Weekend in Dallas

This past weekend Josh and I hit the road to Dallas with our friends Jenny and Todd to see our friends Laura, Brad, and Baby Braysen. Braysen was born November 5th (did I get that right, Laura?) and we knew we had to take a trip to spend some time with him.

Todd and Jenny

Josh and I...man I look rough.

When we got to their house we all just sat up and talked a while. It was so nice being there. They have the cutest house. After we woke up I gladly offered to go get a crying Braysen.

Boy did I enjoy cuddling with him!

Laura made us breakfast that was really good. This is Josh's plate. :)

Jenny got her some good cuddle time with him too.

About mid-morning Jenny and Todd left to go see a friend of theirs in Ft. Worth. While they were gone Laura, Braysen and I went on a walk, went to lunch, and played some in the nursery.

This boy LOVES to be outside.

Mommy and Son

Here Braysen was introduced to Baby Einstein for the first time. An instant hit.

This is how we spent Friday afternoon. It was so nice and relaxing. When dinner time came around we all went to Pei Wei. Afterwards Jenny and I were thrilled to be right next door to a HUGE Joann's! In case you don't know Joann's is like a Hobby Lobby. It has tons of fabric, patterns, thread, etc. We both bought us a few fun things for projects we have going on.

Don't we look excited?!?!

I wasn't the only one in our family who got a little something. Josh found himself a Motown CD.

Todd and Josh enjoyed listening to the CD.

When we got back to Laura and Brad's, Laura had dessert waiting on us.

Oh so good! Diet...what diet?

Random.

Jenny and Braysen before we left to head home

Life long friends. The sweater I wore makes me look 200 lbs. What on earth was I thinking!??

Macy...Laura's other child.

Cute Family

By the time we were about to leave Josh was ready to hold Braysen. Josh LOVES children but sometimes babies scare him a little.



Giving him a kiss

Trying to pose him for the camera.

What a wonderful time we had with you Laura, Brad, and Braysen. We'll have to do it again soon!!!

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After we left their house we headed to IKEA!! I had never been to one so I was THRILLED!



I told Josh when we have kids we're going to haul a trailer to Dallas and go shopping. There was so much great stuff. We got a few things but not many. After shopping at Ikea we worked up an appetite and went to Cheesecake Factory. Our lunch was great but our dessert was even better.

Red Velvet Cheesecake. WOW! I shared it with Josh. Aren't I nice?

We did stop by the outlet malls in Allen before heading home. What a great weekend we had. We have such great friends and I'm so very thankful for them. After two weekends of traveling though Josh and I are staying home this next weekend.

Cel-e-brate Good Times, Come On!

What a GREAT weekend Josh and I have had. Friday around 3:00 we loaded up the car and headed to Northwest Arkansas. When we arrived went met Laurie and Steve for dinner. We had a wonderful time with them. They are so fun to be around. I've known Laurie for a long time now and she has to be one of my favorite friends. She's so funny and entertaining. I wish we were able to be around them more often but I'm so thankful for the time we were able to spend together. I'm also thankful for their hospitality and giving Josh and I a place to sleep for the night. Anyway, where was I...after dinner we followed them to go pick up Emily and Sarah Kate and then headed back to their house to spend some time with the girls before bed.

Here they are with the coloring books I brought them.

Josh loves the girls and really enjoyed spending time with them...even coloring. After the coloring Emily decided to dress me up as a princess while Josh held Sarah Kate while she was winding down and preparing for bed. Why I don't have pictures of this I'll never know. We had lots of fun playing with the girls.

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Saturday morning we all woke up to get ready for the weekend's main event, Harper's first birthday party. Oh how I have looked forward to this day for a long. You see, the last time Josh and I stayed with Laurie and Steve was when we were on our way to Tulsa to see Harper in the hospital. I'll never forget that day as long as I live. Praise the Lord for all He has done. There is no way I could have missed celebrating with Scott, Kelly, and Harper as well as their families.

These are the CUTEST dresses and I plan to learn how to make them myself!

I had to take a picture of Josh with his favorite girl. Don't get me wrong he loves Emily and Harper too but Sarah Kate has always stolen his heart.

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We soon arrived at the party and boy did Kelly do a good job. It was perfect! Every detail was so thought out and beautifully put together. That's just Kelly. I told her she's going to be planning the first birthday parties for mine and Josh's children one day.

