Lately

Thought I would catch you up on the latest around here. We are thoroughly enjoying our afternoons and absolutely love our neighborhood!!! We haven't been too busy with events but have enjoyed some fun activities with the kids. I love that we only have THREE more Mondays left in our school year and get out on May 21. Matt just found out he gets to work a convention in New Orleans for a week at the beginning of June and we get to accompany him. The kids will have a ball at the Audubon Zoo and the aquarium among other fun things. The we are going to Destin at the end of June. Looking forward to fun times this summer!


I will explain the pictures as I go to make it easy...

EXHIBIT A: During my Tuesday morning run last week I made up for several years of not falling when I hit the road HARD. It took me over a minute of laying on the asphalt to get up...my hands hurt the worst, but I also got my knee, arm, and a niiice bruise on my hip. What can I say, I take after Sandra:).

EXHIBIT B: By this point it's comical. I was talking to a teacher at school on Friday when a heavy swinging door hit and broke my toe. This was Friday evening and by Saturday my entire toe was purple. Wish I could say I took this week off, but my running partner is hard core and I didn't want her thinking I was a wimp....not much you can do for a broken pinky toe and it goes numb after the first half-mile.

Way enough about me. On to the main focus of my post!!

Every year Matt's boss, Russ Golden, has a crawfish boil for the members of their district. So we headed over to his house on Saturday and enjoyed some red bugs. They were great!
Jake LOVES crawfish and I think ate more of them than I did.
Riding all the kids around Mr. Russ' yard(notice mine had already changed due to the fact they were filthy and/or had an accident...but it happens!)

Then mom had the grand idea of telling J and LG about the days when we used to crawfish with my Papaw in Benton. We would have some major crawfish boils and they were a lot of fun. So Jake has been asking to go "crawfishing" for about 2 weeks! So after MDO on Tuesday we went to the store and got some bacon and liver, tied them to the new nets Big Mommy(as J calls her) bought and went "crawfishing" in the small creek behind our house. Of course we knew they wouldn't catch anything but it is all about the experience. And so we will try again the next time we are in Benton:)!!
Jake being silly but I loved his eyes in this picture.

Our beloved neighbor Grayson, who comes over daily to entertain the kids for hours!

Another endless fun activity...the sprinkles(as LG calls it). I'll turn them on during the warm evenings and let them go to town.

And of course we love having my parents live 2 streets over....guess I can only speak for myself!

And here is sweet Landry Grace last Sunday before church. Jake wouldn't cooperate....

More to come!

Just Another Fun Weekend

I feel the need to share a conversation Jake, Landry Grace, and I had in the car last week:
Jake: Mom, when I get older I'm gonna drive your car
LG: When I older I'm gonna drive your car
Me: That'll be fine
Jake: Are you going to drive daddy's car? 'Cause IIII'm gonna drive mama's car.
LG: Um, NO. IIIIIII'm gonna drive mama's car!!
Me: Are we really having this conversation?? Let's wait until you get older!

Yes, the sibling rivalry has been going on for quite some time now. And this would be the case whether your children are the same age, 12 months apart, or 5 years apart. We just have ours starting NOW. It's tough at times but yet I know they are ultimately going to be very protective of one another outside the home. At least that it what I hope for!

Matt and his brother Mark had to work the cows this weekend in Benton and we had another birthday party to attend in Shreveport on Saturday, so we just decided to go over on Friday night. GiGi played with the babies while Matt and I went out for dinner.

Saturday we headed out for Hudson's 4th birthday at Acrosports in Shreveport and the kids of course had a great time. Matt wasn't able to go with me and so it was pretty eventful since I chose to wear a dress to this party and didn't think about the fact that I MIGHT have to climb into the play pit to help rescue my children when they get stuck. LG was a little small for the play pit but that didn't occur to her until she was stuck at the top. Gotta love climbing into those apparatuses.

Headed into the party.

Hudson's pirate set-up. Melody did such a great job...thinking we are going to do a pirate party for Jake's fourth birthday as well.

Jake and LG with Hudson(the birthday boy)and sister Avery.

Thought it was sweet that LG went and sat next to her brother while listening to instructions.
Gotta love the ball pits, but not as much as LG's smile. She makes me laugh out loud every time I see this look! God love her!!

And this look...precious baby.

You would think I would learn to stop taking pictures when they refuse to look..nah. I still think they need more pictures to add to my collection....

Earlier this week we told Jake and LG about a dirt pile at Aunt Lou's house. She just had a car port built and needs some more dirt work around it. So she had some dirt delivered and bought the babies some shovels and toys. Jake had been asking about this dirt mound ever since we told him, so after naps on Saturday we headed out to Lou's for fun in the dirt and fried fish.

They were both in HEAVEN. 3 hours straight with a small break to eat some fish.

Sliding down the dirt pile..who knew this could be so much fun??!!

Uncle Mark letting LG push the gas on the 4 wheeler. She thought this was fantastic!

Family pic before Daddy took them on a ride around the property.

Again...totally enthralled with the dirt.

Great evening with the Tyler crew.



This morning for church Landry Grace finally got to wear her sweet Easter dress since she missed out wearing it on Easter morning. No big deal but I did want to take a picture of her wearing it.

We went to my parent's house after church for lunch and took a quick picture. Now we normally don't take many family shots but have plenty after this weekend. I feel bad that I don't have any pictures of my parents on my blog. They really do so much for us...not to mention that they keep LG every Wednesday. It is so nice having them 2 streets over. Some would say that's too close but we love it.

The weather has been great here lately. We have been playing outside hours on end after school and only have 6 more weeks before the SUMMER! Looking forward to that. Hope all of you have a great week.

Vegas and More

What a great trip we had!! I really don't want to make this long so here's my short version of the trip....Matt woke up with pink eye the day before we left which HE thought would be a big deal but I think he made the best of it. We left for Shreveport Thursday morning to run some essential errands and then headed to the airport for our 12:55 direct flight to Vegas. After we arrived and got the rental car we headed to the Vegas strip and then checked into our room at the Venetian. It was very nice and we decided to eat at Tao that night. The restaurant was in the Venetian and it was REALLY good. Definitely recommend it. Afterwards Matt and Lou headed to check out the casino and I headed to check out the room...aka I was exhausted.
Friday morning we went down to Gold and Silver Pawn shop to check out our friends from Pawn Stars that we watch religiously every week. We love it!! Yes we saw the "old man" and his son but no I didn't get any pictures. They had just finished filming when we got there and I really wanted to ask for a picture with the owners but figured I'd get turned down:(.

SO here is most exciting part about our trip. While driving down the strip on Friday we saw a sign at the Encore that Garth was in town. We had no idea he was playing that weekend and Matt made a call. Turns out that you can only buy tickets through the Encore casino and not Ticketmaster due to Garth trying to cut down on ticket scalping. He announced Feb. 27th that he was doing minimal shows at this casino and the tickets sold out within an hour. I researched his site when we got back and found all this out. So anyway his Friday night show was sold out and we already had tickets on Saturday night at 7:30. Matt asked the hostess about his 10:30 show and she could get us 3 tickets but not sitting together. We decided to go for it!I have ALWAYS wanted to see Garth Brooks and remember when he retired in '98 how disappointed I was not to have had a chance to see him. More about that later. And yes I am trying to make this short. Sorry.

That afternoon I hung out by one of the pools and then we went to eat at Battista's that night. It's a hole in the wall Italian restaurant and another that I highly recommend. My parents ate there on their trip in February and it didn't disappoint.
So Saturday we basically hung out...we had to go and get our Garth tickets after lunch, show our ID and get wrist bands plus a stamp. All of this to cut down on scalping. Good for him!! Plus you could buy no more than 4 tickets at a time. I layed out by the pool again(enjoyed this tremendously as it won't happen again for a while) and then went to the room as I knew it would be a long night and then early morning as we had a 7:30 flight back to Shreveport.

We went to see Cher that night and all I can say is her concert 7 years ago was much better than her show in Vegas. I love that she is all about the glamour but it took about 5 minutes for her to change costumes between each song. She's still got it but for some reason I was less than satisfied with her performance.
We had plenty of time to get to the Encore to see Garth and hung out for a bit before getting to our seats. The theatre he performed in only seated 1,100 people so it was pretty small, all things considered. We were in the balcony but the seats were still pretty good. I noticed before he came out the only items on the stage were a stool with a bottle of water on it and a guitar. Then Garth came out with only a hooded sweatshirt on and baseball cap. No frills or thrills...just Garth. And let me tell you he put on A GREAT SHOW. Seriously, I had chills the entire concert. He was SO GOOD. He did some talking and started with the year he was born and what type of music was popular at the time: Haggard and Jones. He played some music by those men on his guitar. He had no band. Then he sang Here's to you Mrs. Robinson, Bye Bye Miss American Pie, some George Straight and Randy Travis among other songs as he went through the years and decades of popular music. His wife Trisha Yearwood came out with him and they sang a duet and then she sang She's in Love With the Boy and Walk Away Joe. Then Garth started singing his songs: Friends in Low Places, Shameless, The Thunder Rolls, The River, Calling Baton Rouge, To Feel Your Love(from Hope Floats), Papa Loves Mama..Mama loves Men, The Dance, and some more I may have forgotten. He was SO GOOD. I can't stop talking about it. We didn't leave the concert until 1 am. It was worth the entire trip. Really.

Our flight the next morning was early but we made it to the plane and were back in Shreveport by 12:00. We went straight to GiGi's to pick up Landry Grace and after visiting a bit made it to Ruston. Jake stayed with my parents last weekend and had a ball with them. OK...sorry for the typos and so forth. I am done. Finished. Hope I explained as much as i could.

Didn't take many great pics. You get the idea.

Matt and Lou getting on the plane in Shreveport. He was still nursing his pink eye.




Not a great picture at all but here is the pawn shop where they film "Pawn Stars". This was my only photo op there. Not the best but oh well.
Matt and Lou when we ate at Tao on Thursday night.

Saturday morning when we were headed out to see some Vegas sites.

Friday night at Battista's...good food!

If you go this man will come and serenade you. Warning: Have your money ready;)! He was so cute.
Couldn't bring my camera to the concerts so this was before we went to Cher and Garth.

Landry Grace and Jake love their shirts Lou bought them in Vegas. Thanks Aunt Lou! Flower beds are still being worked on....don't judge:)!!
Broke out the pool tonight. Still a little cool in the shade for sweet LG. Took her to the dr. for a quick check on her face today an she is up to 25 pounds. We're working on it! Jake still outweighed her at a year old(he was 26 pounds) but she's dainty and that's fine!

Had to include this picture. If you drive by our house between 3 and 6:30 on any given day, you will more than likely see my 2 driving their car in the front yard:

Love it! They are growing up too fast and it makes me sad that I don't have babies anymore. BUT not sad enough to have more!! Hope you are having a great week!

CHER

Saturday night at 7:30 I will be getting ready to see:
And some may think no big deal. I would say the same about Celine Dion as lots of people go out to Vegas to see her. Although I don't have a problem with spending money, I think it's a total waste to spend it on concerts.....until I saw CHER about 7 years ago. Been talking about it ever since! This will be my third time out to Vegas and we are mainly going to take Aunt Lou which I am excited about. But then Matt told me that this was her first weekend back from a break...I was pumped to say the least when he booked our tickets.

Vegas, like the rest of the economy, is struggling right now and Matt got us 3 free nights at the Venetian so that should be neat. He stayed there last June with his company and said it was great. Other than that I am looking forward to relaxing and lounging by the pool. I've had several people ask if we were taking the babies. Um. No. There are many people out there that do take their children to Vegas. We are not those people. Thanks. But we'd rather not.

