We Rolled With the Good Times!

All I can say is WOW!

This picture was taken after our first two parades. Since snapping this picture, our mardi gras stash has quadrupled! It's so crazy!

The actual Mardi Gras day was fun but I have to say that the parades leading up to Fat Tuesday's mardi gras parades were more enjoyable. When the boys and I showed up for the festivities on Tuesday, I knew the crowds would be bigger but I honestly I had no idea they would be THAT HUGE! We pulled into our secret parking space and people had tents, BBQs, smokers, canopies, couches, pack n'plays (travel crib for babies) and so much more lined up for the big day! Quinton wondered what everyone was doing!

Another thing about the crowds...I'm not sure how to say this nicely but let's just say the 'quality' of parade goers was not as savory as it had been previously. I was almost in between a Mom vs. Mom brawl when their kids started arguing over a prime standing spot - it wasn't pretty!

You can see by the picture below that it was crowded!

Plus, people were a bit more agressive during this parade making for a not-as-fun but still festive Fat Tuesday. During one of the parade breaks, we snuck over to a fun place my friend, a native Mobilian, Tonya, suggested. It's called Three Georges and it looks just like Willy Wonka's inside! This picture is literally a great illustration of "a kid in a candy store!"

I figured, what the heck and bought Quinton some really fun candies. He even wanted those waxy bottles that you bite the wax off the top and the bottle has a little fruit juice inside. I totally remember those as kids so I thought it would be fun to be old school with Quinton. Um, the waxy part still isn't very good, though.

I thought I should say a bit about a funny aspect of the parades. I think between all the parades, every high school marching band in hundred mile radius must perform in about two or three parades during mardi gras season. Apparently between all of the little towns surrounding us and in Mobile, there are about 30+ parades during the mardi gras season.

Needless to say, Matt and I were a little suprised at first by some of the outfits we saw on the dancers/flag ladies.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

This is a cool building we stood next to for one of the parades. It has that fun southern veranda, perfect for mardi gras.

Quinton modeling one of his favorite throws he managed to catch. What boy wouldn't love a sword!

And last but not least, my poor Sawyer super tuckered out after a full morning/afternoon of mardi gras parades. He was such a trooper and look at my tired smile, too. I think we all need a nap after last week's fun.

See y'all next year for the good times!

Laissez Les Bonne Temps Roulet!

When we found out that we might be moving to Mobile, Alabama for a job offer, I went to Wikipedia to find out more about the city we could potentially be calling home. One of the first things I remember reading about Mobile is that it hosted the first ever Mardi Gras...yes, Mobile originated Mardi Gras in the U.S., not New Orleans... who knew?

I didn't know much about Mardi Gras except the drunken salacious images I'd seen in various movies depicting the New Orleans version of Mardi Gras. So to say I was sceptical of our participation in any kind of Mardi Gras celebrations would be an understatement. I did notice, however, that on Wikipedia, Mobile touted itself as the 'family friendly' Mardi Gras destination.

Two Saturdays ago, we ventured out to our first Mardi Gras parade and it has been love at first beads ever since! Our first parade was in downtown Mobile and we were a little worried about parking, the crowds and well, everything else! As it turns out, parking was easy (and FREE - take that Chicago) and the crowds were super nice!

It didn't take Quinton very long to discover that this was a very different kind of parade we'd ever been to because the swag was so awesome!

Sawyer was a little nonplussed with the whole parade thing at first but he warmed up to it pretty fast...except in the last picture in this blog post.
Now, Matt may strike some as the mild-mannered corporate type but let me assure you, he whooped it up at the Mardi Gras parade with the best of 'em!
This is only a fraction of Matt's new jewelry collection!
After the downtown parade on Saturday, we went to an evening parade in Fairhope, a cute little town just east of Mobile - across the causeway (a really long bridgeway across Mobile bay).

We met up with some new friends from church and had another fantastic time at the parades!
Matt snapped this picture of me pandering in an oh-so-lady-like fashion for beads, stuffed animals, moon pies, frisbees and whatever else the krewe had to throw.

Now, I can't get enough of parades!
I dragged Matt and the boys to another parade Tuesday night. I about peed my pants when I took a closer look at Sawyer in this picture - I hope I don't offend anyone! That kid...
I have to tell you that I am SUPER pumped about the parades tomorrow and the Fat Tuesday parades the day after tomorrow and then, sadly, the season will be over. BUT, that is not where the fun ends because I will now be campaigning for all of our favorite friends and family members to make plans for visiting us next year during mardi Gras season!
Get ready!

Sawyer's First Superbowl Party!

Matt's boss' wife had originally planned to have everyone over for a superbowl party on Sunday but then I received a text from Matt on Friday that she had the flu and they were canceling the party. By then, I'd had my heart set on spending Sunday afternoon with lots of fun people and yummy munchies, so I told Matt we'd just move it to our house!

Saturday, I put Matt and the boys to work cleaning the house and finishing up last-minute projects from moving in what...three months ago...maybe 4?

We had a great time and there was so much yummy food! It was also fun to see the Packers win since they're so close to Chicago and we know a couple of die-hard Packer fans.

Here is Sawyer getting ready for his own tackle...

The party gave me a GREAT excuse to try out a new recipe I saw on this fun website!

These were white cake cupcakes with HUGS inside and marshmallow buttercream frosting on top. Boy, were these a hit!

One more picture in case the last picture didn't make you salivate!
We also made Hawaiian bread sliders...super delish and the kids enjoyed burgers THEIR size!
Another kid favorite...cocktail weenies in a blanket!
You're salivating now, aren't you???

And last but not least, Matt made a homemade pizza that was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

His dough recipe called for beer but Matt didn't feel comfortable buying beer so he bought O'Douls! Funny, I know!

