Question of the day......

After taking some pics of Zach during dinner last night, I was thinking to myself......I wonder how other people's children eat their cheese?



My child prefers to eat a bit, stash some for later on his forehead and then rub the remaining cheese into the back of his head until it becomes one with his hair! I am feeling a bit honored that he bit the cheese into what looks like the letter M....must be for his MOM! :)

Feeling so proud.......

Lovin the weather!

We were loving the weather in our area this weekend! Spent lots of time outside doing things. Saturday Zach and I fed the ducks, played at the park AND went to the zoo! Donnie was busy with the remodeling at the house so it was just Zach and I. I of course have no pics from Saturday as it was just the 2 of us and he's all over the place these days! I did get a couple today though.....

Donnie went with us today for a stroll in the park.....



Close up of Zach.....got a new hat this weekend too! :)


I pulled dead weeds from one of the flower beds this afternoon. Zach was quite helpful. He's gotten to where you can give him a simple request and he'll do it. So he would put the pulled weeds in the cart MOST of the time! He then helped me push it to the trash area. This pic looks like he's trying to push it himself, but really he was hanging on and swinging from the handle.....boys are so dangerous!


Zach had his own section of the driveway for his parking lot of toys! He hasn't quite figured out the dumptruck yet. I helped him put stuff in the back, but when he tries to drive it he puts all his weight on the backend and it flips up and he unfortunately wipes out and usually gets knocked in the face with the truck. I don't know any little boy who doesn't eventually figure it out so I'm hopeful this will be the case for Zach too!


We are off to Colorado to visit my sister and to ski/snowboard for spring break. We leave on Friday. We are excited as Autumn gets to join us and that's not always the case with her school and work schedule being busy! So our little family of 5 will get to travel all together! How long do you think everyone will get along and be excited that we all got to go????? It's a LONG trip there.....pre-Zach days it took us 9 hours or so. He's not the best car rider so we shall see how long it takes us.....we aren't able to leave until after Donnie and I both get off of work on Friday, so will make for a late, late night. I hope to post while I'm out there if my sister will share her computer. She's not always been the best sharer so if I don't post that must be what happened! :)

1st Haircut!

On Sunday, we ventured out with Zach over to Grammy and Poppy's to get his first haircut. Grammy cuts all her grandkids hair and Zach was no exception! Of course the event was blogworthy.....how much bigger does it get than getting your first haircut?

Pre-haircut look. His curls have gotten a bit long and out of control.....


Sitting all big by himself in the chair getting his animal cape on......


Ready to get started....looks a little excited about it doesn't he!


Helping comb his hair so things will be nice and even....


Hey look....I got some of my hair! Grammy would hand his curls to me, Zach would take them out of my hand and put in a baggie so we could keep it. Kept him distracted at least for a little bit.


Eating Grammy's pst pst spray to entertain himself....


And there were a few tears too....where's that earlier enthusiasm you had Zach?


For the love of God when will this be over???? Poor thing's just ready to be done....he's standing on the chair now and needed bit of assistance in holding still!


Look at all those curls.....


Thanks Grammy.....guess he's forgiven her and they can be friends again!


Look at how big my boy looks now......sniff sniff. :(


Doesn't he look huge now.....almost made me cry! He looks like he could be 2 or 3 at least! It's been 4 days since his haircut and I still can't get over how big he looks....and he's got an attitude to match the new look too! :)

Off to pout cuz I no longer have a baby in the house.....

HE'S OURS!!!!!!!!!

Zach is officially ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Zach's adoption was finalized yesterday. We've been waiting for this moment since December 19, 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So on February 17th, Donnie and I legally became the parents of Zachary Dylan! We are thrilled beyond belief with our newest (but not so new since he's been here a while!) addition to our family. We've been praying about this since we got him. It was very hard not to get frustrated when delays happened with the court system and this whole experience has taught me a good lesson about trusting things will happen in God's time and not mine.

Here's a glimpse of our happy day......here we are taking our seats as we wait for things to get started! Treyton, Donnie's parents, my friend Sheri, our social worker and Zach's social worker joined us for the special occasion. Unfortunately Autumn had class and couldn't make the trip to Wichita. My parents also were unable to attend as my mom had hip replacement surgery about a week and a half ago so she was not up for traveling....but they were here in spirit!


Sitting with the judge as he signs our adoption paperwork. This is a new judge in juvenile court and ours was his second adoption ever! The first one he did was 5 minutes before ours.


A close-up of the actual signing. This is the signature we have been waiting on for what seems like forever......


The official adoption photo with the judge.....


Here we are with our attorney....he was our attorney with Autumn and Treyton's adoption too. Good guy....he asked when the next one will be. Guess only time will tell! :)


After court, Donnie and Zach posed with Donnie's mom and dad......


After court, Treyton and Donnie's parents joined us for breakfast. After breakfast we changed clothes and Donnie, Zach and I were off to the zoo for some hang out time! It was the perfect day. It was a little over cast and there were only about 10-15 vehicles in the parking lot so most of the time it was just us at an exhibit. The animals were also pretty active so made it more fun than normal. Zach was way in to looking at everything. He would get right up to the glass and smash his face against it....I'm guessing he wanted the closest view he could get! I thought it was adorable. Here's a few pics from our day......





