Lexi's 4th Birthday

Lexi turned 4 on March 9th. Her birthday fell on a Monday so we celebrated the whole weekend. On Saturday Lexi went to Mawmaw's house to open presents and then to Backyard Burger for her birthday lunch. Then Mawmaw took Lexi shopping. Lexi loves to shop. We took her to Build-a-Bear. She made her a Hello Kitty. She picked out a sound that sang Happy Birthday. She had so much fun.

We went to church Sunday morning and because she is 4 now she will begin attending mass. Zack said she asked a lot of question. But she was very good. She was very excited to be a big girl and be able to go to the big church.


When we got home we let her open her 1st present. It was a Hello Kitty shirt. She was having a Hello Kitty party so I just thought it would be appropriate for her to wear Hello Kitty. We had her party @ McDonald's. That was interesting! The kids had a blast. I was so stressed out about not having it @ my house, but she loved it. Lots of people came to her party.


Her best friend from Zack's school, Macy, came. Her boyfriend from her school , Jackson, was also there. Along with Brian, Dillon, Kylie, Jake, Ian, and Casey. Of course, their parents and her grandparents were there as well. She received lots of great gifts.

Then on Monday, her actual birthday, I wanted to make her day special. First, we got ready and went to the mall. She wanted to eat a pretzel for lunch. LOL She received a present from the Kidgits program. Then, we went to the Children's Place to look for some dresses. Next, we went upstairs to ride the Merry-Go-Round followed by a train ride.

Lexi begged me to do to do the Spider Jump. I first told her no because it was 7 dollars and I didn't want her to get scared and waste the money. Of course she responded by saying she was a big girl now and she promises that she will not be scared. LOL So I let her and she was just fine. Actually she loved it. You have to be 20lbs to do it. The guy who was in charge of it, said that since he was not paying attention to her like he was supposed to, he would let Brennan do it for free. We then went and got her pretzel for lunch.

After the fun trip to the mall, we headed to the Zoo. I called my friend Kim to see if she wanted to bring her son to the zoo to meet up with us. Lexi was excited to see Jake. We walked around the zoo and let the kids see the animals. Then we went to the gift shop to see what she could find. She found this mouse looking thing that whistles at you. LOL She loved it. We left the Zoo and went home to pick up Meaghan and Zack to go to dinner.

When we got home, we put candles in another cupcake and let her blow them out. She had an awesome birthday! I cant believe how fast she has grown. She is so amazing and I have loved all four years watching her grow and cant wait to see whats next.

Brennan @ 7 Months

Brennan turned 7 months old on Feb. 23. He weighs 22 lbs. I am not sure how long he is. He has began to crawl and pull up. He loves to crawl all around the house. He keeps me very busy. Brennan is trying to learn to walk. He stood up on his own and took a step toward me. He gets so excited when he realizes that he has done something new. When Zack comes home he also gets really excited. Brennan will crawl over to him and pull up in order to get Zack to pick him up. Brennan got to experience snow the other day. Although he did get to see snow for the first time when he was 6months old, we did not take him out in it. He was cold but he seemed to enjoy himself. I cant wait to see what he will be doing for the rest of the month.

Brennan @ 6 months

It has been crazy around here keeping up with the kids. They are so cute now. Brennan is 20 lbs 8 oz. 26 inches long. He just keeps getting bigger. Its amazing to me that he is bigger than Lexi was at a year. He loves to play with his sister and mommy. Brennan also likes taking baths now. Lexi and Brennan play together so well in the tub. They are so funny! His first word was Dada. He loves when Zack comes home. He will even look for and call him when he is not even home. He does say Mama but only when he is upset. He yells it to get me to do what he wants. He loves to eat all the time. He has begun to grab for our plates when we eat.

Christmas 2008

I took some pictures of our Christmas tree and of the kids in front of the tree, since it was Brennan's first Christmas. We took them to see Santa. It was so cute. They both loved him. Lexi sat up there just fine. Brennan was fine but the next thing we know he has a handful of Santa's beard. LOL We did get pictures but for some reason I cant find them. Sorry there wont be a picture of that until I can find it.

