ARVEST1 Christmas party 2011!

I always love hosting the trade desk Christmas party each year! We always have so much fun and this year was no exception! Our current traders and alumni of the trade desk are always welcome! We missed the Cornetts this year since they recently moved to NYC. But Candace stepped up to the plate and provided a nice "picture" gift of Trent to follow in Rachel's footsteps.
We had lots of yummy food and enjoyed watching football, part of the Hangover, playing Wii and of course, our gift exchange. :)

Our White elephant/Dirty Santa gift exchange never disappoints!
Trent received a festive pair of underwear! ;)

Dwight opened the "As Seen on TV" Slider Maker which Jim promptly stole from him. ;)

Ty seemed pleased with his Christmas tree Chia pet plant. ;)

We played some Just Dance for the Wii too. Not sure what was going on in this pic but love that Jim and Candace are both pointing at Trent while he seems to be trying to figure out how to "Bust a Move".

Trent finally got his groove on! ;)
I usually try to take pictures of everyone but this year I must have been a slacker. I was just having so much fun with good friends that I forgot to take very many pictures. Plus, Stephanie and I had a major case of the giggles. :) Thanks to all my trade desk crew who came to the party! Until next year!

Thanksgiving 2011

We have so much to be thankful for this year! Just too many blessings to list!

The biggest of them all is our sweet boys!

Andrew had the whole week off from Mother's Day Out, and we had a great time together!
We worked on potty training last week and he has did great! He is using the potty several times a day and even started wearing underwear while we are at home!
Way to go Andrew!

Christian had only two days of school last week. He came home with a wonderful gift he made during his class fall party...

A Thanksgiving Centerpiece!
He was so excited to set it on our table and we lit the candle at our Thanksgiving dinner!

On Thanksgiving, we drove to Van Buren to have lunch with all of Jim's family!
Big thanks to GoGo for cooking all the food! It was delicious! We had a great time visiting with our family. The cousins even spent some time in the game room practicing a Thanksgiving play they made up themselves! They performed it that afternoon for all of us!

The did a great job!

We drove back home Thanksgiving night since Jim had to work the next day.
On Friday after Thanksgiving, we had a lazy morning. No early Black Friday shopping for us! ;)
While Jim was at work, I took the boys to Westwood Gardens to pick out our Christmas tree!

We found the prettiest tree! Christian and I think it is our best tree yet!

While Andrew napped, Christian and I started cooking our own Thanksgiving dinner and watched the big Arkansas vs. LSU football game.
Unfortunately, we did not take home the "boot" but the Hogs had their best season in a long time. WAY TO GO RAZORBACKS! WOOO PIG SOOIE!


I cooked a turkey, cornbread dressing, broccoli and rice casserole, mashed potatoes and yummy rolls! The boys loved the turkey and we all ate lots of food!
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Nina and the Pinta

Sunday, we went down to Fort Smith to see family. The Nina and the Pinta ships were docked on the Arkansas River. These replicas were built in Brazil and have been on display all over the country! We were so excited to hear they were down in Fort Smith. Sunday was the last day it was on the river, then they were heading to Florida. We were so lucky to get to see them. Christian has been learning all about the ships used on Christopher Columbus's voyage to America. Every day after school for two weeks, he has been playing "ship". :)

The boys had a blast exploring the boats!

Pops did too!


Christian was so excited to go to school Monday and tell his teacher and friends about getting to explore these boats!

Christian drew these pictures when he got home!

Homecoming with the McNeills!

A couple weekends ago, Pat and Stacy came down from Kansas City for the weekend to stay with us! We were so excited to see them! We had a wonderful Friday night dinner at Bonefish Grill, just the four of us. Then we had a lazy Saturday morning sipping coffee and watching the boys play.
That afternoon, we headed down to Fayetteville for the big Homecoming game for the Razorbacks against South Carolina!


Will had the tailgate set up for the game and we enjoyed it with friends and family!

