Pin the Tail

GiGi bought Pin the Tail on the Donkey for the kids. This is their
first experience with the game and it was pretty interesting. Had to
show you a clip of them playing!!

Sent from my iPhone

Peaks and Valleys

My blog has taken a backseat to life here lately. I've either been too tired to post or just opted to spend more time with my family. All too often we take for granted just how PRECIOUS life is until it is too late. There are peaks and valleys that we go through in life and we are definitely in somewhat of a valley right now. We found out today that my father-in-law has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I guess one might say that we are still in shock but on the other hand we know that God is in control and ultimately will not give us more than we can handle.

When I think back on our dating experience, I was touched immediately by the closeness of Matt's family. He and his dad especially. One of our first conversations about his dad had to do with the fact that Matt had never drank alcohol. I really just laughed and shook it off, thinking yeah right! But later I learned that really....he never has taken a drink. His dad asked him when he was 15 not to partake in the event and so he never did. I admire the fact that he looked up to his dad and respected him that much even at such an early age. Unfortunately for me I went through somewhat of a stubborn stage in which I thought my parent's didn't know much at all. Never until I became a parent myself did I TRULY appreciate all the sacrifices and love my parents gave. So that brings me back to Papaw. We are asking for prayers. Not necessarily for healing, but for God's will in this situation. May our faith grow through this journey and we learn to have child like faith. May we learn to value what is important and let the small things be just that. And MOST importantly may our children learn the invaluable lessons that we learned from our parents and be devout followers of Christ. That is my goal in all of this, I pray.

Playing on my cell phone.

My good friend Mary Catherine and her husband Clay came by to visit when they were in town. They are currently living in Chicago.

Matt and his dad working together.

Riding with Uncle Mark in the tractor.

Papaw with "Boom Boom" and "LuLu"

We decided that although this diagnosis doesn't mean anything bad is going to happen, it is a good time to go ahead and do family pictures. So this weekend we plan on doing them on the Tyler's land in Benton. They have about 40 acres with cows and such, and we are going to have them done there with the tractor in the background. I think it is important to capture the personality and essence of Matt's family.

In the midst of all this, we have just been going through the motions in our daily life as well. Jake and Landry Grace are having their 2 and 3 year pictures taken on Wednesday after school. Hoping they will cooperate for that. I have been trying to train for the half marathon in New Orleans at the end of next month. I am so thankful for my sweet running partner, Kennedy, who graciously agreed to train with me. She ran White Rock in December and is still on a "runner's high" after qualifying for Boston....she has made those COLD mornings more bearable knowing she will be there to meet me.

As for posting on this blog, I will try to keep you updated more frequently. All the subjects that I post on seem trivial now that we are faced with a battle such as cancer. But we are not going to let it defeat us and I am sure that we will have more good news to post in the future. There are several families that are on my heart and in my prayers as I type this. One with a baby in the PICU at LSU in Shreveport, one that has just lost a family member to suicide, a co-worker with a father in law who had a brain tumor operated on today and one who just lost their mom unexpectedly. Never are we promised tomorrow. Let us rejoice in today and be thankful.

Jake Saying the Pledge

Hope this works! Testing it out from my cell phone.

Sent from my iPhone

New Post Coming Soon!

I promise it is coming! For the handful of you who still follow this blog, I have not quit!! Just updated the blog page from the Christmas theme and that took long enough! I am off Monday and plan to fill you in on what's been going on tomorrow. See you soon:)

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas today with our hearts full...we really have so many things to be thankful for and so often take much of that for granted. Although the children are small, we really emphasized that today was Jesus' birthday. They understood to a degree but then the toys are always a deterrent. We will keep working on that in the years to come. My parents were in Atlanta this year with my sister but Matt's family came over to Ruston from Bossier. Jake and Landry Grace are the only grands on his side and we were blessed with their company today.

Jake got up before 6:30 and would have gone back to sleep with us but I was eager to see the excitement in their faces so I reminded him it was Christmas morning. From there we went and woke up his sister who was DEAD to the world....hated waking her up but it's only once a year. It was a fun day but not without a few meltdowns along the way.

