December 2011 Update

We’ve had a busy couple of months since our last update. Here are the highlights…

Our ward didn’t have an official Trunk-or-Treat this year, but some people planned one anyway, along with a potluck dinner. We ended up having a huge turnout of families and a lot of fun! Austin was a Zombie Soldier, Logan was a Skeleton, Carson a Mummy, Jackson (aka Jack-Jack) was a “Jack-Jack O’Lantern”, and it was so fun to have a girl this year. Hailey was the prettiest Ballerina around!


On November 5th, my friend Maggie (MaggieMeiPhotography.com) took our family pictures. It was an overcast day, but the pictures turned out great anyway. Now we have a picture of our entire family, complete with our little princess!

Rhett has been diligently selling life insurance, and enjoying it. He loves his baby girl!!!




Maren
As for me, I think I’ve been busier these last couple months than in the last couple of years put together. I’m the Secretary in our Relief Society (women’s organization in our church), and it definitely keeps me busy. So busy in fact, that we recently called an assistant Secretary….so now I have a Secretary too! On November 10th I hosted a Relief Society Board Meeting/Dinner at our house. Our Relief Society was asked to plan and carry out our ward’s largest event of the year, our Annual Thanksgiving Dinner on November 18th. That involved a lot of food planning, prep work and cleanup. Then after that was over we started planning our Relief Society Christmas Dinner, which was held last night. I sang in 2 of the musical numbers (1 being a solo). Now, it’s on to the planning committee for our Ward Christmas Breakfast we’re having on December 17th. Busy, busy, busy!!! I also had a wonderful opportunity to sing in Handel’s “Messiah”, which the San Antonio West Stake was doing. At our first rehearsal I found an old program in my Messiah score from the last time I sang it…..1995 when I was at Ricks College. We had a total of 3 performances over the weekend of December 2-3rd. It was a wonderful experience and so uplifting to sing about our Savior. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed singing the Messiah! I did recently get a chance to relax a bit, when I joined a group of my friends for the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn. We have a big group that always does the midnight showings and we have so much fun. We are already planning ahead for the “Hunger Games” movie!

Austin
Austin has been keeping busy also. It’s amazing how just one year can change so much. Now that he’s in middle school, he has UIL (University Interscholastic League) 3 days a week before or after school, has helped with concessions at volleyball & basketball games, and attended choir and orchestra concerts. He recently had the opportunity with his Music Appreciation class to attend “The Nutcracker” on a field trip. He also attended one of my performances of the Messiah with Rhett, since he’s been learning about Handel this year. His class is currently acting out “West Side Story”. He loves his Music class!!! His main goal for next year is to be in Art and on both the Basketball and Football teams in 7th grade. It sounds like life is going to be busier next year! On November 13th the Bishopric and Primary Presidency had the Priesthood Preview for all boys turning 12 in 2012. I can’t believe Austin will be turning 12, advancing into Young Men’s, and receiving the Priesthood. July 2012 will be a great month!

Logan

Logan was recently given some upsetting news from our Dentist. He needs early Orthodontics to fix his Anterior cross bite (technical term for an underbite). This will avoid problems later with his permanent teeth having the same problem and causing problems with his jaw, possibly resulting in jaw surgery. So, 3 Orthodontists later we found one that will work on a 7 year old. Dr. Kalakech said that he definitely needs the work done, but she wants to wait 6 months until Logan’s front 4 top teeth are permanent and his molars have come in a little more. This will require attaching a spacer to the roof of his mouth and a mask of some sort that he’ll have to wear at night to slowly pull his top teeth and jaw into the correct position. Fun, fun, fun!!! Logan ended up with Strep Throat last week, so he missed 3 days of school. This boy just doesn’t get a break! We recently realized that next year Logan will be turning 8 , then will be baptized on Austin’s 12th birthday, then Austin will receive the Aaronic Priesthood the following day at church. What an amazing weekend that will be! Everyone is invited to come and spend those marvelous events with us.

Carson

Carson continues to be a fun-loving boy who has A LOT of energy!…and a big appetite. He will usually eat more than the other 3 boys combined…although when they are all teenagers I’m sure I won’t be able to feed them enough! Carson loves to ride his bike and play basketball with Austin. He loves playing games on the computer, most recently math games and timed United States matching games. His reading is progressing quickly and we laugh when he prompts Logan on a word when we are reading scriptures in the morning. Kindergarten is doing him good!

