Sunday, February 21, 2010
Zach quote
Okay, I'm not sure if this will be as cute when I write it down, but it made me kind of snicker at the time. One of my mom tactics to get Zach going when he's whining or not wanting to change gears to a new activity is to make it a game. Usually it involves the phrase, "I bet I can do it faster than you can." To which, I usually get a mad dash for clothes to put on, teeth to brush, shoes, etc. The other day I was on the computer doing some "important" email I'm sure. Zach was begging (whining) for me to play Mario with him on the Wii. I kept saying, in a minute, in a minute. After about 10 mins of laying on my lap and whining while I feverishly typed away, he looks at me and with this fake excited voice (similar to mine when appropriate) he says, "I bet I can get there fasser!" He won. I got up and went to play Mario. How can you resist that?
Saturday, February 13, 2010
I want to go to SCHOOL!
It's my last week before I got to work full time so I tried to enjoy the kids a little more this week. Here was my view Thursday morning as Zach went off to preschool. Dylan insisted on finding a backpack of his own (the closest I could find, but his Aunt and Uncle got him one with his name on it, we need to find). He put on the backpack and waved out the door to his big brother. You could tell he was wishing the entire time that he could go with him.
Do they let you take pacifiers to preschool????
Sweet Baby Dylan, there is plenty of time to go to school and grow up. Please stay my baby a little longer! Big hugs and kisses from Mommy!!!!
Do they let you take pacifiers to preschool????
Sweet Baby Dylan, there is plenty of time to go to school and grow up. Please stay my baby a little longer! Big hugs and kisses from Mommy!!!!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A New Job for Jill
The title of this post reminds me of a kids book. One you would check out if your child were getting a new job, like a new sibling, you'd read it to them so they could know what to expect. Maybe adults need those books too, I wouldn't mind a book to read about what it's going to be like to be a working mom after staying home for 4 1/2 years with my boys.
In a nutshell, I'm working for Jake's Fireworks here in Pittsburg. I will be helping on the retail side (not just working in a tent selling fireworks, although I will be doing that some in Dec. I hear). I'm in charge of getting all the logistics of a site coordinated, for example, business license, tent setup, electricity, credit card machines, operators. Everything that you would need to get a fireworks tent running for a couple of weeks in June/July and then in December in Louisiana. That is one of the tough parts of the job, I'll be in Louisiana in December from the 15th to the 24th (they fly me back for Xmas and maybe 1 or 2 days) and then back to LA until January 3rd. Evidently fireworks are big in LA during the Xmas season...who knew? I like that the company is fairly small but not too small. It's still a family owned business and they seem to treat their employees really well. They offer great flexibility to go see Zach or Dylan in a little play or a party at school type thing. And they have a casual dress code...like jeans and t-shirts...you know that's right up my alley. Money saver too. I don't have to relook at my work clothes to decide what I need to buy!
I am a little sad about going to work. I've explained to a couple people that it's like what most mom's go through at 6 or 12 weeks, I am going through at 4 1/2 years. I know Zach will be just fine and Dylan is loving his daycare already. I just have a hard time knowing that I just won't have as much time with them. I know that I'll just have to make the days that I am with them more valuable. Not to mention, getting things done around the house when I'm working all day. It will be a challenge, but a lot of women do it, so I can too!
Wish me luck!
In a nutshell, I'm working for Jake's Fireworks here in Pittsburg. I will be helping on the retail side (not just working in a tent selling fireworks, although I will be doing that some in Dec. I hear). I'm in charge of getting all the logistics of a site coordinated, for example, business license, tent setup, electricity, credit card machines, operators. Everything that you would need to get a fireworks tent running for a couple of weeks in June/July and then in December in Louisiana. That is one of the tough parts of the job, I'll be in Louisiana in December from the 15th to the 24th (they fly me back for Xmas and maybe 1 or 2 days) and then back to LA until January 3rd. Evidently fireworks are big in LA during the Xmas season...who knew? I like that the company is fairly small but not too small. It's still a family owned business and they seem to treat their employees really well. They offer great flexibility to go see Zach or Dylan in a little play or a party at school type thing. And they have a casual dress code...like jeans and t-shirts...you know that's right up my alley. Money saver too. I don't have to relook at my work clothes to decide what I need to buy!
