Steve and Zack, waiting for lift-off!

Zack loved the river run and got soaked!

Our all time favorite ride was this - The Hollywood Tower of Terror!  We had no idea what we were getting into when we first got on.  Then after it was over, we had to ride it again!

I look terrified - which I was and Steve and Zack just look like they are having a great time - which they were!

Zack was dying to have his face painted so we shelled out the $12 for this cool snake.  He loved it!  I was surprised he wanted to do it because he doesn't like it when people stare at him.

Disneyland

Our family and Uncle Shawn on Big Thunder Railroad

We love Disneyland!

Deidra was really wet after Splash Mountain! (Well, we all were but I got it the worst)

When we were almost to the end of Splash Mountain, the ride broke. We sat, soaking wet in the chilly cave for about 10 minutes before we were rescued by a cast member who kept calling us "loggers". He helped us out of the boats and we had to shimmy along a ledge to the exit door. Zack didn't want to get this close to the bunny but we made him.

Even though the cast member told him not to, Steve kept filming and taking pictures while we found our way from the back lot to the magic that is Disneyland.

Zack's favortie video

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My monkey's circus performance

On Wednesday Zack's kindergarten had their annual Circus Performance. His teacher assigned him the part of monkey, which I thought was totally appropriate and asked that we send him in a monkey costume, but that there would be a monkey mask provided for him. My mom and I spent some time making him a really cute costume out of brown sweats and some fur. We got a brown hat and sewed on some cute monkey ears made from the fur too. He was darling in it! So the day came, we invited the grandparents and a couple of uncles, and Steve planned to go into work late that day. The performance started and there he was in his cute costume and mask on (which happened to have ears attached to it). I assumed he was singing all along but it was hard to know since he had the mask on.

Then it was finally time for the monkey number, last but not least. All the monkeys trooped up to the front of the stage, all except for Zack. He stayed firmly planted in the rafters, despite the teacher aids attempts to get him to go up with the other monkeys. She finally gave up and left him there. (Did I state that he was the cutest monkey there? He was!) So, while the other monkeys performed, my monkey removed his mask and scowled at me throughout the number. There may have even been some foot stomping going on.

After the number was over Mrs Bailey, said a few words and then she said that she wanted Zack to come up and show off his cute costume that his grandma had made him. She had to literally carry him off the rafters and he was really shy but he stood there with her.

Then the program was over and all the proud parents greeted their happy children. Mine came running to me, jumped on my lap and burst into tears. I told him he was so brave for being in the program and singing the songs. He told me he didn't sing at all. He was too mad because he had to wear 4 ears! He was upset because he was wearing the hat with the ears and the mask also had ears! What a silly boy. I could tell his heart was a little broken because he just cried and cried. I tried to reassure him and told him that no one cared if he had four ears, he was still an awesome monkey. But more than the ear issue I know that it is really just him being so scared to be up there in front of everyone. These are the times that you realize how much you love your kids! My heart was broken for him.

I don't know what to do with him, whenever we have a primary program he won't even go up to the stage with out kicking and screaming and then he just stands up there and scowls at everyone. No singing. He won't participate in sharing time to give a talk or a prayer either. I am hoping he will just grow out of it and I am trying to be really nice about it so he is not traumatized for life. I have even tried bribery. I told him that if he would go up and sing in the primary program and say his part that I would buy him the Lego Deathstar. (It is $399.99!) He wasn't swayed much by my offer and then we ended up gong out of town anyway so we were both off the hook. If anyone has any advice of how I can help him get over this fear, I'm open!



There he is with his four ears (six if you count his own!)



If looks could kill! I think that kid just asked him why he wasn't up with the other monkey's!



Zack with his Uncle Jeff



He wasn't happy to be singled out but at least he stood there! Mrs Bailey was so nice to him, hugged him and loved him after the program.

The Big Day

Last Thursday my sister Ally got married to the most awesome guy Mike. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a great day and we had so much fun! Mike comes from a really fun family and it was fun to get to know them better too. We hope Mike and Ally enjoyed it as much as we did and that they are happy forever more. Congrats guys, we love you! Here are the preliminary pictures, it's all I have for now.

Lake Powell

A couple of weekends ago we went to Lake Powell with our friends and had a fabulous time camping and boating. The weather was gorgeous and the water was nice and green. Zack had the time of his life and Steve didn't want to come home. We wouldn't mind living there every August-October! Zack even tried waterskiing, but we forgot to tell him to blow out his nose and he sort of drank a bunch of water and didn't want to have anything to do with it after that. Maybe he'll try again another time! Thanks to our friends Rick and Mindy for inviting us to go with them!

Tagged Again

OK but this one is fun because it is:

Five things I love about Zack:

1. He's all about the hugs and kisses and always want's to "snuggle wuggle".

2. He absolutely adores babies and always points them out to me, often accompanied by: "don't you wish we could have a baby like that?"

3. He loves music, I mean like, real music like what they play on the radio, not those pansie kiddie songs. He sings along and always has perfect pitch. (It can however be embarrassing when your five year old belts out "I kissed a girl and I liked it..."! in the midst of a family party.) (I hope I didn't offend anyone :( who listens to kiddie music)

4. He loves lego's. This love affair keeps him occupied for hours on end in his bedroom where he builds and creates amazing things from his imangination. He also spends hours looking through his lego catalog deciding which set will be his next purchase.

5. He is a daredevil! He is not scared of much, just singing/speaking in the primary program at church and new foods.



Now I tag: Judy - Katie and Becca - Eli

Six insignificant things about me

(I have never been tagged before so I hope this is what I am supposed to do!)

1.  When ever I am alone in the car I blast the music really, really loud.

2.  I love going to Lake Powell so much that if someone invites us 4 days before they are going I will drop everything I have going on to be able to go. 

