Mountain Climbing

Yesterday we had beautiful weather! We worked in the yard and then we decided to go climb a mountain. We went to Sugar Loaf Mountain which is about an hour from here. According to the internet it is 690 feet high. This was our first time to climb a mountain and we loved it. Heath made it all the way to the top. The boys and I stopped about 10 feet from the top. It was a little too difficult for us because you had to straddle a 2 feet wide gap in the mountain to get up to the top. I could just picture one of us falling in the crack or getting them up there and not being able to get them back down due to a panic attack. It was still beautiful even though we didn't go to the tip top. We also hiked all the way around the mountain from about half way up. They boys had a great time climbing on all the rocks.

Hiking up the 2/3 mile hill to get to the bottom of the mountain.


At the top!


These are just some of us climbing:




Look closely and you can see Heath and the boys in the crack.








The next are just pictures of God's beautiful creation! It's amazing to me how he just spoke this into creation!

Austin's Derby Race

Last night was Austin's Awana Derby Race at church. He wanted a General Lee car from The Dukes of Hazard. Well, actually, he didn't want a car at all but once he found out that everyone had to participate he decided on the General Lee. Choosing the type of car he wanted was the only 'work' he did on the car; Heath did the rest. Yes, I know that's not the way it should have been but... Oh well!


The General Lee

Their race was different than Kamden's. Everything was computerized and they raced four lanes instead of two. Everyone got to race four times.


Austin's first race.

He came in 2nd place.

ALL my pictures turned out blurry so I won't torture you with those. Austin's car didn't do very well. He won 2nd in the first race; 3rd in the second race and 4th in the last two races. Of course, he had a lot of excuses for not winning:
~ the boy that won bought his car on ebay
~ He had too much weight on his car.
~ They raced his car backwards.
...and the list goes on. :)

Here is his picture after the race with his car.

Derby Race

Kamden's AWANA derby race was last night at church. He chose to have an LSU truck. He and Heath have been working diligently on it for weeks.

Here's the finished product.


The race was double elimination. He got to race 5 times.

This was his first race.

He won!!


His second race, believe it or not, was against an Arkansas Hogs truck. So the announcers made a big deal about how the LSU Tigers were going against the Arkansas Hogs.


And.... He Won!! All these Hog fans weren't too happy about that; they wanted a rematch. LOL! The picture is blurry but you can still see the streak of yellow ahead of the other truck.


After that, he won another race and lost his last two.

After the race with his participation trophy.

Running Away

Last night mine and Kamden's conversation went like this:

Kamden: "If you don't let me watch The Dukes of Hazard tonight, I'm gonna run away tomorrow."

Me: "Tomorrow? Why not tonight?"

Kamden: "BECAUSE it's too dangerous right now."

Me: "Well, what are you going to do tomorrow night when it gets dark and dangerous and you aren't home?"

Kamden: "Well, I built me house in the woods so I'll be safe."

LOL! Oh, how I enjoy my conversations with this child!

Ready, Set, GO!

Last night I ran my first 5K since we moved to Searcy. I was registered to run one last year and I pulled a muscle in my leg the week before the race so I couldn't do it.

This race was for the Children's Services Center in Searcy and it benefited abused children. It was called the Light Up The Streets 5K and it was at night. The race path was lined with glowing balloons and markers and all the runners had glow necklaces and bracelets on. They had a DJ at the start/finish line and they were serving hot chocolate. It was a bit chilly outside but it was a lot of fun!



Before the race. Austin had a preteen D-Now weekend at church this weekend and they stayed up until 3:00 that morning so he was a little grumpy. :)


Still waiting on the race to start.

Kamden drinking his hot chocolate while waiting on me to pass by.


Watching for mom.


About to cross the finish line!!


I finished in 31:37 which is a 10:12 mile. I placed 12th in my age group out of 43 and overall I was 62nd out of about 500.

Basketball is Over

Kamden had his last basketball game today. He has improved so much from the beginning of the season and he really enjoyed playing. I think he scored about 20 points during this season.

Dribbling in for a goal!



Who said white men can't jump? Look at that boy! :)

Now that basketball is over, we move right on to baseball!!

Valentine's Weekend

It's hard to believe it's already been a week but last Wednesday night Dustin, LaRay and Lawton came to visit for the weekend. Thursday was Valentine's day and the boys had their parties at school. Lawton and LaRay went with me to the parties. Lawton had a great time 'going to Austin & Kamden's school'. Not long after we got home from school, Paw Paw Rusty, Nonnie and Maw Maw Rat got here. Heath smoked a brisket while we were partying at school so for our Valentine's dinner we had brisket, beans, potato salad, bread and peach cobbler, chocolate covered strawberries and strawberry cake for dessert. All of it was SO delicious!!

Friday, the boys were out of school so I took them to the park to play while the others went shopping. Then we met up at Froyo for some frozen yogurt.

Sweet boys climbing at the park.

After Froyo, we came home and they played outside. We had hamburgers, hotdogs and s'mores for dinner Friday. We love having s'mores on our firepit!

Fun on the trampoline!

Paw Paw and Lawton roasting marshmallows. (Paw Paw's looks a little burnt!)

Then we celebrated LaRay's birthday. Friday was her 24th birthday and her and Dustin's 5th anniversary.

She had a little help blowing out the candle. :)

Saturday we went to Kamden's basketball game. He was so excited they got to watch him play! We didn't do much after the game. The boys played with neighbors and we had fried fish for supper.

Everybody left Sunday to go home. Lawton wanted to stay with us but he told me I'd just have to drive him home at bedtime so he could sleep with his momma. HA!