Dad's Christmas Present Fishing Trip

Daybreak at Toledo Bend--3/17/11

Dad patiently awaiting the next bite.

We saw several eagles soaring throughout the day.

Bro. Joe fighting one of our 12 keepers.

Toledo is about 7 ft below normal now.

Our guide....Joe Joslin

Bro. Joe fighting a 5 pounder.

Our largest of the day jumping at the boat.

Today's lunker....4-5 pounder.

It was goose mating season on the Texas Islands.

My best attempt at capturing the eagle while on a boat in 20 mph winds.

This is an eagle's nest...about 6 ft in diameter...they use the same nest year after year.

Dad's final fish of the day

Get the Net!

This was fish 21 of the 22 we caught today. Overall a great time of fishing and fellowship.

Noah is 9 months old!

Noah, you are growing so fast! I can't believe you are 9 months already! Here are some of your stats for this month:

-You weigh 19lbs and I am not sure how long you are...you have been sick several times over the last month so that is why I know your weight! Your check up is next week!
-You are wearing 12 month sleepers and 6-12 month clothes.
-You are sleeping 12 hours at night.
-You are napping two good naps a day.
-You are still not crawling...buy you are SO close!!! You do however roll everywhere you want to go. You get frustrated starting to crawl so you just throw your head over and roll.
-You will give kisses pretty freely!
-You are into everything!
-You will eat any fruit baby food. You do not prefer the veges!!
-You are jabbering and making lots of sounds. You will repeat some of the sounds we make. You do say mama & dada.
-You are still loving your big sisters. If they are in the room you are following every move they make.
-I LOVE your new smile!!! It covers your entire face! You wrinkle your nose and show your teeth!
-You are very friendly...if anyone we see smile are talks to you, you smile and talk right back!
-You LOVE being outside!! We set up your baby swing on the swingset and you can swing with your big sisters. You also enjoy just sitting in your exersaucer on the back porch.
-Unfortunately, you have also had 3 ear infections in the last 6 weeks so we are going to see the ENT in a couple of weeks to discuss getting tubes put in your ears. Both of your sisters have had them so we know once you get them it will make this problem go away!!

We are just loving every minute with you!!! Happy 9 months my little man!!!

Alyssa is FIVE YEARS OLD!!

Alyssa turned 5 today!! My how time flies!!! We had her birthday party Saturday. We had it at the church playground and it was perfect! Her favorite thing is to be outside. The weather was wonderful and I think everyone had a good time. I can't believe she will be starting Kindergarten in the fall!!!

I LOVE Kool Kids!!

For those of you who don't know what Kool Kids is it is a huge consignment sale we have in Ruston twice a year. Everyone in the community can put kids items in the sale. It is 3 sisters who put it on and they rely on volunteers to help work it. If you volunteer for 4 hours you get to shop before the public. We all line up at the civic center and anxiously wait for the doors to open. It is SO much fun!!!! It is like waiting to open presents on Christmas morning!!! Anyway, I thought I would share some of the fabulous finds I purchased. As you can see I mainly bought for Noah. EVERYONE runs straight for the girls clothes so if you do not go there first there is nothing left. I prefer not to be trampled so I go to the boys section first then later see what everyone else has discarded for the girls (or have a wonderful friend who will look through it with the crowd and pick out some cute stuff)!

Here is a wooden rocking airplane I just HAD to have for Noah!!!

Here is an airplane lamp that matches perfectly with his room!

Here are all of the clothes I found for him!

This was probably my most favorite thing! I LOVE these shoes!!! If you notice to the left I found his 1st birthday outfit!!

Here is what I found for the girls. All of the dresses are for Alyssa and the sandals are for Mallory. Mallory really didn't need anything since she has all of A's hand me downs and she can wear a lot of her stuff from last year!

Noah is 8 months old!!!!

It is hard to see how much you have grown because you wouldn't stretch your legs out!

Getting ready to crawl!

Your first bath in your big boy tub. You LOVED it!!! You just kept grabbing the bubbles.

I can't believe you are already 8 months old!!! Time needs to slow down!!! You are such a joy! You are the happiest baby I have ever seen! All we have to do is smile at you and you give us the biggest grin! Here are some of the things you are doing this month:

-You can say mama, dada, and baba - you are always talking. You wake up talking and go to sleep talking!
-You can wave bye-bye. You are not consistent but you do it some of the time.
-You recognize when we leave the room. You usually cry if I leave the room.
-You LOVE to eat! You take four 8oz bottles a day the last one has cereal in it. You eat baby food twice a day. You LOVE puffs!!!
-You are constantly moving. I can barely hold you still to change your diaper!
-You are wearing 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.
-You have EIGHT teeth!!!!
-You are getting up on all fours and rocking but not crawling yet....it won't be long!
-You sit up without help and can stand up briefly holding onto something. You are trying to pull up on the exersaucer. (This is where your sisters starting pulling up.) We had to lower your mattress because you were pulling up in your crib!
-You sleep 12-13 hours a night and take two 2 hour naps a day.
-You follow every move your sisters make!!!

We are loving every moment with you!! I am currently writing this post from the bed because I have the flu!!! Daddy has taken over and I have been quarantined to the bedroom! I am praying no one else gets it!!!

