New wheels!

My dear Miss Alyssa turned a whopping four years old today. Oh my, where has the time gone! Seems like only yesterday I was sitting in the hospital reminding the hospital staff that I had a GIRL* and that - No, even though we didn't already have a name picked out we were NOT naming her Katrina**.

Daddy took the day off so we could celebrate as a family and boy what a celebration it was!


According to our family tradition, she got to decorate her own birthday cake. (Minus the chocolate frosting and the writing...)

We're not big party people around our house so we generally just have the Grandmas and Grandpas from both sides come over for a little cake and ice cream. My Aunt and Uncle arrived at my parents' house just as they were leaving for the party, so they piled in car and came over to join in the festivities.


Kenna just couldn't resist trying to help Lyssa blow those candles out!


Liam certainly enjoyed his piece of cake. It was gone in a flash! I think the cake part ended up (mostly) in his stomach, but I'm pretty sure the majority of the frosting was on his face.


He was also eager to help Alyssa with the presents. He managed to snatch a bow before she could shoo him away.


Reading the fun card the Aunt Tanya sent. There was an audible gasp when she saw that there was money inside...and stickers too! What more could a girl want?


And the finale of the presents - Mom and Dad finally broke down and got the kid some wheels. For some reason we have been reluctant (or too lazy...whatever) to get the kids bikes, so we decided that a scooter might be the way to get both the parents and the kids used to some extra mobility.


Liam immediately made a grab for the scooter while Lyssa was trying on her helmet. Looks like more than one kid might be getting wheels this year since they are already fighting over it. (SIGH.) I forsee many hours of enduring his screams while watching her ride it around.

After everyone left and we ran a quick errand, we let Alyssa pick where she wanted to go for dinner. She picked Arctic Circle based on the fact that they have a playground (and the fact that McKenna kept encouraging her to go there). Mom and dad were less than thrilled with the choice, but the kids enjoyed it.

After we read her new book and got snuggled into bed for the night, she told me that she had a really fun birthday.

Here's wishing you many more my sweet girl...


*There was another baby with the same last name born on the same day as Lyssa in our hospital. The other family had a boy. Somehow they thought that OUR baby was the boy. They had a blue card in her bassinet and one of the pediatricians even showed up for a pre-circumcision check-up. (That was disturbing in and of itself since we certainly didn't request the procedure.) We had to convince every doctor and nurse that came to check on us during our stay that we actually had a girl.

**Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the day after Alyssa was born. Way too many people suggested we should name her after the storm. Like I want my child to have that kind of a namesake...

Easter Bunny

Apparently my family has a tradition of doing the Easter Bunny part of Easter on the Saturday before the actual Easter holiday. Somehow I did not remember this and was reminded of it by my mother on Thursday night.

After she told me about it I thought, Wow! My parents are so smart! That makes it so much easier to "enjoy" the whole Easter basket-egg finding-gorging on candy thing and still reserve Sunday for the celebration of the religious type Easter (and not have hyper kids during Church!).

So...this year we picked up an (apparently forgotten!) Easter tradition from my family and celebrated the Easter Bunny on Saturday morning. I am now a big advocate of this approach. It was much more relaxed and fun for every one.



Some Easter basket treasures....


The Easter Bunny was cheap this year. $1 bubbles were a big hit though.


We had a little egg hunt in the backyard since I have not been able to bring myself to brave one of the city sponsored ones. I have nightmares of my children getting trampled and then coming home empty handed to boot.


Intense concentration is required when peeling an egg you are going to complain about eating about 10 minutes later.


Liam attempted to eat the egg before we had taken the shell off and managed to give himself a good schmear of blue lipstick for the rest of the day.

It was a wee tad cold outside, but so nice to have a relaxing morning to enjoy the time with the kids.

Pre-Easter Preparations

Decorating Easter eggs is one of those things that strikes fear into my heart. Multi-colored dye with the potential of staining anything it touches, hanging around in liquid form, and actually meant for child participation. Scary! I feel the need to go break out the spot remover just thinking about it.

Apparently it scares Liam too.

We took precautions (note the large field of while in the photo – hooray for white plastic garbage bags!) and managed to escape without incident.

Matt got involved and made a very interesting rainbow spotted egg using the wax from a candle and soaking the egg in increasingly darker colors. Apparently the process required intense concentration…

Cruise - The Backstory

In order to understand why this trip was such a crazy thing, I have to give a little backstory about how we even got there in the first place.

