A Crisp and Wild Morning at Henry's Ark

This morning, Lewis and I headed out to Henry's Ark (Kevin is working). It was wild out there:

Greeted by a rooster...

...who got very up close and personal with us! He spooked both of us (I grabbed Lew's hand after taking this picture), and he didn't seem to want us there. 

More to come on him later...he didn't forget about us. :)

Donkeys

We had the whole place to ourselves.

Sneaking up on a bunny.

Goat

The Three Amigos

These guys were running around together, patrolling the streets. :)

Feeding the deer.

Alpaca

The turkeys were gobbling and showing off their feathers for their lady-friend.

Trying to feed the sheep.

They weren't as interested in our carrots as everyone else was.

Odd friends, a goat and an emu.

More bunnies and ducks.

Lots of chickens, hens, roosters, ducks, peacocks, geese, etc.

:) What fun!

Give me a hug, Mama! Pick me up!

He was a total mess by the end. He slipped on ice twice and dipped each knee in cold mud/water. His hands and face also got dirty, and he put his dirty duck-pooped hands in his mouth a few times. Fingers crossed that he doesn't get any weird virus.

Our little friend

As I was changing his clothes, I heard a cluck-cluck and looked down to see that damn rooster! He kept circling the car, waiting for us to leave. Once I got Lewis changed and in his seat, I tried shoo-ing him off so I didn't hit him but he stayed. I honked the horn a few times and backed up slowly and saw that he was at the front of our car, watching us.

Now for Some Christmas Pictures

I have to say I really got used to the last week or so of sleeping in (a little), having help, not having a plan, etc.! We enjoyed our time off, but today it was back to the grind Kevin and I. Kevin worked a normal day and then went to the U of L game, so I was 'on' from breakfast through bedtime. The two weeks leading up to Christmas were like that, too, with Kevin working until after 9pm most nights, but hopefully he doesn't have to work as late this month. Lewis and I survived and had fun today, getting back into our routine.

I narrowed down Christmas pictures, finally.

First, Gramma and Papaw Carter's house:

 Mathilda and Lewis on Christmas Eve :)

A Doodler

He likes me to draw pictures on it, but he is still working on drawing on it himself.

 

 :)

Latches Board

 

 With his new bus from the Bergstroms

Watching Papaw open his photo water bottle from Lewis and Juniper

 Stacking blocks on the tractor from Uncle Dave

 Go IU!

Even Hattie approves! :)

At our house in between my parents' and Kevin's parents' houses:

Putting real trash in his new trash truck! So smart!

We continued the tradition of each getting a gift for Lewis. Kevin got him this trash/recycling truck and an excavator, and I got him a tray that clips to his carseat to eat on, draw on, etc. The trash truck came with a trash can and a wooden block painted to be trash...Lewis walked over and got some wrapping paper and just started shoving it in the back of the truck.

And then, onto Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's house: 

 A Mario Cart suitcase (with race cars on it)

He rolled it around and eventually put his cars and other goodies in it. He loves it--he also got ahold of a rolling bag at their family Christmas party a few weeks ago and rolled it around the party. Big fan!

 A Car Carrier

 LIGHTNING McQUEEN!

This year's calendar of Lew's monthly pictures 

With Grandma and Uncle Scott

Lewis was pretty excited about this particular toy, thus sitting on its box.

 

Very interested in this singing and dancing decoration.

It was a wonderful day!

Christmas 2012

We've stayed very busy, visiting family and friends over the holidays. We spent December 23rd-25th with both sides of my family and the 2nd half of the 25th with Kevin's family. Kevin had to work the 26th and 27th, and we headed to Bloomington the 28th and 29th without Lewis (he stayed home with my parents). With the exception of going out tomorrow for dinner/the IU game and a movie (Argo), the past few days and the next few days we will just be hanging out as a family and taking it easy.

I just tried to cut down the 100+ photos I took on Christmas Day, and I can't do it right now. I did find some that made me smile, a few from the beginning and one from the end of our trip.

First, Lewis was very interested in the booster seat as I was trying to pack:

 A nice place to rest his buns

David made me promise that I wouldn't dress Lewis like this for school (because he doesn't want him to be picked on):

 

 So handsome (on Christmas Eve)

The shirt only stayed tucked in for as long as it took to take these pictures. :)

And then to sum up our Christmas Day...

One Tired Buddy

This is the first time we've successfully carried him from the car to the house, still asleep. He was ti-red (he did wake up when we changed him into his pajamas, of course). He had three days of bad naps in a row, and it eventually just caught up with him. Thankfully he's back to normal now. 

Playdates with Carlton, Clara, and Amelia

Phew! Christmas break is here! Kevin worked 60+ hours the past two weeks which made for some looong days for Lewis and I (and Kevin, too, obviously). Lew and I stayed pretty busy with Christmas shopping and our usual errands, but the house is a wreck and I really realize how much Kevin normally does to help out (once he was no longer around to help out). I still feel like I'm catching up, but we managed and now it's break time (Kevin does have to go in for a few half days, but whatevs) and we are onto Christmas!

A few pictures from the past week or so:

 Ziploc Hat, the newest toddler trend

Tonya and Carlton came over to visit last week. Carlton and Lewis were being cute on this bench, but none of my pictures caught both/either of them looking at the camera at the same time (naturally, as toddlers do). 

 Open your eyes, Lewis! :)

 Carlton is ready to climb away and Lewis has a stinker face.

Eh, the best we got. 

Earlier this week, we headed out to Corydon for a nice visit with Maria, Clara, and Amelia. We played, exchanged Christmas presents, and had lunch before heading back home. 

 The girls were still getting situated, but Lewis was ready to say 'Cheese!'

 Opening gifts

He got a Cars coloring pack and a Francesco car (from Cars 2). He fittingly was wearing a Cars shirt I bought him the other day at Target. And Maria found Cars Christmas wrapping paper and everything! Lewis was in heaven. :)

 Clara got Lew his first Little People playset--a pirate ship! Argh, matey!

It has a talking parrot, a plank, a cannon that fires a cannonball, etc. It's so awesome. They also gave us a Little People construction set that Clara doesn't really play with anymore. And later that day, I found a LP barn with the farmer and all of the animals for just $5 at GW, so now he has a few to get him started with imaginative play.

Then it was the girls' turn to open their gifts:

 A ball for Amelia and some puzzles for Clara

 And a couple of pouches that Clara dug right into

(Amelia seemed interested in them, too! We got her some yogurt melts to go with her ball.)

I made some spaghetti early last week, thinking Kevin and I would eat it for dinner a few nights. Since he was home after 9:30pm most days, he ate at work and I ended up eating spaghetti with Lewis like four times. :) Luckily it was a really good sauce I made, and I didn't get too tired of it. After a few bites, Lew would throw it across the room, on the ground, into the Christmas tree, etc. I was too tired to do anything about it, and one day Hattie got caught in the crossfire and was cracking me up:

I know I smell spaghetti somewhere!

She is one smart girl--after I was done laughing at her and taking her picture, I plucked a piece off to give her. She then shook and flipped the other pieces off, and she ate them that way.

KaLightoscope at the Galt House

My parents came down Sunday evening through last evening to visit and babysit while I went to the dentist to get a crown. After my lovely morning in the dentist's chair and some solo shopping (thanks, M&D), we all headed down to the KaLightoscope event at the Galt House.

Lewis ran right to Santa

(and we wrote his name on the Nice list)

Checking out Santa's flying sleigh with Gramma

On the train with Mama

They had a cute area where kids could write a letter to Santa and then go put their mark on the wall with a sticker. Lewis tried to put the sticker on his shirt at first, but he finally got the right idea.

Stickers, stickers, everywhere!

Watching the dolls dance

He was mesmerized by the possum (that moved) in this display. I'm pretty sure he thought it was a cat because he was meowing at it at some point.

Then he'd lean in and stare it in the face to fully inspect it. It was so cute.

We forgot to find Santa to get a picture, but the Snow Fox from a local TV channel was there instead...

:)

With Gramma and a reindeer

There was a train that we were excited to let him try (since he loves trains so much).

Sitting and ringing the bell while he waits for the train to get a-going

Ooof, nope, would rather not sit...

Moved back with another little boy

Off they go!!

And up and away he goes!

Mom walked around the outside of the fence as the train started going, and she said after the first turn he started wailing. It was pretty loud and fast--thankfully they spotted that he was upset and stopped the train and took him off. :( Such a sad face! He was fine as soon as he was off it, and he spent the next 15 minutes or so watching other kids go around on it. Mom thought he was going to try it again after he wandered into the fenced-in area with a couple of boys, but he realized what he'd done and quickly wanted her to save him again.

Choo Choo!

We had a really nice time! It was a bit of a challenge to keep Lewis from touching all of the light sculptures and moving animals, but thankfully we made it out without damaging anything. :) Afterwards I took my parents to 'The Unique' (Kevin told me that's what the cool kids call the Unique Thrift Store)...Dad said it was one of the most interesting places he's ever been. :) We had dinner downtown and Kevin came down to visit for a few minutes (but had to go back to work).