A Visit to the Frank Buck Zoo

We took the kids to our new favorite zoo, Frank Buck Zoo, up in Gainesville last Saturday. It was the perfect day, and we just HAD to take advantage of the Spring like weather in the middle of January. The zoo is so cute. It is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers, and it has a little park with a picnic area right outside for even more fun. Greyson wanted to show me that he could stand "just like a mingo" by standing on one foot. Hannah was utterly mesmerized by all of the wooden fences that she could climb to look at each animal.

They both enjoyed feeding the goats, and they got along so great. It makes me so grateful for our little family and the opportunities that we have to spend quality time together. What a great memory!

Fun Time with Scarlett

Hannah's best friend, Scarlett, came over to play the day after her birthday so they decided to prepare some meals together Hannah is still potty training so she is going pantsless at home. This makes wearing the apron especially hilarious!

They created us a fancy meal of bread, lemons, apples, and measuring cups. It was quite a treat :-).

It's always hard to leave so hugs were in order..

The day would not be complete without a quick ride on Amy's feet. Unfortunately, Hannah had a tad of a poo incident that might or might not have inadvertently ended up on the top of Amy's shoe. I'm sure she deserved it for something ;-). We could not stop laughing...it's not every day you get human feces on the top of your tennies lol.

Another fun day came to an end but not without some icky mess and good times to look back upon.

Hannah's Birthday Festivities

We had a very special day for Hannah's birthday so I thought I'd share here. We have a few birthday traditions in the Shelton House, and the day always begins with the birthday girl/boy's favorite muffins on our Special Day plate. It's something that I hope to carry on for their whole lives, and we all enjoy it :-). Hannah requested blueberry of course.

We dropped Greyson off at school, and we headed to gymnastics for our usual Wednesday morning of jumping and fun.

We decided to do a "Ladies Lunch" to celebrate the occasion at Jason's Deli. This is definitely one of my fave places to eat, and Hannah is equally fond of it :-). It definitely doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the ice cream or anything.I made Hannah some Olivia themed cupcakes for the occasion and served them on some zebra printed plates I had lying around.
This kid is a PRO at blowing out the candles. This is the first year that Greyson has been able to do it successfully. I guess she has a good teacher.
She opened a few gifts from Grandma, Great Grandma, and I.

Testing out that icing...it is the best part!
Once Daddy got home from work, we had another small celebration as a family. I had held back four more cupcakes for the occasion, and Greyson just had to help out.

I could see the red icing making its way all over the clothes so we decided to remove shirts/dresses. Hannah decided she much preferred the buff look and enjoyed her cupcake just like that :-).

LOTS of red icing later a bath was in order. Hannah was ridiculously in love with bathing with Greyson in case you can't tell from the picture. She kept grabbing him and hugging him to the point of suffocation (as shown by his face), but the look on her face is priceless. She just ADORES her big brother :-).
She had to put on her new nightgown from Grandma to open her gifts. I LOVE this!

She loved ripping through the paper and seeing what was inside. I just love how she really gets into and really understands what's going on this year.
She got a baker's assistant set from us since she is the quintessential kitchen helper. She MUST assist me with every task no matter how big or small. Look at that chef --- she is SO cute, and I just LOVE her to pieces!
Already getting to work in her own kitchen before bed.
It was a great day, and we are so excited to celebrate Greyson's birthday in the coming days!

Hannah's Turns Two!

Two years ago, on a cold and wintry night, James and I left for Baylor Grapevine to start the induction process for our little Princess. After 23 weeks of bed rest, countless doctor's appointments, and lots of worrying, it was time for us to meet this little diva who was causing so much trouble. She decided she just didn't want to come out as quickly as we would have liked, but it wouldn't be Hannah if she wasn't stubborn and working on her own timeline. Hannah was born January 26, 2009 at 8:41 p.m. weighing in at 7lbs 13 oz and 20 inches long. We fell in love! In honor of this momentous occasion, here are some shots from her early days! Enjoy! We love you little girl!

In the hospital enjoying her hand knitted hat from the volunteers at the hospital

All bowed up for her newborn shots in the hospital

At home resting in one of her MANY MANY ensembles

A girl's gotta have accessories. She was so little and cuddly!

