Road Trip to Louisiana

Our family was invited to accompany Matt to Louisiana while he was the speaker for a Student Weekend.  We took a long road trip and made some fun stops on the way.

We stopped in Amarillo where Matt and I cashed in some movie gift certificates to see Top Gun at the IMAX while we had free babysitting (Thanks Papa and Mimi!)

We also stopped near Fort Worth to visit some friends.  We went to the Fort Worth Stock Yards where every day, cowboys lead long horn steers down the streets in front of crowds.  They also had a large maze made out of cattle stalls where the kids raced around trying to find letters.

An extra special treat was seeing my cousin, Lainie, and her family.  I haven't seen her in 8 years.  Our kids had a great time meeting and getting to know each other. 

Maylee Grace and Marlee

Marlee, Maylee Grace, Camden, Payton, Layne

Once we arrived in Louisiana, we got to stay in a cabin at North Toledo Bend State Park.  The lake was right outside our door.  It was beautiful and we had a great time!

Camden jumped right in with all the other youth and joined in all the games.  The littles were having fun cheering on the teams.

Sunday morning worship with the youth of First Baptist DeRidder, La

Annual Valentine's Dates

For years, we have taken each of the kids out on one-on-one dates during the month of February.  They get to pick what they do.  Daddy takes his princess and Mommy takes each of the boys.

Maylee Grace and Daddy went to Build-a-Bear and made a bunny named Zyla (that was what she named it).  Then, they went for a ride on the carousel.  They followed all that fun by sharing a milk shake at Chick-fil-a.

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Payton and Mommy went to Gravity Park where we jumped for an hour!  We played some intense dodge ball and did some fancy tricks into the foam pit.  After burning all those calories, we went to Krispy Kreme to get a doughnut.

Camden and Mom went to Hinkle Family Fun Center.  We rode go karts, played minature golf (where Camden whooped my tail) and played Lazer Tag (Camden also dominated).  We followed our day of competition with a snow cone from Bahama Bucks.

Shootin' it up

We took a Saturday afternoon and took the kids to shoot the BB gun.  They all had a blast!  Daddy threw out the challenge that whoever could hit the center of one of the targets, they would win a treat for everybody.  Well.....Mommy hit the bulls eye....don't mess with her.

Happy Birthday Matt!

We have had a birthday tradition for Matt the last few years.  We ride the train downtown and have lunch at Tucano's, a fabulous Brazilian restaurant.  It's something we all look forward to!

Riding on the upper level of the train

We visited Mrs. Lisa from church at her office downtown.

Back at home for cupcakes!

Rob and Nicole's Wedding

We traveled this past weekend to Phoenix to be apart of Rob and Nicole's wedding.  We've known Rob and his family since he was a 6th grader.  His family is very special to us and it was a joy to be apart of his special day.  Matt performed the wedding ceremony, Camden was an usher, Payton was the ring bearer and Maylee Grace was the prettiest flower girl I've ever seen. It was a fun weekend!

Our kids are old enough now that more often than not, they request a funny face picture.

The whole bridal party wore Converse.

The boys and Rob-Before the ceremony Rob realized he had brought the wrong tie and had to wear Camden's for the ceremony. 

She had no reservations about being in front of the camera.  In fact, during the ceremony, she spotted the photographer taking pictures on the side and she turned, posed for the picture and then returned her gaze to where the bride and groom were. It was funny!

Camden ushering in Rob's grandparents.

Yep...I know, adorable!

Daddy and his Cinderella

Daddy dancing with his Cinderella

The girls with Kyla (also known as K-love at our house) She is Rob's sister and one of our favorite babysitters...until she left us to live in Phoenix.

Payton dancing with the bride

May dancing with the groom

Big Day at the Sellers' House!

Payton for several weeks now has been working on his wiggly tooth.  I am happy to report that is it gone!!!

2013!!!

We had a lots of fun celebrating New Year's Eve as a family....complete with glow sticks, party blowers, chocolate milk toast and a count down.  The littles assumed they were staying up until midnight when we started the count down to..... 9:00pm. 

Happy New Year!  May God lavish His richest blessings on you this year!

The clock was counting down...chocolate milk toast ready for midnight (or 9pm wink, wink)

We picked up a 500 piece puzzle to work on during the night.  It was quite fun and we're considering making that a family tradition and framing the puzzles from each year!

Party Animals!