Happy Easter!

Kansas & The Zoo

Over Spring Break we all took a trip up to Kansas for the week to see Granny (Shelby's Mom). We spent most of our time rebuilding the corners of a pasture fence. Everyone pitched in and helped, Granny, Charlie, Emily, Kaitlynn and myself. Of course Shelby did almost all of the heavy, heavy work. I was able to help when the girls were both asleep. Emily helped some, and loved playing in the soft dirt from the holes we had dug.

One day we took a break from building fence and went to the Sedwick County Zoo in Wichita. WOW what a great zoo!!! Emily absolutely loved seeing all the different animals. Some of her favorites were the turtles (pictures below), the gorilla's, giraffe's and the hippopotamus' (you sould here her pronounce that one, HA, HA!)

We spent about 5 hours looking at all the differnt animals. Thankfully we had the handy, dandy double stroller! Emily loved the part of the zoo where she was able to feed some of the animals. She was not one bit afraid of goats and sheep and she went into fed them. She was able to get about 2 feet from the giraffe's and loved it!
Granny bought us lunch at the zoo, and Emily got a kids meal, which came with a plastic monkey head lunch box. She loved it, and always wants to take her snack in it where ever we go! Thanks Granny for the great keepsake! We will always think of our wonderful day at the zoo when we use it!! It was an exhausting day, but well worth it. We all loved seeing all the animals and seeing Emily's expressions everytime we saw a new animal was priceless! We highly recommend going to this zoo if you are ever in the Sedwick County area. A few more animals at this zoo include 3 toed sloths, sting rays, penguins, rinos, lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), a bald eagle. bats (little and big), parrots, wolfs, one animal that looke half zebra and half giraffe, kangaroos and many, many more. If you are really interested you can visit their website.

These turtles were bigger than Emily and would stand up and let the zoo keeper clean under their shells (you can see it in the background a little bit)!

Emily watched this turtle for about 20 minutes

She did not even have to get out of her stroller to feed this rare sheep.

Kaitlynn enjoying chewing on her shoulder strap.

Pagosa Springs

Mama took Jay Mac, Emily, Kaitlynn and I up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado and what an awesome time we all had!! Shelby, David and Renee' were invited but all had to work :(

We stayed in a wonderful condo that had a living area, dinning area, kitchen (fully furnished), 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a loft. Emily loved the upstairs and would climb up them and then slide down backwards on her stomach, especially in her P.J's (or Ba-yah's as Emily calls them). We had a great time watching movies one day, while Jay Mac and Mama went to a meeting so Jay Mac could get a free lift ticket. He went snowboarding with his friend Melissa who lives in Colorado Springs. It took a while for Emily to warm up to her, but she finally did on the last day. We went shopping and found the girls the cuttiest little shirts. We had ice-cream everyday, since we found a place that only charged $1.19 for a small (but I don't know why they called it a small it was HUGE!) The last day we ate ice-cream I was enjoying mine when all of a sudden the whole thing fell off the cone right onto Kaitlynn's shirt and my shoulder. I managed to save most of it and went to get a cup the eat the salvaged part out of. We went swimming everyday, except for the day we went to the Hot Springs, but more on that later. This was the first time Kaitlynn had gone swimming. She loved it! She would fall asleep everytime we were in the water for a while. Emily really enjoyed swimming also. She learned to jump off the side of the pool into my arms. She also floated by herself a couple of times! We all liked playing the game of motor boat. This is a game from my childhood that you play in the water. You hold the child and spin slowly and say "Motor boat, motor boat go so slow", then you spin a little faster and say "Motor boat, motor boat go so fast", and finally you spin really really fast and say "Motor boat, motor boat step on the gas". Emily would just laugh out loud really hard. One night instead of swimming we went to the Hot Springs. Thanks to Jay Mac for paying our way in!! They were wonderful and of course Kaitlynn fell asleep in the really warm water. We sat in one that was 105 degrees! They were very relaxing, but did not smell very well (like sulfur, yuck!). One afternoon Mama, Emily, Kaitlynn and I decided to go up Wolf Creek pass and then decided to go onto the slopes to see if we could find Jay Mac. Could not believe the amount of snow on top of the mountian. We found out that Emily will be able to take ski lessons next year! Mama already bought her pink ski pants, as you can see in the pictures below and we found a great pink coat for $4 up at a shop in Pagosa. We had such a wonderful time and look forward to going back again next and hopefully Shelby, David and Renee' will be able to come with us! Thank you Mommie for helping us make such great memories, we will treasure them for a lifetime!!!! Kaitlynn enjoying playtime on the floor in the condo.