3.  I hardly EVER pay full price for anything.  

4.  I HATE being video recorded and I always come off as being really mean, even though I am really just embarrassed.

5.  I am a recovering perfectionist.

6.  I am a night owl!  I drag around all day and then at 7:00 pm I get a blast of energy and think I can conquer the world (or at least clean my house!)

I tag Samantha and Kris!

Silliness

This is a fun little thing you can do here.  It tells you what words you use the most on your blog.  I guess you can see who runs the show in my life!

Help protect our children!

I was watching Oprah yesterday (I know a lot of you don't like her but she does a lot of good) and she was doing a show on sexual predators. This is a subject that gets my blood boiling like none other. It is one of my greatest fears that my child will be sexually abused by someone and I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can protect him. Oprah has done other shows on this subject and I have always come away wondering what I could do to help. Well this time she lays it out for us. There is a new bill out that is trying to get passed but we all need to let our congressmen know that we want it passed. It is called "Protect our Children", act 1738. It is happening this month so we need to hurry. All you have to do is go to this link and follow her instructions on how to contact our congressmen. I just did it and it took less than 5 minutes to send my two letters.

Please help protect our precious children by letting those in charge know how important this is to you. As mothers and parents it is our number one job to protect our children, if we don't take a stand, no one else will. Pass this message along to others via email or your blogs. The statistics say that 3 out of 4 children are impacted by pornography or child molesters. That is just not acceptable to me, it is so scary! Thanks to you all for reading this and doing your part, I know you all love your kids as much as I love mine!

Speechless

Yesterday Zack and Steve were riding in the car with the radio on. The announcer mentioned that a teacher had been arrested for having S-E-X with an underage student. Steve silently wondered if Zack had heard it. Seconds later:

Z: Daddy do you have sex with mommy?
S: Uhhhh.... (weakly) what? (stuttering) What is that? Do you know what that is?
Z: Yes, it's when you love each other
S: Oh yeah, right

End of conversation. Where does he get this stuff? They pick up so much more than we think! This reminded me of the other day when we were in the grocery store and he kept asking me what G-A-Y was. I ignored him but any experienced parent should know that the more you ignore your children the louder they get so he ended up shouting over and over again "What does gay mean?" as we practically ran out of the store. I ended up shoving some candy at him to get his mind off the question. I am just not ready for these conversations yet! I really thought I had a few years.

Today.

*Zack was late for school and locked out
*Zack didn't turn in his homework (which took 2 hours to do)
*Zack's teacher tried to tell me in a nice way that he had been naughty in class
*I have PMS
*I stepped on a hornet and got stung, it felt like a pitchfork in my foot
*My printer won't function correctly
*My mom brought me a chocolate donut - 20 grams of fat and 450 calories (she told me after I had consumed it)
*I couln't bear to eat lunch (see donut)
*I have really ugly hair today thanks to some new product I bought (good thing I bought 3 bottles!)
*I am at work for the next 8 hours

Despite my bad attitude today, I recognize my many blessings and the great life I have. I wouldn't trade if for any one elses!

Ah, Sunday Mornings.

I don't know about you but Sunday mornings at our house can be a BIT, grumpy. This morning as I was in my room getting ready for church I overheard Zack and Steve getting ready in the room next to mine and what I heard made me laugh.

Zack: Don't do that you MORON. (very mater of factly)
Steve: Shocked silence. Then: That is not a nice word! Don't ever say that to me again! Who taught you that?
Zack: No one. (sadly)
Then Zack came in my room with a sad, pouty face. At which time I hugged him. (He didn't call ME a moron!)

I am pretty sure he heard that somewhere and was just trying it on for size, obviously not knowing the insult he was slinging at his dear father. I am also sure that had he said that to me, me being the most patient parent in the entire world, that I would have gently asked him to not use that word and explained that it wasn't a nice thing to say and then I would have hugged him. But... then again it WAS Sunday morning.

First! Day! of schooooool ?

Yes, I have seen all of your too cute blog pictures of your happy children going to their first day of school. Well, my child insists on being different. He refused to smile in any of the pictures we tried to take and he kept telling us he really didn't want to go to school after all. There were some tears and a small tantrum and I had to carry him part of the way. But, by the time we got inside the doors and he saw the other kids sitting down, he perked up, put away his backpack and hurried over to join them. I resisted the urge to follow him and quickly left. He reports he had a good time but he didn't like the rules: #1 - no touching the walls (?) and #2 - No lying down. Now we just have to get used to waking up at the crack of dawn! Ugh!

A great birthday and holdiay!

We had a great Labor Day weekend. It was my birthday on Sunday so after church we went to my parents house for a dinner of flank steak, corn, beans and salad. For desert it was my favorite: Mango delight (mango's on top on Thai sticky rice covered in sweetened coconut milk)! So good! I received a massage gift cert, pedicure gift cert, music, books, a pedicure kit and a white temple skirt. I am spoiled! We played cards and visited too. On Monday, we met for breakfast at Johanna's kitchen and then we were off to do some bowling. The nice new bowling alley was too busy so we went to the ghetto one, and got right in. At one point the roof was leaking into our lane, the computer kept messing up our scores, smoke was drifting out of the bar, and the flooring on the lane was warped so our balls wouldn't go quite where we thought they would. Still, we had a good time and got a little competitive. I pretty much lost both games! Despite the fact that I have my own ball (so what if it says "Sharon"?) and Sponge Bob bowling bag, I am just not that great a bowler! After that, home for some lunch and then we split up to go to different movies. Our little family saw the Narnia movie in a 1000 degree theater. I think Zack enjoyed it.

I am so grateful for our wonderful families! We so enjoy spending time with them and always have a fun time! It's really nice to be so close to them, in distance and in our relationships.