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.

Polar Express

We got to do the Polar Express this year. It was a lot of fun. I was a little worried that Zach would sleep through it. But he woke up as soon as he saw the train.

Zach loved the hot chocolate that he got. He loved it so much that he didn't want to try his cookie.

By the end he was facinated with his (and everyone else's) ticket. He even went up to a stranger on the train and was trading tickets.

As you can see he was still facinated with his ticket by the time he met Santa. He offered Santa one quick glance then back to the ticket. He even ended up with an extra ticket by the end. I don't know how. After everything was done Zach did the cutest thing. He took his ticket and put it in his boot. Just like the kid did in the movie. Just goes to show that kids pick up a lot more than we give them credit for.