Why we spent $9 at the Zoo with our FREE pass...

I try to take the kids to the zoo every few weeks one because I want to get good use of our pass and two because we all love it! We did have free passes for Emily's first carousel ride! I think it's funny that Annie likes to look for and touch bugs and stuff. I, on the other hand, do not.
The birds are my very favorite part. Yes, we spent $9 buying food to feed the birds so they would land on us. This bird below just came to cuddle. He tried to bury himself between my shoulder and neck and would let all three of the kids pet him!
Emily enjoys having them on her head. It must look comfortable because they continue to land on her!
And Ben with several cockatails following him. He likes to buy worms to feed the specialty birds, but the seed birds seem to love him. Maybe it's just the shirt that the birds have seen several times so they know he has food...

A Powerful Speech

Take a look at this. It is a great speech by Mitt Romney about the role/division/union of state and religion.

A REALLLLLLY Good Laugh

Thanks to Angie for sending this funny...

http://www.flashfunpages.com/couple.swf

Christmas Preparations at the Maases

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Fun Family Events

For the first time in 20 years I again attended Mass. Our neighbors baptized their sweet baby Claire and we were invited to go! It was a bit quieter than most Mormon meetings (probably becuase our kids weren't there!) and a soloist sang "How Great Thou Art' that I wanted to join in on! Claire did great! Sunday afternoon we finally put lights and ornaments on our Christmas tree. Annie and Ben did all the ornaments. I can't even tell you how fun it was to watch them!
Emily is now crawling! It clicked last weekend and there is no stopping her now! She also pulls up to her knees, but we won't be encouraging that one!

A Few Odds and Ends

So - for the last 2+ weeks we have had a free pass to 24 hour fitness that I have been taking advantage of. While this has been great for me and the kids, it has not been so good for my blog! Thus - more catch up entries...

I love sleeping pictures. Look at those arms - you can just bite them - and we do! Annie did NOT want to take a nap in her room so she instead fell asleep watching SuperWhy with Ben.
My dear friend Katie met her husband's family outside of Tyler, Texas for a family reunion at one of the resorts there. We went up one afternoon to meet them and were able to play in the lake a bit!

Yes - Annie is totally giving this little girl a look like "Why do you think you are so cool?" It's not Annie's typical look and thankfully Carolyn is still too young to figure it out.
The brood - Katie's 3 and my 3 all playing nicely together....
Emily's classic cheesy smile - she is such a happy girl!

Sacrifice Brings Forth Blessings

That song is currently running through my head, although I can't quite recall all the words. I'm supposed to be picking up the house while Andy is at a fireside, but I just can't do it yet. There have been so many "funnies" this past week that we kept saying "we need to blog that!" but now I don't remember! I also love that "blog' and "google" have become verbs!

Ben wants to know what we are eating - as in what animal we are eating. And what part of the animal it is. Weak-stomach Lindsey is finally learning to talk about these things WHILE we are eating because others in the family think it's a good learning experience. I was quite impressed that I didn't gag even once as we discussed how we got the ham that we ate for dinner this evening! However, I still will not buy another rotissere chicken until we are out of this phase - I'm almost dreading the carving of the turkey...

Annie is growing and totally out-eating Ben, which is a feat in and of itself! She's like a little vulture. She also loves her daddy.

Emily is still not yet crawling on all fours but does do a one-armed army crawl. She is now pulling up on funtiture to her knees and gets a kick out of standing while you hold her hands. I've told the kids that we all need to crawl around her because it's so important to learn to crawl!

I've become an Usborne book consultant. At my party a few weeks ago I fell in love with the books again and signed up to sell them! At least for a little while until I get the things I want... This is my website if you are interested! www.ubah.com/T2109

Andy loves them too, so it will be fun! I got my kit on Thursday and Annie has comendered the encylopedia and loves to flip the pages. It is a constant battle to get her to close it and put it away, but I guess there are much worse things that she could be spending time with. There is a moon book that both of the kids have loved, and Annie is also obsesed with seeing the moon at the moment. I need to pull out Goodnight Moon for her again...

This is so wordy! I promise next time I will pose some pictures!

What a week!

