Zoo with Zeke

 Claudia has an annual zoo pass and invited us to go to the zoo a couple of weeks ago with her and Zeke.  Hunter and Ave were at school so I loaded up Em and Hudson and off we headed.  We went during the short lived Phoenix cold streak and when we arrived at the zoo at 10 o'clock the car read 33*.  Brrrrr for us, especially with little ones.  It was fun though to bundle up the kids in jackets, mittens, and blankets for an outing since I never really get to do that.  I love this picture of the three of them up top.  Emma loves "baby Zeke" and Zeke in turn loves Emma but is lately very interested in Hudson.  I think his little grin down at Hudson is so cute.

 Found a small beanie hat for little mister the night before at WalMart.  He looked so sweet in it.  He slept the entire time we were there other than a quick snack break :)  I think all bundled up in his carseat with blankets he was just nice and cozy.  Plus I took the wagon and he just enjoyed the ride.

 Zeke all bundled up in his stroller in his own comfy ride.....

 I hadn't been to the zoo in so long that they had some new things including a new kids play area that Emma spent some time investigating.

 Some of the animals were pretty sedentary because of the cold weather but there were still some that were venturing around.  Emma was really excited to see the different animals, this was her first time ever going to the Phoenix zoo.

 At the entrance we had picked up a map for her.  She loved it.  She would open it and look at it while she rode in the wagon.  Then when we got to an animal she would open it up and check the map and want me to point out to her where that specific animal was on the map.

 Side note: Never knew the zoo had a saguaro cactus slide but they do.

 I told her that she could either ride a camel or feed a giraffe this time and she wanted to ride the camel which worked out great because the giraffe feeding were too late in the afternoon.  I thought she might be intimidated by the size of it but I think since I rode with her, she was all in.

 She giggled when we rode "Dale" and kept saying "Him is bumpy" I didn't know that camels can carry about 1000 pounds on their backs. yikes.

 She really liked watching the tiger sit and clean his paws as he sat by his water pool.  However I think her favorite was the prairie dogs towards the end.  They were so cute to watch.  They make the cutest little squeaky noises and were having fun chowing down on some lettuce.  When they would start squeaking she would start belly laughing it was so cute.

 This one was our favorite a true Mr. Personality if you will who really liked to stretch out on his tummy like this.  There was another one that kept trying to get a twig off of a branch that was making us laugh too.  They are so chubby and cute they might have been the most entertaining of the day.

We had so much fun.  Thanks Claudia and Zeke for the fun day:)

Hoodie towel

Soooooo I pretty much can't stop smiling every time I see this picture of Mr. Magoo in his hoodie towel after his bath.  Big wide eyes and cheeks drooping down with chub.  He is so beautiful and could not be more perfect with his softest ever amazing baby skin.  Don't you just want to squeeze him????

Fingerprint analysis

Hunter has been wanting to use his CSI Fingerprint analysis kit for awhile now and now that life is starting to get back into a more normal schedule we decided to pull it out and try it.  First thing Hunter did was take everyone's fingerprints.  He loved getting to do this to his sisters :) He rolled everyone's prints then filled out their cards.

 Took their height, had them stand on our scale and recorded their weight and then requested their signature. All we have to do now is add a small of photo of each person and he has to fill out everyone's section of their form that says "known aliases"

 Then using the given tools of a magnifying glass and light he learned how to identify different characteristics of a fingerprint.  The kit had two different exercises to do to practice identifying prints and solving a crime scenario and identifying the criminal from five given prints.  It was pretty neat.

 love his serious investigator face.....next I place a fingerprint on a glass and with his fingerprint dusting powder he dusted the glass and suddenly the print appeared.  The girls were amazed.  I couldn't believe how well it actually worked.  Really cool.

  Then after he dusted the print he used the kits lifting tape to lift the print from the glass.  So cool.

 Then take the print and analyse it.  We spent three hours doing fingerprint stuff but it was so much fun and a cool way to teach the kids about fingerprints and the way they are used to solve mysteries and crimes.