This was a bacon and pineapple pizza but by the time it was done, most of us were way too stuffed to eat it! Thank heavens for half-time!!!

Unfortunately, I was lulled into a food-induced coma and that's all the pictures I have of the rest of the evening!

What Snow???

Throughout the week, we've been hearing and reading on Facebook and other friends' blogs about snow...Snowmaggedon, blah, blah, blah, snowpocalypse, blah, blah, no school snow days, yadda, yadda, you get the point.

Quinton keeps asking when we're going to get snow and happily, I reply, "It doesn't snow in MOBILE!" I have found MY silver lining in this not-so-cloudy town!

So for all of you snowed-in, spring-feverish friends out there, I give you pictures of a little outing from last weekend when the temps here were in the 70s...yeah, you heard me!

We took the opportunity for such a nice day to go to Dauphin Island, about 30 minutes south of our place. It is a small island where a bunch of the houses are on stilts. We did a little photo shoot for some family pictures.
Here is our little family!
Luckily, a nice woman sitting nearby came and took some pictures for us since it's hard to get Sawyer's attention with the 'timer' feature on the camera.

Matt and Sawyer love this game of throwing Sawyer up into the air!

My dad made the comment that Sawyer looks like a kite in this picture!

Quinton and me...I am THOROUGHLY enjoying wearing sunglasses and not my eyeglasses anymore! We LOVED playing in the sand and just enjoying our new surroundings!

I think Sawyer was winking at me, what do you think?

This isn't a close up, it's him winking at me again!

This is at one end of the Island at Fort Conde. It was pretty cool to check out and to the left of where this picture was taken, there is a ferry that takes cars and people to the other side of Mobile Bay. I'm hoping one of our next excursions is taking the ferry...I think the boys would LOVE it!

Although the water was too cold to swim, it was still a perfect day of playing in the sand, having a picnic and going for a bike ride.

For several reasons, I don't exactly love our new town yet, but spending the day at the beach with all three of my boys in JANUARY was wonderful and makes me like this place just a little more than I did before. Of course, after this week's blizzard across the midwest, I like this place a lot more!

P.S. To all our frozen friends: We have space if you want to come thaw out!

He Did it!!!!!

WE CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT!

Today, on Sawyer's official 9-month birthday, he is fully walking!

Not only is he an amazingly happy little boy, he is so ready to keep up with his brother that he's already walking...enjoy!

Playing Catch Up

I spent two hours updating our digital picture frame last night and I realized how far behind I am on the blog. I took gobs of pictures over the holidays but I promise to just post a few of the highlights. I've had the experience on other blogs where there are so many pictures dedicated to an event, you feel like you were actually there (of course I am probably guilty of this, too)! Anyway, we received our digital picture frame as a Christmas gift from my dad about 4 or 5 years ago and I usually just add pictures to the memory card instead of taking them off...that way, we have a fun collection from the past few years. We keep this frame in the kitchen so when we are cooking or doing dishes, it's a fun distraction!

Here is a sampling of new pictures added to the picture frame:

The day before we left for Utah, we were busy looking for our luggage scattered through the house, garage and attic so Quinton made good use of his time and the good weather and played doctor! I love this picture because the glasses make him look the part!

Not the best picture of me, I'll admit but it is a great picture of Mariah, a friend who we met in Chicago and they now live in Utah. Can you even tell she's 6 months pregnant?

A closeup of funny Sawyer.
I love how you can get lost in those blue eyes...

Before we left for Utah, we invited a friend over to decorate gingerbread houses. She has two little girls ages 3 and 18 months who are very cute. My friend Mrs. Woods had never made or decorated Gingerbread houses with her girls so I bought pre-made kits and put them together the night before. Quinton, as you can tell from the picture, was SUPER excited, especially when he saw the 4 pounds of candy Mrs. W brought for decorations!

The gingerbread decorating was a huge hit! A big mess, too, but who cares?
Quinton was quite proud of his Halloween ghost, too.

Sawyer actually wore this around the house for a while before he tired of it so it was a fun night of taking pictures and enjoying his first Christmas season!

Enjoying the lights at Temple Square with my little gingerbread baby. It was unseasonably warm, which was a good thing since I forgot my heavy winter coat all the way in Mobile in the hall closet - d'oh!

Sawyer will LOOOOVE this picture when he's older but don't you love the freshly shampooed baby hairdo?

We are enjoying our local library branch on a weekly basis since we haven't made too many friends yet and haven't found Quinton a preschool, either. The trouble finding a preschool is that all the good ones are full since we are coming in halfway through the year. I am nervouse because Quinton starts kindergarten in the fall (GASP) and it's full day! We have a lot of um...refining...to do before we're ready for that!

This cupcake was one of many we made for Matt's birthday. Quinton really enjoyed eating them! Wouldn't you with all of those sprinkles???

And that's it for now!

I have lots more posts about all kids of stuff so stay tuned!

HAD to share!

Yay! Some new books arrived that I ordered from Amazon.com and we are very excited!

These two books by Munro Leaf were introduced to me while at our friends during Christmas. I read one of the books to her daughter and LOVED the lessons they teach in a simple way for children. Of course, I think some adults could stand to read these books, too, as a refresher!

Matt recently asked me if I could find some books for the boys that he remembered reading as a kid - they had to do with values. After doing some research on Google, I found out they were ones that I remember as a kid, too!
ValueTales!
Valuetales were a series of biographical stories that gave a simplified and fictionalized biography of a historical figure as an allegory, illustrating the value of a positive characteristic. They have been out of print for a while and when I found some on ebay, I was pretty disappointed to find out that the books go for a pretty penny.

BUT, I found that Simon & Schuster is re-releasing the series!

This is their version:

I am very excited to read these to the boys!