Goats, Donkeys and Pigs! Oh my!

Early last week we declared today as family day.  We weren’t allowed to work.  In honor of family day we went to a petting zoo.  I felt that Mally was at an appropriate age and would really enjoy it.  She seems to love animals right now.  She goes nuts over Maggie.  She loves it when I put in Baby Einstein with the cows that go moo!  : )

We visited Barney’s Barnyard today and it was perfect!  Just what I wanted for Mallory!  They had lots of brand new (literally days old) baby animals!!  It was small and not overwhelming.  It originally started out has a hobby farm for the couple and then she was laid-off from her job and they decided to turn it into a petting zoo and open it up to the public.

There were lots of squeals and babbles when we walked in and showed her the animals.  Miniature Horses!

Petting the horse!  Pay attention to how Mally pets the animals.

Donkey!!  Jesse and I so want a pet donkey!

Pot Belly Pig!

Chili the kissing Alpaka.

Chili and the owner of the petting zoo.

Fainting goats!  Did you watch the episode on dirty jobs where Mike visits the fainting goat place?  Except these goats never fainted because they are too use to people now from being on the farm.  I love how the one goat is laying in the feed bin.

My little farm girl!

Um.. look how I pet the animals. 

I’m not an animal person – but I push it aside for my baby girl.  We were not even there 10 minutes and I was sneezing, running nose, itchy-watery eyes… allergic!

After the petting zoo we stopped for some lunch at this place called Katie & Gracie’s.  We were told to find a spot and someone would be right with us.  We pick out a booth and a lady comes up with some menus.  We ask if they have any high chairs, she gives a very firm, “No”.  We say, okay and just look at her.  She is still holding the menus and looking at us and says, “Oh you are still going to stay.”  Yes.  She gives us the menus and walks away.

They have outdoor seating and we move outside and get the stroller so Mally can sit and eat.  After lunch I check out the bathrooms to see if I can change Mally here.  It was a big single bathroom with no changing tables.  No problem!  I’m starting to be a pro at changing diapers in random strange places.  I wheeled her stroller into the bathroom and laid the seat down and changed her diaper in the stroller.  Which I might add is no easy task!  She tries to sit up and climb out! 

I walk out of the bathroom pushing the stroller and heading towards the door when this same woman walks up behind me and says, “Is there a diaper I should know about.”  I was in complete shock and just looked at her.  She says it again, “Is there a diaper I should know about.”  I say, yes there is a wet one but I threw it in the garbage.  She says, “Okay thank you.” turns on her heel and walks away.

I can now say that I have officially met a kid-hater!  This woman was so rude to us!  We even think she was the owner of the place!  Our waiter was great and the food was good – but this lady was rude as all get out!  And Mally was being so good!  The first encounter Mally was just sitting on my lap being quiet looking around.  While we were eating she just sat in her stroller and Mmm’d the entire time she ate.  She never once cried or got unruley. 

As we drive away Jesse and I go threw all the things I should of said to her instead of, yes there is a wet one…  One of the ones we came up with was:  Oh you mean that poopy-one I left laying on the floor wide open?  My daughter grabbed it and started smearing it all over your walls.  I am so sorry!

This winter Jesse went snowmobiling in Buffalo County and came back and told me how he was on this bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.  Today he took us there!  Here is Buena Vista Park and the view of the Mississippi River.

One last picture of my ragga-muffin girl!  When I went to change her diaper at the restaurant she had leaked.  So I had to put new shorts on her – which totally did not match but there was no way I was changing her entire outfit because she was wiggling and trying to escape.

It was a very fun day.  Makes me want to declare more family days and plan more little trips like this.

Spring has Sprung!

We have had an awesome spring this year.  Hot!  Humid!  Hot!  Lots of Sunshine!  Hot!  Which is why I have been MIA for awhile.  We have been doing so many projects around the yard that I haven’t had a moment to blog. 

We started out making these raised gardens.

Then we put lattice around the deck.

Trimmed the trees!  I wish I would of took a before picture but I didn’t get out there quick enough.  This made a huge difference and made our yard feel much bigger.  (There use to be branches all the way down to the ground.)  We then had to plant grass seed under the trees.

