What a Crazy Day

I swear these kids are in on it together. They are both out to get me. Arabella threw a fit at dinner because I refused to let her chug juice. This after being a major pill all day. So I spanked her and put her to bed early. (Yes, I'm that kinda mom.) Now I'm listening to her bark from her crib. Evan hasn't slept all.day.long. He'll fall asleep on the boob and the minute you try to lay him down he screams as if you're leaving him forever. I don't know if it's anxiety or he's just going through another growth spurt...I don't know.

On a side note, I so wished I had had my camera this afternoon. Arabella has been watching Nick Jr. for quite some time. A lot of the shows these days ask for your participation in what ever it is that they are doing. Finally today she actually tried to participate in Yo Gabba Gabba. Now I'm not a huge fan of the show only because I've watched a zillion hours of it. They were doing the D.J. Lance dance where they point to their knees, feet, and clap then say bitty-bitty-beep-beep. It was the most adorable thing ever. She smacked her knees and clapped while saying bitty-bitty-beep-beep. Never in my life have I seen anything so cute. So I'm not sure that's enough to make up for her atrocious behaviour today but it sure helps take the edge off.

Evan - Birth Fun Facts

While I was doing some online research today I ran across some fun birth facts for the day the kids were born. I thought he might find this information interesting one day.

Congratulations!

Your baby's birth date was

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Your conception date was most likely 5/12/2009

And your baby is 141 days old!

The above information is based on a birthdate of 2/2/2010

Fun Birthday Facts

•Zodiac Sign: Aquarius
•Half birthday: August 3
•Birthstone: Amethyst
•Birth Flower: Violet or Primrose
•Chinese Zodiac: Year of The Brown Earth Cow
•Your baby will start kindergarten in 2015, be old enough to drive a car in 2026, finish high school in 2028, and will graduate from college with the class of 2032, give or take a year. Can you imagine?

Famous People Born On This Day

•Farrah Fawcet was born in 1947
•Christie Brinkley was born in 1954
•Shakira was born in 1977


On This Day In History...

•Turkey was declared war on by Greece. in 1878
•In Punxsutawney, PA groundhog day was observed for the first time. in 1887
•In Harrisburg Pennsylvania the state capitol was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated 9 years later on the same site. in 1897
•Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. more than 150,000 people visited. in 1913
•In Portage, WI Leonard Keller conducted the first test if the polygraph machine. in 1935
•The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made. in 1946
•The first time in 400 years the 8th and 9th planets aligned. in 1962
•The NBA was formed by the American Basketball Association. in 1967
•The first balance budget in 30 years was introduced by President Clinton in 1998
•The white powder that was found in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was confirmed to be poison ricin in 2004
•This time last year you were 9 Weeks Pregnant!


Want some fun facts for your childs' birthdate? Click here.

Arabella - Birth Fun Facts

While I was doing some online research today I ran across some fun birth facts for the day the kids were born. I thought she might find this information interesting one day.

Congratulations!

Your baby's birth date was

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Your conception date was most likely 4/9/2008

And your baby is 539 days old!

The above information is based on a birthdate of 12/31/2008

Fun Birthday Facts

•Zodiac Sign: Capricorn
•Half birthday: July 1
•Birthstone: Turquoise
•Birth Flower: Narcissus or Holly
•Chinese Zodiac: Year of The Brown Earth Rat
•Your baby will start kindergarten in 2014, be old enough to drive a car in 2024, finish high school in 2027, and will graduate from college with the class of 2031, give or take a year. Can you imagine?

Famous People Born On This Day

•Sir Anthony Hopkins was born in 1937
•John Denver was born in 1943
•Donna Summer was born in 1948
•George Thorogood was born in 1952
•Val Kilmer was born in 1959

On This Day In History...

•A tax for having windows was imposed in Britain. Many windows were bricked up as a result in 1695
•Ottawa became the capital city of Canada in 1857
•In America, West Virginia was admitted to the Union in 1862
•Incandescent lighting was publicly demonstrated for the first time by Thomas Edison in 1879
•The Immigration Depot at Ellis Island opened to handle the enormous number of immigrants coming to America in 1891
•It was announced by U.S President Harry Truman that hostility in WWII had come to an end in 1946
•Roy Rogers married Dale Evans in 1947
•A record was broken for most racing wins in a year by Willie Shoemaker. Willie broke his own record with 485 wins in 1953
•A U.S company, General Motors GM, reported annual earnings that exceeded one billion for the first time. in 1955
•A game known as the Ice Bowl took place when the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys went head to head for the NFL championship with a -40 degree Fahrenheit wind chill below zero in 1967
•Nearly 100 people were killed and nearly 150 more injured in a tragic fire at the DuPont Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico. in 1986
•The worlds oldest person, Sarah Knuass, died at the age of 119 years old in 1999
•Vladimir Putin became the president of Russia after the resignation of Boris Yeltsin in 1999
•This time last year your baby was 25 Weeks Old!

Iowa: Part III

These are some photographs that took place before and after the wedding.

This is what a happy girl eating Jell-O salad looks like.

Here's the sad girl who has no more Jell-O salad.

Hanging out at the fountain with Aunt Nancy.

He slept during the entire ceremony.

