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!

Comic Book Love

It appears Zachary has an interest in Comic Books, just like his Daddy! As we waited in line we found our son comfortably stretching out to read a Marvel Comic. The jury is still out on which character is his favorite.

Hibachi FUN

Recently Zachary and I went to our local Hibachi restaurant with Connie. We had a fabulous time & the food was delicious! I wasn't sure if Zachary would be scared from all the noises & fires on the grill but when we arrived I asked the hostesses if they thought the Hibachi grill was appropriate for 3.5 year olds. I was pleasantly surprised that Zachary not only behaved like his usual pleasant self but that he (we) had a blast! Our cook put on a show that tickled us all! After our meal we found these cut out figures. It didn't take much encouragement for us to take pictures!

BIG boy room

We finally put the finishing touches on Zachary's new "BIG boy room". One of his Christmas gifts was his new car bed. Mommy & Daddy are excited about the car bed because it will transition from his crib bed in to a twin bed as he grows. Zachary is excited about his car bed for obvious reasons :))

As I hung the finishing touches (the banners) Zachary was repeating over and over "drivers, start your engines!" And, when all was completed he wanted to stay in his room to play. We are all very happy with how it turned out!

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2013! We hope your Holiday Season was full of love and joy! We had a fabulous time enjoying family and creating new memories! We thought we would share some of our pictures from Christmas morning. Which, was a wonderful experience since Zachary was full of excitement and overcome by all his presents from Santa. He was a good little boy this year :)) One of our NEW holiday traditions is to wear pajamas Christmas Eve and to indulge in a chocolate chip pancake breakfast for dinner, of course. LOL...this picture Zachary actually took of us (by running back and forth from us to the camera timer. He shows early skills of being quite the photographer, LOL.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Gingerbread Houses

This past weekend we visited my Sisters family for a full day of Christmas activities. In the evening we went to her Church's Christmas program. But, during the day the kids decorated homemade gingerbread houses! OMG, I have got to find a pan similar to this! My sister cooked and assembled the houses before we arrived. We brought along some candy for decorating but nothing was sweeter than watching the kids play along side each other while decorating their houses.

Show us your muscles Zach!!

To Zachary's delight, we got a little silly with the frosting

We all had a marvelous day! And, all the gingerbread houses were so creative!! I'm quite impressed with their designs. Happy Christmas Eve!

Christmas at our local mall

This past Friday evening we went to one of our local malls to look at all the window displays, Christmas decorations & lights. We enjoyed ourselves & lucky for us the crowds had not yet arrived for the evening.

Zach has this little toy camera that came in a McDonald's kids meal (from awhile back) and he has recently started using it to take "pictures" of anything that catches his attention. I love this picture of him taking a picture of Daddy taking a picture of us.

As the night continued we started playing a game of "I spy". The objective was to call out a color or an item and when Zachary spotted it he took a "picture" with his camera.

While Matt was eager to pose with The Grinch (this one was an animated doll-- the green guy, not Matt), Zachary wanted NOTHING to do with the oger (again the green guy, not Matt ).

Christmas Program

At the beginning of December, our first Christmas festivity, we visited Poppi's church to watch their Christmas program. We had a grand time listening to the choir. Christmas was in the air!

Handprint, footprint art work

Happy Christmas Eve! This season has just flown by. As does most of the year. However, I have found this year, for the first time ever, that I want to slow the clock down and savor every moment. Having our son home I want to experience holidays (and every day events) to their fullest. Because of this I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the beginning of December...motherhood by itself certainly brings plenty of reasons to feel over whelmed. For some reason, this Christmas season just seemed to start with me already running around chasing my tail. I was determined to get it all done. And, though I didn't get it ALL done, I certainly achieved as much as I possibly could. The bright side to this has been many memories and new traditions have started in our household! I have always admired artwork made from children hand print, foot print (& thumbprints). Whether that is on paper, in clay, on glassware or canvas, anywhere where a moment in time is captured and preserved!! As most of you know, now a-days there are stores where you can paint on canvas or paint a plate, etc. It's hard to get out of the house and go to these places when you have a toddler in tow. So, I thought I would find some projects that I could do at home. I found canvas on sale at my local craft store 2 for $8. And, after choosing colors in the paint isle I spent several days at my kitchen table painting away. It maybe obvious but from left to right the feet are: Matt, Julia & Zachary. And, a little ornament adorns the top right corner with "The Millers, 2012". I had so much fun doing this that I'm already planning making one for Easter too.

