My snowy freezing wondeful trip to WA

It was nice to spend time with the folks and have some quality time with my brother and sister, just the 3 of us.

I love my Mommy!


Really I went to Washington so that everyone could enjoy and get to know Aliyah. I took some fun photos of Aliyah with family. She is so sweet and easy to fall in love with. You can see why.

Auntie Nicole gets lots of Aliyah time. She even got to spend the night with her.

Aliyah thought Grandpa's mustache was the funniest thing ever. She got the giggles when she touched it.

Hangin' with Grandma is fun to do.

Rolling around with Dog Shelby. Shelby was very protective of the baby. She followed her around the house no matter who was holding her. Very cute.

Uncy Christopher gets some play time in too.

Aliyah liked Uncle Chris' cool hat.

Opa is a fun teddy bear to cuddle.

Watchin the game with Uncle Greggy Poo.

Grandma Jody (Alyah's name sake) has fun cuddling her snow baby.

Aunt Donna smelled so good Aiyah kept wanting to suck on her arm.

I love my Cousin Kalli. She is so nice.

13 years and Counting!

The love of my life and I just celebrated our 13th year anniversary. I thank God every day for allowing me to find Loren. He has been my greatest joy along with my children. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life by his side.

Jill babysat the kids while we went out to dinner for our anniversary. It was nice to have an uninterupted time together. Mishonne took the photo. Not to bad.

Fun with Aunt Jill

It was fun for the kids to have Jill here. Aliyah was all smiles for her. We tried to give her a little Louisiana cultural experience while she was here. I think she wokuld have been satisfied with the 75 degree weather we had. Loren took Jill on a swamp kayaking trip, we fed her jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp chowder, and crawfish etoufe, she got to go to an LSU men's baketball game, and Loren took her to the Baton Rouge temple.
Mishonne asked why Aunt Jill can't just come and live in Baton Rouge by us. She was even willing to share a room with her. She must really like Jill to give up her own room.






Jill was a good sport and played lots of games with the kids. Their favorite was twister. Jill beat them every time. Now I know where the kids get their competitive edge from.

Christmas morning

I am playing catch up with my posts, hence the reason I am just now posting Christmas pics. It was a fun experience having Jill with us this Christmas. The kids crave family so bad that I think she was their best part of Christmas this year. Here are a few fun Christmas morning shots.



Aliyah's favortie gift was a plastic squeaky toy Mishonne got her at the dollar store. She would fuss if the kids tried to take it from her.



Much to Loren's credit, not to many men can get their hair standing that high without gel. It is our tradition to open presents with Christmas music and the straight out of bed look.



We try to encourage a hug instead of just a thank you to whom ever gave you a gift. Haley gives Logan a hug for her cool shades.



Mishonne is the dramatic one. One of her traits from Loren I am sure.



For Haley's Santa gift, he came in the middle of the night and very sneakily gave Haley a new bed.



Carrying on the tradition of getting Christmas pjs when I was a kid, each year my kids get to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Magically it always happens to be new pjs. This year Grandma Maryann supplied the new pjs.



Denton loved the cool race track he got from Santa.

Guiding the way for Papa Noel

We have adopted the Louisiana tradition of going to see the fires on the Mississippi river levy each Christmas Eve. The legend is that lightining fires on the levy will help Santa find the children. It is basically a bunch of piros and drunk people lighting huge fires but it has become tradition. Mainly we go to visit at our friend's home who live a block from the levy and have yummy jambalaya.

Mishonne and Logan love to roll down the huge hill going up to the levy. In the back is one of the teepee type fires. There are probably 50 to 100 of these fires up and down the Mississippi River.

Sandra and Mishonne with the fires in the back.

This year Jill, loren's sister came and
so we got to take her. She agreed it is an interesting phenomenon to witness.
Here is Jill and Haley, Jill's new best friend, on the levy.