It was a Zoo of a day!

When I got home on Tuesday this week there was a wonderful surprise in our mailbox - an annual membership to the zoo. I really didn't know who it was from - I just assumed it was my mom. I found out it was from the person we gave our big screen tv to awhile back. He said he was enjoying it so much that he wanted to do something for us and mom suggested a zoo membership. So, we all took off on Saturday for a day at the zoo to celebrate our new membership.


This was Trevor's first real trip to the zoo (he went when he was REAL young and didn't even get out of the stroller) so we were hoping he would enjoy it - this was a test for our Disney trip in November. He took it all in as he sat in the front of the stroller. We took him out every now and then so he could see the animals and he would point and say "dat". We have been to the zoo several times but the animals this trip were so active and were so close so it was quite cool to see them all moving around. Here's a few pictures from our wonderful day.

All ready for his big zoo outing.

Showing mama "dat" - aka birds or anything else he saw.

This is NOT my favorite exhibit so Jason thought it would be great to take a picture. When Jason doesn't come with us we bypass this building. As soon as I step foot into this building I feel that these slithery suckers are slithering right up my legs.

Look real close at the bird in the cage - Brody was chasing him or he was chasing Brody - not sure which it was but it was too cute.

He really loved the giraffes - maybe it was because he had a giraffe on his shirt :)

Taking a snack break.

This Tapir was taking a break as well - this was one of the ugliest creatures.

Thank goodness it wasn't too hot on Saturday, but it was definitely warm enough to cool off in the splash park.

Trevor enjoyed it as well but mostly just being able to walk around (not in the water though). He was our social butterfly going up to everyone.

This was the sweetest thing ever. We took a shave ice break and all 3 of us shared with Trevor

Trevor's first merry go round ride. I'm sure it won't be the last since Brody could just go to the zoo and ride it all day long - however, mama can't ride it too many times (I guess I'm getting a little too old)

Of course all smiles on his favorite thing to do.

This monkey was taking it easy - it was so funny

Trevor was such a champ. He made it to about 1:00 and he had had enough.

Not your typical Dunkin Donuts

Last week, Brody woke up Thursday morning with 102.5 fever which we were hoping was just take some Motrin and be better in the morning - well, I guess God had other plans. He went to stay with my dad just so Regan didn't have to worry with him (this was her first day) and it wasn't too far into the morning that Dad called to say that he wasn't keeping anything down. What a change of plans so I took off work around noon because of course a sick child just wants their mama.

This continued until about 2AM and he still wasn't feeling great on Friday or Saturday (slight fevers but at least was able to eat and keep it down). We decided since the kids had been under the weather for a couple of days we would keep them out of church on Sunday. I thought I would be a sweet mom and try something new with Brody - make homemade dounts. Now, they aren't anything special just biscuits fried in some oil - real healthy. Once I convinced Brody to not eat a poptart that morning and that we were making something cool - he had fun - not that he ate too many. I think he left that up to me.

So proud of his cooking skills.

Choo Choo - the train is coming!

When Brody was 2, Nana bought him a nice wooden train set. We found a good deal on an activity table that fit it perfectly so we put the train together several times. However, it would easily fall down and not stay together so Brody wouldn't play with it too much because it was usually a pile of train pieces on the table.
This is actually a good day on how the train looks - it's usually A LOT worse.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my dad (Mr. Buildit) to cut a piece of board to fit on the table so I could glue the train together and be able to lift off the board to use the table for other things if I ever wanted to.

After spraying the board green and little by little gluing the train together (this took forever - it was so tedious to glue every little piece)- here's our finished product

I can't believe it took me almost 2 years to do this because Brody plays with it all of the time. It's also a big help since Trevor liked to grab a piece or 2 of the train and chew on it or try and hit you. Whew, finished just in time before somebody got too hurt.

It's that time of year again - GO Gators!!

Yes, we are HUGE Gator fans so of course our kids follow in our footsteps or at least wear the clothing. Last weekend started off college football which is always an exciting time in our house - which means football ALL day on Saturday!!

Here's our Gator fans all decked out in their Gator attire.

That morning we headed out to pick up a few things to finish their bathroom (pictures coming soon) and ran into Michael's. Brody found the puzzles and of course went straight to the Toy Story one. Of course he wanted it - what 3 old doesn't want something EVERYWHERE you go - and Jason asked him where his money was, which Brody left at home. Brody was SO disappointed that he left his money at home, but don't worry mom came to the rescue and bought the puzzle (thank goodness only about $2). The first thing he did when we got home was open and put the puzzle together. This was a 24 piece 3D puzzle and he put it together in about 15-20 minutes. I think he LOVES puzzles and he's pretty good at them.

Caught in the act

We are still trying to adjust to the fact that Trevor is into EVERYTHING. With Brody we didn't have to child proof too much because he just didn't get into too much stuff. Now don't get me wrong, we locked off a few cabinets that contained some bad stuff, but there was one cabinet in the bathroom that had all of the cleaning supplies in it and we never had to child proof it UNTIL Trevor came along. Now our house has a few of these - don't they add so much charm :)

I also thought I would be able to just tell the child NO and redirect him to something else - it just doesn't happen that way with Trevor. He actually tells us "Na" and look at us and go right back to what he was getting into.

Definitely don't leave any type of bag on the floor because this is where you will find Trevor.

So intent on getting EVERYTHING out of my purse.

