Happy Mardi Gras!

We took the girls and cousin Brandon to Natchitoches on Saturday to be in the Krewe of Wag-uns children's and pet parade downtown. We brought masks, beads, a wagon and even our dog, Bingo to be in the parade. The girls' friend, Alex, and his dad joined us also. We made it up to Natchitoches, ate a good lunch and then it started to rain!

We went to the parade route and waited it out - the rain let up so the parade began. The kids were given lots of beads and cups to throw out and had fun chunking things at people. Halfway through the parade, it really started to rain and we all agreed it was time to cut out. We took a detour and made it back to the truck. Everyone was wet and a little chilly, but we turned up the heat in the truck and made it back to our house. Brandon spent the afternoon playing with the girls, including "house" and "restaurant" with Peyton.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a lot of things happen to us these past few weeks. It's the season for birthdays. Shawn celebrated his 33rd birthday in late January and Franny celebrated her birthday Jan. 31. I celebrated my 32nd birthday this past Tuesday, and the girls were busy celebrating Valentine's Day.

Both had parties at their school, and Peyton's class go to see the stage version of Peter Pan. She had a great time watching everyone fly and especially loved the mermaids, including "Sundrop."

It's also been a sad month. My grandmother, my father's mother, passed away this week in the hospital. Shawn and I visited her on my birthday, just one day before she died. Peyton and Emily went to see her at Christmas and last week at the hospital. During both visits, the girls made her laugh and hopefully brought her joy. Both girls went with us to the funeral and were so brave.