Sting Rays...

We went to the zoo when we were in Arizona and I took lots of pictures, shocking I know, haha.
There are so many pictures that I just can't even put them into one post so I am going to break them up into a few.
This is where we got a chance to touch and feed sting rays! It was so neat!
The kids and Grampy were so excited for the chance to get up close with these awesome sea creatures.

Katelyn was the first one to jump in, or at least put her hand in, to see what the sting rays feel like.

Connor was nervous but with encouragement and help from Grammy he braved his nervousness and touched them.

Once he did he was no longer nervous!

The kids wanted to feed them so the lady took out some shrimp and help them feed the sting rays.

I was proud of the kids! I don't think I would have been willing to have sting rays suck shrimp out of my hands. The kids thought it felt really funny.

I don't have pictures of Maggie touching them because she was so nervous. She was crying because she wanted too touch them but when I would try and help her she would cry because she didn't want to. I didn't want to force her to do it but she wouldn't leave either. I think she was just so overwhelmed with the wanting to and the fear of combined! Finally I got her to touch one and she just melted after, so funny, such a release. It's hard to explain really.

What a great experience for all of us!

I love to watch children play...

I could sit and watch my children play all day. Oh, and the sounds of chatter and laughing are music to my ears.




I love peaking in on one of them when he or she is playing all by his/herself and making up such an elaborate pretend play.

Like when I looked in at Ben recently and he was playing with his farm animals. He was making the sounds that they make and sorting them into sections based on what animal they were.

When he noticed me he showed me his cow and then went back to playing.

Until I asked him to look at me and he put the horse on his head just so I could take a picture.

I'm telling you, I could watch and listen to children playing all day long!

Cactus

You better watch your fingers...

Your toes and even your nose...


Because Arizona is just filled with prickers!

Here Connor is standing next to the "bones" of a saguaro cactus.

Here he is looking at the cactus Grammy calls the "Connor saguaro cactus" because the arm that is growing off of it first appeared when Connor was born. It is believed that an arm doesn't grow until the cactus is around 100 years old!

Grammy enjoyed showing the kids all the different kinds of cacti all around their house.

Oh no! Connor turned into a cactus!

Look at how tall this cactus is, I can't even imagine how old it is.

Arizona is great and exploring cacti is fun but make sure you have some tweezers!

Tea party

Grammy and the girls had so much fun with the last tea party they had in Arizona almost three years ago so we all decided to have another tea party when we were in Arizona this time.

This was Katelyn and Grammy the last time watching Grammy's friend playing the violin.

Here is Maggie at the last tea party. She was almost 2 1/2 and looks so little!

Here she is now getting a pretty hair piece on so she will be all ready for the tea party.

Connor helped with the preparations by using a heart cookie cutter to cut out cucumbers.

Look at these mini fancy brownies that we made! Not only were they beautiful but they are by far the BEST brownies ever! I LOVE my mom's brownies!

Time for the tea party to begin. Maggie did a great job setting the table.

Connor wanted to attend this tea party. Last time he and Grampy went fishing instead. Gotta wear a hat!

We made very special tea and added a bit of honey for extra sweetness.

So beautiful!

Ben was invited too and of course wore a cowboy hat. He was so excited to be able to use a real tea cup and did great with it!

Grammy has a special set of tea cups that came all the way from England! A good friend of hers gave her the tea cups.

In proper English style Katelyn was very careful not to hit the side of her tea cup with the spoon.

Love this cowboy!

This was a great day for afternoon tea!

Lizards!

My kids LOVE animals and lizards are no exception!

So when Connor spotted this beauty the first day we were in Arizona the kids were just in their glory looking at and watching it's every move.

Grammy, being a little nervous sometimes, wouldn't let the kids touch or catch the lizard for fear that it may have been poisonous. Connor was very disappointed by this.



But the next day when Grampy took Connor to the wash and they found this little guy Connor was so excited that Grampy, who is a little more laid back about such things, let Connor pick it up and bring it back to the house for the night.

It was Connor's new pet for the night and boy was he was thrilled. Connor, I mean, not the lizard as I'm sure the lizard was not thrilled at all

The kids enjoyed studying this guy up close.

They even built a habitat just for him!

They all watched him and took turns holding him.

Even Ben was quite interested in this little guy.

Unfortunately he didn't stay as long as the kids had hoped, as he some how escaped the habitat when they were busy doing something else, but they loved the time they had with him!

Which is good because after that day the weather was cold and the lizards were all hiding to keep warm...

Guess who's two?!?!?

The man of the day is BEN! He turned TWO today! CRAZY I know!
It feels like just yesterday that he was born. Then again, it seems like he's been in my life forever. It's weird how that is.


I remember the day we brought him home from the hospital, it was just wonderful and the kids were so excited!

This guy is such a delight, one of the light's of our lives for sure.

Today I took him to the Picture People and had his pictures done. As always, they did an amazing job capturing some great shots.

This one is by far my favorite! The photographer captured "Ben" completely in this picture! Right down to the cow in his hand!

Just yesterday when I asked him what he wanted to drink he looked right at me with a sly smile and mischief in his eyes and said, "beer". After the two of us completely cracked up I told him no. To which he replied, "why", one of his favorite words. Funny enough, most of the time he just says it not even meaning it as a question.

He is talking more and more every day. Still slightly behind with speech and language but catching up quickly. His gross motor skills, on the other hand, are anything but behind. The baby that began crawling at 5 months old has never stopped moving!

He loves farm animals and balls the most but is really enjoying the train set and table he got from Nana and Pa for his birthday. He is happy and loving, sweet and kind. He is one of the most well behaved toddlers I have ever known and makes us smile many times a day just by being Ben.

Happy Birthday my sweet Ben, I love you!

French Fries

Two years ago I was in some very intense labor with this little man...

Last weekend when we got home from Arizona Ben told me that he wanted something to eat. I asked him what and he thought for a minute before telling me fries. I laughed and said I didn't have any fries so what else would he like. We went through this same line of communication three more times then he got all serious and said, "Daddy get fries?" So, because I thought it was so stinkin' adorable and random I called Chris and told him the story. The loving daddy that he is came home a little bit later with a bag that contained french fries! Ben thought he was King of the house, carried the fries into the living room (which is not normal, he usually eats at the table), climbed on the couch and ate about three fries before telling me he was done....

The wash...

In Arizona there are "washes" where the rain water runs through on the rare occasion that it actually rains. The ground is just so hard that the water doesn't soak in so it runs.
When it's not raining and the wash is dry it is a very fun place to explore. As opposed to when there is water running through it, then it is very dangerous and can turn deadly, quickly!

There is lots of sand to play in.

The kids enjoyed running through it.

The rocks in the wash are so fascinating to me. The colors are so different than the "normal" rock.

Maggie found this piece of broken glass that was smooth from being in the wash for a long time. Kind of like sea glass, so cool.

She was so excited for the special treasure she discovered.

Look at these two adorable monkeys....

And the beautiful blue sky in the back ground....

Katelyn couldn't even be separated from her Harry Potter Audio book for an hour to explore the wash but we are glad she joined us so it was ok.

Bringing buckets and shovels down to the wash is a favorite.

The kids were asked by their teacher's to bring back some Arizona sand.

We love the wash. It's so full of fun, excitement and treasures. Some day we may even get lucky and find some gold!