Monday, April 30, 2012

You Belong In A Zoo!

 Jordan's mom and sister were up for a visit last week so we decided to pack up and drive over to Tulsa for a trip to the zoo!  It had been awhile since we'd been (check out picture #2) so I was excited to go.  I dressed the boys in animal gear, we drove through McDonald's for some breakfast, and we hit the Cherokee Turnpike and headed to Tulsa, the windiest city I know!



 Here we are the last time we were there.  I think Matthew was only 4-5 months old.



Look how little Matthew was.  He spent most of the day in the Moby wrap.  This time around we had a new baby to experience the zoo with.



 First things first, we stopped off at the elephant exhibit.  I LOVE elephants, and not just because I'm an Alabama fan!  I just think they're really neat and interesting.  These elephants were getting their morning baths and some treats as well.



I could have stayed there all morning watching them, but the boys were ready to move on.




We saw giraffes, penguins, giant turtles, and many, many more animals.





Note to self: next time I WILL be bringing our lunches.  We brought some snacks but I don't want to be buying lunches when there was plenty of beautiful, shaded grassy spots to stretch out on to eat lunch.  After lunchtime we let the boys play in the very large playground area.  I think they liked this part the best!  They played there for a really long time and baby Noah took a nap in the stroller.  After playtime at the park it was time for some ice cream and a good potty break.  We had a nice break in the shade and then started heading toward the exit to pack up and head home.



One interesting thing that I learned was apparently Noah can use a straw.  Who knew?!  He stole my cup and promptly started slurping down my Icee!



Look at that look on his face!  I can't believe I let him drink some Icee, but it was a fun, hot day and I guess it really didn't hurt anything.



I thought these were some neat pictures of the boys getting up close and personal with the new seal exhibit.




I'm really a kid at heart and I just love to visit zoos and aquariums with the boys.  I love seeing the animals up close and mainly I love spending the time with my boys and watching them learn and discover.  I was grateful for the help of 2 extra set of hands to help with the boys.  Although it was a fun day, it still drove home the fact that I'm not up for doing things like this by myself yet.  They're just still so young and it took all of us to push, wrangle, feed, diaper, and contain them.  I know things will get easier as each year passes by.  These past few months have already been easier than last summer was with a newborn!  Slowly and surely we are getting to "easier" (some days, ha!) times!  I was so glad to see the zoo through my kids' eyes!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Pinterest Activities!

The boys had a day off of school so we decided to just stick around the house and have some fun.  Noah took a great nap, so the boys and I decided (OK, me really) to do some fun crafts that I found on....Pinterest, what else?!


Matthew was pretty excited to help me!  His favorite phrase lately has been "I won hup Mawma!"  He's a great little helper.


I gave them some things to stir and mix.  We made what amounts to a mixture of playdoh and slime!




We cooked it and let it cool and then we halfed it and added food coloring to it.



The boys stirred in the coloring and then we put it into ziploc bags.



They played with it and squished it around.  I think they liked it and had a good time!  They came back to it a few times and played with it for some mess-free fun!




Proud!



We played with some stampers and paint and then made fun butterflies out of clothes pins!




Overall, it was a fun afternoon.  I'm not ashamed to admit that Pinterest has helped me find some fun things for the boys to do!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

"Bee" an Obedient Bee!

John Michael started choir at church this year and he has LOVED it!  He really likes music and likes to sing and hum and so I thought it would great for him to start choir to sing songs about Jesus and start hiding His word in his heart.  The theme for the year was "Obedient Bee" and it has really helped around here.  We talk about being obedient and listening and we want to be like the obedient bee and follow God's instructions for our life.  I will tell a fully story on JM though: We were having a discussion about him disobeying and we asked him if wanted to be like the obedient bee and obey and he said "NO!  I just want to be a lady bug"!  He is so funny and full of drama sometimes!

Here are all the kids singing and wearing their bee costume.  Oh my goodness, they all look so precious and little.  JM is on the far right toward the end.


 


Here he is in full bee regalia!



He said his favorite part about singing onstage was that he was on the TV....meaning he could see himself on the big screen!  I think he loved that!  He kept looking over at the big screens to see himself!



We brought Matthew with us so he could watch brother sing.  Matthew knows all the songs too because we listened to them in the car a lot.



Look at this sweet boy!  Goodness, he's growing by leaps and bounds everday.  I think he has the most precious, long eyelashes.  I think they look like camel eyelashes against his dark, tan skin.






We were so proud of John Michael for singing his bee songs this year and we are so thankful for our church having these special things for our children to be involved in and for the choir teachers giving of their time.  At first JM told me I could NOT help with choir, but after his concert he told me that I could help with choir now, so I just might next year!


It sounds silly, but I felt like a "real" mom sitting there with our camera and video camera watching my child sing onstage!  It doesn't seem like 4 years has passed since I became a mom.  Time is flying by so quickly, it makes my heart hurt sometimes!

Friday, April 27, 2012

The Dinner Bell

Dinner around here can be really crazy sometimes.  I often say it's the worst and busiest time of my day;  Jordan is not home, I'm trying to cook (sometimes), and they are hungry and usually not behaving wonderfully!  Now that Noah is big-time mobile, it's getting harder and harder to make dinner!  He's everywhere and he always wants to be with JM and Matthew trying to do the things they do.  The fun part about Noah getting bigger is that he is slowly starting to eat what we are eating!


