Tulsa State Fair

This post is a little late, but better late than never. A week ago Friday the kids and I went down to Tulsa and met Mike after work to go to the Tulsa State Fair. Kids 5 and under are free and Mike got some free tickets from some customers, so we figured it would be cheap entertainment. They have a huge petting zoo there with all sorts of crazy animals - a giraffe, a zebra, camels, water buffaloes, emus, great danes (I know, weird), plus the normal petting zoo animals like goats, sheep, rabbits, pigs, etc. Benson and Grace LOVED it! We bought a little paper cup full of animal feed and we would put the food on these little plastic shovels that were tied to the cages and the kids would feed the animals. I actually stayed outside the petting zoo area with Sabrina, because let's be honest petting zoo's sick me out, but I could hear Ben and Grace laughing and shrieking with glee so I had to go see what all the fuss was about. They had such a good time and they were both really upset when we had to go. As we were leaving the petting zoo there was a tent set up where they were giving pony rides, so Benson and Grace got to go on their first pony ride. They also really loved that too, they were both all smiles the whole time.

Grace feeding a donkey

Ben and Grace with a goat

Benson enjoying the pony ride

In other news, our baby isn't a baby anymore. Sabrina is standing up by herself a lot and for greater amounts of time every day, and she will take a step before she falls. We went to the duck pond again the other night and she is no longer happy to sit in her stroller, she has to push it. She walked probably 1/4 of the way around the pond and then back to the car pushing her stroller. We think she will be walking very soon. We see more of her little personality all the time and it's so fun to watch them learn new things.

Ponytails, Bicycles, and Turtles

After almost 11 months, Sabrina finally has enough hair to do a teeny little ponytail on top. For those of you who know me well, you know I'm very excited at the prospect of fixing another head of hair. Grace had enough hair for a ponytail at 6 months, but Sabrina has considerably less hair than Grace did, so I've been anxiously awaiting this moment. I can also get a barrett in, although it usually falls out pretty quickly. Last Friday, Sabrina got a hold of her barrett and was sticking it in her mouth and ended up swallowing it. We were a little concerned about it getting stuck in her throat, but it came through just fine (I know, TMI). So, we're being extra cautious with barretts now. Here's a few pictures of her 1st ponytail. :)





A few weeks ago my mom bought Benson a little tricycle since the poor kid has never had a bike (apartment living doesn't really go with bicycles). Anyways, the next day it became apparent that 1 tricycle was only going to cause contention so she went and bought one for Grace too. Benson has learned how to pedal, but we can't get him to put his feet down and push when he gets stuck. Grace on the other hand can't reach the pedals so she only uses her feet...and she is FAST! She loves her bike and she especially loves going to the top of the neighbor's driveway which is a small hill and lifting her feet up as she zooms down. The girl has no fear. She has wiped out several times and just climbs back on with almost no tears. I'll post some video of her with her bike soon.
On Monday we went turtle hunting in the backyard and found the best turtle. It barely went in its shell the whole time the kids were playing with it. Benson loved his friend the turtle. First he tried to feed it acorns, but the turtle didn't like those. Then he asked me what turtles like to eat and I told him vegetables. So he kept asking me to go get some vegetables because the turtle was hungry. I also caught him trying to give the turtle a kiss...on the lips. I told him that #1 turtles can bite and #2 turtles are dirty so he shouldn't be trying to kiss them. So then he asked if the turtle wanted to take a long bath so he wouldn't be dirty anymore (Benson loves to take long baths) and I said that I didn't think the turtle would like a long bath. Ben then informed me that his friend the turtle wanted to take a medium bath. Oh, the logic of a 3 year old. Needless to say, Benson mauled the turtle (I didn't know it was possible to maul a turtle) until lunch time when I made him set his friend the turtle free. Reason #456 that we will never have a pet - it would die from too much attention.

BYU

So last night we went down to Tulsa for the BYU vs. TU football game. We aren't really die hard BYU football fans (for what I think are obvious reasons) but we thought it might be fun for the kids. Mike's parents and brothers drove up from Houston for the occasion so we were able to see them for a few hours at the Tailgate Party and the game. It was actually pretty fun and the kids did AMAZINGLY well especially considering that the game didn't start until 8pm (bed time). We went down early for the Tailgate Party. Cosmo the Cougar was there and Grandpa Gary tried to take Benson over to meet him but when he got within 15 feet of him, Benson started freaking out. It pretty much took until we left the park for him to calm down. Once we got to the game the kids had a great time. Grace found a pom pon and went nuts cheering and waving that thing around. It was actually TU colors but she was yelling "YU, YU" while waving it so it was ok. We think she is destined to be a cheerleader. We left shortly before half-time but mostly just because it was getting so late and we have 9am church, the kids probably would have lasted longer. And we were even on time to church this morning. :) Here's some pictures of the fun.