On Feb. 10th, my dad had an appointment with his oncologist. The doctor noticed that my dad’s PSA numbers were starting to rapidly jump again (from the mid 300’s to the high 700’s in a month) and let him know that they would need to start chemo again soon. He also told him that the chemo would be less effective this time, so they wouldn’t do as many treatments (3-4 instead of the 9 he had before). The only treatment available after that would be an experimental pill they are testing in Vegas that would require them to drive down there often for check-ups.

He suggested that if there was anywhere my dad wanted to go, or anything he wanted to see, he should probably go before his next appointment, because he would likely not be well enough again. His next appointment was scheduled for the 3rd of March.

So, on the way home from the appointment that day, my siblings sort of joked a little about going on a cruise - something my parents have wanted to do for quite a while - to try and lighten the mood a little. I guess at some point my sister Lori whipped out her handy iPhone and started looking around the internet for cruise deals.

I'll spare all the details on how they eventually ended up finding something, but it was sort of miraculous how it all worked out. They ended up with an itinerary that my dad had really wanted that was leaving the following Sunday.

My sister called that evening and told me about the trip. She said that they were trying to get all the siblings to go along, that it would be a great trip, etc. My heart sort of sank. I knew there was no way I could go. We wouldn't have anyone to watch the kids while Matt was at work, my passport had expired, I didn't know if I could get work off, an old friend was coming for a visit during the same week, we didn't have the money...yeah, you get the idea. I told her I wouldn't be able to go.

I mentioned it when I talked to Matt on the phone that night. But didn't really say too much because I had pretty much decided it was impossible. I didn't really think too much more about it until I got home from work on Wednesday and Matt called me. He doesn't normally call me from work unless it's something really important so when I answered I was a slightly worried. He just said, "Can you get next week off work?" and I sort of panicked inside, not sure why he would be asking. I told him him I probably could and when I asked why he said, "I've been working things out with your sister. You're going on the cruise. You need to call her right now and give her the credit card number."

I was floored. The only thing I could do was cry. I hadn't realized how much it meant to me to go until he said I was going with them. He had been working all day to get work off for the next week and to get things arranged with my sister. He said he thought I'd regret it if I didn't go and chances like this only come around once in a great while. I called my sister, gave her the information she needed, hung up the phone and then sat down on the kitchen floor and just cried. I was overwhelmed.

There were a million things running through my brain...mostly just the gratitude for my amazing husband and his willingness to sacrifice so much for me and for the amazing opportunity to spend the time with my parents and siblings.

That and I was panicking when I realized I only had three days to get everything put together.

Ranting and Rambling...(might want to skip this post)

Yesterday was not my favorite day.

My morning prayers started out asking for help to understand and complete some things I had for a big deadline at work. Let's just say, I wasn't specific enough when I asked for understanding.

I meant "please give me a light bulb moment in which everything becomes clear and I magically get all this really hard stuff done."

I got "here, let me show you how you have been doing this wrong all along and you will understand how you need to do this in the future because you will be redoing everything from the whole last year."

So my prayer was answered, but totally not what I meant.

I was tired.

The inversion made me grumpy.

And I was really mad at myself for not seeing the problem sooner.

But, at least I had a date with my hubby to look forward to.

When I got home, Liam seemed like he was breathing kind of shallow and fast. I didn't think too much of it, but I thought I ought to call the doctor anyway, just to make sure. The nurse was busy, so I made an appointment for the next day and asked that she call me back when she could.

Matt and I got ready to go out. He picked up my niece to baby-sit for us and we left.

Halfway to the restaurant, I got a call from the doctor's office. I briefly explained what was going on with Liam and they told me I had to get him checked out that night.

We ended up in the doctor's office at 7:45. (Who knew they were open so late?) Turns out the poor kid had an ear infection and fever of 102.5 by the time we got him all checked out.

Next stop - Walgreens for the prescription. I've never been to a Walgreens before. I don't know that I'll go back. They kind of scare me.

Matt took my niece home while I got the kids medicated and in bed. (Lyssa still has a cough and Liam needed to take his prescription for the ear.)

