Jacksonville Zoo

We had planned on spending our weekend building the porch to our playhouse, but it had been raining for several days and things were just too wet to do it. So we decided on an impromptu trip to the Jacksonville Zoo. We had lots of fun. The weather was perfect - not too hot. The girls would probably say their favorite thing was playing in the Play Park, but mine was definitely the squirrel monkeys! Those are some cute little animals! We saw a 4 week old giraffe, tons of nesting wood storks, and a crazy little baby mandrill monkey. I took a ton of pictures and am in awe of this camera - I love it! Anyway, enjoy looking at our day at the zoo!

Kaylin's favorite animal was the pink flamingos. She couldn't wait to see those!

I loved watching all three of them together. They would get so excited at the various animals we saw!

Kaylin enjoyed pointing things out to Maryella. She's such a good big sister!

Kaylin and Annlee tried out their "Steve Irwin" alligator wrestling skills!

I love all the statues they have around the zoo. Makes for great photo ops!

All three girls loved playing in the sand area. They would have stayed there all day!

Here is my favorite - the squirrel monkey! They are so cute! This one kept coming right up to where Maryella was sitting in the stroller eating snacks. I think he was hoping for a hand out. Thank goodness they were behind glass, because Maryella was actually willing to share!

Right in front of the squirrel monkey exhibit were a bunch of ropes meant to look like the vines that the monkeys play on. Kaylin and Annlee had a ball pretending to be squirrel monkeys!

Maryella loved seeing all the big cats. Every time we came up to one, she would say "meow".

We were fascinated by this animal - the world's largest rodent! He looked like a giant hampster. Kaylin wouldn't even get near the glass, she thought he was so weird looking.

Picture time again

Today provided another opportunity for my favorite past time - taking pictures of my babies! They looked so pretty today! God has blessed us with these three precious girls. He is so good! Thank you Lord for my beautiful children! Help me to raise them in such a way that is pleasing to you!

Happy Birthday Marmie!

My parents were here keeping the girls this weekend during my eye surgery and it happened to also be my mom's birthday. We had fun celebrating. Here are a couple pictures...

We gave my mom a purse several years ago that has a picture of the girls on it. We've given her new "panels" for the front of it a couple times and she had been wanting a new one for a while. So that was her gift. The girls also made cards and Jeff picked out a beautiful cake for us to enjoy!

Then we went out to dinner and Kaylin requested that we go somewhere that would sing Happy Birthday. So we surprised Marmie with that. It was funny. Kaylin and Annlee could hardly stand to eat their meals for wondering when it was going to happen. I'm pretty sure they gave the surprise away before our drinks even came. It was still fun though.

I can see, I can see!!!

On Thursday (yes, Valentine's Day!), my parents kept the girls and Jeff and I drove over to Jacksonville for me to get LASIK surgery! Ahh! I was really nervous, to the point that I didn't even want to think about the surgery ahead of time. But the anticipation was worse than the actual thing. I got there and had to spend an hour being prepped for it - lots of eye drops (we're talking MEGA eye dialation! It lasted well into Saturday!!) When it came right down to it, I came close to backing out. As I layed down on the table, I prayed, please God, let me be able to see when this is all over! Even if things are blurry! Please don't let me be blind! Thankfully, He answered my prayer!! ;o)
The surgery consists of 2 parts. The first part they put this ring around your eye and apply pressure. At this point, your vision goes grey, which isn't as bad as it sounds. Then they do the laser part. This was more nerve wracking for me because I was so concerned about trying to keep my eye still. I was worried I would look away and the laser would make a mistake. I did fine though and it was really all over pretty quickly. Mostly painless. Then I had to wait in recovery for about an hour, then they released me until the next morning. Jeff and I went to a hotel in Jacksonville and I was under strict orders to keep my eyes closed and try to sleep for 6-8 hours. After that, I was free to watch TV, but not read or do computer work. I was pretty uncomfortable though, so I tried to sleep as much as possible and actually only woke up for a few minutes to eat dinner. Then back to sleep. I had to wear these goggle things so I wouldn't bump my eye (I actually have to wear them for 2 weeks - I already despise those things! So uncomfortable!).
I went back in the next morning for them to check my eyes and I was already seeing 20/20!!! I have to go back on Tuesday for another check. It's so wild that they can do that to fix your vision! I'm really amazed! God has given us the ability to do some truly wonderfully things in the medical field. (I would like to know who volunteered to be the guinea pig with this though!)
Now Jeff is anxiously awaiting his turn in the next couple years!

Valentine's Day

A few pictures from our LOVEly day!

Maryella's first dentist visit!

We've just changed over to a new dentist who likes to see kids as soon as their first teeth cut through the gums. Maryella has never been before, so I took her in for her very first visit. She thought everything was pretty neat, until they made her lie down in my lap for the exam. She screamed, but that made it easier to examine those pearly whites. As soon as they let her sit up, she was fine and started talking to the nurse. All was good - they kept commenting about her beautiful teeth. The child literally claps sometimes when I tell her it's time to go brush her teeth, so I'm not too surprised!

Annlee was seen also and got a clean bill of health as well. Kaylin gets to go next week. Here are a few pictures from our visit...

This one is before the visit, she's playing in the waiting room

And afterwards, checking out her toothbrush

After church...

My silly girls! After we got home from church yesterday, they wanted to play outside until Daddy got home (he gets home usually about 10-15 minutes after we do.) They had instructions not to play in the dirt, but they just couldn't help it. They had to go in after I found them like this. But not before I took a picture. I thought it was just too cute with all 3 of them playing together. I took these other pictures after church yesterday too.

Playhouse, Part 2

This weekend was spent painting the playhouse! It really turned out cute! We have a few thigns left to do, but this made such a huge difference in how the house looks! The girls are so excited! Kaylin actually stuck with the painting and was a big help.

Jesus Loves Me

I just had to share this! We sing Jesus Loves Me with Maryella every night before bed. She has picked up on a few words in it, especially the word Bible and Jesus. (You can ignore my singing, haha!) I think you'll be able to tell when she sings those couple of words. Most of it sounds like jibberish, but hey - she and Jesus know what it means!