Mom, Dad and Luta Bates

These are the names Mia uses for her family members...we seriously have to correct her with the whole Mom and Dad...we are pretty much begging her to call us Mommy and Daddy or Momma and Dadda...seriously, she is 2.5! She say "Thanks Dad!"...."Come over here Mom!"...I would say she calls us Mom and Dad majority of the time.

On Saturday Luka spent the day with Mimi watching his cousins play baseball. He left early that morning and did not make it home until that evening. Mia was seriously missing her bubba! She was MISERABLE without him. My sister came and got her while I went to run some errands. She normally LOVES going to my sister's and playing with Dea and Ivan. She whinned and only wanted to be carried. On our way home she hugged her blanket and just stared at the empty car seat next to her. SO SO SAD! She asked me to get Luka for her and kept repeating she needed her Luka Bates! I wanted to take her to the park and she did not want to, I asked if she wanetd to go visit Baka and Deda and she did not want to. When we got home I asked if she wanetd to play and she said no. Her exact words "Mom, I no feel so good, I lay down and watch tv...I need my Luta Bates"...when I seriously thought I would cheer her up with her favorite show ( Team Umizoomi) she said "No, I wait to watch that when Luta Bear comes home!"...Oh my goodness gracious - talk about breaking my heart! We layed on the couch and snuggled for a while.

When our doorbell or phone would ring, she thought it was Luka and would get so excited. When she realized it was not him, she asked me and everyone else to go find him because "he was lost". SWEET GIRL!This day was her ticket to play with any toy, not have to share Mommy or Daddy or anything in the house but all she cared for was he Bubba coming home.

I love how close they are and as sad as it was to see her so miserable without "her Luta" it warmed my heart to know just how much they love and adore one another. Mommy and Daddy were also having some serious Luka withdrawls as this was the first Saturday that we spent without him.

Justin and I had a wedding to attend that evening so we took Mia to Papa's house. We told her Mimi and Luka would be there soon and her mouth openned wide and she looked so excited...When we got home at 11:45 pm, Mia and Mimi were out but poor Papa stayed up since Mr. Luka did not want to sleep...after all day at the baseball tournament and no nap and going to bed so late it was not a surprise that he slept in until 9:45 the next morning. Thanks Mimi and Papa for watching the munchkins for us!

Mia's Sunglasses

I mentioned a few posts back that Mia found her sunglasses in our picnic bag last week. She has been obsessed with wearing them. I finally had to put them away because she was driving me crazy with wanting them ALL.THE.TIME! Here she is one night after she fell asleep...I tried to take them off and she would grab my hand each time...ya know the creepy grab when I was sure she was awake but she actually was not....

 Few hours later she needed a drink and I snapped a piciture right after she adjusted them...she even woke up with her sunglasses on the next morning...

 She also took a bath for 30 minutes with them on....

Silly girl!

Trip to the Zoo

Since Justin had Monday off we decided to head on to the zoo with the kids. We got up, had a big breakfast with Tono before he left for Ft. Worth to take his "big test" and then met up with Mimi and Papa to head to the zoo. All morning long the kids were so excited about seeing the animals and could not wait to get there. They were so excited to have Mimi and Papa join us for the fun day.The weather was perfect!


The zoo was...well, a ZOO! I thought that most kids would be at school making up the snow days but I guess I forgot about the toddler population and all the parents that had the day off. For the first time ever we had to park in the overflow parking area and it was quite busy when we got inside. Thankfully, there were no field trips! Zoo plus field trips=shoot me now!
I asked Luka what his favorite animal was and he said a hippo...Hmmm...that's interesting since we did not get to see the hippo! Gotta love toddlers! Mia was asked the same question and she said her favorite was the zebra! We did see one zebra while at the zoo and she decided she liked it so much that when it was time for the carousel she was going to ride a zebra.

For the first time ever- we made it through the whole zoo. It is amazing how different it is when you go to a place like that and have three other adults to help out with the kids. Luka and Mia have alsways behaved pretty well at the zoo but things were much smoother with two adults per child. :) On the way home we stopped by the McD's right outside the zoo and had ice cream. Now I kind of wish I took pictures while we were enjoying our special treats since this McDonalds was super duper cute inside- all decked out in a jungle theme. The playground was pretty big and our little monkeys definitley enjoyed their time running around.

Thanks Mimi and Papa for coming with us to the zoo! XOXO, Luka and Mia

Just the beginning...

 The penguins were lazy and did not want to go underwater...bummer!

 My handsome boys

 Mimi and Mia

Checking out the elephants from far away...

 

 Luka did not like the smell when Daddy got too close...SHOOOO-WEEEE!!!!!



 This was by far MY FAVORITE! The giraffes were so, so close!

 Papa and Mia

 Posing in front of the lions...there are two on those rocks behind her!

 Another peak at the giraffes!

 ZEBRAS!!!!!

 Mimi and Papa with their grandbabies

 Luka and Momma by the parrots...

 Hanging on for dear life on the carousel...

 Much better after a few minutes of getting used to moving up and down and spinning around...

 This girl has NO FEAR! 

 Luka finally smiling!

 Lunch time at the park!

 Seriously- when have they gotten so big?

 Daddy took about 10 pictures and Luka is making silly faces in EVERY.SINGLE.ONE!

 CHEESE, Momma!!!

 Yep-caught Justin teaching the kids how to skip! He is such a great Daddy! 

Checking out the monkeys

 

 Finally- spider monkeys!!!! They talked about those on the way to the zoo!

 Luka was not a fan of the goats and he even told me that tonight before bedtime...Mia was all about hugging the stinky things!

 Admiring the fish!

We had a wonderful, wonderful day followed by a long nap for the kiddos and some relaxing time for Momma and Dada.... Not sure what I was thinking attempting a 6 mile run after our all day at the zoo but let's just say that I am definitley paying for it today as I could barely move for the first 6 hours. OUCH!

Note to self: don't ever take the jogging stroller without a swivel wheel to the zoo on a busy day!

Winter months are our enemy....Spring time is our friend!

I have finally figured it out! Our kids hate being stuck inside and now that the weather is so much nicer they ( the kids and their mood swings) are much easier to manage. As you can see we have been spending a lot of our time outside and I am pretty sure these two would live, sleep and eat outside if they could.

Dea spent another night with us. This time she wanted to come without her little bother ( I mean brother). Last night we stayed up pretty late since Miss Mia fell asleep at 6 during dinner and woke up at 8 ready to party. We stopped by Starbucks ( Dea's favorite) and the kids even had their first Starbucks drink. NO worries- it was just chocolate milk. It was extra special since it was in the SB cup! I was surprised they liked it since it was not as sweet as what they are normally used to when we give them chocolate milk at home.

This morning while Daddy was rocking out yet another one of his races ( got 3RD place in his age group!!!!) we had fun at the Harry Myers park this morning with the kids. After walking/riding their bikes 2.5 miles, playing on the playground and watching kids at the skate park and baseball field needless to say the last few hundered feet on our way to the car involved more rolling on the ground then actually walking. They were SO TIRED!

Waiting on Mia to get all pretty so we can head out!

 We need to work on how to sit like a lady! This is one of her new outfits and she was SO excited about it!

 Precious girl!

 You have to have a cute leather jacket if you are going to ride your Harley!

 They stopped in the middle of our walk and rode their bikes in circles for good 5 minutes! By the look on their faces you can see they thought it was HILARIOUS!

 Our handsome boy who needs another haircut! Oh BOY!

 She is Little Miss Social..talks to everybody on the playground, adults and kids!

 LOVE HER!

 He is his Daddy's boy...always observing!

 He was so excited and focused when we spotted kids at the skate park!

 And this is just seconds away from them dropping on the  ground like flies and rolling due to exhasution! Luka literally rolled majority of the way to the car. Remember that Dea and I each had a bike in tow and the kids also wanted to be carried...

Our Saturday with Three Toddlers!

After flying the kites and playing at the park, the kids got to skip their naps and spend the rest of the day with their sweet friend Sydney. We kept Syd so her Mommy and Daddy could enjoy a nice date night before her little sis makes her big debut very soon. Sydney is absolutley PRECIOUS! We love having her around! The kids love her and she adores them too. We played on the swing set, played sports, bounced in the bounce house, took a walk around the nieghborhood, worked on some artwork with chalk at the basketball court, took a bath, ate dinner together and then played some more. Mia fell asleep in the middle of dinner from being so exhausted!

Mia showing Sydney some love!

"Hold on Syd!!!"

'Look Sydney- you don't have to hold on with both hands!"

 

 Future doctor in our family? He was checking her heart ( he said)!

 Look at those two smiles!



Mia and her montey ( monkey) swinging....

Love that Luka felt the need to get the bathroom step for as his platform to speak to the girls about playing sports...

 

These two had the best time playing "ring-around-the-rosie"

Snack time after we got home from the park.

Nope- Mia did not take her glasses of!

Luka was not in the mood for pictures at this point...

Thanks Sydney for coming over to play with us! We love you and cannot wait to hang out together when your little sister arrives!