Family, Dad's Birthday, and Friends...Oh My!

Nick & I headed to spend lots of time with my side of the family on the 16th.  We ate lunch in Annona at my Memaw's house.  My aunt, uncle, and two cousins from Mississippi were down visiting.  An aunt from Arkansas, an uncle from Texas, and two other cousins were also able to come and visit as well.  My Sister bought hardboiled eggs and egg dye with her.  The two littles, Charly and Kennedy, got to have some fun dying Easter eggs.  My sister and I then hid them, and they hunted them.  Super cute kiddos.  Mom took lots of pictures of the girls dying and hunting the eggs, but I just got a few snaps on my phone.  Kennedy kept calling Satchel "Spatula."  It was pretty funny.

Cute Miss Kennedy.

Charly & Kennedy

Miss Charly and Satchel.  She loves that dog!

After lunch, my parents, Sister, Nick & I headed to New Boston.  We lounged on the back porch and visited a while.  Followed by present opening for my Dad, then dinner to celebrate his birthday that was later in the week.  We ate at Fish Creek (formerly known as Ole Feed House) in Texarkana.  Then Nick & I headed back home.

It's a mad house with these puppies.

Dad with his present from Sister and us.  We got him money.  He used it to buy an autographed guitar.  It is signed by LOTS of southern gospel artists.  He's super excited, and I can't wait for him to get it in! :)

Casey and I helped out in the nursery for Sunday during the second service.  Those kiddos are so cute! Nick & I then went and had lunch with Joe & Melanie at Peralta's.  They had just gotten home the day before from their spring break trip to Lake Catherine.  Mitchell, Casey, and the kids came over for dinner.  Nick smoked a chicken, Casey and I made sides, and I made a dessert.  The kids played on the Kinect, drove tractors around and "mowed the grass" (with the play tractors and mowers from the Chamber banquet), threw sticks for Tex to fetch, and gave Satchel bones. :)  We had a great evening with everyone, but I didn't get any pictures. :(

This past weekend, we had a friend's 30th birthday party.  Happy birthday Curt!!  Nick played drums for the band with Cole, Adam, and another guy I don't remember.  Kathryn and I called them "The Bearded Wonders."  Seriously... look at this.

They did a great job!  We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone and watching Merrick eat 4 green cupcakes.  That kid is crazy cute!  But I only got the one picture of the event.

Nick & I got to go to a Ben Rector concert too.  We loved it!  We got to Dallas early, shopped some, then spent a good deal of time at the hotel.  We rested, ordered in pizza, and watched movies on HBO. It was GREAT!

At the concert, we felt old.  Most of the concert goers were pretty young (a lot in high school still - their parents had to drop them off), and then the older crowd was the parents of the ones too young to go to a concert by themselves, then us.  We didn't let it bother us though.  We had a great time, and I thoroughly enjoyed Ben opening with "Bennie and the Jets."  It was awesome!  I wish he'd open for NEEDTOBREATHE again, so I could get two of my favorite bands at once. :)

Nick & I spent the night in Dallas then headed home after a leisurely morning.  We shopped a bit more, ate Taco Casa for lunch, then headed east.  We had such a good day.

This weekend will consist of dinners with family and Easter lunch in New Boston.  Can't wait!

Chris Tomlin, Landscaping, and Puppies...Oh MY!

This past weekend was A LOT of fun!  Nick & I headed out of town at 1:00pm on Friday to head to Dallas.  Nick had gotten us tickets for the Kari Jobe, Chris Tomlin, and Louie Giglio concert that night, and we decided to add some work into it as well.

Nick had been needing to go to a wholesaler in the Dallas area for some time, but he hadn't had a chance to make it that way.  Since we were already headed that way, we decided to make a trip out of it and go to the pottery place.  We got fountains, pots, and hose pots for some of his customers.  It took almost three hours choosing the right pottery for everyone.  Once everything was loaded in his trailer, we rushed to the hotel to get checked in and grab a quick bite before the Gilberts were there to pick us up.  Bill & Julie Gilbert also went to the concert, and they helped us out by picking us up.  This way, we didn't have to pay for two parking spots because of Nick's trailer.

The concert was AWESOME!  It was more of a great worship/sermon than a concert.  Kari Jobe was the opener.  She sang about a 30 minute set.  We wish she could have gone on even longer.  Chris Tomlin followed.  He was, of course, amazing.  Followed by a sermon from Louie Giglio.  This is the first time I've seen him speak in person.  It was wonderful!  Both Chris Tomlin and Kari Jobe came out after the sermon to sing some more.  Kari brought down the house with "Revelation Song."  That is by far, one of my favorite worship songs.  So much power.  I had to take a picture of the group of believers worshipping.  Everyone was so into it.  It's amazing to hear 6,500 voices lifted in worship.  Loved every minute of that concert.  Nick & I were able to go backstage after the concert because of Janet.  Janet lived in Pittsburg and is our Pastor's daughter.  She is married to Chris Tomlin's bass player and fellow songwriter, Jesse.  We didn't get to do the actual meet and greet, but we did get to visit with Janet and Jesse for a little bit.  We also got to visit with Janet's younger brother Daniel and his family.  Daniel and Nick always go fishing/hunting when Daniel visits Pittsburg.  It was a great evening!

Kari Jobe.  She could also double as an aerobics instructor.  She did not stop moving while she sang!

Chris Tomlin... That's Jesse on the screen.

White Flag... One of my newest, favorite Chris Tomlin songs.

Louie Giglio speaking.

Worshipping!

"Crown Him (Majesty)" off of the newest Chris Tomlin album Burning Lights.  Favorite song on the album!

