This past weekend we did my 2nd 5K fun run at lake Lanier called, Lanier Under The Lights. I had a goal to run as much as possible. Unfortunately I underestimated the course. I was not prepared for the hills. I am very pleased with our time, I am just a bit disappointed that we did not get to run as much as I wanted to. I injured myself in the summer by running down a hill. Since then I only run when it is flat ground. We met up with a few friends and we all had a fun time looking at all the Holiday Lights even if sometimes my chin was pointing towards my feet :) Even Santa joined in the race!

Though we enjoyed the race I would say I prefer morning races. We arrived 1.5 hours early to check in then my nerves were getting the best of me! I was ready to take off by the time our group got to start the race!! I'm excited to try another 5K soon. Any suggestions on upcoming races?

As promised, though as usual a little late, here are some recent pictures of our Fall Adventures. Our Fall fun begins with our annual pumpkin patch & fair day with Poppi. It is a fun way to get the season started! Pumpkin Patch

At the fair Zachary & Poppi took off! It was so adorable to watch Zachary be excited over all the activity this year. Last year he had NO interest in getting on a ride. But, this year he was ALL about the rides! His favorite was the motorcycles. But, he also got on a flying fish & air planes. I was set on him playing some fair games too. So, he went shark "fishing" & duck picking. We had the time of our lives! It was a GREAT day!

Welcome back to our blog, we are glad you are here! I've got some scrapbook layouts to share with you. I have been busy working on the completion of our China trip. I think the scrapbook is going to end up being two very large albums! I've been focusing on it a lot lately because I am almost done!! I saved these pictures for the last of my scraping this trip because they are so important to me. I feel like they could not be perfect enough, no matter how hard I try. I put so much importance on the pictures that I may never be pleased with them.But I realized there has got to be a day that I scrap them and move on to more recent pictures that are quickly piling up, creating a different kind of stress :)) . Gotcha Day was one of the most important days in my life, I will never forget it. I hope to express my love in these pages for my son. SO, enough already, on with the layouts! Gotcha Day. The very first moments with our son. Wow, they bring back all the emotion!

Nap, Zachary quickly fell asleep in my arms on the bus ride from Gotcha Day to the hotel!

Page 2, this is the complimentary page to the nap above. It shows us getting off the bus headed to our room & then our first official family picture for the VISA.

Our Boy, this picture so reminds me of all our day excursions. Zachary would stay awake as long as he could. He would keep his eye lids open until he could no longer. No matter where we were he was happiest when we were out and about. And, he is like that even to this day!

Forever Family, these pictures were taken in the lobby of the orphanage. I was so wrapped up in my son I didn't even notice the wall. Luckily my Father directed us to stand under the Murial. These are some of my favorite pictures of Gotcha Day.

There is a certain joy from a warm homecoming! So Happy together. These pictures are absolutely precious to me. They capture the first moments that our entire family sees Zachary for the first time!!

Home of the free, land of the brave. This land was made for me and you!

USA, Let's go HOME!! Perfectly captured, us relieved to be in familiar surroundings and anxious to get home!

Hello & welcome back to our blog! It's Fall Y'all!! Just yesterday, we went on our 2nd annual fall day with Zachary's Poppi (Matt's Father). We had such a fabulous day. I have so many pictures still on my camera that I will download soon. But, I didn't want to waste any time sharing the pictures we have easy access to. They were all taken with i-phones, isn't technology great?! The top three pictures Poppi took with his phone & he texted them to me (thank you Poppi!). And, these pictures perfectly tell our story of a wonderful fall day together! First we visited Poppi's local pumpkin patch and Zachary picked out way too many pumpkins. Pictures will show up here soon. But, until then let me tell you about our afternoon at the nearby fair. Last year Zachary would NOT, even with all our coercing, agree to ride a single ride (well other than the carousel). He was content to just watch all the excitement. But, this year was VERY different! Zachary ended up riding 4 rides, feed the petting zoo farm animals, played 2 fair games, shared Poppi's beloved funnel cake, licked melting ice cream from his fingers & watched Mommy & Daddy both take turns on the mechanical bull! Zachary riding his most favorite ride, it's all about the Motorcycle! Interesting enough, by the time he was on this ride he looked absolutely exhausted and uncomfortable. I was very surprise to learn it was his favorite of all his rides. I supposed I shouldn't be too surprised because the boy loves his motorcycles!

Last year Matt rode the Mechanical Bull for the first time. And, this year it didn't take much to convince him to do a repeat performance. The concentration was written all over his face!

