Tanganyika

Last week we took a little trip to Tanganyika Wildlife Park/Zoo with my mother in law. This was our first trip and I have to say it was pretty awesome.

The concept is you get to be interactive with the animals and in my opinion it didn't disappoint.

The kids ready to go. Micah is thrilled. :)

note: Lo is wearing her "zoo" pants. Any time we say we are going to the zoo she insists on wearing these pants. HA!

First stop none other than the giraffes, my favorite animal God created. :) They are so beautiful.
Best part: feeding them. This is something I have always wanted to do and I can strike this off my "bucket list."

Some of the animals up close and personal.
There were several baby Joeys and one was in it's momma's pouch, so cool.

The lemurs' who would jump up and sit on your lap.
Lo was terrified and screamed at the lemurs. I kept trying to explain they were like Curious George or doggies, but she wasn't having it. Maybe next time she will like them.


Micah got bored and fell asleep. Precious.

Family shot with a cranky toddler. Awesome.

It was still a beautiful day and we had fun before the heat set in.

First Cereal

Micah is finally on cereal. Can I get a hip hip hooray!


You cried at first but that is because you were hoping to nurse not get thicken oatmeal cereal shoved in your mouth. Once you filled up on nursing and were happy I gave you some oatmeal cereal and you loved it. If you could have signed "more" you would have. My kids love to eat.

I have noticed that you are noticing the food we eat more and more so I am ready to dive into feeding full force. You get so excited when I put you in your bumbo and put your bib on, you are ready to chow down. Sometimes you get so excited you want to feed yourself because I am not moving fast enough.


Honestly, I am not a newborn baby fan, this stage we are entering with the feeding of real foods and starting to sit up and play is my favorite of this first year. The less dependent on me you become the happier mommy is.

You have already had applesauce and I am going to make up some carrots and sweet potatoes for you this week.


As Leighton would say "yay! Micah bear! big boy!"

Mother's and Father's Day

I am so behind. I never even blogged about mother's day and now father's day has come and gone.

Who really cares about me other than my children I suppose. Although, if you ask Lo most days I can go "pound sand" as my dad likes to say. It hurts my feelings but isn't that what being a mom/parent is all about taking one for the team and loving your kids in spite of themselves. Really has been eye opening for me about all the times {which I am sure was hardly ever ;)} that I hurt my mom's {and dad's} feelings. Man being a parent is so humbling.


Both Mother's and Father's Day Chad and I hosted a BBQ for the respective guests of honor. Oddly enough they each happened in two different houses.

For Mother's Day Chad got me this necklace with my babies names on it. I absolutely love it. I told him after I had Micah that I wanted one, because this was it; no more babies, so we wouldn't have to worry about adding more names later.


He also got my the Xbox Kinect so I could dance dance dance. Sadly due to the move I haven't got a chance to get my dance on too much. :(

Here is Chad on Father's day with his 'two babies' as Lo loves to say. I am so blessed to have Chad as a my baby daddy. He is so good with them. Lo absolutely loves him and I know in time Micah will idolize him just as much. He plays all sorts of silly games with Lo and is really patient with all her melodramatics she brings to the table some days. He lovingly puts her to bed each night and bounces Micah whenever I need a break. Happy Father's day to my bestest friend and one great daddy! We love you so much!

The Very Long Miscellany Monday Catch-up Post

Since I have been so busy packing, moving and un-packing I fell behind blogging away our memories. Today I am set to get caught up.

During my hectic packing schedule Lo and I took a much needed break and headed over to our friends' Ginger and Avery's house to play! Lo needs a girl to play with since her cousin is so far away. Ginger and I have been friends since HS and it is so nice to always pick up right where we left off.

This is Avery's Stage, she invited Lo up to sing with her to some worship tunes. Loved it!

The girls played so well together, but were ready to eat. :)

Good-bye hugs. These girls are pretty sweet together, so glad they are friends and so thankful for the mommy time Ginger and I got to have while they played. Even though we never really finished too many thoughts because of our mommy brains.

This picture was of one of the many storms we had rolled through at the beginning of June. This honestly was one of the last nights we had in our home. Makes me a bit sad.

Most of you are aware of these latest craze of the frozen yogurt bars. Such as Orange Leaf and Cherry Berry. Well, we found one in my parent's town called Twisted Cow. This was our first experience and enjoyed it. It was a nice treat on a hot day. Lo even ate it and she normally hates ice cream...I know she is nuts.

We even "offered" MW a bite. He didn't seem to thrilled. HA! Takes after his sissy.

We celebrated my cousin's 5th birthday. It has been so awesome that all the great {second} cousins got to celebrate their birthdays together this year. I saw it as such a blessing. My cousin's family is military so they get moved around a lot, this year that got to be back home in KS. We were hoping for a longer stay, but sadly they left for Hawaii yesterday. So this was the last horah for our family before they left.

She had a Star Wars party. Lo sporting her mask. Hilarious.
This is Meg's boyfriend and let's just say she has some competition for Lo. She loves RJ!

The birthday boy and Lo hugging. Melt your heart sweet.

Well maybe this isn't as long as I thought. But I skipped plenty too. And have several more individual posts in the works as life keeps moving forward. Happy Monday!
Join in on all the Miscellany, just click the icon below.

The Things Lo Says...

Leighton has caught on that I like to watch TV while I nurse. The other day she starts coming down the stairs and sees I am about to nurse she immediately stops, points her little finger at me and says:

"No no watch tv mommy nurse k.
I watch one monkey show {aka Curious George} k. please. thank-you welcome."

How could I not let her watch it then.
Lo you are so bossy, but right now it is pretty funny watching you come into your own. Each day brings new sentences that make me laugh. I love you.

