Thursday, March 9, 2017

Zoo and Children’s Museum Feb 2017

We love having memberships to the Omaha Zoo and Children’s Museum!

We got to go to the zoo with a friend from Cora’s preschool this month, and we had so much fun with the slightly cold weather making there be hardly any people there!

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The girls were good helpers with the strollers:

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And we loved the jungle:

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Touch tank at the aquarium:

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Aquarium time:

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Desert dome:

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Zane really loves ducks:

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We also got to go to the Children’s Museum this month on President’s Day, which was also surprisingly sparse people-wise:

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Zane got so soaked at the water table I had to change him into his extra set of clothes in my purse, which were actually a size too small, but he wore them anyways Smile

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The kids enjoyed the new “Block Party” exhibit:

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Valentine’s Day 2017

We had a great Valentine’s Day this year! Ryan bought me 2 dozen roses and they were so beautiful!

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Hyrum made a triceratops box for his school party, and he did it mostly all by himself!

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Hyrum also gave out dinosaur Valentine’s with a little dino toy, and Cora gave out little heart slinkies that said, “you are the spring to my step, Valentine.” We also gave their teachers colored sharpies for their Valentines. We spent a few hours the Saturday before V-day working on all of that, but they really enjoyed the crafting time!

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On Valentine’s Day, we surprised the kids with donuts for breakfast:

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Hyrum got heart shaped little sandwiches and strawberries for lunch at school, and the other kids got to make some Valentines at home from stamps and washi tape.

After school the kids did Valentine mad-libs and played with their Valentines from us: M&Ms, Hyrum got Pokemon cards, Zane got a little Vtech car, and Cora got pokemon cards and a heart necklace set.

For dinner we had chicken alfredo, copycat Olive Garden breadsticks, and strawberry salad, and Martinelli’s:

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After dinner we got to look at our love notes. All through February we leave each other little notes telling each other why we love them and put the notes in our special envelopes. On V-day we finally got to read them! All the kids loved it, especially Cora, who just felt so special that she thanked that person after every note we read. I love this tradition!

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After the kids were in bed, Ryan and I had our own little celebration. We ate the crème Brule I had made and danced to songs from a playlist I had made of songs that are special to us through our 10 years together.

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V-day was also the 10-year anniversary of our first kiss, and here’s what I posted about it on Facebook: “10 years ago, Ryan and his barbershop group came to my apartment and sang a song to me with my name in it, he gave me a stuffed animal, and he took me on a date. Later that night I told him my nose was cold, which he thought was code for “kiss me.” It wasn’t, but I’m sure glad he kissed me anyways! Happy ten year anniversary of my last first kiss!”

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February 2017

The kids celebrated their 100th day of school in February, and they both made crazy hats, though I only got a picture of Cora in hers:

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The amazing ladies in my branch threw me a surprise baby shower, in February, and it just made me feel SO loved! I sure love all the wonderful women I get to associate with here in Papillion. They are always serving and thinking of others. And here’s the pretty cake my friend made for the party:

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I left Zane and Cora for just 2 minutes while I ran downstairs to get a missing ingredient when they were helping me make some muffins. When I got back, Zane had managed to throw flour EVERYWHERE. Like I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but there was flour even on the opposite counter. This month he also quickly grabbed an egg while he was “helping” me bake and smashed it all over himself. Some kinds of help…

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Ryan and I went on a lot of dates this month to try to get some in before the baby comes, and one was to the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater, when you can sit in a Star Wars ship chair and fire the Death Star:

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We cut Hyrum and Zane’s hair this month, and we were wanting to try a new hairstyle, but here’s how Hyrum felt about that idea:

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Hyrum was looking so handsome and studly one day that Ryan told him he looked like a little lady-killer. Hyrum had never heard that phrase before, and said, “I don’t kill ladies!”

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On our best snow day this year (re: still not that great), the kids were playing outside, and Zane decided to try stepping in our little pond/fountain in the backyard. Needless to say, he did not love getting soaked in freezing water up to his chest. He was fine, but we are definitely going to get rid of our little pond!

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My two little painters, hard at work:

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We were selling this mirror, and here’s how Ryan took pictures of it to post it online:

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We painted our front living/dining room this month, and Zane sure loved to be a helper. Ryan also hung new curtain rods, yay!

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Zane has aa ton more words and than he used to and is frequently putting simple sentences together now. However, with his increasing vocabulary also comes his joy of yelling it in church. Multiple people tell me how fun he is to watch during Sacrament meeting, which is a testament to how distracting his antics are!

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What a handsome husband I have! And he loves to take moody selfies that I will then post into the blogosphere Winking smile

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My belly is huge! I’m at 35 weeks in the dress and 37 weeks in the white shirt. Even at 35 weeks, many strangers thought I was due any day and were very, very surprised when I told them I still had 5 weeks left. Yes, people, I can get bigger, and I have!

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Cora’s heart hair for Valentine’s Day. She usually only wants a ponytail every day, so I felt very special when one Sunday she told me, “just today, Mommy, you can do my hair however you want!”

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Zane loves to run somewhere, then kick his leg as high as he can, then do a spin. I call it his kick-spin move, though I have no idea where he learned it!

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We had Cora’s parent-teacher conference this month, and her teacher told us she is the perfect student! It didn’t surprise me at all, since she is such a smart, kind, helpful, loving girl at home too!

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Hyrum told me his dream was the same as Flynn Rider’s from Tangled- to be “surrounded by enormous piles of money!”

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Cora also let me curl her hair (after I had curled my hair), so we had to get a picture! And when given the chance, Zane will choose to wear a vest any day of the week, though convincing him to wear a shirt underneath can be difficult:

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We moved our Duplos into Zane’s room, since he was always sad the kids don’t let him play with their Legos. I worried there would always be a constant pile of Duplos everywhere, but Zane actually loves to clean them up whenever he can!

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