Our trip to Louisiana!

12/22: We packed all day and left in the late afternoon for the airport.  Some selfies from the plane ride:

12/23: Made it to Louisiana late last night! Went from snow to rain and double the temps. It rained all. night. long. Avery had a rough flight, not wanting to stay buckled and not being able to pop one of her ears; she cried for probably 15 minutes that her ear hurt. :( We got to my parents' house at midnight; it's 9:15 and Makenna is still sleeping. Mom is making shrimp & grits!!! :)

Yep, that's our Christmas this year, ha ha! It is humid today!!

Headed to Bass Pro Shop in Denham Springs:

My niece, Brenna, and sis, Nikki

Had fun at Bass Pro Shop but didn't get to take pictures with Santa because all of the photo passes had already been given out.

Had a yummy lunch at Cane's in Denham Springs and they got a kick out of this:

Blue Bell ice cream (WOOHOOOOO!):

 Silly Nikki:

 Watching "Fred Claus" with Paw-paw: :)

We played Jelly Belly Bean Boozled tonight--lots of gagging, and tons of laughing, ha ha!

Christmas Eve:

Jumping in muddy puddles, then it rained again! :)

Nikki sporting MY reading glasses. She looks better in them than I do. Turd. :P  We went out to eat with my mom at a Mexican restaurants, El Agave:

Driving around, seeing Christmas lights. :) Merry Christmas, y'all!!

Me, Mom, and Nikki were in the back of the van:

Christmas Eve jammies! Merry Christmas!

Paw-paw read "Cajun Night Before Christmas" to the twins. :D

Christmas Day 5 years ago!:

Christmas Day:

I got up to go to the bathroom when I woke up this morning, then went back to our room to put a bra on. Makenna said, "Yeah, you need to put one on so they don't jiggle to other people!" Bahahahaha! I about died laughing!

Opening presents:

 I made the next three shirts:

Loving all the snow pictures from our neighbors! Looks like our house is getting tons of snow!! And here we are, where it's 76* right now. :/

A quick game of Pie Face!

Ben put some whipped cream on her face and she wasn't happy about it

A game of Stinky Pig:

Some time with Play-doh:

Another round of Jelly Belly Bean Boozled! So stinkin' funny!!

Avery actually tried a jelly bean:

Makenna got a baby wipes jelly bean, ha ha!

Later that night: On the way to the airport with my parents and Nikki to pick up Kiki! We're aggravating Nikki by singing Christmas songs at the top of our lungs. :D

12/26: Riding with all 4 siblings to visit Aunt Patty and Uncle Raymond in Madison, MS. I'm gonna bust a blood vessel from laughing so hard!

We had a great time at Patty's and had lots of yummy food, including jambalaya AND gumbo!:

BEN!

NIKKI!!

Dad! Just can't get everyone to take a nice photo at once!  Worse than kids!

With Aunt Patty and Uncle Raymond

Uncle Che-che's dog, Poodoggy

Playing with the uncle before bed:

And some snuggling:

12/27: Busy, fun Sunday: I sang/played (piano) a song with my mom in church, had some awesome girl time with just my sisters, laughed hysterically at several episodes of Impractical Jokers (we've done a LOT of that since we've been here!), had more delicious food (turkey gumbo), and had friends over and karaoked. Makenna kept asking to sing more songs. :) I love hanging out with my family. SO MUCH LAUGHING! Funniest people I know!!

My brothers snuggling on the couch, ha ha!

1/28: Awesome weather for a day in New Orleans:

Awesome food at The Original French Market Restaurant & Bar; the fried seafood was delicious and I'm gonna be dreaming about the pecan praline bread pudding!:

Avery begging me to get the kittens she saw at the store:

I bought some cool stuff in the French Market, too!

This was me later that night, hanging out at Benjamin's with him, Kiki and Tim. My stomach was HURTING from laughing so hard! I sure missed Nicole, though:

1/29: It was a nice day for the swamp walk and we saw a gator!

