Houston Zoo

Peter and Austin in front of the Albino Alligator.

Peter and I were able to go to the Houston zoo this last week with our friends Julie and Austin. The highlights for Peter were anything but the animals.

Peter struggling to run away. Flamingos are boring I guess.
The warthogs were not much better. He would rather eat his crackers.

Peter enjoyed the snacks (and trying to feed Austin his granola bar), . . .

pulling the wagon he and Austin were SUPPOSE
to be riding in, . . .

playing with the buckles in the wagon and pushing the seat backs up and down obsessively, . . .

the water, . . .

and drinking as much fruit punch as he could possibly get his hands on! (as evidenced by his permanent, red mustache in every picture)

We were finally able to find the Children's Zoo area that was geared more towards kids his age. While we were there, he fell off a bench and banged the back of his head on the cement. It was the kind of sound that made everybody turn towards him in horror. I was almost sure blood would start gushing from it; but he pulled through this incident with no concusion or blood, some crying and mommy snuggling, and 2 free coins (usually $2.50) for him and Austin to ride the merry-go-round! The merry-go-round was probably the highlight of the trip for both kidos. Way to get a freebie Peter!

Peter and I on the merry-go-round:

Julie and Austin on the merry-go-round:

We wrapped the day up at the petting zoo. I tried to get Peter to groom the goat with the little brushes they provided, but he was more interested in showing me where the goats eyes and nose were.

I was exhausted by the end of the day, but Peter-the energizer bunny-spent an hour playing in his crib before he finally decided to take a nap.

Fun News

Peter is excited to tell everybody that he is going to get a little baby . . . . . . . . . brother!

Baby #2 - 20 weeks

Obviously, Peter is still quite clueless about the whole thing, but someday he will be glad to have a little brother. He points to my tummy and says "baby"; however, he will also point at Scott's and his tummy and say the same thing.

We are very excited to get another little boy. Rigby Preston Flamm is the name that we have been thinking about for this little one. Scott mentioned Rigby (a family name) last fall as a joke for our next boy, and I surprised myself and him by saying, "Yes, I really like it." I never believed in the whole "right name" thing, but after choosing Peter's name and now feeling that Rigby is the right name, I'm a believer. Preston is also a family name that we both really like. This kid is definitely going to be an Idaho boy (Preston and Rigby are both towns in Idaho)!

Just to finish this post off I've got a few amusing things that Peter has been doing lately:

1) Flushing anything and everything down the toilet,
2) throwing toys into the sink with piles of dirty dishes,
3) putting pants on his head,
4) saying all kinds of new words :),
4) and wearing our shoes around the house (especially my high heels).

Unfortunately, his fascination with toilets has nothing to do with potty training-it's purely the mechanics of pulling a lever and watching something be flushed away. I have already unclogged one overflowing toilet that was full of toilet paper. I just pray he doesn't flush anything like my wedding ring. I'm sure with two little boys I will have even more amusing stories to relate. I can't wait! (or maybe I can).

Me and my little boy!
Photographer: my wonderful hubby

Cousin Pictures

It was a lot of fun to see Peter and Isabelle interact during this trip. They are only 8 weeks apart, so it has been interesting to see how they are alike and different. Isabelle is very high energy and Peter is very mischievous, so they make a good team (or bad if you are the one watching them!). Isabelle calls Peter "P." Sometimes she tries to mother him-which he hates. Peter likes to tease her by taking out her hair bow or taking her blankets and running while she screams at him. Most of the time they get along famously and follow each other everywhere.

Isabelle and Peter playing the piano at my parents' house in northern Utah. Interesting duet!

Isabelle mothering Peter and cleaning off his feet after they are done playing with my parents' dog, Sadie.

This picture completely typifies their personalities. Isabelle has a very energetic and intense personality, and Peter has a relaxed and mischievous personality.

Here they are in their royal thrones. They were very good travelers. Both of them logged about 25 hours of car seat time in 8 days with minimal crying!

Idaho

Scott had to go back home to work after St. George, but Peter and I stayed to spend more time with my family. We traveled up to Idaho and visited Yellowstone-my favorite place in the world! This was Peter's first time so be prepared for a plethora of pictures.

