Dan, Ana, & Zackary

We took a day trip and drove out to Buffalo for the day! We visited Daniel’s extended family and enjoyed spending the day with them. We went to the amazing Buffalo Zoo! Which is 100x’s better than the Seneca Park Zoo. Its so big, actually has animals in it and there was lots to do. We didn’t even finish the whole thing and we were there about 3 hours. But we were also taking our sweet time since its been YEARS since Dan and I have been there! It was fun to catch up with family and enjoy time together. Zackary gets a kick out of his second cousins

We spent a lot of time at the children’s petting zoo area. Zackary was able to pet a sheep! Not sure what he thought about that. I think he liked this area, because the animals were so close that he could see them well and for the most part they interacted. Except the lazy pigs . He also really liked all of the monkey’s and seeing the lion. Which btw, walked right towards where we were standing and I got some cool pictures of! He kept making a lot of noise over the lion. It was cute! I think he really likes animals.

This was taken after Zackary”s birthday party and he was NOT having it this time. He wanted to move, move, move! We didn’t push it and only tried 3 times for a nice shot. This was the best. But he looks chubby (and tired!) in it since he was turning to get up. Oh well!

He looks so big now and its hard to believe that we are done with the monthly monkey pictures! I think I am going to put every month together in a post to show his growth by the month, I’m interested to see it!

Nothing is too new in his development in the past month, that I can think of. I wish I had his stats from the doctor but we don’t go for his one year appointment till mid July

The other shots!

Our little man turned one! The year has flown by! We celebrated with family and close friends for the day at our favorite park. Zackary was a tad overwhelmed with all the attention and desperately needed a nap by the end of the party. He had fun tho and is really enjoying all of his new toys. We are seeing more fits at home in just one day because he doesn’t want to leave his cool new toys to do anything else. Fun! I’m glad he is loving the toys and playing so nicely. A skill in which he desperately needs sharpened. Haha! So far his favorites are the ones that make noise and he wants to make them all go off at the same time. Jackson will learn to actually sleep through noise unlike King Zackary. He made the classic mess with his cupcake-which wasn’t too messy I think-but he also didn’t eat the cake part, only the frosting. He had such smiles on his face during that process! Too cute!

I can’t believe its been a year already of being a Mommy. There is nothing that can describe the love for my baby boy that I have. Its been a wonderful year (and sometimes scary!). He brings joy, fun and laughter into our home and we are so in love with him! He fits right in, he’s so much like his Daddy! We’re so blessed that God gave him to us and that He has given us our little Jackson as well. We love being parents and are looking forward to adding another real soon!

Thank you to all of our wonderful family and close friends who made Zackary’s day perfect! We’re so thankful that God answered our prayers in keeping the rain away and allowing us to have a great time celebrating Zackary’s birthday!

We had an amazing, fabulous, wonderful, fun filled vacation. I don’t think I could use enough adjectives to describe it! Seriously, what could be better than having your husband all to yourself-with no outside distraction or responsibilities?! Not much! Our days are always filled around here, so to get away for a week was very needed. Our family vacation this year took place in Hilton Head Island, SC. What a beautiful island! They landscape their medians!

We decided to drive down-may never do that again with a baby who hates car rides. It was supposed to be a 16 hour drive. But we spend MUCH longer on the road; there and back. With a crying, screaming baby a lot of the time, bathroom breaks and crawling breaks for Momma and baby, food stops, etc. We did it all. We were so happy to reach our destination after both trips. And so was King Zackary (as Dan likes to call him, lol). Our hotel was gorgeous. I should’ve taken pictures. Our suite was perfect for us.

*side story* The hotel we spent the night at driving down was amazing as well! I took pictures of that. We got in super late and left right away after an early breakfast. Thing is the night we pulled off the road to find a hotel, we picked the wrong area. Apparently the town was having a convention and a dog show so every hotel was booked. After calling about 6 or more hotels one had one room open. It was a 2 bedroom suite that normal goes for over $300 a night, the lady offered it to us for $160! Praise God! We were so tired and just wanted a bed at that point. This place had a dining room table in it, a small kitchen, a couch, chair, fireplace, 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a closet. It was HUGE. I loved it. Our stay was great that night

The weather was HOT. All week long it was just about 96 degrees. Whoo. Too hot for me! We must’ve brought back that hot weather with us since it was raining all the week we were gone and now it was above 90 here in Rochester. We planned our outings to not be out for the hottest hours of the day and went back to the hotel for nap time. Zackary tolerated the heat pretty well.

We did many things, walked 114 – both ways – up a lighthouse and walked around outside up top. Scared me half to death since I am afraid of heights. I almost didn’t make it up to the top, I was freakin out. You could see through the steps-WHY?! Scary. But we survived and saw the amazing view. Dan got to golf (for free!) at a very pristine golf course – I believe one used on with the PGA or some guy endorsed, I can’t remember but I’m sure Dan does! I was his caddy, well cart driver really , and Zackary rode along on our laps and watched Daddy golf with me. It was such a beautiful course!

