Roman "2"

Dear Roman,

In the blink of an eye you are "2" years old.  I have no words to describe how much I love and adore you.  You have brought so much joy to our lives over the past 2 years.  Before you were born it was hard to imagine being able to love our second child as much as the first.  Then we met you and it was quite simple.  You are so lovable.  You are so cuddly and huggable.  You are a good boy.  You are our special gift sent from up above and we can't imagine life without you!

I love your spirit and the "life" that you bring to the room.  You are fun.  You enjoy playing with others.  You are funny and make us laugh all day long.  You are curious and watch and observe everything around you.  You are smart.  So very smart.  Your babbles have becomes words and now sentences.  You amaze me with all that you have learned over the past 2 years.  You are good and you are loved.

You adore your big brother and follow his every move.  Soon enough you will have a baby brother or sister to follow in your footsteps.  I just know that you will teach him/her well!

I wish I could slow down time, but I can't.  Instead I photograph almost your every move with pictures and words to remember.  I always want to remember you just the way that you are.  I adore your smile and the way that it lights up the world.  You are a light so shine bright!  As I whisper to you every night before bed.... "you are a good boy and will do GREAT things in this world!"

I love you so very much.  When you blow out your candles tonight dream BIG my precious angel...

All my love,
Mommy    

Fun at the Zoo!

For Roman's special family birthday we decided to take him to the zoo.

I can't believe that this was his first time to visit the zoo!

The weather was perfect.

I had a feeling that the zoo would be a packed house.

I was correct in my assumption!

We had a lovely family day together!

Family pic when we walked in.

The guest of honor enjoying his first trip to the zoo.

My favorite boys.

Roman adores the view up high.

Griff enjoyed the zoo too!

Favorite part of the day?
Feeding the ducks!

No longer a baby.

One second of cuddle time with me.

Feeding the animals for the 2nd time.
He would have done this all day.

Favorite way to cool down?
A sno-bal of course!

Love this pic...

Melting at the end of the day.

Cheese!

This pic cracks me up.
Can you say monkey see monkey do?

A weekends dose of Vitamin D

The weather has been gorgeous the past couple of weekends.

Hands down the best time of year in NOLA.

We have spent the majority of of our time outside.

Nothing like a healthy dose of vitamin D.

It does the body and soul good...

The boys received lots of cool new toys for their birthday.

I hold them back and over time give them one at a time.

That way we always have something new and fun to entertain them.

Newest toy?

The stomp rocket.

Fun for kids and dads alike!

This toy held Griff's attention for a good and LONG time.

Prepare for blast off!

That rocket sure can fly.
Didn't take long to figure out that it goes REALLY high
if you jump on it with 2 feet.

So sweet.
Big bro helping little bro out.

Thanks Emma for such a cool gift!

My pal Al watching his brothers play outside.

Yesterday Satch had school so we headed to the North Shore

 to meet MiMi and Pop for a crawfish boil/ 50th birthday party.

This right here...

So worth the drive!

I knew there would be a bouncy thing.

What I didn't know that it was a water slide.

Didn't have swim suits for the boys, but I did have extra clothes in the diaper bag.

Good enough!

This baby had a ball!

This guy right here also had the time of his life.

The difference that a year makes.
Here he is flying down the big slide in a swimming pool
and loving ever second of it!

MiMi and the boys

Too delicious not to put a second pic up!

Young and not a worry in the world.

My city boys sure enjoyed a little time in the woods.

I love this picture.
Baby Bear entertaining himself with a train
while I finished up some birthday gifts.

Today after church we headed out to another birthday party.

We all had lots of fun!

I love the effort that the birthday boys momma puts into her kids parties.

She is one of my favorite momma party planners.

The decorations are always really cute and made with lots of love.

Everyone ready to sing "happy birthday" to the very special birthday boy.

Baby bear was a hot, sweaty, brownie eating boy!
Their back yard is huge and my baby spent the entire party
cutting the grass with the toy lawnmower.
He was in Baby Bear heaven!

We rounded out the weekend tailgating in the driveway.
I'm not exactly sure why, but they liked it.
The neighbors... not so sure! :)

Just for fun one more dash through the sprinkler.

Husband, Father, Gentleman and Scholar

I honestly can't believe that Satch had his VERY LAST graduate school class today.

This has been the slowest and fastest 19 months of our lives.

Satch and I discussed the idea of him going back to get his MBA over the course of a couple of years.

One day he came home very convicted that now was the time.

His explanation was quite simple.

At the time we had a 6 month old baby and 2 1/2 year old toddler.

We were home anyway so it was now or never.

If he waited any longer he would miss out on too much.

Watching his boys play sports, school activities, etc.

Missing out on their lives was not something that he was willing to do.

I supported him 100% in his decision.

Oh my goodness.....

I was so naive. 

In my opinion he is a very smart man and he would just breeze through school.

He would walk in flash his brilliant smile and dazzle them with his intelligence.

I knew that he was committing to class every other Saturday.

How bad could that really be?  

Right?

Needless to say it was a tad bit more than I anticipated.

He had been out of college for 20 years.

The shock of getting back into the school routine was a bit startling at first.

Yes, he had class every other Saturday.

BUT.... he also had homework 

every. single. day.

He hung in there and never once complained.
Not even once.

I believe I did enough of that for the both of us. :)

He was first and foremost committed 110% to his family.

100% to his full time job.

100% to his school and studies.

Do the math.

That adds up to quite a load for anyone to carry.

The program started out with a brutal accounting slap in the face.

The program was designed for each student to be placed in a group of 3
to work together on assignments and projects.

A few classes in one of his partners resigned.

Now he and his other partner divided the heavy work load of 3 between only 2.

He and his partner, Luci, complimented each other very well.

She is a trained technical writer and he has a business back ground.

Thank God he was blessed with such a great partner.

They both gave it their all.
From start to finish.

I could not be more proud of my husband.

I admire his hard work and discipline.

I am so proud to be his wife.

I am so proud that he is the father of our children.

He is such a fine study of leading by example.

Dream BIG my love...

Easter weekend

Easter weekend was lots of fun.

Satch and I were still out so MiMi and Pop took the boys to the local farmers market.

The Easter bunny was there for pictures 

AND 

there were pony rides.

Griff has been asking daily often to ride a horse.

He must have forgotten his previous 2 opportunities that he ran away from his chance.

Here are my boysies with the Easter bunny.

Is it just me or is the Easter bunny typically a LOT little on the creepy side?

My favorite part of this pic?

Check out the kid in the background trying to make his escape from the 

Donny Darko bunny.  :)

Ta-Da!!!

Griff actually got on the horse and went around for 2 rides.

I am so proud of my boy...

The Easter Bunny left his mark on our house.

Over here he is not a creepy bunny, but actually quite generous!  

Bed-head boys posing with some of their loot.

The boys after church.

Roman is wearing the outfit that never was (twice) for his big brother.

I will not tell you that he was thrilled to put on a jon-jon, but he sure looked cute in it!

We then enjoyed lunch with

MiMi, Pop, Tio and Erika.

After lunch I went through the Easter story with the boys.

I had to make sure that they at least heard that Easter is not just about candy and gifts,

but rather Jesus' death and resurrection.

A few weeks before a friend had our MOPs table over to her house to make

resurrection eggs.

This was a great and interactive way to tell the story to the kids.

I think he liked the activity!

Baby Bear finally getting in on the action.

His mind was set on playing with play-dough.

Not easy to change this 1 track mind! 

 

Next up?

We had to get our "bunny on" for our Easter egg hunt.

2 cute bunnies...

And he's off...

Roman was not left out of the action

he was just more into the harder to find eggs. :)

Not too shabby Baby Bear!

Griff and Erika inspecting the eggs.

Next on the agenda?

Play-dough!

Baby Bear was now happy.

The last time Erika baby sat for the boys they played with play-dough.

Roman remembered this and insisted on doing it again!

Can you say steel trap mind?

(he is my child after all)

Such a fun day that we shared with family.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed...