Ok, so I know it's been a while. And I have tons of things I need/want to post about. BUT I just had to share about Zachariah's new favorite animal. It's one you may or may not have heard about yet. It's kinda new. :)

He has ALWAYS loved ocean animals, and earlier on in the school year he became particularly interested in whales. We learned about several different types of whales before Christmas and he just became fascinated. The one day of reading about whales turned into weeks of watching videos and finding more pictures of whales. He knows more about them than I do, and I am the one teaching him! (Scary, huh?) He knows the different sounds the whales make and he knows what the different whales eat (some eat fish, some eat krill, some eat squid, etc...). He knows what whales have teeth and what whales have baleen instead. He can basically identify a whale within seconds of looking at it. In fact, the other day we were looking at pictures of whales on Google and I said, "Look, that's a... wait. I can't tell what that is." The whale was upside down and you only had a good shot of its belly and tail. Z glanced at it and said, "That's a sperm whale." I looked down at the caption and sure enough, he was right.

All that to say, Zachariah loves whales.

A few weeks ago Poppie (Daniel's Dad) sent me an email with a video he thought Z would get a kick out of. And boy did he ever. I have included it below for you.

An albino orca whale?! How cool is that!!! As soon as Z woke up that morning I showed him the video. He watched it three times in a row and then more after breakfast. He was absolutely fascinated. But that was it. He didn't ask to watch the video any more after that day. A couple times during the week he would randomly mention the albino orca, but he wasn't in full on obsession mode. I knew he would eventually be in obsession mode over this whale, but I had no clue when it would hit. Well, apparently this is the week! Because for the past few days he has been completely and totally consumed with the albino orca. He started drawing several pictures of an albino orca, he has requested to scout out Toys R Us to see if they have any albino orca toys, and now we have an invisible pet albino orca whale living in our house. (With super powers that allow it to fly, that way it can come with us to Target. Because obviously it's too big to fit in the car.)

Here is a sidewalk chalk picture of an albino orca that he drew today. Complete with a blow hole spouting water, a white dorsal fin and pink eyes.

Here is what I love. (I mean, besides the fact that there is an albino orca swimming around somewhere out there.) He will only draw ONE albino orca. There has only been one spotted out in the wild, so he only draws one. He will also draw pink eyes on the whale. Which is not something he has seen, because no one has been able to get close enough to the whale to see it's eyes. That is something he heard on the video he watched WEEKS ago and he logged it away for later use.

This kid impresses my socks off.

I'm kinda keeping my fingers crossed that he will become a marine biologist. :)

Yesterday was a pretty rotten day. For fear of boring you to death I wont go into the ridiculous details, but its safe to say that it was a bad day.

Today started out the exact same. I woke up in a horrible mood (I mean, is it that hard to understand that I want to wake up and get dressed BEFORE I am pestered by my children? That's all I ask.) and I was yelling and on the verge of having an emotional breakdown before breakfast was even on the table. Not good, folks.

Micaiah was bringing me shoes and begging to go outside, and all Z was wanting to do was whine and watch tv, so we decided to go on a walk/bike ride. Yes, it was quite early (8:45am to be exact), but it was necessary. For all of us.

And I'm not gonna lie... this little outing saved our morning. We live near a church, so we trotted on over to their parking lot and Z rode his bike through there like a champ. And when he got tired of roaming through the empty parking lot we decided to walk a little ways down the road to visit Nana (my mom) at her work! After we visited with her for a while we walked/rode back to the house. Then Micaiah went down for a nap and Z played with Colorforms while I looked at houses online.

Not such a bad morning after all! Thank you Jesus for this wonderful weather! Without it we would have been stuck in the house to yell and scream at each other. And that, my friends, would have resulted in a blog post with a completely different picture attatched. One that might include me sitting in a corner, crying and eating a butt load of chocolate. And no one wants to see THAT. :P

I am off to go running. Apparently I just want to add a little torture to this day. If I don't end up dying out there I will try to post an update on this running stuff!

Adios!

Photo book.

A few weeks ago I made and ordered a "welcome to the world" book for Micaiah. Z has one too. It's a book dedicated to the very first pictures taken of baby. With Z, my awesome photographer friend took pictures of his birth, so I had a lot of before the birth and during the birth pictures. (No worries, I kept the photobook PG!) With Micaiah I had no photographer (Tammi moved. Boo.) during the birth, but I did bring my camera to the hospital, so I had a lot of after birth pictures. You know, the cute cuddly pictures of a newborn wrapped up with the hat and paci. So the books are very different, but I love them both. It's nice to have that checked off my to do list!

