Abundis & Patton Weekend

The long awaited weekend finally arrived! 

We were on pins and needles waiting for their flight to come in to DFW Friday night. The girls sat anxiously peering out the front windows looking for them to drive up in their rental car. And from the moment they walked up to our front door until the time they had to go on Sunday we had the very best time you could imagine! 

Tiff and I have been friends since we were in kindergarten. Jeremy and I got married only a few months after Chris and Tiffany got married (all those years ago in our early 20's). :-) And even though most of our friendship we have lived over a thousand miles apart we have stayed in close connection through our blogs and occasional AWESOME trips to visit one another. It was so great to interact in person again and spend quality time hanging out. 

The very first night we stayed up into the morning hours playing cards and talking while our girls bonded over crafting, coloring, and jewelry making in my Art room. 

Hailey is 12, Carley is 8, Tayla is 6 and Zoe is 4 at this point. I couldn't get enough of watching them interact with one another. My mind kept thinking over the similarities between our oldest girls and our youngest girls and also comparing how they are to how we used to be. I am filled with so much love for each of them and I just pray God's hand over them and His blessings on their hearts and minds as they grow and mature into the incredible young ladies He designed them to be. 

We introduced our friends to a fun new game called Sequence the first night, and the second night we played our long time favorite card game Screwie Louie. The guys won Sequence and the girls were victorious in Screwie Louie. :-)

On Saturday morning Jeremy made his famous waffles for breakfast and we lounged around, watched movies and let the kids play jungle girls adventure, obstacle course, etc. in the back yard. 

For lunch we all loaded up and headed to the famous little hole in the wall burger shack called MG's in Sherman for some delicious hamburgers, fries, fried pickles and milkshakes....wowza!

It was such a gorgeous day, sun shining, temps only getting into the 70's and a light breeze. Perfect for spending an afternoon at the park. There were tons of things to play on and places to explore. 

Jeremy and the girls and I had to step away for about an hour to make an appearance at a friend's little boy's birthday party and when we got back they had purchased a frisbee to play with. :) fun!

These precious gifts light up our lives! Aren't they so beautiful!

When we got back to our house we decided to grab the tripod and go do some photos together.

Our last evening we cooked campfire chicken on the grill. Hung out and played more games. Tried out some wonderful sparkling white and sweet red wines, drank Woodchuck Hard Cider and then had to have some strong coffee, lol. :)

 We let the kids play pirates, hide and seek and watch Frozen until they finally crashed completely exhausted from the day. They LOVED getting to have a sleepover in their room. They played and got along so great together. 

Here are some favorites from the little photo shoot. 

LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

We love this family as our own. 

To our kids they are Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Chris and their cousins Hailey and Tayla. They are beautiful people inside and out and such an example of a loving family to everyone they know.

Look at these gorgeous photos....I'm thinking pretty good lookin' profile pics for your blog Tiff. 

wink, wink. ;)

Thank you Tiff for getting some sweet shots of us too. :)

Here's the whole gang. 

This one is definitely getting printed to go in a frame or hung on my fridge. 

Love you guys! We had a blast this weekend! Can't wait to do it again!

....and thank you for the awesome, artsy abstract puzzle. 

So fun putting it together with you guys this morning. xoxo

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, my mom went and had a very special weekend with my beautiful sister and her girls while Jodi's husband Chris had to be out of town. I think they had a pretty wonderful time too....just hope mom still wants to come back home today after being spoiled by Jodi's amazing cooking skills all weekend!!!