Its All Fun And Games Till Some One Gets A Moon Pie In The Face!

I've been to my fair share of Mardi Gras parades so when we went to alabama i was thrilled that the kids could experience one of the south beloved traditions. it wasn't a REAL Mardi Gras parade but it was for New Years so more like a smaller version. 

while walking through town i snapped a few shots of the people patiently waiting on the balconies of hotels, restaurants etc. 

Jazzy found a HUGE maple leaf on the way so then of course Ridge wanted one as well. Jazzy spent a few minutes looking for one to make her little brother happy. how sweet is she!

that crazy lady with her hands up is my NaNa (grandma) and the head is C.J. my cousin. their both hoping to land some of them moon pies and beads. i told NaNa she might get more attention if she did it the old fashioned way with a lift of the shirt lol but she wasn't brave. 

heres Ridge holding onto the gate waiting for some floats.

 Theres the crazy lady again lol LOVE YOU NANA!!!

 heres some students from a local high school. people are always surprised when i tell them that the south is still to this day segregated in many ways. schools are just one. as you see here these talented girls are all black, there whole school was black and then theres was another school that was all white students. 

heres Daddy and Ridge. Daddy held little man up most of the time until he got pelted with a moon pie (marsh mellow filled cookie). by the way those people on the floats aren't very easy with throwing. i cant tell you how many times i got hit in the face. i do however blame this somewhat on my mother. she had been bugging me the whole time to send pictures so i was trying to text her over some and of course they go for the girl who  is stupid enough to be looking at a phone while objects are being hurled her way. stupid me!

this of course was Jayvins favorite float.

I'm asking Ridge where the fire works are. he responds with "i dont know"

from left to right- Aunt Dee Dee, Ridge, Nathan, Jayvin, Jazlynn, Na-Na and Na-Nas friend

the kids had so much fun. and were obviously worn out! heres Jayvin sleeping on the couch with his blanky and puppy Lana

A Christmas Letter. Better Late Then Never

*M*y body at last became a normal, functioning body again after having two children within 22 months. Rick and Anna became proud parents to Olivia Isabella On Dec 4^th. Ridge was only 14 months at the time so it was definitely refreshing to have my body all to myself again.

*E*very thing happens for a reason so when Nathan decided to quit his job to go to school for engineering all we could do was hope for the best. Well our faith paid off because we are delighted with the results. Nathan is excelling while maintaining a GPA of 3.4.

*R*elationships whether it be family, spouse or friends can be an amazing thing. Nathan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Everyone has always said that they can’t believe how time has flown by for them but it really hadn’t for us. We took our time and didn’t get caught up in our day to day life and really enjoyed all the beauty within our relationship, family and children.

*R*esponsibility is something that I’ve always embraced. For years it was all about me being a mother but after my fourth baby I was asked by a previous job to come back to work. I immediately took on new responsibilities in managing, training and marketing. I have been able to work at home most of the time and actually work on site only about 4 or 5 days a month. We have loved being able to put the children first and have them stay home with us. Being their primary influence until school has been our main focus.

*Y*ou would be excited to know (at least we are) that the kids passed out of kindergarten and we have found a wonderful montessori school. After the first evaluation our teacher says they will be with several 6 year olds and some 7 year olds. They will be starting school this march so will be going in at the age of 4 but will be turning 5 two months after school starts.

*C*ry…cry….cry, that’s all I did after ridge’s crib was replaced with a big boy bed. Of course we are very proud of him and happy that he gets to experience just one of many milestones in life.

*H*ope and faith is something that as humans helps us strive to live and become better people. Hope is something that Nathan and I have strived to give people in hopes they will continue their faith in humanity and God. This year like many others we have donated our time, heart, effort and money into families and organizations. One being, the Street Light organization which helps fight against child sex slavery out in phoenix. This organization I am becoming more evolved in as a councilor and am taking all necessary courses to do so. By the end of the year I hope to have started my own organization to help, council, and educate single teen moms in how to become wiser in the hard world we live in making it possible for them to start making better decisions for themselves and their babies.

*R*oadtrips are something that our family really enjoys. This year we didn’t take very many but manage to get 5 trips up north in and 1 to Alabama. One of the trips was up to Greer to spend some time with the family up at the cabins and the rest were to flagstaff to take the kids to the snow. We went to Alabama to see my family and spend New Year’s with them. Being in Alabama has made Nathan and I want to move out of Arizona and we are now considering it.

*I* did this letter REALLY late but I’m glad I did cause even though it was just after New year’s when we went to Grandma and Grandpas farm I feel it is well worth adding in. I had been telling Nathan that I really wanted to go to Oklahoma and now that we have I really want to go back. The kids had a blast and it was so nice to be away from the city life, being with family and enjoying the simpler ways of life.

*S*chool work and kids have consumed most of our year so squeezing in days of fun to the zoo, museums, parks, fairs, festivals (my favorite being the chocolate festival), parades and more was a HUGE part of our year! I won’t go into detail on every activity but I assure you it was a BLAST!!

*T*aking a little off the top is an understatement. Ridge went from long, blond surfer hair to a military do in the matter of minutes. I cut it myself and of course saved some of his curly locks. He now sports a more fashionable fohawk.

*M*otivated to do more for others Nathan and I have become more involved in our church. We haven’t gone every Sunday and probably won’t this year either but we have taking our teachings and faith into our everyday life and became better parents, people, lovers and friends. We made more of an effort in 2010 to take classes through church to help us better understand each other and ourselves. What a blessing this has become.

*A*fter giving birth to my last 2 babies naturally (twins were by csection) I have decided to become a natural child birth teacher. It is something I’m passionate about and another thing I can do from the comfort of my own home. I plan on finishing my courses by this summer and will be on my way, educating more men and women about a less invasive, less business like, natural birth.

*S*o I’m not sure you would call this a highlight but Nathan insists it’s a must to document his success in completing his rubix cube. It only took him a couple hours and realized with the help of algorithms and patients, it came very easy to him. (this one’s just for you hunny =) )

Shrimp Boil, Unless You Ask My Mother And Then Its Bowl

Mom: did you know ya’ll are gonna be doin a shrimp bowl out there with Nana and them?

Me: what’s a shrimp bowl?

Mom: you know what a shrimp bowl is, you know where you have the potatoes and corn and shrimp and….

Me: oh, so it’s a type of food?

Mom: well ya you cook it all together

Me: wait, you mean boil??

Mom: ya, I shrimp bowl

Me: no mom its shrimp BOIL! You had me thinking you were talking about Alabama’s version of the super bowl or something I was very confused!

Now you can laugh at me all you want but you should be laughing at my mom. I mean there’s a rose bowl, fiesta bowl, super bowl, orange bowl, sugar bowl, iron bowl etc (and btw there really is a shrimp bowl) so it’s not that far fetched that I would assume that she was talking about some yearly event that Alabama has. Geeze mom even DeeDee and Nana say boil and they have some thick southern accents.

Anyways the shrimp boil was awesome! Papaw boiled some shrimp (I wanted the kids to learn how to pull the shells off but they weren’t into it) and potatoes, corn cobs and sausage all in a big pot with lots of spicy seasonings. It was DELISH! Nathan is in love with the southern foods and if I would have known that I would have been cooking it more. It’s so easy and simple. So needless to say I will be cooking it more for him. My favorite part was the black eye peas, I could eat those ALL day long! hers a picture of the black eyed peas! you have to eat them every new years eve for good luck!

 here's the shrimp. it wouldn't be a shrimp boil with out these suckers

potatoes and corn!!

my NaNa washing the pot that we did the boil in. its huge!

my Aunt DeeDee making a pig of herself

nothing like family