Zach is 11 Months

This little (big) guy is almost a year old! One month until he is one! Crazy!

He stands on his own well and takes a lot of steps.
He still crawls or cruises everywhere though so not officially walking yet! He finally says mama, waves, claps, dances, plays with us and independently, holds his hand up to his ear pretending to talk on the phone, and even helps with the laundry (he loves passing the clean clothes to me one at a time while I fold them). Actually, he loves passing anything to us and then we say thank you and pass it back. He loves to eat and he would eat all day if we let him. He gets so excited when I come home or he see's me, he loves his mama and boy do I love him! He is a much happier baby now, which is just wonderful! It makes his smiles and giggles that much more sweet and rewarding.

Playing in the rain

On Friday afternoon a big rain storm actually hit our house. This was amazing, since as it seems, that every storm that approaches our house instantly dissapears the second it gets near our home or it splits around us and rejoins forces once it passes us. Since it actually hit us this time, we ran out front to enjoy the down poor! All three kids, and my husband, enjoyed running out into the rain. One baby boy crawling off into the sunset.
And one gorgeous sunset, God's artwork.

Rylee's 1st Day of School!

Rylee started Kindergarten this year! She was so excited to go and couldn't wait for the first day. I wanted time to slow down because I couldn't (and still can't) believe I have a kindergartner. My baby is already in school! Talk about making me feel old! Just thinking about sending her to school made me emotional so I thought I would be a mess the actual day of. Turned out I held it together!
A few days before, Rylee and I went on a back to school shopping trip. I loved hanging out with her and she loved going out with just mom! We also stopped and got frozen hot chocolates which she loved! When we were up at the cabin the girls drank hot chocolate almost daily. I told them its too hot right now to drink it at home so she was thrilled to have a frozen one!

We had a special dinner the night before and Scott went to work late the morning of so he could make her pancakes and go with us to drop her off! Modeling her backpack.

In line waiting to go into her class. This is when I almost lost it, the teacher had them wave and she blew me a kiss. I felt the tears well up at that moment! She is doing great and absolutely loves school. She recently had a half day and told me she wished it was a full day because she didn't want to leave that soon! It's been a lot quieter around her while she's gone. The only thing was Haylee lost her playmate so she would follow me around all day long because playing on her own was not normal! But now that Zach is becoming more of a toddler, thats changing and they are becoming best buds!
I have to say though, I may have not cried the first day of school but I lost it the second day I dropped Rylee off at school. I couldn't walk her to her class that morning, only on the first day, so I had to just drop her off out front and drive off. I told her where to walk and to ask the teachers if she needed help. When she got out of the car she just stood there. I had to go because of the line of cars waiting, and as I watched out the rear view mirror, she just stood there completely confused and too shy to ask the teacher for help. They didn't notice her at all. I left the school, prayed, cried, and drove around the block so I could drive back by.
She wasn't standing there anymore so she made it! Relief! Goodness, I hated that feeling of letting my baby go and not being able to help her! And she was perfectly fine. When I picked her up that afternoon she acted like it was no big deal at all. She amazes me, everyday!

Scott's Trip to Alaska!

Scott went on a company retreat to Alaska! The guys flew up to Sitka, Alaska and then took a small plane that lands on the the water, to the lodge they were staying at. It is very secluded and I rarely got to talk to him because you could only call out from satellite phone.

His Dad offered Scott to stay in the master suite with him since he was the only one that didn't snore too much but soon realized that didn't mean the luxory he assummed came with the master suite. He got the cozy little loft. ; )
The view
The bald eagle that flew in after they laid out some fish carcass to entice him in.
They went fishing every day.
One of the days, Scott and one other guy took out a boat and this is what they got to experience. It was the highlight of his trip. They were really close!
The last day, Scott went out on the small plane and they flew to a lake, landed on the water, and fished right from the plane. I don't think the fishing was very successful that day but they did see a bear!

Cabin #2

While Scott was in Alaska, I talked my Mom and Aunt into going up to a cabin (it didn't take much convincing!). I am so glad we got to go because it was nice to get away all week long and (im not going to lie) it was wonderful to have help with my kiddos all week! The weather was amazing! It never got much warmer than 70 degrees and rained everyday at some point. I loved listening to the thunder and watching the storms actually roll in daily! There were a few times it was pretty cold which we were not prepared for at all! We even ran the fireplace one evening because the cabin became so chilly. "Hey Guys" Peek-a-booI was showing my mom that Zach could stand all by himself and as he was standing there he suddenly walked a few steps over to a nearby bench on his own! We were thrilled! It was his very first steps! We taught the girls how to play Go Fish one evening and it became a new favorite! Rylee planking. She is so hip. Zach also learned how to climb stairs!He made it all the way to the top all by himself.Once upstairs, he loved playing peek-a-boo with Haylee and Grammie.Trying to coax him to walk again. We went to a lake to play but it was extemely stinky and there wasn't any shade. It was a gorgeous view though!!So we headed to the creek!Zach all tuckered out The girls discovered they could climb on the windowsill and jump to the bed. They were complete spazzes that day! All of the doors at the cabin had a Z on them so we had to get a picture with Zach.It was such a great, relaxing week! I missed Scott a lot, it was strange being on vacation without him! Neither of us got cell phone signal so we barely talked to each other the whole time! But absence makes the heart grow (even) fonder, which couldn't be truer. I was so happy for him knowing he was having an amazing time and so thankful the kids and I got to go on vacation too! (Thanks again Mom and Denise!!)

Cabin #1

My Mom, Aunt, and Uncle all rented a cabin for a week and invited us up over the weekend. It was a nice break but the temperature was surprisingly not as cool as we thought it would be! There was a neat tree at the cabin that the girls loved climbing.We went to a creek to play but didn't stay long because it was hot!The boys caught crawdadsMy Family When we got back to the cabin, my cousin Matt and his girlfriend showed up and we all hung out outside. A bunch of us started making things with clay that my Aunt brought and they used it to make Rylee's stick gun super cool. Zach turned 10 months old while we were there! Poor guy was running a fever the whole weekend, he was quite the trooper though! We all sat around the fire the last night and made s'mores with giant marshmellows stuffed with chocolate. It was genius! We pre-made the s'mores and then wrapped them in tin foil to place on the fire. They melted perfectly but it turned out to be a giant (yummy) mess!Messy exhibit A: