First Reconciliation

Zach received the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time today.

He and his classmates have been preparing for this all year!

Before we left I asked if he was nervous.

He said he was a little bit, but was fine.

He looked really nervous though.

He knew there was nothing to be afraid of though.

We watched him waiting patiently in line.

Then waited for him to come out.

When he did, he was crying. =(

I went over to see if he was OK.

He calmed down after his teacher & I talked to him.

He said he was just so nervous & he only started crying when it was all over.

Zach has always worn his heart on his sleeve.

I think it was just so overwhelming for him, knowing the first time was finally over.

There was lots of build-up to this day.

He was better by the time we got to the reception and he got to have cookies and punch. =)

They all got these hearts that they made, after they made their First Reconciliation.

The next big step in his religious education will be First Communion.

It is not until May though,

Hopefully he won't be as nervous for this next sacrament.

We are SO proud of you Zach!!

You have become such a loving person.

You love to learn about God and you try hard to follow His example.

We love you!!

Our Year in Review

I meant to get this up at the very beginning of January.
But I just never found the time.
Better late than never though. =)
Here is our year in pictures:

We are looking forward to making even more memories in 2011!

New Shoes

Lily had her first dance class today.
She LOVED it!
The class was called Wiggles & Giggles Dance class.
I dressed her in a cute outfit with a tutu, but I didn't go full on ballerina.
I didn't think it was that kind of class.
Then I saw the other girls......

ballet shoes, tights, leotards......

But they weren't doing any ballet dancing to begin with, they were just dancing around.

And Lily was having fun doing it!

So, I didn't think too much of not having on the right shoes.

Then they started doing this:

Hmmmm....

Maybe I should have at least put her in her leotard....

(By the way, this is the cutest thing I have ever seen!!)

So after class, we went to get new ballet slippers.

She could not wait to put them on!

She showed Grammy & Granddad some of her moves with her new shoes.

They will also learn how to tap dance in this class.

Yep, you guessed it, another new pair of shoes.

Leave it to my daughter to love something where she gets new shoes. ;-)

Happy 2011

We were big party animals this year......
we stayed home and rang in the new year with our kids. =)
All three kids stayed awake until midnight!!
Although Lily almost got sent to bed a few times....
and I'm kind of regretting the decision to let her stay up so late today.
Oh well. It's just once a year. =)
Anyway, we let the kids watch movies, eat nachos, & drink pop.
Then right before midnight, we gave them champagne poppers, noise makers, and sparkling juice (they chose apple & blueberry) in real champagne glasses.
They were pretty excited!
We watched the ball drop in Times Square and then the kids toasted each other (with Jeff & I saying several times, "Careful! Those will break!!), popped their poppers & blew into their noise makers.

It was fun to watch them get so excited.

2010 was a great year for us.

We hope 2011 will be just as wonderful.

Happy New Year!

Zach's Roller Coaster

Zach got this cool roller coaster kit for Christmas.
He could not wait for Jeff to help him put it together!

He was a really good helper.....

for the first 45 minutes......

Then he lost interest.

When he saw I was taking a picture of him not helping, he got back to work. ;-)

This thing took Jeff & Zach 2 1/2 hours to make!

They are almost done here.

They are just adding the tracks for the cars.

Here is one of the cars going around the tracks!!

This really is a cool toy.

The little chain is pulled by a motorized pulley and it carries the cars to the top, where they get on the tracks & loop around and around.

Zach was pretty proud of his building skills.

(Even though Jeff helped with most of it....)

Here is a video of it: