Kim + Eric

A couple of weeks ago, I was one of six hostesses who gave a wedding shower for Kim Mitchell and Eric Suddeath. Kim is a very sweet girl! She babysat Courtney for me one summer about 7 years ago. I can't believe she is getting married!! The big day is on New Years Eve - 12/31/10. Kim and Eric are both going to school at Harding in Searcy, AR. Eric will graduate in May of 2011, and Kim in May of 2012.

We thought it would be pretty to make a "cupcake tower" for the shower and top it off with a small cake for Kim and Eric to take home with them. The cake on top turned our really cute! Melanie made it and used fondant icing. She found the cute initial at Hobby Lobby, and used some artificial white roses that I had to complete it. So cute!

We made white cupcakes with white icing, and their initial on each cupcake. Kim has decided to use cupcakes at her wedding reception, rather than the traditional cake.

Joyce, Sandra and Mandy decorated the table which I thought turned out really nice. Kim's colors for her wedding are red and green.


I made a cake out of towels. Bottom layer is bath towels, middle layer is hand towels, and top layer is wash clothes. I tied ribbon around each layer, and put some floral stems in the top.

Lenita surprised Kim (Eric already knew) with a key to their cabin in Colorado for them to honeymoon at. Kim was so excited and very surprised! They had been planning on going to Colorado for their honeymoon, but now they will have free lodging :)

The hostesses with the happy couple:

Mandy, Melanie, Amy, Eric, Kim, me, Joyce and Sandra

Kim and Eric received many nice gifts. Eric is from Amarillo, and they will be going there for Thanksgiving where they will be given 2 more showers.

Paw Paw 10/21/24-06/18/10

Today would have been my Paw Paw's 86th birthday. My grandmother wanted us all to get together and go out and eat in his memory. So 22 of us (my mom and dad, brothers and sister in law, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins) all went to his favorite restaurant, Sirloin Stockade. I loved that man dearly, but to this day, I do not know why he like that restaurant so much. Rod's grandfather was the same way. I guess you just have to be older to like it. Maybe someday my kids and grand kids will be wondering why I love La Familia so much.



I pulled my camera out to make pictures tonight, but my battery was dead. So I will share some old pictures.

These are some birthday cookies I made for my Paw Paw just one year ago for his 85th birthday party. He loved having all his family get together - especially when he was the center of attention :) Here he is on his birthday last year opening his cards/gifts.

A picture from Christmas 2009 at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house

This is the last picture I have of my Paw Paw, at Michael's graduation - and 2 weeks before he passed away.

The following poem was on my Paw Paw's program and it fit him perfect!

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle’s flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
We were lucky enough to call him "Paw Paw!"

Love and miss you Paw Paw!!

Church Family Retreat - Post 2

Wow what a busy week it has been. It is hard to believe that the weekend is already over! We have been busy trying to get settled into our new house. I have been trying to unpack several boxes each day, but it doesn't seem like I am getting very far. I have been able to start cooking again, which has been nice. I always thought it would be nice to eat out all of the time, but it's not so nice when that is your only option. We all were getting really tired of it.

Here is post 2 of our retreat. We stayed up pretty late on Friday night, so the girls slept as late as they could on Saturday morning.

Courtney and Erin slept on the sofa sleeper. They were a little slow getting started Saturday morning.

Autumn and Hailey. Hailey was moving pretty slow too. Autumn was already fully recharged.

Lenita in the background cooking breakfast for everyone.

Butler was so anxious to get outside and start playing, that he forgot to change out of his p.j.'s!

John Henry and Rod drinking their coffee while solving the world's problems.

Just as we were going to put the brisket and beans on for supper, the electricity went off. We weren't sure how long it would be off, so Lanny and Michael were preparing a fire just in case we had to cook outside. Luckily, the electricity was only off an hour or so.

Michael and baby Jack. Jack looks so much older since he got his first haircut.

Even the adults were a little slow moving in the morning.

Becky was nice enough to bring carmel and apples, so the kids could make their own treats. This was a big hit. Until Rod, who didn't know that the apples were for the kids, ate Aubree's apple!! Luckily, we found a replacement, and replaced the stick with her name on it before she found out!

Even the big girls wanted to make carmel apples

Hailey and Courtney up to no good I am sure

And then it was time for the Olympics. We divided everyone up into 4 teams: Kids, Mommas Daddy's, and Over 50

The first game was to draw a picture. Evan told one person on each team what to draw. They had to start drawing it, and then after about 20 seconds, he would yell 'switch' and the next person would start drawing. But only the first person knew what they were suppose to draw. Everyone after that had to guess what to draw based on what the first person started. It was quite funny.

Lanny helping Butler draw while Aubree, Rod, Chuck and Ben watch.

Mr. Savell taking his turn at drawing.

The next game was to find tiny safety pins (closed of course) in a bowl of rice while blind folded. Not quite as easy as it sounds. It was VERY hard to tell the difference between the rice and the safety pins. Michael helping Reese find the pins.

Tiffany cheering Mandy on as she tries to find a safety pin

Ben helping Aubree

I can't remember if this was a game that the 'Over 50' team got disqualified from or not? I do believe they had quite a bit of rice in the cup with their safety pins.

Evan cheering Rod on

Brittany helping Melanie

Lenita taking a count of the pins they found

Erin had most of her team cheering her on

Another game was to run blindfolded, while directed by a teammate, to a bat and turn around it 3 times, and then run back to the starting line. Amy and Lanny both took their turns at the same time.

Ryan with Michael and Courtney cheering him on

Another game was moving cotton balls from one pan to another with a plastic spoon. This was another difficult one since you were blindfolded, and couldn't really feel if you had cotton balls in your spoon or not.

Erin directing Michael to his pans. Lanny cheering Chuck on

Michael and Hailey helping Erin

Daddy team was disqualified and here is proof!! Each time a team was disqualified, their points went to the kids team. The momma team is the only team that didn't try to cheat the kids...

I believe there might have been some cheating going on here too.

The balloon bounce. Sadly, the momma team lost big time on this game. Just couldn't get our rhythm going...

The kids won this game

The daddy team

Every Olympics has to have an egg toss

Uh oh...think the egg might have busted on this catch

Church Family Retreat - Post 3

I had so many pictures, that blogger was messing up on me, so I had to stop my previous post and start a new one.

Egg toss game

Everyone was nice and sticky after this game

The Daddy team won this game

The Olympics was just too hard on Courtney, who only got about 4 hours sleep the night before, so she was happy to go and watch a movie with Autumn and Aubree

There was a ladder that went up the side of the wall to a little opening at the top. They had it boarded up and locked at the bottom to keep people out. But that doesn't stop Michael and Evan. They wanted to know what was up there. So Evan helps Michael up.

Michael said it was like a little loft, with a TV and movies

Wasn't quite as easy coming down. Took 3 of them!

Everyone was kind of tired Saturday afternoon. Amy, Becky and Lenita enjoying some quality time.

Erin, Mel and Evan

Courtney, me and Rod

Sandra, Vivian, Arlo and Mr. Savell

After we sat around and rested from our Olympics, we all went to Beavers Bend to take a train ride and look around. We saw lots of deer and a few armadillo's on our ride.

All aboard! Hailey and Courtney

Michael, Ryan, Reese, Mandy and Chuck

Tiffany, Aubree, Becky, Hailey & Court

We drove down the lake or river or somewhere in the park, and went walking around.

There were a couple of men out there fishing.

Rod, Lanny and Michael looking for crawdads

Notice Michael holding his sock. That is what they put them in. Nice.

Butler helped too

And of course, Michael and Lanny cooked them outside over the fire

And brought them in just in time for supper. Nasty! I do think that both Lanny and Michael ate one. And they are still alive, so I guess it was okay.

We had brisket, potato casserole, beans, rolls and banana pudding for supper.

A camp out is not complete without smores!

We all gathered around and sang songs before bedtime on Saturday. Which was earlier than Friday thankfully!

Rod and Courtney on Sunday morning

Everyone still trying to wake up

Autumn loves her daddy!

Everyone gathered at the cabin for worship service Sunday morning.

Evan had to go back to Blossom to preach, so Lanny preached for us and gave an excellent lesson

me, Rod, Courtney and Michael

And a group shot of everyone after morning worship service. Evan left early Sunday morning. And Lenita, Earl, John, Daphine, Arlo and Vivian had all left on Saturday, so they were not in the group photo.

On our way home, we stopped at a mexican restaurant in Idabel to have lunch. Somebody told the waiter it was Melanie's birthday (on Monday), so she had the honors of wearing the sombrero and we all sang Happy Birthday to her!

Well that does it for retreat pictures. And I typed these last two post super fast, so I apologize now for any misspelled words or bad grammar. I have unpacked boxes calling my name, and better get busy before Rod comes in here again and catches me on the computer...again :) I hope to post some pictures of our house soon!