Getting my priorities straight.

Well, I'll start with my latest big news: I have cut back my hours at the agency to part time. I now only work 3 days each week - Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Why is this awesome? Lemme tell you: Four days each week to be a mommy. Less days to endure the job stress. AND, one little switcheroo of days in and out of the office, and I've got a four-day-weekend.

And I did just that this weekend. Went with the fam to Beaver Lake (in Arkansas) and stayed at some friends' lakehouse. It was FABULOUS. Just what we all needed. Only, we were so sad to leave and felt like there was not enough time there. Oh, well. Hopefully we'll do it again.

It was a great opportunity for us to put our new boat to use, and a great opportunity to spend some quality time together/with the kids, play some board games, get some sun, do a little shopping, eat some delicious food, etc. My nephew, Jak, loved the water. Lilah, on the other hand, prefered to stay ON the boat. Guess that's to be expected. Here's some of the highlights in photos:


Lilah in one of the rare photos where I caught her smile. Anyone have any tips on how to deal with the delay that digital cameras have? I ALWAYS miss the smile!!! (But not this time :)


Miss Eva Mae in her bikini (which was Lilah's last summer and it makes me a little sad to see her in it. Good thing she's so darn cute!)


Eva's contagious smile. She was such a champ on the boat.


Also a champ, Jak rode on the tube with his daddy. His curiosity and fearlessness kills me.


Lilah's two favorite places. With Daddy and in control.

Another couple of favorites - with Papa and ice cream :) This came right before the smile you saw earlier.


Trever and Brady had to show the boys how its done. The most entertaining part was watching them climb onto the tube...


And this is the whole crew before we loaded up to leave today. Sad but smiling. From left to right: me, my brother, Trever, his son Jak, Brady, Cole (my brother Garrett's friend), Garrett, my sister-in-law Jenny, her daughter Eva, and that's my parents sitting down.

And one other completely unrelated photo, but I love it so I had to share. I got to spend a day with all three kids last week and had a great time doing it. Oreos are always a good way to keep them sitting still!