this boy

THIS boy--yep, this one with all the missing teeth--is now 7. SEVEN, for crying out loud. I'm not one of those parents who is constantly saying "How did this happen?" or "Where did the time go?" or "I can't believe you are already 7 years old!". Because I totally realize that life moves forward. And sometimes it seems really fast. But I LOVE being a Mama to my kids at all of their ages. I try to focus on living for TODAY and not worry about where the time has gone or what will happen in the future. Of course I think about those things too, especially around one of my kids' birthdays when you really start reminiscing about their short little lives, but I must admit that my oldest child turning 7 years old didn't really freak me out. He's 7. Yep. He's growing up. He's becoming responsible and remembering things ON HIS OWN (like what things he needs to take to school everyday), he's occasionally showing signs of being kind to his sisters, he's stinkin' brilliant, he amazes us with his ability to comprehend what he reads (this especially impresses me, because reading comprehension was never my strong point...), he has an AWESOME sense of humor for a 7 year old, he pretty much goes to bed all on his own and RECOGNIZES all by himself when he is tired and should go to bed (crazy, I know!), and he is starting to understand things outside of his immediate vicinity (such as world issues and such). AND he still loves to be tickled and cuddle and snuggle up on the couch. He's not too cool to come running to give me a hug when he sees me at his school or give a little kiss goodbye before he gets on the bus. (I'm sure that will change in the next few years.) But, he's also ONLY 7 YEARS OLD. He often cops a nasty little attitude and totally forgets all about being kind, respectful, and obedient. Yah, like last night at his karate class when he did everything in his power to NOT obey the instructor, dance around and lay on the floor instead of doing what he was supposed to, and interrupt the other kids in his class. He was THAT kid last night. So embarrassing. We were not pleased. Its a good thing those days are not his norm.

So, how did we celebrate his birthday? We had a fairly low-key day. He had breakfast in bed, went to school, had lunch with Grandma at school, and then later that day we had cupcakes and ice cream and watched Star Wars. Fun day for a 7 year old!

A few days after his actual birthday, he had a good ol' Nerf gun birthday party with some of his friends. Have I mentioned my husband's obsession with Nerf guns lately? No? Well, here's one wall in our garage:

Cake decorating is not my forte.....although that chocolate frosting is seriously yummy. Think Nutella. But homemade. That's for another blog post...

Naturally Jack is following in his Daddy's footsteps and becoming obsessed with Nerf guns as well. He got three new BIG Nerf guns for his birthday from all of his grandparents. He and his friends spent the afternoon shooting down targets in our garage and even shooting at targets on one wall inside our house too. I'm pretty sure they had fun!

Happy Birthday, my awesome Jackson!

through the lens

I'm a big advocate of kids taking photos. With a real camera. (Not just a Fisher Price toy camera or my iPod camera or the camera on my phone.....) Its pretty amazing what kids come up with when you let them take photos. I can now honestly say that I am pretty comfortable with handing over my big bulky expensive nice camera to my two oldest kids, ages 6 and 3. I'm pretty sure they won't throw it. And its just about the cutest thing ever to see them holding a big digital SLR camera as they walk around taking photos at their level. Most of them turn out rather blurry, but that's ok with me. Tonight Jack and Macy each took turns taking photos around our family room. Very low lighting and the aperture was open as wide as could be, which tends to produce blurry photos if you don't hold the camera super still or if you don't have a good focal point. Taking those two points into consideration, I thought they did a great job!
Jack's:

Macy's:

Valentine's Day turned out to be pretty fun overall. Some highlights:
*My Valentine brought me a gas station donut AND hot chocolate this morning.
*There was chocolate candy everywhere we turned today. Although, those heart-shaped chocolate candy boxes usually disappoint me because I always take a big bite out of some nasty coconut-filled chocolate and then I have to scrape all the nasty coconut flavor off of my tongue. Ew.
*The kids had fun exchanging Valentines and there was one crazy 30 minute time period today where 11 little kids were all exchanging Valentine's and treats in our daycare room.
*Every time I tried to get Zoe to say "Happy Valentine's Day!" she would just say "diaper!"
*The snow is starting to melt (yay!) and it almost felt like a heat wave. It was somewhere above 30 degrees today, so at least it didn't hurt your lungs to go outside.
*Grocery shopping tonight was kinda fun because I got to see a bunch of last-minute shoppers running around buying cards, flowers, and stuffed animals.

Jack, wearing Star Wars PJs and reading a Star Wars book, of course....he's addicted right now:

Macy checking out her bag of Valentines:

Zoe just being squishy and sweet:

An attempt for one group photo of my littlest Valentines. Cute and uncooperative as always.

