First Day of School

We did it! We survived the first day of school! Zac was so incredibly brave, much better than Jer and I, my mom was there also and there were tears all around. I have to admit it was terrifying to send my little boy on a bus, especially since his ride is an hour each way. But he held it together. He got nervous when we were about to board the bus, I had to put him on, and he was a little nervous while I strapped him in his vest. He kept whispering "okay baby, okay baby" which is what he says to try and soothe himself when he gets nervous. But he did well, the bus driver said he didn't make a peep. When he got home, he was so excited to see us, and as soon as I got on the bus he started saying "all done s-chool bus, all done s-chool bus". So he was happy to be home, and all apparently was just fine. Maybe over time Jer and I will grow thicker skin and not be such bawl babies.



total cheese face


Strapped in and waiting to go, very nervous but very brave. I'm pretty sure this is where my tears started to pour. Whew, at least it's over.

Happy To You

That's how Zac sings happy birthday, which is today. Three years old! Tomorrow is our first day on the bus to preschool, I am so nervous, he has no clue, I'm sure it will be harder on me than on him. Here are some pictures of his party last night. We had a visit from Jeremy's parents, which Zac called Grandma and Grandma J, so we celebrated a day early.

His mound of gifts


Dipping into the cake, he could care less about presents, just sing to him and let him lick the cake


Help from Ava

Handstand racing before bed


"Grandma J"


The actual Grandma J

Happy Birthday to the best boy around! I am so proud of Zac, he has made incredible progress this past year with his therapy, and I can't wait to see how much further he will grow now that he is in school. Wish us luck, we'll post the first day of school pictures and stories soon.

Life is NOT like a box of chocolates...

....more like a kick in the__________.

Sorry, vulgar I know, judge if you must but that's how I feel right now. After reading everyone's comments I realize I may have misled you, I don't have fun and exciting tales of what has been occupying my time. We fell victims to the economy about 2 months ago, Jer's company was bought out, his position eliminated, I got a part time job and currently Jer is on day 11 of an 18 day trip to Utah to start working with his dad. No, we are not moving. To clarify, we have no clue what we are doing.

I started losing my mind at a controlled rate, but the past few days I seem to be going crazy at a much more rapid rate. I've been working around 30 hrs a week, which may not seem like a lot. But it is. Oh, it is. We're winding down Zac's therapy, he turns 3 in a week and a half which means he starts the Special Ed preschool through the school district, and it also means that I have had many many meetings. Quite literally I've been to meetings whose sole purpose was to schedule future meetings. Inefficient, no? Anyway, I'll post more about his therapy and school which we are so thrilled about later, but here are just a few of the pictures from the past little while.

Zac as "Me Moux" for Halloween. Jer didn't get to see them this year, except in picture, he said it looked like Zac was wearing a red skirt, but I assured him that in person you could tell they were shorts, and was soooo cute.

As Ava says, "My Mouth". We seem to have a bit of a speech impediment, which is pretty cute right now.

I promise this was a pumpkin patch



We had such a fun visit from the Greats, my grandparents

Zac wearing "daddy's head" most people would just call it a hat

Ava thinks it's hilarious to walk around with a bucket or blanket or anything on her head. She walks until she runs into the wall, I hear giggling and "oopth" and a thump all day long (her "s" sounds like a "th")

This isn't violent, this is actually having fun and playing really nicely together

Ready for church, we love cousin Chloe's hand-me-downs

Sunday coma nap

Lame Excuse

So....I've been busy. I know, lame excuse. But that's all I've got, life is a little too much right now, so here are a few pictures to prove that we still exist. Hopefully I'll have time later this week to update more and explain a little about what's going on with us. Until then, does anyone read this blog anymore? I guess we'll find out...

Cuzzies, Yuckles, and Heffalumps

Today after church, Zac decided to remove all couch cushions and build this...

That is every toy on wheels that we own lined up very carefully around the couch. As I blog this he is naming every toy to Jer, Jer has to repeat back, and then they start again. I think it's been about 20 minutes now....who do we think will break first?

This just makes me smile

Jer bought Zac a new trike. He loves it as long as you push him from the back. His coordination and little muscles aren't quite where they should be, but it's fun to sit on.

Nap recovery time

Zac loves to do "cuzzies" or cuddles. He brings his fave blankies out of his room and asks for cuzzies all day long. He also is obsessed with Pooh's Heffallump movie. He thinks Lumpy is the coolest, so he gears it up to watch what he calls "Pooh Pear."

Desperately trying to get the kids out of the bath after a frazzled day, I do Zac first, but this time he snuck back in the tub fully dressed while I went to get Ava's towel. At least it made me laugh at the end of a long day.

And again, she just makes me smile.

A few updates on the cute things my kids are doing....our speech therapist taught Zac to give knuckles instead of high five. He calls it "yuckles" and Ava calls it "yubbles". Zac's new fave place to play is on our bed. He plays cars and just talks and sings to himself. The other day I was doing dishes when I thought I recognized what he was saying. This is what I heard: "Yee me ga me, wawa si me Help me fa way.." He was singing I am a Child of God, singing his guts out he knew it word for word, just in his own little way. That was a very good day.

More Cute

Here are some pictures that I stole from my sister in law Kelli. She is a photo wizard, has awesome equipment and a paparazzi shutter finger. Here are some cute pics of our reunion a few weeks ago, these are just of my kids, but there are a few hundred more of everyone that I'll steal later.

Ava, Jack, and Max. All 18 months old.

Sweet face

Celebrating Uncle Big Zac's birthday....it was past bedtime

Taking a swing at cousin Jake's birthday pinata

Kelli is also a sewing wizard....she made several matching outfits for the girls

cute cute girls: Chloe and Ava

Bompa bought the kids pioneer hats down in Nauvoo, so Ava is modeling her bonnet

she's also modeling a runny nose

Zac's turn to model

More matching outfits at Lincoln Park Zoo

Family

Today after our post church family nap, Zac and Ava actually playing together.

Zac loves to flash the camera in his face, he calls it the sun, maybe it's not so good for his vision, but it's so cute.

Extreme close up self portrait

The kids favorite game to play with daddy is bonk head

They tend to bonk hard

Ava loves to mug for the camera, but I always get the same looks from her, this is her excited arm flap look

Practicing our somersaults, or see sauce as Zac calls it

The tame excited arm flap

Celebrating my nephew Jake's birthday. We had so much fun with all of our cousins in town for the past week and a half.

Zac and cousin Brock resting on an unidentified bum, but I'm sure it belongs to family

This is Ava's cheese face, playing at the Children's Museum with cousin Jack, that's his cute little bald head

More cheese face at the water table

So handsome

Disco dancing cheese face

Zac absolutely went bonkers over the fireworks. He kept yelling and signing "more,more" just as fast as he could. It was so much fun. Here he is enjoying the awesome fireworks put on by Bompa and his neighbors in the backyard.

Zac seems to be a pyro, just like his dad

Again, way cute

Bompa got a huge sheet of industrial plastic to put down the hill in his backyard for the greatest slip n slide ever. The kids loved it, I forgot my kids bathing suits so they had to run around in diapers

Ava did not love it, so she was the cheerleader

Jake resting at the bottom of the slide

Uncle Brody reading to Ava and Jack during our family picture session

We ate lots of s'mores made outside in my parents fire pit, this is my nephew Brock

Chloe, with a classic Chloe face

Zac trying to roast his marshmallow in the "hot", that's his word for fire

this was our first time with my nephew Max, he's two months older than Ava and so so cute!

Mr. Max, I just love his hair! It was so much fun with our California cousins, hopefully we can see more of you sooner.

And this is what Ava does when she has the place to herself during Zac's naps. She gets way too excited about trashing all of the toys. Whew that was a lot of pictures, I'm impressed if you made it all the way.