A morning at the zoo!

Ya'll know I love a good bargain, right? Well, here is the deal with the zoo here. First, it is free to get in. All day, everyday. That in and of itself is a good bargain. Parking is apparently $12, but we got street parking, so it was free too. Bargain. Then, someone at work told Wade that the first hour the zoo was open, that the carousel, Sting Ray petting and feeding, and the children's zoo are all Free. Bargain, Bargain, Bargain. We had lots of cheap fun today. The zoo was great and weather really wasn't too hot. Keira loved it, of course. Not sure what her favorite part was, but we saw every animal there was too see. Here are some pics!

Mallory on her first carosel ride. She loved it!

Daddy with two kids who would rather be doing something else than getting their picture taken!

This is in the children's zoo section. You could pet goats, play on slides, pet alpacas. All the exhibits were down at the kids level so they could see well and touch everything!

Mallory may have had a bit of ice cream. I don't have any idea of who would feed my 7 month old ice cream, but it certainly wasn't me that made her this happy ;)

A couple pictures of the house

Front of the House - we sit on the edge of a cul-de-sac, so only 3 houses beyond us. Nice for Keira to ride her bike without being worried about traffic.

Back of the House - We really love all the windows!

The new playset. Keira loves it. There is enough room in the playhouse part for a table and chairs.

One of the bunnies I was telling you about. This one is Hoppy.


Keira enjoying the swing!

Pictures of the inside to come soon! Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Broken Record

I know, I know, if you have heard it once from me, you have heard it a thousand times ... we have been so busy it has been difficult to post. A lot has been going on - we moved! We are now sorta settled in St. Louis - Saint Peters to be exact. Well, that isn't really exact. Apparently our mailing address is Saint Peters but we technically live in O'Fallon. I dont' really have any idea if that means much, but that is where we are if you are looking for us :) I'll post pictures of the house soon.

The pictures at the top a from a photoshoot we had at the Olathe house. Mallory is 6 months old in the pics and Keira almost 4 1/2. Yikes how they get big quick!

So here are some quick updates:

Keira: She loves the new house - it is a ranch style home, so she likes to run from one end to the other. Fun. She also loves the new playset in the back (pics to come). But her favorite, favorite feature is that we have a family of bunnies living in the back yard. She has named them Hoppy, Carrot, and Thumper (well, maybe Daddy named the last one). They are super tame and Keira can get to where she can get within about 3 feet of them before they hop away. And even then, they just hop so they are about 10 feet away, not even out of the yard. (They aren't afraid of Peanut either - if she gets after them, they just hop to the other side of the fence and look at her!). We have found her a new preschool at a church that is about 3 miles away. We got to tour it on tuesday.

Mallory: She just turned 7 months old. She has sitting up mastered and is just desperate to crawl. She can get up on hands and knees and does the rocking thing, but hasn't figured out how to move yet. Mostly she gets frustrated, falls flat down and then kicks her arms and legs furiously and screams until someone comes and picks her up! She totally adores Keira - smiles everytime Keira pays any attention to her at all. She is a super smiley girl - everyone tends to stop and talk to us at the grocery store because Mal can't let anyone pass without a smile.

Wade: Wade is definetly enjoying not having to drive back and forth to Saint Louis anymore. He is not really enjoying the huge backyard we have when it comes to mowing though - I think a riding lawn mower is on his list to Santa this year.

Me: What can I say about me, trying to get settled, get the house in order, find my way around (what would I do without a Garmin???), trying to find stuff for Keira to do (so far we are signed up for swim lessons in June and T-ball in July), get dinner on the table, ya know, just the standard stuff! Mostly, I am tired. But hey, I've got my whole life to sleep, right?!?

I will get some pics of the house this weekend and we are headed to the zoo tomorrow, so I will try to post some of those pics too. I am really excited about the zoo - we have heard lots of great things - here is hoping it lives up to the hype!

Almost Gone

Well, we have less than a week left of our short stay here in Kansas. Life has been crazy over the last few weeks trying to get ready for the move. We've also been trying to visit all our "favorites" places and restuarants before we go (jason's deli, minsky's pizza, mi ranchito, to name a few!). I took Keira and two of her best friends, Lexi and Reese, to Deanna Rose Farmstead. They had so much fun feeding the animals, playing on the playground and eating Popsicles. While the girls just had a great time because they don't quite understand the significance, it was bittersweet for me to watch them have such a great time, knowing this was the last time this would happen in a long time. Yes, we'll be back to visit, but it won't be the same. This is the hardest part of this move - Keira has her own little life now. Friends, school, playdates, etc and taking her away from those things is hard. And sad. The good news is, Keira is great at making friends. Everywhere we go, she picks up friends. Vacation, the park, swim lessons, she always finds someone to play with and they are great friends for as long as we are there. So now, we just have to go "pick up" some new friends. I am going to miss all my Mom friends here too - I am not as good at picking up friends as she is, so it will probably take me a bit longer.

The next time you hear from me, it will be from the great state of Missouri. Hopefully it will be relatively soon and please pray the trip over is MUCH less eventful as the trip to Kansas was. I really can't deal with another near death experience.

Mallory doing push-ups!

Now that Mallory has mastered sitting up, she is desperate to crawl. She hasn't quite figured it out yet, so instead she is just practicing her push ups!

*And yes, I know it has been way too long since I last posted, but I don't have time for anymore now! Will post more after the move!