Our fun day at the zoo

We had the best day with Josh and Cheryl and the kids yesterday at the zoo. The weather was perfect, blue sky and sunny but not too hot. We all managed to get a little pink on our pasty white skin. I guess that's what happens when you don't see the sun for months and months. We took lots of pictures since this was Skyler's first time at the zoo. He loved it!!

This is where we went

Skyler watching the penguins

They had a really fun dinosaur exhibit that we visited twice. Here's Skyler by the T-Rex

Noah & Skyler were fascinated with the komodo dragon

Rich & Skyler by the giraffes. I think this picture almost looks fake. We don't get blue sky and puffy white clouds like that in WA, do we?

Cheryl & Hannah by the African elephants

Our cute little family by the elephants. This is one of the only pictures that proves that I was really there. I spent most of the day behind the camera.

The three amigos checking out the tapir

Noah and Skyler looking at the elephants from a different view

Skyler loved all of the monkeys at the zoo. Luckily there were a lot to see!

He was pretty good at spotting them and pointing them out

These kids had so much fun together!

Skyler with the orangutan

Checking out the mountain goat

This was Skyler's first ride on a carousel. At first he didn't want to get on and then when it was over he had a little melt down because he didn't want to get off. It was definitely a highlight for him because today he's still talking about riding the horse up and down at the zoo.

My boys are so cute together!

Daddy and Skyler checking out the pretty birds

Hannah decided she wanted to ride with Skyler on his stroller for a while so she sat on the front. Silly girl!

The three little monkeys watching the gorillas.

The gorillas were very entertaining... we'll just leave it at that.

Cute cousins walking hand in hand

Skyler LOVED the playground at the zoo!! I think he could have spent all day there if we would have let him.

Look at that happy face. He was running around and screaming with delight the whole time

Peek-a-boo

time to go down the slide

Apparently Uncle Josh got thirsty and took a drink from the kiddie fountain...

...and so did Rich

Skyler loved the fountain but he couldn't quite figure it out on his own

So, Uncle Josh helped and Hannah and Skyler tried drinking at the same time :)

After Dylan was done eating he wanted to play too

"Hi guys, look at me I can play like the big kids"

Eli & Dylan, aren't they adorable!

Hanging out in a tree like the monkeys

Watching the flamingos

Dinosaurs Round 2. The boys really wanted to go through and look at them again before we left. Hannah did not like them at all!
This one spits water at you and he got Rich and Skyler

The dinosaurs move a little bit and make noises so Skyler was roaring back at them

Dylan is ALWAYS so happy!

He liked looking at the dinosaurs too

Skyler sitting on a dinosaur's back

We all had such a fun day at the zoo! I'm sure we'll have to go back again soon!

Here are a few movies of Skyler at the zoo

Dylan's 4 months old!

This cute boy is 4 months old already! He was lucky enough to get to go to 2 doctors appointments this week. He had his regular 4 month well baby check-up on Monday and on Tuesday he had to go to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital for his 4 month neonatal follow-up. He gets to go to Mary Bridge at 4 months, 8 months, 18 months and 30 months because he was on the ventilator for more than 24 hours. Apparently sometimes that can cause developmental issues. Here's how his appointments went: He got 2 shots on Monday, got measured and weighed Monday and Tuesday and met with an occupational therapist, a social worker, a nurse and a nurse practitioner on Tuesday. That's a lot for a little guy to handle but he did great! He wasn't fond of the shots and made sure we knew about it but he calmed down pretty easily. The occupational therapist was a little concerned that he wasn't rolling over yet (but Skyler didn't roll over until 5 months so I'm not too worried about it) so that means that now we have to take him back to see her in July instead of getting to wait until September for his 8 month follow-up. Oh joy ANOTHER trip to Tacoma. I mean, on the one hand it's nice that they're watching him so closely so if there really is something wrong they will hopefully be able to find it early and fix it but on the other hand HE'S FINE, all babies develop and grow in their own time and I am so sick of doctors appointments and hospitals and all that jazz. And the appointment on Tuesday lasted over 2 hours not counting the half hour we waited in the waiting room or the time it took to drive to Tacoma and back. And I just really don't think there's anything wrong with him, he eats and sleeps like a champ, he's growing great and he is the happiest most content baby you will ever meet. He really is such a doll, see for yourself...

Here he is at his regular doctors appointment. He was having so much fun swinging his arms and legs around and listening to the paper crinkle underneath him.

His 4 month stats were:

Height -- 24.5 inches
Weight -- 14 lbs 12 oz
Head -- 42.5 inches
(Notice all of the 4's and 2's in his measurements...kinda funny)

He's right around the 50th percentile for everything, I guess that makes him pretty average as far as statistics go.

Rub-a-dub-dub 2 cute boys in a tub

Dylan is 4 months old today! He's growing so fast and doing so good at holding his head up these days so we decided to try and put him in the tub with Skyler tonight. They had so much FUN!!!

Just look at these two, could they be any cuter? I don't think so!!

Skyler was very nice about sharing his toys with Dylan

Dylan was so happy to be taking a bath with his big brother!

All clean and sooooo adorable!

Celebrating 5 Years of Happily Ever After!

Can you believe that this special day was 5 years ago already? I sure can't!!

On the one hand, it seems like Rich and I have been together forever, but on the other hand, it seems like just yesterday we got married. I have never had 5 years go by so fast! I guess the statement "time flies when you're having fun" is right! We do have fun together and I have to say that I've never been happier. I have a wonderful husband, who loves and supports me and 2 of the most adorable boys ever! What more could a girl ask for? A great extended family and awesome friends, I must be the luckiest girl ever because I've got those too!

Here we are on our 5 year anniversary enjoying a wonderful evening out at El Gaucho, our favorite place to eat!

Our good friends, Joe & Corinne, came with us to celebrate our anniversary and their birthdays. What can we say, we like to multitask. We had a really fun, kid free evening with some amazing food!

Joe and Corinne started off with this giant prawn. I didn't even know there were prawns that big!

Rich and I enjoyed some clam chowder for starters, then I had grilled halibut with crab on top... so yummy!!

And Rich had the fillet with crab on top, also yummy!

Joe & Corinne, having never been to El Gaucho before, decided to go all out and have this amazing dinner... it was a yummy center cut fillet with crimini mushrooms, lobster, parmesan crusted tomato, baked potato and asparagus. So good!!!!

And even though we didn't really have room we still managed to eat some of this delicious baked alaska for dessert, what a great night!

5 years down and eternity to go!

Outdoor Adventures

Since we've had such nice weather the last few days we decided to get Skyler out of the house and go on a little family walk. We came across a creek, which Skyler loved throwing sticks into...

He's such a boy!

He discovered how fun it is to blow on dandelions

Just don't inhale or they get in your mouth...yuck!

Watching them fly away is fun!

He hasn't quite figured out the whole peddling thing yet so he just sits on his tricycle seat and walks on his tippy-toes

He still LOVES to swing!

Yes, we love the outdoors and we're so happy to finally have some sunshine to play in! They just opened the pool at our apartments so I see many fun pool days in our future too.

New things

Dylan has recently discovered his hands and I catch him doing this often. It cracks me up every time!

Grandma made these cute shirts for all of the boys for Easter. Dylan looks so adorable in it! Next week we're going to attempt to get pictures taken of the 4 boys and 2 girls in the Easter outfits Grandma made for them. Wish us luck! It will probably be tricky getting cute pictures of 6 kids, ages 3 and under, all together.

Aunt DeAnna got this adorable outfit for Dylan and it finally fits him. He looked so cute on Sunday when he wore it to church!

Dylan LOVES this play mat way more than Skyler ever did. He absolutely loves staring at the red monkey in the middle. This thing keeps him entertained for a good half an hour at a time. I love it!!

I love how he locks eyes with the monkey and just stares at it. So funny!!

And then he decides that the monkey is funny and grins really big.

He fell asleep on me last night and I loved how his lips were all smooshed.

I was making blueberry pancakes for Skyler for breakfast this morning and Skyler always likes to sit on the counter and "help" me whenever I'm cooking. Dylan wanted in on that action this morning too. So here are my adorable little kitchen helpers. (Please disregard the ugly pile of junk mail behind them.)
P.S. Aren't Dylan's little toes so cute!!

I sure do LOVE these adorable boys!!

They both thought that their crazy mom was pretty funny!

We finally went and bought bunk beds for the boys' room last weekend. Skyler has still been sleeping in the crib and pretty soon we're going to need it for Dylan. We bought bunk beds that can come apart and be used as 2 individual twin beds or as bunk beds. Since Skyler is daring and crazy and a bit of a wild child we decided it would probably be best to only set up one bed for now. I really don't want him climbing up to the top bunk and jumping off. I don't think we need any broken bones yet. Anyway, Skyler doesn't really want anything to do with his "big boy bed" so we took the side off the crib again and we give him the choice where he wants to sleep. He always picks the crib :( With his new found freedom of being able to get up whenever he wants he's decided to get up any time between 3am and 6am now and he likes to come in our room and wake us up. I'm not cool with that, I always made him stay in his crib until 8am or 9am. So we decided to put the baby gate in his doorway and that way he can be up and playing just in his room. He got up super early this morning and when I got up this is how I found him.... sound asleep on the floor, in the doorway. I guess we didn't need to spend money on a new bed for him, he's perfectly happy with the floor. Silly kid!

Here he is on his "big boy bed"

Even though the room was already full, with a little bit of rearranging we managed to get everything to still fit. Here's the finished product..

Cousins --- Then and Now

Grandma took a picture of Elijah and Dylan together a couple of weeks ago and it really reminded me of one that we had taken of Skyler and Hannah in 2009. The expressions on Skyler and Dylan's faces are so similar. I guess you can tell my boys are brothers, they do look alike :)

Elijah & Dylan April 2011
(they're 12 days apart in age)










Skyler & Hannah July 2009
(they're 2 months apart in age)








Skyler & Hannah April 2011


Some things never change...Skyler doesn't look like he wants Hannah next to him in either picture but I promise they really do have so much fun together!