Jackson
Jackson is so fun to hang out with! I just love sitting back & listening to or watching him. You can see his little mind thinking, and he’s so stinkin’ cute!!! He is a smarty pants too. He knows so much (letters, numbers, sounds, colors, shapes, etc) and talks so well for his age. If only we could get him potty trained! He has no desire…yet. His favorite thing in the whole wide world to do is play on the computer. He has math games and puzzles, coloring and matching games on his desktop. He would play on it all day if we’d let him. That’s why we recently had to password-protect our computer. We couldn’t get him away from it! Now if he’s logged out he can’t do anything about it.


Hailey
Hailey is growing up too fast!!! She is almost 5 ½ months old and is rolling and scooting all over the place. She’ll end up across the room from where you laid her down just a minute or two later. She is also getting up on her hands and knees…it’s just a matter of days until she figures out how to move her arms and will be crawling! She has been teething for a couple of months, and has the drool to show for it. Well, on Monday, December 5th her 2 bottom front teeth decided to make their debut. “All she wants for Christmas is her……two front teeth!” Hailey loves her binky, but when she can’t find it her thumb will do just fine! It’s nice for me, because I don’t have to get up in the night if she can’t find it. She just pops her thumb in and goes back to sleep. I’m getting ready to start feeding her rice cereal & introduce veggies. Her brothers love her sooooo much! They can't get enough of her.

It actually got cold enough here for Hailey to wear her cute sweater dress that my cousin sent for her...and the cute sripey tights from my Sis-in-law. Love it!
I found my thumb!

As for the holidays, we spent Thanksgiving Day with our best friends the Clayton’s. A couple of other families joined us and we had a marvelous feast! None of them had ever tried a deep-fried turkey before, and were excited to try it. Rhett fried the turkey and it was a hit! After dinner, a game of “Ticket to Ride” ended a wonderful day.

We are looking forward to Christmas and my Mom coming to visit for almost a month! She hasn’t seen Hailey since she was 1 ½ weeks old, and she’s so excited to come cuddle with baby and hang out with the boys. Mom comes on December 19th and will be here until January 16th. We have some fun things planned for when she’s here, including her and I seeing “Les Miserables” on January 5th. We bought the tickets in June and got a smokin’ hot deal on floor seats…way less than half the current price! We are going with a huge group of friends from our ward. Then, on January 14th we will be plugging our ears and heading to “Monster Jam”. We’ve been two years in a row and it’s the highlight of the year for our boys. Mom is so excited to go with us…so much that she bought the tickets for us!!!

Well, that sums up the last couple of months. We rejoice this time of year in celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It’s such a wonderful time to spend with family and friends, and we feel blessed to have such amazing ones in our life! Happy Holidays to all!

Love,
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson & Hailey Zimmerman

October 2011 Update

Thanks to my awesome friend Maggie (MaggieMeiPhotograpy.com), I was able to get some awesome “School Pictures” of the boys this year, without buying the normal, boring ones from school. We got out into nature on a Saturday morning and took these great pictures…thanks to some great props! Thanks also to my friend Ana (or should I say Vega) for lending us her cute desk. Maggie even got a great picture of Jackson.

To update you on the last month or so, Hailey is now 3 ½ months old and I can’t believe how big she is getting already. She had a cold last weekend, so at our visit to the Dr. I learned that she now weighs 15 lbs. And to surprise us, this morning she rolled over all by herself! She’s my last little baby and I want her to stay little longer. Don’t grow up!!!

This is Hailey with her friend Abbi who was born 3 days after her. They have some "twin" clothes. Look how cute they are!
Jackson at the Zoo with his best friend "Monster" (aka Austin)

Jackson is now officially a “big boy” sleeping in his twin bed. He has also started sleeping in the playroom with his brothers for their “slumber parties” on the weekends. He’s growing up too! Jackson is all of a sudden a computer wiz. He will wake up in the morning, come downstairs, and instead of waking Rhett and I, will just find his way online to NickJr.com and play games. He’s so funny! Jackson just recently got over 6 days of being sick with a virus that caused his entire mouth to get covered in little blisters. It was so sad to see how much pain he was in. Unfortunately because it was a virus, there was no medicine we could give. He just had to suffer through it. We made sure he had Tylenol & Ibuprofen every few hours to try to help with the pain. He hardly ate anything, and just cried for days. Sooooo NOT fun! Oh, and to top it off, he also had 2 ear infections along with it. Luckily he could get meds for that part!
Jackson loves his baby sister so much. Here's a picture of them watching TV together, holding hands.

Carson-lost his 2nd tooth on 10/10/11 thanks to the help of Mom. The “tooth fairy” brought him a Gold Dollar coin.



