Zoo Morning

We decided to head out to Zoo Montana in Billings late this morning.  We packed a picnic lunch and had a ton of fun trekking all over the zoo.  Our zoo doesn't exactly have a ton of exhibits, but it's still quite the hike to cover the whole thing.  Our first stop was the little barn area where there are horses, goats, chickens, bunnies and a turkey.  The turkey was gobbling his little heart out.  Bob pushed Wyatt over to where the turkey was and our poor little man just lost it when that turkey gobbled at him.  What a way to start out?!  Wyatt calmed down pretty quickly, so we moved on to the animals that don't make as much noise.  Blake kept asking us if we could see the elephant (she saw one at the OKC zoo).  This was the best we could do ;)

 Blake had a lot of fun riding all of the statues.

The bear was sleeping pretty far back in his habitat.  The wolverine was a little closer, but he was also asleep.  There was a big horn sheep moving around for us to see along with a golden eagle...who wasn't exactly an official zoo member...guess he just wanted to hang out with that sheep.  We also caught a glimpse of two wolves.  Here's a cute pic of Blake running down the trail to the tiger exhibit.

The tiger was pretty active and was up really close for us to see...

 ...and to take pictures with :)

We stopped along the trail to the tiger exhibit to enjoy our picnic lunch.  Bob took an awesome picture of Lauren and our little Wy-Guy.

 Bob and the kids at lunch time

 Blake being goofy...

 ...and Wyatt acting just like his big sister.

 Little Miss Blake enjoying some chips.

 The easiest way to get Wyatt to look towards the camera.

 Blake checking out the playground equipment.

We had a great time out at the zoo, and we finished up just in time for the wind to start picking up and the temperature to drop.  Hope all is well!

Valentine Tantrum

The kids had a blast yesterday opening up their Valentine goodies in the morning.  Blake then headed to preschool where she had even more Valentine fun.  Wyatt chose to skip his morning nap and hang with Mom.  We are pretty sure that Wyatt is about to completely ditch his morning nap as he often chooses to skip it these days.  Here's our two little Valentine's hanging out...it was nearly impossible to get a decent pic of these two together.

 The kiddos LOVED their Eskimo Joe's Valentine shirts...in fact, they actually wear the same size now!  CRAZY!!!

 Our serious little Wy-Guy...notice in the background how Blake "decorated" our house with heart post-it notes that she got in her Valentine goodie bag.  We still have those hearts EVERYWHERE, but she had a blast decorating.

 Wyatt enjoying some of the Pez candy he got ;)

 "Ahhhh...my sister's kissing me!!!" says Wyatt

 After we picked Blake up from preschool, we came home to get some lunch.  Lauren asked Blake what she would like for lunch, and Blake told her that she didn't need lunch because she had candy from preschool.  Lauren really wasn't up for swinging the happy morning mood over a little candy, so she took the whatever-just-eat-your-candy-then route.  Blake proceeded to taste and promptly throw away nearly all of her candy because "I not like it"...what?!  So in the end, Blake had leftover mashed potatoes and pork chop for lunch.  Lauren is starting to seriously consider using reverse psychology these days.  Wyatt, on the other hand, dug straight into his lunch without complaint until...he decided to throw his sippy cup half way across the room.  Lauren gave him a stern "No."  Wyatt busted out his first, and overall the biggest, temper tantrum that Lauren has ever dealt with to date.  He was screaming so hard his whole face turned bright red and then he started screaming, "NO" continuously throughout his seemingly never ending rant - WOW!!!  Lauren may very well get her first experiences with real temper tantrums with this guy...ugh.  We'll just blame it on his daddy for now ;)  But, the best quote of the day came from Blake: "Mom, you HAVE to be happy because it's Happy Valentine's Day!"

It was fairly nice here this morning, so we decided to take Wyatt's birthday wagon out for it's first spin around the block.  Here's Wyatt hanging on to Blake's baby doll.

 And here's little Miss Blake posing for a pic...so cute!!!

 Lauren somehow managed to get them to both look at the camera...shocker!

Hope all is well, and a belated Happy Valentine's Day from us!

Chubby Little Snowman

We don't have much for pictures for this post...just one video below, but we thought we'd share a few tidbits about the kiddos.  At one year old, Wyatt can...

• Crawl really well and cruise on the furniture (he's even experimenting with letting go and standing on his own)
• Say "ma ma", "mom", "da da", "dad", "Bay" (Blake), "num num" (food), "night night", "hi", "dog", "dude", "what", "ball", and he really tries to mimic any sounds or motions you make
• Participate in games like peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, catch (he loves to throw and catch any type of ball...he is WAY more coordinated than Blake was at this age)
• Yell almost as loud as his sister.  Wyatt and Blake get into these screaming wars going back and forth each one getting louder than the one before...so much fun for Mom ;)

At three and a half Blake can...

