Tangynika Park

We visited this awesome zoo about a year ago, and we got to go again last week-this time with Ryan! We had a great time and enjoyed close encounters with "wildlife". This zoo is really cool, and lets you get up close and personal with a lot of the animals-non threatening ones. We had a great afternoon together!These are called Lories (I believe). We got to go in an inclosure with them. I guess they like to land on people, but we didn't have any land on us.

Snow leopard...no we didn't go in the cage with this one.

Awesome aussie...cute kangaroos. There were about 8 females with babies in pouches. Before this facility was open to the public it was a breeding facility...so I guess they know what they are doing-hence all the baby kangaroos.The kangaroo fur is surprisingly soft. I thought it would be pretty course, but it was really soft. It was really cool to pet her...she was one with a baby in her pouch.These lemurs were really friendly. They have cute little padded fingers...its like a mix between our hands and a dog's paw. It is very interesting. Ryan was impressed with all the animals. I think he expected much less, but was pleasantly surprised by the awesomeness of the zoo.

10.5

That is how many weeks I have left until another little man joins our family. That is my excuse for not posting for the last 29.5 weeks. I'm determined to do better now. I'm feeling good, it's warmer weather (I hate winter, and claim hibernation), and we have been busy doing fun things again (thanks to the warmer weather). I now feel like I have things to post about. During the winter we just stayed inside and kept warm. We really didn't do much besides go to Michigan for Christmas, which was fabulous. I guess me growing a baby has been happening all winter too, but we kept that to ourselves until about 8 weeks ago. Our families knew, but I didn't even tell my friends here. I have been feeling fine-just getting to the stage where I am starting to feel big, uncomfortable, and not sleeping the best. I still have 10.5 weeks to go!!!!
We had a really fun day yesterday. First Ryan and a friend got behind our shed cleaned out. I've been waiting for that to happen for about 2 years, so I'm really happy that finally got done. We've had a couple big branches from our tree in the back come down and they have just been chopped up and thrown behind the shed. Well yesterday all that wood was taken out and then taken down to the city chip site so it is gone and off our property!!! Ryan and Wade did most the work, but Carson and Halli helped a little bit.After the wood was all taken care of we went to downtown Wichita with our friends and volunteered to help clean up the Arkansas River banks. We picked up a ton of trash...really it probably all together weighed a ton! There was so much garbage down there I just couldn't believe it. After the clean up we got to go have some yummy lunch for volunteering. We just love our friends Karen and Wade!When lunch was over we headed home and got a few things done there, then went and spent the afternoon playing at Wade and Karen's house. We helped them with some yard work, and potting some plants. Ryan got to try out their sweet lawn mower, and ended up mowing most of their yard. I tried out the mower, but kept going in circles-I didn't figure it out quite so easy. I blame the pregnancy brain. I'll have to try it again another time! Carson and Halli hopped in an inflatable pool and spent a few hours splashing around.
We then went home, got cleaned up, and went to a BBQ at another friend's house. We don't have any photos of our time there, but had a wonderful evening relaxing. It was a really nice day yesterday so we spent the evening outside eating and then talking with our good friends Doug and Sara.
We just had a really great day together as a family doing fun things, and getting to help out some people too! I think we spent about 10 hours outside yesterday, and we all enjoyed it! I love spring, and warmer weather!

Visitors

Last week my sister Aubry and her family got to come visit us. We were so happy to have them here, and enjoyed every minute we got to spend together. Although we didn't do much out of the house, we tried to make their visit enjoyable. Ryan and I enjoyed having Michael and Aubry here to play games with at night-I always enjoy game nights! We all loved having Jada here to play with. Carson and Halli really enjoyed helping to feed her! I have some cute photos of them feeding her, but the computer won't load them so I'll have to have Ryan bring his computer home this weekend and I'll upload them tomorrow or Saturday.
Aubry took lots of fun photos while they were here...she is the photographer so I always let her capture our time together. Then I never get the photos-I just hate my camera and can't wait to get a new one so that is another excuse for not taking photos. I did have her take pictures of Carson and Halli for me, and she captured some really cute moments. I can't wait to post them on here...when she sends them to me! Thanks to her for doing that for us every time she visits. It saves me a trip up to the mall, screaming children, and a headache. I can't wait to get them printed though, and hung up on the wall!!!
This week we have been taking it easy. Carson's pre-school went on a field trip, but I of course forgot my, previously mentioned, amazing camera. So all you are missing is some blurry shots of them running around a kids museum. They had a good time...I had an alright time. No, I enjoyed being there with them! I've been doing a lot of yard work this week to prepare our lawn to be over-seeded again. I am determined to get more grass back in the front yard, and get rid of the weeds that are trying to take over our backyard. We really do take good care of our yard, but you just wouldn't be able to tell right now. Our goal this spring/summer is the transform the house on the outside. We'll be painting and doing a lot of yard work. We also put in raised beds for our garden this year, and I've planted seedlings inside. I'm going all out in the garden this year-hoping for the best.