Little did we know, the night was just starting. Between Alyssa and Liam, we were making trips upstairs about every 10 minutes. Liam was fussing and coughing. At one point, he threw up all over everything, completely covering himself and me. Lyssa was whimpering and crying all night. How is that not supposed to break your heart? I hate it when they are sick.

After another doctor's visit this morning, we found out Alyssa's ears are both infected.

We have so much medication in our fridge.

I have had enough. SERIOUSLY.

Also, I want a do-over on the date night. Doctor's offices are not fun places for dates.

We're going to party today!

The kids and I spent all of yesterday evening getting ready for today's big celebration. We made a cake, hung streamers, blew up balloons and wrapped presents.

All to celebrate the one who does so much to take care of us and make us happy.

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart.

I hope we can make this birthday a special one.

In which I realize how fast two weeks passes...

Has it really been two weeks since I posted last? That sure went by fast. I have been absorbed with snuggling sick and/or cranky babies. Try as I might, I just couldn’t pull myself away from them. (Okay, I didn’t try that hard because seriously which is better: sitting at a computer or kissing their chubby little cheeks?)

But now they are feeling better and don’t need mom’s attention quite so much, I can give a run down on what we’ve been up to.

• Voting: What a wonderful opportunity to participate in an historic election! I was lucky enough to get to the polls when there were absolutely no lines. (I tend to take my time voting so it was really nice not to have someone oozing impatience breathing down my neck this time.) I must say that overall I’m impressed with the general public and their interest in the races. I think more people actually took the time to educate themselves, not only on the presidential candidates, but the candidates for their local offices as well. Although my candidate didn’t win, I am always grateful that we have a chance to cast our vote. (And I am grateful that we can hear about something besides politics in the news now. Two years is an AWFUL long campaign season.)

• Anniversary: Matt and I celebrated our EIGHTH anniversary. (Although my dad keeps asking me if I’m sure it’s really eight years and not five. When I remind him that I have a five year old and I had her AFTER I had been married for a while, he just shakes his head like he thinks I’m crazy.) We went out of town for a night while my parents took the kids. I forgot what sweet BLISS it is to be able to sleep in as late as I want to, and what wonders a full night of rest can do for the dark circles under my eyes. We didn’t get to do the things we had planned because of the inclement weather, but it turned out better because of it. Matt surprised me with a trip to the jewelry store to pick out a new ring. We couldn’t find exactly what he had in mind, but found these that have some sentimental significance.
  
  
  We had a nice lazy, relaxing time. It was honestly probably one of the best anniversaries we’ve had. I love him more everyday.

• November Family FHE: Every month my entire family gets together for a big family home evening. This month it was collecting the walnuts under a neighbors’ tree and cleaning them up. It was fun to get to see everyone, as always. We were able to put mom and dad’s new back porch to good use as a walnut cleaning station and cafeteria for the soup and hot chocolate. Dad and Liam took a little nap together on the couch. I wish I had had my camera there to snap a shot. They looked so cute together with their little bald noggins poking out of the blanket they were snuggled in. I love seeing the two of them together.

• Speaking of Cameras…a long time ago I coveted a camera that was just coming out on the market. I mean REALLY REALLY coveted. My sweet hubby suggested that I use it as a motivational tool to help me reach some goals I was in the process of setting. (I must apologize to him for my original hostility toward the idea. Sometimes that psychology degree of his gets really annoying when he’s right.) So guess what…I reached my initial goal and now I’m the proud owner of THIS baby. I took it out for a spin during my lunch hour at work one day and had a lot of fun trying out all the features. Here are a couple of the results:
  
  
  
  
  
  I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I’m hoping the quality of our family photos will improve (as well as the quantity) once I learn how to use it.

• Mix it up Monday: We made our tent:
  
  
  We turned off the lights and gave them flashlights to keep them entertained for a couple hours. Somehow every toy and activity seemed more intriguing to them if it was performed under the cover of a blanket tent. I think we’ll be doing this more often. I’ll also resume doing the mix-it-ups next week. We have a few projects in mind to try out.

• This week has found us shuttling McKenna to various birthday parties and trying to comfort Alyssa when she had the misfortune of having to stay home with mom. It has been good for McKenna to have some time with her friends. It's just hard for the little one left behind. While McKenna was gone last night she kept erupting in tears while saying, "I miss McKenna!" (Basically the same routine we go through every night except substitute 'Daddy' instead of 'McKenna'.) Funny how she doesn't seem to like her quite so much when she's home.

