Riley Paige Advants & Visiting Home

As of April 28, 2012, I am an aunt!  Lisa & Matt welcomed Riley Paige Advants weighing 7 pounds and 15 ounces and was 20 inches long!  I can't wait to go see her on June 13!  Here are some pictures that my sister sent to me!

My adorable niece!  

Lisa & Riley

Isn't she the cutest :P

In other news, I went to visit home last week!  I got to be with my family for like five days and it was super fun!  I test drove a car for the first time (and didn't crash), ran around my sketch neighborhood (okay, my neighborhood isn't that sketchy but my neighbors sure are),and realized that Louisiana looks just like a Settlers of Catan board when flying over it.  I also got to plant our garden... which is one of my favorite things to do (I was actually really sad that my family was going to do it without me and then... good things happened)!  I even planted pumpkins this year (my dad will never usually let me plant them)!  

Our tomatoes... yes those are sticks... we use them instead of real trellises

The rest of our veggie garden

Flowers... those big red ones actually survived the winter as did our Mexican Heather

We also had a crawfish boil per my request.  Actually, my dad had promised me that if I came home in April or May, we'd have one--little did he know he'd have to pay up on that promise!   It was really fun... we just had our family that lived nearby come!

The Crawfish before the boil

Uncle Robbie working the pot

Garrett (he was ever so brave)

Uncle Steve stirring the giant pot

Before the Feast

Aunt Donna with Tyler & Oliva's daughter, Adalyn

And so it begins... 

Cousins :)

Aunt Mel, Uncle Steve, Aunt Donna, & Mrs. Suzi inside with my madre

Aunt Donna & Uncle Steve

Deliciousness :)

My brother's already impressive pile of crawfish (this was taken within the first ten minutes)

Aunt Edna & Uncle Don

Ali... story below...

Story I want to remember follows: Allison is my little cousin and she is 16 years old (barely).  She made the unfortunate mistake of telling her parents who told my father that she had a date for later that weekend.  When my dad gathered our family together, he welcomed the family (Papa style of course) and then was waiting (awkwardly) for a volunteer to say the prayer.  After no volunteers succumbed, my loving father said, "Allison... you can say the prayer because you've got a date later."  Poor Ali got teased all night long about her first date!  Hope she had fun though! :)

My brother and I made a delicious grilled pizza.  I wasn't even sure if it was going to work (or you know... die) but it did!  I was pretty surprised!  Pictures...

Matt with the slightly grilled pizza

Grilling

Our slightly burned pizza--Matt left it on too long!

Almost finished product (we hadn't covered it yet, but then I never took a picture after we covered it)

So after my visit home and before my niece came, I got back to my current (and slightly ghetto) apartment!  When I came in, I found someone (a mystery someone's) else's stuff inside.... my new roommate.  I began to wonder what she would be like and I started judging based on the items she had left out.  For example, she had "Market Pantry" products--hence, she shopped at Target which was a way good sign (because I have a slight obsession with Target).  She had a apron in the kitchen meaning she cooked!  I also noticed how clean and tidy everything was--also a good sign!  Later that night, I met my new roommates--Mallory Reese!  She is way nice and I am excited we'll be roommies over the summer!