Friday, June 22, 2012

BUSY!!

This post is going to cover the last 2 weeks, so buckle up! We've been having so much fun and staying busy! 
It's starting to get too hot and humid to really go out after about 11am, so most of our afternoons are spent reading, doing things like play-dough or painting at the table and watching videos or playing "baseball" on the Wii.

 This picture is Brynley going her new alphabet puzzle. It matches upper case and lower case letters. You put the upper case letter on a white spoon and the lower case on the clear spoon and she puts them together. She had a good time with it, but it was so much she had to take a break half-way through!
 Last Friday we went to the library to see "The Creature Teacher" and she had some fun little animals. She let all the kids pet a chinchilla. She also had some chirping cockroaches! She had some lizards and other fun things, like the tree frog below.

 We now have an In-N-Out about 15 miles north of us!! I LOVE In-N-Out!!! Last Saturday we took the girls there for dinner on our way up to a fun night time opening at the Dallas Zoo. We had lots of fun!
 I'm not so sure what Mariska is doing in the picture above, but they had lots of fun putting the stickers on their hats. They played with these hats for an entire week. I love that my kids are easily pleased!
 Mariska suddenly turned gangster.
 The night time zoo opening was super fun. We didn't do any of the bounce houses or face painting or anything because it was SUPER crowded... but the animals were really active and it was fun. I wish they were open at night all the time. I don't get why they aren't...
 The lion was roaring most of the time we were over there. 
 The gorilla got our hearts racing when he jumped up and pounded on the window! He did it a few times and it made us jump pretty good!
 Brent is so funny! He makes us all laugh all the time! Mariska is trying to save him by hitting the alligator.
 The monkeys were all over the place!
 This picture above is the girls walking down the "Gorilla Trail". It was really cute because Brynley would do everything Mariska did. If Mariska skipped, Brynley skipped. If Mariska hopped, so did Brynley. Super cute. Brynley sure looks up to her big sister. It was so funny, this week Brynley had some serious attitude and talked back to me really rudely, I told her not to and to talk nice and Mariska says, "She gets that from me ya know." - No kidding!!! It was pretty funny.  
 Brynley has become obsessed with playing baseball on the Wii. We just play the game where you hit the ball and try to get home runs, we don't actually play ball games, I don't think Brynley would find that as fun. Last Sunday we took pictures because we thought it was funny that Brynley refused to get dressed for some reason..
 I have finally started my CNA (certified nurse assistant) class!! It's Monday - Thursday from 8-12. This last week Brent also had his principal training, so for 3 days the girls went to a friend's house and had the time of their lives. On the first day I forgot to call when I was 10 minutes away to warn the girls I was coming to get them and I had to take Brynley out kicking and screaming... I didn't make that mistake again!
 I brought home a few gloves from my class and the girls had a great time with them. They are so much fun. 
This class is a lot different than the one I took in Utah, what - 8 years ago!! Yikes... the last one I took set the bar pretty high. It was really thuro and hands on, we had homework and tests, ect... this class, is not so much. This one seems to be more like, you read the books, learn the stuff yourself, practice at home and then class time is more just a review. She's even giving us the tests to study from... the actual tests, not just a study guide. I'm kind of disappointed because I was really excited to take real tests and have real homework and such... but oh well. I've just got to get it done. 
 I'm also kind of irritated because I can't take my State Boards until August 16th!! Then I have to wait for my license to show up before I can start applying to jobs. So it will probably be September before I can, which is seriously frustrating!! But, what can I do? Not much. So I'm just reading my stuff and going to class and eventually it will all get done. I'm really excited to get back out there and earn some extra money being busy doing a job I know I can do well and enjoy. 
 At the end of my test on Thursday they asked: Why do you want a career in nursing/healthcare? - My answer was, "I like taking care of people, I enjoy medical/anatomy knowledge (education) and I like a busy job!!" - although I was temped to put "because pretty much everything else is boring" - but I thought they wanted more details than that. - If all goes as planned (fingers crossed) I should be going back to school to work for my RN degree either next August (2013) or January of 2014.... hopefully sooner rather than later, but we'll see!

This is a random wild sunflower we've got growing in our yard.

We had fun at the library activity today, but I didn't take any pictures. It was a spanish lady doing puppets and singing songs to teach some simple spanish, like counting, saying "how are you" ect... Brynley loved the songs. Mariska actually knew most of the numbers she taught.... at the end they did the Macarena, except they spun around at the end instead of shaking their booties, which I appreciated!! It was a good time.
That's pretty much it for now! I'll probably blog again after the library activity next week.


