Nothing like a posed picture….

Our church decided to torture the families of FFC by making a church directory. :)  Ha ha!   Now if you have never participated in this endeavor, it is not something that you need to add to your Bucket List!  Basically everyone in the church – or as many as possible – sign up for a time for a picture of their family.  They are posed in the normal awkward positions --- nothing natural about them, unlike Rachelle Chase Photography or Bethany Chase Photography – and then a cheesy photographer snaps a few shots while trying to make the kids laugh with a creepy stuffed toy.  Yup…. that pretty much summed it up, except for the part where they try to guilt you into buying the awkward prints at astronomical prices.  Anyway….

We had our picture taken… and then we got the free 8x10 print for doing it.   One of the good parts is that I will be able to rehearse names with their pictures…. that is worth it for me! 

Here is the picture that we got… nothing too special.  Caleb looks a little stoned.  The other kids are ok and Danny and I are not too bad.

SUPER quick…

Have you ever tried to take pictures of a SUPER QUICK one year old?  It is almost impossible!  I have more and more respect for my sisters-in-law for all they as photographers after trying to get a few good pictures of my kids.  MY one year old is at the stage that he will NOT sit still, he will NOT look at the camera, and he will NOT smile… UNLESS…. I am being incredibly goofy, the other kids are not around and I have a little something to keep his attention!  I have thought about tying him down, but I am not sure if that would help create a happy baby!  I would love to bribe him, but he doesn’t understand that yet!  Well, these pictures (taken over a few days) are the best I can do for this time in our lives.  Here he is… our SUPER QUICK one year old… Caleb Andrew! 

Like a Pro

Caleb has really progressed in his walking abilities in the last week... he is now like a pro!  He is walking everywhere and I think he even walks more than he crawls!  Wow... he now seems like he is definitely one!  Here are two little videos that we took this weekend to show you his moves!  :)

Part Two

The afternoon continued with the Butterfly House…

More statue-lovin’

The Lied Jungle

And the last stop of the day…I forget what it was called… the kids basically just wanted to play on this jeep… so did the dads!

Then we went out for dinner, went to the hotel, swam and went to bed.  We even got to swim again in the morning…my kids were thrilled and EXHAUSTED!!  We love you, Fryrears! :)

To the Omaha Zoo Part One

We had an amazing time at the Omaha Zoo a few weeks ago with great friends.  We decided to go on this overnight trip as a homeschooling field trip and a final trip with our friends who are moving to KC in June.  Here are the highlights from the day…

Grace is pretending that this lion statue is ASLAN….riding just like Lucy!

Hannah was getting into it too…. always pretending! 

JP, Caleb and Danny

Off we go exploring the Zoo… Josiah James and Joshua James are best buddies.  This is how they went from place to place… holding hands, giggling and exploring! 

Morgan loves giraffes so here are Hannah and Morgan climbing on a statue!

Our group…7 children and 4 adults!  What a crew!

Best Buddies!

Can we get all seven kids to look at the camera AND smile?

For some reason Hannah just loved his gorilla… she wanted her picture taken!  I guess she thought that he would be snuggly… even if he was only a statue!

Caleb loved all of the water fountains and pools.  He splashed and splashed… making his sweatshirt pretty wet, but I did get smart and roll up his sleeves after I took this picture!

Next we headed to the Seal/Sea Lion exhibit.  They were cleaning their pool which they do once a week.  We egged the man on a little and he sprayed our kids.  They loved it…. well, Siah didn’t, but the rest thought it was fun!  We also got a kick out the seals… they were bending in lots of gymnastic or yoga positions!  The baby was SO CUTE!!

The Dirty Rhino….

And then the howling monkey-things….

And the cute bears… This one was my favorite… he had a great view!

Playing in the dino pit before lunch!

Back on the search for cool animals after lunch…

These are some cute caged animals….

Ring around the world….

Caleb was FASCINATED at all of the aquarium exhibits!