October Recap

We had a pretty great Halloween. First, we carved our pumpkins together. This was Bella's first time actually designing her own jack-o-lantern and Mason's first time playing with pumpkin guts, so everyone was pretty happy.

That's Bella's in the middle.

Then we went trick-or-treating, including a stop to see Bella's best friend Nora, who was a ballerina.

Bella got to pick her own costume this year, and went with a witch just because she wanted the wig and broom. Mason had his costume chosen for him based on size and cuteness. So he was a chicken.

A few days later we went to the zoo for the Great Pumpkin Smash. This is the day where local businesses donate their pumpkins for the animals to play with. This has become one of our favorite events every year and Bella has been planning which animals we would see since stores around here started selling pumpkins.

This is Papa's favorite picture of the day. The look of intrigued concern on Mason's face when the elephants (which were only about 10 feet away) started moving around and making noise, pretty much sums it up. He had no idea things could get that big and wasn't sure what to do with that new information.

Watching the Gorillas eat their pumpkins.

And here's a look at Bella and Mason feeding some deer on the way out. Mason calls anything small and furry "Booker," including our other dog, who is not named Booker.

Halloween 2011

More to come soon!

Spaghetti!

It's been a while since we've uploaded anything new, but this happened tonight. They kind of like spaghetti.

May 2011

May saw Mason eating all kinds of new stuff and Papa turning into a jungle gym.

Bella had her very first gymnastics recital (called the "Spring Fling").

There are plenty of videos of all her tricks here, but this is Papa's favorite. Her first trick, she was nervous and needed to see where Mama and Peepapa were to feel better, but notice how she miraculously gets better after her first round of applause. No idea where she inherited this?!

April 2011

April was a month of randomness.
Of course there was Easter and Easter Eggs.

We built more stuff at Lowe's.

Bella got her first braids.

And there was lots of quality time just hanging out.

Oh, and Papa's worst nightmare began to take shape.
Dear...God...Not...A DRUMMER!!!!

March 2011

In March Bella went on her first trip without Mama and Papa. Peepa took her on a train ride to St. Louis to visit some of the Illinois Irwins.

She was super excited to have her VERY OWN bed at the hotel.

And she showed Peepa how to use his IPad (seriously).

And Gigi got to do a girl's hair again.


Back on the home front, Mason discovered two things:
1 - Mirrors are awesome.
2 - The baby in the mirror is adorable.

February 2011

Well, apparently nothing interesting happened in January, however in February we got THE BLIZZARD (or, as Ryan calls it, "Snownami 2K11!"). For someone who grew up in Oklahoma this was pretty awesome...for a day or two...then it got old.

This is after about 12 hours of constant snow.
The few out the back door. The dogs loved this for about 30 seconds at a time.

They closed Ryan's office that day, but he still had a big client meeting the next day. So he (and his assistant) worked most of the day.
And of course we got to build our very first snow man!