Please DO Feed the Animals

A couple of weekends ago, Jay and I took Truett and Emma to Fossil Rim. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, it's this place where acres and acres of land are fenced in and 'wild' animals are allowed to roam free. It's like a drive thru zoo almost, and the animals walk right up to your car!

This was the car in front of us. If they weren't hanging out of their car to pet the animals, the animals were sticking their heads inside the car!

There are zebras, deer (and TONS of deer-like animals), ostriches, rhinos, cheetahs, giraffes, etc....

I have no idea what kind of animals these are below, but it was still pretty cool seeing them up close. It sort of felt like we were in a scene from the Lion King! :)

When you get there, you can take a guided tour or drive through in your own vehicle (which is what we did). It was great because Truett was able to get out of his seat, but was still contained in the truck.

Emma & I hung out in the back while Truett went up front with Jay.

He loved being able to sit up front with his Papa and spent a lot of the time looking out of the windows for the next group of animals.

Jay even let him 'drive' at one point, which is always a big hit with Truett.

It really was so cool because although I've seen zebras and giraffes at the zoo, I've never seen them so up close before.

Jay fed one of the zebras from his hand....VERY 'against the rules' where the zebras are concerned because we were told that the zebras are likely to bite you. Yeah....Jay almost pulled back a nub after his attempt at playing 'zookeeper' with the zebras!

The giraffes were a different story and were really the only animal that the folks at Fossil Rim actually encouraged you to feed. It was so funny watching this giraffe walk up to each car, take some food from them, chew and then walk to the next car. I imagined the giraffe thinking, "Yeah, yeah, yeah....I ate from your hand. Thanks for the food. Move it along. Next!" :)

When it was our turn, I think Truett was a little skeptical, but that giraffe walked up to the truck and all but stuck his head in the window. Truett held his little hand out and the giraffe ate the food right from it. Very cool!

At the half-way point, there is a little petting zoo for the kids and a gift shop. Emma had fallen asleep by this point, so she and I stayed in the car while Jay and Truett went to check things out.

When they got back to the truck, they had made some purchases at the gift shop. We each got a commemorative t-shirt and Jay had bought Truett some animal crackers. When Truett opened the box of animal crackers, he said, "Look at this puzzle!" Jay said, "That's not a puzzle, boy! That's animal crackers." I turned and looked and sure enough, it was a puzzle. I looked at the box and THIS is what Jay had purchase for Truett! hahahahahh!

The rest of the trip, Jay kept calling Truett "Brianna"! :)

We really had a great time and Truett seemed to enjoy the animals. His favorite book at Gramma's (Jay's mom) is The Three Billy Goats Gruff so he thought he was surrounded by billygoats the whole time! He loved it!

Kiddie Report

Here are a couple of random pics of Truett and a few quick stories about him and his little world.

- He was at my mom's a couple of weekends ago and while they were working out in the garage, they let Truett play in the car. He started blowing the horn and shouted, "Get outta the way, you freakin' lady!" Not necessarily a shining moment for Jay and I, but definitely too funny NOT to share!

- The other day, he said to me, "Mama, this is a conversation for you and me. You're impossible!"

- A couple of days ago, I had fussed Truett about something and he looked at me and said, "Don't talk to me that way. I bringed you into this world. I'm gonna take you out of this world."

- I found him in the kitchen the other day making a bottle for Emma....what a big helper, huh? :)

He definitely keeps us on our toes! He is so sweet and loving with Emma and very protective. He'll be 3 in June and I can see an obvious change in his behavior. He is still all boy and is truly testing his boundaries. He wants to do everything by himself and refuses help from anyone. I can see the terrible two's slowly making their way out the door, but feel that the three's are coming on strong with their very own set of challenges! :)

Here are a couple of pics and quick stories, or updates, of Emma:

- Emma is getting around pretty well. She hasn't started to crawl, but she gets from point A to point B with a quickness, in her own style of scooting.

- I initially thought she was going to be a picky eater, but I've come to realize that's not the case at all. When she's hungry, she EATS! Peas, squash, prunes and pears are some of her obvious favorites.

- We're still waiting for a tooth to pop out. She's drooling and chews on everything, but no tooth, yet.

- She's a lot more serious than Truett ever was, but still laughs and plays. She really likes to play Peek-a-Boo and will hold her hands up in front of her face to play....really cute! :)

- I'm thinking the blue eyes and red hair are here to stay! YAY! Some of her hair has fallen out and I thought that it was starting to grow back in brown, but the more it grows, the more it seems to be coming in red. I'm also not giving up on the possibility of curly hair. Truett was almost a year old before his curls showed up, so I'm thinking their may still be a chance for Emma. We'll have to wait and see.

