Trip to the Syracuse Zoo

Joseph is currently on a 9 day trip to Guatemala.  That's a long time to have him gone.  I tried to plan a few extra fun things to help keep the blues away while he has been gone.  I took each of the big kids out on a ice cream date and then one day we went to the Zoo.  We hadn't been to the Zoo in Syracuse.  I just hate to pay for the zoo when we can visit the St. Louis zoo free of charge.  We finally went though.  A woman from church knew I was on my own so she offered to take the kids for a day, instead of doing that I invited her to come to the zoo with us.  It was fun having this lady along and it gave me an opportunity to get to know her better.  The weather was nice and it is a small enough zoo that we took our time but saw every animal in less than 2 hours.

Outside the zoo.  Our "waterfall" for the week.

The babies with Sharon May.

Kimball and the flamingos.

This baby elephant was so cute.  I just love seeing baby animals!

Riding the elephant.

I don't remember what these were, but they were kind of cute.

We felt very lucky that this tiger decided to take a nap
where we could examine him closely.

Posing in front of the red panda.

I had a great time at the zoo.  The babies were so good.  Kimball was disappointed he couldn't pet any of the animals.  I told him if he had been able to pet the tiger, the tiger would have eaten him.

Kimball Turns Eight!

Kimball turned 8 years old yesterday.  Where does the time go.  Sometimes I feel like he should still be my sweet little buddy that's two years old.  Joseph missed Kimball's birthday, again.  He missed it two years ago when we were in St. Louis and Joseph was in Syracuse.  This year Joseph is in Guatemala.  Sorry, Kimball!  We did get to skype with Joseph so that was nice.  Joseph was "with" us as Kimball opened his presents.

For breakfast Kimball wanted cheese danish.  This has become the standard birthday breakfast that my kids request, although, they request it anytime I mention a special breakfast.

For our anniversary I bought Joseph a bunch of his favorite foods/treats; at the time Kimball mentioned that he wanted me to do that for his birthday too so we gave him some chocolate and gummy bears. 

Kimball still really loves soccer.  This year he wanted a soccer jersey for one of his favorite players: Zlatan Ibrahimovic.  These next pictures capture his excitement as he opened his present.

 

  

Joseph is always working on projects around the house so Kimball now has his own tool box with tools.  He and Joseph are going to plan a special project to do together.

 

Kimball also wanted an "engineering set" so we thought he would like this Invention set as well.

At Kimball's request we had carrot cake for dessert.

   

Birthday boy with his mom!

I really loved these pictures of Kimball.  I felt like I captured some really good smiles instead of the "fake" smiles that he usually gives me when I'm taking pictures.  I loved his excitement as well.  We are so grateful that Kimball is part of our family.  We love him a lot!

10 Months Old

Lincoln and Annika hit the 10 month mark yesterday.  It has been an exciting month for both of them!

Lincoln is doing great.  He has 6 teeth and is a good eater.  He loves yogurt, but will eat just about anything.  He is starting to be a little more mobile and inch here and there on his tummy.  He moves the most if I'm not in the room so I try to stay out of sight when he is moving.  He is sweet and fun to snuggle.  I love making him laugh.  He is "talking" a lot and making more of the "ma-ma" and "da-da" sounds even though he isn't talking to us or about us. I love hearing him make sounds and try to sing along to songs.

Annika is still our little fireball.  She has such an active personality.  Lincoln is so chill and Annika is always on the go.  That is just the way Kimball and Rebecah were as well.  Annika decided to start climbing the stairs this month.  She is really good at it, but she makes me nervous if someone isn't behind her.  She fell once, but I don't think she was too high up.  She climbs on anything she can and she cruises along the furniture like a champ.  She is still pretty little, but I decided to move her up to 6-9 month clothing just so I could have more options.  I was ready for a change.  She is becoming more of a "mama's girl" and usually prefers me to feed her. Annika likes to make herself heard and has a big voice.  I love hearing her vocalize.

Both babies make me so happy and bring smiles to my face.  I couldn't imagine life without them.