Croup

So apparently my kids aren't just sick...poor little Halli has croup. I was up all night with her last night, and she has been "barking" all day today. I feel so bad for my little girl. Being sick is bad enough, and then she has a horrible horrible cough that isn't easing up at all yet. I'm taking her into the doctor this afternoon-even though croup is a virus and they can't really do much for her. I talked to the nurse on the phone, and she heard Halli coughing and said I better bring her in. (She probably just wants my money...but oh well, I'm a sucker.) She said the doctor may prescribe her something to help with the coughing-I sure hope so because we're really tired today.

We're Alive

Everytime I think about making a post I just think "what am I going to write about?" There hasn't been too much happening with us. I am just excited the weather is warming up a bit and we don't have to be cooped up in the house all day. I just don't do the cold so we haven't left the house much this winter. We did some yard work this past weekend, and it felt really great to get out and work in the yard again. There is a lot of work to do out there so we'll be spending a lot of time in the yard this spring/summer. I'm excited for the upcoming weeks and months.
Today is a sick day here at home. Carson and Halli both have colds...again. We spent the morning on the couch watching movies. Carson and Halli both got to choose one movie and we just spent too much time staring at the TV, but it was nice not to do anything. I didn't worry about cleaning, laundry, dishes, or anything else on my list of things I need to do. I just had a good time hanging out with the kids, and snuggling with them. I sure love those two, and the wonderful time I get to spend with them everyday. Here they are in their spot this morning.

Moving On

So I finished my projects, and I'm glad to be done. It's now time to move on from focusing on those projects on here, and focusing on us and what we are doing. It seems like for the past year all of my posts have been about those projects, but now they are going to be about our family again. So here is to a new year (a month late), and a new future for the blog. So look forward to being updated on us, how life is going, what fun things we are doing, and what is changing! So I'll be the first to welcome us back into the world of blogging. 2011 will be a better year to catch this blog.

Not quite done

I have finally discovered the real reason I fell behind in my attempt to do a craft a week. The job I took totally cut into my craft time at night. It is hard to get things done when the time I had to spend doing things and being creative was taken by something else. Now that I know where I went wrong I feel a little bit better about falling short. Here is what I have done.
First off we have a failed attempt to make an ice cream birthday cake. It didn't seem like it would be too difficult...but it didn't turn out...AT ALL. It looked horrible, as you can see, and didn't taste good at all (I guess letting Carson pick the cake and ice cream flavors didn't work out since they didn't mesh well). Oh well AC#40 (Don't mind the single candle-I couldn't find my package of candles, and only came up with one...good thing he is only 5 and won't remember the single candle or disgusting cake :))
Next I attempted another first in baking. I tried to make caramels. My sister Aubry always make the caramel in our house growing up. I never tried it until this year. I cooked it too long so it was really hard. Once you softened it in your mouth for a bit it was fine and tasted good, but it was overcooked. Sorry to those who received the rock caramels. I didn't have time to make more! AC#41. Good thing I'm only attempting to be creative cause I'm in a run of not succeeding!This project turned out. Christmas goody plates for friends. AC #42I had such a busy day the day before we left for vacation (I did the caramels, cookie plates, got a hair cut, and had my piano recital all in one day!) Here are the simple little programs I made for the piano recital. Project #43
Alright now while on vacation my mother-in-law helped me make this awesome scarf. She saw one in the store and thought I could totally make that (which is where I get most of my inspiration for projects I do...seeing, and then attempting). The scarf turned out really nice, but you'll have to excuse my "I just woke up" face in this photo. And I guess the face that 1/4 of the scarf is cut off in the picture. #44Remember the shelf I refinished (see a couple posts down the page). Well I am going to be putting it in Halli's room and wanted something to put on it so I covered these letters with scrapbook paper and fancied them up a bit so I can fill the shelf-hope it looks good when I put it up! AC#45Ok I have two other projects finished, but I haven't taken photos of them yet so I only have 3 left to go. I will finish, I will finish, I will finish. I just have to squeeze them in between work nights.