Not our own block party!

Before you jump to any conclusions, NO WE DID NOT CRASH ANY OLD BLOCK PARTY BECAUSE THEY HAD A BOUNCE HOUSE! We were invited and we did bring red velvet brownies! Our friends live across the street from one an other and invited us so that Gus could play with his friends and we could visit with our friends. It was a win win situation! As we turned on the street Gus new where we were and began asking to go to Endi's house and to Siena's (as Gus pronounces it SIGH-EEENA) house. He was very excited to see his friends and there was no hesitation to take his shoes off and bounce on in the bounce house! He is getting to be such a big boy! The kids had a blast and did not stop until they literally dropped! I remember those days as a kid and how much I enjoyed going and going and going and how rewarding the crash was when it finally hit!

Here is Gus all smiles in the bounce house :-)

Collecting a few leaves for the bed of the kid size tractor that goes at adult speeds!

Sweet Simone and Endi in the bed of the above mentioned tractor!

Now it is Gus and Endi's turn!

Sweet Siena giving Gus and Endi a ride! She was a great driver and was able to maneuver that thing around the sign and back down the street. I am not so sure some adults can drive as good as this 4 year old!

Happy 4th Birthday, Siena!!

On September 3rd, Gus' gal pal Siena celebrated her 4th birthday and she invited us over for dinner and yummy cake! Gus had a great time playing with she and her sister and Endi! The 4 of them get along so well and they really had a great time playing together and sharing cake and ice cream!! Happy 4th Birthday, Siena! We hope you had a great day and can't wait to play Candyland with you!!

Homemade cake by her sweet momma!

Siena and her sister ready to blow out the candles!!

Sweet birthday girl with her presents from Gus.....

I will have you know that he chose them with minimal help from momma!

A little help from her friends!

Oh Happy Week!

I swear I feel like we have been on a roller-coaster between last week and this week.

FRIDAY: Jake called me from work around 3:00pm and said, "pack your bag we are going to our 10 year reunion, see if you parents will watch Gus." In a frenzy I start trying on dresses and throwing cloths and shoes in a bag for me, Gus and Jake. When he gets home we are packed and ready to blast off! We dropped Gus and Buttercup off at my parents and away we went. Both second guessing such a long and quick trip, but we looked at each other and said, "You only live once and you only have one 10 year reunion." Away we went. We left around 7pm after a quick stop at Target, gas and food. We did not tell anyone we were going to make it to the reunion, but we kept taps on what a few of our friends were doing via FB. The all went out on Friday night and we were still driving when they were getting in....very funny drunk posts from a few! We got in around 4am, fell asleep at 5am and were up for 8am.....3 hours of sleep!!

SATURDAY: My father in law cooked a yummy breakfast and we visited with Sarah and Buster and the kids for a while then we headed to town because of all the shoes I brought none of them where quite right. We headed to Danny and Bridgette's because they had a huge bag of hand me downs for Gus!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Then we went to Marshall's. I bought a pair, but I was not sold on them. Off to Ross we go. I knew Ross would not disappoint and I was right! Found exactly what I was looking for! By this time we are both wearing thin and starving. We get Cane's and head to the rents house for a nap before the reunion. Friday was a near and dear friend of mine, Allison's birthday. I was going to wait and surprise her at the reunion, but something was telling me to call her before. I did! We played phone tag, but when we finally spoke we were just screaming and giddy that we were going to see each other! We made plans to meet at her house and ride with she and Robbie. We napped, showered and got dressed and away we went!

THE REUNION: When we got to the reunion it was a total shock for most that we were there because during the week I had told a few people that I did not think we were going to make it, so they were happy to see us! It was so nice to see old familiar faces and catch up with old friends! Everyone seemed to have had a blast. I know we did! Not long after we got there they started doing door prizes and people were telling me that my name was called (I had no idea they were giving the prizes away) and I was like, "for what?" Then I see someone holding up an ice chest...I won an ice chest! After the reunion no one wanted to part ways so most of the crowd went to Dooley's, a little dive bar that has a fabulous jukebox!! At 2am when the bar closed everyone still wasn't ready to leave so we all went to a classmate's parents house and swam until 4am!! What a blast, but we realized that we were certainly not 18 again and can't quite hang like we used too!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to our awesome sister and brother in law for coming get us at 4:30-5am and stopping at Mr. Ronnie's! Sarah and Buster, y'all are wonderful! Thank you so much!! By the time we went to bed it was 6am.

SUNDAY: Up and at it for 11am. My father in law was on his way back home with fried chicken! We showered, ate, visited and were back on the road headed home for 2pm, but had to make one more surprise visit with Maw! She was so happy to see Jake and I, but I know she was a little disappointed that Gus was not with us. Speaking of Gus, Saturday morning when I talked to mom he had woken up and thrown up a few times. She seems to think he had a little bug because after that he was fine...not 100% up to par, but still managing to laugh and play! By the time we left Maw's it was 3pm. We stopped to fuel up on gas and groceries and we hit the dusty trail. We were making great timing and north of Hattisburg, MS we caught some horrific weather and had to get off the interstate and wait it out for about 40 mins. I don't think we put the radio on until we were about 2 hours from home because we were just laughing and reminiscing about the night before! We drove up to the house at 12:15am, unloaded and I went to mom's and got in the bed with Gus. He came and snuggled right up to me. Oh I love that child so much!

RECAP OF THE WEEKEND IN HOURS: 18 hours = total driving time; 9.5 = total hours of sleep we got; 32-34 = total hours we were in Houma; the memories are PRICELESS and so worth every second of the trip!

MONDAY: Can we say dragging a$$ really bad?! However, I enter a picture of Gus into a contest and never heard anything back (there were not that many entries and his was one of the cutest). I had told Jake on the weekend that it was odd that I had not heard anything. Today I got a call to say that our picture won 3rd place and we would be receiving a $100 gift card from Visa!!!! Now that is how I like to start off a new week!!

TUESDAY: Not much happened today. Jake cut the grass and Gus was in bed for 8:30pm!

WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday Mom! We went over to Nanny's house to celebrate Mom's birthday! We had a really good time and Gus enjoyed the cats, dog, dollhouse, radio and vacuum cleaner!! Nanny made two yummy cakes and sent us home with half of each one so it has been a challenge to keep Gus away from them!!

THURSDAY: Gus' little gal pal from across the street came over to play with him and they had a picnic lunch together! Oh yeah, our mailbox got hit yet again...3 times now. It was hanging on by one screw, we were able to put it back on the post, but Jake will have to add more screws to keep it on for future knocks!

FRIDAY: Well the day has just started. Gus slept until 8:45am so we should have a good day!!

Happy weekend!!! At least this post was not near as exhausting as the previous one!

10 year Reunion

We did not think that we were going to be able to make our 10 year reunion and had replied "NO". At the last minute, 3pm Friday to be exact, Jake called me and told me to pack my bags that we were going to LA for our reunion. I had nothing to wear, or so I thought so off to the closet I ran and began trying on dresses. The first one was THE ONE, but I still went through 17 more! Anyway, I packed our bags, made arrangements for Gus and we hit the dusty trail at 7pm.

We arrived in LA at 4am, fell asleep at 5am, were woken up at 8am by the yummy smells of Paw's breakfast, were dressed and out the door to grab lunch and shoes for me by 11:30am, got back in time to take an hour nap the bath and be at Allison's for 6ish. I was going to surprise her and see her at the reunion, but it got the best of me and I called her!!! She was stoked so we met up with she and Robbie and rode together! We attended the reunion from start to finish then went out with everyone until 2am and then like old times had a house party after the bar closed! Sarah and Buster were kind enough to come get us at 5am and even brought us to Mr. Ronnie's for donuts! We fell asleep at 6am and were up by 10 or 11am and had a 9 hour drive back home, plus a stop at Maw's!

Needless to say we drove 18+ hours, slept >9 hours TOTAL, drank TOO much, and partied till the break of dawn and had a wonderful time so it was worth it! I only have 4-5 pictures from the entire weekend so I think it is safe to say we passed a good time!!

Casey and I with our raffle winnings!!

Hunter and Abby getting down with their bad selves!!

Welcome Baby Jude Miller

Our good friends Jerry and Lauren had their baby boy, Jude Miller G., on June 4th, 2010 around 7am-8am. He weighed 8.5 lbs and 19 1/2 inches long!! Jake and I were able to go see him the very next day and he is just perfect. He baked in the womb for just the right amount of time. Lauren looked wonderful and was just beaming with joy as was Jerry!

Once we got there and I was able to hold him it brought tears to my eyes to see just how perfect, sweet and beautiful he was...not that I expected any less. It was a beautiful thing. We are so happy for Jerry and Lauren and can't wait to visit again and let Gus meet his new friend Jude!

Group shot...

