Weekend Recap

We have had a busy weekend! Since Friday was our anniversary, Chris and I went out to dinner at this great italian restaurant downtown, Bordino's. It's a really nice place and for us, it's a place to go to for special occasions. We had fantastic wine, tenderloin steaks, grilled asparagus and potatoes. We even got a yummy free dessert because it was our anniversary. It was a lemon tart with fresh blueberries and raspberry sorbet...it was delish and we polished it right off!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

What a difference a year makes!

While we were at dinner, Sara Kate spent some great quality time with her Meme! They had lots of fun playing and eating and playing some more!
Saturday, Chris and I helped host a wedding shower (it was actually like a wedding party) for our friends Joanna and Richy. They have a sweet little love story...he's from Dublin, Ireland, they met when she went to study abroad during college, they stayed friends, they decided they liked each other, Joanna moved to Ireland to see if they could make it work, and now they're getting married next month! Yay! Anyway, I went to help the girls set up Saturday morning, and I took Sara Kate with me so Chris could make salsa to take to the shower. She was super cute in a little purple outfit, purple bow, and white socks with purple tips...this one lady helping out is VERY impressed with Chris and his ability to take care of Sara Kate this summer...today at church, she was even telling people how cute she was and that he dressed her all by himself. He's a good daddy and people notice...aww! Anyway, I ended up wearing her in the Baby Bjorn and that worked out well. She actually took a little nap...gasp!! Ha! I came home, finished making what I needed to make for the shower, and took some cute pictures of our girl.
While we were at the party, Meme came over to take care of Sara Kate. They have had great bonding time this weekend. Thanks again, Meme...we love you! We got home kinda late and today we're pretty tired, but we ended up having a great time. Today we had church and then this afternoon we had a few errands to run. I needed to go to Kohl's to exchange a cute little 4th of July outfit someone gave Sara Kate. Fortunately, I found a dress in 3 month size and was able to exchange. Ya'll will have to wait for another week to see her all decked out in that adorable outfit! :-) Sara Kate was great while we were out and even took a little nap...again, gasp! Ha! We got home and she was in such a good mood so I took some pictures of her being adorable. She can be such a little ham when she wants to be...it's so cute!
Whew! Wish I had another day to recuperate! I'll definitely be looking forward to the long holiday weekend! Hope everyone has a great week!

5 years

5 years ago, on June 25, 2005, Chris and I said 'I Do'. It was a wonderfully hot June day, and we were surrounded by our family and friends.

In the last 5 years, we have bought a house...
*this snow picture was the only one I could quickly find...
We have adopted 2 dogs from the animal shelter...
We have visited some great places...
And we have created the most perfect little girl we could have ever imagined.

The last 5 years have been wonderful, and I look forward to seeing what the next 5...times 5...times 5...etc. bring!

Chris, I love you more than you'll ever know, and I am eternally grateful that God put you in my life. I look forward to many, many, MANY more years filled with love.

University of Arkansas

The other night we took Sara Kate to the university for the first time. We showed her where our names are engraved on the Senior Walk. We showed her the library and Old Main, the university's most iconic building (outside the stadiums). We took her to the Peace Fountain, and we even ran into an old high school classmate of mine. Daddy told her she could go to the U of A if she wanted to go into engineering or business but otherwise she'd have to go somewhere else. Ha! Kidding!! She can go wherever she wants! And of course I told her that when she's a big girl she'll get to go to lots of Razorback sporting events. The only places we didn't hit were the stadiums. It was getting dark so we'll have to stroll down Stadium Drive another time. Sara Kate was so good on our stroll, and it was exciting to take her to a place that's so special to us! Chris took his big fancy camera and took some great pictures on campus. So he gets all the credit for these!

*I know the last picture is kind of random...I just thought it was a cool looking tree!

Happy Father's Day

I didn't get this post up yesterday, but Sara Kate wished her daddy a very Happy 1st Father's Day!

She surprised him and wore this adorable little outfit to church!

She says, aren't I adorable??

She also wished her Poppa a Happy Father's Day!

The only person we were missing was her Grandpa Greer. Dad, she said, 'ahh, coo, gee, ahh, ooo, gee' which I'm sure meant Happy Father's Day to you, too!

