Christmas Eve @ the Zoo!!

We've started a new family tradition... Lowry Park Zoo for Christmas Eve!
If you like long lines, crowds and no parking ... this is NOT the place you want to be... the park was EMPTY! It was awesome!!
Ryan has Zoey, I have Abigail and Josh holds his buddy Katrina.

Off we head the girls in the choo choo - look out world!

We kept them in order, Zoey in the purple car, Abigail in the green car and Katrina in the orange car.

Ryan decided to steer from on top down the hill we go - look out!!

Zoey helps the boys with their treats on one of our breaks. Kyle looks to be handing her a drink while Wyatt ducks out of the way. Will is focused on rainbow goldfish.

Josh enjoyed taking photos - soo much to see! It was our first trip to the zoo - what a great place!

Katrina doesn't seem too impressed here - she's usually soo happy go lucky!

Abigail is distracted tooo - so much to look at.

Zoey looks like a little elf!

Inside a cave to get an underwater look of the manatees - so awesome.

Kyle, Wyatt and Will pet the baby sting rays - they sure liked to splash the boys!

Katrina went off with Laura to watch the boys on the rides ... Josh decided to rest in her seat.

Ryan decided to give him a tour while he put his feet up... big kid!

We ended up getting a season pass we had soo much fun.

Looking forward to going with Aunt Cat when she arrives from the frigid north in the next week or so - c'mon Goober and Cat - we miss you! The girls are excited to go again and can't wait to show you all the neat exhibits.

O - and Laura - how did you escape the camera with Lynn and George? They really did go with us! If you have photos shoot them this way Lynn ...

Video our first Christmas

Zoey is on the left, standing and taking her hat off.
Abigail ironically is in green (yes it's Abby not Kat)
And Katrina is to the far right - keeping her hat on for a change!

Sooo Cute!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We had the girls Christmas photos done Nov. 1st to get a jump start on the season.
This photo really shows the girls personalities and will probably mirror what we will see this morning. Zoey looks to be saying - wait, wait, really, seriously, I can open this, it's mine, I don't have to share. Abigail, doing her Gene Simmons impersonation says - yea the gifts are o.k., but I think I'll just chew on this. Then dear sweet quiet Katrina shows her other side - YEAH! bring on the gifts more gifts more gifts this is awesome baby!

Our littlest angels - how precious...This is the photo we put in the cards we sent out this year.

This photo was done the same day - thought we'd share it too.

Hope everyone has a blessed holiday! Keep a watch out for more Christmas photos of the actual day - we're sooo excited!!

Parking for Thanksgiving

Poppy arrives early to show the girls where to park their choo choo.
You can see the new improved stairs behind us - big brother Josh loves hanging out with his sisters. Kitty cat Bandit in the background hurries to make the photo.

We're almost ready to receive guests...

Josh jumps in to hold a Zoey

Ryan gives the drive a sweep down as he dreams about what he is going to plant in the inner circle. Never a dull moment around here!

Concrete Circles

They arrived before 7 a.m. the week before Thanksgiving... 9 in all... it would be dark before they finished...The girls and mommy watched as the new front steps were formed. We had two steps with a 7" rise - challenging for a lot of people to go in and out of the home. The 4 new steps would only have a 4" rise.

One the sun was up a little, daddy took over and moved the girls closer to the outside.

When the steps were done, we brought out their pack-n-play so they could move around

After a few hours we could start our time capsule. Zoey was first...

Abigail really GOT INTO putting in handprints... so much so Ryan had to wash her face off! Just after finishing her impression in concrete, she decided to make an impression on her face!

Katrina was over zealous and really smashed her hands in - you can see it when you look at all three prints together.

Eventually the letters will come off and a permanent impression will be left.

We put some other items in the concrete for teaching tools when they get older. The coins are not there just to teach them, they have some meaning too... The penny is from 2009, the year the girls were born, the Nickel is 2007 the year we were married, and the dime is a 2006, the year we started dating.

We're real excited to have a place for the girls to play - our visitors seem to like it too - no more wet grass to walk through. Now they have a second and third opportunity to wave good bye as they go around the circle before heading out.

Selby Gardens in November

Big Brother Josh called while we were picnicing on the great lawn at Selby. Ryan happened to catch a small black snake slithering through the brush beside us!

We continued on our journey through the paths to the overlook on the bay - another favorite area of the garden.

The girls thought the koi pond was need too with the waterfall.We love the beautiful grounds at Selby ... even the thorny tree with gorgeous flowers!

Another beautiful day on 11/21

ZAK Attack Cleans Floors

The girls always chase me when I'm sweeping the floor. So Ryan came up with the bright idea that they should help... OM Gosh...
Zoey doesn't even hold on - she's sooo brave.

Abigail looks like she's practicing for the rodeo!

Katrina goes with two hands and eyes closed! Miracurously ... when one of them is riding on the sweeper - the other two watch and smile. They don't try to all pile on or pull each other off... they know they'll each get a turn. We get a good work out pushing them around and they have fun - win win!

Abby-I'm a Big Girl Now!

This photo was taken on 11/21 - The day we discovered Abby finally had a tooth to match her sisters!
We happened to buy their "big girl" car seats that day too and Abby was the only one awake - so she got to model for us. Abby was the beginning of our teething journey. Til this point we didn't know we were teething - we found out because something sharp was biting us from the other two! Now everyone is snotting and fussy and having crazy schedules. As I write this - I've already been up most of the night - not because they've been up - because I can't get back to sleep once I'm up. So I write Christmas cards, clean the house and catch up on bills and when everything else is somewhat caught up - I blog. In reviewing just the previous day; a gate was left open and Abby escaped, we could hear her and went to investigate - she was headed upstairs! That's a first! She was almost on step 3 before I positioned myself behind her. She got up to about 5 before she realized it was dark up there and no way down!

Zoey stands for looong periods without any help. In the last 2 days she now can stand there and raise her hands over her head for "soooo big" then she lowers them to clap for herself. Katrina and Abby are also clapping and Katrina has also started to stand on her own for periods of time. We believe Katrina has finally caught Abigail in weight - but we're going to have one more weigh in this week to make sure it's official. The girls all have 2 teeth now on the bottom and apparantly more coming because the noses are still running.

We had one birthday party for our neice Madison - yet it was neice Sierra's actual birthday. It was about 10 last night before I had a chance to send a text letting her know we had thought of her. Today is neice Avery's birthday party - December is so full of activity! Today we have church, lunch with god parents the Cooley's and then off to party! So good morning all - I now have 2 awake and my blogging for today is done - so much to say... so little time!