A Birthday Trip to the Zoo

July 23rd was my sister Michelle's Birthday and we continued the tradition of celebrating it at the Hogle Zoo! This is a tradition I look forward to every year. As many of us that can skip out on work and household responsibilities and all head to the Zoo for the day.

Here is Michelle with the kids next to her ginormous tomato plants to the right.

All the cousins were able to make it and even their second cousin Luke and his mom Emily were there, along with Grandma Wilkinson, Aunt Emily and Uncle Brad. We had such a good time and only wished we could have spent more time there and had the rest of the family with us. Some of Sydney's favorite animals this year were the white alligator/crocodile (I can never remember which one has the rounder snout), the "big" owl, the elephant, the "little" bear, the giraffe, and the "sad" monkey. I'm sure she loved all the animals, because Sydney's just that way, but those are the ones she continues to talk about.

I couldn't believe the bird show. It was so-o cool! The birds would fly right over our heads and I don't just mean above our heads. I mean if you sat up as straight as you possible could, right as the bird few by, the bird would have hit you. It really was amazing. Some of the birds at the front of the little theater were so cute. One would dance to the music and then they would hand it a water bottle and it acted like it was drinking from it. Very fun! At the end of the show we all went to the front and had each of the kids hand one of the birds a dollar bill. Who would then walk over to the donation box and drop the dollar in. What a great way to get people to donate! They got $6 out of us, and had we had more dollar bills they would have gotten even more :) I recommend taking the time to watch this show the next time you're at Hogle Zoo. It was fun.

My girls are so lucky to have an Aunt like my sister Michelle. She's always planning some fun adventure for the nieces and nephews, and they just love it. Sydney loves Michelle so much she calls her "Mommy Michelle" and is always by Michelle's side whenever we're with her. Thanks Michelle for such a great Birthday Celebration, and thanks Grandma for paying for the fun rides. We had a wonderful time!

Why not...

... everybody's doing it :)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

4th of July... better late then never

So much to blog... not enough time to blog it in. Below are some photos of our festivities. It felt like such a busy day, but writing it down really makes it look like we didn't do much.

1. Provo Parade
2. Lunch and swimming at our place
3. BBQ and fireworks at Jason and Jen's

Getting to the parade was pretty eventful this year . We woke up to a flat tire on the Altima. So we headed to the gas station to fill it up. As soon as we got it full, we could hear the hissing sound from the air seeping out the 2 holes. We decided we should put on our spare there at the gas station, knowing the tire wouldn't last much longer. Once we emptied out the trunk (which was full of all our parade crap) we found out that the crank arm to our jack was missing. We put everything back into the trunk and headed back home to get the jack from Nick's car. With some help from a couple of friends we got the doughnut on and were on our way, only an hour behind schedule :) About 5 minutes after being on the freeway, Sydney got car sick and puked all over herself. (Luckily I had the impression earlier to pack an extra pair of clothes for her.) I had to get in the back seat and clean it all up. It was all I could do to keep MY breakfast down. By then we were about 2 hours behind schedule and really should have headed home after all that, but I'm glad we didn't. We made it to the parade with minutes to spare and it was a lot of fun. The airplane fly-by's and seeing Glenn Beck made sticking it out worth it. Bye the way... Thanks John and Clark for the tire help!

The rest of our day off was less eventful, meaning less stresses and a lot of fun. We loved spending the day with Nick's family. Thanks Grandma Janet for lunch and thanks Jason and Jen for the wonderful BBQ and fireworks. We had a wonderful time.

Rice Krispy Treat Challenge

Have you ever seen the TV shows "Food Network Challenge"? Some members of my family are big fans, and watch it every chance they get. Well, we decided we would do our own version of the show and create our own challenge... "THE RICE KRISPY TREAT CHALLENGE" where we sculpt something out of rice krispy treats and decorate it. The rules were:

1. Needs to be a fictional character
2. Reach least 12 inches tall
3. Elements showing must be edible

I had two practice runs before the big day...

Practice #1: Ended up being too small, and the tree was really lacking.

Practice #2: I had what I was looking for, but decided not to go all out.

Here are some photos of the "Challenge"...

We all had a blast and can't wait for the next challenge!

oh... Horton was the winner (even though the ears weren't edible). I think we all did a great job considering it was our first challenge.

Water Party

Lagoon

I'm a bit late on this post, but I needed to get some pictures from my sister. So last Friday, June 20th, we went to Lagoon. It was so nice because the company my Dad works for paid for us all to go and even had a catered lunch for us... mmm, mmm, good. Nick and I got away with only spending $10 the entire time we were there, and that included a $1.80 chocolate candy bar for Sydney which wasn't even king size. Highway robbery, I tell ya!

