Animals

We headed to como zoo yesterday. It was a perfect day, cloudy, not humid or too hot. The kids loved to see the animals, especially the new polar bear exhibit. They got to watch the polar bears be hand fed their food and they loved watching the penguins swimming around. We only had one "minor" incident that most likely shaved 10 years off my life, but it turned out good...thankfully. Ethan, the boy I watch that is a little older than Connor is quite the wanderer. He's in his own world and just walks wherever he pleases with no concern as to where I am or anybody else. We stopped so the other mommies could use the bathroom and one minute Ethan was sitting down next to Connor and the next minute he was gone. There was already about 5,694 times during the hour we were at the zoo that I thought he was gone but this time, he really was no where in site. We all split up to find him and I finally found him up the path just walking by himself, no worries on his mind, even though I had just had a small heart attack. The rest of the day he was strapped onto the stoller like I was walking a dog (why I didn't do this the first time he wandered off is beyond me, but I've learned now. Either keep him strapped to the stroller when we go somewhere, or don't bring him with:)

After that we went out for a picnic, and then tried to snap a picture of all the kiddos, which is definitely not an easy task. See for yourself, this is the only picture that all the kids were actually in and not running away.

(Bella, Connor, Laura, Lilli, Ava, Alexis, Ethan, & Dillon)

Leyla came with too but she left before the camera came out.

It was a fun day, the kids were so tired they both were sleeping by 7 (they usually don't go to bed til after 9!)

Swimming & Stars

SWIMMING....

& watching STARS...

Sadly this is the extent of my pictures from the weekend. There was lots of swimming, sleeping under the stars and fireworks.

Fawn Doe Rosa

Just some pictures from our trip to Fawn Doe Rosa.....

Connor tried so hard to catch the bunnies....finally he was able to hold one.

Gotta get your picture as the farmer
I had never seen a goat with spots like this, there were a couple of them with spots and they were so pretty and really soft.

I put some food on Bella's stroller so she would be able to see the deer up close, at first she was excited to see them....

...then she freaked out....

...and then she saw big brother doing it so it was ok again.

But Connor still wasn't too sure of the big buck. He did feed him some food, but didn't want to get any closer for a picture.

My friend Danielle and her son Dillon (7 months) came with us. Dillon loved when the cow sucked on his hand. It was too funny:)

Stroller babes....or boyfriend and girlfriend. These 2 just love each other. They both get so excited to see each other and just smile and lauch together. It's pretty sweet.

And obviously the busy day wore out my little man....and as for the big man, this is how I find him everynight.

Little Man, Big Girl

What a little man Connor is. He loves to do whatever daddy is doing. He thinks it is the best thing in the world when daddy has a "very important job" for him to do, or needs his help working on something (aka bengineering). The other day I looked outside to see him doing this...


splitting wood....I mean seriously what could be better to a 4 year old than running a machine, wearing ear plugs, and helping daddy work. Look at the concentration on that face. He was so serious about it, and loved every second of it!

Now my big girl decided it was time to try to walk. Friday night she took one step a few different times, but it was more forced by me than actually on her desires. Saturday & Sunday was the same. Then Monday night we were at Connor's tball game sitting by first base and Ben was coaching on first base. She saw her daddy and decided she just wanted to walk to him, on top of a blanket, in the grass, and she took 8 steps. She did it a few more times at the game as well. The last 2 days she has done it a few times each day and then tonight she did it multiple times. She's finally figuring out that she can do it, and is getting a lot braver about trying it. And she gets so excited too, it's too cute!

And a few more candids....

It's a....

Yes you are seeing that right, we are using a piece of rebar for the clematis plant to climb up. The trellis we had up last year was not strong enough or big enough for how much the plant has grown, and so came the rebar. I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but it definitely did it's job.


The first picture was taken before the flowers really bloomed, the whole thing is covered in purple flowers right now, it's my favorite! Here are a few pictures of the first few flowers it produced.

(and yes I know that I didn't put in Bella's weight and height in the last post yet....still working on getting the numbers:)

11 months...Part 1

So I'm admitting it now, bad mommy, I never did a 10 month post and I never even took the pictures for it, oops. But moving on, Bella is already 11 months! What does that mean? It means that in 1 month she will be 1 year old. In ONE month! That really can't be. She still seems so little to me, and it for sure does NOT feel like it's been a whole year....almost. Wow time flies.





What has Bella been up to?....



She now weighs pounds and is inches long. Her hair is growing longer and longer but only in the back (and when I say longer, it's all relative to the no hair she was born with:). She is on the move, crawling everywhere with her goofy little crawl. The one where she uses one knee and one foot instead of both knees. She spends most of her day standing up, in the middle of the floor, with a toy in her hand. However, she has no desire to take a step on her own, I know she could do it if she just tried, but she doesn't even want to try. She loves to talk, in the morning and at night, when Connor is asleep. At least that is the only time we get to hear her talk. We're trying to figure out if she just doesn't talk when Connor is around because she is too busy listening to him talk, or if she really does talk when Connor is around and we just can't hear her over him. She says dada to everything, but has no idea what it means...I think. And I think she started saying "hi" this week to. The first time she said it I thought it was just coincidence and just sounded like a "hi", but now she has done it multiple times and she uses it at the right time. So just maybe she is really saying "hi".



Bella loves food. Real food. Food she can eat with her fingers. At about 9 months she decided she was done with the baby food, done with mommy feeding her and she wanted to do it all herself. If I put something in her mouth for her to eat, she will spit it out into her hand just so she can put it into her mouth by herself, which makes for some very messy lunch times.



Her favorite things to do are swing, play outside, eat everything she can find (which includes legos, rocks, dirt, lint, crumbs, ants, spiders, and whatever else she can get into her hands), bounce on the bouncing zebra, and try to sneak into Connor's room. (You should see how fast she can move when she realizes he left his door open...again!)



She is starting to show her temper, unfortunately. When she wants to be held and I put her down on the floor, she'll put her head between her legs and just yell. It's actually pretty cute...right now, but I'm sure in a few months it won't be too cute. I'm definitely not looking forward to that stage.



Besides that, she really is the perfect baby. She's so good, so sweet, and loves to cuddle. I feel so blessed to have such amazing kiddos! Pictures in part 2.

11 months...Part 2

Bella was not happy to be taking pictures...so this is about all I could get.

Any guesses as to what the redneck wednesday picture is?