Big Girl Bed

Well, we did it....today Matt took down Landry Grace's crib and put up her new bed. I took this picture 5 minutes ago and as I was downloading it, I caught LG and Jake trying to sneak back into her bed. Oh I am already thinking why did I rush this! She never tried to climb out of her crib and as we speak she is trying to con her father into something. Can't quite hear what she's saying. This could be a long night!

Final Days

The summer is slowly winding down as this is my last full week of summer without any school related workshops:(. So on an upside to things, I made these cute cookies for a play date earlier this week. We had to cancel it due to rain, but the kids had a blast licking the icing off the cookies. I used Milano cookies, iced them and used Twislers and sour gummy worms cut in half for the straps. For the sand I used graham crackers crumbs. The kids thought these were so cool. Made for a cute idea!

Love Jake's dimples in this picture!
Today we went out to Squire Creek for a Pigskins and Pearls luncheon. Tech's head coach's wife. Kate Dykes, was behind the whole event. It was great! Over 120 ladies attended and it was basically a Football 101 crash course. It was great to see so many Tech supporters and friends. We have season tickets for the kiddos this year so it could make for some interesting football games......
Katie, Shelley, and myself
With some of the football players: Amy Stegall, Katie Hall, Dawn DeForrest, Alice Byrnes, Sharla McCluskey, Lauren Roebuck, Heather Gantt, and me.

Enjoy your weekend!

Beach Pictures

Yay! Our beach pictures have been posted. You can only imagine trying to get a 2 and 3 year old to cooperate after being in the car for 45 minutes(due to traffic the 10 minute ride turned into 45!) but we got some good one! Click here and the password is tyler. I am DONE with pictures for a while after this...I am running out of wall space!

Play Dates!

This week we have done a lot and the kids are currently over in Bossier with their GiGi. I have a free moment so I thought I'd post a little of what we've been doing. Tonight I was sitting in my living room when I got a text from Ashley James telling me they drove by our house and saw a baby raccoon in the from yard. Mom was over visiting and we went outside to see the little creature and take some pictures. Thank goodness we didn't run into it's mama! I hate that the kids were not here to see this.

Last Monday we met up with Jackson and Bella Grace Yates and Jackson Washam at Lincoln Parish Park. The weather was great until the bottom dropped out and we got soaking wet! But LG loves her some BG and it was a great play date.

We headed back out to the park on Friday for a swim on the "beach" with the Hall family and the kids had a BALL! Those poor ducks had a workout but we stayed out there for about 3 hours and the kids entertained themselves for the most part. I enjoyed talking with Katie as they have been at the beach for a majority of the summer. We have missed them!
Jake is cracking me up with all of his swim gear!
Friday night we headed out with some friends for dinner and a movie. We saw Salt and it is an edge of your seat thriller. I highly recommend seeing with one!

And yesterday we headed out to Squire Creek to swim with Georgia and Joanna. This is the best pic I could get of the 3 of them!! Thanks for the invite!
And yes they loved the peach icees:)
That's all for now. Matt and I are about to go and enjoy a child free dinner.

Missing my Cousins

Landry Grace got up yesterday morning saying she wanted to go back to the beach. When I asked her why, she replied that she missed her cousins(who were at the beach with her). It reminded me of this picture that I took on my phone of them.

When we were on the way home a couple of nights ago, we were talking about friends. We were actually talking about one of Matt''s best friends. I asked Jake if he had a best friend, not really expecting an answer. Without missing a beat he said, "Yes, Landry Grace." May he always think this way!

I know we all have our battles with getting kids to eat healthy. Jake does that pretty well and has been on this fruit kick lately that I am excited about. He hoops and hollers if I give him watermelon or grapes, among other varieties of fruit. LG on the other hand will only eat a handful of different types of food. She loves mini pancakes, mac and cheese, and goldfish. Oh, and brownies and cookies...go figure. The only fruit she will eat is bananas. Very frustrating! She does drink her weight in milk. Any suggestion out there on food advice??

Perspective

I had originally planned to post about my weekend trip to Dallas and discuss all the ideas I had for LG's big girl room. Yet I stumbled across a blog that I found on a friend's blog that BLEW ME AWAY. It consumed my whole afternoon(so sorry to my husband) and I was in awe of the unconditional faith this family has. The Sullivan's are their name. Please check it out and start praying for Brady and his daughter Chloe. He and his wife have inspired me in so many ways. I WANT to have his faith!!!! So today I just wanted to share this site with you in order that you may be inspired and will pray for this family.

