October through December

It's been a busy, busy, busy time and I haven't had a chance to upload pictures until now! Here are various photographs...

Halloween was so much fun this year! All of the kids got really into it and helped make their costumes. Olivia was a character she made up called Ice Girl. Isaac was a character from his Lego Mars Mission set he got for his birthday. Ezren was Batman. His costume didn't turn out quite right, so we've lovingly dubbed him Bat-thug. Zelda went with us and caused quite a lot of heads to turn because she was wearing a sweatshirt!

One afternoon Ezren was sleepy. He doesn't usually take a nap, but I knew he needed one and wouldn't go down without some help. On went NPR and the soothing sounds of Talk Radio and the sewing machine knocked him right out (at the table!). Check out his lap -- Tabitha climbed up and took a nap with him!

Isaac was pretty sick on Thanksgiving this year. He layed down and watched the entire Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade without moving. Olivia was such a good big sister and layed down with him.



Decorating the Christmas tree this year was a blast! Each kid took a turn puttin the star on top and had a great time putting on the ornaments. In case you're wondering why I didn't post Ezren's star topping picture, it's because he was naked. The boy just doesn't like wearing clothes!

Each year Santa makes a special visit to our subdivision's clubhouse. Here are the kids telling Santa what they wanted. They also had some facepainting and craft making stations. And of course cookies!

Christmas Eve was fast approaching, and I was sick. Cookies still hadn't been made and so after my morning nap, I asked Chad to cut and bake the cookies. What a good man! He had two great helpers too! The cookies were delicious too!

Every Christmas Eve we decorate our cookies for Santa. We had a good time doing this although Chad hid them from the cats and dog by putting them in the oven and on Christmas morning he turned the oven on forgetting that they were in there and burned them. But they looked great!

On Christmas morning we had to wake the kids up to tell them Santa came! Crazy kids! But they were glad we did because Santa left us all some good things!

Olivia got a chalkboard . . .

Isaac checking out The Magic Treehouse book . . .

Isaac loves his Legos! He built this Star Wars Naboo Starfighter in about an hour (ages on the box: 7-12). He is a maniac! He got this from Santa and we had to keep telling him to come back because he still had other presents to open. Apparently he was perfectly content with just one box of Legos for Christmas!

Olivia playing with her two new Ello sets . . .

Even the animals got something! Zelda got an "Extra Long Lasting Chew Bone" that is supposed to replace rawhides. It lasted maybe 10 minutes. So much for Extra Long Lasting! Here is Zelda with her new squeaky toy . . .

The cats all got some delicious treats from Santa. And Tabitha enjoyed the trash . . .

The kids, Chad, and I are very grateful for the awesome year we've had and all of the love we have in our lives . . . we are truly blessed.

We Went to the Zoo!

I love the Sedgwick County Zoo! We've been to two other zoos (Tulsa and NC), and they just don't compare. On our last day in Wichita, we visited the zoo.

The kids loved it! The weather cooperated, and we had such a great time!

We started off in the petting zoo area. Anyone who's been to this zoo knows those goats and sheep can get a little crazy trying to snatch the food from your hands. So, it was quite surprising that they didn't really attack us at all! Nope. They lazily meandered over and ate some from our hands quite peacefully. Hmmm... perhaps all the visitors have just finally worn them out? Maybe they were sleepy? Who knows! We stopped in to the American Farm and Olivia took her turn "milking" the cow (it's pretend so no animals were harmed). As you can see, she's quite good!

We continued our walk around visiting the Reptiles and Amphibians and of course The Jungle. The kids loved the jungle! The animals were very active that day running about under our feet. The kids even got close enough to pet one of the crazy birds! The fruit bats were doing more than sleeping too. Then we saw the penguins who were happily swimming about their enclosure. This one really liked Isaac!

We ate a little lunch at the cafe and then noticed that the giraffe feeding area was open. In all the times we've been to the zoo, we've never been able to catch it open, so we were quite stoked! It was AMAZING! I should have been a zoologist because I could not get enough. We met and fed a 15 mo. old baby giraffe named Olivia (yes, it made my Olivia giggle with delight!). Then the big boy Emmett came over and snacked from us. In fact, when Olivia (the human) fed him, he put her arm (up to her elbow!) into his mouth! She grimaced all the while giggling when she pulled out her slime filled arm. Here is Emmett trying to lick Isaac!

The rest of the tour was awesome as well, although the animals were getting sleepy by then (so were the kids). Here the kids are with my mom at the end of our zoo day.

We left for NC the next morning at 5:am. It was an awesome trip visiting family and showing the kids around our hometown. Hopefully someday everyone will come visit us!