Our weekend

We had a fun weekend around our house. Saturday morning while Isaiah was taking his morning nap, I took Carter to go school supply shopping! I still can not wrap my brain around the fact that our firstborn is going to be a big kindergartener. I don't know about you, but I used to LOVE school supply shopping. Yeah, I'm a dork like that. I hope Carter will love school as much as I did (and still do!).
Once little man woke up, we headed downtown. There is so much to do here and we haven't even covered half of it. We ate at a greek place. The food was alright but overpriced. Then we went to the Pioneer museum. I regret not bringing my camera but as I have mentioned before, we travel with so much. If I can lighten the load at all, I do. Ha! The only couple of pictures I do have are from Theo's camera. This is the three of us playing dress up.

 We left the museum kind of late. Olivia didn't even have a nap on Saturday and she did suprisingly well.  That evening, Theo and I sat outside on porch in our new rocking chairs. It was so nice. The weather here in the summer is just gorgeous. I won't be saying that four or five months from now but at this moment, I love the weather here!

Sunday was my day to volunteer at church so I took Isaiah and Olivia with me. Theo stayed home to work on his mid-term and Carter wanted to stay too for a change. So it was nice having the two youngest with me. After dinner, we took the kids on a spontaneous trip to Cold Stone Creamery and then to splash around in the water fountains right outside the movie theater. It was so much fun watching them run and squeal. I have a video of it that I'll try and put on here soon. It's on my phone so it's not great quality but they were having so much fun.

Back to reality tomorrow. We have a fairly busy week ahead so I'm thankful for all of the fun we had this weekend!

A fun comparison

I've spent quite a bit of time the past few days perusing through old photos online and thought it would be fun to share pictures of Carter getting his first meal of baby cereal, and also Olivia. Do Carter and Isaiah look just alike or what? Can't believe this little guy is about to start kindergarten!

and Miss Priss (who happened to be the worst baby food eater but best toddler eater, so far at least)

and Isaiah who is a pretty good eater thankfully and a lot less messy than his older sister!

Symbols of the South

Rice Rice Baby

We started Isaiah on some rice cereal right after we got back from Louisiana. He wasn't sure what to make of it. But he did a lot better than Olivia did at this age. I think the first batch was mostly breastmilk so I think he liked it!

But in this picture, I'm not so sure!

And this one, I'm pretty sure he's thinking he's had enough of this mess :)

To date, he's had some avocado, mashed banana, and a little bit of plum. His little system didn't digest the banana too much and he was quite cranky the night after he had it so I'm going to slow down a bit and stick to cereal for a while longer. I did go to Whole Foods this week and bought organic plums, peaches, bananas, and sweet potatoes. I made a big batch of the plums and sweet potatoes and froze them in cubes. I'm really excited about making baby food this time. I was too lazy tired to do it with Olivia and the thought never even crossed my mind with Carter so I'm excited about doing it now. Now that I've finally figured out how to do it, it's really easy to do. It's time consuming but I think it's worth it.

New Orleans Aquarium

I know I'm all over the place with my blogging lately. I am not doing our Louisiana trip in any kind of chronological order so please just hang with me! :)

While visiting my dad, we headed over the New Orleans to visit the aquarium. It was so nice but very crowded for a Sunday afternoon. The kids did great! Olivia toddled all over the place and was fascinated by not only the aquatic life, but the emergency exit doors too!

Amazed at the creatures

Looks like the shark is about to bite Carter's head!

Carter's favorite things of all.....the scuba guy cleaning the inside of the tank :)

The array of underwater life

Definitely a must do if you are in New Orleans. It's pricey but my dad treated us so it was great for us :)

Pool time

This was Isaiah's first time in the pool (okay, technically I think this was his second time but I didn't have my camera the first time!) I think he like it. He looked like a big stud muffin floating around in the pool.

Carter became quite the brave little swimmer this trip. He put his face in the water and was swimming all around thanks to his built in life vest. What would we have done without that thing?

And my all time favorite pool related photo......"Does this bathing suit make my bum look big?"

Love it!

Cafe Du Monde

On our day trip to New Orleans, our first stop was at the river walk. I needed a crawfish fix so I had a delicious poboy. This is only half of it. What can I say...I was starvin' and pictures were an after thought :) It was so good. Too bad I can't find any crawfish up here. Apparently, "there's not a regional taste for it here". That story is for another time. Anyway.....

