Davis family visit

Mike, Jenny, and the kids came up to see us on Saturday and they couldn't have picked a better day for a road trip.  We walked to the back of the property and took some pictures and explored a little.

My favorite family!

Spitting image of her mom.  In every way!

Parker is the perfect mix of his mom and dad.  He might be up to no good like his dad but his mom will make sure his hair is perfect while he's doing it.  HA!

I'm not sure what he's doing here but it cracks me up that Emilee just keeps smiling.

Parker is so sweet.  I love how he has his hand on Mike's shoulder.

This picture portrays their family best.  Mike's ready to go, Emilee's doing her best but about to give up, Parker's being sweet and ornery, and Jenny's looking perfect!

Neither Brad nor I wanted to move back home when we left LR but days like this one make me wish we were close enough to just run over to Mike and Jenny's and hang out like we did when we lived in Cave City.

Last night in Little Rock

I guess I've known all along that we wouldn't be in Little Rock forever.  Yet here I am, my last night here, and I haven't gotten used to the idea of leaving yet.  Luckily, preparing for a move is hectic and has kept my mind from dwelling on the upcoming change too much.

I'm from one of those small towns where everyone knows (or wants to know) your business.  I'm not sure I was ever comfortable with that but once I got out of it, I knew I never wanted to go back to it.  I LOVE the anonymity a town the size of Little Rock provides.  I love that no one cares about what I'm doing or not doing!

I made the mistake of going to Target tonight to grab a few things we needed to clean the house.  I almost starting tearing up back in the clearance garden section.  I wanted to linger but knew I didn't have time and that Brad would give me the look if I brought more stuff home that would have to be moved.  And then to make it worse, my favorite little guy (the super sweet older gentleman at the WLR Target) checked me out.

The movers took everything to Mountain Home tonight and will be at the house at 8:30 in the morning to unload.  We decided to stay in our LR house with no furniture because the MH house doesn't have water yet and we wouldn't have been able to stay in a hotel with Spatz.  So we're camping out on the floor!  The renters will move in to the LR house Wednesday and I'm oddly glad the house won't have to be empty for long.  I've loved our little house and would hate for much time to go by without anyone living in it.

I've never been happier than I have been the seven years we've lived here.  There are so many things here that I think just fit me.  The city is the perfect size to have a lot to offer and feel cozy at the same time.  There is so much we never made time to do or see, but that will give us an excuse to come back!  That, and the many friends we're leaving here.  And I'm going to continue using the same beautician, doctor, and dentist.  I joked with my hygienist that I needed her to recommend that I get my teeth cleaned every three months so I would have an excuse to come back more often!

I'm looking forward to settling in to our new house and I know that unpacking will keep my mind off of missing LR.  And before I know it, I'm sure I'll love my new home!

Emergency Medicine Residency Graduation

There were many times that I thought this day would never get here.  Brad graduated from residency Thursday night!! Medical school seemed to take forever but residency has flown by!  

  Brad and me.

(All of the pictures from my camera were just awful!!)

Bart and Brandi were able to make it and I know it meant a lot to Brad to have his brother there.  I think I'd be safe in saying no one is more proud of Brad than Bart!

Jason and Christy.

  They are moving to Birmingham and left right after graduation to drive there.  I hate that they're leaving but I hope it's just an excuse for us to go to Birmingham or Atlanta a couple times a year!

Richard and Beverly.

They are staying put in Bryant.  But they are moving to a new house (which I can't wait to see)!

Charell, me, Christy, and Beverly.  

I've enjoyed spending time with these three girls so much this year. Since meeting each other in October in San Francisco (Charell and I actually knew each other before since Brad and Zac were in Med. School together), we have scheduled lunch together at least once a month.  It's been nice to share such an exciting, and sometimes stressful, time in our lives with each other. 

This is how we normally look when we're together. These girls are so much fun!  I hope we can still get together often even though two of us will no longer be in Little Rock.  Charell and Beverly are both getting new houses that will have enough space for Christy and me to stay with them. Surely they'll let us!

Who knows.........  :)

Brad and Dr. Melton.  

They didn't actually give them their diploma but I would have thought this would have been a good time to do that.  Instead, this is a picture of Brad receiving his clock.

The whole class presenting a couple awards to their chairman.  This one was the Honey Badger award.  I guess it was an inside joke and I didn't ask.....

