Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sickness!

The last 2 days have been pretty rough for my sweet Landry. She has been running a high fever on and off since Sunday evening. I stayed home with her yesterday and Matt today. The dr. said it was viral and if her temperature didn't get better continuously in 4 days to bring her back. She hasn't been eating much at all....LGT cannot afford to loose any weight:(!! Mom is going to keep her tomorrow with hopes she won't have any more fever. Hopefully things will get better from now on as we have a birthday party and Easter egg hunt this Saturday(although I KNOW that's not near as important as her getting better!).

On the upbeat side of things, we bought some land today and will soon start clearing off the lot in order to build a new house! Not looking forward to all the choices and picking out things, but hopefully it will be worth it to get what we want in a house.

Just a small update!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Fun with Grandparents!

We are so blessed to have my parents close-by. Even when we lived in Benton, Matt's parents were 5 minutes away. What in the world would we do without them? Well, life just wouldn't be near as fun:)!!!
This weekend was another busy and fun one. Friday we went to eat dinner with some friends. Saturday morning started out EARLY for me as I got my 22 mile run over with by 8:45ish. Downhill from here! After taking advantage of the kids napping, I headed to a baby shower for a friend of mine, Kellye Ketchum. Then GiGi(Matt's mom) was on her way home from West Monroe and stopped by to babysit the kiddos while Matt and I went out to eat and then to a movie. Needless to say I was EXHAUSTED by the time we got home. And WHO woke up at 5:30am....JAKE TYLER! But he did go back to sleep with us until 7 thank goodness.
Today after naps, we tool advantage of the beautiful weather and headed out to Lincoln Parish Park. So many people were out there and the kids had a great time!
Below are some pictures taken at Big D and Big Mama's house. Mom just got some great deals on toys at the Kool Kids consignment sale. The best was a train table for Jake! He loves it and one of mom's friends just gave her a lot of Thomas the Train Engine toys. Jake constantly wants to go over and play trains now:).
Jake and Landry playing on their toys in the backyard.

At the park today in the wagon. We saw some ducks on the "beach" and Landry was heading straight for the water. My girl has NO fear! Of course Jake was screaming at her, "No LU LU no!!".......
Jake playing with his trains at my parent's house
Again at the park, Landry LOVING the swing!
At the shower yesterday for sweet Kellye
On our way out to eat Friday with sweet Landry.


Friday, March 27, 2009

23 Days to Boston!


But just WHO is counting the days??? ME! That's who. Yes, I am getting more and more excited about it. I just gotta get past one more LONG training run tomorrow. We received our bib numbers on Monday and it kinda made me a little upset to know I was in wave 2. There are only 2 waves and you are placed according to your entry time. It is probably best that I am in that wave as mom and I will start out together(wave 1 starts around 10am and wave 2 starts at 10:30, I think) and this will mean less wait at the finish line-she MAY be waiting on ME!!

What am I NOT looking forward to? Well, probably the PAIN that comes with a marathon. I had a high school running buddy who told me that the race begins at mile 20(a marathon is 26.2 miles for those of you who might not know) and that pretty much sums up the entire race. Mile 20-26 might as well be another full marathon in itself. Let's also add in the fact that HEARTBREAK HILL is at mile 21 and is a FULL mile UPHILL. But hey-what can you do except run it?!! I will say that when I finished San Antonio, it took me a FULL 30 minutes to come back into reality. Exhausted wasn't the word.

I had a friend ask me if I was pumped about going to Boston, and although I am, it is not exactly a Spring Break trip(yes, it happens to be my S.B from school that week) since I know what the trip will entail! But on the bright side, it is truly a dream come true that mom and I are running it together. Some might not know that this is a qualifying race. According to your age, you have to run a marathon in a certain time in order to qualify. I know for my mom this has been something she wanted to do with me since she ran her first Boston in April of 2003. I am sure once we are there, I will hopefully have some euphoric feelings about running another marathon:)! So that now brings us to the year 2009 and we are making it happen. For that reason I am pumped about doing the race. Do I have a finishing goal? Yes and no. I haven't thought too much about it, but I would like to run faster than San Antonio-and that was on a very flat course. My time there was 3:35:46. I do feel that I am in better shape this time around. Boston is down hill for the first half(according to mom) and rolling uphill for the next half. Trying not to think about the second half:)!!!

So that brings me to the athlete tracking part of the race. You can read the message below and track us if you would like. My bib number is: 14508 and mom's is: 21420. It asks for a date of birth and if you need mine, it is 11/11/1978. I would love for you to track us if you are interested. If not, no biggy! Just an option.


