BMX

Rylee has recently gotten into BMXing and she is addicted, that little competitive spirit, she inherited from her father has kicked in...she LOVES IT!!! I took some pictures at her last practice, it was a brisk 41 degree's with the coldest breeze. The pictures were a little blurry because of the lighting....but at least you can see her in action. Her Dad is trailing behind her the whole time...

The cheering section, they would scream from the fence line, "GO RYLEE, GO RYLEE, GO RYLEE."

More Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving Day, is always so fun at Robbie's Parents home. They are so welcoming and open their home to us, AND THE FOOD IS YUMMY!!! Here is a picture of Boomer and Robbie eating the juicy skin off the turkey.

Robbie's Dad LOVES to decorate for Christmas!! He starts decorating the day after Halloween. He actually on the news with his house shown after we had left. Here are the boys helping him get Santa on the roof.

The kids had another fun day riding all the toys. Robbie brought some of his toys over on Thanksgiving, an ATV and a little 50s motorcycle. The golf cart actually died, because it ran out of charge, it has never been ridden that much.

Boomer and Robbie had fun playing on their 

jump they made a few days before.

Rylee really wanted to ride Remi's little 50 motorcycle. She got on and took off and didn't want to stop. She loved it. I have to tell you the funniest part, the picture of her driving away with her legs totally straight out. She didn't know there were pegs for her feet. It looked funny has she was riding away. She figured it out.

Boomer an Robbie got serious and put their helmets on and went at it...they would get a straight away to the jump and take off together and see who got to the jump first. It was really funny to watch!!

This is what Luke looked like by the end of a non stop, FUN, PLAYING all day!!!

The picture does NOT give Joe's decorations justice in how beautiful it is all lite up. The kids were so excited waiting for the lights and the decorations to blow up. It is so fun. My favorite is the smiley face on the bunker.

I really wanted to go see an old Plantation House. So, the next day Robbie took us to see one. It is the old "ROSEWOOD" place. The small house on the side, were the "HELPS" housing. It was pretty amazing. Someone I believe is restoring the Plantation. There was a lot of people moving around on the property. The crazy thing is we tried to look up the history on the place and couldn't find a lot. All we could see was this is a few plantation put together. It was a beautiful sight. Next time, I want to go through a tour at some of the other ones near by, there is even a HAUNTED one....

In the bottom picture check out the old carriage...

Another traditon we have going to Louisiana is going to PRO BASS SHOP, we take the kids to get a picture with Santa. The store sets up a winter wonderland for the kids, its pretty amazing. Look how awesome the carousel is..wildlife animals, it was so cool!!

Joslyn got to see another Alligator Gar, so exciting!!!

Joslyn is obsessed with Billy The Kid, we went to a museum last summer and she was hooked. Click HERE for the pictures of our trip. She really wanted to go to the place that Billy was shot and also wanted to see his grave sight. I know crazy, she is 4!! So, on our home we surprised her and took her to his grave sight the place they say he was shot. SHE WAS SOOOOOO EXCITED!! She got a billy the Kid postcard in her stocking, she couldn't wait to get it home and hang it up.

Thank you to Robbie and Remi for another FUN trip!! And to Pawpaw and Nana for opening their house once again to us. You are so WONDERFUL and make us feel right at home. Thanks you for ALL the great food!! WE LOVE Y'ALL!!

THANKSGIVING, Louisiana STYLE!!!

We went back to Louisiana for Thanksgiving to visit Boomer's buddy, Robbie and his daughter Remi. We were able to stay over a week and see a lot of Louisiana this time. It was a such a fun trip!! 

We were hanging out at Robbie's this day and playing with the four wheeler. The kids had so much fun taking turns riding with Boomer.

Robbie has a kitty, and he said that it never stopped it ran up the wall and around the house. While we were their the kitty was loved, hugged and kissed ALL DAY LONG!! The kitty slept and slept and slept. It was pretty funny that my kids wore the poor thing out.

The pond is in the backyard of his house. I love the water feature, very relaxing. BUT, NO ALLIGATORS, bummer!!!

We had to go to Robbie's parents house to say, "Hi", the kids were so excited to see them. They are the sweetest, nicest people I have met. They welcome us in their home with open arms.

