MARDI GRAS SEASON

Once the holiday season is over, most people take all the decorations down and put the tree away...here in NOLA, people just change the decorations!! It is quite common to see Christmas trees with GREEN, PURPLE, AND GOLD ribbons, fleur de lis, jesters, masks and all sorts of Mardi Gras things decorating the trees! I've seen these decorated trees at the grocery store, the bank and even at the dentist office!!

MARDI GRAS TREE:

is a Christmas tree decorated in a Mardi Gras motif. Some Louisianians set up a tree with enough decorations to establish the Mardi Gras theme shortly after Twelfth Night, the beginning of Mardi Gras season. When they return from the parades and parties with bags of throws, they add to the decorations on the tree. By the time Fat Tuesday arrives, the tree has become a beautiful display representing all of their Mardi Gras memories for the season.

And, having a real tree indoors is an excellent reminder that Spring is just around the corner.

~Shady Pond Tree Farm, Pearl River, Louisiana

Our Mardi Gras festivites began with the Eve Parade that rolled through Mandeville on Friday, February 25th. We joined up with some families before the parade and had a picnic dinner. Then we all went to the parade together. I forgot my camera...so no pictures of the parade...but we had a great time!! :)

I did get this cute picture of Edd and Thomas at the Eve Parade with my phone!!

Dan and Melissa came the following weekend. We'd talked about going to the Orpheus Parade that rolled through Mandeville, but it was pouring rain!! Bethany, our die-hard parade attendee, came home pretty loaded!! :) I'll blog about the fun with Dan and his family next! :)

Thomas had a Mardi Gras parade at his pre-school too! Here he is with his friend Annabella! We borrowed our neighbor's wagon, decorated it and I pulled it around while Thomas and Annabella threw out our left over Mardi Gras beads from last year. The kids who didn't bring a wagon were in the parade crowd. The pre-school next door also came to collect beads!! :)

Here is Thomas with Patrick after the pre-school parade. Patrick goes to church with us! :)

March 7th, Monday, was Lundi Gras! We met up with some friends from church ~ The Howells: Jen, Annie, Alec, and Ashton and the Pankaus: Keyth, Tiffany and Annabella. We went together into New Orleans for the festivities and parades!! Our first stop was down by the Mississippi River! We parked on the West Bank and rode the ferry across!

There were a bunch of different bands playing!

There were people who were dressed up too!!

We found some people who were doing face painting. A bunch of us got our faces painted! Here is Thomas!! He wanted to be a dinosaur!!

While we were waiting for everyone to get their faces painted, we got to listen to the pipe organ on the Natchez! :)

Once all the faces were painted, we went walking along and stopped to see these guys perform across the street from Jackson Square. They were pretty amazing!

While they were performing a couple who had just gotten married marched past in their Second Line Parade!

After a morning down in the French Quarter, we headed back across the river and then went over to St Charles Avenue to get ready for the parades!

Waiting...

Alec, Bethany, Annie, Aimee and Mattie :)

Edd and Bro Pankau waiting for the parades! Bro Pankau is a LSU tiger!! :)

The Pankau Family ~

Tiffany, Annabella and Keyth :)

While we waited, Edd and Keyth grilled hamburgers!! :) We hung out and enjoyed each other's company along with all the crazy parade sites!! :)

These parade ladders are all around. The little kids sit up in the box on top of the ladder. The "high-tech" ladders will have shoots that lead to buckets for the kids to drop their THROWS down!!

We also saw some pretty interesting things like the truck with a couch and awning and the Mardi Gras party wagon that parked right next to us fully equipped!! INCLUDING A GENERATOR TO POWER THEIR MUSIC!! :)

FINALLY IT WAS PARADE TIME!!

The first parade was PROTEUS!

KING PROTEUS!

Bethany was pretty excited about the light up hat she got from Sis Pankau!!Here are some of the cool THROWS we got from the PROTEUS PARADE!! :)As it got dark, we were anxiously awaiting the start of our second parade!!
Here it comes!! The ORPHEUS PARADE!!! :)

There's Bethany in the pink hat trying to catch some THROWS!!!

The thing to yell is, "THROW ME SOMETHIN' MISTER!!"

We had a blast!!! It was so much fun everyone woke up super early for the 2nd day in a row and did it all again for the MARDI GRAS PARADES!!

