Rhett & Maren Zimmerman Family

January 2012 Update

2012-01-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

We’ve had a lot of fun at our house lately!

Christmas was GREAT! Despite having little money, we were amazingly blessed and ended up with a wonderful Christmas. Here are the kids in their Christmas PJ's...that Santa brought to a Christmas Eve party we were invited to.

Rhett turned 39 on January 24th. Per his request we made a homemade cookie cake and it was very tasty! He got a new hand blender (for making milkshakes) and a blu-ray player (thanks to a very generous & anonymous friend giving us an Amazon gift card for Christmas).

I’ve just been busy as usual, trying to keep up with kids, hubby and my calling. Life seems to be getting more and more busy each day. I fondly remember those days not too long ago when I was able to have time to myself, instead of just what “had” to be done. Hopefully those days are not over forever!!!

Austin At the end of December most of us ended up with a case (or two) of Pinkeye…something we’ve never experienced before. Carson, Me, Austin, Jackson & Logan all ended up with it. By far Austin had it the worst. Austin and I actually got it twice! Austin fractured his ankle at Scouts on Wednesday, January 25th.
They were rolling a large tractor tire (like the front tire in this picture) in some sort of relay race in the parking lot. He was running alongside a friend who was rolling it, but was unable to jump away fast enough when the friend lost control & it fell over onto Austin's foot. He has a splint on right now, until the swelling goes down enough to see the Orthopedic Dr. to have a cast put on. He is learning how to maneuver on his crutches, but luckily his school has an elevator. He has special passes for the elevator, extra time getting to class, and wearing sweat pants (which is against the dress code). He also finds a "buddy" to help him carry his books, etc. to class. Fun times ahead!!! The thing he’ll miss the most is being able to play basketball. Luckily the NBA season is in full swing and he loves watching the Spurs play just as much!

We unwrapped his splint on Monday, January 30th to check the swelling and this is what we found. Ouch! Fortunately he said it doesn't hurt at all. We have an appt with the Orthopedist in 2 days. Hopefully he'll be able to cast it then.

This is Austin on Wednesday, February 1st getting his cast on at the Pediatric Orthopedist's office. He'll wear this for 3 weeks, then get a new cast for another 3 weeks, then have to wear a walking boot for 2 more weeks. The fracture is actually a separation of the growth plate at the base of his tibia. Dr. Stall said there's a 1 in 20 chance that his right leg will be slightly longer than the other one, by about a centimeter.

Logan Logan made us some much needed cash recently. He was a surrogate for a company who researches car accidents for court cases. This is the second time he’s done it. All it requires is for us to wait in the waiting room, read, watch movies, eat snacks, take a nap if necessary, then when they are actually ready for him he gets to sit in a car for 10 minutes and have some pictures taken of him. It’s hard work I tell you! Logan loves to be creative and is always coming up with some interesting things to pretend. I don’t understand it, but there are chains, ropes and wires strung all over the backyard for some reason…he’s got a plan there somewhere?!?

Carson Carson is doing great in school. He is really becoming an awesome reader! His new favorite thing to do is play board games…although he has a rough time finding people willing to play with him. He especially loves playing “The Farming Game” with Rhett. It is a game similar to Monopoly, but instead you buy acreage, tractors, harvesters, cattle, etc. He is such a loving boy and is constantly coming up to me with lots of hugs & kisses. I love that boy!

Jackson
Jackson is potty training!!! We celebrated his 3rd birthday on January 2nd.
He loves just about anything, especially monster trucks and playing on the computer. It is amazing to me how smart he is. He is leaps & bounds ahead of friends his age. He definitely has his Dad’s smarts!

Hailey Hailey turned 7 months old this week and is eating cereal, veggies, fruits and juice. She officially learned how to crawl on January 8th, and within a week was sitting up by herself. She is now crawling over to things (coffee table, couch, people sitting on the floor, etc.) and is pulling herself up to standing. She is very unstable though once she gets up there, and most often ends up toppling over and bonking her head. Not fun!!! Hailey is teething again and we are waiting for some more pearly whites to make their appearance. My baby is growing up WAY too fast!!! My friend Maggie (MaggieMeiPhotography.com) recently took some great pics of Hailey in her Christmas dresses….yes, DRESSES. My mom and I went shopping for Christmas dresses and weren’t able to even find ONE at several stores we looked at. We hit the jackpot when we went to Sears. We just couldn’t decide, so we got 3!

It’s been so fun dressing her up…and she seemed to love this photo shoot. (This was was her actual "Christmas Dress" that she wore to church)
We just had to have this one because it's PURPLE!...Grandma's favorite color. Our main goal for this shoot however, was to get a 3-generation picture of my Mom, Hailey and Me. It turned out great!

