It's Fall Y'all!

Time for our annual fall extravaganza with Poppi! Our day began with a trip to a nearby pumpkin patch. Zachary LOVES to ride in the little green wagon while Poppi pulls it carefully down the hill. First stop is the nearest patch of LARGE pumpkins! Zachary has the best time walking among the pumpkins carefully choosing his favorite pumpkins. Of course Poppi spoiled him and Zachary walked away with 2 LARGE pumpkins (perfect for carving) and 3 smaller pumpkins for decorating the yard with.

OMG, Yes, Zachary is running through the small baby pumpkins as if it's a pumpkin landmine. A bit dangerous and had I not been looking through the camera lense I woulda' understood the danger and yelled for him to STOP. But, atleast I got a great picture right before he fell ontop of a small grouping. No damage to boy or pumpkin, PTL.

Here we are trying to coax Zachary to stand for our family picture. He was ready to move onto the next event... the county fair!!

I LOVE to take pictures like this, catching a sweet moment between Grandfather & Grandson walking into the fair. Our first stop, the petting zoo!! There was the cutest little bitty piglet & a potbellied goat that Dianne and I thought was pregnant but come to find out it was a male! LOL, funny memory!

 Since our Disney trip back in April, Zachary enjoys riding elephant rides that look similar to Dumbo. I had told him (at Disney) that Dumbo was my favorite ride. And, since then we have been to 3 fairs and each one has had a Dumbo style ride! I think it is sweet that he remembers Mommy's favorite ride!

 Each trip to the Fair always includes a hot Funnel Cake for Poppi, his favorite fair food. Anyone ever heard of "Fried Kool Aid"? This was our first taste of the oh so yummy treat! One of Dianne's friends told her to be on the look out for "Fried Kool Aid" & after a little searching we found some!! And, OMG, my taste buds are still dancing from the flavor! A must try if you ever have the chance.

 On the left is the fried kool aid, on the right is a basket full of fried oreos! Yum Yum!

Every year we look forward to our fall-fun day with Poppi & Dianne. And, every year we create more and more happy memories! Thank you Poppi & Dianne for a great time!

Happy Fall Y'all!

A Slice of Life

This post is just to give an update in videos of some of the goings-on in Zach's life as of late. As you can see, he has been a busy little guy.

Zachary The Break-Dancer:


Zachary In His Swim Class:


Zachary Practicing With Chopsticks:


And finally, in preparation for Halloween, Zachary the Knight battles the Black Knight:

Zachary's First Day of Pre-K: 09/03/2013

Today is Zach's first day of Pre-K. The first video is a short interview with him conducted on our back deck. The second video is him leaving our car to be walked to his classroom.

Zachary Helps Mama Water Plants

This made us laugh...

Zachary The Puddle Jumper

Today is our Zachary's 4th birthday. Hard to believe how the time flies. In honor of that, allow us to present Zach The Puddle Jumper:

Zach's first trip to Disney

Where does time go?! Seems like just yesterday we were in Orlando celebrating Julia's birthday and Zach's first trip to Disney. However, we actually went in April - 3 months ago!! And, reviewing our past blog posts I realized we never shared anything from our trip. Better late than never, lol (my new motto). Here are a few of our favorite pictures from our week long trip. We visited 3 parks (Magic Kingdom, Holly Wood Studios & Lego Land) with pool day breaks in between. Between the 3 parks we walked 21 miles...including Zachary. Because even though we brought his stroller he refused to sit in it unless he was forced to. Julia's favorite park was the Magic Kingdom. Matt's favorite was Hollywood Studios and Zachary just couldn't choose a favorite! We look forward to going back and making more magical memories!

Every one needs to try the chocolate mouse ice cream bar atleast once in your life. This one melted faster than Zach could eat it. He cried when I had to throw away the melted mess.

We all enjoyed the Pluto photo opp... Pluto is Matt & Zachary's favorite Classic Character. 

Matt's favorite ride was the Rockn Roller Coaster, he rode it by himself while Zachary and Mommy picked out Disney tattoos

Matt's favorite Star Wars Character at Lego Land, He continues to hold strong to his feelings that Darth Maul died too quickly in the movie.

Hollywood Studios  group picture . It was a wonderful trip, we had a great time!!

Zachary Taekwondo Yellow Belt Test

As many of you know, for the last few months (since February), Zachary has been taking Tae Kwon Do classes. This past Saturday (7/20/2013), he took his promotion test to move from white belt (entry level) to yellow belt (second level). He was in there testing with 3 other white belts who were all a good bit older than he was and who he did not know, but it didn't seem to phase him in the slightest. Below are some pictures and some video from the test itself and then from the awarding of the belt, which happened Monday afternoon. Needless to say, we are very proud of Zach and his accomplishments!

Test Part 1: Striking:
Test Part 2: Kicking:
Test Part 3: Board Breaking:
Belt Presentation Ceremony:
Zachary with his primary instructor, Julian Best:

First Family 5K

Early this morning we headed out to our first 5K as a family where all 3 of us were entered! It was extra special for us because a year ago this particular 5K was my (Julia's) first ever 5K!! And, this year it was Zachary's 1st ever 5K. At the event we met up with our friends Monica & Dan as well as our Weight Watchers buddy and her children. Monica, Dan and I kept a decent walking stride. As Matt & Zachary ran ahead. We are so proud of Zachary, he ran 1.5 miles before requesting a rest in his stroller!


After the fun run/walk, Matt got into the dunk tank. Later he told me, being in a dunk tank was on his bucket list! Zachary may have had an unfair advantage, after throwing one ball he was guided to the lever and ended up pushing the button to dunk his Daddy. We had a great time enjoying the company of friends & the outdoors!

Zach sings in the Wee Praize choir at Church

Spring Time at the Zoo

We had a fabulous time at our local city zoo. Nonnie & Bop bop had given us tickets for Christmas. Zachary led us through the zoo by following the map (one of his favorite activities). What a lovely day! We all enjoyed the sites. And, Zachary was tickled to have endless rides on the carousel and train. We took turns riding with him. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day:

Portraits

Our friend Christine came over a few weeks ago to take some portraits of us. She is new to our area and is starting up an in home mobile photography business specializing in photographing Children. These are a few of our favorite ones. Thank you Christine for the beautiful pictures!!

Happy Easter, He has risen!

Happy Easter Friends & Family! We had a wonderful celebration. We visited the Easter Bunny at our local mall & we were pleasantly surprised that Zachary was much more relaxed compared to last year (where he screamed wildly). He is growing up! This year he walked over to the Easter Bunny and politely requested certain candy & toys for his Easter basket. And, after the picture as we walked away he looks up with concern and says to me, "Mommy, I forgot to say Thank you"! Zachary participated with 3 egg hunts. And, at the last one he decided he wanted to fun to continue so he proceeded to hide his own eggs & then "hunt" for them. Easter morning we took pictures on our back deck (between the rain). It amazes me how quickly Zachary is growing up! We continue to cherish each moment. Some days are harder than others ;)) but we are living our dreams and Zachary is our answer to many many years of prayers! Praise God!

Zachary singing in the Wee Praize childrens choir

This morning, Zach sang in the Wee Praize childrens choir during our church service this morning. The video is below. The praise band performed while they were walking out and assembling on stage.

Tae Kwon Do

Early this week Zachary had a trial Tae Kwon Do class. He had such a fun time! These pictures are not the best. The parents sat outside the room and watched the class through a one way window. He is the youngest in the class. However, the oldest is only 5years old. He is the smallest but he did not appear intimidated. One of the instructors took Zachary aside to teach him basic moves while the other members followed another instructor. Zachary did not seem to enjoy hitting or kicking but when it came to jumping over a stick Zachary began giggling and laughing, loving every second of jumping.

Valentine's Day FUN

Thank you Pinterest! It is easy to lose track of time when I'm browsing the site. Luckily I came across some festive toddler activities for Valentine's Day. Our first game involved my all time favorite Valentine's Day candy. I had a hard time keeping my hands out of the conversation hearts and it showed up the next day on my scale :( but, as a once a year treat, I will not complain any further (it was totally worth the minor gain :)) I found the pattern in a pdf online and I printed up several different combination sheets. Okay, so maybe this next game had a little to do with my minor gain too, hmm.. guess I should be honest with myself. These little kisses haven't been spotted in our pantry for over a year. I wrote numbers on the bottom and hid them around the room. Zachary hunted them down like they were Easter eggs. And, then he had to match the numbers correctly on the plate. He earned 2 chocolate kisses for successfully completing the puzzle. Mommy ate her handful watching him hunt candy. Now I wonder if these games were just my excuse to buy these seemingly harmless delights. Finally, no candy was involved in this activity, the objective of this last game was to put the same number of dots inside the heart that was indicated by the written number outside of the heart. Also, not pictured are the Valentine's Day cards we made for family & friends. Zachary loved picking out his Jake the Neverland Pirate cards for his friends & family. Also, I made a few other handmade cards to mail out too. I will make a blog post about those cards on my crafty julia blog. So, if you are interested in seeing them head on over, I'd love to share them with you! :) I hope you all had a blessed Valentine's Day! xoxo

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!! We hope your day is filled with any combination of hearts, chocolate, flowers & most of all LOVE!! This winter we have been experiencing a lot of wet, windy days that go from chilly to warm back to cold! Zachary misses visiting our local play grounds. Almost every day he asks if we can visit one. Recently we decided to give it a go so we bundled up and headed out. The wind didn't seem to bother Zachary. And, he didn't seem to notice he was the only child out doors this afternoon braving the weather in the name of FUN!

Celebrate the Year of the Snake!

Happy Chinese New Year~ 2013 the year of the snake! This year we celebrated at a new Chinese restaurant in our part of town. Here we are at our annual celebratory meal: So, what exactly does the year of the snake mean? Well, ancient Chinese wisdom says a Snake in the house is a good omen because it means your family will not starve. This could be taken metaphorically to mean that a Snake could never have a problem with his family starving because he is such a great mediator, making him good at business. Or it could mean that a Snake would be willing to sacrifice his possessions, something the Snake has a lot of, in order to pay for his family’s food. Any way it is interpreted is representative of the Snake’s character and is a measure of the value he puts on his material wealth. The Snake is keen and cunning, quite intelligent and wise. Snake Years are sixth in the cycle, following the Dragon Years, and recur every twelfth year. The Chinese New Year does not fall on a specific date, so it is essential to check the calendar to find the exact date on which each Snake Year actually begins. 1905*1917*1929*1941*1953*1965*1977*1989*2001 People born in THE SIGN OF THE SNAKE, have thought to have these characteristics... The Snake is the intuitive, introspective, refined and collected of the Animal Signs. They are attractive people who take cries with ease and do not become flustered easily. They are graceful people, exciting and dark at the same time. Contemplative and private, the Snake is not outwardly emotional. He can appear cunning and reticent and works very modestly in the business environment. The Snake will plot and scheme to make certain things turn out exactly as they want them to. They are not great communicators and can become quite possessive when they set their minds on achieving the interest of a partner. SNAKE FACTS: People born in the Year of the Snake share certain characteristics. The Snake Sign is an abbreviated way of characterizing that individual’s personality. Following are features associated with the Sign of the Snake. Sixth in order, Chinese name—SHE, sign of the sagacity Hour—9am-10:59am Month—May Western Counterpart—Taurus CHARACTERISTICS Acute, Aware, Cunning, Proud, Vain, Vicious From our home to yours, Happy Chinese New Year! May all the blessings it promises be upon you and yours!