Let's Catch Up, Shall We?

The last time we chatted, I was in a panic over Conner's scare that he gave us. Since then, my little buddy has been doing just fine! No more seizures to report! Let's hope it was a one time thing.

So much has happened since I last blogged... Let's get updated, shall we?

Peach season has come and gone in Ruston and they were AMAZING! Since this is our first summer as Ruston residents, we took full advantage in this little peach crazy town. If you aren't familiar with the town, Ruston is known for its peaches. They have a big family owned and operated Peach Orchard. Every year, the whole town comes together for the Peach Festival. I think I ate enough peaches to last until next summer! :)

We are LOVING being closer to some of our best friends. While we miss our Arkansas friends everyday, we are so grateful for the friends we have that live close. Some of us have only dreamed about living close to each other since high school days. I love being close enough to call them up to meet for dinner or an afternoon swim. 

Fourth of July came and went as well. This is probably my favorite holiday. I love everything about it. Unfortunately this year I was in bed sick for days so the only celebrating I did was listening to the fireworks from our back porch. 

 July 5th was our 5 year anniversary and since I was still under the weather we didn't do anything special really. We had a few gifts to exchange to each other and then we took the dogs on a walk around the neighborhood together. It was simple and quite nice actually. It's hard to believe it's already been five years!

Hopefully I can stay caught up on the blog. Some days I think, I don't have anything exciting to write about. Other days, I look back and wish I had written more...even about the simple things in life. So here's so writing more.

I hope your July is going splendidly! :)

Our Memorial Day Weekend.

Yes, so this is a tad bit late but I wanted to at least document our Memorial Day because it was such a fabulous day celebrating with family. My sister in law Nicole and my brother Craig had us over to their new home here in Ruston and we hung out, ate and were entertained by the kiddos. Here are just a few of my favorites from the day.

Grilling meat is an American way and nothing says Memorial Day like all the guys hovering over a huge flaming grill looking, talking about and drooling over pounds and pounds of meat. In our family it's something that is passed down from Father to Son. It's a man's right of passage and I am so thankful it is. Love me some bar-b-que! :)

 Another tradition it seems on Memorial Day is to break out the pool, floaties and swimsuit because summer is here! Landon and Makaylan definitely enjoyed a little pool time last weekend.

I'm pretty sure Makaylan (or Kay Kay, as we call her) had enough fun for all of us! These pictures MADE MY WHOLE WEEK! I'm thinking about getting them printed off just to smile at them daily.  

It's these simple Freedoms that we love and enjoy and sometimes forget to say thank you for. 

So to all the men and women who gave their time, service, family, mental and physical health and most of all their lives...we say THANK YOU! 

I do hope you had a great Memorial Day and are enjoying your first week of June! Can you believe it's JUNE already?? So many things I want to get done this summer, our first summer living in Louisiana together. :)

Enjoy Life Now.

There are the kind of friends who see you through anything. You know the kind, they still love you no matter what you've done or haven't done. The kind of friends who know you are a pack rat and come over to help clean out my room with heavy duty trash bags in hand. (Yes, this really happened) They stand by you on your wedding day, hold your hand during bad break ups, buy the champagne when life calls for celebration. Lauren and I once had a fight over whether we were first cousins or best friends. Well, in our case, we are both. 

This is her beautiful son, Trey, who just turned six. Lauren, Wayne and their two kids came over last night to brake our newly painted house. Buie grilled burgers. Trey played hard like a six year old does. 

Baby Elle was the perfect guest. Isn't she beautiful? 

The burgers were perfect, babe. 

Trey left us a chalk drawing that I will be enjoying for days to come. 

Hopefully it all washed off okay. ;)

 Fresh flowers on the today.

Even the dogs had a splendid evening. 

 We ate, listened to Buie tell his many stories like he so often does and wished this night would never end. Great friends are so few and far between so when you find them, cling tight and never let them go!

 I hope you are enjoying this Memorial Day weekend with the ones you love enjoying life's simple freedoms.

Enjoy life now.

Summer days drifting away...

While the temperature is still in the 100's here in Arkansas, summer is coming to a close. School supplies are already flying off the shelves and into the arms of eager (and some not so eager) school children. I had high hopes of my summer this year, only to be knocked down by a heat so intense it would make.... well, let's just say it's hot! With temps some days reading 111 degrees, I didn't do as many outdoor activities as I imagined. Let's see what I DID, in fact, accomplish so far this summer. 

• Go Camping - we decided to hold off on this one for a bit. Cooler temps = happy campers. :)
• Eat snow cones - I have definitely had MY fair share of snow cones this summer but I don't believe me & B have had one TOGETHER. Maybe we'll knock this one off our list this week. 
• Make smores by the fire pit - Again, who wants to sit by the fire when it's 100, even at NIGHT! We'll move this one right on over to our Fall list. 
• Have a family picnic - Sigh... again. It's too darn hot. I think I was a little too ambitious with this list. I mean, where did I think we lived, Maine?
• Host a game night with friends - Now THIS, we can do! 
• Little Rock Farmer's Market - Yes we have and Man, those were some good peaches! 
• Go to a Local Museum - Hmmm...where should we go?
• Traveler's Game  - I went to a Travs game with Landon, my brother Craig and my dad for his birthday. Such fun and surprisingly it wasn't too hot! :) 
• Enjoy Watermelon - You don't have to tell me twice. I love me some watermelon!
• Little Rock Zoo - We actually went to the Memphis Zoo this summer which is even bigger and better. 
• Make Homemade Lemonade - Hmm...not sure why I haven't done this one yet. I love lemonade. Might be another easy one for this week. 
• Grill out with friends (at least once) Memorial Day Weekend we grilled out twice with friends! :)
• Take our nephew & niece somewhere fun for an afternoon (This one might be hard to do with our niece since she lives in Louisiana but we will try!) - I have had lots of niece and nephew time lately including the water park and baseball game with Landon. I love my time with them and hopefully I'll get even more before the summer is over with! :) 
• Movies in the Park  Wondering what movie I saw? Check it out here! 
• Finish my photography home studio! I'm super excited about this one.  - It's on the list to do this coming weekend. I'll keep you posted! 

It looks like I have my to do list for this week: eat snow cones, make lemonade and paint my studio! Shouldn't be too hard! Happy last few weeks of summer! Maybe before football season gets here I mark off all the things highlighted in green. The things in orange I'm saving for the Fall. A girl's gotta have goals, right! Maybe if I blogged at 2am all the time, more of my blog posts would be color coded as well as semi-delusional. I really should sleep now. Have a great week!