LaTeDa Designs

3 blog posts in one day is a record for me, but I just received the frame I ordered from Stacey at LaTeDa designs. We took this picture in late January with Matt's family. I hadn't planned on taking a picture of just our family, but this turned out great. This is a 20x24 and Stacey did a great job on the frame!!

This and That

Last week included having some friends over, swimming at Toma Lodge(thanks Mrs. Lora!), and Parent's Night Out at our church. The weeks are flying by and I cannot believe that we start school in 1 month....trying not to think about it! Matt will be away for lengthy amounts at a time in New Jersey for training, so we are certainly glad he is home with us for the time being!

Here we are with the Geis' and Maddens at Outback last Friday in Monroe.

Heading to Parent's Night Out at FBC-Ruston
Jake jumping off the diving board at Toma Lodge without his flotation device. I cannot begin to tell you the transformation he has made from the beginning of the summer. Amazing!
Just too cute with all of his gear on!
Sharon came over last week with her crew and niece Camille. The 3 of them drove all over the yard in the car. This toy has been WELL worth the $$! They had so much fun!

Quick Update

We have been busy enjoying each other since getting home from vacation. Not too much has been going on, but we did just buy a Mac computer. It is so cool and we are still figuring out how things work. Below is our crazy family trying to take a picture on the computer. Fun times! I do have some pictures to download but will wait until later to post them.

Beach Vacation

We are back from the beach and had a great time. Jake and Landry Grace are becoming more and more comfortable in the water and loved the pool. On the last day of our trip they stayed on the beach for a total of 3 hours, which is long time for toddlers! They loved playing in the sand with their cousins. The condo we stayed in had 2 bedrooms plus a bunk bed area. LG ended up sleeping on the bottom bunk all week and Jake slept on a blow-up toddler bed in our room. We cooked in the condo every day so that made it nice not fighting the crowds for dinner at night.

It rained all day on Thursday, the day we were supposed to take beach pics, so we rescheduled for Saturday. The traffic was horrid on our way to take pictures in Destin(we opted to meet her at a great beach location) so we were late getting our session started. Hoping we got some good shots! LG hasn't had a potty accident in weeks, but when we were at the edge of the water taking some pictures....well you can imagine what happened next. And it was fine. We were almost done with the session and I had to just laugh it off! The pictures should be ready for viewing in 3 weeks, so we'll see.

In the mean time Matt is having to turn in his company computer(the one I am typing on!) and vehicle(we love the man van as we call it!). He is looking into buying our family a personal computer and he'll just drive Papaw's truck until he gets a car from his new company which should be next week.
A view from my chair of the play area at Waterscape.

Jake's first slide down the pirate ship.

Jake riding the waves with Daddy in the ocean. It didn't last long!

Day 1 at the beach. They didn't stay long and were ready to go to the pool.
They kids loved to the lazy river and we had a family photo op.

Here are Jake and LG with some of their 2nd cousins: Kaleb, Kyleigh, and Lance

Suited up and ready to play!!!

Playing in the sand with cousins and daddies

The babies on our last day at the beach. Wish I'd gotten some of LG in the water. She LOVED the waves. Loved them! They were strong and the red warning flag was up every day of our trip, but she loved me holding her and splashing in the water.

Jake taking a break in the his dump truck

LG was all over the sand! Made for some darling pictures though

Best pic of the trip after I cropped and edited! They were going to ask our chair neighbors for an American flag(you can see them in the ground). They were so proud of themselves.

LG and her sugar kicks. This child would eat junk all day if I'd let her, but what child wouldn't??

On the way home..............and oh so glad to be here!

The Beach!

We are having a blast at Waterscape in Ft. Walton. It's supposed to rain all week but we lucked out today with sunshine. We cancelled our beach pictures last night but rescheduled them for tomorrow night... keeping my fingers crossed! The kids are loving the beach and the pool. The only downfall of the ocean is that the waves and undercurrent are really strong. It has scared LG to death! Other than that, life at the beach is great. Will post more when we return.