A Mardi Gras Gender Reveal is so fun!

You know Mardi Gras is near when my dining room is full of fabric and Mardi Gras beads. But we still took a few minutes today, to grab some pink beads and get a picture of these two big brothers announcing their little sister. 

Happy Carnival!

As if life wasn't busy enough!

It's been too long since my last post. And I'm not going to even try to fill in every detail that happened since June. But I will do my best to throw out some highlights of proud and happy moments with our boys, family and friends, along with some exciting news...

This summer was tough, and frankly, I was glad to see it come to an end. I needed the distractions of a new school year, football season and planning for Disney. Lucky for me, I have two beautiful and fun boys, along with a fantastic husband to always lift my spirits!

We celebrated Tia and Neil on June 26th with a beautiful outdoor wedding. And aside from the sweat running down my legs as I stood in the overbearing sun, everything really was just lovely. Nova and Aiden were proud ring bearers, and it was a fun celebration. Tia was a beautiful bride, and I'm glad that Neil found her.

The Eggerts FINALLY visited us in July and we were so happy to spend time with them doing all New Orleans things, like visiting City Park, eating beignets, going to the aquarium and eating at Muriel's. We just wish that they lived closer! But despite the distance, we're thankful to have them as our friends. I hope that our boys are lucky enough to make dear, lifelong friends like we have. 

We celebrated Jasper's 5th birthday at Colonial Lanes Bowling Alley. He had a wonderful time and I know the parents all enjoyed being in the air conditioning rather than outside in August. Some of his best buddies were there, including Kate, Wyatt, Aidan, Owen, Kit, Felicity and of course, Nova and Aiden.

Jasper is doing great. He's an awesome kid with a lot of personality. He's silly pretty much all the time, and he gets in trouble for talking almost every day at school. Over the summer, he learned to swim and he's very confident in the pool. We had a lot of fun with him this fall, bringing him up to LSU for tailgating, taking him to Disney for the first time, and just watching him be a kid. We are just so proud that he's ours. 

Jasper and Sam's first day of school was August 19th, and it went very well. Jasper started Kindergarten and Sam started PreK-2. We were especially proud of Sam because when we dropped him off, he was the only one in a room full of crying kids, that didn't cry. 

One of my favorite things about being a mom is dropping my kids off at school. We drop off Jasper to the front yard first, so that Sam knows his brother is close by. They kiss and hug each other goodbye--sweetest thing ever. When Sam gives hugs, he closes his eyes and smiles. After leaving Brother, he races us to his classroom. Call me a weirdo, but no matter how tired or grumpy I am each morning, walking them to their classrooms and kissing them goodbye automatically puts me in a good mood. The feeling is just incredible.

Like I said, it was a tough summer. We needed some fun family time. So in late August, we got a cabin in Clark Creek for a night and took the kids hiking in Tunica Hills, which is where Jeremy took me back when we first started dating. We walked them too far, it rained on us and we got lost twice trying to find our way out. But it was still fun and we're looking forward to going back; especially because this is about as "out-doorsy" as this mom is gonna get!

Speaking of rain, we got caught in a lot of it around the end of summer. We took the kids back to City Park and for a canoe ride Labor Day weekend. And of course, after about 20 minutes, we got hit with a crazy thunderstorm, lightning and all. Luckily, we were able to park the canoe right by Morning Call for shelter (and beignets.)

We took the boys to several LSU games this year. Well, not actually games, but tailgating, and they loved it! As Uncle Justin would say, "We've come a long way since college and your dad's old 1980s ice chest!" No seriously, it was bad. Our first year out of Tigerband, we had this tent that was about 100 pieces and other tailgaters would literally be laughing at us as we tried to assemble our tailgate. So after working about ten years, we finally bit the bullet and bought some much needed tailgating equipment last year. It was worth every penny. It's no secret that I enjoy tailgating more than the game. But between the college friends and good food, who can blame me!?

Every now and then, Aunt Carol and Aunt Debbie offer us their tickets, and we're happy to oblige. So when they offered us tickets to the LSU vs. Florida game, we thought it would be fun to take Nova to his first LSU game. We left our boys with Granny, and took the opportunity to spend some fun one-on-one time with our nephew. We took him to the Chimes, bought him an LSU t-shirt and enjoyed "most " of the game together, and although we lost at the VERY end of the game, I think he really enjoyed himself, and had fun cheering for our tigers. We hope he's a tiger some day!

DISNEY. Where do I even begin? I'll make this as brief as possible. What a trip!? I had a spreadsheet per day and a wonderful family that tolerated my precise plans down to the minute. The boys LOVED Disney. Highlights included "the ball," The Tower of Terror, The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, ALL of the characters we got to meet, trading pins, Mickey's Philharmagic Show, The Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, and of course, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. We shipped the costumes in a box a week ahead of time because they were too big to take on the plane. But man, were they fun to wear at the Halloween Party! Sam was a hit, as he ran after Daddy in his shark costume. And once it got dark, Jasper stole the show with his homemade robot costume and light-up arms. My favorite part was seeing their faces throughout all of it, and watching them sleep in their strollers after each exhausting, but fun-filled day. I know Jasper will forget a lot of it, and Sam probably won't remember any of it, but we made great memories there and took so many pictures to help them remember. I look forward to sharing all of the 300+ pictures with them when they're older. 