She is such a sweet little addition to our family. I'm really looking forward to watching she and Truett together as she gets older. She LOVES to be held and rarely has a hard time finding someone to fulfill that wish....especially since she has just started reaching out for the person she wants to go with! :)

Easter Morning and Egg Pocking

Easter morning came and we were all busy getting bathed and dressed for Mass. After we were ready and Truett finally made his way into the living room, he was able to scope out the goodies that the Easter Bunny had left for him.

Truett's basket of treats

Emma's basket of treats

Jay and Truett enjoying some early morning Easter M&M's (or as Truett calls them "Auntie Em's)
After Mass, we headed over to my parents' house for lunch. My cousin, Lindy, lives in Dallas with her hubby, Brian. Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike had come to Dallas to see them, so they all came over and joined us for lunch.

After lunch we had our annual Egg Pocking Contest. For those of you who don't know, the Egg Pocking Contest has been a family tradition since my mom was little. It's really fun and a neat way to 'use' those dyed Easter eggs, so if you're interested, here's how it works:

1. Boil and decorate your Easter eggs the way you normally would.

Truett's choice of decor for his egg, Lightening McQueen

Truett's choice of decor for his Papa's egg...Tow Mater (Lightening McQueen's best friend)

2. Everyone picks a number from a hat (or bowl, or cup, or WHATEVER). You can just number a piece of paper from 1 to ? (however many people you have), tear the numbers off and put them in a container for people to pull from.

3. Once everyone has their number, you make a bracket with their names. Number 1 and number 2 'pock' against each other. Then, number 3 and 4 pock, 5 and 6, etc... If there is an odd number of people, then the last person gets a 'bi' and automatically moves to the next round.

4. The way you 'pock' is that the two people hold their eggs in the their hand....

and hit the tips of their eggs together.

They do this until someone eggs cracks.

If your egg cracks, your out. If your egg doesn't crack, you move on to the next round. The last person standing with an uncracked egg is declared the winner!

My mom was the champion this year and it was the first time she'd ever won, in all her years of egg pocking!

Mom in all of her glory!

Some of the players.....

Egg-to-egg competition between Lindy and Truett

Jay and his cracked egg

Aunt Emily and Emma after making it to the next round with their uncracked egg
Emily and Heather (the sister we never had! ahahahah)

The Pockers

Easter Part 1

I've been sooooooo bad about keeping up with my blog, but it's pretty tough getting enough free time to update. So, here I am at 6:30 in the morning, blogging while the rest of my family sleeps! :)

I realized that I've never posted anything about our Easter this year, but I figured it's better late than never.

This year, we celebrated Easter the weekend before with The Praytors (hence, the title of the blog....get it?) hahahah! (Yes, I just cracked myself up) :) Anyway, we always celebrate the holidays the weekend before with Jay's family because then none of us have to 'rotate' holidays between parents and in-laws, etc.... It's really great, too, because there's usually always some sort of holiday-related event that takes place that weekend, so we get to enjoy that as a family. This year, we decided to go to the St. Ann's Easter Egg Hunt. I had never gone before, but I thought it would be fun for the kids. Plus, the Easter Bunny was going to be there....yay!

So, Jay, his parents, Dakota (Jay's nephew), Truett, Emma and I headed out to the church, only to discover that the hunt was over in about 2.2 seconds! We made it....barely. BUT, the kids did get a few eggs and had their picture taken with the Bunny. Of course, Truett is pretty laid back and was thrilled about the whole thing, regardless.

Truett and his Elmo Bunny Easter basket that Aunt Emily bought for him last year

Truett and his Papa

Dakota

Truett and I

Truett & Emma with the Easter Bunny

After our photo op with the Easter Bunny, we all headed back to Jay's parents for our our 'private' egg hunt and lunch. :) Truett loved looking all over for the eggs, but was so focused on what was inside the eggs, he'd find an egg, open it up, make a big cheer about what was inside, eat a jellybean or two, close the egg, put it in his basket, and then start searching again. He found 20+ eggs and did this with EVERY SINGLE EGG!!!!!!! :)

Find an egg....

Open it up and check out the surprise inside.....

Put it in the basket....

Repeat.....

After the hunt, we enjoyed a yummy lunch and an even yummier dessert....FRUIT PIZZA! I had eaten it before but had never made it, but thought it was so pretty, I couldn't resist taking a picture.

After lunch, it was time for naps, so Jay, Uncle Jim (Jay's brother) and Dakota all hopped in bed with Truett for a quick story before naptime.

So, guess who was the only one NOT paying attention to the story???? :)

Happy Easter!