Our Trip to Louisiana

In an attempt to not overload your senses, I decided to spread out all that I wanted to add on here into 2 blogs instead of my usual extremely LONG post. This is also for my sanity because I was afraid I would overload my already frail (because of exhaustion) brain and send it into oblivion. It really isn't that bad, but it is. We have not gotten back on our schedule since returning home. We are all very tired. I never realize that we do have a decent schedule until we are away from home and out of it.

Anyway, for those of you who didn't know (I don't know who that would be) we were recently in LA for a week. My dad had bypass surgery on the 5th. He ended up having 5 bypasses...I don't have a clue what that is called. He is doing extremely well, and thank you for all your prayers.

We did have a fun trip despite the reason we were there. John Reagan and Evie got to spend a good bit of time with Breyden and Kenden (their cousins). We had all 4 of them lined up to get a picture together, but Greg wouldn't get up from where he was sitting to get a descent picture. Therefore, we have them spread out into 2 pictures instead of one.

This is Breyden and Evie before we got all of them down there.

John Reagan and Breyden

Our first attempt was all of them lined up, but we later put John Reagan on Breyden's lap. They both thought that was great! I think Breyden is being silly here, but you never know with him. He could have been giving Uncle Greg a hard time.

Kenden and Evie
Kenden is 11 months old, and he is one big boy. He has actually lost weight and only weighs 25 pounds now instead of the 30 he was weighing.

I thought they were too cute, so I put another one of them. Plus, you have to be super fast to get Evie while she is looking right at you. As you can see, we didn't succeed at that feat.

Isn't Kenden's adorable in his hat? This was once John Reagan's hat, and we always loved it...still do!

When we were at the hospital ALL day and night Friday, mom was brave and kept all three boys. We took Evie so she wouldn't be too overwhelmed, and Evie was a good distraction for everyone. Anyway, mom sure lucked up because all 3 boys fell asleep at the same time and slept for 1 1/2-2 hours. This was amazing considering Breyden and John Reagan don't really take naps anymore. God was smiling down on here that day.

Saturday, mom made a red velvet cake for a bake sale. John Reagan got the bowl.

As you can see, he got it all over his cheek. Surprisingly his shirt is not covered. I am sure this is thanks to Fifi for helping him.

So you can get the full effect of the bowl!



I have gotten good at capturing this image here lately. Evie was the one who was supposed to be taking the nap, not daddy.
The funny part about this picture is...the whole time Greg was sleeping, John Reagan was at his feet eating out of the cake bowl. Greg never even knew it. He had to look at the pictures on the camera after it was all said and done because he didn't believe me when I told him.

While we were so close to Natchitoches, we hopped on over (on the interstate) to check out the Christmas lights. Every year we say we are going to go while we are home for Christmas but never do. Because we were in Alexandria visiting Daddy, we were closer than usual. We decided to take John Reagan and Evie to check it out.
The night setting on our camera has a delay, so we were having trouble getting pictures that weren't blurry. That's why there are so few here.

For those of you who don't live in Louisiana, the setting for the lights is the bank of the Cane River. It is very pretty.


Here's you a blurry on for good measure.

Back at Fifi's house...you know, Fifi's house is a lot of fun for little boys. If you know John Reagan well, you know he likes to color...with markers, crayons, pens, whatever he can get his hands on. You also know that any surface is fair game to him. I can honestly say that I have scrubbed EVERY wall in this house. Fifi is obviously a little smarter than mommy. She keeps huge sheets of paper around (where she gets them from, I don't know).

John Reagan had lots of fun coloring. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Greg down there with him. We have 2 portrait souvenirs of Daddy's drawing time with John Reagan...one of Evie and one of John Reagan. They are adorable. I might have to put them on here for you to see because they make me laugh just thinking about them.

So this was our Louisiana trip in a nutshell (minus our time at the hospital). I took my camera for the sole purpose of getting pictures of Daddy and Evie because this was the first time he saw her. Needless to say, I didn't get any. Shame on me! But they will be coming! They will be coming soon because we are leaving Saturday to head back down there. Yippee! John Reagan isn't going to remember life before all this time with grandparents. We have seen all of them on and off at different times since the first of November. That's going to be something fun to look forward to in the new year...getting John Reagan back to normalcy. I am excited. Can't you tell?