Kindergarten.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my oldest child is now in kindergarten. Such a weird and crazy thing! Its been an awesome week! Jack has been counting down the days till school starts and he’s had his back pack all ready to go for about a month. Jack’s first official day was August 13th. Parents were required to come that day, and they did not ride the bus to school. I went along with him and it was such a neat thing to experience.

They went around the room participating in a bunch of activities and basically learning all about their classroom (where the bathroom is, how loud the toilet flushes, where their mailbox and locker is located, etc). Then they sat on the rug and his teacher, Mrs. Chaffee, read a story. They chatted a bit with the teacher and then they finished the morning coloring while Mrs. Chaffee talked with all of the parents. While on the story time rug, Jack sat next to his best little buddy, Jase, who Jack has been friends with since they were 2 years old. Jase is quite shy and was very upset and crying while they were sitting on the floor. Jack kept patting Jase’s back and saying nice things like “It will be ok. I miss my mommy too. I’ll be your friend. You’ll be just fine, Jase. Look, you can see your mommy right over there!” My heart was MELTING as I observed Jack being such a good friend. The teacher called out each child’s name and they were supposed to raise their hands. When she said “Jackson Beers”, Jack raised his hand as high as he could and said “I’M RIGHT HERE, MRS. CHAFFEE!!” and then he helped Jase raise his hand when she called out his name. I am so proud of him for being such a caring friend.

The next day was the first day of kindergarten with no parents! And he rode the bus to school! Wow, that was a crazy thing to observe! Jase and Jack get on the bus at the same time and they held hands as they walked right up the bus, said “hello” to the bus driver, found a seat together and just sat right down! No big deal!

I picked them both up from school (kindergarten is just ½ day, so we have to pick him up everyday). I asked 100 questions, and they didn’t really want to share a whole lot, so after a while I stopped asking questions…..they did, however, tell me that it took a long time to get to school and they had to pick up a bunch more kids (they are on the bus for about 15 minutes total) but that the bus ride was really fun. His favorite part of the day was recess (of course) and they went to the library and the “librarier” read them a story. It was sweet to listen to him retell a few things about his day, but I would have LOVED to be a fly on the wall in his classroom to see what it was like!

It is a little weird to think that he’ll be learning from someone else now and he’ll be spending a lot of his time away from us. I’m so proud of him and so excited for his future.

random Summer updates

Wow, 2 posts in one day! I also updated our daycare blog today, so clearly I’m on a roll. Now that we’re getting back into the swing of things with the school year starting again, I’ll be updating the blog more regularly.

We found a Dinosaur Monopoly game at a garage sale for 50 cents. Jack is REALLY good at it and it is so much fun to play! Right now Jack is really into "big boy" things like Harry Potter, Star Wars, board games, video games, etc. He seems so old to us now!
Kindergarten registration was last week. Hard to believe that the little man is going to be in kindergarten. His first day is August 13th. He's had his backpack all ready for a while and he has been counting down the days till school starts. In this photo, Jack (on the right) is standing with his best friend, Jase, in front of their classroom door. They are in the same class and they are very excited. They will ride the bus together and everything. So cute.

My dad's side of the family had a Zimmerman gathering at the lake a couple of weeks ago and it was great to spend the day there. The kids had fun playing in the sand and going on a boat ride. Here, Jack is getting ready to head out on the jet ski with my cousin, Jeremy. He loved it!

The Zimmerman clan that was able to make it to the get together....

Matt and Jack had fun making a sand castle. Macy just threw sand around with a little shovel.

On the boat...

Macy is really into playing dress-up right now and she likes wearing ALL the jewelry all at once.

A very sweet moment between brother and sister. Macy just woke up from her nap and was sitting at the end of her bed. Jack always insists on being the one to go into her room to get her up from her nap (even now that she is in a big girl bed...). He likes opening the door and being the first one to talk to her. He also likes giving big hugs and kisses. I wonder how long this sweet relationship will last? I'm praying forever!

SUMMER = happiness

You would think that I would have MORE free time in the summer to update the blog, but there is something about the summer months that makes me get slightly lazy in the blogging department…which means that my last few (and probably next few) blog posts will just be quick updates on what has been going on in our lives!

I’ve been having trouble on Blogger with rearranging the order of photos and text, so I’m just going to talk about each photo in the order it was updated, I guess!

