Kansas City Zoo

This weekend my mom was able to come out to visit us. We had a great time, and we loved having her here. We went shopping, Joe and I got to go to the  new Kansas City Temple, more shopping, played at the park, played softball as a family, hit up LOTS of yard sales (more cheap cute clothes for the boys and Joelle), and right before my mom left we went to see the Kansas City Zoo.

 The boys absolutely loved the polar bear. They said it was their favorite part. My mom tried to lift Noah up to be as tall as the bear paw, but ended up bonking his head. Poor kid. At least it's not a broken arm, eh? (inside joke)

 I told them to give me a "real" smile. Thanks boys. They liked the elephants a lot though.

 So did Joe.

 We did a LOT of walking. The zoo is fairly big; mostly because the animals are spaced really far apart. The boys got tired of all of the walking.

 My favorite part was seeing the chimps. This one came right up to the glass and just laid there.

 We got tired of all the walking so we decided to see the rest of the zoo by train. Ethan was mesmerized by it. He rested his forehead on the railing in front of him and watched the tracks go by underneath us.

 

 

The boys were pretty tuckered out by the time we were finished.

Just kidding. That picture is from our last drive to Utah, but I had to include it because it's so funny. 

In other news, Joelle has teeth! Can you see the two on the bottom? She also has 2 more on top, but they aren't her two front teeth. She has a lateral incisor on her left side that looks like a little fang coming through. it's so funny. Fortunately her central incisor on that side has finally broken through so hopefully it won't look too crazy.

She is also crawling! It's taken her a long time. There were several friends and family members who've had babies around the same time as me, and their kids are all crawling machines. Joelle is just barely (like a week ago) starting to crawl. I guess it's a good thing since our budget has still been pretty tight and we had to special order a gate for the top of our stairs. The longer we could wait to order it, the better. I've also gotten her to say a few words on command. I wouldn't say she's talking yet because it's still pretty rare to get her to say it, but I'll document it anyway. She says 'mama', but only when she cries. She said 'dada' once, and I've gotten her to say 'hi' a hand full of times.

Right now the boys are still loving preschool. I'm so glad. I don't have to feel any reservations about ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT! It's basically structured playtime for them, and structured get-things-done time for me. win win right?! The only down side it that I've been letting my boys dress themselves, and they almost never match. That may seem so trivial and dumb, but it's been a big issue for me. I've always felt like having the boys match is the best way to present them. They look nice and orderly. I'm realizing, however, that i need to encourage them to be their own person. I know it's important, but it's still hard to see them looking all uncoordinated. anyway, that's all i have time to get into for now.

Real Quick

I've tried really hard to make my boys more independent. It's been a real effort for me. I've stopped dressing them, cleaning up their toys, washing their hands and faces, and getting their snacks and drinks. It takes longer, and it's messier but so far it's been worth it. Now they're perfectly capable of doing those things themselves. Unfortunately since they can get their own snack-they get their own snacks! This is what I found when I left them alone in the kitchen for 5 minutes.

 If you'll notice, there is a bunch of yummy healthy grapes behind him, but he chose the biggest spoon we have and pulled out the biggest hunk of peanut butter he could.

And as you can see from his face and shirt, this obviously wasn't his first heaping spoonful.
Independence comes with a price.  Stinker.

Life in Missoura

Well, we don't do much. It seems like there were a million things for me and my kids to do in Iowa City. MO doesn't have as much as I'm used to, but we try.  I've been really trying to become the family that goes out and has adventures. When the boys were little it just didn't seem worth it to go out, and Joe and I have kinda gotten stuck in that mentality. Whenever opportunities came about, we would ultimately come to the decision that it would be too hard to get the whole family out to dinner/movies/ward functions/swimming/zoo/anything that involved being away from home.  We just accepted the fact that whatever fun we had would have to take place inside our home.  I felt pretty justified that with twin boys I had every excuse. however, as the years have passed and my friends have been having kids, and more kids, and more kids, I realized that it didn't stop them from getting out and experiencing life. they would go to nauvoo or to a museum or whatever it was, and they'd just do it despite the hot, sticky, tantrum filled, hungry, tired misery. Despite it all they weren't miserable. It was fun. So I'm out of excuses. I'm trying to do it too. Here are some pictures of us getting out more...well...trying to get out more.

Smithville Lake

 It was so hot, but the water was really dirty so I didn't want to get in. Eventually I couldn't take the heat any longer and sat in the shallow end with Joelle.

 This is a really cool playground near our house. The boys love it.

