Ahh, May

I can hardly believe that May is already here. With it comes some ups and downs. May 2nd was the 6 month mark of loosing our precious baby girl. Sometimes it's hard from me to think that she has been gone so long, then other times it seems way shorter. These are the struggles we have every day of missing her. Of course in May is Mother's Day too. Since I have lost my own biological mother, it is always a day of blessings and sadness. I am thankful for Pauline, my earthly mother, and for being a mother myself. But, my heart misses Joyce, my heavenly mother, and my baby girl Brenna. The day was nice, though. Zachary told me Happy Mother's Day every chance he got (still on Monday too) and also sang some songs for me that he performed on the Thursday before in school. It was great. He cracks me up. I got some beautiful cards from both friends and family as well as some pretty flowers and the newest Sookie Stackhouse Novel I had been wanting! The boys made me breakfast and I got to relax most of the day. Not too bad.

May will also bring some great fun for us! On the 24th David and I will be celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary!! And on the 31st I will be turning 25! Again! But, the biggest thing May brings to us is...DISNEY WORLD!!! We are so excited! We can hardly wait! We have a countdown calendar where Zachary puts a star on everyday. Today, we are 17 days out. 16 if you don't count today since today has already started... ;) This is our first real family vacation with Zachary and I can't tell who is more excited at this point-me, Zachary, or David!

We are busy wrapping up the end of school as well as continuing with things for recital. June will be here before we know it!

Zachary sings the blues

Well, not really, but he did sing. Well, sort of. April 22nd Zachary had his music program at school! We were so excited. And, since Grandma and Grandpa were in town helping out Amber, they were able to come too! The program combined Mrs. Dowler's (Zachary's class) class and Mrs. Wierig's class. They all did so great. It took Zachary about a number and a half to get warmed up enough to sing, though he never did belt them out. We were surprised because Zachary is not shy at all and he had been practicing earlier in the morning with Daddy. But, he did get into it. We enjoyed such songs as: God is So Good, Octopus, Where is Thumbkin?, Three Little Sausages, Mr. Sun, Ten Little Fishes in the Sea, and Itsie Bitsie Spider and Variations. The best came at the end when Zachary wrapped his little arms around his waste and gave a grand bow! It was great! Enjoy some pictures of the day!

It's time to try this again

So, I will attempt to try and keep my blog up-to-date and full of happenings and pictures.

Life is continuing for us. Everyday we love and miss our Brenna Angel (as Zachary calls her) more and more. We all struggle and grieve in our own ways, but are in the journey together. The more socially and emotionally aware Zachary becomes of himself and others he gets more curious about why Brenna is not with us. We continue to need love, support, and prayers from our friends and loved ones. This is a journey that will not end of us. Change, yes, but end-no. We are faithful that God will bless us again and we are looking forward to that.

As for our Monster Face. Wow, let's write a book. Oh wait-that's what this blog is for! He is doing so great in school! He loves it and has made so many friends! He behaves so well for everyone

and loves to push buttons and boundaries with his mom and dad! We are looking forward to our first FAMILY VACATION to DISNEY WORLD at the end of May!! We are going for Memorial Day weekend and couldn't be more excited!

David (when he's not traveling) and I continue to do our Share meetings once a month. We have met so many great people who, unfortunately, share the same heartache that we do. But, it's nice to know that someone can relate. I just did the March of Dimes walk on Sunday with my friend Laura and her family. Over 6 miles! Wow!

The studio is doing great and we are getting so close to recital! We are getting ready for DDDC's last competition this weekend and I can't believe how fast this year has gone! We have our first annual summer dance camps and intensive at the studio this year and we are hoping they will do great. We are bringing in some great talent for our dancer's!

I am looking forward to the summer and hopefully getting a pool pass to Pelican Harbor again and just being able to enjoy time with my family!

Well, here's to keeping this blog going!

Zachary turns 3 and takes his own pictures!

