Zachary Turns 4

 It's been four years since we brought this sweet boy home from the hospital. It's been a wild ride so far!

 I came out of my room the other day to find find Zachary had discovered the blue food coloring. Since I left it out, I couldn''t get too mad. It did take about an hour of scrubbing both him and the couch to get the blue out. 

 He has been enamored with Finn McMissile from Cars 2 for over a year now. He asked for a car last year, but I thought it was just because he had recently seen the movie. He has persisted to ask me for a Finn McMissile toy every time we go to the store for the past year, so I finally complied with his request. We themed the cake and party around Cars 2. I made the cake after attending a Relief Society class on how to decorate cakes. Let's just say 2 hours later, with a huge mess of a kitchen and a transfer that looked more like a car wreck than an actual car, I will likely be buying my future cakes! I was grateful for the dim lighting at the party!

 Zoey reached over and stuck a fork right in the cake before Zach could even blow out the candle!

 What a great shot my friend, Jen, took!

 He was ecstatic about the gifts from his preschool and Primary friends.

 The party was held in the "Life Center" of one of the big churches out here. It is pretty common for churches here to have a big play place like this. I think many of them do not have children in the worship services, so they do this for a nursery. Also, many of them have preschools. It is really a nice service to the community.

 They have an XBOX Kinect, which Zach adores, and which I will keep from my house as long as I possibly can. They really are a lot of fun, but I have enough trouble getting him to turn off a lame cartoon. He kicks and screams whenever we leave the XBOX at the church, and I seriously don't need that addiction of his in my life. 

 I got some mustaches for the Finn McMissile theme, but the kids really couldn't stand to wear them for more than 5 seconds, so I tossed that idea.

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 These are two of our best friends that Zach and Zoey play with frequently. Cruise and Laynie's mom watches my kids while I work. They are exactly the same ages and play together so sweet. 

And the sun went down on another of Zach's birthdays. I am sure they will seem to fly by now. It is already breaking my heart that he is growing up, and not quite so snuggly sweet and babyish anymore. :( He is still at the sweet and spicy stage. Daylight savings has really taken a toll on my poor boy, who is still occasionally waking up 20-40 minutes earlier than he used to. I attribute his recent barrage of crazy outbursts and fits, pounding the bedroom door while in time out, etc. to lack of sleep from DST 2 weeks ago. We may move to Hawaii or Arizona just to fee ourselves of the DST shackle!! 

At the same time, he can be very tender. The other day, he found out his friend was sick, and he immediately said, "Let's say a prayer for him, so Heavenly Father will make him better," after which he knelt down and reverently prayed for his friend. It was sweet, because we have struggled to get him to be reverent during prayer, and to volunteer to pray.

He and Zoey play more and more together. I love to hear the two of them laughing together and chasing one another around. They are both pretty partial to their dad. I guess they just get bored being home with me all day. I always wonder exactly why they seem to run to him over me. I think he must secretly be sneaking them M&Ms behind my back, while I'm the mean one making them brush their teeth! Really, I wonder what those moms do that say their children are Mama's boys or girls, because Daddy holds they keys to these kids' hearts, as much as I try to woo them!!

 Honestly, I feel so blessed to be the mother of this sweet, special boy. I hope to spend many, many more birthdays with this little angel of mine.

Randoms

 Zoey likes to play in Corey's school books. Just catching up on a little Physiotherapy!

 My beautiful babies!!

 Cookie teeth. :) CHEESE!!!

 I love that Corey gets down on the floor and plays with them. I need to be better about that. 

 She likes to climb into things, like this toy box in our living room. And she adores my phone. She knows how to do a lot on it. She has sent texts, plays music, turns on Angry Birds, and messes up all my app icons on a regular basis. :)

Zach's underwear are pretty exciting to her!

 So. Zoey is allergic to mosquito bites. This is one bite on her forehead, and she swelled up like a Star Trek Klingon!! 

See the resemblance? Poor baby!!

 It was really bad for a day or two, but finally went back down to normal. She had several bites on her legs over the summer, with similar results. It was a big worry because of the West Nile Virus scare we have had here in Dallas. Once, she also got a bad fever for a few days. The two may or may not have been related, but she recovered, thankfully. I really have tried to keep us all covered with repellent.

 My beautiful girl! 

 Nana got her this vest last year, and I am in love with it! Especially paired with her boots!

 Zach still loves the swings.

 And climbing into the tiny toy box with his sister. They have pretty much annihilated it!

 Sweet little angels!

 She finally started feeding herself cereal. She usually finishes 1/4-1/3 of the bowl, then dumps it on her tray. : / At least she's trying! She's only gained a pound or two in the past 6 months, despite my trying to force feed her.

