Zach turns 4!!!

Well, I am now the mother of a 4 year old! I can't tell you how weird that feels. Where did the past four years go!??! December 31st was Zach's 4th birthday and I swear every year it comes up way too fast for me to even plan any sort of big birthday bash. So I just told him the whole world celebrates on his birthday. He seems to think that's pretty cool. We actually took him with us to a New Years Eve party that some friends of ours were throwing for families and kids and we celebrated New York time. Can I tell you what a brilliant idea that was!?! We had a blast and Zach did too, thinking the whole time the party was for him. Anyways, we did end up having a family party for him a few days before his actual birthday. It turned out to be a lot of fun between all of Mark's family and my sister and her kids and one of Zach's best little girlriends, Mackinley and her family(they were our old next door neighbors). So between Christmas and Zach's birthday, my house has become a play room. I've decided I'm not a huge fan of this birthday thing right after Christmas. I'm actually really excited to be having a summer baby! Well, so here are some pictures of his birthday party. He got a new basketball hoop from Grandma and Grandpa Stacy, a new little keyboard and new clothes from Mema and Grandpa, and many more fun toys that I have nowhere to put them!

Christmas 2007

Well, things have been so crazy since Christmas and I am finally posting our pictures from our fun holiday!! We had a really fun Christmas this year and we were so excited to have family here to spend it with. My parents came from Houston to spend Christmas with us and my sister Kristin and her family who live just around the corner from us. Christmas Eve was a blast with the kids all getting new pajamas from Mema and Grandpa. Thanks Mema and Grandpa!! I've never seen them get so excited over jammies ... I guess it was just so fun for them to all be matching with their cousins. We then made cookies and frosted them for Santa and that's always fun. I'm not really sure how much frosting actually made it on the cookies. :)

Christmas morning Zach of course was up and ready at the crack of dawn and couldn't wait to see if Santa had come. He was so excited to see that Santa had brought him a really cool race car track and Kali loved her new "Pinkie Pie" pony and shopping cart. They were so cute and so excited even with the little things in their stockings. Christmas is only going to get more fun each year as they get older!!

After having Christmas morning alone with just us, we headed over to Aunt Kristin's house for breakfast and to open some gifts all together with cousins and Mema and Grandpa. What fun it is to have family so close by and we were so glad to have Mema and Grandpa visit from Houston.

After spending Christmas morning at our house and Aunt Kristin's house with Mema and Grandpa, we headed up to Grandma and grandpa Stacy's for the rest of the day and to spend the night. We had a wonderful Christmas and it was so nice to be able to spend it with both of our families.

Family Pictures

We finally got family pictures taken and mainly so that we could have a decent picture on our Christmas cards this year. We had a good friend of ours take them and she did a great job! Despite the cold, windy weather and Kali not wanting anything to do with pictures...and 163 pictures later...this is what we got. These are just some of my favorites!! Thanks so much Cathi for doing such a fabulous job and for sticking it out with us!!

No kids!

This was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. (I know I'm a few weeks behind) It was so nice to have a night out and for those of you who have children you know exactly how I was feeling! After a busy Thanksgiving week and seeming like endless cleaning up and cooking and taking care of the kids...we decided we needed a night out with just the adults and no kids. It was SOO nice and not to mention the food was delicious! My youngest sister Kathryn and her newly-wed husband Sam drove out from Utah to spend Thanksgiving week with us and Kristin and Neal. We had a great time and it was even nicer to have an evening with adults only and great food that I didn't have to cook or clean up! Here are just a few pics of us at dinner with them. However, we did feel that there was a sister missing!! Kelli we love you and wished you were here too!!

Train Ride with Santa!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we took the kids and went to the Sacramento Train Museum with Aunt Krisitin, Uncle Neal and cousins Millie, Justin, & Simon. Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Sam were visiting from Utah and so Aunt Kathryn came with us also. We took the kids on a fun REAL train ride that lasted about 30 minutes.

There were Christmas carolers or entertainers that came through each car and sang to us while we waited for Santa to come. Once Santa showed up you can see the look on Kali and Zach's faces and how they felt about the whole situation. Let's just say Zach almost jumped out the window because Santa's hand was touching his shoulder when we took the picture with him and Kali nearly strangled me!! It was quite the ordeal! Other than that, the actual train ride was a lot of fun.