Everything is More Fun with Cousins!!!

We we were visiting with Stephen's family to celebrate the Fourth of July we did do one thing besides sitting around the house eating all weekend. We went to the park and the pool! These are things that we do every so often with just us, but it is so much more fun with cousins!

Connor was super sweet and came back to help Zoey up the walks to the slide. Zoey isn't afraid of much if anything, but she doesn't like cracks and the walk up there had some big ones. It's so funny that she will even avoid the cracks in the sidewalk.

Uncle Ry-Guy swinging with Zoey. So sweet!

Zoey didn't want anything to do with the "baby" swings anymore. Now that she has figured out how to hold on all by herself she is ready to go.

Zoey coming down the big slide all by herself. She didn't want anything to do with the smaller slides, she was headed to the tallest platform before they even got it. She didn't want help coming down the slide either, she had a blast doing it all by herself.

Zoey and Kiley co-piloted the motorcycle. Zoey kept saying "choo choo" (her noise for anything that moves) and making Kiley laugh.

Yummy lunch! All four sweaty kids sitting down for some massive amounts of water and peanut/fluff sandwiches. The perfect afternoon picnic.

Zoey loves the water! I love her smile in this picture, she was so excited!

Zoey is a fish! This is her swimming all by herself (Stephen has no hands on her, but is staying really close anyway.) Zoey didn't want anything to do with the kiddie pool. She would go over for a few minutes and them almost immediately go running for the big pool again.

It was nice that we had more adults than kids. The older girls had tube floats and Connor and Zoey shared arm swimmies. They all had a blast and enjoyed the water in their own way.

Connor leaping into the kiddie pool. All the kids were fascinated when Stephen and Ryan jumped off the diving board, but they weren't allowed to because they couldn't swim without floats (pool rules). But they still had fun jumping off the side of the pool. Connor liked this because he didn't need anyone to catch him. 

Zoey and Stephen had a blast in the water. Zoey wouldn't go to anyone else for the first bit, she was so excited to be with her daddy. She loved jumping off the side of the pool into his arms too. 

She eventually let other have a turn with her in the water. I greatly enjoy playing and swimming in the water together. She is a fish just like I was. In fact, I see so much of myself in her. She loved swimming between Stephen and I just like I did with my parents. I also had no interest in the kiddie pool when I was a kid. And those arm swimmies are the best things EVER!

Wordless Wednesday: Copy. Paste.

Copy. Paste.

This is my daughter, Zoey, with my husband, Stephen. They look exactly alike! He definitely can't deny her as his little girl. Every time I see that furrowed eye brow I can't help but laugh because they both do it all the time. This picture was fate I think. And I have to thank my husband for coming up with the awesome title, he deserves all the witty credit for that one!

Share your Wordless Wednesday!!!

More Wonderful Wordless Wednesday Fun: 5 Minutes for Mom, Go Graham Go!, Create with Joy, Living at the Whitehead's Zoo, Carrie with Children, Angelica's Awesome Adventures, and The Life of Rylie and Bryce.

Rockin' the Baby!!!

We did "Rockin' the Bump," now it's time for "Rockin' the Baby!" Shell over at "Things I Can't Say" is continuing the fun where we can remember our Tikes when they were babies.

I am amazed that Zoey will be two next month! Where did the time go? It is getting harder and harder to remember those first few months and all the baby pictures I took brought back so many wonderful memories. Zoey has been the best little girl I could ever ask for.

Stephen and Zoey on the day she was born, August 18, 2009. 

Our family picture just before taking her home from the hospital. To this day, this is my favorite family picture of us from when she was born.

I love sleeping pictures. Zoey is about a two weeks old in this one.

Zoey at 3 months. I miss the days when we could have mini photo shoots and she would actually sit still.

Zoey's First Christmas! She was about 4 months old and so into it!

And this is Zoey now...almost two. 

Zoey brings such a joy to our lives and to the lives of anyone she meets. She even makes sure the pizza delivery guy gets a good thank you and bye bye. "Zoey" means "life" and she lives it too the fullest! She is not afraid of much if anything. She wakes up ready to go and is curious about everything. She loves to cook and we greatly enjoy playing outside. She is incredibly smart and loves to figure out how things work. I realize I've been gushing a lot about Zoey lately, but she's my little girl and I love her. I think she is amazing and I'm so proud of her in every way possible.

Our Simple, Fun Weekend

This weekend is the weekend for rest in between two busy weekends. Last weekend we celebrated the Fourth of July with Stephen's family and next weekend we are joining in a family reunion with my Mom's family. So this weekend we kicked back and just spent some time to ourselves.

On Saturday Zoey and I spent so quality time pretending. We got all of her Little People out and played and played. She has a farm with all kinds of animals. I would hold up an animal and ask "What animal is this?" She would say "Moooo" for a cow, "Baaaa" for a sheep and "Neiggghhh" for a horse. I suppose she understands at least. I love watching her imagination come alive!

Saturday afternoon we had a HUGE thunderstorm. We would see lightning and two seconds later thunder would shake the entire house! Thankfully, Zoey isn't afraid of storms. We actually spend a good bit of time watching storms...it's one of my favorite things to do. I find storms fascinating and even relaxing, I hope Zoey shares that.

During the storm our power went out. It flickered and then never came back on. I was a little excited truthfully. At least at first. I lit a few candles (even though it was afternoon, it was really dark because of the storm clouds and sheets of rain.) Then I grabbed our flashlight just in case. I also grabbed some ice packs and put them around the milk, the one thing that would completely spoil with no power. Zoey and I told stories and played with blocks and Stephen played his acoustic guitar. It was actually pretty fun.

After the power was out for over an hour, the excitement wore off. I give kudos to people who lived without electricity, it really changes how you do anything. The worst part is without any air or fans, it was getting really hot in the house. So we decided to head over to our friend's house who did have power. It was fun to go and hang out for a bit. Unexpected visits are sometimes the best. Zoey had a blast! She was running around and super excited to be out around bed time. We played for a while and then settled her down in an extra bedroom. I love Zoey so much because she slept perfectly on her little make-shift bed in an unfamiliar place with little fuss. Later that evening, we checked our house and yay the power was back on! I was glad we slipped away for a while though because according to the clock (starts at 12 when power comes back on) the power had only be on for about an hour and the house was just cooling off to be comfortable again.

On Sunday morning we got up to go to church. Zoey picked out her dress and then got out a pair of panties and started putting them on. I thought this was too cute. We compromised and she actually wore her panties over her diaper (because she isn't at all enough potty trained to go out without a diaper on, especially when she will go in the nursery during service.) I think it is awesome that she is so eager to wear panties though. She also picked out her own shoes, which she wanted to wear with socks even though it is in the 90s outside. So she walked out the door with a cute summer yellow dress, panties over her diaper and dark brown boots with bright purple socks. And though I was laughing, I was fine with this. She was so cute and I love that she has an opinion all her own.

We had such a fun morning. Zoey went into the nursery barely turning around when she said "bye bye" and was off playing with other kids. She also didn't want to leave the nursery when service was done, or the church for that matter. She has so much fun running around and playing with the other kids. I love how adventurous and outgoing she is. I am so proud of the little girl she is, she is growing up so fast!

To continue talking about how awesome I think my little girl is she can point out her facial features. This isn't all that exciting, but we never really taught her these, she just learned them on her own. She can even say most of them. At lunch, we were showing this off and her Daddy asked her "Where is your nose?" She pointed to her nose. "Where are your eyes?" She points to her eyes with both hands. "Where is your mouth?" She sticks her hand in her mouth. "Where is your hair?" She runs her hand through her hair (we learned that be brushing each other's hair.) "Where are your ears?" She pokes her Daddy in the eye. Haha! The table laughs! Apparently, she had enough of that game. I love kids.

I hope you had a great weekend!

Life is Good!

Life is Good! Sometimes there isn't any rhyme or reasoning, but you stop and take a deep breath and realize...Life is Good!

Carpe Diem...Seize the Day!