Merry Christmas!

Josh joined the Bumpus band this year and loves it, here he is wishing you all a Merry Christmas and playing his jazz version of Jingle Bells. So goodbye to 2009 and here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2010!

Josh's Football Season Fall 2009

Josh, # 46 on the Saints team, black pants...He has a tackle for a loss at minute 1:20 and quarterback sack at minute 7:30. Both in the 1st half of the Saints vs Panther Game. Choose a video from the wheel under the video player! :)

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Josh's boy scout troop retired American Flags today. We emailed friends, asked if anyone had flags that were torn or tattered, then drove around and collected them to be retired. Did you know that only two organizations are permitted by the United States Congress to retire an American flag? The Boy Scouts of America and the United States Military! Click here to see his troop performing the United States Flag Retirement Ceremony.

My Baby Girl turns Sweet 16

Life has lots of beautiful memories, but I think that there are only a few REALLY special times in a girl's life, her first date with daddy, her first boyfriend, her wedding, a child and her sweet 16 birthday party, so we wanted to make her 16th birthday really special. I hope her party was just that for her!!! Some of my best friends and family came over and helped with the decorations and serving . The theme was a masquerade formal ball and she picked silver, pink and black for the colors. We decorated the garage for dancing and had tables around the pool for her sit down, 4 course dinner. Balloons filled the ceiling of the garage with a table for snacks. Around the pool were tables with candlelight tablecloths, name plates held by tiny crystal slippers, pink wine glasses, pink and silver gift bags stuffed with gift cards for ITunes, and white daiseys as the center pieces. Anni stayed in her room until her guests arrived then was escorted by Luay down the deck stairs to the pool where her friends were waiting. They all socialized for a while then sat down for a dinner that began with fresh mozzerella and prosciutto ham as an appetizer, a spring mix salad with sugar coated walnuts and a homemade vinegarette, the main coarse was filet mignon topped with royal red shrimp a side of hommous drizzled with virgin olive oil and parsley with chopped onion sprinkled with sumac. Dessert was a light chocolate mousse. There was a picture frame with a border where all of her friends signed their names and a journal where everyone wrote "love notes" to Anni. The kids played 16 questions where Anni answered 16 questions about herself prior to the party, then her guests got into teams and Anni asked the questions to each team to see which team knew the most about her...The rest of the night was dancing and talking! I hope my little girl will always remember her 16th birthday fondly!

Last Fling of Summer

Josh and I went to the beach all by ourselves. It was SO much fun spending quality time with my boy. We ate at Margaritaville, rode on a helicopter, had fun on a boogie board, rode race cars and had lots more fun. Check out the video of our trip!

4th of July

We had a great time at my brother Kirk's lake house. Good friends, family, and delicious food!!

Vegas Baby 2009

We got the chance to go to Vegas this year, what an awesome time we had! Let's see if I can make a long story short! We stayed at our time share, The Grand View, the room was so nice that we did lots of cooking in. We did lots out too. We started out seeing the Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay, went to the Titanic Exhibit in the Luxor, walked the strip of course, went to Italy to ride the romantic Gondolas, ate in Paris at the Eiffel Tower, went to New York New York and rode the roller coaster that wraps around the city, so cool!!! The water show at Bellagio was so beautiful!! We took the kids to Circus Circus and they had a great time riding all of the rides and playing games trying to win things, that was as close as they got to gambling!! We had dinner at the Tournament of the Kings, I've always wanted to do that, where the kings ride on horses, sword fighting in the ring right in front of you, there was a cool story line, Josh loved it and I rather enjoyed the handsome riders. Then we drove to see the Hoover Dam, did the "dam" tour, bought "dam" souvenirs, and saw the "dam" water :) ...very awesome learning the history. We continued on to the Grand Canyon, we chose to go to the western rim rather than the Southern rim, which is owned by the Hualapia Nation Native Americans. The southern rim is owned by the US government. Let's just say this, the western rim did not have one rail between us and the 6,000 foot drop off! Naji, Josh, and Anni sat on the very edge dangling their feet, as I stood back and cried, so scary! Even Naji said he was dizzy and scared! Our grand finale was going to a Cirque Du Soleil, we watched Chris Angel, he was phenomenal! Click here to see our video and here to see pictures!

David and Ashley's Wedding

We drove back from Vegas on Saturday, and the next day drove to Mobile for David and Ashley's wedding. It was beautiful.

Josh Camp Comer

Josh is having a blast at Camp Comer. His favorite part is shooting this rifle, click here to see him shooting. He's enjoying hanging out with all of his buddies, click here to see him and his friends telling about camp.

