Happy Birthday Zach!

Zachary turned 4 years old yesterday! He had a great day - the Primary sang a birthday song to him and he received lots of fun presents. However, he wouldn't say he was officially four until he blew out his candles! His request this year was for a football cake; and I, of course, obliged. He enjoyed his day!

Just a little somethin'...

I bought an exercise ball a few weeks ago in hopes that it would give me something new to try out to keep me motivated to work out. The boys pulled it out today in boredom and so I spent the next 45 minutes bouncing Andrew and Zach on it then bouncing them onto the couch; then the boys would lay on it and hold on while I rolled them back and forth. At least it's getting used, huh? (And I sure got a workout - my arms were tired after bouncing 37-pound Zach on it then onto the couch! Maybe it wasn't a waste of money...)

It has been so cold here in Albuquerque. Tonight the boys and I went to Wal-Mart while Rhett had the Young Men at our house and the temperature gage in the van dropped 25 degrees in the first few minutes of our trip - from 47 (the car had been in the garage) all the way down to 22 degrees. That's not even fun...

I have been working for the past week or so on getting ready for a little preschool that I am going to do with Zach and a couple of other children from the ward. I'm actually really excited about it and everywhere I look I find new ideas for it. I just love teaching children and seeing the excitement on their faces when they learn something new - I guess that's why I'm a mom, eh??

Buy the way - I have kept my New Year's resolution to work out at least 3 times a week so far - yea, me!!

Here we go again...

One of my new year's goals is to work out and get back in shape. And I'm getting a little help from Zach...he broke his leg again last Wednesday - same leg, same place as last time - so we're back to carrying him around everywhere for the next 4 1/2 weeks. This time I'm not quite sure how it happened...all I know is that he got in a fight with the door jam and lost. He has a spiral fracture in his lower right leg which hopefully didn't injure his growth plate. He was so excited to get a cast this time and had his color picked out two days before we even went to the orthopedic doctor. The nice part is that since he's done this before, he's more familiar with how to get around and can get on and off the couch, up and down the stairs and around by himself, so he's not completely dependant.

FYI - The boy's 37 pounds, so I'm going to have some good-looking biceps in a month!

Our One-of-a-Kind Zach

So, Rhett and I were getting ready for church today when Zach came into our room. "Mom, Look at me!" he said. I did, to see that he had added some accessories to his church clothes. He had on two basketball headbands, one on his head and one around his neck. He then had taken his new Christmas markers and had drawn "tatoos" on his arms, face, neck, and all the way around his head. He also had on two different gloves. Rhett and I tried as hard as we could not to smirk or laugh - he gets really embarassed when we laugh at him - but as soon as he left the room, we couldn't help but chuckle. He knew he was in trouble considering we were leaving for church in five minutes, but I had to take a picture. This was the best he would let me get:


Needless to say, I was thankful the markers were washable, and baby wipes gets them off really fast. And he's banned from using the markers for a while...again....

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas! Ours has been wonderful. We started Christmas Eve on the Annual Albuquerque Luminaria Tour. Some of the neighborhoods close to Old Town put luminarias (brown paper bags filled with a bit of dirt and a lit candle) all along their yards, driveways, walkways, sidewalks and all over. The streets and lined with them - some even put them on their roofs! The public is able to walk or drive through the neighbohoods to see all the lights, so we decided to get bundled up and check it out. There was also a balloon glow at the neighboring country club. Afterwards, we had our traditional Christmas Eve "program", complete with opening the present of new pajamas.

Christmas morning was fantastic with opening presents, complete with breakfast of warmed cinnamon rolls. I wish Christmas day wouldn't go by so fast - I love being home with my family. Usually we travel to California the day after, but this year we are staying home. I'm looking forward to relaxing and hanging out with my kids.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Gingerbread Houses

We decorated a gingerbread house and cookies Sunday night. The boys had a blast decorated for a lot longer than I thought they would. Zach's goal was to see how many cookies he could decorate; Porter decorated a few then he was done. Andrew loved the available candy the best - and got quite upset when we finally started telling him no.

The rest of my trip...

Here are more pictures of the rest of my trip to D.C. I had such a great time - especially hanging out with my dad. Wednesday I spent the day at the Archives, the Capitol and in the Air and Space Museum. Once I met up with my dad, we walked over to see the White House, Ford's Theatre, then went to see the Washington D.C. Capitols take on the New York Rangers on one heck of a hockey game. I've always loved hockey, but it's really excited when your three rows from the glass!

One more picture of the Temple - just because it's so beautiful!

The first page of the Constitution
The Capitol Building
The artwork in the Rotunda in the Capitol
Apollo 11 - the first one on the moon
Ford's Theatre (Where Lincoln was shot)
Kermit the Frog

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers

In front of the White House

The White House

Alas, I did have to come home and be mommy again. All was well at home - Rhett did a good job taking care of the boys. I think they were actually sad to have me home - they have a lot more fun when I'm gone... :)

Now it's a scranble to get everything ready for Christmas. Most of the shopping is done - just a few odds and ends left. The only problem is I still have things to ship - do you think they deliver Christmas Day??