FULL of smiles! : )

"I love smiling! Smiling's my favorite!"



(I can't write this post without thinking a/b one of my favorite movies, 'Elf', w/ actor Will Ferrell).

Our Will started smiling SO much earlier than expected and it truly makes his Momma melt each & every time he shoots one my way! He was literally smiling a day b/f turning 3 weeks old, and Kennedy didn't smile until a/b 5 weeks. And I must say...it is SO handsome and SOOOOOO precious! I started capturing some of them the wk. he turned 3 wks., and haven't quit taking pictures of those open-mouth gummy smiles in the last couple of weeks since. I honestly become mush!

Hope this makes your day a little bit brighter! Go ahead...SMILE! It's VERY contagious! : )







Oh...and Happy 4th too!

Busy weekend in LR

We recently had a very chaotic wknd. in Little Rock! Fun...but VERY busy!

After Patrick was able to get some much-needed hrs. of work in on Friday and after an unexpected battery jump on the church van, we finally headed to LR w/ both kids. Two of the seniors in our MBSF group were getting married the following day, and we were honored to be asked to sing a duet in their wedding. We knew attempting it would be pretty crazy w/ a 3 wk. old & 2 yr. old...but we wanted to try our hardest to do this for them.
After attending rehearsal/rehearsal dinner Fri. night, we spent the night @ my Aunt/Uncle's house in LR. It was a very late night, but the kids did excellent!

Saturday was hectic and HOT, HOT, HOT! Man was it HOT! Of course there were some unexpected newborn (diaper) blow-outs/outfit changes @ the last minute and built-in potty breaks for the 2 yr. old (if needed), but all-in-all...the day went pretty smoothly. K definitely had some melt-downs during the reception due to a lack of a much-needed nap that day (2:00 pm wedding falling right @ nap time). But those are quite expected, so we dealt w/ it & moved on.




After the wedding reception and getting to reunite w/ many of our MBSF students who have all gone home for the Summer, we headed to 2 of our closest friends' home for dinner. Gary and Christen graciously hosted us Sat. & Sun. night, and we had SO much fun staying @ their home! We also truly, truly enjoyed getting to spend some time w/ Christen's sister and brother-in-law, Amy and Tim Sat. night as well. Their daughter, Cassidy, is only a/b 6 mos. younger than Kennedy. Those 2 girlies had a BLAST together the entire night!

There is always LOTS of fun, TONS of laughter, and a little hog-calling when we all get together! And those girls just eat it up! Thanks to both couples for such a delicious dinner Sat. night as well.






(Somehow I managed to only get pictures of Patrick, Gary & the girls that night. ??? Too busy catching up to take pictures I guess.)

We jumped in the van early Sunday morning to drive another couple of hrs. South to Dumas, AR. Patrick was speaking @ a sweet church in Dumas (aka="deputation") who has already been supporting MBSF (monthly) for many yrs. After a great potluck lunch w/ their church family and much conversation getting to know each of them individually, we drove back into Pine Bluff to see some other friends (who weren't home). After realizing that our friends weren't in town that wknd. (shucks!), we settled for a nice family nap in the Wal-Mart parking lot b/f the 2nd deputation that evening.

Sun. night, Patrick spoke @ a precious church in Rowell, AR. A handful of our students joined us for the service, and we were so thankful to have them w/ us. After the loooooong day in PB, we headed back to our friends' home to get a little sleep b/f heading back home early Mon. morning.



Thank you to any and ALL who hosted us @ some point during the wknd. And a special "thank you" to the wonderful churches who let us come share a/b the awesome ministry the Lord has blessed us with! We were more than pleased w/ our 2 munchkins, and we are overwhelmed w/ the beautiful pleasure we have of raising them both! The Lord certainly never gives us more than what we can handle, and we are so blessed.

Play date/photo shoot with the Swansons

On one of our trips to Ft. Smith recently, we fit in a couple of hrs. to get some newborn shots of Will taken. Our friends, Kristin and AJ took the pictures for us and we were extremely happy w/ them! I was nervous a/b how they would turn out, b/c Will had a HORRIBLE red rash all over his face that week (making his eyes swollen and all)...but AJ did a fantastic job editing them to not make it so noticeable! We highly recommend them as friends and as photographers!

Go to photographingsound.com and check 'em out!
You can see a preview of our session on their 'blog' link under the title "Precious Baby Will" (you'll have to click on 'previous posts' @ the bottom left of the page).
OR...
Once you click on 'the blog', click on 'categories' and select 'newborn'. You'll see Will's preview first up if you use this way to find it.

Hope you like them as much as we do! We were a little disappointed that we weren't able to get more full family shots b/f Bubba got hungry and fussy...but we're going to try again next time we see them. However, we love this one below b/c of how it captured K's true personality.



While AJ tried to get Will to fall asleep (like most newborn sessions...except ours) and take the pictures, Kennedy had a grand 'ole time playing w/ their sweet son, Gavin. Gavin is only 6 mos. younger than Kennedy, and they get along SO well! It's pretty amazing @ this age to have 2 toddlers play together for a significant amt. of time and not fight over SOMEthing! We hope to get them together many more times in the future.

Thank you Kristin and AJ for getting us in so soon! You were great to work w/ and it was wonderful to catch up w/ you both as well!

1st (and 2nd) visit to Mema's house

A couple of weeks ago we made 2 short trips down to Ft. Smith to see family. Some of Patrick's extended family from VA was in town who we don't see nearly enough, and it also gave us a chance to let Mema meet Will. Since she hadn't had the chance to make a trip to NWA to see him yet, she was MORE than excited to meet her great-grandson!

The first day I traveled by myself w/ the kids to Mema's for a fun, relaxing Fri. w/ the family (while Patrick worked). Patrick's Mom brought her little inflatable pool for the kids to play in, and they had SOOOOO much fun together! P's cousin, Jeremy, and his wife, Dawn, have 2 awesome twins...who Kennedy and our nieces truly enjoy being around. Will certainly did a lot of sleeping that day of course, but I enjoyed getting to introduce him to some more family nevertheless!




Fun in the Pool












Smelling Mema's flowers




Aunt Kimmy treated everyone to a treat from the Ice Cream Man (who was VERY hard to track down once we heard him...I might add)!
Thank you Kimberly!









The second trip down was as a family to eat dinner @ Mema's w/ the VA family as well. It was a quick trip, but well worth it! We miss seeing Uncle Stan and Aunt Daronda as often as we used to! And, we thoroughly enjoyed visiting and catching up w/ Dawn and Jeremy. We just talked each other's ears off the whole night. Geeez...if we only lived closer! Oh, and the meal Mema made was fabulous as well (of course)!

Will's 1st fishing trip

Two Saturdays ago (@ only 1 1/2 wks. old), Will joined our family for his first official fishing trip. Patrick, his Dad, his sister/brother-in-law, our 2 nieces, Kennedy, Will and I all tried out a new lake for the first time (Lake Wilson in Greenland). The weather was FABulous and we had a great time relaxing outdoors for the afternoon.
Kennedy had so much fun playing w/ her cousins, Patrick loved getting out on his Dad's 2-man water scamp, I enjoyed getting out of the house after straight company the 2 wks. prior, and Will slept through it all! Not many fish were caught or kept, but we still had a lot of fun!

Can't wait to do MANY more of these outings this Summer! Woo hoo! I love Summer for so many reasons!