week and i can't believe the difference in the whole house. now whenever i find junk of the kids i throw it in their bin. how does that work? something like this:
kid: "mom can i go bla bla bla???"
me: "check your bin, is it empty?."
now, as weird as it sounds, i love to do laundry. i always loved it because of the smell but hated pretty much everything else about it. the folding and putting away and it taking my whole life. blargh! now it is simple--a little batch here a little batch there. done. even mark likes to do laundry now. this has been life changing.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

go comets!

braden had a soccer tournament this weekend. we all went out to the fields to watch the games and enjoy the beautiful weather.
later tonight we were getting dressed in out church clothes (a little out of the ordinary since it was saturday) to go to the Springdale Stake dedication.
chad- "what are we going to do after we go to church?"
mark-"if you're good maybe we'll go get something to eat."
chad-"but....we're going to come home and change our clothes right??? because we don't want to look like church people."

Friday, April 18, 2008

so....i decided last night that i want to get better at photography. i keep saying to myself that i'm going to do it sometime but now is the time. who better to practice on??? my sweet bff hadley of course. i only shot today in the av mode. these were a few of my favs. i don't know if i'm getting better but we sure had fun playing outside.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

i heart little girls in high heels....

when i went to get hadley up this morning her hair looked like it was on fire, the way it was sticking straight up everywhere. she is addicted to her blankets and bottle she has to have both right after she gets out of her crib. i love to sit and hold her as she drinks her bottle in the morning (yes i know she is too old for the bottle but it works for now...)
hadley loves to put her high heels on and walk everywhere especially outside pushing a stroller. i personally can't think of anything less desirable to do but she loves it, and even though i wouldn't do it i love to watch her walking around in her pink high heels.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

"mom i can't hold on!" chad

so....we had so much flying kites on saturday i decided to do it again. a bunch of us moms met at the park ready for another perfect day of kite flying. it really was quite crazy all of the tangled string and kite tails and a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds wanting it to be "their turn".
chad got his kite in the air--he had all of the string let out and the kite was f-lying so high! but....if the kite was a little bigger or chad was a little smaller, chad would have flown away. chad started yelling, "mom i can't hold on!!!" he let go and we both chased after the kite only to have the spool get caught in the tree. the kite however kept on flying high for the rest of the day.





Sunday, April 13, 2008

i heart dogwood trees

april is one of my favorite times of year because of the beautiful spring we get here in arkansas and all of the beautiful dogwood trees that lace the forest. the dogwood has always been a special tree to me because when i see the trees i think of the legend i learned as a kid. today i had to go out and take some pictures of the dogwood trees in our backyard.
the legend....
at the time of Crucifixion the dogwood had been the size of the oak and other forest trees. so firm and strong was the tree that it was chosen as the timber for the cross. to be used thus for such a crul purpose greatly distressed the tree, and Jesus nailed upon it, sensed this. in His gengle pity for all sorrow and suffering Jesus said to the tree: "because of your regret and pity for My suffering, never, again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross--two long and two short petals. and in the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns and all who see it will remember."

Saturday, April 12, 2008

"my kite is happy!" chad

on the way home after sitting at the soccer fields and freezing my tail off because of the constant strong wind, i decided that it was going to be a perfect kite day. i was right. we had so much fun flying the kites. there was a steady strong wind and we had no problem at all getting our kites up. we ended up flying our kites for over 2 hours- what a perfect way to spend the afternoon with my kiddos.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Hadley & Mollie

Nana made matching Easter dresses for Hadley & Mollie so we wanted to get their pictures taken together. Everything started out well but.....then it pretty much ended with crying (look at last picture). April 3, 08












Wednesday, April 9, 2008

"Hump it UP...No, I mean Pump it Up." Chad

Pump it up is Chad & Hadley's favorite place in the world and we make the trek up to Bentonville once a week to go.
The first time that we visited Chad kept thanking me over and over for taking him to "trump it up". I finally corrected him and told him that it's not trump it up it's Pump it Up. The next thing I know he is saying, "Thank you mommy for taking me to Hump it Up." I tried correcting him again but no luck. The next Sunday I was told by some friends that when he got up to say the prayer in Primary at church he said, "Thank you Heavenly Father that we could go to Hump it Up."

Now Chad knows the correct way to say the name of his favorite place. On the way home and every day Chad now asks me, "Mommy, how many more sleeps until we can go to Pump it Up?"


Chad & Julia about to go down the slide.


Chad & his bestfriend Elisa.


Hadley going down the slide all by herself.


Adriane & baby Olivia.

Me and Hadley trying to take a self portrait.

Peek-a-boo- a favorite game of Hadley's.





Hadley & Julia jumping.






A trip to "Sognic" with grilled cheese caps off a fun morning. It's America's Drive In.


This picture needs a Sonic stamp across it like in the commercials. That's what it looks like to me.

Elisa in her car next to us at Sonic

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

I love Spring in Arkansas

High Bank Twins Falls- March 29, 2008
We had so much fun on Saturday on our hike up to high Bank Twin Falls. We have had a bunch of rain this spring so much that there has been some flooding around us. The good thing about all of the rain is that it eans good waterfalls. Our family along with Allen & Becca's family ad the Harvey kids drove out a ways on the Pig Trail (yes that is the real nae of the road) to a place in the Ozark Nationa Forest. Driving on the Pig Trail is one of my favorite drives (it used to make me super sick as a kid with all of the hair pin turns) it is especially pretty this time of year with all of the beautiful dogwood trees in bloom.
This is a perfect waterfall to go to with kids because it is only.5 miles round trip. We barely started hiking before we reached the waterfall. The best part about seeing a waterfall is the pool of water below the waterfall perfect for throwing rocks into. In Arkansas there are always plenty of rocks. So we stayed for a good amount of time so the kids could throw rocks and climb around on the boulders.