I think Zach's favorite thing of the day was the playground. He loves going down slides. This one went pretty quick and he squealed the whole way down!



The rest of the afternoon went as well as the morning. Consisted of naps and playing in dirt....sounds fun doesn't it! We are just so happy and are looking forward to watching our little guy grow up! Thanks for following our journey and praying for us along the way!

Off to peek at my little guy sleeping......Zach's mommy! :)

Happy Late Valentines Day!

I know we are a couple of days behind the times....but never too late for Zachy to wish everyone a late happy valentines day!


Is this boy precious or what? Gotta love that smile and crazy hair! In his defense, there is a bit of a shadow that makes his hair look a bit more out of control than it is, however it is quickly approaching that state! It's nearing time for his first haircut....we'll be calling Grandma Donna so get those scissors ready....although I've heard horror stories from some of your other victims....so think trim and not cut! :)


Hope you enjoyed your holiday! We did....how can you not with this cute little guy!
Dannon

New things Zach has been into.....

Hey guys....another post from Zach here. Thought since my mom has been slacking on the updates I'd better get on here and post one myself! Thought I would share a few of my favorite things and a couple of new things I can do now all by myself! Enjoy....

I absolutely LOVE cabinets! Perfect spot to hang out. I enjoy this cabinet as well as a couple of cabinets in our kitchen.


I've learned to brush my teeth....ok, maybe not brush them but I LOVE to chew on my toothbrush! I may be known to throw a bit of a fit if my mom attempts to actually brush my teeth!

I LOVE diapers and the boxes they come in! One of my all time favorite past times is emptying the bags of diapers into a big pile and then climbing into the box with one of the packages still in it to give me a little height....

Dropped something that's just out of reach....

Dang it.....reached a little too far!

I can now pull the chairs out from the table and there is a perfect leg rest step for me to climb up. Next thing you know I've managed to get myself up to the top of the table where all the stuff is that I've been trying to reach for so long!

I'm not doing anything....honest! I'm not shopping here, just helping dad clean out his wallet!

Thought I'd share dad's debit card with Harley....now he can go buy his own treats since he's been restricted from treats from mom and dad til he loses a little weight! I think he looks GREAT and has tremendous stamina and speed....in our backyard! Then he's got to rest as that's a lot of work for a pug!

Hangin at the top of the stairs with Bailey waiting on my slow parents to get up here....climbed these stairs all by myself!

And lastly....yep...got another new hat! This was in my stocking so I guess Santa is to blame for this one!


That's all for now. Be looking for a VERY exciting update in the next couple of weeks! My adoption will final on February 17th!!!!! Who's ready to celebrate?

Love Zachy

Christmas with the McMullen's

The day after Christmas, we got up and traveled to my parents house. Takes about 4-4 1/2 hours to get there, depending on the number of stops we have to make! Everyone loves going to my mom and dad's....what's funner than visiting a farm when you're a kid? There are 6 kids in our family and 4 of us made it home to celebrate Christmas over the weekend. The other 2 visited the in-laws this year....dang in-laws! Autumn unfortunately didn't get to join us for our trip....apparently her job thought she needed to work!

Here's Zach entertaining himself on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's.....



My dad always does his own shopping for everyone. My mom gets gifts from both of them, then my dad likes to do something special on his own. Well Treyton has been saving money to buy a car, so my dad got him a gift that would encourage him to keep it neat once he gets it! He's explaining the concept of his gift in this photo. By the end of the night, Treyton opened probably 10-15 random gifts from my dad all to go in his car cleaning kit. Was rather comical...felt like every other gift went to Treyton! He was a good sport about it!

Grandma Cindy made Justin a new quilt for his bedroom we are redoing. He's into the camo-thing so he of course loved it! Hasn't slept with any other blankets since!

Zachary had fun wrestling with cousin Dylan! My sister has a GREAT video of the two of them playing chase. She posted it on her blog and it makes me laugh everytime I watch it! I have NO clue how to steal it from her blog, so you are going to have to go check it out at her site. If you click on Cummings Chronicles on the side of my blog, then it will take you to her site. Then it's the post about Zachary and Dylan.


It was nice enough that we got to play outside with everyone! Zach is playing on the swingset with the "big boys."


Fun with Grandpa and Grandma.....Grandpa is known for giving fun rides on the 4-wheeler! Grandma lets kids run the roost and get into things. This wagon was full of frozen water and leaves....I was fussing, Grandma let him play in it! :) Note Zach's crazy hood in the pic with my dad and the 4-wheeler. Grandma bought him a new jacket with a hood that stands so tall it could've poked my dad's eye out!




We had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed spending time with both Donnie and I's families. Donnie and the boys had 2 weeks off from school and then my job blessed us with closing the office from Dec 24th until Jan 5th! So we got plenty of hanging out time in! Now that I've posted all our Christmas fun....I can move on to other things.....like our remodeling/demolition going on at our house, Zach's adoption signing and upcoming court date, and fun things Zach is doing now that he's a whopping 16 months old!!!!! Sounds exciting doesn't it!