Rigby's 3rd B-Day

Peter helped out a little too much and blew out the candles for Rigby, so . . . 

. . . we re-lit them and let Rigby blow them out.  

He looks so cute trying so hard to blow them out.

He had this serious expression on his face the entire time he was unwrapping his gifts.

He looks so grown up in this picture.  I cannot believe my cute baby boy is three!

Here is the messiest eater I know!  Seriously, the kid is amazing at making messes with his food.

This little fireman stayed up until 11 p.m. playing with his new trucks and transformers.  He also asked me to help him build fireman and policeman potato heads, and then he had them fight each other (the fireman won by the way).  It was so cute to watch him.

Rigby is still very quiet, but he has started to talk so much more the past few months and throw a few good tantrums.  He does not always remember to say please, but he never forgets to say thank you.  His favorite color is orange and he loves the Rescuebots (the show and the toys).  No matter how many times he gets in trouble he will NOT stay in his bedroom at bedtime, so we have to put a child lock on the door.  He ends up falling asleep right behind the door, so we have to go through the bathroom door to get into the boys' room after he falls asleep.  He is such a thoughtful little boy; he is always opening doors for me, bringing Adeline toys to play with, and getting Peter's pj's and socks for him.

We love you Rigby!

See what I mean . . . silly little boy!

     

Mardi Gras

Louisianians are very serious about their Mardi Gras celebrations.  They have Mardi Gras wreathes on their front doors, place big bows on their mailboxes, eat king cake everyday for more than a month, have tons of parades for a few weeks, etc.  Scott even has Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) off because it is a legal holiday in Louisiana.  In fact, I might go as far to say that Mardi Gras pride rivals Texas pride (please do not get too upset by this comparison).

Here is a display for Mardi Gras that they have in Walmart.

Mardi Gras begins on Epiphany/Twelfth Night (sometime the beginning of January) and ends on Fat Tuesday (which is right before Ash Wednesday that begins Lent).  Honestly, the whole concept of these traditions/holidays seems a little twisted and complicated to me, but I am slowly starting to understand (I think:).  Basically, the Mardi Gras season is to be gluttonous right before Lent, which is a season to be repentant and abstain from all of your sins for 40 days before Easter.  

(Look here for more information: http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/)

Moving on from the history lesson, they throw some fun and amazing parades here and we were able to go to one of them in Mandeville, Louisiana.

  

Rigby slept for an hour during all of the noise.  This kid is an amazing sleeper!

Here is a comatose Peter playing Angry Birds before the parade started.

Sweet little Adeline just hanging out with me in her kangaroo pouch (a.k.a. baby backpack carrier).

Here is an old fire engine that was in the parade.

I have no idea if they have the same floats every year or if they are different, but this year they had a lot of mythical Greek floats.  Here is Medusa with her head full of snakes.

Many of the costumes are very flashy and elaborate like this.

Even the horses had their personal set of Mardi Gras beads to wear.

Many of the floats had two levels of people throwing beads/toys/treats to the crowd.  Many parents put young children on their shoulders so they can catch things.  People are very serious about their parade loot.  For example, Scott (with Peter on his shoulders) happened to catch the same set of beads as a 70 year old woman.  Now Peter had not caught anything yet and this lady had a bag full of stuff, but she was getting ready to start playing tug of war with Scott over 50 cents worth of beads.  If she was drunk, okay; but if she was serious, wow!   

While Scott and Peter were having fun gathering loot, I had Adeline in the baby backpack carrier and Rigby on my shoulders so he could see the parade.  Bring on kid number four (no, not really).

Fifteen or twenty minutes of that tired me out, so we snuggled up in a camping chair for the rest of the parade while Scott and Peter kept delivering loot to us.

I guess next year we will need one of these ladder boxes (is that what they are called?).  Many people make these so they can set their kids up high in order to see the parade.  They usually decorate them in purple, green and gold (Mardi Gras colors).

Box Fort

Before we got rid of the moving boxes, Scott made a box fort during FHE for the boys.  While growing up this was a tradition for Scott, his brothers, and dad when they had a lot of large boxes.

Rigby was so excited that he would not stop for a picture.

Peter hamming it up as usual.

I finally got a non-backside, non-blurry picture of Rigby.

Peter's 5th B-Day

This picture is completely Peter--crazy, fun, and just a little dramatic.
He loved his Angry Bird cupcakes.

Scott being silly.  He said he did not care if I put this up.  We will see.

The Rigster

I love this kid's expressions.

As soon as he was done opening presents, Scott surprised him with Angry Birds in Space.  He was in another world.  The only thing that could pull him back to reality was ice cream and cupcakes; even then we had to coax him to stop playing!  This kid is obsessed with and ridiculously good at Angry Birds.

Adeline and I helping Peter open his gifts while he is comatose.

Adeline was switching between eating the remnants of cupcake bombs off the floor and chewing on Rigby's tennis shoes-yummy!  And hey, she was happy so I did not stop her, even after this picture.  Once you have three kids this is what happens!

Peter is always talking about how 5-year-olds do not cry as much and can do so many things more things than 4-year-olds can.  We just have to remind him of that every once in a while.  His favorite things are Angry Birds, Transformers, and Rescuebots.  He loves letters, spelling words, and numbers; he really just loves learning anything.  He is starting to get a little sassy lately as well.  He is such a great helper and big brother; he is always so great to play and help with Rigby and Adeline. 

We love you Peter!   

Moving

Scott and I have a very bad habit when it comes to home improvement projects.  We will start a project and then Scott will lose focus.  I get angry, but decide to avoid conflict and move on to another project!  Unfortunately we are very much do-it-yourself type people as well, so we were crazy the last few weeks before moving.  

Scott's wonderful mom agreed to fly to Texas and help us out with the kids while we finished up house and moving stuff.  It was AMAZING to have someone help out with the kids.  We do no live near family and rarely leave the kids with other people, so it was so wonderful to have her help us out.  THANK YOU SO MUCH KRISTINE!!!

While she was here, we discovered where Rigby gets his sleeping habits from.

The movers came on Thursday to pack our things and loaded them onto the truck on Friday.  We had the carpet cleaned and finished up some last minute things Saturday and headed out Sunday afternoon for Louisiana.  Scott started work on Monday and we stayed Sunday and Monday nights in a hotel.  Tuesday morning we closed on our house in Louisiana and the movers delivered our stuff on Thursday.  What a crazy week!  

We have been here for about one month now and things are starting to feel more normal and like home.  I promise I will post a video tour of our new house soon.  Thankfully, our house in Texas has gone quickly.  A Chinese couple that does not speak English are buying it, so negotiations have been a little messy.  Their realtor is also Chinese and does not know what he is doing and the inspector that they hired was completely incompetent.  As of Friday though, we will no longer own two homes--yeah!

We are liking it here in Louisiana.  The weather is similar--just a little more rain.  Our house has a playground in the backyard which the kids love and there is NO wallpaper!  Our neighborhood is right next to the office, so Scott has a 12 minute walking commute--crazy huh!?  We are really close to New Orleans and the food here is DELICIOUS, so if you come visit do not plan on sticking to a diet:).  As much as I hate moving and miss my friends, there is something fun about living in a new place, having a new adventure, leaning about a new culture, meeting new people, etc.; it is almost like turning over a new leaf.  Have a great Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday (more about this in a later post)!

Our Marriage Survived DIY Wallpaper Removal!

I will admit that I knew there was a strong possibility we might move, but my hatred for the wallpaper in our master bathroom had grown into a ferocious monster that clouded my judgement one afternoon.  As soon as I started tearing, I regretted my decision; it had begun, so unfortunately it had to be finished.  Good thing Scott is EXTREMELY patient because any other husband would have blown up (I love you so much Scottie:). 

Unfortunately the lazy builders put the wallpaper up over the dry wall!  It tore up the paper everywhere except on some of the taped areas.  AHHHHH!!!

Tall Ceilings = More Wallpaper. I passionately HATE wallpaper now!

Scott had to apply a skim coat/joint compound to all of the tears.  The pink parts in this picture are only touch up.  Basically, he had to apply joint compound to every inch of the wall except the taped (white) areas.  After MANY, MANY, MANY hours of sanding, we were ready to tape and texture.

Here I am putting on primer.  I have become very comfortable standing on the top rung of the ladder.

It got a little toxic with the chemicals from the texture, primer, and paint, so Scott and I wore these lovely masks.

Here is the finished product!  New faucets, new towels rings and racks, a new blind, and most importantly NO wallpaper (except that little part under the vanity that we totally overlooked--oops:).

It looks SO much better than before!  

Too bad we only got to enjoy it for about two weeks.

I do not think that Scott and I have fought over anything so much as we did this stupid bathroom.  I told him that if we ever buy a house with wall paper again (hopefully not though), that I will hire someone to do it while he is gone to work and ask forgiveness afterwards.  I am so glad it is done!!!

Mom, Dad and Marissa Visit

My parents and my sister Marissa were able come and visit for one week after Christmas.  They helped me clean almost all of our 32 windows--inside and out!  They looked beautiful!  Too bad we only got to enjoy them for two weeks.  Except for the windows, we mostly just enjoyed watching movies and relaxing.  Also, Scott and I got to enjoy free babysitting while we attended the temple and dinner without the little hoodlums.    

Here is Rigby playing with his tools and Marissa reading in the background.

Grandpa Stewart made lots of Lego castles/pyramids for the boys to destroy.

Adeline was very shy with Marissa and my parents.  Every time they would talk to her, she would put her hands up over her eyes and put her head down.  By the end of the week though, she dropped the shy act and became good pals with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Moo.

Adeline loved the tags that Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Moo gave her for Christmas!

My mom and dad made this FHE sign for me for Christmas.  I LOVE it!

Ahhhh . . . her super cuteness makes up for her drama queen performances.

Unfortunately my brain was occupied with other things, so we did not get any pictures of everyone together.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and helping us out Mom, Dad and Marissa!

Christmas 2012

I am repenting from my long blogging hiatus!!!  Life has taken us for a ride the past few months, so I have had little time or energy to do more than just survive.  The biggest ride has been moving from Texas to Louisiana!  This last move has been MUCH more stressful than any of our previous moves.  Between finishing up DIY house projects, church callings, kids, putting the house up for sale, buying another house, and the holidays, we have been feeling physically and mentally exhausted.  And honestly we have had it easy because with a transfer, we had the option to have the company buy our house in Texas if needed and a moving company packed and moved all of our junk (really moving makes you realize how much stuff you really have and probably do not need!).  People who have to do this without any help are amazing; moving is no picnic!

On to Christmas! 

   Rigby got into the Christmas spirit by wearing stockings and a Santa hat.  

Such a cute lil' boy isn't he?!

Originally we were just going to use my little one foot Christmas tree from college, but a few days before Christmas, Scott bought a tree from Lowe's for $12 because they were trying to get rid of them.  Truthfully, I am glad we only had it for a few days.  The boys could not leave the ornaments alone and Adeline insisted on a steady diet of pine needles.  It sure was fun to see the kids excited about a Christmas tree though.

The main attraction Christmas morning were the Lego Duplos.  Santa was put in charge of acquiring this toy and went a little overboard.  From what I heard, Mrs. Claus was not too happy about 700+ Legos going to a house where two little boys cannot keep 100+ Legos picked up!  The boys LOVED it though and Rigby especially loved his orange Legos.

Here is "Peter the Builder" showing of his construction hat  . . .

. . . and "Rigby the Builder."

I put this picture up because I thought it was cute of Scott in his pj's.  However, when he saw it he said, "if you are going to put that picture up of me, then you have to put one up of you."

So, this is the best (worst) I could come up with of me.  Whatever!

And just so I do not have to end with a picture of me, here is a sweet pic of Adeline. 

She was grumpy that morning, so I opted not to wake her.  I feel horrible that we forgot to take pictures of her opening her gifts though:(.  Sorry Ads, I promise next Christmas will be much more organized and we will get a picture of you!