Busted!!

Oh the things kids say and the way they think. I have been trying to teach Bailey to tell the truth. The other day she lied about needing to go to the bathroom after she was in bed. I let her get up. After sitting on the potty a few minutes she told me she didn't need to go. I asked her if she said she needed to potty just to get out of bed. She said yes. I explained to her that telling me she needed to potty when she really didn't need to is a lie and it is not nice to lie. Without hesitation she replied, "Mommy, do yall lie?". I stuttered for a few seconds then admitted that Mommy and Daddy lie sometimes, but that isn't nice for us to do either and that we all needed to work on telling the truth. What can you say?

A few days later Nana was in town and we decided that we would go to On the Border for supper. It is one of our favorite places and we have eaten there several times. Bailey asked where we were going for supper and I told her On the Border. She asks, "Where is the border?" I tried to explain that On the Border was a restaurant that we were going to. I don't know what she had in her mind that the border was. When we pulled up to the restaurant she pointed to the roof and said, "Is that the border? Are we going to eat up high?" I again tried to explain we were going in the restaurant and that was On the Border. When we got inside and they took us to our table she began crying as I put her in the high chair. She was saying, "This is not the border". She was very upset that we were not at the border. We couldn't help but laugh. Austin and I still laugh about it and wonder what in the world she had in her mind that the "border" was.

I guess the best times though are the times like just a few minutes ago. She wrapped her little arms around my leg and squeezed hard. She said "I love you sooo much". Melts my heart.

Pretty as a Picture

Bailey is growing up so fast!! If you don't believe me just ask her. She says "I'm getting bigger. I'm almost grown up". I try to take as many pictures as I can but I go through dry spells sometimes and realize it has been weeks since we have taken any. These are a few pictures that we took today at a park here in town. Bailey loves to pose. She is such a girly girl. Hope you enjoy them.

Who's Out There????

I always wonder who is reading and keeping up with our blog. I know people don't always have time to comment. That is understandable because I know I don't often take time to comment on blogs I read either. Sometimes I have a few spare minutes and quickly check a few of my favorite blogs just breezing through them. I am glad that any of you out there take a few moments from your busy lives to keep up with ours. Austin and I were talking and we thought it would be neat to get a list of our readers. If you could take a moment to just leave your name as a comment (or more if you like) we would appreciate it. Hope to hear from you.

A Fun Day

Yesterday when we woke up Austin told us to get ready and we would go do something fun. We decided on bowling and miniature golf. Bowling went great. Bailey loved it. We knew it was going to be fun when the guy asked what size shoes Bailey wears. I didn't know they had bowling shoes that small. She was so excited. Check out the shoes in the pictures above. Then he found her a special pink ball that was only 4 pounds so she could pick it up and throw it all by herself. You can see in one picture above how slow her ball went down the lane. She had time to throw it and comfortably sit down and watch it roll down the lane. It was fun.

Next we went over to the miniature golf course. As good as bowling went golf was that bad. It was hot outside and she wanted nothing to do with that. She didn't even try it. She had a pink ball and a putter just her size but that didn't matter. After about 15 minutes of trying to get her to play with us I gave up and began taking pictures of her instead. It helped that we were the only ones there.

When we came in from golf Bailey spotted a video game with a horse that you could sit on. She climbed on and Austin rode beside her. By then it was nap time and we had to get home.

Mother's Day Out

Bailey started Mother's Day out a couple of weeks ago. She attends two days a week from 9:00 to 2:30. To prepare for MDO we bought a new lunch box, nap mat, and princess blanket. She was so excited about starting school because of her new items. We were a little concerned about how she would do because she hasn't been away from us too much and she tends to be a little leery of people she doesn't know, even other kids.

On her first morning she was very excited (until we pulled into the parking lot). We got out of the van and began walking toward the church. The closer we got the slower she got. We made it to her classroom. She went in okay and things were going well until we began to walk away. She began to wail. It was soooo hard to leave her, but Austin insisted she would be okay. When we picked her up (30 minutes early I might add) she acted like she had a good time.

On Thursday I had to take her by myself. Austin threatened me if I brought her home. She began crying before we ever left the house saying she didn't want to go to school. She cried all the way there and was sniffling as we walked down the hall toward her class. I handed her to the teacher and she began to cry like she has never cried before. She was screaming "Mommy". I left quickly. I sat in the car and cried for a few minutes until I could gather myself enough to drive home. When I got home I called the school and asked someone to go to her room and check on her. They checked and assured me that she was okay. I made it through the rest of the day but picked her up a little early. After that I decided that Austin should take her to school.

Austin said she cried a little Tuesday. Thursday morning she was ready to go. She kept telling us that she wasn't even going to cry. She was true to her word and we were so proud. She had a great day Thursday and is asking when she goes back to class.

