Lots of Kisses

Zachary loves to give kisses. I'm showered with them. The awesome wide opened mouth kisses. He kisses me and walks off then turns right back and gives me more. I just love it!

Zachary has turned 1

This was Zachary when he was born. It seems like it was yesterday. Time goes by too fast! He is such a sweet baby and we all just love him to pieces! He is pretty easy going but he gets into more mischief than I can say. He started walking when he was 8 months old and he is BY FAR my busiest child.

These are his 1 year old pictures. A good friend of mine took them. I think they turned out great! He's so darling and I think he has such pretty eyes.

Zach has been the perfect addition to our family! I have enjoyed him so much. Jeremy is completely infatuated with him and watching him love his brother makes my heart so full.

Strictly for documentation purposes: Zachary has many nicknames. We call him Zachary Lucas all the time, but we also call him Little Zach and Zach, Muffin, and Danger Baby. He gets the danger baby because he is such a daredevil.

Pinewood Derby

Riley has absolutely loved being in cub scouts. The pinewood derby was a favorite. This was his derby car. It's a stretch suburban. He won an award for best impersonation of a family car.

Trip to the Japanese Gardens

Recently we took the kids, and went with some great friends of ours, to a place we love. The Japanese Gardens are so Beautiful. On this particular day they had booklet full of things to find. The kids LOVED that! It made it so much fun.

Riley's Baptism

Riley was baptized February 5th! It was perfect and Riley was so happy! About a month before he was baptized we started helping him read the scriptures on his own. We always do a family scripture study but this was in addition to it, to help him learn to do his personal scripture study. I love how he loves to read the scriptures. Since his baptism he has said a few times that he feels so big doing grown up things.

Riley Over the Years

It doesn't seem like I could possibly have an 8 years old, and yet I do! Riley turned 8 this past January. (I know I know...I"m so behind on posting!) I looked back at all his pictures and how much he has changed.

6 days old

2 months

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old

8 years old

Riley has changed so much! I realize I think I have changed just as much! It's funny to look back and see how I was before I had kids, then all of the "1st time parent" quirks that I had. (sorry if you are a 1st time parent, you'll understand later). And now here we are Riley is 8 years old, in the second grade, he was just baptized and we have 4 boys. Time really does fly. And the ride with "you Riley" has been amazing!

In Tyler's words, "I'm just a cute little boy!"

Christmas Morning

Riley and Jeremy spent a lot of time this christmas season making gifts for their brothers, Lane and I. All of this was their own idea and their own paper creations. We didn't even pull the craft stuff out. They just did it and then asked for help wrapping. Lane and I were a little concerned how some would be received (i.e. having the proper enthusiasm when they are side by side with all the other gifts). The boys all surpassed our expectations. Those special paper creations were the best. I enjoyed the gratitude that the boys all showed when opening one of these handmade gifts from their brother. My absolute favorite gift was one Riley made about 3 weeks before christmas. A paper taco for Jeremy. As Jeremy opened the present he pulled pieces of different shapes and colors, and Riley announced, "I made him a Taco because I love tacos and so does he!" Also included, a set of directions to assemble the taco. The picture is not a good one of Jeremy but it showed the taco. Jeremy was so pleased!

While they were sleeping

It has been over a month since we got a new water heater. When Riley saw the box that it came in he was elated. For about a month the box stood on his bed upright. It was a fort. He had written all over it warnings. My favorite was right by the rubber band, that held the door shut, hanging on a pencil protruding out of the box a stuffed monkey and the caption next to it that read, "If you open this he will 'atak' you!!!"

A couple of weeks ago the fort took a horizontal turn and became a sleeping cabin. That night as we headed up to bed we checked on the boys. This is what we saw when we looked in. I couldn't stop laughing. I loved how Jeremy was sleeping and that is a pretty routine way of sleeping for him.

In the pictures below the flash made it look like day but it was dark.