It feels like we haven’t been to the zoo forever! So today we made a quick trip to fix our itch for some animal watching.

The birds were quite hungry; they flew right onto the kids’ sticks as soon as we walked through the door. This photo is classic Carter… calm as can be, watching everything go on around him.

Raine always loves the birds.

I feel the need to put it on the record that Raine picks her own outfits. Despite my best efforts to persuade her to wear something “normal” she insists on wearing Punky-Brewster-style outfits. Believe it or not, this outfit was a tamed down compromise of what she proposed to wear — plaid bermuda shorts with the pink leggings. Imagine her tearing around the playground in this outfit, along with her white pageboy hat and polka-dot sunglasses, that was the scene at the playgroup a couple weeks ago!

I’ll be honest, the reason I feel the need to put this on the record is because my sister and I have relentlessly harassed my mom about some of the hair-dos we are sporting in the family photo album. I can see Raine looking through this blog ten years from now saying, “Mom! What in the world did you dress me in!” So I just want to say, “IT WASN’T ME!!! That was all you baby!”

This year we had the full Stock Show experience. It started on a warm January day a few weeks ago when we watched the parade through downtown. It is almost two hours of horses — cowboys, rodeo queens, Texas rangers, Mexican riders, horses with braids, horses with their nails painted, jumping horses, horses pulling wagons, ponies pulling wagons, if it is possible to do with a horse then it was there — immediately followed by almost two dozen street sweepers trying to wash all the “apples” off the road. The kids loved every minute of that parade.

Then on Friday, we took Grandma Anderson to the rodeo. It was so much fun! During the grand entrance, Carter just about fell into the people in front of us as he tried to point to every horse in the arena, it was too much for him to handle!

We saw all sorts of exciting events. Bareback riding:

Steer wrestling:

Bull riding:

Then we made the rounds through the barns. We saw all sorts of perfectly manicured bovine and ovine (that’s cow and sheep to you city-slickers . . . wait, we are city slickers).

Along the way we snacked on giant corn-dogs, red-velvet funnel cake, and cinnamon roasted almonds.

Another fun, but un-photographed, event we saw was the gypsy horse jumping competition. These long-tailed, furry-footed, fairy-tale looking horses pranced around the arena jumping fences — a very stark contrast to the rough-and-rumble bronc riding we had seen earlier.

By the end of the day we were pretty exhausted . . . and heavy laden with deep-fried foods!

January has supplied us with some really BEAUTIFUL weather. To make the most of the sunshine — and to tame Raine’s insatiable need to make crafts — we made bird feeders. A LOT of bird feeders. We started with this one, made from a milk jug:

Then the Texas ruby-red grapefruits came into season and we made quite a few of these:

Finally, we whipped up this gooey concoction for our pine-cone feeder:

The grapefruit feeders were, by far, the most popular. They attracted all sorts of birds.

After watching a few birds attempt to eat from the milk-jug feeder, we realized that it needed a perch for them to stand on while eating. We added this large stick and it soon became a popular feeding spot.

Our pine-cone feeder had a few takers, but the cherries in the tree were far more popular.

Raine gave her first Primary talk today. She was super excited to be up there teaching the kids, but she was also kind of nervous. She climbed up to the podium and gave her talk like a natural-born teacher, but she spoke in her crazy nervous voice. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I recognized it as the voice she uses to talk to strange people who strike up a conversation with her in the grocery store.

Her topic was agency and she painted this CTR shield to hold up during her talk.

Here is the talk she wrote:
“Agency is a gift from Heavenly Father that lets us choose. Heavenly Father and Jesus help us choose the right. Someday I am going to choose to go to the temple because I want to live with my family forever.”

Here is a video of her practice run on Saturday.

Carter is officially in nursery!!! Raine held his hand and walked him the entire way to the nursery room. Then she gave him an encouraging shove through the door. Carter never even looked back, he was off playing and couldn’t be bothered with such things as kissing his mommy.

Carter is such a good kid. There have been a few days over the past couple months where DJ and I both had to do things during church and Carter just had to come along for the ride. The first Sunday of this year was one of those times. I was teaching Sharing Time and DJ was giving the Bishopric message so Carter came to Primary. He sat on one of the little chairs in the front row, with the CTR 4 class, and listened. He LOVED it! He was such a big kid — we laughed afterward because he was a lot more reverent than most of the kids in there.

Carter has the most adorable smile. He loves books, balls, his “wuf-wuf,” and his big sister. Anything she does, he does. From princess shoes . . .

. . . to baby strollers.

With Raine, I remember thinking that I would never forget how cute she was at this stage. But now I realize that I won’t, because I don’t. So I have been trying to get as many videos as possible of Carter’s current cuteness so I can look back and remember. Here is one of my favorites.