AT&T Athlete Alert Program
Now, thanks to AT&T, your friends and family can be right alongside you on the course. Just have them register to receive automatic updates on your progress using the AT&T Athlete Alert Program. First, tell them your bib number. Then, ask them to text RUNNER to 41234. It's as simple as that. For more information, or to register on-line, click here. Forward this email, along with your official BIB#, to all your friends and family so no matter where they are on race day, they'll be right there with you. AT&T. Your World. Delivered.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Pictures and 15 Month Stats

Landry had 4 shots this morning during her 15 month check-up. Matt took her to the appointment and I didn't realize she was going to have that many. At 12 months, I opted(mainly because of my mother) to break up the immunizations due to the link with autism(yes, I know there has been no scientific proof) and I really thought she would be getting 2 at the most.At 15 months she was 20 lbs, 12 oz, and 32 1/8 inches long. One day she will gain some weight, but I definitely don't worry about it anymore. To me, she is absolutely perfect! So to make a long story short, I took a half day off from work to stay with her since her nap was running long and my dad was here with her. It was nice having some time just by ourselves. She got to play with any toy she wanted to without her brother pitching an absolute fit! And although I wouldn't change anything, this afternoon reminded me how EASY one child would be...but like I said, I wouldn't change a thing!



Had to get a quick picture this afternoon....of course she decided she was not going to stop sucking those fingers!

This is Jake working on his smile....enough said~

And as I was going through my old pictures today, I found one of them crying together when Landry was only a couple of weeks old. Thought I was putting that picture on here, but instead ended up with this one. But I love this one too! This was in July of '07 (yes, mom still had her Snow Villages up in the background...don't ask!)and Jake was 7 months old. Look at those curls on his sweet head!!!! I was 17 weeks pregnant with Landry and had just found out we were having a girl. Fun times!
I haven't mentioned that our friends, Ben and Katye, got to bring home Bennett on Sunday! Many blessings for that! We are going to Bossier tomorrow for a fund raiser at Chick-fil-A for them. If you are in the area, please some out and support them. Bye for now.



Monday, March 23, 2009

Promised Pictures

I am adding on to the previous post so this won't be long:). It is 7:20 and we just put the babies down for the night. Landry was exhausted and we just put them down early, so I plan to enjoy my down time!
Below are some pictures taken at Dinner and a Movie hosted by the JA's of Ruston. There was a great crowd with lots of young folks. The kids had a great time and we stayed for over 2 hours, but long enough to make the movie. Maybe in a couple of years.

Landry's attempt at a smile:).
Landry was all over Railroad Park...caught her sitting still for a second!
Family picture without Jake's cooperation....too much going on!Saturday we went to Bossier. Late in the evening we took the kiddos to see their cows(eventually to be sold and the $$$ will go into their college fund..thanks Aunt Lou!). Landry likes the cows just as much as Jake!
Sweet Jake in his Thomas underwear. We had an accident right after this picture but luckily we were outside....oh the adventures we are in for. What happened to the time????? Just yesterday he was eating baby food:(.
I will seriously try to post again later this week.....for those of you interested!!!


Belated Post!

I haven't posted due to the fact I am just tired! We had another busy week and weekend and am ready to stay at home for awhile. We are meeting with an architect today to hopefully see about getting a floor plan together. We checked out the house we liked in Bossier this weekend(the picture of the house on my blog) and the floor plan is EXACTLY what we want(4 bd/3ba). So glad we went and checked it out. The guy was really nice and said we could look at his floor plan. So.....that is about it.
Jake decided to use the potty twice this weekend and I bought him some big boy underwear. Cute pictures to come! Have a great Monday:)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Great Weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend and did several fun things! Friday night we went to Genusa's in Monroe with our friends, the Madden's and the Sexton's. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!! I ended up using the weather and my knee as an excuse not to run my 21 mile long run Saturday morning and instead slept in until 8am(the kids were in Bossier). After we got up we headed to Shreveport to do a little shopping, then came back to my in-laws for a quick lunch.
After lunch we headed to Emma's birthday party where the kids had a fun time looking at different animals. Landry absolutely loved petting them and Jake was a little on the cautious side. We left and went home to put the babies down for a late nap while we took Mark and Elizabeth with us to go look at a couple of house styles we like.
Last night we went out to eat with the Turner's and Mark and Elizabeth. I haven't had this much adult time is a long time....we really had a good weekend. This morning we got ready quickly and headed back to Ruston so that we could make it back for church. Whew....it has been a fast weekend but a lot of fun. Enjoy the pictures!

Charlette Madden, Jennifer Sexton, and I at Genusa's in Monroe

Landry petting the baby ferret
Jake and the bunny rabbit
Landry and the birthday girl with the bunny...Landry just grabbed it right away from the worker...she is truly one of kind!
Jake was wanting to get some candy eggs that were on the snake cake and when we told him no...this is what Matt got! Priceless...................can you tell he already had one piece of candy in his mouth???
Our attempt at a family picture. Turned out better than most!
The lopsided picture of the style house we like..........we'll see!
The four of us before dinner
Be back sometime this week.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Sooooo Glad it's Friday!

