ZOO

We took Drake to the zoo last week. It was a blast! The weather was great and we got there right when it opened so it wasn't really busy until about the time we were ready to leave. Drake is at such a fun age! He's so interactive! He knows all the animal names and would just laugh when they did anything. He thought it was amazing! However, the gorilla was freaky as hell! I'm being serious! We walked in the building and no one was in there so we walked up to the window and the gorilla walked on all fours right up to the window and just stared at us. Well then a group of teenage girls walked in, so the gorilla walked over to their side of the window and just stared at them. Then, the thing got up and grabbed a toy ball and jump/walked back over to us and threw the ball at the window and then hit the window right in front of us and he made a grunting noise. It was pretty freaking!! I felt bad because Drake got a little scared and I can't say I blame him! CJ and I were too. Needless to say we got out of there as fast as we could :)

Drake is as big as a female orangutang :)

My sisters hate blog posts with no pictures. So, I'll apologize right now, because there will be no pictures.

So Drake just celebrated his 4th birthday! Can you believe that!!? I'm sure you can because you don't live with the kid, however, CJ and I are still in shock about it.
I will post pictures as soon as I remember to.
He had a ton of fun with all of his family there! We now have a huge back yard that we get to enjoy so it was lots and lots of fun.
He also had his 4 yr check up at the Dr.'s and it went great! He's 98% for weight and 92% for height. Nice work kid!

His loves right now include:
Dinosaurs (and lots of them)
Apples (he eats one EVERY day)
National Geographic channel
The show Finding Bigfoot (he's obsessed)
Puzzles.



Quick funny story: (I say funny but it may not be funny to you and that's ok) We (CJ and I) say prayers every night with Drake and we kneel next to his bed. Well for a couple weeks he's been fighting us a little. He just says things like "Will you help me?" or we'll all fold our arms waiting for Drake to start the prayer and he'll tell us that he has to stretch first. Well, one night we got Drake all ready for bed and in his PJ's and he just hopped right into bed without kneeling bedside with us. CJ told him to get down and "reminded" him that we kneel next to our bed to say our bedtime prayers and Drake's response was "oh, (snicker) I didn't even realize". It took all CJ and I had not to bust up laughing at him. He is too young to be using words like "realize" and he didn't even finish his sentence correctly which made it that much more adorable. He was trying to act so smooth and grown up and it totally didn't work!

Then Easter rolled around and it was pretty much ruined because of my cheapness. Don't judge. Here is goes......
My sister Jessica lives in California and she was at a dollar store out there and saw a cute camo Easter basket. She called me to see if I wanted it and I of course said "YES!" It was camo..... and only a buck! Well, she came into town and gave me the basket when Drake was not in the room, so there is no way he could have seen it. Also, because Drake's b-day is so close to Easter some people will give him Easter eggs for his b-day. Anyway, I keep them, I also have kept the one's that my parents or CJ's parents have given Drake in his Easters baskets throughout the year. I just use the same eggs each year and it's no big deal, I mean the kid see's them once a year and then they get taken away and I put them in my Easter bin downstairs. Well during Drake's Easter egg hunt he finds his basket and makes the comment "That's from Jess." He was so matter of fact about it that I thought I was going to die. I acted all confused and tried to just ignore him, lol!!! I think I said "Why would you think that?" ha! And he just kept saying "That's from Jess." I have no idea how he would have thought or figured that out but I'm going to have to be ten times more sneaky next year. Then..... When we were inside going though his eggs he picked up a particular egg and said "Hey! This is from my birthday last year!" He seemed excited about it, but again, CJ and I about DIED!!! How does this kid remember things that small from his Birthday a year ago???!
Lesson learned. Even though I have the storage room for a small bag of free Easter eggs; I need to go buy brand new ones every year!!!!! And I'll have to buy an Easter basket late Saturday night after the kid goes to sleep.

A New Friend

I'm going to stop lying to myself and others. I will not promise that I'm going to post more, because I really don't know if that's true, ha! I will post when I post! Here is a quick post/story for you.

I was putting Laundry away one afternoon and I could hear a knocking noise coming from Drake's bedroom. It kind of freaked me out because I knew no one was in there. I walked in and realized that whatever it was, was outside and it was knocking on Drake's window. Ok, I would be lying if I told you I was not completely freaked out, lol. I slowly opened the blinds to see this.......

a Robin, pecking at the window. (don't make fun of me for all the rain spots on the outside of my windows) This thing won't leave. I've hit the window to scare it away but the dang thing keeps coming back to Drake's window. Drake thinks it's amazing and says it's his friend. Drake has come up with a very unique name for it..... Flappy The Bird..... unique right? Anyway, I hate the thing. It was cool for about two hours and now I'm tired of it.

