2010 Texas State Fair

While my family was here, we all went to the Texas State Fair. It was warm (not too hot) and a lot of walking, but it was fun. We started the day at the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit that we've gone to before. This was Wyatt's first time participating in the exhibit.

 Aunt Janina and Wyatt being silly.

 This is Wyatt "feeding" the chickens some corn kernels.

 Of course, he thought it was just as fun to pick all the corn kernels up off the ground!

 Lila enjoyed doing all the farming activities too.

 Next we went to the petting zoo where they had farm animals and exotic animals. Here Lila is petting a baby kangaroo.

 Wyatt gets to see a zebra up close!

 Ben helps Wyatt put some animal feed on a shovel.

 Lila let the goats eat right out of her hand!

 Just a little proof that I was there too :)

 Next we went to a dog show where some Jack Russell terriers raced each other. It was a big hit!

 We also let the kids ride a couple carnival rides. Wyatt was tall enough to go on his own, but we didn't think that would be the best idea :)

So Daddy went with them on the airplane ride.

 

 Here they are waiting for the ride to start.

 Whee!

 Then we let the kids ride on the swings (which Lila had done before when she was Wyatt's age, so we figured he would love it.)

 They both thought it was fun!

 We had a few ride tickets left, so half of our group decided to ride the huge ferris wheel. Great-Grandma, Grandpa, Wyatt and I stayed on the ground.

 It's hard to see in this picture, but they were in the first green-colored car right after the purple cars (so kind of equal with the "T" on the ferris wheel.)

At the end of the day, I attempted to take a picture of me and Ben by holding out my arm... maybe I should have had Ben hold out his arm - we might have gotten more of our faces in the shot :)

October Happenings

Wow, has it been since October that I posted any updates to this blog? I guess so! Well, with our newest family addition poised to arrive any day now, I am going to try to catch up on here! Back in mid October, my parents and my grandmother came for a visit. Wyatt also turned two years old, and we had a little celebration for him.

 It was very nice that whole week, so one day we went to a nearby park to feed the ducks.

Wyatt thought the ducks had enough to eat; he wanted a snack too!

 Grandma Brandt and Wyatt

 For his birthday, I made a train cake (since he really likes Thomas the Train but I didn't want to do a Thomas theme). It is supposed to be a train engine coming out of a tunnel, but it's kind of hard to tell that in the picture. We invited some friends (as well as the family) over for pizza and cake.

 Wyatt was hypnotized by the candles :)

 But he dug right into the cake!

 This is Lila coming over to me and asking, "Mom, is it time for Wyatt to open his presents now?"

It didn't take long for Wyatt to figure out the opening presents routine!

 He got several trains and some track which he promptly started to put together.

 He also got a Recycle sorting truck which was fun!

 Here he is with Grandpa Brandt playing with his new plastic baseball toy.

 So happy to run and play outside!

 And here he is trying to swing the bat and hit the ball... he will need to practice a bit more :)

This is Lila with her Great-Grandma. She had put several stickers on a paper and then wanted Grandma to tell her a story about them!

My Little Pumpkins

At the beginning of October, we made our annual trek to the Dallas Arboretum Pumpkin Patch to try and get some fall photos. We went with my friend Andi and her son, Evan. We tried to pick a day that wouldn't be too crowded, but we knew that wasn't going to happen when we pulled into the parking lot and saw the school buses :( Yes, there were people EVERYWHERE. It made it very difficult (more than usual) to get my kids to look at me when there were so many other people to look at... not to mention fun pumpkins to play with. It also made it difficult to get a picture without others in the background. But, with that said, can I just say that I love my camera? I am still learning - and forcing myself to shoot in manual - but I love the pics I can get. I know in a few more years the kids will be more cooperative and look at the camera... but I wouldn't wish away these years, so I'm happy with what they'll give me :)

My first attempt to get a picture of them together. Wyatt gave me his "cheese!" smile, but both of them were distracted by something over my shoulder.

 Lila was more cooperative on her own and willing to pose with her little pumpkin. For some reason, though, she seems to equate smiling with tilting her head to the side!

Then I tried to get a cute kiss picture and asked Wyatt to give Lila a kiss. Wyatt's way to "give" a kiss is to lean in and receive one. So this is what I got instead :) 

Best shot I got of Lila. Love those blue eyes.

Wyatt: "Mom, why do you keep forcing me to sit here?" 

 I tried to get a group shot of the three kiddos smiling, but we quickly downgraded that hope to a shot of the three kiddos looking up at the same time (throwing the hay was just too fun!). I love Lila's look here. It's like she's thinking, "Mom, are you seriously expecting this to happen?"

 I think this was one where Andi was helping me to try and get Wyatt to smile for real.

I finally got Lila to keep her head straight, and her smile went crooked :) 

After we walked through the pumpkins, we moved over to the hay bale maze. In a moment of brilliance (or so I thought) I had Lila duck down and then jump up and say boo... thought I would get a more natural smile that way. Well, it kind of worked :) The boys had a great time climbing and jumping over the hay bales - I found hay all down Wyatt's diaper later.

I'm trying to make a real effort to get in a picture - at least one - when I'm doing something with the kids, so it isn't always them alone or them with Dad. I don't love my expression here (I was tickling them to try and get them to smile) but the kids are cute! Can you tell from the twinkle in Wyatt's eyes that he can be mischievous? 

Another group shot. Something about Lila's expression here really reminds me of Ben.

Plano Balloon Festival

At the end of September, we went to the Plano Balloon Festival (our first time going since we've lived here!) Aunt Janina went with us, and we met up with some friends to watch the balloons.

 In the car on the way there, Wyatt modeled his sunglasses for us. I was surprised he kept them on because at his age, Lila wouldn't. We got there right around 5 so we didn't have too much sun.

 At 6 was the balloon launch. We found a seat up on a hill so we could see the balloons fill with air.

 We also enjoyed some fair-type food for supper. Here Wyatt's eating some pizza as he watched the balloons take off. He calls them "hot balloons".

 Several balloons in the air after they launched. You can see one of them looked like a pirate.

I handed over the camera to get a picture of me at this event too :)

 The kids entertained themselves by running around while we waited for the balloons to come back.

 Here's the faces I get when I ask them to sit still for a picture. Aunt Janina had to hold Wyatt still. Evan and Lila look so thrilled, don't they?

 Wyatt also entertained himself by trying on Mommy's shoes.

 Finally the balloons started to fill again... this time for the Balloon Glow.

 Aunt Janina helped Wyatt see over all the people who were standing.

Here is the best shot I got of the balloons all aglow. The announcer would try to get all of the balloons to light up at once, but it didn't always work out... I think he called it "twinkle burns"... at least he said that phrase a lot to the ballooners! We left after this and didn't stay for the fireworks in order to get the kids home to bed. It was a fun time!