The most WONDERFUL time of the year!

It has been a long time since I have posted. I have been VERY busy and things are just going to get worse. But it is my favorite time of the year! So I thought the blog needed some Holiday Cheer too! We put up the tree this last weekend and the kids are loving it. Lyla is especially loving it and has added the word tree to her list of words she says! :) It is the cutest thing EVER! 

I thought I would also take this opportunity to update everyone on the upcoming events of our family! While we are looking forward to Christmas, January is fast approaching. January will be a very busy time for us. I will be entering the STEP program at NNU on January 10th and will be in class two nights a week. It will be a huge adjustment for our family but it will be great for me to finally do it.

And  As some of you know this January (January 8th)Matt will be going on a work and witness trip with our church (College Church of the Nazarene, Nampa ID) to Papua New Guinea. Matt will be going along with what they are calling “The Dream Team” from our church. There is a school in Papua New Guinea to train people to be pastors and currently they have to turn people away because there is not enough housing. They have started construction on a dormitory but have not been able to finish it because they have not had the people with the skills to finish it. Our church has several great guys who are skilled in construction, some of them business owners in the community or working for good companies here like Matt does…hence “The dream team.”

Matt and I have been preparing for this trip for a while now. He has been getting shots and renewed his passport. And we have been slowly shopping for the items he will need. This will be a great opportunity for Matt and he will be doing something very important. But as a family we find ourselves excited and a little nervous. Matt will be gone for two weeks from January 8^th -22^nd. Many of you who are seasoned travelers might think to yourselves so what, but Matt and the kids and I have not been away from each other very much. And neither of us has traveled outside the country since we had our kids.

Please join us in this journey that we begin in January by praying for our family! Pray for Matt that he has a peace about this trip and that he will be able to go and not worry about me and the kids. Pray for me and the kids that we can get through this time without him and that Lyla does not go nuts without her dad, she is just a LITTLE attached! And please pray for me as I start school and make this crazy leap to make life even more busy than it already is. :)  We love everyone and thank everyone for their love and support!

Decorating Update

I thought I would share this cute picture of our Festively Fun Fall Porch! Complete with out newly built pumpkins!! I do love to decorate!

I got so carried away decorating this weekend that I also painted the living room! We gave it some sweet classy stripes!

Living Proof you don’t need money to decorate! Sorry the pic is dark, I took it with my phone at like 11:30 last night! I should have been in BED! I think the new paint makes my SF paintings pop a little more! :)

Creativity

Hi Everyone…and Amber :)

We have had some crazy weeks!! The Center is keeping me very busy! I am trying to do a little more marketing to get some more business, we are doing good without new business, but it would be nice to have sign ups pick up a bit. We hosted a table at our church ministry fair and that got us out there a little more. It was great but it was a lot of work for me for those of you who know me, you know I don’t just throw things on a table. I of course had to set up a HUGE display…and then I got to clean it up :) I forgot to take a picture of it but instead here is a picture of our new banner that is on the outside of the building. I think it is pretty cool, but I did design the lay out for  it :)

The ministry fair was last weekend so our weekend was pretty much shot…so this weekend we have been taking it easy. I went to my favorite home decor store today to see if they had anything fun and ran into these adorable wood pumpkins that she had……..

only I lifted the price tag to see that they wanted WAY too much for them. But the more I looked at them the more I though Matt could build those and I could paint them!! So I snapped a picture with my phone and away I went. I was able to convince Matt to do a project today and we got to work building them, and made them twice as big as the ones that they had at the store! Here are the ones that we built before the paint job….

By building our own out of scrap wood that Matt had in the garage, I got 2 of them for $14!!!!!! Now we are talking!!!! It was a fun project for me and Matt to do too!!

Here is the big one after I painted it … (it is 2.5 feet tall!)

We are going to light them and put them on the porch! I am so excited about them!!!!

Well I know you all would rather know about the smaller Davis’ so let’s get on with the kid update huh….

TY DAVIS

Ty is doing…better!! As most of you know he was recently stripped of all luxury items and sent to exile island! LOL He has since earned his things back and besides being to rough with his sister and the occasional not listening and the all too often back talking he is doing better…. He has become a pumpkin farmer :) We put a pumpkin patch out along the creek and we have 6 really good sized pumpkins! It is going to be VERY fun to have our own pumpkins from our patch to carve! A couple of them are HUGE!! Here he is with one of them….

LYLA DAVIS

Lyla is doing good I think she MAY have gotten over the screaming thing but I am not totally sure yet!! She is one Spicy little girl! She is getting big and her hair is growing so much we have had to venture into pigtails…just to keep it out of her face! She loves her daddy, her brother, suckers, and driving her mom crazy! Here are some pictures…..

PIGTAILS

I put pigtails in her hair and a clip in her bangs so that it is all pinned back…but she pulls the clip out and tries to eat it, lucky for us for the most part the pigtails do the trick…And she has not swallowed any clips….YET! Our Children’s Pastor John calls her BOO with her pigtails in…:) BOO is the little girl from the movie Monsters Inc.

Her dad introduced her to suckers and good luck taking one away!!!!!!!!!!!!

 So that is the current happenings of the Davis family. We are looking forward to Halloween and having some family visit! Lyla will be dedicated at church on Halloween and we are so blessed that Juan will be the pastor dedicating her! If you are in the neighborhood of College Church on Halloween please join us!!

Hi North Carolina

This update is for my friend Amber who keeps asking me to update my blog!

HI AMBER!!

 

The Future Ty Davis

Ty came home with this little project that I guess they did in 1st grade. I thought it was AWESOME and needed to be shared. For those of you that don’t know the funny part is the Job…This child FREAKS if a small dog even looks at him! So I asked him about it and he said he just would not take care of dogs! Crazy KID! And I guess he is sticking to it..and he will Mary Kaylee Becker.

WHHHEW!

Well I have good news and good news, the good news is I am updating the blog for the first time since Lyla’s birthday almost a month ago! 

But I have a good excuse I have been a busy director! KIDZone Learning Center is up and running and it is growing day by day! We now have 14 children enrolled and it has become a good ministry. God has blessed us with the most amazing families! So far we are able to serve 3 single moms who are all working and going to school!! 2 of which were teen moms. I feel so blessed to help them with their future and their child’s future! I know that this thing is going to continue to be amazing!

This week Mike and Matt built me cubbies for all of the kids stuff and we were able to make a welcome area, and now it is starting to look like a learning center! When I think about what it took to get here I just have to smile! Here they are installing the cubbies. They do good work :)

It has been a GREAT summer! We have had some really great times with family this summer! In Idaho we have gotten a visit from Mike & Brenda, Aunt & Grandma, Jaden & Jen, and The Kellerer’s. And on a little trip to Seattle we got to see all of the Davis clan for Uncle Jeff’s wedding! The kids have really enjoyed the summer! Lyla like’s playing in the water just as much as her brother does… Here she is drinking from the hose with Papa! :)

Summer had to come to end sometime though and for Ty it ended this week! :( 

He is now in the 2nd grade and is in Ms. Ganske’s class. Matt and I know Ms. Ganske from college and think she is going to be great for him. So far he is liking it. Here  is a picture of him on the second day of second grade! :)

 He is standing next to our newest addition to our front yard. Some of you might recognize it :) The fountain that he is standing next to was bought for Mike & Brenda as a memorial to Jen by some of the Davis family and it was in their backyard in San Francisco, but since they have officially sold that house we asked if we could have it at our house so that it would stay in the family. They said yes and brought it out here and we placed it right in the front of the house. It makes a nice addition to the front! And we feel so honored to have it at our house!

It has been some crazy weeks! Hopefully things will start to get into a rhythm so that I will be better at updating until then PRAY FOR ME! :)

Reflection

I have not had much time to reflect on the fact that today my little girl is turning one!

