Awesome Sunday

My sweet husband has really been dying for me to go out to this new deer lease land. We decided to go today after church. We put Bennett down for a nap and my mom came over to sit with him. I have to be honest that I am a baby when it comes to the wilderness. I just don't like bugs and being sweaty and dirty. Sounds in the woods scare me and I am terrified of snakes. I mean terrified. We pulled up to the property in Doyline and what do you think the first thing Neil says? "Look at the HUGE snake, that thing is huge!" Ugh. I didn't even look. I waited in the truck until he got the 4-wheeler out. We went for a ride and it was really nice. Neil wanted to put up his deer camera and it needed to be done ASAP. I kept saying that the land reminded me of Camp Wabanzee (sp?). It is a girl scout camp in town. I guess that was my main experience with the wilderness. We rode around and looked at trees where the deer rubbed them. We even got to ride to where we had a view of Lake Bistenau. It is going to be a nice place once they get in there with a dozer. Neil is so excited about having a place so close to hunt. I know Bennett will love getting to go out there with his Dad. I hope they put some sort of air-conditioned camp house out there soon so the girls feel welcome!

When we were walking around I heard a noise and I jumped right on Neil's back. I was so scared. It turned out to be a bird. Neil thought I was crazy.

Here is Neil installing the game camera. We walked by it and smiled to make sure it was working.

The lake is beyond those trees. I thought they should put the camp in this open area, but Neil said that it would flood. The grass is actually supposed to be covered in water when the lake is up.

We got home and had just enough time to bathe and get dressed for our Sunday School party. This was such a fun party! The Buteaus hosted a fish fry at their house. We had a huge turn-out and perfect weather. We were getting a little worried because it was supposed to be rainy. We are thankful that the rain stayed away. They had 2 pools, a bouncy house, and a slip and slide for the kids. It was like an amusement park for kids. We had a wonderful time. Thanks Buteaus!

Here is my sweet playing in the bounce house.

Here are Caroline, Bennett, and Georgia. The girls looked adorable in their bikinis.

Bennett loved the slip and slide. I think this might have to be our next purchase. Thanks Pops for that new bathing suit.

Erinn sent me this amazing picture. What a happy boy!

Here are Drew and Leigh Raines. They are so sweet.

Here are the chefs. Neil, Trey, and Beau made some great fish, fries, and hushpuppies.

Here are Elizabeth, Caroline, Miller, Georgia, and Bennett eating dinner.

Lance pushed all the kids down the slip and slide. Poor guy got roped in to a tough job! Bennett loved it. I love this action shot.

We had tons of left-overs so we called the fire department up the street to see if they would like it. They were so sweet to bring the fire truck over to pick up the fish. They were so appreciative and so were we! The kids loved getting to climb in the fire truck.

Here's Shep wearing the fire man helmet.

This was the Captain. He was so sweet to B. Bennett went right to him!

We had a great Sunday. We are just getting geared up for only 9 more days of school! Wooohooo! I am so ready for Summer.

Saturday

This morning I had to get up just like a regular school day and head to a workshop. The whole parish is switching to an A/B block schedule so we had to go learn how to do it. The only thing I took away from the 5 hour session was learning how to get out of a straight jacket...literally. Our hard earned money that is taken out for taxes was spent on a juggling magician. I don't mean to sound negative, but I really wanted to learn how to teach a 90 minute lesson! I will attend 2 workshops this Summer where I will hopefully learn the ropes.

After the workshop we headed to the Samples Crawfish Boil. Don Samples is my old boss from my Beneficial days. Since our entire company was shut down...we were both laid off. Don is one of those people that can be successful and rise to the top in any situation. He got a job at Chase and 2 months later he was a district manager...running the Consumer Lending department. Pretty awesome. They have an annual crawfish boil every year and we were invited. It was pretty different this year with a 17 month old. They have a pool and I was so scared that Bennett was going to make a run for it. He was in to EVERYTHING. We had a lot of fun and can't wait for next year!

Bennett thought the live crawfish were really something.

They have the best back yard for entertaining. They have a huge open area and a pool with a TV outside. Talk about fun.

Here is Diane, Don's wife. She is so sweet to Bennett.

Here are Don, me, Bennett, and Diane.

Daddy Shopping Trip

Bennett needed some milk and new sippy cups for day care so Neil ran to the store to get them while I bathed Bennett. He came back with all kinds of stuff for Bennett. Neil held up one of the shirts and said "you will really love this one." It was an animal on a skateboard saying "Cowabunga" with matching black shorts. I thought it was sweet that he went out and bought all of this for his boy... I just wish he was actually going to get to wear some of it. :)

Ruston Visit

I had a workshop at Tech in Ruston today so we went over there last night to stay. Nana and Grand-Machine were excited to have their boy spend the night.

