A Pickin' We Will Go!

This past week we went out to a local farm and picked strawberries! Our friend Rachel invited us to go with her and we were so glad that we went. The boys slept on the 30 minute drive, but as soon as they saw they farm, they were ready to get busy picking. Granna (my mom) went with us. I did not know what a strawberry farm would look like. There were rows (of course) and the dirt was piled up with the plants poking through tarp. The inner-teacher in me came out because I was fascinated that you could see each stage of the life cycle on the plants: flower, bud, and berry!

Jacob did not want to get too dirty. He would stretch out him arm, flex his hand and hold the berry just long enough to toss it in the basket.
Rylan, on the other hand, loved the picking part. He would tug on the berry, touch the berry, look at each berry and then gently place it in the basket.
After about 45 minutes of picking, we were down the entire row! So we stopped and let the boys eat a few of their prizes! They L-O-V-E-D them!!!
Then we were off to pay! We picked 3.75 pounds of strawberries and it was only $4! They also had other fresh veggies so we picked up squash, kale, tomatoes and more for our fridge.
We are hoping to go back again this season. Picking berries was on my 100 list, and it definitely lived up to my expectation!

Jacob's First Haircut

The big day for Jacob's first haircut was long overdue! On humid days his hair would curl into adorable rings, but on not-so-humid days, it just looked like a messy mullet! So last Tuesday, Jason and I loaded up Jacob for a trip downtown to the cutest old barber shop around! Here's the before...

When we got there, there were 2 people ahead of us. Jacob did good waiting, until the barber used the blower on the neck of the first patron. The noise totally freaked him out!!! He started shaking and crying. So as the next patron got his haircut, we walked outside, sang songs and read a few books. We walked back in the door just as the hair blower whizzed again, and Jacob started crying again. We got him calm and ready for the big chair... as long as he was in my lap.
Notice the animal crackers? That was the only way he stayed semi-calm!

The finished product! Jacob aged over the 10 minutes he was in the chair! No longer a baby, but a big boy!!! Notice all the hair on his shirt... there was NO WAY that blower was getting anywhere near him! And, a big thanks to Jason for taking pics!
Jacob by the barber pole - shirtless because the hair on his shirt was too itchy!Daddy and Jacob outside the shop - 2 new haircuts, 2 sweet boys!

Mommy and Jacob with his "My First Haircut" certificate.

GRRRRR....

Faithful blog friends,

Our internet has been out for a week! There has been a lot of wonderful things happening around our house. Jacob's first hair cut, our visit to pick our own strawberries and a few house surprises and projects! I promise to get on later to upload photos. For now though, I've got to get busy on other tasks! See you soon blog world! :)

Bluebonnet Day #2

Saturday we got up, ate and decided to hit the road. We had been talking about taking bluebonnet pics for several weeks, but kept putting it off. Looking at our calendar, it was this weekend or nothing, so we packed the diaper bag and the food bag and hit the road. Our plan was to drive about an hour and a half away to a cute country town, take pics, eat lunch and head home. Little did we know what other fun was ahead for our family!

We get about an hour and 15 minutes down the road and the interstate comes to a complete standstill - out in the middle of nowhere by a tiny, country town. SO we decided to follow the locals down a country road and see if we could by-pass the blocked interstate and get to our destination. As we went down the country road, we saw a sign that explained why there were hundreds of people in this tiny town. It was the annual Bluebonnet Festival!

Now let me tell you a little secret - I am obsessed with wanting to got to Festivals. I don't know why, but the idea is very exciting to me. Food on a stick, kettle corn, homemade crafts, games, rides, hundreds of things with the festivals theme, and music! So exciting!

We had a hard time finding a parking spot near the festival grounds, so we parked down another country road and pushed the double stroller in the grass (thanks to Jason's muscles - weak Momma could have never done that!!!) My high expectations were met! There was sausage on a stick, funnel cakes, kettle corn and hundreds of vendors!

Now here is another funny part to our story, in our spontaneity, we did not think to see how much cash we had. When we got near the festival we thought to check the cash flow... after both of our wallets and the ash tray of coins, we had a whooping $3.27!!! So even though the food looked wonderful, smelled heavenly and was actually calling our names, we ate nothing. (I'd like to say the inner Weight Watcher in me would have resisted if we had money, but I'm not so sure. Did I mention sausage on a stick?!?!?)

After walking through the festival for about 2 hours, we left and found the perfect bluebonnet field to take pics of the boys. There was even a red barn in the background! Hope you enjoy a taste of the many pics we took in the bluebonnet field.

Rylan Daddy and the boys
Mommy and the boys - check out Rylan's laughter!
Jacob smelling the flowers. He really blew air out his nose, but at least he's getting closer to the idea of smelling!
Rylan loves Texas too!
I think it is an urban legend, but needless to say, for fear of jail time, we did not pick any bluebonnets.
Our twins!
After being in the fields we decided that bluebonnets smell like root beer. What do you think?
Jacob
If you have never read Tomie DePaola's version of the Legend of the Bluebonnet, go to your library and check it out. And once again, God Bless Texas!

And a question for those of you outside the great state, what things do you do to celebrate your state pride?

