The Yearly Family Pics

When we went home for my mom's surprise birthday party and Sloane's annual tailgate birthday party, I was crossing fingers that we would be able to meet up with Wrenn, our favorite photographer, to grab a super quick family session.

I say super quick because we aren't the family that changes clothes and gets millions of shots.

We are the family that gets the group pics, the individual pics, and if we are lucky, a few others... but we just want the basics. Mainly because there is always someone that doesn't want to participate. So we just don't have time for the 'extras'.

And Wrenn knows this about us. Six years later and two kids later, she knows how we work.

She's seen us through the newborn years, the screaming toddler years and now the little girl/boy years and back again. She knows what we need... so knocks it out as quickly as possible!

God love her.

Maybe one day, the weather will 100 percent cooperate and just be a beautiful day, rather than randomly freezing freezing cold or nice and toasty (when we all have decided to wear clothing for fall temperatures). I did grow up in Kansas, so I should know better.

Thank you, Wrenn... for always capturing us in the midst of madness! As frustrating as family pictures can sometimes be, we have learned that it is what it is and what we get in the end is so worth it.

Even when we look at each other and say, "This is so not worth it!" :)

Another year down. Many more to come!

XXOO,
Allyson

Life Lately

Oh friends... it's definitely time for a Life Lately. Since I was 100 percent MIA last week!

First off .... HAPPY HALLOWEEN! So glad this day is here... my kids have had a countdown. Apparently this is their new favorite holiday! We have a busy day of school parties and trick or treating this evening. We will be slash I will be ready for bed at 8:30 pm!

I'd also like to start this post off by saying that if I had five extra hours to get Two Dots, LipSense and blog work accomplished, I'd really be feeling on top of the world! Sadly, I don't have the power to extend my day any more than I do... which means that sometimes, one of those three things has to take a back burner.

It has been LipSense for a few months, but starting November 1, I'm announcing a new monthly giveaway and going to start sending out samples of samples of other products in our SeneGence family for those intrigued.

Two Dots took a backseat all summer until September and now I'm working my fanny off to make it better and bigger. Making it better isn't as hard as making it bigger. I feel clueless as to how to stretch our fanbase without asking everyone to share our social media pages constantly. Which I don't want to do. So... I'm brainstorming a lot. I don't want to think negatively but I know that if we stay 'stagnant', Two Dots will probably have to close it's imaginary doors. Which is sad to think about and something I don't want to have to think about. SO... I won't! I'll figure it out! :)

Me, ubering to Stylemax, a local Chicago trade market to look for clothes for Two Dots! :) 

We are just about to finish out our second month of school and I kind of feel like we have found our groove. I still am yelling at everyone when it's time to leave for school, but I find that to be inevitable. Matt went to a Montessori Parent Education night last week and came home feeling much more knowledgeable about the school we were sending our kids to than when he walked in to the meeting.

And thank goodness!

To say we knew very little about Montessori was an understatement! I think he felt pretty upbeat about how the kids are being taught with only a few questions that he hadn't gotten answered when he came home. It's definitely a different world than what these two small town public school kids are used to. But luckily for Sloane and Reece, they really don't know much of a difference except that there aren't desks to sit at... they just have their own personal rugs.

So hippie, right?! :)

Sloane is doing well. We are most proud that she is finally remembering kids names, which is a real struggle for her! I still sometimes worry when I look out the window and I see her kind of wandering around the playground by herself during recess. I wonder if we've done the right thing by moving them so much. But right or wrong, it's a part of our life and our journey right now. I pray that it makes her a stronger and braver kid in the long run. And I hope we eventually can get to our forever home so she can make some forever friends.

And Reece.

Oh Reece.

Despite the constant worry I have for him in certain areas, being social and friendly is not one of them. This kid will walk up to complete strangers, say hello, ask them how they are, tell them his name and then proceed to tell him the names of everyone around him... "my mom, my dad, my girlfriend Sloane..."

