Petting Zoo

The second half of our Bear World adventure was the petting zoo. Our little girl loved it! Out of all the animals, our daughter liked the chickens the best and they're the only ones that wouldn't hold still long enough for her to touch them.

Literally pulling our daughter out of the chicken coop

Oh, Hi there!

Poop! Hello parents, do you see what your child is doing?

Lovin' the babies

Bear World!

We have probably passed Bear World a thousand times on the highway since we have lived here. It is fun to peer into the park and see what there is to see while driving by. We've spotted the bison, the deer and the mountain goats, but never any bears. Well, Yellowstone Bear World offered free admission to all mothers over the Mothers Day weekend so we decided to go and this time we did indeed see bears! Lots and lots of bears. This drive through wildlife adventure was absolutely amazing! Even our little girl, who hates sitting in the car, was entertained by all that there was to see out her window. We watched bears sleep and swim, run and climb, wrestle and come right up to our car!

Don't worry, dad drove very, very slow. Here we are watching the mountain goats.

Finally warm enough to lose that winter coat!

Husband patiently told me that these are actually turkeys, not pheasants.

I did recognize these as the buffalo that they are!

These animals are so beautiful I can hardly imagine that they're dangerous.

Hello handsome

Such a playful little bear cub!

Mothers Day

Dear Husband brought me pancakes in bed this morning. It's true that he brings me breakfast in bed every morning since I've been sick, but the pancakes were special! We made it to church for a bit and even ventured out to enjoy the sunshine and snap a lot of pictures of our darling 14 month old. I love our little family.

She has figured out how to give mean little looks!

Watchin' dad blow bubbles into the breeze

''Come on folks, follow me!''

''Check it out! Wood chips!''

Fun and laughs on the swings.

You can almost hear her amazing laughter in this picture.

May day, May day, May day

I'm throwing up my arms, waving the white flag, sending out the distress call. We are so beyond our breaking point!

Our poor little girl caught a stomach bug and spent four days throwing up; now she has diarrhea and a wicked diaper rash. All we can do is give her lots of cuddles, push the fluids, and let her get as much sleep as she can. Luckily, between sick spurts she really doesn't seem to be in any pain.

At eleven weeks pregnant I have now been sick, having to spend the majority of every day in bed, for the past seven weeks. Seriously, it couldn't possibly get any worse... Until I caught little ones stomach bug! It hit me hard and it hit me fast. Even when my stomach was completely empty, I could not stop the vomiting! And then the excruciating pain hit and we rushed off to the emergency room. I was given an IV to rehydrate me and to stop the throwing up, but my labs came back normal and it was decided that my pain was coming from having pulled the ligaments in my back and abdomen from all the convulsing. Being pregnant, I was offered nothing more than Tylenol and left in just about as much pain as I arrived in. We walked into a beautiful, clean apartment though! The friend we had called to sit all night with our little girl had acted like an angel and cleaned our living room, our kitchen, our dishes, and even our bathroom. What a saint she is! (This is after she has already babysat countless times and brought us dinner on several occasions over the past weeks. I've never met anyone so kind.)

This is what pregnant looks like.

And then there is dear husband who has to be gone between school and work 60 hours a week and still attempt to take care of us, cook and clean... Needless to say he's missed some classes (but is still maintaining all A's) and some work shifts too. I know he is feeling like he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and in reality he is carrying all the weight of our world all on his own. Things have to change, so he's going to be taking a good amount of time off of work. Maybe now he'll actually have time to get some sleep.

Wish us luck! Things have to improve, right?

13 months old!

I've said this before at different ages and stages, but this time I think I REALLY mean it! This is the best age ever! Our daughter has so much personality!

She gave up walking when she learned how to run and it is one of my favorite things in the world when she giggles and runs at me from across the room to tackle me in a great big hug! She loves to mimic sounds repeating da-da and wow; when you give her a word she can't say she lets out a little puff of air and when you tell her bless you she'll give you a string of fake sneezes. She is finally, consistently, sleeping all through the night now. We get ready for nap time and bed time by singing Elvis Presley, Love Me Tender and cuddling. While I rock her I stroke the back of her head and just recently she has starting patting the back of my head at the same time. Melts my heart. She's been spending a lot of time with her dad because I've been so sick with pregnancy, but she comes in to check on me from time to time. She plays peek a boo behind the side of the bed and even gives me her binki whenever I start to cry.

