Crawfish Season

I yearn for the days that we call "Crawfish Season".  The days of the year that fall between early March-late June.  A rare time of the year that is generally not to hot for sitting outside with a pile of broiled mudbugs (crawfish), sausage, potatoes, corn, mushrooms, carrots, a roll of paper towels, and and ice cold beer.

 

This year we really enjoyed the weather and the crawfish.  We had two different outdoor crawfish boils.  Keith found an awesome place to buy live crawfish at a reasonable price [ The Crawfish Company 713-758-0972 for anyone interested ].  He has to special order them and the man brings them into town from Louisiana that morning.  You have to pre-pay..so if you don't pick up your loot your still eatin' it (no pun intended). 

Watching Keith and Bill prepare for our first annual crawfish boil was a little bit funny, okay hilarious.  At one point I looked outside and they actually had the laptop out there, they googled crawfish boiling instructions... Ha, I love it!! you can google everything these days.  I will admit that the finished results were delightful!  It was some of the best crawfish that I have ever eaten.  They were big, they were juicy, and cooked just right! Good job guys!!

  

Memorial Day 2011

On Memorial day we had another crawfish boil at my brother's house which was equally as fun and tasty.

This flag was a gift to my brother from a very dear friend, William W. Taylor III (aka Uncle B). He served several times in Iraq/Afghanistan and I have no doubt that this flag was flown proudly overseas. Thank you Uncle B for always taking care of EVERYONE!!

Ahliana and her cousin (because he is a good sport and he loves her) ran through the water sprinkler.  I think here Ahli is telling him to get up that "she" is not done playing.

She loves the comforts of Aunt Sandi.  And I love that Aunt Sandi loves my baby like she would love her own. It is funny because whenever we leave Aunt Sandi, or vise versa, Ahli crys for her.  It is a heartbreaking cry and it should probably hurt my feelings a little, but it doesn't.  With this cry I know that she loves my family and had so much fun that she doesn't want it to end...and that she is purely exhausted.  So with these crys comes a comfort that she will see them all again soon.

Ahliana and Tyler found a crawfish without pinchers.  So they wanted to keep it and carried it back into the back where my brother and his family have a small gold fish pond.  Together her and Tyler "saved" the pincherless crawfish.

Did I forget to mentioned that my dear sweet daughter named the crawfish Lilly?  I thought that was a very sweet name, for a crawfish.
Look at that steamy yumminess!!

Uncle B.....!!!!

Uncle E showing Ahliana a crawfish with pinchers.

I can't wait for next year and the fun that our new seasoned crawfish boilers will bring!  Let's see we had two this year... I anticipate that next year there will be at least three....Who's in????
***just catching up... I know we are past crawfish season... I have about two more posts to go....

May Madness...

May is always a VERY busy month for us.  It starts of with the beloved anniversary between me and my wonderful husband, then Mother's Day, Ahliana's 3rd Birthday (which is always about a week long), and ends with Memorial Day.  I am going to try to bundle all of that into this one post so please forgive me in advance if it's a long one.

Anniversary

It is amazing to think that 9 years ago I met my husband, at a bar nonetheless...yes, I said bar.  That was always a big NO in my book of unspoken rules... I remember thinking that you do not meet good men in bars... I will have to admit now that I was wrong.... My husband is truly amazing and I am very lucky to have him by my side through thick and thin.  In the last 7yrs I can honestly say that I have put him up to the test...

I, Jenney, take you, Keith, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part...

Mother's Day

We made the trip out to Galveston , where we met up with the boys to celebrate the day (they went out a few days prior to get some fishing in).  I really wish our Gulf water was not so brown... these pictures actually look a little gross.  Gross water or not... we had lots of fun.  Ahliana searched for shells and clams.  We found several itty bitty clams and as the tide would come up the little mussels would quickly sneak out of  their shell just enough to bury themselves under the sand to keep from getting washed away... it became a game.. entertaining enough for (an almost) 3yr old...  I think the highlight of my day was when my little bug curled up in my lap and feel fast asleep... the hot summer heat didn't even bother me...  together we melted into one as she quietly slept and I soaked in every minute of it.  This day was really a celebration of her... without her I would not have the pleasure or the privilege of being a mother. 

The Birthday Girl- The BIG 3

Ahliana had a hard time turning three.  She told me numerous times to cancel her party because she did not want a birthday.  When I would ask her why she would tell me without hesitation, "Because I don't want to get older, I always want to be your baby".  Little does she realize... she will ALWAYS be my baby...

We started our celebrations at the Children's Museum.  She had so much fun.  She wore a shirt that said , Happy Birthday to me, every time someone wished her a happy birthday she would tell them "I don't want it, I am giving it to my daddy".. oh silly girl, if this is how you are turning 3 what are we going to do when you turn 30?  Birthdays are fun and it means that you have been blessed with another wonderful year of life.  Embrace it my child.

Trying to catch a big fish for daddy (on his birthday...)

When we got home we had lots of fun blowing bubbles with our little bubble gun.  So much easier then the little sticks you have to blow into.

Such an Ahliana face.  I love this face!!

Happy Birthday to you...♫ ♪

Happy Birthday to you...♫ ♪

Happy Birthday to Ahliana ...♪♪♪♫

Happy Birthday to you...♫ ♪

So in love with his baby girl... you see the sparkle for her in his eyes always!

