Atlas and Jane's First Trip to the Zoo! 2016

This is going to be one of those more pictures than text blog entries. On September 26, 2016 (My Birthday) ;) Jane, Atlas and I went to the Houston Zoo with Sandra and Joseph. It was Jane and Atlas's first time to go to a zoo. We had a really great time!!

We stopped to say hi to the Meerkats first. Jane liked watching them run around. 

Our next stop was to see the Elephants! Elephants are Jane's favorite animal, so she was pretty excited to see them! Recently she has been really attached to her stuffed dolphin. Maybe our next trip needs to be to Sea World!

Atlas didn't look at the animals much, but he really enjoyed the long walk and chewing on his stroller book. ;)

Jane was fascinated with the Komodo Dragon. It's so big!

I love how you can see Jane's reflection in the glass. A little unsettling though... I think it wanted to eat her...

Checking out the Zebras and Giraffes! It was a little too pricey to feed the giraffes. So we skipped it. Right after looking at the Giraffes we took a break from the heat and retreated to an eatery and grabbed some lunch and I was able to feed Atlas and change diapers.

Yay for the merry-go-round! Atlas loved it!! Probably his favorite part of the zoo.

Jane didn't want to stop riding. She loved getting to pick out what animal she got to ride.

Trying to get a group shot and Jane kept running away. Bahaha!

We did get one eventually! Holding Uncle Joseph's hand. So sweet!

Hey I got in a picture! ;) Atlas was in love with that water bottle. heehee!

Jane loved the petting zoo! She had to find every goat and brush it at least once.

My little Rhino with his Rhino in front of the Rhinos! Aunt Cerena gave Atlas a Rhino outfit when he was a newborn and I think a Rhino is perfect for him. He's such a big guy and so tough. Kokoo/Sandra got this stuffed Rhino for Atlas from the Zoo. We love it!

We had some fun playing on the Zoo playground too. :) Crawling inside a hippo!

Atlas took a nap in the stroller and then I wore him for a while so he could sleep a little longer. Looks like this Chimpanzee had a nap on the mind too. Jane was super scared of all of the primates! It was the only thing she was scared of all day. It was surprising to me. 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed is one of her favorite songs. I thought she might just be getting tired.

But then we went to see the bears right afterwards and Jane LOVED it! It was her second favorite animal exhibit.  

We decided it was time to make our way to the exit so we breezed through the big cats.

Jane was wearing a lion mask that Sandra had gotten for Holden. She probably spend about half the time riding in the stroller and half the time walking on her own. She's got so much energy!

We had to visit the Aquarium before we left. The air conditioning was very refreshing!

The Aquarium was Atlas's favorite exhibit of the day by far. He really paid attention to all the fish. He had this look on his face pretty much the whole time we were in there. :D

Jane really enjoyed the Aquarium too! But then again, Jane loved pretty much everything except the monkeys. ;) We really wanted to visit the splash pad and the train, but we ran out of time. While I was writing this post Jane saw the pictures and said "I want to go there!!" So maybe we'll have to visit again sometime soon!

Jane on the ride home with her Elephant souvenir from Kokoo. I took this picture about a minute after we started driving. She was exhausted! It was such a good trip! Atlas and Jane did amazing. There was a little fussing here and there, but I expected that. No big meltdowns and everybody stayed happy almost the whole time! I love the Zoo. It's really fun to have an excuse to go again now that I have kiddos. :)

Genesis 1:20-25

And God Said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to it's kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”  And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image,

    in the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them.

Summer Recap 2016

Weekly dinner at Cilantro's!

I know, I know, this is SUPER late, I mean it's almost summer again!! (How did that happen???) But I don't want miss out on creating a little digital scrapbook on here even if it's just for myself because we had such a fabulous summer last year!

