4th Festivities!

Happy Birthday America! What a great Country we live in...we are so fortunate! This weekend, we headed to Dallas Friday night to hang with my parents for dinner. Saturday, we Met the Grimes' for Lunch, while we secretly hoped Tatum would decide she was ready to join us. :) After lunch we headed downtown Dallas to a wedding of a friend of Lance's from childhood. We had a great time. I LOVE weddings. It always takes me back to mine and Lance's wedding day which was the greatest day of my life. I would do it all over again in a second! Lance's Parents went to the wedding as well, so we headed back to their house after the wedding. Sunday Morning we took family portraits, laid by the pool, and cooked out. Lance and I had to head back to Tyler/Longview area early due to him having to be in a certain proximity to the work place just in case one of his rigs needed something from him. So, we headed to Tyler and had dinner and watched a fire works show with a few couples from our community group at church. They are a really great bunch!! Whew, what an eventful weekend! Monday, Lance and I were the laziest bums! We had such a great time with each of you! We love each of you SOOO much. :) Here are some pics from our fun filled time...

On our quick/busy trip home for a couple days, we had a quick lunch with the Mel, Jon and Cade. This is the last picture without Tatum! We love her already! She will be here in a matter of days.

Roy, Ryan and Lance. These are a couple guys Lance grew up with since he was a wee little one. This was at Ryan's wedding. Congrats Ryan and Pricilla!

Lance and Haley Playing in the pool.

Mayer, pretending he loves to swim because we want him to love it. Hehe! But, he is swimming to the steps so he can get out.

Ha! Love this picture! When we were taking family photos I got to snap this quick shot! These two are amazing. I'm so fortunate to have such great In-Laws!

Some of our community group girls. I love them!

Some of the boys from our Community group. Lance really enjoys these guys!

Mayer's first fireworks show. I was kinda nervous, because usually they scare little guys like him, but I'm not even sure he knew there was a fireworks show going on. They didn't phase him a bit. :)

Visiting The Gilmore's

2 weeks ago yesterday, Lance and I hopped a plane to Pennsylvania to visit our dear friends Jeff and Dana Gilmore. We had so much fun with these two as well as there PRECIOUS little girls, Logan and Landry. Landry was born this past March, so this was our first time meeting her since her arrival. Truly, the best baby one could ask for! We love these little girls like crazy! During our visit, Pennsylvania had amazing weather mainly in the mid 80's during the day, and low 70's at night with a cool breeze. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time outdoors, which I love!! We cooked out a lot, played games, shopped, and toured the town. We enjoyed our stay so much. It always goes by way too fast!

This walk was more intense than it looks here. There are some pretty steep inclines!

Logan, swinging at the Park!

Lance and Jack...we LOVE Jack!

Precious Landry!

Best Buds!

Jack, lounging out on the steps, Ha!

This Pic cracks me up! Logan hates the sight of anything dirty. Her whole body shakes when she sees a bug or something gross, but this morning, she decided she wanted to eat dirt out of the flower bed. Ha!!! She is so cute!

Lance helping Logan put her shoes on, love it!

Lance's first time to feed and Burp Landry. He learned a lot on this trip! :)

Ha!

I really love this picture. We stopped at the Pittsburgh Pirates Stadium and walked around a bit. Baseball will always be in their blood. Can't you just see this picture when they were 6 years old? Love it!

Saturday in Shreveport

Hi Friends and Family! This past Saturday, Lance decided to make some plans for the two of us in Shreveport! We live just over an hour from the middle of Shreveport, so it was a FUN day trip that we enjoyed SO much! They have an outdoor shopping center there called "The Boardwalk" that we have briefly been once when we were previously in the area for Lance's company Christmas party. As soon as we arrived we were starving of course, so we ate at Salt Grass and forgot how truly devine there steaks are! Then, off to the outdoors to shop! Before we left that evening, I really wanted to grub on some true Lousiana food, so we went to Ralph and Kacoos, delicious! I am just starting to make myself enjoy food from the water, and this was really great! We had such a goodtime! Love to all!

