Our Saturday and Sundays Trip to the Houston Zoo

On Saturday it rained all day long that the kids were stuck inside the house all day. We did have some nice company come over and visit. Grandma, PawPaw and Uncle Chris came to visit in the middle of the down pour and after they got over here the streets started flooding and our part of the street very rarely gets standing water, but that day it was up in our yard and to the sidewalk. I was not even thinking to grab my camera to take any pictures, but it got pretty high. Larry had to even go move his truck out of the street as it was almost to his door and he had to go in through the passenger side, just to not have water gush into his truck. We needed some rain, but that was just a lot!

Sunday turned out to be a very beautiful day and the kids and I woke up and played around the house while daddy got to sleep in for a few hours. We didn't have any plans for the day and after daddy woke up he decided it would be fun to take the kids to the Zoo. Well, that was a great idea since it was so nice outside and we figured the kids would really enjoy getting to see the animals now.

We got to the zoo around 11am and we spent almost 3 hours there! We just had a great day as a family and we loved getting to see the kids seeing all the animals! I think our favorite was the giraffe. There was one so close to us eating off a tree on our side of the fence and the kids would just talk to him and said hello!

Here are the kids looking at the Otters up on the log. These two otters were so fun to watch as they played and played and played! They would go in the water and then out on the logs and then chased each other in the water for a bit!

Here the otters were in the water swimming. Otters are so cute!

Here was a BIG Turtle! It even started moving and walking around. The kids really liked seeing it walk. They thought that was cool.

This was another favorite to see. We are big into salt water tanks and this was a huge tank that took up one whole wall. It was beautiful with all the rock and corals and the fish!

It was very interesting to watch these little guys. They got right up to the window to see all the people looking at them. We think they are neat and they look at us and probably think we are neat too.

And here is what we saw when we walked up to the giraffes. He was eating off the tree on the other side of the fence. It was cool to see one that close up.

And here he is up close right above were we were standing to get a closer look.

This giraffe was further away, but all by its self and it looked right at us when we walked by and said hi to it. These are beautiful animals!

Here is the big Elephant. Another Beautiful animal created by God!

The kids wouldn't stand by themselves for some reason! Hmmm, I wonder if it is because they are so attached to daddy?

I wish I could just lay around like this and take a nap!

When I took this picture, I thought the cow was going to give Kayla a kiss. They loved getting to touch the cow! As the kids would say..."What does a cow say? Moo" They are too cute!!

Petting the sweet, soft cow!

There was a table of people set up right in front of this orangutan and he never moved. He was so interested in seeing the people as we were in seeing him. Although we didn't get to get very close as we were so rudely cut off by a man that couldn't wait in line like the rest of us to get to see and he never moved so he was in the way the entire time we had been standing there. Poor Kayla wanted to see so badly Larry finally put her down on the ledge and she got a little closer, but we decided to just go since this man would not move. Poor Cooper couldn't see either. I had to get Kayla and she cried when I was carrying her away.

Just a monkey hanging around! He was a cute little monkey!

We had a great day at the zoo and I know the kids really had a great time! They were so tired that they both fell asleep not to long after we left. The rest of the day, we just hung out as a family and enjoyed our day!

I am so thankful for my beautiful family and so glad that we can spend days like Sunday with no worries and just have fun!

Easter Weekend Part 2

I noticed on Part 1 that I left out what we did Saturday evening after we left Alvin. We took the kids to cousin Trey and Megan Smith's house to decorate Easter eggs! He had hamburgers and hot dogs and just had some family fun hanging out. We took easter eggs to color and dye, but Kayla and Cooper were not really into to that yet, so mommy had fun doing it! I love hard boiled eggs, so I didn't mind doing it by myself. I didn't get any pictures of any of that, but I did get some when we got home and gave the kids their Easter baskets from mommy and daddy. See pictures and Video below.

Easter Sunday morning Daddy had to go to work at the Fire Station so mommy and the kids met Nana Davis at Sagemont church. After church mommy drove to the fire station to let the kids see daddy for a little bit. They loved that of course! They get so excited when they see their daddy even if it was for just a little bit. After visiting daddy we drove over to Nana and Pops' house to have lunch and just hang out. The kids got a good nap in and then they played for a little longer! They colored and played with all the toys. They then got their Easter baskets from Nana & Pops. Kayla's had a bunch of coloring stuff and side walk chalk and Cooper's had army men, trucks and a plane!

