Spring Break in Kentucky!

We spent a couple days of Trevor's Spring Break in Kentucky. What a great place to spend it! :) Trevor got to visit one of the Podiatry residencies in Louisville and see some procedures and shadow some Podiatrists.

On our way back to Cleveland we stopped at the Cincinnati Children's Museum. WOW, what a place! We were there for over 2 hours and we only saw one part of the museum. I think there were 4 different museums inside the museum. It was amazing.

Instead of purchasing the photos in the train photo booth, we just took our own. How cute!

Little did we know that we would learn some facts about a little place about 30min north of our house in Kentucky. There's a place called Big Bone Lick, and we would crack up at the name every time we drove by it!!

Here's a little bit about Big Bone Lick...

The name of the park comes from the fossils found there. The mammoths and other creatures are believed to have been drawn to this location by a salt lick. It bills itself as "the birthplace of American paleontology" a term which dates from William Clark's expedition in 1807.
In 2002, the National Park Service designated Big Bone Lick State Park as an official Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail Site. The Park was also listed in 1972 on the National Register of Historic Places, and was further listed as a National Natural Landmarkin February 2009.

I think maybe we will have to stop by this National Park next time we make it down to Kentucky!

Here's just some random pics of things around the museum...

We even learned about this rock from Utah... and other random things.

Possibly my favorite part of the museum was The Cave.

It was so cool, and so realistic!

They even had a little waterfall with a pond and stream... seriously, I felt like it was in a real cave!

Y'all know I'm a Harry Potter fan, so I had to take pics of the stalactites and stalagmites. :)

I know KynnKynn looks outrageously tired, but I must have snapped the pic at the wrong moment. I assure you she was full of life (as always) and loving every minute of the museum. :)

Ok, going inside the glacier was just as cool as the cave...

Do you see the elephant behind them in the 2nd pic? Jaden is trying to make the same face... crazy little man.

Other random pics. At this point KynnLee was done with pictures, so you just get Jaden-boy.

We wanted to stop at the museum in Columbus too, but we spent too much time in Cincinnati. But it was well worth it!

Jaden's 6th Birthday!

Our handsome little man turned 6 this year!

Jaden-boy started off his happy day with a couple presents from mom and dad. Some sugar cereal for breakfast (don't tell Beeda!) and a new shirt to wear to school.



It was a busy day for dad, but he was able to come home for a quick minute so we could sing and have cake... chocolate of course.


You could definitely give me an "F" in the subject of taking pictures. I only got pics of the present we got him! Well, actually, Beeda and Pa went in on it too. But I didn't get pics of the Active Life Extreme Challenge Wii game G&G Haynes got him.

Since Jaden's lego set has lots of little pieces, it's not for little girls named KynnLee. So we took advantage of the opportunity to let her play with her Cinderella legos (and strapped her in her chair) while we put together Jaden's City lego set.

I couldn't resist snapping a pic of this! She's holding a tiny princess mirror and checking herself out!! Ha ha ha, it was to die for!! :) She's my little princess!

Hope you had a Happy Birthday Jaden!! We love you!!

Mimunk

The other day I came into the living room to see KynnLee with her head under the blinds at this window talking and pointing excitedly about something.

I opened the blinds to see this looking back at her...

Look closely.

It's there.

Or here's a close up.

She was so stinkin cute!! She'd say "Wook!! Wook!!"

Seriously, what are the chances of her looking out a window we rarely use when a chipmunk is there??

I told her it was a chipmunk. I think he lives under all those sticks.

He would go under the sticks and she'd say, "Where de go?? Where mimpmunk?"

I watched with her for a few minutes and told her that the sticks were his house and she would jabber about it and I'd hear the words "mimpmunk" and "house". We opened the window and threw some bread crumbs to him and he ran away. After I walked away, a few minutes later I heard her say, "Dere he is!!!! Wook! Wook!! It's mimpmunk!"