That's pretty much it for the most part. I'll spare you the details on the newest sickness that has plagued our house. I'm just hoping someday we will be able to go disease free for at least a couple of weeks in a row. We're all going stir crazy locked up in here!

Halloween!

Wow! What a wonderful Halloween this year.

The weather MADE it. It's the only year I can remember that the kids didn't need a coat. It's so depressing to get the kids all dressed up and then have to cover them up with a big bulky winter coat. They loved, loved, LOVED being able to actually show off their costumes.

Matt also had the night off for the first Halloween since we've had kids old enough to go Trick-or-Treating. It made the whole evening a lot easier. I have always packed up and taken the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood before. That way if one of the kids got tired halfway through or if we had a baby we could leave them with Grandma while the other one got to finish. This time, Dad got to take them out while I passed out candy with Liam.

It was our first experience trick or treating in the new neighborhood. I'm so glad that they still do the house to house thing here. Trunk-or-Treats make me sad. A big part of the fun on Halloween for me was getting to go to the different houses. The best part about it now is that the kids burn off some of the extra sugar by walking around. Definitely makes it easier to get them to sleep on Halloween night.

More Catch Up Posting

I'm still catching up from the weekend. Ugh...I'm a slow poke.

Saturday (the 25th):

Since Saturday is really our only day to work on projects around the house, Matt needed to work on finishing up the garage (he's made lots of progress!!) and I was trying to get some other projects finished. So...Tanya stepped in and saved us once again.

She took the kids over to Grandma and Grandpa T.'s house for a picnic and they did this while they were there:







Obviously, they had a lot more fun than we did at home.

Tanya and I took them to the aquarium later that day. It was the first time we had been there. It's pretty small, but since the kids had never seen anything like it before, they were impressed.



Tanya took a lot of great pictures and even let me test out her camera.

My shot...

Her shot with the (oh so handy) remote.

It was a nice low-key activity after all the sugar infused craziness we had the night before.

Sunday (the 26th):

Primary Program!

The program was wonderful. It is always sweet to hear the little voices singing and sharing testimonies.

Let me just say here that I've been in Primary enough times to VERY MUCH APPRECIATE all the time, effort and just plain WORK that goes in to this. I am so grateful for the wonderful women in our ward that are willing to serve with the kids. In my mind this is the most difficult (and most important!) organization in the ward to serve in. They are amazing. And especially thanks to Heidi who wrangles my precocious Kenna every week. It's a tough job!

Kenna was scared to go up on the stand at first, and although I'm not certain how she fared while she was up there, she was happy when it was all over. We had to leave Church early to come back and help Matt out before he went to work (the big hole in his shoulder was hurting a fair amount). Lyssa cried all the way home about not getting to go to her class and play with the kids. Ah Nursery. Blessed be thy teachers.

We had a yummy dinner with Matt's family later in the afternoon. Tanya made a wonderful spread for everyone. I can't wait to try out her Beef Tips recipe myself!

Straight from there, we ran off to an Eagle Court of Honor for my nephew, Dallin. It was so neat to see him receive an award for such a great accomplishment! The bald eagle they brought in intrigued the girls, but when it started flapping its wings, I think they got a little nervous.

Tuesday (the 28th):

Kenna's official birthday. Oh my, where has the last five years gone!

After the girls got home from school, we went to the Planetarium. It is Kenna's favorite place and has the added bonus of being easy on the wallet since they don't charge to look around.

Grandma and Grandpa T. came over later, as well as Aunt Lori and Cousin Bryson. (Grandpa Y. wasn't feeling well so they weren't able to make it over.) It was nice and mellow after Friday's hullabaloo. We did the present thing, and had some cake and ice cream to share (oh my what a sugar fest this week is turning out to be!). We played fairies, checked out all the new toys and what they did and just let the kids get hyper and have fun.

Good times.

With that...I believe I am mostly caught up. Congrats to you if you actually made it through this. There are times when having this double as a journal is incompatible with making it interesting for anyone but me. (Okay, that's probably most of the time...sorry.)

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Par-tay!

I can finally grab a spare minute to post an update on some of the fun stuff we did this last weekend. And BOY HOWDY was there a lot of stuff.