I especially loved Jasper's willingness to "costume" with me. When he first told me that he didn't want to go with the family theme (Finding Nemo), I was a little disappointed because if you know me, you know I love dressing my family up in homemade costumes. But as much as I wanted him to be Crush, he wanted to be a robot. What was a mom to do? Duh!? Make my boy the best homemade robot costume that ever was!! So we went to Home Depot together, picked out some silver insulation, found some dryer coils, and I got to work! As much as I enjoy making things and seeing the finished product, the best part of it all was Jasper's interest and excitement as I worked on it. He loved ALL of my ideas for his costume. Every piece of foam. The way the helmet came together. The pants that looked like disco dance material. He loved it all, and he was so proud to wear it. 

And then, there was Sam. He literally tried on the shark costume for about 30 seconds then whined and wiggled his way out of it as fast as he could. That's when I asked Brother to step in and help. I said, "Jasper, can you show Sammy how fun it is to be a shark?" It took Sam all of two seconds to change his mind when he saw Jasper in HIS shark costume. And the craziest part about it was that he actually wore the shark for most of the Halloween party AND Halloween night. I wonder how long they're going to let me do this to them. Is forever too much to ask?

As if the pressure to get costumes completed in time for Disney and Halloween wasn't enough, Jasper's kindergarten project was to dress up as his favorite saint. And because I already had an old costume from a few years back, Sam was able to dress up too. They both made adorable St. Peters on All Saints Day.

Sam is 3! We celebrated Sammy's 3rd birthday at home with a pizza party! I forced the kids AND adults to wear masks and play games. My favorite was the "adult" pizza box relay race. As you can tell by the picture, Jeremy took it very seriously. But after much cheating by all, it was Aunt Christina that took home the gold!

Sam is positively "the baby." He refuses to potty train at 3 years, 2 months old. He has gotten into the bad habit of bossing us around, and if we raise our voices at him, he cries uncontrollably. But he's still the cutest three-year-old we know! He is obsessed with Ninja Turtles, dinosaurs and anything that Jasper does or says. He hates collared shirts and polo shirts and if I let him wear his Ninja Turtle shirt every day, I think he'd do it. He's very particular about what color bowl, cup and spoon he gets, and he always wants "the blue one." He still hugs and cuddles with me in the mornings. He crawls in our laps whenever he can, and we totally let him. He still gives the best hugs. He discovered "sprinkles" on ice cream so whenever we make dinner, he always asks for sprinkles. When I made lasagna, the Parmesan was the sprinkles, and when I made gumbo, the file was the sprinkles. This kid... we just love him so much! Now only if we could get rid of the diapers!

At Thanksgiving, we thought it would be fun to bring the pie face game with us. Uncle Tony just LOVED getting a nose full of whipped cream. And Jasper thought it was the funniest thing ever. Then, we brought it to Grammie and PawPaw's house and Nova couldn't put it down. Jasper and Nova went back and forth, getting faces and foreheads full of whipped cream!

The holidays came and went. We visited with family and friends of course, and Santa brought the boys brand new scooters and helmets. Our family and friends were extremely generous toward the boys, and they have more wonderful gifts than they know what to do with. We celebrated Aiden's 2nd birthday and caught Aunt Jess and Uncle Trey in the Krewe of Jingle Parade. And for New Year's we decided to stay home and celebrate the New Year with a few family and friends.

Even with so much going on this past Christmas, I took some time to reflect on the blessings we've received and I'm very thankful for the life God has given us. I do not take this life or my precious boys and husband for granted, and I intend to make the most of it for my family and me by promoting a positive and grateful existence, in which we are thankful for and respectful of one another. I'm especially thankful this year for the people He has put in our lives that help make us happy and complete. We are fortunate to have such valuable family and friends that genuinely care for our well being and success. Their willingness to listen and their support with whatever trials that come our way help me to believe that I must be doing something right. I hope that as our boys grow, they're blessed with the same friendships and love that we've been blessed with. I feel like, with them, we can get through anything. And I hope that those positive and loving people know that they can expect the same from me. You know who you are--thank you from the bottom of my heart.

OK, now for the "news." Jeremy and I thought long and hard about another child. I love my job as a mom, and its the best, most rewarding job that I could have imagined. I know Jeremy feels the same about being a dad. Our boys bring us more happiness and contentment than I ever expected. Their innocent laughter, their unconditional love, and their precious smiles made this a no-brainer for us. We are excited to announce that we are having another "Starr" in August of 2017! Last night, we had our own private gender reveal (thanks to Aunt Jessica) so that the boys would be the first to find out if they were having a brother or a sister. After a few bites of cake pop, Jasper revealed that we are having a GIRL! Jasper and Sam were less than thrilled, and more interested in their cake pops. In fact, you can see how he was more excited to show Grammie and PawPaw his legos than he was to deliver the news. As for Jeremy and I, we were both in shock. I think Jeremy is trying to figure out how to pay for a wedding twenty years from now, anticipating the rise of inflation. (I think he needs to take baby steps and focus on how to change a girl diaper first!) As for me, I'm still in disbelief. It's a good thing I have about six more months to take it all in.

A girl. I can't believe we're having a girl. What wonderful big brothers our boys will be!