Our trip to Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park.

 We went to opening day on July 30th with 2 other families and had a great time. The weather was great-hot but a nice breeze. It was new so the overwhelming hot poo smell was barely noticeable. Not like at home where poo filled diaps get wedged under the computer and proceed to bake and fill the house with smell. Who knew visiting a pasture of Bison would smell better than my house? I do, now!

 My sweet Reese wearing her brother's hat because Mama's too cheap to lay down a couple bucks for a new one when this neutral one works just fine. It looked so cute all floppy around her head.

 She sat in the stroller for hours enjoying the views (and the fresh air...). It was nice to see her sitting there in something other than her carseat. My peanut is growing up.

 So, we walk into the park and are met with a kid handing out cotton candy. Like, first thing, like I haven't taken 5 pictures of you yet and now you'll be covered in smurf. But, not wanting to go all Kate Gosselin on them and freak out if they get dirty I plucked two from the kid and handed them to my boys.

 Funny thing-when your kids are slightly OCD and can't stand being dirty (like walk on their heels when they get sand from the softball field in their sandals until they get to grass and can finally relieve the agony of grit) they stay surprisingly pristine. They see smurf on each others face and proceed to get out a wipe and wipe their faces and hands and anything around them. Yeah for OCD!

 Girl, don't give me that look. Reese clearly isn't pleased in being slathered in sun screen. Her friend Anni came ready to party.

African Crown Cranes

A really big tortoise.  We want to get one. I want one that walks around both inside and outside. Our friend "Reptile Rick" who is a huge part of the park had one at his house we looked at and he said it had been neglected. It had a soft shell from lack of nutrition and he gave it Tums to strengthen it's shell. I found that so interesting. They couldn't take away my heartburn when I was prego but by golly they do a  fantastic job hardening the shell of a turtle. 

We went into the aviary and oh the fun we had! There were somewhere in the area of 487,00 parakeets that would eat seed off of sticks that you bought for a buck and held.

They were every color of the rainbow. Not being a parakeet aficionado I didn't know they were so beautiful. Probably what people think about our chickens.....or not.

Logan took a minute to adjust to them and the fact he couldn't just walk over and pick one up like at home with the chickens. Yeah, my boys a chicken chaser!

Our friend Alison and her sweet daughter Anni enjoyed the aviary too!

Fellow Cascade FF Todd and his beautiful daughter Leah were pros at the feedings.

I love Reese's eyes. They are big and beautiful and when she smiles her whole face lights up.

Great job, Logan.

Nice work, Cole.

My DH, Andy, getting in on the action. Will we ever get a bird? I don't know. I imagine that we won't. An indoor/outdoor turtle that is a maybe, though.

Well, lookey here! It's our goats!! Macey in black and Marge up front sporting white. Hello, ladies! I know it's a little different here, what with no slide, swingset, big honkin' wooden spools littering the yard that you chewed and chewed, nope. Looks like a standard animal pen with straw and hay works just fine! Huh, who knew!?

This here is a gator. This gator gets the chickens that quit laying and the chickens that turn out to be roosters at our house.  Yeah, your welcome.

This is our friend, Reptile Rick. He is so smart and generous with his time and knowledge. He asked the boys to pick anything they wanted to touch and he would get it for them.

Yep, they choose an alligator. Look at my babies flushed cheeks. They are so cute.

                                             I love that Reese can hold her own bottle.

Birds, large birds.

The glorious tractor ride. We saved it for last. Our guide, Terry was funny and informative. I tend to like factoidy type things. The tractor ride took us through the animals of Africa.

A majority of the zebras are prego. I will never be prego again. We will have to go back and see the babies. The park was a fantastic time. Not so big that your miserable trying to see everything to get your monies worth. Great layout, friendly staff. If your looking for a way to spend 3 hours, take a drive to Alto and check them out. 

Thanks Rick and Sara!

We are finally back online!

Our laptop died. I pulled out our desktop, it died. Riley got another chicken, it too, died. We can't find the bunny......Anyways! There is so much to update the 11 of you on! Kids are great, growing like weeds, eating like a football team. Andy is good and really excelling at his job as a recliner and remote tester. I am hoping to get back to work very soon. We have no complaints! I mean if someone wanted to drop 50k in my lap I wouldn't say no! We got a generous donation of beautiful floors from a great couple at church. They just bought a great place and didn't like the floors so they ripped them up and gave them to us! If you'd seen my hot mess of ripped yellow linoleum you'd know why we are sooooo doing the happy dance.

here is the foyer...before.

it's looking better already!

Andy did such a fantastic job. We put the old trim back up for now. Later we will get some nice chunky, fresh trim.....ahhhh, we have such a case of the "somedays". Good news is that my boss called and it looks like I will be getting back to work very soon. 

my sweet boys found a bug of some sort that was running the "moat" between the expansion gap between the flooring and the wall. They proceeded to terrorize it by following it and swatting it everytime it poked it's little exoskeleton up. Notice they still are anti-clothes. We have begun putting them in undies....yeah, they have to wear all the pairs in the pack and then throw them in the laundry. Why? you ask....you must not have kids if you have to ask!! I guess it's better than what they have done in recent weeks. Buck naked running through the house smacking their butts screaming "commando means no panties"! Yeah, I got in trouble from the hubs for calling boys underwear "panties". I have since learned.

Here's the man hard at work making his castle wonderful and updated and less likely for his MIL to ask if she can "help clean the floors"...no, ma, it's a hole that's ripped into the floor, it's not dirt. Thanks, though.

I don't know where the bug is honey. I guess you'll have to move onto lighting ant hills on fire....

See the grey strip on the right side of the door. It's duct tape....I wish there was something funny or witty to say right about now but....it's duct tape.

Notice the kitchen floor...I know it's hard to notice anything other than my 2 monkies being....themselves but look at the floor. We had enough of the new floor to put in a new kitchen floor too. (we also have enough for the laundry room too....although you can't see it because it's covered in elmo undies).

I want to move the island and kitty corner it so it faces out to the livingroom and is like 4 miles closer to the rest of the kitchen but Andy isn't going for it. He likes that you can fit a Hummer in our kitchen.

Hi, beautiful girl. My last baby is almost 7 months old. 

Dad, are you gonna put pants on over those undies?? 

Holla!!! It's  a great day here at the Acres. I think every parent is feeling the same thing...FREEDOM!!

What happens when a certain little monkey decides that watering the garden means watering himself. I am again throwing my hat in the ring for "Mother of the year". Seriously!! Who lets their 2 2yr olds run around under the hose the day after the hubs mows the lawn?? I am an idiot! We stripped them nakers and let them spray each other and run around screaming like banchees. Welcome to Crazyville, new neighbors, yep, go right ahead and pull those blinds shut.

I apparently fell on an air compressor...what in the heck?? On another note...our garden is so great! We are getting great veg from it. The homemade topsy turvy tomatoes work great!

I know you are wondering "What about the chickens?" well here ya be. That one is actually a rooster so it went to the Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Zoo to "help" out the alligators. In case you don't know...it takes a while to figure out the roosters from the hens. It has to do with the shape of their neck feathers and height of their tail feathers and yada yada...if you wake me up I will hunt you down and feed you to the gators. 

These are the newest addition. They are the Polish. We adore them. They got hair like Tina Turner after a round or two with Ike and we love it! Our new favorite restaurant Twister Rooster has incredible art with Polish chickens and after contacting the artist and finding out pricing we decided to just add some Polish to the roost and take our own pictures.  I know, I know-pictures of chickens in our kitchen! Yeah, I have surrendered. 

I was asked to be part of a group that is making new banners for the sanctuary at church. (News of my dork-dom can't be squelched). The banners will be 4 feet by 5 feet. The Pastor wanted to see a sample so I gathered my Jo-Ann's coupons and off I went. Here's the sample. It's 13 inches square made from felt. I like it. I think it will be fun.

