The Montgomery Zoo

The last day of spring break, we headed to the Montgomery Zoo with the children's department from church. You may be like me... I like pictures of people on trips. You may be like Allan... he likes scenery and animal shots from the trip. I have to remind him to take pictures of the people! (It really is funny because when we watch Survivor, he hates all the animal shots, and look at him... a million pictures of animals at the zoo).


Here are my pictures from the day:

A.J. and his partner for the day, Wade.

Abigail with her partner, Jane.

Here are Allan's pictures from the day:

Now, you tell me... which do you prefer???

Day at the Park

During spring break, we (along with everyone else in Opelika) decided to spend an afternoon at Monkey Park. It is our favorite park here, and the weather was so beautiful, we ended up staying several hours. We went with a bunch of our friends, and here are a few pictures (Anna was also there to play with Abigail, but I never got them to be still enough for a picture).

Abigail, Amelia, and Heath. And, if you look close... Chase in the background.
Girls... so sweet together.

Does it look like A.J. is hiding something in his mouth? Cookies, if I remember right.

I would still love if anyone can give me pointers on how to get Abigail to smile without folding her lip tucked under. Any suggestions???

Abigail, the teacher

Abigail loves to come home and recreate whatever they did at school. Often times, she will line her babies up down the hallway and have "school" with them. Today, she was reading to us. I just had to video her "reading" the book.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Grandma!

Pa and Grandma are on a cruise this week... but the kids wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day to Grandma (who LOVES this day even though she hates the color green). And Mom... you will be happy to know I married well. Allan made my milk in my cereal green this morning. You would be so proud!

(Translation)

AJ: Happy St. Patrick's Day. I hope you are having fun. I want you to know that we love you. Bye.

Abigail: Um... Happy St. Patrick's Day. I hope you have fun (um). I hope you um, I hope you um, (then something about Grandma that I couldn't understand) Bye.

Training the Dog

Abigail and Ruby have a very special connection. Pretty much, Abigail tortures here all day long, and then at night... Ruby sleeps in her bed. I am not sure why Ruby always comes back for more, but she does. Now, she is even learning to be obedient to Abigail. Here is a video of her telling Ruby to sit and stay. Then, she goes into another room and calls her. She will do it even for further distances. She doesn't move until Abigail calls her. Maybe we have a show dog here!

On the Couch

A few nights ago, while we were supposed to be watching American Idol as a family (something we do each week).... A.J. and Allan just couldn't keep awake. And, apparently... neither could Ruby!Then, Abigail (who was no where near sleep thanks to a 4:00 nap) decided to pretend she was asleep, too, so I would take her picture.
P.S. Ashley F. - do you recognize this shirt? You gave it to me my first year at Cross Creek to use on a bulletin board! Do you want it back???

March 1st and it is SNOWING!

It is funny how weather can change so fast. Yesterday morning, we spent quite some time in the hallway because of the tornadoes that were touching down around us. The weather was a nice 70. Today, however... quite different.... SNOW!

When we left for church, it had already been snowing for almost 3 hours. Because of the warm weather yesterday, it hadn't starting sticking much yet, but by the time we got home... the ground was covered! Amazing!

Before church.....
After church.....

Before church.....

After church....

We started measuring in various spots around the yard (thanks to the free promotional ruler I got at work). The highest we found was 6 inches, but here is the ruler at one of the lower measurements: There were snow angels....There were snowball fights.... (Listen closely to this video... at the end you will hear Abigail screaming that Ruby is going potty. You know what they say... don't eat yellow snow!)

There was Ruby (who enjoyed eating the snow)...

There was a snowman.... or snow woman, since Abigail named her Abigail...

Abigail decided to have a talk with Abigail the Snow Woman after we were done with the pictures. It is a little hard to hear her here, but she is telling Abigail how pretty of a snowman she is. It think it is very sweet.

And, there was the southern man's sled (yes, that is a beach raft). I would call it the redneck sled, but Allan already coined that title when he sledded on toilet bowl seats in college (true story, I promise).

Here are the videos of the kids sledding. First was A.J. (our test run). Then, it was Abigail. At the end, you will notice A.J. tries to help her out, but when he can't push her, he resorts to what all good brothers do... just watch. (And by the way, we ended up taking them to the park to a bigger hill).

Allan went riding around town to get some more pictures (while the kids and I had a rest time). Here are few shots from around town, but some of the snow had started to melt by then.

Our street: