road trip- round 2

bloomfield

there are very few times in your life when you find a friend that has the same taste in... everything, same views on... everything, and same sense of humor about... everything! haha. i was blessed to get to spend the second half of my road trip in bloomfield with that very person, my dear friend katy and her husband greg. :) thanks for such a wonderful trip guys! love you very much!

katy and i went to cape one day for some shopping.

cape has these paintings all along the mississippi.

very cool! katy and i took pics each pointing to our homes.

this is where katy lives.

... and this is where i live.

we're pretty sure thats too far apart.

we blame this on our husbands. :)

sooo.. i took guitar hero with me. little did i know how competitive the tarbutton family can be. this pic shows what we did the majority of the time. i'm thinking katy won this game. sorry greg. i'm sure you won the next one. oh wait... no i did. :)

road trip - round 1

russellville

round 1 - summer for teachers is .. well.. 

time for friends, fun, and road trips! this summer i was able to take a week  and do just that. aaron headed across the globe to africa (more on that story coming soon) so i decided to get away from jonesboro and catch up with old friends who i dearly miss!! my first excursion was to little rock. i took my friend laura beth and we headed to meet up with megon! (we were all good friends in college and the after years) after a day of shopping and eating we followed megon to russellville!

sidenote- did you know the streets in russellville are named A, B, C, etc.. then some are numbers. its awesome. very organized town and i give it two thumbs up!

ok, back to the trip. that night megon and her husband jason took us up to the top of mount nebo to watch the sunset. it was a perfect evening, then to top it all off, we ate at ihop for dinner and of course i had chocolate chip pancakes and 

flat eggs (that means over medium...i asked)

thank you megon for the great getaway! i just love good friends! wish i could make my own town and put all of those people in it.

me, megon, and laura

top of mount nebo.

climb it? you ask... of course we did! 

hahaha. not so much.

you think they're your friends.. then you get to the top of a mountain... and .....

good thing i know jujutsu

megon, laura, and me.

jumping for joy!

doesn't God make a beautiful sunset!

(thank you to jason for taking all of these pics with all of the specific directions,

even if it took five shots before you got one with me in the air. hahah)

fathers day cookout

we love our dad!

jay - lindsey - dad - me

(missing christy- wish you were here!)

with no camo for aaron to become invisible, he worked with nature and made his own. 

of course you can't have a picnic without bocce ball.

if you look closely, you can see how serious my family is about this sport.

family time.

we were so excited to find out that our cousins rented a house on the beach and that they had EXTRA ROOM! mom, linds, and i jumped at the chance to get out of jonesboro for a few days and spend some quality time with our family...on the beach. a few dozen oreos, some ipod sing-a-longs, and 12 hours later we made it to our destination and had a wonderful wonderful time.

i truly think heaven will have beaches, but no sharks of course.

the cousins

- spencer - stuart - lindsey - me - jacob - sarah -

me, mom, and lindsey

- one of these things if not like the others -

* linds used to tell me i looked like the mailman because i looked nothing like her and mom. actually i favor my dad...who is a very handsome fellow

sarah, me, and linds

- i can't explain how much i love these girls -

beautiful rosemary beach

life.

new to the world of blogging... i ventured out and decided to go for it. wanting to catch up with old friends, and keep them up to date with our exciting life... my idea was to tell everyone about wonderful, perfect things that were happening in the life of the bakers. well, as we discover in life, God has His timing that doesn't always go with "our plans."

here is our story.

the day before mothers day we found out we were expecting our first child. i can't explain our excitement due to the fact that we had wanted this for a very long while now. we thought it was finally God's perfect timing for us. at 6 1/2 weeks, He showed us otherwise. For some reason God wanted this baby in His hands instead of ours and so He did. dealing with this has and will be a long road.  so as for us, the bakers, we are trying to understand. honestly, i do not know why God has chosen this path for us, but i hope to one day see His plan. we are still asking questions and still depending on Him for direction. we do hope that one day God will decide it is time to add to our family. as for now, we wait on Him.

we want to thank all of our family and friends for everything, but most of all... the prayers.

also thank you katy for the beautiful flowers that reminded me of such a pure life. they were wonderful. i posted a picture.