Monday, January 28, 2013

Arbor Hills Trip With Friends

We decided a hike at Arbor Hills was a great fit for our warm Monday morning. (Observed high today was 76!) We may not be using all our indoor ideas this winter after all...but I probably shouldn't speak too soon. :)

The Armstrong bunch joined us this time and the kids loved showing Peyton and Maci a few favorite spots and how fun it is going through the "forest" on the off-beaten path. We got in MANY miles as we were there for just over four hours. Another highlight was getting turns walking their new dog, Jojo. You can imagine how big of a hit this was! :) Their other favorite part was probably playing along the stream in the rocks and mud. We made it to the tower again this trip as well. The pic of all of them sitting and drawing was supposed to show how tired they were towards the end of the walk...but it looks pretty normal! :) We definitely had some weary kiddos the last leg, but they were all troopers and mustered up a bit more energy for the playground for the last 20 minutes or so.


Thursday, January 24, 2013

Jump Time

We have had some wonderful, WONDERFUL days and I feel like there is no way this is January. I love when our days are filled with bike rides, bubbles, sandbox time, backyard golf, trips to the park...and that is what we have had lately.

The Hughes family got a trampoline for Christmas and we were invited over after school on Thursday.
SO. MUCH. JUMPING!!! Makin wanted nothing to do with it, but he had plenty of balls etc to keep him entertained while the girls jumped. After picking Lorelei up from school we even stopped at a park to play before going to their place (they don't get home from getting Aubrey until 3:30) so our kids slept sound that night for sure! :)




M&M :)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Penguin Days At The Dallas Zoo


January and February are Penguin Days at the Dallas Zoo, which means $5 admission (and Makin is still free!) so when we saw the weather forecast, we decided we needed a fun family outing. (We hope to make this a yearly tradition when we have a warm-weather day in the winter. Last year we missed it since we were recovering for Makin's surgery etc. but we did go two years ago.)

I just love the excitement at these ages. They were so pumped to be going to the zoo. The weather was supposed to reach 74 degrees so it was PERFECT. AMAZING. GORGEOUS.








I glanced at the website the day before and noticed they had a few zookeeper talks throughout the day and thought that might be fun to try and catch if we could. We love all knowledge and facts we can learn! And boy did we enjoy seeing those! The lions are trained amazingly well. As in, as good as or better than your well trained dog! I never realized this was the case with lions. At two of the talks they mentioned how good it is that the animals are trained so they can give them shots etc when needed without needing to sedate them.


One of my favorite parts of this zoo is that you can feed the giraffes. I mean really!?! :) At first Makin was not sure he wanted to dare try it, but he bravely held out his leaf of lettuce, the giraffe took it and he was completely elated and yelled excitedly, "He ate mine! He ate mine!" The nice zoo keeper even brought out an extra leaf or two so I could catch both kids in front of the giraffe. :)




The elephants talk was my favorite. We basically had a one-on-one chat with one of the zoo keepers and she answered any and all questions and we even asked her some just regular zoo keeper questions and told her to check out our favorite zoo in Omaha! :) They threw apples for the elephants to eat which was fun to see also.









One of the many kid-friendly parts of the zoo...climbable statues everywhere! :)


Loving exploring the zoo. One first for all of us (I think) was seeing a koala!


Couldn't have asked for a better trip to the zoo! :)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Foam Popsicle Sticks

Moms...go to Dollar Store and pick up yours today!!!

I was hunting for foam snowflakes (no where to be found by now apparently...now we can only buy four leaf clovers) to use in the bathtub. When I struck out I glanced at the other foam things in the store...and thought these would be a hit. And they sure are! Endless ideas...building things, patterns, making letters...so many things! Lorelei is more into it to try and make some cool things than Makin for sure, but still fun for both. :)


Saturday, January 19, 2013

Smiles For Warmer Weather

We have been enjoying some AMAZING January weather. We are making sure to take in as much outside time as we can on the really nice days (its quite up and down right now with a few warm and then a few cold).We decided to take a family park trip on Saturday. All smiles from the kiddos!


January Family Picture

(eh hem...finally!)
Okay so, bit of a late start on this one, but we have had a crazy first couple weeks of January, so I'm giving myself a break.



