Preschool Halloween Party

Brody's cute little class

My cute Cowboy!!

Standing in line to go trick-or-treating around school

Brody loves pre-school!! Today they had a Halloween party and got to go trick-or-treating around the school. He was such a cutie going up to the ladies and saying trick-or-treat and holding up his bag. It was fun to go into his class and see all the kids in their costumes and how he interacts with them. Well Brody just got home and is excited to show me his stash of candy so I'd better go. Happy Halloween!!

Happy First Birthday Zach!!

Happy Birthday to my little man!! Zach turned the big 1 on July 22nd. We had a little family party for him with pizza, cake and ice cream. He wasn't sure what to do with the candle and all of us singing to him, but as soon as we blew it out and everyone cheered he went crazy. He was laughing, clapping his hands, and kicking his feet. He knew he was the center of attention. . . and he liked it!! It took him a few minutes to get into the cake because he was distracted with the worms etc. Once those were gone he dug into the cake. He liked how it squished into his fingers, but wasn't into eating it like that.

Zach opening his presents!

Zach is such a sweet boy and we are so lucky to have him in our family. He has the cutest little smile and loves to laugh. He started walking at 10 1/2 mo and now he thinks he can run!! : ) He loves balls. . . it doesn't matter what size. He will be in a room full of toys and find all the balls. He is pretty good at walking and kicking the ball too. Maybe he will be a soccer player when he grows up. He is a social eater, but you wouldn't know it by looking at him. Weighing in at a whopping 18lbs and 28 1/2 in tall. Zach is a busy boy for sure I can tell where he has been as soon as I get into a room. He just wreaks havoc where ever he goes it's amazing.
Zach just started giving kisses which I love and is chattering more. He went through a phase of saying MA MA, but now says DA DA instead. Guess that means James will have to start doing everything for him!! : ) He loves to be outside as soon as he wakes up in the morning that is where he wants to go. He adores his older brother and wants to do whatever Brody is doing. They are so cute to watch and get along really well for the most part. Zach is my water baby and loves to go swimming. He doesn't mind going under and getting all wet unlike Brody. Zach brings us so much joy and I'm so grateful he is a part of our family. We love you buddy!!

Funny story

The other day the boys and I were playing in Brody's room. I had just thought to myself that I should go get my phone to check for messages, or in case someone calls. Then I just kind of blew it off and kept playing with Zach. I looked up to see what Brody was doing and he was messing with his door handle and then he closed the door. It took me a second to realize what had happened. Brody had pushed his lock from the outside and locked us in his room. I couldn't believe it. We have the kind of locks that you can put a nail or paperclip in the handle and push the lock open, but do you think I could find any such tool in a room where sharp objects aren't supposed to be!! I was looking at all the toys to see what parts might come off that I could use. I had just washed the shorts I had on so all my pockets were empty. . . well besides lint and that wasn't very helpful. By this time I was wishing I had just gotten my phone when I thought about it. Then I could have called James to see when he would be home. My only other option was the window. It's a good thing we have a one story house, and that I have lots of experience climbing through windows from my college years. I'm grateful to James that he wanted to put a chair in Brody's room, or I wouldn't have been able to reach the top latch of the window. Gotta love short arms and legs!! : ) Anyway, I got the screen out and was way excited to touch the super hot window sill that had been baking in the sun all day to land in the hard packed uneven dirt below. . . with bare feet. Being the great mom that I am I jumped and saved my boys from having to be stuck in a room filled with toys!! : ) Lesson learned, I always grab my phone when I'm headed to play in Brody's room!!

Vegas Trip

We had such a great time in Vegas and want to thank Krystal and Brian for letting us hang with them. We were able to see parts of the strip and walk through a beautiful garden with insects made out of flowers. It was amazing. Brody had the time of his life going from game to game in Circus Circus. We were able to watch a couple of free shows there like a trapeze act, contortionist, magician, all of which were very good. We had a lot of fun and hope to do it again soon.

Zach loungin!

Our fam. . . a few hrs before the trip home.

Beautiful lady bug made out of flowers.

Brody in his Semi at Circus Circus.

Vegas Trip

Our first day in Vegas we decided to check out the M&M factory. It was full of lots of fun things to look at and the kids had a good time. Brody loved the New York New York roller coaster he was mesmerized by it. I think it reminded him of a train because it was on tracks. We also went to a chocolate factory to see how they make chocolates. There wasn't much to see because they were just filling molds while we were there, but the free chocolates were delicious!!

Poor guy so tired!!

My boys happy as can be.

New York New York!!

Yummy!!

Brody loved the car!

M&M Factory. . .

Vegas Trip

In Vegas we decided it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo. I was thinking it would be something nice like Phoenix has, but boy was I wrong. We followed the signs for parking and ended up in some guys back yard. It was very geto and I had my doubts. However, they had some very interesting animals and everything was incredibly close so you could actually see the animal. I had a Raven say "Hello" to me when I walked up to its cage. I said hello back not really believing that is what it said, but sure enough it talked back. I thought that was pretty cool. They had alligators, snakes, devil cats, and a couple other unique animals. After all was said and done it was a pretty interesting place.

We were so close to the turtles you could reach down and touch them.

Feeding the Goats. . . yep they had goats.

Too much cuteness

Love those messy faces!

Sorry I had way to many super cute pictures of Zach on Easter plus some other random shots so I had to share. He is just growing up so fast I can't believe it.

Easter!

The two cutest boys ever!!

Brody happy about his basket and sporting his new Easter clothes!

Zach with his basket and new Easter clothes.

Zach loving the grass

Easter Baskets!!

Easter was a ton of fun this year because Brody actually got excited about his basket and finding eggs around the house. He walked out into the family room saw the baskets and went right over to James's bowl with the yummy candy in it and wanted to eat it. He then moved onto his basket pulled the clothes out and started hunting for eggs. He was very cute to watch. Zach's interest was the grass in the basket and he didn't care about anything else.

We had a very relaxing and spiritual filled day watching conference and listening to the wise council of the prophet and other church leaders. They are very inspired men. After conference we had an Easter dinner over at Pam's house with my mom and Raquels family who came down from UT. It was fun to have everyone together and it made our Easter that much more special.

Eggs

I'm a little late on posting about Easter, but what is new!! This year we did egg painting with just our little family. Which consisted of Brody and myself!! Brody loved decorating the eggs and did really well at keeping them on the wand. He would dip it in one color and then go on down the line. Needless to say we had a lot of green/blue colored eggs which looked pretty cool if I do say so myself.

Don't break the concentration!!

Showing off his egg coloring skills!

Train Park

Brody at the food train

Waiting patiently to ride the train

The engine that pulled the train

The boys and I in front of the big black train(museum type thing)

Cool looking firetruck

I have mentioned many times that Brody loves trains so for his birthday we wanted to take him to this cute train park. Weekend after weekend something came up or it was raining so we were never able to go until a week or so ago. He was so cute when he got out of the car and saw a bunch of big train cars. Everywhere we went he migrated to the train cars it was very funny. We took a ride around the park on a little mini train which Brody loved and couldn't get enough of the engine. They had a pretty cool looking fire truck at the park so we got to see that and have free ice cream. The park was really nice with places to have picnics, great toys to play on, a model train building, and of course train rides and trains to tour. Brody loved it all and it was fun to see him get all excited.