Happy Birthday to me!

It was my 31st birthday on Friday and it was a great day!

My sweet husband woke up very early to make this delicious birthday cake from scratch for me-my favorite German Chocolate! Yummy! He also made a great breakfast. I went for a run while he was busy cooking. It was a great start to the day!

For an adventure, we went to the Stockyards in Fort Worth for the day.

This was as the cowboys were taking the cattle out to drive them through the streets.

This was my favorite longhorn becuase the horns were pointing down and not up or out to the sides.

Arabella was not too thrilled to take this picture. While we were waiting in line the longhorn took care of business and Jon would not stop talking about that.

The kids loved feeding the animals in the petting zoo. This experience led to something you will find at the end of this blog.

My chariot and drivers!

Jon saw this as we were walking out of the parking lot and wanted to ride the mechanical "bolt". He kept asking and asking. He loved every minute of it. I will have to post the video sometime.

Joey did really well on the "bolt" as well. He actually got going a bit faster and stayed on pretty well. What little cowboys we have.

This train pulled up right next to the restaurant while we were eating and Joey was more than excited. Peter and Joey went out and watched it pull on to the turntable. We took this picture after it was turned around. They had this candy store there that sold old classics. I bought Zots. It made me so happy to have that fizzy sour taste in my mouth. It was a step back in time.

It is sideways but this is my delicious cake before I blew out the candles. A friend and her family came over so that Peter and I could go to dinner. It was so nice to spend some time together out just the two of us.

This is what we did with our time together- we got a pet guinea pig. We named him Chester. We also bought three goldfish: Buzz, Lightning and Dusty.

Saturday night it did this again!!!! Friday was beautiful weather and then freezing on Saturday. We had planned to go to this preserve and museum but decided it would be too cold so we spent the day running errands around town. That resulted in the picture below.

That would be Rusty in Peter's left hand and Chester in the Peter's right hand. Apparently, guinea pigs do better in pairs and so, well, we have two now. They are loved nearly to death by our children but they seem to be tolerating it well. They are both males so there will not be any little guineas around.

We ended the weekend with a fabulous ward conference. We have a great ward and we love the people in it. They are a joy to serve with and get to know.

While Mom is away the boys will play...

This is what Peter did with the boys while I was gone.

Jon has been asking to go to "Chucker Cheeses" for months and months. He finally got to go and now he knows it is called "Chuck E Cheese". They had a great time!

Mmmmm Pizza!

Then on Saturday, they went to a Flight Museum. They fly some of the airplanes on the first Saturday of each month. Peter said you could only see the plane for a few minutes and then it disappeared for an hour. Oh well.

Nice cars!

This is the plane they flew that day.

A little boy had his birthday party that day and as part of the activities they (he and his dad) got to drive the tank around. Pretty cool, eh?!

I came home on Monday afternoon and that night Joey started to throw up. He had a 24 hour bug and felt great by the next afternoon. Jon was diagnosed with bronchitis possibly pneumonia on Friday but is back to himself now after a weekend of breathing treatments and antibiotics. The boys had testing on Saturday but Jon still had a fever so he could not go.

Joey did great he did his form all by himself. Jon actually tested this Wednesday in class and passed with flying colors. I did not have the camera to take pictures of Jon-sorry buddy!

Blurry, but a nice action shot!

Another action shot!

Proud daddy, sister, and student! Joey really is doing very well! He is getting stronger and more accurate with his moves. Jon is listening better and pays attention. He is responding really well to his teacher and we are thrilled.

I had to add these pictures. Peter mowed the lawn on Tuesday evening (while I was doing RS stuff) and caught a couple of these little pencil snakes. As you can see Jon thinks they are really cool. The educational aspect of this occurred when the snake pooped in Jon's hand and he is now intensely fascinated with the fact that snakes poop and pee. Oh boys!

But wait, yes that is my little peanut/pretty girl holding the snake. Apparently, she had no fear. Oh my! I guess it is good to have a girl that is not too squeamish.