Two more of my favorite girls.

SWEET!! You know I gravitated to this table.

Harper sure loves Laurie.

I even got to hold the birthday girl for a while and loved every second of it. She was so good even though it was time for a nap.

This cake was sooooooooooo good! I had the red velvet and oh. my. word. I've always been a fan of Rick's Bakery but they really did a good job on this one.

Too much excitement and Harper had to stop and refuel.

At this time we're all singing to her and she's a little unsure about what's going on.

The girl likes cake! Who can blame her?!

Josh and I had to leave while Harper was finishing up her cake and I was really sad to go. We had so much fun though. I also should mention that I was able to meet my blog friend, Jennifer. I read her blog all the time and she and I both have some of the same friends so it was great to get to actually meet her and hold her sweet Brody. And I'm all for the arranged marriage between he and Harper.

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After the party Josh and I left to meet my friend Ashley at her clinic. She and some other therapists recently opened up a clinic and I've really been wanting to see it. Wow, it is wonderful. Any of you in the Northwest Arkansas area with children in need of an occupational, speech, physical therapist, etc you need to check them out. The clinic is awesome and the therapists are wonderful. Click here for more information.



After we met Ashley we hurried to Bud Walton Arena to watch the HOGS play the TIDE. What a great game! Thanks, Laurie and Steve for the tickets. Josh and I had a lot of fun and the Hogs won! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the game ended we got in our car and headed back to "the Rock". We were glad to be getting home relatively early. On our way home we made one last stop here to finish off the weekend. Boy did we enjoy ourselves.

Sew Fun

Wow, another new year all ready. Can you believe it? I certainly can't. I was thinking about my resolutions for the year and decided to check on mine from last year. You can read them here. I didn't do so great on a couple points but on others I'm pretty proud of myself. So for this year I'm not really going overboard with my resolutions. We still want to keep working at our goal of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. It's been going well so far but we have a ways to go. And of course I want to lose weight but that's not anything "new". I actually started the process back in August and although it has been slow it has been successful. The NEW thing for the year has to do with a NEW found interest...sewing. It is so fun! It stresses me out sometimes but I love it. I was able to get a machine that is a lot more advanced than my other one. I asked a bunch of experienced sewers, read lots of reviews, checked out machines on consumer reports and what I determined wasn't super fascinating. One person liked one machine another person like another machine and it all had to do with what they were used to and what suited them. So from there I went around to local dealers and one got me interested in Brother Innovis machines. I know there are lots of Brothers and some aren't very good but these got great reviews. I also heard a lot of good things about Bernina but they are out of my price range. What ended up happening was that Josh and I went to a dealer that had a used machine (one year old) for a really good price and I was able to get it. I know, you're thinking, some road to financial peace. Well, don't worry I used my Christmas money and some other money we had set aside. This machine certainly didn't affect our budget. So with all that said, here she is asleep...

and here she is awake...

Here's what they used to show me an embroidery sample

When I first got it I was less concerned about embroidering and more concerned if I could thread a bobbin with ease. Yep, I sure can!

I think there are going to be lots of good times shared with my machine. She needs a name, any suggestions??? No, Laurie, I'm not naming her Kristen. :) Lucky for me my sewing classes started back up last night. I made a CUTE apron. It's not finished yet but I will post pictures when it is. I have lots of things I'd like to try to make soon. In fact next week I'm getting started on my gifts for this year. Should be fun. I'm excited and hopeful that 2010 will be lots of fun sewing.

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On a random note, Josh got a new toy too. Since he came to Hobby Lobby and didn't complain while my mom, sister, and I shopped he was able to get a treat. Ha. Here's what he got...

He loved it! Boys are just big kids.

Chloe was traumatized by it.

Later that night she went and hid under the bed when Josh got it out. That was right before Josh took it outside to fly it and it landed on the roof at my parent's house. We're supposed to get 50 mph winds tomorrow so I hope that gets it off. It was fun while it lasted.

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Oh yeah, did you know Burger King has a cupcake shake?!?!? I got online to read what people thought about it. It got mixed reviews so I figured I need to try it myself (on my cheat day of course). I for one thought it was delicious.

And so cute!