Hello. Goodbye.

Moving day has finally come and gone.
It was so bittersweet. My emotions were so raw last week. Leaving our first home, the home we brought our two precious babies (and Toby) home to was much harder than I ever thought it would be. I cried off and on over the last two weeks leading up to our move.

I remember when we first bought our house; we were so excited and proud. I remember Chad and I standing in the living room ready to begin our future in this house. At that moment five years ago we had (and still do) our whole lives ahead of us. Our future together had yet to be written.


As we packed up all our possessions we had accumulated over those five years I just couldn't help but think of all the memories they held here. I will miss that house. It will forever be our first home.


On Thursday I went back to collect the last of our things and lock up one last time. That was the hardest moment. As I shut the door I looked into our living room for the last time, it was dark, I took a deep breath and shut the door. I liken it to the series finale of Friends, when they stood in Monica's apartment one last time, said good-bye, placed their 6 keys on the counter and shut the door. Roll credits. It was over.

This was the last view I took in of our house {minus our stuff of course}
I think seeing that sign "the story of us" put me over the edge.

I feel nuts for being so emotional over a house, but it was so much more than that to me. It was ours. I hope it brings as much joy to the new owner. I loved that house.

Lo was so good during all the packing, she was so creative and found things to occupy her time once her toys were packed. Here is her box slide.

However, with that said, I am so excited to be in "Mayberry" now. Our new house is so great. It has nearly everything we wanted/desired on our "in our next house" list. We are so close to our church, friends, the Y and Chad's job. We will have so much extra time on our hands we won't know what to do with ourselves. We were even ready for church 45 minutes early. HA!


We are getting pretty settled. All the boxes (excluding the decorations) are un-packed and put away! Micah Mommy is enjoying Micah's new room. Lo has had some trouble adjusting. She keeps saying "old house." One day she kept demanding to "go home." Man that broke my heart. It was so hard trying to explain to her this was her "home" now.

This is literally Lo's (and mine) favorite thing about the new house. :)

I am so thankful for this house and the goodness of God for providing it. I will post pics of the house as the rooms get finished. But for now here is a few of the empty house.

Living Room

Lo's room. {needs new PINK paint.}

Kitchen

Congrats Auntie Misa and Uncle Kreg!

Baby Hollis is here. I will leave the details to my sister to share, but we are so thrilled and excited. I am bummed we can't be there right now though. So we filmed a little congrats for the new parents and new big sister. And praising God he is perfect and healthy!

Lo and MW congrats for Baby Hollis from Michele Keethler on Vimeo.

Congrats Landrey and welcome to the club---Leighton.

Micah 5 Months {Watch Me Grow}

To my precious boy, you are five months old. I love you so much. Here is what you are up to this month, or at least what I remember with all the craziness of our move going on.


Milestones:
*You are sitting up more and more now.

Does this make anyone else laugh?

My mom couldn't stand him with the pink elephant so she bought him a blue one so he could have a bromance, his name is Eugene. :)

*You experienced your first move and got your own room!

*You are really starting to scoot around and surprisingly travel pretty far in such a short time.

*You are a roly poly.
*You can spot mommy from across the room now. No hiding from you anymore. HA!
Language skills:
*You are starting to give belly laughs.
*Your talking has decreased a lot this month. More important things to learn I suppose.


Eating:
*Thanks to my mom's help this past week we have been working on getting you to go 3.5-4 hours between feeds. She helps walk you and gives you a small juice bottle to tide you over until the next full nursing session.

Daddy was in charge and since you seemed to only be happy on your changing table he did what works and put the mat on the floor. HA!

*You are actually finally starting to take a bottle, thanks to the whole juice thing. My motto {especially with baby #2} is do.what.works. We bait {with the juice} and switch you {swap for breast milk} with the bottle and you will take at least 2 oz. Better than nothing and makes me feel more comfortable about leaving you in others care.


*Spit-up wise you are still touch and go. Some days good some days bad. We think that stretching out your feedings is helping, but only time will tell. I am finally ready to start you on cereal now that we are moved and can focus on adding that to the routine.

Sleeping:
*You are sleeping slightly better. You have around 3.5-4 hour stretches. I know for a 5 month old this should be so.much.better. but it isn't. Again now that we are moved and you are in your own room I am going to work towards longer stretches. Read: cry it out/self soothe.

You got the boot to the pack n play right before we moved, you loved the extra space to roll all around. And of course you are all snuggled up with Eugene.

*You do take at least one sometimes two good naps a day (1-1.5 hours), coupled with a cat nap or two.


Favorite Toy(s)/Books:
*Books: whatever you sister reads to you.
*Toys: still the play gym, exersaucer and your elephant buddy Eugene.

The Elmo obsession starts young. Already watching Elmo with sissy.

Anecdotes/Quirky things you do:
*You just make the funniest faces at us. You really have quite the personality.


*You stick your tongue out at us all the time.
*You still have a thing for blondes. Seriously, I am not blonde, so where did this obsession come from?
*I love how you are interacting more and more with us. You just think your sissy hangs the moon, it is so sweet.


Temperament:
*You are starting to get happier and happier. You have your moments, but don't we all. I am ready for my happy boy back it has been a long 20 weeks.

But sometimes we can still be Mr. Dramatic.

Stats: {clearly I have tiny babies}
Wt: 13# 2z (June 6)
Ht:
Head cir:
Diapers: We have bumped up to 1-2 swaddlers.
Clothes: 3-6 months depending on brands.
*You are going in for weight checks every other week to watch your weight. So far so good.

Happy Five Months Micah Bear!
We all love you very much!