Great New Petting Zoo!!

Ella had her first field trip for preschool last week! I feel like such a school-mom going on a field trip! When did this happen? Anyway, the exciting part was that it was about 3 minutes from my house but I had no idea this place was there and it was awesome! We're definitely going back.


This turkey was pretty but slightly scary to be so close to

I got to hold a 10 day old piglet!!

Ella and her friend Savannah on a hayride

A Brahma Steer-I had never heard of this beast before! It weighs 3800 lbs and was ENORMOUS when it stood up. It was kind of like a huge bull with a camel's hump. Crazy!

Ella and I both milked the cows-one of which was 8 months pregnant with a 130 lb calf! (the staff was very helpful, hence my knowledge of all of these fun facts!)

Ella tried to pet this calf but it was obsessed with licking the little boy on the right and chased him around!

Petting a donkey and yes, there was a zebra! How cool is that! The Zebra really looked painted, like it wasn't even real. Great job on those God-they're SO cool looking.

Ella insisted that "goats like hay, and this goat needs his lunch"

My happy little cow-girl :-)

Stacy's Home!!!

Stacy is the only sibling who doesn't live within 10 minutes of us and we miss her a lot so we're so excited she's visiting for a week!! This is the first time all 5 kids have been together in almost 2 years!!!

From left to right-David, Chris, Andrew, Stacy, and Amy

We're Alive!

Just wanted to let you all know, we're not dead. In fact, we're so busy living life, I'm having trouble finding time to write about it :-) Also, Chris was out of town for a week and I didn't want to say that on my blog in case any psycho stalker was reading and was going to come to my house. Really, it's just been a very busy couple weeks so I have lots of updating to do as soon as I make some time. One quick story though before I crash for the night...

I took Ella to get a flu shot on Friday and she was super brave and didn't shed a single tear. I was SO proud of how mature she was about "needing to get a little poke with some medicine in it." However, she didn't fail to crack me and the nurse up...

Nurse: Ok, we're ready, Mom can you hold her?
Me: Ok Ella, do you want to have the poke in this leg or this leg (pointing to her right, then left leg)
Ella: ummmm....how about (long pause, then an "aha" moment)...your leg!

She seemed very proud of herself for this suggestion but alas, the nurse picked a leg and Ella barely flinched. So brave!

Blast from the Past

So, here's what my parents, my sister and I look like now :-)



And here....is the cutest picture on earth from about 20 years ago...






I LOVE this picture! It's SO 80s and SO adorable! What a cute little family, if I do say so myself :-) And apparently Ella got that whole smiling-but-not-looking-at-the-camera thing from me :-(

Kabobs!

At family dinner the other night we made Shish Kabobs. I gave Ella a few skewers, put a ton of vegetables within her reach, and she went to town! She had so much fun and was completely into it for a good 20-30 minutes. Who knew skewering was such an age-appropriate activity! We're definitely going to try this at home soon.