Carson loves Kindergarten & was chosen to have the class mascot home with him last weekend. “Wally” the killer whale (Mrs. White’s Whales) spent the weekend hanging out, going to church, and visiting the San Antonio Zoo on Columbus Day with us. What a crazy outing that was….3 moms with a combined total of 14 kids!!!…and a whale.

Logan

Logan is keeping busy drawing, building with Legos, and learning. Last week his G/T (gifted/talented) class was learning about Biomimicry. Just do what I did and Google it! It’s where things are built or designed to mimic things in nature. Logan’s examples he took to school were: Burrs = Velcro, and Shark = Swimsuit. A man studied burrs that had stuck to his dog, and designed Velcro after them. And the Speedo swimsuits used by swimmers like Michael Phelps are designed after sharkskin to disrupt slow water eddies making the water pass by faster. So, there’s your science lesson for the day!

Austin

Austin is enjoying middle school immensely. He decided to join UIL (University Interscholastic League) this year, which is an extracurricular academic contest. They study a few times per week to practice certain topics, then go to academic “meets” to take tests on that topic to see which school wins. Austin signed up for Dictionary skills, Spelling, Calculator apps and Maps/charts/graphs. He’s also keeping busy with 11-yr old scouts, and is enjoying being a Boy Scout, not a Cub any longer.

I have been busy catching up on some scrap booking lately. I always like to have a project to do during General Conference, and I ended up getting a lot accomplished. I’m still much further behind than I’d like to be, but I’m getting there! I recently got a request from a friend for 600 cards (500 birthday and 100 thank you), so that will keep me busy over the next little while. I recently hosted a baby shower for a friend of mine who is having her first girl. I was able to give her lots of clothes that Hailey has already outgrown. Mine was the gift bag that kept on giving, and giving, and giving…. I also started a re-organizing project in my office, which is overflowing with papers. That project is taking awhile… Add all that to my busy calling as Relief Society Secretary, homework with the kids and just being a mom…and by the end of the day, I’m wiped out!

Rhett has been diligently looking for work again. Since deciding to stop doing management with his current job, he now has the time that he could work a full time job again, and still sell life insurance in the evenings and on weekends. We are praying that he finds a great job (with great benefits) very quickly!!! It has been nice to have Rhett around more lately, especially because we have been going to the temple together weekly. It’s been a long time since we were able to do that! We are truly enjoying being in the House of the Lord. What a beautiful building it is!

Well, again that’s about all for this time. We love & miss you all…our doors are always open when you want to visit our beautiful city of San Antonio!

Love –
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson & Hailey

September 2011 Update

My, how time flies! It’s been too long since my last update. I have a 2-month old baby already!!! Hailey is growing up so quickly. I took her to the Dr. last week for her check up and immunizations. She weighed 13 lbs. 1 oz. (75%) and was 23 ¼ inches (95%). I’m going to have a tall little girl! Hailey’s little friend in our ward (Abbi) was born 3 days after her, and she only weighs 10 lbs. 8 oz. What a chunker I have! She is still the best baby in the world and we love every minute with her. She finally started smiling a couple of weeks ago…and I’ve caught her giggling a couple of times. At the beginning of August, Rhett’s parents flew from Denver to be here for Hailey’s blessing on August 7th. She wore a beautiful knitted dress & booties that Grandma Z. had made many years ago. I’ve had that dress, booties & matching afghan for about 12 years, just waiting for a little girl to wear it!!!

Hailey's blessing day, August 7th

Hailey with Grandma & Grandpa Zimmerman

Hailey with her 4 big brothers

I've had this dress for about 8 years...just waiting for a little girl! She wore it to church today.

My little chunky girl...all dressed in pink, with a big bow on top!

I caught a smile!

Jackson is 2 ½ and the best little guy around. He has such a quiet, calm spirit about him, and is so happy all the time. He LOVES to talk to and hold his baby sister. He’s always saying “Hi cute girl!” to her. We’ve been having a great time since the boys went back to school, as it’s just the 3 of us at home now. What a change from the crazy whirlwind that we have the minute the boys get off the bus! Jackson still enjoys doing puzzles and the alphabet is his new favorite thing. He loves watching the Leap Frog “Letter Factory” movie that we have, and playing with the magnetic letters on the fridge. He even likes pointing out letters on signs, books, etc. that he sees. He can sing the Alphabet song and knows all the letters by sight, and what sounds each makes. He’ll be ready for Kinder next year! Too bad he won’t start for 3 years.

