Fun at Riverbanks Zoo!

We piled into the van with Niccole, Michael, and Alex on Saturday morning! Niccole was a great van-mom (treking back and forth from the passenger seat to the DVD player, twins, and her boys whenever needed)! You never realize how much you do it until you have to see someone else doing it for you! She brought lots of yummy snacks, entertaining movies, and toys! You'd think she was a children's SLP instead of adults'.

Niccole, Alex, Michael, Carson, and Cade are very entertained by those loud, swinging monkeys!

Carson, Mommy, and Cade on the elephants!

Everybody likes the kangaroos!

Michael is going up!

Carson is still eating his corndog, and Cade is just trying to chew up everything in his mouth so they can go play, too!

Cade is going up by way of the stairs while Carson is attempting to go up the slide (and keeps sliding down in the process)!

Cade loves to steer!

Niccole, Michael, and Carson are playing!

Niccole, Michael, and Alex really liked the giraffes!

I was saying the "o" in "Smile at Niccole!"

Cade and Carson absolutely loved Mommy's favorite animal! (Well, Cade was amazed and couldn't leave the side of the glass, but Carson was so glad to be out of the stroller that he was all over the place in there!

Chase those penguins!

Climb those rocks!

I thought this picture was so cute! Too bad that wasn't Alex sitting right there! It was hard to get shots of them all together!

Time for a diaper change before we hit the road! What a great trip! It really couldn't have been any more perfect - the weather was so beautiful, 4 boys under 5 were so good, and all the animals were so much fun!

Birthday Parties last week!

Happy Birthday to our friend Mark Randall!
Cade and Carson had fun playing with Mark Randall on his Birthday!
We all had so much fun!
Carson and Cade have fun stacking play-doh containers at Grandma's!
We like tractors!!!!!
Carson is playing in the toy chest!

This is Cade's favorite dog - he got it from Conway Hospital Auxillary when he had his 2 week old hospitalization. We have so much to be thankful for!

Carson and Cade could be John Deere overalls models - that's what Mommy thinks!

Happy Birthday to Grandma!

This was our first party-meal on the new deck! We had shrimp for Grandma's birthday - she caught them that day with Daddy and Grandpa!

Our 100th Blog Post!

It seems like that's a lot for one and a half years since I only post about once a week or twice a week, but then again it seems like it should be more just thinking about all the stuff I've put on here. Kevin says my posts are just incredibly long with tons of pictures! And I combine events - like this one has the craft fair, parade,and more of the deck today. Anyway, whatever it takes to document the happenings in our family!

I'm sure I will treasure this blog in a couple of years since I'm not journaling anymore. Yes, this blog is mainly for Mommy - like all the albums I make - grandparents love them but would rather play with the boys, friends will look quickly but have enough of their own to tend to, however I will hold all these memories dear to my heart!

Here's the twins checking out Grandpa's Gideon's Bibles at the craft fair!

The little red cars are very entertaining!
The twins enjoyed the little blue cars, too!
The tractors were their favorite part of the parade! (And all the horses, but I didn't get any pictures of them!
Daddy worked extra hard on the deck in August and got it all built with the boards down. Then we just haven't had much time, but now he's back at it with his trusty sidekick - Grandpa!

And the boys are awake from their 2 1/2 hr nap!

Who's taller?

Well, the stairs work!

Cade and Carson love playing with Grandpa!

They love helping Daddy build!

They knew exactly what they were building here - I have no idea what it was, but they were definitely concentrating on a plan.

And a typical end of the day should be spent on a boat ride (right in the driveway) before we go in to eat shrimp and grits tonight and cheer on the Gamecocks!

Booster Seats!

Hard to tell in those pictures, but the twins are sitting in booster seats at this restaurant last night. They did so good! I thought for sure they'd be jumping out with no seatbelt. They're getting so big now! They eat so much - they'll be as big as horses soon - Neigh! Neigh!

Smarties!

We love our Daddy!
Daddy keeps asking Mommy if the twins are supposed to be this smart! I keep telling him the boys are developing just the way God designed them to! They're extra-special to us (although I know from all my early childhood development and speech/communication classes that almost all is normal as long as the progress is steady). Here's a couple of examples why we think they're brilliant(that I'm sure those of you who have kids will recognize from your own experience):
-If we tell one to take his brother a Teddy bear, He will go get a Teddy bear and run after his brother saying: "Here you go Bubby - Teddy!"
-At about 1 1/2 they started pointing out all tractors. Now they name almost everything we pass on the road - tractors, boats, ambulance, fire trucks, motorcycles, cows, sheep, horses, dogs, birds, etc. (It's like riding with a speech therapist everywhere, because you know that's what I used to do before they talked all the time.)
-They call all white trucks "Daddy's truck!" (his work truck is white)
-They call all burgundy trucks "Grandpa's truck!"
-They will carry something to the laundry room if we say, "Go put this in the laundry room." or to the trash if we say, "Go throw this away."
-They love to pick out what to wear - especially shoes!
-They look down and say "Uh-oh" and grab their diaper when it's full. - Yikes - I'm really not ready to go through that yet!
-They love to play in a fort - our newest was the tunnel made by throwing a blanket over the highchairs - they kept driving Mr. Hippolo through the tunnel.
-They name so many things - you don't want me to list them at this point!
-They learn something new and do it over and over again!
-They'll tell you a full sentence to say what they want. i.e. "I want a plate."
-They know their cups by their bumpy name labels (which are such a great way to label bottles and cups), because they've been used to them ever since we started bottles. Cade's label is green and Carson's is blue. It doesn't matter what I put them on, if Carson picks them both up he will hand Cade the green one and keep his or vice versa if Cade picks them up.
-They love to kiss their animals.
-They laugh at everything.
-They love to be tickled.
-They do lots of motions for little songs!
-They love to jump - their feet only barely make it off the ground now.
-They attempt to sing the ABC's!
-They sing "Jesus Loves Me!"
-They say "Bible" or "Jesus" when they pick up their little children's story Bibles.
-They sit in the floor or a chair for long periods of time (like 2-5 minutes - very long to me) to read books, and they actually say real words here and there now. They always say "Peepeye!" to the baby or critter under the flap when they read their lift the flap books. The other day Carson was reading "Goodnight Moon" and was saying goodnight to each animal - so sweet!
-They love to make all their animal noises - right now Cade's favorite is Lion - "Roar!" and Carson's favorite is Horse - "Neigh!"
-They see the word "Dog" with a picture of a dog and say "Dog - Bark Bark!"

It's so fun to watch all these little emerging literacy skills!
Here we are eating chicken nuggets, carrots, sweet peas, pears, and Mommy's fave - cheese for lunch today!