Case in point: avocado.  Noah has really started to love avocados!  He's starting to use his little fingers just wonderfully so that he can pick up food, puffs, and yogurt melts!


 



There's never a dull moment at our house, even for dinner!



Happy, smiley Matthew!




Aren't avocados beautiful when you crack them open?  I love their green color and how soft and squishy they are!  Speaking of avocados, I did a homemade avocado hair treatment last night, and while it was a mess, the results were really, really nice!  It looked and felt like I had straightened my hair after I had blown it dry.  It's never that soft after I blow dry it!  I'm definitely going to try it again sometime!



I saved a few slices of avocado for myself to put with my taco pie!  It was yummy!


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Our Saturday, Including The Cat in the Hat!

We've had a pretty awesome Saturday, if I do say so myself!  It rocked mostly because Jordan let me sleep in for 2 hours!!  I cannot even begin to tell you how awesome that feels.  I have the best husband in the world and he knows my love language these past few years is, well, sleep!  I woke up feeling so happy and refreshed and ready to start our day!  We headed out to a local library for a "meet the Cat in the Hat" day.  When we got there the Cat was no longer taking pictures, so it was a letdown.  Several other people were upset about it too because the signs said until 12 and it was only 11:30, so they had that mischevious Cat come back out for pictures!

While we waited for the Cat to get there, we played with computers and did puzzles.


 


Matthew and I had a good time working a few puzzles together.



JM was looking a bit apprehensive about meeting the Cat in the Hat.  He really didn't want to!



We finally got our chance and so we all went up together to meet the Cat.  You can see that Matthew is trying to flee and JM won't even look at the camera or over at the Cat. It should be fun times at Disney World in a few months.



After meeting the Cat we played a bit more.  Noah stood up and played with a little ball cube....



Goodness he's at such a cute age!  He's so precious!



And Matthew came over to play with Noah for a little bit.  Noah pretty much wants to be wherever they are and do whatever the big boys are doing.



JM is just like Daddy.....he loves to learn things on the computer.  He did a really good job with his skills with the mouse and clicking.  He asked for help for one small thing and then promptly told me to go away!



Next, we went to Sam's then the little guys napped in the car and Jordan dropped me off at Old Navy and Forever 21.  I ran in and look for 2 little things real quick.  This is usually the only way to do "mom shopping" nowadays.  I either go during naptime on a Saturday or have Jordan drop me off while the boys nap in the car.  This too shall pass!



Once we got home the boys all played outside while I started cooking.  We finally got the "big boy" swing out of the garage and they all gave it a try!



I made poppyseed chicken casserole, green beans, and rolls.....of which my boys ate NONE of.  It's so frustrating with them not eating dinner pretty much ever.  I also made my mother in law's pound cake but it ended up being a giant disaster.  It tastes really good but I had some issues with it sticking in the pan, so it's really ugly!  At least it tasted good!



We put all the little ones down for bed early and now we're just going to chill out, watch for bad weather later tonight, and enjoy our Saturday night!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter 2012

Happy Easter Greetings from our family to yours!  I was so proud of us for getting up early, getting everyone fed and dressed and only being SEMI late for 8:30 church service! Go us! We have had a great day today.  I've been very excited this week to reflect on Jesus' life and death and we've been working with the boys with resurrection eggs, Easter story books, and our kids Bible.  They're really starting to "get it" this year and that's been exciting for me to see and hear John Michael talk about the Cross, the stone being rolled away and Jesus dying for OUR sins!  Like one of their Kids Bible CDs says: "What a MIGHTY Resurrection Day" and that's how I feel this Easter!


I have to brag, because I'm their mom, but OH MY GOODNESS my boys just looked so precious and sweet today!  I'm a proud mama!



Noah kind of looks like he's yelling for help and Matthew's just looking on!



It's hard to get a family picture so we just took a random one at church.  They all look miserable.



Here's my serious Noah in his Easter Sunday white!



And here's my love looking handsome today!



We took some picture out front with all the beautiful flowers and pretty green bushes, but it's really, really hard to get them to all look, or even halfway look.  We just gave up!




We're not big on Easter bunny and all that, but we did do a few goodies and some candy in their baskets.



They got harmonicas!



I have a story about this egg tray.  I went to Europe when I was in high school and I brought this egg tray back home, knowing that one day I would have my own house, husband, and family and need to have a special deviled egg tray.  Deviled eggs are just one of those Southern things that you grow up with and you have to have a special little tray to serve them on.  I'm glad I got the tray in Spain and I'm glad it made it all the way home and then all the way to Arkansas.  I think it's very pretty!



Since we don't have any family close by it's really fun to get together with other friends who aren't having family in for the holiday.  We had some friends over to celebrate Easter and we had a great time just talking and eating while all of our boys just played and played in our backyard.  It's kind of nice to have the boys be pretty self sufficient out back now.


I made the best strawberry-ade! Yum!






Time to eat!



Time to look for Easter eggs!




Aaaaand, the day wouldn't be complete without Jack eating someone's food or stealing food from a baby...




The weather couldn't have been more beautiful.  It was nice and warm and sunny.  We were so glad to spend this special day with friends and I know our boys had a blast playing with their friends all afternoon!  We need to have friends over more often after church!


We hope you had a wonderful Easter!