just a little gushing...

I am so thankful for our little ones! I am overwhelmed by how much I love them! Makenzie is such a wonderful big sister! She is a little Mommy! She is always wanting me to wake him up when he is napping so she can play with him! And he has great hand control now so we play this game where he takes something out of her hand she laughs, and takes it back and then he laughs and we go back and forth a few times...it really is hilarious! The 1st time it happened we laughed to make light of the situation so now Makenzie thinks it is cute when he takes her toy. We hope it stays cute to her! LOL! :) And baby Zach is such a happy baby! I really can not believe he is the same child before we went to the Chiropractor (you can click on Chiropractor to hear the story if you missed that blog entry). He is full of laughs, smiles and giggles! He smiles at everyone! And not just a little smile...when he smiles it is like his whole body is smiling! It is adorable!

Ok, sorry for the gushing I am just overwhelmed with joy over these 2 little people that God has blessed us with!

YOSEMITE!

We had such a great time! Poor Gary was sick the whole week with a cold...1st time in years he has been sick :( but he was such a trooper! We still did everything we wanted to...we walked and walked and walked! We all woke up Sunday AM with little colds so we decided to pack it up and go home...easiest pack up ever! When we got up to Yosemite it was 29 degrees and started snowing! It was such a great experience and so beautiful to see Yosemite covered in snow. We were supposed to leave on Friday but we were having such a great time we decided to try and extend our trip...before G walked into the Ranger's office we prayed that if it was God's will we would get a spot, if not we would just go home. The ONLY site available was the site we were already in! The ranger said the likelihood of that happening was zero! Isn't that so neat! God is good! In February we bought a travel trailer because we have really missed camping. We have not gone since Mak was born. We are so thankful we bought it! But I do have to say being in a travel trailer is not really roughing it! The only thing we were missing was a washer/dryer and our jacuzzi. Seriously it was one of our best purchases EVER! We did miss tenting it a bit but it will be years before we do that again with the little ones. The heater was on most of the night so we stayed nice and warm. Hope you enjoy the pics!
playing near the River with mud!

nap time!

My smiley boys! Don't you love the sunhat I made Gary wear! The kids each have one too! :)

We played by the River multiple times a day!

Story time before bed

That portable DVD was great on the drive but we tried to limit her to just 1 show a day when we were there...way too much beauty outside to watch a show!

We spent most of the trip searching for the perfect walking stick for Makenzie...we found it and then it broke! :(

Yosemite falls and the river behind her.

We saw Bambi on a trail...we also saw a coyote.

Sunday brunch on the AM we left. We were all so tired! Gary and I basically pulled an all nighter...but not the fun kind!

January 2nd, 1997 was the night I became a Christian! That night was also the highest the water level has ever been in Yosemite's history!

Tired, sick Gary after a long walk...thanks for being a trooper G! :)

Lower Yosemite Falls

riding the bus...1 of Mak's favorite things we did daily! :)

giving little bro some love

Makenzie's 1st camp fire! She was so excited! So was Gary! :)

She was so excited to see the horses!

Makenzie climbing around at lunch...look past her on the left. Gary caught Zach and me walking by! :)

her favorite hiding spot in the travel trailer!

playing in the travel trailer! She was so excited every time the windows fogged up she would decorate the windows!

Our 1st meal!

29 degrees!

look at that adorable silly face he is making!

so cozy!

Gary's surprise pic in the camera! Love you too!

snow! just like Buffalo...jk!

Like I said we weren't really roughing it! :) This is the best way to camp!

Fun day with Shayna!

Yeserday was such a great day! We drove out to Lodi and spent the day with Shayna doing wedding stuff! I would have great photos but my camera died after only taking 1 shot! Can you believe it? I was so bummed!
Shayna, thanks for organizing such a great day! WE LOVE YOU! :)
And I am about to pay Kevin the highest of compliments: I was talking with my Mom on the way home and was trying to explain how excited we are for them to get married and how wonderful Kevin treats Shayna...but words failed me...so I simply said "Mom, Kevin treats Shayna like Gary treats me." And my Mom said, "Ah, enough said!" Gary has prayed since Shayna was just a baby for a man just like Kevin to enter her life...and he has! Praise God! :)

So I have no great shots of:

all of us taste testing the food from the caterer which was beyond amazingly delicious! It was so hard to narrow down the choices!
Or
pictures of the Church where Kevin works and the 2nd ceremony will be. Such a beautiful amphitheater and setting! (For those of you who don't know, Shayna and Kevin are getting married in San Diego on June 28th with family and their closest friends and then having a 2nd ceremony and large reception in Lodi on 8/1.)
Or
at the dress shop when we saw her BEAUTIFUL gown for the 1st time! It is gorgeous! Gary keeps saying how beautiful she looked! Although I wouldn't of posted a pic of the dress anyway! But I would of posted Makenzie and Gary playing hide and seek in all the dresses! So cute! And the dress shop owner thought it was cute too and didn't mind! Probably because we bought not only Shayna's gown there but also Makenzie's flower girl dress! Shayna picked out an adorable little dress for her!
Or
a pic of Kev's parents and all of us going out to dinner! We had such a great time with them! Sharon (Kev's mom) held Zac most of dinner...so cute!
Or
Kevin's new apartment that will soon be their home! :)
We made 6 stops in all and Makenzie and Zachary were angels! I really could not believe how great they did...such troopers! The closest thing we got to a melt down was at our last stop, dinner. But we bribed Makenzie with ice cream for dessert and she made it! She had 2 HUGE scoops of ice cream and was in heaven! She consumed more sugar yesterday than ever before...she LOVED taste testing all the desserts at the caterers! :)
Here is the 1 photo of the day!

*I will post pics and a blog about Yosemite later today hopefully! Depends how long the kids nap! ;)

HAPPY EASTER!

I love Easter! A day full of JOY and HOPE for our life today and tomorrow! We had a wonderful day! Josh, Emily and Marguerite came over for an early afternoon brunch (Josh made yummy omelets and Em made a fantastic dessert!) and egg hunt for the kids...well actually just Maki! She was so cute when she found her basket she said "there is too much stuff in the basket!" so next year I guess we won't fill it so much ;) And then we went over to our dear friends Hide and Judy's house for dinner with their kids, grandkids and a couple other friends. Makenzie had a blast playing with all the older kids. And I don't think Zac was put down but for a 30 min. cat nap...he was such smiling machine! We feel so blessed to have such great friends up here that are like family! It definitely makes living so far away from our families easier even though we miss them all so much! Hope you enjoy a few pics from our day! We are SO EXCITED we are heading to Yosemite tomorrow for the week! I will post pics when we get home!

I love her beautiful profile! And her amazing hair with that natural curl!

my handsome boy wearing a tie! so cute!

GORGEOUS!

She dumped all her books out of the basket to fill it up with eggs.

Marguerite and baby Zac...I love his paci smile!

Josh and Em with baby Zac!

discipline!

I just watched the cutest thing! Makenzie was disciplining Gary!
Maki "Daddy that is very naughty. If you do it again I am going to have to spank you."
Daddy "oh I'm sorry Maki, please forgive me." while holding back laughing!
Maki "that is ok, I forgive you! thank you for not being naughty."

I love these precious moments that are building wonderful memories with our baby girl...she says the cutest things! :)

Tickers!

I just posted tickers at the bottom of our page! FUN! :)

a few pics from last week...

we went to the park and had a picnic! :)

happy boy!

Maki trying to pick up her baby bro!

bubble time at gymnastics!

more bubbles...

Maki loves her gymnastics class! I do too! :)