howdy y'all from the Lone Star state

We've been having lots of fun in our new home in Texas the past couple of weeks. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to:

Karlee loves her playscape that is in the backyard. Her and Carter love to climb up into it and say they're pirate captains. What I didn't realize it had when we bought the house is a little sand box and a picnic table. Karlee would spend all day in her sand box if she could. She loves it.

 This little monkey can climb up this whole climbing wall thing without the rope all by herself.

Last Saturday we ventured to Dr. Pepper ballpark with my brother and his family for a free pumpkin patch. Yes it was free to get in, but it cost money to get a pumpkin. We were kind of bummed about that, but the kids loved playing at the playground and in the bounce house.

 When I would have to put Karlee in timeout I used to just put her in her crib. Well, the crib didn't make the trip here yet so the corner has been her timeout. Problem is she is smiling while sitting in her corner.

 We have a really awesome storage closet under our stairs that we have used for all of Karlee's toys so our house doesn't seem like a hurricane hit it every day. It's worked out great and Karlee loves her toy closet.

 Since we have no use for a formal dining room, we decided this would be the perfect space to let Karlee play. Here is our set up (except I took the tent down for now and the table is where the tent was). It's in a great spot in the house too.

 Here's Karlee trying out her scooter. She's getting better at riding it.

 Super Karlee is flying. Her latest obsession is making us tie a blanket around her neck like its a cape so she can be a "super hero to the rescue". Such an imagination.

 She's also getting better at letting me do her hair. Now if it would just grow a little bit faster and if she would let it stay done for more than 10 minutes we'd be in business.

Last Monday, Karlee and I went with my brother and his family to the Dallas Zoo since it was a holiday. All the kids in Texas get school off too and they call it "Fair Day" so they can go to the state fair. That said, the zoo was not very crowded. We ended up getting a membership because it is an awesome zoo and it's actually good weather here for more than a few months out of the year so we'll definitely get some use out of it.

 They have a kids zoo area and they let the kids go in and pet the goats. Only embarrassing part was Karlee was inspecting each goat's rear end for poop.

 Karlee getting some goat loves.

 That snake gives me the heebeegeebies.

 Another cool part is you can feed the giraffes. Karlee liked saying "here giraffey giraffey giraffey, come get your foodies".

 I was unable to capture the part where the giraffe actually licked Karlee's face.

 Back at home, Karlee has also picked up an obsession with play dough. She likes making purple snakes for Piggy's lunch.

 And this little guy was found in Karlee's sandbox. She was so excited for me to come see it. She came in yelling, "Mom. Come look. It's a frog. A big frog."

We've also been able to spend some time with my brother and his family. Karlee loves to play with her cousin Carter and asks for him every day.

All in all, we've been having lots of fun. We've made some friends through our ward and they always have something planned for the kids to do so that's been fun. Karlee's been sick the past couple of days so we've kind of laid low. Excited for the weekend to go to Peterbilt's annual family day. Karlee will love seeing the big trucks.We've finally been able to get Karlee to say that "daddy works at Peterbilt" instead of saying "daddy's workin in Texas" all the time.