I have a little break and decided to post about our upcoming weekend:)! The kids are going to my in-laws this afternoon to spend the night. We have Parent's Night Out at church(obviously our children aren't going) and plan on going out to dinner with some couples in our SS class. Really looking forward to some adult time!

On a side note, I must mention that this day light savings time has really changed up LGT's schedule. Since Sunday, she has gone to taking only ONE nap a day....she is really growing up! Jake took 2 naps until last August! Good news is that we decided 8pm was just too late for bedtime and moved it back to 7:30. On top of the additional 30 minutes, both kids are sleeping later (between 6:45 and 8am)due to it still being dark-Landry later than Jake but that's fine. And Landry's one nap at Dorothy's has been pretty lengthy-2 hours or more. So I'll take it...just makes cooking dinner with a one year old on your hip a little more difficult!

Onto the weekend plans...I am trying not to talk myself out of my 21 mile run although I'll be doing it SOLO...uuggghh, because the weather is supposed to clearing up and I cannot use the rain as an excuse. I am having some knee pain...but nonetheless it needs to be done!
We are then going to Bossier to take the kids to a birthday party-this one at Critter and Company-should be a lot of fun! Then tomorrow night will be going out with Matt's brother and Elizabeth, along with Matt's buddy Jay and his wife Ashley. I'm really looking forward to a fun but busy weekend. We will also try to be look at houses(getting an idea on what we want) as we have bought a lot in Creek's Edge subdivision. It will not be final until at the end of the month-then we'll go from there.
So happy Friday!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

FUN Pics!

I wanted to post some fun pictures taken here lately. We met Matt's Uncle Frank out at Squire Creek as he was in town for some State Trooper's business. As usual, the children wouldn't cooperate for pictures but I posted some nonetheless! Then we went to Cook Park and played there before going home for a much needed nap:). This afternoon we bought a sprinkler and the kids had SO MUCH FUN! Figured we needed to do it now before the cold weather comes in:(. I pulled out the big lens on my camera while they were in the yard and got some great pictures.

At Squire Creek checking out the chair............

On the perfectly manicured lawn...beautiful!
If only they would LOOK at me:)
With Uncle Frank's Crew(he is the third from the left)
At the park playing with the leaves!Their first reaction!
Sweet girl with that big bow in her hair;)

Loving the water
Talking on Daddy's phone when he arrived home.
Enjoy the rest of your week!








Monday, March 9, 2009

Brotherly Love

I rarely post things from YouTube, but my husband brought this one to my attention and I thought it was too cute not to post. Those of you who have "biters" may laugh even harder!! Click on the title below:
Charlie Bit Me!!

Landry bit Jake tonight and he was less than friendly to her after the incident. If only he could have taken it this well;)!!! Oh the joys of siblings!!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Fast Weekend


Whew! Where did the weekend go? We celebrated Thomas Allen's 2nd birthday in style at Hidden Oak pet farm in Haughton. To say the kids had a blast was an understatement. Really, this was the best party so far as Jake and Landry had a BALL. Neither one slowed down the entire time. The cow train, pulled by a golf cart, was Jake's favorite activity. He rode it 3 times and Landry was a sport for 1 ride. She was the go getter around all the animals. I let her down and she was on the run. Jake ,on the other hand, was a little more cautious. Matt had to umpire on Saturday and I vowed after the last 2 birthday parties that I would no longer do them alone...thanks mom for tagging along.
After the party we ventured into Shreveport to visit the Bow Shop and then Toy Fair(has to use my 20% coupon!) and the kids did very well considering. Then we headed to Benton to take some pictures of some houses we really like.....which brings me to my next topic:
We are very close to buying a lot in Creek's Edge subdivision. We have decided that instead of waiting for something to "come up" in Ruston, we will build. We have found a builder(he built Matt's boss' house and also lives in Creek's Edge). It will be a while for all of this to take place and we are patient that all good things take time:).
Last night we went to the Sexton's house for some YUMMY crawfish. This was our first tasting this season and they did not dissapoint. Landry ate FIVE herself. This was weird because she is my very picky eater. The kids had a great time and were worn out by the time their heads hit the bed!
So now we are in for a new week and I am carrying a little lighter load in that I am DONE with my class work for the state of LA! Woohoo! Now, how long will it be before I decide to go back and finish my +30???? Who knows..but for now I am done!