Just last week his teacher had responded to an email I had sent her and finished it off by telling me how proud of him she was. He has some small meltdowns every once in awhile, but she has found a way to make them minor. And his hugs and smile make her day better.

So... there is a chance my son might be a school janitor (I mean... I could be a great school janitor) or he might be rocket scientist. But either way, he will be the friendliest one you will ever meet! :)

I meet with the special education coordinator and his teacher this week to go over his IEP plan and see what needs to be adjusted with that. This kid is saying bigger words than his sister so I'm not sure if speech will be what needs to be tackled anymore. He is getting one-on-one reading help daily, which is nice. Other than that, we are constantly working on sight words and he is obsessed with making signs and hanging them up all over the basement.

Not sure what they say, but... they are up!

He was very upset he didn't have homework like Sloane so Matt  gave him some homework... he took it very seriously! :) 

And Ms. Tess. Well. She is a mess. We are officially closer to being two than one and I can feel it! The girl can throw up a 'tude in the snap of a finger! It's quite amazing! At least three times a day, I have to apologize to someone for her nasty look she is giving someone. And tell them that she does it to everyone.

It's exhausting! ;)

We've spent some time at the pediatrician lately as well as a kidney ultrasound last week. Apparently she has two tubes running from one of her kidneys to her bladder rather than just one which is causing her to have some small issues. We meet with a urologist in a few weeks to see what we need to do. I'm just praying its not surgery! But we will cross that river when we come to it.

We've had lots of visitors lately -- Matt's dad and girlfriend came up a few weekends ago and then Michael and his girlfriend Jami came this last weekend. Jami found the magic touch with Tess because Tess gladly would sit in her lap and hang out. Which doesn't easily happen for many! :)

Michael, if you are reading this (which I'm sure you will get to at some point)... we love her and I need her as my sister-in-law. No pressure. ;)

We have one free weekend before I head to Kansas City with all of Two Dots in tow to attend the Gift Gallery for the second year in a row. We had a BLAST there last year and are so excited to attend again! The vendors are LEGIT people - if you are in the KC area and need to get some Christmas shopping done, make a stop at the Cure of Ars Catholic School off of 95th and Mission in Leawood, Kan. You will not be sorry!

Lauren, Sam, Perry and Cohen come up right when I get back from KC and then my best friend arrives after that until the Wednesday of Thanksgiving, followed my parents for Thanksgiving!

Busy. Busy. Busy.

And I prefer it that way!

XXOO,
Allyson

Life Lately

Well friends ... life lately has been a big bummer!

If you didn't see my Facebook video I posted last week on my Tess and Elm Facebook page, I talked about the big bummer.

Which was how we were under contract on a house (FINALLY!) and then had the inspection done where they found a huge crack in the basement wall. We had to have a structural engineer come to look at it to see if it was a major or minor problem.

Turned out to be a major problem. A sixty thousand dollar problem to be exact!

And not 60 thousand dollars that we felt we should have to pay (and not 60 thousand dollars that I thought the owners were willing to pay either).

I was correct because they respectfully declined to pay for it. So we had to say goodbye to the house that was too good to be true for us!

We are sort of in a weird place right now. We just kind of don't know what to do. Matt came home Thursday night from Chicago and said he had a great idea and after the showered, he would let me know what it was.

I was sort of thinking it was going to be this fantastic, genius idea.

It was a house boat. He wanted to buy a house boat.

Needless to say, my sails deflated (pun intended) quickly and I went back to looking at my phone for houses.

I know that a house will work out for us. It's just obviously not even close to being on my time frame. I finally decided to just start emailing a few preschools in the areas we want to be in and will probably just sign Reece up for something. The kid has to go to preschools for so many reasons, but mostly because mom cannot teach him anything. Teaching was not my calling in life and when you know your strengths and weaknesses, you admit them!