So, I've forgotten to post about the previous week! It all started last Thursday - our women's volleyball team won the stake tournament! Yeah US!!!! Then we were clobbered in Regionals the next day. (Andy's team plays in the Men's Regionals tonight - they also were 1st place in the stake.)

Monday I french-braided Annie's hair for the first time, and it was simply precious! UNTIL I couldn't find either of my children after putting Emily down for a nap. I found them in the laundry room with Ben hiding a pair of scissors behind his back. That boy is SOOO lucky he just made a few snips on Annie's sweet head! It's not completely noticable unless you know where to look and pulling it into pigtails hides the worst. whew! I kind of lost it and still have the pieces Ben picked up from the floor in a bag. I must admit to crying just a little bit.

Emily has been sick for a week and is finally on the mend. Poor little girl was raw under her nose from all that wiping! I'm exhausted from the lack of sleeping.

Speaking of - this whole Daylight Savings thing is not such a great idea! Our schedule has shifted a bit wherer kids are ASLEEP by 6:30 at night and up at 5 the next morning. I actually kind of like this schedule though - surprisingly enough. I still think they aren't getting enough sleep and since they don't sleep in, we'll need to adjust bedtime or have a nap day to throw everyone off!

Then I had a holiday open house where several of my favorite consulatants showed their wares. It was a great 5 hour party! And, we've enjoyed the open space in the house so much that we've left the furniture in the garage and just play! Since we are typically sitting on the floor anyway - it's been fun!

Yesterday we drove a little ways past Tyler, Texas to see one of my favorite people in the whole wide world - and her family! We'll do pics of that when I have more time!

So - I've decided my favorite image of Annie is in this cute little nightgown. She has about 2 inches of feet showing and the gown flows behind her when she runs.

Halloween 2007

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Halloween Festivities

Right before Trick or Treating: Emily's bunny costume was a bit too short, and Annie's Tigger was hot (at 75 degree weather) so we became a nice witch and Ben's prisoner. Feeding goat at neighborhood activity.

Sweethearts!!!
Caught in the act...
Emily didn't last very long!

Kising Daddy goodbye before he leaves for work...

Sweet girls waiting for neighborhood party.
They had a fun room filled with balloons that Emily had a blast in!
This kitty loved on Annie and just climbed over here. Then Annie sat up and the kitty just curled up on her lap and kids came over to pet it. It was adorable until someone else wanted to hold it... It was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen!!!
It was the best Halloween yet! After trick-or-treating we went to my brother's apartment downtown for his 33rd birthday and Halloween party. It was so much fun! The weather was perfect, the company great and the entertainment even better - love that Wii!

Yardwork

Monday Andy came home from work early to finish our projects from Saturday. The kids of course had a blast! A cute little frog...
I love the two-year-old squat!!!!!!!

Lindsey's 10 Year Reunion

My high school reunion was last weekend, and we decided to just go to the football game on Friday night. So, I introduced Andy to High School Football in Texas - where the bands play loud and the stands are full, and there is almost always a promised teenage fight from some junior high kids! We had a great time with Emily and she LOVED all the entertainment. I wanted to get some food at half time, but Andy wanted to stay and watch how bad the bands were. They WEREN'T band in high school terms, but the last football games we've been to in the previous 10-11 years have been BYU which is a blast with the mountain backdrop and UT games - which you just can't compare anything to. So - it was really fun. Emily and I after the stadium cleared out.
Happy day!
Something was totally going on with our camera because all pictures from that day are blurry! Anyway, my parents took the kids to our church Halloween party while we were gone!

Another sleeping picture

Ben is an intense little kid. He does EVERYTHING with his entire heart! All day long he goes and goes - then he sleeps the exact same way - HARD! Andy came home one night around 11 and asked if I had checked on Ben lately. I walked in to find this scene. He was totally out - standing up! It was so funny!

More Arboretum Fun!

A friend I grew up with always thought the Dallas Arboretum was such a cool place to visit, and I never understood that - until now! We had another fabulous fun-filled day with lots of wide-open spaces...



This was the best pumpkin picture I could get. They were all so excited to climb and be surrounded by pumpkins there was no stillness - not even Emily!Annie just finished peeking at Baby Claire - no touching!
Daddy loves John Denver, so this is just for him!
This is Ben's cowboy outfit that has now finished its second week. This shirt is going to wear out VERY quickly with all the washing it has had!
My sweet Emmer-pooh! She's just happy to be outside when it's not 100 degrees!

This was the miniature corn maze that Ben and Annie LOVED climbing on!
How much better can life get when you are 2 years old?

The Beginning of the End

So, Andy had a great idea to put in a sprinkler system ourselves. It really was a great idea - except for the fact that the weekend after we started (Labor Day) has been the busiest time he's seen at work yet! Therefore, we have just recently finally finished the pipes and continue to work on filling in the holes. I'm honestly quite shocked that none of our neighbors have turned us into the city with complaints because we've had the most white trash yard for over a month with weeds growing well above the 12 inch regulations. However, it's going to be great when it's all completed! Last weekend we did one side of bricks in front of the house for the flower beds, and they do look great, if I say so myself. And I do, because I got to shape the bricks with the little wedge-thing and the hammer! Then Ben took over because hammers are his FAVORITE tools! (as evidenced in the big hole in his wall where he tried to fix the water leak - that obviously wasn't there. Andy did just laugh about this as his only son was emulating his recent work in the laundry room where there WAS an actual water leak.) I'm telling you - these kids don't miss a thing!
So this project was totally a family, friends, and neighborhood event! We had wonderful free help from friends, home teachers, neighbors, family, and a National Junior Honor Society member who needed service hours. We also had a ton of paid help from those hardworking young men from church! Of course - Andy did the planning and was the mastermind behind the whole project! What a babe! I love him and his big ideas and how he constantly desires to learn new things! Even if the completion dates are a bit beyond what was first projected... :)

A New 4 Year old Stage

Well - Tuesday morning was just as great at Monday - except it was the concrete mixer! I sorely wish I'd had my camera with me.

While there, I was HOPING the workers wouldn't realize that Ben had on the exact same outfit as the day before. Recently we've been having a few issues getting dressed in the morning because Ben only wants to wear jeans. Until this week, it's been over 90 degrees everyday so I wouldn't let him. Last week he asked so much I finally pulled down the box of winter clothes - only to find, the child only has one pair of jeans. He does have several pairs of pants, but they don't look like a cowboy! So, we trotted off to Old Navy to pair two pair of jeans. I guess that is not enough becasue every day since then, we have been wearing jeans. He finds them from the dirty clothes (me thinks I might protest too much). Monday he found a red/white/brownish plaid shirt from the winter clothes box that he has deemed his cowboy shirt. Fine - wear it. Monday night he hung it in his closet so it would be ready for Tuesday morning. Tuesday I explained all the reasons why you really need to wear clean clothes each day (thankfully there was no fuss over clean underwear because Monday they matched but Tuesday they didn't!). Over and over and over I explained these things. I really meant to do laundry last night but other things took over and I totally spacecd it - to find Ben dressed and ready this third day in the SAME outfit - the plaid shirt and jeans with the place for his hammer. I was talking with my mom on the phone this morning while trying to explain that cowboys can wear all different types of shirt and went through his closet and showed him each one that would look great with his cowboy stuff and boots. Even Grandma said she really likes cowboys that wear green. He just looked at me with his arms folded across his chest like - I'm not changing no matter what you say. So - lots of words/threats/pleadings from me and we are off to JoAnn's with Ben still in his cowboy clothes. Oh well, right?! So, I just go to start another load of laundry - knowing full well I told Ben to put his clothes in the dirty clothes so they could be clean for school tomorrow - only to be missing these jeans and shirt! That little cutie-pie had his DIRTY shirt hung up so nicely in his closet with the buttons all done up! I'm sure he's thinking, "Lady, leave my clothes ALONE!" He does look so cute that it's impossible to stay upset with him for too long. Soon he'll be in the world of reality - we'll let this cowboy stuff go on for awhile - especially since I am almost done with his horse quilt - FINALLY!!!

What a Fun Morning...

