Made by Memilyrae

Last Saturday we had breakfast with Steve’s cousins. It was really nice getting together with them again. Since it was such a nice day we ended up at a duck pond. Chris, Julie and Sam; Kyle Wheeler (Julie’s brother), Steve, Spencer, Evie and I were all there. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun. There were tons of ducks, a handful of turtles, 4 fish (or that’s all I saw), and lots of birds who also wanted to be fed. Oh! And we saw7 (I think) eggs…not being guarded plus 3 of them were in the water…so they might be duds. We also went to 2 parks after that…but it’s nearly 2 and I really should go to bed! YAWN!

Poor Evie had to follow in her big brother’s footsteps…or should I saw lack of footsteps. When Spencer was 1, he forgot to step on the last step of our back steps…that, of course, end in a gravel/paved parking lot. Yes, it’s true…Evie did it too. When Steve helped stand her up, a pretty big pebble/small rock was still sticking in her forehead. How horrible am I? I wanted to take pictures BEFORE I cleaned it and bandaged it!!! What a bad mom I am! Sheesh! Evie wouldn’t let me put a bandaid on so I put one on Teddy first. She figured if Teddy can get one, so can she. And boy did she look tough with a Spiderman bandaid on her head!

Today was such a fun and wonderful day! Steve has one week off before his new job and we are loving every minute of it! Today we woke up, got ready and headed to the Hogle Zoo. The kids have been excited for days (Evie is mainly excited because she sees Spencer talking about the animals). We packed the stroller with water and fishie crackers, and I, of course, had the camera ready. The kids were SO cute in their little hats!!!!

We started off with the monkeys. Most of them were outside (it was SUCH a nice morning!) Two monkeys (too bad I can’t remember what kind they were…they were hairy, mostly black with a white tummy…I think) were playing tag, jumping around the whole caged area and just having a blast! The kids thought it was great!

Steve and I would ask the kids “Should we see the bears next or the penguins?” and Spencer’s answer was “I want to see the lions” every single time! (Poor kid…there wasn’t a single lion in the whole zoo…but he did see a few other wild cats) We would try to point to the animals to show Evie where they were and sometimes we’d wonder if she could see them or not…but we finally clued in that she would wave “hi” to the animals once she saw them.

Spencer’s favorite animals too see were the “Ghost of the Bayou” alligator (the white alligator) and the “Little” American alligator. But YUCK to all the humidity in that exhibit! Steve said that’s how New Jersey feels…plus lots more heat. ICK ICK YUCKY YUCKY!

We ran into our neighbors who reminded us about the “shows” they do. We started watching the elephant show…but Steve and I were more distracted by a big black bird with blue wings (what were they called again Coley?) kill…yes KILL…a small sparrow-like bird. The Elephant swung its trunk at the black bird and scared it away but as soon as the elephant turned its back the black bird came back to finish the job. By that time it was probably best that the poor little bird be “finished off.” It was SO sad. The kids liked the elephants show…but they seemed to get bored of all the talking and not enough ‘showing.’

We visited the black bears and zebras (the “little Cosmo” cougar wasn’t out yet) before visiting the penguins.

I was SO excited that the kids weren’t scared to take a drink from the lion’s mouth water fountain. I love these pictures and think it should be a MUST with every zoo visit.

The kids liked the funny giraffes. One giraffe was licking/kissing the doorframe and Spencer thought that was extremely funny. Steve liked when the giraffe picked its nose with its tongue! Yuck! (although I believe TWO of my old roommates could barely stick their tongues in their noses…not each others, mind you…and I thought it was funny…but gross…you know who you are!) Notice Evie’s new obsession? Her belly button!

I was so excited when we could actually SEE the cheetah! We NEVER see the cheetah! We had to stand at the top of the hill but he was rolling around in the grass (the movement helped Spencer find it). YAY!

Evie wanted to be held and wanted to lay her head on my shoulder. Needless to say we missed the reptile house but we didn’t mind.

We ended the trip with a ride on the Zoofari Express. Spencer has always loved trains so this is an extra bonus for him. Evie enjoyed it too.

They seemed to get their second wind as we were leaving…probably due to the extremely huge ball/globe that rotates with the water pressure from underneath. They loved running their hands in the water.

We decided to have lunch at Village Inn…yum…breakfast foods!

And then it was time to rest and relax….at least for the kids. I needed a nap too…but look at the time! It’s 1:00 am and I’m still not asleep. 🙂

We had such a great time with just our little family. We realized that sometimes it’s more enjoyable to do things with a smaller group than it is a larger one (and sometimes just the opposite). I think the kids truly loved today and I can say I truly did too!

Mike and Coley came over tonight to watch the season finale of American Idol. I was rooting for David Archaleta.  We watched the whole 2 hours, enjoying the singing (especially both Davids singing with the ZZ Topp and One Republic) and the humor. We were  watching the last 2 minutes…

The Next American Idol is…

And the recording stopped. That’s right…it stopped. I was SO not happy! I even said “What the hell?!?!?” and Nicole laughed.  We looked online and found the last few seconds of that sentence. Congrats David Cook! Archaleta will still do great things, that I’m sure of.

The kids were in serious need of summer pajamas so I got a few at the store yesterday. I thought these looked adorable on Evie! She was telling me she wanted a “cheese stick” (stringed cheese) in this picture.

Seven years. Can you believe it’s been SEVEN YEARS since we’ve had our bathroom set. I got it when I moved out of Annette’s house after I graduated high school in 2001. I decided to change the whole scheme when Spencer threw up on it the other day. Here’s the old verses the new.

This is 2 days after the last post…we’re SO excited!!!!

May 20

Who knew a swing would bring so much drama? On Mother’s Day we were outside enjoying the day with our neigbhors. Evie was playing fine until she say our neighbor friend, Baily, get into the swing. She threw such a tantrum!!!

Then, yesterday, Evie was watching from the window and saw Bailey in the swing again. She stood there yelling “My Swing! My Swing!” I said, “Evie, can’t we share the swing with your friends?” Evie yelled, “NO!” I couldn’t help but laugh. Steve said she’s like her mommy…my first word (if I remember right) was “no” and at some point my favorite word was “mine.”

I mentioned previously that Evie threw up as soon as we stepped foot into the doctor’s office. We were there for Spencer and Evie’s check up. We haven’t had insurance on either kid since they were one (which means for Spencer it had been 2 years!!) and now that we have insurance it was about time! Spencer was pretty nervous…he wouldn’t even stand on the scale without some major encouragement and threats of losing toys. I’ve thrown toys away before when he wouldn’t say he was sorry for hurting his cousin (I try to follow through on my threats) and he decided it was better to stand on the scale than lose his Transformers. I had to hold Spencer through the whole check up. They had the doctor and a student doctor from BYU in the room at the same time. Evie did wonderfully with the doctor. She sat still for him and loved his special made stethascope. Evie got 3 shots (and has 3 more to go to catch up) and Spencer had 1. This definitely was the most emotional part of the whole visit. They both cried a bit but we talked about how shots make our bodies strong and healthy (plus talk about going grocery shopping and getting strawberries) helped them calm down.  They both got a sucker and a prize for doing so well. It took nearly 2 hours and I was surprised that I didn’t feel overwhelmed or cranky or simply-done-with-everything when we left.

I took pictures of Evie with her bandaids but never got one of Spencer.

Spencer: 28.8 lbs

Evie: 22.8 lbs

Our awesome neighbors were preparing the dirt to start their garden and left a space for us. How nice!!!! Steve started basil, zucchini, cucumber, tomato (x2) and pepper in an egg carton in our kitchen window. Last night they were barely sprouting out of the ground. This is what we saw this morning! Wow! What a change!!!