I adore this precious boy with the perfect curl on his forehead. He hasn't taken a nap in months, but today I convinced him to snuggle with me on my bed. He jumped around for 10 minutes first, but once I got him to hold still, he was out within a couple of minutes and slept 1.5 hours. Daylight savings has been a nightmare for him. He goes to bed an hour later, but has still been arising an hour early every day this week. He totally needed this nap! 

We had one day this week that everything just seemed to go perfectly. I was blessed with patience, and the children were blessed to be sweet and obedient. I hope I will always remember the fleece-covered snuggles and smiles and tickles and laughs we shared as I put them to bed. It was a simple but sweet day and I hope to cherish it when the going gets tougher, as it often does!

I am so grateful to be able to mother these darling angels. Nothing in my life even comes close to the sacred blessing of being a wife and mother. There is such trust placed in me, and though I feel that I often fall short, and would like to have more patience and understanding, I wouldn't want to do anything else with my time. 

Rocktober

 This past month FLEW by so quickly!! After Mike's wedding, it seemed like all the Halloween festivities were upon us. my boss's wife had her baby a few weeks early, so I worked a bit more than usual to fill in. That always makes things busy. I honestly don't know how moms that work full time can get anything done at home!! Even 3 days a week throws me way off!!

We visited the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch with all Zach's preschool friends. All the moms have a child Zach's age and another Zoey's age, so it is really fun to get together.

 Look at those gorgeous eyes!!! Corey said they have my eyes when he saw this picture. Theirs are so much brighter than mine, though! I love my blue-eyed babes, but I hope we get a dark-eyed baby like Corey, also.

 Zoey just kept saying, "Punkeen!" Sooo cute!!!

 This is Zach with his best friend, Cruise. They are only 5 days apart in age, and definitely 2 peas in a pod! His family just bought a house in Flower Mound and we will miss living around the corner from them like crazy!! Cruise's mom, Joanna, watches my kids a lot while I am at work. We love their family and will miss them. Thankfully, they won't be too far away.

 The kids enjoyed riding the ponies.

 It looks like little Z grabbed my camera!! This picture made me laugh, little blue-eyed boy!

   

 Zoey fearlessly braved the bounce houses and the giant slide.

 I adore these little pigtails!!! Sweetest curls ever!!

 This was Corey's 36th birthday "cake." He is not a cake fan, but is quite the cookie connoisseur. There is a sister in our ward who makes the most amazing Chocolate chip cookies. I don't even want the recipe, because they are deathly good and we gobble them by the dozen and it shows the next few days!! Anyway, I "won" these at a service auction at church, and had her deliver them on his big day! Best service ever!! 

I encouraged Zach to write Dad a birthday card, and this is what he did, completely on his own. Not bad for 3 years old!! ("HAPE BRTDA FRUM ZACH"= "Happy Birthday From Zach." And that;s a serious "DER" on the right- extra lines added to make it a really long E sound!!)

 My little BYU cheerleader

 And handsome future football star

 Zoey likes to climb into tiny things. I made a bed for her doll by placing a blanket in a little wet wipe box, and she threw the doll out and snuggled right in!

 She also dove feet-first into this new potty chair I bought her. She is always wanting to sit on the potty chair lately- and she's even gone in it a few times. I am in no hurry to train her. I swore after the difficulty we had training Zach, that I would wait til the child was ready to train him/herself. 

 We dressed as Toy Story characters for the ward trunk-or-treat. Corey was Woody, Zach was Buzz Lightyear, Zoey was Jessie, and since I couldn't find/make a Bo Peep costume to my liking, I went as a sort-of Jessie. We have a blast dressing up and there probably won't be too many more years we can do a family theme.

Zoey grabbed my boots and her sippy cup after a long night of partying!

 Corey carved us an awesome jack-o-lantern. Zach was less-than-thrilled, because Corey and I couldn't make the pumpkin have the "laser eyes" he requested!

 It was a little too scary for both the kids' liking!

 Sadly, Corey had to be at school late on Halloween night. Our neighborhood has a really fun parade and then the homeowners stand/sit on their lawn and hand out candy, so it is a lot of fun and much easier than knocking on the doors. We decided to go with a Star Wars theme. I spent a few minutes creating the Millennium Falcon out of our stroller, and we ended up with two Princess Leias and a Clone Wars Commander. Our Jedi was sad to have missed out. ;( We received lots of compliments, but I was glad to get home and out of the heat. Zach had been sneaking candy, and was about the craziest we've ever seen him afterward!! Zoey was content with her one sucker. I headed to the grocery store and bought tons of healthy food afterward. I am done with sugar for awhile!!