Officially a Teenager

My baby is officially a teenager! Zack turned 13 years old this month! Most people thought he was turning 14, even his Grandma, but he is a young one for his grade-- probably one of the youngest in 8th grade. At 5'8 1/4" tall he looks as though he should be 14! (I had to include the 1/4 inch because it is very important at this age)

Zack has changed so much this last year. He has grown taller, his voice has deepened, he has become maturer (believe it or not), he has quite the six-pack and I have got to admit I think he is a pretty cool kid. More important than all of that he is a good kid and he still loves his Mom! Zack had a party last year so we just celebrated his day as a family and as always he likes to get money- It is so hard to see them grow up but exciting to see who they become-----LOVE this kid!

SURPRISE!

Matthew turned 17 in October! I cannot believe how fast time flies----it seems like just yesterday I was planning his First Birthday Party! We figured this might be one of the last birthdays he spends here at home so we decided to throw him a surprise party. October is always such a busy month and there were really no weekends available but we fit a party in and I planned it rather quickly. We had to plan it on a weekend that Adam was away at some scout training thing but he did arrive home just an hour before the party so that was nice. Matthew's friends were awesome at getting the word out but there is always that fear in the back of your mind that know one will show up and you start thinking "Why am I doing this?" And to come to find out there were alot of other things going on that night so to say the least I was worried.......... But this is why I go through the stress-------- Matthew loves a party and I think that we actually surprised him!!

Sure do love that boy or I guess I should say young man----I sure am going to miss him next year when he is at college on his birthday!

Fright Fest

When I was younger I used to love rollercoasters - the scarier the better - and I loved scary movies! I don't know why I enjoyed being frightened but I did and I still do a bit but I have noticed that the older I get the more of a whimp I become. You would think that being older and wiser I would realize that none of these scary monsters from movies, such as Michael Myers, are real but now they scare me even more!

We took the kids and some of their friends to Fright Fest at Magic Mountain this last October and Adam and I let the boys go off on their own and I thought Adam and I could just enjoy a night together strolling around the park watching others get scared. We didn't even pay extra to do the Haunted Houses---just walking through the park we came across many frightening characters. Adam had a blast seeing me get scared and screaming at the top of my lungs! Come on I know they were just people dressed up but they scared me soooo bad! There was this guy that was going around dragging a shovel and just that sound sent shivers down my spine. He creeped me out and he seemed to follow me all around and get right up to my face! In fact he even blew in my face------creepy! But by far the scariest were the clowns and we came upon a couple of them and the one came right up to me and I was screaming like a mad woman and grabbed Adam and ran away---little did I know he was right behind me and as I looked around I almost had a heart attack because there he was, staring at me, right over my shoulder! I hate clowns!
The boys had a blast and told me that if I was that scared walking aorund the park that there was no way that I could have handled the haunted mazes. By what they told me of them---there is NO way I would have survived! We had a great time even though I was freaked out most of the time but I am glad that I could give my husband so much entertainment :) And a little part of me still likes to be scared............

Adam enjoying the rides

Me going in for a kiss with a creepy hearst driver

And these were by far the creepiest and scariest guys I saw that night!! ;)

Disneyland for Free

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged. Our desktop computer had crashed a couple of months ago and so I did not have access to all of my pictures and I realized that without pictures I really hate to blog. I am trying to get use to this other computer and learning how to navigate it so hopefully I will get back into updating my blog. I have so much to catch up on but I will just take it day by day and hopefully I can get this year recorded here before the year ends----which is coming up really soon!

Back in September we were able to make it to Disneyland with the tickets we had earned for free by doing service. There is nothing better that a day at Disneyland except for a Day of Disney for FREE! We had ended up making blankets for babies back in January, which ended up being more work than I had expected, but it became all worth it when we saved over $300 in going to Disneyland and also of course the joy that we felt from doing service ;)

It has been quite a few years since we had been and we had an absolute blast! I think Matthew was the most excited out of all of us and he ran from ride to ride with about as much (if not more) excitement than he did when he was really young! It was too much fun! We pretty much got to go on and do everything that we wanted to do except that the park was having some technical problems so Space Mountain was closed down all day and other rides were closed periodically throughout the day. Disneyland was awesome though and they gave us complimentary tickets so that we can return another day! So we are looking forward to returning before Matthew leaves home next year. All in all it was a perfect day--- full of fun, laughter and family!

Here is a picture of our family from when we went in 2000

And here we are this year, 2010

(Sorry-Adam was really happy but the picture I have of him smiling he was practically cut out)