Fun & Games

It's been fun to watch Zachary grow--he's sure getting taller. His Aunt Allyson thinks that he may be the next 7 ft Chinese basketball player!!! As he grows, so does his imagination. He loves pretending to sing and dance on stage "like at Bible School". He also pretends to "help people" in his "ambulance". He continues to love music. He and Daddy still get out their guitars to play together. Over the weekend he even got to play Uncle Marty's drums. On Friday he received an early Christmas gift from Grandma & Grandpa-- a train set. He's been chatting away as he pushes Thomas and his favorite cars around the tracks.

A few of Zachary's Favorite Things....

Fall is such a fun time of year. Zachary got to pick apples for the first time last month with Grandma Karen. I think he sampled every kind of apple in the orchard! The next day they made some yummy apple pie.



Zachary absolutely LOVES trains. He turns any activity into a train--from food to bathing. Daddy's been teaching him more about engines and cabooses. He loved the Train Depot in Council Bluffs because he actually got to sit in an engine and climb into a car!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. Zachary loves pumpkins all year long, so he's extra excited this time of year. He's showing off the "Scary" pumpkin that he and daddy carved (you can't really see it in this photo because he put the eye and nose pieces back in; he thought it was like a puzzle).

Uncle Tim was having just as much fun carving the pumpkin as Zachary. Cousin Collin was excited to be using the knife on his own! How did he grow up so fast??!

Valla's pumpkin patch in Omaha was a blast. Here Zachary is doing an imitation of Collin.
The 3 youngest cousins........

Doing his Bible School dance moves on the train tracks!


We got to enjoy a little bit of hiking at the Ledges last month.....it was a fun time (until we got back to the car and found the car window busted out!!)

Isn't it fun to live in Iowa? We often take the change of seasons for granted. Our friend Denise is doing a 3 yr mission trip in Egypt; she reminds me how fortunate we are to have 4 seasons. In Egypt it looks and feels the same all year long. This time of year reminds me of how God is constantly at work in us and around us. Happy Fall!!!

August Fun

Summer is winding down but the fun hasn't stopped! We got to hang out at Aunt Linda & Uncle Darrel's farm for Darrel's birthday party last weekend . Zachary liked looking at Linda's pumpkin patch, chasing her kitty, walking down to watch the train go by, roasting marshmellows, and seeing Darrel's combines. He also liked looking at all the "sweet corn" in the fields;) The farm sure looks nice after they worked so hard to clean things up following last year's hail storm.

A few weeks ago we went to the Iowa State Fair. Cousin Rebecca and her best friend Eva were so excited to take Zachary down the big slide. He loved it! Too bad it cost $2.50 each time he went down!! The sky glider was a hit, as well as milking the cow, Little Hands on the Farm, the corn dog and ice cream cone.

We also spent a few days at Mahoney State Park again. We went last fall but wanted to go again to try out the pool. We all had fun on the wave pool. Zach had no fear each time the waves crashed into him and knocked him down!

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Zachary!

Zachary has been looking forward to his birthday for a few months. He's even been practicing singing Happy Birthday to himself!!! We remember last year when he really had no idea what a birthday was and was clueless about blowing out candles. A lot has changed in the last year! So far he has gotten to blow out candles twice already today (and the day is only half over)! We had candles in a blueberry muffin this morning, then candles in rice krispy bars with some church friends this afternoon. Tonight the three of us will do something special together.


Momma heard one of her favorite songs on the radio this morning. It's by the Sidewalk Prophets. I thought it was a good birthday message for our big boy:

Be strong in the LORD and,
Never give up hope,
You're going to do great things,
I already know,
God's got His hand on you so,
Don't live life in fear,
Forgive and forget,
But don't forget why you're here,
Take your time and pray,
Thank God for each day,
His love will find a way,
These are the words I would say

Happy Birthday, Zachary. We love you!!!

What we've been up to......

