Thursday, December 4, 2008

Rub-a-Rub Two in a Tub

Here are cute pictures of Hailey and Robert playing together.

Hailey was the one who put the necklaces on Robert.

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

Hailey was apart of the neighborhood preschool for a short amount of time. One of the field trips she was able to go on was to a pumpkin patch.

First they graped hay stalks and had an opportunity to feed the horse, pigs, or calves. The owner also brought a duck and a chicken around to the kids so that they could pet them.

Then we went through the corn maze. When the was a division on the path, they had a question that if you got correctly you could move forward. If you guessed wrong, the path led you to a road block and you had to back track.
For some strange reason Hailey is holding onto her hat and covering her face. She also fussed a lot and wanted to be held. By the time we got out of it, my arms were killing me from holding both kids.

Here's a picture of the preschool bunch.

We also got a small one dollar pumpkin at the end of the corn maze.
This tiny pumpkin made three cups of pumpkin with which I made a yummy pumpkin dessert following Eve's (my sister-in-law) recipe for Thanksgiving.

More Pictures from Gramma and Grampa's house

Hailey likes to get on my lap whenever I'm on the computer, so we generally look her pictures of Hailey on the blog. We got to the Omaha Zoo pictures and she pointed out gramma and grampa. She also said she wanted to give grampa a hug. It was really cute, so I decided to post more pictures of her experience at gramma's and grampa's.
They had a play kitchen, so Hailey put on the apron and chef's hat. She has a very good imagination, it blows me aware sometimes.
Hailey also made good friends with Kyle. He's a very good uncle to her.
One Saturday, mom and I left to get pedicures. When we can back Hailey wanted her toes painted too.
She's not allowed to have her fingernails painted yet because she sucks the paint right off.
Hailey is also very observant.
I thought this was a very funny picture because that is truly how I hold Robert. She's such a good mommy.
I'm glad to see the kids playing together. Sometimes in a cramped apartment it seems like they just fight over the same toy.
Gramma has pretty cute bath toys that they liked to play with.
These two toys were are from my childhood days. Some toys just never go out of fashion.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Robert is turning into a very handsome boy. He loves toys that are musical, so this is his favorite toy right now.
He also is trying to climb up on things and can even pull himself up.
Here's Robert doing yoga stretches before he takes off crawling.

Robert is doing so well at crawling now. It's unbelievable how quickly they grow up and progress. I still miss my little baby.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Halloween

For Halloween Hailey was a Ballerina. For her ballerina hairstyle, I did a crown of hair in little hairbands then had the rest in a curly ponytail. After that I added the final touches on hair bows.
Hailey surprisingly, stayed very still while I did this (Pooh was on). The only bad thing was taking it all out at the end of the day. She screamed bloody murder (she doesn't scream like that for shots) so it made me feel really bad. Does anyone have tips on how to get the hairbands out easily?
It's so hard to get a good picture of Hailey. When she notices I'm trying to take a picture of her, she wants to see the picture before I take it. So, these are the best shots I could get.
This pretty tutu was made by Darlene. It's seven layers of gold tulle with tiny red flowers on the bottom. Also there is a bigger flower in the middle of the ribbon on the top. It turned out so cute. Thanks for making it, Darlene. Here is my cute little Dinosaur. He was in a pumpkin outfit during the day but blew out of his diaper in the outfit before I thought about taking pictures. From 3-6pm the businesses downtown were passing out candy so a friend of mine with our kids went down before we headed off to the church's trunk-or-treat. Hailey was more interested in eating the candy and running around then saying "Treat-or-Treat" and her "Thank yous".
She also would get close to other kids and expect candy from them. Too bad it doesn't work like that.

Here's Robert's little Trick-or-Treat buddy, Brian with his dad Nick.

Halloween was a lot of fun but a long day. There was a chili dinner and a small carnival in the church when trunk-or-treat was over. Robert was crawling around and fell on one of the metal chairs, he scraped his head was very tired. (He goes to bed around 6pm and wakes up between 6-7am.)

