Make new friends

My dear friend, Karyn, and her husband, Michael, just brought their son, Diwas, home from Nepal. We had a GREAT time playing at the park with him just a few days after he came home. He is full of energy and got along great with the other children. I had been telling Jack about Diwas for several months, and he was very excited to meet him.

 To put this picture in perspective, Joe is 1 1/2, Jack is 4 1/2, and Diwas is 3 1/2. (He is exactly one year younger than Jack. He will turn 4 and Jack will turn 5 at the beginning of April.)

LSU-MSU basketball with friends

The Saturday after the Imagination Movers concert, we drove to Baton Rouge and met up with the Lagraizes to go to the LSU-MSU basketball game.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day.  Mike the Tiger was sleeping when we got there, but then he woke up and strut his stuff for us.

Jack, Avery & Eli

I don't care whether or not you're an LSU fan, you cannot tell me that this isn't a beautiful mascot.

We tried to get a picture of all 5 kiddos in front of the tiger statue.  This is one of several shots.

Then, we decided to let Brent get a picture of all of the tiger fans (and Jack...I have to confess that he is quite a vocal MSU fan these days.  Much to my dismay, some time in the last year he decided he's not an LSU fan anymore :-(

But, thankfully, Joe is still a fan of the Tigers!

Cecelia tried her hardest to get Joe's attention, but, like most men, he was more interested in the jumbotron.

And, eventhough we cheered our loudest, MSU won a close.  It was a one point loss for LSU.

After the game, we all met our friend Trina at the Mellow Mushroom for some pizza.  I think we've cured Trina of ever wanting to have children of her own.  It was a GREAT day, but by the end of dinner, the kids were all quite squirmy.  After we told everyone good-bye and hit the road, Joe was asleep before we reached the interstate, and Jack drifted off not long afterward.  It was a nice, quiet drive home; and it only took 5 hours!

Imagination Movers in Concert

This is just a random picture from January of Jack and Joe playing nicely together...have to capture those rare moments :)

Santa Claus gave Brent, Jack and me tickets to see the Imagination Movers in Lafayette on Friday, February 4th.  Our plan was to drive down on Friday during the day to be there in time for the concert that evening, but there was some severe winter weather in Louisiana and heading to Mississippi on Thursday.  (In fact, Lafayette schools and government offices were all closed on Thursday and Friday.)  So, on Thursday at 11:00 a.m., we decided to go ahead and drive down on Thursday in the hopes that we'd beat the bad weather.  So, we scrambled to wrap up things at work and get packed and got on the road at a little after 2:00 Thursday afternoon.  The roads were OK, but every bridge in Mississippi was slick with ice and we saw several wrecks along the way.  It took us over 11 hours to make what is normally a 6 hour drive!  (Joe slept most of the way, and Jack was a good sport.  We all had our moments of getting antsy, but around 10:00 Jack finally fell asleep...to put it in perspective, his normal bedtime is 7:30-8:00.)  We arrived in Lafayette at around 1:30 a.m.! 

Friday we spent the day just being lazy at my mom's house before going over to Gramps's for dinner with all of the Lafayette grandparents.  Then, we headed out to the concert.  Jack had been saving some money from Christmas and decided to buy a hat like Mover Dave wears.


We were surprised that there was an opening act...it was Genevieve and D.C. from Choo Choo Soul.  They do short musical, educational vinettes between programs on the Disney Channel.  It was a fun surprise to get to see them.  D.C. can really dance!

 We had great seats...on the second row!  Several times throughout the concert the Movers came down and slapped hands with the children in the audience, and Jack got to dance with Dave and slap hands with a couple of the other guys.  I decided to enjoy the show rather than trying to take what I knew would be poor quality pictures, but here's one quick one of Mover Smitty...

 Then, after the show we were lucky enough to get to hang out with the Movers at the private meet-and-greet!  (Grandmommy had some connections!)  Jack was super brave and walked up to each of the movers and "chatted them up" (that's what he'll tell you he did.)  We saw them two years ago in Birmingham right after the started the show on Disney.  At that time, they weren't quite as well-known, and they came out and took pictures with anyone in the audience who wanted to hang around.  So, we brought the group picture that we took in 2009 and had them sign it on this trip.  Each of the guys had a comment about that "blast from the past."  It was really exciting to meet and visit with each of them.  They were all very gracious and friendly.

Jack & Smitty:

Mover Rich and Jack:

Nina and Jack (she's the Mover's "neighbor" on the show and was a special guest on this tour.):

Mover Dave and Jack checking out the flash-back picture:

Mover Scott and Jack:

Coulda-been-Mover Daddy and Jack:

It was a great night!  On the drive home, Jack commented that it was a wonderful day.  When we asked if it was worth the long, 11 hour drive, he responded, "Hmmm, no not really."...Ha! Oh well!

Snow Day-January 10, 2011



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Christmas

After a visit in Natchez, Sue joined us in Lafayette for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We decided we would try to all go to church together. The service was a bit too long for the boys.


Santa brought Joe some stackable blocks, some wooden, cutable fruits and veggies, and a Dinosaur Train dinosaur (Tiny). He also brought Jack two dinosaurs, Boris and Buddy. The three dinosaurs actually interact and talk to each other. Jack also received a real Peter Pan costume, some Star Wars figures, and tickets to go see the Imagination Movers. He only asked Santa for a surprise, and it seems that the big guy delivered.

Jack didn't waste any time putting on the costume and playing with Luke Skywalker. (Or, Luke Skyscraper, as he called him once :-)

Jack enjoyed opening gifts

And, Joe eventually got the hang of it.

Cheryl's family was sweet enough to drive over from Texas while we were still in Lafayette.  We don't get to see them very often.  This is Monica Hambrick (Cheryl's sister, Joanna's, daughter.)

Reagan (Monica's younger brother) really enjoyed Joe, and Joe really enjoyed him.

Grumps and Mimi gave Jack a Paperjams guitar.  Joe decided to give it a try.

Christmas with the Fountains

We spent the weekend before Christmas in Memphis with Todd, Rebecca, and Sue.

And, it SNOWED!