A Taste of our Weekend

As every Texan knows, seeing our beautiful state flower bloom means that spring is here! And every Texan also knows that you MUST take pictures in the bluebonnets or spring is not really here! So this weekend we decided to go take our annual trip to bluebonnet country and take some pictures! Little did we know what wonderful things we would experience on our spur of the moment trip... details to come tomorrow! But here's a sneak peek of our beautiful state flower and our sweet family. And in the words of one of my favorite songs... "God Bless Texas!"

Our First Zoo Day!

Last week Jason took a a few days off of work for a mini-vacation. On Thursday we went to the Zoo. Overall our experience was fabulous. All in all, I took 268 photos! See I told you I need to take less... but how can you resist adorable boys and God's beautiful creations?!?!?!

It was so sweet to see the boys faces light up at each animal. They called the giraffes "gaffe" and the elephants "funt." Here is our family sitting by an elephant statue that was built in 1952. I think there is a pic of me by it when I was little... we'll have to investigate!
Jacob and Rylan were mesmerised by the meercats! They came up pretty close to the glass and rolled all in the dirt. Jacob squealed and laughed at the brother meercats playing chase.
GPop and Granna (my parents) went with us to the Zoo. Jacob loved GPop's hat! It sweet to watch my parents teach the boys about the different animals. We are so blessed to have them close by!

We were looking for the spectacled bears when who should we see? Heather and Macy!! IT was Macy's Kindergarten field trip. We had not even talked about both of us going to the Zoo on the same day, so it was a real shock! Rylan kept saying "Mace! Mace!" the rest of the day.
OK - being a Texas, I should not be shocked by cattle with LONG horns... but these horns made my jaw drop! Rylan said "cow - moo-moo." In honor of our Aggie friends, we did not make the connection to UT and the longhorns. (you're welcome Aggie friends! :) ) These are called anokole cattle.
Jacob loved walking around and putting his face on the glass. He was looking at a tapir here. Look at those curls!
Rylan's favorite spot was on Jason's shoulders!
We were so excited to find a bison statue in the Children's Zoo section. Our college mascot is the Bison, so this pic is for all of our HU friends! Go Bisons!

We were so excited for the petting zoo... that is, Jason and I were so excited. We thought the boys would love touching the animals. Not so much!!! We practically traumatized them at first by putting their hands on the goats and sheep! Jacob warmed up a little more quickly than Rylan. By the end, they liked the goats and did not want the leave the petting zoo.
When Jason was little, his folks took him on a carousel and took some beautiful pictures of him! We tried to re-create those pics of Jason with these shots. Rylan was a little scared at first, but liked the ride by the end.
Jacob did not even want to sit on the animal at first. But by the end, he was holding on all by himself! This pic of Jacob is pretty close to the old pic of Jason. (IF I knew how to scan, you'd all get to see little Jason...someday!)
Our family on the carousel.
The Children's Zoo has a really neat prairie dog exhibit. There are several prairie dogs running on theses hills and you can crawl through a TINY tunnel to top your head out of the ground just like a real prairie dog. I had to lay on my back with Jacob on my tummy to get in the pop up part. Rylan crawled to us and here we are!

After the children's zoo section, we sat by the duck pond and admired the pretty flowers and birds. Jacob was all grins in GPop's arms and Rylan was back on Daddy's shoulders!

NO trip to the zoo is complete without a stop by the most beautiful birds on the planet... the flamingos!!!

The boys were pooped! Jacob fell asleep on our way out and...
Rylan slept the whole way home.Our Zoo Day was perfect - breezy, a little overcast and full of animal fun! We cannot wait to go back!

WW: Week 6 update

It's hard to believe that I have been on the Weight Watchers journey for 6 weeks! Over this time I have learned so much about portion control, making healthier choices, cooking more frequently, planning better and eating more fruit. It has been so fun to go to the weekly meetings with 3 other girls from church. We have a great support for each other...especially when the potlucks roll around! So has it been worth it? Absolutely! So far, I've lost 14.8 pounds! It's thrilling to have my post-babies clothes becoming loose and not having to suck in to button pants. I'm so motivated to keep going! So for any of you wanting a healthier you, think about joining WW... you won't regret it!

Also - we took the boys to the Zoo for the first time last weekend, but Blogger is not letting me upload pics. So stay tuned!!!

Trauma at Wal-Mart

Jacob and Rylan are both obsessed with horses! They LOVE the Baby Einstein farm DVD and get very excited about all the farm animals. They run around saying "neigh, neigh" and squeal every time a horse is in a book.

So today we go to Wal-Mart to get diapers and there is one of those horses that you ride by the front door. The boys had their usual squeals and saying "neigh, neigh" for the next 10 minutes. So on the way out, I decided to be a fun mom and let them ride the horse. I set Jacob on the horse and he seemed OK. Then I put in the 2 quarters and it started moving and playing a song. After about 15 seconds, Jacob got the death grip on my neck! He started screaming, you know that scared, panicked scream?!?! So I picked him up and Mom tried to set Rylan on the horse. there was NO WAY he was getting on that horse after Jacob freaked out! So we left, as the horse was still galloping and singing as we walked out the door.

Have no fear, though, they are not scared for life against horses. By the time we got home, they were looking at their books and saying "neigh, neigh" with glee again!

How did your kids react to the toys you can ride at stores?