With all the mild cool weather we went to the Zoo again a couple weeks ago.  I read online that if you get there the first hour it's open you can go into the children's zoo area and ride the carousel for free! (they're usually $3/kid each)

 This was their favorite part of the kids zoo.

 Heath was so excited about the carousel! We've walked past it every other time we've visited but always kept going. He could hardly keep in his excitement.

This is Heath's, Im so super excited, but don't want to let you know just how excited I am, face.

Every time we would switch animals Heath rode either a zebra or a horse.

We animal hopped for about 40 minutes, they both just loved it!

The butterfly house is probably one of my favorites! They are so beautiful!

The jaguar was especially active. A little boy had a stuffed bear and started waving it in front of the cage. The Jaguar pounced and kept pounding on the side of the cage for a while, it was pretty neat.

Heath's favorite animal to see at the zoo is the alligator. While we were looking at it he said Mommy do you know what Alligators eat? They eat pirates. (captain hook and the crocodile)

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Heath had been talking about being Peter Pan for about a month now. He was SO excited! I made his costume a few weeks ago and he has had tons of fun "fighting Pirates!"

Matt and I were Tinker Bell and Captain Hook I think the first Halloween we were married? So about 5 years ago! So we dug out those costumes.

I had great ambitions to make Houston a Crocodile costume, which Heath really wanted, but it didn't happen. So Houston got to be Michael in his easy Jammies and Teddy bear costume.

We made pigs in a blanket, (hot dogs & crescent rolls) my families traditional Halloween dinner. Both boys were super excited to eat Hot Dogs for dinner!

 Then we drove over to Lopez's house and went up their street and back down with their family. 

 It was really fun to watch Heath follow their kids' example and he sure figured things out quickly. Hold my bucket out, smile nicely, look cute, and people will give me CANDY!

  It's really weird here. They don't do the typical say "trick or treat" thing.  When someone answers their door they say, "Who has a joke for me?" and then a youngster speaks up and tells a joke.

 If it's funny enough everybody gets candy.  I guess all the kids "research" jokes at school to tell.

 Since we were trick or treating with a 1st grader, 5year old, 2 year old Heath, almost 2 Ellie, and Houston our jokes were REALLY funny.

 London had some really awesome ones like how do you make a witch itch? Take away the "w".

  Miles' were Awesome too! The kind where they're made up on the spot and get crazier and crazier as the night goes on. why did mario cross the road? because he fell off rainbow road.  It was pretty sweet!

 It was really fun, and the boys got just enough candy. 1 sucker that Heath worked on all night, 1 bag of pumpkin pretzles that kept Houston happy while we went door to door, and about 15 other pieces to be split between Matt and Myself over the next week or so.

Pretty much was a great day!

 The weather has turned cold. Sadly I don't remember really having any of that nice FALL weather. Highs in the mid 60's, a bit cooler in the morning /evening. But oh well, we'll enjoy outside while we still can. (before it gets into the 30's 20's)

 The geese come around our apartment quite often, so we save crusty bread and other things to throw to them. The boys love this, especially Houston who tries to get away and chase them any chance he gets.

 So a few days before we left to go to Nile's wedding we took Houston to the Dr for a cough he'd had for about 6 weeks. The night before he'd been up most of the night coughing (which was kinda becoming the norm that week) and between coughs was gasping for air (in 3-4quick breaths in). It was pretty scary and we almost took him in that night, but he seemed to be ok after each spell so we decided to wait till morning. So anyways after we got to his Dr they took his Oxygen level and it was 93%. I guess in kids 98-100 is good, 100% is normal.

 So they put him on oxygen, then checked him all out, then when his levels came back up they let us go home. Matt was home with Heath and watching the 3 other kids I was babysitting that night. When I came in they were playing zombie's and made a fort in the living room. He's such a great husband and Dad. Anyways so they think Houston has asthma. His lungs were fine and he hasn't had any fevers or other symptoms, just gasps and coughs at night. We also just moved to a new area/house so the Dr thinks that may be why he hasn't had trouble prior.  So they sent us home with a nebulizer and started Houston on Montelukast, an asthma/allergy medication for babies. It was pretty amazing to me how quickly he seemed to respond to the treatments. Within 24 hours it was like we had a new boy at night. So glad he's doing better and able to sleep & breathe.

