Z's 1st Birthday

SO my little man turned ONE this month! It is so hard to believe. This has by far been the fastest year of my life. On his actual birthday Daddy was out of town on work so we just hung out during the day:

Z's 1st birthday

 

And then I took the boys to Culvers for dinner in the evening. Once Daddy returned, we had a party with family over at our house. The boys enjoyed playing with the balloons while Mommy enjoyed decorating!

Brothers

Balloons!

 

 

It was an "Animal" themed birthday

Grandma M made this AMAZING elephant birthday cake!

Z having his dinner with his party hat on

 

We had BBQ pulled pork, salad, orange jello, chips & dip and pop

(well no pop for the birthday boy!)

 

He had his Chargers jersey on as the Chargers were playing in the playoffs during his party

Presents time!

 

 

 

 

My little Rockin' Rider sure does love his pony!

Cake time!! These are always my favorite pics!

He dug right in!

 

 

And loved getting messy!

 

Even got his feet in there! 

 

 

Clean up time!

A few of our party guests!

 

It was such a fun day! I love celebrating his little life and the amazing miracle he is! What a wonderful 1st year of life we have had with this little guy. We cannot imagine our lives with out him. Just today I was thinking again about a time during my infertility and I was so sure there was suppose to be another child in our family. Every day I look at him I'm reminded of God's faithfulness to me! Z-man your life has brought us so much joy and we love you to the moon and back!

Love you Nene, from Mommy, Daddy and Zekey

I am raising 2 exceptional life changers!

So I loved this blog enough from Matt Walsh to blog my comment:

Thank you Matt - from all SAHM around the world. I was so sad when I read that article this week from that poor girl that just doesn't get it. Not sad for me, but sad for her to think that the only accomplishments worthy of celebrating are things done alone and self exalting, not involving giving of yourself to others. I LOVED working and was very sad to quit to stay home, but some of my greatest joys have come in the stinky, loud, crazy moments of my house with my 2 boys. She challenged that "You will never have the time, energy, freedom or mobility to be exceptional if you have a husband and kids." And I feel like BECAUSE I have my husband and 2 boys, I HAVE the time, energy, freedom and mobility to be one amazing, normal, ordinary, exceptional Momma! How wonderfully blessed I am to get to raise 2 human beings to be exceptional life changers in this world! P.S. And I have backpacked through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and competed in a triathlon ...trust me, raising children is MUCH harder and has taught me WAY more about myself!!

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year everyone! Wow...2013 was the fastest year of my life! We all had a wonderful Christmas and rang in the new year at Make Believe Midnight which was so fun with the boys. Here are a few pictures:

My little reindeer who is almost one!

Christmas family photo

My Z boys

 

Ringing in the New Year

with lots of glow sticks!

 

Daddy & baby Z dancing the night away!

 

Happy New Year!!

 

2013 was the year of our little miracle baby Zachariah. I'm reminded today that his name means "God has remembered". Thankful to God for a wonderful year with my family and wishing you all a joyous New Year!

"Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:22-24

Apple Picking

Hey All!! I know it has been a few months since I posted. I think I'm all settled into this "stay-at-home-Mommy" thing and i'm having a lot of fun with my little wee one who is 9 months old already! Here he is today, proud of his 2 little chompers!

We went apple picking last Friday at a friend from church who graciously allowed us to come pick her leftover apples. Ezekiel had a blast using the apple picker - here are a few picks of the boys picking apples:

Ready to pick apples!

Ready to watch!

Glad I have tall men in my life

Yummy!

He looks unsure, but was having a great time!

loves the grass

"Hmmm...now what's in here?"

"I think I can...just about..."

Happy picker



 

It was fun night and we enjoyed our visit with the "Smiths" as well! Many thanks for allowing us to come out!

 

So afterwards we had a lots of apples, and here are a few things we did with them:

 



Dried apples

 

Apple sauce (2 batches)

Froze the rest for apple crisp!

 

Here is the wee one enjoying his homemade apple sauce this morning!

 

This coming Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving and we are going to celebrate it here in Nebraska with Shiloh's family with a little Canadian "poutine" night instead. Looking forward to it!

 

What are you doing to enjoy the fall?