it's all happening at the zoo

I do believe it. I do believe it's true.

The zoo has become a weekly routine in our household these days. The grass is green. The skies are blue. What else to do than go to the zoo? Ok, no more rhymes now, I mean it

                   ... "anybody want a peanut?"

We have been visiting the snakes, waking up the monkeys, watching the tigers devour their prey and feeding giraffes. I'll speak for the little one and say that he loves it. He tends to stay awake way past naptime - which is very near and dear to his little heart- in order to stay longer at the zoo so one could only conclude that he must love it tremendously. I see no other explanation.

It just so happens that it is a mighty fine excuse to get out of the house and explore somewhere other than Target. (eh hem...) Therefore, I love it too.

This past weekend we spent the day with ParPar and Hudsie! Fun was had!

Tanman has a bit of a fan

we showed up just in time to watch the tigers attack the pinatas

wake up buddy!

 

shout hooray!

We've hit a milestone in the family! G turned 1! (crazy right?) I refuse to believe that he is no longer my teenie tiny itty bitty preemie baby. He is a full fledged ginormous toddler. It's almost enough to make me want another baby already... ALMOST.

We celebrated in style the whole weekend! We've had so much fun!

welp...

...that didn't take long. I took this kid outside to snap a photo for his birthday invite and figured he might sit still if I put him on his quad, right? Wrong. Just at the moment of the click from my camera this little guy figured out how it all worked. It took him all of a week at only 11 months old.

Check out how proud he is. I'm afraid of my future.

not so white christmas

off to celebrate in california now!

this comfy-ness quickly turned into this:

...and that is how he stayed for a better part of the drive. fine by me!

arriving at Grammy and Grampy's was so fun! We got to see the transformation of the family room into the "boys room" and it is looking good! It even comes with a gate

g's not quite sure how he feels about that yet. The boys love it and they get to play all over and run all around. On special days there is even a ball pit!

These boys have so much fun together. They even get to eat together

(or rather w sits next to g while g eats both of their food)

after presents and fun and all the goodies we got to make a trip to the beach and play at the park.

The weather was calling our names

Our week was packed with so much celebration and fun but we loved it all the same. Some how craziness feels less crazy when you know you're not the only one insane :)

better late than never!

We had the best Christmas holiday ever and us lucky dogs got to spread it out for a whole week! On Christmas Eve we went to Mimi and Grandpa's house for some dinner and drove around looking at all the Christmas lights. Their old neighborhood lights luminaries all down the street on Christmas Eve and people pull out their trailors of hay and take hay rides throughout the neighborhood singing songs and watching the lights. It's so festive!

Low and behold when we come up the next morning, this was on our table!

...followed by Christmas crepes!

(rudolph?!)

After the yumminess was in our tummies we got to see what Santa brought!

(we got spoiled... and lucky me got a new silhouette!)

Check out our surprise faces

when Christmas at our house was finished we made the trek to Mimi and Grandpa's house to open up so many more presents and skype with uncle Trev-dogg. It was so fun to see him on the big screen and get to talk to him for almost an hour! We sure love him and are so proud of him. He has four nieces and nephews that he hasn't even met yet! 

all in all it was a mighty fine day and I would gladly do it over again

joyeux noel

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Santa Claus is coming to town

Last night we had our annual Christmas party with Mimi (Tan's grandma). This year we held it at the home she lives in now. We all piled into the kitchen/rec room and ate, played, sang and chased our children. It was so fun to visit with Great Mimi! She is just the sweatest and cares so much for others.

This pic got over exposed and I tried to fix it. This was all I could get. sorry.

G loving up some icecream

crazy stander!

After dinner and icecream all the kids started singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town and by the very end of the song, guess who walked right in... Santa! They went crazy and ran up, hugged and nearly pummeled him to the ground (I know one little girl might have ripped his beard off). He sat with each kidlet and handed them a surprise and they were in heaven!

 again with the staring at his beard!

G preferred the wrapping paper.

Baby H getting used to the idea. Sorry for the weird angle, as you could see there were hoards of children in my way and rightfully so.

Baby H wasn't too keen on Jolly Ol' Nick but it made for a pretty cute picture! Maybe next year.