Family, Birthdays, Vacation, and Playtime

Greetings from the land of too busy and not enough time!!!

Okay, so I know several of you are going to boycott my blog, but at this point let's face it. Keeping up with two kids, a husband, a full time career, a house, friends, family, and a blog is very difficult...so you know which one I had to put on the back burner. The truth is, life has been busy, but it's been oh so blessed. I sit here tonight going back through literally hundreds of pictures that we've taken since my last post and I realized how truly wonderful life is!!!

First, Happy Six Month Birthday to my Baby Boy...who's almost not a baby any more. Zach is growing so quickly. He's sitting alone, getting into the crawling position, babbling up a storm, and he has two teeth. I just can't believe how fast he's changing.

He had a check up today and he's 16 pounds and 26 inches long. The 25th percentile for weight and 60th for height. He's bigger than Olivia was at this age...but she's always been a runt, so that's a good thing!

So many of you are pregnant with #2 right now, so I just have to take a moment and say, look what you have to look forward to!!! Olivia and Zach play so well together. Olivia loves her baby brother and she's so good to him. Very protective and very loving, she makes sure that he's always taken care of. In fact, if he's crying, she'll promptly tell me or Auntie Lynn Lynn, "Bubba crying, pick him up." Too cute!!! Here they are playing with a Mrs. Potato Head that Big Mama and Big Daddy got her for her birthday. A favorite toy of hers.

My handsome little man. I'm telling you, Ladies. He just melts my heart! And be honest, does he look like his Daddy too???? I can't believe I've birthed 2 kids and neither of them look like me!!!

He's trying so hard to crawl. Maybe he'll get it before Christmas.

It's so hard for us to get pictures of the both of them. Olivia is so not into having her picture taken. We were on our way to the mall and just happened to get this shot before we headed out the door. We'll have to visit a professional photographer to get a family shot - it's the only way Olivia will sit still.

Starting with this next picture, things are going to get a little confusing. These events are NOT in chronological order. My hubby gave me 20 minutes to blog before he had to get back to work, so I didn't have time to rearrange pictures.

Josh's brother, Stewart, has lived out West for as long as I've known Josh. He's been working on his degree, so he hasn't been able to visit often. We went on vacation the second week of Novemeber, and while we were gone, Stewart came home for a visit. We were lucky that he got to stay for over a week, and he finally got to meet Olivia and Zach. Olivia was timid at first, but she warmed up when Stew bribed her with money!!! Stew gave Olivia some spare change and they took the opportunity to put it in Olivia's piggy bank. Stew taught Olivia all of the different coins. She loved it, and ever since has hoarded money like someone from the depression. If we ever need her to sit still for a minute, we dump out some change and put her piggy bank in front of her.....keeps her busy for hours....or at least 10 minutes!

For her birthday, Olivia got a trampoline. This is Aunt Bre and Daddy trying to put it together in the foyer of our house.

And here it is put together. Y'all this thing is huge. We had no idea when we started putting it together, but we had to end up taking it apart to get it in the playroom. Jumping is another Olivia obsession. Gymnastics has really turned her into quite the little bouncing machine.

While Stewart was in town, the Preston boys spent a lot of time together. One day Micah, Mary, and Stew took Josh on his first hike in quite a while. Do I dare say it kicked his butt! Here are the four of them mid-hike.

Micah and Mary always take such good pictures...even in the woods. Can't hide that true love!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA
Finally, the birthday party! We came home from vacation on Friday evening and had Olivia's second birthday the next morning at 10:00. Note to self: Never do that again. This year her party was at Pump It Up, an inflatable jump place. Olivia had two special guests at her party. First is her Uncle Stewart. And the second is her Great Aunt Vickie who we don't see often enough! You'll see Aunt Vickie in a second. Uncle Stew turned out to be quite the pro at being and Uncle. The kids loved him...right, Zachary.

We were able to wrangle most of the kids up for this picture. Olivia had a blast. I totally recommend a place like this for a party. They do everything for you so that you can enjoy yourself. And enjoy ourselves we did. The adults had more fun racing through the obstacle course than the kiddos!!! It was a workout for some of us...but oh so fun!!
One of very few family shots that we have of all four of us......and how does that happen? We never get family shots!
Here is Olivia's birthday cake and one of our favorite friends, Ms. Dana. Dana is Abbi's mom and she really helped me out that day. Thanks so much, Dana.

And here is Olivia and Aunt Vickie. And yes, Olivia is eating a sucker. In fact, that day she had pizza, sprite, birthday cake, and candy...all in one day. She was in little kid heaven!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

For Halloween this year, we went to my brother's house and let the kids go to a couple of houses. Both kids were sick, so we didn't stay out long. Matt tripped out his Rhino with a trailor and tons of hay and took the kids on the hayride of a lifetime. They loved it. Here's Livi and Zach and my dad. Livi was a fairy, Zach was a pumpkin, and my dad....well he was a good ole' country Pop!!! The best one every!!! Here we are on the back of the Rhino. My sister is dressed as Snow White. She gets the prize for biggest for Oldest Snow White on the block!

But she is charming!!!
Matt, Pop, and Zach - the men in the front, the chicks in the trailor....hmmmmmm...you might be a redneck!


Well, that concludes my long overdue, totally out of sequence, long as all get out blog update. I don't expect that anyone is still reading, but if you are, you win the prize for most board blogger without anything else to do Award. See ya later!