New Orleans Trip

My 92 year old Maw Maw (grandma) passed away last week (photo at left from last summer when we last saw her). Jeremy was gracious enough to let me go and it was a wonderful trip. The funeral was a celebration of a woman faithful to God, her family, and her neighbors. Lots of funny stories were shared and ways that we saw God work in so many of the lives that she had touched over the years (for example: my cousin Melissa now wants to be a nurse and was strengthened in her faith from spending some extended time with her). She was a gracious, hospitable, and wonderful person! After the funeral we all gravitated to her old house, which was badly damaged in Katrina and semi-recently purchased by another couple. They are in the final stages of renovating the place (you can hardly recognize it) and were so gracious to let us take a tour when 20+ of us showed up in their backyard (we didn't realize they had started living there yet). It was neat to see the place that I have to many childhood memories of continue to be used in a way that would make Maw Maw and Pa Pa smile.

I was just thinking of all of the ways God was gracious to our family on this trip. Here are some of them: allowing my mom to fly in from Bangladesh in time to see my Maw Maw before she was unable to talk and being with her when she passed, giving me a husband that let me go for five days and being wise enough to keep Abigail with him, providing last minute plane tickets for only $271, providing a wonderful church family so that it only took a few hours to find three different families for Abigail to spend some time with while Jeremy was at work, being able to spend five days with my mom, and making Olivia ridiculously happy the entire trip (wonderful on the plane, napping in the Ergo at the funeral and French Quarter and where ever we dragged her in New Orleans, charming all of the older folks and family at the funeral, sleeping through the night in a pack n play (she was having trouble with that prior), providing joy to Aunt Myrtle during an afternoon visit, charming all of the BART riders on the way home when it was 1am New Orleans time, and eating lots of meals happily from her carseat).

We had a delicious dinner at Aunt Myrtles after the funeral. Under the watchful eye of my Uncle I came back to Olivia in a pile of wipes (and eating them too). We all had a good laugh.

Mom and Olivia; Mom with her siblings - it was so fun to see them all together and sharing moments of their childhoods.

What FUN we had cheering on the Colts and Saints that Sunday afternoon/evening. I became well acquainted with all of the Saints cheer songs and the drama of the game, while Olivia slept obliviously to the screaming, fireworks and cousins jumping into the pool.

My mom got to spend some great time with her grand-daughter, who loved her. The second photo was from our day in the French Quarter. We had such a nice time eating beignets/cafe au lait, walking around the quarter and along the river front, and driving the scenic route along St. Charles. I joked that our husbands would have hated our afternoon, which consisted of aimless walking and looking at the pretty houses with no hope of sustenance at the end :) We did have a wonderful lunch at the Seafood Pot before we left - can't beat seafood gumbo (even if the butter on the bread we couldn't tell whether it was butter or cheese it was on so thick).

Go Colts

We all cheered the Colts to victory last weekend and are looking forward to doing the same this weekend! Olivia wore a cheerleaders outfit we got as a gift for Abigail and our eldest squeezed into a 18-month onesie somehow since she had to have on Colts gear too (it's covered up by the sweatshirt in the photo). I think that Jeremy has declared Olivia is wearing this outfit to the nursery this Sunday. Abigail wore it when the Colts won the Superbowl, so he might think it's a good luck charm :)

Skiing at Tahoe

Last Saturday, Jeremy and Abigail went to Tahoe with two other daddies and their kids (one of them being her really good buddy Vincent) to Diamond Peak to try their hand at skiing. We spent much of Friday afternoon 'practicing' in our living room after we rented skis from Any Mountain. She liked falling and doing jumps (Jeremy picking her up in the air).

Jeremy said Abigail overall had a good time (Olivia and I stayed at home). They stayed on the bunny hill the whole day which had a small chair lift. When she got going too fast, Abigail would just fall down, which her and Vincent thought was hilarious. Hot chocolate was a big treat at the end of the day but they only took one break for lunch and were otherwise on the mountain the whole day. Sounds like a great first trip to get exposure to the wonderful world of skiing. We are planning another trip up in March.

They left our house at 5:45am and didn't get home until 9pm. Abigail didn't take a nap the whole time, since the car they traveled in had a DVD player. She watched hours of movies, but it kept her happy on the long trip.

Here's some videos of the day. Jeremy says that they make Abigail look much more impressive than reality. Regardless, we were proud of her!

Polka Dotted Kids

For Christmas, I got the girls matching dresses at Old Navy.

On the left, another photograph of Olivia looking slightly petrified in her sisters arms. She looks a bit more relaxed in the other picture.

Last Sunday, since there was only one service, we went to Sweet Tomatoes (one of those all you can eat salad bars Jeremy detests) because they have a breakfast brunch on Sunday mornings that is over by the time two services at church gets out. It was okay, but Abigail was most excited by the fact that the ice cream machine they have for lunch/dinner was working at 10am and her parents let her have some chocolate ice cream after breakfast.

The girls are starting to take baths together. They both think it's hilarious.