Happy New Year 2012

Our week of CoUSiN CrAziNeSs continued...we drove home from Austin on Thursday, while my sister, Carolee, and her family were driving to our house from Jacksonville, Fl...where they live!

Eliza was excited to come play with her cousins!!!  Here she is opening her Christmas present from us while her mom watches!  :)





















We had a great time playing with Eliza!!

It was perfect weather for playing at one of our favorite parks...


KOOP PARK, a.k.a. "THE ALLIGATOR PARK"!  :)

I tried to put captions on the pictures but it messed up their placement...I need to figure why!!  Until then I'll just have to write about them!  :)


While Eliza, Thomas and Mattie played over in the park area, the big kids played frisbee across the street in the field.  While Eliza ate her lunch, Mattie and Thomas ran around together for a little bit playing their favorite game of "GRUMPY OL' TROLL" minus the troll...which was me!  :)  Of course, playing in the sand was a hi-light!  When the BIG KIDS finished playing, they joined us on the playground, just in time for some pictures!!  Aimee was more than thrilled!  :)

Eliza...she is 2!  :)

All the kids!
Eliza, Andrew, Mattie, Thomas, Aimee and Bethany :)

New Year's Eve was quite the fireworks show!!!  The fireworks started before it got dark and went on all night long!  There were at least 3 different neighbors doing fireworks!!  Here are some shots from the neighbors in the cul-de-sac behind our street.

The house below the fireworks is across the street from us, where my friend Laura and her family live!  :)

We didn't have to go outside to watch fireworks though,  because we had quite the show from our kitchen windows, that started around 4:30 and went on all night long!!  While we watched the fireworks, Carolee, Aimee and Mattie made hairbows and hairclips!  :)

Aimee's hair bow!  :)

When I went outside at midnight to watch the fireworks, it was almost like a war zone!!  It was so smokey, there were big booms and the whistle of fireworks shooting up into the sky that could be heard all around...even from outside of our neighborhood!  But very beautiful with all the fireworks all around in the sky!!  :)

The fireworks finally ended around 12:30-1ish!!

On New Year's Day, Carolee, Tim and Eliza went to church with us.  Then we headed home for some yummy dinner!  After we ate, the kids went out to the trampoline to play a few more minutes before Eliza had to drive back home!  Edd took a few pictures of Carolee, Tim and Eliza together on the trampoline...maybe I can stick one in!

"sTaTiC eLuXtRuXitY"
Someone used to call it that!!  :)

Carolee, Eliza and Tim
Thanks for coming to see us!!  :)

GOOD BYE 2011...HELLO 2012!! :)

GOOD BYE 2011!! You were a great year!  You gave us many things to be thankful for!  We had some great times together and some not so great times.  But before 2011 ended, we were able to squeeze in some CoUSiN CrAziNeSs!!! 

Our week of CoUSiN CrAziNeSs started with a quick trip to Austin, TEXAS!  We decided last minute to drive up because Edd's brother John, and his familly had driven from Provo, UTAH to Austin for Christmas!!  We don't get to see them very often, and there was one special cousin we were excited to see!  John and his wife Melissa were blessed with a GIRL, sweet Elizabeth, right before Halloween...after 5 BOYS...Elizabeth is a special treat!!  :)


BEFORE I GO ANY FARTHER, WE NEED A LITTLE CLARIFICATION:   for those who aren't in the PRINCE family  :)


John married a Melissa...we call her Melissa Snow!  Not because Melissa is from Utah, but that would work! :)  Snow is Melissa's maiden name. 


Edd's brother Dan married a Melissa too!  We call her Melissa Z..."Z" is for Zabriskie, Dan's Melissa's maiden name. 

OK...back to the story...

So the Monday after Christmas, we drove to Austin to play with John's family and Uncle Dallan & Aunt Paula who were home from BYU for the holidays too!!  :)

Once in Austin, everyone PLAYED, PLAYED, PLAYED!!!!!  :)

Here are some pictures...

The BIG KIDS loved playing games over at the elementary school down the street!














The LITTLE KIDS liked playing in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard! 

Henry, Seth, Thomas and Sophie


The kids loved hanging out with each other!  :)

Sophie and Mattie playing a DS game!   :)

Hyrum, Aimee, Josh and Mathew watching a movie together!  :)

There were some random acts of service...

Uncle Dallan holding Baby Elizabeth :)

Andrew and Josh doing dishes for Grandma!  :)  Josh is John and Melissa's oldest...he will be 12 in the spring!


We were had an impromptu family ensemble!! 

