PMS Crew: April 2012

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Amanda's 1/2 Birthday

Can't believe it but Amanda has already had her 1/2 birthday. She is growing up so fast. We gave her rice cereal for the first time on the 10th of April and she liked it and it surprisingly wasn't too messy.

This is Amanda the day we came home from the hospital.

And 6 months later she feels up the car seat a lot more. She is really growing.

Taking a nap after some playtime. She is such a good baby she will just cry for a little bit before going to sleep.

I did a little 6 month photo shoot of Amanda.

The next 5 pictures are my attempt to get a picture of Amanda holding a sign that says 6 months old.

Some facts about Amanda at 6 months old

Weight: 14lbs 14 oz (24%)

Height: 27 inches (86%)

2 teeth on the bottom and currently has 2 on top and 1 more on the bottom coming in.

Loves to grunt

Very ticklish on her back , chest and under her chin.

Usually sleeps from 9:30 to 4:30 every night. AWESOME!!!!

Getting quite mobile. She is doing the army crawl right now.

Amanda has a smile that can light up a whole room.

Still sporting a little peach fuzz for hair.

Taylor graduated to pierced ears

On Saturday April 7th I took Taylor to get her ears pierced. I told her a little before her 6th birthday that I would let her get her ears pierced. She had been asking for a long time but was a little nervous to actually get them pierced. So about 3 months later and a lot of discussions she decided she was ready. So on that Saturday Taylor and I had a mom and daughter date. I really enjoyed spending this time with just Taylor. It is not often that that happens.

Taylor loves hoops and can't wait to get to wear some. I think every time she saw me put my hoops on it made her want her ears pierced a little more. These hoops are the biggest ones we saw in the store.

Here Taylor is waiting for the piercing.

During the piercing. She did so well and she was so proud of herself. She didn't cry a single tear or make a peep. Taylor told me that it hurt less than she thought it would.

After- You really can't see the earrings but she chose daisies with various colored petals.

After Claire's boutique we bought Taylor some new shoes and then headed to Cold Stone Creamery for some yummy ice-cream. It was a girlified afternoon with jewelry, shoes, and ice-cream.

While we were gone Preston finished the artificial turf in our backyard. One of the steps he used the vacuum to get the blades to stick up before laying the rubber pellets. I had to take a picture because vacuuming our backyard was something I did not imagine seeing in my lifetime.

Easter 2012

We made a trip to the Mesa Temple grounds to watch the wonderful Easter Pageant. Because our kids are getting older it is starting to be more meaningful every year.

The Saturday before Easter our ward had a breakfast and egg hunt.

The 8 to 11 year olds getting the green light to find their 10 eggs.

Checking out their eggs.

Easter morning waiting for the go ahead to find the eggs from the Easter Bunny

Amanda got some new toys from the Easter Bunny

The older 3 kids got bubbles.

They were cracking up when I took this picture. I LOVE it when my kids get along and have fun with each other. I am sure it is a shocking realization that our house is not constantly like this. :-)

Easter night we had all of my family that lives around us over for a yummy Easter Dinner.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Wildlife World Zoo

On March 24th we took the kids to Wildlife World Zoo. It was pretty cool but we probably won't go again for about 5 more years. It was pretty pricey and quite a drive.

This Kangaroo walkabout was interesting. They just had ropes between the animals and the walking path. They could get over the ropes so I admit it was a little scary to me.

It was neat to see all the mom's and their Joey's

This picture makes me chuckle. Natalie and Preston look all nice and posed but look at the expressions on Amanda and Taylor in the background. :-)

These monkey were really funny. The little one would initiate a game of tag. We could've watched them all day. I like the picture of my monkey watching the zoo monkeys :-)

Nathan loves all kinds of wildcats. It was pretty cool to be this close to one of them.

Random snapshot. I do have to point out that ever since Taylor got her eyeglasses Natalie often treats the sunglasses she has on like her eyeglasses. She will say she needs them to see far away, no one can touch the glass part, etc. It is starting to wear off a little bit but she would often wear tem inside stores and everywhere else.

Waiting for an encounter show to begin.

Amanda is such a happy baby. :-)

Getting ready to feed the giraffes. It was a pretty cool experience.

The petting zoo.

I need to document the petting zoo part of our visit so that when Taylor and Natalie are older and have a huge fear of petting zoo's we will know what it stems from. The girls for fine at the beginning and then Taylor told Preston that she wanted to feed the animals. Preston bought some pellets and started to feed them. Many of the deer and goats began to swarm around the 4 of us (Nathan was out with Amanda) so they could get food. The girls began to get very nervous so I took some pellets and left with the girls to another area with less animals who were just laying in the sun. The llamas, deer and bigger goats soon realized Taylor and I had pellets so they somewhat aggressively came towards us. Taylor and Natalie began to get scared of these animals trying to get the food that were as big as the girls. They both began to cry. I was holding the camera and other things so my hands were full, and to be honest the whole scene struck me as funny so I was laughing pretty hard. I eventually put items in my pockets and picked up Natalie and helped Taylor get out of the fence but not before she was cornered by some goats and one of them jumped up on her a little. Let's just say I don't think the girls will be asking to see a petting zoo any time soon and will definitely not ask to feed them. This picture was taken right before all the mayhem.