"Lions and Tigers and Bears"

"Oh my!"

We decided since our camping trip got ruined that we would take the kids to the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls. It's no San Diego zoo but it was kind of nice to see the whole place within an hour!

Austin's favorite part was the Lions. He got all excited and yelled, "Simba!" - his new favorite movie is The Lion King...so every Lion was Simba.

Mylee's favorite was the little monkeys - she sat up in the stroller, got wide-eyed and just grinned at them (pretty cute). She also liked the penguins.
Here are some pics:

"Simba!"

Mylee checking out the monkeys

Austin and Mylee

Looking at the penguins

Austin cried and cried to go see this guy and when we went to see him he wouldn't even touch him, he was scared of him. My son is a little weenie! :) Aaron had to force Austin to touch him!

12 hr. Camping

Yeap that's right we took a camping trip and it only lasted 12 hours. I think it took me longer to pack! :)

My Grandma planned this fun family camping trip this past weekend and we were all excited to go. We (Me, Aaron, Austin, Mylee, my sister Cyndee, her husband Steve, and daughter Khloee) borrowed the in-laws motor home and jet skis and packed for a 3 days of fun....well after a crappy nights sleep and horrible weather we packed up and headed for home after only 12 hours. We figured it wouldn't be to fun with 3 babies and 4 adults stuck all day in the motor home :( I was bummed! I did get a few pictures from the one night we did camp (if you can call it camping).

Mylee on the ride there

Austin being Daddy's Co-pilot

The best part of camping (S'mores)

Austin wanted nothing to do with them

he just wanted to eat the chocolate.

Khloee liked the Crackers.

My sister Cyndee roastin the mallows

Khloee and Mylee - so cute!

Trying to get 3 kids to sleep while we tried to play card games.

Didn't work - we ended up quiting the game and going to bed.

We didn't even get to see the rest of my mom's side of the family that showed up on Saturday.

Hopefully next time the trip will be a sucess!

A Fun Memorial Weekend

This past weekend we went and spent time with my sister and her family down in Utah. Boy did we have tons of fun!!

We got there Friday afternoon so Aaron and Steve (brother-in-law) could do some golfing. Cyndee and I (with the two babies and Austin) made a trip to Hobby Lobby (Love that place).

That night we spent at a school function for the boys (Blake and Cade)...The kids played on some big blowup and then had a fun performance at the end. Austin had so much fun going down the big slide with Cade. He also discovered he likes playground slides (he hated them last year).

Mylee likes to swing

Mylee also likes playing with her cousin Khloee

Austin enjoyed hanging out with the boys.

Saturday Aaron and Steve took the kids and Cyndee and I got to go to Park City...KIDLESS! We haven't done that in a couple of years, it was WONDERFUL! :)

That night we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese...I had never been before. I think I was more excited than the kids!

Sunday we spent the day at Lagoon...

Mylee's very first ride and she LOVED it!

Austin got to ride a couple of kiddie rides and liked it.

We are so glad that Cyndee invited us down for the weekend,

we really had a blast with her and the family!

When we went to park city we bought the girls matching outfits.

We had some looks and a couple people ask if they were twins.

This is a picture I took on the ride home. Mylee was being so good (she usually HATES car rides). I looked back and this is why....

She has gotten in the diaper bag and pulled out the Twizzlers! She was one happy girl!

We had a wonderful weekend!!! I wish Cyndee and Steve lived closer...I am going to cry when Steve gets transferred (he serves in the Air Force).

A big thank you to him for serving our country!

What's going at our house?

Nothing really exciting has happend lately to blog about...we are just trying to get over the wonderful bug that has been lurking in our house the past couple weeks (again!). I have some recent pictures to share though:

I don't think I ever posted that little miss Mylee is a crawler? Well she has been crawling for the past month now - she used to do a funny little army crawl but now is on all fours and cruises! I love the picture below because it's her evil little grin!

Usually Mylee throws a holy fit when she wants out of her activity station but this day she just quietly fell asleep, it was really cute!

A couple weeks ago we had a few restless nights since the kiddos and I were so sick. So they took a few good naps during the day. Funny thing is they never fall asleep at the same time! And in both of these picture Mylee fell asleep while trying to crawl somewhere. :)

We have been trying very hard to fatten Mylee up since she is still wearing 0-3 months clothes :)
So daddy decided to give her a Twinkie the other day...

She was excited to try it...

At first she wasn't sure about it...

So daddy had her try it again...

She decided it wasn't that bad...

She was glad she tried it!

Older Pictures

I haven't been the best blogger the past couple of months. I have a few pictures from Feb & March of Austin that I never posted so I thought I'd throw them in here...

Austin and Katreena eating grapes and watching CARS...Katreena is Austin's little girlfriend who used to live a few houses down - we sure do miss seeing her cute little face!

Austin loves to dump out his blocks...most the time he doesn't even play with them - just likes to make a mess! :)

Here is a little story to go with these two pictures. I had to make like 60 cupcakes for Enrichment night and I caught Austin eating one...And I found two other wrapers on the couch!

He is a sneaky little monkey!

Austin went through this little phase where when he wanted to eat he would go in the kitchen, get into the draw and pull out all of his spoons and put them on his high chair.

This picture doesn't show anything but I still put the start there so people wouldn't think I was posting bad pictures :)

Shortly after Austin turned 2 we decided to make an attempt at potty training him. I was surprised how well he did. He almost went two full days with no accidents...but I knew it was to good to be true - he lost interest and after a day of being peed on twice I put him back in diapers. He still has no interest in the potty! :(

Saying Goodbye to a family member

I had a really tough weekend with Gizmo missing...but Monday was the worst!

Just so everyone knows - you can stop looking for our cat, we found him...usually this would be a happy thing to say but it's not.

After spending 2 days praying and looking for Gizmo he finally showed up Monday afternoon. I had just gotten home from searching out a cat (my wonderful neighbor and friend thought might be him) who was hiding in a drain down the street. I had a feeling to go into the backyard before I went back into the house. I went to search out something I saw earlier that morning. I saw one of our black labs laying by something outside on the grass, it looked gray and I just figured it was the golf towel they had been playing with the past week. But when I went to check the figure I found my beloved "ki-ki" lying motionless on the ground.

My heart broke and I began to cry. My first thought was the dogs killed him...but after my mother and mother-in-law showed up we decided it wasn't them. He didn't look like he had been played with or chewed on at all...and there was only a tini, tiny trace of blood but none on the ground. My father showed up to wrap Gizmo in a blanket and put him in a box for me. My mother buried him in her backyard (since we have dogs that like to dig). I will be planting some flowers on top to remember him by.

I have gone over every possible thing that could have happend to him...and I still have no clue - I will never know. Aaron thinks he might have gotten into something like anti-freeze and he came home and died. But who knows. We really don't think it was the dogs. When I found him he was laying perfect on his side, like he just laid down and passed away.

So as you can see yesterday was a tough day for me.

Many of you are probably thinking...wow, it's just a cat? But Gizmo wasn't. He was part of our family. Aaron brought him home for me on our first Valentine's Day right after we were married. I remember being so mad at him because we weren't allowed to have pets in our apartment. But I fell in love with him right away! He was the cutest kitten! So playful and loveable! He loved to chase bouncy balls and would play fetch.

Our friend Brandon was the one who came up with the name Gizmo...

As you can see it was very fitting. When we first got Gizmo he had a problem with stepping in his own poop when he was in the cat liter so we would have to bath him a lot. (he learned not to step in his poop quickly because he didn't like the baths) When he was wet he looked like a Gremlin...and when he was dry he looked like Gizmo the cute fuzzy Gremlin. I never really called him Gizmo...I would always call him, "Ki-Ki" don't know why but it was my little nickname I called him by - and he would always come running with his little bell ringing as he ran towards me. :)

He was such a great cat so loveable! He even sat with me on the couch and put his head on my belly when I was having my contractions while pregnant with Austin.

He was very curious when we brought Austin home...

They quickly became buddies! Sometimes Austin would love on Gizmo to much but Gizmo never hurt Austin. They discovered so much together....

And they played well together...

Gizmo even taught Austin how to climb up the stairs. Gizmo would run up the stairs so Austin could get him - until the day Austin followed him up!

When Austin started to talk he couldn't say Gizmo so he would call him, "ki-ki" like I did when I would calling for him. He keeps saying, "ki-ki go bye-bye"...breaks my heart!

I don't have any pictures with Mylee but she loved that cat as well...I think he was the reason she started crawling. She couldn't wait to get her hands on him. She would lay on the ground and watch his every move, just smiling and laughing at him. One day she just started to pull herself towards him.

We will all miss him dearly!!!!

I know you are in a better place "ki-ki" but I just want you to know we love you and miss you! You were my first baby! :) The part I will miss the most is how you would cuddle up and sleep by my side EVERY night....sometime you'd try to sleep on my face. :) Things won't be the same without you here.

Saying goodbye to a family member, even if it was a cat, is never easy...

WE LOVE YOU "KI-KI"

MISSING

Missing Please help!

We have lost out black and white Tuxedo cat answers to "ki ki" or "Gizmo" He is 5 years old and very friendly...he took his collar off last week so he won't have any i.d. :( Please let us know if you see if or have him! 243-3027. As you can see he is a big part of our family so please keep a look out for him. Austin misses his "ki ki"!