I am a little sad about going to work. I've explained to a couple people that it's like what most mom's go through at 6 or 12 weeks, I am going through at 4 1/2 years. I know Zach will be just fine and Dylan is loving his daycare already. I just have a hard time knowing that I just won't have as much time with them. I know that I'll just have to make the days that I am with them more valuable. Not to mention, getting things done around the house when I'm working all day. It will be a challenge, but a lot of women do it, so I can too!
Wish me luck!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Zach's Birthday Weekend
I can not believe how little I wrote in December. Here's a go at catching up on a month of activities....
It seems like the minute Thanksgiving was over, we hit the ground running into birthday and Christmas month. As you can see, there was quite a bit of planning and preparation for Zach's birthday party. His friend party was on Saturday the 5th and the 6th (his actual birthday was even crazier!). We started out by letting him open his present from us. That was actually just going out into the garage, because we got him a new bike, the Power Rangers Jungle Fury bike to be exact. (The last one at Toys R Us and they were clearanced out - to be even more exact...the stress of it all!)
Craig's good friend, Brad Franchione, was in town coaching the Junior College National Championship game for Blinn Junior College, so Craig left a little after Zach opened his present from us and rode around our freezing cold garage to go watch Brad's game. Which they won in a last minute play - very exciting!
Zach and I got ready to go to the Candy Cane Invitational - his first gymnastics meet and really first sporting event to participate in. He was so excited and I was a little nervous. Especially when we got there and the crowd was rather large. Zach was a champ though. He waited patiently while all the other kids went before him (or so it seemed). He got up and did his routine with such confidence. I was just so proud I didn't even pay attention to his score. The mom next to me (from our class) told me he had one of the higher scores (I believe it was a 9.5). At the end of all the kids routines, they had everyone sit on the gym floor and get their awards. They organized it so every kid got a medal and a chance to stand on the award stand. Even though it was set up like that, Zach still would have ranked fairly high without the weighting system! :) The girls who had the actual top scores were only 9.6. He did get 1st in his division and got to stand up and get his medal. He was so proud. He loves wearing his Candy Cane Invitational t-shirt and showing off his medal. They also mentioned as he was getting on the podium that it was his birthday. I have it all on video but didn't manage to catch many snapshots. It's a little hard to manage both and make sure he was getting up to get his medal etc. :) I really have to buy a SD card for the video camera to do double duty.
Off to our next event which was his preschool open house. Thank goodness it was pretty laid back and didn't matter that we were running in at the last minute. They gave us all of Zach's art projects and work from the semester and told us what each one was and what unit it went with. (We also had a teacher's conference, but I think I'll make a separate post since this is getting so long!)
Zach and I then ran back to CeCe's to get Dylan and get ready for the family to come over and celebrate Zach's birthday. Again, thank goodness we went super laid back. Just pizza and cake and presents. I think it's safe to say, Zach had a great 4th birthday.
Here are pics from Zach's b-day party with kids friends.
It seems like the minute Thanksgiving was over, we hit the ground running into birthday and Christmas month. As you can see, there was quite a bit of planning and preparation for Zach's birthday party. His friend party was on Saturday the 5th and the 6th (his actual birthday was even crazier!). We started out by letting him open his present from us. That was actually just going out into the garage, because we got him a new bike, the Power Rangers Jungle Fury bike to be exact. (The last one at Toys R Us and they were clearanced out - to be even more exact...the stress of it all!)
Craig's good friend, Brad Franchione, was in town coaching the Junior College National Championship game for Blinn Junior College, so Craig left a little after Zach opened his present from us and rode around our freezing cold garage to go watch Brad's game. Which they won in a last minute play - very exciting!
Zach and I got ready to go to the Candy Cane Invitational - his first gymnastics meet and really first sporting event to participate in. He was so excited and I was a little nervous. Especially when we got there and the crowd was rather large. Zach was a champ though. He waited patiently while all the other kids went before him (or so it seemed). He got up and did his routine with such confidence. I was just so proud I didn't even pay attention to his score. The mom next to me (from our class) told me he had one of the higher scores (I believe it was a 9.5). At the end of all the kids routines, they had everyone sit on the gym floor and get their awards. They organized it so every kid got a medal and a chance to stand on the award stand. Even though it was set up like that, Zach still would have ranked fairly high without the weighting system! :) The girls who had the actual top scores were only 9.6. He did get 1st in his division and got to stand up and get his medal. He was so proud. He loves wearing his Candy Cane Invitational t-shirt and showing off his medal. They also mentioned as he was getting on the podium that it was his birthday. I have it all on video but didn't manage to catch many snapshots. It's a little hard to manage both and make sure he was getting up to get his medal etc. :) I really have to buy a SD card for the video camera to do double duty.
Off to our next event which was his preschool open house. Thank goodness it was pretty laid back and didn't matter that we were running in at the last minute. They gave us all of Zach's art projects and work from the semester and told us what each one was and what unit it went with. (We also had a teacher's conference, but I think I'll make a separate post since this is getting so long!)
Zach and I then ran back to CeCe's to get Dylan and get ready for the family to come over and celebrate Zach's birthday. Again, thank goodness we went super laid back. Just pizza and cake and presents. I think it's safe to say, Zach had a great 4th birthday.
Here are pics from Zach's b-day party with kids friends.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Zach is 4!
It's official. Zach turned 4 last weekend. We had such a busy weekend for his birthday weekend, but we had a blast. On Saturday, we had his first birthday party with friends. We pretty much kept it to friends from his preschool. Turns out his class has 15 boys and 4 girls. The teacher said that on Monday's 3 of the girls aren't there. God bless those teachers! :)
We had the boys over for Power Ranger Training camp. I had a lot of fun coming up with activities for them to do to "earn" their Ranger badges. They had to complete 6 tasks, earning them a colored piece of the pie for each activity. They colored masks, decorated walkie talkies, crossed an alligator river, did hopscotch, bounced balls in a bucket and threw bean bags at the "bad guys" (or stuffed animals). After all that fun, we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. It was somewhat controlled chaos - okay, at times it was just complete chaos. :)
The boys did really well and I think they all had fun. I know Zach had a blast showing his friends his toys and his room, etc. We are officially not doing friend birthday parties except for every 4th year - 4, 8,12 and 16. It's just too much otherwise. Next year, I foresee a trip to the movies with one or two friends and a family birthday party.
Sunday was the craziest day by far. We let Zach "open" his birthday present from Craig and me which was a new (you guessed it) Power Ranger bike. He was pretty excited, but it's a bummer having a winter birthday. We turned on a space heater in the garage and he got to ride in circles for 45 mins or so before we were too cold to stand out there any more. He keeps asking every day to do it more and it keeps getting colder every day. Craig had to leave to go watch his friend Brad coach his Blinn College team to a national championship - winning in the last seconds by running back a 90 yard punt return (but I digress). Zach and I packed up and went to his first gymnastics meet. Dylan stayed with CeCe and got to take a nap. Zach did a little routine and did such a great job. I thought he might be too nervous, but he was a champ. He ended up placing 1st in his group (they divided them all up so they each got a medal, but he was first in that 3 person group). He scored a 9.5 and I believe was the 3rd or 4th highest score. He just missed a trophy by .1 of a point. I really was just proud of how brave and confident he was to get out there in front of a very large audience and do his routine!
After that, we headed to his preschool open house and saw all the projects he had been working on all semester. Then the finale was a birthday party with the family. He had a great time and got to open up more presents. He was exhausted and thrilled.
