Weekend

This past weekend our student minister, Jonathan, and I took a group of dads and sons to Shepherd of the Ozarks Retreat Center for our first ever Calvary Father-Son Retreat. We had a really great time, and I think the guys enjoyed the weekend as well.

Jenny and Benjamin spent the weekend with Jenny's parents, and the dogs spent the weekend at the kennel. I know Jenny enjoyed being with her parents, and Benjamin always enjoys time with Pippi and Poppa.

Sunday night we waited at the hospital for a couple of hours, hoping to get a glimpse of the newest family member. Dalyn Rose Lawrence was born Sunday evening. She is the daughter of Jenny's cousin Rob. We didn't get to see her, in fact, we left before she arrived. Benjamin was the entertainment for the evening, and was passed around between all sides of the family who were present.

I took Monday off - thankfully - and was able to get some things accomplished around the house. We have a busy month ahead of us. Jenny's grandmother has her birthday on Oct. 1, her dad is October 6, mine is October 11. On the 10th-11th, we have Jenny's high school reunion. On the 8th - 12th, my brother will be here playing in a golf tournament. On the 17th, we go to Ouachita for Tiger Tunes.

Our pumpkins arrive at Calvary on October 18. We'll be spending the afternoon setting up the patch, which will open on Monday the 20th. The 18th is also Kid's Night Out for me, so I have that to orchestrate.

Family day at the pumpkin patch is Saturday, October 25, and our Fall Family Festival is October 26th.

We love fall, pumpkins, and cool evenings, but we have so much going on this month we may not get to enjoy much of it.

Speaking of not getting to enjoy things...Arkansas at Texas. What a nightmare. I actually think they could be hacked off enough and energized enough by what Ole Miss did that we could beat Florida this weekend.

So, no pics today...just thoughts. Sorry if I've bored any of you.

Enjoy the cooler weather.

Boppa-Doo Waas, Bagpipes, and Absolute Blowouts

Well, a pleasant Monday morning to our readers. 

We have a father-son retreat this weekend and I won't have a day off this week, so Jenny and I decided to break away last night and head up to my parents'. Today is my mom's Birthday, so we're here to visit. 

Ben's exersaucer at Grammy and Granddad's is disco-themed, and he loves it. We're sitting here with "Boppa-Doo Waa" and "Sing it, Baby" filling the air. 

Bailey and Annabelle came up with us, and Annabelle is sacked out on my parents' bed. She loves to look out the window and watch the golfers pass by. There is a senior tournament starting this morning, so she'll have plenty to watch. 

Jenny's filling up mom's jacuzzi as we speak. It's like a mini-vacation. Ha. What is it about being at your parents' home and knowing that you don't have to do anything for yourself that is so appealing. Oh wait, I just answered that question. 

Anyway, as we enjoy a couple of evenings up here, enjoy some of Ben's pics from the last week. 

Just being cute in his footie PJs.

We were running around the house on Friday trying to get ready to leave for Hillary's wedding, so I slid the coffee table next to the couch, surrounded him with pillows, and left him to chill out. He found his right foot to be more than enough to occupy his time. 

Ben with the beautiful bride, Hillary. Hillary is one of Jenny's best friends, and she and Josh were married on Mt. Magazine on Friday evening. It was beautiful, elegant, and completely Hillary. She and Josh are going to be really happy together. Ben and I hung out at the back during the ceremony because he was having one of his more verbal moments, but he absolutely was mesmerized by the bagpiper. 

50% Fruity. Jenny, Hillary, and Katie. Sarah and Todd were home sick, with 2/3 of their kids sick as well. Laura and Brad were there, but inside changing when we took this. 

Ben was more than a little let down that Zack didn't make it, but he let Auntie Katie hold him anyway. 

And by this point he realizes that he has the most beautiful mommy on the planet, so he's fine being the only baby at the ceremony...

Whoosh, this mountain air does something for me. I'm lovin' it up here!

Saturday we were all decked out to watch Arkansas take on Bama in Fayetteville. Here we are just before kick-off. Ben, Daddy, and Bailey in Hog shirts. 

About half a second later, we were down 14-0. 

The Hogs lose 49-14. Oh well. Texas this weekend. Maybe we'll surprise everyone. 

I'm Six Months!

Well guys, I turned six months this past Friday. Mom and Dad thought it would be a great idea to schedule my six month checkup on my birthday...so my day was celebrated with a nurse stripping me to my undies, stretching me out to see how long I am (I'm 27 3/4 inches), weighing me on a cold metal contraption (I'm 18 lbs 10 oz) and then wrapping my head in some darned measuring tape. 

After all of that, she had the nerve to tell me I only scored a 75 on my weight, a 75 on my height, and an 80 on my head. Now, I'm pretty darned sure I should have at least made an A on a couple of things, but I don't really understand these percentilage thingys yet. 