Well most of us all went...Andrew got sick in the middle of the night, so I stayed home with Andrew and Thomas. We watched a few minutes of the MARDI GRAS parades on TV.

Edd said that it was TONS BETTER because so many more people were out and they were all dressed up...like for Halloween!!

Farewell Winter

WINTER has come and gone...already!!! In some ways I'm sad, we had some fun times! But in other ways, I'm glad...it was WAY TOO COLD!!! I just don't like it when it gets cold! That's why I live in the SOUTH!!! It is much better to be hot than to be cold, in our family's humble opinion!!!

WINTER officially started with a beautiful, total eclipse of the moon! I stayed up to watch the first half. I got the kids up to see the eclipse right before it was completely dark. I had hoped to see the moon when it was at it's darkest and ORANGE, but I had gone into the house and sat down for a few minutes...which turned into more like an hour! When I woke up, I'd missed the orange moon...in fact the eclipse was almost over when I made it back outside!

Here is a picture I took right before the eclipse was full

Winter by Walter de la Mare Clouded with snow The cold winds blow, And shrill on leafless bough The robin with its burning breast Alone sings now. The rayless sun, Day's journey done, Sheds its last ebbing light On fields in leagues of beauty spread Unearthly white. Thick draws the dark, And spark by spark, The frost-fires kindle, and soon Over that sea of frozen foam Floats the white moon.

Our winter was blessed with a short visit by the robins! I always love seeing them in the winter...they remind me of when I was little and I'd chase them out in the yard during the summertimes in Utah.

We had some mighty cold days too...unfortunately, we lived too far south to have enjoyed actual FREEZING weather, including SNOW. The kids were pretty disappointed...everyone got weather days for the bad weather, EXCEPT US. :(

Needless to say we were all pretty excited to watch the thermometer reach 40 degrees, then 50 degrees, then 60's and 70's!!! Yeah for the warmer days ahead!!! :)

Here are some of our favorite things from the past few months:

Mattie's baptism:

Mattie was baptized on December 28th. While we were trying to decide which day to choose, my mom suggested that we picked the 28th and told me it was my Grandma Cutler's birthday...well that was PERFECT because she is the one I named Mattie after!

Her name was Mattie Taylor Cutler. :)

We had a bunch of visitors come for Mattie's special day:

Grandma & Grandpa Cutler ~ my mom & dad came from Salt Lake City!

Uncle Chris ~ my brother, Aunt Tarina, and Kate came from Salt Lake City too!

Uncle Tim, Aunt Carolee ~ my sister, and Eliza came from Jacksonville, Florida!

Aunt Carlynne ~ my sister came fron New York City!

Mattie's baptism day was a very special day! Mattie was baptized by her daddy! :) We had a very special program too! Aunt Tarina gave a talk on baptism before Mattie was baptized. After Mattie was baptized, I sang a baptism medley with Carolee and Carlynne. Bethany played her violin to accompany us. Grandma Cutler gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. Then Mattie was confirmed! :) We are all so proud of Mattie for making this important choice!

Mattie and her daddy before Mattie was baptized! :)

Uncle Tim, Edd and Mattie checking out the baptismal font before Mattie's baptism

Some of Mattie's church friends were able to come be with Mattie on her special day!! :)

Isabella, Mattie, Annabella and Elisabeth

We did some fun things while we had family in town ~

We took Carlynne, Grandma, Grandpa, Kate, Chris and Tarina to the Aquarium.

Since it was their first time to New Orleans we walked down the Mississippi River...

we saw the "Natchez" and made it down to see Jackson Square!

By the time we got there, we were all pretty cold, so we drove across the lake, back to Mandeville for some beignets at Cafe DuMonde.

Carolee, Tim, and Eliza arrived in town the next day. So we took everyone to Global Wildlife! Everyone had a blast feeding all the wild animals!!! :)

One of the great things about winter in the SOUTH...we are blessed with a few warms days here and there!!! :)

On our warmest day, we all went canoeing in the Tchefuncte River. Even Grandma went canoeing and liked it!! It was a perfect day to just hang out along the riverbank and enjoy each other's company! :)

All the cousins had so much fun playing together!! Here is a picture of most of the Cutler cousins! (Plus a couple of Mama's) We are just missing one!