It's been years since we've been to Lagoon, and it really seemed like a lot has changed. They have at least 3 new rides (all of which had about a 45 minute wait, GRRR!), and the trees seemed to be a lot bigger. It was nice to have so much shade. I remember going to Lagoon as a kid, and shade was little and far between. Sydney got to go on a lot of rides, and just loved it! Nick and I were even able to sneak away for awhile, while Grandpa, Brad and Lauren watched Sydney and Zoe. The White Roller Coaster and Colossus were just as fun as ever. We had a blast!

THANKS GRANDPA FOR SUCH A GREAT TIME!

Zoe's 4 months old!!

Well she turned 4 months on June 19th, but her 4 month doctor appointment was today. She has done a great job growing, considering she was behind in weight and length when she was born. I guess being born 4 week early will do that to a kid :)

Here are some pictures of Zoe from the past few months.

Zoe's Stats from her last 3 doctor visits. She really is doing great!

2 weeks: 5lbs 12 oz - 2 percentile ~ 18.5 inches - 2 percentile

2 months: weight and length 16 percentile - I couldn't find the exact #'s

4 months: 13.21 lbs - 35 percentile ~ 23.5 inches - 18 percentile

Here's a cute video from today:

Singing our ABC's

Fun video of our girls

Sydney's 1st Dentist Visit

Sydney had her first visit with the dentist on Wednesday, and WOW was she brave!

On Monday I started prepping her for the big day. We talked about how she would need to open her mouth really big when the dentist asked. And that the dentist would then put his fingers in her mouth to make sure her teeth were white and clean. After our little pep talk, I found Sydney in the other room with her fingers in Zoe's mouth. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me she was checking Zoe's teeth :) So cute!

Anyway, Wednesday came and we went to the dentist. Sydney didn't open her mouth quite as big as during our practice, but she did enough for the dentist to get his tools in. Then came time for the polishing, and she did wonderfully. I think she liked the taste of the polish. When she was all done, they gave her a pink balloon, a new "Winnie the Pooh" toothbrush, and a green and blue bouncy ball. Nick and I are so proud of her. It turned out to be a great dentist experience.

Pool Party

This past Saturday, Sydney and Zoe got to have a pool party with a few cousins. It was a BLAST!! Last year their Aunt Michelle purchased this AWESOME kiddie pool. It has everything you could ever want... a slide, lounging pool, giraffe ring toss, lion ball toss, and even a spraying palm tree. Sydney was practically terrified of getting into it last year... but this year she had no fear. She spent almost 3 hours straight in the pool. It was so much fun watching the kids splishin' and splashin'. Sydney even got her face wet, which hardly ever happens in the bath tub. Must be related to her Grandma Wilkinson :)

Zoe didn't really enjoy the water. She lasted about 10 seconds.

We couldn't pry the hose from Tate's hands :)

Ashton and Caleb were CRAZY, just splashing everywhere

This last one is of Sydney twirling into the pool. Such a Princess.

Rainy Day Fun!

Yesterday was just a cold rainy day. Our friends, Tori and Ezra, were over hanging out with us. Sydney decided she really wanted to play with bubbles in her pink bucket. So I put a towel down on our kitchen and told them to stay on the towel. I knew my kitchen was going to get wet... I had no idea it was going to be SOAKED when they were through.

Sydney got Ezra with a few more solid smacks after I stopped recording. Luckily no one got hurt, and I got a clean floor. Wahoo :)

You can view another angle of this exciting water fight on Tori's blog. It also has the final few smacks that Sydney got in.

All Done

Last night we had spaghetti and turkey meatballs for dinner. Sydney did a pretty good job eating it at first. Then she wanted to get down to wear her Tinker Bell dress (which is on almost every waking moment). I told her she needed to eat more dinner before she got down. So she decided to hide it in her bib pocket... ...unfortunately the pocket is see-through, so she didn't fool me :)

Here's Sydney in her "Tinker Bell" dress with her "Mulan" hair-do.

She's such a beautiful Princess!

E-I-E-I-O

We love to sing around our house (rarely is it in tune). Sydney's favorite song to sing these days is "Old McDonald" or as Sydney prefers "E-I-E-I-O". We sing it all day long with many variations to it, in addition to the tradition farm animal version. Lately we sing it about a witch who says "BOO". This blog idea is already paying off, because last night Sydney was singing the song to Zoe (who was just loving it) and I thought "That would be cute to put on my blog". Normally I just would have thought that it was cute, told a few people, then forgotten about it. Wahoo... go blog. Here's a tiny clip...

New to blogging...

So I've decided to give blogging a try. I failed at MySpace, because I never checked it and I just really hated all the ads. I'm hoping this will encourage me to take more pictures of my girls and write down all our funny stories. I just never seem to remember to bring the camera to things and I most definitely never get things written down. I also see that it can be a great way to stay in touch with family and friends that I never get to see and ones I see all the time. So here we go...