Snowmen?!

It was just a tad bit cooler this morning and Nathan decided he'd wear a long sleeves shirt. He picked this one for the snowman -- not realizing what it says. Neck had to get in the picture too, don't you know. The daycare director wasn't so sure that she liked the snow coming (she is a cold nature person already) but said she'd take the day off. :)

Hope this gives you a smile and helps you to get over the hump of this week.

Those Boys!

Can you just get enough of these boys?! 

So suave... So intelligent...

So cute!!!

 Zach showing his stuff as he turns 16 months Tuesday

Nathan's current conversation topics include Travis' wedding, a dog, a cat, packing, and Travis' wedding. He has switched gears a little bit with the request for a dog and has been focusing on a fence since we've told him a doggy needs to have a fence for the yard. He'll settle for a cat since they don't need a fence, but he'd really rather have a dog or a hyena or a rhino or maybe a zebra -- no definitely a dog.

Library Adventures

Daddy had to work today so in an effort to keep Nathan from watching TV all day, we went on a grand adventure to the library. It was 1.3 miles each way and I figured that Nathan would walk the majority of it with me. We counted animals that we saw and even got to pet a kitty cat that came up to us. We saw lots of pumpkins and a few leftover scary Halloween decorations, but mostly it was a beautiful chilly morning walk.

 We checked out books and videos for the trip and Nathan even saw a friend from daycare.

After a little snack, we were back on the road. Poor Zach couldn't stay awake the whole way home.

What a grand adventure!

Birthday Love

We have been talking about what to do for Barry's sister that turns 40 this year. We've tried to come up with some ideas and concluded that we would send a card for her to open for the 40 days leading up to her birthday. We put together the first batch last night and will keep working till that day. The boys colored some and Barry wrote in a few. We included this note along with the first batch and will check in with her on the 9th which is the beginning.

Hopefully it will show her that she's loved. Would you like this done for you?

Voting

We hadn't really planned on early voting, but when an announcement was made at my office, I checked into it and found that the hours were actually pretty conducive for us and could be better than waiting till Election Day.

After work and picking up the boys, we ran over to the Wilson County Commission's office, waiting in line just a few minutes and then had our chance to vote. Barry's bar code wouldn't read so he had to wait a few more minutes for them to fix it and just like that we were out of there.

How could we not celebrate without pizza?!

I'm sure that everyone has been of the mindset - which is the lesser of two evils or is it even worth the effort? Our church did an awesome job of sharing an objective way that a Bible-believing Christ-follower could understand and make a good decision. I was impressed with how grounded they were with Scripture to show what the individual needed to come to grips with as they voted. Time will tell and we'll continue praying for the leadership of our country whoever that may be.

New Shoes

 Nathan needed some new shoes and we'd been looking for a little bit to find something that wouldn't break the bank. We found these over the weekend and hope they'll last longer than the last pair.

Nathan decorated this little pumpkin at daycare last week. It's super sparkly and a great addition to the front porch with the mums we have. Poor Zachy wasn't quite awake yet!

Playing in the Yard

Finally, we had a chance to take some pictures of the tree and the yard without the tree in the front from the work the landlord had done this week.

The tree should have been on the right front corner. Also, you used to be able to see the backyard tree from the front yard.

 Trying out Nathan's bike

 Zach is getting pretty good at the stairs

Daddy and Nathan kicking the ball around

October's Zoo Trip

We took Friday and enjoyed the morning at the zoo. Zach was much more into the animals this time. It was also neat to see the animals active and be in the zoo when there weren't very many people there. By the time we left, there were tons of school children on field trips there.

 See the joey?! It was neat watching him eat while still in the pouch.

This was actually the second baby we saw. The first was a blond gibbon.

The other neat thing that we saw was in the aquarium where a keeper was feeding sting rays. That was very unusual. We were glad to have our friend Lora come and spend time with us too. It was a great morning!

Sweetie Pie

Isn't this one of the cutest pictures? Mrs. Carol snapped it at daycare Thursday and shared it with me. What a cute little guy!

Tree Removal

We came home on Wednesday to our tree in the backyard severely cut back and then Thursday we came home to one of the trees in the front yard  totally cut down. Had we thought about it, we would have done some before pictures, but we really had no idea the extent of the work that was going to be done this week. I guess in one way it was good because the leaves hadn't started falling yet so we didn't have to rake them yet. It's going to take a bit to get used to.

Two for Tuesday

Poor Zachy! We don't know really how long that Zach could have been sick, but last week when we took him for his 15 month check-up, the doctor found he had an ear infection. This was Zachy's first ever. Since he hadn't had this antibiotic before we were a little leery of how he'd react, but he's done well. Unfortunately, he's experienced on how to take medicine so it wasn't a big deal.

So, the report is in... since the 1 year check-up, Zach is

24 pounds, 1 ounce (up nearly 3 pounds) and

30 inches tall (over 1 inch)!!

What is this face?

All weekend long Zach has been making this fishy face. Sometimes he'd lean over like he was going to spit, but really didn't do anything.

What do you think? What kind of face is this?!

Park Fun

We headed to the park to play in the beautiful weather! The boys have their favorite things to do, but we actually did something they hadn't done before -- swing on the big chair swing!

Awww! How sweet!

Friday Flashback

I think this is the last installment of Friday Flashback since our July visit to the zoo happened just before Zach's birthday which is when I started back with the blog.

 Family pic 7/3/16

 The boys being patriotic

 A funny family selfie

A Zebostrich?!

Silly Zachy

This silly boy walked around with the basket in one hand and eating a fruit squeezie.  If he needed to pick anything up, he'd keep hold of the basket and set down whatever was in the other hand.

Chuck E. Cheese, Part 2

Nathan was invited to another birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese so we had the fun experience again! Zach got in the fun on the teacup.

Here Nathan is enjoying a fire truck.

I sure hope this is the last time for a while. Nathan enjoys it but it's definitely not something that you want to do very often. Maybe when he gets another year or so under his belt he'll be able to play more.

Flashback Friday

June 26, 2016

Zach was talking up a storm and stopped when I got the camera out. Nathan had to help prompt him!

June 28, 2016

Zach was practicing his steps with Daddy

'Mingos!

We came home on Monday and saw that our neighbors had been "flocked"! Nathan and Zach thought it was awesome and we went over every afternoon to check them out.

We found out that a local youth group was raising money by doing these "flockings" and then you give a donation for them to pick them back up. So, the neighbors knew who had done it and were supposed to give another name for the next flocking.

Two for Tuesday

We pulled out some older for Zach toys and found the blocks. Both boys had an awesome time building with Daddy.

Family Snapshots

 I wanted a picture by the flowers, but it was a tad too sunny!

We tried for a family pic, but Zachy just wouldn't cooperate.

Then we tried for a brothers picture, but again, no cooperation.

Family Selfie -- about the best we could do, but still no smile from Zachy