Roller blading

Saturday was the NICEST DAY!!! Oh the weather was beautiful, so we went to the park and tried out our roller blades. (I can count on one hand the number of times I have roller bladed!) But I was pushing a stroller so I looked like a pro. Its nice to know you can't fall:) We had fun but it sure wore us out. Riley said is was tricky to pull the wagon while skating. I can imagine. I 'm glad I got the stroller. It was a great family outing/exercise for us.

Some mile stones for Gracin

First ,I left him alone in his room while I helped Rhylan go to the bathroom (more about that to come!) When I came back to get him, I found him just happy as can be playing by himself!

Second, Riley taught Gracin how to crawl over the weekend! Here is a silent video of him crawling after the camera! It's just an army crawl right now, but he can sure move:)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Third, I cut his hair this morning. It was hanging about 1 in. over his ears. So I just trimmed it up around his ears. It ended up being quite a bit of hair. He has way more than Rhylan did at this age.

Two future optometrists

Riley loves to teach Rhylan how he uses all the stuff in her doctor kit! She is learning quick. She has a lot of fun being just like daddy. So I made her this little white coat to match her idol!

Using the "elmoscope" (in Rhylan terms.) Or as Riley calls it, an ophthalmoscope.

Okay once I loaded this picture up here, I noticed it looked a little funny. I made them post like this so you could see the back of their jackets. I made Rhylan's to match his.
She even had a pocket to put all her fun gadgets, again, just like daddy!

Rhylan is missing!

So the other day I went in Rhylan's room to check on her during nap time. This is what I find. It was kind of dark in her room so it took me a few seconds to actually find her. Look close can you see her?...
That's right she is not in that picture. I looked at the other end of the bed and see this! She was sleeping on a boppy pillow that had been tossed at the end of her bed and folded the blankets over herself. And later Zelda joined in! Yes she is a little sweaty. That is how she always is after nap time, even with little blankets.

Ward Conference

Today we had ward conference. I guess it is pretty special around here. When we pulled into church only a few min late, we were able to get the VERY LAST parking spot in the lot! People had to double park. As we walked to the chapel we could hear they were singing. We didn't know if it was opening song or the sacrament hymn but we were excited either way...we didn't miss the sacrament!! Being to church on time is getting hard, our goal is to make it for the sacrament:) You never know when a little baby will poop in the tub and set you back 20 min-Gracin. So, we scoot into the chapel and sit in some chairs in the last couple rows. As we sit down the song ends, prayer, whew, we made it! As soon as the prayer is over every one starts to stand up???? We seriously were wondering whats going on? Did we miss something? Is there a big meeting or something in another room? Are we spitting up for special speakers from the stake? The our friend Murray comes over to us with a big smile. I ask "whats going on?" He kind of laughed and said "spring forward!" Oh man, we did it again. In November it took us a few min in an empty church parking lot to realize what was going on. We were so embarrassed. We snuck in to the chapel just for the closing prayer. I am sure people were wondering why didn't they just stay in the hall for those 2 min?

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:)