Jeep

Anni pretending like she owns the jeep!! Click here to see her enjoying the ride!

Josh is off to Camp Comer

Josh is going on his first whole week camp out with his boy scout buddies. On Wednesday, they will leave their site to hike 5 miles and pitch a tent all on thier own. He's very excited, I know he'll have a great time but I'm a little nervous! Click Here to see the video of the boys heading out to camp!!

Luay and Anni making Rice Krispy Treats

Dismals Canyon

Naji, Josh and I went on Josh's first campout as a boyscout. We went to Dismals Canyon in North Alabama. Lots of fun if you like camping. We got to see glow worms in the cave at night. If you want to learn more about glow worms, click here: http://www.dismalscanyon.com/dismalites/index.html

My Boy Graduates from Elementary School

I am so proud of Josh, he is turning out to be such a loving, kind hearted boy! I hope life gives him all that I know he deserves!

Josh's First Piano Recital

Josh playing, Rockets, Sea Divers, Ode to Joy and Theme from Pink Panther for his first piano recital.

Josh's Soccer Tournament in Pensacola, Florida/Mother's Day

We lost all 3 games but boy did we have fun, it was a great Mother's Day weekend~

Granny is teaching Josh to Dance

Arrow of Light

Josh got promoted to a Boy Scout in the Arrow of Light Ceremony. It was very cool!

Easter

A pretty low key Easter this year, we just relaxed and enjoyed each other. He is risen!

Josh Turns 11

What a big boy he is now! He invited some of his friends to play paintball, they had a great time!

Spring Break

What an awesome Spring Break this year. My best girlfriends from school came: Jodi and Belinda, my brother and a friend of his, and all of the kids. We also met up with a couple that comes to this same condo every year, it's becomming a tradition. Friends and family, seafood, beach, sand...life doesn't get much better!

Snow 2009

Our BIG snow of 2009!

February

Well, February is the time for love, right? Anni has a boyfriend named Luay, he is a sweet boy and he seems to bring out the best in her. They met at a get together at her Aunt Samia's house and have been inseperable since. His father is a friend of Naji's from college and Luay is in pre-med school at UAB. He will be working with Naji at the restaurant this summer and they (Naji and Luay) get along well, they can sit and talk for hours!!

Josh's 2008 Football Season

http://joshfootball2008.shutterfly.com/

Our last night in New Orleans. Naji and I left the kids in the room to order room service and watch movies and we hit the town. We had a great time, a trip for our 20th anniversary that I'll never forget. Anyway, the last night was awesome. We started out with a bottle of Dom at Mr. B's Bistro. The details of the rest of the night I'll have to leave to your imagination so I don't risk being fired by posting it on the internet!! Of course it has to do with Bourbon Street!!

Louisiana Pizza Kitchen

One of the first days we were in New Orleans, we ate here. Naji remembered it from when he used to live in New Orleans and remembered it as being good. He was right, it was awesome. At Louisiana Pizza Kitchen they cook their pizzas in a wood burning stove, they were very good!

Napoleon's

Today in New Orleans in The Quarter we ate at a restaurant called Napoleon's. If you ever visit, you need to stop by this place. The service was not the best but the quality of the food made it well worth the trip. You can read reviews and history of the restaurant here. We loved it! Naji and I had the muffaletta and the avocado and shrimp remoulade salad...awesome. Josh had the meatball Po Boy and loved it. And Anni whose new year's resolution is to be a vegetarian, had an "organic sandwich" which, I know, sounds disgusting, but I will order it next time, it was awesome!! It had sprouts, lettuce, tomato, avocado, cream cheese, and balsamic dijon vinaigrette.

Happy New Year 2009 from New Orleans!

New Year 2009, wow, seems like yesterday it was 1999. We had a great time bringing in the New Year in New Orleans. Josh and Anni have both been, but the last time we came it was just for the day, so this time they really got to see the sites.

The picture below was in the River Walk, we had fun shopping, Naji bought me a "High Maintenance" t-shirt, anyone who knows me, knows he must have been joking!!

Of course we ate lots of good food, here we were at Pierre Maspero's, we also ate at Mother's, yum, and Mr. B's Bistro! Mr. B's wasnt' new to me, it's been a favorite of mine for years!!

We were at Jaxson Square for New Years Eve to watch the "Fleur de lis" drop at Midnight.

We walked Bourbon Street. It really freaked Josh out, and Anni wants to move here!!

Sugar Bowl 2009, we were having fun as we walked in, but left sad!

Hope everyone has a wonderful 2009!!