The Alluvian

We decided last Wednesday to take an anniversary trip to The Alluvian in Greenwood, MS. Early on, I was supposed to run in the Dallas White Rock marathon last weekend, but I've been having some plantar fasciatis issues so that run was nixed. We are celebrating 8 years on December 13 and decided to take advantage of the open weekend. Plus our parents graciously agreed to keep the kiddos, that was a plus:)! So the Allivian is a small hotel that features the Viking Cooking School across the street. The owner of the hotel is from Greenwood and renovated and reopened it in 2003. From what we saw, this guy pretty much owns the whole town, although there isn't much to look at. If you go, you'll understand what I mean!

The Alluvian

We got to the hotel around noon on Saturday, but check-in wasn't until 3. We parked the car and didn't get back in it until we left on Sunday afternoon. Everything you need is within walking distance from the hotel. I loved talking to the front desk clerk about The Help since it was filmed in Greenwood. She talked about how nice Bryce Dallas Howard was(who played the bully Hilly Holbrook) and some of the other characters. They normally have tours on Saturday but the manager was out of town, so there were no tours that day:(. I plan to take my mom back to do the Help tour of Greenwood and then they have the Help dinner at the cooking school across the street where many of Minnie's specialties are featured. If you haven't read this book, DO SO!

So we shopped around Greenwood and ate lunch at the Delta Bistro. Very good! The town has several little shops that were fun to look at plus a very cool 2-story book store. Dinner started at 5 and lasted until 8. You cooked the entire meal and we had a fun group that included some LSU fans. This worked out great as we watched the SEC championship game while we cooked.

Getting ready to cook a rack of lamb, crab martinis, roasted vegetables, green beans and tiramisu

This was some of our group. It was 10 people total and the instructor, Mary Helen, was great.

Matt and our new friend Molly cooking a sauce that we put into the tiramisu

Sweet couple from Little Rock, Rob and Molly. They were celebrating 5 years and have 2 young sons.

The finished product. This was a lot of fun!

The next morning, Matt surprised me with a couple's massage at the Alluvian Spa. It was fantastic and well worth it. Below is a picture of the town. It is pretty bare other than the hotel and a few shops. There wasn't a whole lot to do but I must say this was my FAVE anniversary trip yet. This would also be perfect for a girls trip!
And I really thought about not posting this next picture because I didn't want it to look as though I was boasting. Then again, this is my blog:), so why not. Matt totally surprised me with diamond earrings on Friday night. We aren't huge gift exchangers and I'm not one to ever expect diamonds(or gifts for that matter). This was beyond thoughtful! I am blessed to be his sidekick in life. He always keeps me laughing. The last 8 years have been filled with peaks and valleys, but we all have trials. They make us who we are today. God knew long ago who was perfect for me and our family is so blessed to have him. I love you, Matt!

Hope you enjoyed this post. Have a great week!

'Tis the Season!

We've spent the past week decorating the house for CHRISTmas! Each year gets a little more exciting as we watch the children grow to understand the true meaning of the season. This year our little helpers decorated the tree...a little bit....and loved the finished product.

When we were at Disney, we got them an ornament to put on the tree. You'd have thought Christmas had come early when I pulled these out of their boxes!

And Friday night Jake had a program to sing at in downtown Ruston. The entire Lincoln Parish Early Childhood Center sang 5 songs and Jake really enjoyed his time in the spotlight! Below are his teachers, Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Brown. We love them!

Jake was dancing freestyle during "Feliz Navidad". We, of course, thought it was the cutest!

I believe this was "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"

And I love getting ideas off Pinterest for things to do with Podie! This was our kids' favorite place to find him this week! Playing HiHoCherry-O with his pals.

We went to the Alluvian this weekend and I'm hoping to post soon about it. We had A LOT of fun!

Who Do You Stand For?

I find this so incredibly awesome. What a testament!

Week in Review

To sum up our Thanksgiving week:

We hung out in Bossier, took long naps, helped pass out 465 Tyler cajun fried turkeys that Matt cooked, had Thanksgiving Day dinner at my parents with them, my grandmother, brother Darrell and sister in law Stephanie, went back to Bossier, shopped Thursday night with a bunch of CRAZY people, Matt got last minute invite to LSU game so he shopped late then got up super early to head to Baton Rouge, put up Christmas decorations, and now we are waiting for Daddy to come back home. What a fun week we've had! So thankful for blessings of family during this time and always.

Eating ice cream(per Gi Gi) at 10 am while " helping" Daddy with the turkeys.

Napping on Thanksgiving day

Playing with Bailey Jack at Sundown, our favorite eatery in Ruston. It's always fun to see people there, especially those who are in from out of town during holidays.

We ate at the Mohawk in Monroe last night, another favorite. We're always eating, aren't we:/!!!!

And good gracious I love seeing Christmas through the eyes of children! The kiddos were SO excited that Podie made it back from the North Pole this year. Silly elf was reading all of their books this morning:).