Stayin' Alive

OMW!!! (Oh My Word)
I've said it before and I'll say it again..... I'M SO BUSY!
We moved to a new house (that we LOVE) and things have just never slowed down.
Drake is getting older by the second. A funny story for you; Drake was saying his bedtime prayers the other night and he asked to "help us hunt for lions, tigers and bears" and "please keep daddy safe from the spiders and snakes at work" and "help us enjoy the food" DISCLAIMER: We don't let our child eat right before bed, so why he wants to "enjoy the food" at that time is beyond me. Drake is so funny and he's always good for a laugh!
Photography has been kicking my TRASH! I've had a lot of shoots and a lot of classes. But I'm loving it!
CJ and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary on Nov 11th. I also had a wedding to shoot that day/night and so I was in the dog house for just a little bit :) He got over it. lol. We went to Yellowstone Nation Park in September as an early anniversary get-a-way. We had a blast. I'll create a post all about that trip soon, I hope.
This house that we love so much has a really small spot for a fridge. That being said, our fridge is 5 inches too wide. We've had to put it out in the garage, and we've been walking back and forth ever since. We went looking for fridges this Black Friday weekend but all the sales are on these huge stainless steel economy size refrigerators. I don't need one very big, nor do I want something fancy and expensive. We might resort to an ice box or something.
We put up our Christmas tree last night and it looks great! Another story about Drake; CJ went hunting yesterday morning and I was feeling rather lazy, so Drake and I just laid around in our PJ's all day. Well CJ came home and we all took a nap and when we woke up I mentioned to CJ that we should put our tree up. CJ agreed but neither one of us moved. Well leave it to a child to remind you how special things are. Drake jumped off the couch and looked at CJ and I with great big eyes and a ton of excitement and said "I have an idea! Why don't we put the tree up together!" CJ and I could do nothing but smile. Drake was absolutely right, we should do it together! Christmas, or any holiday for that matter, is so much more fun when you have a child around! Drake is totally in the Christmas spirit, and that means asking for a lot of things as well. After almost every commercial Drake will say "I'd like to get that" or "I think I need that mom" This kid has a lesson or two coming his way :) On that same note; Whenever Drake sees a commercial for anything girlie, whether it's a Barbie, an Easy Bake Oven or even a trampoline commercial with a girl jumping on it, Drake will say "I'd like to get that for Addi" Addi is his cousin, the only girl cousin he has, so I guess he wants to spoil her. My little energized bunny has a super big heart!

That's Right!

We're MOVING! HOORAY! The condo life is over! We're moving into a Pleasant Grove home at the end of this month and we could not be more excited!! We've lived in our condo for two years, and although the payment has been nice, we have not really enjoyed it.
The new home sits on .47 of an acre and it's fully fenced :) I'm so excited for Drake to just run and burn energy!!! (I think I've used my yearly limit of exclimation points!)
Anywho, we're super excited and just can't stand to wait any longer.

Here are some fun pictures that I took of Drake helping my mom in my grandparents garden. They were doing some Strawberry pickin'

So tell me...

What is your favorite blog to read and why??

On My Mind

I hate TV sometimes. My 3 year old loves it and I think because of that reason I hate it.
Drake is not the shy child you see clutching onto his mothers leg at the shopping store. No, no, no, he's the one touching everything he can. He's the loudest kid in the store. He's not afraid of ANYTHING. I love this about him, well, most of the time. However, when we meet new people or when I want him to behave his very best, I'd like him to just calm down for a bit. Anyway, back to this TV thing. Drake is a talker (I wonder where he got that from) and he's very articulate as well. He picks up EVERYTHING that you say!!! And because of this I hate TV now.
Drake can say some really bad words. He has said a few 4 letter words but I'm talking about words like 'stupid', 'loser' or 'idiot'. I can't stand those words coming out of me 3 year olds mouth. Oh, and the #1 word that I hate him saying is the Lords name in vain. He's only said my #1 hated word 2 or 3 times, but in my book that's 2 or 3 times more than he should have. He doesn't say any of these words very often because he knows they are bad words but I swear he only says them when we are around other people. They've got to think I'm raising some punk kid or something. I don't know how to get away from these words.

- On Toy Story, Woody calls Buzz an 'idiot'. Thanks Pixar!
- EVERY Single channel (even Disney and Nick channels) say the Lords name in vain.
- On Kai Lan, she called something 'stupid'.

And the list goes on and on.

I know that Drake is just pushing my buttons, and I'm sure he's just testing the water to see what he can get away with. But, I want to hear from other parents. What do you do about this? My son can't be the only one that does this. Am I being too picky about what I consider 'bad words'? I just think he's too young to say those words.

Comments??? PLEASE!

