Happy New Year!!

It's been a while! But better late than never, so HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Tyler family to you! What a year it's been! Many highs and lows, but so much to be thankful for. We've celebrated birthdays 5 and 6, plus 9 years of marriage. I ran my fifth marathon...2 this year! Jake switched schools just before Halloween to the lab school on LaTech's campus and is absolutely loving it.  I do miss having him at school with me.  The children and I talked Matt into taking another trip to Walt Disney World in December, this time with my parents, Matt's mom and aunt in tow. So. Much. Fun! And we just finished up celebrating Jesus' birth and Christmas. My brother Brian and his longtime girlfriend, Mandy, were engaged on Christmas day! They plan to marry next December.  Many blessings all around. I'm not big on resolutions, but I am making a better effort of staying off the internet and am committing to blog more. That's a conflicting resolution isn't it!  The blog is just a great way of documenting our lives. And I want to get up to date on my fellow bloggers. I must confess that I haven't been reading yours, but I will! So stay tuned and enjoy the overload. 

My niece, Abby, nephew, Nicholas, Big, Brian and Mandy, and future nephew, Grant

 LG's main request this year for Christmas was make-up. She had so much fun putting it everywhere. And I'm not exaggerating. 

 The family that we celebrated with on the 26th, minus my brother Darrell and his family. We also celebrated with Matt's family. I did take pictures but tried not to post too many at once. 

 Matt's dear Aunt Lou had this log cabin playhouse made for the kids and delivered to our house for Christmas. How awesome is she! It's even got a loft inside. We have big plans for it....more on that later. 

 Jake's only wish was a Nintendo DS and some games. He's been playing it non-stop. We're going to be in detox mode come this weekend!

 Leaving cookies and milk for Santa. 

 And leaving out reindeer food. Thanks, Hudson!

 LG got a karaoke machine, which was a huge hit!

 Aunt Lou was so surprised with her iPad! Love love love this picture!

 Jake at his new school after singing Christmas carols. 

 The rest are at WDW. Can you tell that Landry Grace loves being 5? 

 And Jake really wanted to pull that silly sword out of the stone! 

 What a magical trip! 

Wishing you and yours a blessed, happy, and healthy new year. Thanks for stopping by!

Life Lately...

So it's been awhile since I've posted. Since school started, I feel as though it's taken us this long to adjust to our new schedule! This year we are getting out almost an hour later than last year. This has taken some getting used to. We've decided to eliminate swim team from our schedule, as it was just too many activities when we added flag football and ballet. Jake is enjoying kindergarten and I am loving having him with me at school. Normally, I don't see him daily during school hours, unless it's to pop my head in the cafeteria. He is adjusting well to the daily schedule and his sweet teacher. Landry Grace is full of stories every. single. day.  She makes me giggle and roll my eyes at the same time. What a difference between a girl and a boy! 

Below is a hodgepodge of pictures that I just didn't feel like sorting out. In a nutshell, the pics include: 

Our Sunday morning mini photo session before church this AM

  a throw back pic where LG had stolen Jake's Chuck E Cheese tickets and he thought he'd NEVER get them back...meanwhile Miss Priss is looking like "Hey, who me?"

 Fast forward 2 years and here come school days and tears from Mama!

 Kindergarten is wearing this little boy OUT at night!

 Proud of his masterpiece from art class

 My little ballerina starting year 3 of dance and still loving it!

 Sadly, I won't be getting anymore of these pictures this year. But priorities are important to our family. Maybe next year!!

 Only 69 more days until Disney! Our Very Merry Christmas Party tickets came in the mail and Jake was thrilled!

 We also went to see Nemo in 3D after school one day. Embarrassed to say that this was the first time I'd seen it. Opps! But a great movie!!

 We are loving some Tech football this year(OK, I admit that I'm not a big football fan). The Dawgs are 4-0 right now. Looking forward to a home game this weekend. 

 And the simple things in life involve Landry Grace enjoying her first dipped cone. Too bad McDonald's stopped making them last week. Booo!!

 Matt went on a week long trip with friends that included a Cubs game, Bulldogs game against Southern Illinois, a Tennessee Titans game, and then a trip to the Big Easy(New Orleans, as if you didn't know) for business. We were so glad to see him last Wednesday.  He sent me this picture form Wrigley Field. 