Visit to Utah

So, I have been home for a week and I am just now getting a chance to blog about my time in Utah. I left on a Thursday and came home on Monday and it was a most wonderful weekend. On Thursday, my parents picked me up and then they took me shopping for my birthday. We had a delicious dinner at Olive Garden and then I went to a card making/stamping night out with my sisters.

Arabella helping grandpa shovel the snow.
And there was some really good snow!

Sadie did manage to catch a ladybug despite the snow. The next day when the snow started to melt she also found a lot of roly poly bugs and asked me all about what kind of bugs and animals I have in my backyard.

The whold family got together to celebrate the March birthdays while I was there. Yes, that is Calee, I can not believe how tall she is! Carson has grown a lot too.

This is my new nephew Will (William Eric). He is so cute and I loved to hold him. There are more adorable pictures of him on my sister Jana's Blog (The Cleggers).

This is little Addie (Carla's little girl). She has the longest blonde eyelashes you will ever see.

Party goers!

What a pose?! I chose a german chocolate cake with coconut frosting (my favorite) and Randy chose strawberry pie. It was all very tasty! We also had Zubs sandwiches for lunch and it was so good!

This is how Arabella reacted anybody tried to hold her. My dad, mom, and sister Carla each had a 5 minute holding without any crying. What a little stinker.

I also while I was visiting spent a wonderful evening with Peter's family. It was great to see Megan and her family before they move to France. I met baby Lyra for the first time and she is super cute. I was a nerd though and did not get any pictures. You can check her out on the blog Joy in the Journey. Will was blessed on Sunday while I was there and it was a beautiful blessing. I loved my time with family and love my husband for letting me visit.

My next post will be the adventures of Peter and the boys while I was gone.

Tyler, TX

Peter had a site visit in Tyler, TX on Monday so we decided to tag along and go to the zoo. It was quite cold but we had a good time.

Is that not one of the oddest looking birds you have ever seen.

I thought these birds were beautiful! Their color is so brilliant. (Scarlet Ibis)

The zoo had 5 rhinos and we found them all indoors. As you can tell by the boys' faces, it was really stinky but it was warm because it was indoors!

Joey seemed most excited about the giraffes. They are amazing!

There was an area called the East Africa exhibit and that is where the elephants, zebraz, ostriches, and lions could be seen. All of the animals were in the same open field like area but the lions were seperated by a large ravine. We can't have it be a completely natural habitat, that might be a bit much for the kids especially considering this is what the tables for eating overlooked. It was fun to watch the animals while we ate.

We went into this building a coupld of times, it was really warm. Arabella loved to watch the penguins. There was a really large aquarium with a ton of fish and trees with birds next to the penguins habitat. There was no glass or metal mesh so the birds were right there flying around. It was fun to watch.

Snack time: Jon is eating a "gramilla bar." That is how he says it.

Joey: spread cheese on all of the crackers and made a big sandwich with his cheese and cracker snack. Silly boy.

Arabella: Ooooo, raisins!

One of the best longhorns I have seen since living in this state of Texas.

My favorite part of hte zoo was the white tigers. There were two. One was white with black stripes and was laying on the ground the whole time. But this one was pacing around and sat staring at my kids like this for several minutes. It was all white with pale tan stripes you could barely see except on its tail.

Arabella really liked petting the tiny goats.

The kids did not seem to care that it was freezing they just wanted to play in the sand for a few minutes.

Thes were the sinks outside of the petting zoo. Pretty cool, huh?!

On the way home, we stopped at a Russell-Stover store and bought some chocolate. Arabella had a strawberry cream treat that she mushed all over her hand and then her face and hair. It was quite impressive. We also stopped at some outlets on our way home and I found some new jeans that I was in need of for a good price and I fit in a smaller size than I thought, happy day! Peter's favorite part of the trip was the BBQ that the site visit person recommended to him. It was a bit pricey but really good! Probably the best baked beans I have ever had! Thanks for letting us tag along Dad!