Cheers to you 2012! Welcome 2013!

I may not be wearing glitter and heels tonight as we say goodbye to 2012 but I am partying it up with my sweet family.  It was picnic night with lots of snack foods and Tinkerbell's Secret of the Wings!  Whoopwhoo!  The kids had a blast and we are currently trying to wrangle them to bed, so mommy and daddy can snuggle up and celebrate!  

2012 has been full of lots of ups and downs sprinkled with lots of laughter and a few tears.  I am praying 2013 is a great year for every member of my family and all of my friends!  I pray that each reach higher towards God and seek His wisdom daily.  I also pray that we all reach new heights in our own personal goals!  With God all things are possible that is my motto for 2013!! 

May God Bless you all in 2013 and thanks for the support in 2012!

 The beginning of 2012!!

 

The End 2012!!

Happy New Years from my crazy crew to your's!

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas from our family to your's!

 

(here is a peak at a few activities from the past few weeks)

 

 

 Naught or Nice you decide?

 

 

Our family wishes you a happy holiday!

Before Church one Sunday!

 



 

Taylor at my work for storytime Christmas party, he liked our fireplace singers;)

 

 

Before her performance in the church choir.

 

 

At church about to sing!

 

Taylor being Taylor!

 

 

I hope you liked a peak of our preChristmas fun, I will share more soon!  Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

another trip to the doctor

I would love to write and exciting blog post but after another trip with one of my kiddos to the doctor (my second in seven days), I am too tired.  Both kids are on meds for ear infections and this mommy and daddy is t-i-r-e-d!  Taylor has not slept well in a week, he got sick first (again) and then Emma started last night with a horrible night of sleep.  So we are hanging by a thread and praying all get well by Santa!  I am needing to finish shopping and wrapping! 

Love from one sleep deprived mom!

Girl's Day!

Yesterday was girl day with my sweet Rose and my mom, Meme. We went to lunch at Emma's favorite place the "Bird" or Red Robin to the rest of the world and then we went to the Mini Nutcracker at a local school.  It is a shorten version of the great ballet and it is done by the local parks ballet school.  It is so pretty and so much fun.  It was even more fun with my best friend and her sweet daughter also in the audience and we got to see them before and during the break.  Emma was thrilled to see her friend.  Next year we will work on getting tickets together.

  This is the second annual girl's day to see the Nutcracker, and we had so much fun.  Emma was so thrilled and loved the time without little brother.  Meme and me enjoyed seeing her so happy and so in love with all the pretty ballerinas. I will admit I would love to be a candy cane fairy:)  Plus we got mommy/daughter time together as well.  Special for us on so many levels!   It was a fabulous day and full of fun memories with my special girl and my mom!

Enjoy some photos from our fun day!

 

 

 Emma before we got dressed with her new ballerina nutcracker!

 Dressed in the cute nutcracker outfit I found at a local consignment sale, it is big so hopefully she can wear it next year too.

 Photo bombed by little brother, who was sad he was not going with us.

 My Mom, me and Emma all dressed up and ready to go!

 We finished the day off with some muffin making in our aprons.  We let Taylor in on this one.  I am in my pjs and my hair up but a sweet moment to share!

Being silly!

 

Memories are wonderful and I will linger on this special day for  a long time.  I love special days with my sweet girl and having mom with us is icing on the sugar plums:)  

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Zook Household!

 

 

 

 

 This little Indian

 and this little indian

both have strep!  happy holidays and thanks to our doctor's office that has night hours the night before a holiday!  Pink meds for them both and praying the fever is down by the morning.  Happy Gobble Gobble day!

Wordless Wednesday

Date Night

Friday night Daniel and I were given a much needed break for a few hours.  Date nights are rare for us, with two kids, one toddler and one special needs, it is not easy to get out.  Not to mention our budget is pretty tight, so we normally spend any extra money to do family things.  However, I am a junky when it come to trying to win things, anything, I have won toys, candy, free coupons for products, a hat, Cheekwood passes etc.  I love to enter to win things, and it is thrill to win. I normal win small things but the other day I got a call from Sirius XM and had won a pair of tickets to see Anita Renfroe tape a comedy special for Blue Collar Comedy station.  I was thrilled!  I loved seeing Anita perform at Women of Faith and thought she was so funny.  I entered her contest to win tickets off her FB page. 

After a week full of Daniel sick and Taylor sick as well, this mommy needed a night out!  So, when I won, I was thrilled.  A date night with only needing to pay for parking and a quick bit to eat before dinner, SCORE! 

We got all cleaned up and headed to the taping, it was so much fun.  We laughed and laughed and got to just relax for two hours.  Then, we walked downtown to see the little country music shops, and bars and talked.  We capped the night with a Star Bucks treat thanks to a gift card we had.  It was a perfect evening of relaxing and having fun.

The stress of having young kids and a special need is exhausting and we realized a while back that it is important for us to seek a babysitter and get away to recharge our wife and husband relationship when we can.  Just a few hours away to be just us renews us and recharges us to deal with the joys and craziness of parenthood.  I am so thankful for the family we have that will help us get a few hours away.  We have so many aunts, uncles, and grandparents that realize we need a little break and allow that to happen. 

It was a great fall night and the laughter and fun will be a great memory for years to come.  Love you Daniel!