 And here is Joelle thoroughly enjoying some frozen blueberries.

In other news, the boys started Pre-school on Monday.  They absolutely love it! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! It's Mon-Thurs from noon to 3. I have a carpool with a girl in my ward so I pick up her daughter at noon and take her with us, and then she'll bring my boys home with her. It's so nice to have those 3 hours when I can finally grocery shop during the day again, or catch up on laundry.

The boys get pretty tuckered out which means that when I put them to bed THEY ACTUALLY GO TO SLEEP! This is the first time in years that I've had my boys asleep by 8:30.  This is a picture of the boys being totally worn out after their first day of school. In the picture they're pretending to be asleep, but they really did just melt onto Joe when they got home.
Well, that's it for now. In my goal to get out more, I've neglected my camera for months (with the exception of the day we found the fire hydrant-what a miracle). We're getting more and more settled in here, although i still wish i lived back in Iowa City. 
We are flying to Utah on Wed for a quick whitehead family reunion in St. George.  I wish we'd be able to spend some time in SLC and visit, but we'll really only be there on the days we fly in and out. I'll post pictures when we get back next Monday!

Blogworthy.

Check out what we found!

Lately I've been worried that my kids are wasting their lives away being bored. I've been trying to find ways to create lasting memories for them. Today, on our way to the park I passed by an open fire hydrant. I just happened to have my camera to catch the pure joy that followed.

Sometimes being a parent feels like a never ending chore, but not today. Today I know my kids got a memory that they'll keep, and I got to make that happen for them. I'm so grateful for days like today.

Living in Missouri

We may not have many friends yet, but we find ways to entertain ourselves.

Bahamas part 2

The last night on the island we went to a bonfire on the beach party.

 See the dude to the right of the fire wearing a yellow shirt? Well his wife (black swimsuit) was from Iowa. The drunker she got the more people she told that we and the Dougherty's were from Iowa. Joe and Joseph were always wearing Iowa T-shirts, and she would stop and point and yell "hey Iowa!" It was pretty funny.

 This was fun. There was a fire dancer at the bonfire party, and she went around feeling for some hairy legs to do a trick with. Guess who's legs she found? Ya, she burned off Joe's leg hair. When Joe sat down the lady next to him said that she could smell the burnt hair from his leg.

 Our last few minutes on the Bahama island we got a quick drink. They had little stands all around the port, and one was serving drinks from a coconut. We shared a strawberry daiquiri-minus the alcohol of course.

 We'd never seen a sailboat like this before. It was pretty cool.

 Back on the cruise ship and headed to Florida.

I've said it once and i'll say it again, that was the best vacation ever. The island had some of the most beautiful scernery i've ever seen. We were able to get our tickets on a groupon deal, so if you ever stumble across a discounted trip to the bahamas-DO IT! everyone should be able to see how beautiful it is there.

I love it when we're cruisin together

After graduation we went on a cruise with our friends Joseph and Angela Dougherty. Here we are out on the top deck enjoying the evening breeze as we sail from Florida to the Grand Bahama Island.

 Once we docked we rode a bus to our hotel. Some poor pregnant woman puked the moment she stepped off of the bus. Then a hungover dude did the same. I didn't feel as bad for him.

Here was our hotel.

Did I mention that our hotel had a private beach?

We were pretty thrilled.

We got to ride on a banana boat. I totally freaked out the entire time. Not many people know this about me, but I have a pretty significant water phobia. I blame it on watching Jaws so many times at a young age. Anyway, we got to see one of the ships they used while filming Pirates of the Carribean.

 The next morning we went snorkeling! I was so scared to go. I'd had a dream the night before that I'd been eaten by a shark. I asked Joe if we could sell our tickets, but fortunately he didn't let me. Snorkeling was by far my favorite experience.  I got over my fear pretty quickly once I saw that there were a large group of us going and there were a bunch of people who were slower swimmers and juicier meals for a shark. This is right after snorkeling, but right before a major sunburn.

after scuba diving we hung out in the market place, got some lunch, and then swam in the ocean for like 3 hours. ya, I told you we got sunburned. After all of that we were pretty tuckered out, so we headed up to our room. Here is the view from our balcony. Amazing right? It was so beautiful there. I can't even describe how perfect it was. The weather, the views, the ocean, the room-it was probably the best vacation i will ever take.

ok, right now I have a bunch of photos i'd still like to post, but since our internet is so sketchy i'm going to wait to post the rest until we can get internet set up at our apt. I guess we'll call this Part 1.