Some Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure

In the car,

AJ: Want me to tell you a story?
Me: sure.
AJ: It's gonna be a long one
Me: Okay, go ahead.



And the Beluga Whale exhibit at the Aquarium:



Happy Monday! :)

Georgia Aquarium

We went to the Georgia Aquarium last week, which I was totally stoked about because I've been waiting to go there ever since it opened. Because I like fish and animals and stuff.
So there.

So anyway, our mistake was in going around noon....they only let in 100 people an hour, but by noon, there are about 300+ people in there, and the place was PACKED. We had to wait to get up to the glass at every single exhibit.
Was it worth the money? Sure, but only if you go at the first time slot available so you don't have to fight through the rude, pushy, and non-deodorant wearing crowd just to get a glimpse.

Consequently, my pictures are less than stellar because I was trying to take photos, hold onto the stroller, keep an eye on the 3 kids among the throngs of potential kidnappers, and enjoy the animals as well. :)

Here's Steve and the boys coming out the tank/tunnel thing. The GA Aquarium boasts the largest saltwater tank in the United States, maybe even the world - I'm not sure, I'll have to check on that.


Here's a tip when taking photos at a zoo or aquarium:
Place your camera's lens directly on the glass. It eliminates the glare and will give you a great picture.
That said, I didn't do that with any of these pictures because there were too many people.
But anyway, now you know.


Here's a picture of Owen who was really transfixed by the sea lion exhibit. They were his favorite and I had a hard time getting him to leave.
This picture is also for DanO so that he can grunt and be disdainful over the length of Owen's hair.

Loved this pattern on this fish....

Not a seahorse, but a seaDRAGON. Cool, huh?

These aren't very good pictures (yes, I take crappy pictures sometimes) but I thought they were so cool I had to show them to you. They're called Garden Eels, and they live in sandy burrows, which they construct. When feeding, the Spotted Garden Eel rises out of its burrow, exposing up to two-thirds of its body. It feeds on zooplankton taken from the passing current.
I just wrote all of that from the vast knowledge in my head.

Actually, I had to look it up on the internet.


This was one of my favorite exhibits, they had this really peaceful instrumental music playing that gave the room an eerie, yet hauntingly beautiful aura.
Tyler liked 'em too.
He kept pointing his little finger in every exhibit and saying, "oh wow"


One of my favorite pics of the day....
I have other pics, but they're nothing impressive. GA Aquarium also has a whale shark, which was gorgeous, and beluga whales, and a lot of other cool stuff. Check it out if you're ever in ATL with time to kill...just make sure you get in at the first time slot of the day!

More posts tomorrow!

Back in 'Bany

I'm back and begrudgingly get back on the bandwagon. I had a day to take a deep breath, unpack our suitcases, and now I'm playing catchup with the business and running last minute errands to get Owen ready for KINDERGARTEN on WEDNESDAY, OMG - that's a whole 'nother post - AJ ready for preschool, and Steve ready to start at Deerfield on Monday. ugh. Not to mention that Casey is leaving for Valdosta in a week but I don't wanna talk about it.

Anyway, a few (tasteful) pictures of the birth of my niece Emma on the biz blog, in addition to some pics from a photosession in Michigan...more pics to come over there tomorrow of my niece when she's NOT covered in blood and placenta and stuff. LOL. Oh yes, I DID just say that. I'm too tired tonight to post any more blog pics.

Here's a picture of Tyler and his 21 month old cousin Kenny.
They were being naughty, so we stuck them in this dog crate.
It worked really well.
We taught them a lesson, oh yes we did.



Actually, they crawled in there of their own accord. Who needs cars and puzzles, and educational and developmentally appropriate toys when you can play in a dog crate??


And a cute one of Kenny, and his cheeky grin. I have a series of pictures of Kenny doing about 10 different facial expressions, but just this one for tonight.....

Another post coming in a second....

Meet my niece & nephews

I know you've seen them several times before....but here's some snapshots of my niece and nephews in Michigan....you know, in case you want to meet them. :) Because I know you do.

Here's Robby - at 8, he's the oldest of the brood and a very typical firstborn - competitive, perfectionist, scholarly, a leader. He's a fun kid and he can kick my butt on the Wii.

Here's Johnny....he and Owen are only 3 months apart in age. While he's closest to Owen in age, he's more like AJ's twin in personality. Gregarious, fun-loving, mischeivous, athletic, and a real funny man.

Here's Abby - age 3 and family diva. She actually has red curly hair (before I converted this photo to black and white that is) and she is a piece. of. work.