Friday (the 24th):

I went out to lunch with Tanya and the in-laws. We went to one of my favorite little places here in town called Les Madelines. (Seriously, if any of you are ever in town and are the "foodie" type, you have to go here. Also, if you like pastries, it's a bakery and they have something called Kouing Aman that is SO. AMAZING.) I really love their food; it's light and healthy (well...minus the pastry part) and just plain yummy.

I headed straight for home after we finished, and it was a good thing! There was still a lot we needed to do before the party.

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This is where I report that the kids didn't think helping me get ready for the party was all that fun - unless it was the part where we made the cakes for the kids to decorate - and that they fought me all week about it. My take-away lesson for that Mix-it-Up idea? Don't try to teach them how to clean the whole house and get ready for a party all in the same week. (I know you saw that coming, why didn't you tell me?) We learned some really valuable things from it though (like they can help more than I thought they could), so I think it was worth it in the end.
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I have a tendency to sort of freeze up and do nothing when I get really stressed. Since I had a lot on my mind with work and other family stuff, not even including the party and birthday, I think I froze up most of the week and didn't get things accomplished like I wanted to. When Tanya got to the house, the panic had just set in where I knew I wouldn't be able to get it all done in time. Lucky for me she saved my booty. I am not overstating this - SHE WAS MY LIFESAVER.

While we were busy getting everything ready, Matt headed to the doctor to get a small cyst taken off his shoulder. (Nothing serious, just irritating.) They ended up having to make a decent sized hole to get the thing out, so he was pretty sore once he got back (and the numbness wore off).

When the kids arrived, the first thing we did was this:

Balloon release, Nienie style...complete with wishes attached.

It was so much fun! They got into it way more than I thought they would and sort of turned the whole thing into a balloon race.

Then we decorated cakes. Somehow this has turned into one of our birthday traditions. We always make a small cake for the birthday kid and let them decorate it with whatever they want. Our girls have LOVED it and look forward to it every birthday, so we decided to share the love.

Some of the kids getting ready to decorate.

My niece, Harlie, with her completed cake. This pose was so cute, I couldn't resist posting the picture!

Somewhere in there our couch broke. When Matt pulled it away from the wall to assess the damage we discovered that it came with an extra accessory we didn't know about. Our first clue was a blade sticking out of the back of it about 3 inches. Apparently a set of scissors got sewn into it when it was being made. Matt was able to fix the couch though and (BONUS!) we got a new set of scissors out of the whole deal. Too bad there is a big slit in the back of the couch where we had to cut to get them the rest of the way out.

All the kids.

All in all, it was a great time. The kids stayed around a little while and played down in the basement while the adults got to talk. My little social butterfly loved her party and I loved having it over so I don't have to worry about it any more!

That's enough of an update from me for one day. More to come!

I'm going crazy, would you like to come along?

Let's talk about how yesterday went, shall we? (I need the therapy...)

(I'm not even going mention what happened at work yesterday because this would turn into an ANGRY ANGRY rant. But know that it sucked and I was justifiably grumpy.)

On the way home from the place that shall not be named, I drove around a LARGE parking lot for 20 minutes looking for our other car. (Matt and I normally have to switch cars in the middle of the day since only one has all three car seats in it right now.) He was teaching a training class at a place I had never been before. He had called earlier and told me right where to find the car...and I couldn't find it. Bah. Brain? What is that?

By the time I finally DID fid it, I was late picking the kids up. (Can you say SLACKER MOM?)Normally we just trade off the kids when we trade cars, but since he was working all morning, my parents had them. Thankfully they are AWESOME and were just chillin' with the kids when I got there.

I had to drag the girls kicking and screaming out to the car (can you tell that they love grandma and grandpa's house?). That is always so much fun! And then there was the crying and whining all the way home about why they can't just live at grandma's house because she is sooooo much nicer than me. Fabulous.

Just to add to the joy, Liam decided to practice his annoying little brother skills on the ride home. When I went to take the kids out of the car, he had a big handful of McKenna's hair. Her precious "princess hair" that she LOVES. LOVES.(Now I know why she was whining and crying!) You're treading on thin ice, kid.

I lugged everyone into the house while trying to talk to my mother-in-law on the phone. As soon as we walked in the door, I dropped all 10 bags I was carrying (fortunately I managed not to drop the baby!) and COLLAPSED onto the couch long enough to finish the last 2 minutes of the phone call. The whole time, Alyssa was crying and Liam was waving his fistful of hair triumphantly in Kenna's face, making her scream about her princess hair being all gone. Awesome.

