Great Choices

Lane is beginning to somewhat care about what he wears. Usually I give him two choices between shirts and shorts. He gets to pick one and he is happy that he made the decision, most of these choices stem from a great parenting class we took over the summer (more on that later). However the other day he was having nothing of choices and made is own decision, 2 different shirts, I explained to him that it was 2 shirts and no shorts, but I got over it and put on both shirts...this is an affordable mistake (same parenting class), well in his eyes this was surely not a mistake. So I threw on a jean diaper and we went about our day and he was as happy as can be...whatever works right?

This is his other new thing, whenever I bust out the camera he covers his eyes. I'm not sure what happened because he used to do a big cheesy grin and say cheese for the camera.

A Few Minutes

Now that the boys are a little older...I can make some popcorn put on a movie and bam! I get a few minutes to go get ready or get something done. I love that they sit in the chair together and share the same bowl of popcorn and drink. I hope these little moments last forever. These boys sure have a great time together. While they do have their moments of torturing each other, for the most part they are having great times together. I love it!

Dino Museum

Zackary, Derek, Ryan, Dillan, Lane & Katelyn

Today we spent the morning at the Natural History Museum in Mesa. Of course the kids call it the dinosaur museum. We met up with my sister in law Celia with her kiddos and Liz with her kiddos. We had a great time checking everything out. The kids got soaking wet panning for gold but could care less about that.  I loved watching them walk around covering their little ears frightened by the dinos roaring. 

They were all so good and enjoyed all the fun activities there was to do.

Washington D.C.

This was a start to an amazing trip. Delicious sliders and a mountain of onion strings.

Aaron and I headed to D.C. for a great vacation. The kiddos stayed at home with Nana and we enjoyed an adult vacation. Aaron had a conference for work so we decided to make a little vacation out of it, and boy it was nice. We had nice leisurely meals, walked, all over the city, spent time with a friend from college, and went shopping. Don't get me wrong, I missed my babies like the dickens and thought of them several times when there was something they would have loved, but it was great for Aaron and I to have some good quality time together. Here are some pictures that I thought were pretty nice, what a beautiful city with so much amazing history and things to see.

We got special treatment knowing friends that work in D.C.

We got to the top of a condo that overlooked the city.

Seeing the White House was amazing at night. 

Seeing giant green trees got us every time.  We had to take pictures with them in the background.

 

Washington Monument at sunset. Sorry for the blurriness but I thought the sky looked amazing with the monument lit up.

Picketing!  There was a huge rally at the capitol building when we were there.  We found some great signs in the garbage...ya I said it, we pulled them out of the garbage and we had several to choose from.  Don't mind what they say, we just picked the ones on the top.  Isn't that part of being at the capitol? 

In Front of the Camera

Finally!  A picture of myself and my boys.  I am always the one behind the camera trying to capture all the precious moments of my sweet babies.  But there is no evidence of mommy, I'm always there but you would never know it.  We were celebrating my folks anniversary and my Unky Kip got some great pictures for me.  So here you have it...finally!

Sculpta Bush

So I'm sure all my readers remember the post about the bush balls.  Well I received several comments... from friends worried their bush balls would be featured on the blog, some that agree with my issues, and some that like bush balls.  My dear brother said he was especially a big fan (hear my sarcasm?) of sculpta bushes.  I knew of a perfect one that I would feature just for him.  It is actually one of my parents neighbors.  They have these 3 perfect little birds in their front yard.  However, I think the daddy bird is a bit thirsty right now.  Hopefully he will pull through this hot summer. 

So here you go...a sculpta bush!

~more addendums to come

36 Years

My wonderful, amazing, kind parents just celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary.  What an accomplishment!  I'm sure they have had hard times but you would never know it, they are still happily married and in love.  They still spend everyday together, they have desks at work right across from each other and spend most of their free time together, the little that they have.  I am so lucky to have happily married parents and wonderful role models.  I love you!

Piggy Backs

I absolutely love that the boys are really playing together and that they both actually enjoy it.  At least if Lane isn't beating up on Zackary.  I caught Zackary giving Lane piggy backs and was imitating what Aaron and I do with them on our backs. 

Sleepy Head

So this little stinker decided he didn't need a nap. Until of course dinner time. He was actually eating this time, I look away for a second, turn back around to find this.

He had a bite in his mouth and couldn't keep his eyes open.

I decided to transfer him to the floor (we were at a friends house) so he wouldn't tip over into his food and he continued to have a nice little nap at 6pm.

There is no waking this little one up if he falls asleep in his food or in the car.

My Little Model

A friend of mine from work asked if I would be interested in having Zackary do a modeling shoot for her sister who works for Dillards. Of course I said yes, I may be a little bias, but I think he is dang cute and would be a perfect little model. So we headed over for several outfit changes, pictures, and great new toys to check out. Zackary did a great job on the trampoline, with the skate board, and playing baseball. Little did I know he knew how to use the baseball glove and did a great job playing catch with it. Needless to say on the way home I stopped and got him a little glove. Anyone who knows Zackary, he is very agile. The kid jumps on a trampoline like a big boy, has great muscles, and balance. He might be our great little athlete!

I was thrilled because I got a copy of the pictures...and a bonus, he got his first paycheck! And strait into the college fund it will go. Hopefully he will get to do more of these in the future. If not, we enjoyed it.

These are just a few of my favorites.

 

Lane had to tag along but got in a few shots.  Hopefully next time both boys can participate. 

I finally got a cute picture of both my boys together!

Preschool

Today was Zackary's first day of preschool. We decided to start off his education journey at The Wilkins Learning Center "Miracle of Minds Preschool" in Gilbert. I have a wonderful friend Julie who told me about this little preschool last year and it has intrigued me ever since. I had already enrolled him in Apples to Zebras with the City of Chandler, but decided to stop by "Little Red" on my way to pick up some family at the airport a few weeks ago and absolutely fell in LOVE. When I say in love, I mean I got chills meeting the owner/teachers and seeing the school house filled with all the wonderful things Zackary was going to get to experience and learn. The way they already loved him and were so excited to meet him and our family. They have the most amazing passion for teaching little ones. It makes my heart melt.  So needless to say,

Aaron and I decided this was the perfect place to take him to get him off to an amazing start.

Here he is showing of his snack box. Yes, it is an old school spiderman mini tin lunch box.

Perfect for snack time.

It was great having Aaron there for the first day of preschool.

Zackary and Lane were thrilled to see him when we pulled up.

This was Zackary on the ride home. I think he was worn out. He said he loved school!

Sushi Night

We decided to try and create our own sushi resurant in our kitchen.  We had Mark and Celia over to our house to enjoy some homemade sushi in the comfort of our own home.  Aaron and Mark were in charge of picking up all the fixins, they both headed to LeeLee's Market and Whole Foods for fresh fish.  I think we all did a pretty dang good job of creating rolls the were absolutely delish.  Here they are...

We did get a little crazy and had some leftovers.  I'm not sure if it was any less expensive than going out, but is was sure fun and great to see every ones different ideas.

Here was the gourmet children's plates.  They were pretty happy with their meals.

Thanks Mark and Celia for joining us and making some delicious sushi!

This really makes me laugh.  I didn't really capture the full visual of what was going on.  We put on Ice Age for the kids to buy us a little more time to finish stuffing our faces.  I looked over to check on them and Lane kept putting his hands over his eyes but peeking through his fingers to watch the movie, in between shoveling popcorn in his mouth.  When anything thing is scary to him he just covers his eyes. 

It reminds me of my brothers when we were little watching scary shows from behind the

couch and peeking over to watch it anyways.