Good Times

I love to read about what everyone else has going on. It's fun to see what is happening with all my blogger friends, but tonight I am not reciprocating. Making this a quicky!!

Last Thursday I took Landry Grace to Mrs. Angie for another haircut. Her hair is very fine and was getting stringy, so we got almost an inch cut off. The picture of sweet Landry Grace is pretty sad, but you get the idea. I tried to take a before/after picture but it didn't work out that way!

Last Friday after school we had a family night and went to Bossier to eat dinner and see a BHS basketball playoff game with 2 of my father in law's good buddies. I used to go to a lot of football playoff games with these 2 men(Leon Darden and Wayne Earp) and my f-i-l when Matt was coaching there. We had the most laughs ever together. Seems strange that I would go with 3 men but nah, they were hilarious and we had a lot of fun. It was like old times when we met up on Friday, even though I forgot to take a group picture. Jake is a crawfish FANATIC and insists on getting them now that they are semi in-season. Needless to say he doesn't catch on to the fact that they are $5.50/lb. Matt bought him 2 pounds and he devoured them easily. This was at dinner before the game.
While Landry Grace will eat them, she prefers to act like they are her personal pet. Whatever floats your boat......
Saturday morning Jake had a soccer game and then that afternoon we took a quick trip to Shreveport for Avery's 3rd birthday. The kids had a ball and I had fun catching up with friends. Matt was umpiring all day in Simsboro at a baseball tournament. We caught dinner with Aunt Lou on the way home and I think she was thrilled to see the babies.

Landry Grace with Avery Claire and Lola and below with brother. They loved this octagon!
Last night Mandy(Brian's girlfriend) came over for dinner at my parent's house with her nephews Conner and Asher(Richard's children...for those of you who know the Anderson's) and of course her son Grant. We loved their company!
Kid's dinner table
Busy week ahead but glad we have good weather!

Bringing up Boys

God never promised us easy. It isn't easy raising children, deciding on which preschool to send your child to, going to work everyday and letting someone else look after your child. It isn't easy to meet their many demands, making sure you have enough energy to sustain their bountiful energy supply, putting a home cooked meal on the table every night. It isn't easy disciplining and making sure they understand kindness. it isn't easy teaching them the ways of the Lord and to have a servant's heart. All of this is overwhelming at times.

But I just got home and walked into Jake's bedroom. He was already in bed for the night. His reply is always the same: kiss me, hug me, and say my prayers. As we were praying, both of his arms held me tight and when we were finished he replied "I love you".

That, my friends(readers), erases all my short comings that I make on a daily basis. My heart swells with a love beyond all understanding for my first born. I don't deserve such blessings. So thankful am I that God chose me to be his mommy.

The End.

P.S. We had a fun and busy weekend but I will share later. Hope all of you have a great week!

Disney Vacation

We have been wanting to take the kids back to Disney since we went in '09. Well Matt decided this week it was time to go back and booked our travel plans! We aren't going until September as we vowed never again to go during the summer months. It'll still be hot but much less crowded. I get so excited watching families surprise their kids with Disney trips and we plan to do the same. The kids have no idea we've booked the trip. I cried watching videos like this last night. Truly a magical place!!!!!

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkNuqQK4Vr4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Remembering....

Hard to believe it's been a year. Please keep Matt's family in your prayers today.

http://suzannedtyler.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

This and That

Beware this is a longer post as we haven't stopped going all weekend. It takes too long to divide up pictures and post by topic, so I'm combining...get over it;)! I'll start with Friday. Matt and I had a date night and left the kids with Jake's preschool teacher assistant. She is great and they love her. After dinner Matt and I had plans to see a movie but once again were lured to the Friday night auction. We stayed for around 3 hours....I laugh while typing this. We are fuddy duddies but we love it! Never know what you'll find. This time my favorite buy was a $3 Buzz Light Year Jacket. It's at the cleaners and should be good to go by the time it gets cold again. That should be next week. He loves it!

Saturday morning we headed for the soccer fields and watched Jake play his first match. He had a great time for the first 40 minutes. The last 20 minutes he "was done". No more, notta. I'll have to teach him some stamina but for now he is the youngest one out there so we're not pushing toughness.
How can you not love this one?
Talking strategy with Daddy. If you cannot tell, the weather in North La has been fantastic. The temps have been in the high 70's, but winter isn't over yet. Enjoying the spring like temps while they last though!
Saturday night we were invited to Katie Hall's mom's, Kaye Cochran, 60th birthday party in Benton. Our(Katie's and mine) grandfathers played football together at Louisiana Tech in the 40's and were lifelong friends. I didn't get to know Katie until we moved to Ruston (almost)3 years ago. She is such a super person and I love that our children are so close in age. Anyway, our families go way back and it was a fun night!
My mother-in-law plays tennis with Mrs. Kaye so she was there as well. If you can't tell, the theme was western!