I can not believe that it is already here! This time last year all I knew was that I spent a ton of time dreaming up a beautiful girls nursery and was anxiously anticipating seeing her face for the first time. Because I had to be put under completely when I had my C-Section with Ty I was scared to death of what it would be like to have Lyla and being awake for the whole thing. But of course God looked after us and with Matt by my side we welcomed Lyla Rose Davis into the world.

This year has been FULL of beautiful blue eyed smiles, lots of messes, learning to crawl and then walk and now she is roaming around getting into everything. She keeps us moving but it is hard to think about life without her or even remember what it was like before her.

I Thank God for my beautiful little

LYLA BUG!

Dear Lyla: I love you more than words can say, I am blessed to be your mommy, and I can’t wait to watch you grow into a beautiful woman. ~ Love Mommy!

please help us celebrate that this time last year Lyla completed our family!

 

Our Lady Bug Turns 1 next week!!

Most of you will receive this in the mail this coming week but it is just too adorable not to share!!

The WONDERFUL picture was taken courtesy of Andrea Dillabaugh

The VERY cute lay out and lettering is also courtesy of the wonderful and talented

ANDREA DILLABAUGH!

Thank you Andrea for helping us make wonderful memories for Lyla’s Birthday!!

This birthday is going to be wonderful we are also being blessed by the creative genius of my friend Sean Ingle’s wife… the wonderful and talented  Mrs. Jennifer Ingle, or you can call her jingle :) She is making cupcake toppers and a beautiful banner!! I just can’t believe her birthday is next week!!

I am ready to PARTAY!!!

Andrea took some other pictures of Ty and Lyla and the whole family so stay tuned for those!!

Summer FUN

It has been a VERY busy summer for us so far and it is REALLY hard to believe that June is almost over! I have been hard at work on the launch of KIDZone Learning Center while continuing to go to school and take care of kids. You know the usual.  I wanted to share with everyone some fun pictures of this great weekend that we had.

On Friday I watched 5 school aged kids!!! Yup I may have lost my mind! But never fear I have not gone that nuts! I hired a college girl to come and help me, so I was able to leave Lyla with Rhonda (the girl I hired) and I was able to take all of the kids to the pool. We picked up a neighbor kid on the way to the pool because you know if you are already watching 5 what’s one more??

The kids had a blast, there was a close friend of ours there with her kids and her two nieces so I had all of the kids line up on the wall and let me take there picture. It was a pretty overcast day but it was still very warm.

While they were up on the wall they were whining that they were cold, so I told them to

JUMP!

It was a very good time. This morning we got up and we went to the Nampa farmers market. There was a car show there today, and we had a blast as a family walking around and looking at the cars. They downtown Nampa area was having a big drawing if you just filled out the paper with your name and address you would get entered into a drawing for $100 and if you ran around collecting stamps from all of the business you would get put into a drawing for $300, so we gave it to Ty and he was on a mission to get all of the stamps, so we filled up our card with all of the stamps, so wish us luck!! :)

There was one particular car that Ty loved there. It was a VERY nice woody. He wouldn’t let me take his picture by it so I nabbed a picture of him and Matt looking at it.

Then he took a picture of me and Matt in front of it 

It was a great weekend! I have to hit the books and get some studying now so I hope everyone is doing great!

These Little feet were made for…

WALKIN!….

AND THAT’S JUST WHAT THEY’LL DO

It’s all happening!

“It’s all happening!” is a quote from one of my favorite movies! (Almost Famous) And it keeps coming to my head right now as I am knee deep in plans for the Learning Center. I have been working with planning and zoning, state license and welfare people, setting up registration dates, classroom layouts and measuring up staffing possibilities. So I think “It’s all happening” pretty much sums it up. When I begin to think about the year long process that this has been, it almost brings me to tears! Please keep me in your prayers as I am moving forward on this journey. I’m sorry I have not updated in a while…I have been a bit busy! 

TY Update:

So most people know this about TY but if you don’t…Ty has been an infomercial junkie since he was VERY little. I remember as a tiny kid him pointing to the TV and telling me we needed to buy something they were selling on TV! So of course Topsy Turvy was a must! Except one serious issue he doesn’t eat tomatoes! But of course they don’t just sell tomato ones!!!! The have Strawberry ones too!!! So Ty is officially a Strawberry farmer!! He waters them everyday after school!! :) And there are a lot showing up already!

