picture overload (part 2)

This past weekend was the Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) Rally in my town. Every year when they are here they do a Motorcycle Parade that runs down Highway 71 right in front of my parents house.  Since Christopher goes crazy every time he sees or hears a motorcycle on the road or in a parking lot, I thought he would really enjoy watching a few hundred bikes rolling down the road.

He wasn’t as into it as I thought he would be. I’m not sure, but I think that maybe there were too many loud/honking motorcycles and he was just a tad overwhelmed. He wouldn’t wave at them and wasn’t really interested in them. He just wasn’t sure what to think!  Oh well – it was still really neat to watch!

I ♥ these lashes!

 

I think Christopher enjoyed hitting Pawpaw’s truck more than the “cycles.”

Last but least – me playing around with my camera Tuesday morning. I took these in the visor mirror in the car on Tuesday morning, wasting time instead of working on my research paper. =/ 
I just like these “self-portraits.”

picture overload (part 1)

It’s Tuesday night! Tomorrow is the middle of the week. Can I get a whoohoo! Tuesdays are my long day at school, so I am always glad when they’re over! This Thursday I don’t have class, (hallelujah!) so I’m excited about not having to make that drive again for a week. =)

I have TON of pictures that I’m wanting to share, so I’m just forewarning you: major picture overload to come!

Momma doesn’t look so hot in this picture – but I love it anyway. I love Christopher’s smile and the way his little arms are wrapped around my neck.

This isn’t really anything – but I thought it was a neat picture of the water feature at our park.

These pictures are all from when we went to the park last Friday.

Oh my goodness – this next picture. I love it.

Have I mentioned how much I love my Toms?
Ahem…have I mentioned about how short I am?

Okay – that’s all of the pictures from the park last Friday.  Here’s some random iPhone pictures I wanted to post…

Christopher and my dad at Papa’s last week.

Christopher and Momma snuggled on the couch last weekend and watched…

CARS! This is one of my favorite movies, and it was the first time Christopher actually showed some interest in it.

My impatiens look better at the end of October than they did ALL DANG SUMMER LONG.
Pretty sure that had something to do with the ridiculous heat.
And ants. Stupid freakin’ ants took over my other two pots of impatiens.

I have been in SUUUCH a Christmas spirit recently. I’m SO ready to put up my Christmas decorations.
Yesterday, I put Christmas Radio on Pandora to help me make it through some boring homework.
I am a Christmas JUNKIE.

Does this one really need a caption? May 21st can’t come fast enough!

Goodness… I have even more photos but I think this post has more than enough.
I’ll do those in a separate post and set it to go up sometime tomorrow or Thursday. :)

One…two…three…GO!

He thought this was SO fun.

the eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul (ralph waldo emerson)

Yesterday, Christopher and I had lunch with my dad at a local Mexican restaurant. It was a gorgeous fall day outside, and I decided to take Christopher to the park afterwards. I took my camera with me because I’m really trying to take more pictures of Christopher. (I’m also TRYING to shoot in full manual mode, but it’s going to take me awhile to get there. I think I took about 5 pictures in manual before saying ‘forget it’ and switching to portrait.)

Anyway, back to the point. I took this picture of Christopher and I just love it. Doesn’t he have the most beautiful eyes? Yes, I believe he does.

The only “touching up” I did to this photo was removing some dried stuff around his nose (he’s had a runny nose recently) and some Mexican food around his lips (apparently he was saving it for later.)  I did not touch his eyes.

I have more pictures from the park, but this one deserves a post all on it own, don’t you think? Yes, I think it does.

A few things… (I’m gonna be a GRANDMA!)

I think I’ve already mentioned that I went to War Eagle with my mom and Britney. We left out EARLY last Friday morning and headed to Northwest Arkansas. (Can I mention my love for NWA again? Cause I really love it up there!)  We got to War Eagle around 9:30 or 10:00 and shopped there for several hours (it’s huge!) then we went into Springdale, ate lunch at Applebees, then went to the Convention Center to the craft fair there. There was SO much cute stuff. I can’t wait till our budget is a little bigger. I’ll have a LOT of fun. I think we are going to try to make it a yearly tradition! This year, I had a little bit of my birthday money and I bought a few things for myself. I think it was all Christmas decorations! (What can I say? It’s my favorite time of year!)

One thing I forgot to mention about our trip to Branson… just for my own documentation. On the way to NWA, you go through a tunnel for a short distance. Christopher thought it was really funny when we went through it and after we got out of it, he asked to do it again. (“More!”) I’m going to try to remember to video his reaction the next time we go through it.

Last – these are our sweet Boxers, Bella and Jasper. Bella was a Christmas present to me three years ago, and Jasper was a Christmas gift to Christopher last year. This year at Christmas, we will have a few more boxers to add to our mix! Bella is going to have a litter of sweet Boxer puppies! Of course, we will not be keeping them. We decided to let them breed one time, then we will be getting Bella spayed. We had an ultrasound done – the vet quit counting at five puppies. I’m excited but nervous. I’ve never dealt with a dog having puppies before, so I’m going to have to do lots of research so that I feel prepared to do anything that I may need to do.

Prowant Wedding Weekend

Last weekend (October 8 & 9) we headed to Branson to celebrate the marriage of Deanna (my mother-in-law) and Leonard.  Deanna has two kids and so does Leonard, and we were all able to meet in Branson and get to know one another. We are really excited to have new family members! We loved getting to meet everybody and spend some time together.

Stephen had a home football game to cover on Friday night, so we left Saturday morning around 7:30 and headed north.  We had planned to stop at Ricks in Fayetteville to get a snack before lunch in Branson, but when we got there, there was a line out the door and we didn’t feel like stopping our trip for that long just for some donuts. There was a home game in Fayetteville that day, so I guess people were stopping to get cakes and stuff for tailgating.

