Petting Zoo Trip

I have mentioned before that Jack has a new love of birds (extended out to all animals, but especially birds). Jack sees this picture in our digital frame and asks when he will get to hold the birds.

After months of telling him "someday," I realized that some where around here, there had to be a place Jack could get to interact with birds. I found this crazy awesome petting zoo. I didn't realize that we were going to see all kinds of unusual animals. This place had it all (not all were pet-able) - monkeys, turtles, lemars, zebras, kangaroos, ponies, lumas, camels, long horns, birds, goats, pigs, the list goes on. Well on the way there, Jack insisted there needed to be monkey's at the zoo. We kept telling him that there would not be. At one point, Dave said "there are monkey's in the world, just not at this zoo." When we got there and saw the monkey's Jack yelled "We are at the world!!" He still talks about going to the world :)

Here are some pics ..

Jack's first pony ride

Chris with the goats

Jack feeding a kangaroo

Jack holding two birds

Tim trying to feed a bird

Me and my baby Kate

Dave holding the very hot and tired twins on the wagon ride to see the big animals

Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! (Yes I wanted to get this up right after Easter, but sometimes it takes me a week to get time to download pictures and post them.)
We had a great Easter - the traditional Church, coloring eggs, Easter baskets, and egg hunt. It is fun to see how magical everything is for Jack at this age. Tim and Chris were able to hunt this year - and like Jack at that age, they found one egg and were happy. And of course, it was Kate's first Easter. Here are way too many pictures :)    

Coloring Easter Eggs

Easter Baskets

Decent attempt at family picture

Jack egg hunting

Tim egg hunting

Chris egg hunting - can this big boy be my Chris?

Kate watching the egg hunting

And now for way too many "my first Easter" pictures :)

This girl is going to have way to much pink in her life. That is how it goes when you come after three older brothers! 

Spring is Here

Spring is here. We had a mild winter, so I can't really complain, but I love beautiful weather and spending lots of time out side :)
I have been trying to find parks that are twin friendly - which means parks that have a rubbery surface so they don't eat the wood chips or sand on the ground. Tim has found a love for the slide.

Chris is almost a full time walker!

First there was football, then dinosaurs, and now Jack has developed a new interested - birds. We went to sea world and told Jack he could pick one stuffed animal. I thought it would be either the killer whale or polar bear. No, he picked the flamingo. He loves to watch national geographic/discovery channel type videos of birds. He plays with his birds all the time now. Note the yellow hat in the pictures. Jack has made that his bird nest :).

watching a bird video while playing with his flamingo

Now that spring is here, wouldn't you know it, a bird showed up and made a nest on our front porch. Jack LOVES it.

Jack would like to introduce, "Nesty," the little red robin living on our porch

Nesty up close

Nesty's beautiful blue eggs

Cherry Blossoms

100 years ago the japanese gave the US a 1,000 Cherry trees that were spread all around the capitol. The Cherry Blossoms bloom each spring for a short period. The last few years, we have missed going down to the capitol for one reason or another, so this year we went. It is a fun 4 mile-ish walk that I highly recommend it if you are ever near the DC area during their bloom.

Lots of pictures ...

Pictures of my Kate

My friend Chelsey is starting a photography business . She was sweet enough to take some awesome pictures of Kate at 2 months old. I picked a few to show off :)

This one is my FAVORITE because I love that it is an awesome picture of her beautiful blue eyes

Chelsey referred to this her "tough girl face and with three big brothers, she is going to need it." I love it!

I know she is super chubby but you can see that she is also super happy :)

If you want to see more of her work and/or you want some professional pictures done in the San Diego area check out her website: www.chelseykayphotography.com

Baby Steps

The twins (19 months now) started crawling (7/8 months) and cruising (9/10 months) so early, I never would have dreamed it would take this long for them to start walking. About 6 weeks ago, Tim popped up on his knees and started "knee walking." Chris started knee walking within a few hours of seeing Tim do it. Here is a little video.  

Despite Dave's assurances that they are fine, I insisted we get them evaluated. When the physical therapist came to evaluate, Chris took his first steps!! How crazy is that? What a show off ;). The PT said all the exact same things Dave had been saying. Dave of course turned to me and said "it's like I do this for a living." I still stand by wanting a pediatric PT to look at them because Dave doesn't work with kids.
Tim took his first steps a week later at my parent's house.

Tim's first steps

Tim practicing between my parents

I love how my heart just sails when each of my boys took his first steps. I really don't think there are many moments more special in life :). Neither of them is walking regularly, but it's a big start!!! 



California Trip

California Trip 2012

Two and a half weeks (8 days for Dave) in California. I thought to myself that when I first left Southern California, I missed all the fun things there are to do. Now all I care about (besides family and friends) is enjoying the beautiful weather. Sunshine = smiles for me.

At my parent's house, we went on awesome hour long walks everyday. This is the kind of things we see.

View from walk on Balboa Island

Jack invites himself to play with the frog pond the neighbors have going

twins ride around in little cars

 My dad got to see Kate for the first time and she gave him a big smile :)

Jack and Kate "bothering" Uncle Chris while he tries to work

Kate sporting her future Aunt Sarah's bling

 We also had a lot of fun outside in San Diego

Grandpa Boland showing Jack the birds (canadian geese or something like that)

Nana pushing the twins on the swings

At the beach with the Wiener Family. Miss Abigail really liked Kate :)

Lucky for us, Sea World let's in military families free once a year. Did you know tickets there are now $73???? Our friends Jason and Chelsey have annual passes. They were awesome tour guides and a huge helping get the kids from the stroller to our seats for the shows.

Jack, I don't think you are supposed to hold the star fish

Hello Shamu!

 As always, we hit up In N Out four times!

When we headed home, Jack insisted he could wheel a bag. I couldn't believe but he did wheel it all the way from the baggage claim to the metro!

I have a few more posts coming. Check back soon! :)