Dallas Zoo and EQ Derby

Today I took the kids to the Dallas Zoo. My cousin, Stephanie (and her hubby, Richard) who lives over in the Dallas area, has all her family in town (my aunt, uncle, and cousins) for the blessing of their new baby this weekend. We met them at the zoo and had a fun afternoon! It was such a gorgeous day. However, the it seems everyone decided today would be the perfect zoo day, so...there was no parking at all. It was awful. We waited forever just to get off the freeway at the exit only to find that the lots were all ful and they were just telling people to find a place on the street. Anyway, we finally made it into the zoo and the girls met up with their favorite second cousin, Addy. They have been so excited that she was coming to TX! They are so cute together and all get along very well. Here they are together:

Carli was sometimes more interested in the leaves on the ground than the animals.

There was this tree that they just couldn't resist climbing on. I got some cute pictures from it!Carli really surprised me. This was so funny. She must have watched the girls at gymnastics more than I thought (mostly she just ran around the rec center). She actually climbed up onto these park benches and put her arms out (the picture wasn't what she looked like the whole time--usually her arms were straight out) and walk like she was on the balance beam! It was so cute! I've got to get her into lessons early. ;)Here is my cousin, Steph, and her sweet little girl, Eliza, who I just gushed over. I can't wait to go over there tomorrow and just hold and snuggle her! She is so beautiful and precious (so is Steph, of course). :)This was right before we left. They were so good to sit and pose--sort of--for this picture. Brandon actually tried to smile instead of refusing to even be in the picture, which is the norm for him. By the end he had had enough, too. I'm so glad he gave me this picture to post!

After the zoo we made it home in time to make dinner and a treat to take to the Elders Quorum activity tonight which was a Dad's Pinewood Derby. I can't tell you how much fun Ben had getting his car ready. It was a fun activity. Here are the dad's (and some sons) enjoying the evening:

Another Milestone

Today Kate got her ears pierced! She was so excited and has been talking about it for a long time. It was a bit of an early birthday present, but also a bit of a bribe. She has sucked on her finger (no thumb for her!) since she was a baby. It is most definitely time she stop. I told her she could get her ears pierced early if she stopped sucking her finger. It worked! She has done really well and I haven't seen her suck her finger at all. That doesn't mean she goes off and sucks it when I don't see her because I check to make sure it is dry. So we headed off this morning. She wasn't really nervous until we got there. She picked out adorable little pink heart earrings. She sat on my lap and 2 ladies did it at the same time--thank goodness! I don't think anyone would let them do it again after only one since it takes them by surprise. She was a bit shocked by how it felt. She was kind of sad, but didn't really cry. She was pretty brave! She was fine a few minutes later and was glad it didn't hurt for long. So here she is with her new earrings!

Megan's Growing Up!

We finally got Megan a bike on Saturday. She has needed a new one for about a year now. She was so excited! What a great week to have a new bike, too--spring break! She's gotten a ton of use out of it today already. She started out this morning with training wheels and has ended the day zipping back and forth on only 2 wheels! She is over the moon that she has learned to ride her bike with no training wheels. She has even mastered starting by herself. That part took a while for her to get, but she did not give up and finally was able to get the hang of it. So fun! I'm really proud of her for working so hard to get it right.

Kate also got out the chalk and did some lovely artwork on the driveway. She is quite the little artist!

This is a little late coming...

I posted this picture of Carli at Christmas and said there was one of me when I was little that was very similar. I finally found it and scanned it in! Here there are together:

Carli, Christmas 2006 (2 yrs old)

Me, Christmas 1980 (3 yrs old)

Snow Day!

Today we had snow! It was crazy and fun! I am so ready for spring, but it was really fun to watch it snow. The kids had a great time playing outside--except for Brandon, who prefered to be inside drinking hot cocoa (he's just like me). Carli was fascinated with it, but not so hot about being out in it. She came in after a few minutes. It was so beatuiful!

Taco Bowls

Last night we had taco salad for dinner. It's one of our favorites. However, this time Ben wanted to have real taco salad bowls made with a tortilla. So, we tried it out! They turned out pretty neat! The kids thought they were very cool. First we crisped the tortilla in some butter (you could use oil) and sprinkled it with salt. Then we placed it on top of a large cup and place a bowl over it. We let it cool and when we took it off the cup it was a great little taco bowl! We used the large burrito size tortillas. It was fun and we'll definitely do it again. We filled them with lettuce, tomato, chili, cheese, sour cream, salsa, ranch dressing, and crushed tortilla chips.

Here is the documentation of the event. (Pretty exciting, huh?!) LOL!

This was Kate's salad. She had lettuce, chili, cheese, sour cream, and a little salsa.

I don't know why Kate thinks doing this in every picture lately is funny, but she does.

Day at the park

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day. The kids also have a new obsession, tennis. Brandon wanted to take tennis lessons so we enrolled him and now Kate and Megan want to try it out, too. We bought a few rackets and went on Saturday to a great park that has lots of tennis courts to play on. The kids had a blast! Carli was bored with the tennis pretty quickly so we played at the playground with her.

I'm really excited that Brandon has found a sport that he is excited about. He seems to be doing really well and enjoying his lessons very much.