Babcock Ranch just 4 weeks later

The family went to the closet real ranch near us for a fun fill quick trip. It was totally awesome, beautiful, peaceful, exciting and fun. We got to stay the night in the Cypress Lodge which was the home of Mr. Babcock before he died. It was very nice in the ranchy kind of way. They fed us dinner Friday night and then went on a tour of the property the next day. O'lean had a blast because it was new and she could just run around and play.

Here she is knocking on the door. She just learned how to do it and was practicing. She knocks on all the closed doors now expecting someone to open.
So this lodge was pretty much on an island surrounded by a swamp. And what animal happens to lives in swamps? Yep-er-roony alligators. The Lodge had a wraparound porch that look down onto the swamp and there were two adult alligators and i think 5 or 6 babies. It was really neat. They just hung out until one of the boys would catch a fish the babies wanted or even catch the babies. Yeah, big momma didn't like that one. Here is a picture of one of the babies. I could have watched them all day. I think i pretty much did.
So the boys thought it would be fun to fish of the balcony until Bryan caught an owl. Well actually the owl caught Bryan. He grab his bate and flew into a tree and proceeded to get the hook out. It took him about 10 minutes but he got and then took off. I tried to take a picture but it was too dark.
Here is the fam sitting down and eating dinner. Just wait until you see what we had....
Did I mention it was a cattle ranch????!!!
Beat steaks ever!
Like I said we got to go on a tour of the property on Saturday. It was really nice. It was torture for O'lena because she just had to sit there but it was nice for the big kids. Did you know that the Babcock Ranch has the largest herd of Cracker Cattle in Florida? I was paying attention!

They even let us touch a baby alligator. It was pretty cool. O'lena was like, "giveme that alligator." Yes, O'lena is wearing camo. We are on a ranch!
I think everyone can agree we had a nice time. I would defiantly go again, just to hang out with the gators.

Moving and a shaking

Always moving and shaking. Here are some fun pictures from the last couple of weeks. I was camera happy.

I got my hairs cut. Do you like? I like every 3rd day. This was a day I liked.

Here is Leeny looking cute in the morning.


I went on a search for a table and chair that she could use for herself. She is getting too big for high chair...she's a big girl now!

Here she is sooooo cute with her piggy tails!!! She normally only let me get one tail in but this morning she just sat there playing with a toy so she got to look very cute.

These green things were from a presentation that I had to do at school that morning, so I put them on here when I got home. She left it on her head for awhile. She was adorable.

Daddy and O'lena reading a book, getting ready for bed.

So where got to church this morning and O'lena had fallen asleep in the car and Derick tried to get her out, this is what she did. Yes, she was fast asleep.

So I have been looking for toddler toys for her. She is getting older and bigger that she needs more things to do. I have been looking for a Cozy Coup, those are the Flenstone looking cars, but havent been able to find one on Craiglist. I did try my hand at garage sale shopping yesterday and found these! I felt proud.... all for under $20!

Derick harvested his garden and filled out box. Everything looks amazing. I cant wait to eat it. There is collards, lettuce, and carrots.


We went and ate dinner with our friends on Friday. It was past O'leeny's bed time so we broke out the big stroller and had her lay down in it. It took a few minutes, but she past out and sleep most of the time through dinner. It was great to see our friends too. It really hit me how much we all have changed. We are all married (or almost married) and got kids...man how do things change!
Well thats about it. She is doing well since being sick and we are doing good too. I decided to participate in lent this year, which is a Methodist thing. It is giving me a chance to force myself to live more Mormon. Is that an oxymoron? I have given up coffee, tea, alcohol, and TV (which has nothing to do with the word of wisdom, but i just wanted to.) Yes, I know the true purpose of the seasona nd I am trying to use my time that I was watching TV to spend time with my family and God. I was doing well with living the LDS lifestyle, but have been somewhat lacking recently, this is my push to get back on track. Hopefully I will keep it up after Easter, except for the TV part. Well I am allowing myself to watch TV on Sundays because there is a deaf guy on Amazing Race and Marlee Matlin is on Celebrity Apprentice. Derick says he is giving up being nice. I hope he is joking.

O'lena ear drama

Yes, I know with tubes you still can get ear infections, but come on!! It has only been three weeks!!! We took her to the Dr today becuase she has a pretty good cough and it is keeping her up at night...oh yeah thats not fun either, because she gets mad and doesn't want to go back to sleep so she throws a tantrum for a couple of hours...yeah...so the doc says she has some eye junk, some nose junk, some ear junk, and some lung junk. The poor girl is just junky! She is back to being crabby too. I was really enjoying the happy and fun O'lena but oh well. So ear infection in the right ear, but now because of the tube it drains out, it is like snot coming out of her ear. Pretty gross. Back on antibiotics, but refused to have the kind that tears up her butt so we are trying just ammoxisilian (sp) again. We will see what happens. We may have to get a bit radical and start trying the herbs and stuff.

So did you know that i have a couple of brothers? Just a few, Derick has more..no wait we have the same about, he has more sisters....anyways...the baby turned 16 and the oldest one turned 18 this past weekend!!!!! Can you believe it! I cant...i got two graduating from high school here in June too!!!! awwwwwwwww

Other exciting news too...we have a new Bryant! Wesley (Derick's brother) just had his first baby girl Ava. We are so excited for him. This is grandbaby 13 for grandma and grandpa Bryant. Very cool.

Fun pictures....

Oleeny and daddy taking a bath. This is their favorite trick!
Yay O'lena!

