One of many trips to The Houston Zoo

We spend SO much time at the zoo, no kidding. If Ryan comes home from work early one afternoon, we head to the zoo. If everyone is awake early enough on a Saturday, we go to the zoo before it gets too hot. The only time we don't go is if it's a holiday because that means "free admission day", and it's no fun to fight tons and tons of people just to get a glance at a shark or something.

Addyson's favorite animals to see are the Red Crowned Crane(I think Zazu from The Lion King is one and that's why she's so fond of them?), the Komodo Dragon named Smaug, the lion named Jonathan the Great, and the giraffes. Today in the reptile house there was a zoo volunteer letting everyone pet this snake she was holding(eek!). Addyson was front and center trying to touch the thing. She finally got to pet it and she was thrilled.

Delaney doesn't get real excited when we go to the zoo because it's so hot, she doesn't seem to be too keen on hot weather. As long as I've got plenty of snacks for her and her sippy cup, she's just fine.

We really love going there, it's become such a big part of our little family. I'll be sad when the girls are grown and won't have the time for it anymore *sniff, sniff*

**After we got home, Addyson was really tired because she was up really late last night. She had a pretty bad crying spell and about an hour after it was over I asked her, "You were pretty upset, huh?" She said, "Yeah Mom, I was having some issues." I had to start laughing, guess she gets the "I'm having issues" phrase from me, I tend to say that to Ryan quite often. Kids are such little sponges!

Sweet little girls slumbering

I mean really, who doesn't love a sleeping child?! I've managed to get some really sweet pictures of my girls snoozing...They're like little angels when they're sleeping. I tend to forget all the crying fits and tantrums when I peek in on them just before I head off to bed;-)

These are a few of my favorites!

Addyson: Our budding photographer

She has this minor obsession with taking pictures with my new camera. I always tell her, "NO, it's not a toy!" But somehow she ends up sneaking it and I find these random shots after I upload everything on to the computer. Ryan and I laugh at the things she decides to take shots of. Who knows, maybe we have the next Annie Leibovitz or Ansel Adams on our hands, wouldn't that be nice?

Here are some of my favorite "Addyson shots"!

Friends!

Earlier today the girls and I met up with my Visiting Teachers from church and their kids for lunch. There were 6 kids all together, I'd say we were brave to do that;) Everyone was really well behaved so it was fun...Amy is about to have her baby on Sunday so this was our last hoorah before baby Jared arrives. Plus, if we decide to make the move to Egypt I want to spend as much time with my friends as I can. It was good visiting with Nora and Amy for a little while!

I took some pics of the kiddos playing in a water fountain just outside the restaurant. These pictures were taken just before Addyson fell off the stairs getting on to the play equipment. She's laying on the couch with her leg propped up as we speak. Something tells me she sprained her ankle.....Of course Ryan is out of town and he'd be able to tell if it was a sprain or not. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's not!

P.S.-Delaney seems fine after her fall on Sunday. She goes to her 9 month well visit tomorrow so we'll have Dr. Lentsch double check to see if everything is ok.

My littlest

This morning Delaney got me up at the usual 6:45, and after changing her diaper, and getting lots of tummy kisses, we went downstairs so I could make her a bottle. I usually sit her in her Bumbo seat while I'm making it, and it's in the middle of the kitchen table. I gave her one of her favorite toys to play with while she was sitting in it, and about a minute later I hear the toy fall on the floor. I glanced over at her, then continued warming her bottle. All of a sudden I hear her screaming, yep, it happened. She fell completely off the table and on to the floor, and she landed on her tummy. I have a mental picture of that I'll never forget. She was screaming and I was crying. And it was a scream I'd never heard from her before(and I've heard LOTS of her screaming, she was a colicky newborn). I picked her up and carried her to our room to get Ryan, but by then he was already out of the bed, half asleep wondering what was going on.

I felt so extremely guilty for what had happened. I knew she was too big for that Bumbo seat, but I never in a million years thought she'd fall out of it. And for the record, the Bumbo has a new home, in the back of the hall closet. I've loved using it, and it's a great thing to have, just not when your baby gets to be bigger than about 8 months.

I've still got a headache from all the crying I did this morning, but the little one seems just fine, thank the Good Lord. He was for sure watching over us this morning...

Details...

So we know a bit more about the Egypt job offer. Ryan got the official job offer and the package that goes a long with it via email this morning. It's something that really would be hard for us to turn down, but we still have some more praying to do about it. Right now even though neither one of us is actually saying out loud that yes, this is something we want to do, I think we both feel like it's something we want. It's a 3 year stay with many perks, hard to turn down. But, Ryan would be traveling a bunch and me being a "single Mom" in a foreign country doesn't sound like the most fun thing. Ryan says we could get a nanny/housekeeper so that would for sure be a plus.

Just my thoughts on the whole thing thus far. I guess now we just keep praying and waiting for what Heavenly Father sees is best for us.

Sick

So we go to Sea World last week to celebrate my birthday and I'm sure while we were there we all picked up some not so fun germs. Guess I got the worse one, strep throat. I went to the Dr. this morning because my throat was on fire and I couldn't breathe, "strep throat" the Dr. says. Oh fun. There is one good thing about being sick right now, Ryan is on vacation this week so I have an extra set of hands around here to help. He even sent me upstairs to "the sick room"(our guest room)to get in a nap this afternoon. God bless him! Not sure how I could have made it the rest of the day without that nap.
And he even took Addyson swimming so we could get her nice and worn out so she would sleep good tonight, let's hope that works!

Come on anti-biotic, work your magic on this throat!