Grandma Stacey and Breeny at the game

Gracie and Grandpa Jeff

Our little cheerleader

Aunt Sarah and Breeny

Benson enjoying the game on top of Uncle Stephen's shoulders with Uncle Eric to the side

Aunt Jenny and Breeny

Daddy feeding Benson a snow cone...in 60 degree weather

Gracie really getting into the cheering on Grandma Kathy's lap

Life

There hasn't been anything really exciting or interesting going on lately with us...just life. After the last time I blogged, Grace's cold turned into bronchitis and tonsillitis. We had several sleepless nights and many hours of trying to convince her to take her medicine. After 6 days of trying to get her to chew up her antibiotics we finally gave up and hoped she would just get better on her own. We tricked her into chewing it up a few times, but then she got wise to us and would just hold the darn thing in her mouth without chewing or swallowing until she either a) threw it up along with the contents of her stomach or b)started slobbering pink sludge all over because she hadn't swallowed for so long. Fun! In case you are wondering why we got the chewables rather than the liquid it's because she just spits the liquid out all over.
Our Labor Day Weekend was fairly uneventful. Mike's brother Eric was in town for his 10 year high school reunion so we enjoyed spending some time with him. We took the kids to the Duck Pond, which is another Bartlesville spot with lots of childhood memories for me. We fed the ducks and Ben and Grace tried fishing. They loved to reel the line back in over and over and over again.

Benson feeding the ducks

Grace knows no fear. She smacked this duck with the bread numerous times. It never actually ate any.

Sabrina was really excited to be out in the heat

Fishing

We had a funny experience with Benson this afternoon. He was sitting on the floor in the kitchen looking at something for a long time so I asked him what he was doing. He said "Mommy, I found some little baby ants. They are sooo cute." Sure enough there were ants running around all over the kitchen floor. So Mike proceeded to get the vacuum out and suck them all up. Benson started screaming and crying "Don't get the ants!" He tried to pull the vacuum out of Mike's hands and was completely hysterical. We calmed him down a little bit and told him that ants belong outside, not inside. Then he looked at us with tear filled eyes and said "Next time can we take the ants outside?" If was kind of hilarious, but very sweet. So then he and Daddy went out on the porch and had a talk about animals and where they live and he felt better after that.
Other than that it has been business as usual. We think it will still be another month or two before we move down to Tulsa, hopefully before the weather gets bad so Mike doesn't have to drive 100 miles a day in the snow.

The kids all wanted to get in the crib one morning, so we took a picture.

Aunt Jenny found some leftover sparklers and smoke bombs, so we lit them one night.

Grace would scream "look at that" for every single smoke bomb.

Benson "sparkling"

Girls

This week we have again been amazed at how girly our 2 year old is. We don't understand where these behaviors have come from. She is so into clothes, jewelry, and purses it is ridiculous. Lately when Aunt Chelsea has come home from work at lunch time Grace has insisted on putting on her shoes and wearing them around until Chelsea has to go back to work and is forced to rip them off of Grace's feet with lots of screaming and crying. The other night Mike had put pajamas on the kids and Benson was wearing this oversized t-shirt that Grace had worn one night in the recent past. Grace was screaming and crying and carrying on and we had no IDEA why she was so upset. She was sitting on the stairs and Benson walked past her and she grabbed onto his shirt and wouldn't let go and then bit it and held onto it with her teeth. It was then that I realized she was shrieking "My turn, my turn." She was pitching a huge fit because she wanted to wear that random t-shirt. Our kids are 3 and 2 and we've already had a fight over clothes! Anyways, I told Benson he could have some chocolate chips if he would give up the shirt, which he was more than happy to do. Then tonight Grace was downstairs and decided to go through Aunt Chelsea's closet. She found a yellow shirt that she convinced Aunt Sarah to put on her and she hasn't taken it off all night. She wore it to bed. Girls!

In other news Sabrina has learned to wave this week. She is such a cute baby. I'll have to try and get some video of it and post it for all to see. All 3 kids have had a cold with runny nose and cough this week, but other than excessive nose wiping it hasn't been that bad. I've decided I'm going to develop a belt with a space for clean tissue, dirty tissue, and hand sanitizer - that would have really made my life easier this week.


Aunt Jenny with the kids - right after we took this picture Sabrina got excited and was waving her arms and smacked Ben and Grace both in the face at the same time - pretty funny

Aunt Chelsea with Grace in Aunt Chelsea's yellow shirt