Below is Katie's sweet family.
By now you can probably recognize my mom and grandmother. Big turned 85 on Valentine's Day. Happy Birthday to you, Big Mama!
Wish I could have caught this on video. They were having the best time dancing together.

Mrs. Kaye with her birthday cake.
And sister crying because brother got the corner piece and she did not. Screaming I tell ya!
Our plumbing was pretty much out all weekend, so we opted out of church Sunday due to the tubs being out of order and went to Lincoln Parish Park and worshipped there! Jake rode his bike around the "lake" and we stopped along the way to feed the ducks, meet new friends, take a juice break, and to mend scrapes due to falls.....
Mom thought she would inspire me to get back on the fitness band wagon by taking a "booty shot". Inspiration kick started!!!! Really, she did not do it for that. Matt was in Bossier taking care of our taxes. It's an all day process getting everything ready for Mr. Jessie.
Landry Grace is not a fan of fruit. She will eat bananas and raisins and that's about it. Tuesday night she had 3 apple slices from a McDonald's happy meal and I went crazy about all the muscles she was getting. Yesterday she ate 2 more slices of apple so here she is showing off her growing biceps. Whatever it takes!
Today has been a lazy but productive day. I hope you have enjoyed your Monday!

Hhfvggghuuy

2 Things

1. If you are planning on your child taking swim lessons, sign up now! The kids at the beach picture is to remind you of that:). We took from Linda Causey last year and she fills up fast. I think her first session might already be full.

2. Our "slow man" was taken again from our yard last week. Glad he is popular but come on. You need not take items that don't belong to you. Just sayin'.

Praises!

Some of you know that Matt got word 2 weeks ago that his company was having layoffs. We weren't quite sure what to expect and said many prayers that we didn't have to go through another job change. Matt found out this morning that he still has his job. Many praises to our Lord!!

Here are some pictures of Jake and Landry Grace from this afternoon. They were waiting on Big Mama to get home from Kool Kids( our local consignment event) with toys. She was in line since 7:30 this morning and shopping didn't start until 2. Needless to say she was first in line. Only my mother:)!!

Happy V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day....to my children this day means a party at school and SUGAR. They have been hyped up all day! Yesterday afternoon was spent making 51 cupcakes as seen below. Thankfully Super 1 was selling plain frosted cupcakes for way cheaper than I could make them. So all I did was add the train, track, and "smoke stack". Thought they turned out pretty cute, considering I am far from anyone who might resemble Betty Crocker. A huge thank you to my sweet friend and co-worker Sharon for letting me use her kitchen and help to make these sweet treats for the kids and their classmates. They were a hit!

Can you tell they were excited about heading to school? When I picked them up they had their bag full of Valentine's cards from classmates. It was fun to see them open up the cards and get excited about who it was from.
This year I decided to start a new tradition with the kids. It was not an original idea but one from a friend and I thought it was great. When thinking about Valentine's Day I considered getting Jake and Landry Grace a "happy". Nothing big but something to surprise them with that morning. A friend suggested that we make a donation to the St. Jude radio-thon(it was last week) instead of a gift. So last week I talked with them a little bit on what St. Jude's is and why children have to go there. I think Jake caught on and it was a good experience for them to give to those in need. Each gave a little bit of their savings(hence the piggy banks) and we gave them a donation to put in the bucket at Super 1(where the radio-thon took place). I loved this idea and thought you might want to join in next year!
Jake will be making his soccer debut this weekend. The weather was in the 70's today! Matt and I took him to get his gear and he practiced outside for a bit. We'll see how this goes.
Hope you had a great Valentine's Day and are grateful for all that you have. With each passing day my children are slowly growing up. They are at a tough but very tender age....God keeps showing me on a daily basis that we are doing something right. Jake had a tough week at school last week but during one nightly prayer he actually prayed that he would have a "gooder" day tomorrow. Landry Grace loves to give hugs and tell us that she love us. I am so very grateful to our gracious Lord for these small blessings that are really the biggest blessings. My heart is sometimes tired but always full.

Weekend Fun

As I type this post about our weekend in Natchez, please keep in mind that I know there are more important things to blog about. This is really insignificant, but I wanted to let those who have heard horror stories about the Kelly's Kids warehouse sale that it wasn't bad at ALL!

We started out by deciding late on Friday to head to Natchez and get a room. It was a good idea and we got a good rate through Expedia. We stopped in West Monroe at Chick-fil-a and the cow danced for us a little longer than we deemed necessary(we kinda thought we might win a free sandwich-didn't happen). It was quite funny, thought I'd post a picture.

At the hotel I was looking at Facebook(bummer, I know, got bored Wednesday and activated my account) and saw that people were camping out according to the Kelly's Kids page. So Katie and I decided to drive the 3 minutes to the warehouse and check the situation out. And yep, these crazy people were there at 10pm planning to camp out in the 24 degree weather. One family had an RV and drove in from Tennessee. I'd be lying if the thought of abandoning the hotel room didn't cross my mind.
But instead we went back to the room, woke up at 5:50, and were in line by 6:30am. The weather was a deterrent on the amount of people in line. There were A LOT of people who put out chairs and went back to their cars to stay warm. We had about 75-100 people in front of us. Considering the warehouse is really large, I figured we had done the right thing going back to our room and not camping out. I didn't consider that to be a lot of people.
This was the line behind us as we entered the warehouse. I heard in May it was wrapped all the back around to the front. Katie grabbed 2 of all the girls size 3/4's and I grabbed 2 of all the size 2's. There was still a lot on the racks when we got inside. Then we went to the boys and searched through that. So glad we had our laundry baskets!
We found A LOT of stuff, but put a lot back. At this point, I know what the kids will wear and what they won't. There were a lot of yoke and some smock dresses and I put them back because she has a lot of dresses and just doesn't wear then that often. I hated to just buy to buy. I was excited to recycle her turquoise and red bow from 2 years ago...it matches perfectly! SO I didn't buy that much. There were people with so much, I have no idea(other than selling it) what on earth they were doing with that amount of clothing. I had no interest in buying 2 to 3 years ahead size wise.
So there you have it. Our trip summary. YES...we will go back. Camping out next time for sure. Fun times.

Road Trip!

As moms we don't get away often enough, but tonight Katie and I are embarking upon our first Kelly's Kids warehouse sale in Natchez. Thinking this might be a "one time" thing as I've heard it is chaotic. I'll let you know!!
And NO we are not camping out. We just didn't want to get up at 4:45am to head there. The sale starts at 9am tomorrow and rumor has it people camp out for this. Hoping the weather will deter some people!

One More Thing.......

I had to add another post in addition to my previous one from today. GiGi gave them some Valentine's pj's and this picture just before bedtime turned out precious!! I did not put a bow in her hair for bed....we had just come home from the Techster's basketball game where they had a good time, just for the record! Thanks GiGi!!

Fun Finds

We spent the last 2 days catching up on things we can't necessarily do with our 2 children: sleeping, going to the movies, auctions, and estate sales! Don't be mistaken, I was THRILLED when the kids were back home, but it was nice to be able to take advantage of our alone time. A BIG thank you to my mother in law for asking them to come over and play!

Friday night we headed to out an auction north of town with(my co-worker) Sharon and Lee Jay. Matt found a gum ball machine among a few other things. This will serve as an incentive for Jake and Landry Grace's behavior chart that has worked WONDERS for not only their behavior but manners as well.

Below is a fireplace screen that I have been looking for for 18 months. Found it this morning at David Hedgepeth's estate sale for $20! It's a smaller stand so it might not have worked with the more modern, larger fireplaces. It's a perfect fit for our fireplace.

Then I found this great basket to put all of our blankets in. They are always laying around with no place "to go" and I thought this was another fun find.

Our behavior chart: although it might sound a little harsh to have one for my children, it has done so much for our household. When they fill up a category with stickers then they are rewarded with ice cream.

Here is the gum ball machine; We are now going to let them earn nickels from their sticker chart. We aren't quite ready for gum balls but I plan to find some prizes from Oriental Trading to place in there. They were THRILLED to see this when they got home today. The key did not come with it but a butter knife can be used to open it. Perhaps we'll have one made to fit.
And I finally confess...our dining room is now a bonafide play room. I tried to keep it from becoming one, but the older they get, the bigger the toys. At least we have somewhere to put them besides the living room.
And now we are back to being a family of four. Sleep beckons!!

Life is Good

Doesn't get much better than this! Kids are in Bossier with GiGi playing in all the SNOW they received. Hope everyone is staying warm. So long for now......

For Sale and Valentinesj

Tonight I decided to start our Valentine's project. I call it a project because I'm planning for Jake to write his name on all 24 Valentine's cards for his classmates. Rarely can I get him to write his name without force, but this was of course fun for him. Didn't get them all done tonight but we made progress!

Landry Grace laughing at her brother. She was excited about her Mickey and Minnie Valentines.

Jake's signature! Glad we have another year before his kindergarten debut but VERY proud of him so far.
Working hard on his name....
Before we got started. Love fun memories such as this!
And last but not least, this is all I have left of Landry Grace's summer things that are for sale. Last season I posted them on my blog but this time around people started asking before I got around to posting. Love that! Friends came and bought out her 24 month and smaller clothes. I do have about 6 spring/summer outfits that are 9 months and smaller, but I don't know many baby girls that will need that size for the summer. So if you are interested I'll send you some pictures.
Most of these shoes are size 6. The Sun Sans sandals are $8, all other sandals $3-$5 and Keds are $5. Note: the Keds are a little smaller, I think 4s.