Friendships

Last weekend I attended a women's retreat organized by several members of my Sunday school class.  It was just us girls from the class and it was awesome.  We spent time being silly, staying up late, eating, and learning about each other and God's Word.  Our speaker was Tammie Head, a woman for our church who founded Totally Captivated Ministries. She was incredible!  We learned that our insecurities keep us from close relationship with God and with other women.  Well, it's a concept I always knew but when she said it and explained it - it finally clicked.  I have to just say, my church is awesome!  I mean, not only has Tammie been a result of our church's focus on ministry and encouraging everyone in the purpose God has given them, but also Beth Moore.  And Tammie is Becky's mentor, encouraging her in ministry as well.  I know we also have several other ladies who have written Christian books or studies too.  It's that emphasis on living out your faith rather than demanding to just be fed, that led D and I to join.

To learn more about our retreat visit Becky's and Ally's blogs - they really captured the entire event.

At the end of the retreat, we all shared what we learned and, wow, did we ever learn!  We discovered we were all craving deeper relationships with each other but let our insecurities keep us from each other.  We made a decision to reach out to each other more and keep cliques from our class. 

Then, this week I came upon this post at Kelly's Korner telling us about Lisa Whelchel's (of Facts of Life fame) new book, Friendships for Grown Ups.  And today Kelly posted an interview with Lisa where they discussed friendship. 

Check out Lisa's book and Kelly's post if you are struggling with this issue.  I cannot wait to read it! 

Let's all reach out to each other a little bit more.

Lightening McQueen, Toddlers, and Cake

Oh yes ma'am Little Trey's 2nd Birthday party was a PARTAY!  What could be better than 100 degrees, 100% humidity, HEB Cars Cupcakes, and birthday boy?  Nothing.  We had a blast at the Hearn's celebrating Trey's big day.  It was such a big day that Trey had 2 cakes.

Trey is actually John III which is where Trey comes into play.  His grandmother's housekeeper could not remember how to spell Trey so she went with John.  What a cute cake and a lucky boy!

The highlight of the afternoon for the kiddos was the pinata.  A Lightening McQueen pinata!  Here's sweet Aubry giving it her best.  And Everett trying to out do Aubrey.  Precious!

This was one of the funniest moments of the day.  Everytime a child would swing all the adults would scatter, scared they might get hit instead.  But the kids really enjoyed it.  But no one was able to actually break the pinata, so John (Trey's dad) took care of that and Cars bouncy balls went everywhere.  What a prize!

Soon it was naptime and most everyone left to put the little ones down for a well-deserved rest.  So we hung around and watched Trey open his gifts.  As you can see, Mom, was very excited about his first gift.  A handmade crayon tote from Erin. I absolutely loved it and freaked out with Mom.  I want to be a Crafty Diva like Erin.  She is my inspiration.

Then Trey opened our gifts.  Let me just tell you, D and I had such a great time shopping for his gift.  D is like a kid in a candy store when we go to Toys R Us or any toy store.  He runs straight for the GI Joe, XMen, Star Wars dolls action figures.  It is a priceless sight, I cannot wait until we have some little ones for him to play with.  Do any of your husbands freak out over toys?  Anyway, we bought Trey this awesome Cars board book with a sound board (yes we are those people who buy the noisy gifts).  I think he liked it, what do you think?

But the finale was the Cars Bowling Set.  Yes, score! He loved it, but he didn't quite understand the bowling concept.  Instead of rolling the ball he chunked it.  Well, whatever works.  I just love to see babies happy.

After Trey had his nap, the Hearn's extended family came over to celebrate the day.  We ended the festivities with an awesome family pic.  What a sweet family!

Happy Birthday Trey!

Happy Birthday to….Elizabeth!

The last few weeks have been so fun for D and I.  We do not have little ones yet, but we get to enjoy our friends kids and love it!  In the last few weeks we have attended 3 baby birthdays.  I was not able to attend sweet Everett’s First Birthday – but I hear it was a blast.  Lot’s of little monkey’s playing till they dropped.  But I was able to attend Elizabeth Grace’s First Birthday and lucky for me, the Hubs was asked to be the Party Pics guy.  He had a blast.  Here is our pictorial documentary of this fun event. 

  Starting with the details…can you tell this was a little girl’s party?  Lots o’ pink.  Here are the delicious cupcakes.  Several of the Mom’s in the class got together to help Elizabeth’s Mom, Sarah, bake and decorate these.  So awesome! Of course there had to be pink lemonade.

Here are some shots of Elizabeth’s grandparent’s sweet backyard.  Yes, this is a backyard.  Isn’t it awesome!?

Here’s the Tator Tot Gang.  These little one’s will soon be keeping up with our class toddlers, but for today, they were content to just chill by the pool. 

Could life get any better?

Here’s some shots of the kids enjoying the several baby pools set up all over the rest of this enormous yard.  I was so jealous of that backyard.  It was like having your own private park.

Pure baby joy!

Who do you think is having more fun, the kids or the Dad’s?  Hmmmm?

Here’s the Birthday Girl chillin in the big pool.  

This is precious Jemma, a model in the making.  As soon as the hubs put the camera on her, she started posing.  I’m not lying, it was hilarious!

But, if you were that beautiful, wouldn’t you be all smiles?

Here’s the newest addition to our class(at the time, Kellen just beat him last week), Little Man Jake.  He’s content to just stay with Mom, thank you very much.

Here are some examples of the awesome parents in our class.  D and I are learning so much. 

Here’s Tif and her little men.  Dad had to work that morning, so Tif bravely came by herself with these two.  But she knew we would all help her keep an eye on them.  Another reason why we love our class.

Perfection!

Can you tell Aubrey loves her Daddy….sweetness.

  

And the grand finale of the afternoon…the birthday girl enjoying her cupcake.

  Cupcake Happiness!

Thank you to all the parents who let us enjoy their children, they just made our day.

Next post is Big Man Trey’s 2nd Birthday.  Get ready for some Cars (Mator and Lightening McQueen may have made an appearance). 

Crawfish Boil 2010

I’ve gotten a bit behind on blogging lately.  Mostly because all my pics are on my hubby’s awesome Canon D.  The Canon is not like my little snap and shoot.  I can get those pics lickedy split, but I have no idea how to get them off the Canon.  So I have to wait for Hubs to be in the mood.

Anyway, he finally did it, so here ya go. 

We had an awesome Memorial Day weekend, which began at our friends Tanner and Jessie’s house on Saturday.  Tanner’s family is from Louisiana and has a crawfish farm, which is why Tanner and Jessie have an annual crawfish boil.  Well, it was awesome. 

If you’ve never had crawfish before, it can be a little intimidating.  They really are mud bugs with very hard shells covering their bodies.  So be you have to rip them apart and pry off their shells, which will inevitably lead to some cuts on the fingers.  But it is totally worth it.

Tanner and Jessie did it up right.  Not only did we have crawfish but potatoes, garlic, mushrooms, and corn. Yummy!

Feast your eyes.

  Certified Cajun goodness, it does not get any better than this folks. 

It was a wonderful day spent with good friends and enjoying great food.  Aren’t you jealous?

What are some fun, unique foods from your part of the country?  Let us know in the comments.