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!

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!