Zoo Fun with the Guillory's

One of the best things about living in the deep south is the fact that you are pretty much guaranteed at least one or two 70 degree days even in the winter months.  Lucky for us one of these perfect weather days fell on a Saturday in January, so we loaded up the kids and headed to New Orleans for some Audubon Zoo fun with one of our BFF families, the Guillory's.  Between our two families we had 8 kids, (they had picked up a couple of extras somewhere, as you do) but only one boy!  Wattsy-boy stood alone in the male category.  Good thing little Elysium will be able to join us soon to help even up the score.

So what happens when the kids outnumber the adults?  Things like this...

We took the double stroller and planned to swap out tired kids in the free seat.  This led to lots of bickering over the free seat...

Damon's long-lost cousin...(they have the same arms!)

My little monkey...

John and his lovey...

L. L. Cool Watts...

And he does not seem to mind being surrounded by beautiful girls...

But he really only had eyes for John...

I love this picture of Cille...it captures her bubbly, effervescent personality...

Jazz hands!

Action shot...

Look who else we found at the zoo? Our favorite almost-two-year-old, Skyler!

Skyler was happy to see his buddy Watts...

Water break!

Fun, South Louisiana Style: they're training for the next big hurricane party!

Mawmaw Shirley, this is a nutria rat...

...who needs to visit the dentist...

I was reading poetry to Cille, hence the glazed-over look on her face.  Hey, when your mom is an English teacher this comes with the territory.  Get used to it, kid...

I read poetry to Watts also...

Damon was very proud of himself for this artsy shot at the Roman Candy wagon...

I love that the random guy on the bench smiled for the picture and Cille wouldn't even look at the camera.  Classic...

Our group, minus our photographer for the day, Damon.  I love these guys...

Church Outfits

On Sundays in January the kids had a great time showing off their Christmas duds in a weekly church outfit fashion show...

Dads and Daughters

Now that we are living in "We Are BR," I saw a billboard for a fun little program LSU offers for dads and their little girls.  "Dads and Daughters" encourages fathers to spend time introducing their daughters to the joy of athletics by decking them out in matching t-shirts and giving them tickets to selected LSU women's sporting events throughout the year.  How cute are they?

So far a few of the events have fallen on inconvenient days for us, but Damon and Stella have attended a gymnastics meet (which according to Damon was NOTHING like the Olympics) and Pawpaw took Stella to a basketball game.  Next year when Cille is a little older the girls will take turns "dating" Daddy for the events...

Forever LSU!

A Visit from Pop and Nana

So this is not the best look for any of the people in this picture, but I am posting it because we had a rare and special treat a few days into the new year: a visit from the Wilson Family! (Well, three-fifths of the Wilson Family.  Darn those big kids and their independence!)  Lowell and Angie have been like a second mom and dad to me (albeit a mom and dad much too young to have actually given birth to me and much cooler than real parents...but you get the point.) and for Tab and Zach I have been like an annoying older sister who won't go away and who loves to butt into your life and boss you around.  Sarah can relate.  It was great to see them and spend a little time catching up, even though our visit was much too short!  

Now it's our turn to visit them, so find us some plane tickets, Damon!  Love you, Wilsons!