This cracked me up since we WEREN'T in Texas! Ha! Love it!

This is too funny! Lance is like a kid in a candy store when it comes to Bass Pro Shop! He wanted to save it for last so we could spend lots of time in there...and trust me we spend LOTS of time in there! Ha! But, he deserves it!! :)

This and That...

So...Lance and I have officially been living in Longview now for just over 3 months. We really love it here! Lance's job is going great, and he finds so much joy in doing something he loves. As a wife, this makes me so happy! As of May 4th, my brain has taken a much needed vacation from hygiene school. The funny thing is last week, Lance and I were relaxing on the couch watching a show and I felt the urge to grab a book to get a head start on for next semester. Seriously, what was I thinking?? Once I realized how ridiculous this was, I immediately put the book back and returned back to the land of relaxation. :) I have really enjoyed the beginning of the summer months! I am still working in the same dental office just part-time for the summer. The girls I work with are so great, I'm super thankful for that! Well...it has been a couple months since our last post, so here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately...Love to all!!

Back in April, Yes April...This was the absolute CUTEST Easter Egg hunt I have ever witnessed in my life! I wish I would have taken a video of this hunt, because It is just indescribable. Our little Niece Haley was the only kid at Lance's parents house for Easter, so she didn't have any one to hunt eggs with. So...Lance being the kid he is at heart made this Easter egg hunt so much fun for her. He carried the basket and he and Haley would sprint from one egg to the next and as soon as Lance saw one, he would scream AS LOUD AS HE COULD out of excitement, then Haley would scream as loud as she could as her little body would shake from screaming and excitement, they would count their eggs in Spanish as they put each one into the basket, and so on and so on. This went on for at least 20 minutes and we were all in tears from laughter. It was the greatest thing to watch! I really really hate that I didn't get a video of it!!

Also in April, my cousin Sherrie turned 40, so we threw her a surprise party! It was so much fun!

The gang showering Mel for Tatum's arrival in only 5 short weeks!! Love these girls!

Look how precious this little face is!! Isabelle is Michelle's little angel, and it is so hard to believe in a matter of 3 weeks, she will be turning 1!

Just a couple weeks ago, at the end of May, we gave my sister, Heather a baby shower. Showers are so much fun, especially baby showers! Emersyn keeps growing everyday, I love her so much already!

For my sister's shower, I thought I would take on a new project. Instead of having a bakery make a cake, I decided to attempt it myself! So...Voila!! Not that I can take all the credit, I have a friend here in Longview who has started this as a hobby and she helped me so much! Thanks Kara! It really was so much fun, and I would love to do it again. I was kind of nervous that the cake was going to be dry because I had to make it a couple days in advance since I was traveling with it, but the fondant sealed all the moisture in. I was quite impressed! :)

This was a gift for my sisters husband at the baby shower. I thought it was so genius! It is a tool belt full of necessities for the dad. It was made up of Tylenol, a face mask to help with the gag reflex when changing the dirty diapers, wipes and many other items that a dad must use and all wrapped up in just his style. Such a great idea, and too funny!

Doug, Lance's brother came to visit for Memorial Day weekend. Good times we had! Lots of cooking out, making smores and the boys played some golf. Thanks for visiting Doug, we enjoyed having you! :)



This weekend my mom and sister came to visit. My mom's 48th birthday was this past Friday, so we had to have cupcakes and a small celebration. Heather and I were laughing just a little too much. We all had such a great time together. We went to Canton on Saturday, OH MAN was it hot!! But, we sweated and laughed and had a great time!

I had to post this picture because it truly just melts my heart! I LOVE this little guy so much!

Until next time...hope everyone is doing well! We love you all!

Oh how the days have FLOWN!