 We've enjoyed visits with my grandmother, Big. Praying that I age this well!

 We had our first flag football game this past week and won! I've never been nervous about Jake playing sports until now. But he had a blast out there!

 On Thursday, Ms. Lawrence had Johnny Appleseed activities. I went in to help out for a few minutes and thought it'd be a good idea to take a picture. Jake wasn't on the same page with me....

 These are from grandparent's day at school. Jake loved doing an activity with Big D. Mom was a little late after having run 19 miles that morning. Of course she was a trooper and came when she got done. 

 Landry Grace had her nursery rhyme parade at school on Friday and was all grins as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The little girl in the picture below is her best buddy this year, Malarie. Too precious!

Whew! Hope you're having a great fall thus far! I'll try and be better about updates:).

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

We decided last minute to take the kids to Houston for their first MLB game. The Astros were playing at home and we got at room at the convenient Inn at the Ballpark. The kids were super excited about going! There was a lot for them to do at the stadium so that was a plus. After LG had had her fill with food and fun, she was ready to GO. Jake was set on catching a ball with his glove, but daddy ended up getting a couple of the balls that they throw out between innings. We didn't stay 'til the end...it wasn't a very exciting game and the Astros lost. Good times though!

Headed to the ballpark across the street from where we stayed. Highly recommend doing this if you ever make an Astros game.

They loved seeing the Astros Mickey, but Landry Grace was not in the mood for any more pics!

Can I just say that I LOVE this picture? The kids had to race a "player" from home to first base. All the other girls were running but didn't care about racing. The intensity in this face says it all and I love it!!

Of course my bossy little lady is making sure that Jake understands what to do....

Jake's turn. Both of them were cheering for each other while they were racing. Just made me smile:).

And then we ate, and ate, and ate some more. What else do you go to ballgames for???

Time for popcorn....4 snacks before the game even started. Maybe next time we will ration these out a little better and stay longer!

I'm laughing as I type this. Not sure where Jake got this smile from, but I'm pretty sure he did this so I'd stop taking pictures. Not gonna happen Baby Boy!

Jake was so hopeful that he'd get a ball in his glove!

Throwing some pitches.

We are now counting down the days until school starts for the kids. As a working mom, I've gotten over the fact that I couldn't be with my babies all the time. I knew they were in good hands and wouldn't resent me later on for not being with them. But I also didn't think it would be this hard sending my first born to kindergarten. Really, I thought I'd be more sentimental about LG. Tears have welled up in my eyes on more than several occasions thinking about the fact that he is growing up!! I know he'll be fine and I don't worry about him being scared or lonely....just the fact that he is a big boy. So I'll post more on that next week. Have a great one!

Last Couple of Days...

And what a fun summer it's been! It flew by and we are currently in the process of transitioning into the school year. My school year started back on Monday with both Jake and Landry Grace following the same schedule, not starting kindergarten and pre-K until the end of next week. An exciting change in this year's change of events is Jake will be at my school, which I am thrilled about! Our parish has consolidated the 4 elementary schools in the city limits, and we felt it would be best for our family that he attend school with me. It will definitely make drop-off and pick-up easier!

This last week we played dress up...and dress up some more. Then played at my school with other kids while I worked in my classroom. Colored Playhouse Disney sheets that my kiddos have learned to print off the computer. We might need to put a cap on how many sheets they can print off at once! We hung out in Bossier one night in order to spend some time with Daddy. He's been working his day job and then going to Benton a couple of evenings each week and then on the weekends to bale hay. He is such a provider and hard worker. We miss him but it's for a short time period! While there, GiGi bought Jake his first Lego set and worked on building it for 2 hours. Now that's love! And Jake thought his new set was pretty cool. On Sunday I took the kids to Wal-Mart to do some shopping. I was not feeling good(have a bad eye infection that it still not better. Hoping to get some relief soon!). I was getting onto them for misbehaving, and when I got home discovered some pictures they took with my phone of themselves having a ball. At least they know how to have a good time...and I had a good laugh! Last but not least, when you need something to brighten your days, think DISNEY! There's an app on my phone that counts down our trip. It's still a long way off, but we cannot wait!

Hope your school year is a great one!