Sylvanians

So the dollhouse is still in renovation.  All the demolition is done and it is ready to be sanded down and the porch construction will start soon.  However I want the girls to be able to play with it now, so even though it is in a very shabby state right now we got it down and have found its spot in the girls room.  When my sisters and I were little we played in the house with little animals called Sylvanians.  They are families of different woodland creatures dressed in little clothes.  We loved them and loved collecting different ones and spending hours and hours playing with our dollhouse.  There is now a brand out called Calico Critters that are pretty much identical to Sylvanians and when I saw them about a year ago knew I wanted to get some for my girls.

It was really fun to see them open them at Christmastime.  They got a rabbit family and a squirrel family and some kitchen and living room furniture.  The next day they spent all afternoon setting up the furniture and playing with the families.  

  Arranging and rearranging the furniture.  Listening to them change their voices for the different characters.  I had to smile when Avery said, "Let's pretend that they just moved in and haven't unpacked yet and that's why they don't have any other furniture, okay Em?"  Good idea sweets :)

 They let Hunter play with them for a little while late in the afternoon.  Leave it to him to make things interesting and within five minutes he announced that the dad bunny and dad squirrel that were watching the babies in the living room had been building forts with the couches and accidentally lit the couch on fire.  The girls eyes got wide not sure what to do with this sudden drama scenario and then suddenly jumped on board pretending to call 911 and get all the kids out and put out the fire.  After about ten minutes Hunter tried to suggest a tornado and the girls ousted him from there play.  Preferring to pretend to talk in the kitchen while making dinner and taking care of their babies or going to the grocery store.

 The house definitely looks rough right now without wallpaper, floors, windows or paint but it will be fun to watch it come together.  And for now the girls will be able to enjoy playing in it together.  Hope they enjoy it as much as I always have :)

She's the mother of twins of course she's sleep deprived

This is pretty much what I look like right now.  In the sleep deprivation stage.  Emma is now the momma of twin baby dolls.  One given from a cousin and another given by grandma both happened to be the exact same doll.  When we suggested taking one back the kids all quickly protested.  "No! Now Emma has twin babies!" So there you go.  Twin babies quickly named Iyla Sara and Kassi Katie.  Both adorned with headbands and magnetic binkies. We're pretty sure that their identical :)

She is quite the good little mommy to these two girls.  The other day I had to get my camera quickly when I caught her using Hudson's playmat headrest as a Bobby pillow to "nurse" them.  Hilarious.  Well she's pretty much got it right.  I cracked up at this since my mom told me I used to pretend to nurse all of my baby dolls.

Then of course they need to be burped.

She is having a lot of fun with them and often hands one to me and says "Mom, can you help me with mine's baby? She's cryin."  Sure kiddo, hand her over. What's one more baby around this house :) :)

Gonna have a great year-2013

Took a couple of quick family shots day before Christmas Eve after our Hatch family photos with the entire bunch.  Had to laugh because of course by the time you get four one is looking off somewhere, or messing with their nose, or crying.  It is still nice to document our little growing family though.

2013 is going to be great.  I have pretty much decided that it will be mostly dependent upon my attitude and I have decided that I am just going to put it out there that it is going to be a great one.  Lots of exciting changes for our kids and our family.  Lots of goals and plans to work towards.  A FEW of my goals for this year include:
 * losing fifteen pounds and getting back to a regular exercise routine
 *learning a new challenging piano piece
 *doing a least one sewing project for my girls (clothes)
 * finishing at least the exterior of the dollhouse
* turn 2007 and 2008 blog posts into hardcover printed books
*try two new recipes a month
* host at least two parties with my neighbors
* play piano for thirty minutes every mon. night for the kids to fall asleep to
* volunteer in one kids classroom each month
Again a FEW of our family goals this year include:
* taking our family to Disneyland
* a trip to Utah/Idaho this summer
* Deke and I taking our prepared family names to the temple to get work done
   (we have being doing a lot of family history work
* regular scripture reading
* researching and searching out places to move/job transfers to leave AZ end of year
* Deke or I getting each kid each month out for some alone time with either mom/dad
This year will be exciting for our family I just know.  Already realizing that our oldest will be double digits this year YIKES!!! Our littlest will be learning to crawl/walk/talk and a million other milestones this year.  Emma will start preschool and Avery will be checking out gymnastics.  Who knows what else will be in store.  So I'm putting it out there, like a mantra....it's gonna be great, it's gonna be great.