Arkansas Trip...Record for the LONGEST BLOG EVER!

Wow, what a whirlwind we had in Arkansas. We went to see Layla Scout who was born March 7. In addition to seeing her we had Presley's dedication, a birthday party for her, a week in Jonesboro, a visit with friends and a visit in Decatur with my side of the family. Crazy! I wouldn't have traded it for the world. Before I start this blog I want to apologize for its length and for the amount of pictures I have uploaded. There are so many, but I didn't want to take the time to take out all the doubles, triples or however many we took to get the "right" shot. I wanted to post them all for my mom's sake! =)

When we arrived in Little Rock Lisa, Keith and Layla picked us up. Layla was dressed in a beautiful pink dress to meet us. Presley loved meeting her Layla for the first time. Layla is absoulutely breath taking. She has milky white skin, with dark hair and dark eyes. She is such a sweet baby. Her mom and dad are so wonderful with her. She has a little bit of gas problems,so sometimes cries pretty hard. This, however, doesn't phase her mom and dad. Nope, they are look like seasoned pros. It doesn't even seem to bother them. They just love on her til it passes! It was so wonderful to get to see them in action.

The Sunday night that we got to Jonesboro was crazy packed. First, after seeing Mumsie and Grandad we all got ready and headed to their church. We had Presley dedicated. It was such a wonderful ceremony. We were there surrounded by family and friends. This is a very important tradition for both Dallas and I. It was very important for Dallas and I to stand in front of our friends and family and promise to raise Presley in a Christian home and to have others keep us accountable to that. It was really a beautiful thing. Dallas' dad did the dedication. What made it even more special was that he had never done another dedication. Presley was his first! Such a sweet night!

Presley's Dedication

After the dedication we all headed back to Mumsie and Grandads to celebrate Presley's first birthday. When we bought the tickets to go to Jonesboro and realized it was a week after Presley's 1st Birthday I was fairly certain she would be having two birthday parties. So, I wasn't shocked when it was mentioned to me a few days before we left. It was such a sweet party. All of Dallas' family was there with their little ones. You would think that Presley would be lost in the crowd....NOPE...not my social butterfly. She hung with them like she had been every weekend since she was born. It was trully special. Mumsie(Mary) had such cute decorations and went all out. Some of Dallas' past was even brought into the party-the candle on the cake was Dallas' first birthday candle and the cake was actually decorated by a young lady that Dallas escorted to her prom!! It was neat!
The rest of the week we just spent hanging out with eachother and trying to squeeze as many memories as we could into 7 days. We got to spend some time with Uncle James(Mary's uncle) who is really more like a grandpa to Dallas than an uncle. We visited with him at his house and even went to a good ole' county fried fish place with him. We spent an afternoon at Aunt Betty's with Amanda and her three kids Madison, Jaxon and Reed. Those three had so much fun putting Presley in all the wagons and pulling her around. She didn't mind much. Actually at one point they pulled out a big wagon outside and were pulling her and the two others at the same time. I went up to her at one point and she had a TON of chocolate on her face. Ya, they were feeding her hershey's kisses...LOVE IT!!
One day we met Crystal(who is expecting another baby girl-Olivia Kate- in Sept) and Ella Claire at the mall to play in the playground there. We don't normally do those, but it was pretty empty most of the time and a fairly big one. It didn't matter the condition or the size, Presley and Ella had a great time. I don't have any pictures of that day. I am not sure why. I know I was shopping for most of it, but I thought I left my camera and even thought I took some. Oh well, I don't have them on the camera now. Presley was also able to go to Kindermusic with Layla. It was so nice of Donna to let us come. Presley has a music class she goes to once a week too. So, it was nice to see how others are ran. Presley really enjoyed herself. We had fun playing with the scarfs, shakers, instruments, etc.

Visit at Mumsie and Grandad's May 2009

On Tuesday night of that week we went to Hoaxie to watch Keith's Chior Concert. He is the Middle School and High School Chior Director at Hoaxie. It was such a great concert. I was so proud of him. Not only did they have great harmonies, but you could actual understand what they were singing. A lot of times at concerts you can't even understand wheat they are trying to say. Presley loved it. Well, the part she was awake for. She sat in my lap for the last song and was mimicking her Uncle Keith and his conducting!! On Saturday the 9th we had to leave at 3am to drive Dallas to Little Rock so he could fly home. I decided that I would stay an extra week and drive to NW Arkansas and see my side of the family. My extended family hasn't seen Presley since she was 8 weeks old.