Next, my nice, sweet doctor decided to bend my legs every way but loose, then squeeze on my noo noo to see if something on the left and something on the right had dropped. What a nerve! I know darned good and well what's happening down there, and I have not dropped one single thing. But she swears something has dropped, which seemed to make mom and dad happy. Weirdos. 

Next, that nurse came back. This time she squirted some utterly vile substance in my mouth, then had the gall to stick three very large needles in my thighs. Needless to say, I was not happy at all with the situation and made everyone within range very much aware of my feelings as well. 

Things picked up a bit on Saturday, though. Apparently, when you turn 6 months, you have a birthday party. This was serious fun. Le'mme give you a brief rundown...

10:30...Grammy and Granddad arrive. Serious laughing, hugging, and kissing commence. 

11:00...Down for a nap. Grammy lovin' wears me out. 

12:00...Too excited to sleep. By now, Uncle John and Abby Lynn are here. I show uncle John around my crib. Literally. He'd never been to our house before. 

12:30...Pippi, Poppa, Justin, and Holly arrive. A house full of family! Let's get this party started. 

1:00...I get to see my cake! Mom and Dad found this onesie for me last week, and my birthday theme was dump trucks, so I had to have it. My Pippi has made cakes for everyone in Central Arkansas, or so I've heard, and she copied the dump truck onto my very first birthday cake. I didn't get to eat any...but I did get to see what it felt like.

Check it out! It looks just like my shirt!

Woo hoo...Birthdays = new toys...who'da thunk?

Grammy and Granddad bought me some squeaky rubber ABC blocks...Pippi and Poppa got me a new Baby Einstein DVD, and now I'm learning sign language!

Mom got me these rings...I'm trying to figure them out. 

Okay, okay...I'm starting to get it. 

Dad got me the COOLEST toy. It's my caterpillar friend from the beginning of my Baby Einstein videos! He's pretty sweet!

I love my caterpillar. He loves it when I hug him. 

We laugh, and laugh...and laugh some more. 

I mean, I'm tellin' you. Six month birthdays are seriously great...

The Past Week...

Well, we've had a lot going on in the past week, and Benjamin has been right in the middle of things, as always. 

Last Sunday we went to spend a couple of days at Jenny's parents' house. It was Jenny's aunt's birthday, so Ben got to be passed around a lot, see his cousins, his great grandmother, and his aunts and uncles. 

Here he is in his Poppa's Bank of the Ozarks hat in his Johnny Jump-Up...

On Monday night when we returned, he discovered Annabelle for the first time. Notice him with his arm around her...

And now he has found her tail...he could dip that tail in kerosene and light it on fire and she wouldn't notice. Think Yellow Dog from Funny Farm.

Here's Ben with Bailey, who apparently wasn't feeling up for pictures. Bailey loves him, but he's not as apt to let Ben grab his tail and go to town. He's also about to turn 6, and he's getting to that "Leave me the heck where I am..." phase where he doesn't want to be made to get off the couch or move - in general - when he doesn't want to. 

This was a couple of days later. We've promoted from gowns at night to footie p.j.s every night. This was something my grandmother sent us a while back, but he has been too small for. Not anymore. The little man is wearing nine month clothing. 

Such a happy face...

He's getting excited watching Sarah Palin by this point...

On Saturday, we decided to go to the zoo, but stop at Chic for a bite first. The lady behind the counter gave Ben a football...he loved it. 

When we left Chic, we thought it would be best not to go down Markham, since the game was in town this week...so we went to the freeway. Even bigger mistake. We had to skip the zoo since traffic around War Memorial was so bad. We're going to go soon, though. It would have been the perfect day...the weather was so nice. 

Saturday night we bought the hog game on Pay Per View. My cousin Ashley, Shaun, and Baby Harrison came over to watch the game with us. Harrison and Benjamin were born just hours apart, both in Little Rock. 

We thought we would be able to get some cute pictures of them during half time, but Benjamin was fading fast, so we had to get them early on. 

And then a full out crying fit began. Not surprising, we had missed our first two field goal attempts and our first extra point kick. Embarrassing. The parents were crying, too. 

The Hogs had scored a couple of touchdowns by this point, so Harrison is mellowing out. 

Harrison gives cousin Ben a pat on the back...

And then, playing QB, Harrison passes the block to wide receiver Benjamin, who drools all the way into the end zone. 
Hallelujah, the Hogs pulled it off. 28-27. Go Hogs, GO!

Swiiiiiiiiinnnnngggggg!

My cousin Ashley gave us this swing as a baby present...we finally hung it in the yard on Saturday morning, and Benjamin had a brief swing in it Saturday evening...until the mosquitos attacked. 

He's not too sure of it, yet.

But the excitement of the swing could not possibly equal the excitement of Arkansas pulling off their first win in their first game of the season...Arkansas 28, Western Illinois 24. 

Go Hogs, GO!