prayer request--baby olivia

hey yall!

please say a prayer for my college friend, stacey.  last week she gave birth to a baby girl, olivia, at 34 weeks after having a full placental abruption.  baby olivia went several minutes without oxygen and there are still a lot of unknowns as she recovers in the nicu.  you can read the whole story and updates on stacey's blog: http://www.kaundart123.blogspot.com.  you are in our hearts and prayers, kaundarts!!

wordless wednesday: this is arkansas

james and i take the boys on a walk around the neighborhood nearly every night.  it is refreshing to get out of the house, burn few calories and see who else is out and about.  sometimes we hit the jackpot!

 love arkansas!

is it the weekend yet?

love these pics of our boys.  i want to write something substantial but my brain is fried right now.  thank goodness tomorrow is friday and james is off for 5 days!  until then, i'm watching some quality tv: Big Brother & Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

i really appreciate our neighbors--such a great representation of community.  a few weeks ago we had some friends staying at our house, and within 24 hours, my sweet neighbor shalini randomly brought over cookies & another neighbor noelle dropped off yummy banana nut bread.  our out of town guests were a little weirded out at the friendliness of the neighborhood, but i wouldn't have it any other way.  it is so nice to have people you can count on 50 feet away.  some days it feels like a college dorm room going over to each others' homes and passing the afternoon away.

tonight several of our husbands were working so our neighbor tatyana cooked delicious risotto for all of the widows.  i baked chocolate chip cookies and we cut up mounds of fresh fruit for the kids.  between the four moms, we have 8 little CRAZY boys who love to cause ruckus together.  after dinner we went for a walk and saw several other friends playing outside.  our kids spend hours upon hours outside each day and i wouldn't have it any other way.

raising two boys can be exhausting, but having a supporting village around you is such a huge blessing!!!  thankful for my wonderful neighbor friends.  love.

back to school

i've loved looking through everyone's back to school photos of their kids on facebook today.  my next neighbor (and bestie) sent her son to his first day of kindergarten and we had a play date at the park to minimize the crying! ha :)

isn't he so cute?!?

parker and paxton will be going back to kids day out at pinnacle cross church in september and i am very much looking forward it!  when james and i made the decision for me to stay at home, one of our biggest questions was if the kids would still go to "school."

reasons we are still sending the kids to school:
*to enhance learning (the curriculum is excellent)
*to aid in social development (parker loves his kdo friends)
*to make my children happy (ha! parker begged to go for a good month after school ended last spring)
*to have a break from the kids--makes us that much more excited to see them when we pick them up
*to use the time to prep for the finance class i'm teaching for JBU
*to have tennis dates with my husband!

we thought about just doing one day, but i think parker really benefits from two days (that's the max at the church). the program is very reasonably priced and i am going to sub when teachers get sick to help pay for it.  the second child is discounted, so we are sending both (this is parker's 3rd year and paxton's 2nd year).  parker thrives in such a structured environment and is proud of all of the crafts he brings home.

the kdo program is not perfect, but it's the best we've found.  the kids only go from 9am-1pm, so they don't nap at school and really make the most of the four hours we pay for (they have "chapel", PE, arts and crafts, etc).  we went to another longer kdo program last summer where the kids napped and watched movies and it felt so much more like a daycare than a structured learning environment.  i am thankful for the opportunity to have my kids participate in the cross church program (even though we don't go to church there) and can't wait to hear stories on car rides home to learn all about parker's fun filled days!!

friday fun day: fire station

we had our second official week of playgroup yesterday and toured the springdale fire station.  i am not one to think guys in uniform are especially attractive, but man, look at that hottie of a husband :).

the kids got to use the big hose to knock over a cone and loved it. 

james' major at john brown was youth ministry, so i think it is neat that he gets to lead tours and go to schools to talk about fire safety. 

paxton stomping around the fire station like a big kid.

nolan, shelley & 11 day old baby allyn!  nolan and parker were in the same class at kids day out last year and became bff's.  nolan is the only kid i've ever met who is younger than parker and taller than him!  they always have a wild & great time together.

baby kate.  she is no longer the baby though as we just found out her mom will be having another girl around christmas!

 baby brynn already toddling as well!  she is exactly one month younger than pax.

sweet sloane, parker's neighbor, soccer buddy, and sunday school friend.  he and parks are only 7 days apart!

baby lucas.  our newest neighborhood baby!

big brother dylan, another great neighbor friend.  some of my favorite kids!!



after our tour we chowed down on pudding chip cookies (looove them) and mr. james gave everyone fire safety stickers and coloring books.  it was a wonderful outing and i look forward to more fun fridays in the upcoming weeks!  love yall and hope you are having wonderful weekends.