Jackson with his baby sis

Carson started Kindergarten this year and is loving it! He is one of Mrs. White’s “Whales” and couldn’t be happier. He is an energetic, crazy, fun-loving boy that can be so loveable and kind, yet the next minute decide he’s going to throw a tantrum because he can’t eat candy in church!….that was today’s problem. Carson just loves to be like his big brothers and especially loves playing in the dirt and riding his bike. Carson lost his first tooth on the 4th day of school (8/25). A few months ago he bonked his teeth on Logan’s head and his 2 front top teeth died as a result. I kept thinking that they would fall out first, but the dentist said he’ll probably lose the bottom ones first. Well, she was right!

First day of Kindergarten



Logan turned 7 on July 12th and started 2nd grade this year. His teacher is Mrs. Spruill and he is in the same class as 2 other boys in our ward, Alex and Noah. Logan loves to read and draw, and most recently has been working on making a calendar to hang in their room. He’s so creative and does a really great job on projects. He also loves to play different games on the computer. I think he knows how to use it better than I do! Logan will be completely happy if everyone just leaves him alone, yet wants to be the center of attention as well. Hopefully that’s just a phase.

Logan's 7th Birthday

First day of 2nd grade

Austin turned 11 on July 21st and started 6th grade this year, which means he now attends Driscoll Middle School. He loves every minute of it, and especially likes that he gets breaks between each subject and gets to eat a hamburger at school any day he wants! Austin spent a lot of the summer and the last couple of weeks working on a book he’s writing, similar to the Percy Jackson books. His book is called "The Lost Jar of Greek Fire", and he’s currently in the process of typing it up on the computer. When he’s done I’ll give you all a sneak peek! He thinks it’s going to be around 130 pages long….we’ll see. He’s actually a pretty good little author (and illustrator). Austin also started 11-yr old Scouts last week!

Austin's 11th Birthday

First day of 6th grade

As for me I’m still trying to get used to my new calling as the Relief Society Secretary. I guess my brain just isn’t back to normal after my pregnancy yet, because I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing yet. Hopefully that will change soon! Nothing much is new for me. Just trying to keep on top of the housework, my calling, and motherhood. I’m currently keeping myself busy doing laundry at my friend’s house, since our washer is broken and no money to fix it. I am making do!

Rhett is plugging along with his job selling life insurance. It’s definitely up and down in that business. I noticed a couple of months ago that he looked like he’d lost weight. He dismissed it, but when I mentioned it again about a month ago he actually weighed himself. He had lost between 15-20 lbs. And for those of you that know Rhett, he doesn’t have that much weight to lose! Add that to him never being home and some other health problems he was experiencing due to the stress of his job, he decided a change needed to be made. He came home early from work one day and had decided to stop doing “management” at work. He was constantly at the office doing recruiting, hiring, training, etc., then would still go out in the afternoons/evenings doing his sales appointments. Basically all that meant was that we never saw him. Anyway, now he’s just doing his sales appointments and is home a lot more. We are still struggling financially, but are much happier!

Rhett and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary on July 17th. Lucky 13…best years of my life!!!

We have been trying to stay cool this summer, as we’ve been experiencing a major drought here. It hasn’t measurably rained since last October. The temps this summer have been 100 or higher for approximately 60 days or more. In turn, our A/C has to run all the time to even try to keep the house around 80 degrees. I can’t wait for rain and cooler temps!!!

Well, that’s all for this time. We hope you all had a wonderful summer, and that back-to-school is as wonderful for all of you as it is for me!

Love,
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson & Hailey

July 2011 Update

Well, our family picture is officially out of date! We have had a fun couple of months since my last post…

To play “catch up” a little…

Austin finished his life as a “Cub Scout” on May 26th as this was our last Pack Meeting before he goes into 11-yr old Scouts. Austin (and his Webelos leaders) worked very hard to accomplish a lot this last month, and he was given 7 awards that night, including his Religious Knot and the “Arrow of Light” award. We are very proud of Austin for his many accomplishments in Cub Scouts.

Austin receiving his "Arrow of Light" award
Austin also had his 5th grade Graduation on the last day of school, June 2nd. We were pleasantly surprised to find out he qualified for the President’s Award, which means he got 90% or above in all subjects 3rd through 5th grades. He got a pin with the Presidential Seal on it and a congratulations letter from Barak Obama himself. Way to go Austin!!!

Austin's last day of Elementary school
Austin, Logan & Carson started swim team again mid-May. Carson was overjoyed to be joining his big brothers and took to swimming like a fish. During the month of June we had 4 swim meets. Austin and Logan did well in all four meets, earning many ribbons. Carson had a slow start, but was able to swim in the last 2 meets of the season and did really well. The Championship meet was held yesterday for Austin and he swam in 3 individual events and 2 relay events. All in all we had a wonderful swim season and the boys enjoyed every minute of it. Tomorrow we have our End of Year party and the boys get awarded their trophies. Can’t wait!

Austin

Logan

Carson
Carson celebrated his 5th birthday on Thursday, June 2nd. Since Rhett had to work, we did a quick opening of presents when he was home for lunch, then had cake later that night. On Saturday, June 4th we went bowling to celebrate Carson’s big day. Of our kids, only Austin had ever been bowling and they are all hooked now….especially Jackson. He later found that he could use empty water bottles and his ball to play bowling at home. Since then I bought Jackson one of those cheap plastic bowling sets. He’s in bowling heaven!!!

Carson's cake

Carson's new bike

Austin bowling

Logan bowling

Carson bowling

Jackson bowling
At the beginning of June I was surprised by a visit from the Bishop. The new Relief Society President wanted me for her Secretary, so I was released from my calling as Primary President after just 1½ years. It was definitely a bittersweet day. I haven’t been in RS for 5 ½ years, so it was a big change for me. I will miss the children, but I think it will be a good thing.

On Thursday, June 16th, Grandma Stewart came to visit for the upcoming birth of our beautiful Hailey. We all had so much fun with Grandma while she was here. We had 2 of our swim meets, my baby shower, Family Fun Night for swim team, 4 lunch dates (one with each boy separately), Cars 2 movie, bowling, and of course lots of fun & games. Not to mention all the help she gave in cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. We couldn’t have done it without her!!! One of the fun things that Grandma did with Jackson was puzzles. He has recently become obsessed with them. At the age of 2 ½ he has mastered the art of puzzles and now has multiple 36 piece puzzles that he puts together multiple times daily…with very little or no help!

Jackson and his puzzle
Austin's lunch date w/Grandma to BJ's

Logan's lunch date w/Grandma to Chili's

Carson's lunch date w/Grandma to Freddy's

Jackson's date consisted of a grocery shopping trip w/Mom & Grandma

On Friday, June 17th I was overwhelmed with the show of love & support from my many wonderful friends at my Baby Shower. There were over 40 people in attendance and I was literally “showered” with so many gifts…they filled my entire van on the way home! I am so blessed to have such a marvelous group of “sisters” to share special moments with.

Tuesday, June 28th was planned well in advance for the birth of Hailey. Bags were packed for the hospital, pre-op blood work done, meals for the family planned, etc. However, Hailey decided to shake things up a bit. I was originally scheduled for a 1:00pm C-section, getting to the hospital by 11:00am. That morning started off much earlier however, when at 5:30am I started having contractions. They were approximately 5 minutes apart from the get go. We hurried and got ready and left for the hospital by 6:30, they started monitoring me before 7:00 (my contractions were only 3-4 minutes apart by then), prepped me for surgery, whisked me into the O.R. (ok, technically I walked there) and Hailey was born at 8:50am. It had been almost 11 years since Austin was born that I had experienced contractions and I couldn’t remember how bad they hurt. Although with him I had an epidural by the time I was dialated to 3, so I probably never got to the really bad ones with him. Anyway, believe me, I was sooooo ready for the anesthesiologist to give me that Spinal block. Everything else went just like clockwork.

Hailey Kristine Zimmerman was born on June 28th, 2011 at 8:50 am. She weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 ¾ inches long…my longest and biggest baby of all. She is beautiful!

Hailey is here!

Hailey with her big brothers

We came home from the quiet peaceful hotel (I mean hospital) room on Friday, July 1st to a house full of rambunctious boys excited to have Mom & baby Hailey home. They love her too much to describe…constantly wanting to look at, hold and kiss her. They are even interested in what clothes and headband I’m going to put on her each day. They LOVE their baby sister!!! She is just the perfect baby. Eats and sleeps good, and has a very laid back & relaxed personality. She mostly only cries when getting her diaper changed. I say it again…PERFECT BABY!!! She is the most wonderful and final addition to our family. Thanks to my friend Maggie for the wonderful photos!!!

Hailey with Grandma

Rhett was overjoyed to pose for this picture...NOT!

Looks like she has Mickey Mouse ears

Maggie caught a smile

Ballerina baby...I love her face in this one!

Happy 4th of July! Her shirt said "Brand New Red, White & Blue"


Well, that’s about all for this time. We look forward to celebrating Logan & Austin’s birthdays in July….more fun yet to come!

Until next time….
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson & Hailey Zimmerman