Sedgwick Co. Zoo

Eric and I have gone to the zoo here in Wichita before, but that was during the winter. Now that it's summer they have so many more exhibits open and the animals seem to be more active!

Here's a few snaps of our adventure! Enjoy :)

This painting here was made by an orangutan. It was entered in a childrens art contest. The judges did not know that an orangutan painted it and placed it first place!

Eric thought this bird looked like a balding old man :)

Last time we came (during winter) this cougar thought we were his food! He would follow us like a crazy animal and I was seriously scared of it! Now it just looks like Bill or Charlie.

These birds were so colorful and pretty!

I love this picture of Eric and this tiger.

Probably my favorite part of the zoo.
The Jungle

The biggest white wings are the wing span of a white pelican. HUGE!

I love elephants so much!!

And...I love penguins a ton, too!

The childrens petting zoo part was fun!

It all started with one

I surely am a proud mom. Obviously, you can see we have a cute little fur ball added to our little homestead. His name is Bill if you haven't caught on yet. But, I kept thinking for a few days now how I really wanted (drum roll please!)...ANOTHER kitty! I know, my mom is shaking her head thinking I might be the craziest person alive right now.

You see, all growing up I have been, let's just say "deathly" allergic to cats and horses. We knew I could never be able to be a cat owner so I just always thought cats were dumb, lazy, and smelly. But, after having our great and terrifying adventure with Oscar, we...well I decided to give it a shot in life and live dangerously. It all started with one. But now we have TWO! And I'm so happy with my little boys!
He's a bit cranky/tired in this picture. I woke him up for his glamor moment.

Picture Fun

I was very bored one evening after work and decided to go outside with my camera. I took I think over 200 shots of random nature. Surprisingly, I had a ton of fun doing this! And I had a few little adventures while I was out. Here's a small collection of my pictures.

This first one here is actually just to show my family my 1st garden! I was so excited that they didn't all fully die after a week of planting them. But I'm giving them plenty of love so they are pullin' through!













I found an abandoned birds nest by our side door. We knew little birdies were just living in it but we haven't seen them or their mommy in a while so I knew it was safe to take down. This birds nest is what started my adventure of picture day.
I went to our back yard of a jungle and found a few things that seem to get there somehow. Our yard is completely fenced in with private fencing, but I could promise you I pick up a bucket load of trash back there about every 2 weeks! And well, this little beauty marble made it back there some how. I like it.



















Look VERY closely here. While I was just snapping away with my little camera, I thought I could get some cool pictures of this tree stump we have in our back yard. Well, after I had gone inside to look at my pictures, I realized I was taking a picture of a nasty HUGE spider that seemed to blend into his habitat. Thank goodness I didn't realize he was there while I was taking pictures! I would have screamed like a little girl.

We have a cute little couple of mushrooms on our little stump back there.












We have lots of random wild flowers on our property!
This thing was Gi-A-normous!



















God is so wonderful to give us such wonderful and colorful things to observe.
And then Bill came to play!


He is just yawning...don't be scared!!

Thanks for looking! xoxo

Summer Time!

Lots of things have happened since the last post that I posted on here!

Eric's website is getting more and more popular and we are getting so excited about it. He works so incredibly hard on it and I'm so proud of him. Eric finished his semester at WSU and is happy to have a break.

I'm still loving my job as a CNA. It is so incredibly humbling every day and it's always inspiring me. I want to learn about the medical field more and more every day!

I've applied to college myself and I plan to start in the fall! I want to be a RN! :) :) :) YAY!

We are renovating our house by painting and doing some other simple things like taking (ugly) wall paper down and making it "our" home.

We painted our fire place to a cream white. Our walls aren't painted yet but I'll post pictures of what they will become!

Our living room isn't really "renovated" but this is a picture of our new (used) couches some stranger gave us. Heavenly Father has blessed us! :)

We bought plane tickets to go to Pa and we are so excited! We leave end of July. We have lots of things to do while we are there. NYC, beach, Hershey park, market, Roburritos, and of course spend every second I can get with my family!!!!!!

