21 Months Old

I'm embarrassed to admit that not only are these 21-month pictures being posted 10 days late, but they were all only taken with my cell phone. Bad momma! But, we sure had a fun time that day! Here are some (cell phone) pics from our outing to the little train park in Allen and the Gymboree gym...

My three men on the train car...

Bryce giggling hysterically...a sound I can never get tired of!

Our nutty Benjamin...

He is so entertaining!

This is a great place for two little monkeys!

Everytime I take the boys to this gym, it's a constant battle to keep them from running out of the gym and into the lobby to play at this table...they absolutely love it!

Evan managed to get them to look up for about one second so I can take a picture...

We finally got them to go back into the gym...

Bryce probably loves this place because of it's big tub of colorful rubber balls! As usual, he rarely walks around without one in his hands...even while crawling through a tunnel.

I love that everytime we go to this gym, it's always arranged a little differently. This time there was a plastic mirror laying on the ground, and the boys didn't really know what to think of it and were kind of afraid to walk on it...

They love looking at themselves in this mirror and always fight over it...

Going for a ride...

Back to trying to figure out this weird thing on the ground...

Bryce finally figured out that you can't fall through it...

Two out of three looking at the camera...not bad!

When we got home, the boys had more energy to burn so we went to the backyard to let them play with the water hose (their new favorite past time), but it got too cold and windy so we had to throw on a sweatshirt over their bathing suit and settle for playing on the swing set. Here are our big boys swinging on the "big people" swing for the first time!

Then they decided shoveling soil out of momma's flower pots would be fun...

They were busy little bees moving soil from one pot to another...

Not only did the boys swing on the big swings for the first time that day, but they also held their own bananas for the first time, too :)

Some other milestones to report:

-They boys are now learning their colors...yellow is both their favorite!
-They're doing better at sitting in timeout...Bryce much better than Ben!
-They've started watching movies...so far, their favorites are Monsters Inc., Toy Story (they call it the "dinosaur" movie because they love Rex), and Madagascar (the "animals" movie)!
-They've also started eating popcorn...we'll be going to a movie theater in no time!

Oma & Opa's Backyard

The boys love flowers, so of course, they love playing in their oma and opa's backyard! Oma has a major green thumb, and her backyard is covered with flowers of every kind and color...

We're still working on teaching them to only look and smell the flowers...

But, usually, they much prefer to pull the flowers...and, in this case, it looks like Ben wants to eat them, too!

Surprisingly, Bryce enjoyed getting his picture taken that day!

But, not his brother...

I can't believe they both sat down in the chair and posed for the camera...you can really see the differences in their faces here!

Fossil Rim

Last weekend, my friend, Melissa, invited us to go to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, TX. It's about a two-hour drive from home, so we decided to leave right after breakfast and pray that the boys would be okay doing the tour right around their usual naptime. We ended up having a great time and the boys enjoyed it even more than I thought they would! Here are some of my favorite pics from our fun day trip...

Our first animal sighting! I'm not really sure what that was though...

We drove right behind Justin & Melissa's truck through the park. Here's Sam looking too cute sitting on his momma's lap and enjoying the ride...

We started off the ride with me sitting in the back seat with the boys, but that didn't work out too well. So, we all moved to the front with Bryce on my lap and Benjamin on daddy's...much better view!

Melissa feeding Mr. Zebra...

Our turn to feed Mr. Zebra...

A scary ostrich approaching our car...

I have a feeling Melissa was guarding Sam from this ostrich invasion...

Luckily, I didn't lose any fingers or skin off my hand...

Is that an emu?

Looks like Benjamin is helping daddy steer the car...

Ben started getting a little restless behind the wheel, so he switched places with Bryce. Here's a self portrait of momma and Ben...

Yikes, they're big...whatever they were!

Well, hello there!

The boys really enjoyed looking at each and every animal...

I guess at some point, Ben got back on daddy's lap to help drive again...

"Did you see me drive, mommy?"

A sweet deer...

I think this was when I got zebra drool on my hand!

We saw a bunch of hungry zebras that day...so many that after awhile, the boys started saying, "no zebra, no zebra!" everytime they saw another one! And, for a few days after our trip, they were still saying it. :)

This one got a little too close for comfort for our Benjamin...

"Help me, mommy!"

"Is he gone yet?!"

Unfortunately, this was the closest we got to a giraffe that day. I guess they weren't as hungry as the zebras!

Half-way through the park, we stopped for bathroom breaks and diaper changes. Here's Sam and Benjamin hanging out...(or, maybe that's Bryce)

And on we went to feed more hungry animals...

Cute little baby...goat? I definitely don't know my animals as well as I thought I did!

Benjamin happily eating his snack...

That thing could probably do some major damage to Justin's truck with those horns!

Justin feeding Mr. Emu...that is an emu, right?

Luckily, the rhinos were blocked off by fences!

Animal drool inside my car!

Before leaving the park, we got out of our cars to take some pictures and to let the boys run around before the long drive home. Here is the loud and crazy Berg family...

And, the sweet and beautiful Jones family...

Attempt #1 to get a picture of the three stooges together...

Attempt #2...

Attempt #3...

Attempt #4...

Last attempt...

At least I can always count on sweet Sam to pose for me!

30 seconds into the drive home, Benjamin was already sound asleep!

Bryce quickly followed. They both slept almost the whole way home! It was the quietest and most relaxing car ride we've ever had with them!!

We had originally planned on going to Dinosaur Valley right after Fossil Rim, since they're only a few miles from one another. But, we knew all the kids were way too tired! We're hoping to go back soon to see the dinosaur tracks before it gets too hot!