Together forever, never apart. Maybe in distance, but never in heart.

Last Thursday my two BFF’s in the whole wide world (and Hayden, our little BFF in the making) came into town to visit with us.  We had so much fun hanging out, eating, shopping, playing and laughing!  I am so blessed to have good the best friends!  I’ve know Megan since birth and Shauna has been my friend since 4th grade.  That’s a long time folks! 

We headed over to have Hayden’s pictures made on Friday at this really cool Ag area in the Northeast and Stacy took a few pictures of Megan, Shauna and I too.  It was so fun!  Never mind that we had all three kids with us and they aren’t in one of these pictures.  Don’t worry they were throwing dirt at each other/eating it by the handful :-) Just kidding, sort of, the good thing is that it’s really off the road so they could play while we had our little photo shoot.

Background:  Megan and I were cheerleaders.  We had so much fun making fun of ourselves noticing my tight fists and straight arms while I jumped.  My necklace hit my teeth while we were jumping.  So fun and funny!  I’ll treasure these pictures forever.  Love these girls!

I love Megan and Shauna’s faces, and I love Shauna’s (not cheerleader) fun hands.

And Landree wanted to jump in for a picture.  Of course, she never wants her picture taken-unless it’s Hayden’s turn.  Stacey was so sweet to indulge us.  I love the way this one turned out.  She is such a doll!  I think that we may go back here for our pictures soon.  The green field was so beautiful!

They are all gone now and my mom will be coming on Friday.  So we are playing catch up for a few days.  Landree has her first soccer game on Saturday.  Based on our practices it should be interested.  We have an all girl team (which we really wanted) but I’m a little worried since there hasn’t been one practice were 4 out of 6 of them have actually wanted to practice.  Stay tuned for a funny video coming soon!

Fun with friends and catching up!

We’ve been having so much fun with friends and family since we’ve been in TX.  I’ve, more specifically, been working like a step child helping Megan get some decorating done and the kids have been eating up their time together playing.  Megan has had to play photographer for me since my camera is in the shop, and she caught some of the cutest pictures of Hudson.  He was hamming it up for her!  Landree and Mia helped us decorate too, but they had already gone home to cook dinner and Hudson and I stayed behind to work play just a little longer.
 


 

While Megan and I obsessed (who are we kidding I am the only one obsessing) worked on the picture wall the boys entertained themselves reading, snacking, and sharing snacks with the puppies (actually Hudson didn’t want to share check out his face, but Hayden is used to sharing with these guys.)

   

And the later it got the funnier everything was.  The boys were helping us so much!  Hayden was moving all the clean clothes to the dirty basket.  Hudson was pulling out all the water bottles.  They eventually lined them all up on the window seal.  They both tried to climb the ladder on several occasions, and I took it as a sign Hudson was tired when he started trying to put Hayden’s pajamas on himself. 

 

I wish I had pictures of everything in Megan’s house-it’s so beautiful!  She is going to do a full home tour when everything is finished, but here is a peak at her plate wall we put up.  And you can hop over to her blog to see the picture wall!  I love it!



And it’s definitely not all work and no play around here.  Megan, Shauna and I (my life long BFF's) had the funnest girl weekend where we shopped until we dropped, ate yummy food, slept in until 9:45, went to breakfast in our pj's, and did I mention shop?  It was such a special treat.  I am so blessed with so many wonderful friends, but these girls are the best!  I hope you all have a special friend like them.  I love them!

And speaking of shopping (do you see a theme?) the kids and I shopped until we dropped with Grandma and Aunt Maggie on Tuesday at Firewheel.  Landree got a cute new little do at Sweet and Sassy, which is ironic because sassy is the perfect word to describe Landree's attitude while getting her hair cut.  She has a shorter bob and it's so cute on her!  We had a little Christmas party at Megan’s on Wednesday-post about that coming up soon!

Fun with Friends Day 5!

The weather has been so beautiful around here we’ve been taking every chance to be outside.  We decided to head back to the zoo on Monday.  It was so crowded on Saturday and our favorite exhibit (the giraffe’s) were all out, but we weren't able to feed them.  really wanted Megan and Hayden to get a close up of them and have a chance to feed them.  Landree is such a pro she showed them how to do it :)  Hayden fed the giraffe one piece of lettuce-that was enough for him. 

     

There weren’t many people there on Monday so we had so much fun walking right up to everything and enjoying all the extras that our zoo offers.  Grandma and Poppa gave Landree and Hudson our zoo pass for their birthday’s.  WE LOVE IT!  With the type of pass we got we are able to do all the fun extras with a wrist band each time we go.  We rode the train, fed the giraffe’s, fed the bird’s, and rode the carousal a few times. 

Ya’ll I had never fed the Lorikeet's before-Landree hates to go in there because they are so loud.  She hates anything loud, but since Megan was with us and we could see the Lorikeet exhibit from behind the glass in the Koala exhibit I decided it would be a fun thing to do.  I thought Landree might like watching it since she wouldn’t be in there.  Y’all this was the weirdest thing EVER!  All the birds were hanging on the door before I even walked in and they swarmed me!  IMMEDIATELY!  I am not going to lie-I was laughing so hard I was about to cry and then I realized I just might cry-more birds just kept coming and I got a little panicky!  I asked the man what to do and he said just throw my away, but that would have required walking with all of those birds on me so I just dropped it and all but two flew away. 

    

I talked Megan into feeding them too.  Like 3 birds landed on her arm and she was like the bird whisper.  When they finished her nectar cup she even sat them on a tree nearby.  What?!

    

  

We rode the train-the kids loved it! 

 

And the carousal was a hit as always!

 

Before we left the zoo we stopped by to say goodbye to the ‘lions’. 

Megan got this picture from Megan.  I thought it was hilarious!!!  Sassy cat!

 

When we got home Landree and the boys had fun playing ‘dress up’ for a little while.  Hayden was loving Landree’s dress up shoes!  He clanked around the house for a good thirty minutes!  His dad didn’t seem to think it was as near as funny when we sent him pictures as we did.  We laughed so hard!  Hudson loves sunglasses!  I am sure he’ll be clanking around in princess shoes soon enough :)

And Megan caught Hayden and Landree reading too.  How sweet!  They are all having such a fun time together! 

We ended the evening with a wagon/scooter ride, baked spagetti, and a yummy pumpkin bread with cream cheese icing I made.  It was super easy!  I got this shortcut recipe from my Parents magazine this month.    Let me know if you try it!  YUM! 

 

Shortcut Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

• 1  2-layer-size pkg.yellow cake mix
• 1  cup canned pumpkin
• 1  cup mashed banana
• 1  tsp.ground cinnamon
• 1/2  of an 8-oz. pkg.cream cheese, softened
• 1/4  cup butter, softened
• 1  cup powdered sugar
• 1/2  tsp.vanilla

Directions

1. Mix cake mix according to the directions on the box, omitting water, and adding the pumpkin, cinnamon and bananas. Spoon into one sprayed 9-inch loaf pan or 4 5-inch loaf pans. Bake at 375 degrees F for 50 minutes for 9-inch loaf or 30 minutes for 5-inch loaf or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (cover with foil the last 10 minutes if loaves get too brown).

2. In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Stir in the vanilla, and then gradually mix in the powdered sugar. Let the pumpkin bread cool completely and then frost. Chill to store.