My Coworkers are the BEST

So Wednesday was my birthday, and although it is my tendency to downplay the day, my coworkers had another plan in mind.

This is what I walked into Wednesday morning....minus a few items I had to remove in order to get to my computer.




I also had 6 bags of these puppies waiting for me - my favorite chips in the world!



And my favorite - the eggplant sign on the water cooler (love you Lynzee!!)



On top of that, I got treated to lunch and had 3 desserts distributed in my honor that afternoon. What a special day - thanks to all of my wonderful coworkers. I am truly blessed to work with such lovely people.

I celebrated with my family last weekend when I was in MS. They had a surprise ice cream cake for me that was actually just a regular cake from the freezer section, but that frozen butter cream icing was just as good to me. Unfortunately it wasn't really a surprise cake, because I overheard my niece Paige squealing about it when my mom let her in on the surprise, but when Paige brought it out and expectantly asked "Were you surprised...you didn't know did you?" I just had to lie and say "I most certainly was surprised!" I mean who can really disappoint a darling 8 year old - not me!

Today we're recovering today from a weekend with my parents finishing up the porch. And this time it is really almost finished - seriously - I'll post pictures soon. My dad is amazing - he worked for 3.5 days straight and just about knocked it out. Tonight we sat out there for an hour, swinging, with the lights turned low, with not a mosquito to be found. I love it!! We also enjoyed brunch with our friend Karen and her friend Kevin today, and a laid back pizza dinner with Brian and Gina across the road this evening. What a great way to end the holiday weekend.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend!

Party Time!

There's nothing like a weekend full of food, fun and good friends. Last weekend we hosted a party for my Shepherd friends - well technically they're now our Shepherd friends, but they will always be mine first:) I've really enjoyed getting to know this group over the past 2 years. I don't work in the same department as any of them, so I don't see them as much as I'd like, but we always have fun when we do get together - which is at minimum once a week for lunch. And I know if I ever needed anything, one of these guys or girls would be here in a minute. That's just the kind of great people they are. I am very blessed.

So we started off the evening munching on some serious appetizers - sausage balls, spinach dip and queso. I shouldn't have even bothered with dinner, because the snacks were so good we were all full by the time the main course came out. I try to find simple things to serve when we have company, so the menu consisted of grilled peanut butter chicken (sounds gross but tastes great), steak marinated in worchestire sauce, oil and coke (the secret weapon), baked potatoes, Asian broccoli salad and skewered vegetables. Dessert was fresh baked cookies compliments of Mrs. Publix.

We spent the first part of the evening hanging on the porch, and then snapped some fun pictures before heading in for a little game of Guitar Hero.



Me and Jeff



The Gentlemen - (L-R) Jeff, Josh, Jeremy and Marcelo.



The Ladies (L-R) Natalie, Lisa, Courtney, Laura and Amanda



Our attempt at a group shot



Josh was hands down the guitar hero of the evening, and also got an A+ for patiently teaching all of us newbies how to play.



But Jeff was the winner of the spirit award for the evening. He really got into it!

Even Natalie jumped in on the fun.

Sunday night I had the pleasure of watching Natalie for Josh and Lisa so they could enjoy a special Mother's Day dinner. We had a great time feeding the ducks in our neighborhood pond, playing out front, watching the little mermaid and finally taking an hour long bath. Although Nat wasn't too interested in most of the movie, she did get sucked into a few parts. When the cook was chasing Sebastien around the kitchen she kept saying "Oh no, oh no!" It was really cute. And man did she enjoy her bath. She played by herself about 45 minutes, and then we got into a game of peekaboo. Even Jeff joined in the fun, and we were all laughing hysterically by the end of it. Much to Nat's disappointment, after an hour of sitting in lukewarm water that I could not keep warm, the bath ended. And 5 minutes later Josh and Lisa pulled up to find Nat blue-lipped and wrapped in a blanket. I was sure they were going to think I'd been neglecting their daughter after finding her in her frozen state, but they assured me this happens often because she loves her baths so much. Here's my favorite shot of the evening. Could she possibly be any cuter?

Hope everyone has a fun rest of the week!

The Odd Couple

So recently it has become a nightly ritual for Allie to hop into bed with us for a few minutes of "loving" before we go to sleep. Her exclusive pampering was short lived, however, since Bailey has made it quite clear he is not going to be excluded from this special time. Now it's a race for both of them to get to the head of the bed when the time comes. Allie is the brute of the two, so she always gets the closer spot. But Bailey certainly isn't afraid to walk over her or lay right on top of her for his share of the action. Here are a few pictures we took last night. It's hard to get a good shot without disrupting the love fest, but there were few cute ones in this last bunch.

Update

He likes the hair:) And since he didn't have internet access, nor did I tell him anything while he was gone, he had not a clue until he stepped in the door Monday night. Welcome home:)

PS: Maybe I should tell my coworker I chopped my hair off because I was so paranoid I looked pregnant after her comments last week:)

Where have the days gone?

Sorry its been awhile since our last post. The past two weeks have flown by. Last week we made a whirlwind trip to Dallas to see Jeff's brother Justin, get baptized. Justin recommitted his life to Christ a month ago his baptism was a public demonstration of his commitment to follow where the Lord leads. I love Jeff's family because they always support each other - more than 20 of them made it up/over/down to Dallas for this special day. Here are a few pictures from the day:

This is the actual Smith Family. Eric and Amy and their 5 kids (David, Catherine, twins Deborah and Ellen and their newest addition Benjamin), Justin and his daughter Cheyenne and Mama Li and Pop Smith. What a great group! Jeff is the only Ellis Smith son without kids. After spending the weekend with 6 kids we've decided everyone might have to wait a little longer:) Don't get me wrong, our nieces and nephews are very cute and well-behaved, but we're obviously not in any hurry to get started here. When the inevitable observation is made that Eric has 5 kids and we have 0, somehow it always comes back to "You do know where they come from right?" to which my reply is "I guess the stork gave up after flying all the way to AK and then LA to find us."



Aunt Pam and Benjamin

Aunt Jan, Robbie and Avery

Happy Benjamin

David and Katherine

I didn't get a picture of everyone, but there were plenty of Smith's and Petty's in attendance. Again I say, what a great group!

On the way to and from Dallas we got to spend some quality time with my family in Mississippi. We especially enjoyed visiting with our niece Paige, who will be coming to live with my sister Lana and her new husband Eddie for good this summer. We also got to visit with Granny and Poppa before they make the trek back up to Alaska for the summer. We'll be seeing them again before too long when we head up there ourselves for my 10 year High School Reunion in June.

Me and Paige

Me, Grandpa and Paige

Granny

Lana and Eddie

Paige thought Jeff was the funniest thing. She kept taking pictures of him, and got particularly tickled over this one. We're not really sure why - but when he looked at her and said "what are you looking at" she fell on the floor laughing. And once Jeff has an audience, watch out! They were quite the pair.

My dad is just a little smitten with Paige, who thinks he's the greatest thing too. I think she got a little jealous when I sat down beside him because she hopped in his lap right after that:)

And I didn't get a picture of my mom from this trip, but here is one from Christmas. Mom was an excellent host as always, she always cooks us delicious meals.

I also got to grab a bit to eat with two of my favorite ladies, Melissa and Lauren. Melissa is due to have Baby Bellah next month, and Lauren was in town from Nashville for a weekend break.

This weekend has been pretty busy, as Jeff flew back to Dallas to help Justin out with some things, and I've been busy hanging out with some of my friends. I also chopped my hair off yesterday, and Jeff doesn't know yet. It's been nearly a year since my last haircut, and I've been wanting to try something new for awhile. I probably should have waited until after my 10 year reunion in June, but you know I'm not one for putting things off once I get an idea in my head. I haven't had bangs since my junior year of college 7 years ago. I hope Jeff likes them!