Aunt Paula on flute, Bethany on violin, Uncle Dallan on piano, and Melissa Z singing
...they were performing Handel's Messiah for us!  They sounded really good!!!  :)

There were plenty moments to enjoy...

Elizabeth!!  
Isn't she adorable!!  And look at all that hair!!  :)

Aimee had the special touch!  Elizabeth didn't like many people holding her, but she sure liked Aimee!!  :)

One morning, we all headed over to the school to play! 

The kids played a game called "SPIDER" where the person who is it walks around with their eyes closed and tries to catch someone while they move around the play equipment!

Watch out!!!  Uncle Edd is the SPIDER!!!  :)

George...Dan and Melissa's oldest.  He just turned 7!  :)

Hyrum...Dan John and Melissa's 2nd oldest.
I think he is 10!  :)

Josh trying to get Andrew down from the roof!!  :)

Thomas trying to get away from the SPIDER!!  :)

Of course there is the traditional playground fun...
SWINGING :)

Mattie flying!!

Samuel swinging!!
He is John and Melissa's youngest boy!  He just turned 2!  :)

PLAYING BALL  :)

Aimee doing what she loves...playing football!!  :)

Ben...Dan and Melissa's 2nd oldest.  He is 5!  :)

GOING DOWN SLIDES  :)

Sam...Dan and Melissa's youngest.  I think he is about 18 months!  :)

JUST WALKING AROUND...OR BEING SILLY  :)

Melissa Snow with Elizabeth walking around with their friends who came to play too!!  :)

Henry...Dan and Melissa's 3rd boy.  I think he is almost 3!  :)

Aimee being silly for the camera!!  :)

The kids also had a good game of "QUIGLEY" on the playground!  They have been playing this game for ages...I remember them playing this at our house before Andrew was born...so it has been a long time!!  It has evolved a little with the times though...they used to play with nerf guns that shot bullets, now their nerf guns are LASER GUNS!!  :)

Run, we are under attack!!!  

and the uncles are dead.

Edd and Dan talking strategies

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's house we goofed off together!!  :)  Some of the big kids would go over to Grandma Goodwin's house to watch football and basketball!

Here are a few more pictures...

Uncle John  :)

Seth...John and Melissa's 4th boy.  I think he is 4!  :)

We all had a great time playing with everyone!!

It was a fun week of CoUSiN CrAziNeSs!!!

Looks like I didn't post many pictures of Eldon and Stephanie and their girls....I'll have to blog about your visit to Madisonville to make up for it!!  :)
Thanks John and Melissa for making the LONG drive so we could make some wonderful memories!!  :)

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!  :)

Aunt Paula and Bethany :)  :)


Sorry for the crazy picture layout!  I gave up trying to get the pictures in just the right spots. At one point I had them where I wanted them...but the captions messed them up... and I don't want to spend ALL DAY trying to get them just so!!   

Catching Up, part 5: End of School! :)

****Didn't ever get this post published!!!  I was waiting for a video clip to load...it never did...so I just deleted it!  *****

After Spring Break was over, we had only 3 weeks left of school!!! :) We were so excited!!! Here is what we did that last few weeks:

We had Mother's Day! :) Edd and the kids treated me to some yummy breakfast food and to a yummy dinner! :) Here are my flowers from church...

Edd also cooked up a yummy shrimp dish...Andrew is showing off the midget and giant shrimp from the bunch!! One of our favorite things about Louisiana is the good, fresh seafood!! YUM YUM!! :)

Bethany had a bunch of finals to study for!! :)

We were blessed with toads again!! :) Thomas was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the toads...every day he would go outside to check for them! He was so happy when he finally found the first toad of the summer!!

Here are some of our flowers in the garden...I finally finished planting in the flower beds. The lilies were here when we moved in, but I've been adding things. This year I planted a bunch of different flowers, but my favorites are the Zinnias! :)

Andrew had is Band Concert! He was in the 6th grade band. They sounded great!! :)

Thomas had his Graduation from Pre-school Day! They sang some songs, each kid had a little speaking part. Thomas said his without any perfectly!! :) Yeah!!! He is growing up so much! Each of the kids got a medal too!!! :) Edd and I are so proud of all the hard work that Thomas did at his school!

Of course the end of school always brings the awards! I went to see Aimee get her awards. I guess I didn't get a picture of Bethany's or Mattie's awards. Bethany, Andrew, Aimee and Mattie all worked really had and did well in school! Edd and I are very proud of them!!

The last 3 weeks of school were a whirlwind of activities...we were all worn out and ready for summer...here are a few pictures of some naps that snuck into the busy schedule!! :)