Andrew is 3!

Andrew turned 3 on July 29.  Honestly, he's been waiting for and planning this day since Abby's birthday in December.  The poor kid has to wait through everyone else's birthdays and then 4 months before getting to celebrate his.  He planned his whole day!  We started out at Marbles Museum, went to McDonalds for lunch, played water games outside with cousins, and had a cookie cake.  We were able to fulfill every wish for this guy.  I'm so glad he's in our family!

MaKayla and Arianna came to NC from VA to hang out with us and celebrate Andrew.  Grandma and Baba Z were nice enough to be the chauffeurs :)

Andrew was so excited to open presents!  Getting him to hold still for a picture while he excitedly bounced around had everyone laughing.  He was more hyper than I've seen him before and definitely acted like he was the center of everyone's universe :)

Uncle Steven Michael helped Andrew do the research for the perfect Batmobile that drives and has a shooter and Andrew was sold on having it after getting the stamp of approval from the Z Family Toy Master :)  Thank goodness for Amazon!

Andrew is such a wonderful kid.  I cannot imagine life without him.  He is my cuddle buddy, my "one more book" guy, the only person who is allowed to stroke my face when he apologizes, the most annoying eater, the only one who will say "I don't love you" as a joke (several times daily) and immediately correct with "I just kidding.  I DO love you!", the only kid who has ever peed on my face, my baking buddy, and is woven tightly into the fabric of our family.  He gets along well with everyone, has his special thing with each person, knows just the right weird thing to do or say to make the grumpy person break out of their grumpiness, and is so curious about how the world works and why, why, why we do things a certain way.  Happy birthday, Andrew!  I'm glad we finally reached the big 3 for you...and now we have a full year of hearing you plan for "the next birthday when I turn 4." :)

August 2017

We had a big vacation to kick off the summer, but we slowed down big time after getting home because it's summer and it should be low-key.  We also found out at the beginning of the summer that Baby #5 is coming around February 14.  We're super excited and have prayed for this little one for a while and we are also SO grateful that the first trimester yuckiness seems to be mostly gone.  Roy and the kids have had to be so patient with late dinners, a messy house, a napping mom, and me being less patient and organized.  But we have had a lot of fun and the kids have had a lot of time to explore their imaginations, as evidenced by the utter disaster that is the game room :)

We celebrated Sam's 7-1/2 birthday on August 4 with brownies.

Sam has this incredible mind.  It blows us away to see what he creates.  He has been awesome and a huge helper by making awesome train tracks for Andrew.  But one night, he came down while Roy was playing guitar and whipped this genius creation out.  Can you see the guitar-shaped tracks?  And above it, the blocks read THANK U and the trains on the inside spell out DAD.  Love this kid!

Grandma and Baba Z gave Andrew a really cool big rope swing for his birthday.  The kids spend hours playing on it every day.  It's awesome because it's big enough for all 4 to go on it if they want.  It is definitely the favorite thing in our backyard.

And then Sam lost his first top tooth.  He was so determined to get it out that he wiggled it from the somewhat-loose stage to the hanging-by-a-thread stage in about 36 hours.

We were at the park last weekend and ran into the cutest teeny puppies.  The kids fell in love with them and had to get a picture.

We did a love note drop-off at Roy's work the other day and Roy's co-worker took this picture of my kids attempting to be sneaky as they slid notes under the door while Roy was on a phone call.

Abby and I have fallen for turquoise lately so when we drove past these rocking chairs, we had to stop and try them out :)

More train track creations:

We had some friends come over and bring their dogs.  Lydia, who would like to be a veterinarian, loved Oreo instantly.

Last Sunday, I took a nap and woke up to find Andrew asleep on my legs.  Roy got jealous of the semi-cuddle and pulled Andrew over to him before falling asleep himself. :)

We've had some fun afternoons playing in the sprinkler, creating a water slide playground, and having squirt gun wars.  Even though I sometimes feel guilty about being too boring this summer or not planning a bazillion wonderful adventures, I think this has been a really fun, memorable summer for the kids.  They are happy.  They have invented games together.  They have grown closer together.  It makes me happy to know that they can start out a new school year happy and feeling loved.

More Random Stuff

We got Cosmo about a month ago.  He's been a good dog and loves us.  The kids really love him, except when Andrew decides he likes cats better (hahaha...he doesn't like cats at all).  He mostly just gets annoyed with Cosmo when he comes over to check out what is happening when Andrew is getting dressed or having his diaper changed.  It's actually really funny :)

I love cuddling with this kid

We have had incredible weather this week.  One of the best parts of the week was eating popsicles and watching as everyone's tongues turned different colors.  Of course we had to document it!

Poor sleepy Andrew

I taught the letter T in preschool a couple weeks ago and the kids had a blast making a train with cardboard boxes.  And Cosmo was right there in the mix with them

Roy was gone in China for Valentine's Day so I get to take complete credit for a pretty great day for the kids.  We had pink chocolate chip pancakes, new nerf guns bullets, treats, and a pink dinner.  The kids totally spoiled me with some amazing Valentine cards and lots of extra love that day.  I sure love my little Valetines!

Sam the Birthday Boy

We got to celebrate Sam's 7th birthday a couple weeks ago.  I can hardly believe he is 7!  He was so happy that day and thrilled to be the kid in the spotlight.

Since we live in NC, it felt like we should probably develop some basketball knowledge and skill.  Also, Abby and Sam both wanted to play.  Sam had a game first thing in the morning on his birthday and he did a pretty good job.  He is certainly not the best guy out there, but he genuinely enjoys being out there.  The best part of the game was when he blocked the ball as it was being passed and it ended up in his arms.  With a deer in the headlights look on his face, he started dribbling and quickly passed it to a teammate.  In a moment of triumph, he sprinted across to his position and did full body trip and splat on the 3-point line.  He jumped up, totally unphased, and kept on playing.  That is how cool and confident Sam is and I love it!

One of the best parts of Sam's day was building with Baba Z.

We also got to do a little shopping for Roy's birthday.  He wanted rocking chairs for our screened porch.  The kids enjoyed driving Grandma Z around Home Depot :)

This and That

We have had a fast-paced February.  It has been a lot of fun, thank goodness.  Abby and Sam got to participate in the school art show.  It was fun to see the future selves of all the 3rd graders and the 1st graders with their dream playground.

I finally fulfilled Lydia's dream of giving her a nightstand of her very own (seriously, it was her request a year ago).  We also scored big on Target clearance and found a purple lamp.  We also got Abby a matching nightstand with an awesome blue bird lamp (also a Target clearance steal).

Abby got a late birthday gift from my mom (Mor Mor), who made her a cute book bag with giraffe fabric.  It's the perfect size to carry multiple big, fat books so Abby is thrilled.

When Roy was gone in China a couple weeks ago, Lydia had me take a couple of silly pictures to make him laugh.  This is my favorite :)

We were up in the high 70s this week so Lydia convinced me that we should bust out the sprinkler.  It was so much fun to be sitting on our rocking chair, half reading a book and half watching as the kids braved the 8 different settings of the sprinkler and chased each other with squirt guns.  It was a great preview of summer!

This is how Andrew entertains himself during scriptures.  He just goes around the room and gathers things to wear or putter around with.  He was cracking me up with this splendid ensemble.

We took the big plunge and got Andrew a twin bed.  He has happily transitioned to a big kid bed.  It's mostly exciting, but it is a little sad to see my baby getting so big.