Overall it was a wonderful day as we celebrated the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Enjoy the pictures.

Jake's stash....he wanted Landry Grace to stay away but of course opened up her one present that was wrapped. Go figure.....

Landry Grace's gifts from Santa. She was more into brother's gifts this morning....can't win for trying!

Picture of the day! Love this shot. Don't you love the milk drool?

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus before breakfast.

Quick smile before the Tyler's arrived.
Round 2 of presents.......

Landry doesn't look too thrilled but do not be fooled, we all love our dear Aunt Lou!!!!

Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night!

Random

Thought I would make up for lack of posts here lately and post some pictures that I thought were cute and wanted to share. The first is a professional picture we had taken at Barnes....we went to have pictures taken with Father Christmas(Santa Clause) and the one without Santa turned out best-go figure. But really, this is the BEST picture yet of the 3 of them together and smiling. I just absolutely love it! To risk copyright infringement, I just photographed the picture in the frame...this is not a scan-FYI.

This morning I was baking for Christmas day and turned around to find Landry Grace in my running shoes and just giggling. Had to bribe her to stay still while I went to get the camera. Will she be a runner...who knows.

And yes I bought her a princess potty over the weekend. Had great aspirations of training her during the Christmas break...NOTTA. She has no interest other than to sit on it put her hands in it. She threw a fit when I tried to put her in pull-ups. No big deal, just want her trained by August so that she can go to Montessori. We have time!

We had a play date Tuesday morning at Katie Hall's house. She has become a good friend over the past year and is such a great mom. I admire her for so many reasons. We did a snowman apple craft and here are our kids along with Harper Cauley showing off their masterpieces.

And last but not least I had to put this picture up from Jake's birthday morning. He loves sausages on a stick(this is not a corn dog but pretty similar) for breakfast.

Hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas with your family and loved ones. May you remember the real reason why we celebrate: the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Polar Express!

We made it to the "North Pole" and back on the Polar Express last Sunday. It was a wonderful trip and well worth the time and $$! I will say that it is a long trip to Palestine...3 1/2 hours each way, but we broke up the trip by stopping in Bossier for lunch and then spent the night in Bossier on the way home. The train ride lasted only about 50 minutes but that was about perfect timing for our small children. There were about 10 cars on the train and each held around 50 people. We were on the 5:10 train...this time slot sells out first and then there is a 6:30 train and 8:15 train. The route goes from one depot to the North Pole, you see Santa and everyone waves and screams and if you are my mom: cries...she had a blast seeing Jake get so excited over seeing the North Pole and Santa. His window fogged up from him being so close to the window for so long. The look on his face when we got to our destination does not have a price tag...it was great! Landry Grace liked the train ride but still was a little young to catch onto much. Lots of adults had on their pajamas as well but we decided not to partake:) in that department! Once you get to the North Pole, Santa boards the train(there are 2 Santa's to ensure everyone gets to see him) and gives every child a bell. We were in the coach section of the train which is the lowest level and the only seats that were available when I called about tickets in the middle of November(you can start calling in January for the next year so call early if you want to go!). They also have First Class and climate controlled. I was a little nervous that the kids would be cold, but they were not and we were all fine. The tickets for FC are about $20 more per person and yes you have to pay for ages 2 and up so I would not recommend them for such a short ride...don't think it would really be worth it, in my opinion. So enjoy the pictures and Merry Christmas!!!

Family picture when we first got there....so glad mom came along to experience the whole trip and to take some pictures, that helped so much!!!

I love this picture of me and Landry Grace!
The train had just come into the station and they were both checking it out.

Another family picture on the train

He had JUST spotted the North Pole and I was SO glad I got his reaction on film...precious!!

Sweetness......most of the time!

Waving GOODBYE to the North Pole...
Receiving their bell from Santa.

I hear it RING mom!!

Had to post this one more time....not really. I loaded it twice on accident and couldn't figure out how to remove it.....!