 While we were eating dinner:

 Matt: "Heath eat all your food so you can grow big and strong and have big muscles."

Heath: "No, I eat food so I can go potty."

 Heath has been really missing our "old house" and all his friends. He keeps asking me when we're going to have a party at his old house and let his friends come, Julia, Hank, Wyatt, & Bertie.  Im not sure where he got the idea of a party, but it's sure cute that he misses his cousins.

 Other than the party at our old house, he asks about going back to our old house any time he doesn't like something. Like if he wants to eat ice cream for dinner and I say no, we're  eating this, he respond with, "I want to go to my old house." I guess life was good there.  poor Heath.

 Houston has figured out he can climb. : ( He climbs everything now! It started when he realized he could get up onto Heaths rocking horse on his own. That must have given a huge boost of confidence because he's up on everything now. The table was a huge favorite because it's super high and has a hard floor to crack his head on below. Not really, but it was the favorite because there's a light switch up there he can command.

He's so super cute even if he's getting into trouble. At first he couldn't get  up unless someone forgot to push their chair in, but a few hours later he figured out he was strong enough to push the chairs, even to the counter across the kitchen, and get anything in the kitchen he could possibly think of.
 He also now climbs up onto the change table all the time and scares me so badly that he's just going to dive off. He's so much  more reckless than Heath was. So the boys room has to stay shut for a while now too.

 Thank you Mum for the super amazing idea to lay the chairs down. Genius! It's working at least for now. Hopefully he doesn't figure out how to stand them up, because Im pretty sure he's strong enough to do it.

By the way, I found that high chair at the DAV for $3 and it's the best thing ever! It's super easy to clean, can't be tipped, and Houston can't escape from it's grasp! Its amazing! Did I mention it's super easy to clean!

 He wants to get up there so badly!

 Heath has really become interested in music. He loves to sing songs especially with me. His favorites are I love to see the Temple, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, Fun to do (singing a song is fun to do, to do to do to do) Love One Another, Abide with me tis Eventide, We wish you a Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday to You.    The other day I pulled out our harmonica and he played it for hours. It wasn't the just blow as hard as you can and make noise kind of kid playing though, he was actually making some really pretty music. I was very impressed.  Houston played it when Heath would let him and loved it also.

 Houston & Daddy watching a football game. Matt has hardly watched any football this year he's been so busy studying. Ive really missed going to Johnny's games, and now we hardly even watch games on tv. It's kinda weird, but it's ok.

Saturday when Heath got up he asked if we could go to the park. I said we could go later when it warmed up a bit. He said "can we go with the whole family." "Sure" "The whole family and Daddy?" I guess the poor boy's been missing doing fun things with Daddy. So needless to say Matt made sure we went to the park that day with the WHOLE Family, even Daddy. We went and got some cheeseburgers (Heath's favorite food right now) and ate them at the park for dinner. Then came home and made hot cocoa to warm up.

  Our poor boys have such big shoes to fill. : )

We got a new bed for Heath (well a new to us bed) It's just a twin mattress on the floor but Heath loves it because it's a "jumping bed." It's really nice because Heath was falling out of his bed about once a night and crying even though there were rails on it.  So that problem was fixed, and it's also for me, when Matts staying up studying in our room (where the desk is) I can go sleep with Heath until Matt's ready to go to bed. That has been so nice. I was staying up way too late just because I didn't want to have to kick Matt out when he was on  a studying roll and now I don't have to.

So there's that new popular song, "whoop em gangnam style"

They played it a few times at Nile&Brittany's reception, and Heath's heard it a few times since then.

So the other night the boys were jumping on Heath's new bed and Heath started singing, "Whoop em Grandma Child.... whoop whoop whoop whoop Whoop em Grandma Child!" Oh man Matt and I almost died laughing.  That's how we sing it at our house now.

 Me: "Heath don't bite your crayons."
Heath: "OK mommy"

30 seconds later

Me: "Heath, that's two, don't bite your crayons"
Heath "Not two Mommy, Im not biting it, Im just washing it with my mouth."

 What ever would we do without messy little boys!