Many really fun things have been happening in our neck of the woods, and I am so sorry the whirlwind has caused the blogging to fall by the way side in the meantime! Lets play catch up...Lance has started a new job, we sold our house, we moved to Longview, Texas, and are now officially settled. This all transpired in a matter of a little less than 2 months. Let me take a few steps back and not leave out the details...We originally moved to Tyler a little less than 2 years ago for Lance's job, which he LOVED. Due to the major crash the oilfield encountered, he was laid off. He was fortunate to find another job right away during such a hard time economically and for that we were thankful. He had high hopes that things would turn around in the oilfield and at some point (hopefully soon:)) he would have the opportunity again to be back with the same company; and...He did!! Right after Christmas, he was offered his job back!! We were so thrilled! The position was not in Tyler, yet, about an hour and 15 minutes further east of Tyler. This required us to move. We were not required to move to the same city, but within a certain radius of that specific area. That brought us to Longview. The journey since the day we found out about the job until now all happened so quickly. We found out we had to move, and we sold our house within 5 days. Praise God! We have some good friends in Tyler that had some friends at their church which were looking for a new home. They came to the house and after looking around decided they wanted to buy our home on a Thursday, we signed papers that next Tuesday and closed 3 weeks later. HOLY MOLY, right?? RIGHT!! We weren't really sure how long it would take to sell the house since the housing market stinks so bad right now, but feel very thankful it was so stress free! We couldn't have sold the house to a better couple! We developed a friendship with them, and even went to eat dinner with them the night we closed. They are so great! They really love the house, and that was my main concern. It was hard leaving that place, we had only been there less than two years, and we had put so much of "us" in there. It was hard walking away, yet very eager and anxious for our next chapter! The transition was so smooth and it was a confirmation for us to know that we were doing the right thing. We often look at each other and say with a little laugh, "do you realize how drastically our life changed in a matter of 8 weeks?" Man, from the time Lance was laid off a year ago to regaining his title merely a month ago, we have learned SO much. As controversial as this may be, I don't believe God "creates" hard times, but I do believe that in the midst of it, he uses those times to mold our character, strength, marriage, faith, and to humbly bring us to our knees reminding us that we are his children and all that we have is his, and all that we need is him. Wow, what a lesson. Hard times aren't necessarily "fun" but we are so grateful for the perspective it put on our life, and humbly thank Him for his sovereignty. Lance and I feel like through this financial "scare", we grew so much as a young married couple, and as crazy as it sounds wouldn't change anything about it. The lesson was so priceless. Whew!! So, that is our life all wrapped up in a nutshell! We are LOVING our new place in Longview, and below are some pics of our new humble abode! Here are a few other updates since the last blog update:

1.) My sister found out she is Pregnant!! She is having a girl!! So excited for Emersyn Rose Kennedy's arrival. She is going to be SO loved! :) She is due August 9th!

2.) One of my besties Melissa is pregnant with her second little precious. She is also having a GIRL!!!! Praise God for such an easy, healthy pregnancy for her. It hasn't always been easy. Tatum Lauren Grimes is due July 17th. Eagerly anticipating her arrival!

3.) This past Friday (March 19th) my mom had part 2 to her mastectomy surgery. This was more reconstruction. She is doing very well! She has one more minimally invasive surgery to come this summer, but not sure on the date yet. She is a strong lady. She's amazing!

4.) I am finishing up the first half of Dental Hygiene School! At the end of April, I will officially be half way done! WHOOHOO!!! It is a very demanding program, but SO much fun! I really look forward to going everyday. I'm a nerd, I realize this. :)

5.) No baby updates from me! :)

6.) Lance has been back with Hughes Christensen for almost 2 months now, and he loves every minute of it! He really enjoys what he is doing.

Now for the pics:

Here She is!

Don't look past that cute little brown thing on the right side of the rug! :)

Kitchen

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room

Living Room

Master Bedroom. Still looking for the perfect curtains. Anyone have any ideas???

Master Bedroom

Bedroom #1/Media Room

Bedroom #1 that we are using as a media room. Walls are still lacking a little...

Bedroom #2

Bedroom #2

Our partially completed patio. Much more to come!

This big 'ole pot is my green thumb project. I am really wanting to plant some hydrangeas! Love those!!

PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE to post SOON!!!

Our life has been like a whirlwind these last couple months! A GREAT whirlwind, but nonetheless, still a whirlwind for sure! :) I promise to update about our life soon!
Love to all!!