Zoo Day!

We went to the zoo yesterday for the first time since, about May. We had lots of fun. I love that Brynley is getting old enough to be more fun and understand more things. Brynley saying "cheese" for all the pictures makes her look mad.

Mariska is now as tall as an Emperor Penguin, with Brynley not too far behind.

I love Brynley's face in this picture! So funny.

This lion barely had any mane and was about half this size when we were here last. The zoo lady said that both male "cubs" are now about 450 pounds.

Here is a picture of a bunch of suckers willing to pay $5 for a few leaves of lettuce.

Here is Brent attempting to feed this giraffe a little shred we found on the floor. It wasn't good enough for him and Brent was completely snubbed.

This was our first time riding the monorail! We all had fun seeing animals from Africa that you can only see from the "train". As you can see from this picture, Mariska has a big scrape on the top of her nose. She was punched in the face by a swing.

And, of course, no trip to the zoo is complete before riding the carousel at least twice. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Dallas Zoo family passport membership.... TOTALLY worth the money!!! LOVE the Dallas Zoo!!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas began with our opening our tree ornamants on Christmas Eve. I love this tradition! Brynley is still in the early stages of developing her personality, so we went with a photo ornament with a big 3 on it. She seemed to appreciate it. This is Mariska's new facial expression she uses whenever she thinks something is a little strange.

This year we got Mariska an ornament of a polar bear sledding on a box of crayons, in honor of her starting Kindergarten. She thought it was pretty cute.

Snape was not allowed out of his little room (the laundry room) for the duration of the entire weekend, because he has contracted a TAPEWORM!! We are sufficiently grossed out. Luckily the over the counter stuff we got him at Petsmart seems to have done it's job. And now Brent is going to the Vet's office, now that they are opened again and getting a different medication, just to make extra sure this nasty little parasite is completely gone... Merry Christmas!!

We were able to get everything finished and under the tree by 10:00. I think next year we might do the wrapping BEFORE Christmas Eve.

This computer that Ryan and Kylee got for Brynley was a big hit with both the girls.

Mariska told the cashier at ALDI on Friday December 23rd that she wanted Santa to bring her a new Polly Pocket. This, of course, was the first Brent and I had heard about this, so Brent ran to the store on the 23rd to find this. Luckily she was really happy with it and has played with it for several hours, making the trip to Walmart on the 23rd of December worth it. Did I mention this all happened on the 23rd?

Brent's parents gave the girls these BEAUTIFUL dresses. Mariska was in heaven. She was just sad that there wasn't Primary today to show it off to her friends.

Brynley drew on her face with a pen, just in time for church. We were running a tad late and didn't have time to clean it off before we went... luckily there wasn't any Primary yesterday to show people our messy kid.

Brynley giving her new baby a bath. The bath toy was for Mariska, but Brynley seems to like it more.

And here is Mariska on Brynley's computer. She also loves this jacket Brent's Grandparents gave her. I think she may have slept in it last night.

After church and going home to cook some food, we went to our friend Scott and Mary's house for dinner. It was lots of fun. They have a new dog that is HUGE. It's as tall as Mariska, 100 pounds and not even a full year old yet! He was sure sweet though. We also played a good game of Scrabble, it was a good reminder that it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.... I, of course, forgot the camera.

My parents gave Brynley this little car that she loves and plays with whenever we got to the store. For some reason I didn't get still pictures of her with it.

Now that Christmas is done, we hope to get productive this week with house and yard. Wish us luck and we hope you all have a great New Year!!

Update...

I'm not crafty. In fact, I hate crafts. But, I threw together this wreath and I'm pretty proud of it. I was able to think of an idea and it actually turned out the way I wanted it to. Usually when I do a craft it looks like a 2nd grader did it. But I like how this turned out, simple as it might be. Our little Snape went to the vet this week. He said that he looks to be about 10 weeks old. And he has officially doubled in weight since we got him, he's just over 13 pounds.

This week we also decorated cookies for Santa. We couldn't get Brynley to stop eating them. It caused quite the fit once we put them all away. Mariska did a great job and I just LOVE this picture of her, I think it's one of my favorites of all time.

Well, our next post will be about Christmas!!

FINISHED!!!

Brent is finished with his Master's Degree!! It's been a very long 18 months. A year and a half of putting off SO much. Our yard has been taken over by weeds and really needs to be sprayed with weed killer. Brent was able to just up and go out and spray... he didn't have to worry about finding the time between work, the girls and papers and assignments. There is a huge sense of freedom and relief to not have it be on his mind every time he needs to plan something.
This Friday we went to his Commencement Ceremony. It was so much fun! This was my view from the balcony.

THIS is Brent's name in the program!

I managed to keep my eyes pretty dry. We had a lot of fun just going out together and talking about how it feels to put such a huge goal behind us. I'm so proud of all he's done! It certainly hasn't been easy. We've been married 8 1/2 years and Brent has been in school for 5 1/2 of them! It's about time to be done!! Yay for him!!

Brynley is 3!!

Our little baby is 3! She's so sweet and she's so good at remembering how old she is when you ask her... we didn't do a big party for her, just us at home. But she still had fun and loved it!

Mariska is 6!

Mariska is officially 6 years old. She's so excited. She seems to think that it has transformed her into a different, and "bigger" kid. Ever since her birthday, when she's having a hard time listening or arguing, she says, "I'm just having a hard time getting used to being 6."
Brent's class all made her birthday cards, which she has looked through at least 4 times. She loved all of them and was so excited about it. We had a very tiny party with pizza and cake. She had our friends from across the street, Sarah (on right), Samantha and Josef. Then we had two friends from church, Maya (wouldn't look at the camera) and Katie (next to Mariska). She had so much fun. We didn't have any theme or structured activities, they just played around in Mariska's room for a while. But they all seemed to have a great time.

This is Brynley in the most random dress up outfit ever. I thought it was too cute. I needed a picture.

We all had a great time celebrating Mariska's birthday. We are so happy to have her in our family!!