We got to Branson and had lunch at Fuddruckers – yum. I think it’s such a fun place to eat, and I love their fry sauce and ranch. (I’m one of those people who judges a restaurant based on their ranch dressing.)  After Fuddruckers, we headed to Tanger Outlet Mall to do some light shopping. I had a few things I needed to pick up for Christopher, mainly some jeans for fall and a few fall t-shirts. Christopher’s at a weird size right now. 18-24 month clothes fit him fine in the waist but are too short, and a lot of 2T things are too big or too long. It’s frustrating!

After we were finished shopping we headed to our cabin for the weekend, which was literally a minute from Tangers. Leonard and Deanna wanted everybody to be together for the weekend instead of in different hotels, so they rented a 5-bedroom, 3-floor cabin. It was really nice and it was a great way for us to all hang out and get to know one another. Leonard’s kids weren’t in town yet, but we were able to catch up with Jim & Cristin (Stephen’s brother and his wife.) 

Once Leonard’s kids got there, we all went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Hollister. We stayed there for quite a while before heading back to the cabin. We laid Christopher down then stayed up late talking.  The next morning, we packed up and headed to the wedding, which was at the College of the Ozarks campus in Hollister. I had never been there before, but it’s beautiful! We watched Deanna and Leonard exchange vows, then we headed inside where we had a DELICIOUS brunch at the Keeter Center at the College of the Ozarks. It was a really neat atmosphere and I loved the food.

We had planned on going to Silver Dollar City after the brunch, but nobody else wanted to go with us and it’s just not as much fun by ourselves. When it’s just the three of us, Stephen and I can’t ride anything because we have Christopher with us (plus Stephen doesn’t really enjoy the rides, anyway) and there really isn’t much in the park and Christopher can do (2 or 3 rides is all, and I have to ride them with him – and Momma can only ride in circles so many times before getting sick and losing those delicious waffles from brunch) so we just decided to head on back home. We stopped in Ft Smith and did a little shopping and had dinner at Gino’s. I was disappointed that we didn’t go to SDC, but hopefully Stephen and I can get another chance to go with another couple (maybe Leonard & Deanna or Tyler & B) sometime before the end of the year.

Christopher & his Aunt Cristin

Leonard’s daughter, Lori, and her husband, Jordan. They are so sweet!

Leonard’s son, Greg, his wife Michelle, and their precious daughter, Ava.
Christopher loved Ava. He always wanted to be kissing and hugging her.

Jim & Cristin

Richard and Gina. They are Deanna’s best friends and Richie is related to Leonard. (First cousins once removed.)
Gina and Richie and are the people who introduced Deanna and Leonard! :)

TUESDAY tidbits :)

**I just have to say that I originally named this monday morning ramblings until my brilliant sister-in-law pointed out that I wrote it on tuesday, not monday… yes, hello, I’m 26 and can’t tell you the correct day of the week. tuesdays are like the first day of the week for me since that’s the day that my school week starts. oh, well.  it is now tuesday tidbits."**

Good morning, friends!

I'm at school this morning, waiting for class to start. I decided to hop on the computer and write a quick update!  I have a post started at home, it just needs pictures added to it to be finished. I'll try to get that up tomorrow.  I just wanted to jot down a quick things this morning that I've been meaning to document!

*Midterms are here! It's hard to believe that my fall semester is halfway over. EEK! I counted this past weekend, and (not including today) I have 14 more class days (Tuesdays & Thursdays) left this semester. So. Stinkin. Excited.

*I haven't written much about Christopher and daycare - or as he calls it, "scooh!" (School.)  He is doing really well! The adjustment was hard for the first several weeks. He would recognize the building when we turned onto the street that the daycare is on and start shaking his head "no" and whining. BUT, I am happy to say that he is now excited about going to school (most days) and will usually even pick school over staying at home with Mommy or Granny. However, when we actually get to school and go inside and I start to leave, he has second thoughts. I know that he only cries for a minute or two (yes, I stay and listen or peek out the windows if they're playing outside after I drop him off) and then he is fine for the rest of the day.

*I'm playing Bunco again! I played for a few months two years ago, when I was on maternity leave with Christopher. I loved it but once I went back to work it was hard to go because of Walmart's scheduling, then last year I had class on Monday nights. I've been the last two months and won 2nd place both times. But really - I just love being able to get out and have a little fun with my friends!

*I'm taking a Photoshop class at RMCC. It's only 6 weeks long, and it's one night a week. I don't really know much about Photoshop at ALL and I figure it's something that I may need to teach one day. Plus, I am hoping to be able to do some designing with it (like Christmas cards, birthday invitation, etc) and some picture editing, as well.

*PICTURES!  I have been SO horrible recently about taking pictures. I think it all started when I lost my 8 GB memory card around Christopher's birthday. I need to replace it. I'm having a garage sale at the beginning of next months and I'm hoping to buy myself a new lens. I've been drooling over this one for months, and I'm pretty sure it's what I'm going to go with!

**there's lots more I could add to this, but I've got to get to class now! I'll leave you with a picture my mom just sent to me -- apparently she lets my son play in make-up on the days that she keeps him. ;)

Happy Monday!

fall afternoons

Over the last few weeks, Christopher and I have spent lots of time in our front yard enjoying the gorgeous fall weather, playing on the “cycle,” blowing bubbles, etc. He can play while I sit on the front porch and work on homework or play fetch with the dogs.  Lots of times we have yummy half-price Cruizzers drinks to sip.

These are from one day last week.

{cheesy smile!}

These pictures make me smile. It reminds me of another sweet fall afternoon from two years ago (almost to the day!) Christopher has changed SO much… Baxter – well, he’s pretty much stayed the same.