So, my little baby isn't a baby anymore. Nope, he's 3 and starting preschool next week! I can't believe how fast this time has gone by and how blessed I am to have someone as great as Zachary is for a son. He is hysterical, independent, loving, and full of life. He is excited to start preschool and I know that he will love it and learn so much more than at home! He is very good with colors and is getting his letters better and numbers as well. The other day he told us the numbers on the clock! And, he was able to point out almost all the letter of the alphabet to me. He got his "V" and "W" mixed up, but that was all.

He also loves to sing, loudly. He'll get his toy guitar out and start singing "Life Is A Highway" from Cars, or he'll just go "Oh Yeah!" over and over again. It's pretty funny. Whenever the Imagination Movers come on the TV he grabs his "drum sticks" (read: Turner and Phillipe screw drivers from Handy Manny tool box!) and drums away. He is also into making up his own songs, which we don't understand at all! It's usually about bath time or eating or something like that!

Zachary is also into taking his own photographs! He loves using or camera to take pictures of the cats or his cars, or whatever is closest!

Zack Takes Pictures

As for me and David, we are pushing along. David has a 6 week reality series for BET coming up and I'm still getting sick and fat! But, the baby is growing and moving a ton and it's a nice reassurance! Just about 10 weeks to go and I hope it goes by fast! I'm sure it will with the start of the fall session starting today and auditions and company starting this weekend!

Zack's turns 3!

It's been a long time...

So I know I don't post often on the blog and I just want everyone to understand why. My blogger doesn't upload! Seriously, it's so slow, or it locks up and it usually never lets me upload pictures. It's very frustrating.

So, for the sake of typing a ton and not have it save I will give a short recap of summer this far and try to post more.

Zachary is almost 22 months old and has been potty trained for about 4 months. He does very good with it and I'm so glad he's out of diapers! We have a membership to the Pelican Harbor pool and he loves it! I must admit I do too, only I don't cry when it's time to leave! He knows all of his colors and is really good at recognizing letters and numbers. We are still working on his counting, but it comes. It's usually 1, 2, 4, 5, 11. He loves the number 11. It's in all of his counting.

Business at the studio is slow for the summer, but that is expected. We've been in business almost a year! We took the dance team to Myrtle Beach, SC for Nationals and they did a fantastic job. While it was nice to be away, I really missed David and Zachary.

David is still at Concept One, but is always looking for new opportunities to pursue.

The baby is due November 11, 2009 and the ultrasound we had on the 26th showed that everything is going great!

Well, at least I got one picture to upload!

So Smart!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Zachary has been doing so good with his counting and colors, etc.  Well, we bought him a "laptop" for his 2nd birthday.  It's a Thomas the Train and it has something like 32 activities.  There is one that asks for help finding letters and numbers.  I started playing with him one day and was shocked to learn that he can recognize almost all of his letters and all of his numbers!!  He's just grasping so much and learning like crazy!

This weekend I actually have a weekend away from the studio!  Woo Hoo!  We begin our "Diaper-Free Zone" on Friday morning!  I know Zachary is going to do a great job.  I bought him new Cars stickers and am ready to see his little butt in underwear!!!

This past weekend was so nice, weather-wise.  We were able to spend a lot of time outside!  We got Zack's truck out and he loved driving in it.  Which is nice since he always tells David and I that he'll drive wherever we go!  "I'll drive."

Trying to post pictures, who knows when they'll come...

Back on...

I know it's been several, several weeks since I've posted.  Beginning the semester at the studio, dealing with a pregnancy and then subsequent loss has consumed a lot of my time.  Oh, not to mention that I've been following around an extremely busy 2 1/2 year old!

We registered Zachary for Pre-School for the fall!  I can't believe that he is going to be 3 and in school.  He is going to have so much fun, though!  I have him in a 2-day/week-afternoon program.  He is so smart.  He can count (repeat) to 20 on his own!  He knows all the main colors-red, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, purple, black, and white.  He is talking in full sentences which can be fully understood.  Until he gets super excited and then it turns back to baby-nese.