Jack’s t-ball season ended at the end of June. All in all, it was an excellent season and he really enjoyed playing t-ball. His coach gave him the “Mr. Personality award” at the end of the season. Jack was always doing SOMETHING to get the coach’s attention. It was quite comical to watch him out there, to be honest! The other parents would regularly comment to us that they had a blast watching Jack and just seeing what little antics he was putting on that evening. Great…we’re raising a class clown!
We took some photos during a recent trip to Jefferson Pointe. They have gorgeous landscaping around this outdoor mall and we took a bunch of photos of the kids among all the flowers. This was just one of my favorite shots of both of them in front of a brick wall.

Our 4th of July was, well, interesting! We stayed at home and lit off a bunch of fireworks on our driveway. Jack LOVES fireworks and sparklers. So does Matt. It’s a guy thing, I think! I like the big pretty ones, but I could really do without the little dinky ones that just make a lot of popping noises and shoot flames in the air. Because sometimes those stupid flames shoot at my yard and burn the grass. Anyway….Macy, on the other hand, was NOT a fan of fireworks. The first one went off and she just started shaking and was unable to move. She couldn’t even move to crawl into one of our laps! So, after just a couple minutes, she and I came back inside the house. And all was well again!

After all those weeks of watching Jack play t-ball, Macy has decided that she likes to play too! It is adorable, really. She hits the ball off the tee (with fairly decent form, I might add!) and then runs all the way to the patio and back. She even likes to take turns with Jack and she’ll stay out and field the balls that he hits off the tee. So cute!

The sandbox has been a huge hit this summer as well. I can’t believe how dirty the kids get after playing in the sand, but they love it, so we play in the sandbox often! Jack really REALLY likes playing in the sandbox by himself. That way, Macy doesn’t destroy all of the things he builds.

Ahhhh…..so……we’re making efforts to go green! I’ve always been drawn to an eco-friendly life-style, but have just recently started making some new changes around here. I’ve been inspired by a blog that one of my friends directed me to, called Enviromom. Its written by two moms who are trying to live more eco-friendly and they are learning how to do so everyday. They are big on taking “baby steps” to become more earth-friendly. We had already been doing many eco-friendly practices, such as recycling as much as possible and buying in bulk to save on container consumption. But...we have decided as a family that we would like to initiate a few more practices into our daily lifestyles. First on the list…using cloth napkins during meals instead of paper napkins. Saves us $$ because we don’t have to restock paper napkins and it obviously helps the earth. I looked and looked at garage sales and other places for cloth napkins, but never found any, so I finally resorted to buying new ones. I found a bunch of cloth napkins 50% off at Target (in the $1 spot!!!) after the 4th of July…so I bought about 25 of them. That should be plenty, I think. So far, I’ve found that I have not used ONE paper napkin since we’ve made this transition and I have also found that I have not noticed a difference in the amount of laundry that I do each week. I just throw the cloth napkins in the laundry with the rest o the clothes and it has not added any extra loads each week. The kids enjoy the cloth napkins as well! We keep them in a basket in the middle of the table, so they are easy to grab when we need them. I am, however, also keeping a small basket of paper napkins on the table in case guests feel more comfortable using paper napkins! The other big change we decided to make was that we are now going to wash and reuse our plastic baggies. Quite surprisingly, I LOVE doing this! It feels so much better to reuse plastic Ziploc bags rather than throw them all away all the time! One other little change we have begun is to make sure that when we pack lunch to eat somewhere other than home or if I’m taking snacks for the kids while we’re away, we package everything in reusable containers. No big deal. I have lots of ideas on things I want to implement, but for now, those are the big changes we’ve made.

Macy has found a new love…markers. She LOVES them. It is so sweet to watch her use them because she pulls and pulls and pulls to get the cap off. Her whole body shakes sometimes as she is pulling so hard. So sweet!

We’ve completed Macy’s new big girl room! All her furniture has been put together, we added some décor, hung new wood blinds, and I painted some circles around the room. I also sewed some ribbon on the curtains and made curtain tie backs with the ribbon. Her clothes and toys have all been moved to her new room and she LOVES it in there! The kids play in Macy’s new room every day and I think she’s getting used to the idea that it is HER room. In a few weeks, we will transition her to the big girl bed and see how she does! Then, baby #3’s room will be all ready for her to arrive.

my little graduate...

We've had a whirlwind of activity around here the past few weeks, and I think I am just now able to sit back and breathe! Jack has been one busy little bee lately. First of all, his last day of preschool was June 2nd. Yep, he's on his way to kindergarden now. =) He had a Field Day at his school and he LOVED every second of that! Then he had an official little graduation ceremony as well. He's had numerous t-ball games the past few weeks and he really seems to like it! He listens to his coach really well and participates in the game as much as he can. It is really quite fun to watch him play.