I'm going to choose to be optimistic at this point because I'm tired of being sad about it. And on that note...

Other things going on in our life... school is almost out! I literally cannot believe it. I can't believe that I have sent Sloane to school nine months of the year and not once forgot her snack or water bottle that she was supposed to have.

I DID forget to sign a homework folder every once-in-awhile but hey, it was a learning process for us all!

What a school year though... it is truly amazing to watch your child come home and read to you. Or write sentences. I have loved watching Sloane in her first year of school and how she has grown.

Maybe someday she will learn to pick up the tempo a little bit...

But I'm not holding my breath!

As for Reece... he has no idea how to read or write a sentence and I'm really just excited for him to write his name. I think its a little bit of the boy in him, but his care level for that stuff is non-existent.

Can someone confirm or deny this with their own boys at this age?!

We've made big strides in other areas, especially in the swimming department. Once we finished up with occupational therapy in December, I knew I needed to keep pushing him in the areas that he needed to work on. One of those was the water.

The kid loves baths and to put his head under but the pool is a different story. After taking group lessons that were filled with Reece screams, he took private lessons for a month and man... Ms. Lisa was amazing! He still screamed here and there, but he is now putting his head under, going through the extremely loud maze of squirting water at the community center pool to go down the slide and is going down the bigger slides as well.

He has come a long way and I'm hoping we can keep this up -- I don't want him to put a floatie back on!

And as for Ms. Tess... she loves me. Like... a lot. And if mommy is not holding her or she can't see me, she's crying. Loudly. Every once in awhile she will venture off to play with some toys but no more than three minutes later and she is back at my feet.

God love her.

But sometimes I need a break!

Oh... and Matt is in Chicago every week.

Did I mention I need a break?

We seriously miss him... it definitely has put a strain on us as a family and in our marriage. If you can avoid the life of a weekly traveling husband/dad, I recommend it!

And that's life lately for us. We have a busy month ahead and then what comes after school is out is still unknown (say a prayer that the unknown starts to become a little more "known" for us soon)!

And we all know how much I love the unknown!!!!!


XXOO,
Allyson

An Apology to My Oldest Two

I wanted to take a minute and take advantage of the platform that I have here to apologize.

To my oldest two children.

Though they may never read this, I can at least feel at peace that I have said my apologies.

I have said many times over this past year that I have really tried to soak up as much of Tess and her "babyhood" as much as I could because this is it. She's the final baby - the last piece to our Clark Family puzzle.

And I feel like, for the most part, I have done a pretty good job of it. And I've enjoyed it! She's been a great third baby for our family. I can list off the things that she has done over the past year, when she has done them and what she is currently doing.

And this is where I need to apologize to my other two.

When Sloane was born, it was just her, Matt and I. And during the day, it was just her and I. Unless she was sleeping, we were together all the time. Sloane was also a pretty good baby, not an amazing napper, but other than that, we had very few complaints.

We had twelve blissful months together until we found out we were pregnant with Reece.

I feel like Sloane's "babyhood" was gone the day I took that pregnancy test. From that moment on, I was tired, in pain some days and just didn't want to do much.

I didn't want to do much and had a girl that was walking, talking, in to everything. You know... she was being a normal toddler.

And then just after she turned 20 months, her brother arrived.

So basically, I had two babies to take care of.

Tack on being even more tired, having a baby who cried all the time, and then a toddler in to everything, my patience was basically at a negative six.

Sloane could be doing nothing, but it didn't matter. I felt like I was a my wits end with her every second of the day!

I remember my friend Abby coming to visit us at the height of Reece's constant crying from severe acid reflux and Sloane just being 2. Matt was on a work trip so Abby was "in it" - she saw it all. I remember being in the car and just losing it on my kids because I couldn't take it anymore.

Was it anyone's fault? Poor Reece could not help that he was in pain and at such a young age, he couldn't verbalize so he cried! And Sloane? Sloane was being 2.