Hannah's 2 week check up

Sometimes bath time can be so tiring...
A snuggle with Grandma after the bath is a must!
She's AWAKE!
Greyson is such a good big brother!
Thank you Tammy and Toby for sending me these pictures! I am so grateful to have some of them back :-). Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Potty Training is Complete -- well almost

So it's been 4 1/2 days since we started potty training Hannah, and she is doing amazingly well. Yesterday, I spent the day with Tammy and Kim for Tammy's birthday. James stayed home with the kids so the potty training baton was passed along. He called me a few hours in to let me know that Hannah had her first #2 success in the potty, and that was cause for HUGE celebration. I think these potty training victories are some of the best so far with her. It's so neat to watch her growing up and being such a big girl. On the flip side it's sad to think that she's not our little baby anymore.

We attempted our first outing last night to dinner for Tammy's birthday, and I decided to go commando with just undies (aka - big girls). She ended up peeing her pants on the way to the restaurant without my knowing, and I didn't figure it out until I picked her up and put her on my hip which got nice and wet. Yippee! The joys of potty training. We had to ghetto strip her down in the back of the SUV for all to see. It was a good thing I brought new clothes and a pull up, because I wasn't ready for another accident should it occur. During dinner, my Mom asked her if she needed to go once, and she hesitated so I swooped her up and rushed her to the OTB bathroom. The toilet was in need of some fresh attention so I held her over the potty which was kind of tricky, but she DID IT! WOOHOO! Success in public! I plan on taking her out for a stroll this afternoon to see if we can have another, but this girl is on FIRE! We are super proud!

The State Fair of Texas

As you can see, I am a bit behind. The only good thing that has come out of this whole losing my entire history in pictures incident is that I am forced to look through TONS of photos that my family and friends are sending me (that I sent them) so I can piece together what I can of a pictorial history of the kids. I realize now that I never posted anything about our exciting trip to the State Fair one warm and sunny day. Grandma and I took the kids on a whim when we didn't have anything else to do. James and I actually went back with Greyson and had a blast as well. Here are some pics from the first trip...

This ride scared the crud out of me. It was Hannah's first Fair ride, and of course it was a little much. She was SO ready to go on it with Greyson, and I pushed right past the non-English speaking worker who said she wasn't big enough to put my WAY too small of a child on this fun ride. It was fine right about here until the car hit the end of the straight away and whipped the kids around like CRAZY to turn them around in the opposite direction. I just kept telling Greyson to make sure Hannah didn't stand up, and he did a great job supervising :-).

This is me helping the kids after riding on the above scary ride along with the non-English speaking worker that I ran past so Hannah would get to ride. They came out alive and uninjured so I would say it was a success!

Greyson taking his sister for a ride.

We got the most adorable caricature of the kids there. We waited for like an hour, and the kids were miserable but it is SO cute. I had to stuff about 3 huge bags of fruit snacks down her throat to get her to comply so that ended up in the finished product (her cheeks stretched to full capacity with mounds of fruit snacks). Ha ha little artist man lol!

We rode a LOT of rides, and here are some of the highlights.
We got to pilot our own plane :-)


This was had a funny story. It was the BIG kid ride that Greyson just HAD to go on, and it was the end of the day. We got in that thing, and it just took off. It's definitely my kind of ride, but I wasn't so sure if it was safe for the stinker boy. About 10 seconds in, I put the Vulcan death grip on his fore arm, because I was convinced that he was going to fly out. He did fine, and he actually started to doze off which was CRAZY. I mean who doses off on a high flying super hero ride like. I guess he found it soothing or he was just so insanely tired that he could actually find this restful.
What a great day, and I can't wait for James and I to take him back next year!

A Few of My Favorite Things

I've seen a couple of my friends posting about their favorite things so I think I'll take this opportunity to look back at a few. These are just some pictures I ran across that I wanted to post but wasn't sure how to work them in. They seemed to fit here, and I think I will use "Favorite Things" to post anything fun and interesting that strikes my fancy. This is the beginning of something new and possibly a new favorite thing of mine -- Favorite Thing Lists :-). Enjoy!