When we put in the gardens we had Jesse’s Dad help us.  He believes in the sole use of big equipment and power tools.  So he used a skid-steer and we had ruts all over the place.  Then his dad left Jesse alone with the skid-steer and it was only a recipe for disaster.  He got it stuck in the yard and had to winch it out with the jeep.  Bigger ruts!  Anyway we had to let the mud dry and then we could fix it and replant grass. 

I even had a garage sale with my sister-in-law!  Wow.  Do you meet some interesting people when you host a garage sale!  People tried to “buy” Mally.  People told me what to feed her.  People touched her.  One guy even picked her up and carried her around a bit.  The Momma Bear in me almost came out with some of these people.

We also have been planning someone’s FIRST birthday!! 

Now it’s time for a nap because there is only a bigger weekend planned with more projects and more party planning!  : )

!! SCORE !!

My friend, Molly, facebooked me about a month ago asking me if I wanted to go to “The Woodbury, MN Garage Sales”.  I have heard many things about these garages sales and I couldn’t pass it up.  I said yes! 

Saying yes also meant that I would be leaving my baby girl for 24+ hours!  We would be leaving the night before and staying in a hotel so we wouldn’t have to drive in the morning.

This was the first time that I was away from Mallory for longer then just a couple of hours.

We left Wednesday night and stayed in a hotel room.  The hotel we were at was…um… rugged.  It kind of gave us the creeps.  Molly and I went to check out the pool and there were just guys in the pool area.  They were just sitting there drinking beer in their street clothes.  (I’m guessing they were a construction crew.)  We looked at the hot tub and there is an older gentleman in there and it looks as if he has either been drinking with the guys or has been in the hot tub a few too many hours!  I lean down to touch the pool water and hot tub guy says to us “The hot tub is much better!”  We left and never came back.

Molly, Holly and Me ready to hit the sales!

The garage sales were amazing!  So much fun!  So many!  I swear Molly told me there are over 800 garage sales going on at one time!  Molly did an awesome job of driving us around and getting us to so many!!  I can’t even begin to count – it was a lot!  Oh and it was raining!  I mean down pouring!!  I mean thundering!  Rain!  We were soaked!  But we were all on a mission to score big deals – rain wasn’t going to stop us!  We practically had to beg Molly to stop for lunch!!  : )

I took some pictures of the van a few hours in… we have so much room yet!  Our goal was to load the van full before we could come home.

Now we are talking!  Finally we got it full!  We can go home now. 

Mallory loves garage sales finds!  New toys!

Check out this swing set I scored!!  Yes, we totally had this in the van!

When we walked up to this house with the sing set I walked right up to and hesitated.  I really liked it!  But, did we have room for it?  Was it a really good deal?  Then Molly comes and says, Lynn- get this!!!  Mallory will love it!  It is such a good deal!  If you don’t get it I’m getting it!  Molly convinced me there was room in the van and I got it!  Now I can’t wait for it to stop raining and get warm so Miss Mallory and I can go outside and play!  : )

Little Red Wagon!  My sister-in-law wanted me to keep a look out for a radio flyer red metal wagon with a little rust.  I found one just as I was about to walk out of a sale.  I had just bought the swing set and didn’t know if we had room for a wagon.  Once again the girls convinced me that there was enough room.

Steph… you are going to have to fight for this now.  Jesse has his eye on it and thinks we could use a wagon around here.

Mallory playing with more new toys.  She has found the fridge and I wanted to get her some magnetic letters.  Score!  Found them at a garage sale!

More finds!  I think I am hooked.  I will be making this an annual thing – I’ll be back again next year!

This lady bug umbrella and the old navy water boots were too cute!  All I could see were photo opportunities screaming at me when I spotted them!

We ended our garage sailing adventure with a stop at Starbucks for a 50% off frappuccinos!  : )  We also decided that next year we need a trailer and it just so happens that I am married to someone with an enclosed trailer!!!  : )  Now I just need to learn to drive our truck with a trailer!  Hahaha! 

Oh and Mallory did awesome while I was gone!  Jesse also rocked with his special Mallory day!  I thought Mallory would be more excited to see me, but she just crawled over to me and then Maggie knocked her over and then she cried.  I was expecting her to start grunting and whining until she got in my arms and then giving me big snuggles… which is what she does when I’m only gone for an hour at the gym!  Silly baby!

11 Months!

Really?  My baby girl is going to be ONE in a month!?  Oh don’t worry, party plans are just a swimming and jumping around.  I can’t wait! 

