Pumpkin Land '09

Here it is. Pumpkin Land 2009. It's moved to a different farm this year. It was just the same only bigger with better parking. My Mom and I took Zach, Sophi, and Brylee. We wanted to bring Fina as well, but she had a soccer tournament she was competing in. The very first thing the kids did was ride tricycles. Zach only got a few feet before his handle bar came off and smacked him in the nose. He suffered from a bloody nose, on and off, the rest of the day.

This was one of Zach's favorite things to do. He made sure to ride in every cart before we left.

They had this wooden train along with trucks and other things for the kids to play on. And even Brylee could join in on the fun.

Last year they had a large slide made out of bowling alleys. They still had that only bigger this year. But I didn't get any pictures of Sophi and Zach doing that. They also had this small slide for younger kids that they enjoyed. Brylee went down a couple times on her own and loved it.

She even tried to climb back up. But got mad when she didn't succeed.

This is inside a large blown up pumpkin that they had thrown balloons inside for kids to play with. Zach had to be forced out so other kids could have a turn.

The Horse drawn carriage ride was Sophi's favorite. Brylee enjoyed climbing around on the floor and making noises when we hit bumps.

Zach and Sophi had fun in the ball pit. They would climb on the walls and jump in on top of the balls. Zach even thought it was fun to get buried by the balls.

At the end of the day we took a tractor ride to get our pumpkins. We had lots of fun, even though it was freezing by the end.

Apple Picking

We went apple picking back in September. We didn't stay long because it was cold. But we did get five bags of apples and still haven't used them all.

We let Zach climb a ladder to get some apples in the tree. He loved it of course, and didn't want to climb back down.

At first Zach just took the apples we were picking and putting them in the bag. But after we showed him how to pick the apples himself there was no stopping him.

First day of School

I'm sorry this picture is sideways. It's been so long since I've used this that I don't remember how to turn it and I'm on a time crunch.

Zach started going to Nursery School a couple of weeks ago. We thought it would be best for him to be able to socialize and get out of the house. So he goes to Busy Bear Nursery School 3 days a week. He wishes he could go every day. His teacher, Ms. Sherri, is great. She's been able to keep him involved. I don't know how she does it. Anyone who has experience trying to teach Zach anything knows that he has perfected the art of ignoring.

Unexpeced Weekend

So we aren't going to Myrtle Beach this weekend due to a couple of things that make this all work out for the best. Still sucks. But oh well. Earlier this week I was giving Brylee a bath in the sink and Zach decided he wanted a bath in the sink too. As you can see he got what he wanted. I couldn't resist. The thought of him bathing in the sink was too funny to pass up.
This is one of the reasons we didn't go this weekend. Zach woke up with his cheek swollen from a bug bite. And later this morning his ankle swelled up as well. He is now on Antibiotics, steroids, benadryl, and gets cortizone cream put on the bug bites. Hopefully this will work otherwise we get to go spend atleast 10 hours in the ER again.
I included this cause I think my baby is cute. She saw me taking a picture of Zach and wanted in on the fun.

Too much Harry Potter?

I think it's cute.

Mom's visit

My Mom took a break from being the family backbone and came to visit me. I can't tell you how much I loved having her here. It helped keep me sane while Jake is at JRTC. We did lots of stuff and had a blast! Mostly the stuff we did was to entertain Zach, but we had fun watching him have fun. We took him to Chuck e Cheese. It turns out that you can get coupons which made going there cheaper. Zach liked going on rides, but there were two games that he wanted to do over and over again. He really liked the ducky game. All you do is press a button and an arm punches out and knocks over a duck. And you're supposed to try and knock over as many ducks as you can. I tried this game a couple of times and it turns out Zach was better than me. The other game he loved was a kid sized version of a hoops game where you try to get as many balls in the hoop as you can. Unfortunately Zach is too small for it and we had to hold him up.