Now that Halloween is done, the year will quickly came to an end with Thanksgiving and Christmas break coming up soon.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Ticket to Ride Tournament

Dad was able to take Monday off from work so we decided that the best way to spend that time is to figure out who is the Ultimate Ticket to Ride World Champion. My parents have all six games and on most nights we play a round or two.

We started with the USA version with the 1910 expansion. The main difference between the original and the expansion is the size of the cards and more destinations. I won this round!!! Yeah, go me! Mom didn't realize that you can't use double-tracks with 3 people so that messed up her score. (The other games I'll talk about are only for 3 people and you can use double-tracks then.)

Next was Europe and we were pretty close on this one. I won by 7 points with dad close on my tail. Europe has tunnels and you only have the opportunity at the beginning to take a long destination. Also, Europe has the train stations to allow you to use another person's track.

Germany was my worst game. You have the choice between long and short destinations. At home, this is how Nate and I always play and it works out for us. This is our high scoring games (near 200). So, thinking I'll blow my parents out of the water again, I picked 4 long ones. They were all close together straight up and down the board. However, I got blocked and when I figured out how to get my trains connected I was one train short and only completed one destination. My sad pathetic score was 16. (Mom won) Also, Nathan and I have decided on house rules where the written rules were fuzzy which my parents didn't agree with (not that it would have helped me). Germany is the game with train passengers and takes a little longer to set up.

Switzerland wasn't too eventful but it helped my mood since I won by almost 60 points. In Switzerland you have to borrow your trains, score markers, and train cards from another game to play.

Next was Nordic which has been the game we've played the most so far. I found a trick that works for me and won by 100 points. Yeah! Go me!

Finally, we played the card game version of Ticket to Ride. This requires a lot of concentration and a good memory (visual memory). I need to play this one more to get the hang of it. Dad won this game.

Since we played all the games, the person with the lowest score gets to choice the seventh game so they have a shot at redeeming themselves. So mom picked Europe. Dad won this round with me in last place. In my defense I had Hailey on my lap the whole time. She wasn't really bad but gives me an excuse.

And now for the final scoring to declare the World Champ...(drum roll, please)... Mom came in last with 790, with dad ahead with 833, making me the winner with 860. Yeah!!!
I think USA is my favorite because it's simple and familiar. However, Nordic Countries is getting up there because it's meant for three (Darlene likes to play with us when she's over) and I'm getting better at it. Nathan generally beats me at USA. He analyzed where the more populated cities are in reference to destinations.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, we went to a Pumpkin Patch. There was a little playground that Hailey rushed to before we even paid. She's a funny little girl and acts scared of slides when mom and dad are around. Today she went up the stairs herself and down the big, closed in, windy slide without any hesitations.

There was a good amount of animals around. There were goats, bunnies, a donkey, two llamas, and three horses. This girl were bring out different animals (she had a bunny earlier) to advertise (they were selling them). My kids love animals and the way they feel.

The stroller was originally meant to carry Robert around but ended up just holding all our things.

When Hailey saw the horses, she got very excited. I wasn't sure whether she would really be okay on the big horse, so before we got tickets for her to ride them, we set her up on top. She was so happy and didn't want to get down. Originally, Kyle was just going to walk beside her, but the people running it decided that it would be best if he rode with her. That was a smart choice because Hailey looked scared when the horse started moving. (I fell off a horse when I was young, so I was nervous about Hailey doing the same thing)
Next was Robert's turn to sit on the horse. He was very happy and started to bounce up and down when he got on.
Then we went on a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch.
Kyle helped Hailey find a pumpkin. She liked the pumpkin until she was asked to hold it. Crazy girl!
This is Grampa with Robert, trying to find another pumpkin. We ended up finding three medium sized pumpkins. However, before we actually left and paid for them we switched to smaller pumpkins that was in bins. It turns out that that was the better choice since we ended up with pie pumpkins instead of jack-o-lanterns.
There was a hay maze that Hailey tried to go through. Even though we were pointing out the way for her to go, she just ignored us and went back out the entrance.

We got caramel apple slices at the Snack Shack to finish our experience there.

This trip was a lot of fun and wore Robert out. He's so cute when he's sleeping.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Baby on the Move

Robert started crawling on Sunday. I saw it happen in the corner of eye and was very excited. I called Nate right away and he yelled at me for not getting a video of it. So he are cute videos of Robert's attempts at crawling.

