The Bright Eyed Brunette

Wow, another week has gone by and it's almost now it's almost October!  I just looked at our calendar for October and the first three weekends are full of birthdays, The Macks Fall Festival (to see Swamp People's Troy and Jacob), and the the last Friday night of the month is Hunter's (Carl's nephew) Senior Night, so we will be making the trip to Cherry Valley to watch him play :)  We also have Farm Safety Day, a pumpkin patch visit, and Parent Teacher Conferences at school!  Staying busy is usually a good thing.  I guess we will find out :) Poor Trey was sick Tues. and Wed. with a fever virus. He just ran fever which mad him feel yucky.  This is the first time he has been sick in a very long time and I felt so bad for him because he would just lay around and sleep.  He ended up missing two days of school.  He went back to school on Thursday so our Friday night bonfire was on :) Carlie walked out in flip-flops, so I had to g...

This post is going to be so completely random, but I'm now in the mood to blog, so here it goes :) My three little monkeys.  We took this on Saturday, which was a long day because Carl was working all day, but we had a great day anyway.  Mom invited us over to eat supper and then we went for a nice walk down at the river.  Speaking of the river.... in May we (the citizens of Arkansas Co.) learned that Reece Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey would be in our county and two surrounding counties making the movie "Mud".  There were two big houseboats that were put in at our landing for the taping of this movie :)  Did I mention that I love Reece Witherspoon?!?  She is probably my absolute favorite actress.  Maybe I'll get to meet her :) About three or four weeks ago we got a new student at our school.  His name is David and he is from China.  He speaks English pretty well, is very funny, and actually has to ac...

I think my favorite thing about blogging is going back through my archives and reading all the tedious details that I've tortured you with.  They give me great joy.  However, I never fail to think that I was a much better blogger in seasons past.  I wrote more frequently and my posts were much more clever.  On one hand, I would say that its because mothering and managing our home is requiring so much focus that I'm lacking in the creativity department.  On the other hand, I think life has just gotten harder.  It's not all fun and games and I can't portray it that way. For many reasons things have been pretty intense in our family for the past 6 months to a year.  It would be tempting to think my family alone in this, but I know better.  I look around at others and we are all dealing with big stuff. This is where I struggle when it comes to blogging.  I really do want to write about major life events and struggles going on in my life, ...

Happy Birthday sweet Trey!  You have been such a joy to us over the past 6 years!  Here are some facts about you right now: You weigh about 38lbs and are 3ft. 9inches tall. You love going to school now and you are doing quite well! Your best friends are Whit Caldwell and Hayden Duke. Your favorite food is a hamburger (you really love any kind of meat though) Your most favorite thing to do right now is ride your bike! You love your cousins Noah and Elijah and talk about them almost everyday :) You love playing the guitar with Daddy.  Ya'll make up the craziest songs and you love every minute of it! Here are some funny things that you have said lately:  I do NOT like yunions (onions)! When naming the three Hebrew children you said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abillygoat!! You like to give the little boys in your class nuggey's only you call them nuggets :) There are many more but I'm so tired right now, I can barely think.  We love you, Trey Lan...

Saturday we had Trey's 6th birthday party:  A Pirate Party!  This was not the most well-planned party, but it was fun for the kids none the less.  Trey was so cute, greeting all of his guests as they arrived.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of that!  He is just growing up so much :) Captain T on his "pirate ship" Trey and his buddy Luke Noah David most of the kids eating lunch before cake and ice cream Trey about to blow out his candles Opening his Cars CD/Radio from Nanny and Pop He got that hat he has on from Grammy and Papa. He still loves cowboy stuff...he really wanted to have another cowboy party! He got this helmet and bell from The Simpson's. Check out his boots...Papa and Grammy got them for him too :) He told me that he was too big for froggy boots now.  It kinda made me a little sad :( He was wondering where his old bike was so he could put his new bell, horn, an...

Happy Wednesday, Loves!  Here is what I'm loving today : I am loving that my sweet husband brought me lunch at school today and made me feel so special :) I am loving that this is the last year that we will have to do 4th grade history until Trey gets in 4th grade (4 more years)!  Seriously, it kicks butt! I am loving this hair cut and am SO excited about getting my hair cut tomorrow :) I am also loving this weather which really makes me LOVE this sign.  I'm so ready for fall ! And how could I mention fall without mentioning boot....TOMS boots!  I'm a little obsessed with TOMS! And last but not least, I am loving that this is Wednesday, which means that the week is almost over! What are you loving?? Beth

I know that for a lot of people rice harvest started a week or more ago, but after a few unsuccessful test runs (moisture too high) the boys finally got started today, the"unofficial end of summer".  And to be honest, it couldn't have been a more beautiful day.  It was a little windy but after having temps in the upper 90's last week, the upper 70's were heaven :) So while Carl was busy doing this: And this: We were at home doing this: playing super hero playing outside in the "cool weather" playing with kitty (I let him come in for a while today) and I'm not sure about this one!  It looks a little scary to me :) I don't know about Carl, but we had a great day!  We just kinda did things at our own pace and didn't worry about what got done and what didn't.  We even took a little walk after dinner this evening and then the kids stayed outside and played.  I hated that I had to make them come in at 7:15 to ...

Baby Gator! There was a really cool lab they had set up where you could fell the animal skins, see what their skeletons look like, and all that good stuff.  Of course Makena spotted the alligator head right away.  We have "Gator Mania" at our house.  Even though Swamp People is not on right now, Troy Landry will be at Mack's Prairie Wings on Sun. October 2 and The Mungers will be there! Interested in poop anyone?!  My kids were! This was a pretty cool airplane simulator. My bunch watching the movie during our "plane ride". Another cool thing we saw today:  In the movie we flew over all the Nature Centers in the state of AR.  Imagine our surprise when our first stop took us right over our house to the Potlach Conservation Center at Cooks Lake!! You could see our house and "hood" perfectly, right down to my car! Carlie in Trey in front of the crop duster. Alligator.  We watched him for a long time. Alligator ...