By the time Reece turned one (and most of his "babyhood" was a complete blur), Sloane was two and a half and in the middle of the Two's. I felt like by now, I had a semi-grasp on life.  I could leave the house with both of them, go to the Aquarium, the zoo, out to eat... I felt like we had somehow regained some normalcy.

But as soon as you think you've got it under control, life jumps back in! Life with little people never truly  gets easier because kids are constantly transitioning from one new life concept to the next. We moved from Minnesota to Arkansas, throwing our kids another curve ball, waiting to see how they reacted to all the change.

And then we just kept it coming.

"We are moving!"

"We are living in a hotel for a few weeks!"

"We are sending you to new schools!"

And eventually...

"We are having another baby!"

And now here are. My six and four year old's have lived a lot in their short time on this world. They have traveled all over, lived in the North and the South, have seen four feet of snow and seen no snow, have dealt with tears from their crazy mom who sometimes just feels like she has no clue what she is doing.

And I'm sorry to them for that. I feel like now, with Tess, that I have been able to enjoy so much more of her time as a baby because I wasn't raising two other babies beside her. They are now big kids who can go to the bathroom by themselves and can go to bed without getting up repeatedly for an hour while I held on to the doorknob .

Life is different now. It's easier (despite the crazy that we are currently in with moving). It seems to be going fairly smoothly for us and I do not take that for granted.

I know that God gives you the kids you have for certain reasons. All three of mine have taught me such huge life lessons in their short amount of time that it takes me aback sometimes.

Sloane is the slowest person you are ever going to meet and will test your patience because of that. But she has a heart of gold and loves to do nice things for people all the time... just because. Life lesson.

Reece has struggled a lot over the past two years, but has made huge, GIGANTIC leaps as well. He has overcome so many fears that I could hug him for days because of it. Life lesson.

Tess smiles. And is happy. And loves to laugh. Particularly at her daddy, brother and sister whom she adores. So, her life is pretty simple, which sometimes is the way to be.

Life lesson.


XXOO,
Allyson

An Ode to My Baby

I have made more than 6,000 bottles for my children over the last six and a half years.
 
Six. Thousand. Bottles.

Soaking them, rinsing them, sanitizing them, filling them shaking them, storing them. With each new baby, has come the familiarity of the routine and five days in, you've got it back down.

As each baby gets older and needs fewer bottles, the amount of time it takes to make them gets shorter and shorter. And as the one year mark approached with the first two babies, a happy dance was done on the final night of baby-bottle making.

I am now on my final week of baby bottle preparation.

Because my final baby turns one-year-old on Friday.

Cue the waterworks!

I can honestly tell you all - without anyone telling my two oldest babies - that I don't remember having these emotions when they turned a year old. I was excited, a little sad, but just happy to be moving on to the next stage!

If you asked me right now if I would let Tess stay a baby for another year, I would say absolutely! I mentioned how Tess was the bright light in a dreary year and what I'm realizing is maybe Tess is just going to be that bright light forever!

This girl never, ever, ever ceases to bring a smile to my face. Or to her dad's face. Or her sister's. And when Reece remembers that Tess is around, he is so proud to show her off. Or not let a doctor in the door to give her a shot (even though she wasn't getting a shot).

Matt and I joke (in a serious way) that our kids are not like most kids and are straight-up crazy. After some long days, I believe that. But I know deep down in my heart that they are just normal kids. They just drive US crazy, which is different than being diagnosed cuckoo.

Our third baby just seems to watch the older two, soaking them in, laughing at them constantly, chasing them as fast as her two little knees will go. So it's hard to imagine that at some point, she will be categorized as one of our straight-up crazy kids.

But for now, I'm going to soak her up. I'm going to savor her saying 'Hi', waving to Wrigley in the mornings, her smile and laughter when Sloane gets home from school, the way she gladly lets Reece help her when we are in the car, her face attack when she knows her dad is trying to tickle her, her extra hard cuddles when she doesn't know someone and they are trying to talk to her, how she lays her head on my shoulder when she knows its time for bed and how she rolls right over on her belly as soon as she is laid down.

