How Young Is To Young To Start Chewing Gum????

(A little history)I always have had gum and tic-tacs in my purse for my nieces and nephews to be able to have. When they were born I told them that I will always have tic-tacs and gum for them.

To this day they still go in my diaper bag now and look for them whenever we get together as a family. They even go to the bubble gum machine when we are all at my parents house.

Zack discovered the bubble gum machine when he was 14 months and wanted some but I kept telling him no.

So when he was 16 months he found some OLD bubble gum in one of my purses and he unwrapped it, well most of it and started to chew away on it! Well I took the gum out of his mouth. ( I've had to do this more then once.)

So last night we were at Lowes doing some pricing. Zack was good but he was started to get tired so I gave him one of his FAVORITE snacks, yogurt-melts. But those went fast since the bag was almost empty. Mr. Zack, got into my diaper bag pulled out my gum, unwrapped most of the wrapper and started to chew!!!!!!

This is the best pic I could get of Zack chewing the gum outside when it was dark.

Hard work is Starting to Pay Off!

On Thursday, August 19th Ben and I were reviewing Zack's reading flash cards with him, my sweet Ben was doing them randomly just to see if Zack was really learning words or not, well he did showed him "Eddie" and Zack pointed to his Eddie!!! Eddie was on the other side of the room and little Mr. Man himself went and got him! We were so proud of him.

With the program "Your Baby Can Read" they count it as reading when your child does the motion, points to the things, signs and of course says the words that they see on the cards.

This is an older picture( taken in Oct 2009) of Zack and Eddie.


I love being Zack's mommy so much!

Life lesson #246

Always make sure the pantry doors are always completely close and anything potential messy should be put up high!

Zack opened the pantry door and got the food coloring out (I didn't know that he could open a door much less reach that high.) and managed to dye himself fairly well. I think he was trying to become a red Easter egg.

Ah well, life isn't fun if we don't make it more colorful!

The Power of Example or Through My Son's Eyes

Two months ago, Zack was playing with his baby doll,  When she didn't perform for him as he wanted her to he mirrored exactly what I always do when he misbehaves. While pointing his finger at her he began to gently scold, when he was all done he picked  up the doll kissed her and said; "I love you!"

Just a few weeks ago while our little family was returning from the annual Bumpus family reunion in Mt. Vernon, IL, Zack wanted his books and his little baby doll. He began to babble (read) out of the book he held to his precious little baby doll. Zack and I love to read together!!! Hope you enjoy the moments I captured on video of him reading to the doll . .


Bishop H. Burke Peterson of the Presiding Bishopric said this in the Ensign, Jan. 1973

Harmony in the Home

"The most effective examples a child will ever have—for bad or for good—are his own parents. Few of us realize how very pliable and teachable children are in their primary years of life. How quick they are to pick up parental habits and traits and teachings!"

We need to be good examples to our children.

Know that they are loved.

That they will grow up and become good, kind, respectable adults,Good parents and so much more.

First Trip to the Library.

On August 19th was Zack's first trip to the library. I know I probably waited a bit too long, but honestly I was apprehensive about taking my little Mr. Man into the library. I loved seeing him surrounded by all of those books and yet even as much as he loves books he was distracted enough by all the pretty little girls. (That's what he's doing in this pic.)

We went to the children section and guess what was the first book he picked out????



Of course it was a Monkey book. He was making monkey sounds when I saw the book and I said to him "Zacky, what a surprise a monkey book!" We looked at books and he played with the noodle toy that they had there.

When we were on our way out we just had to check out that book and honestly I was thrilled that Zack did not want to leave, like his Mommy & Daddy Zack loves books! He was a bit difficult to control while I was checking out books because he kept trying to escape back to the Children's section!

I am so glad that he is my son.

Splish Splah I was taking a bath -- well sorta.

Today Zack and I went to a splash park along with his Grammy and cousins--Gracie, Hannah, Emma, Jacquie, Ciera and Jonathan

Zack had so much fun; it was so adorable watching walk around to the various water areas and interact with them. It made my heart so happy to watch him with his cousins. All of them were so attentive and included him in all their water games. You can see the family love and bond.

It was a fun, adventurous, great AND blessed day!

Good-bye My Old Friend

Yesterday I went to the funeral of my long time friend Andrew Kneib. He fought cancer for 15 years and was one of the strongest persons I have ever known. He was one of my heroes.
As kids, and teens we both had brain tumors/cancer. We even were in the Make A Wish program together. It always seemed that when I got better that Andrew got better. But then our old enemy, cancer struck him once more.

I am so blessed that I was able to know him in this life. He is such a great person and friend. I have no doubt where he is going and that he is doing many great and wonderful things on the other side.

What was said at his funeral is such a wake up call to me because he did not let his cancer stop him from doing anything! The following are some of what was said at the funeral:

"He got his eagle scout when he was only 14....., He worked in high school even had two jobs in his Senior year....., always did his school work even when he was under going his chemo treatments he was even able to graduate form high school in 2005 on time.
Andrew was always willing to serve in the church. He started doing home teaching at 12 and did it regularly. After high school he taught primary for 3 years. He loved the kids he taught and they loved him." He always made a big deal about celebrating their birthdays, and they always enjoyed taking turns pushing him in his wheelchair from class to sharing time.He always wanted to be a missionary, but that wasn’t possible. Instead, he served a mini-mission with Moises Echeverria. They would get together and study scriptures and then go out with the missionaries.
"When he was originally told that he would only have 2-3 months to live, it was arranged for him to go to the temple to receive his endowments. During that time period, he and Arlana(his mom) did a lot of traveling around the country, and he got to visit 16 temples. He greatly enjoyed going to the temple and went every month. He truly understood the plan of salvation, and the gospel, and he had a strong testimony that families can be together forever."

There was so much more said, he went to New York to see a Yankees game (with his dad) on their home field and many more things. He lived his life to the fullest! How many of us really do that, live our lives to the fullest? All of us need to start doing that. We all really need to enjoy our lives, see and know what is really important and what really matters. We should NOT have any regrets in our lives; our mortal lives are so short.

I will never forget you Andrew. You will be greatly missed and I love you.

I am so blessed to have known Andrew in my life.