Happy Birthday Zakk!!

It seems like I blinked and now my baby boy is 12! I really can't believe it! You hear people say it all the time, but it really does feel like yesterday that I was holding him in my arms and rocking him to sleep:( He has turned into an amazing boy. Smart and so funny. He holds doors for me, and has even started doing things around the house just to be helpful. I could not have asked for a more amazing son! I learn from him everyday. He has the hugest heart of any kid I know. So sweet and sensitive. I look forward to seeing him everyday and feel truly blessed that he was chosen for me. It is bittersweet as I hate seeing him grow up, but then again I look forward to who he will become.

Zakk did not want a party this year. Not sure if he just felt he was "too old" or if it was because he was just getting over a 2 week bout of pneumonia. He was down for about 7 days with a fever and was just exhausted by the time it was over. Regardless, he wanted a relaxing weekend at home hanging out with his good friend. They walked to the video store alone and rented some games, stopped at the grocery store for snacks for later and then stopped at Starbucks for a treat ont he way home. We opened gifts and grilled burgers. Him and his friend spent the whole evening building legos and playing video games...and of course shooting the new pellet gun that Dad(so not my idea) got him. We also made a quick stop at Lara Blair Images as they were doing a fundraiser for the humane society. We got Zakk's photo taken with his dog Otto. I can not WAIT to see them!! Otto was a pain in the butt and stressed me out beyond belief...I've said it once and I will say it again...That dog in Marley and Me has nothing on him!! Anyway, I bet the photos are fabulous!

Hannah wanted to make Zakk a birthday cake all my herself, and it wasn't bad for her first time!

We ended the weekend with a seafood feast which was requested by Zakk!! It was so good I suggested having one once a month. Zakk was all over it!

Happy Birthday to my Husband!

On the 14th of February, my wonderful husband turned 41! I am so blessed to have him! He is the most wonderful man. He is a great Father and my heart just swells when I see him with our children. The kids celebrated by making him cards and buying him some new golf shirts for his upcoming golfing trip with friends Hannah made him brownie sundaes since he doesn't like cake. I am not sure why, but we did not take pictures! The sundaes were fabulous and so is he! Happy Birthday Babe!

Meet Season has started!

For the third year in row, Hannah is doing competitive gymnastics. She loves this sport! This is her first year at as a level 5. She had such a fabulous year last year, and has high hopes for this year. The kick off is always the VEGA intersquad meet. It is way to ease the girls into their season as they are only gym there and it is their gym so they are completely at home. We have traveled to Seattle once and then to the Great West Gymfest in Idaho. That is always a super fun meet! We met Olympians, and saw lots of high level gymnasts perform. Hannah was fighting a bug, hurt knees and a hurt foot. The high point according to her was not falling off the beam for the first time all season! Yay for her! I am so proud of her for even going out an competing as it is so far out of her comfort zone to be the center of attention. She amazes me each day as I watch her. She hasn't been thrilled with some of her scores, but has set some great realistic goals that she wants to meet by the end of the season...which has only two meets left. I am confident in her ability and enjoy supporting her!! Again, pictures to come soon:)

Finally a new update

Well, I guess it has been awhile since I updated. Sorry to all of my friends and family that might read this. Here is what we have been up to!

We survived the winter blast of 2008 and had a very quiet Christmas and New Years at home with the kids. I do always miss my family during the holidays, but am also thankful I don't have to do any of the traveling, etc... that a lot of my friends complain about. Other than an annual Christmas Eve dinner we host, it is just us. The kids(and who am I kidding, us too) stay in their jammies all day, we eat a simple breakfast and just hang out all day playing games, putting new toys together, eating yummy snacks all day and just hanging out!

I will add some photos of our Christmas and New Years as soon as I find out what file Rick put the pictures in when he redid the computer:)

It"s been awhile!

I have been a bit overwhelmed since winter break got over! I'm still feeling that way! I will post soon about Christmas and the rest of our winter break. Also, Hannah had her first meet of the season so I will update with all of that as well. Here is hoping that everyone has had a great start to 2009 and may the rest of the year be fabulous!

The weather outside is frightful!!!

WOWZA!!! After days of listening to the weatherman tell us how much it was going to snow, after days of the school closures, and after days of teasing the weatherman finally came through with a bang!!!! Last week on Monday schools were closed. Tuesday kids went to school. Wed-Fri. school closed. The kids essentially get an extra week off this winter. I'm sure they won't be happy when they are sitting in school during July:)

Yesterday Hannah was supposed to have her annual cookie/gift exchange. It's something she wanted to do a few years ago, and it is now an annual tradition. Around 9:00 am as I was cleaning and baking and getting everything ready for 13 girls, I got the first phone call. I decided it was probably a good idea to postpone. It turned out to be a good idea. With snow falling all day and rain freezing all night. I could see it now....13 girls stranded at our house and nowhere for the boys to go. Hannah was bummed but we will do it in a couple of weeks after new years.

We woke up this morning....okay, let's be honest....who actually slept with the wind going all night? I thought the roof was going to blow off. The dog barked periodically through out the night because of it. At 4:30 am I got up to let him outside to potty and he slid off the deck onto the grass and then broke through ice. I admit
it I almost peed my pants laughing. Poor thing!!




Zakk and Hannah have had a blast building a snowman and snowdog only to have it covered last night. We can't keep Zakk in the house. I don't think Hannah is as into it as Zakk. We let the dog out front today and he decided to explore a little to far. I had to go out and get him and about froze. Needless to say...I am not going back out. Not that I could go anywhere anyway. Our car doors are literally frozen shut and the huge hill we live on is pure ice. We still haven't done much Christmas shopping, so that might be a problem come Christmas morning;)

It's been great having the kids home and hanging out as a family. They are awesome and I realize how truly blessed I am to have them happy and healthy!!

Christmas decorations..or the lack there of!

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I'm not sure where the time has gone this year, but it certainly snuck up on me. Rick always likes to get the tree around the middle of December, but I usually have all the decorations up by the 1st. Well, we got our tree last week, and just this week pulled out the decorations. I ended up not putting as many up this year and am still trying to decide where the stockings are going this year.

I am pretty anal about our tree...always have been. Once the kids started "helping" I had to let go a little. We'd let them decorate and then after they went to sleep I would do some rearranging. Not this year! Zakk was really into picking out the tree this year. It was so stinking cold out this year that we just said okay, pick one. Hannah agreed and we got the tree home. We stopped at Target on our way home for some things and made our way to the Christmas decorations to let the kids pick out a new ornament. They decided they wanted blue lights on the tree, and that plain white was boring. Ummm okay..... The next thing I know, we have some blue ornaments and some white ones thrown in as well...and a bunch of lights/ornaments for the yard. I am not sure when I lost control of this shopping trip(I only needed laundry soap and an ornament for each kid),but Hannah declared as we were walking out"Dad, I'm going shopping with you more often!" Ummm okay!(we'll see if she still feel that way when she needs clothes) Got home and was stressing out a little inside about how the tree was going to look. Decided oh well....sat down with a glass of wine and watched them go. I am happy to say I haven't done any rearranging!! They had so much fun and were so proud of "their" tree. I've decided that even though all of our decorations aren't out this year and even though the stockings haven't found a home yet, the house is Christmasy enough, and I am loving our blue and white tree!