Left to her own devices

Sydney would wear 6 pairs of pajamas at the same time.

























She would wear stickers on her legs in place of pants.


























She would wear her underwear on her head.






















She would sleep in the bathtub.






















And every bath would be full of bubbles (like an entire bottle of Mr. Bubble).























She would wear a tutu every day, every where.






















Every night would end with ice cream and cuddling with Daddy,



















And she would leave the house looking like a bag lady.

Our last trip to the zoo

Did I mention we LOVE the zoo?



Sydney is very concerned that the flamingos stand in pee water.

The Atlanta Zoo has a huge gorilla habitat that I absolutely love. Sydney, on the other hand, loves the statues of the gorillas.



















Sydney loves the petting zoo part. She thinks it is cool to brush the goats. It amazes me that she has no fear about approaching the animals.



















We always end our trips at the playground. It is huge and has a few slides, rockers, a rock climbing wall...and a pretend school bus. That is Sydney's favorite part.

In February we bought memberships to the zoo. We have been going pretty frequently (the goal is three times a week), and the kids love it! We have been so many times now that Sydney has the layout memorized :-).

Sydney loves animals and could spend all day, every day, just watching them. Her favorite animals are the kamodo dragon (I have no idea why), the pandas (they have a mommy, daddy, big sister, and baby brother just like us), and the orangutans (they are by far the most active animals there).

After visiting the animlas, we stop by the play area. Jaxon loves to ride the train and the carousel. He waves at people the entire time and smiles. Sydney is a big fan of the train and carousel too, but her favorite part is the big playground.

Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating lately, and the zoo visits have been on hold. We have been trying to find other ways to pass the time, but nothing seems to interest the kids as much as the zoo.

Then, we tried the aquarium. Normally the aquarium is way too expensive, but during the month of March they had a special - $20 for parking, admission for one adult and up to two kids. Normally that would cost close to $60, so we decided to take advantage of it.

Tha aquarium here is pretty incredible. We have been a few times before, but this was our first time since last June. Sydney thought the jellyfish were cool, but her favorite part was the moving sidewalk. She would ride it to the end, jump off, and run back to ride it again. She is easily entertained.

Jaxon, on the other hand, absolutely loved the fish. There is one room that has a huge glass wall and you can sit there and watch the fish swim by. Jaxon was in heaven!

A new cousin for Jaxon and Sydney!

My sister Allison and her husband welcomed their first baby home last week. He was born Friday, and weighed 8lbs 11 oz, and was 20 inches long. Congratulations guys!

He crawls!

About four days ago Jaxon started crawling on all fours. For about two weeks he has been army crawling to the couch and pulling himself up, but it wasn't until Monday that he figured out he could get there faster on all fours. He can also bother his sister a lot more now that he is on all fours...

Story Time

When some people go to the bathroom (for the long haul), they take a magazine or book with them. When Sydney needs to go to the bathrrom, she takes me with her. She feels that bathroom time is the perfect story time.

Usually, she says, "Mom tell me a story while I ...(you know the word)." Tonight, however, she said, "Mom let me tell you a story!"

I was curious to hear what she came up with. I thought maybe she would tell me the story of Goldilocks or The Three Little Pigs (my go to stories), but no, she made up a story all on her own. I thought it was cute (although slightly strange), so I thought I would share it.



The Little Boy and the Giant, by Sydney Young

Once upon a time there was a little boy. One day he saw a big, monster, giant. And the giant ate the little boy in his mouth. Then the daddy came out and screamed. The mommy grabbed the little boy out of the giant's mouth with her big hands. Then they fed the giant meatballs. The end.

I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did! I think she's pretty creative for a 3 year old.

Snowstorm - GA style

Living in the Rocky Mountains, one quickly acclimates to snowfall and all that accompanies it. After 10 years in the Rockies, I was a snow pro, and snowstorms had lost their thrill. In fact, I gladly welcomed the change of climate when we moved across country last summer. I was so happy to not worry about shoveling snow, or driving on black ice…

Then, February rolled around and Donnie and I started to miss the snow. We realized that Jaxon and Sydney will not make snow angels or snow men, go sledding, eat snow…and we were a little sad.

Then March came, and all of those fears were laid to rest. Georgia had a “snowstorm.” Now, this was relatively mild compared to Utah, but this was the biggest storm since 1993 for Georgia. Parts of metro Atlanta received 2-4 inches of snow.

The snow started falling at our house around 11 a.m. Sunday, and steadily fell for the rest of the day. Churches cancelled services, and schools cancelled Monday classes. Jaxon ate snow as it fell from the sky, and Sydney and Donnie made a small snowman. Sydney was so happy to see snow! She wanted to play outside all day, but in the afternoon it started thunder snowing – I did not make that up, that is what they called it on the news, so she had to play inside.

Here are a few shots from our big storm.

At the start of the "storm," the flakes were falling pretty quickly - and they were huge! Sydney was so happy! She ran out of the house without a coat or gloves; at least she had pants on. She ran to the car and started eating snow off the hood (yuck!).

Donnie convinced me to come outside with Jaxon so he could check it out. It was really cold and my hair was still wet, so we didn't stay out for long. Jaxon kept sticking his tongue out to lick the snow as it fell, but finally he gave up and started licking the snow off me.

Sydney came inside for gloves and a coat, and then she and Donnie built a little snowman on the trunk of the car. Most of our neighbors built bigger snowmen, but I think Sydney's was the cutest :-).

From the start of the storm until the time we left for church wasn't very long - an hour, maybe two - but the yard was completely covered by then. The snow came so quickly and unexpectedly that even the local wildlife was thrown off. Donnie took a few great shots of birds hanging out in the trees looking confused.

Hmmm

I'm not really sure what to think of this, but today Sydney said, "Look! I'm a mommy!"

I turned around to see this: