Zoo Fun

When we first moved back to Texas from Utah, Alex wasn't quite 2. I needed something fun to do with him during the day and decided to buy a membership to the Fort Worth Zoo. Three years later, the zoo is one of our favorite family outings. And this picture says it all...it's why I love taking him. Every time we go we have a really fun time and the memories are priceless! Our first trip to the zoo in 2010 was just as fun and memorable.

Addison loved the birds...as long as they weren't too close!

One of Alex's favorite treats at the zoo: Cheese Pizza!

And another favorite: Riding the train.

One area of the zoo has a barn where the kids can play. This time, Alex loved the machine that made cow "manure." You dropped balls in the chute, turned the handle and the cow would "poop" the balls. You can see why a four-year-old boy would think this was the funniest thing ever!
And no trip is complete without a stop for ice cream. Bottoms up!

Ta Da! Addison loved her ice cream. I know, shocker.

Alex with his "yellow" ice cream. It's also known as Homemade Vanilla. We also enjoyed seeing all the animals, with the birds being the highlight of this trip (see next post). We can't wait for the new MOLA exhibit to open: Museum of Living Art. As with all the exhibits at the Fort Worth Zoo, it should be worth the wait!

Bird Man

This past Thursday we took advantage of the sunshine and warmer temperatures (hard to believe a week ago we had 12.5 inches of snow on the ground!). We headed to one of our favorite family spots: the Fort Worth Zoo. Alex told us he wanted to see the penguins, birds and bats. After a disappointing stop at the penguin exhibit...it was under construction and closed, we headed on to see the birds. It was so fun! The zoo has an area where you can go inside and feed the birds. Sometimes the birds aren't hungry and you just wander around in there trying to entice a bird with your feed stick. But this past Thursday, the birds were all over our little seed sticks! We had barely walked in and a bird flew and landed on Addison's feed stick. She wasn't so sure about that bird being so close, and after a couple minutes laid the stick down on the ground.

Alex loves holding the birds on the feed sticks, he just sometimes gets a little too giggly and the birds take off.

And the birds LOVED Roger! He was never without at least three birds trying to eat one little seed stick.

Or four! Four birds. This was right before the bird up on his shoulder started to nibble on his collar. Promptly after that all the birds were shaken off!
Birdy love!?! I affectionately called him Bird Man the rest of the day.

Two Times the Love!

Valentine's Day was so fun this year! It was on Sunday, and we celebrated with my sister and her kids, as well as with my parents. Addison and Caitlin were dressed for the occasion of course. Caitlin was loving on Addison.

Now Addison is loving on Caitlin...Well, it's Addison's version of a hug anyways. It's also very similar to a lean.

Aren't they cute together? Why do my sister and I enjoy this so much..dressing Addison and Caitlin in matching clothes? I mean really, I love it! Good thing I don't have twins. We also exchanged Valentines and enjoyed some yummy treats. Such a great excuse to eat chocolate!

The Tale of Two Bouquets

Happy Valentine's Day! This past Wednesday I was at my parents house when the doorbell rang. There was an elderly lady at the door, so I opened it. She asked, "Nancy McNiel?" And I answered, "No, that's my mother." And she replied, "Oh, well I have some flowers for her if you can sign for them." So of course, I accepted her delivery of flowers. As the woman handed me the box that contained my mother's bouquet of flowers, I noticed that it actually contained two bouquets of flowers, one for my mother and one for my sister. I knew that the flowers were from my dad for Valentine's Day. I teased my sister a little that Dad sent her flowers. But secretly, deep down, I was hoping that I might also get a bouquet of flowers delivered to me from my dad. Well, about Friday, I gave up that hope that I was getting flowers too. And, in true McNiel fashion, went on to give my dad an extremely hard time about buying flowers for my sister and not any for me. I mean really, what the ??? I know it was childish to tease my dad about how unfair that was...I mean really, haven't I out grown that? Apparently not. Deep down, it did hurt my feelings that he bought her flowers and didn't include me in that gesture of love. So today after church, I had flowers waiting for me. I'm not sure if my teasing got the better of my dad, or if my sensible mother felt sorry for me and insisted that he buy me some flowers too. Either way, it was nice to be included. I'm still working on getting over my hurt feelings. I'm sure there are some deep rooted, childhood issues that are being brought up to the surface here...Some days, I really believe I need a psychiatrist. Ha, ha! And on that note, love to all on this Valentine's Day.