Arabella and Chase were making each other laugh.

How can you not squeeze those little cheeks?

Partying with Grandmama.

Everybody loves a little wedding cake. :)

One of the cousin's kid thought Evan needed to accessorize.

What a gorgeous end to a wonderful day.

Iowa: Part II, The Wedding

Next up on our Iowa trip was Dana and Aaron's wedding. Now I'm not a photographer by any stretch of imagination, but I must say I'm rather proud of myself...

Here is the lovely bride escorted by her dad, Uncle Kent.

"Who gives this woman to be with this man?"

This isn't an extraordinary shot or anything, but I just love it.

Exchanging vows and rings.

"You may kiss the bride."

Announcing Mr. & Mrs. Thomas

For all the rain they had the days preceding the wedding, it turned out to be a gorgeous evening and a beautiful ceremony. Congratulations to the happy couple.

Iowa: Part I

This past weekend we took our first ever family road trip to Iowa. Adam's cousin, Dana, was getting married. So we left Friday morning after Adam got home from work. As you can see Arabella started off happy, but she didn't stay that way for long.

We stopped several times before we ever left Missouri. Evan was fussing, hungry, fussing some more and a royal pain. He just wanted out of his car seat. Finally we got him to pass out and stay asleep until we arrived in Iowa.

Once we were near Algona I was reminded why I loved being away from a tiny farming community...following farming equipment can be such a pain.

We also ran into several rain storms once in Iowa. Each was so magnificent. I just wish I could capture them better in my photography.

Once we got unpacked and settled at Grandma & Grandpa's, Grandpa decided to play the accordion for Arabella. She wasn't sure what he was doing or how he was doing it. It was a neat sight for her. Daddy tried to get her to push the buttons but she didn't want her hand near it.

Evan was almost too much for Grandma to handle. He's such a wiggle worm these days.

Arabella played nice with brother, until she thought it would be fun to throw the soft blocks at him like we do to her.

And then we all went to bed, tired and worn out.

I'm behind...

I'm still not feeling well and it all started last Thursday. So before I forget here are some things I want to get down.

Last week Evan went for his 4 month check up. He got his shots and came in at 16 pounds 13 ounces, 28 inches long, and 17 inch head circumference. He did great, Arabella not so much, it was a rather long wait and she wasn't happy about that.

As for Arabella she's been ill lately too. I'm assuming this is where I caught my cold. In fun news she's taken to saying "wee" every time we take a corner. It's something that Daddy did when he took her for a ride in the truck and ever since then she does it on every corner. She can be such a hoot. Which reminds me, yesterday I had Evan in the swing and she went over to him and pushed the swing while saying wee. She did this repeatedly and thought it funny.

Well, E-man is yelling so I guess I don't have time to write much more. Stay tuned for pics from our trip to Iowa this weekend and You Capture, later this weekend.

You Capture ~ Water

I most certainly was not able to capture what I really wanted to in this weeks challenge, Water. I had planned on taking baby girl outside and letting her take a hand at drinking water from her own open cup. I had several ideas in my head, none of which I accomplished. So be prepared to settle for what we did do this week.

These first four photographs are from our trip Sunday to the Kansas City Zoo.

Anyone who knows me well, knows I have a serious frog addiction. Of course I had to try an capture the blue poison dart frog behind the glass.

This was a neat little fountain near the red pandas.

Once we made it to the red pandas, it started to rain so we had to take a short break.

I just thought this little guy needed his picture taken. Too bad he had to wait out the storm in the rain.

This was the view outside our window this evening.

To view more water photography visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

First Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday we took our first trip to the Kansas City Zoo as a family. We were invited by a fellow December Mama and her family and I just knew we'd have some fun. The weather was so unpredictable but we made it through. Bare with me because I decided to scrapbook the day first rather than posting the pictures one by one. I took well over 200 so you'll understand why I did it this way.

**Click to view larger images**

We met up with Heather, Max and their family at the zoo for a day of fun. Our first stop was the "Snakes Alive" exhibit.

We followed that up by visiting a pig and some deer.

Then we ventured to see some donkey's before heading into the Discovery Barn where we started our visit with the Macaws.

The Meerkats were the hit of the day. Max went wild over them and even did a little dance & giggle for us. He was so cute. Arabella just stared at them and wasn't sure what to think, especially when one started to fling dirt at them.

The Lemurs were sleepy and apparently didn't want to be disturbed.

Arabella wasn't too fond of taking a ride down the toad slide.

The most sad thing we saw all day had to be the no-eared goat. It just looked so pathetic. But the kids did have fun attempting to feed the pygmy goats.

Before we reached the Red Panda's we stopped for a bit at the monkey cage. Shortly after we stopped to see the pandas a nice rain storm rolled through.

I'm sure glad we got under the shelter when we did. It was also a perfect chance to give the kids some snacks.

 The sweetest thing we saw was a baby gorilla lying in its mother's arms. The Tiger we saw after that was rather scary looking.

We're nearing the end and of course you-know-who didn't leave her hair in. 

Before we could call it a day we had to get the two December Babies together for a photo shoot. As you can see they listen well to instructions. ;) They gave high fives and kisses. Max & Bella are just too cute together.