Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Today is a gorgeous day. Bright blue skies, mid-70s, and a slight breeze in the air. I have missed this weather! We took advantage of this beautiful day and headed down to the zoo in Colorado Springs. I love that this zoo is set right next to the mountain. You have to wind your way up the mountain to see all of the exhibits. It is quite the workout!



Um, hello?? I didn't notice the giraffe in the background getting a little close for comfort.



I have no idea what animal this is...hmm...anyone? To Luke it was a piggy.

Very cool/disgusting bird exhibit for little kids to run around and see the birds up close. Highlight Downside was when another boy about Luke's same age kicked one of the birdies.  Heh heh...

I think they put the bear exhibit at the very top for good reason, it is definitely worth the hike. In my mind, the coolest exhibit. We loved watching this big guy splash in the water and chase after a fish or two.

Pausing for a break from the stroller at a little playground. Luke loves to conquer any slide.

I thought I would end the zoo trip with Luke's first carousel ride. Seeing how I get sick with even the thought of spinning in a circle, Bryan jumped on with him. We started out so great...

...but ended up doing this maneuver before it even started, ha! Luke is working on his patience (similar to his mother) and couldn't quite handle the wait for it to get going!

He recovered quickly, and was quite excited about the carousel once it was actually in motion. I asked Bryan if he wanted to try it again, but I think we will wait until our next zoo adventure. :) Such a fun, perfect spring day!

The Baby Mullet

A few days ago we decided that Luke needed his bangs trimmed. Rather than forking over the $15 to have someone snip a half-inch off, Bryan and I decided we could handle it. Well, a half-inch turned into 2 inches and we now have the perfect Pollyanna hair-do, or as my oldest brother is convinced, Luke "Bon Jovi" Nielson.

I couldn't figure out how to edit the video, if you have a tip, please let me know. Around 25 seconds is where you can skip to in order to find out where/who Luke places the blame for his unfortunate new look. You will want the volume turned up...he was surprisingly soft spoken about turning in the person that did this to him. :)

Visitors

Bryan's brother, Scott and his family, came to Colorado for their Spring Break. We were lucky to have them come our way for a day! In the afternoon, the girls shopped at the outlets while the boys played outside at the park. For dinner we roasted hot dogs and even broke out the goods for smores. It felt like Winter might be drifting away with a day like that!

Blazing a trail and playing with the cousins.

 The Hermanos

Our picnic site.

Ah, yes...some good ol' roasted hot dogs. Delicious!

When Grandma Comes To Town

Last week Bryan needed to go out of town for business. My mom came to play while the hubby was away. We had a great time and cranked out quite a few sewing projects! I can't believe how quickly time went while she was here.

First on the list, I wanted to make curtains to cover the french doors that go into the office. It was quite the process of measuring, thinking about it for 2 hours, cutting/drilling holes, then realizing we were still wrong, ha! It was worth it and I love being able to roll them up or letting them hang down.

My mom even brought out her sewing machine for the next project. I needed a walking presser foot, which my sewing machine cannot accommodate, and I now realize that I NEED one. :) The next project was a quilt for baby Emma.

I'm planning to do her nursery in white, yellow and gray colors. When I saw the pattern for this quilt, I knew it was what I Emma wanted. It was a labor of love, but I am very happy with the end results!

We managed to crank out some burp cloths and plan out a few more projects for the next visit. Oh...and Luke? He had a great time. Grandma was excellent at distraction while I finished up what I needed to. We broke out the "silver bullet."



Luke was in heaven with Grandma, he is rather sad this week about having just my mug to look at all day. On the upside, Luke was very happy to have his "DaDa" back. When Bryan was gone, we came back from running errands and as soon as we pulled into the garage it was, "dada?, dada?, dada?". Luke went through the entire house looking for Bryan and when he couldn't find him stuck out his lower lip and tears formed right before he started to really cry.  He definitely has a tender spot for his dad in his heart and Bryan reciprocates it just as much, if not more. Hopefully Luke is willing to share his DaDa with Emma. :)

18 months!

Luke hit the big year and a half mark last week. We have all survived thus far! :)

His stats are as follows:

Height: 34 inches...91 %tile
Weight: 28 lbs 15 oz...85 %tile
Head: 49.8 cm...93 %tile

Activity level: BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

Another big event with turning 18 months is that Luke is able to attend the Nursery at our church! Woo-hoo! He wasn't so sure about it for the the first 5 minutes, as in screaming and sobbing, but after that he seemed to join right on in with the other kids. When I raced to pick him up after church, sure that he was still crying for me, he didn't even notice when I walked in. The bubbles were going full-force and he was in heaven. He gave me that look, "What are you doing here?" I thought that wasn't suppose to happen for at least another 10 years!

Tankin' up after nursery...not sure what he was doing in there. Guessing by the look he is giving me, I will never know.

Ahh...just another day.

Footloose and Binki Free

Luke is officially binki/bink/pacifier/paci free. This is a big step in all of our lives in this house, so yes, I'm blogging about it. I debated whether or not I should put him on a methadone taper to help him kick the binki habit, but went with cutting the tips off of all of his binkies. It worked like magic. Bryan and I cannot believe how smoothly (knock on wood) it went. As Bryan put it, the binki was his first, true love. He handled the break-up like a champ. (Little did he know that his very own mother sabotaged the relationship.) With the tip of the binkies cut off, he thought that they were broken or "stuck" as he called it. Bryan captured Luke one morning with the mutilated binkies and Luke's take on it.




The above footage is almost as good as when Luke threw the "stuck" binki back in my face.

The Latest

In case you haven't heard...

Our family is a growin' by about 2 feet!

It looks like those two cute little feet will be filling in these cute GIRL shoes!  My official due date is July 16th. We are very happy and excited around here. Well, Luke is clueless, might be for the best. :)  His world (and ours) is going to be a changin'!