I'm in trouble!! I feel my power draining from me. She's got him whooped. 

Hanging out with Grandpa Albright. Yeah, she's got him whooped too.

The boys with Grandma Albright and GG (Great Grandma). 

My potty training boys in the flesh...alot of flesh. 

Ahhh! I love it!

Seriously! So stinkin' cute!

Helping daddy drill. Daddy loves it when the boys "help". Mommy loves it because it takes 4 times as long to do it so that means 4 times as much time to myself. And the boys are bonding with their father and learning life lessons and all that other good mother stuff your supposed to say......whatever--I gotta check Facebook.

My babes and the reason I wear paper tape.

My mom wants more pictures of Reese on the blog. I don't intentionally leave her out! Let's be honest, though....she doesn't really do a whole lot that I grab the camera and click, click, click. "oh! she's drooling!" "For the Love, where's the Camera?? Reese is sucking a pacifer swinging in her swing!!" Yeah, your welcome for sparing you. However, she is doing some great stuff so there will be more of her now. She sits up, holds her bottle and I swear she's really close to figuring out the crawling thing. Her smile melts me and I hope she keeps it because it illuminates her whole face.

The boys are better than great with her. They sing "Jesus loves me" to her and give her a bottle when she's less than ecstatic to be awake. It's precious. Man, am I glad we got a cutie for the last go round.

Cause we got our slaves helpers that can teach her so much! Ummmm...sweeties, you missed a spot.

Thanks, boys. The kitchen floors are waiting.

I wish twins on everyone, that's no secret. What I really wish on everyone is someone at the end of the day to wrap their arms around you, give you a wet kiss and say " I love you." and if they add "I have a fully diapy" well consider it an even bigger blessing.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! We had a wonderful day. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if Andy wasn't working. We did get to see him a ton, though! The kids were great and Reese was an angel. You never know how the sun and kids are gonna mix until you just get out there. For today at least, the kids were the winners!

Anytime there is anything driveable within the sight line of my boys, they have to "drive it". Fine, kid, get in hurry up. Hold your sister real quick so mommy can take a picture. See the little barrette in her hair- that's to avoid the inevitable "what a handsome boy, looks just like his father" comment. "yeah, thanks, it's a girl." Barrette = clear gender= no veiled snarky comment from the sweaty mom trying to make sure the 2 2 year olds don't drive away in a golf cart.

Proud daddy and his bright eyed beauty.

Hold onto your hats, folks. This is the boys first popsicle! Yep, they don't watch cartoons and this is their first popsicle. It was okay, except when it started dripping and their OCD kicked into hyperdrive. Seriously, just eat it, don't worry about the drips on your hand, or your shirt, or your shorts, or.......

Can you pick out the best part of this picture?? Look to the right......

Caledonia had their hose misting the crowd and the run-off was gushing down the gutters. There's no real non-white trash to say this....the boys had a great time splashing in the gutters!!

Happy Independence Day!

because I really am that cheap.

You've seen these, right? The Lysol motion activated soap dispensers. I had a coupon. I have a weakness for them. They are usually like 14 bucks or so and I got mine for 3. You see what I mean. Or you don't. Anyways, so you use them and surprisingly they run out of soap! Now what? I don't want to buy refills. I'm too cheap. I know!! I'll refill it myself.

I lugged out the Costco hand soap refill and a needless syringe. At the top of the soap container is a "port". See where I'm goin' with this? Not rocket science.

I found it was easier to not "suck up the soap and then plunge" but rather leave the syringe in the port and pour in the soap then "introduce the plunger".

Plunge. Keep repeating this until it's full or you can't take your 2 2 year olds continuous running commentary on every move you make. "mommy put soap in", "mommy push it"," mommy flip soap over", "mommy cutting her wrists". The whole thing took less than 10 minutes.

Voila!! Just like you paid for it!

Don't forget to turn it off before you start.

Don't forget to turn it on after you finish. "Honey, this thing is broken, I can't wash my hands." *sigh*--don't forget, do yourself a favor.