Category Archives: random

2015 Christmas Update

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So it has been a crazy busy year and we’ve made little time to update the blog, but I thought I would at least post something incase you wondered over to the site because of our Christmas card.

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Jennifer has been working towards a teaching certification over the last few years, through Northwestern online. This Spring she reached the point in her study that she had to student teach or get a teaching job as part of the alternative certification program.  God opened the door for to teach 1st Grade at Simsboro.  It has been some refining by fire, having not student taught before, but she has had tremendous support at Simsboro and is plugging away at it. The above picture is from Book character day, and I’m sure I’ll pay for posting it later, ha!

12369242_723740007725479_3653122428741859458_nCaden is now in the 3rd grade and is an Orange with black stripe Belt in Taekwondo. His good friend Sawyer (on the left) also in Taekwondo, but I’m sure you figured this out?

He still loves being outside, Star Wars, Legos (don’t know where he gets that from), and Caleb and him love rough housing, all the time.  Caden has accepted Christ and was Baptized  in October!

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Caleb started preschool this Fall and loves it.  He also loves Legos, cars, and Star Wars He has one speed, go, go, go, until he passes out.  He brings lots of laughter to all of us, all the time. We never know what is going to come out of his mouth.

I’m still working for Donnie Bell Design and loving it. With Jennifer teaching, my routine has changed a bit, I take late lunches and pick up the boys during “lunch” which is usually between 2 and 3, ha!.  They come hang out at the office with me until it is time to go home.

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Do I even need to say that I love Legos, Star Wars, and being outside? Yea, I didn’t think I did?

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This summer we went to see my mom in South FL and got lost in Orlando for a few days at Disney, staying at Old Key West.  The last day before we found our way to mom’s they boys were able to participate in the Jedi Training Academy. They had a blast, see the video below.

Of course we enjoyed another season of LA Tech Bulldog Football!

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So here is the Jedi Training Video  (yes it is a little long, but worth at least skipping around and watching the boys fight Darth Vader, and starting around 13 minutes or so is a slideshow of the picture that were taken during the “training.”

And not to be left out, but Emma, the dog, is still plugging along, at almost 13 years old. We thought we were gonna lose her earlier this year, but we have a great vet and he pulled her through the rough spot.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!  We are much better about updating our Facebook pages, so look for us there if you wonder what is going on with us!

Bikes and Ice Cream

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Saturday Caden and I made a quick trip to Sam’s Club to restock the freezer at our house.  Caleb and Jennifer had a birthday party to go to, so it was some good bonding time for Caden and myself.

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We have this tradition when we go to Sam’s, once we are done shopping, we split an ice cream cup (ok it is really frozen yogurt).

Of course, if there are four of us, we split 2 frozen yogurts.  But this trip we finished up about lunch time, so I felt we needed something besides just frozen yogurt.  A cinnamon  pretzel sounded good to me and Caden loves everything that has cinnamon in it, so I knew he would like it (by the photo you can tell that he did and of course we sent this photo to Jennifer and Caleb right away)!

Caden asked as we were getting off I-20 at the Sam’s exit what we were doing after we were done at Sam’s. I ask him what he wanted to do and he replied, “Go to Toy-R-Us?”

IMG_3307I told him we could, but we would just be “looking.” He said that was fine.

Caden has outgrown his second bike and we are planning to buy him a new one very soon, so I made it a point to size them up while I had him with me.

He found one he really liked, but he’ll have to grow a bit more before he could ride it or even reach the seat!

He said, “Daddy this bike can go anywhere!” and I would have to agree with these tires he is probably right.

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Of course, safety first, so we checked out the helmets as well. He is a major Angry Birds fan and had no problem spotting an Angry Birds helmet that even has sound effects.

We did manage to get out of Toys-R-Us without spending any money (and hour later), but it was fun.  I would have to admit that Caden’s dad has as much fun in toy stores as he does.

Merry Christmas 2011

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What a year!  It has been a good one but a really, really busy one for the Breedings! The most exciting news of this year was the birth of Baby Y (aka Caleb Gene Breeding). Some will remember that Caden was affectionally known as Baby-X until we figured out a name for him (at 2 days old, ha!).  The Gene connection: my grandfather was Eugene Stroud, my Aunt Betty Jean, and my sister, Karen Jean.

In preparation of Caleb arriving, we moved Caden to our “guest” bedroom.  We didn’t want to give up the queen size bed, but we wanted him to have room to play, so we built a Disappearing walled bed.  During this prep time I kept telling Jennifer, “I’ve got time, Don’t I?” ha! ha!

Caleb was born on March 1, at 11:15 a.m. and was 7lbs, 7 oz and 19” long (only 29 inches away from the elusive 48” at DisneyWorld! ha!)

He had a little problem expelling all of the fluid from the lungs, his color wasn’t great, and his respirations were a little fast as well, so off to the NICU he went (just the one in the hospital, no transfer this time to another hospital).  He hung out there most the day and as of 8 pm that night, he had been released on “probation” to the regular nursery. If he behaved he could stay there, if not, he would be sent back to the NICU. We’ll he behaved and has been fine ever since.  Photos are here and here!

