the smurfs...

just kidding...your team name was the monkeys...

 

 

buddy, I shouldn't brag, but you are awesome.  I think you scored 97% of your team's goals.

 

we're going to have to bump you up to the next age level...you are THAT GOOD!!!

 

the booty-celebration dance...when you would score, you would run down the field slapping your heiny and smiling with your tongue sticking out...silly.

 

everyone's a winner!!!

 

can't wait to watch you in the spring...when you play with zoey...heaven help us!!!

veggie painting...

you gave me the stink eye when I said we were going to paint with vegetables...and I guess it is kind of weird.  regardless, I think you had fun...

 



cupcakes in your underwears...

it's hard to find a picture of you around this time where you weren't just wearing your underwears...cause right after Jackson's birthday, we jumped on the potty train!!!  and zoey, you were a potty-training rockstar!!!  it took two weeks...that's IT!!!  two weeks and you were asking to wear your underwears to bed...NO pull-ups.  amazing.  proud of you, baby girl!!!

 



of course he picked spiderman...

because that's the one super hero mommy doesn't like...but it wasn't my day...it was yours...and boy did we celebrate YOU!!!

 

mommy decorated...

 

 

you got dressed up...

 

we went swimming at the pool and then came back to the house for hotdogs and birthday cake...

 

here you are with the ladies...yeah.  almost all girls at your party...someday that fact will make you quite the stud.  :0)

 

one boy!!!

 

 

you requested a "chwocwit" cake...

 

mommy made super hero capes for everybody...that's what you're wearing around your necks...

 

happy birthday, baby!!!

 

favoritest present...a red scooter just like your neighbor friend Jacob's...



the one where you rode a pony...

so, we went to the fair...the Elkhart county 4-h fair.  always loved going as a kid, so wanted to make sure you got to experience a dirty, stinky fair with lots of bad-for-you food and questionably safe rides...

 

as we came in, you spied these lovely, little ponies...I lured you away from them with a "maybe later"...

 

 

the big tractors...

 

the dirty, stinky animals...

 

Jackson, you were ALL ABOUT finding the BUNNIES!!!  must find bunnies...NOW!!!

WE FOUND THEM.  NOW PET THEM.

 

the geese...

 

and then we ate a hotdog and funnel cake while listening to a senior citizen talent (LESS) competition.  it was awful.  not that they ever would, but, grana and papa are forbidden from entering their original poetry/solo act/ventriloquist routine!!!

 

while eating, you spotted the rides and I knew you would not be talked out of riding...something.  but after checking when the rides would start, we were sorely disappointed to find out that they would not open until 3:00 pm.  it was 12:00 pm.  NOT staying at the fair for 3 hours just to ride the rides that would have cost a small fortune to ride.  SO...$6 pony rides it was...

 

you couldn't have been more excited...

 

ride em', cowgirl!!!

 

the round and round/up and down motion must have been soothing, zoey, because you just about fell asleep...

 

so.much.fun.

at grana and papa's...

after the reunion, we went to grana and papa's house in Indiana for EVEN MORE time with family...

 

your FAVORITE thing to do at papa's house...

 

 

playin' on the "puter"...

 

MORE time in the sprinklers...

 

and watching the "good" TV...cable with all of your favorite shows...

 

makin' pancakes...

this is your family in a cave...

we went into a big, dark cave for fun.  that's fun, right?  here's what your faces looked like after I told you what we were about to do...

 

 

it was dark and, zoey, you were a little slow-poke.  so mimi and aj looked after you, Jackson, because you did not want to keep her pace.  they kept you on the path and held onto you so that you wouldn't fall over the edges.

 

here's another "smile or else" shot...

 

one word: stinker!!!