"Caught in the act"

Brody liked to put stuff up and Trevor is total opposite - EVERYTHING must come off or out. Oh the joy of the 2nd child.

How can you not love this face???

Our little Jags fan

Since we have Jaguar season tickets this of course includes the preseason games. We missed the first one since we were at the beach but the 2nd one was on a Thursday night. Jason decided to take Brody since it might not be so crowded just in case he couldn't sit still the whole time.

Jason didn't tell him until that morning when he was dropping him off at school (a little bribery to do good at school never hurts, right). Jason said Brody's face lit up and was so EXCITED.

When we got home from school that afternoon, he was so eager to get ready for the game. They weren't leaving until around 6:15, but I think Brody was trying to head out the door at 5:30 time Jason got home from work. Here they are about to head out the door - of course Trevor had to get in on the action. Not sure what will happen when the boys get bigger and are VERY interested in football - does this mean 2 more season tickets?

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to school he goes

Our beach vacation happened to be the first week of Brody's new class, but oh well. He is still going just Tuesday's and Thursday's and Mrs. Robin Carr is keeping him and Trevor on Monday's. Thank the Lord she came around - we are so thankful. She is our youth pastor's wife and they have 5 grown kids - so I think she is well experienced.

Jason still has morning duty, which he does so good at this. I lay out Brody's clothes the night before and thankfully Brody can get dressed all by himself. The night before, I packed his NEW Buzz Lightyear backpack - HE WAS SOOOOO EXCITED. So, Tuesday morning he jumped right out of bed, ate breakfast, put his clothes on, immediately had to put on his backpack, brushed his teeth and helped daddy take out Allye - yes all with his backpack on. Do you think he was a little excited?

Off they went to school to his new 3 year old class. His teacher is Mrs. Rose - I feel for her with about 15-18 3 year olds and A LOT of boys. I hear she is pretty firm which is what they will need. Brody actually had Mrs. Rose some during the summer and he really liked her. He would always come home with a stamp & a sticker for being very good. He's quick to tell us who got in trouble that day AND he even tells us if he got in trouble. I wonder if that will last?

The one thing we struggle with is taking naps. He is a very good nap taker at home but they put on a movie during nap time and little boy just doesn't want to sleep so Tuesday and Thursday nights can be difficult.

I can't wait to see what all he will learn this year. At 3 1/2 he knows

• his colors
• can count to 20 and can continue further if we help him with the change to 30, 40, etc
• his alphabet
• can write his name and knows how to write a lot of other letters
• can easily put TONS of puzzles together by himself
• loves Buzz Lightyear and everything about Toy Story (yes I know this really isn't school related but it's the biggest craze right now)

One of these days, I'll visit his classroom and get a picture of him with Mrs. Rose

Fun In The Sun for a WEEK

Last week we packed up what seemed like the entire house and headed to St Augustine for a week of fun in the sun. We rented a 3 bedroom oceanfront condo with Keith, Kelly & Bradyn, so of course Brody & Bradyn were SO excited to get our week going.


Our view from our 3rd floor balcony.

Us parents were a little nervous how they would behave since the boys would be sharing a room and we wanted them to get some sleep. I am happy to say that they did really good. They did however get to stay up pretty late and were usually up around 8:00, but they took about 2-3 hour naps each day. Brody kept thinking it was a race of who got up first - I had to explain to him that he won if he was the last one up not the first one.



Our days usually consisted of the beach in the mornings for a couple of hours where the boys played in the sand, rode the surf, played baseball and just ran around being boys.











After a couple hours of the beach the boys were ready for the pool so off we went. Since our condo was beach AND pool front we were able to just bring lunch down and eat it by the pool - quite nice. The boys really loved the pool and their swimming lessons really paid off. I would have rather Trevor stayed at the beach because he could toddle anywhere and I really didn't have to worry about him but at the pool all he wanted to do was walk around which made me a nervous wreck.

Thank goodness it wasn't too crowded because at times I felt as if we took over the pool area with all the stuff we would bring out and then our boys were having such a good time and would be so loud. Maybe it was the dads launching them into the air as far as possible - they loved it.

After lunch was nap time and this was when Kelly and I headed back to the beach for a couple of hours of relaxation - YEAH!!! It was so nice and I think we could have done that all day. We tried to catch up on our reading which I started reading Dr. Dobson's book "Boys Will Be Boys" - really eye opening. Thankfully Jason and Keith didn't mind too much to stay inside to "watch" the kids while they napped.

We ventured away from the condo only a couple of times because we realized VERY quickly that it was VERY time consuming and difficult to get us all ready to go off. Dinner at Saltwater Cowboys was our first attempt and after having waiting in our cars for 15 minutes for the monsoon to pass the boys did really good - we even received complements from people in the restaurant at how well our boys were - makes a mom proud.

We woke up Wednesday morning and it looked pretty overcast so we thought we would venture downtown and let the boys play on the BIG playground. They were SO excited is an understatement - they didn't even know where to start playing.

Our one and only family shot for the week.

Lunch was at Harry's downtown with a sweet treat from a gourmet popsicle "Paletas" shop.

Our condo complex also had a small playground which the boys loved as well.




To sum up our week, we all had a great time and of course the boys were exhausted but had a blast. The beach was a great vacation for us all and the best thing is that none of us came home with sunburns. Not that you haven't had enough pictures but here are a few to leave you with.

2 cool dudes