Saturday, April 17, 2010

Fishy Face Video



Ian's favorite animals at the zoo today were the fish. Ian loves mimicking fish by opening and closing his mouth--look for this in the video.

Fun at the Zoo

We purchased a zoo membership today. The membership will give us one year to fully explore the beauty of God's creation at the zoo. Here we are as we prepare to start our journey--Ian is all set in his "Zoo Crew" hat from Uncle Andy and Aunt Beth.
Ian listened attentively to the zookeeper (in the blue shirt) as he described the habits of this unique reptile.
Momma is explaining to Ian that elephants always walk from right to left.
Ian LOVED seeing this large sea turtle.
Ian is showing Daddy the two meerkats on top of the rock.

Ian enjoyed the petting zoo--nice goat...nice goat.Daddy and Ian liked the prairie dogs so much that they decided to get even closer to these cool animals by way of an underground tunnel. Lots of fun!

Texas Bluebonnets and Blueberries

Caleb, Ian, and Brooke (and their moms) enjoyed taking pictures in a Bluebonnet field a few weeks ago. This picture makes you wonder what all of the kids are looking at--maybe they are all contemplating God's amazing handiwork.
Momma and Ian having fun in the field of flowers.

Ian not only loves Bluebonnets but also really enjoys feasting on blueberries. Nice face, little guy!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

photography by Aunt Sarah

Aunt Sarah just shared some of her "photo gallery" with us. She took these (and many more!) pictures when we were together in Albuquerque in February. Doesn't she do GREAT work?

Ian had just discovered his nostril!Brushing teeth with Uncle Andrew
Ian LOVES the toy dog at Grammy & Papa's house.
BATH TIME!!


Happy Easter!

Poor Ian came down with a cold right before Easter. But, he was still happy enough to participate in an "egg hunt" in our front yard the day before Easter.
Daddy helped "coach" Ian on egg-gathering technique.
Ian liked the grass almost as much as the eggs ...


... but he finally did catch on to putting the eggs inside the basket. (See the video.)
We got Ian all dressed up for church on Easter Sunday. (Thanks for the cute outfit, Grammy and Papa!)
Ian still wasn't feeling the best, so he slept for part of the Easter service.
After a long nap, Ian, Momma, and Daddy went over to Ms. Lauren's parents' house in Rosehill. Ian loved "walking" around their farm.
Here's a family Easter picture where everyone's awake. :)
Mr. Chris fed the catfish so Ian could see them.
Ian loved petting and watching all of the dogs,
playing with Mr. Chris and Ms. Lauren,
and playing with Mr. Chris' phone. (What a nice guy!)
Momma and Daddy gave Ian a push toy for Easter.
Ian likes the gadgets on the front more than pushing it. :)

Some of Ian's favorite things ...

1. BUBBLES (especially popping them!)


2. Blowing his own (spit) bubbles

3. Repeating things Momma and Daddy say
(Listen for the two "big" words I like to TRY to say. :))



4. Sampling popsicles ... yum!



5. TOOTHBRUSHES!

6. Climbing stairs








7. STANDING UP!



8. Toilet paper!



9. Brushes ... and hair!



10. Playing with water


Monday, April 5, 2010

The Great Urban Race

Andrew (Kim's brother) and Sarah came from Lubbock to visit us the last weekend in February. We competed in Austin's Great Urban Race (a scavenger hunt/road rally kind of like "The Amazing Race" TV show). We had a GREAT time together!

As soon as they arrived on Friday, we started making our costumes. Andrew and Sarah were "The Mighty Molars" and Matt, Kim, and Ian were "The Pearly Whites." But, we laughingly called ourselves "Team Oral Hygiene." Andrew was a box of floss, Sarah was a tube of Crest toothpaste, Kim was an Oral-B toothbrush, Matt was a tooth, and Ian was a white strip.




We had a great time making the costumes. Kim and Andrew laughed when remembering how they had dressed up as a toothbrush and floss and their sister, Amy, had dressed up like toothpaste for Halloween when they were young. Ah ... the memories!

On Saturday morning bright and early, we started the three hour drive to Austin. We were thrilled that the Texas Bluebonnets (Texas' state flower) was in bloom! We even had our family photographer, Sarah, along to capture the moment when we stuck Ian in a bluebonnet field!


Ian liked touching the bluebonnets!
We headed into Stubb's for the noon start of the Great Urban Race. Ian took his toothbrush as a good luck charm! :)
We got LOTS of smiles and giggles when we walked in all dressed up. We enjoyed looking at everyone else's costumes, too.

There were about 350 teams of two participating in the Great Urban Race, so there were LOTS of fun costumes! We liked the Where's Waldo? costumes. Andrew & Sarah's costumes were in the top five in the costume contest, but the couple who dressed as Marge and Homer Simpson ended up winning.


We opened our envelope of clues at 12:15 and started planning. Thankfully, we could phone some friends for help ... siblings Amy and Jason, and friends who used to live in Austin (Mike, Kati, and Jenn). We mapped everything out and then headed on our way ... The twelve clues took us all over Austin ... to Gold's Gym where we got a salsa dance lesson ...
... and met some fun people along the way,

including a UT student (that was a BIG help!) who randomly carries floss around with him.We had to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on recorder outside a pizza shop,
get our photo with someone wearing a cowboy hat (tougher to find than you might think!),

pose with a group making the Hook 'Em Horns sign in front of a fountain,
get our photos with some turtles,


get our picture in front of "RIAL STA" (part of Memorial Stadium's sign),

sample doughnuts,
lasso a metal steer,
shake a pick out of a guitar,

and see why Austin's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird."
We felt like we fit right in in our costumes. :) We just barely finished the race in the five-hour time limit, but we were excited to actually finish ... in a city that was brand-new to us all! We had a wonderful time and are completely in awe of the winners who finished in just over 1 1/2 hours!


Ian was a trooper the whole day, both in the car riding to Austin and back and during the race! We think he liked all the activity!




We finished up our day in Austin with some yummy pizza at Home Slice Pizza! What a fun day!