Adeline's 1st Birthday

(Never mind that this post is 4 months late!)

Happy Birthday Adeline! 

Here is the decor for Adeline's 1st birthday.  I got carried away and made those paper tissue tassels in the background.  They took forever to make but were completely worth because they turned out so cute.

Here is her beautiful birthday cake that I did not have to make (thank you Sam's Club)!

Here is our little diva opening up her gifts.

She got pajamas, books, and a little purse that sings.  It was really cute to watch her try putting her pajamas on by tossing them over her head.

Cake time!  My favorite thing about 1st birthdays!  She was dainty at first . . .

. . . but soon realized how delicious it was.

Here is the cute Birthday Princess in all her chocolate cake glory!

Love the pictures! Hated cleaning up the mess!

As usual Peter got a little jealous of all the attention Adeline was getting, so he decided to visit his baby days again.  This kid loves to be in the spotlight; silly boy!

The Girls

We love having you in our family Adeline!  Adeline already loves picking out her clothes and wearing necklaces and bracelets.  She likes to be told she is pretty.  She thinks her brothers are the greatest, and wants to play with them all of the time even when they are rough with her (she is just learning to be a tough girl).  I thought she would love her purse, but honestly she thinks the boys cars and trucks are cooler than her purse, so she is not all girly.  She is still very much a Mommy's girl, but also loves to snuggle with Daddy while he rocks her to sleep most nights (spoiled little stinker).  Love you Adeline!!!

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!!!