One of my favorite moments.  Ahliana pulled us both in by wrapping her arms around us as everyone sung Happy Birthday to her.  Such a sweetie.

Looks like a little girl that wanted to cancel her birthday party...NOT!

The birthday theme was a mix of John Deere and Cowgirl ... When I found this pinata I was super excited.  It was a little small but ohhhh soooo cute!!  Get it Ahli!!

This is the BMOC (big man on campus) he made the first break in the pinata.  Unfortunately for us this happened way to soon.  There were several other children that wanted a swing at that little tractor so Keith broke out the electrical tape and taped it up a couple of times to give all the kids a swing.  Okay how funny is that.... only my hubby.

The party was a success.  I think all had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect.  No really it was perfect (understanding that while I am typing this it is about 110 in the shade here).

A big Thanks to Kristy for taking all the pictures.  Without her none of these wonderful pictures would have been possible.

I will have to save Memorial Day for another post.  I want to get May's update posted before it turns September on me.  I promise to post again soon.

April in a Nutshell...

Whoa has it really been over two months since I have blogged?  where does the time go?  Life is so busy... I feel like we have been living in the fast lane for the last few months... oh heck who am I kidding... it's been more like 9 yrs ... my husband and now my daughter are both "social butterflies" ... I am really just trying to keep up... 

I guess I will start with April sense that seems to be where I left off.  All that really happened in the month of April was Easter... so Easter it is....

Typically every year we are fortunate enough that we get to celebrate Eater twice.  Our Easter and Greek Easter ... they are very similar but generally fall on different Sundays.  We really enjoy being with our Greek families and we l.o.v.e the grubb.  This year Greek Easter fell on the same Sunday as our Easter... so we went Greek...

Of course Easter would not be Easter without confetti eggs.  Ahliana loves breaking eggs over her daddy's head.  There is something just silly and fun about all the little colored dots of paper that make her laugh like nothing else... It took days to get the sprinkles of color out of her hair and the dye off of the tub and anything else they touched but it was well worth it.

Well I was trying to post more pics... but it looks like this is it folks... now I know why I can't keep up with my blogging... I have the hardest time uploading pictures... uhggg!!!



Butterfly Center, Kemah, & Jesse

There is so much to talk about but I have had blogger's block in a major way.  Maybe I just have so much to share that I didn't really know where to begin.  I don't want to leave anything out.  With the beautiful weather that we have been experiencing for the last few weeks we have just been none stop busy.  We've been to the Butterfly Center, shopping with Christmas money, a birthday party, A baseball game (and watched my nephew win his game!!  YAY!!), Kemah, The Katy Rodeo (to watch my beautiful niece do a calf scramble and win some $$), a kite festival, I made a trip to Brazos Bend State Park to take nature pictures... gosh what haven't we done.

I have so much to share...so really, were do I begin... I am definitely going to need to break this done into a couple of blog posts..

Let start with vacation. Keith and I were able to take some time off the last week of February.  It was nice to just reconnect.  With our busy schedules the only time we seem to see each other these days are weekends and they are normally so busy that there is no "us" time.  Where did all that wonderful quality time (QT) that we used to spend together go?  I had so many plans for vacation...so many things I needed to get done, clean out my closet, clean out Ahli's closet/room, get some digital scrapbooking done... none of which even got touched and I am truly okay with that.  Spending time with my hubby was wonderful!!!  I've missed him.  Ahliana was also home sick for part of the week...another round of double ear infections.  Her tubes fell out so here we go again....

While on vacation we did manage to take Ahliana to the Houston Museum-Natural Science/ Cockrell Butterfly Center.  It was awesome.  The butterflies were beautiful and the exhibit is just amazing.  Kristen I really wanted to steal your flower bracelet idea for Ahli but somehow we just ended up there...it was spontaneous...but next time girl.   This spring I plan on purchasing a milkweed plant to attract butterflies of our own (well caterpillars).  I want to put the caterpillars in a butterfly container so Ahli can watch the process and then together we can let them go. 

Keith and I took a day just for ourselves and went down to Kemah for lunch.  We sat on the deck and just watched the boats go in and out of the harbor.  It was a beautiful day and after lunch we held hands as we walked along the boardwalk.

Ahliana recently when shopping with some of her Christmas money.  She got so much for Christmas that I just figured we would have more fun if we just waited until her Christmas toys got boring.  My brother and sister in law always give her a gift card to Toys R Us... and Ahli loves that place!  What kid doesn't?  I let her pick out what she wanted and she did good...made out like a bandit.  She got a set of Pink Lego's, Lincoln Logs, and her favorite....a Jesse doll from Toy Story 3.... I have never seen her so attached to anything (well other them me).  The first thing she said when I took it out of the box is "Mommy, where's my name?"  She wanted her name on the bottom of the boot like Andy...then she went and got Buzz and asked me to do the same.  Too cute!!

She takes Jesse to school with her regularly.  Jesse has to stay in her cubby but she loves to show her off to all of her friends first.  She even asks me to buckle her in the seat with her... I love this girl!  She is growing up so fast.

Well I will let you all digest this for a bit and then I will blog about the rest.  Hopefully we have an uneventfull weekend so I don't add to the list...geezzzz if I could only keep up.