 The alligator:

Shrimp poboy and fried mushrooms for lunch with Maw-maw:

My dad boiled some DELICIOUS crawfish, potoatoes, and corn before the LSU game that night, which we won! :D  And I got a king cake, too!

12/30: For lunch, I had great crab stuffed red snapper and Tournedos Bayou Lafourche (grilled filet mignon medallions on fried grits medallions with mushroom cream sauce) and awesome company (Beth, Kiki, & Becca). We were gonna go karaoke and eat some fried seafood tonight but we need a night a of relaxation and a break from food, ha ha.

Finally got some boudin and my mom made crawfish potato salad. Waiting for bread pudding to bake; Kiki already made the praline topping. So much for the break from food, ha ha!

12/31: Best NYE party=SURPRISE WEDDING! Our friends threw a NYE party and surprised everyone, including their family, by getting married.  They had a Justice of the Peace come and marry them.  Everyone was so surprised and happy for them.  I'm so glad I was able to be there for it. The girls had fun dancing with their cousins.

 

Their cute little family (they have twin girls, too!)

Brandon & Greg (brother) and my brothers

We didn't make it to midnight at the party (the girls were exhausted and my back is killing me and missing my Tempurpedic bed) and my dad went to bed just before midnight so I rang in the new year with Jared and my mom. Happy New Year!

1/1/16: The twins had fun with mud and Paw-paw's van. 😲 Jared cleaned them up by spraying them with the hose as they screamed, ha ha! 

That evening, we went and visited my friend, Carla, who's brother went missing in the Mississippi River, where he was working, two days earlier.  They still haven't found him. :(  She just lost her sister in April, too! So very heart-breaking.

We just watched football bowl games that night.

1/2: This was on our drive to a cousin's honey-do (wedding) shower in White Castle, LA this afternoon. My mom had headphones on and was listening to her own music, yet was still singing aloud and dancing; Makenna just stared at her for a long time, ha ha! And Makenna drew that cute pelican. 

Uncle Mike (my dad's brother)

Aunt Rhonda (Jeff's wife) and my cousin, Kaci

My cousin, Holly (the bride), and her fiancee, Beau

My cousin, Brent, and my uncle, Jeff

Mom; my cousin, Megan; Mike's wife, Kathy; and my cousin, Tiffany

1/3: We went to church in Denham Springs, then went and ate at Waffle House (I know, I know, but we were STARVING and didn't bring any food with us).  

1/4: Cute cousins on our last day here. It's a little chilly at 45* but still warmer than the 23* it is at our house!

Brenna and Makenna are BFFs :D:

 

My nieces had to go back to their mom's that afternoon, so they got a cousin group hug to say goodbye for a little while. So sweet.

I dropped my nieces off, then went to visit Carla again for a couple of hours.  We were supposed to go out to eat or to a movie but I don't think she was feeling up to it, and her kids were all home, and her dad and uncle, so we had a nice visit with all of them.

That evening, we had our last dinner before we left and Cate Street Seafood Station:

Last hugs before bedtime. They had such a blast playing with Uncle Ben tonight, even when he scared the crap out of them when they played hide & go seek!

1/5: We got up just before 4am (3am UT time!) to head to the airport.  The flight went well, except that I was exhausted but Makenna was a little chatterbox and wouldn't let me sleep!  The twins couldn't wait to see Whiskers!!  They picked him up as soon as we walked in the door:

My mom wrote this on Facebook later that day:

Dang!!!! Jared Crittenden amd Dana Tassin Crittenden, HOW MANY FLIPPIN' MOUNTAIN DEWS CAN ONE BLADDER HOLD???!!!! I have spent the last 2 hours taking down Christmas decorations...only got 1/3 of the way through....I FOUND 10 EMPTY MOUNTAIN DEW BOTTLES IN OUR CHRISTMAS TREE ..where else have you RASCALS hidden empty soda bottles????? LOL a moment of laughter was in order!! my kids married pranksters!!!

That was Jared! I had nothing to do with that--the drinking of them or the hiding of them! 

It was such a great trip!  Can't wait to go back again--probably spring of 2017. :)