They got so excited when they saw the orange and apple in the basket too. Funny kids!!






Kayla was saying "CHEESE" and she always puts her head back when saying it!
We wished daddy could have been in the picture with us this year! :(


Cooper's Easter basket had a hat as the bottom and Pops put it on for Cooper! HAHALook closely, this is what happens when you give a two year old a sheet of stickers! Silly Turkey!We took the kids down to the lake area so that they could feed the ducks! They love to see the ducks and they got to have a bag of food to feed the ducks. They get out there and call the ducks and say "Quack Quack". We also saw the turtles that came to eat as well. I counted at least 15 turtles and there may have been more! There were only two ducks this time and across the road in the other lake we did see a mommy duck with her ducklings walking right behind her. It was very cute to see that!Uncle Landon with Kayla!Landon's girlfriend Valerie with Cooper!Aunt Lexis with the kids!Kayla is one brave girl. She has no fear! She got right to the edge and didn't understand why we were all telling her to get back.

The kids had such a wonderful Easter. We were sad that daddy couldn't be with us on Easter Sunday, but we were glad that we at least got to go visit him at the fire station.

On a sad note, the Houston Fire Deptartment lost 2 fire fighters in the early morning hours on Easter Sunday morning during a house fire. As more information comes in we learned that the fire just got to strong and all the fire fighter were called out of the house, but sadly these two men did not make it out. The captain was with HFD for 29 years and was about to celebrate 30 years in the department. He was a husband, father and grandfather and was only 50 years old. The rookie had only been with HFD for a little over a month. This was his first fire since joining HFD and sadly it would be his last. He was 29 years old and Larry actually graduated from Alvin High School with him in 1998. He served his country in the military and came home to serve as a fireman. We pray for the families for these two men and pray for peace and comfort as the families are dealing with the loss of there loved one. We also pray for the fire fighters that these men worked with as they are there second family and I can't imagine how they are feeling knowing there men were in that house and they could not do anything about it at the time! It just became to dangerous for all.

Please pray for all of the Houston Fire Department as they deal with this tragedy!

Over all we had a very nice weekend for Easter and we were glad that the sun came out Sunday afternoon for the kids to get to go outside and feed the Ducks!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well and Hope your week is blessed!

Easter 2009 Weekend Part 1 of 2

First Off I want to say I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We had a very busy weekend and I have lots of photos to share so I will do it in 2 parts.

Saturday we took the kids to Alvin to visit Grandma and PawPaw Dickens and Uncle Chris. We met for lunch at Joe's BBQ and ate lots of good food! The kids wanted to be big and sit in a big chair and not a highchair. After lunch we went back to Grandma and PawPaw's house and the kids got to open there Easter baskets which contained lots of good things including big boy underwear for Cooper and Princess panties for Kayla. Now we just need to get the kids to learn to tell us they need to go potty instead of just going in the diaper and then telling us!


Here is Uncle Chris teasing the kids before they got their Easter baskets.Kayla got a pretty necklace that she just loves!Cooper got his favorite things that we see in the sky.... A Helicopter and an Airplane.Now after opening our Easter baskets, Daddy, Uncle Chris and PawPaw went outside to hide Easter Eggs and then the kids got to go hunting for them! They did really good! Kayla was pretty fast at it and just kept filling her basket! Cooper had to shake them at first and make sure they had something in them! They were so cute! I have a video at the end of them hunting eggs.After hunting eggs, we took the kids inside and Grandma got out the cookie stuff to bake cookies so the kids could decorate them. They got to help lay the dough out and press the cookie cutter down to make the different shapes for the cookies. They baked the cookies and then the decorating began. They had so much fun with this as well! They loved getting to put the icing and sprinkles on and then they got to eat them! YUM YUM! I also included a video of the cookie decorating.

I hope you have enjoyed this first part of our Easter weekend. I know there are a lot of pictures and I have plenty more for Part 2. Stay tuned as I am working on Part 2 and should have it posted within a day or two.