We visited a lot of people for Christmas. Our Christmas tradition is to go to my mom's house for Christmas Eve afternoon. Then to Mawmaw's house Christmas eve night to spend the night. Lexi sat out cookies for Santa and mini carrots for Rudolf. She wanted to make sure that both Santa and Rudolf had some thing to drink too. LOL Santa came to visit us there. He left the kids lots of stuff. Then we open presents in the morning. Lexi was so excited. She woke up and was mad because I made her wait to open presents and she got mad. But she quickly got over it. After we opened presents at Mawmaw's house, we went to my mom's house to open presents there. Then we went back to Mawmaw's house to get the rest of our stuff. The day was finally over. We took the kids home. The next weekend we took the kids to Gil's house to open presents with them.

Brennan was so funny. He liked to sit in his bumbo and eat the paper. He really like the presents he got. Lexi was excited about all the stuff she got. It was a great Christmas!

Trip to Nashville 2008

On Nov. 13 we left for Nashville. It was Brennan and Lexi's first time in a hotel. We stayed Nov.13 - 16th. We has so much fun. On Thursday we drove up there. The kids were good. Lexi watched her movie player and Brennan slept all the way there. We stayed in the Opryland Hotel. This is the hotel that Zack purposed to me almost 8 years ago. It was really exciting to be back at the start of it all. It was so beautiful there. I loved it. I know that the kids did. We had a room with two queens and a balcony. We also had a suite so we could all hang in and meet before we left to do stuff. We ate at the hotel the first night. It was good. They had a water show. It was neat. Lexi was so fascinated by it. Brennan not so much. He was just happy if some one was holding him. We went swimming at the pool. Lexi was so excited. It was Brennan's first time in the pool. It was indoor so it was nice. They also had a jacuzzi. Of course, the water was too hot to put Brennan in it. But I wrapped him up and went outside to see what it was like. It was cold and the water was very hot. So I wanted to go back in. Zack took Lexi out there to play. Well, he put her feet in the water and her legs went straight up in the air. She refused to touch the water. It was too hot. LOL So, then we all hung out in the suite. Lexi wanted to sleep up stairs with Grammy that night. Which was ok with us. LOL. We got up the next morning and went to a craft fair. It was good just very crowed. The kids were good. We were so tired after fighting all those people. Then when Liz and Dillon got there and we went to the mall. Before we went to the mall, we had to wait on our cars at valet. Lexi and Caleb had gone ahead of us down stairs. As i am walking up to the front, I see Lexi coming out of the Celebrity room. Apparently, Lexi was walking by them and waved at them. The ladies thought she was so cute that they asked her to come in. They gave her pretzels and apple juice. LOL She is a celebrity now. I had to get Lexi to take a picture with them. Once we got to the mall, Lexi, Brian, and Dillon all went to build-a-bear and decided thats what they wanted to buy with the money Maw maw gave them. She gave all the kids: Brian, Dillon, Jacob, Emma, and Lexi all money to buy a souvenir from Nashville.The three of them were so cute picking out and stuffing there animals. Then we went down to Libby Lu. Lexi decided she wanted to get her ears pierced. She was so excited. She sat in the chair and talked about it. Then decided she did not want to do it. But as she was getting down she said she wanted to do it. So, Lexi got her ears pierced. I cried. I felt like I hurt her. She cried because it hurt. Then we all ate at Rainforest Cafe. It was good. The kids really enjoyed eating there. Brennan slept through the whole dinner. We went back to the hotel. Lexi went swimming for a little while. Caleb, Kellyann, Maw maw, Cathy, Brennan and I all went to the rotating bar. It was a bar in the center of our section we were staying in. It rotated around in a circle. It was very slow and you would never notice it but the fact you would look up and you would see some thing different. We just sat and talked about the hotel and things. Kellyann and I went to the Jack Daniels bar. We did not want to go to sleep just yet. Then Zack, Josh, Liz, Aunt Kelly, and Caleb all showed up at the bar. It was good times. LOL We went back to the suite. Lexi was still awake. She wanted to stay in the room with us that night. She was so tired. Friday morning, Brennan and I woke up and ate breakfast. We hung out on the balcony then we went up to the suite. Lexi and Zack stayed in bed asleep. I finally went down stairs and made them get up. Lexi had fallen out of her bed and ended up getting in our bed. She said that Foofa pushed her out of bed. (For all those who don't know. Foofa is a character from Yo Gabba Gabba. Its a show on Nickjr. LOL She has a great imagination.) Any way, Saturday we hung out at the hotel that morning. We went walking around. At 1:00pm we all (except Maw maw and Brennan) went to the Ice Show. It was really neat. Every thing in the building was made of ice. The theme was "The Grinch". It was so very cold in the rooms. Lexi ended up in Caleb's jacket. He was so good to hold her the whole time and keep her warm. There were a couple of slides in there. It was fun. I went once. It was too cold to do it again. Zack went down and decided he would push him self down and flew so fast. LOL It was a sight to see. Lexi did do the slides twice. She was ready to go after that tho. After the Ice show, we went to the mall to hang out again. Maw maw had arranged for us to meet at the suite and go to a nice restaurant in the hotel. It was fancy. We got great seats though. They had a concert going on in the hotel. It was neat. Lexi was so scared of the fireworks at the end of the show. It was a loud boom. So she talked Cathy into taking her up to the suite so she would not be scared. Brennan was a sleep the whole time. Caleb was holding him and he just passed out. After dinner, we went on the Delta boat ride. Its a ride that goes through the delta section in the hotel. It was neat and we learned stuff about the hotel. I was so excited to see the fruit growing in the hotel. LOL Some people went swimming afterwards. The rest of us hung out in the suite . When everyone was back. The kids all stayed in the suite. Some of us adults walked through the hotel. It was really late. We people watched. (If you know Zack and I we could sit all day and do that. LOL) Then on Sunday, we woke up and hung out in the suite. We were leaving this day. It was sad. I really liked it there. Lexi was upset we were leaving. She wanted to live in the hotel. LOL We all loaded up our cars. Zack, the kids, Aunt Kelly, Cathy, Caleb, Kellyann, and I all stayed to hang out. We walked around and took pictures. Then, we went to the catfish restaurant. It was ok. Of course I got a cheese burger. Not a good choice. But everyone else enjoyed theres. They had a pond in the middle of the restaurant. It was full of catfish. They let us pet them. It was so cool. Lexi loved it. They asked her to feed them. These fish would swim right up to the side and want you to rub there head. After that, Lexi, Brennan, Zack, Caleb, Kellyann, and I all went over to the mall to let Lexi pet a stingray. They have a big pool of stingray. They would swim up the side and spit at you. They gave us shrimp to feed them. Lexi tried it and was scared to do it. She jumped and dropped it every time. I cant say much, I did the same thing. I could not let them suck it off my hand, but Caleb and Zack did. It was neat to watch. There was a carousel there. Brennan went on his first ride. He was in the sling but he rode with Lexi and I. We went to the "Aquarium" restaurant and Let Lexi walk around and look at the fish. She thought that the fish were so pretty. We had to leave after that. It was getting late and needed to get home. We had a great time and really want to go back.