It's been awhile since we've done a post.....we'll try to give some highlights from the last several weeks:

We had our block party last night. The firetruck and ambulance came so the kids could climb in and check out the equipment. Zach got an ambulance from his Aunt Allyson, Uncle Marty and cousins Sam and Raquel so we've been talking about how an ambulance helps people with "owies". He was interested in looking at it but wouldn't climb in. He liked the firetruck a bit better and wasn't scared to get in and out of it.



We closed off the street for the block party so the kids could run/bike laps in the street. Zach is only interested in any sort of bike for about 20 seconds, then he'd rather run. One neighbor boy must of felt sorry for him not riding on a bike so he offered to give Zach a ride in a wagon. Before we knew it, all the kids were in wagons! Where are the helmets!!??!!

A few weeks ago we headed to KC to Tim and Emily's. We were lucky to see Collin play baseball and dive in his diving competition.

We headed to the Indianola balloon races on Saturday. Rebecca joined us. We ended up parking at the highschool to watch the balloons since by the time we got close to the launch site the balloons had already lifted off (it took us 1 hr to get through the town of Indianola due to all the traffic). We had a good time and even got to see some land.

Zach got to check out Daddy's binoculars.....

Zachary also got to participate in VBS for the first time. He went 4 evenings at the NorthBranch station. His favorite part was the music and dancing......."rock this party.....everybody dance now".....


We spent a weekend with the Kragel family at Grandpa Dick and Grandma Phyllis' house. It was fun to have everyone together again. Zachary's challenge for the weekend was remembering Sam and Raquel's names. He had it down by the 2nd day!


We had an early bday party at Grandma & Grandpa's. The candles and party hats were Z's favorite part of the party!


First tractor ride with Daddy & Grandpa Dick...

More Summer Fun

We have managed to find some fun things to do despite all the rain we have been getting lately. A few days ago we got to see George at the bookstore. Zachary is getting past the Elmo stage (thank goodness) and has started to like George even more, along with Thomas the Train. He was very excited to see Curious George and even sat to listen to the story. When George had to leave because "he was getting tired" Zachary immediately said that George is going to go have some applesauce---this is always Zachary's request before nap or bedtime!


We spent the 4th of July weekend at Grandma Karen's. Collin and Zachary got the fun job of cleaning all the veggies that they picked in the garden.

Zachary's first experience picking vegetables from the garden. He had a good eye for finding the green beans and peas. He was shocked to see where potatoes and carrots came from!

We had a day of good weather on Saturday for fishing and roasting marshmellows. He wanted to make sure we all got nice & sticky!


This was Zachary's first time fishing. He even got 2 fish--just needed some help reeling them in. Uncle Tim tried to get him to kiss the fish but he didn't want anything to do with that!



After fishing we checked out the new miniature train at Missouri Valley. I think Zachary enjoyed it a bit more than Collin! It was the longest train ride ever. And for only 2 bucks!!! He has been practicing his wave these days, can you tell?


Our good friend Tammy found this book at a garage sale. I think we read it at least 3 times a day. This day Zachary read it to Mouse, then rocked him to sleep.

On Father's Day we headed out to Big Creek for boating. We thought we'd start small with a paddle boat although Zach was requesting a "BIG" one.

Hope you are all having a great summer!

The Days of Summer

Summer is officially here and we have been lovin' it!

A few weeks ago Zachary got to ride a horsey with his friends and had a time of his life. Now every time we see a horse he wants to ride it! Gotta love the helmet!!!


Zach wanted to help Daddy put up the ceiling fan. He was a big help! Mainly he just wanted his picture taken as he held the tools up high. Look close---no more diapers!



We had fun at an outdoor concert in Grimes a few weeks ago. We ran into Jodi and Rebecca which was a nice surprise!


Check out the new haircut for summer. We needed to find a way to cool this boy down a bit.


Zach and his friends....

Guess What???!!

Zachary had another appt in Iowa City Wed June 9. You can see the results below in the photos. The one on the left was taken about a month after his surgery when we noticed the hole. The one on the right was taken this week. See the healing God has done??!! What a miracle! Dr. Canaday was pleasantly surprised.......he rarely, if ever sees these heal like Zach's did!




O Lord what great miracles you do! Psalm 92:5
Thank you all for your prayers!!!!