Not Much....

...to report from the weekend. It was, for the most part, uneventful. Saturday we had a girls' afternoon and met Mandy(my brother's girlfriend) in Monroe for lunch. I won't go into great detail, but my brother deserves the best and I feel the same about Mandy. We love her so much and it was great catching up with her for a couple of hours. I was impressed at how well Landry Grace handled the long lunch.

But she caught up on her sleep during the ride home. She was exhausted!
I think everyone is thankful for the wonderful weather that we had this weekend! We had some fun outside in the front yard. It was also nice to run in shorts rather than my full winter running attire. Have a great week!

One Year Ago....

This picture of Landry Grace was taken this time last year. I haven't mentioned the hair pulling incident because she hasn't pulled her hair since we shaved it in October '09.
It was definitely the right thing to do and grew back pretty fast. Thought I would share. Happy Friday!!

Fun Weekend!

Whew! We have spent the last 2 weekends in Bossier parish and I am tired. This past weekend we headed over to Shreveport for Sadie and Bennett's birthday party at Jill's Gymnastics. As we were leaving the party, Jake said the party "was awesome". Fun times catching up with our Bossier friends. We miss them dearly and it is fun to see them at parties. I thought by now we might be done traveling to and fro for each others parties, but no. We love to see each other and catch up, even if it's only every couple of months.

Katye chose the Supergirl/boy theme. Cute!

Sadie turns 5!
Sweet Jake having a great time.
Landry Grace gets excited about birthday parties for one reason only: CAKE! Got a quick pic of her before the cupcakes were passed out.
She was totally smitten with 7 month old Ella. She played with her a majority of the party. I thought it was so cute!! I know she would L-O-V-E to be a big sister. LG is the youngest in all that she does right now(dance, school, etc.) but Ella made me realize that my little girl is no longer a baby at all. Landry Grace played and played with her.
Sweet Bennett getting his birthday cake. This time 2 years ago, he was on the ECMO machine at Arkansas Children's' in LR. Now he is a healthy and vibrant baby boy. A walking miracle indeed!
Hailey and Thomas with his new "cheese" face.
The Super Hamby crew: Katye, Sadie, Bennett, and Ben
After the party we headed out to Aunt Lou's to spend the night. We let them play with Lou's change as this might be the closest they ever some to "rolling in the dough"! Matt had a guy's night with his friends in Shreveport and we hung out at Louie's house last night. For lunch today she cooked up a great home cooked meal. I think I'm done eating for a couple of days. Thank you Aunt Lou!!
We got back home around 2 this afternoon and finally opened up Jake's new golf set that he received for Christmas. The balls are foam(semi-good for indoor play) and the ball floats in the air...he loved it! Next we will work at standing on the correct side of the tee.
Looking forward to staying in town next weekend and doing nothing. It's always good to be back home. Getting ready for another work week. So long for now.

House for Sale

Our friends, Jennifer and Patrick Sexton, are selling their house and I am just putting this on my blog in case you are interested. It is in the Hillcrest school district, 1950 sq. ft., 3 bedroom/2 bath with a formal dining room. It also has a picket fence around the backyard. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail Patrick: doc@sahc.com.

Girl's Day

Today is MLK day and for teachers such as myself, that means a day off! My dad kept Jake so that Landry Grace and I could take a quick trip to Shreveport for a Beaux et Belles show. It is a children's clothing company out of New Orleans and my current favorite. LG is wearing one of her B and B outfits from the winter in this picture below. The show runs through Thursday(10-2) at Imelda's on Line Ave in the Uptown Shopping center if you are interested. They have some really cute new styles for spring and summer. We ran into one of our friends, Analeigh Turner while we were there. She is just precious! Analeigh's daddy and Landry Grace's daddy have been best friends since elementary school.

We then stopped at another favorite: Jason's Deli. All she was worried about: the ice cream of course.
And last but not least, LG's big girl room is slowly but surely coming together. Her panels and pillows are now complete and I am contemplating on NOT painting it green and keeping her room pink. SUGGESTIONS pretty please. Stay pink. Or paint green.
I had her coming home dress put in a shadow box, so that that will more than likely go above her bed when it is ready.
All in all, I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Sweetness

This picture was taken at Jake's request. We definitely have our challenges with him, but he is also the absolute sweetest and lovable child.

The other night he brought Matt a birthday picture he'd drawn for Papaw. He asked to put the picture in his "yard"(aka cemetery). Of course Matt told him yes. Stories such as this are God's reassurance that we are doing a good job at raising Jake. I fear often of messing up, but God reminds me daily in small doses of "sweetness" from my baby boy.

Typo

I try to proofread as much as I can but of course there are always typos!! Not able to get to my computer right now so I'm e-mailing in this blog post. Please note that I meant exhibition in the first paragraph below. Sometimes I'll read typos and let them slide. This one I could not!

Suzanne D. Tyler
Check out our blog:
www.suzannedtyler.blogspot.com

Ag Expo

If you are looking for a fun indoor activity this weekend, try the Ag Expo in West Monroe. We went after school today on a whim to see the dog herders round up cows and Jake loved it! He never moved during the expedition. We then went inside for a sampling of various dairy products from local producers. After that we saw the indoor zoo that was set up among many other exhibitors. We were there for over 2 hours and the kids were thoroughly entertained!

Just after we got to the arena...