Then they broke out these blow up balls that everyone threw around the theater during the encore of "God's Great Dance Floor."

We got back to the hotel late, I don't remember what time.  We slept in and didn't set an alarm.  It was a beautiful thing.  My sister was awesome and spent the night on Friday night at our house to keep our puppies, so we didn't have to rush back from Dallas.  We ate breakfast then hit the road for some more landscaping projects.  We went to the retail location of the wholesaler we'd been to the day before.  It's called Jackson's Pottery.  We LOVED getting to walk around there.  Plants everywhere, pottery, outdoor furniture. outdoor kitchen items, etc.  Even though it was raining, we enjoyed getting to spend an entire day together.  We tried to meet up with April & Jimmy, but it was not in the stars for us.  We stopped and ate a quick "lupper" in Rockwall, then headed home.  We stopped off at one of Nick's customer's house to drop off their water feature, pots, and some plants we had picked up.  Nick didn't want them to be in the trailer any longer than they had to be.  We ended up getting home around 8:30.

Sunday, we had Sunday school and church.  We ate lunch with Nick's dad, Joe.  Melanie is out camping for Spring Break with her sister, Rhon, and Joe is meeting up with them later in the week.  So, he joined us for lunch.  Then Nick started filling his new shop with all of his goodies/tools.  I took a nap, and the dogs ate bones.  Nick & I watched some NCIS and ate dinner, then headed to bed.  Our time in Dallas wore us both out.  We're getting ready for a fast next few weeks.  We have something planned every weekend from now until mid-April.  Looks like Spring is going to be fun and busy!!

Valentine's Day, President's Day, and Parties...Oh MY!

I haven't written in almost a month.  Life happens.

On Valentine's Day, Nick gave me a lovely bouquet of red roses.  They were sitting on my desk when I arrived to work.  So sweet!  I got him tickets to one of our favorite artists.  Ben Rector is having a concert in Dallas March 23rd, and we're going!  Can't wait.  That evening, Nick & I went to eat dinner with the Maybens at Double C Steakhouse in Winsboro.  I believe they need a few more servers on nights like that.  We ended up leaving town later than expected.  Poor Keyton had another trip to the ER.  He fell off the ladder to the trampoline and busted his eye lid open.  Kenlie was more traumatized than Bud.  I guess he's an old pro now.  After staples in December, some Dermabond is nothing.  He was a trooper though.  Once we got to the restaurant, we had to wait about 45 minutes which is to be expected on Valentine's.  But then we didn't get waited on for about 15 minutes, then our food took 30 minutes to get to us.  Everything tasted very good, but it just took a while to get to us.

Pretty flowers from my awesome husband

Poor Bud in the ER.

Nick & I met up with my Sister and the Maybens at Pete's for dinner on Saturday, February 16th.  Sister was coming home from a day spent in Dallas.  She's always up for Pete's, so we all met there.  We finished off the weekend with fishing at Highland with Joe & Melanie on Sunday.

On Monday, February 18th, the bank was closed for President's day.  I got my oil changed and ate lunch with Nick, Melanie & Joe at Green Awning.  Other than that, I spent most of the time lounging around at home.

I had lunch with my Sunday school teacher, Friday, on Thursday the 21st.  We enjoyed a good visit and the food at Laura's Cheesecake.

I had two baby showers to attend on the 23rd but ended up only making it to one.  The McKenzies were showered with lots of goodies.  I know the Kimbros were as well, but I ended up having to help Nick out with some East Texas Proscapes issues on an upcoming job.  Then that evening, we went to eat dinner with the Maybens at Mardi Gras in Mt. Pleasant.  Nick loves having friends that want to go to cajun places because that's always my last choice for food.

I had a hair appointment with Randa last week.  Then Nick & I headed to Longview for the Wee Learn Style Show on Friday night.  This is Owen's daycare, and an annual fundraiser.  Owen was quite handsome in an outfit that his Oma & Joepa got him.  He even wore his fedora with out a fuss.  We all then went to eat at Panda Express after the show.

Waiting for food at Panda.

Selfie shot with Aunt Dede.

I whistled at him, and he mimicked me. :)

Saturday, Nick worked all day in the cold, then we headed to New Boston to celebrate my Momma's birthday.  I had made her strawberry cake, and we got her a new charm and spacer for her Pandora bracelet.  We celebrated by going to eat at Copeland's.  Nick got to eat more cajun which he loved.  We enjoyed getting to visit with them and watch Ranger try to play with Satchel.  Ranger was literally running circles around Satch.  It was pretty funny.

Sister handing out treats.  Look how little Ranger is compared to Satch!

Mom opening presents.

Sister and Ranger.  Aww.

Mom's strawberry cake.

Sunday, we got to spend some time with our nephew.  He stayed Saturday night with Nick's parents.  He came to church to the second service with Melanie.  He was mesmerized by Nick playing the drums.  He barely took his eyes off of him.  He sat in my lap and played with my bulletin most of the service.  Towards the end, he went over to Melanie and kept pointing out her eyes, ears, nose, head, mouth, etc.  He was good though because he whispered everything.  He did a great job in the service.  After church, we all went to eat at Peralta's.  Owen ate a whole cheese quesadilla, some of Uncle Nick's rice, and some chips.  He was full as a tick at the end of the meal.  We took some funny pictures.  He bopped his head on the edge of the table at one point.  He looked up like he was going to cry, and I said, "Bad table!" and swatted the edge of the table where he hit his head.  He grinned, slapped the table too, and (in baby talk), reprimanded the table as well.  He was such a trooper.  Love getting to spend time with him. :)