Catching Up

Zak's birthday celebration concluding with his first airplane ride since the trip home from China.  We surprised the boys with a trip to Texas for Thanksgiving.  And what amazing travelers they were...they actually got invited into all four cockpits and chatted with the pilots and tried to push all the buttons...it was great fun.  Texas was a giant funfest thanks to Fairy Godmother Beth and Uncle Dan and all their Texas hospitality, fun planning and goodies.  Legoland, Turkey Day, Redskins football at the incredible new Dallas stadium, a zipline ride, a Chinese Lantern festival.  Zak has proclaimed that when he grows up he will be living in Texas and since he's already declared himself a Cowboys fan that should work out fine.  Next up Christmas...gonna be hard to beat after all that fun. 

Five year old fun!

Zak is turning 5 and loving every minute of it!  He is such a character with his strong opinions, his silly smiles and his zest for life.  He tells it like it is, he talks non-stop, he loves to laugh, he adores his brother beyond belief and has more friends than anyone can count.  Joyful, funny, loving Zak...we can't wait to see what you will do this fun five year old year.  We love you to "infinity and even more".  

Zak is turning 5 and loving every minute of it!  He is such a character with his strong opinions, his silly smiles and zest for life.  He tells it like it is, he talks non-stop, he loves to laugh and he adores his brother beyond belief and has more friends than he can count.  Joyful, funny, loving Zak...can't wait to see what you will be this fun five year old year.  We love you to infinity and even more.

Fall Fun!

This crazy busy time of year is always one of our favorites.  Gotcha Day, Halloween, Zak's birthday, Thanksgiving and the countdown to Christmas.  If you know our boys you know their enthusiasm for an average day is usually off the charts so you can only imagine the excitement that surrounds this season.  It's non-stop, it's loud, it's wild and it makes us thankful beyond words.

Gotcha Year Two

Gotcha Day year two for our little Zak...so amazing to think it's been two years.  Seems like yesterday and seems like forever ago at the same time.  We had lots of fun looking back through all the photos and talking about our trip.  It was pajama day for Zak at school so that was extra special fun.  His special present-a new belt...yup, a belt. The boy that came to us storing plums in his pockets and just this week stuffed a ball of silly putty into his blue jeans now insists on wearing a belt for every occasion.  He is our character, our funny guy, our adored "lil man" as Van likes to say.  We simply cannot imagine our family without him.  

Long Overdue

School started and poof it's almost Halloween.  I guess getting into our new non-summer groove took longer than expected.  Feels like we are on a roll now.  Looking forward to the season of candy that's about to begin and all the fun fall festivities.  Van is tackling 1st grade head on with an awesome teacher and plenty of stories.  Zak is king of preschool and starting to work on letter recognition and hand writing.  It's both funny and surprising to hear, see, listen to what they do know and even funnier what they don't but think they do.  We hear a lot of conversations that start with "Did you know..." and we love it.  Learning, loving and laughing...how we are rolling around here.

Forever Friends

No words needed to describe the love these four have for each other and life in general.

First Day First Grade

Van-"When I grow up, I want to be a 12th Grader".  Thank goodness we aren't there yet...think we'll enjoy this 1st grade thing for a while longer, at least a year.   First day was declared "great".   Makes my heart so happy that this boy loves school.