I know a year from now, I won't be able to list off all of these things that Tess did as a baby because I will probably have forgotten, like I have with the other two. But like the other two, I usually remember one very distinct thing about their time as babies.

And I will always remember that Tess always, always gave me a reason to smile!

The countdown to the tossing of the basin they sent home with us from the hospital that was used to give infants baths in, which in turn always became my bottle-making tub is on. And if you hear that I was crying on Thursday night while making bottles, you can believe that it was true.

An end of an era.

I love my babies.

And I've loved making their bottles.

XXOO,
Allyson

Wrapping up 2016

Hello friends and welcome to what will probably be my last post of 2016!

And can I just tell you... I will gladly kick 2016 in the rear when it parts us!

I don't recall in my 34 years of living a year quite like this one. It started off great with my dad's 60th birthday celebrations, then three days later, came to a quick, whiplashing halt. I will spare you all the details, but what I will say is this. If you are ever in or near the Havana, Kan., area, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT drink the water. It's spread crazy across the entire county.

Now the one place I really had treasured visiting because it was my place of calm and peace is now the last place I want to visit.

Which sucks.

But I will tell you my bright spots from 2016 and what I'm looking forward to in 2017!

This sweet baby is the No. 1 thing to come out of 2016! I couldn't wait for her to get here so I could get my attention off of what started the year off so horribly. And man, did she deliver! Our sweet Tess was born on February 24 after a long day of induced-labor. The girl would have stayed put another two weeks if I had let her. But I was done being pregnant!

The first few months were tricky with her because we could not figure out why she was crying so much. I had prayed for a healthy and happy baby because my Reece had severe acid reflux as a baby and was anything but happy! So I was definitely frustrated until we found out the poor girl wasn't pissed off, she had a milk allergy and her belly was hurting!

Once we figured that out, all was well! She has been so much fun to watch grow, though that has gone rather quickly. She is now crawling and all over the room, while Sloane is saying "Mom, can you hold her so she doesn't get in my stuff!" Ohhh, she has no idea what she's in for! :)

We all adore her, as does anyone that meets her. And man, am I glad that she was the bright spot in our 2016!

Sloane started kindergarten and turned six this year. I feel like both are these super momentous moments in her life AND ours. How did we get from zero to six so quickly?

She was SO excited to start school and really has loved it! Just now are we beginning to see some unlove for school, but it's perfect timing for a two-week break. A time to get re-energized and just enough time to drive mom crazy!

 

Reece started and finished occupational therapy at Children's Therapy Team. It's been quite the last two years with this kid, but we are thrilled with the progress he has made. As we left school yesterday and were saying goodbye to Ms. Heather who won't be returning after Christmas break, she told me that she will miss him the most.

It's funny because I'm always the most scared to send him off to something new. NOT because he won't enjoy it, but because I fear the teachers just won't get him. By the time it's time to move on to the next school year or teacher, I've gotten the same response from his teachers. It literally makes my heart burst with joy because if anything, my kids are good kids and people like to be around them. And sometimes, in the end, that is what is most important!

This summer, we found out that my brother and his wife were expecting their first baby! I cried MANY tears of joy because my brother is the absolute greatest guy I know (I feel like I'm allowed to say this and it not hurt my husband's feelings since it's my brother) and I am SO excited for him to be a dad and watch him and Alex parent together!

He LOVES kids. Probably because he'd like to be one his entire life, but his patience and kindness and love for babies is amazing and watching him with his own will be a true joy in my life!

Baby Hills will be here in January and - as I told his wife, Alex, just last night - I'm SO ready for a new teeny baby to be here to snuggle and hold! I don't need the baby to be my own, but blood-relation will do just fine!!

And last, but not least...

Our family has news to share. For the last half of this year, we've been teetering through the unknown with Matt's job. His company got bought so he was in limbo as to what he might be doing for a job or where he would be.

At one point, we thought we'd be moving back to Minneapolis. At another point, we thought we might be staying in Bentonville. We were hoping he could find a job in Kansas City. And then, he was offered a new job.

In Chicago.

What's funny is that we had always said we wanted to live in Chicago.

Pre-children.

But here we are. Three kids later. And about to move to the third largest city in the country.

Sounds nuts, but I kind of think we are nuts, so when you think about it in those terms, it's not nuts. It's more traveling (again) back to Kansas, it's learning my way around a new area (again), but we are close to a lot of Matt's aunts and uncles and cousins, which we are thrilled about!

When deciding on taking this job, Matt pointed out how much we loved getting to know my uncle Blish's family better when we lived in Minneapolis and feel that we are close with them and how neat it would be to have the same experience with his family.

And it was hard to fight that one!

We are excited! The kids (or Sloane) are excited! Our families are .... ehh ... coming around to it.

My mom and dad are thrilled to have a fun place to visit, but not thrilled it's farther away (though Manhattan is five hours for us and Chicago will only be seven). My brother is already planning trips.

And my sister? Well. We don't talk to her much about it because Matt is afraid she will harm him in his sleep. She was desperately wanting us to move to Kansas City (as were we) and we are very hopeful that will happen!

We just have a stop in between!


So... that's it for the Clark's in 2016. It started off really rough and had many moments of rough in between, but when I look at what we have accomplished, I am proud.

I have a very hard-working husband who loves his family with everything he has and wants nothing but the best for us. I have three healthy and happy and good kids. And I have a roof over my head.

That roof is about to get much more expensive, but it's a roof, nonetheless.

2017 -- you've got your work cut out for you, but I feel fairly certain you can handle it!

Merriest of Christmases to you all and have a wonderful and safe New Year! Thank you for following along these past few months - this has been a newfound love for me and I appreciate each and every one of that read this.

XXOO,
Allyson

It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere

You know how you envision curling up into bed with your sweet child, reading them books and snuggling with them before they drift off to sleep?

Yeah, that is not me.

It sorta kinda used to be me... but I can confirm with 100 percent confidence that that is not me any longer!

I have said it many times, but being a stay at home mom and being a full-time job mom are one-in-the-same when it comes to what time you want to wrap you day up on the job.

5 pm is that customary time.

And since we had Sloane, almost six years ago, that time is THE time.

It's the time I wait for when 2:30 is staring at me like the day is never going to end!

5 pm is when I seem to be calling it a day. I either have dinner ready or the kids are eating and we are waiting, sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently, for dad to get home. So he can walk in the door, take off his work hat, put on his dad hat, and be the fun guy they love so much.

And when he walks in the door, I breathe a sigh of relief because my relief pitcher has arrived. I can take Tess, and get her ready for bed, while he deals with the other two.

We each usually try and get a kid bathed, sometimes he does both (which is wonderful) and then we each read to a kid. I usually like to read to Reece because he is sort of entertaining to read to, then you lay with him for a few minutes, then say goodnight and that is it.

Sloane picks extra long books to read, then you have to put her socks on her, then you have to lay with her for five minutes... when all you want to do is go downstairs, take a shower and watch Real Housewives.

I find it somewhat laughable that Matt has been gone the last few days and in that time frame, Reece has become my least favorite child to read to and put to bed because he now forgets that I have laid with him so he wants me to do it repeatedly.

And if you see above that 5 pm is kind of my benchmark time - or the time that I'm done for the night - you can imagine how him asking me to lay down with him 10 times makes my blood pressure rise significantly.