And here's to having a great trip with Louie(Aunt Lou!). She's the best.

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter despite the fact that Landry Grace woke up with her eyes matted and red. We went ahead and put some Vigamox(sp) in her eyes and they looked better by lunch. Since Matt's family was coming over from Bossier after early church, he stayed home with LG and I took Jake to church. It was a wonderful message in both Sunday school and church. I must say that we love our family at FBC-Ruston. I believe that what you put into a church and your faith is what you will get out of it. We have made some really good friends there and appreciate them so much!
After church we came home and ate with Matt's mom, aunt, and brother along with my parents. After naps we hunted eggs again(with minimal candy!) and then went out to Lincoln Parish Park later this afternoon. We absolutely love going out there and are planning to get Jake his first fishing pole so that he can catch some fish. I am sure with his fishing pole will be another one for LG. Having 2 so close together means you have to get 2 of everything, preferably the exact same thing or they will argue over it. Fun times!
I have posted 3 posts tonight so scroll down after this one.
Had to document their Easter baskets....plan to get all of my blog entries published into a book so that the babies will have pictures to look at. Seriously...haven't developed a picture in about 2.5 years. That's digital for ya!

Family pic after church and all I can think about is how much work our house needs on the outside....YIKES! Motivation triggered: I am off one more day and guess where I will be???

Not a great pic but here I am with my sweet babies.

Gigi baking cookies after nap time.
Best I could get of Gigi with her grands.

Loving that I only have a TWO day work week as we are flying out on Thursday to Vegas. Hope all of you have a great week!

Egg Hunts and Birthdays

We celebrated Sarah Kate's 2nd birthday on Saturday morning and the kids had so much fun. I was thoroughly impressed by Angie's party ideas and the fact that she did everything herself. The kids hunted eggs at the beginning of the party and I think 100 eggs were still out in the yard AFTER the hunt. Thanks Sarah Kate for a great time!
After naps we headed to our pal Bella Grace's grandmother's house where we met up with lots of friends from church to hunt eggs again. The outfit changes were only due to messy clothes at stop #1 that morning! They had a great time there as well. I was totally done with candy by this point...to put it nicely!!

Daddy was teaching Jake how to gather the loot in a pile and discard the eggs quickly

Landry Grace would rather stop after she found each egg and find out the prize rather than find them all so quickly. She totally has a mind of her own.

This was right before the hunt with her friend Bella Grace Yates. They were having a ball being silly.

Angie and Sarah Kate at the birthday party

Some of the crew including Ava and Caroline James.

Da Beach!

So my friend Katie asked me right before Spring Break if I wanted to take the kiddos to Orange Beach and stay at their condo....and of course I said yes! Her son Landon is 3 and Kennedy is 18 months. The weather was a little cool but for the most part they loved the beach. Jake has been to the beach every summer since he was born and had never had much to do with sand or the ocean. Well he didn't swim in the ocean water but he did play in it for a bit and I consider that a breakthrough! LG loved the ocean but wanted to be carried in it a lot. We went shopping in Foley one morning for about an hour(fastest trip EVER but we didn't need much!) and then went to the zoo another morning. Thanks so much Katie for having us!!

Katie, me, and my running buddy Sarah

Jake on our first day at the beachLG is my daredevil child. The only mishap of the beach occured when she got on the condo elevator unattended. 4 elevators(didn't know which one). 14 floors(bottom 3 opened up to car garages). Panic almost set in but she was found on the fifth floor within 5 minutes and when asked WHY she got on the elevator by herself? "Cause I want to".....for the love!!!!

Happiness is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taking a break from the cool water temps with a Capri Sun

Money see monkey do: Jake took his shirt off and LG insisted on taking off her swimsuit. Cute pic though!

Took them out to the park on Friday to dye eggs. Might be the last time for a while:) but we made it through !!!