Mardi Gras...Mormon Style!

We were so incredibly blessed to have a wonderful family move into our ward a few years back, the Fairchilds! They moved from Mississippi and brought with them all the Southern Hospitality, Cute Sayings, and Love that one could ever hope for.

Amanda had the great idea of having a get together for Mardi Gras - and we would have a crawfish boil - and all the fixins - so good! Even baby Duncan got into the spirit!

We decorated up the tables, and had a basket full of beads for all who wanted to decorate their neckline!

Jason drove an hour a way to a place that sold live crawfish for just such a thing! (Who knew that you could find a place like that in California - and who knew that they are alive when you get them! Yikes, my fingers stayed far from this ice chest!)

I had great video of the boys dumping the crawfish into the pot, and of Amanda teaching us how to suck the juice out of the crawfish - but I am having trouble with the whole video thing lately! Such a bummer, cause it really was great. But alas, at least I can show you the final product. Corn, potatoes, garlic, onion, crawfish and shrimp were on the side of this. Everything was cooked in a cajun seasoning and had a nice warm heat to it.

Preston was named King of the Crawfish! That large plate are all the leftovers of the crawfish that he had personally eaten - and he was still going strong!

Thanks to this fun group - I would say that our Mardi Gras...Mormon Style was a huge success!

Trying to be a helper

Most of you have heard by now, that I took an unexpected trip to New York through the generosity of James's parents, to try to be a helper to my very sick daughter, and my very sad grandson, and my overworked son in law! My aim was to make life easier on them while I was there - hopefully that was accomplished.

While there, I had the best duties ever! One of them included being a roommate to this little guy, and meeting his every whim and need! Bath time was great - and I love how he "cheesed" it up while sporting Elmo!

I wish I would have taken a picture of our sleeping arrangements. I was on a blow up bed right by his crib. Every morning he would wake up and I could hear him in his crib waiting so patiently for "me-ma" (that's me) to open her eyes. Finally, I would stop torturing the poor baby and I would open my eyes and he would get so excited! He would stand up in his crib and exclaim, "Me-ma wake up!" I loved it - who else but a sweet baby would be so excited to see your eyes open each and every day!

One of the days while I was there it was so gorgeous. Talmage and I took a walk to the park. There were literally hundreds of children at the park. I had never seen anything like it. I guess that is what happens when you live in a city, when the weather is nice, you all go to the park to play, there are no backyards in an apartment building!

Being a California girl, I got a total kick out of this winter wonderland. It especially cracked me up when the wind would blow and big clumps of snow would fall out of the tree on your head! So dang funny - only if you don't have to deal with it all the time I'm sure!

Poor Heather was so, so sick, on the one and only day she was feeling good (before her next round of sickness hit) we took a trip into the city to go to Bobby Flay's restaurant. T and I were "bus buddies", notice how I have to hold on to the little guy for dear life or he would just take off! No fear!

We were so excited we wanted to try everything! We decided that we would be food critics like on Iron Chef, or Chopped (for all of you food network people). In the end - sorry to say - it didn't score so high with us - the service was great, the plating of the food was amazing - but the taste didn't make our mouths sing! (How's that for food judging!)

Talmage was such a good boy while all us grown ups were pouring over the menu - I'm sure he was wondering - why not have the PB&J like me!

I loved every bit of my time there. New York is a cool place - but the really cool part - is the family that I just got to hang out with, watch cars with, go grocery shopping with, eat pizza with, play at the park with...and much more! You can have your empire state building - I'll take my family!