Our little paleontologist :-)

Today, Zachary and I went I the Virginia Living Museum, to explore their new Dino's Live exhibit. Zachary brought his magnifying glass (so cute) and we met up with some new friends, Julie, Syd and Patrick. Zachary's favorite part was the dinosaur bones discovery sand box. He absolutely loved it so I'm thinking I might create one at home for him!

We had a fun day! I love this boy!

He then rode his balance bike while I grilled outside, as we waited for daddy to come home!

I love summer! Hope y'all are well :-))

Sunday afternoon baseball game with friends

Today we went with our dear friends (who also attend our church!) to a local baseball game. We enjoyed some Snow Cones and Zachary loved hearing daddy explain the rules of baseball, while offering up his own helpful phrases, such as "good catch!" or "nice throw!" Pretty cute. We all brought our little ones, so Zachary had his little buddies to play with. The highlight of the day was Zachary "catching" one wayward baseball that landed (and thankfully didn't hit!) Zachary. He kept saying "he lost the ball" and "I got it" which pretty much summed up that experience! All in all a fun time. Little man is passed out on the couch (he won't even wake up for pizza!) I think we may all have an early night in tonight :-)

God bless everyone!

Fiona xo

The latest and greatest!!

Hi guys! How are you?! Life with a toddler certainly keeps one busy! Sorry we haven't posted in a while: life has been great but every spare moment, I try to spend with Zachary and Zev (my two Z men :-))!

So in a nutshell, Zachary is now over 26 months old and talking up a storm!!! He is so funny. Today, we went for our Friday morning mummy walk. We walk with other mamas and their bubs in strollers at different locations around town. It's fun and the mamas get to chat to each other while the kids enjoy sitting in the stroller and exploring new areas.

So this morning, Zachary was eating his goldfish and another little girl began crying because she didn't have any snacks (her mama had forgotten to pack some snacks). Anyway, I asked Zachary if he could share his goldfish and he said (resolutely): "No!" I then asked the mamas to keep walking while Zachary and I had a "chat" about sharing with our friends. He compromised and said that he would share his yellow goldfish, but not the red or blue ones (he had the patriotic mix and the normal color for these goldfish is yellow). He actually carefully picked out the yellow ones and gave them to the little girl and then to another little girl who also wanted a snack. Too funny. I guess the lesson on giving up our best to give to our friends comes at a later time!!

I'll post pictures of our lives since Mother's Day in most recent order. This first picture was taken today on the trail: we saw a white-tailed doe! She didn't move away, so we think that maybe she had her young nearby.

Zachary LOVES Busch Gardens. Here he is with a wide smile, when he was really tired after a long morning going on the choo choo steam train (it was blue so he called the train "Thomas") and then meeting Elmo AND Cookie Monster in REAL LIFE. He couldn't believe it :-))

With Ladonna on base. Zachary said "go Air Force" as we drove on base and we saw 4 F-22s take off. Ladonna lives in base, at the end of the flight line, by the water. It was so awesome to watch the jets take off. You could "almost" touch them!

Here he is goofing off with my crown (really it's the crown from the surprise birthday party cake that Zev organized for me!) I love his face in this picture :-)

Water Country with Kristine and Jakey!

More Busch Gardens pics!

About to board "Thomas":

I had Zachary enrolled in the tumbling class for toddlers at the Y. He made such great progress! At the beginning of the 6 week session, he wouldn't go inside this giant hollow ring. By the end, he was pushing the ring with kids inside it and jumping in with other kids! 

My little cutie pie and I. He is so good with my whole hair situation. We all go to the same barber on base (Mila). I officially now have the shortest hair (ok NO HAIR!) in the family. Zachary picks out my wigs (when I wore my usual short one he said "No mummy, wear long one.")

We miss you Meme and Howard!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your help!!

Zachary in his Hawaiian outfit that uncle Mario and Auntie Gabby bought him....and his Fire Chief hat. Yes, he still wears it....EVERYWHERE!

Zachary and daddy making bubbles!

We went to visit DADDA at work one day...

According to Zachary, daddy does "emails" at work. Although he does know that daddy works for the Air Force (and he usually says "go Air Force!" after that). He still wants to drive firetrucks when he grows up! He may also like to drive "broom brooms" (motorbikes) "really really fast" in addition to driving firetrucks. No interest in flying fighter jets....yet :-)

Another mummy-son play date at a local park. I love Zachary's big brown eyes in this picture!

He was making the "broom broom" sounds while "driving" his car "really fast".

We went and saw a production of Mary Poppins with my friend Melissa and her girls. Zachary was fascinated with the orchestra and kept talking about the "giant violin" for days afterwards! He still tells me that the letter "U" is for "umbrella" just like "Mary Poppins who flew into the sky".

He was pooped afterwards though! He was the only boy in a minivan full of girls!!

Mike and DD came to visit for Memorial Day long weekend! We went kayaking and had so much fun with them! Zachary

 loved the fact that Mike is a REAL LIFE FIRE FIGHTER! He even let Mike wear one of his special hats :-)) Notice Zachary's (favorite and too small now) firefighter pajama pants!

Zev's division had their first ever Dining Out! Doesn't my man look dapper! I love him in his blues! I think he looks so handsome :-))

Zachary has really taken an interest in cooking! I've been wanting to teach him more Spanish (and some German!) and our local library has lots of Spanish-English books for little kids! We borrowed a book called "Arroz con leche" and Zachary wanted to make this traditional South American dessert, so one day we did! He really wanted the girls next door to try it. They did and said that they loved it. He was pretty chuffed :-)

Stir stir stir!! Notice his special cooking chair and cooking hat :-)

Daddy and son at Touch a Truck. Zachary loved it! Daddy took him to touch an airplane the following weekend.

So that's the latest and greatest from us. Zev's job is going well and I love spending time with both my Z men. My health is doing well: after I finished radiation on April 25th, I then started my new chemo regime. I only got 2 weeks into it, before my white blood counts dropped and I became neutropenic and had to be taken off one of the drugs. My WBC have thankfully (thank you Jesus!) increase and the plan is for me to start the chemo regime again on July 7th. I'm still getting weekly blood work, sometimes more often (and I still hate needles), but I and Zev feel hopeful that this year will all be worth it. There will be some hard slogs ahead health wise (the chemo really makes me tired) but it will be worth it in the long run :-) I've got to stick around to ensure Zachary gets the best education and upbringing as possible and I believe that he needs both parents around to make that happen! I do believe that God gave us Zachary when He did, to motivate me to keep on going. And that he certainly does.

On that note, I'll try to post more frequently in the future! Thanks for reading and have a GREAT DAY!

Love Fiona xo