This really has been a fun stage.  The crawling.  The exploring.  Understanding.  Words starting to form.  Tempers.  Okay, tempers not so much.  : )

Eating.  She eats just about anything and is now on table food.  Expect for fruit I still give her jars of fruit because we are not a big fruit family so I never have fresh stuff.  She is also 100% on regular milk.  Yippee skippee times 5-trillion.  : )

Speaking of eating- She likes to put her peas in a little spot on her tray (where the cup goes) while she eats them.  She likes to throw food off her tray onto the floor.  She tries to share, but then will change her mind and eat it herself.

Crawling.  She still keeps her right leg/foot tucked and bent when she crawls so that she can easily sit.  She has perfected and can even speed crawl.  Crawling after the vacuum cleaner is great fun – she will follow you all over the house trying to catch it.

Exploring.  She is so curious and interested in everything.  If I’m in the kitchen and I open up a cupboard door and I was noisy (liking get out a pot) she will have to crawl over there and see what was in there that was so noisy. 

Loves to learn.  You know those balls with the shapes, where you have to drop the shape in and then pull the ball apart to get them back out?  She loves that!  Of course we have to tell her which hole the shape goes in but she will work and work until she has it lined up just perfectly and it fits.  She will also pass it back and forth between her hands until she has a hold of it just right.

Mallory now has 3 teeth.  Two on the bottom and one on the top.  I’m almost positive she is working on more.  The diapers tell me so.  : )

Loves cows… or more like baby Einstein a day on the farm.  You ask her if she wants to watch the cows and she sits and looks at the TV and waits.  As soon as the cow comes on she smiles.    While we were getting her pictures taken this weekend we had to have my Dad, Ellyn, and Jesse moo like cows to get her to stop crying and look at the camera.  It was extremely funny.  I think a few other barn animal sounds came out of the three of them too. 

New sounds.  There were a couple days where she said “baby” to everything.  She jabbered “baby” all day long.  The last couple of days it has been “gonga”.  She will be playing saying “gonga. gonga. gonga.” the entire time.

You can tell she likes to learn and wants to know what everything is.  She take an object and holds it up and say “ba” and looks at me until I tell her what it is.

Tonight she was standing by the couch and turned around and let go… and fell.  She is starting to take more interest in walking by herself.  She started pushing toys around the living room while walking behind them.  Watching her walk throws me into a giggle-fest.  She takes such short quick steps and waddles… she looks like a little ‘ol grandma.  I can’t resist it!!  I’m giggling and she’s waddling and then she is giggling because I’m giggling… then she starts pushing faster and can’t keep up and those little legs are just a running.  C.U.T.E.

Oh and napping.  She takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and an hour nap in the afternoon.  Sleeps excellent at night too – We put her down about 7:30 and she wakes up anywhere between 6:30 and 8.  Usually sleeps late during the week and wakes up early on the weekends!  Not so funny to us! 

As for the pictures this month – we have to visit my Mom’s blog she took Mallory’s one year pictures this weekend.  I know it was early, but our photographer is a busy lady!  : )  Pictures.

Why we had kids

Yesterday I had to work on a big order and count out parts.  I couldn’t wait for Mallory to go down for a nap, or I would of missed my UPS driver.  I had to do the order with Mallory.

I thought… I’ll get a blanket and put it on the garage floor along with a few of her favorite toys and she will sit there and play with her toys.

What was I thinking?!?!  Apparently this is my first child!  ; )

She immediately pushed her toys out of the way and made a beeline to me and started throwing my parts around.  She was having a blast!  She was shaking them!  Chewing on them… shhh don’t tell Jesse that part!  And throwing them!

I thought…  What can I have her do?  I know!  She can put them in the box for me!  Sure enough!  I showed her one time and told her to put them in the box and she put all 200 parts in the box for me!!

Here she is hard at work…

   Every once in a while Maggie would distract her and she would miss the box.

And this is why we had kids… to help us run our business!  The sooner I teach her the sooner I can sit back and relax!  ; )

1st Dig!

Is pretty woman at the horse races?     Nope, she is in the back yard watching Grandpa dig up bushes!

  

Eating snacks and watching Grandpa make a mess!  Good times!

MOM!  Grandpa’s stuck in the mud!!

Now looks who’s going to be making messes!

Grandpa enough of this just sitting lets turn this on and dig!

See Grandpa… girls can dig too!  ; )