Kaylee Rutland in concert at Orchards Park for the 4th

I was financially compensated for this post. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day holiday!

We spent ours with family and had the best time!

We finished the day by attending An evening at Orchards Park.

The weather was so nice!

Kaylee Rutland opened up the festivities with a concert!

She was very engaging with the crowd and very entertaining!

It was fun to hear her sing, Good day to get gone. When this song was released, Billboard magazine named her a Country Artist to Watch and she was featured on CMT.com. 

While her band played, Banjo Breakdown, she got down on the grass and danced with concert goers! People of all ages were enjoying her concert! Her band was great and they created a fun, festive environment!

I love that our town hosted an up and coming country artist. 

It gives the artist great exposure and we get the opportunity to hear quality entertainment!

 A big crowd was there as usual!

 C Girl got interviewed by a local radio station!

The fireworks show was magnificent!

It was a great ending to a great day!

City of Bentonville 4th of July festivities

I was financially compensated for this post. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

It is no secret how much I love my little big town, Bentonville, Arkansas. 

Next month marks 5 years since we’ve lived here. 

I love how much there is to do in the area and how a lot of those things are FREE! 

One of our favorite things every year is the Fourth of July festivities. 

The kids love participating in the annual bike parade and we all love ending the evening at Orchards Park with music and fireworks! 

This year’s event features Kaylee Rutland, a 19 year old contemporary country singer/songwriter from Texas. 

She developed a love for music at the age of 6. Kaylee plays keyboard and guitar. She loves writing about friends, family, faith and love.  She debuted with her first EP, Kaylee Rutland, in 2012 and a single “Into The Circle” featuring Colt Ford and Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling country star Jamie O’Neal in 2013. She released her second EP, Good Day to Get Gone, last summer. 

Currently, she is working with O’Neal on a new CD tentatively set to release later this year (kayleerutland.com). 

I’ve been to her YouTube channel to listen to her music and I’m very excited to hear her perform in person!

If you are local, I highly recommend attending An Evening at Orchards Park. 

Kaylee, The Arkansas Winds Community Concert Band and the amazing fireworks will make the 4th extra special for your family this year!

I can't wait to spend the evening with my family, my brother, Sister in law, and my sweet nephew!

a colonoscopy and a concert

The last week has been quite interesting. 

Last Tuesday, I started a liquid diet in preparation for a colonoscopy Thursday of the week. This was my third attempt for a colonoscopy within the year. This time they gave me a different prep that was a lot easier, but it was very hard to be on liquids only for a longer period of time.

I was finally able to have my colonoscopy. The doctor was not able to enter my small intestine, so I have to have another test. Yay me!

I was exhausted from being up all night and took a long nap when I got home.

Our Sunday school class had a girl's night at my friend Marci's house and I did not want to miss it, so I had a friend come and pick me up so I could go!

I was deliriously tired and my left eye was swollen after getting makeup in it during the procedure, but I still had a great time with my friends!

I had thought that I would be back to normal on Friday, but I seriously was not. I slept in until 11 am and then watched National Lampoon's Christmas vacation. I needed to be packing for the weekend, but I had no energy!

What I needed to pack for was the Garth Brooks concert that Tim and I went to Saturday night!!!

I love when we get time with just the two of us!

We ate at Benihana and it was SO good!

We were super excited to be at the concert!

It was such a dream to see Garth Brooks live. We sang every word! He sang SO many of his big hits! The crowd was insane! Sometimes the crowd was singing over him!

He hit the charts when I was 8 years old and I grew up listening to him. I was pretty much obsessed and had every one of his albums!

I was also thrilled to see Trisha Yearwood!

She sang An American Girl, How do I live, and She's in love with the boy.

I'm thankful for my parents for watching the kids.

I'm also thankful that we were able to visit Keith, Jessica and Parker for a few hours!

We stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way home.

After having last week taken up with my medical test, I feel like there is lots to do this week.

I finished up most of the Christmas shopping today, but we still have school parties, treats to make for gifts, and I have lots of presents to wrap. Not to mention, laundry, dishes, C Girl's stocking, phone calls, and everything else to run a house! I'm trying to be very intentional with our time and not have a stressful holiday season. I'm looking forward to just spending time together over Christmas break!

Busy, but fun!

It has been a busy, but good past few days!

Last Thursday evening, I had my monthly book club meeting. We went out to dinner and to chat and we had a great time!

Friday night was our Sunday school class Christmas party - we had a lot of fun! We met in one of our church buildings and had a great potluck and played Bingo! I'm so grateful for our church and this class. We have made such great friends and I love having them in my life!!!

Saturday morning, we had to be back at church for rehearsal of the choir Christmas program.

We spent the rest of the afternoon going to see Santa, listening to the Bentonville Tigers win state, and doing a little shopping.

Sunday was the choir programs (video below) at church. The kids choirs sang with the adult choir in the morning service and then had an additional kids program in the evening. 

The kids did amazing and I'm so proud of C Girl being in the choir and singing her heart out for Jesus!

We have had wonderful things happening at church. It is so joyful to see friends finally knowing for sure that they have asked Jesus into their heart. We had baptisms throughout the morning program and it was so special. One of my friends getting baptized even gave a mini sermon. We saw more people come forward for salvation at the end!

a pumpkin patch, Halloween, & a concert

There are so many times when I feel like I have so.much. that I want to say on the blog, but by the time I have the computer open, I'm usually tired and/or forgot what I wanted to say!

A few brief thoughts:

• Today is election day (I voted early and I'm so thankful we have that option.) 
• The leaves on the trees where I live are stunning right now.
• I had an ultrasound on Monday to determine if my ovarian cyst had shrunk and it was completely gone!!!
• I still have some tests next week for my other issue and I am not really looking forward to that.
• I'm reading my 47th book of the year!
• One of my nephews turned 13 on the 2nd. crazy.
• I'm OBSESSED with Taylor Swift's new album!
• I'm looking forward to the holidays!!!

On Friday, Tim took a vacation day and we went to our favorite pumpkin patch!

 One of our most favorite things to do is getting to feed the cows!

 They had pedal carts this year! It was a little harder to pedal than the kids thought it would be!

 We love the pig races!

We did the "mini" corn maze.

 Friday was also Halloween. We went home to get the kids in their costumes for the evening festivities. 

We have eaten hot dogs/corn dogs at Sonic on Halloween for at least the past 3 years.

 Our church held a Fall Fest at a local park and we went to that first.

Aren't these wildflowers at the park just gorgeous?!

 We were very cold! It 's the coldest Halloween that I remember!

After Fall Fest, it was time to get our trick or treating on!

We started on Central Avenue and the kids had a blast going to all of the houses.

I love how everyone decorates and sits out on their porches to hand out candy.

 These kids loaded up!

 On Saturday, my SIL came to watch the kids while Tim and I went to Tulsa to see Eric Church in concert!

We have been to so many great concerts in our 12 years together.

It was such a great show and I loved having time alone with Tim!

We have never stayed in downtown Tulsa and it was pretty nice!

 He was missing his football just a smidge.

 We ate at Case Laredo and it was a pretty good Mexican meal! Obviously!

 The BOK center is a very nice venue! 

Dwight Yoakam opened for Eric Church and he was great!

Eric Church was awesome! I just love getting to see my favorite performers live!