We stayed at my Grandparents' cabin just outside of West Yellowstone in Island Park.

My dad, Peter and I roasting hot dogs at the cabin. Peter was terrified of the fire.

My Grandpa and Grandma Farrow enjoying their food.

Little Isabelle the monkey displaying her
bandaged hand with 5 stitches.

The dry grass was being watered and Peter decided he needed to wash his hair in the sprinkler.

This picture and the ones involving water are about the only ones that are not a blur. He ran faster than the camera could.

My mom on double duty feeding both the little monsters-Isabelle and Peter.

Peter playing with the fireplace knobs. The kid cannot leave any button, knob, switch, latch, lever or door alone! He is so good at figuring out the mechanics of these things too.

Another popular attraction was the stairs. We finally had to block them off so we wouldn't have another episode of stitches.
Again, the kidos were very uncooperative during this photo shoot. After our picnic in Yellowstone, the only picture we could get was of their backs.

I love this picture of Peter. We were corralling Peter and Isabelle amongst the trees while we waited for Old Faithful to erupt.

Isabelle and my dad, Peter and I
For once, the kidos were memorized and holding still during the eruption of Old Faithful.

The cousins giving each other a hug. CUTE!

After this short trip of 4 days to Idaho, I have decided that I am glad I do not have twins at this point. Both the kids were great, but they made a very mischievous and rambunctious team.

A Family Tradition

Since we are not going to Utah for Christmas, we decided to fly in for my family's traditional Labor Day trip to St. George. Well, pictures are so much more fun than my boring words, so here they are . . .

Dad, Isabelle, Marissa, Scott, Peter, and Dustin swimming at the condo pool. As you can see, Peter was so grumpy that he would only snuggle with Scott or I the entire time.
On the other hand . . .

. . . his little cousin Isabelle thought she was an Olympic swimmer and tried jumping in the deep end
by herself several times.

Peter hanging out with Great-Grandpa Farrow and
Grandma Stewart at the condo.

My sister Sara and her husband, Dustin, snoozing at the condo.

We enjoyed eating a meal and watching the musical "Aida" at Tuacahn. Tuacahn is an outdoor theater amidst the beautiful red rock of Southern Utah.
Here is Peter and Scott posing for the camera.

Peter and Isabelle
This is the only decent picture we could get of both. Peter was always trying to run away or grab the camera, and Isabelle refused to pay attention by turning her head or giving us glum faces.

Thanks to my parents and grandparents, we had delicious food! Here is Peter enjoying his first corn on the cob. We also had glorious Utah peaches!!! (the peaches were almost my entire reason for coming :)

Sunday afternoon after church we were able to hike around Zion's National Park. I LOVE the beautiful scenery! Here are Scott, me, and Peter (trying to escape) in front of the
Three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Here I am holding onto Peter while he splashed
around in the Virgin River at Zion's.

My New Favorite Picture

Of course, it is always a picture of Peter. We think he is quite the cutie. Funny story: We went out to eat on Saturday night and while we were walking past all of the shops and restaurants trying the decided where to eat, Peter saw these two fancy dressed ladies standing to greet people at an upscale restaurant. He decided to wave and jabber to them-the little flirt! They waved back and smiled; he was pretty proud of himself. Also, he often waves to cashiers as we leave the check-out stands at stores. Silly little boy!

We haven't been up to much lately. Just doing little projects around the house. Scott has installed new door knobs & locks on the outside doors, and I have been weeding the front flowers beds and grass. Because of the weeding, we have been spending a lot time outdoors (much to Peter's liking). Peter has fallen on the cement so many times that he has scrapes and scabs ALL over. When he falls, he usually whines and then just keeps running-even if it is bleeding. We tried putting a bandage on a really bad scrape, but he threw a fit for 15 minutes until we gave in and took it off.

The only other thing I can think of is that we are headed to Utah this week. Yeah!!! The only thing I am not excited about is keeping Peter entertained for three hours on my lap! On the positive side, at least it is a lot faster than driving.

Kitchen Fun

Peter playing in "his" cupboard.

Peter Playing with the pots and pans.