GWL

We are having a lot of fun at Great Wolf Lodge! Jake continues to surprise me with his continued love of the water. Last year he was terrified of it and yesterday he was fearless in the wave pool. Landry Grace has been a little more reserved this trip and hasn't ridden a single water slide but she loved the wave pool as well.

Camping Adventures

Well, we are back from our camping adventure at Lincoln Parish Park. To say the kids had fun is an understatement! It did get a little cold last night but the temps were in the 50's. My friend Sharon brought her RV out there so it was nice to have a fridge, bathrooms, place to cook food, etc. Not to mention the company! Here are the pics and most of them speak for themselves on the amount of fun they had.

Headed down to the pond to fish with crickets. Just before this picture, Jake accidentally spilt the crickets and we managed to catch most of them. That was pretty much the only meltdown of the night.
Headed down to the pond.
The whole gang: Thomas, Hank, Emma, Camille, Landry Grace, Hilton, and Jake.
Feeding the ducks that came by our campsite for a snack.
Can we say CUTE? I love this sweet picture!
Striking a pose down by the pond. They ended up catching up a lot of fish over the course of 24 hours. Jake was loving this.
The ducks were everywhere!
Sharon was showing my mom how to make her infamous homemade salsa.
Hilton with his fish and Landry Grace not wanting to cooperate.
Landry Grace and Camille loving with Mr. LeeJay(Sharon's husband)
Our meal that night consisted of pork tenderloin, hash brown casserole, salad, and bread.
Landry Grace had a ball with Larkin and Hank.
Roasting marshmallows for the smores.
I really thought Landry Grace was going to turn into a cheese ball....no nap yesterday and this was at 8:45 last night. She was beyond exhausted and still asking for these silly cheese balls. Needless to day once her head hit the pillow she did not roll over until 7:30 this morning. We invested in some sleeping bags for the kiddos and I think that helped them not to get too cold.
And of course the next morning we ended the trip with blueberry pancakes.

We hung out at the park until noon and after baths and lunch, all of us took some much needed naps. I finally had to wake LG up at 4:45. Hoping she goes to sleep tonight as we have a big day tomorrow. It's supposed to warm up Thursday and Friday and we are hoping so!

Prayer

I typically post the same old news day in and day out. I'm sure to most of you it is very boring. But I do want to share with you something that I deem very important. My sister, Laura, who lives in Atlanta lost her job several weeks ago. She is a single mother and over the course of the last 5 years has not had a steady job until this past job. So I asked my Sunday school class to please pray for her, that she would find something soon.

Side note: Our Sunday school teacher is Nick Brown. His father was in town last weekend and came to church that morning with the Brown family. He was there that morning in Sunday school.

Back to story. Nick was talking about modern day miracles and why we do not see them as much in our society. Nick's dad broke in and started talking about prayer and how we need to get on our knees daily to pray. He then proceeded to say that he was going to pray daily for "Suzanne's sister", that she would find a job and that she will find a job and that I will hear from her and so forth. It took me a second to figure out he was actually talking abut me(hey, I'm a little slow sometimes). I was so moved that he A) knew my name and B) that he would take the time to pray for my sister. I told him this after Sunday school.

I got this e-mail on Friday:

Hi Laura,

Please find the attached documents for the information you need for your scheduled interview on Tuesday 3/29/11. Please arrive a few minutes early as the lobby can get congested with visitors and we will need a few minutes to get you to your interview.

Attached are also directions, please be sure to use these directions and do NOT use mapquest or any GPS locator as they will NOT take you to the proper address. Also attached is an application to fill out and bring with you to your interview to give to Cindy Guinn.

Please reply to this email so I know you received it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Amy

Amy Harwell

Coordinator, Talent Acquisition

The Home Depot | 2455 Paces Ferry Road, D2 | Atlanta, GA 30339

WOW. Please help me if you will to pray for her on Tuesday. I am so humbled and wanted to share this with you.

Spring??

Brrr! What happened to our Springtime temps?! We've had an eventful weekend but are skipping our camping plans tonight due to the chilly (for us) weather. Not thinking we will last very long in the tent in 40 degree weather. But I am happy to report that the kids slept until 7 o'clock Friday morning in the tent at my parent's house.