Keith's Concert 05/09

On the way there I wanted to stop in Cabot to see some dear friends that I have acquired through Kaci. While Kaci was living in Cabot she attended Mt. Tabor United Methodist church where she met Jo and Vicky. When I lived with Kaci for a month, waiting for Dallas to come home from Italy, I got to know them pretty well. I absolutely love them. They immediately took me in and have loved my daughter boundlessly. They are a treasure to us. So, we stopped and spent the morning with them. They made me my first ever fried pies! They were wonderful! Presley tourtured their dogs Baily and Poncho and I helped them with their webcam. It was wonderful to see them and I hated leaving. Oh, by the way, I am positive I got pictures of Vickie with Presley while I was there but they are no where to be found. Guess I have to stop letting Presley play with the camera!

Visit with Jo and Vickie may 09

I arrived in Decatur that night. It was a good drive until the last 45 minutes and let me tell you that my little girl has BIG lungs. When we arrived at my Grandma's I thought she felt kinda warm and was being pretty fussy. So, we checked her temp and she had 103.5. AUGH! She was up all night. The next morning she still had a slight fever but seeing as it was Mother's Day I got her dressed and we headed to church. she was NOT a happy camper. She fussed the whole service. We finally realized that it was her teeth. She was pretty unhappy for the rest of the day but came around on Monday. Needless to say with all of that going on I didn't get a picture of us on actual Mother's Day. However, I took a bunch of pictures of her in her dress out in front of my Grandma's house. Also, the flower my mom and dad sent me was good till the next week so I got a picture of us the next Sunday. Oh and these pictures are proof of how HARD it is to get a picture of Presley facing forward-forget trying to get her to smile!! However, these pictures remind me of WHY I love being MOM!

Mother's Day 2009

Presley came around Monday afternoon, so Grandma and I decided we would go shopping. We loaded Presley up and head to the mall in Fayetteville and shopped till....well Presley dropped!! Presley was so much fun that day. I had such a great time chasing her around and inside and out of the clothing racks!! Presley pushed her stroller all over the store. I realized I was having too much fun with all of it when she rammed a manequin for the 3rd time!! It was so much fun! The three of us shopped it up all day!

Visit with grandma betty

On Wed. Presley and I headed to the University of Arkansas. At the University of Arkansas when a student graduates their name is etched into the sidewalks at the University. It is a very special tradition and one I wanted to share with Presley. So, I took her to the University and got some pictures of her running on the sidewalks. She looked totally at home there! Ok, I know! Don't force the school on her! After we went to the school we went to Sam's house. Sam is a very good friend of mine from college! We played with her at her house for a few hours. It was so wonderful to catch up with her and her roomate Alicia. When I got home I was telling my Grandma about our trip to the University and realized that my Grandma had NEVER been to see the sidewalks. I couldn't believe it. She had never seen her son's name in the University of Arkansas sidewalks. My dad has his name at the University twice. So, on Thursday we went back to the school and walked around to show her all of the family names that are in the sidewalks.

Presley's trip to UofA May 2009

On Friday I got together with the Knox side(my mom's side) of my family. We all met up for lunch. It was so much fun to just sit around and visit. My uncles took turns holding Presley and gloating that they were holding Donnie's(my dad) grandaughter. So, naturally they all had to get around her and get a picture.

Visiting the Knox Side May 2009

We did the flight on the way home all by ourselves. I was a little nervous. She is 1 now. I just knew she would NOT sit still. On the first flight she was a bit wiggly but fell asleep right as we were landing. Of course! So, when I got up and headed to get the stroller she woke up. I thought, what do I do with a 1 year old at 9:45pm(1 hr and 45 minutes past bed time) in an airport. She was pingy!! So I took a bunch of the chairs and pulled them together and made a HUGE play pin. This video is cute. Ok, for you germ phobe moms, excuse the fact that she is rolling around on an airport floor. I washed her hand with sanitizer about every 15 minutes. It was so funny!!

All in all it was a wonderful trip. We had so much fun and it was a blessing to get to spend so much time with all of them. It is sad to know that those kinds of trips are getting ready to be few and far between. Once Presley hits 2 we won't travel as much. It just isn't as cheap when you have to buy three tickets!! Plus at some point we will have to spend our resources on our nuclear family. However, for now, it is so wonderful to get to share Presley with all the people I love so much and who love her so dearly!!

Thanks for reading and looking at allllllllll of this post. CRAZY!!!