Christmas

We celebrated Christmas Day this year with just our immediate family, like we did last year. We got to enjoy watching the kids open their presents in the morning and see what Santa had left them in their stockings. We had to make sure the wrapping paper went immediately into a trash bag since Judson's favorite part of opening presents was chewing on the wrapping paper! Caleb and Isabelle had fun helping him open his presents- they got him a little soccer ball and went to Build a Bear and made him a teddy bear that has a Saints jersey. They named him "Drew". Caleb and Isabelle each got their own Bible, which contains many pictures and short bible stories for them to read. They both enjoy bringing them to church and reading it on thier own (Isabelle of course likes to look at the pictures). Caleb got a new Wii game and a big nerf gun. Isabelle got a matching nightgown for her and her American Girl doll, Kit. That was the biggest hit, I think. She wore that nightgown the rest of the day and that night, and basically didn't want to take it off for about three days (I made her so I could wash it).
Later that morning, we Skyped with Grammy and Pappy and they got to watch the kids open the gifts they had sent. It was fun to get to spend some time with them, and even though they were hundreds of miles away it felt like they were right there with us! Caleb and Isabelle got their own watercolor palletes and nice watercolor paints, among other art supplies, to enhance their budding artistic talents. Then the kids got to see Grammy, Pappy, Uncle Heath, and Nana open the gifts from us, so it was neat to all be a part of each other's day on Christmas.
For our Christmas dinner, we enjoyed a Logan's Farm honey baked ham, that we got for free as a gift from one of the clinics that gets business from MEA.
Overall, Christmas day was a relaxing and fun time that were were able to spend as a family and reflect on the gift of Jesus Christ as we celebrated His birth.
The week after Christmas, Barrett's family came for a few days and we then celebrated with them and opened gifts together. Despite some really bad weather that came through the day they were traveling to get here, they made it safely. We enjoyed a traditional New Year's dinner, with Grandmamma's black eyed peas (no cabbage, though!) and then it was like Christmas morning all over again as we opened gifts with them.

Christmas morning

Getting their new Bibles

Judson's new Saints bear

Isabelle and Kit with their matching nightgowns


Christmas the next week with the Jones' side of the family (Isabelle with Kit and her new outfit)


Judson with Uncle Tim

Judson's favorite part was playing with, or eating, the wrapping paper

Granddaddy with the kids

Grandmamma and Granddaddy with the kids

Isabelle's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Isabelle's 5th birthday at home on her actual birthday with just our family. Isabelle had asked for an American Girl doll, Kit, for her birthday, so that was her special present this year. She has loved that doll! She takes her everywhere, sleeps with her, eats with her, and brushes her hair and changes her clothes. For her birthday party with her friends, we went to Harry the Potter, which is a paint your own pottery place. The first hour we ate pizza for lunch and had cupcakes, and then Isabelle opened her presents. Then all the kids got to choose a piece of pottery to paint, so they worked on their creations for the last hour. Almost everyone she invited was able to come, and I think everyone had a good time. After the store glazed and fired all the pottery, we got to distribute it back out to all her guests so they have a favor from the party that they made.

Isabelle with her new American Girl doll, Kit (from the Depression period)

Eating pizza at Harry the Potter

Cupcake time

Opening presents

Painting the pottery

Nutcracker and hunting

During the first weekend of December, Barrett and Caleb went on their second annual hunting trip to Buck Daze in Georgia and met some of our friends from Florida there. Caleb got to see his good friend Johnny while spending some quality time with his daddy. The best part was that they shot an 8-point buck as well as a small doe. We know have our deep freezer full of venison, which we have been enjoying over the last month. While the guys were hunting, Isabelle and I went to see a ballet production of the Nutcracker. It was a great performance and Isabelle really enjoyed it. It was extra meaningful this time, I think, because she has been taking ballet for the last year. Judson, since he is a little too young for the guys hunting trip, opted for a babysitter while we went to the ballet.

