Bringing in the Hay

Grandpa Koenning had trouble finding help to bring in his hay this year, so Brandon took the kids and spent the day Friday helping get it done.  There was a big chance of rain Saturday, so it needed to be done before then.  The kids loved helping and riding in Grandpa's pick-up truck.  They were truly "country" kids for the day.

The Kids Have Power!

The kids have power....power wheels, that is! After the freezing weather and snow this week, we got out to enjoy a beautiful 70 degree afternoon while it lasts! I hear we are to expect cold weather again very soon. So both kids decided to ride their power-driven vehicles up and down the sidewalk today. They are getting a lot better at steering and driving them! Here are my little drivers!

Trains, Automobiles...No Planes

We took what Brandon called a Staycation yesterday. His cousin Brian, wife Melissa, and their son Zachary met us in New Braunfels to visit. We try to get together with them a few times each year and were due...it had been a while.

They had some free tickets to ride the little park train there given to them by family members, so we thought the kids would really enjoy that. And they did. Andrew sat in amazement and told us everything he saw. Lillian loved it too, but was ready to go to the "cool" playgrounds she saw. So after the train ride, the kids all played on the many playscapes and enjoyed he nice, but hot weather!

It was really nice to see cute little Zack! He is growing up so fast and just as cute as can be. It is always nice to visit with Brian and Melissa as well. Hopefully we'll plan a time when the adults can visit more without the kids as that is tough when you are chasing around 3 toddlers making sure they don't run off!

After saying our goodbyes to the Hajeks, we headed a little further south to check out the Natural Bridge Caverns Wildlife Safari. Brandon and I had been once during college, but not since we had kids. We got the kids out of their carseats and sat them on our laps in the front to drive through the safari. The kids were amazed by the animals and super excited to feed them. Then we rounded a corner and and ostrich came to the window and that all changed! It stuck his head in the window and pecked at Andrew's hand to get the food and Andrew freaked out! He screamed and cried. As we drove on, if we saw another ostrich, he got scared again. It was quite funny. We would ask him if he wanted to see the bird and he was go, "NO! NO! NO!" ha ha.

(Here is Andrew after the Ostrich incident)

It ended with a petting zoo of mostly goats and the kids both liked that with the exception of a goat trying to eat Andrew's shirt. So overall, we had a fun day and the kids definitely slept well last night.

The Bluebonnets are Back!

I noticed the beautiful bluebonnets this week while driving and thought I better get the kids out to get their pictures in them before I forget. So after picking up the kids from their weekend with their aunts and grandparents in Shiner, we stopped off a country road and took some pictures! Enjoy!

More Snow Fun

After naptime, it had snowed a lot more, so I took the kids out to see it on the golf course. Then Brandon got home from work and joined us. Here are some more pictures!

Snow in Round Rock!?

I didn't even know until the middle of the day yesterday we had a chance of snow and low and behold, we did get some! I was in the kitchen this morning when Lillian ran in and said, "Mommy, it is snowing!" Sure enough, we looked out the window and it was! Funny how she's never seen snow in her life and she was the one that showed me! The kids are loving it. It is still coming down and Lillian is set on making a snowman, so hopefully after naptime when Brandon gets home, they can do that. Here are some pictures and a video...the video is funny...the kids decided to slide down the slide in the backyard in the snow.

Selective Hearing

Lillian never listens when we are asking her a question, but apparently her ears work...we were out in the yard today and we could hear the ice cream truck. She yells to us as she puts her hand to her ears..."Listen! You hear that?" We scrounged for some change and the kids got ice cream.

Cameron Park Zoo

Brandon took vacation this week, so we planned on taking the kids to the zoo to do something fun as a family. Although it was a cloudy day, it wasn't a bad day to go and on the plus side, there weren't many people there, so we felt like it was all to ourselves.

Lillian loved every minute of it running to each place saying, "Find more animals." The only part she was a little wary of was the snakes and then the nocturnal animals building since it was so dark...she didn't really want to look at the owls. Andrew was freaked out by almost everything...my little scardy cat. He would start screaming everytime we went inside a building...even if it was just fish! I think he thought we were going to feed him to the animals or something. Speaking of which, when Lillian heard the Lion roaring across the zoo, she asked about him, so I told her it was a lion. I told her he was probably hungry and if he could eat her. She said no! I asked if he could eat Andrew. She said no! I asked if he could eat daddy. She said no! Then she looked at me and grinned and said, "Eat mama!" ha ha...my little smarty!

Here are some pictures of our outing. I had to take one of the lion because anytime I've been there before, he has been way off and this time he was pacing back and forth in front of the window looking at us! I think he thought we were bringing lunch.

St. Nick

We brought the kids back from their weekend in Shiner today for them to find that St. Nick had visited last night. Lillian was very excited to see what was in her stocking. Andrew on the other hand, would find one thing and run off with it and then I would have to call him back to look in again and see what else was in there. Lillian lined up her things on the floor. She got Happy Feet the dvd, some Little People, and some books. Andrew got a firetruck, Little People, and some books as well. I'm very excited to see their reactions to Christmas now after this! If you are curious about why we celebrate this day...look back to my December 2008 post about St. Nick's Day. And here is a link to website that talks a little about it.
http://wf-f.org/st.nicholas.html