Perfect day at the zoo

Trouble makers in the shark's mouth

We were racing a smart-mouthed 4 yr old in the pic. We won.

Fun!

Our friends, Amy and Ephraim, invited us to join them at the Pt. Defiance Zoo today. It was literally the perfect day for the zoo...the weather was sunny, the kids were happy, and the mama's enjoyed getting out of the house.

Lexie was great at naming the animals and she said to each one. "Hi, fishy." "Hi, monkey." "Hi, sheep." You get the picture : )

There is also a kids play area, that Lexie and Ephraim loved. The slides were awesome!

Early Easter Pics

"Me" one of her new favorite words.
Here she comes...

Watch out...She's looking for cholocate.

Pops Garwood took some more amazing photos, this time with the Easter theme. It was too funny watching her go out on the golf course, hunting for eggs. I think these will go down as some of my favorite pictures ever, I just love them.

Daddy goes pheasant hunting

At least we have proof he was hunting : )
All Brock boys: Patrick, Travis, Jacob, Will, Chance, Dan, Joe

Rough time, huh? This is where the guys stayed, equipped with a flat screen for March Madness.

Travis had a great opportunity to go pheasant hunting with some of the Brock guys this Spring. They went to Miller Ranch, in Sprague, Washington (close to Spokane.) Travis had never been before and by looks of it, he did pretty well.

On a side note, this maybe taking the place of Travis's longer fall hunting trips. As once again, we are expecting a hunting season baby. This baby is due on October 21st so it is the heart of hunting. Lexie was due around October 13th but ended up being over 2 weeks early. So we shall wait and see but I am thinking it might be day trip or late buck (November) hunting for him this year, as we will have a lot on our plates. Next year, I am sure we will return to the regular scheduled hunting program : )

What Saturday mornings are made for

Catching up on her Barney and Elmo shows...

18 months old

How did this happen? Well, just like they say time is flying by and our little girl is now 18 months old. She is such a blessing, I am loving this age. Every night, when Travis and I put her to sleep we look at the video monitor and just sigh. She is too precious for words.

Her speech development seems to be advanced for her age. She can string about 3 words together and I would guess has near 100 clearly spoken words. We joke around that she Could win toddler jeopardy because she has started answering questions in somewhat complete sentences.

Growth wise, she has still remained in almost the exact same percentiles that she has been in since birth. Our doctor finds that so interesting. She was 23 lbs (40%) and 33 inches (91%.) She has become a great eater. A couple of months ago I couldn't imagine I would ever be saying that but thankfully she has learned to appreciate good food.

I just weaned her at 17 months, I think it might have been harder for me then her. We ended up just changing her night-time routine around, so that she was too busy to miss nursing. After 2 or 3 nights she didn't seem to mind anymore. She was such a easy baby to nurse and thank God for such a positive experience with it. She still doesn't drink whole milk, except with her cereal in the morning or mixed in when I make her foods. Our doctor said this is fine, as long as she eats yogurt, cheese, and plenty of calcium rich foods.

She is a pretty good sleeper. She goes down at night with no problem and sleeps from about 8pm-6:30 or 7am. She doesn't so go down for naps quite as well since I quit nursing. I have to admit I have been guilty of over using the drive-her-around-the-block-to-get-her-asleep trick. But she does transfer fine and will usually sleep 1.5-2.5 hrs.

I think the thing I find so amazing is she is very nurturing. She LOVES babies (real or pretend) and caring for them. First, thing in the morning she tries to change her babies diapers and push them in the little stroller. She pats them, kisses them, and tucks them in to bed. It is so cool, how God designed her personality so that she would have all these great oldest sibling traits : )

Olympia Hand's Hand Children's Muesum

Driving the medic one....little hero!

This was her favorite. Organizing beans.
We literally had to drag her away...
Coloring with Dada

In the sub

The water table with mama

Driving the sub...watch out!

Blue collar work...running the dozer

Honk, honk...beep, beep!

This place is awesome! Highly recommend you take a visit if you have little ones. Some of their exhibits were so creative. There is an organic gardening section, a veterinarian clinic, submarine, toddler water table, construction dozer's, huge art area, a cute little dentist office, and so much more. We all had a blast. I was thinking the whole time about how much I would of loved this place when I was a kid, all of the things to play "pretend" with. We will be back here in the future...

1st haircut

So this wasn't the 1st haircut I had pictured. I really wanted to take her to one of those "fun" kiddie cuts places, where she could ride a airplane, get a sucker, and watch cartoons all while the sneaky hairdresser gets the job done. The one closest to us has really weird hours and we kept missing it. So we just ended up taking her to the one at Walmart. The hairdresser was really nice and did a great job. Regardless, Lexie didn't seem to enjoy the experience at all : )