Happy Birthday Zeb!!!

Zeb is one today! I can't believe it! We took him to McDonalds to have some ice cream for his birthday. We plan to have a birthday party for him after my sister Hayley and her husband Charlie get here. He loved the ice cream and cried when it was finished. He also had a great time playing on the slide with Kayleigh. I am so glad that God has blessed us with this little boy. He brings so much joy to our lives.

Zoo Trip

While our friends were in town we decided to take a trip to the zoo. I have lived in our city for 5 years and have never visited the zoo. I have to admit I had very low expectations however, I was very pleasantly surprised. We found out that the zoo has a bear and tiger show everyday around 10:30. Kayleigh loved the zoo and was so excited to see the elephants especially the little baby one. My one complaint would be that there is no rhyme or reason to how they have laid out the zoo. So if you were like me and meeting your friends after they had already been at the zoo for an hour it would be very hard to find them. It took me about 30 minutes to find them at the elephants. You would be surprised of how many people had no clue where the elephants were when I asked them!

Potty Talk!

Last week we had some friends of ours over that live about 3 hours from our city. We don't get to see them that often but when we do it is a treat. They have a little girl that is 3 years old named Kate. Kayleigh and Kate played so well together. So well in fact that we found them in the bathroom both using the potty at the same time, giggling and making faces at each other. They were so funny.

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter! On Saturday Kayleigh, John, Zeb and I dyed Easter eggs. It was Kayleigh and Zeb's first time. We mainly just kept Zeb away from the cups so that he wouldn't drink the die. On Sunday after Church we had a picnic brunch outside and the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt. It was beautiful day.

Kayleigh loved the Easter Egg Hunt especially when she found out that there was candy inside the eggs.

Birthday Party!

Last Saturday Kayleigh went to her friend Bright's 4th birthday party. They started out with a trip to the ball pit and then back to his house for some pizza and cup cakes. She had a blast!

Zeb mostly just tried to crawl around and eat the balls that had come out of the ball pit.

Below are some of the party attenders. The birthday day boy had his head turned. He wasn't in the mood for his picture to be taken.

Baby Bash!

Recently we had a Baby Bash to welcome back all the families that had new little ones. There were four new babies to add to our community here. Jack Huffman, Sarah Dean, Zane Smith and Issac Kvernen are the new additions. We had a great time of fellowship with our friends with a cookout and lots of fun activities for the kids. We decided to take a picture of all the kids. It is amazing that not one of them was crying at the time. There are 12 kids total, all 4 years old and under and another one planning to arrive in June! It is so great for John and I to have such a great community of young families here to fellowship with.

Back from left to right: Julianna, Lydia, Callie, Kayleigh, Zeb, Emma Grace, Zion and Bright.
Front from left to right: Issac, Zane, Sarah, Jack

It was really warm that day so the Huffmans brought out their pool full of warm water for the kids to play.

Zeb loved the pool!

Picnic Time!

About a week ago we had a picnic with my friends Erin Ashley and Marianne. Erin Ashley just recently returned from America. It was so good to see her and catch up. Her daughter, Emma Grace and Kayleigh have lots of fun together. The kids had a great time running around and laughing. We ended up setting up the picnic at a hotel to get away from the crowd of people. Kayleigh and Emma Grace got a little too close to the sprinklers and got a little wet! We had a great time.

Here we are with all three strollers, two of them are double strollers!

Zeb hanging out on the blanket. A picnic with Zeb means that I fight to keep him from eating other people's food that he actually doesn't have the ability to eat yet even though he tries.

11 Months!

Zeb turned 11 months on Sunday. He is getting so big! He doesn't have that many new tricks since the last time I wrote about him. He does say "Dada"and it is specifically directed to John. He is trying to crawl but just basically turns in circles around the carpet. We are really glad that he isn't crawling yet and we hope that this skill will not develop until after we arrive in America. We don't really want a crawling kid on a plane for 12 hours! He is pretty determined to get what he wants and is usually successful. I caught him one day turning up the stereo really loud. I had assumed it was Kayleigh! He is still so full of joy and always wants to be with Kayleigh and I. We love him so much and are so glad that he is a part of our family.

Zeb can be a little wild at times. Check out the picture below with the hairdo.