Jim helping with the painting! Thanks Jim. I didn't get a pic with Kevyn, but he helped out a lot too! Thanks Kevyn!

Daddy and O'lena at India Fest. We had a nice time with our friends Rob and Kristin and their new baby Beck.
Here is new mommy Kristin with cute baby Beck! Too stinking cute!

Florida home

Before
After

No matter which way you look at it, our house now looks like an official Florida home! One story, pastel colors. It wasn't intended to be that way, it just ended up that way. Derick was awesome and painted it in four days, with some help from me, our friend Jim, and brother Kevyn (i did all the red! and the mail box) It does make me happy to look at though. I have caught myself going a round the circle a couple of time just to look at it. It think it is a huge improvement too. We still have a lot of work left, including the yard, but maybe we will finish the bathroom first.... na yard first...na bathroom...na yard

Some pictures

Some cute pictures of Lena. I think this my new favorite outfit. She looks so adorable!!I thought she was really cute with her headband this morning. She did pretty well keeping it on.After church, a couple of weeks ago, we to a picnic at the park. We had a good time. O'lena swang, and played, and went down the slide, and even fell down on the sidewalk and got her first scrape on her knee. Here is Leeny and daddy on the blanket.

O'lena swinging! I LOVE this picture!! Daddy pushed her so fast that she kind of got a bit dizzy.

After a very exciting week, we had a exciting weekend. We went to India Fest with our friends Rob, Kristin, and adorable baby Beck. We ate good food and had fun watching all the dancing. Today we went to the Edison's Children's Parade. That was a lot of fun too. We saw uncle marching in his band and all the floats. I think she liked it. She did wave some at the people. It was cute. On to another week.

Most Exciting Week EVER!!

Let us start on last week Friday...
I had a really bad day at school. A meeting did not go well and it bothered me for the rest of the weekend. Actually it still kind of bothers me, but I am trying not to think about it.

Saturday....
Mom makes this beautiful dinner for us and Keven doesnt get to eat it, why? He has broken his nose!! He and Bryan were wrestling and somehow his nose hit Bryan's belt and broke it. It is somewhat still swollen.
Sunday....
Supper Bowl, wasn't that exciting!? I am still flabber gasted by Christina. We are still eating left overs.

Monday....
Take O'lena to ENT because she just had another round of antibiotic that didnt work and just tore up her bottom. We told them we want tubes, and the Dr was "Okay, she goes in tomorrow morning at 6:15." What?! So soon? If we would have waited she would have gotten another infection (she already had puss working on it in her ear.)
We also received word of some family drama, which was kind of upsetting. My in-laws are saints. (hehehe literally)

Tuesday....
Was up at 4:15 to get O'lena to the hospital by 6:15 for her tubes. We were done by 7:45. The surgery took only 10 minutes tops. She didn't like the coming out of the anesthesia, but they said she was just fine during it. She went home and has been fine ever since. My school's audiologist said we would see a total difference in her balance and we totally do! She doesn't fall nearly as much, she is able to get on and off her horsey, which was not able to do before, her feet are closer together when she walks, and she doesn't trip over my feet when she walks by me anymore. It is amazing how much better her balance is! She looks like she has been walking for a year now, not her month and a half.Oh!!! and me and the principal's secretary broke up a three girl fight at school! It was quite the exciting several moments. And these girls were scary girls. We had to keep them at bay until the big men got there to take them away. and one of them didn't even go to our school! It was right after school got out, out side the sidewalk, but still on the property.

Wednesday...
We get word that O'lena is moving up classes on Monday. This comes after the statement a couple of days before that she is moving up on the 21st. Mama was ready for the 21st not the 14th! That the big kid class (toddler room.) They eat at the table and sleep on mats. No more high chairs and cribs for her!!
I also added three girl to my only one boy tutoring after school group. It is much more involved now, but it is fun.

Thursday
Craziest day at school. We had a faculty meeting in the morning (and they never go well. It don't think i have walked out of one this year yet without feeling like poo) today they drop the bomb that one of our admin had been put on paid leave because there are allegations of misconduct by a former student, at the previous school. We all were in complete shock....still are...
We also had to go into lock down (code red) because there was a suspect on campus. The problem was all my deaf kids were in the cafeteria with NO INTERPRETER! They had no idea what was going on. It was really funny too because the only thing that kept us adults clam was the idea that there was a hard of hearing kid in there with the others that would hopefully tell them what was going on, but when they came back he was like "What were they talking about? Something about red clothes?" We were like "arg!" Anyways the guys had to be run down and was arrested. Very exciting/scary.

Friday (today)
I guess nothing as exciting as yesterday, but it was fun day. My "behavior" students were fantastic today. They were paying attention and learning. Then we had a Valentines day dance. It was fun too and the students were very well behaved. Home to kiss the baby and then a triple date for valentines day. Very excited for Susi!

Very Exciting Week!

How O'lena is like our cat....

1. She like to drink from the faucet.
2. She sleeps in crazy positions.
3. She will scratch you with her nails.
4. She likes to play in the toilet.
5. She likes the bidet even better.
6. She LOVES to eat cat food.
7. She runs away when you want her to come to you.
8. She pushes open the door when you are trying to pee.
9. She enjoys playing with cat toys.
10. She will carry things in her mouth.
11. She loves to drink milk.
12. Well she used to crawl on all fours.
13. She plays in my swept piles.
14. She will whine (really loudly) when she is hungry.
15. She likes to play in boxes, bags, and baskets.
Hehehehehehehe