Jenny and Sierra Visit

I think this picture of Larkin and her cousin Sierra hugging is one of the cutest pictures! Aunt Jenny and cousin Sierra came to town to visit and we all had a blast. The girls did a pretty good job at sharing attention, sharing their toys and playing together. You can totally tell how much fun they had playing at Grandma's house... they even rode the purple "horse" together!

What do you think about Larkin's new dance move?! Ha!


We made the requisite visit to Bass Pro Shop to entertain (and wear out!) the kiddos. The girls had fun on the 4-wheelers and in the tents, and the entire family camped out on a pontoon boat for a good 15 minutes. Larkin even took it upon herself to try on a life-jacket!

Here's a sweet moment of me hugging Sierra (as we lounged on the pontoon boat).... Larkin doesn't sit still long enough for us to get a picture together like this!

One of Sierra's favorite activities was to try to on hats. Here's an adorable picture of the stylin' "pink ladies"!

First Time to the Zoo

Despite the dreary weather, we made it out to the Kansas City Zoo and had a great time enjoying it largely by ourselves. We took the train to the "Australia" part of the zoo first and Larkin cried when we had to get off the train.

After visiting the kangaroos, we wound our way through a variety of animal exhibits including several monkeys and chimps. The langurs are black monkeys with very long tails and are nearly extinct. We were also lucky enough to get to see two beautiful Sumatran tigers, which sadly are nearly extinct too. (See the latter part of the post for more on these and other extinct species). Here's a pic of Grandpa Bud and Papa hugging one of the tigers and Brian playing with an enthusiastic squirrel monkey.

Here's Larkin on her first carousel ride ever!

I really enjoyed watching the girls - Larkin and her cousin Sierra - as they checked out the animals...so sweet and innocent.

On the heels of our zoo visit, I thought it was important to recognize the crisis that our world is facing with animals who are near extinction. Time Magazine recently did a photo essay on animals that are close to extinction and so I'd like to share that information with you. (Credit for this story goes to Time Magazine.com and you can see the story by clicking here). Two of the animals we saw at the Kansas City Zoo - langurs and Sumatran tigers - are on this list. So sad. Please do what you can to support the conservation of these endangered species.

Javan Rhinoceros

Location: Indonesia and Vietnam

Number remaining: 50-60

This is thought to be the most rare large mammal on earth. Black Rhinos, numbering only 3,000, are nearly extinct too.

Golden-Headed Langur
Location: Vietnam
Number remaining: fewer than 70
We saw a three of these extremely endangered langurs in the Kansas City Zoo. They have amazingly long tails and a mohawk. They are considered to be among the most rare of all primates in the world.

Vaquita
Location: Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez)
Number left: 200-300
Called the Vaquita (Spanish for "little cow"), this is the smallest of the porpoises and is thought to be one of the most rare cetaceans on earth.

Cross River Gorilla
Location: Nigeria and Cameroon
Number remaining: fewer than 300
This species was thought to have been extinct in the 1980s, thank goodness it's still holding on (although just barely).

Sumatran Tiger

Location: Sumatra, in Indonesia

Number remaining: 400-500

We saw these amazing Sumatran Tigers in the Kansas City Zoo. The smallest of the various Tiger species, the Sumatran Tiger has lived in Sumatra for a million years and now about 2/3 of them live in reserves. Tigers, as a larger breed, are nearly extinct too... less than 6,000 remain in the wild.

Mekong Giant Catfish
Location: Mekong region of Southeast Asia, in the Mekong River
Number remaining: hundreds

This is now a protected fish, but its numbers are still dwindling. It is believed that the population of this species has fallen 80% in the last 14 years. This fish is known for its large size - it's the world's largest freshwater fish - the largest caught was 646 lb. and 3.2 meters long!

Black-Footed Ferret
Location: Great Plains of North America
Number remaining: 1,000
These two-pound noctural carnivores are the only native ferret to North America and are one of our continent's most endangered mammals. In 1986, there were only 18 of these ferrets left, but they are making an astonishing comeback. Keep it up!

Borneo Pygmy Elephant
Location: Northern Borneo

Number remaining: 1,000
This elephant is smaller than an Asian elephant and quite tame and docile. Expanding human developments have destroyed their native habitats, disrupted migration routes and depleted food sources.

Giant Panda
Location: China, Burma, Vietnam
Number remaining: 2,000
With a diet of over 99% bamboo, these bears whose name literally means "cat-foot black-and-white," are rapidly losing their native habitat. Considered a conservation-reliant endangered species, I hope that we can help these pandas survive as a wild species and not only exist within zoos...

Polar Bear
Location: Artic circle
Number remaining: fewer than 25,000

These are the world's largest bear, the world's largest land carnivore, and one of my favorite animals of all. I can't bear the thought of losing them forever. We have to stop global warming which melts sea ice or the bear population will literally starve to extinction.

Curls!

Here are a few pictures to show you the curls in Larkin's hair. I just can't get myself to trim it yet... I love the baby curls so much!!! I bet that once the curls get trimmed off, they'll be gone for good and Larkin will have straight hair like me. That will be nice too, but I'm going to enjoy these strawberry blonde curls for a little while longer...

Hats and Boots

I never thought my hat and boots looked cuter than they do on her. Larkin was not very successful getting anywhere in her Daddy's sneakers, but believe it or not, she was able to walk across the room in my Size 6 snow boots! And I love how she stopped briefly to ponder the leaf...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Larkin in all into singing right now and her favorite songs to sing are "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Now, she does not say all of the words, but she is doing a bit of the tune and doing the right number of syllables, spacing of notes, etc. So impressive! She loves to sing the verse "Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky"... she loves the phrase "up above" for some reason so you can clearly hear that. She also has added the word "sky" in there too now. You can hear it for yourself in the video below, but it kind of comes out like this: "up above ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba sky". And our "Little Star" makes it dramatic art too with her twinkle fingers hard at work! Enjoy the video.

Sock Mittens

Larkin loves to wear gloves and mittens of all types. She likes snow mittens, plastic gloves like what doctors wear, oven mitts, you name it. A new type of "mitten" that she now likes to wear are socks. Yes, our daughter walks around with socks on her hands. The craziest part is that now she has even taken to taking MY socks off of my feet and then wearing them as mittens! Here are some classic, cute shots of Larkin wearing my socks... do other kids do this or am I (and my cold feet) just lucky?

Shall We Dance?

One of my favorite movies of all-time is The King and I. Larkin loves singing so I watch it with her when we were home sick one day. She became completely enamored with the elegant and romantic dance between Anna and the King at the end of the movie. Despite feeling under the weather, Larkin got up and danced with them, spinning in a circle! It was so adorable! She kept wanting me to rewind the video repeatedly so she could keep dancing. Check out the video of her (and them) dancing below.

Bass Pro Shop

In the dead of winter we were looking for a place to take Larkin so she could run around on a lazy afternoon. There are always the standard "kid" playground-type places, but we've found that going to stores like Bass Pro Shop and Cabela's. These enormous outdoorsy stores have tons of animals (albeit stuffed - but Larkin doesn't know that!), fish, and lots of cool items to play with. Larkin loves the tents, the pontoon boats, and 4-wheelers. Fun! Fun!

Goddard Valentine's Day Party

Brian and I joined Larkin and her classmates for a Valentine's party at school. Larkin and her friends spent time in the morning decorating cookies so that they could eat them at the party. And as you all know, Larkin loves to eat! It was a little scary to have her eating cookies with bright, red, drippy frosting but we made it through without anything getting on her clothes! Here are some cute pics of Larkin at the party.



This is Carter, one of Larkin's classmates and friends!

Super Bowl XLIV

We went over to Grandma and Papa's house for a Super Bowl party and had a fun time. They had some of their friends over and Larkinwas especially taken with Bob. He was kind enough to give her a long horsey ride... and he's got strong legs because she's not light and he lifted her up and down, up and down! Here's a cute picture of Larkin and Bob during the horsey ride. And check out her cute dress... she is totally in love with it (we think it reminds her of a lady bug) and wants to wear it all the time!

Lego Tall Tower

Larkin loves playing with her Mega Blocks. And so does her Daddy! Brian and Larkin have been having a blast playing with their blocks... and building tall towers. I often hear Brian telling Larkin: "You need to build a solid base" and their towers often are elaborate with flying buttresses and arches! Larkin's favorite part of the building fun is adding the pieces to the very tippy top. Here are the architects next to one of their masterpieces!

Egg Face!

Papa's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Papa! Grandma and Papa Hittle came over for a birthday dinner and celebration. Here's Papa blowing out his swirly candles.


Grandma and Papa gave Larkin a beautiful kiddy chair as a gift... and she loved it, as you can tell!