Zach turns FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was Zach's 5th Birthday! Wow. Time sure does fly. First thing this morning Charlie gave Zach his gift, a "Super huge army helicopter". Zach liked it so much that he initiated a hug w/his brother and then gave Charlie his sword that he got earlier in the week as a birthday present. Until this moment, the sword was his favorite gift, and sharing it was not an option. Today, he told Charlie he could use it all weekend because he loved his army chopper so much. Awww..so cute!! (Side note- i can't figure out how to get the pictures to look how I want on here, so they are in the wrong order, sorry!)




To continue the birthday festivities, we went to breakfast at McDonalds. Zach requested a sausage muffin for his bday breakfast. OK... the on to the movies w/our friends. Saw "Igor", both kids enjoyed it. Then Zach requested to go to the ice cream place near the movie theatre (Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt). Gabby and Angie joined us for bday ice cream at 11am. Gotta love birthdays!!!

We then headed to see Kelly for lunch and went bday shopping. She got Z his own camera for his bday. He has a new case for it and everything. He is soooooo excited to have his own camera to take pictures! We then headed home to swim. Whew! Long day! And, he got to skip his nap today, Charlie too! End of the day - he said his birthday was great! Love you little dude!

Sorry for the random pool pics - but they're too cute!
Zach loves his new pool toy... he prefers to have a friend on it w/him but he'll play with it even w/o a friend!

Bike Riding

Zach finally got a bike! Jared was pretty adamant about waiting till his 5th bday and him not riding w/training wheels. This has made the last 2 yrs a bit difficult when every other kid has a bike and Zach didn't, but we have finally made it to the big 5th birthday! We found a used 12" bike on craigslist and Jared fixed it up, that's what Z has been using to learn. Took him about 5 minutes. So Jared was right about that I guess. He's been zipping around on this tiny little bike for the last two weeks, it's pretty cute. He rides all the way to the playground in our neighborhood and back, almost 2 miles. Sunday, he did that twice! That's almost 4 miles. Holy cow. He asks to do that every day.

Tonite, we took the training wheels off his brand new, shiny yellow and blue birthday present bike (16"). He was a little wobbly for a minute, cuz his feet didn't reach the ground like on the mini bike he'd been riding, but quickly got the hang of it and now he's zippin around on the "new birthday bike" (pics to come later, I was at work when the "bike transition" occurred). Charlie (against Jared's better judgement) inherits the tiny bike. My guess is he's riding w/o training wheels by his 4th bday in January....




Charlie riding the "new birthday bike".. until Z got the hang of riding... now Z gets the new bike. (Charlie not so happy)...

Zach likes to ride on the rocks in the yard... a future mountain biker??




Love the big driveway, perfect for learning!!

The Pool

Preferred method of drying off after swimming... the wall is nice and toasty warm....



OK... so I get that it's hot here and swimming is good and all that. That's why we built the pool.. but my oldest child is ridiculous with his swimming. Jared and I tried to add it up today, I think he was in the pool over 5 hours today. Wow. And, he's ridiculously good. He loves being underwater, I think he is under water more than he is above water. Today, I joined them in the pool after work and charlie wanted to race, so he climbed on my back and we started to race Zach across the pool. All of a sudden Zach starts doing the crawl, putting his face in the water and everything. Jared and I just looked at each other dumbfounded... we both said "did you teach him that??" Neither of us has..... hmmm.... I have to get a video of it....

Bottom line, he's a pretty darn good swimmer. Charlie is trying so hard to catch up. It's pretty cute. He only lasts about a minute till he sinks, so he's got a ways to go, but he's trying! He'll be good in a month or so...

The other good thing is now I have something that I can actually take away from Zach if he misbehaves... "no pool for the rest of the day" goes pretty far!

First Week of Swimming 2009

It's too cold for the dogs still... but....

not for the boys. ..

Zach is loving the pool... he asks every day....

The best playground ever... Anthem!

checking out the dinosaur skeletons buried at the park..


waving to the train

On Easter Sunday, we all took a drive up to Anthem to the playground there. It is by far the coolest playground that we've been to,and we've been to a lot! The boys had a ball. We had lunch there too then headed back to our house for naps then over to Nana/Poppy's for Easter Dinner. It was a very nice day!!

Easter 2009

Awww..... I can't believe how long they actually wore the bunny ears.

At their Egg hunt at Nana and Poppy's house... good stuff in those eggs...

Checking out their loot at home...

Charlie and Cole checking out their loot..

The boys and the rest of Zach's class ... mmm..chocolate...jelly beans...
This was the EasterEgg Hunt at Zach's preschool...siblings get to come too, which made charlie very happy! Thanks Miss Hilary!

Our last couple of weeks

Sammy and Hannah came over to play today - Sammy and Charlie did a great job w/the floor puzzle... The boys have really missed her lately, it was nice to finally get a chance to play.

Dinosaurs or Painters??
Zach doing his dinosaur pose... Charlie - leaning towards painting?

Zach got his face painted at a birthday party last weekend, he was a T-Rex. Dinosaurs are a new favorite around here. Charlie opted out of the face painting..

The boys had their friend, Sam, over to play the other day. Sam is in school with Zach, they are good buddies and had a fun time.


So... Zach loves to do dishes. It's a little weird how much he likes to do them, he gets upset w/me when I start w/o him. Hmmm... wonder how long this will last?

Anyway - that's what we've been up to... :)