THE ZOO

I'm a horrible mom and charged my camera just to forget it on the counter! But this is something worth remembering... so sorry no pictures.
Today we woke up and started our normal routine. Santa brought our Christmas present a little early. Better said Santa had the RC Willey delivery guys bring our Christmas present early. They came earlier than expect so we were left with a whole day with nothing planned. Luckily Lindsay called that morning and we found out that her and the girls were all headed to the ZOO!!!  The Hogle Zoo is free on the last Wednesday of the month in November, December, and January. So we packed a lunch, gathered our winter coats and hats and headed to the zoo. It was so much fun. Not very crowded and the animals were extremely active. The baby Elephant put on a show playing in the mud. The rhinos ran around their little yard. The gorillas did more than sleep. The tigers were up and moving around. And it was lunch time at the Giraffe house when we got there. We ate lunch under one of the awnings where the kids could watch the monkeys. Then we even let the kids play for a little while on the playground. The tube slide that looked like a snake was a huge hit. The kids loved it and never complained about being cold, even though it did snow a little. I loved it because all the animals looked so healthy with their winter coats on. I think we just might go again in January!

:)

Sometimes it's the littlest things that make me laugh. I love this quote... because I do this ALL THE TIME!!

2011's First SNOW DAY

We love snow days! Especially when they land on a Saturday! The kids were so excited to look out into the back yard and see snow when they woke up. It wasn't long before they were bundled up and playing in it. The best part about this year. They both wanted to stay outside for longer the 5 minutes. In fact the problem was convincing them after a couple of hours that they needed to come in and eat lunch!

After having fun at home all morning, keeping themselves entertained while mom and dad did chores. We decided to break out the sled at a local park. What a great idea. The hill was small enough for both of them to walk up by themselves and big enough that they had fun sledding!

 Trevin liked the small disc sled. Hmm, I wonder if it that had anything to do with the color? ;)

 Cheyenne loved the tube! 

The only down side was having to leave. Although we did give in to the pleadings of "please just one more time" quite a few times!
Happy SNOW DAYS!

A preschool field trip

During "F" week ate preschool we went on a field trip to the Fire station.  

When we got there the firemen had just been called out. But they were back pretty quick and the kids thought it was fun to watch them park the fire engine. The firemen were so great with the kids and made sure that everyone had fun. First we toured the fire truck and even got to play with the hose. 

Next was the ambulance. The kids thought it was lots of fun to walk through all the vehicles. Next up a tour of the kitchen and bedrooms. WOW. This was probably the favorite part, especially when they saw the 3 refrigerators! 

 Last but not least, one of the fire men dressed up for the kids. They wanted to show them that even though they sound funny through their mask and look scary with all their big clothes on they are nice guys. So the kids wouldn't be scared of them. It worked. The kids all gave him a hug or high fives. Then they taught the kids how to stop drop and roll. and gave them all helmets!

 If you haven't toured the fire station with your kids, you should!

HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS

Pumpkin Carving was so much fun at our house this year. Trevin and Cheyenne picked out their own pumpkins and designed their own jack-o-lantern faces. The best part was getting to light the candles and blow them out every night!

 We had lots of chances to wear our costumes this year. We went to a pumpkin walk, had our preschool party, went to visit grandma and then had Halloween. So we were in our costumes 5 different days!! The kids loved it.

Trevin decided he wanted to be a fighter pilot. So we looked at lots of costumes online before he found teh perfect one. "Green and a hat!" He loved it and was the toughest fighter pilot I've ever seen. 

Cheyenne originally wanted to be Little Mermaid. No surprise there. We started looking at costumes on line to get some good ideas (I was planning on making hers). This is where the surprise comes... She saw a  picture of Pocahontas and decided that's what she wanted to be instead. I didn't mind. Pocahontas sounded easier to make and Cheyenne was so excited with with finished costume. Isn't she a beautiful Indian Girl. 

Visiting Grandma Nicholls. Picking up nuts from her yard. One of my kids favorite activities at her house. 

Our little preschool had a Halloween party. They all had so much fun. We played pin the nose on the pumkin, pass the ghost, bean bag toss. Then we decorated cupcakes and drank "blood juice." Preschool is always entertaining, but it was especially fun this time. 

A picture of our Halloween decorations this year. Trevin saw our neighbor decorating her house at the beginning of October and came inside to tell me "Laura has awesome Halloween decorations. Do we have any?" That's when we decided to break out the Halloween box. We made ghosts out of milk jugs this year that turned out way cute. I forgot to take pictures while they were lit up, but the kids loved it.

Kami and her family were here for Gerin's mission farewell. Which means they got to be here for Halloween. It was so much fun to go trick-or-treating with them. Here is our little crew before we headed out. we lasted about and hour and a half. Then the kids decided they were tired and that their buckets were HEAVY! So we headed home and passed out candy.

I REALLY, REALLY HOPE THIS ONE DOESN'T TURN OUT TO BE A TRADITION!!! Two years ago (almost to the day) Trevin fell off the stool while he was brushing his teeth and cracked his tooth... We ended up at the Dentist, then sedated to have it pulled. Well this time was a little different. Trevin and Cheyenne hit heads. I didn't see it, but this is what they told me. I rubbed Chey's head better and then rubbed Trevin's. That when he told me that his teeth hurt too! A quick look revealed that he had cracked the front half of his tooth off. Janae stopped by to look at it that night and we were at the dentist office early Friday morning. Xrays and a quick exam showed that he had cracked it down to the root. (The dentist was surprised that I hadn't had to pull the front piece off.) This time they were able to pull it out right away. It was nice that Trevin was old enough to not get fully sedated, just some laughing gas. What a champ!

Cheyenne was very good at the dentist too. The thought it was fun to wear their costumes (The whole dentists office dresses up for the week before Halloween). 

I'm just glad it was on the bottom again!! 

I told Trevin all about the tooth fairy on the way home from the dentist. He was pretty excited about the whole thing. We took his tooth with us everywhere on Friday and he told everyone that the toot fairy. He ended up falling asleep early on Friday night and woke up Saturday morning and said "Oh man, the tooth fairy didn't come! I forgot to put my tooth under my pillow!" We reassured him that if he did it tonight the tooth fairy would still come. He got his tooth out right then and put it on his bed so he wouldn't forget again.
That night he put his tooth under his pillow and fell right asleep. Then at about 4:30 in the morning woke up throwing up. We were sitting in the middle of a mess on his bed.  I was telling him not to worry that I would clean up his bed, when he asked, "But Mom, did the tooth fairy come?" Let's just say he was very excited to check under his pillow and find out that YES the tooth fairy did come.

So that definitely seems like that's all that could have happened this weekend but there is one more thing I have to add. We got in a car accident. We were stopped at a signal and got rear ended. Trevin was holding my phone at the time and it flew out of his hand. When it happened I told the kids, just a minute, someone ran into our truck with their car, I'll be right back. Trevin quickly responded with "Yeah, that car almost broke my hand right off!" It wasn't very bad. The lady that hit us had only had her car for 8 days, and wouldn't be driving it home. Our truck didn't show any signs of getting hit. The officer that came to the accident asked if she could talk to my kids and get their information. I helped them answer her questions. Gage showed up just then. So I talked to him for a minute then I heard Trevin ask, "Do you have a gun?" I turned around to see the officer showing Trevin that yes she had a gun. Then he started pointing to the other things on her belt and she was very patient and told him this is my tazor and my radio, etc. I think this was the highlight of his day, even more than getting his tooth pulled. Cheyenne was so excited to tell everyone she saw that day "A car crashed rigth into us, like BAM!" All in all it was a very eventful day.