We have been empty nesters since Oscar, our cute little dog, left our home. We felt like something was missing so I was given the opportunity to take home a free cat. I know! A cat!! Weird that I decided to take home a cat considering cats are the one animal I'm most allergic to. But he has been such a joy in our lives. He is a perfect companion for me when Eric is at work. Get ready for this dad and Billy...we named our cat Bill. :) And let's just say he is just like you guys. He has dads belly and has billys personality. He's very loving just like the both of you guys. We love our little Bill! :)

CNA JOB

Hello, friends and family! I took a CNA (certified nurses assistant) class not too long ago, shortly after we moved here to Kansas. I finally found a place that will accept me and my crazy self to their facility. I can't wait to get started and I really hope to be there for a long time. I've always wanted to get into nursing and I'm excited to try it out.

Just pray for Target...that poor place is falling apart.

xoxo

IL was a BLAST!

Logan taking his own picture. The boys love cameras so half of these pictures I didn't even take. Cool, huh?!


We all had such a good time at Michelle and Chris's house in Elmwood. Lots of laughing, occasional crying, tickling, and pooping in diapers seemed to be the most popular activities there at the house. It was so neat to see my parent's and sister and her husband and kids again. Even though Eric couldn't come (very sad) I still had a blast!

When Michelle and I had a home to ourselves (plus Camden always attached to the boob) we always seemed to fill in the gap. We made cookies, watched tv, talked a ton, made arts and crafts, cooked, cleaned, and we even seemed to synchronize our sleep with Chris. But who watched the 3 boys? Who knows!! hehe jk...thankfully when babies need something they cry...and Logan and Aiden are big boys. :)

Anyway, Michelle and I had such a busy, fun time we managed to find the time to watch QVC and call them to ask about their 4 payment methods of $14.85 potato peeler. I was curious if they could make those payments into 5 easy payments not 4. I didn't want to do it but she made me. :) I'm so glad I made the call. ;)

I'm so happy I got to go up there. Here's a few pics to show my fun...



This is Michelle on a stressful day. hehe...actually this is one of Logan's creations by taking a picture of the lady on Deal or No Deal. I thought it was a perfect shot!
We played Rock Band quite a bit! I never thought I would have liked it so much! This is me playing guitar and singing at the same time...and I'm also playing the drums with my feet!! ;) jk
1st time seeing TOmmy2ie!! He's here with his Gma Joan! I also gave him his 1st hair cut...but no pictures :( sorry fam...
Me and the nose picker/thumb sucker...only if he knew I was just like that when I was a laddie ;)
Aiden is such a sweet cake love bug! The second he gets to know you (which doesn't take long at all) he is ALL about you! He is soooo adorable and I'm so glad he's in our family. :)
This is the Reverend! Well it's actually Camden. But Eric calls him reverend. Because of 7th heaven...you can ask about it later if you want. ;) He's such a cute little guy! Aiden LOVED to give him kisses...sometimes a little too much where we weren't really sure if he was letting the baby breath...that's how good the kisses where!

I got to see my girl pal MOLLY!! It was so nice to see here! I wish we didnt' live far from each other. :( but what a joy it was to see and spend time with that lovely lady! :)

I also got to go down to my home town in Flanagan for a night and it was so much fun. Didn't get to see all the friends I would have liked to but Ashley R., Jodi R., Joel, and Brett did me over just great until next time. Joe and John D. came up to Ptown to chill for a few hours, too. So great!

It was such an awesome and weird feeling going back to Flanagan. My old house looks so different! I kept telling my friends there I plan to buy it back someday! Hope Eric won't mind! I miss Illinois already. But I hope we both will be able to go back together someday soon. Much, much sooner than later this time. ;) Love, Holly xoxo

Short and Sweet...

I'm leaving for IL in the morning! I'll be returning with lots of pictures and lovely memories from my trip so keep a lookin' lads and laddies!! :) 01. (<--that was oscars contribution to this blog) :)

ps a little update! I got my CNA license in the mail! :) yay!

love you all! xoxo