12.5

Officially, it snowed 12.5 inches yesterday at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. And we saw every inch of that snow here at our home in Arlington. I have never seen that much snow in Arlington, and I've lived here in Texas for pretty much my whole life. We had a ball playing in it all day! Before 7:30 a.m. yesterday, Roger and Alex had a snowman built. And they went out and played in it several more times through out the day. Alex loved the snow so much. I think he would go out and play until he was too cold to stand it one second longer, come inside so I could dry all his clothes, and then he'd go out again! Today, we also enjoyed our first official snow day, or day home from school. Grandma McNiel took us all out to lunch and to the mall, where she promptly spoiled Alex rotten at the Disney Store and Build-A-Bear. Can I be honest though? After two days, I'm ready for the snow to melt. I'm a Texas girl at heart and I'm ready for warmer, sunnier days!

Picture early in the morning when we thought we were in for just a "dusting" of snow. Little did we know it would snow for about 24 hours straight!

Alex being silly in front of his snow man.

Addison trying to catch a snow flake :)

A little later in the day. Note the snow shovel. Believe it or not, we actually had to shovel our drive way!

So we didn't have a sled, but we do own a snow board. Roger pulled Alex around on the snow board like it was a sled. His little bottom fit just perfectly on that snow board! Roger and Alex both really enjoyed playing in the snow.

Our snow man later in the day. His hat is almost covered in snow. What a snow storm!

Kids First Program

Someone told us about a program offered in conjunction with the Dallas Stars called the Kids First program -- it's a program that teaches kids how to ice skate and play hockey. It's supposed to be a really basic class...just to introduce kids to the ice and the game of hockey. It's five weeks long and everything is issued to you...a hockey stick, elbow pads, knee pads, hockey pants, gloves, leg warmer things, ice skates, helmet...the whole nine yards. Oh, and it's FREE!

So Roger and I decided to enroll Alex because he loves, loves hockey right now. And we figured if he hated it, we weren't out hundreds of dollars worth of hockey gear. So the first Saturday, the coaches just issued us all the equipment and told us what to expect the next few weeks. The following Saturday was the first class that the kids actually got on the ice. It was so funny! Kids just everywhere! Alex was so excited! I was so nervous for Alex...I didn't want him to hate it and not want to do it. When he got on the ice though, he did so good! He stayed up on his skates and just scooted along...just very slowly! I was so happy for him and so relieved that I actually teared up a little bit. I was such a proud mama!



Getting dressed...

Ready for the ice...he looks like a real hockey player!

And he did spend his fair amount of time on his bottom :)
And this is how he spent the remainder of his afternoon! Haha! It's hard work being a future Dallas Star!

29 Again

Yes, that's right. I celebrated my 29th birthday again this week. On my actual birthday, Roger was working during the day from 8-5, when on his normal schedule he would have been home. So I made the best of it and planned a play date with a couple of girl friends and their kiddos. We had a really fun time at the museum in Fort Worth. Then the following Saturday, my mom hosted a family party at her house. They ordered in fajitas for dinner. Yum! And my sister graciously baked my favorite cake: Italian cream! It was fabulous, even if she had to make it twice :) And of course, we opened presents afterwards. I think I was the last person on the planet to not own an iPod. Thanks to my parents, I'm the proud owner of an iPod nano. I also scored a new robe and a couple iTune gift cards. It was a really fun birthday. I'm thankful for my mom who always insists that we celebrate every birthday. All my life, she has always made sure it was a special day. And 29 or so years later, she's still making sure my birthdays are special. She is a sweet, special lady. I love her so much!

Birthday Fun at the Museum

Wow, I can't believe it's been a week already since my birthday. Like every year, 2010 is flying by! On my actual birthday, I took the kids to the Fort Worth Science Museum. My friend Jamie is a member, so she graciously got me and the kids in for free. And Lindsey came too. So everyone had friends at the museum: Alex had Ella, Addison had Lacey and Lola, and I had Jamie and Lindsey. It was just a really fun day. The kids LOVED the museum...so much so that we had tears as we were leaving! I'm so thankful for the other mommies in my life. They even make getting older more fun and bearable!

Addison and Lacey in the actual children's museum part of the science museum.

Lacey shopping in the little grocery store. It was so cute! Addison kept trying to steal everything from Lacey.. her shopping cart, her groceries. They really are almost sisters!

There was a little pretend hospital. Addison wanted to lay down in the beds for the newborns.

The kids loved these wind tunnels! They had a ball watching all their little creations float up and out of the wind tunnel. And I'm so thankful for Lindsey who took all of these pictures and put them on her blog, which I have copied to my blog. So I have a few pictures from our trip to the museum. Love ya Lindsey! We can't wait to go again to the museum. If you're in Fort Worth, I'd highly recommend it!