They have all kinds of fun toys to play on. The kids NEVER stop at their house.  I love the lower picture, it shows all the toys going at once. They have a 3 acre lot that also connects to a churches lot, so lots of open space to ride.

One of the most favorite thing they have is an old bunker house.

One of my favorite pictures is the upper right, Nana went to go some chairs for us to sit on, so Luke followed her and picked up a chair and helped her. Such a big boy!! They have a big sand hill that kids loved to play on. The other thing they love to do is there is a bunch of tree's that got blown down from Hurricane Katrina, and Jos loved climbing and singing on the logs.

And, of course golfing was A LOT. Luke loved golfing with his Dad and Robbie. Look at that cute little bum in the air, teeing up!!!

Robbie's Dad made us some Jambalaya. OH MY GOODNESS, this stuff was absolutely YUMMY!!! We couldn't get enough of it. We took it home and ate it everyday for lunch. I got the recipe and can't wait to make it. Thanks, Daddy Vallot.

After everything had been ridden. Boomer and Robbie decided to hit the golf balls with a baseball bat. Funny, boys. The funny part is how SORE they were after the day...a couple of old men :0)

We went to New Orleans for a day. It was so fun. The history and HUGE old buildings was amazing. Our first stop was a fun mardi gras store, the kids loved it. They had fun trying all the face masks and funky hats on.

Robbie took us to a well known cafe that New Orleans is known for, its BEIGNETS. This place was huge and PACKED with people, no sitting anywhere. And all they serve is coffee and beignets. Which is somewhat like a donut, deep fried dough and thrown into powered sugar. The bag is half way full of powered sugar,  I couldn't imagine how much powered sugar they go through in a day.

This is one of the street statue guys. He was so funny. He came over and gave the kids a sucker. As he walked back over to his stage, Boomer and Robbie gave the girls a dollar to put in his bucket. Luke saw the girls putting something in his bucket, but didn't realized it was a dollar. So, he got up and went over and put the sucker in the guys bucket that he just gave him, he thought that was what everyone was giving back. The guy looked and just laughed, along with everyone else watching. It was so funny. The performer, bent down and grabbed a dollar out of the bucket and gave it to Luke. 

A little further down the street a lady had all kinds of instrument set up for the kids to play on, they LOVED it. We couldn't get them to stop, it was great. 

The church in the collage is the The St. Louis Cathedral was first built in 1789. It was added to 3 more times, the last was in 1850. It was such an amazing building.

We took a carriage ride around the French Quarters. 

The history was amazing, a house built for Napoleon as a refuge in 1797. Napoleon never made it to the home, but the name stuck. Now it is a famous bar in the French Quarters.  And of the course the famous Bourbon street. I only had to cover the kids eyes once and make them look away, thank goodness it was during the day.

All of this information, I had to look up online because, I couldn't understand our driver. The kids many times kept turning to me and ask if he was speaking ENGLISH, it was that bad. He kept telling us, "that each building is special in its own way"...but, it is only funny if you have Robbie or Boomer saying it. Good times. 

This is Jackson Square, it was a beautiful park in the heart of the French Quarters. Named after Andrew Jackson. Ya, don't ask about the picture in the upper right, I thought it was funny. I obviously had something funny to share and it got on camera.

We walked over to the Mississippi river. It was so beautiful and very busy with all kinds of boats.  It was fun watching all the different freight liners, steamboats, paddle wheelers and tug boats, cruising the water.

We walked down the river for awhile looking at the sights. Remi and Rylee stopped to dance in a pavilion. It was great,

Robbie took us to the Aquarium just off the river. Joslyn's number one goal coming to Louisiana was to see an alligator gar, for those who aren't familiar with an alligator gar, it is a fish that has an appearance of an alligator. Robbie made her dream come true showing her the alligator gars and the aquarium. Joslyn was sooooo excited.

One of my LEAST favorite things in the world is a "Bird Atrium"..why would you buy food and hold it for birds to fly on you...so creepy. The kids wanted to go to the atrium so bad, I tried to get out of going in, but they wouldn't let me stay out. I have to say the funniest part was when Robbie got pooped on his head (sorry Robbie) at least it was the bald guy and not in our hair :0) it wiped off quick with him :0) Rylee liked it as much as I did, she was a champ holding the food, but as soon as a bird jumped on she was done. Remi and Boomer I think were the ones with the most birds on them.