So if having a new baby wasn’t life changing enough, Neal took a new job with Donnie Bell Design on April 11, 2011 as a web programmer, leaving his job as the Director of Information Systems for the Division of University Advancement at Louisiana Tech University (aka – the computer guy at the alumni center).  It was time for a change and he enjoyed the almost 15 years he had at Tech.

Jennifer continues to work for herself through the Early Steps system (as a Special Instructor for 0 to 3 year olds with developmental delays) and she is going back to school in January to work towards an early intervention certification degree.  Jennifer also was re-certified in Child Life in July, which was no easy feat.

This Fall Caden started preschool at the Lincoln Parish Early Childhood Center. The first day Jennifer and I took him to school he announced on the way there that “I’m a big boy and do not need you to walk me into my new school.” We encouraged this by parking, both getting out and marching him to his classroom, ha!  Of course the second day, I abided by the request (again) and allowed him to go into school all by himself, ha!

A few funny quotes from this year from Caden:

Caden: “Mommy, did you tell daddy?”
Mommy: “yes I did.”
Caden: “Mommy, Daddy and me don’t like tattle tales!”

Mommy: “Caden, why didn’t you get a sticker today?”
Caden: “I didn’t mind just a little bit.”

Caden came into the living room tonight after supper and said “I sure would like dessert now.”

“Girls use a brush and boys use their hands” [in reference to how boys and girls fix their hair]

“I’m not going to sleep ever!”

Caleb is doing great, he is at the early stages of crawling as of this weekend. He crawls about 3 steps forward, then back, then sits down.  He really loves Caden (and Caden loves him just as much). He is always reaching for Caden and gets excited when he sees him.

Caleb will get to go on his first Disney trip next year! We are all looking forward to it!

We hope you and your family are doing great!  Drop us an email or comment and let us know how you’ve been.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

 Bonus! Watch Caden tell the storys of The Three Little Bears!

 

 

It has been a Year… Wow!

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On August 13, 2010 Gretrude Stroud, otherwise known to us as Memie, went “home” to be with Jesus. She was 95 and ½ and had lived a wonderful life. It was amazing how God worked out our schedule that week, so we would like to share a few details of the week:

  • Neal’s dad had deep brain stimulation surgery (in Baton Rouge) to help with his Parkinson’s disease on August 9 and 10 (Monday and Tuesday). Tuesday, during the surgery, Jennifer called Neal to confirm that the doctor agreed with us that she was indeed pregnant.
  • Neal dropped his Dad off in Pineville on Wednesday, leaving him with Clint, his brother, who drove down to stay with their dad for a couple of weeks.
  • After talking with Neal’s mother, they decided, with God’s prompting, it was time to head toward KY. With a 12 hour drive, they decided to break up the trip and plan to arrive on Friday afternoon, expecting Memie to have already passed.
  • We left on Thursday afternoon and stayed in Jackson, TN. On Friday, after a quick lunch in Nashville with our friend/musician, Andrew Greer, we started on the last 2 hours of our journey.
  • As mentioned, we did not think Memie would still be with us when we arrived on Friday afternoon, but she was and Neal got to spend the last hour and a half of her life here on Earth with her. Although she was not “alert,” after talking to her, she moved her leg and closed her mouth. We believe she indeed heard Neal talking to her (as well as the rest of the family). The grandfather clock struck 6 pm and before it was finished counting, Neal’s Aunt Betty saw a tear roll down Memie’s cheek and she stopped breathing.
  • We had been praying all week that we would be able to just make it to the funeral. We never thought we would see her alive one more time. It was more than what we could have asked for, God is so good! We can’t thank Neal’s family enough for the care and love they gave Memie over this last year and especially the last few weeks that were so tough.
  • Karen and Neal spoke at her funeral, reading Proverbs 31:10-30, The Virtuous Woman, and then sharing stories that related to some of the passage. She lived up to this passage of scripture in so many ways.

More Changes in my Life!

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It has been an interesting 11 months, full of changes:

1) My dad, who has Parkinson’s Disease decided to have a Deep Brain Simulator implanted to help in managing his disease. This decision has meant a lot of trips to Baton Rouge for me and a chance to hear some funny stories of his youth. It has also taught me a lot of patience.

2) In August, the week dad had this surgery, I lost my Grandmother Stroud who was almost 96, otherwise known to me as my Memie).

3) In October, we announced that we were expecting our #2 child.

4) That same month my mother retired and moved to Florida (actually it was November when she moved). She is no longer just 8-12 hours away, but has enjoyed telling me how warm it is, especially when we were freezing in January!

5) In February, I turned 40 (yea, I don’t act it, so that really wasn’t much of a change)

6) On March 1, 2011, Caleb Gene Breeding was born.

7) And the latest change in my life happened on March 15, 2011, when I turned in my resignation as the Director for Information System at Louisiana Tech University’s Alumni Center. I’ve been an employee of Louisiana Tech for almost 15 years and I have grown to love the University that I graduated from even more than I did when I was a student.

I will be starting a job with Donnie Bell Design on April 11, 2011 as a web programmer for them. Be sure to visit their site, blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page!