Glenn Remembers the Alamo

For a reminder from Glenn Beck that battles are worth fighting (even if you are the minority), click here. It was run on his show yesterday (and also a good little history lesson).

Here's a sample quote:

"These people didn't die to defend the Alamo which is now some place where you go on vacation and have your picture taken in front of it, and most people don't even know what it means or what it stands for. They didn't just die for protecting the Alamo or even Texas. Today they died to teach us a lesson, to fight on, to never give up. You're not alone.

"Today, just today remember the Alamo."

And here is {one of many} pictures taken in front of it.

Such devoted sisters

One of my favorite Christmas movies is "White Christmas." Lucy picked up the "Sisters" song from the show. She sings it several times during the day while playing with Elise, but unfortunately just knows one line and sings that over and over... We need Grandma Cindy to teach her the rest!

Most of the time, Lucy is a devoted sister. She likes to carry Elise to her "boats" to sail away to far away places, screams when Elise is getting into some kind of trouble, finds rags to wipe up her spit-up, etc. However, there are times...

But I must say, Elise is usually pretty patient with Lucy's little games.

Princesses

Stickers that came in the mail (put to good use)

bath time - the 3 for "3 years" and the 7 for "7 months"
cooking (note the arm around her... cute!)

wrestling

dress up time

Here is a video of Lucy's bedtime ritual. She does it with both babies. Each one gets "a hug and a kiss and a pet and a touch." They go in different orders, but she always includes all four things.

Wildlife Ranch

I have to give credit to Kimberli for being on the go and usually being the driving force behind family activities because we had a pretty good one on MLK day yesterday. I didn't have to work until the night shift so we got up and got ready and headed out to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch which is 30 to 40 minutes north of our home in San Antonio. I'd never been to one of these sorts of things before but our friends gave it generally good reviews and we thought it a plus with our babies that we wouldn't really have to get out of the car and could have a good time.

The premise of this place is that they have a safari like zoo with the animals roaming free so you can get a good look from your car. We were one of the first cars into the "ranch" and even were slightly ahead for some part of the morning hay wagon which worked to our advantage in that the animals were hungry early and eager to get some of our pellet feed which came free with the entrance admission.

Nearly the entire animal population was hoof stock but there were some impressive african antelope of various types including Bongos, Ibex and Springboks. There were a couple of white rhinos and Bactrian camels but they were behind fencing and couldn't approach the vehicle. I was probably most impressed by a Texas longhorn that approached our van and took a little from my hand.

Lucy liked throwing feed to the reindeer and big horn sheep but the most excitement came from the zebras and ostriches. The zebra were very used to being fed by hand and would stick their heads right in the van to get a handout. I thought this was pretty fun and the zebras were bigger than I would have guessed. I rolled down the windows on the girl's side of the van and a big zebra poked his head in. Kimberli screamed (as she did several times on the trip), Lucy screamed and jumped over in my lap and Kimberli rolled with Elise down into the space between our two bucket seats. I had a good laugh and so did Kimberli eventually.

The ostriches were quite aggressive and the bigger birds would flap their wings and yap their mouths and sometimes peck at the windows. They weren't interested in food just in intimidation as best as I could tell. I did get a good video of screaming at ostriches:

We did a total of two laps around the "ranch" and then stopped in at the petting zoo and had a picnic lunch and got home a little after noon with time to do a few chores before I had to get to work.

Crawler

Hi Grandparents-

Here are a couple videos of Elise's new skills. She is a real crack up to watch. I think it is because she's such a little gal, so its a bit surprising to see her move all over.

This video reminds me a bit of Ursula, the sea witch, when she reveals herself on the boat and crawls to get Ariel and dive into the sea. I tried to find the clip on youtube so you would know exactly what I mean, but no luck. They must have used a baby's crawl as inspiration for that...

She loves to pull herself up to the coffee table, grin, and bang her hands. Then she drops and does it again in a different place.

Cute babies "overall"

I think I used a slogan like that when I ran for president in 5th grade. I didn't win. Maybe it was the slogan... I digress...

Here's some pics of the babies. I'll give Austin two months until he passes Elise... at least in height... maybe not weight. Elise has quite a few rolls on her cute thighs. :)

Elise loves to get her bro.

Lucy thinks this is the funniest joke in the world. As if getting a half decent picture isn't hard enough...

diaper change

photograghy by Lucy

A little video of a typical photo session with both of them...

say "cheese"

Here is a picture of Austin at 6 weeks. He is starting to smile and it is oh, so cute! I really tried to document it on camera, but didn't quite get it. Just imagine it is a little bigger. What would have made a better post is a video of me making all sorts of faces/sounds to get him to do it!

Let the games begin

Geo and I are real gamers. Not video gamers (well at least one of us), board gamers. I admit, the games have slowed down a bit since we've added little ones, but we still try to squeeze in some fun games. Now that Lucy is a bit older, she wants to play with us. On Sunday, we played UNO, Rack-o, and Yahtzee. She gets UNO pretty well, but plays her own version of Rack-o and we had to tell her what dice to keep in Yahtzee. I'll confess, she's beat us at UNO, Old Maid, and a few others, but I wasn't prepared for this:
Both the Yahtzee and the Yahtzee bonus were on 5's. Lucky girl!
Notice her name at the top: YLUC. Not bad. It's coming... Her name is all over pieces of paper around the house, but sometimes you have to hunt for the letters. :)

We also played Killer Bunnies this weekend with the Kim's. Love this game and the company! For the first time in a while, I was the winner. Thank you Carmen!

Jesus wants me for a SUNBEAM!

SEALED!!!

On December 26, 2008, Elise April Tripp was sealed to our family. I know I said it was "official" when Roger and April signed the papers after she was born AND when the adoption was finalized by the state of TX, but this time was the real deal. She is now a part of our "forever family," just as if she'd come to us in the usual way. The sealing took place in the Salt Lake City LDS temple and we were blessed to have many of our family members join in the happy day. There was a strong feeling of reverence and peace in the room.

Cole family

Tripp family

We are overjoyed to have Elise as part of the family. She is a happy baby with a contagious toothy grin and easy to love. I love to talk to her because she smiles, coos, flaps her arms, and kicks her legs ... she LOVES attention! All of us adore her.

dinner at the Lion House afterwards

top of Joseph Smith Memorial building

We walked through Temple Square and saw the Christmas lights, but our TX blood isn't used to the cold weather anymore, so it was a quick walk through. It brought back many memories. Lucy thought it was really neat (and loved being carried by Uncle Benji).

One happy, tired (and eternal) family

I am grateful for the blessings of the temple. Sometimes I think maybe I take gospel knowledge for granted. Days like this are extra special because they remind me of God's plan for each of us. God knew me before I was born and had a plan for me. I can feel his love while I am here on earth and there is peace knowing that life continues after death and in family units.

The trial of not rea;;y havong control over our family size has been a hard thing for us. But we have been richly blessed with three of them ... something I never would have dreamed a few years ago. As the new year started, I read back on some of my feelings during that trying time and of course it made me a little emotional. But it reaffirmed my belief that we have a Heavenly Father who knows the end from the beginning. If things wouldn't have happened the way they did, we wouldn't have our sweet little Elise. A couple weeks ago, Lucy asked me how come Elise grew in April's tummy and Austin grew in mine. I told her I didn't know and asked why she thought it happened that way. She offered, "Because Elise needed to be in the family?" Yes, that is the reason and I'm so glad she is!

All for the little ones... Christmas Joys!

The highlights of our Christmas this year were the blessings of our two babies and the sealing of Elise to our family. Here are a few pics of other fun things...
(click on the collage for a larger view)

Christmas in TX

Christmas with the Tripp's
Christmas with the Cole's

S-A-N-T-A likes pink

Lucy learned to love Santa this year. She sang a "S-A-N-T-A" song she learned in music class over and over. Here is it... twice... 2nd time is better.


We had several visits with Santa this year. Each time Lucy asked for a "pink neck-A-lace".

Pediatric Christmas party (above and below).

Wish I could get Lucy to stop the cheese-ball smile, but not a chance.

I love Santa's rosy cheeks.

Church Christmas Party (above and below).

This Santa was well known to the 3rd year Pediatric folks. :)

Santa at the Harden Christmas party in Utah.

This was the first time Elise cried when handed to a stranger. She tugged at his beard (which was real) then seemed to calm down a little, but still wasn't thrilled with the guy.

All those visits paid off... Lucy got a few pink necklaces (different shades) and wears one of them every day.
Today she said, "Mom, if I obey you then Santa will bring me something next year, right?" I was thrilled. We'll see how long it lasts...