It was a great game! The Hogs won!
Later that night when we were back at our house, we felt our first earthquake! At 10:35pm, there was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that hit part of Oklahoma and it could be felt for miles! It did not last very long, but it shook us side to side while on the couch and our lamp shades shook!
Hogs on a winning streak and an earthquake...exciting stuff! ;)
Thanks to Pat and Stacy for coming to visit! We had a blast with you all!

Veteran's Day Celebration

Last week, Christian's cub scout troop was asked to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the

Veteran's Day Ceremony in Bella Vista! What an honor!

GoGo came up and attended the ceremony with me. We even got to stay at Christian's school and eat lunch with him and a few of his friends.

Christian with his den members

Our church's former associate pastor, Bro. Jaimie Alexander lead the prayer at the beginning of the ceremony.

The boys did a great job with leading the Pledge of Allegiance!

Halloween 2011

Our Halloween weekend was jam packed with lots of fun activities!

Friday, Christian wore his costume to school...

That's right...Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane! Christian has wanted to be Roscoe for Halloween since we discovered some old Dukes of Hazzard reruns on TV. He can even do a pretty good impression too. ;)

What a handsome Sheriff!
I made his costume myself! I ordered actual Hazzard County Sheriff patches and bought black fabric to replicate Roscoe's actual uniform. (I did have to have a lady sew on the patches for me)

After school and MDO, we came home and got Andrew into his costume...

Can't have Roscoe with out Boss Hogg!

Pops and GoGo came up to join us for the WMT ISD Trick or Treating and Fall Carnival!

We walked the "Candy Trail" through the aisles of cubicles as the boys said "TRICK OR TREAT!"

They even had a train ride outside! Christian wanted to ride with GoGo!

Andrew snuggled in a seat with us! ;)

That evening, Jim and I took the boys to Christian's school Fall Festival!

They always do a chili cookoff contest which is fun to try each year!

They had lots of games to play!

Mrs. Tracy that we know from church and school was a big M&M! She was helping with the Pin the Nose on the Witch game!

We even saw Mrs. Whited, Christian's 2nd grade teacher dressed as Ketchup!
He thought that was so funny!

On Saturday, Christian was invited to a Halloween Party from a friend named Ava at school!


At Ava's party, they did a costume contest...

Christian won "Most Original Costume"!

They decorated pumpkins!

They also played Halloween Bingo!

Christian ate cupcakes and ice cream!

All the kiddos pumpkins at the party!

On Sunday, Christian was invited to Brianna's Halloween Party too!


My friend Jenn and her daughter Brianna!

Chad and their newly adopted son, Bryson! He was dressed as Elvis!
So cute!

At Brianna's party, there was pumpkin decorating, face painting, balloon animals and lots of games! Jennifer even made a bowl of "monster brains" to reach in and pull out prizes!

The kids even did a scavenger hunt!

What a busy weekend of parties!

Monday was Halloween!
Our trade desk has a long tradition of dressing up with a "group" theme each year.
Last year, we did PacMan. We decided to stay with the video game idea so we did Super Mario Bros. this year!

Welcome to Super Mario Bros Land!

Paul was Luigi and Jacob was Mario!
They even grew out mustaches and shaved their beards for the big day!

Kathy was our lovely Princess!

Jenn and Trent as Turtles

Stephanie as Bowser

And can't forget Toad!

Jacob even acted out some of the game by jumping up the flag pole and sliding down like at the end of each level! :)

Trent made "Man Up" cakes too!

The gang worked SO hard on making our desks look like the backdrop from the game!

Sadly, we did not win the costume contest AGAIN this year. Parkwood location beat us AGAIN with a weak attempt of Harry Potter. I told everyone to stay positive and we can try again next year!

Halloween evening, Jim and I took the boys trick or treating to our neighbors close by.

Even though Andrew was not a fan of putting on a three piece suit and hat, all I had to say was "Let's go OUTSIDE and get CANDY!" He was ready!

I absolutely love our little Boss Hogg!



Having so much fun!

Later that evening, my friend Jenn and I took Christian and her daughter Brianna trick or treating at a neighborhood in Rogers where we have lots of friends from church.

There were so many trick or treaters out since the weather was not too cold.
They had a blast!

Happy Halloween!
(Now time to eat all that candy!)