Trip to Palmyra

On Tuesday we took a family trip to Palmyra.  We have gone to Palmyra frequently over the last 2 1/2 years, but it has always been in conjunction with a visit to the temple.  We would take turns attending the temple while the other would take the kids to the various sites around Palmyra.  This time we decided to just visit some of the sites as a family and it was a lot of fun.

Our first stop was the Hill Cumorah.  It was overcast in the morning but the temperature was cool.

Rebecah has a beautiful smile, but when she wants to be
silly she can make some amusing faces as well.

I thought this picture was cute of Annika exploring.  She is such a little person.

We ate lunch at the park and the babies enjoyed swinging.

They are so cute I had to put two pictures of them in the post.

 The kids had never been to the Alvin Smith grave so we went there.

Beautiful Smiles all around.

See what I mean about Rebecah's personality shining through!

Martin Harris Farm.  Not the original house..it burnt down in the 1840s.
This house was built in the 1850s.  It is privately owned and not open for tours.

 I didn't get a picture of it, but we also stopped at the popular "Chill 'n Grill" for their famous ice cream cones.  A small cone has 4 large scoops of ice cream on it.  I got a 1/2 kiddie cone which was 2 large scoops.  Kimball and Joseph shared a small cone and Rebecah ordered a 1/2 kiddie as well.  Rebecah didn't finish hers. Kimball was a little disappointed to share with Joseph, but even with sharing Kimball couldn't eat all of his ice cream.

We ended the day walking around the temple grounds.
This is a view from the field behind the temple.

We had a really fun time.

Trip to St. Louis 2015

We recently returned from taking our annual trip to St. Louis.  I do love visiting my family each year.  This year was extra special since my mom and Heather hadn't seen the babies in person yet.  Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Family Selfie--you can see our set up so the big kids could each help care for a baby.

 Joseph, Kimball and Rebecah met up with Aaron, Joseph's brother, one day for lunch.  The babies and I really wanted to see Aaron, but the big kids were going to a water park with Joseph after lunch and we hadn't brought swimming suits for the babies.  The babies and I weren't about to sit in the 95 degree heat wilting while everyone else was in the water.

Eating lunch at Steak 'n Shake

Joseph and Aaron

McNair water park.  

We took pictures of family...Here are some cute ones with Heather and Annika.  Rebecah and I were in a few too.

           

 

We were also able to spend some time with Chandra.  It was fun hanging out with her.  She ended up having a kidney infection while we were visiting, but the sliver lining was spending more time with her.

This was our attempt at a family picture.  We didn't get
 great expressions so we may have to try again.

One day we went to the Museum of Transportation.  It was really hot and humid the day we went so we walked slowly.  Our family just isn't equipped to handle the heat and humidity anymore.  Eighty-five and humid is about our limit these days and the day we visited the Museum of Transportation it was almost 100 degrees.  Call us crazy, but we will happily take our annual 120 inches of snow over the heat and humidity of living south of New York.  Here were our pictures:

The babies handled the heat pretty well.  They were in front of a fan in this picture, but I did feel bad having them out in the heat.  It is the hottest they have ever been and their cheeks were flushed.  They loved getting drinks from the water bottle.

Another day we went to the Science Center.  Kimball was excited to go, but I remembered how bored I was last year.  I was only excited to go since it was air conditioned!  In this picture Kimball had designed a boat and when timed his boat was the fastest of the day.  Shortly after the picture a boy pushed his boat instead of having it blow by the fans so he could have the fastest time. I was glad we had a picture of Kimball with his boat..  Kimball's time was 5.90 seconds and it is the small top number above the 3.40.

On our way home we stopped off in Indianapolis for the Indianapolis temple open house.  The temple was beautiful and we were glad we could give the kids the opportunity to go inside a temple.  The weather was sunny but cooler.  This wasn't a great picture of Joseph, Annika and Kimball because it was so sunny.

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We had a great time in St. Louis.  Too bad we couldn't stay for 2 weeks like we usually do, but I don't think I could have driven one way by myself while trying to care for the big kids and the babies.  The babies did great in the car and I was amazed how well they slept while we were gone.