In honor of Betsy and Barbara

Betsy, this is what I was telling you about the other day :)

So, for several years now I have made a sweet potato casserole recipe from my dear friend Betsy and her momma Barbara. It is delicious. Perhaps the best I have EVER had. While I make it for both thanksgiving and Christmas it makes me think about the two of them and how much I love Betsy and how much I miss Barbara. Well this year while I was making our casserole for Thanksgiving I had something extra to smile about........ white sweet potatoes.

Yes, it is true, there are white sweet potatoes. I have bought them by accident here before when I was making sweet potato fries. But NEVER for a casserole that is supposed to be orange!!!
Check it out.......

Looks extremely funny but tastes the exact same. I told Preston, this would be a great way to get all you people out there to try sweet potato casserole who use the "not liking the orange color" excuse!! Hope that makes you smile Betz!!! Love you.

P.S I bought the sweet potatoes from under the sign that said Orange sweet potatoes....although someone put white ones under the wrong sign :)

5K

We were so excited to be home this year for the Run to the Lights 5K. We have both always wanted to be a part of this 5K but the timing of our trips home have never worked out. This year it finally fell right!! The Run to the Lights is a 5K through Silver Dollar City that benefits The Caring People, an organization in Branson, MO.

We decided to make a whole night of it by meeting up with the Arthurs and the Goings (Jason and Stephanie & kids) around 5 ish. Once we arrived to SDC we immediately hit the Tatershack. After dinner we (well everyone but me) took turns riding as many rides with the kids as we could. It was fun watching Elliott and Maddy have a blast on all the rides. We definitely had an apple turn over and wassail....yum! After the park closed....the race began.

Here we are before the race

I was SO thankful to find out my dear friend Betsy was coming to the race with some other friends and she thankfully volunteered to stay with me. I was going a little slower than the average person. But we had a wonderful visit as we completed our 5K. I was just excited to finish in under an hour. An hour was my goal and we finished in 48 minutes I think. We even jogged through several parts of the trail. Thanks Betz for staying with me. I will always cherish that time I had with you!!

Betz and I after the race.

Here we are after the race!!! Way to go P & C and baby Goings

Now let's head to Steak n' Shake says Courtney and baby Goings!!!!

Our last get-away

We decided while we were home to have one more little get-away before we had the baby. We didn't do anything too crazy but, we did go to Branson and stay the night in a familiar bed and breakfast. We had such a blast together!!! We went on a Monday morning, so need less to say, we were the youngest people out and about by about 40 years.
We went shopping at all the malls I think!! We got some great deals for the little girl.


Preston took some great pictures




At the Landing, we did a photo booth together. We had never done one together and it really made our day. We had lots of laughs in that booth. Our pictures turned out really cute.

We ate lunch at Wendy's and split an Oreo frosty...yum

We shopped some more

Checked in to the B&B

Ate dinner at Red Lobster (I followed NO diet that night)

Shopped a little more

Got a pumpkin pie concrete at Andy's (again, not on the diet)

The next day we were going to do the Branson show boat but we decided to move slower than intended. We wanted to go take some pictures by the dam and the lake. This day the weather was actually pretty hot. We were going to take a walk by the lake but pictures were enough. I started to get hot being out in the sun dressed for winter/fall. Who knew it would feel like summer while we were home!!! I guess we brought the sun with us.

I was waiting for Preston to set up the camera and little did I know, he was taking pictures. They turned out really cute though. Thanks P :)

At last, the real picture!

Then we ate lunch at Taco Bell (which cracked us up that they advertise free wifi and people were actually in there with their laptops.)

By this time, we were exhausted. Neither of us are big shoppers and we had put in a full day the day before so we decided to call our get-away a HUGE success and head back to Springfield. When I look back at these pictures it reminds me what a highlight this time was on our trip back home. I sure do love my husband and I cherish every second I have with him. He makes anything we do a blast. Thanks for being my perfect soul mate and friend Preston Adam! We are always better when we are together!!!!

Parents Day Out

The first Thursday we were in town we decided to surprise our parents with a Parents Day Out. Preston took his mom and I took my parents.



First, we surprised them by taking them to our 3D ultrasound! After that we took them to lunch downtown at Lili's. We had a great time with them. It was nice to have them all together and enjoy such an exciting day. We were going to take them shopping or to a movie but since we found out it was a little girl Betty G was ready to get to the stores and take back all the boy clothes that she bought and my mom was ready to hit hobby lobby for pink stuff for the baby shower!
So, our Parents Day Out ended there. But, what a time we had together. Lots of laughs and joy filled our van ride to Bolivar and back and over lunch.

We cherish our parents and we pray we can bless our little girl like they have blessed us. We look forward to watching our parents become the grandparents of our child. I guess growing up does have it's perks. Love you parents!!

Update

Hey everyone!
We are back in P.V and trying to get caught up and settled back in. Preston has been cleaning away on the pool all day. We have already been to the Dr. and she said everything is looking great with the baby and she too confirmed it is a girl :)
Our trip home was amazing. I will be blogging about it soon. There is just SO much!!!

We are starting a new blog. I will probably bore some of you to death with all the newest belly and baby pictures. This will be a blog for family, close friends and baby lovers. Don't feel bad if you don't want to follow it. But, if you are wondering where to find updated baby pictures then you can simply click on the link I have added on the left. The blog is Little Goings. If you decide to follow it, enjoy!

We hope you have a great weekend.

News Alert!

It's a GIRL!!!!!!

Sooooo much more to come but we are enjoying our time home with family!
Love you all.

Saltillo Mission Trip

We had an amazing trip to Saltillo. It was great to see the full circle God has brought us on. These girls from P.V came to the church via craft events for women held by Second Baptist and now they are out hosting craft events to bring more women into a starting church. It is SO awesome to be a part of God's work around this world.
If you do not receive our prayer update emails and would like more information about this trip and more please post a comment and I will get in touch with you.
Enjoy the video and how God has changed lives and is still changing lives!

Saltillo Mission Trip 2009 from prestonmex on Vimeo.

The songs are by Salvador. The titles are Llevame and Con Poder