1. Ice cream. That's it. I just LOVE ice cream and so do my kids. It's like I passed that glorious trait onto them so they can struggle for their entire lives with an unquenchable need for Dairy Queen Blizzards, Jason's Deli soft serve, and orange sherbet from Dairy Haven (this is by far the best ice cream in the entire world, and unfortunately it's only at this little drive up dairy stand in the middle of a farm town in Caseyville, IL). Here's a shot of Hannah enjoying her Jason's Deli ice cream IMMENSELY! My Mom and I have done extensive scientific studies, and the best Jason's Deli ice cream is at the one on Preston and Parker in Plano just in case you were ever wondering.
2. My Mom. Yup. That's right. My Mom. She's FAB, and she's Vera. We spend LOTS of time together, and I'm so thankful that she's around. Sadly, she is the one and only Grandma in this family, and I don't take that for granted. I had the opportunity to travel to St. Louis to be with my Mom for her Uncle's funeral a few months back. It was our first trip without kids since Greyson was born, and it was LONG overdue. We saw countless movies, went to all of our favorite Tea Rooms, ate WAY too many sweets, and relaxed. Here we are at our all time favorite Tea Room in Edwardsville, IL. I think it's called Joanna's, but I can't remember right now. I don't know why they don't have those places around here, but they're great. They have little fancy sandwiches, salads, soups, and desserts served on little crystal plates. It's filled with women of all ages enjoying being women together. LOVE IT!
Here you may not notice, but we are posing with a HUGE, beautiful salad on the left that we split along with way too much other food. I bet you thought that was a center piece. See what I mean -- I love that they serve it in this HUGE crystal bowl. It's ridiculous, but it's SO tasty and beautiful.
I'll keep hunting for more favorite things...feel free to join!

The Trains at North Park

We had the opportunity to take the boys to the Trains at North Park and to meet Santa together this year. To say that the kids had a blast is a complete understatement. They were RUNNING that place, and we got quite a few stink eyes from some cranky, snooty patrons. They didn't ruin our fun though....that just wasn't possible. We got our tickets to hold a place in line to see Santa (which is about a 2-4 hour wait) so we could enjoy everything they had to offer.

We started off with a cute story time with Santa. Santa is always at his best at North Park, and he did not disappoint.

Next, we headed off to the TRAINS. This is like the holy mecca of all things train. They have the whole City of Dallas set up, and it's fun to look at and explore. The only down side is that you can't touch anything, and that seems to be pretty critical for the boys. Look at those handsome conductors.

A very reluctant picture of all of us right before we left. Hannah wasn't really feeling this whole situation although I know that is completely undetectable in this pic.

The kids got bored and needed to move around more so we let the kids just run and have fun before lunch.
These boys were on FIRE with cuteness that day. Hugging, kissing, holding hands, the whole nine yards.

It was just TOO much to handle, and the way they were with Hannah was PRECIOUS.

It's another holiday tradition that we'll have to keep up every year. Hope you all had a happy holiday!

Ducks and Parks

I'm sure you're wondering about my MANY posts today, but like I said, redundancy. It's time to catch up and what better way than to blog. Over the Christmas break we went to this cute duck pond by my parent's and a fun little park. These are both places that I remember frequenting as a child so it's fun to see the kids enjoy them as much as I did.

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids feeding the completely freaked out, hungry, and pretty much ugly ducks :-). These ducks looked like bargain ducks for sure. Who knows why they don't fly south for the winter?

What's supper funny is that Hannah was absolutely in LOVE with these crazy, overly aggressive ducks. She chased them, yelled at them, and otherwise terrorized the beastly animals. She seemed to be in her element lol. Greyson on the other hand was TOTALLY freaked out by them. They were WAY too scary for him so he hung back behind Grandpa and had to be held for a while. He's our little sweet, sensitive boy, and I love it!

Hannah is quite the fan of hanging from bars after perfecting the art at gymnastics every week.

Greyson was quick to follow suit :-)!

We had such a great holiday, and there are SO many more quick posts to come to try and capture some of our fondest memories. Enjoy the day, and go back up your pics and video. That's my last reminder...