Matt called the second I hung up from talking to his mom. So while we were chatting, I changed clothes and took the kids coats and shoes off (more crying and whining). I took the butter out of the fridge for the cakes I ABSOLUTELY needed to make that night and set it on the counter. As we kept talking, he arrived at his regular work building and said something like, "As long as you remembered to get my uniform out of the back of the Jeep..."

OH #*&$%!

(I didn't actually swear, but I so wanted to...)

So...I changed clothes AGAIN (can't wear PJs to his work...and yes I changed into my pajamas at 5:30), put the kids' coats and shoes on AGAIN and dragged everyone and everything back out to the car. We took Matt his uniform, sat through the lovely rush hour traffic, and finally arrived back home an hour after we left.

I was DONE.

The kids didn't get a bath...I don't think I even remembered to brush their teeth.

The cakes did not get made like they were supposed to. In fact, as far as I know, the butter is still sitting on the counter.

Like I said...CRAZY.

I think I'm going to go read yesterday's post again...

Oh, and thanks to Jon and Kate Plus 8 commercials for the post title. I can't even handle 3 I have no idea how they handle 8.

Punkin' Pickin'

Daddy and his girls.

Last Friday we went on our annual trip to the local farmer's to pick punkins. (For some reason I cannot get my kids to say puMPkin correctly. It always comes out punkin.) We started going to a nearby patch when Kenna was just tiny and they have always loved it. It has been a fun family tradition that the kids look forward to every year.

Gratuitous cute baby picture.

This time we went to a different spot. There is a grower a little bit closer to our house. They have a lot of tractors for the kids to play on and take pictures with, as well as a small corn maze. (Which we didn't get to go through because Alyssa was being CRANKY. I hate the transition phase between nap and no nap. This child does not handle it well.)

See... CRANKY

It seemed like the girls picked up every pumpkin they could carry. We ended up with more than we needed, but it was so fun to watch the kids run from row to row checking out all the pumpkins to find just the perfect one (or five...). Liam and I hung out while Matt chased McKenna and Alyssa around the patch and hauled everything back to the wheelbarrow.

Debating the virtues of the 20th pumpkin they've looked at in 3 minutes...

Attempt at a self portrait. Not as good at it as NieNie.

My husband is the photographer...but I always end up taking the pictures.

Go figure. I just want my kids to know that I actually showed up.

I really liked this new place. Mostly because instead of actually weighing the pumpkins here like they did at the patch we've been to before, there were just a couple of teenage boys standing there eyeing people's wheelbarrows and haggling between themselves about how much to charge. I'm not sure if there was any rhyme or reason to it. When it was our turn, the one kid looked in the wheelbarrow and gave us a price. The other one was still trying to tally things up as we paid, got our change and walked away. Let's just say that we ended up paying a lot less than we have in the past. Always a bonus...

Look! A smile!

I had to hand Liam off to dad for a minute. That kid is HEAVY.
He was so excited to be there he could hardly contain himself.

Our haul.

As soon as we get them carved, we are officially ready for Halloween.

Let's just get the birthday party out of the way first.

(Have I mentioned how I don't like parties?)

Talk to the Animals

This weekend we had a chance to talk to all sorts of wild animals. After we got all our work (okay, MOST of our work) done on Saturday morning, we made an impromptu visit to the Zoo. We didn't pick the best day to go. The place was packed with people since they had their annual fund raiser that morning. But the weather was nice and we got to see quite a bit in the short amount of time we had.

Matt with the kids by the giraffes. (The giraffe

walked right behind his head just as I snapped the picture.

One of the guides showing the girls a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

(Yes, the ones they ate on Fear Factor. Yes, Alyssa actually touched it.)

Me, McKenna and Liam on the train

Matt and Alyssa on the train

The girls had a great time, minus the part about not seeing a hippo. (Kenna was really disappointed.) We did get to see the white alligator though. A good opportunity since I guess he is going home to Louisiana next week and there are only 10 of them in the world. The rest of the weekend was filled with this animal....

I am teething! My gums hurt...

Showing off the new teeth he sprouted about a week ago...

We had a great weekend!