We went on a little walk this morning and on our way home, we got to watch a backhoe change from the jackhammer part to the little scoop part. It was cool and fits just like the foot on a sewing machine. One of the men came over to chat (a grandfather-type of man) with Ben who was dressed as a cowboy standing next to his bike. We found out they were getting ready to dig up some of the alley around the corner from us. So, we all walked together, with the backhoe and dump truck following us down the alley to our house. We stopped to drop off Ben's bike then went to meet the trucks. They kept waving us on until we were about 10 feet from the actioin where we sat on the grass and just watched the backhoe work its magic! The backhoe driver and the dump truck driver communicated with walkie-talkies, which I thought was really neat! It was such an exciting experience!

Payback for lack of blogging

I know I just haven't kept this updated lately, but it seems like I am inline with the other bloggers out there. When school starts, life gets busy!

This is the kids' house! My mom brought this ginormous box over from work one day for the kids to play in. Another friend got a new big tv and gave us their box. While Emily and I were away this weekend, Daddy created a masterpiece with Ben and Annie. Andy's favorite part is the "working" fireplace. Ben and his little friends enjoyed this amenity during playgroup yesterday when they stuffed the chimney full of 'treasures' that came out the bottom - until it got so stuffed nothing more came out... I'm super impressed with the box that held up for 4 4-year-olds and 2 2-year-old climbing and jumping on it!
This is my sweet Emily watching us unpack Halloween decorations. I LOVE THE FALL
Ben loves to pull out decorations for each new season. He and Annie's favorite part was the gorilla mask from Dad's costume... We also decided that Ben would be a cowboy for Halloween - instead of him being a knight, Annie a princess, and Emily a dragon (because we have a pink dragon that would fit Em - oh well...) He's so in love with cowboys and horses that this is only fitting. Maybe next year the knight will still work. We got it last year after Halloween for under 2 dollars, so if it's only for dressups, I'm okay with that!

These two are from my older sister's surprise 30th birthday party! We had fun and she played directly into our plans. We love you Aunt Jamie!

My dear Annie. I found her sitting on the sink washing her hands Tuesday morning. Ben was at school and I was putting in a load of laundry - guess I need to have her 'help' me instead! :) The funny thing is that Wednesday morning she did the same thing but was completely naked. She told me she needed to wash her feet. Another morning bath... Today, I was all prepared. Ben and Annie finished off the soap last night in the tub, so I knew she wouldn't be covered in suds again. Nope - this little one can find other treasures to play in. I was feeding Emily in the living room and Annie ran to get me a diaper. After about 30 seconds of silence in Emily's room, I asked if she was okay, "Yes." Are you playing with the wipes? "No." Annie, what are you doing? "Getting diaper." I of course knew this was probably not the case but was hoping that maybe she was empting out the diapers or playing with a quiet toy or something of the sort. I finished feeding Emily about 2 minutes later and went to check on Annie. Butt Paste - all over. Again - a naked body. This girl and clothes - or lack thereof! If you've never used Butt Paste - it's like grease. The whole point is to protect little bums from pee in their diapers. So, for the third morning in a row, my naked waterlover got to take another bath!
Andy has been working crazy hours for the last few weeks - shocker! So he's been staying home a little bit in the mornings to get kid time. They love to hang out with Daddy! Last night when the kids called to tell him good night, Annie asked if he would come home and pick her up. (That's her line each time we leave - kind of a cute little routine) He said he would. So he and I were in the kitchen having chips and salsa at 12:30 - guess it was this morning - and he says, "Guess what I still get to do?" I had no idea, so he leaned forward and whispered, "I get to go pick up Annie and hold her in the chair!" I put the dishes away while I thought he was changing out of his workclothes only to find he and Annie cuddled in our special blue chair...

Family Pictures

We finally had family pictures taken and have a new one hanging over the fireplace to replace the picture we tookbefore Ben was walking. Two children later... The kids had a fabulous time and woke up the next morning asking to go get their pictures taken again...

These aren't the best, but they show each personality - except the last one that Andy requested and LOVES. Enjoy! To see the others you will just have to come visit my house! :) And yes, copies are in the mail to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. At least, they will be soon... :)