Merry Christmas

New Orleans

Ben had his Mid-Year conference in New Orleans this year and I couldn't resist tagging along. The weather was a beautiful 7 Deg the first day we were there and we took advantage by taking a tour on a horse and buggy through the historic parts of town.

Our Tour Guide Molly

The French Quarters, all of these shots are taken from a moving buggy, but the architecture and culture are just amazing. I don't want to move here anytime soon, but its a must see!

This old mansion is set in the middle of the French Quarters and the original iron fences used crops to show posterity.
I love the rod iron porches that are all through New Orleans.

This Historic Church was re-built 3 times because of floods. The last time it was re-finished was in the late 1800's. It has a 3 year waiting list for weddings.

This is the oldest standing original building in Quarters. It has survived all of the major flooding.

Historic Napoleon House.

Famous Bourbon Street. Its clean and peaceful during the day, but watch out at night!

My Favorite, the local Jazz. I loved seeing these musicians out on the streets doing their thing.

Ben got invited to a Pharmaceutical party on the field of the Super Dome. It was really cool being on the field, Ben got to throw and kick field goals.

Presley and Layla LOVED the Saints Cheerleaders. Well Presley did anyways, Layla just wanted to steal a pom pom.

The girls pretty much danced it up on the field all night and finally went down on the side lines to watch Ben throw passes.

I took the girls to the ZOO because Ben was at the conf all day. They had a bayou/gumbo trail with these little shanty houses.

Unfortunately the weather got really cold and rainy that day and we didn't get to stay the whole time:(

This is how me and the girls spent most of our time. Layla on the bed playing games with my tablet.

Presley playing office at the desk with the phones unhooked.

I didn't get to take pics of the food we ate, but lets just say, if I don't eat another po-boy anytime soon it would be just fine with me!

Happy Halloween

Olivia and Rapunzel with pascal.

I was a little in over my head trying to sew these this year, I completely underestimated how much trouble the ears and nose would give me. Mima's scary pirate trunk

No I didn't die my hair--LOL.. Jack the pumpkin king and his girl (Nightmare before Christmas)The family

Mima and Pop the Pirates with the girls

The kids with cousin Peter Pan (aka Taylor)

Wolverine (aka my brother) and his wife Alicia

I heart Fall

Our Fall: (this post is backwards, so the first photos are the most recent activities)

St. Joseph's Pumpkin festival. It was so much fun to experience our small towns festivities. The girls had a BLAST riding carnival rides and ponies!

I mistook Micheal Myers for Ben--LOL!

Yes, Layla got a sweet little hair cut to her shoulders. Now her Donald trump bangs match the rest of her hair.

Presley Loved her pony Sugar.

Pumpkin patch with cousin Taylor. He wasn't so happy that day.

Presley had her 4th Birthday and Mima and Pop drove up for the evening. (she hit jackpot with all her new toys!)

Yes, I made this crazy dog cake for Presley. She is really into puppies and loved this cake.

My first EVER apple pie (just ignore that I didn't have a real pie tin). We picked the apples from Schweitzer Farms. It was soooo yummy, Ben and I seriously ate the whole pie in one sitting.!

Summer, I will miss you!

Everyone is going to miss jumping on our new trampoline. It was probably the best buy ever! The girls love it, but putting it together wasn't so fun.

You may think this is just a cute pic of P, but she is really hiding a tool behind her back.

Both girls wanted to help dad

Its a low to the ground fully enclosed 8 ft trampoline--seriously perfect for kids! Plus I can even jump on it, so they will love it for years to come.

I am going to miss my cherry tomato plants!

The girls are going to miss their oasis pool!

We are going to miss how tiny our newest addition is. Presley named him Tuc and the girls are in LOVE! I'm not sure Tuc is, he hides when they come near!

I am going to miss Tuc's room. He lives on our back porch right now, but it in the winter we will have to move him inside. Right now the girls are forced to have monitored visits with Tuc. But most of the time I catch them standing on chairs to watch him.

What? We aren't standing on chairs!