Trip to Chicago

We took the kids the weekend of Oct 10 -14, 2008. My Aunt Kim and Uncle Darin live in Chicago. I was so excited for them to see the kids. This was Brennan's first trip. Lexi's first trip was when she was 1 and 1/2 years old. We also went to Chicago. We had so much fun. We left on Friday afternoon after Zack got off of work. We drove 9 hours to get there. Then we hung out and went to the 2nd largest mall in the US. We bought lots of Notre Dame stuff. We went to eat Portillo's for lunch. It was so good. For those who don't know, it is a Chicago hot dog place. YUMMY~!! Then that night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Yes it is one of my uncle's favorite places; mine as well. We woke the next day and went to a scarecrow festival. It was ok. We had fun just spending time with my family. Then we went to eat Chicago style pizza. It was so good. Oh man. The next day we went to a pumpkin farm. It was great. Lexi had so much fun doing all the activities that was there. We picked out 4 pumpkins. One for each of us. It was so much fun. Then the last day we drove home. It was the longest drive ever. Brennan, of course, was so good. He was smiling all the time and slept the whole time in the car. Lexi was herself. She just pushed my buttons all the time. How ever she was good also. She was so excited to be there with them and do the activities. The pictures I posted are pictures of the pumpkin farm and my family. The little girl sitting next to Lexi is Hollyann. My cousin. SO that would make her Lexi's 2nd cousin. Then the Lady is my Aunt Kim. The man is Uncle Darin. We had so much fun and want to go back in the summer.