Now here's an amusing story for you all. I had this grand idea to paint Sara Kate's hand prints on a coffee mug for Chris for Father's Day. I looked into the local 'paint your own pottery' store, and what do ya know, it was closed! I have no idea how a place like that would go out of business in an area like Northwest Arkansas. Oh well, plan B. My mom and I went to Hobby Lobby and they had a kit. The lady pointed me to paint that's safe for kids and told me that you just have to bake it in the oven after painting to make it dishwasher safe. Perfect! Time was ticking down and we still hadn't been able to do it. Then it just so happened to work out that last Sunday when Sara Kate and I didn't go to church was the perfect time to do this little project. I called Bob (Chris' dad) to come over and help. Thankfully he was available! He got here, I got everything set up on the kitchen table, took off Sara Kate's clothes, and we were ready. As soon as I sat down I thought, how exactly am I going to do this?? You see, Sara Kate tends to ball her hands up, especially when you want them to be open. So I did my best to pry her hand open, I rubbed it onto the plate with the paint, and attempted to hand print the coffee mug. Disaster! Then Bob thought, lets try her feet. Great! So her foot goes into the paint ( and of course, she curls her toes under) and onto the coffee mug goes her foot print. Disaster! It was just paint blobs on this mug. I don't know what made me think that putting a 2-month old's hand prints on a mug would work. Seriously, disaster is the best word to describe it! In the meantime, Sara Kate had rubbed her 'painted' hand on her head, on the back of her head, on her face, on my arm, on my pants, on her socks, on my shirt...get the picture? Speaking of picture, I WISH someone would have been here to take pictures of this event. It was a disaster but it was hilarious!!! She got a second bath for the day and I cleaned up. Part 2 of the plan was for me to paint her name and birth date on the mug. That part worked alright. I guess that's the difference in the skills of an almost 30 year old and a 2 month old...ha!!! I put the mug in the oven and got it out just before Chris got home from church and the grocery store. And here's the finished product.

Here's a foot print (and I never said my painting of her name and birth date was good)...

Here's the FANTASTIC hand print...

And we tried a foot print a second time...

As you can see, the project was a gigantic FAIL, but it's a great memory! I think we should try this project every year to see how things improve. Maybe one day Chris will actually end up with hand prints and foot prints on a mug! Ha!!

Hope all you daddy's had a great day! Thanks for coming over Bob, and Dad, we missed you!

On a different note, don't forget to say a prayer for Bailey. She had tests run on her heart and kidney's today. A praise is that she didn't have nearly as many seizures today. Hopefully Becca and Chism will get good results tomorrow. Here's the link to Becca's blog.

Snapshot Saturday...and some other stuff

So I decided that Photo Saturday didn't sound good...so Snapshot Saturday it is! But first, some other stuff. We've had a good week. Sara Kate has been sleeping through the night all week long. Yay!! One morning she even made it to 6:00 am, but usually it's around 5:30. That's a schedule I can handle! I'll get up when she wakes up, feed her, put her down in her chair, and go get ready for work. I think Chris has been enjoying 'daddy duty.' He makes a point to get out of the house and go somewhere every day. He's taken Sara Kate to Barnes & Noble, Hastings, the park, the mall, Hobby Lobby, Office Depot, Toys R Us, and Target, just to name a few. When I get home, I am anxious to cuddle with my favorite girl! I'm waiting for the day that I walk in the house, she see's me, and her face lights up. Don't get me wrong, she's super smiley but I normally have to provoke a smile when I get home. I'm thinking she is probably becoming a daddy's girl...Chris can make her grin from ear to ear all the time! Yep, it makes me slightly jealous! But I'm happy they are getting this bonding time together.

Today we went to run errands and it was an exciting day, at least for me. Ha! I call this part of the post 'Duggar Days.' Can you guess where I'm going with this? Here in Northwest Arkansas, I guess you could say the Duggar's are local celebrities. Does anyone not know who the Duggar's are? If so, have you been living under a rock? They're the crazy family with 19 children, the youngest of which is in Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.
Anyway, Sara Kate and I are in the mall today and who do I see? A couple of the Duggar girls! They were involved in a harp concert in the center of the mall. I always carry our little camera in my diaper bag so of course I had to take their picture! There were 2 girls playing harps and one younger girl was sitting on the front row (Jill and Jinger were playing the harps and Joy Anna was sitting down). I didn't see any others, though. I know, I'm a big dork.
So after my excitement at the mall, Chris came to pick us up and we went to Kohl's. After Kohl's we decided we were hungry and so we had some lunch at Kobe (Japanese place...we had sushi). We're sitting at a table minding our own business and who walks in?? MORE DUGGAR'S! Josh (the oldest), his wife Anna and their baby Mackenzie walked in. I wasn't in a good position to get a picture, plus it's a small restaurant so it would be obvious. I decided to use Sara Kate to my advantage...ha! As we were leaving, we walked by and I took a peak at their baby and then asked Anna where she gets all the big bows (on tv, the little Duggar girls and Mackenzie always has the big flower/bow headbands on, which I am having a heck of a time finding). So I made stupid little conversation, told them their baby was cute, and we left. Once again, I'm such a dork!!

Now I would like to ask for prayer for a friend of mine. My good college friend, Becca, has a 5 month daughter named Bailey. Yesterday she texted saying that Bailey needed prayer because she was having seizures. Turns out she's been diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC). Wikopedia says that it's a condition in which the proteins that suppress tumor growth aren't there and benign tumors can grow in the body, specifically the brain, kidneys, and heart. Bailey has tumors growing on her brain, which are causing the seizures. Here is the link to Becca's blog. Please pray for baby Bailey!!!

And now to Snapshot Saturday! As I mentioned before, Chris is getting into photography. He even started a Photo Journal blog, which is linked to Flickr. Definitely go check out his blog! It's linked on my side bar or you can get to it here. Some of these pictures I can take credit for, but most of them are his.