In this video Hailey is sitting on my lap (she loves looking through the camera) and is helping me encourage Robert to move.

For awhile, he's been able to get on his knees and try to get on his toes to move forward. Finally, he is moving his arms. This doesn't always allow him to move since he doesn't have his arms and legs working together. They are more like four independent objects, but he'll get the hang of it soon.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Omaha Zoo

Hailey, Robert and I have a wonderful opportunity to visit my parents for three weeks. I was very nervous about the flight and all the traveling the kids will do but they did great. We bought a portable DVD player for Hailey and a Winnie-the-Pooh DVD (all our pooh movies are VHS). Our flight left Salt Lake City at 10:00 on Saturday and we arrived in Omaha around 1:30. Robert took a short nap while we were waiting take-off. Since I had to get things for Hailey, I moved too much and Robert woke up. He was happy and hardly fussed the whole plane ride. Hailey was entertained my Elmo stickers and Pooh. (She watched Pooh without sound because she had a hard time keeping the headphones on.)
Mom, Dad and Kyle meet us at the airport. Hailey is a very shy person at first but she warmed up quickly. After we went to Subway for lunch and changed diapers, we were off to the zoo.

We went to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo which was established in 1894 as a small Riverview Park zoo. Click here to see a map of the zoo. This place was huge!!!

We started in the Lied Jungle. "This exhibit is the largest of its kind in the world. Covering 1.5 acres directly inside the main gate, the Lied Jungle. has 123,000 square feet of floor space with 61,000 square feet of planted exhibit space, 35,000 square feet of display management area and 11,000 square feet of education space. The Lied Jungle is 80 feet tall, about the same as an eight-story building." (website)
Everyone took turns pointing out things to Hailey (or chasing her around).
This was an interesting animal to look at. I'm not sure what it is anymore. I think it started with a Z.

Dad and Hailey are looking at the 15ft waterfall.

Here's Robert enjoying the zoo.

Of course, no trip is without their little complications. Hailey had exploded out of her diaper, so mom and dad went to the car to get her new pants while I feed Robert. Thankfully, we were close to the entrance and the building we went into was a little play center.

After our short break, we went to the Aquarium.

This turtle is from the shark tunnel. "One highlight of the Scott Aquarium is an underwater stroll on the ocean floor. Visitors will wind their way through an oval-shaped, 70-foot long, zig-zag acrylic tunnel that takes them past coral heads, canyons and caves. This tunnel, at the bottom of a 17 foot deep exhibit, allows visitors the experience of being on the ocean floor with large sharks and rays swimming past them on two sides and overhead." (website)

Hailey had a fun time swinging on the bars whenever she found some. I thought it was funny that the next picture I took was of the monkey swinging.

We briefly walked by the monkeys outside but didn't go in the Orangutan Forest because we wanted to see the big cats.

Robert was a very happy boy for the most part. He's teething right now to get his top teeth.

We finished up with the desert dome. I was surprised to see all the different animals in this section and how open they made it feel even though you're still in a building. It had a lot of twists and turns to section off the different types of deserts.

Hailey's trying to swing on the railing, while I'm trying to point out the roadrunner to her.

The bottom part of the building had the Kingdoms of the Night exhibit. A neat part about this was the swamp. "The world's largest indoor swamp is located under the Namibian sand dune of the Desert Dome . Experience the 160,000 gallon, 1/4 acre mysterious swamp with a floating boardwalk. It features a Trapper's Cabin, a beaver lodge, cypress trees, and 30 swamp animal species in barrier free habitats." (website) Since everything was dim and there were crocodiles around you, it felt very freaky. The last thing I was thinking about was taking pictures. Also Robert was pretty hungry by this time and needed to be held.

So, one last thing that made this area neat was the White Alligator. There were no signs about it (since the lights were dim we probably wouldn't be able to read them even if they were there) but since I recently went to Hoogle Zoo with my sister, I knew what it was. The difference between a white alligator and an albino alligator is that white alligators have blue eyes and are very strong. Albinos have red eyes and are weaker. Here's a story about them.