Look who escaped from Pandora in Avatar

No photo shop, this came straight from Riley's phone from Lab this morning:)

Gracin at 7 1/2 months

Well, Gracin has been growing like crazy! He is in 12-18 month clothes and helping me build muscles. He has kind of lost interest in crawling. He doesn't get up on his hands and knees anymore. But... he can get around. He lays on his tummy and can spin in any direction, then he starts rolling that way. Ta da... across the room to that special book or toy in no time. Who needs to crawl when you figured out your own way. I am pretty happy actually, that he can't crawl. I don't really want that day to come.

He has however learned some other new tricks. He loves to climb and pull himself up on any surface low enough... drawers, laundry baskets, chairs, Rhylan... He also has started saying his first word "Ba-ba" that means "I AM HUNGRY, WHERE IS MY BOTTLE" He is always saying this when he wakes up and pretty much every 2-3 hours after that. Of course that is his first word, the little oinker! His newest trick is clapping. All I have to say is "Gracin can you clap?" and away he goes. He is pretty proud of this trick.

Oh, and I used to be sad about little boy clothes... not any more he sure looks cute in these fun new clothes!

The rest of our trip

We got to eat out at some really fun places. First Red Lobster. It has been forever since we went there (mostly because I HATE seafood...I had a steak, but I did try lobster and crab legs) Rhylan got to crack some crab legs and even tried a little bit. We also went to this fun new Italian restaurant. We really really liked the food there we would highly recommended it. It would have been quite a romantic setting if we didn't have the two little munchkins with us:)

We also went to a really dinky Aquarium. But there was some cool animals in there to see. Gracin especially liked to bang on the tanks and talk to the fish.


Then our last day we walked around bathhouse row. This city started using the natural hot springs as public bathhouses in the 1830's. We got to walk around/tour one of the bathhouses. It was pretty interesting. I am starting to become more like my mother in that way. She loves to look at old stuff aka museums!
This building is the Arlington hotel and spa. It was old and beautiful. We didn't actually go inside.
This is some rehab center!! It was big, beautiful, and off limits... kinda shady;)
This was one of the fountains. The water was really warm...I hope she didn't get sick from that!

The alligators

It is hibernation time for the alligators. So they had them ALL housed in these indoor pools. They had over 100 alligators in there! There were baby-3 year olds. A tank/pool for "teenagers" and one for the BIG guys. They were 28-63 years old! It was pretty neat. NONE of them moved! The water didn't even ripple, they were perfectly still the entire time we were there. Some of their eyes were open but I don't think they were really looking at us. We could get pretty close, just some thick chicken wire separated us from those big guys. We want to go back in the summer and see the live feeding shows! That should be a little more exciting.

The petting zoo

For Riley's spring break we headed to Hot Springs Arkansas for 3 days. One fun thing we did was visit an alligator farm and petting zoo. Here are our pics from the petting zoo part. Rhylan was nervous at first. She really liked feeding the deer from the other side of the fence. These goats were so funny. They kept head butting Riley in the leg until he would give them some bread. They also started eating his clothes instead! We were all laughing most of the time. It was a fun thing to do with little kids:)
Riley said it was pretty scary feeding the emus! Notice the goats eating his shirt and jumping on him for food!


They started figuring out the food was in his pocket:)

Hockey night

Go CANADA!!!

We actually got to watch the game! Riley loved every breathtaking, stressful min. Over- time, sudden death was as bad as finals week;)

"Hey mommy!"

I was trying to get ready this morning so I gave Rhylan a flashlight and put her in my DARK closet to have an adventure. A little while later I hear "Hey mommy, look at me, I up top!!" I run to the closet open the door and turn on the light. She is sitting up high above all the clothes on top of a shelf unit!!!!!!! The cat was also up there enjoying the "fun." She was so cute. There was the biggest smile across her face, she thought I would be proud of her ! HA, we quickly had a talk about not getting up there EVER again. I doubt it will work, this girl is a monkey.

Lost!!!!

I found all this in the couch!! Yikes. I'll spare you all the stuff I found in there that went straight into the trash can. I didn't find any money not one cent!!!? I guess we are penny pinchers. In my hunt through out the house I have found many "lost" items. I have found my sunglasses, my gum, 10-20 hair ties:), bobby pins galore, about 6 pairs of earings, my memory card, Gracin's immunization card, and much much more but still no sight of the SEAM RIPPER!!!!!! Rgg, where is it? I need it. I am sure I could have survived another week or two without all these other items. I have been looking for this seam ripper for over a week now. Its not like it leaves the house. Maybe I should just go buy another one... they are probably cheap.

Just another day in paradise

Here are just some pictures of what we've been up to this past week or so.

Looking out the back window

Taking care of Zelda. Notice the overflowing food bowl!

Rhylan feeds her every morning.

Learning how to balance

Playing with each other.

Almost crawling!!

How much drool can one baby produce??!!!!