I will definitely post pictures as soon as I get them downloaded. We are too busy writing thank you cards, Xmas cards and making teacher gifts...but someday I will download my little Power Ranger/gymnasts pictures!
We had the boys over for Power Ranger Training camp. I had a lot of fun coming up with activities for them to do to "earn" their Ranger badges. They had to complete 6 tasks, earning them a colored piece of the pie for each activity. They colored masks, decorated walkie talkies, crossed an alligator river, did hopscotch, bounced balls in a bucket and threw bean bags at the "bad guys" (or stuffed animals). After all that fun, we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. It was somewhat controlled chaos - okay, at times it was just complete chaos. :)
The boys did really well and I think they all had fun. I know Zach had a blast showing his friends his toys and his room, etc. We are officially not doing friend birthday parties except for every 4th year - 4, 8,12 and 16. It's just too much otherwise. Next year, I foresee a trip to the movies with one or two friends and a family birthday party.
Sunday was the craziest day by far. We let Zach "open" his birthday present from Craig and me which was a new (you guessed it) Power Ranger bike. He was pretty excited, but it's a bummer having a winter birthday. We turned on a space heater in the garage and he got to ride in circles for 45 mins or so before we were too cold to stand out there any more. He keeps asking every day to do it more and it keeps getting colder every day. Craig had to leave to go watch his friend Brad coach his Blinn College team to a national championship - winning in the last seconds by running back a 90 yard punt return (but I digress). Zach and I packed up and went to his first gymnastics meet. Dylan stayed with CeCe and got to take a nap. Zach did a little routine and did such a great job. I thought he might be too nervous, but he was a champ. He ended up placing 1st in his group (they divided them all up so they each got a medal, but he was first in that 3 person group). He scored a 9.5 and I believe was the 3rd or 4th highest score. He just missed a trophy by .1 of a point. I really was just proud of how brave and confident he was to get out there in front of a very large audience and do his routine!
After that, we headed to his preschool open house and saw all the projects he had been working on all semester. Then the finale was a birthday party with the family. He had a great time and got to open up more presents. He was exhausted and thrilled.
I will definitely post pictures as soon as I get them downloaded. We are too busy writing thank you cards, Xmas cards and making teacher gifts...but someday I will download my little Power Ranger/gymnasts pictures!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Zach B-day 2009 (19 photos), by Jill Ward
I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos
I went ahead and just posted the pics on Snapfish. Browse away. Zach had fun doing this, although he has some goofy faces in the pics! :)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Picture This!
I stole a great idea from my friend Christel and her blog. She had her son do his wishlist for his birthday by taking pictures of whatever he wanted and posting them on her blog. I loved this idea because I always forget what he's said he wants when family asks what he wants for his birthday. The funny thing about Zach is that he never has been too extreme about wanting toys. Last year, Grammy and Granddad took him to Target to pick out (within reason) whatever toy he wanted. He looked for 20 minutes between the 5-6 aisles and could barely commit to anything. We will never do that again - plus it was the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving...agh!
So we went through Walmart taking pics, but truly didn't get as many things that I thought he'd want. But he did pretty good and was very selective as I mentioned. Last night, Craig was watching TV with Zach and a commercial came on for some remote control car for littler guys that when it hits the wall it turns over or something. Zach showed Craig and said, "We need to take a picture of THAT!" Today I did spend some time discussing how we might not get everything we took a picture of...I'll let you know how that turns out on his birthday. :)
Downloaded pics of presents to come...
So we went through Walmart taking pics, but truly didn't get as many things that I thought he'd want. But he did pretty good and was very selective as I mentioned. Last night, Craig was watching TV with Zach and a commercial came on for some remote control car for littler guys that when it hits the wall it turns over or something. Zach showed Craig and said, "We need to take a picture of THAT!" Today I did spend some time discussing how we might not get everything we took a picture of...I'll let you know how that turns out on his birthday. :)
Downloaded pics of presents to come...
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