On my last note...Boston is SIX weeks from tomorrow. Sarah ran her half marathon in Seaside FL last Sunday and ran an awesome PR of 1:36! I was so proud of her, yet I miss her company on my runs. Ivory Bass acompanied me on my 20 mile long run last Saturday and I was grateful for that. I did 13 this past Friday and took the weekend off. It was nice as this week will be full of mileage and end with a 21 mile long run on Saturday. Lovely..............have a good week!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

25 Random Things About Me!

Due to lack of news to post, I thought I would leave you with a list of 25 random things about moi. Posted this on Facebook, but not all of you are on FB! So enjoy or don't.....it might not be very interesting to ya!

1) My dad taught me 3 things that I still do to this day: never put anything on top of the Bible, always try to call a person by their name(adds that little touch), and always tithe.
2) When I was a senior and on a recruiting visit to the University of Kansas, I got the opportunity to meet Jim Ryun. He was the first American to break 4 minutes in the mile. Pretty cool opportunity!
3) I moved to Bossier to do my student teaching and live with my grandma. The coach I did my student teaching under set me up on a blind date with his nephew...my husband. I was not a COOL first date and went out with him again due to boredom. Who knew??? Couldn't live without him a few weeks later!
4) We had no children on our third wedding anniversary and 2 on our fourth...by 2 SEPARATE pregnancies. Try to beat that one!
5) I am training for the Boston marathon along side my mom(this will be her 2nd Boston) who is 63. Not too many people can say they ran Boston with their momma. This will make it special.
6) I have 2 pet peeves: gum chewing and bad drivers. Both make me cringe!!!
7) My best friends in life were made during the 7 years I lived in Bossier parish. 70 miles hasn't changed much at all!!! Still talk to them 3-4 times a week.
8) Love my children more than I ever thought possible. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of how fast they are growing up.
9) I began running in the 10th grade to lose weight. ONLY reason. Then discovered I was a competitor and with a great coach wound up winning 5 state titles and earning a college scholarship to Auburn. Wound up back in Ruston after a year but wouldn't trade anything for the opportunities running has given me!1
0) Oh and I might add I went to 3 colleges my freshman year(stopped at LSU-BR before heading to LA Tech).....:). My poor parents is all I can say.
11) I didn't get a chance to visit D.C. until after college. I went with Matt and his mom. For a history buff, this was by far the most interesting and fun vacation I have ever had! I am still talking about the Smithsonian's. Still trying to talk my dad into making the trip!
12) I have met so many friends through running.
13) One of my great friends from high school, Jonathan Macaskill, is a Navy Seal. To me, I can think of no one more deserving of such a great honor. We got a chance to hang out with Jon and his wife ,Carrie, in May when we were in San Diego. It was a great visit!
14) In April of 2007, April fools day was on a Sunday. We thought it would be funny to play an April fools joke on out Sunday school class. We told them we had some news....we were pregnant again(Jake was not quite 4 months old at the time). On April 22, I found out the joke was on us and that we were expecting. My how God has a sense of humor!
15) I am not a neat freak about anything, could care less if the laundry gets done, bed gets made. Hoping I'll change one day. Figure it'll get done tomorrow:)!
16) If I could change something about the past, I would have visited with my grandparents more. Would love to ask advice on how they would handle different situations. Would love to have just one more dinner with them. I get angry at myself when I think of how selfish I was in my younger years.
17) I truly believe that God puts us in certain situations to teach us life lessons. He builds my faith in this way.
18) God has blessed me with a husband who has the patience of a SAINT. Enough said. Love him to pieces.
19) One of the most powerful influences in my life was my Grandma Dyson. She was the most Godly woman I knew and will always envision her on her knees before bedtime saying her prayers. She never went to bed without her prayers first. I continue to one day have the FAITH she had.
20) Until I became a parent, I never TRULY appreciated the sacrifices my parents made for me and my siblings. Among MANY things, they always made sure we had family vacations. This is a memory I will make sure my family has as well. They are important.
21) I have 2 uterus's. Eaach child was carried in a different one. Very rare.
22) As a 5th year senior year at Tech I was asked to run cross country that fall(I graduated that same quarter). The WAC championships were in Honolulu. Only reason I ran was for the free trip. So glad I got the chance to go and visit Pearl Harbor. Truly a once in a lifetime visit.
23) My mom is my best friend and am so glad to only have a 3 minute drive from my driveway to hers!
24) My nephew Nicholas is autistic and it took me a while to accept this when I was young and immature. Again God opened a door and I find great joy(on most days!!) in being a special education teacher.
25) Growing up in a Christian home and have 2 wonderful role models is a value that I strive to hold high in my household. I pray that my children will learn the virtues and values of Christianity. May they fear the Lord and know his great mercy and grace. That is my main goal in life. Other than that, what truly matters?

Have a great week!