Finn's 1st Birthday

My baby turned one at the end of September!!! Time has just flown by the last two months.  Both sets of grandparents and a set of great grandparents were here with us to celebrate Finn's day.  He got some toys and his first Build-a-Bear.  This is kind of a tradition for our kids to get a stuffed animal for one of their birthdays. He loved it and gave it lost of good loves and smiles!  I made a carrot cake, which is also a first birthday tradition.  I feel better about a baby eating cake that has carrots in it :) I was very proud of it.  Ben is super picky with cream cheese frosting and it tasted so yummy! 

But a little about Finn at one year:

People either love your name or think it is "interesting"

You are not interested in walking, being carried is your preferred mode of transportation

You are a Daddy's Boy

You don't sleep through the night

You like avocados and all types of beans

You only have one tooth all the way in (two more sprouting)

Love to play with your brother and sister

Sign "more"  all the time for food!

Called Papa 'yum-yum' because he gave you suckers for a week

Doesn't want to be held in the pool, you want freedom

Never keeps your covers on while sleeping

Did I mention you don't sleep through the night

BUT

You love to cuddle and love an everyone!

We love having you as a part of our family Finnamon Roll!

Dixie Farms

 So one of the things we did while family was here was we went to Dixie Farms.  We went on a Monday night and we were the only people there. We were treated like royalty!  We got to do a zip line a couple of times, a train ride, a hay ride, a horse ride, a jumpy thing, a corn maze, a foam ball gun fight, chase a chicken, and pick our own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch!  The kids had a blast, and so did the grown ups! 

 The zip line was pretty high, about 35 feet, and the kids just jumped right off of it without fear.  B liked to pretend he was Indiana Jones.  The baby liked the bouncy thing, with Abuelo, and I LOVED that thing!  I told Ben that I wanted one in my back yard someday when we could afford the genarator to keep in inflated!! It was like jumping on Jello!!

All the kids got a turn to ride the pony. And B got to pet the chicken instead of getting in trouble for chasing it :)

Natchitoches.... (nak-e-tish)

While our family was here we went to a little town just south of us called Natchitoches.  It is the cutest town!  It is full of old historic houses and has a little river flowing through the town.  We walked around and saw the sights and we ate some yummy meat pies and jambalaya! We have quickly taken a liking to southern food! 

 We also went to a pecan farm and visited on old plantation and walked through old slaves' quarters and the masters house.  When we in the Foreman's (that person in charge of the slaves, including punishing them) house Bronsen got scared and said that there were ghosts in the house and he wanted to leave really bad.  It was odd because he never has said anything like that before and he was fine in every slave house, barn and general store.  He just didn't like the vibe in the Foreman's house. It was pretty creepy.

Also in Natchitoches, the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed there.  So we took some pictures of the house that was in the movie. They have some great old houses there. 

We all saw our first cotton fields.  There is this song that my grandpa use to sing to my mom, and my mom use to sing to me and I have sung it to my kids about Louisiana and picking cotton.  So we all were excited to really see some Louisiana cotton fields. I have since found out that my great-grandmother was born in Robiline, LA which is very near Natchitoches, so I wonder if she sang it to my grandpa when he was little. Talk about a full circle of generations, huh?