Landry Grace with Mr. Lee Jay
Clapping for the dogs....they could be yours for a mere $6,000 each! It sure would make it easier for Matt and Mark to round up their cows with one of those dogs!
Sibling love:)!
Sitting inside one of the huge tractor tires. Jake thought this was pretty neat.
They loved holding the baby chicks until Jake almost dropped the poor thing.
He was so gentle with the calf...I love that he is completely smitten with all things cows and tractors.
On the pony after his ride.
On our way out the door but not before a stop for some milk. My kids drink their weight in milk.
Playing horses with the yard sticks....these didn't make it long. Extreme hazard!
Looking forward to a fun weekend with family! Be back soon.

Mardi GRAS Fun!

I love decorating for the different seasons in my home. For my husband's sake, I try not to go all out with each new season. Just buying a little at a time helps. My co-worker Sharon made both of my wreaths with items from Hobby Lobby. I thought she did a fantastic job!

YIPEE!

We don't have to go to school tomorrow due to the wintry mix. I am posting in celebration of that:)! On Friday we had some members of our Sunday school class over to watch the Sugar Bowl. Forgot to take any pictures, opps! Saturday Mom called to see if I wanted to run over to Benton. She had to stop by my grandmother's house for a minute. My grandmother will be 85 on Valentine's Day and she is still very independent.

We then met up with Aunt Lou in Bossier for lunch. She thoroughly enjoyed seeing Landry Grace.
And after my long run was canceled this morning due to the rain/sleet, we celebrated with pancakes. What better way to celebrate than with FOOD!
Looking forward to another day to catch up on housework. Happy Monday!

Reeves Kilpatrick

My sweet running partner had her baby boy about an hour ago. Reeves Kenneth was 7 lbs 12 ounces and 19 inches long. Congrats Sarah and Ryan!!

Stats

I took the day off today for a dental appointment(in which I was told he couldn't fix my tooth and that it needed to be extracted and have an implant put in. Don't you love good news!) and the kids' well check-ups. I have always done their well check-ups together and I'm not sure why I thought today would be easier that in years past. Sigh....Matt got there before any major meltdowns so we were good. 2 hours later we left the doctors office....Here are their stats:

Landry Grace

Weight: 28 pounds 25th percentile! A few years ago we weren't on the growth chart at all and now we are right where we need to be. Dr. Slusher mentioned that she could stand to gain a few more pounds but I am pleased!

Height: 37" 50th percentile

Jake

Weight: 44 pounds 95th percentile. A little on the heavy side:(. Genetics don't help as he is really a very well rounded eater who loves fruit and not too big on sweets. Jake did eat all 5 of his chicken nuggets at church tonight plus his sister's..... He's going to be a linebacker one day and we'll show them! Who? I don't know, but we'll show someone:)!

Height: 41 3/4" 75th percentile, I think. He'll be ready to ride some bigger rides at Disney next fall!

Jake was so excited about the shots. I don't think he knew what was coming as he got pretty upset after the first one. Luckily an ICEE helped. LG was having no part of a shot and she had to get 1(Jake had 3) but ice cream helped her ailment.

Who else is excited about Toddlers and Tiaras tonight....so long for now!

New Years and More

Well, we headed out for our mini road trip on December 30th. I've mentioned the Paragon Casino in Marksville before as we have been before. Matt used to do overnights here with his old job as his territory was larger. I know it sounds crazy to say this place is kid friendly but it is and the kids had so much fun this time around. There is also a 3 movie theatre but the only movie halfway kid-friendly was Gulliver's Travels and I had my doubts so we opted out of a movie this go round.

Here is a view of the pool.

Family pic on Thursday.
Before we left Friday, we had to pose in front of the alligator exhibit that is located in the lobby of the hotel. This was another highlight of the trip for the kids. There are approximately 15 small alligators in the water.
We left on New Years Eve and made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Bossier. They slept a good bit of the way so the drive wasn't bad at all. We spent the night with GG and went out with some friends for dinner. Here is Jake on his new bike that GG gave him. He was riding like a pro(with training wheels of course!). After his second fall he called it a day. If he only knew how many more times he will fall off a bike! But so glad he is getting the hang of it.
We ate at "Four Winds" inside the Horseshoe Casino with Matt's childhood friend, Jay Turner, and his wife Ashley. We had no definite plans for the night other than dinner but ended up staying out well past midnight. It was so much fun and we had some good conversation. So glad we were able to bring in the new year with the Turners! Thanks GG for keeping the kids.
On New Years day(do you capitalize NY in a sentence...ignorance!) we headed out to the country for a great home cooked meal prepared by Aunt Lou. Jake loves his Uncle Mark! They were out "working the cows" just before I took this shot.
And last night we got home just in time to head out for a get together with our Sunday school class at the Madden's new home. Just about everyone showed up and the kids had a ball! Ryan put on a really cool firework show as captured by LG's face below.
Here are most of the girls from our class. It was a fun night.
Thought this picture of the Reeder family turned out great! I've known Heather since elementary school and we graduated from high school together as well. Maybe I should go into professional portraits. Ha!
Sweet Reed Sexton was kind enough to cover up Landry Grace's ears during the firework show.
It's hard to believe that 2010 is over and done with. Overall it has been a pretty tough year for us and we are holding true to our faith and trusting in God to see us through life as we know it. We are looking forward to a new start, a clean slate if you will. I don't really do New Year's resolutions anymore but I did decide to deactivate my Facebook account as I spend WAY too much time on it when I should be doing other things. Not saying it's a bad thing at all. Just needed to prioritize a little better this year.

Matt and I have decided to train for the Mardi Gras half marathon in New Orleans at the end of February. We had planned to run last year but Matt's dad got sick and ended up passing the week of the event. Papaw's birthday is Wednesday, so if you would please keep Matt and his family in your prayers. It's still tough. Tomorrow morning will be here soon and training begins(for me anyway). BRRRRRRRRRR!