The Ordinary

Well, 2012 is not off to a great start by blogging standards. As our days are filled with school and work I am finding it more and more difficult to come up with exciting, witty blog posts. Then I had an epiphany. Our families that are following this blog would probably enjoy hearing about the normal, everyday stuff as well as the exciting and witty so here you go!

Last weekend Amanda had a girlfriend spend the night. She lives in our neighborhood and rides the bus with Amanda. They've become fast friends and even allow Logan to play in their "girlfriend games"... sometimes : ). Saturday morning, when they were going to head outside to play (in this crazy warm winter weather) I had to snap a photo of their outfits. Gymnastic leotards, hats and inappropriate shoes. It's not THAT warm!!!!

Catch Up Photos

I thought it was time to do a little catchup on the photos I've taken over the past month.


These are some photos I took in Grandma and Grandpa's woods when we were back for Christmas. The Monkeys and their cousins had a great time climbing on the logs and hiking the trails.

Right before Christmas our cat, Jules, celebrated his one year anniversary of coming to live with us. We gave him a new cat bed and he LOVES IT!!! I guess he's just one of the Monkeys now!

Eric was also able to take two weeks off from work along with the kids and me. One of the things we did was build Gingerbread Houses with some friends.

We also took a day to search for the Snowy Owls that have invaded Kansas. Unfortunately we didn't see any... kinda hard when there is already snow on the ground to see a snowy bird... but we did see lots of deer and lots of other birds.

We hadn't had snow in Wichita, but up north where we were looking they had and it was COLD!!! We did most of our watching from the car.

We found lots of animal tracks. I just love hiking after a snow fall!!!

Then we found a prairie dog town. The dogs were even active!!!! We could hear their giving their warning barks and saw a couple on their hills before they darted inside.

Christmas morning started at 5 am this year. Crazy early, but still an improvement from last year! Santa brought the kids an air hockey table and we played many a game while waiting for Eric to wake up. (You can also add a table top for ping pong)

I let them wake Eric up about 7 and we started to dig in!

He didn't have to say a word. I could read his mind just my looking at his face.

"ooohhhhhh. A new shirt. Gee, thanks mom."
Amanda just LOVED her new super long socks!!! That girl is a little odd.

Logan was showing off his muscles in his new shirt. (that I guilted him into trying on)

Hey, Look! I was even there! : ) Eric got me a new coffee pot that was already setup when I woke and the kids got me lots of new wool socks. (something I always need) : ) Eric had already received his gifts because he needed them for the bedroom window project.

We took ALL DAY to open all our gifts because we like to stop and play with whatever we open before moving on. I think the last present was opened around 7:00 pm.

Okay!! I think you are all up to date on the Monkey House going's on!

Monster Trucks and Cute Babies

This weekend we took the kids to see the monster truck show in town. Here are a few photos from our adventure.

It was very loud, but we planned ahead and bought the kids their own ear protection. Amanda just HAD to have the pink ones. I didn't expect anything different! : )

Logan went with manly black... : ) There was lots of smashing, big jumps, and bad landings.
Then on Sunday we took the kids to the zoo. Since I've started working there, we have grossly neglected taking the kids there. I guess that's to be expected. At the end of a work week the last place I want to head is back to work. But the new baby Orangutan was finally on exhibit so we headed out to oooohh and aaaahh.

Amanda Pulls Her Own Tooth

Amanda lost her first tooth on New Year's Eve. She let me pull it out, but it was a busy time and the photos I took didn't come out well. After that experience she decided she didn't want to pull the second tooth (that needed to come out too). Now, two weeks later, that tooth is past ready to come out!!! But my head strong little girl doesn't want Mommy or Daddy to do it. NO SIR-EE. If it needs to come out, only Amanda will be doing the pulling! I want some sympathy for all the grief I had to go through, watching this crazy wiggly tooth and NOT pulling it out. We all have our little quirks and loose teeth is one of mine!

Oh, Amanda. What trouble you will bring me in years to come... *sigh*