Emily and Mommie up on Wolf Creek!

Emily making a snow angel up on Wolf Creek ski slopes!

Ready to go everyone?










Sleeping Beauty!

What fun!

Kaitlynn's first time to swim! She loved it!!

Jay Mac and Emily. She loved to ride the lobster.

Mommie and Kaitlynn ready to swim.

Don't you just love our big cowboy hats! Found then at Clines Corners. We would always stop at this store when we went to Pagosa with Mama Mary every summer, so we had to continue the tradition with Emily and Kaitlynn!

6 Months Old!

I can't believe it but Kaitlynn is 6 Months old now. Sorry I am a little late posting this picture, but I just had to document what she looked like at 6 Months old. As you can see she is sitting up very well now! She is also starting to crawl on her belly. It is really funny to watch. This picture also shows her wonderful smile! She is a really happy baby. She is also eating solid foods now! She eats things like avacados, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, carrots, bananas, peaches, mangos, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, cherrios, and fruit loops! This might explain why she gained 2lbs from 5 months to 6 months. This month she is weighing in at 15lbs 7oz. I can't believe 1/2 of her first year of life has already passed by. She is growing and changing so much everyday. I tell her all the time to stop growing and to stay my baby forever, but just like Emily did, she keeps on growing and growing. She has quite the personality these days too and loves her big sister Emily! She now has 2 teeth and they are coming in very quickly. She can bite now! What a joy she is in all of our lives!

First Tooth!!!!

Kaitlynn has her first tooth!!! Mama and I were in town today and Mama was in the backseat with Kaitlynn and Emily. She said "Lora, I think I feel a tooth!" So when we stopped and got out at our next stop I checked and sure enough Kaitlynn has her first tooth. It is on the bottom left and has just started to poke through. This probably explains why she has been a little fussy lately. I decided that with this new accomplishment must come a reward and I bought her a new vibrating starwberry teething toy! I can't believe she already has a tooth. She is growing and changing so fast. She now weighs 13lbs and 13oz. Sure wish they would stay little longer!

Bath Time Fun!!

Bath time is one of our favorite times! Emily had to have a bath this morning and just insisted on Kaitlynn taking one with her. The problem was I was home alone and would not be able to wash Emily's hair and body if Kaitlynn was taking a bath too. But Emily was just very insistant and so I thought about putting the Bumbo seat in the tub with Kaitlynn in it. Kaitlynn loves sitting in that little purple seat and I was sure it would probably float and it did. They were so cute I just had to take a few pictures. The first one Emily is telling Kaitlynn to look at the camera. Emily repeats everything anyone says these days. The second and fourth one I actually was able to get both of them to look at the camera. The third one shows Emily washing Kaitlynn's hair! Everytime I washed something of Emily's then she had to was that part of Kaitlynn's body. She is such a big helper!! They played in the tub for about 45 minutes and I was able to get some laundry folded! What a fun time!

Riding a Horse!

Here are some pictures of Emily riding a horse for the first time!! The horses name is Kate and thanks to Jeff and Stephanie Lewter, Emily was able to take a ride on her. Emily did very well riding, especially never having been around horses before. Lathan wanted to ride with Emily so I had to get a few pictures of them on Kate together. Someday we would like to get a horse of our own. Thanks to Jeff and Stephanie for helping us make this memory!!