Sweet baby Jude :-)

I have been meaning to post pictures from Lauren's shower, but time seems to be an issue these days or could it just be a 2 year old and a crazy hectic schedule these days?! Either way, Mom, Amanda, Endi and I took a field trip North of Nashville for Lauren's shower the day of/day before the flood, May 1, 2010. We had no idea how bad it was going to get, but once we were there. We were there for quite sometime because of the rain and flooding. We were able to make it home and home is where we stayed for the next 3 days!

Lauren got some really great gifts and baby Jude will always have something nice to wear! All the food was oh so yummy and the cake, oh the cake was delish!! Here of a few pictures of Momma with some of her great gifts!

Going on a Egg Hunt

Gus and his two little gal pals had an Easter egg hunt at Endi's house the other day. The girls were very into gathering the eggs and putting them in the basket. Gus had other plans. Other plans that included Jake and I taking him around the yard on the tricycle to collect his eggs! That little monkey! I tell ya, sometimes he just surprises the heck out of us, but we love him oh so much and always seem to crack up at the end of each day when we are recapping the high points of the day!

A few eggs in the basket! Eventually he did get off and collect a few on foot. AFTER he realized they were filled with CANDY! Smarty pants!

You just never know

Tonight as I sat down to check my email, I found myself in awe just starring at the screen. Jake had reconnected with an old friend of ours about a year or so ago. He found out that she had a child and he was born with a very, very rare condition and at the tender age of 3 had undergone countless surgeries and each day was a battle for him. She has a carepages.com account that she is very diligent about updating. I just recently joined her caring pages and have been keeping up with his progress. This past week has been hectic and I wasn't able to get to all my emails like I wanted to so tonight I went through deleted the junk and then went straight to her most recent update since it was the first in my inbox. On March 22, 2010, Wyatt celebrated his 4th birthday. Moe, his mom, said that he had been looking forward to his birthday and that he had a great day and wonderful celebration.

I was in shock when I read the following: "At sixforty pm this evening Wyatt Steven Lynas said goodbye peacfully in his mother and fathers arms." I could not get past this first sentence. I sat here crying my eyes out. Jake was in bed, but I knew he would want to know since he had been following little Wyatt's updates for quite sometime. He too was in disbelief and came down to read the update. We both stood silent starring at the computer screen.

As a mother, I admire Moe and can only hope that if I am ever in her situation that I can be half the mother she has been to Wyatt. She has been by his side from the day he was born and has been so attentive to all of his medical needs and keeping him well and making sure he gets the best possible treatment. She is a determined woman and that is one quality that she passed on to Wyatt.

Moe, we are so sorry for your loss and please accept our deepest sympathy for you and your family during this time. Love, Lauren, Jake and Gusley

Happy 2nd Birthday Endi Lee!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Endi Lee!!!! Seems like just yesterday you and Gus became friends and started crawling together, walking together, playing together and just enjoying each others company! Now here we are a year later and you two have grown to be best buddies!! When you are told you are going see Gus your little face lights up and when we tell Gus he is going to see Endi he smiles ear to ear and begins to look around for you!!

You have always been and still are such a great little helper. Last year at Gus' party you made sure that he saw all of his presents! Thank you!! Here you are holding Gus' new shoes! You were just so proud of those shoes I remember!





We love you and hope that you had a wonderful birthday! We can't wait to celebrate with you at Monkey's Treehouse!!! Stay sweet and keep helping! I know Mommy and Daddy really appreciate it :-)

xoxoxo,
l*j*g

Who's Gonna Win Dat Superbowl? Dem Saints is!!

We are getting really excited about tomorrow's game! A little nervous too!! We are a little bummed that we will won't be back at our old stomping ground for the game. This is really history in the making!

Our good friend in Slidell wrote a song and made a video to go along with it titled "Who's Gonna Win Dat Superbowl? Dem Saints is!!" It has already gotten 6000+ hits on You Tube!! If you have 3 minutes to spare check it out. I have linked it to the title of the song in this post!!

GO SAINTS!!!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Lisa!!!!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Lisa!!!

You are a wonderful, generous and kind person! We hope you have a groovy birthday! We sure do miss you and can't wait to see you again soon! Thank you for being such a great 'aunt' that really isn't my 'aunt'!! Thank you for being such a great best friend to my mom. Your friendship really means a lot to her....can you believe ya'll have been friends for almost 40 years??!!! I am so glad way back whey you two decided that your children would call each other 'aunt' and 'uncle'! We love you and Happy Birthday to you!

First Birthday of the New Year.....