Lunch dates.

Daniel usually comes home for lunch, but when he has a lunch meeting the boys and I will try to venture out and have a lunch date. Sometimes we have lunch with friends, but every now and then we venture off to Chick Fil A and enjoy lunch outside. And that is particularly fun these days, because there is some major construction going on next door to Chick Fil A, so the boys get a kick out of watching the tractors!

Library.

We love the library. Z will sit and read books for hours if I would let him, and Micaiah enjoys the puzzles. After he tires of the puzzles he runs up and down the isles trying to hide from me and pulling a few books down as he goes. I think he is worried that the librarians don't have enough to do!

Cupcakes.

A few weeks ago I made these Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes for my sister and her boyfriend and they were ah-mazing. I am not even going to lie to you people. These were bakery worthy. I would make them every week if I weren't afraid of developing diabetes.

Sword fighting.

Micaiah is in this really fun/cute stage where he makes everything a sword and tries to fight with it. Sticks and straws are his favorite and most common things to use as a weapon, but he has been known to use a sippy cup, hanger, stuffed dog and a water bottle as well. :)

My Loves.

Words cannot express how much I love these three.

Reading.

Micaiah loves nothing more than being on Zachariah's bed. He thinks he is SUCH a big boy when he is with Z. They read like this for a while. It was the cutest thing ever. Then when Micaiah lost interest he turned around and pushed Zachariah's book out of his hands and proceeded to wrestle with him. Boys...

Brothers.

Squirrel watching. It's a sport around here. And they were being so sweet on this particular morning, I just couldn't help but take a picture.

And I will end on that note, since it's such a cute one. :)

Have a good Monday!

I have pictures from my for-real-deal-camera coming soon, but while I procrastinate editing those I thought I would share a few of my Instagram pics with you. It's an Instagram Easter!

We started with a fun get-together with our church family. We had food, games and an egg hunt and it was a blast!

This was Micaiah last year during our Easter gathering/egg hunt with our church. Last year, folks. My baby was an actual baby last year!

And this year he joined in the egg hunt and walked around eating the muffins off our plates! He REALLY enjoyed himself. Finding eggs was thrilling, but once he realized the eggs opened? The hunt was over. He got five eggs in his basket and then proceeded to sit/squat right next to his basket so he could take the prizes in and out of the eggs for the rest of the time. It was cute. And he seriously had a blast opening and closing those eggs!

And speaking of eggs, we had SO much fun coloring eggs this year! In years past we just colored eggs and maybe wrote on them with a wax crayon. Nothing fancy. But this year Zachariah picked out this cool pirate egg decorating kit from Target and it definitely brought more fun to the table! Literally. Z had a blast decorating his colored eggs as pirates. There was an octopus, shark, and treasure thrown in there too! This got two thumbs up for us! Definitely recommended if you want to (easily) take your egg decorating to the next level!

The next day we had a great service at church (per the usual) followed by good food at the in-laws and a short but sweet egg hunt with cousin Collin! We all enjoyed spending time with the family and just soaking up the wonderful weather.

And part of the way that Z and I enjoy the weather is by relaxing in Mimi and Poppie's hammock! Folks, I'm not gonna lie. Zachariah and I don't get along very well. We argue. We fight. We loose our tempers with each other. Because we are so much alike, we clash. A lot. He knows how to push my buttons and I have very little patience. It's not the best combo. We both love each other very much, and we have some REALLy good days, but there are a lot of days where we just clash and don't get along.

But something happens when we are in a hammock. We actually like each other! And I say that jokingly, but in the hammock we have no issues. We just talk. Snuggle. Cuddle. Sing. Sit in silence. It is awesome. At one point during our hammock time we were just laying there listening to the birds and watching the leaves blow in the breeze. All of a sudden Z said to me, "Mom, I love snuggling with you in the hammock. It makes me happy." I about died right then and there. And then I decided that we need to save up and invest in a hammock. That can be our special spot to go and unwind. To just relax and talk things out. To start liking each other again. When Micaiah and I are having a rough time, we sit on the couch and cuddle and watch Baby Einsteins. That is our thing. He sits in my lap, sucks his thumb and just relaxes with me while oo-ing and ah-ing over the puppets and music on the tv. But Z and I don't have a special spot, and a hammock is just THE perfect thing.

So. All that to say, Easter was great! We had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying the day. And I discovered that I want to save up and buy a hammock. Win-win! :)