Mom soon found out that Zach needs a couple hours of outside time every day or he goes crazy. So we made sure to take him to the playground. I really like this picture. Zach tries to push Brylee on the swing all the time. This is the first time she's ever enjoyed it.We made sure to go to Raleigh to see the Temple. For the record, it was actually beautiful and sunny while we were there. I don't know why the picture doesn't show it. I had heard the Temple was small, but I didn't realize how small. The Stake Center next to it is bigger. But still, it was beautiful. Just outside post is the Fort Bragg Fair. Mom came at the perfect time. We took the kids a couple of times. It was only $5 to get in and all the rides were free. Zach had fun on a bunch of rides. What's funny is that most of the rides he didn't smile on. If you don't know him you'd think he wasn't enjoying himself. But, as his mom I can tell you he did. The slide was one of only a couple rides he smiled on. Mom said she could hear him giggling all the way down the slide. The first time he went with me (which almost didn't happen, because he dived to go down the slide as soon as we got to the top and I had to catch him) and the rest of the time he went on his own. The other ride he LOVED was the race car ride. It would put-put around like a normal kid ride. Then whip around on the corners and it looked like he would fly out. The guy operating the ride got to know Zach real quick. Every time he would unbuckle Zach, Zach would run and climb into another car. So the poor guy had to carry Zach off the ride every time. And Zach went on this ride A LOT.Thank you mom for visiting us. I don't think you know how much I appreciated it and loved having you here. And for the record, anyone else is welcome to visit. It's beautiful here, but I really prefer having family around.

Family retreat

We had our Family Retreat over Easter weekend. It was so much fun! We stayed at this place called the Wolf Neck Inn. This place was great. It has a mini golf course, indoor water park, and some sort of interactive video game that kids can play throughout the hotel, and we got $150 gift card from the army to use within the hotel. We attended a couple of the classes that were available from the Chaplins, but we spent most of the time at the water park. We actually took a lot more pictures than what you see here. We spent some of our gift card on a waterproof camera so we could have some pictures of our fun. However it turned out to be a piece of crap and these pictures are the only ones to have come out at all. And I took more than twenty. Needless to say, I am very much upset by that.

The water park was great. It had a little kiddie area with slides and squirt guns. Unfortunetly they shut it down for some reason about 15 minutes after we got there. So we spent the rest of the time in the wave pool. Zach loved it. He couldn't get enough. Brylee didn't mind the water as long as it didn't get in her face. I'm hoping the next family retreat is there again.

Easter

We celebrated Easter early this year. We're going on a family retreat this weekend and decided trying to bring Easter along with us would be too much trouble. It was an interesting day. I realized the night before that I hadn't talked to Zach about the Easter bunny. I talked to him about the reason we celebrate Easter, but not the Easter Bunny. However; all we had to do was mention that there were presents waiting for him downstairs and Zach headed. Like all kids he loves presents.
We kept the gifts small. Brylee got a couple of toys and a book. She loves playing with them. She doesn't do anything but chew on them. But at least she's enjoying them.Zach loves his presents too. Although when he first saw the presents he went strait for Brylee's even though his were closer. He got sand toys and chalk. He loves playing with them outside. But it took awhile to get him to to even look at his. He was way more interested in playing with Brylee's. A little disappointing, but what can you do.

New Camera

We just got a new camera. So these are just some of the photos we took while playing around with our new toy.

















Just for some general information, Brylee just turned 6 months old. She now weighs 20 lbs. She has two teeth and uses them to chew on everything. Her favorite thing to do is blow rasberries. It's especially funny when she does it on your arm when you're holding her.

In the Army now

YAY! We're finally together again. We sucessfully made the trip and are now living on base in North Carolina. Our little place is great. While the kitchen is small, it opens to the dining area which makes it feel bigger. And there is LOTS of room for storage.


While there are little playgrounds throughout our neighborhood the library has a great playground. We took the kids there Saturday and Zach went wile. The kid couldn't concentrate on any one thing.


Jake gave Zach a buzz cut last week. I'll admit I was traumatized. He didn't look like my little boy anymore. It took me a couple of days to adjust. I never thought of myself as vain until this happened. It's true what they say. You really do learn more about yourself when you have a crisis in your life.

Zach loved going down this very tall red slide. What you can't tell from the pictures (or even just looking at it) is that there are several small bumps going down it. The only reason I know they exist is because Zach made me go down the slide one day. It wasn't a pretty sight. One of the mothers there told me she was glad I did it first so she knew how silly you look going down it. It may have been one of the most humiliating things I've ever done.

Jake got Brylee to scrunch her head down into her shoulders. He thought it was pretty funny. Brylee is getting really heavy. I don't know how much she weighs, but it's enough so that I have come to hate carrying her around all day. She has started eating solids. We're sticking with just rice cereal right now, but she loves it. I think she really just loves the idea of eating real food. She sits in her high chair for meals. It keeps her busy and lets me eat without having her try to wrestle my food away.We love you all.