Richard, Skip, Zac, Brad, and Jason.

Brad loves these guys and is going to miss spending so much time with them.  He has been friends with Skip since the beginning of Med School.

Another shot of the guys, minus Skip, plus Wade.

I have to say that this night was a little bittersweet.  It's so exciting to move on to the next phase of this journey with Brad, but part of me wishes we had a little more time in Little Rock with our friends.  Luckily, we will be staying through July so we'll try to schedule as many things as we can!

After we left the Governor's Mansion, we all went to Big Whiskey to watch the Razorbacks and just hang out.  We had so much fun but stayed out way too late.  Did I mention that Brad is the oldest resident???  We're a little too old to be staying out past midnight!!

  Bart and Brandi spent the night with us and I think it was right around 2:00 a.m. when we finally went to bed.  And then Bart set the house alarm off at 7:00 a.m. when they were leaving.  I was so tired, I think I went right back to sleep before they even got out of the driveway!

Hadley turned ONE and my day with Emilee

I went to Cave City a couple weeks ago for Hadley's FIRST birthday party!  Her party was the cutest animal parade theme.  Heather and her mom did such a great job planning the party.

Sweet birthday girl!

I just LOVE her hair!

Emilee pulled her in this wagon for the "parade".

She was so funny with her cake....I'm not sure she even ate any of it.  She would just stick her hands in it and then wipe it on her diaper!

Brad and I gave her an Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids.  She looked so cute sitting up there like a big girl!

I took Emilee home with me from the party for our annual birthday shopping celebration.  

We gave her a pair of Toms that she picked out for her birthday present.  

She's turned in to quite a bargain shopper!  I told her about a consignment store in NLR and she was excited about going.  She got a cute pair of Seven crops and a pair of denim shorts for a great price.  She was so happy!  She is definitely her mother's daughter.  No one loves a bargain more than Jenny!

She also wanted to go to a couple stores in the mall and while we were there we ran into my friend Kimmy, who works at Clinique and she offered to do a make over for Emilee.  Em loved that!

Emilee and Kimmy.

She looked a little too grown up but still cute!

After we went to dinner, we drove out to the Promenade but everything was closed.  That's what we get for planning our day on a Sunday.

So instead of shopping, we stopped at a car dealership to look at some of her favorite cars.

Then we went home and watched "We Bought a Zoo" which we all liked.

Jenny and Parker met us in Searcy on Monday to pick Emilee up.  While we were there, Lacy met us for lunch.  I wish Tara had been there!  

I'm already looking forward to my day with Emilee next year! I think I'm going to have to get a little more creative though.....there won't be much shopping in Mountain Home.  Although that girl loves TJ Maxx!

Hadley, Parker, and Emilee

I was in Cave City a couple weeks ago and got to take some pics of Hadley.  She's SO sweet.  Her mom says she can be rotten sometimes, but I think she's making that up. 

 She's an absolute ANGEL!  

We were trying to get some cute shots for her birthday party invitation.  I can't believe she's almost ONE!  I'm so excited about her party! Heather and her mom have great taste and skills so I know the party is going to be adorable.

I had picked up Parker and Emilee before going to Heather's and thought they might help us out.  Hadley loves kids so they were helpful in getting her to smile.  Emilee was actually a huge help with the pics.  She'll do anything she's asked to do and we would have had some issues if she hadn't been there.

I think Emilee knows how to take care of Hadley better than I do!

Parker was help if comic relief is considered help.  :) It cracked me up that he gave Hadley rabbit ears in this one.  

This boy!  He's such a mess. 

 I just don't know what else to say about him! :)

Spring

I've been loving this spring weather!  It was so warm for a little while that I was afraid it was going to get HOT quickly.  But its been so nice the last couple weeks.

I love Dogwoods.  I was so happy to see them bloom at our house at Mountain Home.  

And the Redbuds.  It takes things a little while longer to bloom in MH than in Little Rock so I was disappointed one week we were up there and saw nothing. I was so happy to see everything once it finally caught up!

I was NOT happy to see this.  Its the poison Ivy that got me last year.  I'm trying to figure out how to kill this stuff.  From what I'm reading, its not easy.  And its everywhere up there!

Brad and I played golf at Hindman Saturday and had the best time!

There are always a lot of geese on this course.  And this time we also saw a snake which Brad killed with a golf club (I didn't get a picture of that).

Charell and I played at War Memorial today.  Luckily, I had bought a couple jackets at Target before we went or we would have gotten cold and quit before we finished.  We did good though, we only picked our ball up and gave up on one hole.  We finished the round and were pleased with how we played. 

Oaklawn, Big Whiskey, and Cooper's Hawk

Last weekend started a very busy few days for us!  Tara and Sydney got to our house sometime after we went to bed Friday night and Tara and I got up Saturday morning to meet Terri, Taylor, and Jordan and David, Autumn, and Danika for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  We left Syd with Brad while we were gone and evidently she goes berserk when Tara isn't around.  So that was a LONG couple of hours for Brad.  Normally, I would never entertain the idea of Sydney staying at our house but when we were at Tara's last month and I saw how old she looked and when I think about how much Tara and Lacy love her, I just had a momentary lapse in judgment  found a soft spot in my heart.  I was mostly worried about what Spatz would think of her but she didn't really mind her at all.  (Sidenote-Tara tried to make up for how Sydney acted by letting Spatz sleep with her one night when we were gone....she had Syd on one side and Spatz on the other.  Bless her heart.)

After breakfast, Rusty and Jennifer picked us up to go to the races in Hot Springs.  It was really crowded but lots of fun.  

And it was a beautiful day!

A couple of festive horses in their St. Patrick's Day green.

I usually win a few times when we go but I didn't win at all this time.  I think it was too crowded for me to concentrate on which horse to put my $2 on!

We had dinner back in Little Rock with Rusty and Jennifer and Tara, David, and Autumn.  After dinner Rusty and Jennifer went back to their hotel and the rest of us went to Big Whiskey and had a really good time.  It was so crowded downtown because of St. Patrick's Day but we found a table in the back and were able to hear each other.  I don't know David and Autumn all that well but they were hilarious!  They have a two-month old baby so I think they were just happy to be out and didn't care that it was with their sister/sister-in-law and her old friends!

Sunday morning I went to church and then hurried back home to get ready for Brad and me to go to Mountain Home for a few days.

On Monday, Tara and I played golf at Cooper's Hawk in Melbourne.  I have been looking forward to this for weeks!  It was SUPER windy but other than that the weather was perfect and by about 3:00 I think we were the only ones on the course!  We had the best time!  I played way better than I thought I would (since I always scramble with Brad) and we laughed so hard we almost cried a time or two. Or three.

I love this old barn!

Tara keeps score when she plays but I always trust Brad to keep score so I never really pay attention to how many times I hit the ball.  I'm not very competitive so I really just couldn't make myself keep score.  We ended up playing most of the holes by ourselves but a few we scrambled on.  And a few I just picked my ball up after maybe 2 shots.  I figure we were out there to have fun so why stress about the score.  Maybe I'll ask Brad to let me try to keep score the next time we play so I could start to get into the habit.  Since I wouldn't have to go so high on most holes (I say 'most' because I did get a legit bogey on one hole and we got two pars!).

I was so proud of these two shots!  My first shot is the one at the bottom of the picture.  It was with an 8 iron.  The shot on the right is with my 9 iron.  The tee box is right next to that little building and completely across water.  For me to get not one, but two tee shots on the green on this hole is awesome!  

Tara lining up her putt.  How's that working for you, Tara??  :)

We got par on this hole! Maybe lining up really worked!

This shot proved to be a little dangerous.  When I got up there to hit, I hit that tree dead in the middle and before I knew what had happened, it was whizzing past me at about a million miles an hour.  Tara was laughing so hard I thought she would lose her breath before I even realized what had happened!

We got another par on this one!  We used my tee shot but we clearly DIDN'T use my putt.  Seriously.  WHERE am I aimed??  I wish Tara would have politely mentioned that the hole is where that white flag is.

The restaurant was closed but luckily Tara knew a guy that worked there and he offered to make us a sandwich.  Which was way better than what we could have gotten from the restaurant!

We didn't get to play the back nine because they were aerating those greens so we had to play the front twice.  This barn is on the back and I've always liked how the cart path goes through it.

I wish Tara and I lived closer together so we cold play more often!  And I hope Brad and I can get back to Cooper's Hawk to play soon.  I had forgotten how much I liked it!  And its one of Brad's favorites too.