Happy Birthday Crystal!!!!

Today is my very best friend, Crystal's birthday!! Though we are far apart we always seem to pick up right where we left off when we see each other! She is an amazing person, so strong and determined and very much a go getter, not to mention the life of the party!! Last year she was chosen as the South's Hottest Single in the South Magazine in Savannah, GA...way to go Crystal!!! Here is her picture from the magazine.....SMOKIN' HOTT......



Crystal, we wish we could be with you to celebrate, but we hope to see you very soon. Enjoy your day and we hope you have a wonderful twenty-ten!! Love you, Snoopy!!!

Movie Night

After talking about it for over a year we finally had movie night. Well sort of. We put on Follow that Bird for Gusley and Endi and they were totally into, but were getting antsy and ready for bed. We decided we would watch an adult movie after they went to sleep......both Mommy's fell fast asleep with the babies for a little while. We decided it was too late to start a movie so we stayed up talking and laughing about who knows what as we were all delirious and exhausted from the work week! Even though we did not get to watch our movie just to see the kids reaction to the big screen was great! Thanks, Jake for bringing it home and setting it all up for us!! Can't wait to do it again!!

Gusley and Endi getting ready for the show!

I just love this picture....Tyler and Amanda leaning into each other like love birds and Gusley and Endi totally captivated by the movie!!

The set up....and Gusley on the arm of the sofa...I guess he wanted a better view?!

It's a bird, it's a plane, nope it's a hot air balloon!!!

This is a little back blogging. A few weeks ago, Gus and I were coming home from Mom and Dad's house and this is what we saw. I decided to follow it because it was really low and looked like they were going to be landing it in the neighborhood and that they did!!!

About to touch down.....

Almost there.....

Touchdown is made!! After seeing this Jake and I have decided that maybe for our 30th birthday we will take a ride in one!! Stay tuned to see if we actually go through with it (we only have 3 years to contemplate)!!

Later that day Endi came over to spend a little time with Gus. They haven't seen each other as much since Endi started school so when they do get together there is lots to catch up on!! I just love this picture, both in their boots and Gus is trying to convince Endi to put her drink down and play!!!!

Sidewalk chalk and black pants...................

Takin' it to the Beach!

I will start this post off by apologizing for the picture overload. I am behind and figured one post dedicated to our beach vacation would suffice. So here we go...

Back in September, we left Louisiana and we headed to the Destin/Grayton Beach, FL area. This was Gusley's second time at the beach (1st was when he was 7/8 weeks old). HE HAD A BLAST!!! We have decided that this is a new family tradition of ours and we will be back year after year after year!

This is the sunset we were greeted with as we took Gus to Grayton for the first time.....

Nothing but smiles as he could see the surf and feel the sand in his toes!

FULL SPEED AHEAD!!

Waiting for the waves to crash upon the shore.....

loving every minute of it!

eager for the next wave!

Day #2 - GOOD MORNING FLORIDA

Getting a few licks in before we head to the beach!

Back to Grayton we went!

It was a little bright, but lots of fun!

Chasing his shadow!

Building castles in the sand with mommy!

Family fun!

Seaside, FL....We just love it there! Thanks to the Bergerons' for introducing Jake to this neck of the woods and thanks to Jake for sharing this hidden piece of paradise with me!!

Gus played in this little playhouse while Jake and I fulfilled another tradition....

Pickles for fried pickles and a beer!

Catching raindrops!

Ahhh....

Afternoon playdate with Mommy....where else, but at the swings!

Having a great time in the fountain at the resort!

I do believe he really thought he was driving at this point!

DAY #3

Gusley gets to meet sweet Ava for the first time. It was a great treat that our cajun cutie friend, Crystal and here family were in FL at the same time. We don't get to see each other very often so when we do it is always a good time and a good time it was!

A tea party on the beach...why not!

Back in the Gulf.....he was feeling a little froggy on this day, but still a little trooper!

Watching the tide roll in....

time to bury toes.......

Taking a snack break.

I just love this picture of Gus and Crystal. They had the best time burying each others toes in the sand!

Back at the pool with Fred the turtle!

My favorite picture from our entire vacation! I love these two more than anything!

Nothing like some refreshing watermelon after a big day at the beach!

Ready to head out to dinner!

Rainy day schedule.....not feeling to hot.

Jake and Gus in front of Hard Rock....this was as far as we got on Day #4.

90 miles from home......

So glad to be home and reunited with his tractor.....that was a loooooong, but fun and memorable 10 days!!