Yesterday morning we had another soccer game, this one at 9am. This might not sound early for those of us who are parents, but getting 3 people ready by myself and out to the soccer fields by 8:45 can prove to be challenging. Only 2 things were forgot: Jake's soccer ball and breakfast. Please note that I did not skip breakfast but did forget to feed my kids(man I wish I could forget to eat). Another vote for Mom of the Year, please. So they ate chocolate chip cookies at the game and McDonald's afterwards.....but they are still alive and kicking!

Please note in the above picture that I do attempt to brush Jake's hair everyday. And no, you cannot tell.

My mom gets so tickled watching Jake play soccer. He is the youngest kid out there and absolutely has NO clue what is going on. It really is quite hilarious. You can kinda tell by looking at him. But DO NOT score a goal while he is goalie. He will get very upset at that!
And this is what he would rather be doing at the game: Rock collecting. Nice! Matt was a very competitive child, I was not. I couldn't have cared LESS. In junior high the bug got me. Hoping he will be a good mix(competitive-wise) between the 2 of us.

After soccer I met up with Sharon for some flower buying 101. Not too many friends will give up their Saturday afternoon to work in your flower bed. Guess I got lucky as Sharon helped me move, plant, and deweed. So wish I would have taken before and after pictures. Working in my yard has become a new hobby for me. I love it!
Sweet Emma spent last night with us and went with us to church as well this morning. She is such a good helper and the kids love her!
Yay for some SPRING BREAK!

Birthdays and Camping

We celebrated Aunt Lou's birthday tonight at Ralph and Kacco's in Bossier. Matt is really picking some great cakes and tonight brought a hamburger and french fries for the celebration. From here on out, we will be using Albritton's Bakery in West Monroe. They are super reasonable(this cake was $25) and the cakes taste great. The kids were more than excited about the cake, as I am sure you can imagine!

Aunt Lou with her great niece and nephew.
Uncle Mark, GiGi, Matt with the babies.
Landry Grace and Jake are staying with my parent's tonight so that I can drive Matt to the airport in the morning. Mom decided to do a trial run on the camping and they are in the backyard tonight. Both of them were so excited when I told them they were camping out.
Landry Grace on her blow-up mattress.
Jake had his own as well.
And a quick pose on Big Mama's bed before I left.
It was pitch black when I was leaving and this is the best I could get. Sweet Bandit was guarding the tent and they were reading a Bible story when I left. I'll be interested to see if they make it all night!!

Spring Break Fun!

We'll do a little traveling. Play in some water. Dine with LG's doll. And try our hand at camping. Yay for a break!

So as you can see we have a few fun things planned during Spring Break next week. I'm so looking forward to a break from our daily schedules and to spending time with Jake and Landry Grace!

Trooper

Here are my 2 sweet babies before we left the house this A.M. We dropped our leprechaun off at school and took Landry Grace over to Shreveport for a consult with the pediatric dentist.

She was an absolute trooper....I think second born children are a little tougher all the way around; Or maybe it is my little Landry Grace! We ended up waiting for a little while to see the dentist. When we finally did see her we found out that she(the dentist) doesn't have the capability to do procedures in the hospital anymore. And it was just out of the question having her go to that office 3-4 times to put one cap on at a time, etc. LG really needed to be put under and cap all the teeth at once.....So luckily we were referred to ANOTHER dentist in which Matt knew the office manager and we got an appointment immediately. So off to the other dentist we went and she was wonderful. We aren't quite sure all of the extensive work that will need to be done on her teeth until she is sedated and the doctor can take a good look, but her procedure will be done May 6.

After all of this we celebrated at my favorite place, Jason's Deli! I'd brought along sprinkles to put on the ice cream as incentive for Landry Grace and it worked. She was such a trooper all morning. Needless to say she was thrilled to get her bowl of ice cream.

Poor brother. I told him we'd be back to get him right after lunch but we didn't make it back to Ruston in time. His teacher called me around noon saying that he was insisting I was coming:(. Note to self: in the future do not make promises you cannot keep! But he got a new pair of tennis shoes and when we picked him up he was fine!!

Below is a picture of Jake and Madeline. They are classmates at Montessori and we ran into them yesterday at the Twisted Cow. My children love love love this place. I finally wised up and allowed them only one topping. Problem solved! Much less hassle.....another note!
Hope you are having a great week! I had a last minute offer to attend the Life Choices fundraiser tonight in Ruston to hear Pam Tebow (Tim Tebow's mother) speak. If you haven't heard her testimony, Google her. It's well worth your time. I don't think it was an accident that I attended. God has really been speaking to my heart these days. I'm praying praying about some things. What an awesome God we serve.

Tyler Follies

1) I asked Matt to pick out a cake for 2 co-workers whose birthdays we were celebrating at school last week. Things are always busy during the week and I thought it'd be easier for him to pick up a cake since he's always doing business with a bakery in West Monroe. And you can see what he brings me home. We all got a kick out of it!

Mrs. Spencer(who happens to be a preacher's wife) and Lori Lawrence. So glad they have a sense of humor!!!

2) I've been a running since 1995 and have learned over the past 16 years that when nature calls and you are no where near a bathroom, you have to make do. This means woods are sometimes your closest pit stop( insert a gasp here) but you do what you have to. Yeah, I obviously ran into some poison ivy on my Wednesday morning run. OUCH. Just saying:(

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School Pics

My friend DeAnn took school pictures of everyone at Montessori on Tuesday and was sweet enough to send me their proofs. Yikes might not be a good word but here they are:

More Firsts....

Landry Grace went to her first dentist appointment today. We really thought it would be routine and not much else, so I was surprised when Dr. Ward(who is a wonderful man and I highly recommend him) started spatting off all kinds of codes to his hygienist. I knew something wasn't right and sure enough she has enamel displacia. This means the enamel on her back teeth and canines is not there. When Dr. Ward showed us her back teeth, I was pretty horrified because her back teeth basically look rotted. I feel even worse that I didn't notice it first. I think as parents' we have all felt that way. We did notice her canine teeth last year and had them looked at but were told just to wait until she was 3.


Here she is ready to open up for Mrs. Jackie.
Dr. Ward was talking to her about running with Big Mama this morning. I stopped taking pictures once I found out the situation of her teeth.
You cannot tell a whole lot as the camera wouldn't focus well on her back teeth and I felt bad that I was asking my 3 year old to take a picture of her mouth. You can see the discoloration in the back part of her mouth. Dr. Ward was surprised that she hadn't complained of any pain.
And again.
She will need some caps and the situation is hereditary so I'm not beating myself up over not brushing her teeth well enough. We are scheduled for a consult with the periodontist in a week. There will be some sedation involved so that always has me a little worried but all in all she should be fine. It could always be worse. She is healthy and happy other than her poor teeth. We can handle this!

Weekend FUN

Another weekend has come and gone. Is it wrong that I am already counting the weeks until summer? The warmer weather has given everyone spring fever! It did turn off a little colder this weekend as the rain interrupted some of our weekend plans.

Saturday morning Jake was supposed to have a soccer game but the rain canceled it and we were able to attend Issac's birthday at the fire station. This was the first birthday party we had been to there and it was very interesting. The kids enjoyed seeing Mr. Chris quickly dress in his fire suit.

Thomas, Landry Grace, and Madison.
The rain canceled our next party as it was scheduled during the Tech baseball game. We headed to Bossier for a date night and GG kept the kids. Sunday morning we went to our old church, Cypress Baptist, for Sunday school and church. We miss our church family and friends there so much! I could go on and on but I'll stop there. We feel God has placed us in Ruston right now but are praying for direction in the future.

We then headed to Shreveport for the Krewe of Highland parade. It was very family friendly and the kids had a lot of fun despite missing their afternoon naps. The weather was a little chilly and next year I'll try not to forget chairs and strollers:(!
Landry Grace was fine once the cotton candy was in her hand. She ate the entire thing.
Jake was playing "Mardi Gras Mambo" on his trumpet.
Waiting on the parade to start.
We had located the parade at this point and they were all smiles.
This particular float was throwing peacock feathers and what Matt thought was a rubber chicken foot. Well, it wasn't rubber....and the foot cut his hand pretty good. Gross!
I think Jake held his hands up the entire parade. Pretty comical.
They loved wearing the beads around their neck for the first 10 minutes. After that, they preferred to have them in the bag.
Sacked O.U.T. on the way home. We even stopped on the way home to have dinner with Aunt Lou and LG was so tired she just slept on 2 chairs that we pushed together. Yeah, she was pretty upset when she finally awoke near Ruston and realized that we'd already gone out to eat. :(
Celebrating with all their loot.
That's all folks!