Grandma and Grandpa Dewey came to our house for Christmas this year and we were so excited to have them here. We packed as much fun into the week as we could. We started with a trip to the zoo.

We fed the birds.

And even pet an armadillo.

After Christmas, Daddy and Grandpa drove down to Waco to see the Texas Rangers Museum. While they were gone, Grandma treated the kids to a day at Leapin’ Lizards. Raine loved those great big slides.

Carter liked the toddler area.

Before they left, we visited the Sea Life Aquarium. Grandma, Raine, Carter, and Daddy looking into the stingray tank.

Carter and Daddy in the bubble.

Three generations of Deweys.

Daddy and the kids at the big tank.

We had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa. Raine loved having Grandma be her BFF for the week.

It was Christmas . . . we opened presents . . . the kids played with toys . . . it was great.

Presents from Santa.

Carter opening his present from Raine — trains to go with their new train set.

Raine opening her present from Carter — a new baby doll to go with the new doll high-chair, play pen, and play mat that Santa brought.

Grandma and Grandpa opening their stockings — ice cream certificates and lots of chocolate.

Carter with the ukulele that Gma and Gpa Dewey gave him.

Raine with the cash register that Gma and Gpa Dewey gave her.

Carpenter Carter at his workbench, wearing the new apron Gma Anderson made.

I didn’t get a photo of the nap-mat that Gma Anderson made Raine, but here is one from Gma’s blog.

What a fun Christmas! After opening a bunch of our presents, we had waffles — cooked on the new waffle iron we received — then we had a second round of present opening. Soon enough it was time to get ready for our 11:00 church services. The rest of the day we just played.

Here is a little video of Christmas morning — I want to keep this one easy to find so I can pull it out on Carter’s first date!!

Day 13
The kids went shopping to buy presents for their teachers. We ended up going to Braums to buy gift cards so naturally, we had to sample the goods while we were there!

Day 14
We made a special Christmas treat for Raine’s Christmas party the next day at school. And yes, Carter had one of those cookies in his mouth before I finished taking photos. You can see him saying, “sheeezzzz” while his entire attention is focused on stealing that cookie.

Day 15
We went to see the Christmas lights in Interlochen. Almost every house in this neighborhood is covered with Christmas lights and decorations; people come from near and far to see the displays. It takes hours to drive through the neighborhood on a busy night so we decided to go the night before it officially started. Almost all of the houses had their lights on and we didn’t have to deal with traffic. It was very impressive and the kids really enjoyed seeing all the lights.

Day 16
We made a Christmas craft. The kids painted a Christmas present for Daddy — it didn’t turn out so well, but it was fun. Carter was so proud of himself painting with that big paint brush all by himself.

Day 17
We gave this little tree to the individual we selected from the Ward Angel Tree; we were her service-Santas. We did a couple things for her during the month and had a lot of fun making her holiday a little merrier.

I also want to point out the curtains in this photo. After six years, I finally got curtains for the dining room. I had to kidnap our babysitter from the night before so she would be there to occupy the kids the next morning while I hemmed the curtains — but I got them done! (Don’t worry, we brought her an overnight bag to make her captivity more comfortable…and we got her parent’s permission. But I’ll tell you what, I could get used to this live-in nanny thing. We haven’t been that productive with kids around in a long time! DJ re-mulched the entire front yard and trimmed the bushes. Our house looks great.)

Day 18
We made Christmas fudge.

Day 19
Well . . . this was not a good day. We didn’t get around to doing our planned activity, so I took the kids out for doughnuts the next morning to make up for it.

Day 20
We delivered goodie-bags to some of our friends.

Day 21
Grandma and Grandpa Dewey flew in from Utah and they helped us cut out paper gingerbread men.

Day 22
We made faux-gingerbread houses. (Look at that chocolate-coated smile on Carter’s face. “You want me to stick this candy on that ratty little house? I think it would be better off in my mouth!”)

Raine’s house wasn’t finished until every last piece of candy in the bowl was “glued” onto her house — we had to use a candy cane to brace one wall so it could support all the weight.

The next day we sprinkled the houses with the “snow” that Aunt Sarah sent. It looked very real.

Day 23
The kids painted Christmas ornaments.

Day 24
We acted out the Nativity. One of our actresses got stage fright and wouldn’t wear any costumes, she just wanted to stand next to Grandma.

Here are a couple clips from our nativity. I love how Shepard-Carter hands his “baa” to Mary and then throws his box at Joseph as a wise man.

We also sang Christmas songs — including DJ’s annual performance of “Dominick the Donkey.”