Here is a video of his solo in the church program…the song was Bullfrogs & Butterflies:

School gets out next Friday and he is looking forward to that, and the pool opening on Monday!!

LYLA update:

Lyla is a busy bug! Sometimes I wonder if I should delegate some of the things I need to get done to her because she is into EVERYTHING! She is trying to walk! Yup you heard me! She keeps taking one step and then she doesn’t quite know what to do after that so she drops down and crawls. But it is only a matter of weeks where she takes off. She is smart & sassy and hears NO a lot! Often it is “No mouth Lyla Bug” But the good news is she listens pretty good! …I said PRETTY GOOD!!

Stay tuned for news of walking :)

Hope everyone is doing great!

2 Teeth

I was beginning to think we were going to have to get Lyla dentures before she went to kindergarten, but good news is she cut 2 teeth this weekend!

Bad News,…TWO TEETH IN ONE WEEKEND!!!

I will try and get a picture but don’t count on it. :)

Coming SOON!

KIDZone Learning Center will be coming to a College Church near us….

I just got word that we passed the final process in the approval process and we have set an opening date! Which is crazy for me to think that this random idea that I had is going to become a reality!! Please pray for me and all the people involved as we move forward we have A LOT to do!!

OPENING AUGUST 2nd, 2010!

Thanks everyone for your support, and thank you Juan for the amazing logo!

Riddin’ along in my ESCALADE!

A LOT of folks helped make this one possible!!!….

For the fundraiser that Ty did for school, if you got to a certain level you got to go in a limo to lunch at Wahooz (it’s a kind of Chuck E. Cheese of sorts) Ty was VERY, VERY Excited for it!! I got to go over and take pictures as they left….

They were ridding in style in a white Escalade

All the kids lined up in front of the limo. (Ty is at the far right in the red shirt)   

He smiled despite the fact that it hurts to smile with that shiner. (That is his buddy Tanner in the stripes, telling me it’s too bright for pictures)

Can you see him peeking out there in the red shirt.

Thanks so much to everyone who supported him in his endeavor to raise money for his school. He did a great job and got some really great prizes! Ty raised $756.00 by himself. He will be talking about this one for a long time to come!!

(and this wasn’t event the top prize!)

 

Houston we have a shiner!

Tonight the baseball team had a double header. DUMB idea for a bunch of 1st and 2nd graders, anyway and it doesn’t help when your kid takes a ball to the face during warm ups! But apparently it is the secret to getting Ty’s head in the game because his first at bat he got a double and then made a great catch at second base! His coaches were teasing him that they are going to have to throw balls at him before each game. And now they are nick named him their prize fighter.

….Alright it looks MUCH worse than it really ended up being!! Plus it doesn’t help that he is milking it a little with the sad face! After a little ice and some Advil it looked much better, it will probably hurt tomorrow though!

Tomorrow he goes on a Limo ride as a prize for selling so much for the fundraiser! They pick him up at school at 11am. He is SO excited!

Put me in coach!

Every time I place an order for sports pictures I think that we shouldn’t buy too much since there will be many many seasons ahead of us! But this picture just seems special, because it is the first with Daddy as one of the coaches!!

Recognize that coach in the middle???

Happy Mother’s Day

Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day!

I woke up to Matt asking me what I wanted for breakfast. (I still can’t eat on one side) We are going to spend the day working in our yard, and sprucing up the front. We are spending some money on the outside of the house this year.

Yesterday we had the back part of our property prepped for the installation of grass. If you haven't seen our house we have a creek behind our house, which we LOVE! It make our yard seem bigger because there isn’t a house smack behind us. And actually our property goes to the middle of the creek but we just had weeds from our iron fence to the creek and we are going to put grass all the way to the creek so that it is easier to maintain and we can enjoy the ducks that hang out back there. So Uncle Doug came yesterday to till it up for us and he let Ty ride on the tractor while he did it. It was pretty cool to watch Doug maneuver that thing…You can tell it was not his first time at the Rodeo. Ty had a blast.

