Fun Weekend

We celebrated Witten VanHoy's 2nd birthday Saturday morning and Jake had a good time playing with his daddy among others at the celebration. Landry is into everything and is becoming a VERY efficient crawler. She totally skipped the rolling phase and went straight to crawling. She is even starting to pull up on things. Hopefully she will not be an early walker, as I have my hands full enough as it is!




Oh how do we love our GiGi and Papaw(and Aunt Lou too!). Jake stayed with Aunt Lou both nights and Landry with GiGi and Papaw on Saturday night. Matt and I enjoyed the down time and the grandparents enjoyed the babies! We were sad to go but will see them again soon.
Mom and I went to the store and when we got back were welcomed by Jake and his antics. God love him.

So I have had enough with my last pounds of baby weight left to lose. I have vowed to myself that excuses are no longer valid...Landry is EIGHT MONTHS OLD. So I am running at 5 am with a group and need to get into bed. Goodnight!

More fun times!

Can you see dogs in our future? Well, not anytime soon! I already have too many people to take care of...couldn't imagine adding dogs to the mix! Plus, the first time they bark and wake my babies up, they would have to go;). But we have had fun with them. I caught them staring through the door last night(it was REALLY cute in person!).



What are Bandit and Boudreaux doing????
Then I got a little carried away with the bubble bath idea, but they loved it!

We started the school year today with a teacher inservice...gotta love those. I am teaching inclusion for grades K and 1. Far cry from my high school kids but all will be fine. The teachers I will be working with are so nice and I can already tell it will be a great year with lots of learning experience. The school is a rural one and is SO laid back. The teachers wear sandals to school and blue jeans on Fridays....we were a little more formal in Bossier Parish. I am super excited about these changes! Oh the small things that make teachers happy. The drive from Mrs. Dorthy's house(yes! Dorthy Deason) to Choudrant takes about 20 minutes on the back roads, so it will be nice when Matt gets here to help out since I have to be at school by 7:30. We are SO pleased with Mrs. Dorthy and both Jake and Landry are doing well with her. Jake even took a 2 hour nap(!!!!) at her house today. I have put him on the list at Montessori and it looks good that he will get in next fall. Hope that all works out. We plan to be in Bossier for the weekend as we have a birthday party to attend and family/friends to see. It has been a tiring week but things are really settling into place.

Fun Times in Ruston

We went to La Tech Media Day on Sunday so that we could see one of Matt's former football players from Bossier High, Weldon Brown. He will be a senior this year and is a great person along with a really good athlete. We look forward to being able to go to Tech football games this year, along with the Ruston High ones.

Landry with Big D before we headed to Tech
Matt, Jake, and Weldon
I took the babies to Mrs. Dorthy's today and got this picture before we left. Both babies did great with her and was glad about that! They only stayed a few hours as my workshop didn't last that long. I am working them into the long days slowly:). But we are really happy with everything.
After their naps I decided to take them to Hillcrest to play on the playground. It took a few muscles to push them in the grass next to the busy road(but they were safe-promise) and by the time we got there, I had worked up quite a sweat(mostly from humidity..not trying to sound wimpy!). We stayed for about 5 minutes when Jake was ready for his juice! I was thinking you have got to be kidding me, but Big Mama was on her way to the pool and dropped off some juice for him. So that lasted him another 5 minutes and.....well, we were on our way home. Gotta love those WARM and HUMID LA days. Oh, and sweet Landry just sat there and was all smiles! She took some time out to drink her juice, but other than that didn't make a sound.
Here is Jake before the juice attack!!

Friends and Farewells

We had such a great time with our friends who showed up to say farewell tonight(although Matt gets to stay around until October!). Not everyone could come because it's still summer(!!) and are out of town, but we really appreciate our friends and what they mean to us. They would not let me take a group picture, so I did the next best thing and took individual shots! So from the looks of it you can tell our babies were tired and hungry, but they did well considering!
The Dunns': Carrie, Emma(5), Brandon, and Brody(2 months)
The Allens': Buddy, Thomas(18 months), and Hailey
The Brignacs': Daniel(Happy 31st!), Hudson(2), Melody, and Avery(5 months)
These pics are out of order...when we were leaving

And the family again..I never get tired of taking family pictures because we don't take them often enough.
Jake was very hungry and finally got the chance to EAT...and you can tell he does not miss a meal. Hailey brought a cookie cake and Jake was in love with the icing.
The Grays': Cason(4), Casey, Cooper (3 months..you just can't see him!) John, and the Hambys'(Sadie was with the grandparents and they are due in March)Ben and Katye
the O'Dells: Elizabeth, Ben(2 on 9/7), and Jason
The twinkies: Katye and Elizabeth

Now that the children are in bed there are a million things I need to do before we leave in the morning, but no I am going to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and then go to bed!

