Back from Arkansas

I was in Arkansas visiting family for Thanksgiving. I got to see all of my brothers over Thanksgiving week. Plus one set of grandparents, and various nieces and nephews.

It was really nice to be with my family. Stephen is pretty close with my brothers and they spent a lot of time outside building explosives and beating each other up....not in a mad way, but in a hey we are guys and like seeing if we can beat each other up sort of way.

I just love hanging out with my brothers. I never knew we would like each other so much as "grown ups" with as much fighting as we did as kids. I don't even remember the fighting that much, just the good times. Which there were plenty of them also. It is just so cool to be so comfortable around and be such good friends with my siblings. When we get together it is like we were never apart, we get right back to the fun so fast.
I am slightly jealous...well that is not the right word I don't think, but anyways, because Chris and Bill have each other, then Ben and Tommy, and of course the twins. Whereas I am close with all of them, I don't have a sister to hang out with. It was so sweet seeing Ben and Tommy together. Ben got home from work and he and Tommy were all smiles from then on. Laughing, joking, talking and just catching up in general.

Tyrel had a lot of fun playing with Alana, Connor and Nickole. He has never really spent a lot of time with his cousins on my side of the family. A lot of times when we would go visit, they wouldn't be home. So I am glad he got to play with them.

I got out my dad's guitar and practiced some, and he played some also. I have always loved listening to and watching my Daddy play guitar. I have only recently started to play, and can't really even play one song well yet. I have always wanted to play, but was intimidated to start.

So anyways.

We went ice skating at the Jones Center in Springdale. I had never been ice skating before. It was really fun. Tyrel loved it. If we lived near someplace like that we might have signed him up for hockey when he was older.

We also went to visit some friends who live about an hour and a half from my parents. Stephen has known them since he was 13 or 14. They used to live around here. It was great getting to see them. They are building a dome house, so we got to see that. It is really coming along. The kids are already sleeping over in it. The kitchen is/will be beautiful. I hope that Laurie and my Mom can come down for a Motherhood retreat together this coming up February.

While I was there I was thinking about when Stephen and I got engaged. It was about this time of year (November 27th 2004 to be exact) and we lived up there at the time. I still lived at home, and Stephen lived in a little camper trailer park in one of their cabins. So anyways, I was thinking of maybe writing a series of posts on how Stephen and I met. Probably not as interesting as Pioneer Woman and Marlboro Man's story, but I like it. Stephen and I did not do things like I would like our kids to, but it was a lot closer to it than most of my friends from growing up did things. At least we were both still umm "innocent" when we got married. So if you are reading it going, hey wow, that doesn't sound like Becky....I have grown up a lot and learned a lot of things about true purity since then. SO If I get around to it, you can read our love story of the next couple days/ weeks, depending on how long it takes me to get around to it.