Make new friends, but keep the old...

My good friend Aubrey was in town this past weekend with her little boy, Jonah. We met in college our Freshman year. We lived a few doors down from each other in the Hump Dump, spent several all nighters together working on interior design projects with our friend Sarah, and graduated together. I hate that life can take you away from your friends sometimes, but I ALWAYS love catching back up with them! The fun part now is that she and I have back to back anniversaries, our sons are just a few weeks apart in age, and now we both teach school...except she's teaching my ideal class...interior design at the U of A!

Happy birthday, Muh-tenzie (Part 2)

I found a few more pics of Wild Man Ben from McKenzie's party that I had to post.

"What? Am I doing something wrong? This car is for me right?"

I love my little independent boy that can get his own ice cream (it makes for a fun mess to clean up afterwards)!

Even little boys still have to stop, rest, and get a little lovin' from their mommas. :) Doesn't this melt your heart?!?!

Happy birthday, Muh-tenzie!!!

We celebrated my cousin, McKenzie's, 2nd birthday this past weekend. As you can tell, it was an outdoor bday party in Arkansas...in June...nuff said! Regardless, we all had fun and everyone looked great in their purple as requested by the birthday princess.

Benjamin had a great time, but he even had to take breaks to build up his stamina (or to strategerize his plan in taking McKenzie's car!).

The Owens/Gosnell Family...not too bad considering there are 3 little ones in the picture!

The wise ones at the party. Even ME had to join the group.

The boys of the party. I wonder why they weren't as close to each other as the girls were. :)

Who was this birthday present for? Ha! I'm so excited that ME and Benjamin are going to have another little cousin to play with!!!

"OK, so listen up. When this other little baby comes along, we don't share our toys with it! Got it?" I have a feeling that these three could be trouble when it comes to sharing once Little Owens #2 comes along!

Happy birthday, McKenzie! We love you and are so excited that we got to be a part of your purple birthday party!

Happy Birthday, Drewboo!

I can't believe that I'm married to someone that is 31! That USED to sound sooooooooo old, but seeing how I'll be 31 in less than 2 months, I don't think it sounds that old anymore. Sadly, I don't have many pictures from his birthday. I do, however, have a picture of the gift that the kids made for Drew. Each year, they paint a picture using their hands or feet. The detail has improved tremendously since ME was 6-months-old! This year ME specifically wanted the canvas to be brown and have a duck on it. How do you paint a duck using your hand or footprints?

"Be like a duck...Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath."

Well, this is the result...I love the little tail feathers!

Happy birthday, Drew!!!

Still "shakin' it up" and "Off Ball"

Here are a few more pics of ME, McKenzie, and Benjamin from the night event at VBS. I think McKenzie thinks she has to put a bow in her hair now whenever she sees ME...I love it!

All 3 excited about going in to sing songs.

One of our attempts to get a pic of all three. McKenzie obvisouly has better things to do than waste her time on a photo op. Ha!



So does Benjamin!

 After we left the church, my parents, the kids, and I went to watch Drew (McKenzie calls him Uncle Drews) and Brant (Benjamin calls him Bob-o) play softball.  Sadly, I've only been to one other game this Summer. But after you see these pictures, you'll understand why. ;)

Where there's a rock, there's a boy to pick it up and throw it. I think they are born knowing that.

Playing makes you thirsty!

ME being a ham. LaLa was trying to take a pic of McKenzie.

I guess Benjamin was having too much fun and had to take his daily 30 second rest on the dirt hill.



But he quickly regained his energy so he could slide down with McKenzie.



Weeee! Can I just roll down?



He doesn't need a bath does he? ;)



Hey Bob-o! Can I come play "off ball" with you?

"Trust us, we're safe drivers!"
Drew and Benjamin had their own chauffeurs after the game.



NKOTBSB

Yes, you are reading the title right! This is a blog about New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys, baby!!! Drew surprised me with some tickets to see my childhood boyband in Memphis. So me and 3 of my other mom friends didn't hesitate to head over there this weekend. ;) I saw NKOTB 20 years ago with my family and the Lampkins...I can still show you my exact seat at Barton Coliseum, remember what I wore, and remember what I took with me (a white poster that my dad and I drew "I heart Donnie" on with a black marker). I must say that I deeply regret not bringing a poster with me this time, but my New Kids did not disappoint, even if they aren't so "new" anymore. And I'm not ashamed to say that I truly think that I jumped and danced more this time than when I saw them when I was in 4th grade. I'm so ready to see them again! Oh, and BSB wasn't bad either!