They bought Bennett one of those kid chairs from Pottery Barn. He really liked playing on it.

Nana bought Bennett some crayons and coloring books so they had a good time playing.

Grand-Machine even colored with Bennett. He let Bennett take every single crayon out of the box.

After playing, we went to the Bistro for dinner. We were excited that Aunt Rebecca was off work and met us.

She even took him in the kitchen!

We asked them to heat up his ravioli and they brought it out all fancy-like. I like what the doily does for the plastic cup.

We had to go outside because Bennett was done inside. He needed to get out there and play.

After dinner, we headed to Neil's old house. He bought this house in college and now rents it out. Rebecca is going to be moving in this weekend. We have had a lot of repairs done so we wanted to see how it looked. It brought back a lot of memories from college being in that old house.

We got home and Bennett was wired! He did not go to bed until after 9. He cannot get enough of Otis and Otis cannot get enough of him. He threw the ball to Otis about 100 times and never even got tired. That's Richard in the back...he was packing for his 11 day sailing trip with his brother.

Today we got up and did some more playing in the chair and I headed to the workshop.

I went to lunch with Rebecca, but she denied me a photo.

17 Months Old!

This is at Mommy's work (Captain Shreve High School)...you liked exploring the halls!

Bennett, you are 17 months old today! I cannot believe how time flies. You are such a sweet, busy, playful boy. We love you so much and love watching you grow. Here is what are you doing these days:

• You wear a size 4 diaper.
• You have all 4 molars, 3 bottom teeth, and 6 top teeth. 13 teeth! wow.
• You are so much more cuddly than ever before. You will come over to us and just put your head down in our lap or shoulder. We love it. You also know what "gentle" means. We had to teach you how to rub softly instead of slapping. It is so sweet when you rub your little hand on my face.
• You are such a sweet boy. BUT...if someone takes something away from you or tells you no...you do not like it. This usually just happens for a minute or 2 and you are back to normal.
  
  
  
• You sleep with your lovies at night. You usually wake up in the morning holding both of them.
• We went to the doctor last week and you stood on the scale for the first time. You weigh 26 pounds.
• You are starting to get a little picky. We used to be able to put anything on your tray and you would eat it...now you are starting to spit out some veggies! You love pasta, most meats, and you LOVE fruit.
• When it is time for bed at night we will say "ready to go night night?" You will usually wave bad say "bye bye" and walk to your room. When you say night night it sounds like "nye nye."
• The words you say are ball, night night, bye, hi, thank you, teeth (tee), mama, daddy, two, nana (banana), book, and some others.
• This is the first month that you are really starting to repeat what we say. You have always sort of repeated us, but now it really sounds like the words! It is amazing to hear you talk.
• You love to be around people. You are such a social little thing. We love that about you.
• You have started this month really getting interested in books. You always liked to play with them and "read," but now you will actually sit in my lap for 2-3 books. We are working on your animals and the sounds they make every night.
• You are still the love of our lives! You have your whole family wrapped about your finger!

This is us at Captain Shreve's Showboat. That is our talent show and I wanted to go watch one of my students perform.

Mother's Day

Since I was off work on Friday my dad and brother surprised me with an edible arrangement at school on Thursday. It was a nice surprise!

On Friday before we left for New Orleans Bennett and Neil gave me the most wonderful Mother's Day card. I just love it and thought it was so creative. I am a sucker for a homemade card. It says "hats off to the best mom in the world!"

Here they are as Saints taking their helmets off.

And here they are as cowboys. Not Dallas Cowboys...western cowboys.

Here they are as Vikings.

Here are the cutest boys in their tuxedos. They did a great job making the card! Thank you Neil!!

I had the privilege of going to the Mother's Day tea party at Bennett's daycare before we headed out of town. We sang a couple of songs before the party began. We all sang twinkle twinkle little star while the kids made their hands "twinkle."

We went in to the lunch room for the tea. They really served lemonade and we just watched the kids eat cookies and pound cake.

Here is Bennett with Aurora. She just loves Bennett and he loves her. Her mom told me that she always runs up to Bennett and gives him a big hug in the mornings. Bennett is seen here rubbing Aurora's arm.

Bennett made me a sweet picture of his hands made into flowers.

We got home on Sunday and had Bennett waiting on us. We were thrilled to see him. I really missed him a lot and couldn't wait to see him. I love being a his mommy! Mom had a nice dinner all ready for me for Mother's Day. Thanks Mom! Thank you so much for keeping our sweet boy, too. Happy Mother's Day!