Bailey has made a new friend, Camden. She told us that Camden is her favorite. Camden is really pretty and has long brown hair that winds (a.k.a. blows). She is so excited to show us her work. The last picture is of her work that she took to bed with her. When I checked on her before I went to bed that is how I found her. Too sweet. Hopefully it will keep getting better and better.

All Star Fundraising

The following post is a short descprition of how All Star Fundraising got started and what we do.

Seven years ago Austin and I opened a pizza restaurant in Lewisville Arkansas with my sister and her husband, Tim and Amanda Harper. Austin was in his second year of college and I had one class (a correspondence class) left. Tim was pastoring a church, teaching, and coaching in Lewisville. The restaurant was slow during the summer months so we decided to start selling our pizza's as a fundraising product. We bought a shrink wrap machine and printed our own fliers. We had a few groups run with our pizza's.



We then decided that we would look for other products to supplement the pizza. Tim had sold Butter Braid in the past with his football players so they got online and inquired about becoming a dealer of the product. We met with a representative for the company and signed on to become a Butter Braid dealer. We also made our own cookie dough in the pizza restaurant and packed it in 5 lb tubs (lots of work).



After about six months of preaching, coaching, and a new position of Regional Fellowship of Christian Athletes director, Tim decided that he had too much going on to pursue the fundraising business. Austin was going to school full time and also playing college football at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. Shortly after the business began he realized that he couldn't grow the business and continue to play football. He quit football and changed his major to business. After one more year of school Austin decided to pursue the business full time. We talked with other dealers and saw the great potential Butter Braid had to offer. Over the past six years we have grown our business at a rate of at least 50% per year. We have grown to be one of the top dealers in the country.



Now we only carry Butter Braid brand products with the Butter Braid pastry as our main product. It accounts for about 95% of our sales. Within the last few years we have hired a few employees, all of which happen to be family at the moment. Our marketing area consist of NE Texas, North Louisiana, Arkansas, and the Memphis metro area. The first few years we only had the Texas and Louisiana areas. About three years ago we picked up Arkansas. Austin's mom Sheila began working with us to cover the Arkansas area. Two and half years ago we decided to move to Southaven, Mississippi (a suburb of Memphis). We had been looking to hire an employee to cover the Texas and Louisiana area for us. My brother Adam and his wife Amber became available and were willing to move to Shreveport. We have been soooo blessed to have our family work with us. They have been awesome. The first year that we had all three employees our sales doubled.



What our company does is help fundraising groups plan and run their fundraiser using our products. Austin's office is in our home. I bake samples of the product and he will take them out and "sample" potential groups. If a group decides to run with our product we help them plan their sale dates and send them a start up packet. At the end of the sale they call us with their order. We then deliver their product the following week. That's the basic day to day operation of the business. It is a seasonal business that runs along with the school year so we have a lot of vacation time. If anyone would like more information on the product or the business you can go to the website at http://www.butterbraid.com/ .



So much for the short explanation of the business. Sorry it's so long.

New Home

For those of you who haven't heard we bought a new house a couple of weeks ago. We will probably close in a few weeks. We actually had house plans drawn up several months ago, but in recent months building supplies have gone up so much the builder actually recommended waiting a while to build.

We have been looking around from time to time to see if we could find a great deal in this "buyers market". We haven't been just real determined that we would buy soon, just keeping our eyes out in case. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this house on the Internet. It is a foreclosure and was an awesome deal. The buying process was a little different though because it was bank owned. They took offers from three different people and then choose which offer they wanted to accept. Our agent told us that these things could sometimes take weeks so we weren't really expecting everything to happen as fast as it did. The week went something like this:

Thursday - house was listed on the website

Friday - saw the house on the website

Saturday - drove by to see if we liked the house

Sunday - agent took us inside to look at the house

Monday - made an offer on the house

Tuesday - called us and accepted our offer

When we made the offer on Monday we thought it would probably be several days before we heard anything. We were excited and a little in shock. We had looked into several possibilities, all of which had not worked out.

This house is 1,000 square feet bigger than our current house and the payment will be within about $50 of our current payment. It is only two years old and was being leased by the builder. We wanted something with a separate dining room and a fourth bedroom we could use as a guest room when we have another baby (no we are not pregnant). Most of our family is 3-6 hours away so when they come they stay a couple of nights and it's nice to have that extra space. We also needed an extra room for Austin's office since he works from our home. This house has all of that plus a bonus area upstairs that will make a great playroom and a hearth room down stairs. The home has three bedrooms and two baths down stairs and two bedrooms (guest room & office) and one bath upstairs.

So now we will be trying to sell our house and moving into another. We should be closing sometime on or before October 6th. I think we are going to be doing a lot of painting. We are anxious to get started. Austin is dying to work on the front lawn and landscaping. We will post more pictures as we do some painting. If there are long periods with know post you'll know why.