MISSION POTTY TRAINING....ACCOMPLISHED!

Thank you to everyone who has helped with Nola's potty training over the last 9 months. I thought we would never get here but over the last week (even despite the stomach virus) Nola has become potty trained. When my mom came in town she brought a huge bag of wrapped bribe prizes. She told Nola that if she stayed dry all day she could pick a prize. Last Friday and Saturday worked great, Nola was falling for the bribes, then Sunday she had 3 accidents in her pants. I was afraid to keep letting her wear underwear because we are constantly in the car and I was afraid she would have an accident at school and the kids would laugh at her. My mom said, "we are just going to rip the band-aid off!" On Monday, it just sort of clicked. She would tell us or just go to the bathroom by herself.

We promised Nola that if she was potty trained she could get a fish. So that's what we did! We took Nola to dinner at Moe's, her favorite restaurant, and then we went to PetCo down the street.

"Who wants to come home with me?"

"Frankie, where are you?"

We decided to go with a Beta fish because we thought it would be less maintenance.

Nola picked out the fish tank. This wasn't as easy as we thought. Too many decisions...Fish, tank, rocks, decorations....ugh!

We got everything we needed and headed home.

Nola helped her dad get the tank ready. We had to wait for the water to sit for a while so we brought Frankie to the bathroom while Nola took a bath.

Nola wanted to help put everything in. Of course we had to get purple rocks. We would have gotten a yellow or purple tank if it were a choice.

Ta Da: Introducing Frankie the Fish!

Nola is so proud of her very first pet!

SMILE!

And to end our big adventure, Nola wanted to read Frankie a story before bed.
PRICELESS!

Nana's Visit, LSU Gumbo Cookoff, & St. Patty's Day Parade!

Nana came to NJ for a visit because we had tickets to see Michael Buble in concert and since Jay was going to DC for a week for work she was going to help watch Nola. Our first weekend was jam packed with things to do. After a little rest Friday night, we got up early and headed to Legends for the annual LSU Gumbo cookoff. Luckily Jay didn't have to cook this year because I don't think we could have taken any more stress. We had all of the stuff and we got there exactly when the event was supposed to start. No sweat!

Our little tiger!

We made sure to pack PB &J, Nola's favorite!

DELICIOUS!

SMILE!

SWEET!

"Mom, I'm ready for my gumbo now!"

"Mmmm! This chicken & sausage gumbo is a little spicy but good!"

"Okay, bring on the duck gumbo?"

One of the chefs (Leah)

Another chef

The winning chefs
They cooked a chicken and sausage gumbo but they topped it with okra rolled in cornmeal. Delicious!

Nola's pictures!

Aunt Heather & Uncle Keith stopped by to taste some gumbo and hang out!

Jay took Nola home and my mom & I walked to Madison Square Garden for concert. Let me just tell you if you ever get to see Michael Buble in concert GO! He is such an awesome performer. We had a great time at the concert!

Sunday after church we headed to Pearl River to meet John & Liam for the St. Patrick's Day parade. There were a ton of people but it is very different from our parades in New Orleans.
There are no floats or throws, just people and animals walking down the street waving. There are firetrucks and police cars that the kids like, but other than that they just had fun running around outside.

FRIENDS!

"Come on Nola, let's see who can blow the biggest bubbles!"
After the parade we went back to the Hannagans for a little get together. All of the kids had a great time playing together. Thanks for inviting us!

Jay left Monday for DC and Tuesday it all went downhill. Nola ended up getting the nasty stomach virus that is going around. She had diarrhea and was throwing up for 5 days...all the way until Sunday when my mom left. Poor thing...it was horrible to see and I definitely didn't want to take any pics. She would scream, "My tummy," and then either throw up or go to the bathroom. She cried for me a lot so I took Thursday and half of Friday off. It was just so sad to see my little one in so much pain. She and I slept on the sofa for three nights.
THANK YOU SO MUCH to Nana for washing all of the clothes and everything that was germy. Unfortunately, as soon as my mom went back to New Orleans she got the virus and was horribly sick for a week. We are so sorry!

EXTRA! EXTRA!

I'm soooo sorry this is soooo late and most of you know already but if you don't...Nola's going to be a big sister! We are due on Sept 4th but I am measuring late August so let's hope for August. I was VERY sick in the beginning, throwing up about twice a day, but that wasn't enough for any kind of medicine. Go figure! Anyway I am a little over 15 weeks and feeling much much better now. I do think we are going to find out this time because I feel there are so many more decisions to make. Also, we want to see what it is like to know since we didn't find out with Nola.
Check back for more updates soon!

The Circus is in Town!

As a Valentine's Present, I surprised Jay & Nola with tickets to the Circus.

Our friends the Danas & Egans were going also.

It was raining really hard so it was a great time for Nola to debut her new raincoat and rain boots. Doesn't she look so stylish?

We rode with the Danas and Nola immediately was right next to Ashley Dana.
"On our way to the circus!"

"Here we go Nola!"

We got there early for the Pre-Show. We were front row for some of the trapeze artists and for the special elephant show.

Waiting for the elephant!

And here she comes....Guess what her name was....Kelly Ann (I won't spell it like mine for obvious reasons) but I couldn't believe it!

At least she had a good talent...she painted for us.
Really cool!

The show was awesome!

Everything they were selling was ridiculously overpriced. $9 for lemonade, $22 for a a blinky spin light. They're crazy, but we had to get at least one souvenir so Nola picked light up animal ears and Ellie the elephant.

The Danas

The Andersens

Nola's favorite part was the elephants.

She talked about this part for days!

Girlfriends

More elephants

There were so many different things in the show, but I guess I was in awe and only took pics of elephants. Jay must of said Wow about 50 times. I don't know who liked it more Jay or Nola. I'm glad we all had such a great time! I'm sure we'll go again!

Lagniappe

Nola LOVES taking pictures with our camera and she is doing really well. It doesn't really surprise me since she has been around the camera since birth, but she doesn't always like to get her picture taken anymore. We usually have to bribe her. She rather be behind the camera. She loves being able to see it on the screen and then snap.

"Ode to school work"

She was able to capture the foot picture I couldn't when she was a baby! :)

"Animal Farm"

"Chaos"

She still has to work on getting her finger out of the way!

Saturday night the McGoeys, Smiths & Foxes came over. The girls all played very well together. I still can't get over how happy Sara is. She is adorable.

Sara eating dinner!

The big girls dinner table....sorry Sara you will be there soon.

And the best for last...we have caught Nola coloring 3 times this week on our carpet. This was the last straw! She lost tv time!

What are we going to do?
At least we are capturing memories for her.
HeeHee!