So I figured I wouldn’t do Mother’s day justice if I didn’t post a picture of both kids. So here you go. Here’s Lyla… 

Hope everyone has a great Mother’s Day today!!

Give Kisses!

I’m sorry it has been a while since I have put anything up. I had my wisdom teeth pulled and it kicked my butt! So I have been out of commission for a couple of days.

Here are some fun things that have been happening around our house…

If you tell Lyla to give kisses she practically licks your face off. Yesterday she was giving Ty kisses through the back door. It was too funny…

Also most of you heard a couple of weeks ago that she has been standing up on her own…I finally got a picture of it…sorry it is from behind. She loves it when the kids talk to her through the back door. She just crawls over there and waits for them to come over.

 

Also Lyla has a new love in her life and his name is Chocolate Chip Cookie! Can you tell she likes them just a little bit??

The Many Smiles of Lyla

Lyla smiles lots and lots!!

9 Months OLD!

Today Lyla officially turns 9 months old. She is loads of smiles! Right now we are enjoying a visit from Joaquin, Aja, and Kalea. Kalea likes to say Lyla…which sounds a little more like “Lala” And Lyla responds by smiling a HUGE smile with her tongue sticking out in excitement that there is this little person playing with her.

Lyla is learning lot and transforming right before our eyes! This month she has:

• Started pulling herself up on everything.
• Standing up on her own. She is letting go of the couch from time to time.
• She is talking, saying Lyla, Ty Ty, DaDa, and Pop Pop(which I think is her way of saying Mom mom…but it comes out Pop Pop… :)
• She does not enjoy grass…if you put her in the grass she does everything to keep her legs off of it.
• She still wakes up VERY happy no matter what
• She loves cheerios, banana puffs, and these baby cheetos things.

Here is a picture of her that her brother took of her while I was giving her a bath in the sink :)

 Here is another fun picture of her in the grass it has been very nice here, except when Joaquin & Aja arrived then it went down to the 50’s . Notice she is grossed out by the grass, and trying to keep her legs off of the grass!

NEEDS

There has been a lot of fun things going on in our house! A week ago we took delivery from Mike on a truck that we acquired from him :) If anyone has seen Matt’s car you would know that Matt NEEDED a truck! I don’t believe there is much that we actually NEED but this was defiantly a NEED! But I have to say my husband never fails to amaze me. He made his 98’ Toyota RAV4 (nicknamed the truck edition) work for almost 2 years! He actually built shelves in the back of it to house his tools, but he was very limited when it came to work and loading things and it basically meant we were a 1 car household because with the tools in it, we could not park it anywhere or put the kids in it at all. Anyway we are now the proud owners of a gas guzzling F-250 that would make those green people shudder, but it is pretty awesome to have Matt finally have a vehicle suitable for what he does! Ty helped him clean out the RAV4 and organize his tools into the truck. They had fun! Lyla got a new swimsuit from Jenny & John in the mail. It is really cute and since we are starting to see weather in the 80’s here it looks like we are going to be able to use it very soon! She is still a very happy baby! She LOVES her dad! As a mater of fact when I say Lyla, say Mama…She says Dada! She is starting to speak! She says Lyla, TyTy and Dada! She makes us smile ALL the time. We are currently getting our house ready for the arrival of Joaquin and Aja who arrive this week. It will be very fun to see some faces from San Francisco!

Adventures of “Lyla, the busy”

Lyla is one busy little bug! She is crawling ALL over the place, and pulling herself up on everything. She has made it up the small steps between the living room and the kitchen and has moved on to the the main stairs. We have to watch her like a hawk! The good news is she is very entertaining!

 We use all kinds of measures to keep her corralled in the living room…Only she has started to think through the box (if you know what I mean) and go beyond the barriers!

Ha! Ha! Your silly barrier won’t keep me out of the playroom, I will just go through it!