Mallory's 4th Birthday

We had Mallory's 4th birthday party last Saturday at CC's Gymnastics. She had a blast!!! There were lots of kids and lots of fun!!! She wanted a snow white theme. Do you know how hard it is to find snow white stuff?? The only thing I could find were the snow white cupcake toppers so that is why we had cupcakes! I found a cute design for a cupcake stand so I make it! It was really cute - not extremely sturdy - but cute!! I make candy apples for party favors to go with the theme. Her actual birthday was Tuesday. We bought her a hopscotch princess rug for her room so I laid it out while she was sleeping. She was excited when she woke up and saw it. She came in our room saying "I am not 3 anymore, I am 4 now". She had a birthday heart shaped donut on our "special day" plate then went to school to celebrate. I picked her up from school and she got to have a date with Mommy & Daddy. We went to build a bear, ate at chick fil a, rode the carousel, and ended the night with a cookie. It was all about her!!! I think she is most excited that she is in a booster seat like Alyssa now. She asked me every day for a month when she would get to switch!!!

Noah is 7 months old!

I can't believe you are 7 months old!! Here are some of the things you are doing now:
-You are sleeping from 7 or 7:30-8 or 8:30 every night and are taking two 2-3 hour naps a day.
-You eat four 8oz bottles of formula a day and eat baby food twice a day. You REALLY like fruit. You wouldn't eat any of it until here recently now you eat the entire jar!
-You are busting out of your 6 month clothes but 9-12 month are still a litte big.
-Sitting up with confidence. I can leave you sitting there by yourself with a toy or something to keep your attention and you are fine.
-You jabber & squeal with delight all of the time!!!
-You are very grabby....will grab anything in sight!!
-You are cutting your next 2 teeth. Your top front two are at the edge of the skin..we can see them but not feel them quite yet. We are checking every day because it will be soon!!!
-You love for us to sing to you. Mallory especially!! If you are upset for any reason all we have to do is sing to you and you calm down.
-We went to the doctor 2 weeks ago for your 6 month check up and your stats were 16lb 8ozs and 27.5 inches long.
What a happy seven months we have had!!!!


You loves his baby food so much he licks every single spot on your mouth to get it!!!

Christmas Part 2

Christmas 2010 Part 1

We spent Christmas with Trey's family this year. Everyone was there and it was so much fun! I got to meet Tucker for the first time and the boys did great! Noah was sick a day or two but other than that it was great! We went to Carthage on Sunday to have Christmas with the Schieffers & Bales.

Noah is 6 Months Old!!!

I can't believe this little man is 6 months old!!! Here are some things your are doing this month:
-I am not sure what you weigh but you definately weigh more and have gotten taller!
-You are taking four 8 oz bottles a day.
-You are taking two 2-3 hour naps a day. If your afternoon nap is short you sometimes take a short 3rd nap.
-You sleep from 7:30pm until 8:00am.
-You have said mama, dada, and baba. You have only said our names a few times but you say baba all the time! You really like to talk!
-You give GREAT kisses!!!! If we ask for kisses most of the time you will give them!
-You are still not liking solid foods...we will keep working on this!
-You can sit up for short periods by yourself.
-You scoot all over your crib.
-You are very grabby! You will reach out for anything to put in your mouth!!
-You are so happy! If you are the least bit fussy (and not hungry )then all we have to do is smile at you and you smile right back!
We love you so much and are enjoying every moment with you!!!



I bought the kids these matching PJ's and really wanted to get a picture of them in them! If I am going to spend that much on PJ's then I need to at least get a picuture! Anyway, we took these and they turned out pretty good! After that we went out and delivered some goody baskets to some of Trey's elderly patients! Oh how they loved it! They could have cared less about the goodies! They were just so happy to see the kids!!! I think we made their days!! :)


I never post pictures of Trey & I so we took this picture Saturday night before my company Christmas party. We went over to Shreveport to Superior Steakhouse...it was wonderful!!! We are headed to D town tomorrow until after Christmas...so excited to meet Tucker!!! Anyway, we hope you have a very merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Parties

Yesterday was both girls Christmas parties. We went to Mal's at 11 and A's at 11:30. Luckily, my mom came over to watch Noah so he could get in his morning nap. Mallory's class sang away in a manger, we wish you a merry christmas, and jingle bells. They were so cute! For the past couple of weeks they have been working on being kind to others. We had to write down every time they did a nice deed and give it to the teacher. For every nice deed they got to put a piece of straw around baby Jesus. They LOVED that! Then we headed over to Alyssa's party. They were eating pizza (which she can't have) so we brought her french fries and turkey. There is another autistic kid in her class and he kept sneaking her french fries! The speech therapist came in and showed us a new machine she got. It looks like a laptop and there are pictures on the touch screen for A to touch to make a command. She was asking for candy, juice, milk, and toys! It was amazing!!! We are going to try to get one of those machines for home!!!!! We had a CRAZY busy week! Christmas parties almost every day (which I had to cook something for), I am the co-chair for our JA Christmas clearinghouse this year (we provide gifts to about 300 kids in lincoln parish), and it was the last week of school for the girls so I had to get gifts together for teachers & friends! Today we are going to take goody baskets to some of Trey's patients and sing a couple of song for them and then tonight we have our last Christmas party. We are headed to DeRidder Tuesday to spend the week with all of Trey's family! I am so excited to finally meet Tucker!!! It will be fun to see him & Noah interact! Anyway, I need to get back to my baking! Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving! Mal had her Thanksgiving party at MDO the thursday before Thanksgiving. Allie is her best friend from school and church. Last weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving with Mr. Bubba, Babs, Bryan, & Christine. Mr. Bubba made a huge pot of gumbo on Saturday that was yummy! Bryan & Christine were able to stay until Tuesday. We had a great time visiting with them!!! We spent Thanksgiving day with my family. Friday Mom & I were up bright and early to hit the black friday deals!! We pretty much finished the kids and I got several other people marked off of the list! We shopped ALL day!! Saturday we put up our Christmas decorations. It has been a great week of no scheduled activities!!!! Now back to our regularly scheduled week!!! :)