Ashley was definitely prepared to see the hotties!
I can't believe that Ashley, Kerri, and I even had time to pose for a pic we were jumping so much.

Between me, Anna Carol, and Kerri, can you tell which one of us had pink eye?

We had a FANTASTIC view for not being on the front row!

I'm pretty sure that Donnie saw me jumping wildly and yelling his name! Ha!

Note to self: must take a pair of scissors with me next time so I can fight off the girl that tries to steal Donnie's shirt that he throws in the audience. OK, actually I would just use them to cut the shirt in half to share it. Seriously, there was a small cat-fight on the front row over his shirt!

I love these girls and am so glad that we were able to relive our childhood memories even though we're a bunch of 30-something moms!

They're still "hangin' tough"!

We were so pumped after the concert that we were ready to go out on Beale St. However, Beale St. wasn't ready for us 4 moms on a Monday night, so we stopped by the Peabody Hotel for a little relaxation. For Leslie and Sarah, I promise that I didn't reenact my engagement on top of the Peabody this time...I did offer though! ;)

Father's Day 2011

Happy Father's Day to two of the most important men in my life...my Daddy and my hubby! I am so thankful for both of them and love how much they love ME and Benjamin! Thank you both for ALL that you do!!!

After we went splishing and splashing at LaLa and Dandy's house, the kids gave Drew their gifts.

ME painted a picture at school for Drew.

Benjamin told Drew "Happy Father's Day" by hanging onto me. Ha! He also painted Drew a tool belt with his handprints...too cute!

Hot fun in the Summer Time begins for 2011

I'm so excited that Summer FINALLY has arrived for me!!! Now I get to do only the one thing that I want to do...stay home and play with my babies for my extremely short Summer break. To first kick it off, we met Kerri and her boys, Will and Carter, at Jump Zone. I haven't been there since last year when Benjamin was really too young to go all over the place and stressed me out, but we all had a blast this time! ME was serious about this climbing and bouncy stuff. She had to take her hair down for it, too!

Carter and Benjamin both have the biggest dimples. Don't they look like they're up to something? I'm sure it doesn't matter though, considering how cute they are. ;)
Once Benjamin found a slide just his size, he couldn't stop climbing up it and falling down, which explains why I don't have any pictures of Will or more of ME and Carter.

If Summer is going to be like this everyday, then I'm ready for the rest of my lazy days of Summer and am ready to get into more trouble with my babies.

Benjamin is 20 months

My litte Benjamin is now 20 months old and is complete boy!!! As you can see, he's become really good at stacking "uh-bok-as" (blocks).

• He LOVES to eat anything and everything, but one of his most fave things to eat is blueberries. He eats them like candy. YUCK!

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  Words he can say: "watch" for both meanings watch, "moof" (move), "wawer" (water) while signing it at the same time right in front of your face, and he adds "uh" to the beginning and end of a lot of words like "uh-duh-uh" or "uh-chip-uh" for chip, "uh-dip-uh" for chip


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  He still doesn't call any animals by their name, but he sure can imitate the sounds of most animals...the cutest one is his pig impression


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  Whenever anyone asks me what's Benjamin up to these days, I respond with he's a Mama's boy through and through. I mean every moment that I'm not looking at him, he practically sings "Momma, Momma" until I interact with him. I L-O-V-E it though! If there's any "song" to ever get stuck in your head, it is definitely the sweet sound of Benjamin's sing-song call for me daily

Little Girls (and Benjamin) Wanna Have Fun, too!

While Sarah was in town for our girls weekend, we managed to squeeze in some play time with the girls at my nail salon. This was ME's first time to "get her nails did", but I'm sure it won't be the last between me, her LaLa, and her VeVe.

Benjamin knew that the girls were having fun, so he thought he'd have his own fun with my WATERPROOF mascara, too. This picture doesn't do justice...it was much worse than it looks!

Taylor was such a pro at this!
I wonder if she gets this done every week.

ME, on the other hand, wasn't so sure about all of this until she saw the sparkly purple paint that Miss Tina was putting on her nails.

Taylor got her fingers and toes painted. ME so was not into the whole bit of Miss Tina holding her toes to paint them, so she and I had a little convo when we got home.

Me: "Why didn't you get your toes painted?"

ME: "I didn't want no anyone to paint them."

Me: "Why not?"

ME: "Only you, mom, and my VeVe and my LaLa can paint my toes."

I love these little divas in the making!

ME was so proud of her purple polish and her flowers on her "fums".

I think ME was a little jealous of Taylor's toes after we left.