New Orleans

Kayley and I got to go to New Orleans at the end of February for a little less than a week to help watch the 5 oldest Calder kids. Mark was doing a rotation for med school in Austria (where both Mark and Shannon served their missions) and so Shannon and baby Luke went out there to visit him. I was so glad that Shannon got the opportunity to go and that she had a good time.

We were there with my mom for the first few days and then Robb came to help out for the last half of the week because my mom needed to get back to her mission. It was really fun to be with my mom and to continue to learn from her mothering skills. I was also glad that Kayley got to spend some time with her Grandma. It was really fun to have Robb there too. Robb is great with the kids and was a huge help. The only thing that he opted not to do was change poopy diapers! (Luckily Benjamin is the only one that still wears diapers besides Kayley of course, so I didn't mind that at all.:) He was also a great help with Kayley. (He called me a few days after we got home and asked if he could come and babysit Kayley for us because he missed seeing her. I thought it was so cute and was excited for another willing babysitter!)

We had a really good time and I wish that I would have taken more pictures! Kayley loved being with her cousins and was so entertained by all of them. It was definitely a big change going from one to six kids, but I really learned so much from it and had a lot of fun. I love those kids! I don't know how Shannon does it on her own! I always had my mom or Robb there to help and it was still busy the whole time. I learned so much from Shannon's organization and cleanliness. She is such a wonderful mother! It inspired me to come home and reorganize and change a lot of the things in my own house. The very last day we were there, we were finally able to meet sweet little Luke and be with Shannon. I wish that they lived closer so that we could see them more often!

We got to be in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and so we went out and bought some traditional King Cake to celebrate. They are pretty good and pretty similar to a cinnamon roll. The tradition is that whoever finds the baby in their piece has to buy the next King Cake. I served it to the kids youngest to oldest. I put the baby in Grant's piece and he was so happy when he found it. As soon as Peyton saw that Grant got it, she started crying because she wanted it in her piece and "It wasn't fair!". I told her to stop crying and to wait and see if this was maybe a special cake with 2 babies. When Grant lost excitement over the baby, I took it from him to "clean it" and hid it in Peyton's cake to make her happy. So that middle picture is of her proudly holding up her baby. They were all so happy that there were 2 babies in that "special" king cake! :)

These two were always up at least an hour after the other kids went to bed.

Friday night is movie night at the Calder house. We made a big bowl of popcorn and they all sat on the floor and ate it together while they watched the movie. I think if it was up to Robb, then every night would have been movie night! :)

We really missed Daddy and were excited to be with him again. Nathan had bought me a bouquet of roses and of tulips which were so beautiful. Nate asked me when we got home if I still wanted to have a lot of kids and I told him that surprisingly enough it made me even more excited to have a big family. There really is nothing more fulfilling than being a mother!