• Say her "Pledge of Allegiance"
• Say her ABC's...she gets a little rough with L, M, N, O, P but she's almost got it down
• Still talk like nobody's business...there is rarely a quiet moment in the house when she is around
• Enjoy pretend play.  She loves to assign everyone in the room (even the dogs) roles in her imaginary world.
• Make up her own words/names.  "Gody" (pron. go-dee) is a name she's recently come up with
• Sound out certain words.  We have been reading some beginner reading books, and she can recognize the word/letter "I" and sound out the words "see" and "Sam".  Due to this, she often runs around the house yelling, "I see Sam" or "I ssss-eeee Ssss-aaaa-mm"...everything is a production with this child ;)

Blake is also VERY slow in the mornings (yes...Lauren very much deserves this), so we've started to implement pretend play to help her get ready for preschool faster.  This morning she had Lauren doubled over with laughter.  Cinderella (Blake) was helping her step sisters (Copa & Maddie) get ready for the ball.  Cinderella then put on her beautiful dress (t-shirt and jeans) and glass slippers (boots) and was all ready for the ball (preschool).  She would occasionally call on her step mother (Lauren) and Gus-Gus (Wyatt) to join in.  Lauren started laughing so hard she was crying when Blake dubbed Wyatt as Gus-Gus - HILARIOUS!!!  As we got in the car to head to school, Cinderella announced that she was on her way to the ball to meet her prince, Mrs. Pettis.  Ahhh...what a fun morning...this little girl just cracks us up!

OK, now for the video.  Blake learned this little rhyme at preschool.  It is so cute.  Here are the words in case you can't understand:

A chubby little snowman...has a carrot for his nose
Along came a bunny...and what do you suppose
A hungry little bunny...looking for his lunch
Ate that snowman's carrot nose...nibble, nibble, CRUNCH!!!

Star of the Week

Blake is the Star of the Week at preschool this week.  She got to share pictures and fill out a sheet describing some of her favorite things.  Her favorite movies are now Beauty and the Beast (which she recently got too see in 3D...story on this in a bit) and The Jungle Book.  Her favorite book is The Digging-est Dog.  Lauren and Wyatt got to visit Blake's preschool class today and read them Blake's favorite book.  Wyatt completely stole the show.  While Lauren was reading, Wy-Guy managed to knock over a fan, taste test several pieces of chalk and a few crayons, pulled Blake's hair and slobbered all over her show-and-tell toy...YAY for little brothers!!!  Back to Beauty and the Beast, Blake had the best description of the 3D glasses - "Mom, I put on these glasses and it make the movie closer!"

After our rodeo at preschool, we came home and played outside for a while.  It was a beautiful day.  Wyatt had a blast putting everything in his mouth that he probably shouldn't ;)

Wyatt decided to go for a crawl across the back yard...

...and then he put a truck in his mouth...

 ...and then he put a stick in his mouth :)

Sorry for posting so many at once!  There are two new posts below - ENJOY!!!

Buzz and Bathing Suits

Wyatt had his 1 year well baby check on January 23rd.  Our big boy weighs in at 28 pounds!  He is greater than the 98th percentile in weight, and it's funny to think that Blake didn't hit 28 pounds until she was TWO.  Wyatt's length is up to 29 3/4 inches according to the oh-so-accurate measuring method that they use...total sarcasm.  They just lay the baby down, put their head against one end of the measuring table, and then try to get one leg straight.  Lauren can't help but laugh every time...just seems like an archaic method.  Anyway, his length is in the 60th percentile and his noggin is in the 70th percentile.  But most importantly, he got a clean bill of health.  The doctor told Lauren that Wyatt would probably not walk for a while because he won't have enough strength to - HILARIOUS!!!  The doctor then quickly asked if Wyatt was walking yet.  Lauren told him no, but explained that he's really been pulling himself up to a standing position and cruising on furniture a little.  The doctor was surprised that he had the strength to do that, so he may be walking sooner than projected ;)  And just so you know, we joke about Wy-Guy's weight but the doctor is not in the least bit concerned about it.  He said some kids are just bigger as babies than others and that he should slim down once he really gets to moving.  Dr. Tapia did tell us that we could switch over to 2% milk though, since Wyatt obviously doesn't need any extra calories :)

Otherwise, things are good here and Wyatt just looks so darn cute in his Buzz Lightyear jammies.  Buzz to the rescue...with a tea pot?!

Buzz playing with Buzz

Well, little Miss Blake is always offering up some sort of entertainment.  The other morning she woke Lauren up and she was wearing her bathing suit and princess high heels.  What a goober?!  She insisted on staying in the bathing suit most of the day.  At one point, Bob went outside to do something and Blake asked if she could go too.  Lauren told her that she couldn't go outside wearing only her bathing suit.  Next thing we know...

...here's Blake asking, "Can I go outside NOW, Mom?"  As if putting on a pair of snow boots was going to be enough.  Ahhh...gotta love her!!!

Birthday Boy!

Wyatt had his birthday celebration on Friday, January 20th.  Bob, Lauren and Blake attended in person and we FaceTimed Grandma, Grampy, Uncle Chris and Collier in on the celebration.  We kept it pretty low key, but Wyatt still seemed to enjoy the festivities.  Here's his birthday spread...

...and a close up of the cake that Lauren made.  It's a little rough, but it turned out all right for a first birthday cake.

Blake was more than happy to help Wyatt open his gifts.  Don't worry, he did actually get to work on a few on his own.

Wyatt absolutely loves to play with any type of ball.  So of course, he got some new ones for his birthday.

Wyatt was not afraid to dig into his cake AT ALL.  Blake was much less messy with her first cake.  What a goof?!

Here's Wyatt sporting some jammies he got for his birthday in the new wagon that he also got for his birthday...pretty snazzy!!!

We're playing a little catch up today on posts, so scroll up to see two others.

Wyatt's First Year

Here's a montage of Wyatt's first year...ENJOY!!!

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