the country

My little lady was all countryfied while were in Arkansas. Memaw got her some overalls that were just too adorable.

She played all day in them.




Look at that smile.




We've got us a couple of birthday shindigs to head to this evening. Hopefully we won't roast, it is so hot and about to get hotter this week.

snip snaps

I never take as many pictures as I would like when we "do something." But I have some cute shots of this and that from our trip.

On our way to my parents we stopped at Larry's Pizza in Little Rock and met Andrew, Sarah, Thomas, and his friend. The pizza was great and so was the company.



I think when Maelea and Reese get together I'm too worried about Maelea pouncing on her or scratching her face or something to take too many pictures but I did get a few of the cousins.




We also got to see Jeni and Jake play basketball. They did awesome!



Uncle Alex and Reese.

Ingrid's birthday party

What a precious time we had with our little one year old girls while we were in Arkansas. Such a great time in our lives.
Since Maelea and Ingrid are only a few days apart it was only fitting to have their parties one day apart.
Ingrid started by opening all of her gifts and she got some neat things!

Maelea enjoyed the view from her dad's lap.

Ingrid got this adorable chair and Maelea decided to give it a test run first.





Outside we went for dinner and snacks and playtime in the summer shade. Stephanie had so many adorable decorations up everywhere. Each little thing had some sort of flare of red, white, and blue. So cute.
Maelea had it made in the shade enjoying the festivities.



Stephanie made each of the girls at the party their very own party hat with their name on it. Sparkle.



Even Daniel thought they were cute.

Steph made Ingrid's cake and she loved it!


Of course Derek was documenting every little detail.


And that giant flag on the side of their home was awesome. Great back drop for the celebration and for pics!

Arkansas Pickers

I have professed my love for the good junk of this world. I come by it honest. My dad loves the same. We had a fun afternoon of junk digging at the scrap yard and I got a few goodies and he did alot of hard work getting a neat old tailgate in the hot hot heat. We had fun. We bonded.

Then he said he went to fix a church members tractor and dug around in an "old house" and got a few nehi bottles and saw an old blue cupboard. Um, blue cupboard you say? Tell me where and it is mine! So he calls the man that owns the land the "house" is on. So off we went. Yes, another fun day of picking.
I had my rubber boots on and I was pumped.

And we pulled up to the "house."
Yep, this is it.

To get this awesome blue cupboard.
Yep, this is it.

Actually it is pretty cool and I was too big of a chicken to drive back with it on my luggage rack with the bike Alex brought back as well. So I'll get it another time...or mom will bring it.

Now I'm pretty tough and I can dig with the best of 'em in the junk. In the dirt. In the metal. But this was a whole new animal.



What I didn't quite capture is the pure joy that was radiating off of my dad during this entire pick/dig. I got close. Some call it the sun, but I say it is joy.


What I did capture was the pure terror on my face after seeing the world's largest rat run head first down the wall and into the floor never to be seen again except for planning my demise. I just knew he was going to jump out of his nest and right into my face. Seriously, the thing was the size of a rabbit. A large furry rabbit with a long scary tail.


I really couldn't bring myself to dig anymore. Actually I hadn't dug much prior to the monstrous rat sailing down the wall. But still.
And then we found what the rat had been eating. And I'm not going to show you a picture because it is gross and I'm actually taking pity on those that would be offended by it (you should feel special). But it starts with a c.

And the digging was getting heated. So the hat came off.
And dad's gun was nestled oh so nicely against the wall. If it had been closer to me when I saw that rat, oh I might have blown an entire side off that house. And there would only have been two standing walls and the entire thing would have fallen down.



I'm pretty sure dad could tell that I was ready to get out of there...because I was standing by the car, looking at my phone, acting like I was allergic to the place, you get the point. So we headed off with a trunk full of junky treasure.

we're baaaaack

Maelea was so ready to get packed up to leave Texas and head to Arkansas. But now...
We are back. Back in our house and our own comfy beds. I'm happy. I'm a little sad to leave all of our family and friends in Arkansas though. But man my bed is comfy and so is my pillow.


So let me back up. Well, I'm kinda going in all different directions since I've already done the birthday party post. But I'll back it on up to our first stop in Humphrey.



Maelea just doesn't get enough attention.




I'm so glad I get to sleep in my bed tonight.

Birthday Party Finale

We've been having such a good time on our vacation that I'm a bit behind on posting.
And I'm still having trouble uploading single photos, so collage it remains.
This is the last of the party posts.

A little more of the cake fun that Maelea had.



And the cleanup. Maelea wasn't a fan.


And up next is presents. Maelea received so many neat, thoughtful gifts. She is such a lucky girl!
She was obsessed with the card that Nancy and Micah got her. It was the first gift she/I opened. And then I discovered that Nancy tried to give her her bmw....on accident. One of those super thoughtful gifts.


And all sorts of other fun things!




As I've said before, I have the BEST family and friends. They traveled from near and far to show Maelea some love and I appreciate it, every little bit!