I bow down to all of you that can muster the energy to put a smile on your face and be patient when your little ones need water 42 times, need to potty four times, and need you to lay with them for just 800 more minutes... because my energy is gone at ... you guessed it - 5 o'clock! ;)

So... on this final night of single parenting (Matt returns tomorrow at 2 pm, PRAISE GOD) and day two of Fall Break, after taking an hour and a half to bathe and read to everyone, I am sitting here at 8:30 without food in my stomach and I'm exhausted.

OHHH. I also am taking all three kids in for flu shots in the early morning.

Because when they mess with me at bedtime, I mess with them in the morning.

#dropsmic

#walksoffstage


XXOO,
Allyson

PS. I love my kids. But I'm tired. :)

Two Moms and Its Zoo at the Zoo

What do you do when it's Fall Break, your original plans of being on a beach fall through and your husband is out of town, your best friend works with kids every day, but has two days off AND you have a van?

You beg her to to take her kids to the zoo ... an hour and a half away!

AND she agrees!

You can just say that this picture signifies us livin' the dream.


That was before we pulled the car out of the garage and we actually LEFT for our destination.

If I remember correctly, eight seconds after this was taken, two kids started crying and two other kids were mad about someone touching the iPad.

But an hour and a half flew by, thanks to good conversation with my road pal, and Sloane's excellent bottle-feeding skills and ability to cheer up any baby/toddler.

Our first stop was lunch. We unloaded five kids at Dairy Queen, somehow everyone got food (and no ice cream because that wouldn't have been a disaster waiting to happen before the zoo), and we didn't leave anyone behind (though I contemplated leaving Reece).

We made it to the zoo, the zoo that is only an hour and a half from where I grew up in southeast Kansas, but the zoo that I had NEVER been to. Apparently when I came to Tulsa, I came to either fly out/in or shop.

But our first task, once getting paid and through the gate, was an attempt to get both Stacey children to stay fully clothed (I just HAD to snap a pic)! :)

Then we checked to see who was most-monkey like. My kids won that.

So proud. 

And since we came to the zoo to see the cool animals, the first thing we had to do was ...

Ride the carousel and the train.

I told Jenna, since we had already threatened the kids about 87 times already that day, that maybe by letting them on the rides at the beginning would be reverse psychology...

"HEY! If we let you go on these now, you have to be good the rest of the day!" 

And that's the funniest parenting lie you'll ever hear from me!

So on the train we went. The three amigos in the front and the rest of the ya-hoos in the back.

We managed to make it to the Children's Zoo, where my kids felt right at home -- they just had spent the weekend at their grandpa's farm, touching all sorts of smelly creatures so this goat was nothing! 

 Sloane had brought a "bag of stuff" into the zoo and when we got to the giraffe exhibit, she dug around and found her stuffed giraffe, that she had specifically brought to show the real giraffes.

As you can see, they got a kick out of it. ;)

 

One of Reece's many attempts at leading us through the zoo! Jenna tore the map in half at one point to give one half to Anna and the other to Reece and she saw the wrath of Reece come out. Thank God our second copy of the map wasn't too far away! :) 

 

 See this girl on the right? Yeah. This is precious Anna who was voted No. 1 child by the adults this trip! I told her many times that she could have anything she wanted, she just had to ask! Luckily the girl doesn't have many words yet or I probably would have had to buy her the gift shop.

  

After taking the iPad away from the boys, and eventually giving it to Sloane, and Max asking Jenna approximately 12 times when he was going to get the iPad back, everyone but Sloane, Jenna and myself fell asleep just until we pulled back into town.

Three things happened on this trip:

• Parenting kids -- the good and the bad -- is tough, but EVERYONE is dealing with something, so when you think you're alone, you're most definitely not.
  
• We should have left the boys at home.
  
• Memories were made!

It was a long day and another one where I felt like I spent 75 percent of it telling my kids to stop doing something or to start listening - totally normal day for me. But I was so thankful that Jenna and her crew were able to come along!  

Now... what to do today... 

XXOO,

Allyson