NIOSA 2014

Another year, another Fiesta and of course we always go to NIOSA 2 nights to support my step-mother's Bolsa booth. I used to love going to NIOSA when I was in high school...underage drinking, meeting boys and NIOSA kisses :-). I've decided I may be too old for NIOSA now, but as long as we have the booth to retreat to and get away from the crazy crowds I will probably continue to go. James was allowed to join us for one night again and as always he had a great time. He is finally at the age where he can really help us with the booth and I think he was probably our number one bag seller on Thursday night. I was SO proud of him! So proud in fact that I let him stay out until 10:30, meaning he didn't get to bed until 11 pm...man was he rough the next day (and he was off from school because of Battle of Flowers!). He's lucky we love him, that all I have to say! Anyway, NIOSA was a lot of fun and I think we had some really good bags this year due to our many volunteers and artists who painted bags. Looking forward to next year!

A shot of the Bolsa booth

Mike and my dad

James selling one of the bags he made himself (we sold all of them!)

James with Gigi

James playing some games in Clown Alley

throwing darts (he did better than I expected)

James with Margaret

My little salesman

Margaret and I

Here's James selling bags...he was a little thrown off by the churro that Baw Paw gave him ;-)

Jackson is 8 months!

My precious baby boy is now 8 months old! I have no idea where the time goes and can hardly believe he's already that old. Here's his stats:

Weight: 17 lbs. 4.5 oz.
Clothing size: 6-9 months
Diapers: size 3
Feedings: 6 oz. bottle & 2-2.5 ounces of baby food every 4 hours, except early morning feeding which is an 8 oz. bottle with rice cereal in it

He still loves baby TV, the jumperoo and rolling round on the floor. He gets up on all fours, but has yet to crawl. He mostly is just scooting backwards. I predict he'll be crawling by next month. His 2 bottom teeth have come in and I think we're working our way up to some more as he has been a bit more fussy than usual. He is such a lovable, happy baby and I am really enjoying watching him develop.

My big boy

playing with his toys on the floor

So handsome!

Cavalier's River Parade

As we do every year, we headed downtown for one of the most fun Fiesta events, the Cavalier's River Parade. This year we took some of James' good friends along, Logan and Embry. We started with a great dinner down at the club and then enjoyed the parade from some great seats. The kids had a great time as always.

Embry, James and Logan all ready for the parade

James and Logan at the club

James and Logan enjoying the parade

One of the floats (sorry it's blurry)

Mike and Kelson

Easter 2014

Here's some photos from our Easter Sunday celebration. James loved his Easter trail and had a blast doing an Easter egg hunt with his cousin Louisa.

James with his bunny trail

Almost to the end of the trail

The big finish!

My handsome boys ready for Easter mass

James and Louisa ready for the Easter egg hunt

And their off!

Baw Paw with some of his grandchildren at the end of the hunt

Jackson playing wit his twin cousins, Cece and Wolfgang

Bluebonnet Pictures

Being a Texan through and through, I've always wanted to get the Bluebonnet photos of my kids, but just never seem to have gotten around to it. This year I finally got some done of my boys and I don't think they could have turned out any better. Our friend Brenda Marafioto is an extremely talented photographer (she took Jackson's newborn/family photos last fall) and luckily she was doing some bluebonnet mini-sessions, so I took advantage of it and we definitely got some keepers. Now I just have to get around to getting them printed and framed. :-)

Alamo Heights Night

Just like every year we like to kick off the Fiesta festivities with Alamo Heights Night. This year we went with the Suggs and the kids had an absolute blast. It's always a bit too crowded and exhausting for us parents, but it is well worth it to see how much fun the kiddos have.

James and Lyla ready for Alamo Heights Night

James and Lyla on the bus headed to the festival

James' favorite thing to do a AH Night

James and Lyla with El Rey Feo

My handsome Jackson

My hubby and I

Baton Rouge trip

Mike and I won a free trip to Baton Rouge to stay at their new Casino, La'Auberge at a charity event we attended last year so we recently decided to cash it in. It was a nice couple of days away from the kiddos and some much needed Mommy and Daddy time. Included in the trip was a free $200 dinner at their very nice steakhouse and a couples massage. The dinner was absolutely amazing, but unfortunately we were unable to partake in the couples massage because I fell ill the night before and we ended up leaving early the next day. Even though we didn't win big (or win anything at all ;-)), we had a great time. The highlight of the trip was a swamp tour we took on an air-boat. Our boat captain happen to be the Louisiana alligator wrestling champ so he happily got in the water with the wild gators and played with them. Needless to say it was extremely entertaining and we even held a baby alligator. We hope to go back with the boys someday because that tour was definitely something James would enjoy.

Trying my luck at the slot machines

Mike and I on the Air-boat

A picture of the swamp

"There's gators in them waters" ;-)

One of the boat captains feeding a gator

Our captain swimming with gators

he's nuts

A photo of the beautiful swamp lands

Me holding a baby alligator

Mike holding the baby alligator

My handsome hubby at 18 Steak (I forgot to take a picture of the delicious food)