After painting the canvas I just couldn't stop. I saw this idea on pinterest of making a cloth banner. The fabric is very cheap but the outcome seems priceless to me :)I couldn't help but pull out my sewing machine and add a little extra trim. I love love these!

Gynmastics Recital & Blue Ribbon Day

Recently Zachary had his first gymnastics recital. Mom was out of town but Dad and Poppi went to watch Zachary perform his routines.

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At the end of his rectial all the children were given individual medals of achievement. Little boys raise one arm to acknowledge their award. While little girls raise both arms (I'm not clear as to why)

Zachary was also acknowledge after a weekday class with a presentation the gym calls "Ribbon Day". On Ribbon day teachers award blue ribbons to the kids & give parents papers of accomplishment. Which detail the skills the children have mastered. Mom was excited to be able to witness Zachary standing on the block & raising his arm!

We are so proud of our son for his hard work & persistence in the gym!

More Elfin Magic

The Elfin Magic continues to be abundant in our household...this must mean that Zachary has been a good little boy!! Yesterday we went downstairs to see Elfie in a Hot air balloon, notice Zachary's underpants!

And, this morning Elfie dropped by with an email from Santa! Zachary LOVED it!! It's from a free online Santa Email (portablenorthpole.com) program where Santa says Zachary's name & pulls out a book from his libray with information about Zachary (his age, what he's accomplished this year, what he does during the day, what he wants for Christmas, etc.) He walks around the toy work room and shows the Elfs making gifts for all the children around the world. Zachary answered Santa's questions and responded right back to Santa...too cute!! Email from Santa

Crazy Elfie...

If the weather holds up we plan on driving around our local neighborhoods searching for Christmas lights, drinking warm coca' with our glow sticks in hand! We love Christmas!!

I have a LOOOONGGGGG list of crafty "to do's" all thanks to my love of the internet site called pinterest. I have been very very busy trying to get all this done. We have had so much fun with all these projects!! Cinnamon Applesauce Potpourri Can I say, "OMG OMG" well, yes OMG OMG!! This is so easy, smells absolutely delicious & Zachary LOVED to cut the shapes. We will totally be doing this again! All it is: 1 C Applesauce, 1-1/2 C Cinnamon & 2Tb ground nutmeg. OMG OMG!! so so fun!!

Stringing Homemade Garland We have never taken the time to do this before. I think as a child I remember stringing something one time but I'm not sure what it was. I thought the popcorn would be easier than it ended up being- the pop corn cracked and it was very easy to poke yourself. Obviously we didn't want our 3 year old to string with a real needle so I just made a faux one with tape on the end of a string. And, we had a lot of debate over what type of food he could string easily...we initially looked for dry noodles but couldn't find any that were colored so we stuck with the good ole favorite cereal fruit loops. Zachary would string one and eat three. Cranberry

Zach's "needle" fruit loop string

upclose & personal

Mantel

Focus on the garland

Gingerbread House Poppi gave us a gingerbread house at Thanksgiving. We sat down one evening to decorate it. Zachary absolutely loved this!! It sits in the center of our kitchen table and we have a lot of discussion over who maybe inside (Elfie is the big favorite). Zachary looks so proud in this picture :))

Snowman Door. This decoration was so easy, and it's one of those ideas where I think to myself, "why did I not think of this?" I made this with just card stock & punches. And, I hand cut out the carrot nose. Zachary helped put the buttons on the snowman and after we were done he said, "our house looks like Christmas" Now that, is what I wanted to hear :))

Thanks for stopping by! Have a very Merry Christmas!!