Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Jonas 5 months

Can you believe Jonas is 5 months now?! He's growing every day and learning new things all the time. He now weighs 18 lbs! He can laugh out loud- so cute! and he loves rolling over. His latest trick is grabbing his toes.






And I just love this picture of Sydney and Jonas together.

I have lots of fun pictures from Mardi Gras (they're clean, I promise:) ) to show as well.







And these are our friends the Wanstroms who came all the way from Idaho to see us! They are showing off only a FRACTION of the goods we caught: hundreds of beads ( I haven't counted, but I'm sure the number is not too far exaggerated), cups, candy and toys. Seriously, if you want some Mardi Gras beads, I could mail you some because I have not idea what I am going to do with all of them!


It was such a fun parade- one of the few things I missed about Louisiana (haha, because I sure didn't miss the mosquito population). 
And now, this next part might be boring for you but I thought I would include the history behind Mardi Gras.

12 days after Christmas, on Twelfth Night or King's Day, kicks off the Mardi Gras season. Twelfth Night is a day to celebrate when the Wise Men came to see the Christ child. This is where the King Cake (often a large danish-like oblong ring cake, or a cinammon bread) originated from. Today a plastic baby is hidden inside the cake, representing the Christ child and whoever finds it is supposed to have good luck all year. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday and is 40 days before Passover. Fat Tuesday is a day of partying because the next day is Ash Wednesday. Catholics observe Ash Wednesday as a day to give up something for the next 40 days, Lent. These days officially end the Mardi Gras season. (If I'm a little off on some facts, pardon me, but that's the gist of it.)