I have more pictures of Thanksgiving, they will be posted soon :0)

HaLlOwEeN 2011

Halloween is FINALLY here. We had been Trick or Treating at different partied 2 times before Halloween even arrived. I was so excited to have FINALLY here. The kids all kept the same costume they were other 2 times we dressed up, except Luke. He was Woody, then Luke Sky Walker and finally a Callaway Golfer. He was VERY serious about being a golfer. After we got Trick or Treating he had to ditch the golf club so he could hold his bag. Then the hat started bugging him, so that got ditched to. So, people didn't know if he was some Preppy boy..but, Luke would tell them EXACTLY what he was, "I am CALLAWAY GOLFER". He was awesome.

We were hanging out waiting to go Trick or Treating. So, Luke was teeing up. I taught him how to Tee Up out side and he will take his club, tee and golf balls outside and tee up a few times then bring it all back in and put it all away. It was raining one day and he really wanted to tee up, so I found him in all concentration trying to get a tee to stand up in the carpet. It took him about 20 min, but he got it figured out. So, this night he was showing Boomer how to tee up in the house. Noting broken, yet?!?!?! I got some good shots with the ball in mid air.

Trick or Treating, the rocker girl is our neighbor, Brielle that we went out with.

There was a house that has a carnival for all ages every year. It was so fun, they have about 6 different area's for the kids to do. After ever station the kids could pick out a prize. The first was touching the ooey gooey brains (jello mold) intestines (spaghetti), you get the picture. Then they got to bowl and play bean bag tossing. The FUNNEST part for the Luke was the golfing. They had little ghosts with a hole in the bottom, where you hit the ball through. They had a driver club sitting there for you to use. I handed Luke the club they had to use, but that was unacceptable. He said, "No, I Callaway golf" and he walked over to the stroller and got his club. He set the ball up and hit the balls right in and handed me his club. He is very faithful to the Callaway brand. You can see him in the bottom 2 pictures.

This is Luke and all of his costumes....

Happy Haunting!! See you next year, same time!!!

Halloween At School!!

This year at Rylee's school, they wanted the kids to dress up like someone in a story book and bring that book to school. It was kinda of a pain, some people had to 2 do costumes just because there kids wanted to be something else. Rylee wanted to be a PIRATE, so I ran to the library and checked out 4 pirate books so she could choose her favorite to take to school. They did a cute costume parade around the school to show off their costumes. 

Joslyn was able to dress up for Preschool, in her VAMPIRE KITTY costume. The bloodier the better (crazy girl). She goes to the Preschool at the High School, so she was able to go around the High School and go Trick or Treating at the class rooms. SHE LOVED IT. The students made them those cute paint cans she is holding for them to use for their candy. The picture is of her and her BEST FRIENDS. Olivia is the witch, Haley is the Princess and Soren is the cute Spider Boy.

ZOO BOO!!!

We experienced, we lived it and we know not to do it AGAIN!!! We took the kids to the Zoo, for their "ZOO BOO"!!! It was complete mayhem. 

Seeing the animals is always fun. They even decorated some of the animals cages, which the kids thought was so nice of them to do. I was excited to show Morgan and Rylee the new baby giraffe. The kids went to all the station and trick or treated. Their favorite part was the corner that had all "SUPER HERO'S" in it, you got to choose a character and get your picture taken with them, that was VERY exciting!!

Luke was ecstatic to get pictures with OTHER Sky Walkers, like him. He was dressed like "LUKE Sky Walker". We thought he would just go stand by them but, he walked up and pulled a pose showing his SKY WALKER moves and posed for the camera..that is why he is a little further out then the other characters.

Pumpkin Carving!!!

We had a fun night carving pumpkins. This year, we just got 2 pumpkins and teamed up the kids. They had fun designing the pumpkins together. I had to laugh, out of the 4 kids, Rylee was the only one that dared to touch the "GUTS", maybe its because we call it "GUTS". So, I was busy scrapping the pumpkins so, they could make the faces. The whole time Luke was watching us gut the pumpkins, he just kept saying, "Oh, GROSS, that's DISGUSTING", so funny.

Joslyn, just liked playing with the pumpkin parts, the nose, the mouth. She liked licking them also, kinda random :0)!!!

The top middle picture is Luke, saying "EWWWW, GROSS".

All done and glowing beautifully!!!