Isabelle with Caroline Jones, who danced the lead role of Clara in the performance. (She also goes to our church)


Caleb and Barrett with their 8-point buck

Caleb with his friend Johnny

Judson at 6 months

Judson is already six months old! He surprised us and started crawling at 5 1/2 months- a lot earlier than I expected. He really began crawling before he was sitting up on his own really well. Now he is getting all over the house and pulling up on as much as he can. We put our Christmas tree out in our front living room so we wouldn't have to worry about Judson getting into the tree and ornaments, and I have had to move Scout's water to the laundry room because he got himself soaked with that find soon after he became mobile! Life is a little crazier now, but at least he is enjoying his newfound freedom and ability to explore his surroundings. He got his first cold last week and has been not feeling well. I had forgotten how tiring it is taking care of a sick baby! Hopefully he will get well soon- for everyone's sake.


He likes to look out the window

Thanksgiving

We had a low-key Thanksgiving day this year, spent with just our family and Barrett's brother. Since Barrett's family was coming the weekend after the holiday, we opted to do a simple meal on Thanksgiving day, so we grilled some chicken and watched the Saints game. Then Barrett's parents and Susanne and Elijah and Gracie Beth came for the weekend and we cooked our turkey and had our traditional meal with them. We had a nice visit and the cousins had a great time playing together as usual- it was a little crazier with a baby in the mix, but everyone survived!

Two little turkeys:

Fall Festival

This year for the Fall Festival, Caleb dressed up as Obe Won Kenobe, Isabelle as a ballerina, and Judson as Yoda. Originally, Isabelle was planning on being Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, since she has a pair of red sparkly shoes. I had ordered their costumes online this year to save from having to go shopping for them, except the package didn't get here in time for the Fall Festival, so I ended up being one of the crazy shoppers out the night before at Target getting costumes. They didn't have the Dorothy costume in stock, so she opted for a pink tutu to wear with her ballet leotard. We went to their school for trunk or treat, and they got to play games and get candy. It was a fun evening and Judson was a good sport in his yoda costume, too!

New Orleans

We decided to go to New Orleans for the Columbus Day weekend since the kids had a three-day weekend. We didn't take any family vacations this summer since we were a little busy with a new baby and moving, so we thought it would be nice to get away for a couple days. We left Saturday morning and got to New Orleans by lunch time. We were able to check into our hotel first- we stayed at the Hilton right on the river and we had a river view out our window, so that was really nice. Then we walked down the street to Mother's Restaurant for lunch. We had to wait 30 minutes or so outside in a line just to get in and get seated, and by the time we sat down, Judson was getting tired and also very fussy. We soon realized that he was setting a precedent for almost every other mealtime that we were there. We ended up getting our food to go and eating it on a bench before heading to the Insectarium. We all had a lot of fun at the Insectarium- even Judson was happy riding in the Moby Wrap. We got to see all kinds of bugs and even a butterfly garden. The best part of the day was going to the bug cafe and sampling some real bugs!! Seriously, we actually ate bugs. Crickets and worms. The crickets were baked into chocolate chip cookies. As you can see from the pictures, the kids were not too sure about this at first, but they finally tried them and actually went back for another one! Barrett and I tried one too, of course. It wasn't that bad- more of a mind over matter thing. As a remembrance of their experience, we got Caleb and Isabelle each a t-shirt that says "I ate a bug at the Insectarium". YUM!

We did a lot of walking, and it's a good thing we purchased the ride on stroller, because Caleb and Isabelle both took turns sitting or standing on the back. We walked through the French Quarter, ate breakfast Sunday and Monday at Cafe Du Monde, walked around the Riverwalk mall, and took the free ferry ride to Algiers point and back, so the kids got to go across the river on a boat. Sunday afternoon we decided to make a trip to a local ice cream store called the Creole Creamery that we had seen featured on the Food Network. It looked like fun and they have a lot of flavors to choose from. We had never taken the street cars, so we thought that would be fun to try. First we had to walk to catch the bus, which took us to the street car, which we waited for, and then after the street car dropped us off at our stop, we still had to walk a few blocks to get to the ice cream shop. This was now just the perfect time for Judson to be fussy again. After we ate our ice cream, we went back the same way, and in the street car Judson screamed his head off the entire way back- lots of fun. So, our ice cream outing took about three hours from start to finish! All in all, we did have a good time, even though it was a little crazy at times. But hey, that's what traveling with a four month old is like. The kids had fun, so it was worth it.

Butterfly garden at the Insectarium:

The Bug Cafe:

Don't you want to try a bite?






Eating breakfast at Cafe Du Monde:


Riding the Algiers Ferry:

In front of the River: