Rapunzel

Rhylan got this doll for an early Christmas present from Aunt Jacqueline (and family.) This is how she gets around most of the time:) The main thing Rhylan wants for Christmas is Rapunzel dress and Rapunzel hair. She really liked the movie Tangled and talks about it all the time.

Stinky toes

We have started a new game when Gracin is cranky. When I am changing his diaper I pretend to smell his toes and say how stinky they are (really they are stinky!!) He laughs and laughs. These are a few of the precious faces he was making today during the game "stinky toes."

Admiring the beauty

They were admiring the beauty of our Christmas tree and I was admiring the view out our front window!! We are thankful for beautiful things to see today. Especially since it's too cold to go out side.

Christmas crafts and such

I helped the kids make these little snowmen that came in a kit. Rhylan did every part herself. Gluing, choosing the pieces to add etc. I never touched or helped her once. Here is how they turned out! She is so crafty.
These are Gracin's, this was his first time gluing. He thought it was a lot of fun and even wanted to be in charge of the glue bottle (I closed the lid.)
Sock puppets. We make them together. We have had a few puppet shows since.

Rudolf is her favorite.

I made this dress up snowman out of felt. This is probably the only time she dressed him up the "right" way. She loves making goofy snowman for me.
And of course Christmas cookies... in reverse order.

Rhylan helped me with every single step. She even sat and decorated all these cookies with me. While we were waiting those two hours for them too set in the fridge. Said "Oh boy!! I'm so excited about this!!!" I thought it was so cute. And after we had decorated every single cookie. Said, "that was fun! Its time for me to go play now."


A few more Christmas projects in the back ground. T is for tree, C is for candy cane, Rudolf the girl reindeer (hand and foot print), and W is for winter. (And just in case you zoom in...I know there is a d in candy, I guess I was thinking about how Rhylan says cany instead of candy)
Rolling it out. I just saw this idea, rolling it in between two pieces of wax paper is SOOOO much easier.
Loving the batter and frosting! I had one too:)

2 pics I took the other day

Rhylan has been such a big help lately. The other day we were cleaning the kitchen and she offered to sweep the floor. Check out her pile! She really did a great job. I sure love this little girl.
During Thanksgiving break, Gracin fell off a hotel bed and got a bloody nose. We noticed a few days later that he chipped his front tooth. We are pretty sure it happened during that fall. We can't remember any other time when he hit his teeth. Poor guy, at least these are baby teeth. He will only have this little chip for the next 5 years or so!!

African Safari

Texas style... in the back of a pick up truck!

We went to this really fun place while in Texas. We all piled in the back of Papa's truck and drove on a safari/tour for a few hours. We got to feed so many different animals I lost track. All of us liked to feed the animals but of course, Jack and Rhylan especially had a great time. This was the one time I wish I had my other lens on my camera. I couldn't really get any pics of the animals and the kids at the same time. I was too close to them. But I think these pics do justice to the fun time and neat animals we saw.

Jack and Rhylan checking out the Rhino. They had 4-5 of these guys!!
Yes...Riley is kissing an elk. He put a pellet in his mouth to see if the elk would take it... gross!!
Check out these dirty faces...




We all really loved the Giraffes. They are so big up close. This was the smaller one we fed. They were so friendly , they just wanted to get a snack and get pet!

Riley actually got bit by this zebra and he couldn't get his fingers out of his mouth, before Dad started driving the truck away!

Beautiful view on our 2 hour tour/drive.
She was in heaven. Riding in the back of a truck, with her cousins, feeding animals, wind blowing in her hair... just look at her face, pure bliss!
Poor Gracin was still really sick. This was day 2 of 9 straight days of being sick. He cried some of the drive but he still had a good time
The kids got to feel so many animals! We baught a few bags of feed to give them.
Gracin did eventually get bitten by an elk and was sad for a while after that. But all the other animals were nice and knew just what to do.


Rhylan saw this one and said "Hey look there's Elliot!" (You know from the movie Open Season?)

Some were ugly!!!
Some were amazing.
Others were scary!! This was the first animal to greet us in the park. He came right into the back of the truck and grabbed the feed bag from Markee. We were all screaming and trying to avoid a bite!
There were some more ostriches again right before we left the park. We were a little more brave after feeding odd animals for 2 hours. Riley was of course the first one to feed the big bird.

I better be careful

We were listening to music today when Rhylan asked "What's this song about?" Luckily for me it was a Christmas song! She reminds me every day to be aware and be better. Not that I listen to bad music but I can be careful what I choose to listen to, and think "what this song is about."

The rest of Sea World

Here are a few more from Sea World. "World's Largest Mistletoe" It was real!! Those white balls were fake but the plant was real. I guess there are tons of different species of mistletoe.
I love the penguin exhibit. So much better than the Memphis Zoo pool.
Notice Gracin is wearing different clothes that the other pics? Yeah he was sick at Sea World...need I say more. I actually stopped at Target right before we headed to Sea World and grabbed him 2 new outfits, we used both of the new ones at Sea World.-- I learned something new, you can do laundry at some hotels...at 2:30 am!!
Grammy C and Auntie Markee
This is the only killer whale we saw. Some how we missed the one showing of their show! Darn.

I think she is pretending to be a shark.