A trip to the Zoo....

Last time we went to the Zoo, we purchased the membership so we could go anytime. For our family, the membership only ended up costing 21.00 more than the single days' admission. Monday our kids had off for Parent/Teacher confrences so we took a trip out to the zoo.

As we walked around the Zoo we looked at the various animals. Then we came to this one enclosure that had like 30 people looking in... what could be so spectacular to have that many people looking in. We got a little closer and then I saw why there were so many people.

There were two baby tigers (sisters) in that enclosure.

The sign reads: Contrary to popluar belief, white tigers are not a seperate species nor are they albino, but ratehr a color variation caused by a double recessive gene. All white tigers are believed to be descendants of a male cub captured in India in 1951. There are several hundred in captivity worldwide, but it is unlikely that there are any left in the wild.

They were so cute to watch. So playful like domestic kittens.

here, they are playing in a tire swing...

Ethan was sitting on a huge rock, playing with a stick, when all of a sudden the tiger started creep over there, she wanted to play with the stick too.

here she is in the tire swing, I guess she wanted me to take her picture.

this tent is over in the Elephant part. the kids are watching the elephants.

Finn was so happy to finally get out of his stroller (pictured behind him). He climbed all over these guys..

They have these set up in different sizes, so depending on the age of the child, they are able to climb on them. There are three. The largest is completly out of the "water".

Looking at his eyes....

Around the Nashville zoo there are animal footprints in the concrete. Christian is standing inside of an elephant footprint.

This guy/girl wanted to have pictures done. It kept posing and turning it's head. Anyone know what this bird is????

If you guessed a Stork, you are correct.

There are also giant snakes at the Zoo. Watch out. This snake ate quite a few kids while we were there. Including Camden and Ethan.

Here is a picture of the playscape at the Zoo. It's ginormous. I took this picture, because the white sign in the middle struck me as funny. The sign reads...Childcare NOT provided. Who goes to the zoo with their kids and then leaves the kids in the plascape while they (the parents) walk around the zoo???

Summary.....

For those who haven't seen these pics... I hope you enjoy.... For those who have already seen these pics.... hope you enjoy, again! I decided to limit it to a few pictures, instead of a million pics for each category, which i do have on my ever dwindiling hard disk space. Ok, so now we'll have a summary of the last two months.

Ashley turns 7! My, how time goes so fast. She picked out this cake. I made it for her, but we had to eat it the day I finished it. Of course no one complained about eating cake a little early. Ashley....God's Little Princess.

Next....was our Carpet removal/room repainting. We have laminate on the floors now, Finn is demonstrating, the proper way to lay the laminate. :) And we have two blue walls and two brown walls. The brown is *not sticking however. So. we'll have to repaint again...sigh.... We took off our trim too, it made for easier painting.

In February, we took a trip to the zoo. It was so very nice out that day. I am thinking Graco would love a copy of this picture.

February 14th..... Valentines pictures


Connor wanted a Football cake for his birthday. He helped frost the cake.

This seems to be the norm around here.... Smurfs to watch and bins to watch them in. My kids have strange habits!

Another cool thing we did was visit the Weinermobile. We missed it at our local store and went the next one. While we were there, a photographer took a picture of the kids that ended up in the local paper.

Friday we went to the park, it was in the high 60s.

Sunday, we woke up to Snow! What fun :) I had just packed away all of our winter stuff, becasue I figured we wouldn't get any more snow. Afterall, our daffodils are up already. What a surprise!

Mike and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. We had an early dinner at Applebees (in December, thanks Mom and Dad) and had Ice cream cake from DQ on our anniversary.

And this is my awesome Craigslist find! the cage, not the bird. here you can see our Chocolate truffle walls! and a little of the floor too. We really have been blessed :)

To upload pictures on here, I have to resize everything. Which can become old real fast. A lot of times, I'll just send out an email instead. If you aren't on my email list and would like to be included in picture sharing (no spam) send me an email.. Austillmkc@aol.com I'd love to hear from you.

Chuck E. Cheese

This was our outing to Chuck E. Cheese. Mike and Dave went to Nashville. So... the kids and I went to Chuck E. Cheese. We had planned a trip to the Childrens Museum but, the heating wasn't working properly in the Van, to drive all the way there, so the seven of us headed here instead.


We went through 7 drinks, 2 pizzas and 230 tokens.... And of couse we all walked away with those fabulous prizes they have.... you know the ones.... pirate patches, tatoos, sticky frogs (I have two stuck to my ceiling at this moment), dissapearing coin tricks... and the list goes on.


Most of the tokens I handed to Ethan, went to this awesome sports car! He even fed it tokens while it was going......I think we wasted a few... oops! Finn Thought it was great too.



First thing Christian did was play basketball. He wants to play basketball this year.




Ashley hopped on this monster truck first thing....how girly :)





Connor enjoyed the skeetball. He did pretty good.


Camden loves Spongebob!

8 for 2008

I am really happy with my photography these days.... I wanted to include 8 favs for 2008. As I looked through my hard drive....I realized that some of my favorites have already been backed up and removed. so... that leaves me with 6. Anyhow....I am not trying to pick favorite children. The pics I have chosen have many variables as to why they are my favorite...so no hate mail please :) Not that any of you would think of such...he he he.... Ok so here goes... In no particular order...

Inspired

I first saw this on Two peas (love that site), I first heard of this from Mark and Tabitha. I was under strict orders not to do anything until they had finished theirs. So... I am considering theirs done. I've had a lot of fun with these and, as you can tell I am not finished. I wanted to use each letter only once as to make this more challenging for me. I think my name will be the hardest. We had a warm day last week so I went out and snapped a bunch of pics. Hopefully we will have another warm day so I can finish these....

I used Camdens' tricycle for his pictures as he loves to ride it when we are outside.

Mikes' was fun. I used car parts for his.

Christians name had assorted yard items.

Home is where the heart is....

Some Christmas Cheer....

Who can't help but smile, when they see pictures like these??? My Parents made a really nice basket full of goodies for us. It had an adorable snowman theme. Inside the basket was a snowman wearing a scarf and Santa hat. I kept looking at this cute little snowman and suddenly it hit me.... these things would fit on Lilly. And of course they did.


Wearing the Scarf....


Who knew that Lilly would absolutly love to unwrap gifts? I had to make sure she was in her cage while the kids unwrapped their own gifts, as she wanted to help.

Lilly loves rubber duckies.

Merry Christmas

Waving good bye

Here are some of the kids waving good bye to Grandma and Grandpa as they head towards Michigan.

Aren't they cute?

Romantic Date.....

While staying at the hotel. My mom and dad Offered to watch the kids so we could go on our second date for the weekend :) Our first date was to Applebees on Saturday night. We had lime chicken.....mmmmm....

Our second date was to the Opryland Hotel. What a beautiful place. This is the view in front of the hotel.

All of these things were even prettier in person. It was nice to get out, just the two of us.
This was had a huge flag pole in the middle. the Poinsettias were three dimentional. Very pretty.

I was most surprised to see this Life size Nativity scene. Amazing detail. and the Christmas story was playing on speakers out there.

This hotel was so pretty on the inside. The tree behind us was made completly out of Poinsettia flowers.

What's more romantical than a horse drawn carrige ride to see all the lights! We paid extra to have a private carriage. It was really nice.