Five Years Ago Today......

...we got married! Hard to believe it has been five years. Oh the adventures, laughs, hardships, tears, and love we have shared. Would never think of doing it with anyone else. The absolute love of my life! He surprised me this morning with a blue sapphire fleur des lis pendant as sapphire's represent 5 years. Looking forward to 50 more years! Love you Matt!
Our engagement picture:

From the rehearsal dinner:

Our wedding picture:Heading to our reception:

It is funny how your priorities change over the years. Looking back on what was so important to me during this time in my life, I couldn't care less over some of the things that used to mean the most to me. Certain things are still very important, just in different ways. Both Matt and I have grown so much in our relationship as we have learned a lot about each other. We are always learning as life will do that to ya!

The Woes of Parenthood and Childhood

Oh you gotta love the adventures in parenthood! We had a weekend planned with festivities and the children were going to Bossier to spend time with my in-laws. We were going out with Matt's business partner(Julie Shirley)and her husband, along with one of their doctor's that they call on. Tomorrow night is Matt's Christmas party with his company. Well........this morning I went in to get Landry up and found her looking like this but worse:



Her poor little eyes were matted shut and she had unbelievable dried snot around her nose. OH MY GOODNESS is all I could think and almost panicked! Matt spent the night in Alexandria for business and I was trying to get to school on time. So mom and dad kept her for me until I could get her in to the doctor. Turns out she has an ear infection-the first-and received an antibiotic for that as well as some drops for her eyes.SO, we are not sending Landry to Bossier after all and I have no idea when I will get any Christmas shopping done. Yea-I am one of those who hasn't started. Sorry-I am a HUGE procrastinator and well, my kids aren't old enough yet to truly understand. But I am going sometime this weekend-maybe!!
So as to not make this post too depressing, I thought I would share some fun pictures from throughout the week when they were not as sick(both have pretty much been in and out of Mrs. Dorothy's all week:( ).
They LOVE their Leap Frog ABC fridge magnets. Thanks Thomas! Jake can pretty much sing the entire song.

Jake and Landry last night playing patty cake with Big MamaJake and I were playing in the living room the other day and Landry was being VERY quiet in the kitchen. Hmmmmm, I thought. When I found her she had taken Jake's Pop Tart off this booster seat and was digging in. I guess she likes them and she wasn't choking so what's the harm? Yet we will probably hold off a little longer before adding them to her diet!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Landry Grace

I am getting this out late, but it is STILL LGT's birthday so I am still OK! What a year it has been with our babies:). Hard to believe that this time last year I was meeting her for the first time(delivered her by c-section at 1pm and didn't get to see her until 9pm!!!). It has been a year of tears, challenges, trials and errors, frustrations, laughs, more tears, and oh so much love. Late nights and early mornings. Sleepless nights. Endless worries. Thousands of prayers. Countless questions. Many doctor visits(She even gave me her cell #...yeah she felt sorry for us!). Many calls from friends. Even more calls to my mom. A wonderful husband and father who helped more than most daddies. Couldn't have done it without a great support system from them and our family. Blessings, blessings, blessings!!!Never would I change a thing. Thought I would share some pictures from our first year with Landry Grace:

At 2 weeks old:

First trip to church(2.5 months):

3 months in her Easter dress(trying it over her clothes to make sure it fit!):6 months!

7 months and hanging out with Silly Jake!

Fast forward to last night when she took 8 steps ALL by herself!!:

Wow this year REALLY has flown by!

I took the kids to the see Santa last night at the Tech bookstore and it didn't go too well. You can see from Jake's body language that there was no way he was getting in Santa's lap. He was checking Landry's reaction in this picture. She didn't really care one way or the other:). Jake was that way last year as well!
Landry did(sit in Santa's lap) but not for very long. Oh well!!

And the reason I am up for this late post is that I finished my Christmas cards. I have been procrastinating for several weeks now and when I discovered that we received 3 cards in the mail yesterday and 3 more today, I decided it was time to get going! I absolutely LOVE getting cards in the mail! It is a highlight of my day:). Is that sad? Oh I don't care. I love catching up with people at Christmas. And I honestly had planned in sending a letter out with our cards this year but it just didn't happen. Maybe next year!

We also closed on our house today and that was a GOOD feeling. Now we only own 1 home. Merry Christmas to us! Now to buy or build....we will save that for a later time. Have a good rest of the week.

Happy Belated Birthday Matt!

Before I head to my first class of winter quarter tonight(uhgg!), I wanted to wish my husband a belated 32nd birthday(it was yesterday)! I found this picture from 3 summers ago...before children. Those pictures are hard to find I might add!!! He is such a wonderful man and even better father. We have now celebrated 7 birthdays together and hope to celebrate at least 50 more! I love you Matt.
And on to more news, I started running again today. The schedule mom gave me for Boston has us starting today and running 11 miles this Saturday. Boston is not until April 20 and I can see me not taking this schedule seriously until after Christmas. My goal right now is to run about 3 days a week until January. More if I feel led, but I plan to enjoy my break from school and Matt will be home for those 2 weeks as well. Well, I will be in touch, just wanted to tell my hubby on the BLOG Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jake and Landry!

We had such a good time today at the kids' birthday party. We were overwhelmed by the friends and family that showed up to celebrate with us. Jake and Landry had a BLAST and Landry seriously did not stop the entire 90 minutes! She even loved the birthday cake! All of those who attended seemed to have a really good time. It was so good to see all of our friends. Enjoy the pictures. I tried not to post near as many as I took! Thanks mom for being the main photographer!

Fun Times!

Whew! We made it through the week with some highs and lows, but that is life with babies. On Sunday night I decided that Landry had to have a birthday hat for her party on Saturday. Why am I just now thinking of this-I work, come home, take care of babies, and tired when they go to bed, etc. So, I looked on this awesome website(etsy.com) and found this lady who not only made her hat, but a matching bib, and hat for Jake-PLUS had it on my front door by Wednesday! Now that is what I call service! Before you start to roll your eyes at Jake's hat, let me preface this by saying that Jake LOVES hats. He would have a fit if Landry had one and he did not. So he has one too. In fact, he wore his for an hour after we got them and Landry took hers right off.

Yes, I am taking the ribbon off Jake's hat-it has the elastic strap! He doesn't look too thrilled here but he really does love hats.

Reading is one of our favorite things to do!

We also LOVE to play with our walkers!

Jake is crying in my lap so I gotta cut this short. Sorry!

Decorating the Tree

My gracious mother came over to decorate my tree tonight. It would not have been done without her! Jake and Landry made it very entertaining. They were both into everything.
Jake getting into the garland...enough saidLandry took THREE steps on her own tonight, but Mrs. Dorothy said she walked everywhere today! I haven't seen it but she was really clingy tonight(and has been for the past 3 days now-teething is my guess as she woke up at 3:15 this morning-hasn't done that since she was 4 months old-and it took me an hour to get her back to sleep!)

The tree in progress. It took me giving Landry a sucker to be able to put her down!

Mama helping another mother out:). This is the only decoration I have done in this house! Figure there is no point if we aren't gonna be here a while!

The finished project. Glad to have it up! We have watched the Polar Express about 6 times as of December 1(we watched it 3 times just today-yeah that is too much TV but he doesn't sit there the whole time!). Jake LOVES the part when Santa comes out. I love hearing him say Santa Claus! Looking forward to a fun Christmas this year!!!!

And woo hoo, we have the magnificent Ruston Christmas parade on Thursday night. Looking forward to it.