I did it too! Yes, I was able to gather my courage and jump on that mechanical bull. I told the operator this was my first ever ride and it also was on my bucket list. So, please take it easy on me. Thankfully he did! The hardest part was getting ontop of the darn bull. The only way was to use the cushion as a trampoline jump and propel myself. In hind site, I should have used the handle to help pull myself up. Live and learn! I lasted 61 seconds! And, only got off because the bull stopped. So, does that mean I won?! Well, not necessarily...because in the process of checking this off my bucket list I pulled my inner right thigh, have cramping in my right side bottom, my neck hurts & I hope I can walk in the morning. But, as a friend said kindly to me, all athletes ache after a performance! LOL, love it!

After the successful bull ride, I went on a shopping spree. I picked up this cow girl hat! I felt the butterfly was very fitting!

We had such a wonderful day & we are all simply exhausted! We can't wait to do it again next year! Thanks Poppi for a fabulous day! xoxoxo PS: my necklace says "Boo Y'all!" :)) Happy Fall!

a look back at May

I am continuing my stroll through the memories of the last few months to fill in blanks of our blog hiatus. Slip-n-slide 5K fun run

Mother's Day

UGA in June

Our Niece Caroline participated in Band Camp at UGA. And, we all went up at the end of her week to watch her performance. We are so proud of Caroline, she is the Drum Major at her High School this year!! Congratulations Caroline!! We look forward to watching you in action this season!

Also, I took the plunge and cut my hair VERY short! I haven't had hair this short since high school.

We have had a hot summer. And, we took every opportunity to go to our neighborhood pool or play in our back yard with the wading pool, water guns & water hose.

At this point in September, the weather is cooling down a bit. We are looking forward to fall and all that it brings us!

Stone Mountain

This Labor Day weekend we visited Stone Mountain and we traveled around the mountain on the Choo-choo train. Zachary had so much fun on his first train ride! But, the train whistle was a little frightening. As bravely as possible he would say "That's weak sauce" any time the train tooted it's whistle. Which is a saying his Daddy says to him often. During the ride Zachary practiced reading his park map to keep up with our location.

"That's weak sauce"

After the ride we met up with the conductor for pictures

We had a great day at Stone Mountain. We look forward to staying for the laser show once Zachary is older & can stay awake long enough to enjoy the show.

July Skate Party

We took a long break from posting messages on our blog (from Late April- Late August). However, our schedules were very full and we took a lot of pictures. And, after every event we thought this was going to be the next post on our blog...though it took us until August to make that happen. Generally it takes over an hour to create one blog on blogger. And, because of this we are researching other options in the blog sphere. Should we decide to move our blog we will let you know. However, if you continue to link us through our web address (www.mrmnjewel.net) you will automatically be directed to our new location. I thought I would fill in the blanks a little and make a few posts catching our blog friends/family up on our life April-July. I'll go backwards starting with July. Late July we went to our local Skate rink to celebrate our Friend Monica's 40th Birthday. It was Zachary's first time on skates and he impressed us all! When I was learning to skate they did not have a "crutch" to lean on. And, I realized very quickly that it was the best invention for new skaters! With out it I would not have been able to be on skates along side Zachary. I certainly would have been on the floor with my tennis shoes. By the end of the night Zachary was able to skate walk around the rink with out falling. And to my surprise, I didn't fall to the ground one time. However, getting in to the rink was the hardest part for me because of a single a step down from the floor to the rink. As you can see I needed a little help from my Brother-in-law.

Zachary skated the entire 3.5 hours!! I had to make him take a few breaks (mostly for Mommy's sake). We all had such a fun evening! We look forward to going back sometime, during the day, and Matt promises to put on a pair of skates with us!! I am going to hold him to it!

Learning to read a map

One of our joys of camping is going on adventures around the camp ground. We set out after breakfast to walk one of the many trails. We brought with us a map of the camp ground which Zachary carried & at any split in the path we showed him how to read the map. Zachary determined which direction we should go. Through his direction we ended up near the horses. And, we fed them the dandelions and other wild flowers we had gathered along the hike.

Camping

I have been camping since I was roughly 10 years old (give or take a few years). My family had a pop up camper which we towed all around Georgia. I have many happy memories with my family camping, playing hearts, roasting marshmallows, hiking and exploring the near by sites of each location. So, when Matt purchased us a tent one Christmas, early in our marriage, I was over the moon. And, over our 14 years together we have enjoyed tent camping. The last few years we contemplated purchasing a travel trailer camper, figuring it would be easier to camp with Zachary & our 4 Chihuahua's in tow. We spent some time researching campers, educating ourselves and determining exactly what we needed. We ended up going in on the purchase of a Coachmen Catalina travel trailer with my parents. None of us have a vehicle that is capable of towing anything so we found a campground in north Georgia that offers storage. This past weekend we enjoyed settling into our new favorite vacation spot- the North Georgia mountains! I have found camping a great time to pull out my camera and practice with ISO & F stops! Here's a few of my favorite pictures from this weekend: Nacho Padre & Bingo Patoodoe

Zachary had his first experience fishing at the campground lake. Luckily, the only thing he "caught" were worms for this excursion. Though I am looking forward to seeing his reaction when he actually catches a fish. I have no idea how he will react & if will continue to want to fish or give up the hobby all together. Until then he is content to cast his line with Nonnie by his side.

Every now and again, Zachary takes a well deserved break from the arduous task of fishing visit the near by horses.

I hope to get more pictures of our trip up later...it's night night time for one little 3 year old boy.

Hello to our dedicated Blog readers!! We are so sorry we have been missing in action since April! Wow! What a whirlwind adventure we have been on. Every time we did something special I thought to myself, this will be the picture we add to the blog...but, time continued to slip past us until now it is August and we are finally sitting down to check in. We recently celebrated Zachary's birthday and, what a way to restart blogging! He had 3 Birthday celebrations. His first was at his grandfather Poppi's house. The second celebration was on his actual Birthday with Mommy, Daddy & Chuck E. Cheese. And, finally his final celebration was with Nonnie, Bop-Bop, Aunt Camie, Uncle John & cousins Caroline & Maggie. We are sure we have set a precedence that Zachary will grow up thinking he has a Birthday week not just a single Birthday!

We still have a camera full of pictures we have yet to download. Until then, thank you for checking in with us and we'll talk with you soon!

Happy Easter!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16 NIV 

Easter is a promise. God renews to us in each spring. May the promise of Easter fill your heart with peace and joy! Happy Easter!

Life has sure been busy for us! I'll do my best to catch you all up in this blog post. At the end of February Zachary visited our local library for the very first time. We went to check out the children's programs. And, to our delight there are quite a few weekly story time options at various library locations. Since our first visit we have been to a few & Zachary has a blast! During our first visit to the library, I couldn't help but take a few iphone pictures of Zachary choosing books to bring back to Mommy to read...

 

I was surprised to find that the library has a handful of dedicated computers for little ones to play games on. Zachary LOVES spending time with the ELMO software and a mouse and keyboard that Mommy doesn't mind him playing with!! I had a hard time getting him to leave the library...but, I encouraged him by suggesting he "drive us home" ...

he felt brave, and sat behind the wheel to pretend to drive Mommy around town. He was so cute!! Though it made me realize one day he certainly will be old enough to be doing just that! And, I couldn't help but get a little choked up at how fast time has already gone by, our little boy is growing up way too fast and we need to do our best to cherish each and every moment.

During the recent Super Tuesday, we took Zachary with us to vote. And, he was pleased to receive a special "I voted" sticker too! We are sure he didn't understand what was going on, but it was important for us to demonstrate one of the fundamental privileges we have in this GREAT country of ours!

Zachary's 2nd haircut was done in our living room! My great friend Monica, came over to do a much needed trim on Zachary (between scrap booking with me). I requested for her to just cut it as short as she could. I was less concerned about style this time :) and more concerned about just getting the cut to last as long as possible. We turned on his new favorite tv show (Umi Zoomi) and she managed to age him 12+ years! LOL, the short haircut made him look like a teenager.

My sister hosted a Mardi Gras party for our family. We had a wonderful day! I had created some St. Patty's Day photo props and "forced" a few members of the family to allow me to document the moment with my camera. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day...

And, my Father was the lucky one who found the baby in the his slice of king cake.

during a recent trip to our local Hobby Lobby craft store, I came across this spring flower hat. I am positive there will be a day when requesting such pictures from Zachary will be met with much resistance. But, for now I managed to get my way.

We've been "suffering" through some very warm weather. It has left us wondering what happened to winter and where is our traditionally 70 degree spring weather? We are in full swing of the yellow cast days of pollen & allergy season. And, we are keeping our fingers crossed that Zachary manages to skip the allergy season that most Southerners experience.

That's all for now. Thank you for making it through this very long post!