We just moved into a fantastic new apartment where her room is twice the size of her old one! She is loving all of this extra space to play. We also have a front porch now and she loves to stand out there and wave to all the neighbors. Everyone so far has waved back and her face lights up in the biggest grin! She is every bit as social as her father.

She is getting to be such a big eater! Seriously, she is no fun to share with at all as she can finish my whole bowl of oatmeal and then go after dads entire yogurt. And this is after she's already had her breakfast! She loves shrimp, veggies, bananas, and we finally figured out how to get her to eat meat. Stop cutting it up! Seriously, where is the fun in bite sized pieces? We have seven teeth after all!

Latest and Greatest Project

This little crafting blog has been quite neglected as of late, but don't you think for a second it is because I have stopped creating! I've been hard at work on my latest and greatest project, and it's still no where near to being done. But, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek! You see, for the past two months I have been busy, busy creating a... baby! (And, by busy, busy of course I mean sick, sick.) Baby number two is eight weeks tomorrow and due on November 23rd. Ah, our little Thanksgiving baby. Too early to know much, but the heart rate is strong so we assume all is healthy and well. I am again seeing midwives, and I am relieved that I liked my midwife today perhaps as much as I liked the one who delivered our daughter back in Colorado. This project is very time consuming! I am nauseated 24/ 7; even waking up in the night to be sick! Mostly, I spend my time wondering if I will ever feel happiness again? Yes, I realize I'm a bit dramatic. I'm just glad my husband is the awesome dad that he is. He has completely taken over caring for our 13 month old, cleaning house, cooking, and making mad dashes for taco bell nacho supremes. Taco bell, banana splits, steak and lobster are my fiercest cravings. (No, I don't get to eat all the expensive lobster I want, but I can dream.)

Here's proof!

Now I can officially display this fantastic button on my blog!

I'm not sure who to give credit to for creating this great button, sorry.

Thanks for Visiting us!

We had more company the other week. My beautiful Aunt (whom I look so much a like, and always have... must be because we share birthdays) and her two kids chose to spend their spring break with us! Because, you know, our town is so exciting! Their visit felt like a "staycation" for us as we actually got out and did the fun things there is to do around here. They took my little girl swimming at their hotel. My cousin and I went and saw Hunger Games... in a movie theater! Haven't been to one of those in forever, literally, I even got popcorn... and candy. We LOVED the movie! The book was excellent, of course, but man- my imagination is lame because the movies portrayal of the Capital was far better than anything I had thought up. And, yes, I cried when little Rue died. Heck, I cried when they called Prims name, and when we saw Gale watching Katniss kiss Peeta. I was a mess. I probably shouldn't have admitted to all of that. But didn't they do an excellent job casting? Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci were all so perfect for their roles. Anyway... We went bowling. Laser tag and glow golf were fantastic distractions for my husband to take away some of the stress he'd been feeling in preparation for his semesters finals. Their timing was excellent because I needed a little extra help, and my daughter loved having playmates around. We were all sad to see them go.

She idolized him!

I wish I had gotten more pictures of this gal with my kiddo since she took care of her the whole time!

Discouraging beaver behavior

Our daughter gnaws on the crib railing and I'm afraid this project is too little; too late since most of the paint, and even some of the wood, has been chewed away. 

I realize there are probably fancier ways to do this out there, but I went for quick and easy. First I took an old crib sheet and sewed a long hallow tube. I stuffed it full of batting and sewed up the edges. Then, I glued it right there on top of the crib rail. Yep. Just glued it. Damage was already done so why not? Next, I hemmed a long rectangle and draped it over the top of that fluffy tube. I sewed buttons to hold it in place and voila! At least our little girl won't be eating any more paint, or wood... from the front railing. I wonder if she'll find a new rail to chew, or if she'll end up with a mouth full of stuffing...

Monogrammed spring wreath

In honor of the first day of spring (yesterday) I made a monogrammed spring wreath by using modge podge to paste floral fabric on the letter M. I fastened some yellow polka-dot yo-yo flowers on the sides and draped a strand of pearls at the top. Easy. Sunny. Happy Spring Everyone! Hope warm weather and sunshine is finding you.

Healthy by the numbers

Little one had her 12 month check up the other day. At 30 1/2 inches tall she measures in the 88th percentile for height, and at 21 pounds she's ranked 47 percent for weight. Mostly she's healthy, the only concern is that she's had a heart murmur consistently throughout the year. Doc sent us to the hospital for an EKG. We needn't worry though, everything is fine! But, boy did she hate laying still for that exam!