Aunt Carolee, Eliza, Bethany, Mattie, Kate, Aunt Tarina, Andrew, Aimee and Thomas

JANUARY

Once all our company left and school started up again, life got back to normal...well sort of...January is always a busy month at our house!

One night we were blessed with this beautiful sunset!!! I'd been over at my neighbor's house and walked out just in time!! I ran home, grabbed my camera, and ran outside again to take some pictures...BEAUTIFUL! :)

January 7th

January 12th was Andrew's GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!!

Andrew had a great 12th birthday! He enjoyed all the special attention! All the kids were excited because this was our first GOLDEN BIRTHDAY in our family!!! Andrew was a great big brother and let Thomas "help" open the birthday present.

Andrew was most excited about turning 12 and moving up to the Young Men's program at church! :) Andrew is a sweet brother and we are so glad to have in our family!!!

January 16th was Anne's Birthday!!!

Usually, I don't like Sunday birthdays, but this year was different! This Sunday was special for me because I got to see my sweet Andrew receive the Aaronic Priesthood at church! I am so proud of Andrew! :)

I also got a new calling, I teach Primary to the kids who are 4-6 years old! Thomas and all his buddies are in my class! They are a lot of fun!

Thankfully, Bethany was willing to stay home from church and take care of Aimee who had a fever so I could go. It's days like this that make me so grateful for being blessed with such great kids!!! :)

January 19th was the 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL:

Aimee had a HUGE project that she was working on. She had to display 100 in 5 different ways...

1. 25 pennies = 1 1/2 inches so 100 pennies = 6 inches...the picture of the pennies being measured was placed into the treasure box.

2. Also inside the treasure box was a necklace Aimee made with 100 gold beads with a beautiful seashell in the middle of the beads.

3. Aimee measured out 100 inches of yarn, which was the boarder between the sand and the sea.

4. Aimee counted out 100 beans and made 3 separate "sand castles" with them.

5. Aimee counted out 100 paper clips and glued them on for the sea foam along the edge of the water and just behind the water's edge.

Aimee is so creative! She thought this all up on her own and put it all together with very little help from me!! Great job Aimee!! :)

January 27th was Aimee's Birthday!!! She was so glad to be all better for her birthday! She missed out on all the fun for my b-day because of the tummy bug...yuck.

Poor Aimee didn't think her birthday would ever get here! It finally did and she had a super fun day!

It started with this spectacular sunrise!!! We haven't had a sunrise this spectacular since! I woke Aimee up early so she wouldn't miss it!

Aimee had a special lunch date at school with Mom and Thomas! :)

Aimee was a sweet big sister and let Thomas "help her" open her presents too! She even let him "help" blow out her candles!! Aimee is now in the double digits~she is 10!!! :)

We survived all the birthdays and were so excited to hear that the ground hog didn't see his shadow and that SPRING would be coming EARLY this year!!!

...finally...

I am so glad that I finally had a chance to sit down and finish my last post!!! :)

Life here at our house has been busy!

We are all enjoying a new year! I'm hoping to get some unfinished things done this year!! I have now checked off 3 things from the list! :)

1. Finish the baby blankets for Kate and Eliza...CHECK!!!

Mattie, Aimee and I had grand plans to make Kate and Eliza these cute blankets for when they were born...well, things happened...mostly like a BIG MOVE...and well, Kate is turning 2 in April...so it took us a little while! Mattie and Aimee helped me pick the fabric out way back when. I had all the pieces pinned together, but the project got put on hold when we had to move to Louisiana.

Aimee helped me with the sewing once we finally got going on the project again!! :)

Here is Aimee watching Eliza open her blanket.
Eliza likes it!!! On the back of the duck blanket is pink silky fabric...picked out by Aimee!

Here is Kate inspecting her heart blanket...with the blue sparkly fabric...picked out by Mattie.

Each of the girls got both the duck and the heart blankets! Kate has a hold of both of hers! :)

2. Finish reading "The Return of the Native" by Thomas Hardy...CHECK!!!

This was a book that I was supposed to read my Senior year in HS for my English class. I couldn't quite finish the book by the deadline, I was really close to being done...so my teacher, Mrs Baskin, made me a deal...IF I PROMISED TO FINISH THE BOOK, SHE'D MARK ME DOWN THAT I HAD DONE IT!

This is a picture of Mrs Baskin from my yearbook and the note she wrote to me! :)

I promised Mrs Baskin that I would finish the book. Over the years, I've tried to complete that promise. I don't remember how many times I started the book, more than a few. For years it has been sitting on the bookshelf as a constant reminder of that promise!!!

Around Thanksgiving, I decided that I was tired of that book "hanging over my head" so I pulled it off the shelf and started reading. As I read the first few pages, yellow with age,I was surpised to see how yellow the pages had become. I was a little surprised to find my old book mark still in the book...an old physics flash card...some formula that I've forgotten! :)

Near the end of the book, I found a long lost fortune slip...

Good advice! :)

I finally read the book from cover to cover!!! And I actually liked it!! Is that a sign that I'm getting old??? (Don't answer that!!!)

I was so glad when I finally finished "The Return of the Native!" I've been done for about a week now and I'm still so excited that I actually finally finished!!! YEAH!!!!!! :)

3. Finish my blog entry "F is for..." that I started months ago...CHECK!!! :)

My Sundays have become a lot busier lately now that Edd is bishop. We end up having people over for dinner a couple Sundays a month. Sometimes with advance notice and sometimes with not so advanced notice. :)

My weekday free time has been spent reading "The Return of the Native!" Now that my book is finished, I can sneak in some computer time!! :)

Each morning, I try to remember that each day is a gift! This year I want to try live each day to the fullest! When we have beautiful mornings like this, it helps me be motivated to get moving even though I'm usually still super tired!

F is for...

FROGS & TOADS~

Thomas loves playing with his frog and toad friends! They are his little buddies! As the weather cooled off the toads went off to hibernate, but we still have a few frogs sticking around the house! :) Don't they realize it's "cold" outside???

FREE HAND CHALK DRAWINGS~

Every morning while we waited for the school buses to come, our driveway became a HUGE chalk board for Thomas! We had amazing chalk scenes! This is one of my favorite. Thomas had copied our trees and was working on a rainbow with clouds. We also had numerous jungle scenes, the North Pole with the Polar Express, oceans, anything that Thomas could imagine! When it rained, it all got washed away and we started again. After Thomas started pre-school, the chalk was put away...no more lazy mornings to just draw.

FIRE ANTS~

One Saturday morning, in the beginning of September, after my bike ride, I decided to work in the garden before it got too hot. Unfortunately, my time was cut short by me, unknowingly, standing in a fire ant hill!!! I jumped out of the flower bed, onto the driveway, and kicked my shoes and socks off as fast as I could...TOO LATE!!! Those fiesty fire ants got me really bad, at least on one ankle...23 bites on my right ankle and only 3 on my left. NOT FUN!! :(

Too many fire ant bites = trip to doctor! By Monday, my ankles were really swollen and the bites were getting infected...not good...dumb fire ants!!! After some medicine, I was on the mend. :)

FACES~

Bethany was so excited to finally get her braces off!!! :) She got them off near the end of August. Don't those teeth look nice!! :)

Thomas, on the other hand, had this freaked out look! One of the things at the top of his "to-do" list once the kids went back to school was to go to the zoo and see the dinosaurs!!! Well, the last time we went to see the dinosaurs, he was super freaked and wouldn't let go of my hand.

This time, Thomas was still freaked out, but was brave enough to walk without holding my hand, most of the time! He was a little nervous that this baby T-rex would get him though because there wasn't a fence by him. :)

FAMILY ~

We finally were able to meet ELIZA!!!

My sister, Carolee, and her husband, Tim, came with their daughter, Eliza, to visit us for Labor Day!! :) They live in Jacksonville, FL! We all had fun playing with Eliza and getting to know her! We also got to celebrate Eliza's FIRST birthday with her, a few days early!! :)

FOOTBALL ~

Edd was able to take his girls to one of the Saints' pre-season games!!! They were all super excited!!!!

Edd took the girls to Victory Square before the game started! The football game was pretty exciting too! They all had a great time!! :)

As I drove back across the lake, after dropping the girls off, I realized that the clouds looked more like Autumn clouds...they were long and stretched out instead of the big, fluffy clouds I was used to seeing. I was a little sad to see Summer slipping away. I wasn't quite ready for FALL~