Mississippi River Levy

On Friday we went to the levy as a family.  Pa and Justin have taken the older two there a few times, but this was Mika's first time.  Justin thought it would be fun for Taija and Luke to ride their bikes...they had a BLAST!  The kids love to fill up this bucket with rocks and haul it down to the water to throw them in - doesn't take much to entertain them!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  The kids were able to watch part of the Thanksgiving Day Parade on television to start the day off.  I have fond memories of my childhood of watching this very same parade with my family each year.  Given their short attention span this didn't last too long.  We had a pretty easy morning as we didn't have to prepare any food...we were so kindly invited over to Justin's Uncle Tim and Aunt Marshall's home for a Thanksgiving Feast.  Since we are in Louisiana (the South) the dishes were a bit different than we are used to - there was of course a turkey, but all of the sides were new to me, but still delicious.  There was a cornbread stuffing casserole, a carrot casserole, cranberry relish, and a very tasty pecan something (not sure exactly what was in it, but it was my favorite).  Uncle Tim and Miss Marshall's home is absolutely stunning.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and loved ones.  We missed all of our family in Utah, but feel blessed to have been able to spend this holiday with MaMa and the Gunn Family.  We have so much to be grateful for!

Taija wasn't feeling the best, so she spent most of the evening on her make-shift bed.

Alligator Swamp

For those of you familiar with the show Swamp People, we had the opportunity to visit the Kliebert Family Alligator Farm.  It was a unique experience to say the least.  We went on a tractor-pulled hayride, pet several different types of lizards, saw thousands of turtles, and of course alligators.  The kids were even able to sit on the back of a 10 foot alligator!

 Oh and SNAPPY the turtle made a surprise visit!

 They had their faces painted - Taija got a turtle...Luke didn't sit still long enough for them to finish his alligator!

 Random donkey!

Baton Rouge Zoo

We are LOVING Justin's rotation here in Louisiana!  He doesn't have to work any weekends and so we have many adventures planned!  First up was the Baton Rouge Zoo!  Funny story - we were at the window ready to pay and I remembered that with my membership to the Miami Zoo we get discounts to some of the other major zoos, so I showed them my card and asked, and next thing you know we got in for FREE!  Yeah!

My cute kids

This post is just for fun...random pics of my cute kids!

 Luke's new tool set he got from Auntie Kate and Uncle Scott for his birthday

Silly Pa put Mika in a bag

HALLOWEEN

We are now in Louisiana!!!  We will be spending the next two months here with Justin's grandmother - MaMa.

Okay...here is a bit of catching up.  During the month of October I tried really hard to be a good mom and put together craft time for Luke and Taija.  I think we did a total of 7 crafts!  It seems that a craft with a two year old is a bit more challenging than I anticipated!

Spider hats! 

Halloween night was so much fun!  Taija began asking each night for about a week prior if it were Trick-or-Treating time.  And at last it was!  Side -note: Taija was supposed to be Snow White for Halloween, but right before we moved out to Louisiana she informed me that her costume was too itchy and that she wanted to be a witch.  Since I had to make a trip to the costume store anyway for Mika's cat costume I decided Taija could be a witch.  She was so EXCITED!
I made her choose a hat or a broom (since buying both would have been more than I wanted to spend) and she chose the broom, but since Grammy was here several days before Halloween she spoiled Taija and she got a cute hat that matched.  But of course while we were trick-or-treating she ditched both!
Luke was an extremely cute Police Officer!  So many people told me how cute he was - and I TOTALLY agree!

 Sorting through their loot