In case you forgot

Sometimes its hard to remember just how adorable my children are. Especially when one is pouting or when one is throwing a fit or when one isn't feeling well and is fussy. But I do remember...... Ryan and I sure make cute kids!

We love visitors!

A couple weeks ago The Tregaskes family and Grandma Mikey came to visit. The boys of course loved every second of having their cousins around!! So we spent a lot of time driving around showing the wonderful things about Louisiana and why we love it here.

Yes it makes me a little nervous to know that we had 11 people in a 8 passenger car but we somehow survived and still liked eachother after.

One of the "hot" spots to visit is Avery Island - home of the Tabasco hot sauce factory. Here you learn all about the history of how Tabasco came to be. "Tabasco" means "Land of the hot and humid" and the kids all agreed (thanks to Nathan bringing to our attention) that Louisiana should really be called Tabasco.

Of course we had to show off the UL campus where Ryan is now working. It's a beautiful campus with lots of oak trees and its own swamp in the middle of campus. We took the kids to the swamp to feed the fish and turtles - NOT the alligators - but somehow the alligators managed to find a way to get their fill of bread too.

The cousins in front of one of the larger Oak trees on campus

We also went on a swamp tour: Ryan and our tour guide

Just a few things seen on the tour.........

What's a swamp tour without alligators? And what could be more fun than teasing the alligators? Our guide had some fish with him and would throw a fishing line with the fish out to attract the alligators closer to the boat -- but not too close. Of course if I had better reflexes with the camera these would have turned out better but you can see the alligator jumping at the fish (sort of?)

Our next stop was Red Stick or better known as Baton Rouge. We drove over to Baton Rouge so our visitors could go on the longest bridge and say they crossed the Mississippi. If I didn't know how to spell Mississippi before the trip I do now. Listening to 6 children repeat over and over M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i over and over was the highlight of the drive.

Visiting the Baton Rouge Temple

We are so glad that Amy and the kids and Mikey came to visit. Hopefully more people will feel the urge to make a road trip too!!!

Life will never be the same

Ben's been doing the army crawl for a little while now but has finally figured out he can use his knees. Life will never be the same.

Yeah for Father's!!!

I gave birth to these beautiful children but its clear that their favorite parent is Ryan. Maybe its because I have all boys and they naturally prefer dad or it might be that he just is a really great dad.

I asked the boys why they were glad that Ryan was their dad.......

Jack:

He's fun, he reads with me and he eats chips with me

These are all very good reasons!

Payton:

"He's awesome and fun. " Let me take you back a few days..........

I walked into the kitchen the other day and found this on the fridge

So I asked Payton.. "What makes you so awesome"? He said "Because I'm funny and awesome" OK so where did you get your awesomeness from? "Definately from Dad"!


And I might mention that I am awesome too. Payton told me so in a card for Mother's Day. However, I was told I was an awesome mom because he was so awesome. So I guess I can conclude that I am awesome because Ryan is awesome (strictly by association) ...... since that is where Payton inherited it from.

Happy Father's Day Ryan ----- you are totally AWESOME!!!

P.S. Thanks for throwing in the awesome gene to my three awesome boys!

Baby Hyrum and Birthday Boy Adam

After driving 15 hours to move from Santa Teresa NM to Lafayette LA the boys and I drove to Huntsville AL (another 8.5 hrs) with Aunt Nancie to visit Kelli and see the new addition to her family. Welcome to the world Hyrum!!

I personally think he is a little "mini me" to his dad

And just to keep things in perspective ---- here is my giant baby compared to this tiny baby. Check out those cankles!

Baby Hyrum and Giant Ben

The Battraw family - doesn't Kelli look AMAZING!!!!

Payton was so excited to hold Hyrum. He really is so good with babies. Unfortunately we didn't get to hold him nearly as much as we wanted because he had to be on the billi blanket most of the time

Happy Birthday Adam!!!

More pictures to come.....

Teaser

I realize I have been a little MIA in the blog world recently. Hopefully this makes up for it and hopefully I can get the blog bug again and start posting more.

Spring Break - The Drive

For Spring Break we took a road trip to Utah with Ryan's parents. Ryan's brother Aaron lives in Provo so we went to visit him and to see some of the church sites in Salt Lake.Here we are - we've been on the road for a few hours and everyone appears to still be happy and enjoying themselves.
We stopped at Lee's Ferry if you have never been there I highly recommend it - GORGEOUS!

Ryan and Ben

A view of the canyon

My 3 Sons

Looking down to the Colorado River. Something I would have never thought up on my own - but Ryan was showing the boys how long it takes for spit to land in the river.

I have to say that it made me a little nervous being on the bridge. I was ok as long as I was in the center, but the closer I got to the edge the dizzier I felt. I did try to take a picture looking straight down into the river over the edge of the bridge but it didn't turn out so good. I realize I have irrational fears about my children, but I had to keep telling myself ... they will not fall off the bridge.... they will not fall off the bridge.

It was actually pretty cool to see the California condors. I think the boys thought it was cooler to call them turkey vultures, until we explained to them that these creatures are pretty much extinct. There are something like 70ish left in the world and we were able to see 8 of them that day.

Not sure if you can tell what Ben's shirt says "I'd rather be naked". This child loves to be naked. He could be throwing a royal fit but if you take off his clothes all of a sudden he is all smiles and giggles. I'm not sure if that is a baby thing or just a boy thing. Maybe both.

My guys





THE END

More pictures of our trip to come!