Sweet Landry Grace

I have failed to post some pictures taken over the last couple of days so I am now sharing them with you! Landry is crawling very efficiently and is growing up too fast. The other day Matt caught her on her knees in the crib peering over the edge after her nap! Where has the time gone? Landry will be 8 months old on Monday. Jake continues to make us belly laugh every day and his personality is too fun!
Jake got into bed with Landry and insisted on wearing this hat, so I obliged and tied it on him. He wore it for the next hour...Landry had to have one on as well:)
Jake showing off his famous wave as Landry practices her sweet smiles
Here is Landry climbing on daddy
She decided to join me in the kitchen this morning as I was loading up the dishwasher. She is loving to explore her new surroundings as she becomes a better crawler
This is her crazy brother. I asked him to go sit by her and he proceeds to sit in front of her and lay back on her. Yesterday he tried to ride her like a horse and she just sat there. Oh the adventures!!!

Not much to post

Sorry for the delay in posting(those of you who are actually interested in our life!). Not too much has been happening other than packing (and PACKING) things up and getting stuff moved. We got a lot done yesterday and took 2 car loads over to Ruston...even got Landry's crib taken down. Then I remembered she would have to sleep in the pack n play for 3 nights in a row at our house. I just never have been a fan of those things, but she will be fine. I attended a workshop for new teachers in Lincoln parish today and everything is starting to become 'real' to me.

It was 7 years ago in September that God led me to Benton. I desperately needed a change of scenery and a mentor of mine in college suggested that I move in with my grandparents and do my student teaching over there. I was apprehensive at first but LOVED my student teaching experience. Coach Blackburn was my coordinating teacher and gave me a great quarter with his students(elementary PE at Waller Elem. in Bossier). He even talked me into refereeing some private school basketball games...if you ever have some time I have got THE STORIES. Not a good idea for Suzanne, but we have laughed and laughed about them! During this time I decided to break it off with a longtime boyfriend and was set up on a blind date by non other than Coach Blackburn. The guy also happened to be his nephew. Matt had played football for and graduated from Tech, but our paths had never crossed. Matt was/is from Bossier and went to Airline. We went out for the first time in November of '01, were engaged in December of '02, and married in Dec.'03. We joke about being a rare couple who had no children on our third anniversary and 2 on our fourth...try to beat that one(with 2 separate pregnancies). Our anniversary is 12/13. Jake was born 12/15/06 and Landry 12/10/07. And just to make sure we aren't busy enough, Matt's birthday is 12/7. Whew, I feel broke just thinking about it:).

Little did I know that 7 measly years ago I would meet the love of my life, some of the absolute greatest friends I could ever ask for, find the best church family and learn a lot(but still have tons more to learn) from teaching every age group K-12 and 2 subjects...PE and special ed, and some where in there was talked back into coaching cross country and track. I know some of you may be thinking 'oh get over it' and you are probably right, but I won't. We love it here and I know we will keep in touch. All of Matt's family lives here for heaven's sake. But yes I still am emotional about it.

And hopefully 7 years from now I will be thinking of all the fun memories and friends we have made in the Ruston area. I sure hope so for I don't keep up with too many friends(most have moved away) in the area. As for now I am off to bed. Have a good night!

Houston Weekend

Wow! We had a great weekend with Matt's co-worker's their spouses. We were wined and dined and spa-ed(Matt wanted to go to an Astro's game but was a good sport)and everything was great! Most of all we didn't get out of bed before 9:30 either morning...that hasn't happened in 2 years:)!!!! This is the third time we have done a "Home team" weekend and the last with this group. We will truly miss them as Matt has made a lot of new friends in his district. We do look forward to meeting all of the people in his new Ruston district as well and making new friends. Did not take that many pictures....we just enjoyed our weekend!
Here is the Matt's district with their spouses.
Matt's district without the spouses
At the spa before our couples massage
Waiting in the lobby before dinner Saturday night
Before dinner