Birthday bash at the zoo

We are kind of cheap parents (either that or S-M-A-R-T smart! parents). Liam and Emma's birthdays are a little less than a month apart, so for the last three years we have combined their parties/celebrations, so that it would cost us less money. They love it. :) This year we decided to go to the Niabi zoo. We had to postpone our original date of going the first few weeks because we got rained out, but finally, today, we made it! Tuesdays are half off days so our whole family got in for $8.50! steal of a deal! Unfortunately everyone else heard the news that Tuesdays are half off so everyone and their dog was there. But it was still really fun and I think the kids had a blast! It's smaller than the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake, but still plenty to do and lots of fun to be had. So, in no particular order, I give you pictures of the birthday bash zoo :)

*click on the pictures to make them bigger if you want to them better, sorry I did them smaller hoping they would load faster*

One of the first things we saw was a koi pond and we found this little guy swimming around.

The Koi were crazy!
Tony and the kids feeding the koi and goose

Next we came to the petting zoo. The kids loved it!

Emma feeding a goat

Liam and a cow

My favorite baby goat. I named him Lambert. He is my pet and I love him. :)

Fox petting a sheep

then deciding he didn't like the sheep very much

Giraffes- They were the coolest! They had two baby giraffes that were stinking cute!

One of the baby giraffes

Look at how he had to eat! I've seen it on tv, but it was so cool to see it in real life!

Fox and a Lion

Emma in the reptile house

I think the turtles were one of Emma's favorite. Which makes me happy because she was my "turtle baby" (She looked like a turtle when she was a baby :)...a cute one)

Scary snake

Our lizard friend

We stopped and ate lunch on a big grassy field in the zoo.

He did something bad, I just couldn't figure out what. He looks pretty guilty :D

Lunch was Fox's favorite part of the trip...mostly because I gave him a whole cookie.

How could I resist?

Look how happy he was :)

The Bald Eagle- I think he is posing for a quarter or something

You can see why our forefathers chose the bald eagle as a symbol of our country. They are so regal, beautiful and awesome!

Fox measuring his wing span. He's an American Kestral. :)

Butterfly Chairs!?

Who doesn't love butterfly chairs!?! AWESOME!

I love the way Liam is sitting in this one :D. This was one of the last pictures we took and when Fox finally started to get fussy. He did awesome all day! Right after this picture he fell asleep in Tony's arms.

Over all it was an awesome trip! We loved it!

So, I bet your wondering, "what in the world is Kira doing up so late?" Well, I'll tell you what, I'm trying to get my life back in order. Tony started a new job on Friday, that is a "2nd shift" job, which means he works from around 5pm to 12-1am. He's only had two days of working there so far, and I feel like my routine is spiraling out of control! :) Everything is back words! I now make him "dinners" to take with him to work instead of "lunches." (okay, really its the same exact food, just a different name.) I do most my cleaning at evening/night, so that I can hang out with him when he's home. I make dinner food for lunch (so he can have a good hearty meal) and lunch food for dinner. We have family home afternoon, instead of family home evening. It's crazy! What kind of crazy people do these crazy CRAZY things?! All I can say is, after two days of this, I can't wait until he gets a different job. :)

Fox

Fox wanted to send everyone a little bit of love.

and show what a trouble maker he can be :) Don't worry his face is fine :D

AAAAhhh!!! I can't figure out why its not working! hang on guys I'll get it to work :)

At little bit of advice

I've thought a lot about life and marriage and married life the last couple of days. I have a couple of friends and family that are either engaged or starting up serious relationships. Some I want to yell, "What are you thinking!?!" Others I think, "Well, you'll have to work that one out." And others I just sit back and smile. Because you don't know. Before you are married, you have no idea what married life is like. There are things that I wish people would have told me, or possible they did tell me, and now I wish I would have really listened or understood. So here they are my advice to those looking for love-

Love advice from Dr. Kira ;)

1.Something my Mom always told me, but I really learned after I was married. When you are dating, that is the best it gets. If you don't like things about the person when you are dating them, they are not magically going to disappear after you are married, most often they will just be accentuated. Dating life and honey moon life are when both people are wearing their best faces.

