From WI with Love

We enjoyed a visit to the zoo. I liked this zoo, especially the gorillas. The zoo mimicked the gorilla's natural environment and it was neat to watch them and picture what they would be like in the wild.


We were able to feed the goats. I remember when Madison used to do this, but stopped because of safety issues. This zoo did a great job by making it a pet only area, without feeding. That way you weren't trampled by the animals who thought you had food. Alia liked petting them and Avery was fascinated by how thick the sheep's coat was.


We spent a lot of beautiful days walking and going to various parks. The paths through town really are wonderful, even when you read the map wrong and get lost! Good thing Grandpa offered to push the stroller that day since it weighs close to 100 pounds with both kids.








Enjoying a moment on the deck after a 3 mile walk. It was a little hot out and I over-dressed both kids. I guess I just didn't think Spring was really going to come.


Yes, she STILL drools! I'm hoping this ends soon as she's outgrowing her bibs.


I was a good hostess because I made sure to leave the yard work for Grandma when she came. Just kidding, Grandma was sweet and offered to make the yard look acceptable since she LOVES raking. Thanks for making it look great!

She has curls!!!

Comforting?

When Avery was born we bought him bears just like this. We bought two in case one was lost but he decided he needed both to sleep. He was always so cute with his bears. He had to have both with him, tucked on each side of his ears. Those bears are still his favorite and he still sleeps with them but now instead of tucking them by his face he sniffs them, weird I know but manageable. Since he was so attached to his, we thought Alia should also have a bear. We didn't introduce her to two like Avery because we wanted one as a back-up. Well, the back-up had to be used because she sucks on the arms while sleeping! It is so gross and smells so bad that I have to wash the bears every day. We now own 5 bears because I have to rotate them. I thought Avery's sniffing was bad but I think that sucking on the bears is way worse.

At least he's ready for hopscotch

Alia is an amazing sleeper, she has been since birth. I lay her down at 7 pm and don't hear a peep out of her until 7:45 am. Avery on the other hand would rather wake up several times a night to say "I love you", eat random pears, or watch the monsters dance in his room. He says that they dance around at night. In the 3 years 7 months of his life he has slept through the night maybe 5 times. Scott is always an amazing dad and sleepwalks through the house at night to help Avery. It really works out nicely since he doesn't really wake up and Avery is put back in bed. Well the other night we both woke up to elephants stampeding through the house. Scott gets up to investigate and finds Avery in the hallway hopping. It turns out that he was complaining to Scott during the day about how tired he is at night when he wakes up so he doesn't want to walk back to bed but have Scott carry him back. Scott jokingly tells Avery that perhaps he should consider hopping since walking makes him too tired. He never imagined that Avery would take him seriously and actually try hopping from his room to ours in the dark.

Safari!

While my family was here we took the opportunity to visit a nearby animal safari that you can drive through and feed the animals. We had so much fun interacting with the animals and listening to one another shriek and laugh. Enjoy the pictures:



We rented this van and Scott drove it through the safari


This giraffe stuck his head right in the window and stole Scott's food out of the bag. He got so much slobber on Scott.


This bird was freaky and scared me a little. I would put a piece of food on the window and he would wildly peck it away and then stick his head in the window looking for more.


This animal scared me. I was turned around taking a picture of my mom and when I turned back around his head was completely in my window looking for food.


The animals were pretty comical with their tongues!

Alia's Birthday Party

Here's the birthday girl. We had a ladybug theme for her 1st birthday. The dress she is wearing was my Mom's dress that she wore at her 1st birthday. We were pretty excited that it fit her since they share a birthday.


Happy Birthday Bama and Alia!


I think we went a little over board on the ladybugs.


I loved this backpack


We had a pinata filled with candy and plastic bugs


I'm one!


The cupcakes


We painted bugs and monsters


She is laughing at Gaven

It followed them here......

Well, my family pulled in early this morning from WI and we were able to welcome them with open arms and way too much snow! Yes, I said snow. They were hoping for the nice weather you hear about down south during the winter, but I guess Mother Nature had other ideas. At least it will feel more like home for them. We ended up with at least 3 inches of snow in the end.










This was all that was left the next day

Holy Cow I'm One!!

I lost track of Alia tonight while cooking dinner and found her screeching with delight in the bathroom where Avery was taking a bath. She scooted miles to the bathroom in search of him. He was giving her toys to throw at him. It's so much fun watching them play together!

Starting a tradition

When I was a wee little lad, my dad made me a bookcase which Avery has now inherited. I thought it was awesome that his creation had been passed down to my son. However, I was a little sad that Avery had a handmade treasure and Alia didn't. I decided that Alia should have one too, so for for her first birthday I decided to make one for her too.



Here is the one my dad made me.



And the one that I made for Alia. She instantly pulled all of her books off and laughed with glee. I hope my creation gets as much use as Avery's has.

Alia and Banana 12 mos

1 week


6 months


12 months


I'm 1 today!!!!

Valentine's Day Cards

Avery gets to go to his first ever Valentine's Day party at school next week. Yay!! Now he needs Valentine's for his classmates. I used to love this time of year when we would decorate our own boxes and then watch as they were filled up with notes and treats from fellow classmates. I was going to go out and buy his cards to exchange but then I saw a friend's blog showing how she made her own valentines. What a great idea to personalize the cards and to save a little money. I found a great site here with so many fun Valentine ideas. We made the airplanes for his classmates and the elephant for his teacher.

The race to walking has begun....

In the second video she wanted to walk without holding on. She was able to stand by herself for a split second.

Bugs, Bugs, Buggy Bugs!

With our temperatures finally back to normal for January, we decided to celebrate by making egg carton bugs!

Snow Angels

Never expected to be able to make snow angels in Georgia! No laughing back home, we can get excited about a dusting!

Alia and Banana 11 months

Notice the stylish mohawk this month and her 2 front teeth? It took over 10 months to get her first teeth, and they came in together. One of the bottom ones broke through yesterday.


To say she drools would be an understatement!

Second Christmas

Since we loved driving so much after driving 32hrs to and from WI we decided another 20hrs would be nothing to visit some more family to celebrate Christmas/New Years.

We had an absolute blast and were so happy to see everyone again.

Here are the picture highlights



Halfway through Kentucky we saw dinosaur world. Dinosaur World!! How can you pass that up. We couldn't and it was cool.



Little did my family know that while they discussed the devastating consequences of rouge asteroids they were being stalked by a menacing T-Rex.



10 degrees and windy is no reason to pass up a fun trip to the park.



Who knew that the middle of IL had a cool park. US!!



One of my favorite moments was when my sister broke out the Christmas music. Such a holiday treat.



Avery took to ski jumping on the Wii pretty much instantly.



Making ginger bread cookies.



...and decorating Grandpa's face!