Zimmerman Camping Trip 2011

This is the 3rd annual Zimmerman Family Camping Trip. The first couple years we called it the 4-wheeling trip, but we all have kids now and so it makes it hard for all of us to go on one big ride together.
We camped up by Strawberry reservoir and it was beautiful! The weather was great too. Here are a few, ok I mean a bunch, of pictures.

We're on our way!!



The view from our camp









Drake was dirty from the second we got out of the truck until we got home. We don't have a shower in our trailer so we went through a world record amount of baby wipes to try and get this kid clean before bed each night. He had a blast!!!

CJ went fishing on Saturday while the rest of the boys went to the shooting range.

This is my Brother Zac and my dad preparing some kabobs for dinner.

We ate lots of delicious food!!!

While we were there you couldn't fish the streams. And we saw a lot of fish in them. This is my nephew Dallin, my niece Addi and Drake looking at the fish in the water.

This is my niece Addi holding the butterfly that she caught.

All the kids playin' some ball. My nephew Dallin has a broken arm so it was kinda funny to watch him play :)

In the dirt, again.

This is the whole clan! (I love self timer)

My sister Jennell is pregnant with her fist child and she found out what she was having the first day of the camping trip. Most of the group was already up there so we were just waiting to hear from her. When she pulled up, she got out of the truck holding a 'It's a Boy' balloon. Super cute idea!!


This is Baby Rekker, Brandon & Whitney's little guy.

This is baby Dax, Rusty & Jess's little dude.

And this is baby Henry, Zac & Traci's 3rd little buddy.

They all so dang cute!!!



CJ and drake did a little 4-wheeling.

We had a blast, and with all these little kids, it will just get more and more fun each year!!! I love family!

What Do You Think??

Let me know what you think of Amber's Bridals. It was so hot outside and with all that dress that she had on, I'm sure she was close to dying. I think they turned out BEAUTIFUL though!






If you want to see more, check out my photography blog HERE

The last Couple Weeks

(I wish I could some up with really cool or fun titles for my blog posts, but it's just not my cup of tea, I'm not any good at it... Sorry)

A couple Saturday's ago, CJ competed in a Tree Jamboree. For those of you who don't know, CJ is a Tree Trimmer. The company he works for is contracted with Rocky Mountain Power to clear the lines from any brush or tree. He really likes his job and has worked there for 6 years. Anyway, a Tree Jamboree is a competition for the tree trimmers that is held each year, and this year it was held in American Fork. They setup courses and they get timed and scored on performance (the winner gets $2000 towards a trip to Australia, to compete in the world competition. Don't hold your breath... CJ did not win)

This was CJ's first year ever competing and he had lots of fun. He scored 21st place out of 32 (not bad for a new guy I guess) and in one event he got 3rd!
I was not able to stay and watch all the events, we've got a child, end of story. But here are some pictures I was able to snap.








We went camping for Memorial Day and we went with CJ's siblings. It was a lot of fun! Except the last day when we got 3" on snow fall, then heavy rains.... oh and then we got stuck.
We planned on coming home Memorial Day but when we woke up Sunday morning and saw the snow we thought we could eat breakfast, break down camp, and head out while the ground was still frozen (who the hell's idea was that!!!). Well, by the time we got all that done, the snow had melted a ton and it was drizzling rain. we headed down the road and maybe 100 yards from camp we got stuck! A camp that we near by came and told us that they were in the middle of helping some other people get un-stuck and that when he was done, he'd help us. He also told us that even when/if he can get us out we wouldn't be able to go anywhere. Four other cars were stuck on the road that connected us to the main road off the mountain. We set the trailer back up and planned to spend the night.


This was taken after we got stuck, so most of the snow had melted by this time, but here's the idea.





This was not mud, it was clay. You could hardly walk anywhere without getting your shoe sucked off. Oh it was bad news!

So here is what happened next. We unhooked from the trailer and these nice guys hooked on to the truck.



We got out like butter.... I want one of these Raptor machines, bad!!
Next, we tied onto the tongue of the trailer to move it 45 degree's so we could hook the truck back on.


Then we hooked back on and the nice guys pulled us out. NICE! CJ had a really nice big rope that is probably worth $100 of more and the guys wanted to buy it from CJ because they liked it so much but we decided to give it to them for being to kind!!! Thanks again, where ever you are!




You can't really see the depth in these pictures but these ruts were HUGE! And you can see our tire tracks where we had slid right into the muddy mess.

Now, I saved this for last because I wanted to reward those of you who actually read this whole post. Do you guys want the ingredients for the worlds BEST s'more??? I can't hear you..... DO YOU? ok ok I'm just kidding, but, you gotta try this sometime this Summer!
This is what you need; A marshmallow, 2 fudge stripe Keebler cookies and a milk chocolate caramel filled Giradelli chocolate square (i know, right.... enough said)



I've never been, but I'm pretty sure this is a little piece of heaven!