2.Marriage is work. Really, really-it is REALLY work. Your relationship doesn't just grow and blossom with age. There are times I would rather punch Tony in the face then hug him and make him dinner. (I love Tony, believe me, but love doesn't mean that at times I don't want to punch him...in the face :D) There are times that I think, 'well if he would ever do something romantic or nice for me, then maybe I would do something for him...' It doesn't work like that. Just because you want him to do something and you use all your ESP power to make him do it, it doesn't work. The best thing I have found-you do something first. Even if I tell him "Honey I want/need you to do something romantic/nice for me." It doesn't work. It usually just makes him madder or more stubborn. President Hinkley's advice come to the rescue again. -Forget yourself.- Do something first, even if you'd rather punch your partner, humble yourself and do something for them first.

3. Those hormones you have raging through you...they aren't always going to be there. I know it sounds crazy, but they aren't. Marriage is work. And I'm not saying that your love life will be horrible after the honeymoon, it can get better and even more awesome, but sometimes it just takes a little bit of work...from both people.

4.Look at the person you like/are going to marry/are dating-if you marry them in the LDS temple, you are marring them for time and all eternity. You will have a family, and that will be fun, but one day that family grows up and starts their own lives, and you are left with two. Two people. You and your spouse. I know that our family's are together forever, I will forever be connected to my parents, and my kids will forever be connected to me, but Tony is my main family. Liam and Emma and Fox one day will grow up and find beautiful spouses of their own and cleave to them, and I can't go with them. Tony is who I will always be with. Luckily I want to be with him. So look at the person you are thinking of one day marrying. They are your nucleus. Your family (mother and father/children) will always be around you forever, but you and your spouse are your center...forever...that means even after you are dead. You had better really like them.

A storms a comin'

It's raining. Like really, really raining. Like crazy you can't see too far ahead of you raining. It. Is. The. COOLEST. Thing. I. Have. Ever. Seen. Ever! And it's done this twice today. The first time I was quickly getting ready, because I had to get to Liam's new school and register him. I looked out the window before getting my hair done and thought, "man those clouds look pretty dark way over there." After I threw my hair up in a ponytail and headed for the door I said to Tony, "Oh, man! Nature knows I'm coming and it's starting to rain." Tony warned me, "Go now." Ooooohhhhh, little did I know. By the time I pulled out of the parking lot it was pouring. I went 20-25 in a 35 mph zone. I couldn't hardly see in front of me. I kept thinking, "Are my windshield wipers broken? They aren't going fast enough." It turned extremely dark. I had to run about ten steps into the school, by the time I got there I was soaked. It kept up the same downpour as I spent a half an hour registering Liam and then I ran back to my car and drove home. And then for about an hour after that.

Then when Tony went out and about some where it had cleared up and was sunny and blue skied. (Nature here has something against me, I swear. Any time I decided to go out by myself it rains like crazy.) Then about an hour ago the wind really picked up and the clouds started to billow, like from the middle down towards us (imagine the scary clouds on independence day, the ones that come with the space ships...yeah.). And then rain came in sheets that you could see and the lighting flashes every few seconds. You can't always hear the thunder because the wind is blowing too hard. And it's lasted for at least an hour now, and doesn't show signs of giving up. It's crazy!! You don't see this kind of stuff in Utah! It's so cool!! The storms story books written about. AWESOME!

post script-the sirens sounded again and I only had a minor melt down while yelling, "Is the sky turning green? They say if there is going to be a tornado the sky will turn green!!" No, green sky, just extra cool rain and wind. :)

post post script- Did I mention that Tony went out twice today several hours apart. And both times he went out it was beautiful and the birds were chirping and the sky was a lovely light blue? Both times I have decided to go out by myself the last week it has literally started raining as I walk to the door and then down poured to the point of soaking through all layers of my clothing. It's a conspiracy.

Fireflies

The other night we went out to catch fireflies. I'm sure people thought we were crazy. It had just rained and I had my kids out running around in their footy pajama's (it was hot, but the kids begged to wear them) yelling at them, "don't step on the grass!" We were a little crazy, but it was so much fun!! The kids loved it (except Fox who screamed the whole time-he was tired- which didn't help our crazy cause :)) So here's some pictures of our first firefly catching session.

Looking for fireflies

They've spotted one

Liam blowing (?) on the jar. (Yes we used a pickle jar...because we are cool like that)

Tony and the kids looking. (Notice the bush- Our neighbors decided to have a small party and get wasted and then decorate the bush with the beer cans. It's like a redneck christmas tree...totally AWESOME!! Tony wanted me to call and complain so our landlord people would come clean it up. I said no, I like the awesome decorations. So they still sit there glistening in the sun.)

Excited Emma

Tony, master firefly catcher! At least that's what we call him.

Liam even caught some!

