Weekend Update

Friday night we went to Mont Ne Chicken House for Paige's birthday.

Happy Birthday Paige!

The food was great. You do not order off a menu, they only serve one meal. All you can eat bean soup, fried chicken, okra, mashed potatoes, corn, slaw, etc...

During the middle of the meal one of Paige's best friends surprised her from Dallas. Being from Dallas, I think she got a little nervous about where the driver was taking her from the airport. Ben and I had never been there and it took us an 1 hour 20 minutes to get there since we got lost! Our GPS took us to the middle of no where. It had us turn onto a gravel road and I told Ben I did not think GPS was right since there were no signs and he informed me that it was right and that this place was way out there. Well about 20 minutes later he started getting a little nervous too. It seriously looked like we were on private hunting land. I was scared someone was about to start shooting at us. We turned around and called for directions.

Saturday we woke up and had a family breakfast and celebrated Ben's Birthday!!! Ben's Uncle Buddy and Aunt Carol were in town for the game so we cooked and they came over before to see Madeline.

I want to wish the Best Daddy and Husband a belated Happy, Happy Birthday! Madeline and I are the luckiest girls in the world!

 Looking at the blog pictures and especially the ones I am posting tonight confirms that I am a control freak(See Photo Above). I am always right there barging in when other people are trying to do stuff with Madeline. I have always liked to do stuff myself instead of others doing it, but I need to get a grip and relax when someone wants to help with Madeline. We are so blessed to have family that want to help us and I reject the help. I will start working on this!

It was J.P.'s Birthday too! He is relaxing on the couch in the background.

Happy Birthday J.P.

P.S. Friday night, Bella passed her gold baby uggs down to Madeline (boots on the table in the photo above). They are so cute! I may start to like cold weather since I can dress my little girl in these.

Madeline and her Great Aunt Carol! Great Aunt Carol came with the cutest gifts for everyone. She will definitely have to take me to her shopping spots when we visit for Thanksgiving. She always finds the most adorable things.

After the game we went to one of my best friends wedding shower. We had so much fun and loved spending time with Ann and Kent! We wish you lived closer but we will have fun visiting you in NYC when Madeline gets older! We're counting down until the wedding in Seaside!!!

Ben and his friends organized their first annual Bulldog Cup Golf Tournament and it took place last Sunday. It is kind of like the Ryder Cup. There is going to be a playoff this weekend to determine the winning team. They went all out, each team got their own pullovers and a huge trophy. They will add the winning team each year. Ben and his partner decided to grow mustaches. Ben decided to leave handle bars. For some reason he liked it and I thought he looked like a chester. I usually let him wear his facial hair however he wants but I drew a line here and made him shave it the next day.

Raspberry

Madeline Loves getting Raspberries

Looking Back.....

Ben and I have been taking advantage of all the great trails around NW Arkansas and the nice weather. One morning we thought Madeline may like to face forward in her stroller. Well, I guess we were wrong because we looked down and this is what we saw....

She would not turn her head around so we stopped and turned her back to face us.

The next morning we left her in the car seat carrier facing us and she was so happy!



Crossing the border.....

Madeline left the state of Arkansas for the first time last weekend!

We headed to Franklin, Tennessee to visit Madeline's Great Aunt Sue, Great Uncle Al, cousin Zac and John Coke. Ben got to hang out in Nashville, TN with John Coke one night and John came over Saturday to golf and watch the Arkansas vs. Auburn Game :(
Madeline was WONDERFUL on the drive! We stopped three times on the way  and she was asleep at the McDonalds pit stop in Stuttgart, AR, a.k.a The WORST McDonald's ever! We must be spoiled with good McDonald employees in NW Arkansas because no one was surprised by our worst McDonalds ever story.  Ben and the lady behind the speaker got into an argument about cheese coming stirred in the breakfast burrito mix and she told us that they were out of decaf. I thought she meant they were completely out of decaf, not just the pot being empty. Ben and mom had to end of going in since we had such a specialized order: no cheese on burrito and decaf coffee. The lady handed Ben the burrito and said breakfast burrito no cheese while she handed it to him. Sure enough, he opened it and there was cheese on it. One employee was mopping the bumped another employee and she said " EXCUSE YOU". Mom was expecting a fight to break out at any moment. Once we got our correct order, we all agreed that it was the best McDonalds food and coffee we had ever gotten. So all in all, I guess I should say the worst McDonalds service ever. We ended up stopping there on our trip home.

Growing up, we always stopped at Casey Jones village in Jackson, Tennessee and I wanted to do the same with Madeline. There is a hotel across the street and we used to stay in the hotel Caboose on our way to Franklin for Thanksgiving every year.

John came over Thursday after he got off work and him and Ben headed to JJ Grey & Mofro concert.

Madeline got to lunch with the ladies and shop...

I loved the ladies working in all the cute gift shops. They all Ooh & Awed over Madeline. All the ladies in different shops would say.. What a southern Belle with her bow on. You've got to start them early.

We even headed to Franklin's historic downtown square and got a cupcake from IveyCake. This place made the cupcake tower for Carrie Underwoods Wedding and the owner's husband is in Carrie's band. I got the "I Do" cupcake, which was Wonderful. My mom got  chocolate and said she would definitely get another flavor next time.

Madeline loves to eat cell phones (See Above)

Madeline got lots of love from her Aunt Sue!

Pumpkin Patch Attempt

Two weeks ago we headed out with the Penix/Francis clan to visit a pumpkin patch. First we tried the Ozark Corn Maze, which we knew was a huge mistake the minute we pulled up. It was packed! Madeline fell asleep on the way and little Fox sat down in the field. We immediately loaded back up and left and headed to Van Zants farm, which I heard is very cute. Well, we got there and it was closed on Sundays. Oh well, maybe next year. Like I said Madeline was sound asleep. This was more for a photo op than anything. We decided to head to Ben's parents and enjoy time on their wonderful porch.

Filling up  before we headed out on our adventure....

Our little girl loves dogs....

This was her first time to interact with their family lab, Gracie