Merry Be-lated Christmas!

I usually have some lame excuse as to why I haven't posted in a while. This time it's a good one! Our new puppy chewed my camera cord in half so I haven't had a way to post pictures until Walmart got a new one on the shelf! Anyway, my parents came in for Christmas and Matt had to stay an extra week offshore to work. So, it all worked out fine. I got to see my parents, and the kids got two Christmas's! We had ours with Matt this morning.

 I made these stockings for the kids this year, then we filled them up Christmas morning. The kids loved it!

 We have a christmas train, so I set up the presents to make tunnels. I think the kids had more fun with that than with their presents....almost!

 Paul decorated the deer. lol

 We couldn't keep this girl still, so most of my pics of her are blurred. 

 Quick pic with the grandkids....notice papaw with his hand on Grace. LoL

 Daddy's home! He loves music, so first thing him and Grace had to play a duet.

 Our Christmas morning (this morning) Matt read the Christmas story to them from the Bible

 Mom gave Matt a stress ball. This is his reaction I just happened to catch with my camera! 

This is what I got the girls from Goodwill! Almost everything with it was bought or given to me separately...used! haha It might seem cheap, but the girls love it!

Finishing Up on NOLA Trip

I found it really easy to post on my blog from the hotel room as the boys lay quietly, but as soon as I got home, my free time disappeared! Haha Anyway, one night we rented a paddle boat to ride on the lake at the park. Matt enjoyed racing the ducks, and pulling broken fishing line from the tree trying to make a fishing pole....or something! Then, on our last day, I took the boys back to the park and we enjoyed exploring some more. It really was a big place. We had so much fun with the time we had, and while others might enjoy Halloween week in NOLA, we didn't like the various costumes or the sounds coming from the Voodoo Festival coming from next door! At one point when I was complaining (not as quietly as I thought I was) Paul told me to do like he does, and pretend you can't hear it! LoL That was really cute.

 Matt looking for turtles....guess he wanted to make turtle gumbo! ;)

 I don't know what kind of ducks these were, but the boys got a kick out of them! They looked like they ran on the water.

 Playing around with the monster hook he found. 

 Notice the smirk on Matt's face...he directed our boat for the water fountain, trying to get me wet!

 Paul found this fish stringer and spent the entire time trying to catch anything from fish, to turtles, to geese with it.

 This was hilarious...Paul made a loop with his stringer, and was trying to lure that goose to it with bread.

 This tree was huge! I just had to show a size comparison by letting Micah climb up it.

This looked so sweet! They were really disappointed to learn that the train didn't operate on the weekdays.

 Another really cute bridge

Our boys looked like the hillbillies that they are, and we got a lot of funny looks. I rolled their pants legs up and tied their shoes to their belt loops. One guy walking by took one look and said, "Awesome!" haha

City Park

Today I took the boys to the city park for some serious energy burning. The park was amazing, and I know we only had time to see just a portion of it! First, we walked through the sculpture garden, and then the boys seen the playground. I think we spent the rest of the time around that area. There was a huge live oak tree that had limbs growing along the ground, which was so fun to climb on! We spent more time on that than the playground itself. When we went to eat the sandwiches I made for our lunch, they were so excited about the ducks that they refused to eat and fed it to the ducks instead!

 Paul took this picture in the sculpture garden.

 A giant metal spider

 The boys still looking for lizards!

 

 Feeding their lunch the birds

 I thought this bridge was beautiful!

 Someone wrote this with chalk...I was trying to get the boys to cooperate...makes for a funny pic!

 We ate beignets at the Morning call...they were good!

Paul finally caught his lizard, threw it in the water, and a turtle ate it! AUUGHH haha poor lizard.

Training In New Orleans!

Matt finally made it back on the rig, and signed up for the first class he heard of. Which turns out to be in New Orleans, LA, for firefighting training! I wasn't too sure where to start when we got here, so we took it slow the first day, and today we went to Audubon Park. We left the girls with our friends Aaron and Emily Palmer, and took the boys for some special time. So far Paul seen an abandoned Six Flags park and is insisting we visit it. Then, he found out the outdoor pool at our hotel is closed for the season. LoL He is pretty bummed about all that, so a trip to a park with 100 year old live oak trees didn't excite him as much as it did me. Aside from bombing the ducks and chasing squirrels for supper, he doesn't think he's having fun yet! Here's hoping we can change that. I've taken a few pictures I think ya'll with enjoy, and I'll get back with and update on how our trip is going!

 I've been forbidden to tell you about this picture, at least by blog. So, just ask! ;)

 Paul pretending to fish, can't seem to make him happy this trip!

 This is HILARIOUS!! Matt tried to go through this door when he was paying for the pizza, as you can see he can't. He was coming to the truck to ask for some cents! haha I had a good laugh about that, then got the camera ready cause I knew he'd do it again.

 Our hotel served complimentary gumbo last night which was delish!

 Audubon Park

 Catching lizards...

 then throwing them in the water!

 Chasing squirrels

 After the squirrels climbed the trees, they looked back down as though laughing at us!

 This picture shows you just how big some of these trees were!

World War 1 Memorial the boys wanted to climb all over.