Saturday, February 28, 2009

A Little Bit of Everything

So...as I was reminded by a little bird, I haven't posted in well...quite a while. I was a bit ashamed to note it has been a month. Uggh. It is not that I don't want to post, but when you get out of the habit and have a lot to talk about, it seems so INSURMOUNTABLE! But, if you will stick with me, I will attempt to make my way through this past month.

My family and I were so excited to have my mom, my sisters and their children (minus my nephews Cooper and Greyson {who were missed dearly!}) come stay with us for a visit. Gavin and Josiah could barely contain their glee. As Jos said, "I can hardly wait. It is like waiting for Santa to come!" I shared his opinion. No matter how often I'm blessed to see my fam, the excitement doesn't wear off! I was so excited to soak in sister and mom-ness, kiss on my niecies and nephew and meet baby Scarlett for the first time. Just thinking of them makes me smile. Poor Kit was outran by estrogen (a first in my house-hold) but he held up well with a grin. We spent a lot of time shopping (of course) and made a fab detour over to New Orleans for a day trip. It was fun to show Steph around, she was the only one who hadn't taken the 2 hour trip with us. We walked up and down the French Quarter and munched tasty, sugary beignets at the Cafe Du Monde. Despite the rain, we had a blast.
With the arrival of my family, however, an unwanted virus decided to take up residence in Josiah's eyes...bleh...pink-eye. First Josiah, then Gavin and Gunner and on to our sweet visitors to take the gift home with them. Fair is fair, when they left behind a nasty cold. (I don't care, girls...I'll still take you and all your germs as long as you come!!!) I use this cold as one of my excuses for not posting. Josiah was out of school for 3 yucky, tiresome days and the house was full of tired, whiny children...but who's complaining...

Josiah welcomed a visit of the tooth fairy. Yes, at the age of 6 he has lost his very first tooth. Kit and I were reminiscing our treasured quarter when Josiah blurted out he was so excited to get his five dollars. Say what! According to Jos, his friends from school were paid $5 for their teeth. That had to be one rich tooth fairy coming around their houses. I guess our fairy was feeling the effects of the economy. Josiah earned a beautiful, if crumpled (carrying around a large dollar is difficult, it must be folded down to fit in her pocket), green 1 dollar bill. Cute boy was still very excited thinking of the multitude of ways he can spend it.
A fun tradition we've aquired is the Mardi Gras holiday. The first celebrated Mardi Gras of the United States took place here in Mobile (not New Orleans like one might assume). And believe me, it is honored here. Mardi Gras parties, balls and parades take place all month long. In fact, the school systems gave 3 days off for the children to share in the celebrations. We love every minute of it. King cake, gold green and purple, beads, beads, beads! Or as my boys shout, "Give me some beads, please!" The enthusiasm is effusive and the air swells with school bands marching, rock bands playing on floats and people whistling and cheering. They throw handfuls of beads, stuffed animals, cups, balls and of course, Moon Pies (bleh...um, I mean yummy). We spent the day in Daphne walking the gator walk, driving around, playing at Chick a' Fillet then hanging around for their parade. It is our favorite parade. The boys ran around, danced and cheered the evening away. We filled 3 Wal-mart bags of goodies and made our way home. This is one tradition that will be greatly missed when we move. We're glad we'll be able to enjoy at least one more.
For Valentine's Day, we each received a travel bug for geocaching. It is similar to a dog tag that you attach to something and give it a mission to fulfill. People pick it up from one geocaching site and after checking what its mission is online, deposit it in another one closer to its destination and job. For FHE on Monday, we decided to go to the dollar store and purchase items to attach our bug to and send them on their way. It was interesting and fun to see what the boys chose and listen to what they wanted their bugs to do. Josiah chose a plush frog and wanted to see how many times he could travel from Alabama to Oklahoma and back again via geocaching sites. Gavin chose a little rubber alligator and wanted him to reach Africa. He wanted his gator to visit the crocodiles over there (what an imagination!) so we have him getting pics with people seeing any kind of croc-in zoos, on wildlife preserves or pretend ones. Kit's is still a work in progress, but he wants his to be a little toy skeleton off to get pictures in cemeteries all over the world. Gunner's/mine is a little shoe. We want it to take pictures of any monument, anywhere. We're excited to track their progress wherever they go.If you made it through this post, hooray for you! You must have fabulous endurance. We have an exciting month ahead of us...Grammy and Papa are coming to visit, it is Kit's birthday and the weather warms up and gets balmy. Ahh, again, the benefits of living down here.

8 comments:

Mere said...

$5?!?!?! I definitely think I got a quarter for a tooth. That is, if the tooth fairy remembered (it's tough being the last child!) I think a dollar is more like it!

Mamapierce said...

$5 per tooth? WOW! We do one dollar, but I have heard of one family that paid $20 per tooth...as if dental insurance doesn't cost enough! ha ha!

Jenny said...

Great, what's next? Gold from the tooth fairy? Glad to hear you're still alive and having fun! I've missed your posts.

Sandy said...

I love reading your blog so I am glad that you are back to posting. Mike and I received a GPS 2 Christmases ago but we have gone geocaching zero times. Hopefully we can try it atleast once this summer but your geocaching story is very inspiring. You and Kit are great parents.

I am very jealous that you live so close to New Orleans. Mike visited New Orleans before the hurricane and he has awesome stories. I know it isn't the same but I would still love to visit New Orleans. Maybe one day we can make a visit to Alabama and you can show us around. Love you lots.

Andrea said...

Liberty, there are plenty of things in life that are a chore to get through, but your post are NEVER one of those things. I always enjoy reading about you and your cute family. I'm so glad that your family got to come and visit last month, I know you miss them dearly. And mmmmm..beignets..gotta love them. Yummy!
Funny you mention the quarter thing with the tooth fairy. When Josiah showed me he lost a tooth and told me he got a dollar, I said, "That must have been some tooth because the tooth fairy gave me ONLY a quarter." LOL, and he gave me one of those great big smiles of his. :) I'm in agreeance w/ you anything over a $1is a rich tooth fairy (that's what my kids get too).
The travel bug for geocaching sounds like a lot of fun!
Oh, and I totally know what you mean on the posting. I've been behind too, once you get out of the groove, it's hard to get back into, but I'm glad that you did!
Hope Gavin is feeling better. Have a great week, and I look forward to reading more of your post.

whitney said...

Any time you need a bird, I'm there for ya, babe.

What a fun month you had! I'm glad we were able to be a small part of it! It was so great spending time with you-I can't even wait until you come out!

The Mardi Gras parade looks fun, I'm super jealous! I wanted to do our own little Mardi Gras celebration at home, but the kids were just still too sick. Feel free to pass some of the beads our way-the girls just LOVE them!

What fun little travel bugs you guys created. They definitely fit their owners. When the weather warms up, Spencer and I are definitely going to have to take the critters geocaching.

Congrats to Mr Josiah for the tooth loosing! I'm verrry impressed at his grown-up-edness (gotta love made-up words ;).

Love you loads and miss you tons! GIve lots of hugs and kisses to your beasties for me!

ps-sorry for the novel, I should've just written an email :P

Grammy said...

Yeah, I'm so glad to read your blog. The pictures are sooo great! I'm counting every minute until we are there!! Can't wait!

Coty said...

You guys always manage to have such fun! Sometimes I find myself wishing I lived in Alabama!
I want a "throwed roll"...