Monday, June 11, 2012

Fun At Home

Today is Monday. We went to a birthday party at a great park in Midlothian and then we went up to my school to buy my textbook for my class... which starts in ONE week!! But we've also had some fun at home over the weekend...

Brent and the girls made GAK while I went shopping for my scrubs and such. Mariska loved it, Brynley wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.


 Whenever we make bread, they get to play in the flour. It's a huge mess, but it keeps them busy for a good while.


And today they are out painting the driveway with water. Super fun stuff. We also just got finished playing Brynley's very first game of Candy Land, which she won by the way. She loved counting the squares and moving her piece, but didn't get that reaching the end of the trail ended the game. 

That's it for now!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Rescue Dogs and Ringling Brother's Clowns!!

Today was yet another show for the Library Summer Reading Program! Today we had two shows. The first was Mark9 Search And Rescue! They taught the children the 5 rules of getting lost:

1) Sit and Stay!
2) Someone will look for you.
3) Make yourself LOUD!
4) Make yourself BIG!
5) Learn to recognize the good guys.

Then the kids got to pet a search dog. This was a huge deal. It took over 20 minutes, you would think a dog were an endangered species or something!

This is Brynley's "garden" she created. It looks like they are just laying on the ground, but they are actually standing straight up, like spikes.

 This is Natasha, a 4 year old pure German shepherd search dog. 
The second show was 2 Ringling Brother's Clowns!! This was too much fun! The girls loved it, they were cracking up the whole time! The boy clown was super goofy, he reminded me a lot of Steve Martin, when he is goofy.





Mariska wanted a "silly" picture with the clowns... this is them being dogs. We had so much fun!!
Tomorrow we make Madagascar planes at the Lowe's Build and Grow workshop!!
LOVING THIS SUMMER!!

The videos wouldn't load, so I'm loading them onto facebook... go to my facebook page to see them!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Snape... 6 Months Later

Snape: December 2011


Snape: June 2012


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Summer is here!!

Summer is off to a running start!! May took forever to end, but now I can't believe it's already June 6th!! Our days have been busy with trips to the zoo, playgroup, Lowe's Build & Grow workshops, and yesterday we went to SIX FLAGS with some friends and today was the first Library Summer Activity... BUSY!! I am loving it!! The last two weeks with my girls have been wonderful! I am so in love with my two girls!
Brent had to miss out on Six Flags and the library program today. We're sad about that, but he's up in Richardson at his Administration Trainings. He did take the time to run over to the temple after his training yesterday, so that's good. He will get to go with us to the library on Friday though, thankfully!! Today the library had the Dallas Zoo come show off some furry and feathered friends!
Brynley played in the dirt most of the time.
 Mariska was transfixed and loved hearing about the habits and lifestyles of all the animals.
 This owl was pretty cool. I had to take a picture. And below is a picture of one of the penguins they brought. He pooped on her. Mariska thought it was hilarious and sickening all at once.
 She's such a fashionista!! She loves her glasses... and the black boots she's wearing.

Yesterday we spent the whole day at Six Flags!! They both did so well. It's was so hot! It got up to a good 100 and they both were such troopers. Brynley threw a few fits when we had to wait in line a little too long. But it really wasn't that crowded, so that didn't happen often. She LOVED all the rides and was happy so long as we kept moving. Mariska had a great time with her friend she rode with and she even got to ride the Run Away Mine Train with me! She was so excited to go on a "big person" ride! It was a great day with my girlies!!

 Brynley loved riding the train. Which I appreciated because it meant I got to sit for a long while!
 Outside the carousel at the start of the day. It was HOT!! This is Mariska's friend Sarah that lives across the street. They had so much fun together!
 Brynley loved the swing ride!
 Mariska at the end of the Grand Canyon roller coaster!
 This is a bouncy ride similar to the Superman ride for adults. It goes up high and then drops over and over. The girls LOVED this one!!
 This is the girls on the Bouncy Boots, they just go up and bounce up and down. After it stopped Brynley says, "I want to ride the shoes again"... she had some issues with the idea of having to get off and get back in line, but by the end of the day she had it down!
What a great start to summer! I love it. I'm kinda sad I'm going to have to miss out on some of the library activities because of my cna class... but kinda not too because IT'S SO HOT!!! My class starts in less than 2 weeks. I'm excited but I'm also getting nervous!!

Here are some videos of our fun... mostly Brynley because Mariska was with her friend, but some of both. They took forever to post, so watch them!!