Gammy is 60!

We surprised Mom with a family-filled weekend for her 60th birthday!  We've been arranging everything for a couple months and it finally all came together  A couple people did try to ruin the surprise, but that's OK...it worked out!  

The first surprise in our wave of surprises was getting my brother to come in from NYC.  I tried and tried to get mom to meet me for lunch or to get a pedicure.  She said she didn't feel like it!  So, I picked him up and we just went to her!  She opened the door and screamed "WHAT!!!???"  She started crying and we knew she was surprised!

My aunt and cousins came over to my house for our next surprise.  We all met up at Grub for dinner and then they all walked in.  YAY!  At the end of the meal Uncle Mike, Baehr, and Donnie all walked in for the final surprise of the day.  We were almost surprised out!

So exciting!

On her actual birthday, May 29th...we celebrated with a "Lauri's favorite things" party.  I did all of her favorites like: Scrabble, the color green, Nancy Grace, theVoice, Almond Joy, Twizzlers, raisinets, sweet-tarts and so on. 

Nancy Grace says Happy 60th!

This cake was awesome!

So glad my brother, Rebecca, and Daniel helped decorate!

My Aunt found the link to the free printable scrabble banner.

Even Mrs. Sarah came!

Our family with the O'Bannon's

Love me some Uncle Mike

Michael's friend Aubrey came by!

Sweet friends: Frances White and Chris Griffin

Siblings!

Nana and her favorites!

The fabulous Williamses

Gammy and her babies

This was supposed to be a pic of mom with her kids and grandkids...

Yay for the Echols/Garbutts!

Finally...no more surprises!  We went to my aunt's hotel and the kids got to swim.  What a fun weekend!

9 years of bliss!

We celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary a couple days late.  I went to Ruston for Rebecca's business launch party on our actual anniversary: May 24th.  Rebecca gave us a sweet card with a #9 sparkler candle! How sweet!

Sadly, we had to stop by my 2nd cousin's visitation before our dinner.  He passed away tragically a few days before after a horrible accident.  

We went to Don Juanz (our favorite) for a delicious meal.  When Neil got the drinks I sneaked the candle to the cashier and he brought it out all lit up to us after we ate.  Neil was loving being surprised.  Not.  He doesn't like attention called to him!

Happy 9 years to us!

We had a happy day!  We are really looking forward to our 10 years when we will hopefully go on a trip! yahoo!

Summer 2016

Now that I am a full-time stay-at-home mom...we've been super busy! Not only do I have my 3 kids to tend to I ave my new business: The Festive Favor and I am doing some part-time marketing consulting for Ameriprise and Red River Brewing!  Wow!  It is a lot.  It is not keeping us from having fun, though.

Sarah Kathryn and I babysat Baby Loop (she she calls him).  SK was the biggest helper! She was a little too helpful if you know what I mean. She got him blankets, her doll bed, wanted to hold him constantly, and even put his pacifier in his mouth!  Such a little mommy!

We've taken summer as our opportunity to wear the cutest summer outfits ever.  I can't even handle her in this Beaufort Bonnet beauty.

This too.  Adorable!

Rebecca launched her Rodan and Fields Business!

How cute are these cookies!??

Good luck! She has inspired me to have my own business launch party!

Tent fort in the playroom!  They wanted to sleep in there so I let them.  It lasted 5 minutes before they wanted to get in their beds!

Business Boutique

I have the most supportive and encouraging husband around.  He is the sweetest, too.  Anyway, he listens to Dave Ramsey podcasts and heard about the Christy Wright Business Boutique.  He looked into it, told me about it, and we decided I should attend.   Since I was able to stay with Leslie, it made the weekend very affordable!  I learned so much and am so grateful to Neil for holding down the fort so I could learn how to build my business!

I didn't really know what I was walking into.  I knew it was going to be a bunch of women trying to learn about building their businesses, but I had no idea what I would get!  1,600 women from all over...even 1 woman from Kenya were there to learn.  The speakers were GREAT and 1 was the best one I have ever heard in my life.  Her name was Christine Caine.  I met a friend right when I got there and we ate lunch together both days.  She was a mom, grandmother, and from LA!  fate!

The first countdown until it started.  It was a HUGE event!

Great speakers and interviews with women business owners like The Elf on the Shelf creator, Chanda Bell.

Love this! "Fear isn't a sign you're doing something bad, it's  sign you're doing something BOLD!"

My fave speaker taking us to church!  Christine Caine!

I was exhausted after the first day as Leslie knew I would be so she cooked!  She is the most wonderful chef and hostess!

All from scratch!

She even made shortbread from scratch and whipped cream!! omg! Heaven.

So, I had 2 shirts made with my logo on them.  I thought I would wear one on Friday and one on Saturday of the conference.  Well as I looked at photos of other events and NO ONE had on their business stuff I decided against it.  After day 1, I built up my confidence and wore it!  Stepping out of your comfort zone is scary!

Me representing my business!

Me and Annie F. Downs...she was hilarious and the MC of the event.

me with my friend, Ava

After the second day, Leslie, Amanda, and me all went to Bishop Arts and looked around and ate dinner.  We saw this bench and felt it was a great way to end my trip to Dallas!

These 2 are some of the most supportive friends a girl could ask for!  They give me ideas, listen to business ideas, and support me!  How wonderful to have such great friends!

We went to Leslie's friend, Kate Weiser's, chocolate store.  Fab.