They LOVE to swim together. :)

There were a few things that made summer 2016 eventful! The first thing was that the company my mom and I worked at went bankrupt. So we were both out of a job. This could have been seen as a bad thing, but even though it might have been a little stressful at times, we turned it into a blessing. God led me straight to a new job which I can't thank Him enough about. My mom had a retention bonus that allowed her to take the summer off. So we got to enjoy having her available to play with us and use her gorgeous pool so often! As a result Jane made huge strides in learning to swim! Atlas is a water baby for sure (Since he was born in the water I'm not suprised!). He really enjoyed his Otteroo float. I really enjoyed getting to swim and hang out with my best friend, (other than my hubby of course) my mom.

I wonder what he'll think this year!

Jane learned to swim underwater!!

He was so bald! ;)

Atlas fell asleep while we were swimming! :)

Cleaning the pool with Pappaw

Swimming with Kokoo!

Sandra, Charlie and Joseph were living in Kingwood during 2016 while they looked for steady jobs and a house. That means we got to hang out with them too and do some fun things together during the summer. I also enjoyed getting the left overs from Sandra's farmers market sometimes! Yum! We went to the Zoo for my birthday, but that was technically in fall so we'll save that for another post. ;)

Look Uncle Joseph!

So much better than store bought!

Jane really enjoyed going blueberry picking! She may have picked a few green and red ones, but overall she did great. She loved getting to eat them right off the bush. We went twice! Fresh picked blueberries make amazing smoothies, breakfast cake, muffins, etc!

Is this one good Marmee?

Atlas slept most of the time.

She asked to go back SOO many times.

Some of my closest friends are three girls that I met when my brother was playing high school baseball. We call ourselves the Sisterhoodies! Three of us were pregnant at the same time in 2015/2016 and our due dates were just a few weeks apart. So it was extra special to get together with all of our kiddos in the summer of 2016.

Only a few weeks separate these three babies Birthdays!

It's so fun to have been friends for 12+ years and now we all get to go through motherhood together. I love sharing wife and mom stories with these lovely ladies. I am always so encouraged by them.

4 years ago when we ALL got together! (minus Liz who was in China) Love y'all!

I had two get togethers with some of my best friends/former bridesmaids within a couple weeks of each other! I am so grateful that I get to keep up with these wonderful people! 

Kae and Esther are my friends from Camp Tejas. We were covenant partners with each other and have stayed close friends for about 8 years now. Kae and I have little girls 4 months apart in age. Although a good amount of Jane and Rose's play time ended in tears, 😅 they did have some really sweet and fun moments together during out visit. Esther also brought her then boyfriend now husband(!!!), Andrew, to the beginning of our get together so that we could meet him! Esther had to take him to the airport so he could fly back to Ohio so we only had a short time to chat, but Kae and I both had enough time to say we approved of her choice. 😉 It was an special visit, partly because it was the last time we were all together before Esther's Wedding. Now she is living happily with her hubby in Ohio. I can't wait for our first reunion being all married women!  Love you sweet friends!!

Such good times with wonderful friends

I can't say enough how blessed I am with these friends of mine. It's been amazing to keep in contact through the years and share our praises and our struggles and pray for each other. God is good. Oh and I just realized Atlas didn't make it in any of the pictures of that last visit. He was there! 😄

Jane loves to take pictures!

There was one more thing about the summer of 2016 that made our summer memorable. During a routine well woman's check up, my mom was informed she had an ovarian cyst that was big enough to be a concern. (don't skip those check ups ladies!) She was advised to have a hysterectomy to ensure that it was not cancer and to prevent any other cysts from forming in the future. She had to wait weeks for her surgery and we were all ready to know what we were facing, if anything! She handled this waiting period with grace and strength. She trusted God and she said she learned to relax more through the experience and make sure she was making the most of her time. 

Marmee snuggles!

The day of surgery finally came. They were able to complete the surgery laparoscopically without any complication! That was the first answered prayer. They did the biopsy during surgery and they were able to determine the cyst was not cancerous! Hallelujah! It was such a relief to get that text from my dad. She had 6 weeks of recovery and she did indeed make a full recovery and was back to normal after just a couple of months. Jane had a hard time understanding why Marmee couldn't pick her up for a while. Once she did understand that Marmee had an owie she asked to pray for Marmee's owie to get better every night! So sweet! 

It was an amazing summer and we can't wait to get back to swimming this year!

Philippians 4:6-7

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.