Outtakes...per Lorelei's request of course
P.S. We had to take three "sad" pictures (again this was, "Lets take a sad one." from her) because she kept half smiling in them. Then this one she looked at it and said, "I did it!!!" :)

Friday, January 18, 2013

Embracing The White Stuff And Chilly Weather

Although I'm not a huge fan of snow, I do appreciate a good snowman and snowflake...especially the ones that don't interfere with our driving. ;) So, being the theme person I am, I have a few January winter activities lined up. This week we enjoyed a few...but actually got the real thing on Tuesday morning too!!! Hoping we get at least one more snow this winter, but we shall see. :)

Fluffy Stuff

Tuesday morning we were surprised to see that we had the REAL fluffy stuff falling outside. :) Lorelei was wanting to go out and play as soon as she got up, while it was still dark. We scrambled to get her ready for school as quickly as possible so she had a few minutes to play out in the snow before we left for school. Some friends of ours decided to play hooky and stay home and enjoy the snow, which we probably would have done if I wasn't out of milk and bread! :)
It was a very good thing she went out before school as it was almost all melted when she got home!











Our snow play dough. She made her snowman wink, can you tell? ;)















When you have to get milk and bread...you may as well get Oreos and white chocolate. :) Saw this on Pinterest so we had to make our little snowmen faces. The kids were just thrilled that they got cookies! Again, Lorelei is into fun faces, so this snowman is making the "o" face. :) And yep, they were super yummy. They even got hot chocolate to boot!


It warmed up a bit Wednesday so we played a game called "Jack Frost's Not Lost" outside while drinking hot chocolate. (My kids will like winter, if nothing for the amount of hot chocolate I let them consume. ;) )

They both LOVED this game. It is so simple that they can both totally get it, but fun for all...plus you get to eat marshmallows  :) Going to have to get a less sugary version if they want to play it more often! :)

Lots of smiles from this activity.










And Brad has been foregoing all that hot chocolate and sticking to hot lemon and honey as well as apple cider, as he has been diagnosed with whooping cough! Yes, you can get it as in adult as your immunizations you got as a child have worn off! He is on the road to recovery though!







Friday we stayed home and had friends visit! We ended up booking both a morning and afternoon play date  This is enjoying some lunch with Kaitlyn, Hailey and Ki. :) Hadn't seen them in quite a while and they all had a great time destroying the place! :) Later we had a quick visit with the Hughes kiddos and it had warmed up enough to enjoy the sandbox.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Our Two Biggest Joys

Well, I have been jotting down notes for months so some of these are old, but still want to remember them. :)  
We are so thankful for these two blessings. Our highs of the day seem to always revolve around these two, no matter how rough our day may be.

Miss Lorelei:
(In this pic she is proudly holding colored pencils with her feet, like Curious George of course.)

Still loves school. A while back when she got home she reported, "I didn't even miss you once!" :)

Calls Makin "Oinks to Oinks" when he is her pet pig. Cutest pig name ever.

"If both parents are sick that would be bad. I would have to drive the car - AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!!!"

Lor: (Procrastinating bedtime) I need another hug and kiss.
Me: I already gave you some.
Lor: They wore off.

We were practicing the word ketchup (she usually says it something sounding like check up) and she said, "KETCHUP. That means it runs really fast."

We were making snowmen ornaments from their hand print and I said that we needed hats for the snowmen. She agreed and said, "I know. We need gentlemen hats." (from Curious George I think) and then later she said it again and said, "Gentle Mints. With mints on them."

"I love him to the top of his ears!" (About her new giant teddy bear.)


"Maybe they'll put it on Pinterest!"


Lor: Mine is better than yours.
Me: Is that talking nice?
Lor: (In a sweet sing-songy voice.) Mine is better than yours.

I should also mention her major fear of the dark has been a work in progress. Both kids got Dream Lights from Aunt Heather for Christmas, and my goal was to get her off of having a lamp on all night to just using it. We still have some struggle right at bedtime, but so far she is doing all right. It helped that both kids slept with them on in the same room for two weeks at my parents to break her in...and that way she had Makin's company to help her through it. Hoping it will help her sleep sounder not having a bright room all night.

Another note about our girl is that she has gotten more affectionate (for example rubs your back and gives more hugs and seems to want to cuddle more) and says "I love you" often.


Mr. Makin
(Had to include this picture of him with racing his cars as it is one of my notes jotted down as well. He matches the blue car with the blue race track, but insists on putting the green car, aka his favorite because, well, its green of course, on the top, even though that is the purple track, so that it will win.)

Hoosie Mammas = Footsie Pajamas

He was pointing to the letters on my HUSKERS shirt and I asked what it said. He said, "MOMMY" as he pointed across the word. :)

I told him to count while I did something to time me. He started counting, "One Pi Pi Pi Pee." (One Mississippi. And yes, for you fellow FRIENDS fans Ross would be proud. :) )

He often is exasperated when things take, "Yong, Yong, Yong, Pime!" (Long long long time)

We finally have a child who is attached to ONE stuffed animal. Well, it might be two now. He has one little puppy that he MUST have to sleep with. When we were in Oklahoma he was given a puppy that looks like that puppy's twin, so he is pretty attached to both now...he is also very particular about having all of his blankets that he likes, and the amount of blankets seems to be growing so a bit worried how we will get rid of a few when it warms up!

 He often shouts, "Guys! Guys!" before showing us something.

If presented with a question/problem he excitedly exclaims, "I mo!!!" (I know!) and raises his hand with pointer finger up. And then if we need to find something he will follow with his version of the word "binoculars" and holds his hands up around his eyes to make his own binoculars to hunt for said object.

If we ask him to take something and he has his hands full he has no hesitation telling us, "Two Hands!"

Me: Ready to go get your sister?
Makin: Mope. Clean up books.

He often barters for time. "Mo. One minute." or "Mo, Five minutes." is heard quite often.

If we call him any nickname (Big guy, Buddy, Goof Ball) we are quickly corrected, "Mo. Me Makin!"

He has some OCD tendencies shining through. For example if you leave a cabinet door open you get an, "uh oh" and he also makes sure the lid to the syrup is closed if you leave it open. The biggest one so far is that all of his Frosted Mini Wheats have to be in the bowl, frosting-side up and they can only be the amount that will fit perfectly at the bottom of the bowl, even though he eats more than that, so then you have refill his bowl later.

He protests being done with books by saying, "Just One More, Thats IT."

I had such a precious moment with him when putting him to sleep the other night. He had his two little pudgy two-year-old hands wrapped around my neck for a little bit while laying in bed a few minutes with him and then when I left I told him to sleep tight and he said, "Sleep tight too, Mommy."

He is pretty much talking nonstop, repeats anything and everything we say as best he can, and I cannot begin to explain the cuteness factor. I'm going to try and compile some videos to capture some of it.

Makin videos to come here!!!





And both kids are eating me out of house and home and growing like weeds!!! :)

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

AJ's Visit


We were very excited that Uncle AJ and his girlfriend Alex came for a visit on Wednesday. They made a fun little road trip down just before returning to school to start their next semester and included us in their list of people to visit! :) Both kids warmed right up to Alex and had a blast with both of them, especially when they all played hide and seek. Tons of fun listening to all of them as I was wishing they lived closer and I could have them come and babysit! :) Then the kids insisted that they each read books to them at bedtime. (They had to read to one child and then switch as Alex quickly moved up to equal AJ's awesomeness status.) AJ ended up reading approximately eight books to Makin after Alex had already read at least two to him. :) Then when the kids finally went to bed we stayed up for a "grown ups" game night! Such fun and loved seeing them for a short visit. :) Looking forward to the next one!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Troopers

We were very blessed with lots of memory making moments. 
Thanks for all your help Mom and Dad, we all miss you already.



Friday, January 4, 2013

Papa Time

One very bright side of this trip was that the kids got good Papa time. The weather being so cold and snowy meant he actually stayed around the house. :) Well, unless he took us out sledding or was out taking care of the cattle. :) Enjoyed making these memories.




Thursday, January 3, 2013

Snow Much Fun!

So, these pictures are just so precious...I think I just want this to be mostly just a picture post. We got an amazing snow and wonderful snow-playing weather. And...here is some of the fun we had over several days.






























Do have to add Makin's sledding story...he came with us the second day of sledding in the pasture. Went down great the first time but as soon as he was done and we asked if he wanted to go again he was definite on his, "No." We coaxed him and bribed him with hot chocolate, a cookie and yogurt and finally got him to go down a second time so we could get a video. :) When we asked if he wanted to go a third time he said, "No. Two times." And repeated, "Two times" if we ever asked again. And quickly followed with, "Hands cold. Home now." :)