Hope your Thanksgiving was filled with reasons to be thankful. Thank you Lord for your bountiful blessings upon our family. Have a great weekend!!

Jake's Birthday Party

We had Jake's 5th birthday at Papa Simpson's Farm in Arcadia yesterday. We lucked out with warm weather and had a SUPER great time! We'd been to the farm several times but this was our first birthday party there. Can't say enough about how good it was! A special thank you to my mom who took pictures of the entire party. Thank you, Mom!

The invite

Even Daddy dressed up for our cowboy theme:)!

My sweet man riding the trailer down to the farm

The kids got to hold chicks, goats, feed calves, milk a cow, feed cows and sheep, ride ponies, feed pigs, chase goats, etc. You'd rather not see all those pictures so I narrowed them down to a few.

Feeding the calves

Picking pumpkins out of the pumpkin patch

Landry Grace always with an accessory in her hand.....

Riding the cow train!

Digging for prizes in the corn dig

And Pinterest has me getting creative!

Used slim jims for cow tails, chex mix for chicken feed, got haystacks recipe off internet, and then there were pigs in a blanket

Used oatmeal cream pies and starcrunches for cow patties

Party Table

Found these cute boot cups on Birthday Express for the party favors

Blowing out his candles

What a fun party! Wish I could be longer and tell you what Jake means to our family. He is such a blessing to us all. But in the meantime he is READY for me to take him to the movies! SO I'm off. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Landry Grace's turn

I had to follow up my last post with one about Baby Girl. Landry Grace loves being in the spotlight, just like any 3 year old would. On Thursday she was in her element as her Montessori class sang songs and feasted on Thanksgiving food. She did a great job and loved every minute of us being there!

Singing away.....

With Big D and Big Mama

Our beloved Ms. Cindy

And Ms. April, her teacher

Today we had the day off from school as the local high school football team is playing in Baton Rouge. Due to buses being used and lack of enough substitutes, we got out a day early for Thanksgiving break. Yay!!! When I told mom about having Friday off, she mentioned taking Landry Grace to the Glenwood Village Tearoom in Shreveport(Mom had gotten a coupon off of Groupon so check that out as well) for lunch and tea. Let me just say that Landry Grace LOVED this! Absolutely loved it!! I'd highly recommend this to anyone wanting to do something a little different with your daughter or mom. They strongly suggest having reservations.

With her own princess tea cup and pillow(our waitress was great and played this up a bit)

This is first time I can really tell LG looks a lot like me!

She had her own teapot with Sprite and carefully drank all of it! Love her concentration in this picture. This was such a fun outing.

And since Mandy was working in Shreveport today, she joined us as well.

We are having Jake's birthday party( a few weeks early) Sunday since it's outdoors and we are hoping for warmer weather than the 26 degree weather we had 2 years ago for his and LG's outdoor party! This morning it was 34 degrees...saying some prayers but know it'll be FINE! Have a wonderfully blessed weekend!

All About Jake!

This post is all about my (almost) 5 year old; can't believe I just typed that!!! Didn't we bring him home from the hospital last year just before Christmas? He'd spent 8 days in the NICU(those were the longest days of my life) and now we are getting ready to celebrate 5 years.....OK, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Matt and I spent last weekend in Oxford watching the Tech football team beat Ole Miss. True, they may be having a down year, but a win is a WIN! Especially against an SEC opponent. We had a great time as my brother flew in from Denver and his girlfriend, Mandy, was with us all weekend as well.

Jake stayed with my parents on Friday(LG was with GiGi) and they took him to another swim meet. I wish I could say that the picture below was of him discussing strategy with Big D, but he would not swim that day. Needless to say, he is a little young for the competition level at this point. We aren't going to try any more swim meets for a while. He enjoys practice and we'll keep that up in the meantime! I love that my parents and GiGi are so involved(and able to be) with my children. It's not that way for many as distance separates a lot of families from grandparents. We count our blessings daily with the help we receive from them. We couldn't do much without you!

Last night Jake had a belt test in karate. He is truly enjoying this sport and does pretty well for his age.
With his certificate and white belt with black stripe. He is so observant....in the car on the way home he could tell me the next three colors of belts and the order they were earned.
And today was Jake's Thanksgiving lunch at school. Originally, Jake had requested his Big Mama and Big D to come. My dad had to back out for a game of golf and I stepped in. Jake was a little disappointed! What can I say?
We have been more than pleased with Jake's pre-K center. He has thrived and made some great friends in the meantime. His teachers have commented on the fact that Jake is a leader in the class and on the playground. We are so proud of him and thank God for loaning him to us:)! So many reasons to be thankful during this season.
Landry Grace's feast is tomorrow. It could be interesting! Loving this age and all the laughter that comes with it. May your Thanksgiving feasts be filled with blessings and chuckles!