For real. She'll tell you what's up. And then she'll roll her eyes at you.

An Abby-ism:

I'm sitting on the floor in her room and she brings me this plush purple moose.

"this is a nice moose - where did you get him" I ask her.

She puts her finger over my mouth.

"Shhhhh. Don't talk. You're dead"

right-o.

Kendrick a.k.a. Kenny - he's almost 2 and has the funniest little smile. I'll have to try to get a picture of it. His eyes crinkle up and he gives you this toothy Miss America grin. He keeps busy by tattling on Tyler all the time.

And then of course there's Number Five.....who's yet to arrive. *hmph*

She better get here before I leave, that's all I have to say.

The day after I got here, on Sunday - my parents had a little birthday party for Tyler. My dad has enjoyed baking birthday cakes for the Michigan grandkids for the last year or so and just recently decided to take a cake decorating class for fun to build on his hobby.

He made this cake for Tyler.

It sure as heck beats the messy crumbly blob that we made him last week.

You win, dad.

Show off.


Here's me trying to get Tyler to blow on the candle instead of swipe at it with his hand.

And one last one of Tyler...he's enjoying being in a new house, with new toys, and new people to play with.

Me too. :)

Rewind!

Ready? Let's go back a week or two, shall we? We'll head back to Ohio....an inch or two of snow left on the ground and some minor sledding for the boys....
Here's Owen enjoying a push from Steve-o:

Whoops! Sleds and snow are a slippery combination!
Things got hairy for a minute there....no worries. He recovered quite nicely.
Whenever AJ was outside, he was eating snow about 95% of the time. He really really likes snow.
A lot.
I guess it's tasty.
And yes, i told him to avoid the yellow snow.
But when he wasn't eating snow, he was sledding.
On to Michigan then!
Christmas Day.....and fun times with the entire side of my family.
Here's my niece Abby, posing for me.
And showing me her beautiful new jewelry....
And with my sister Shari....(Abby was in a picture-taking mood that day)
And my nephew Kendrick - the smiley-est kid I know. Next to Tyler. :)
Abby's big-girl makeup....
Which she thought would look good on me...
And A.J.....
Even the dogs got presents....
Johnathan got his own camera, as did A.J.....see? runs in the family....
My dad and Kenny.....
My mom with Tyler...
My brother Rob, attempting to stay out of the way of the barrage of children and toys....his preggo wife Amanda trying not to doze off on the couch above him....
Nephew Robby playing with his new MP3 player....
A new train for Owen...
Tyler chilling with his Uncle Joel, who was checking out his new phone....

And then we were off to the hotel/water park.
As mentioned before, Robby was the first brave soul to head down the slide....


But AJ thought it looked cool too.....
So he got Steve-o to go with him. About 35 times. In a row. Steve-o says it is QUITE possible (hypothetically of course) to be very sore the day after water sliding.


A few days later....a Christmas stand-by: Gingerbread houses. The kids all did one together.





Yes, it's rubber-banded together. It was rather gooey and structurally unsound until the frosting dried...
While we waited for the icing to dry, Amanda took a nap...because apparently pregnant women need a lot of extra rest. **rolling eyes** I know...she's such a wimp. I'm so glad I wasn't such a pansy about sleeping, eating, and whining the entire time I was pregnant - aren't you?
My mom stayed inside with Tyler and Owen (who wanted to play video games on the computer), and dad came outside to take pictures and help. Steve and my brother were out on a "man-date" to the movies and a hockey game so it was just me and the kidlets.
The snow wasn't very good packing snow, so a snowman was out of the question. We built a snowfort instead.

Snow-forts are a crucial childhood snow structure. They're necessary to defend yourself from evil siblings and snowball-wielding neighbors. And Yeti's.

Cooper was on the lookout for Yeti's.

Did I mention that Cooper LOVED the snow??



Robby sneakily enlisted my help in making a kick-butt snow fort and promptly threw snowballs at me when my back was turned. Traitor.






This was a highly superior snow fort. AJ called it the snow castle. it had an upper level and a lower level. The lower level was reinforced with ice-snowbricks and also boasted a dug-out cave for extra protection. To the right of the photo was AJ's snow fort. On the back there was an escape slide for a quick exit if things would go wrong...

Unfortunately things DID go wrong. For me.
Too bad there was no escape for the photographer/snow fort engineer. The ratty traitors. They turned on me.



Every last one of them.....


Even the cute "pwincess", whom I valiantly defended against the Yeti's.


punks.



Hmmmm....what else??

Oh yes.....Did i mention that Tyler is sitting now?

The end.