We are looking forward to spring and being able to get outside to play more.  Hurry up Spring!!

Family Christmas 2008

It's hard to believe that 2008 has come and gone!  We look back at 2008 as a year full gifts, challenges, and excitement.  We kicked off the Christmas Holiday by spending our Christmas Eve together as a family eating dinner (David made and awesome rib roast!!), driving around to see Christmas lights (not many!!), making cookies for Santa, and then reading books by the fire before bed.  

On Christmas Day David and I had to actually wake Zachary up at 8AM (not his usual wake time) to get the party started.  Normally, waking that late would've been a present, but we were eager to open gifts and see how he did with his!!  Zachary didn't really get into the unwrapping thing.  It took him forever to get the paper off of his gifts!  He wanted to make sure all tape and paper were off one section before going to the next.  We tried to hurry him along as much as we could, we still have breakfast with the Stefanski's and church to go to!  After breakfast with his favorite person (Aubrey) and a great mass (the best gift of all is Christ as our Saviour) we headed home for lunch and nap.  

Then after dinner we checked the weather and saw that our trip to Lawrenceburg might be hindered by the ice storm that was supposed to happen over night, we rushed around to get packed and then headed out the door.  When we were almost to 88 I realized that I had left all the gifts for the rest of the week at home!!  Thank goodness for my sister!  She was able to get them for us.  Although, as I write this, I also realize I have yet to send Nani and Pa Pa theirs!!

Finally getting to Lawrenceburg at about 1:30/2:00AM landed us right into bed!  It's a very long drive.  The next day we just enjoyed our time with Nani and Papa.  Zachary loves being with them!  On the 27th we headed to Indianapolis where it was 70 degrees for a family party.  It was so nice spending time with David's side of the family!

On Sunday the 28th we headed north to my family in North Liberty.  We stayed the night with my parents and then stayed the next 3 days at a cabin and Potato Creek State Park.  We were really hoping for 3 days of snow fortes, snow angels and such, but since there was mid-60's weather-wise we had nothing when we got up there!  We still had a great time being with family and on our last morning there--it snowed!  We were able to go sledding for a little bit.  Zack didn't like the snow in his face at all and only went down once and then he and David spent the rest of the time waiting in the truck!  

After checking out we were finally on our way home!  And very ready for it!  But, as tradition has it, we always host the Giannassi's for Christmas Eve.  This was the 4th year in a row!  It was laid back and we watched TV and played games with Nick, Julie, and their son Noah.  

New Years day came and went with us trying to unpack and get organized.  In fact, the rest of that week and this week came and went with us trying to unpack and get organized!  Ha!  

The studio started classes this week and we are off to a good start.  We keep getting more interest and that is a blessing for sure!  We just pray that we continue to get more students, keep the ones we have, and that families are able to survive this economy!

Enjoy the pictures!

Christmas 08

Zachary's big boy bed!

It's here!!  He loves it and went right down!!  Enjoy the pictures!

Thanksgiving and Benjamin's Birthday

Happy Thanksgiving!  We spent the morning of Thanksgiving at home and then after Zack's nap we went to Amber and Rudy's for dinner.  It was good turkey, good stuffing, and good family!  Later that evening we came home and put up the tree.  Zack wasn't interested in helping, but he is all about the tree.  It has to be on all the time and he says good bye to it at night before bed!

 

We are well into the Christmas season!  This is my favorite time of year.  For so many reasons.  Aside from all the decorations, 93.9 playing non-stop X-Mas music, people in good moods, cookies, candy...it's a time to remember why we celebrate.  This is all the beginning.  The time we celebrate and rejoice at the birth of our Savior.  We are truly delivered because he was delivered to us.  

We are busy with the studio and David has a big shoot that will take him to San Francisco next week.  We are also getting Zachary's big boy bed on Friday!!  We are so excited and can't wait for him to get it!

Untitled from Amelia Hendryx on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving and Benjamin's 1st B-Day Party