Dad and Isaiah hangin out 

 The other daddy with his favorite girl (besides me!)

I've been dying to go here: 

to finally have some of these beignets. They did not disappoint. I was trying to describe them beforehand to Theo. They are most like a funnel cake in a bisquit shape. They were so good. When I looked up a recipe for how to make them, I saw they were over 500 calories a piece! Yikes! But totally worth it. I can scratch one more thing off my bucket list 40 before 40 list.

  



To Grandpa's house we go

The last few days of our trip we spent at my dad's house in Baton Rouge. It was so good to be in south Louisiana. I've always loved it down there....it has it's own culture and I love hearing the Cajun accent :)

The kids loved swimming in grandpa's pool. I loved my dad cooking for us :). He grilled the best steaks one night and the best corn I think I've ever had. Olivia ate almost two cobs!

We spent Sunday in New Orleans at the aquarium. Monday Nana came to see us. She had never met Olivia or Isaiah so I'm glad she finally got the see both of them. 

Then we went to the LSU campus. We would have stayed longer but Isaiah was being a wee bit cranky (okay, more like having a total meltdown) so we just went back home. I will post our pictures from that another day.

We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with granpa. I hope we can come back next summer!

We are family

So glad these guys are my family!

Today we are heading even further south to visit my dad! I'm so excited. It's been two years since I went to south Louisiana and I'm really looking forward to it. Thankfully, my dad came up here last year when we visited so it's only been a year since I've seen him. We're planning on visiting the aquarium in New Orleans and I might have to make a stop at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets :) Yummy!

Flasback Friday

The other day, I was looking back at the pictures from our last visit to Louisiana last summer. Isaiah was just a wee little tadpole in the womb. It was our trip last summer that we announced we were expecting baby #3. Thankfully, we don't have any more announcements like that this visit!! :) And just for fun, I thought it would be neat to see what the kids looked like a year ago.

2010

2011 with our new addition!

Fourth of July

This year, we spent Fourth of July at my Aunt Vickie and Uncle John's house. I was wishing Theo were here instead of at work but we had a good time nonetheless. We had quite a spread of food and everything was so delicious. My mom held Isaiah while I ate one entire meal without having to get up for something/someone! It was fantastic and my Aunt Vickie helped with Carter and Olivia. I've forgotten what it's like to eat a meal while sitting the entire time :)

My cousin and his wife Sally came in from Texas. I hadn't met Sally before since they just got married in December (and are such cute newlyweds!). Some of their friends came with them also. I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone.

The original plan was to play games outside but it was just too hot. There were burn bans here because of the drought so fireworks were out. That probably worked out best for my kids because I think all of the noise would have frightened them. Our hometown usually puts on this huge fireworks show at the riverfront but just before the show was scheduled to start, it started storming like a son of a gun so we couldn't even watch it on tv! But I'm sure we needed the rain much more than the fireworks.

And here are some family photos:

It's so hard to say goodbye

Do y'all remember that Boyz 2 Men song? That's what's been playing in my head all day today. Omaw and Papaw left for their trip today. We're hanging out at their house without them until it's time for us to go to south Louisiana and see grandpa. Even though I've lived away from "home" for two years now, leaving is always sooooo hard! Not just for me, but for Carter especially. He loves his grandparents and always hates to see any of them go.

We already miss Omaw and Papaw but hope they have fun on their trip. I attempted to get group pictures this morning but Carter was in mid meltdown so this is what I got:

One without Carter:

And several with a very sad Carter: (I like this first one b/c it looks like Isaiah is trying to pat Carter on the back to console him!)

And famous last words "This is as good as it's going to get"....

Good news though is that Theo will be here tonight so it's something for us to look forward to. I can't wait to see my husband and I know he can't wait to see me and the kids also. We also met Aunt Kayla and kids at their church playplace. We had been there before but it's been forever ago and Carter had a great time. It was fun right up until it was time to go and Isaiah had a blowout diaper and pooped all over both of us! Then he was screaming, I was ready to pull my hair out and then we were home. Whew! It was a good distraction from the fact that Omaw and Papaw aren't here. But when daddy gets here tonight, the world will be alright again!