Written by Jessica on Friday, August 21, 2009

I just realized that I left out a whole day of our 09 Staycation Part ii. So, here it is plus some! The Montgomery Zoo:
It was H.O.T. but we all had fun, enjoyed the sun, the wildlife, and each other.

The train ride gives you an overview of the whole zoo. Smart people would take this at the beginning of the visit. This was our last stop. oh well, live and learn.



We all had to take a bathroom break before loading up. Taylor was wiped out and rested his eyes and legs while he waited on the rest of us.

AUSTRALIA! We enjoyed our visit to Australia! Taylor already knew a lot about the land down under from VBS this summer, so he was very excited to tell us all about it.



The boys in front of the River Otter exhibit.


Just on the other side of this African exhibit where Zebra and Giraffe graze, they have the cheetahs, also native to Africa, but dangerously close on the food chain... Could this be considered torture? The cheetah's walk the same path, pacing the fence line that separates them.


Overall we had a great time at the zoo. We got there right at lunch time, at lunch next to the Lions (they didn't mind, they were sleeping) and left at 5:00 when they closed.

Summer at the Lloyd's means grillin!! Yummy!


The boys had peanut butter for the first time. Here Carter is with is all over his face, headed to the tub!

Brayden showing his excitement over the peanut butter.

Tucker just leaned close to the table and started scooping. He didn't dare take his eyes of his peanut butter.


My sweet Brayden Bear.


We went to Rachel's 5th birthday party at the skating center. Taylor was a little hesitant at first, but then loved skating, although he never made it out to the rink. He was much more comfortable on the carpet.


Look what I picked up at the store:

Written by Jessica on Thursday, August 20, 2009
Categories:

My in laws are celebrating 50 years of marital bliss. We should all be so lucky! Here are the invitations I made for them.


Written by Jessica on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Written by Jessica on Monday, August 17, 2009

I uploaded the pictures in reverse order, or actually the sequential order which uploads to be reverse order... anyways, here they are!

The boys want to get inside the tv fence and they've figured out how to bulldoze their way through it. I added 2 more panels and moved it further away and then Carter climbed over and threw himself over the other side, got up and started pressing buttons.



The angle of the picture makes everything look off center, but it's not, I promise.

Carter's trying on Taylor's football shoulder pads. He loved them and ran around the room laughing and showing everyone. He threw such a fit when I took them off.

Taylor, just before his first day of 1st grade:
The week before school started, I realized we had gone the whole summer and I hadn't really had any good, quality one on one time with the boys. So, I decided to take each of the boys out and away to spend time with them individually. Taylor wanted to go to B Merrell's for lunch, so we did, and he played some games and ate ALL his grouper fingers and fries. Then we went to get his hair cut and then a couple stores to get a few last minute back to school items.

Carter and I went for a walk and then went to WalMart where he walked around and 'talked' to everyone. He is such a ham. He was blowing kisses, smiling, and chatting the entire time we were out. He loved getting to walk on his own.

Tucker and I went to Hobby Lobby and walked around, admiring all the pretty things. Then we went to KFC for lunch.

Brayden and I went out for ice cream. He loved, loved, loved the ice cream and loved being able to walk around too.

My last date was with Wade! Our neighbors came over and stayed with the boys while we went on our date. We ate Mexican, then 45 minutes after leaving home, we were ready to go back. But we knew our neighbors would probably turn us back around and make us leave again, so we went to a few stores and looked at football stuff for Taylor then went home.

Brayden at Brusters:


Earlier in the week we went to The Little White House. Wade and I both learned a lot, as did Taylor. He was surprisingly very interested.




The boys touching the chest of drawers. The sign under the glass there says: "DO NOT TOUCH."




Back to "boys being boys." They are climbing on everything! ..including the couch. ahhh!

Monday, we went to the Blue Bell factory for a tour. It's amazing how much ice cream Americans eat! We learned a lot of interesting, useless, facts and stats, which I enjoyed learning. Then, the best part, we got to sample the product!! You know the commercials where they say they eat all they want and sell the rest? It's true! The employee's can eat all they want!!

Their shirts said:
Carter - I scream.
Brayden - You scream.
Tucker - We all scream.
Taylor - For ice cream!

They were so cute!





Written by Jessica on Monday, August 03, 2009
Categories: , ,

Today my babies turned 15 months old. To celebrate we took them to the Montgomery Zoo... Well, not really, but we did go. We were kicking off 2009 summer staycation part II, which just so happened to fall on their 15 month birthday.

At 15 months they:
**play "Indian Baby"
**Have a 3 word 'steady' vocab - "bye-bye" {and wave} "mama" "dada" are their 'all-the-time' words - they make other sounds, trying to say other words, which occasionally slip out, like "bubba" and "more" but they aren't regular yet.
**They have mastered walking and are running
** Their newest stunt is climbing on EVERYTHING
**They open and close doors
**They remove the "child proof" outlet covers
**They play peek a boo with eachother and others
**They play hide and go seek, but they usually only do the seeking and laughing when they find big bubba
**They are playing more and more with eachother {which is so stinking cute!! They cackle and just laugh out loud.}
**They are eating everything
**Carter and Tucker pretty much have 4 molars each
**Carter blows kisses and will give "high fives" {so cute!}
**They run to their high chair table when I say "Let's Eat!"
** When I tell one "Good Job!" they all clap!
**When I sing "pat-a-cake" they do the motions with their hands themselves now

I'm sure there is more, I'll edit as I remember. Since I haven't been keeping a baby book, I've gotta start getting these things out here!

I have LOTS of pictures, as you can imagine, but I'm way too tired to post them tonight; we left at just before noon and got home just after 9pm! We had tons of fun and the boys were perfect little Angels. I think their favorite part was the train ride at the end. My favorite was the chimpanzees, one of which was carrying a baby as she swung through the ropes. Taylor's was "all of the monkey's, especially the swinging ones." I'm pretty sure Tucker would say his least favorite part was his big bubba tipping the stroller over, landing little Tuck face down in the grass. Tuck was a trooper though, he didn't cry, but Taylor did - he felt so bad.

I think some little gremlins came in the house while we were gone. Surely I didn't leave it in this big of a mess, right?! Unfortunately fate has put a small damper on our fun. The brakes on Big Blue started growling and roaring in Montgomery, so it's to the shop with her first thing in the a.m.