Hammer Time

Our very dear friends, Benji and Paige Hammer traveled down from Missouri last weekend to spend it with us. They have two daughters, Morgan will be 6 this month and Jenna just turned 3. They also have one on the way that is due July 2. Benji and Jamie have been the best of friends since their freshman year in high school. Benji is one of our girls Godfather. Benji and Paige started dating the same year we did (1999), we all got married the same year (2002), we both have 2 girls ..... as you can imagine, we have a lot in common. Having so much in common is not what makes us such good friends, that is just the icing on the cake. Maybe we have been close from the start because we wanted the same things out of life, have the same goals and expectations. Whatever the reasons, I'm just thankful to have them in our lives.

"Mom, we are having breakfast with our girlfriends and it's way too early in the day for pictures."

Hassie Clare and Quinn are in love with Morgan and Jenna. They had so much fun with them this weekend. Paige was nice enough to keep the little ones at the house while me, Jamie, Benji and Morgan went to the Cardinal v. Redbirds game on Sat. in downtown Memphis. The weather was exceptional, our seats were awesome (courtesy of the Hammer's), the BBQ nachos were yummy and the beer was ice cold. It was the PERFECT ballgame!

Morgan, me, Jenna, Quinn and Hassie Clare before we left for the game.

After the game, we went home to gather the rest of our gang and headed for our local Japanese Steakhouse. The kids love the atmosphere and the adults love the food. We always do lots of fun stuff when we get together but my favorite part of every weekend we spend with the Hammers is when we are all just sitting around "chewing the fat."

As always, the weekend went by way too fast but we are very thankful for the time we get to spend with our dear friends. I know that we will always be a part of each others lives. It is very cool to watch our kids run around together and become friends. I hope as adults, our children have friends that they respect and love the way we do the Hammer's.

Here are some pics from the weekend (FYI - for some reason, I only took a couple of pics this weekend and I didn't take my camera with me to the game. I guess that is what happens when you are having too much fun to worry about capturing memories on film)!

Playing outside with Benji.


The new love of Quinn's life..... a doll Morgan left for her. Morgan is such a sweet and sensitive soul. She could see that Quinn loved the doll and she wanted her to keep it ... amazing for an "almost" 6 year old. Quinn named the doll "Blackie" because of all the black marks on her head and body. The band aides are covering strawberries on each of Quinnie's knees. She was taking Blackie for a walk down the driveway and tripped.