Crawfish & King Cake

Last weekend we had lots of company! And we LOVED it! Dustin, LaRay, Lawton, Momma, Daddy, Maw Maw Sue and Chuck came to visit and they brought 70 pounds of crawfish and Momma made 2 king cakes!!! We were some happy people around here. Austin has been wanting crawfish for months and they are not easy to find in Arkansas. It was all SO good! Other than eating, we just shopped and played all weekend.

The cooks!


YUM!!




While they boiled the crawfish, we played at the creek and climbed the 'mountain' across the street.

Another First

Last Friday was Kamden's very first spelling test!!! And guess what? He made a 100!!! We were so happy for him and he was so proud of his 100.



(my picture didn't turn out too well but if you double-click on it you might be able to see it better)

How Many?

How many tools/gadgets does it take to get a pen cap out of a cast?



The answer: A LOT plus A LOT of patience!! :)

Austin came home from school with a pen cap stuck in his cast the other day. It took an hour to get that little thing out. We tried everything in the kitchen and bathroom. Finally, the plastic tweezers from the first aid kit did the trick.

Lesson learned: If you need to scratch your arm, don't use something that will come apart in the cast. :)

As I was trying to get the pen cap out, I was wondering just what kind of things the doctors and nurses have found in casts. I'm pretty sure it has been some very interesting things, to say the least.

The Grades Are In...

The first nine weeks at the boys new schools are over and the boys both brought home excellent report cards!!! Kamden had all S's and Austin had straight A's!!! We are so proud of them and how well they have adjusted to their new life. For Austin, the first part of the nine weeks started out a little rocky as far as grades go. Socially, he had NO problems but I guess just going into a new teacher's classroom and figuring out how she does things is a little difficult. At one point he had a couple of C's and even a D but he brought them all up to A's!!!!

Here is his picture with his certificate from the Honor's Assembly at school.


Kamden didn't have a Honor's Assembly so there are no pictures of him this time.

Austin turns 10!!!

We celebrated Austin's birthday in Louisiana. I can't believe he's in the double digits now! Next time I blink he'll be a teenager! He had a good birthday. Nonnie made him an LSU cake and he got to put the finishing touches on it.




The party guests. :) We decided not to have a party this year so we just had pizza and cake at Nonnie's house.

Since he has turned 10, he has had lots of new experiences.

The day after his birthday he went duck hunting for the first time and killed his first duck. Now he's hooked! :)


Also, while we were in LA he wrecked a four-wheeler and fractured his arm. So, now he has his first cast. :(

Best Christmas Ever

According to Austin and Kamden this was the "best Christmas ever"! I would have to agree it was pretty good! On Christmas eve, we went to church for the candle lighting service. This was our first candle lighting service to ever go to and we really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we went to eat at Chili's and drove around to look at some Christmas lights. The entire time we were gone we were tracking Santa. By the time we got home, he was in Canada so the boys were anxious to get to bed before he came to the United States. :) Before bed, Heath read them "The Cajun Night Before Christmas". They loved it.



Luckily, they made it to bed before Santa got to Arkansas because he left lots of presents.

Here they are checking out all their loot from Santa.


We went to church on Christmas morning and then came home to open more presents!!


Do you think he was just a little excited over this gift? :) This is the present he wanted the MOST. A flat billed Texas Rangers hat. At one point during the Christmas season he told me "you don't have to get me anything else if you'll just get me that hat". I believe he wanted it BAD!

And here is Kamden with his MOST wanted gift, a Bop-It.

The most UNwanted gift...SOCKS!!! I have been telling them for months not to be disappointed if they get socks for Christmas because they always wear theirs outside and tear holes in them. HA!!

WWE!!!!!!!!!!

Airsoft Guns!!!

They also got I-Pods but I don't have any pictures of those because they had to go on a 'wild goose chase' to find them so I was videoing. I wrapped all their accessories separate with a note on each one of where to find the next present which eventually led to the I-Pods. They had so much fun finding all the presents.

Tomorrow we leave for Louisiana to spend some time with our families. We can hardly wait. While we are there Austin will turn 10 years old!!

Happy New Year from the Neal's!!!

Under The Weather

I guess we've kept Norman too busy this Christmas season; he's feeling a little under the weather his last few days with us.