Our SEALIEST Day at the Zoo

April 11, 2014

I know. I know. This blog title is a terrible pun....so ZOO me ;)

We recently made a trip to the Hogle Zoo. It was Dean's first time to the zoo. We have been working on our animal sounds so, I was excited to show him the real live animals! Unfortunately a big portion of the zoo was still under construction so we weren't able to see his best animal noise--the king of the jungle, Mr. Lion. 

Besides the missing African animals, we had a blast! Grandma Kitty and ZZ joined us in our zoo adventure. It was a perfect day to be outside and talk with the animals. 

He insisted on pushing his stroller... 

He was really scared of the otter at first. It took some time to warm up to him but when he did... 

Otter got a smooch 

Dean's all time favorite animals were the sea lions and seals. 

I'm sure he could have spent HOURS staring into the water 

Reptile house with Da-Da. I took one step inside and immediately backed out. The smell is usually pretty strong but with my prego-sniffer, it was horrendous! 

Get it?? Cuz I'm big like an elephant... 

Perfect Zoo Day!

Hoppy Easter!

April 21, 2014

This weekend was full of fun festivities & family. Calin and I debated over and over again how we wanted to do this whole Easter thing... It's hard combining traditions from 2 childhoods :) We agreed that we'd do all the fun Easter-y things like egg hunts, baskets and instead of decorating boiled eggs we frosted sugar cookies. I'm the only one in our house that likes boiled eggs...

We decided together to keep the more active and messy traditions the day before Easter... egg hunts and decorating cookies should be on Saturday. That way we could keep Sunday more simple. Have our baskets of candy and a new church outfit. I didn't want to pull too much attention away from the Savior and the real purpose of Easter. As our kids get older, we'll be able to teach them about our Savior and his sacrifice for them. This year we were just happy Dean lasted the whole 3 hours at church :)

 

Dean helped make the sugar cookies

 

 Pre-mess

 Before his cookie was completely destroyed. 

This is what happens when you take a child's frosting away...

 The aftermath

 Thank goodness for Bruce! 

 Some of our beauties

 We figured Dean wouldn't be very interested in an egg hunt because he is still a little young so instead we put a bunch of little toys and candy inside balloons, blew them up and put them in my giant basket. It was an over-sized Easter basket!

 He noticed right away that these were no ordinary balloons- they had prizes inside!

Dean loved watching Calin pop the balloons

Outside playing with chalk

 Easter Morning!

 Discovering his loot

Jelly Beans before church may not have been a wise decision but... it was Easter :)

 Grandma Kitty & Grumpa gave Dean a bubble gun. I think I may love it more than he does. Now i don't have to get my fingers all sticky and soapy when we play with bubbles!

Family Picture Time!

Here is a fun comparison of last year and this year. Boy, things have sure changed! 

Because of Him, I am know with all my heart that I can return to my Heavenly Father. I am definitely not perfect but it is by the Atonement and His saving grace that I can make it back with my family. I am so grateful to be sealed to my family and I can't imagine life without any of these crazy people. 

I am grateful to be reminded and think about Jesus Christ and all He has done for me during this Easter season.

Catching Up: February & March

April 10, 2014

The last couple of months have been quite busy and overwhelming. Lots of changes in the Hess home. We are ALMOST done with our family/dining room construction (pics coming soon). Pregnancy has been easier in some ways and more difficult in other ways than when I was pregnant with Dean. I have made the decision to do a natural birth (wish me luck!)

Here are a bunch of pics of some of our family adventures the last couple of months.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Perry came home from their mission!

 

Valentines Day

 We gave Dean a monkey and he loved it!

As a family, we went to a dance hosted by Layton City. It was a lot of fun. They had a live band (who Dean LOVED!). He danced the whole night!

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

 We went for my long time awesome friend Liz Hale's wedding reception. First shot of the baby bump. 

Park Date

Baking with Dean

 Dean loves helping in the kitchen. He may make things more messy and take longer but, he is teaching me patience and I'm loving every minute of it. 

Park Time

 First time Dean went down the slide by himself he went face first and landed with a mouth full of wood chips before I could get to him. He was such a trooper and went right back up to do it again.

Another bump shot.

 I haven't taken week by week shots of the bump this time around. Sorry baby #2 :(

St. Patty's Day

 Green eggs w/ ham for breakfast

 Green mac & cheese for lunch. Dean didn't like the mac & cheese at all.

It was during this lunch time that my oven CAUGHT ON FIRE!!!
I had planned a  fun green dinner but we ended up eating out because my oven was out of commission.

Luckily all our appliances are under our home warranty so, the repairman came out and fiddled with the oven for awhile. Our oven had two cracked gas lines. It made sense because 2 of the burners never worked anyways. Well, we went oven shopping and found a good one at Home Depot. Well, after paying for it and waiting over the weekend for it to be delivered, we were called and told it was on back order--we'd have to wait another TWO WEEKS! We didn't have a functioning oven from March 17th-April 10th. I had to get real creative with meals. We had a lot of crocpot meals,  pancakes (using the griddle) and ate out way too much! 

 Before

 After

We got our new oven today and I couldn't be more happy! I immediately baked a couple dozen cupcakes and made double stuffed tacos for dinner :)
I am very grateful for a working oven.

Trouble with Crayons

 I had Dean try to help me clean off the artwork but a regular rag and soap didn't work...

 I was very surprised how quickly Dean moved from room to room coloring on my walls. It could have only been 30 seconds and he found 3 different parts of my walls to color in blue.

Random Dean

 Such a doll :)

 He gave himself that beard

 Say cheese!

 First time on his trampoline he got at Christmas. I think he likes it ;)