Getting ready to go to the last day of school with his friend, Caitlyn:

Macy has had a rather uncharacteristic month. She has always been an incredibly laid-back and "easy" child. For over the past month, she has had a really hard time falling asleep and therefore has been extrememly sleep-deprived! She eventually created a little habit for herself where she would start screaming and crying on her way to her crib. Then she would cry/scream for up to 2 hours throughout her nap, and it was taking her a couple of hours to fall asleep at night and she was also waking up multiple times throughout the night and would cry and scream for hours. This is NOT normal for her! She was so tired all the time. She would randomly fall asleep all the time. She fell asleep on her plate at the table a few times, she would sleep anytime we got in the car, she would fall asleep in her swing on the swingset or just on the couch or floor at various times throughout the day. Again, NOT normal for Macy! Finally -FINALLY- we called the doctor. We think that what happened was that she had an ear infection about a month ago (ear infections can often cause pain in kids' ears when they lay down), and then she just created a little habit of being scared to sleep. We had tried everything we could think of to help her sleep....from holding her to giving her a pillow to putting a few books in her bed, etc...but nothing was working! Anyway, the doctor prescribed an antibiotic to finish getting rid of the ear infection and we were instructed to give her a few other medicines as well. Today is the 6th day on the antibiotic and we are now in the process of helping her figure out her sleep schedule again. We took some things out of her crib and turned on the AC before she went to bed (I normally don't like to turn on the AC until it is REALLY hot, so this was a stretch for me!) to make her room more comfortable, and she has slept for 12 hours straight for two nights in a row! And, the best part is that yesterday she took a 2.5 hour nap all on her own with NO crying beforehand! It thrills me to no end that she is getting her normal sleep again and my little munchkin is feeling better!

Jackson has been extremely sweet and an amazing big brother through this past month of Macy's sleep issues. He regularly asks her if her ears hurt and if he can do anything for her. If she is crabby he'll go through a round of questions trying to figure out what's wrong ("Macy, do you want a puzzle? No? Do you want something to drink? No? Do you want me to give you a kiss? No? Do you want me to get you a toy?") and none of the questions really relate to each other, but he's really trying to help her out! It is such a sweet thing to watch. He'll then report to me the questions he's asked her and what he thinks the problem is (which is usually not anything close to any of the questions that he asked...like the other day he came to the conclusion that she had a little mark on her shoulder and that was why she was crabby.....um, what?) He has not complained about her being crabby or even about all the crying she's been doing. He just goes with the flow and seems to understand that this is a little phase for her. Last night he spent the night at my mom's house and he just called this morning to "check in" and see if Macy slept through the night. How adorable is that? He is quite the caring young man!

Here is a cute little photo of Jack helping Macy walk across a bridge. He is always looking out for her! On this particular day at the playground we had been there for a while before a large group of boys about 10 years old or so, came to the playground. They were being pretty rough and wild and Jack said to me "Mom, those boys are being crazy over there, and I do NOT want them to hurt Macy, so we're going to go to the other playground now." And he led Macy over to the little kid section of the playground where she would be safe. Seriously, how adorable is that? I just pray that this behavior continues for many years!

Have a great day!

t-ball

Jack had his first t-ball game tonight...and it was SO MUCH FUN to watch! He had a blast and did quite well! He's making friends with his teammates and seems to understand how to play the game, which is awesome! He had a few practices before thier first game and he really liked going to them. Tonight he got to hit the ball 3 times and each time was a completely different experience. This video is hilarious.....first of all, he's trying to get the ump to look back at Macy climbing on a chair...then he hits the ball the wrong way...then he smacks the tee with his bat...a few swings and misses...and then finally at some point he does hit it, decides to finally make his way down to 1st base, and immediately throws off his helmet when he gets there. You just never know what kids are going to do in t-ball. Very fun and entertaining to watch, that's for sure!

portraits

Jack had his first school photos taken a couple weeks ago and we got them back yesterday. His are so sweet! His school actually had a really nice portrait studio, called The Picture People, come out to the school to do their photos. They look great, but not your typical school portraits! He was mostly excited about the one where the photographer asked him to look tough....

And I think this next one is just quite sweet =)

We had a family portrait taken for our church directory a few weeks ago, and it actually turned out quite well, I think!

My cousin, Jamie, took some adorable photos of Macy wearing a tutu. Jamie has her own photography business and wanted some photos of a little girl in a tutu for her portfolio, so I was more than happy to help her out! Here are a few of my favorites...