Sure enough, I came to look and he was back! She even got to see him eating her bread. It was so fun!

A short while later we had to go get Jaden from school. On our way home I told her to tell Jaden what she saw.

"Janen!! ... jibber jabber... a Mimpmunk!!"

Those two would have thrown a whole loaf of bread to that chipmunk if I would have let them. He came to visit through the window for a few days. We haven't seen him in a bit, but we should check more often, or maybe throw him more bread.

Jaden told me, "Mom, I think he wants to be our pet".

Me: "Ok, he can be our OUTSIDE pet".

~Tooth Fairy! ~

On Friday, March 5th at approximately 8:30am, Jaden Dan Haynes lost his first tooth!

I happen to have a bit of experience with pulling teeth. My good friend Elizabeth has a sweet little girl, Meredith, and she let me pull 2 of her teeth. I got pretty good at tying floss around teeth. That floss wasn't comin out without the tooth!!

He was such a tough little man! (gets that from his mom) I told him about tying floss to his tooth the other end to a doorknob, he thought that was so cool! So, here's the professional tie job...


and the other end...


... getting ready...



... as you can tell, he wasn't scared at all. Just excited to get his tooth out!




AND he even shut the door himself!! Unfortunately, he didn't shut it hard enough. Here's his disappointed little face....

(excuse the jammies he's had for 3 years... they're his fav)

Like I said, the floss wasn't coming out without a tooth! So we just wiggled it back and forth and it popped right out!

He may look traumatized, but I assure you, he wasn't. :) And now he has a cute little toothless grin. I LOVE it! I forgot how cute it is when kids lose a tooth!

They get their dancing skills from their dad...

Jaden was asking if he could listen to "Applebottome Jeans" in the car, then begged me to bring it in the house. This is how it all went down...

Valentine's and KynnLee's 2nd Birthday!

For Valentine's Day I decorated the kitchen and left little baskets for the kiddos. I wanted to make red heart-shaped pancakes and a cute breakfast, but it just didn't happen because I worked 3-11:30pm the night before and we have 9am church. Ah well, they still loved it!

Would you believe it if I told you my little princess just turned 2??? Oh my goodness! Yes, I know she looks much OLDER than 2, but she SHOULD be much younger than 2! I just can't believe it. I need her to stay little.

Of course she got spoiled for her birthday. Mom and dad got her a My Little Pony house, G&G Haynes got her the playhouse/ Foam Sweet Home (I'll have to take better pics) that's in the background, Beeda and Pa got her a CUTE doll that crawls, stands, walks, plays peek-a-boo, laughs, basically everything. She also got lots of super cute presents from her friends.

We just had some of her friends over and ate pizza and sandwiches, had cake and ice cream, and let the kids go nuts!

(the doll from Beeda and Pa)


(the house in the background, and cute friend gifts)

I love how all the kids gathered around real close for the cake. It was too cute! She couldn't help but try to get the Strawberry Shortcake off the cake. And she kept poking her finger in the icing. She didn't quite get that she needed to blow out the candles, so a friend helped her. :)

What a pretty little birthday girl!!

Happy Birthday KynnLee!! We love you!

Tobogganing

We got the opportunity to go tobogganing with some friends. What a blast!!

The drive there was pretty cool, all the trees were covered with snow.

We carried the toboggan to the top of the hill. Well, Trevor did anyway...

and made our way down...

Jaden was a tobogganing FOOL!! He went up every time someone was going. There were two little ones that couldn't go so we switched off, but J-man made sure to make his way up with whoever was going. He absolutely loved it.

Even the little kiddies had fun. We brought a baby sled and pulled them around. They both loved it! Little Brady would cry when we stopped! It was hysterical! They were so cute!

We hung out in the lodge to warm up between toboggans. KynnLee got Dina to entertain her for a bit. :)

We all had so much fun! A big thanks to Josh and Dina for inviting us all!