We also went to the ocean-how could we not! I love the feeling of sand and water on the toes. The ocean is so pretty! The second time we went Dan flew a kite. That was fun and Zackary and I got a turn to hold it too. All in all we ate, we shopped and acted like tourists. We relaxed a ton and spent a lot of time together in our room playing, talking, and eating.

I love our family. SO much. Dan is the best husband and daddy in the world and we both love spending time with him. <3 Tangent over…

Here are our pictures! We will definitely be going back after our kids are older. There are so many family activities down there that we can’t wait to enjoy with our kiddos as they grow Love our family time!!

While on vacation our little man turned 11 months old! He gained confidence in his walking skills and walked around our hotel room more than crawled. He is doing great keeping it up at home!

He can now say Daddy and Dad instead of just Dada. He alternates the 3 frequently. He and Daddy bonded so much over vacation that by mid week he preferred Daddy over Mommy. I’m not jealous at all- I love watching these two play together! Dan taught him how to throw a ball back and forth and that’s just cute. And reading has become a favorite pass time- his one Babar book and Curious George book are the top favorite! Oh and another new word (maybe phrase, idk!) is whoohoo. lol.

He is also now transitioning to his “big boy” toddler car seat and “big  boy” milk in a sippy cup. He isn’t too thrilled with either just yet. Mommy is trying to use the words big boy instead of baby as well. *Sigh* All in all, Zackary is a walking and talking machine. Can’t believe we’re planning his first birthday party.

This month’s pictures went fairly smooth! He is getting a touch better at staying still and smiling for the camera. Enjoy! Up next is our vacation post! It was AMAZING.

My favorite month of the year is May-hence the reason we got married in May! One other thing that I love about this month is the annual Lilac Festival! I love the smell of the lilacs and walking through the paths there. And I LOVE the fried dough and real lemonade. Yum!! There is nothing better Zackary had a good time, he enjoyed the fried dough and crawling around in the grass. It was pretty hot that day so he was roasting – with no sunscreen on, bad parents! – so we decided to head for home. We had fun family time-can’t wait till next year. Weird (and scary) to think that we will have 2 little ones to push around the park. Wow…

PS. It is SUPER hard to take a picture of this kid lately! Oy!

Nice weather is upon us, although most days have a chill in the breeze, we are still able to go to the park for alittle while. Zackary just loves the swings and people watching. The first time we went he cried buckets when we left. I think he likes it there I love his face in the pictures! Soon enough he will be walking and climbing all by himself!

Momma was pretty excited about Easter. More so than his first Christmas because he was older. I felt that he would enjoy it more. Which I think I was correct in assuming. He still plays with his plastic eggs, his ball but he ate those puffs super fast. Like always.

Here are the pictures from Zackary’s first Easter. As soon as he spotted his basket over on the toy box he lunged off my lap and crawled as fast as he could over to it. He was amused!

One word. Laughter. That is what the 3 of us were doing while capturing these pictures. Even Zackary was dying in laughter. To him it is now a game of catching that monkey as fast as he can. So we tried a new technique-Dan held his arms, I called his name, counted to 3 and Dan let go as I tried to snap the picture before he moves away. Worked semi well, better than any other attempt. He is just too quick! After we got this one, the last one, I said “only 2 more months of this! yay!” LOL! He is hard work but its fun every month. He looks so so big these days.

Learning how to do new things all the time. His newest obsession is emptying things. Manly his toybox. As before, he could’ve cared less about the toys in there unless you took them out and showed some interest in them, then he would play for a brief minute. But now, by the end of the day-scratch that-by the end of the morning I have toys spewed alllllllll over the floor. Sigh. And then throughout the day he will play with them, roll around in them. Its great. I’m glad to see him playing and having fun with his things . He loves to fill things up now too but its not as fun as emptying just yet.

I swear his favorite person is Daddy at the moment. When Dan is leaving for work many times instead of waving bye bye he will sign more, more. Its sad and cute all at the same time. He’s already showing that he doesn’t want Daddy to leave for work. He loves to play with him throughout the days that Dan has off-they’re a cute pair!

He is full of hugs lately, random times throughout the day we will get many many hugs. We love every one! Kisses are sporadic but I think that’s only due to the fascination with hugs. He’s growing like a weed and we have started planning his birthday party. Crazy!

We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we got a kick out them. He is riot! And LOVES this monkey. Like a lot. Monkey gets just as many hugs as Mama and Daddy. Coming soon will be an Easter post and his first trip to the park. Both were fun!

We went to the zoo a few weeks back with Grandma, Aunt Jewelia and Uncle Noah! Zackary loved it-I think he loved spending the day with Grandma and Aunt Jewelia. He just loves Jewelia to pieces! Super cute.

While looking at the Sea Lions-who were very entertaining that day-Noah and Jewelia began making the sea lion noise and guess who started mimicking them?! It was so funny! He does a great sea lion bark, if I do say so myself. Zackary’s favorite animal was for sure the sea lions-he was so interested in them and thought it was fun when they talked back. We stood there for a long time admiring them. He also really enjoyed the meerkats. He was intrigued by how they moved around their area so much and watched so intensely. We also saw the monkey-of course and he starred at that. We had a great time and look forward to going back many times this summer!