Our friends, the fireflies. :)

Here's a video of the kids trying to catch them. For those of you who have never seen fireflies (aka my siblings :)) look for the tiny flashes of green light. You can see a couple of them in this video. :)

So this is the song that I have been singing in my head the last couple of days. Mostly the first part of second verse:

I was not ever thus or prayed that thou shouldst lead me on

I love to choose and see my path but now lead thou me on

I first learned this song at girls camp. One of the years that I was a stake youth leader this was the theme song. It has stayed with me through the years and helped me through different trials in my life. Including now.

Just thought I'd share. :)

Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear.

Sorry, this post is totally random, but what I've been thinking about and things that have happened the last little bit-

So last night I saw my first firefly!! Coolest thing ever! Did you know they glow green? Really! Like the green glow sticks! And we (okay, Tony) found out that if you smash them then the green glow stick stuff still glows on your foot. I even caught two of them and held them in my hand! They are the coolest! I feel kind of bad though, because the kids where sleeping when I saw them, but tonight or tomorrow...some time in the near future, I'm going to keep the kids up and let them see them.

Humidity-humidity is crazy!! The other day it was so hot and humid that you walked out of the house and it felt like you were walking into a sauna. It was crazy. Tony jokingly said, "I'm thirsty, so I'm gonna take a walk outside and just get a drink through my skin." but that is really what it is like. Everything feels wet all of the time. One good thing about it though is that when I work out I start to sweat real easy, so then I feel like I'm really doing a good, hard work out, even though I may not be. :)

So you know how in Utah you can kind of tell the "poorer" part of town from the rest by the greenness of the grass. You can't do that here. When we first got here I was looking for the less desirable places to live and for the dead yellow grass. Everybody's yards in Iowa are green as green can be. There is no dead grass. There is no dead anything. You actually have to look at the house to see if it is a poorer part of town. And even then it's a little bit hard to tell unless the windows are boarded up or something :)

I think I actually broke my toe. It's still swollen and won't bend all the way. The last two weeks for church I have squeezed it into my high heels (haha, I accidentially typed "high hells" which in this case would be a good name for them. :D) and it has throbbed all through church. But the worst is when I get home and take them off. Ouch!! But what do you do for a toe? Do they have toe casts? I'm sure it'll heal just fine. :)

I'm going through that faze right now where I feel like I never get anything done, and am always stressed. I have done it with each one of my kids, and it seems to last until they are about a year old. Once they hit one year old I stop nursing and they are finally old enough to entertain themselves. Right now I try to get something cleaned and about have way through cleaning Fox wants to be held or played with or nursed or something. When I finally have him pacified I no longer have the ambition to finish the project I started. But something new with this child that I didn't have with the others is that Liam and Emma are old enough to play with each other (which is a plus) and fight with each other (which they do quite constantly) and tattle on each other (which occurs every ten minutes)! So then it adds a new level of stress. Stinkin' kids! Luckily I like them.

Okay sorry for the randomness, but I'm done now. :) Oh, and did you guess where the title of this post came from? It's from one of my favorite movies :)

Liams Birthday bash #2

Liam turned five on the seventh and I decided to do a dinosaur theme birthday for him.

Here is the awesome banner I made with the two cricut cartridges that I own.

His presents and more decor

awesome transformer! Thanks Grandma Bundy!

Mom and Dad got him dino pjs.

Fox like the wrapping paper the most.

Mom and Dad got him a lego batman shirt! Wahoo! (We went to the park later on that day and Liam met some "friends" while we were there. Because he had a batman shirt they called Liam Batman! :D)

Emma has taken it upon herself to be the official cleaner-upper of birthday parties. I don't know why, she just has. So here is Emma cleaning up the birthday mess. :)

Liam showing off his giant herd of dinosaurs that his Mom and Dad gave him.

Awesome clothes from the Clark family. Thanks Clark Family!! (I wasn't sure who sent them :))

Fox looking happy with the birthday loot :)

Awesome pet from Sierra. Thanks Sierra!!

A new movie!! Yahoo!! Hours and hours of entertainment!! Thanks Clark household! :)

Later that night the Flynn's came over and gave Liam even more loot!! Yahoo! (Doesn't Rock look happy :D That kid makes me laugh!)

Liam's awesome dino cake! The last couple of birthdays I've let the kids pick out their own cake box and frosting Liam choose dark chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. He said its because he knew that kind was his dad's favorite. He was right. :)

Liam by his dino cake

The kids enjoying

Yippie!! Happy Birthday Liam!!