Pray for Jake

As I type, my 4 year old cousin is having his 3rd open heart surgery to fix a valve on his heart. I membrane keeps growing and covering it up. They are hopeful that this will be the last time. I can only imagine what Ty and Amy are going through right now. You can following them at http://tymccathran.blogspot.com/

These past two weeks have been a blur, but so much fun! We have been enjoying some wonderful weather and I think that just puts everyone in a great mood!

Landon has started playing soccer and he has really enjoyed it. He gets frustrated sometimes that he is not the fastest on the field and I have to keep telling him that he is one of the youngest ones and that he will catch up soon (I hope!). If only his team can learn about the boundries on field, we could spend more time playing instead of chasing the ball down into the woods!

The Hall kids and Tyler kids before their first game

On Feb 19th, we celebrated my mom's 60th birthday by throwing her a barnyard party. It was a blast for all ages. The kids loved dancing, playing on the jumpy and looking at the longhorn cows. By the end of the night, they were worn out!! Landon and Kennedy were sooo excited about seeing their cousins that they haven't seen in several months. They also enjoyed seeing some of their close friends, jake and landry grace, who came in from Ruston for the party. This sounds like a kid's birthday party, but a great time was had by all the adults as well! ;) My dad and my aunts did a fantastic job of planning everything from the square dancing, bon fire, bar-b-que, and a DJ for music.

All the cousins dancing

Me and my sweet mama! I wish you could see her new boots! Too bad we can't wear the same size shoe!! They were so cute!

Landon and the birthday girl!

The following weekend was filled with basketball!! I am on the NCAA committee that is hosting the 1st two rounds of the women's tournament in Bossier City. We have been promoting this tournament and this past weekend was the kick of these promotions. We held a free clinic for the kids in the Shreveport/Bossier area at BPCC. Following the clinic, we had an all-star game that consisted of former high school standout girls basketball players (from shreveport area) that went on to play college basketball somewhere. I had a blast tracking down these players to play and I was so grateful for some of my former high school and college teammates to participate. It went perfect!!! No one got hurt and everyone had a blast! My biggest concern was having a few kids at the clinic and no one showing up to watch the game. Well, having around 50 kids come to the clinic exceeded my expectations and I was glad when the kids stayed for the game as well.

Players that played in the game

Selling my kids clothes

I am purging some clothes that my kids can no longer wear and I really don't feel like tagging all of them for the upcoming consignment sells. So, my buddy Suzanne inspired me to just put some things up on my blog. Here are some pictures of just a few things. Kennedy's clothes range from size 6 months up to 24 months. And Landon's range 9 months up to 3t. I have cute clothes and play clothes. Just let me know if you want to come look or if you want more pictures.

well, i just somehow erased the pictures of the shoes i have. It's mostly size 3 and 4 (crocs, sandals, and sun san shoes). I really don't feel like taking another pic and uploading. I have red, navy, pink and white sun-san sandals.

and here are some bubbles and sets from Kennedy's closet.

You can always call me if you have any questions!

Snowed in with no snow

For the past two weeks, the Ruston area has been closing schools due to a threat of ice and snow. We finally got a few flurries this afternoon, but nothing to brag about. I see pictures from Shreveport, Houston, and Little Rock with several inches and we missed it all! And the weekend between these weeks, we had warm and beautiful weather. Crazy! This has been a cold winter and I am ready for Spring!!!

The kids have been great and I have found myself enjoying them more and more. We attended the Lady Techsters game this weekend and I especially enjoyed it because it was a crowd of over 7,000 and it brought back some great memories of playing. The ladies are on a roll and undefeated in conference. I am really pulling for them to finish strong and make the NCAA tourney this March. Especially when we are hosting the first two rounds in Shreveport for the first time ever. I am actually on a committee that is helping put that tournament on. It's been fun getting involved and seeing what all takes place behind the scenes.

I am not much for words tonight, so I will leave you with a few pictures of the kids over the past few weeks!

Super bowl Sunday making a World Champion ring and trophy (glad the packers won! One of my former players is married to the DB and had a great year!)

Kennedy eating cotton candy at basketball game

Riding the swing before the Techsters game

Random shot before church

Our 'snow' pictures from today

The week of ice

Last weekend, Lance and I snuck off to New Orleans with some friends to attend a private showing of a Better than Ezra concert. I was such a fun trip and the concert was a blast. We were able to stay at Lance's sister's house the first night and spend some time with them and our sweet nephew, Hudson. It was being able to relax and watch the LSU game with no distractions! ;) The next day we met up with everyone else to watch the Saints game and then attend the concert at Harrah's casino. The concert probably had less than 1,000 people there so it was unique setting where everyone had great 'seats' (standing room only) and they played for a long time and seemed to have more fun than anyone else!

The next day we tried to get on the road as soon as possible because we heard the weather was getting icy back in Ruston. Well, we didn't try to hard since we made a stop at Cafe du monde before leaving!! ;)

sure enough, our power went out at our house while the sitter was there with the kids. She did a great job entertaining them until we got there and then the power came back on. Landon was excited about the possibility of snow so he was eager to get outside and play in it. Monday morning we all got out in it and had a ball knocking all the icicles off of everything. I was a little disappointed there wasn't any snow, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Here are a few pics of the kids playing in the ice:

Landon standing on his toy story "ball"

The rest of the week has been extremely cold and the ice remained on our trees all the way through Thursday. I can't stand cold weather, so I kept the kids home from school one day and we had a ball just goofing off at the house. By far, the activity of the week was a hit this time around. Landon has loved the new phone app called Angry Birds so instead of him wearing my phone out, I put together our own version of Angry Birds.

I got some little people farm animals as our 'targets' to knock out and we just built obstacles all around them. Then i let Landon decorate his marshmellows with 'angry' faces (which he loved) and he was so proud of his. Then he was step back and throw the marshmellows at the animals to knock them off. It was great! I may have had more fun than him! ;)

His "angry birds"

He kept gettting closer and closer trying to knock them down.

Hope everyone is staying warm and have a great week!!

Bring it on 2011!

After Christmas, we just enjoyed the holiday season as long as we could. Even though Lance and I both battled a cold for most of the holidays, we still loved every minute of it. The kids and I were lazy and enjoyed playing with all of our new toys. Landon has gotten into doing puzzles and I am amazed at how good he has gotten with them.

For New Year's Eve, we were invited to go to dinner with the Parkers, Clarks and Hunts at Squire Creek. I went solo since lance still wasn't feeling very good. He had missed work most of the week as well. It was nice to have a good meal with great company at our country club. I was glad that it wasn't an overpriced meal that normally comes with New Year's Eve. Thanks again for the invite, Shelley!

Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was absolutely perfect! It was low-key, no drama, little travel, great food and lots of fun! Landon really got into it and Kennedy just fed off of his energy which made this Christmas very exciting.

Christmas Eve was spent mostly at Lance's parents house with a yummy lunch and then the annual game of bingo later that afternoon with his cousins that came over from Shreveport. We were home by 6:00 in time to relax, put out the reindeer food, cookies for Santa, and an early bedtime.

Christmas morning began around 8:00 when the kids woke up. Lance's parents, sister and brother in law came over to watch the kids check out all of their Santa surprises. Santa tried to hide Woody in Landon's stocking, but it took no time for Landon to spot his hat poking out of it! Kennedy ran right to the huge bear that was left for her. The next few hours were spent opening gifts and playing with all of our new toys until we got ready to load up to head to Caddo Lake to see my family.

Putting reindeer food out

Kennedy (who insisted on wearing yellow bows are bath) putting the cookies out for Santa. Landon insisted that Santa needed to eat healthy to make him strong so he added the carrots.

Every other year my parents host the Cochran fear factor at their house with my brothers and cousins on my dad's side of the family. It is always interesting to see what the grown ups have in store for us. This year we had to be inside since it was just too cold and wet to get outside for the games. Each 'young' adult is paired up with their spouse to compete in 3 rounds for bragging rights and a trophy. This year was:

Round 1- My parents got the Connect video game that reads your body movements instead of using controllers. Each couple had to play a water rapids game and the highest score gets 1st place. Lance and I fell in the middle of the pack on this one. We couldn't see to jump at the same time at all! My cousin Destin and her hubby killed everyone in this one!

Round 2- Candy cane fishing. We had a fishing cane pole with a candy cane tied to the end of the pole. We had to 'hook' another candy cane out of 3 different coffee mugs and place them into a bowl. The fastest time win. Lance won vs the guys and i won vs the girls.

Round 3- This round is always an eating competition. This one was pretty brutal and hilarious at the same time! Each couple had to feed the other partner food without using their hands. Basically picking up the food with their mouth and putting it in their partner's mouth. Disgusting, right?? Well, just wait till you hear what we had to eat.... one jalapeno pepper, one sardine, and one twinkie. Blah! The fastest time wins first place. We came in second place behind my older brother. Destin stole the show when she couldn't keep her sardine down! Poor thing, but she was a great sport! I think if they were able to finish this event, they would have won.

Lance and I came in a very close second place behind my older brother and his wife. This makes it two years in a row that they won. Maybe next year....

All the kid cousins on my dad's side of the family

Fear Factor contestants

Kennedy and cousin Jake taking a break from playing to watch some Backyardigans