We had a lot of fun with Grandma during the month she was here. We went Christmas shopping, did our first ever “Secret Santa” (which the kids LOVED doing), she and I attended “Les Miserables” (which was awesome!), saw “We bought a Zoo” in the theater (cute movie!), celebrated Grandma & Jackson’s birthdays, hosted scrap night, went shopping at the outlet malls in San Marcos, went to lunch and to the San Antonio Temple, took kids to the Dr. (due to the pinkeye that hit our house while she was here), visited a friend in Boerne, TX (north of San Antonio) and last but not least attended Monster Jam at the Alamodome.

Our Monster Jam 2012 experience: The day before the show we were able to go see one of the monster trucks, “Avenger” up close & personal at Advance Auto Parts and meet the driver and his brother (who drives another monster truck). It was a surprise to the boys….and BOY WERE THEY SURPRISED! They got to look inside, climb all over it, and get autographs and pictures.

The boys with Jim Kohler, driver of Avenger
The boys with Steve Kohler, driver of Wrecking Crew
This is the Team Scream truck & trailer that they haul the monster trucks in.
I don't know what Austin's doing here...
The next day in the afternoon we were able to see all 16 of the trucks at the “Party in the Pits”. This is where all the trucks are displayed on the Alamodome floor with the drivers and you can wait in long lines to meet them and get autographs. We chose to simply walk around, get pictures of them all and then get out of the HUGE crowd. Dinner was a picnic out of the back of the van, then walk back for the show at 7:00.
These pictures were taken as the trucks lined up to race each other around the track.
Wrecking Crew and Wolverine
El Toro Loco and Maximum Destruction (Max D)
Monster Energy and Iron Man
Grave Digger and Wolverine
Grinder and Superman
Get Er Done and Max D
El Toro Loco and Avenger
Storm Damage and Grinder
Grave Digger broke a wheel & crashed
Jim Kohler had an awesome crash in Avenger & came out celebrating! One of the highlights was the “halftime show”, which was Robosaurus…a huge metal beast that spews fire and eats cars. Very cool to see! He just bit this car in two.

We all had an awesome time (especially Grandma since it was her first!). We may just get her to come back every year for Monster Jam!!!

Well, I guess that’s about all for this time. We continue to love living in San Antonio…especially during the wintertime when we see videos of snowstorms and ice elsewhere in the country!

Enjoy all the new pictures! We love you all.
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson & Hailey Zimmerman

December 2011 Update

2011-12-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-10-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

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

May 2011 Update

2011-05-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I must be busy because it seems I can’t get my blog updated monthly like I used to. Here goes for the months of March, April and a little bit into May….

Rhett was named “Agent of the Month” in March, raking in the biggest sales numbers in the agency. He was awarded this plaque by his boss…now just needs to hang it in his office. What an accomplishment. Great job honey!!!

My routine glucose test for pregnancy came back abnormal this time, so I ended up doing the 3-hour test, which involves getting my blood drawn 4 times. That was NOT fun! I also found out that I’m borderline anemic, so I’m taking extra iron to build up my blood supply before surgery. My c-section is being scheduled for Tuesday, June 28th. Can’t wait to meet our little girl. As you can see below, I am getting really excited for her to come. This is only a portion of the clothes I have either been saving over the years, buying, or been given by friends. She is going to be one well-dressed little girl!

On April 8th we held our Annual Primary Talent Show & Cub Scout Fundraiser Dinner. It’s always a big production and helps our Cubs get to Summer Day Camp. We had a really good turnout this year, which was nice to see. Then, on Easter Weekend, the Primary was put in charge of a ward Easter Egg Hunt. So basically April for me consisted of planning and executing very large-scale events. Glad that’s over with!

On April 29-30th I was fortunate to be able to attend Deseret Book’s “Time Out for Women” here in San Antonio. I had such a wonderful time hanging out with my friends, listening to inspirational talks & stories, and making great memories!!!

On March 30th was Austin’s 3rd and final Pinewood Derby. He was excited this year to make a Dodge Ram for his car, so that’s what we ended up with…..and with much help from Bro. Christensen who helped him get it done at the last minute. Thanks Mike!!! Austin was sure he had the 1st place trophy in the bag, but ended up with the 2nd place trophy. He was pretty bummed, but out of 13 boys I told him 2nd was awesome! Here he is with his trophy and truck.

On May 2nd Austin had his (probably last) piano recital. He has done well for the 3 years of lessons, but hates to practice! He only likes to play once he gets to the point of knowing (and having memorized) a song. Only then do I not have to beg, plead or threaten him to do it. He always does an amazing job and I really think he should continue, but he’s determined that this is the end. We’ll see what the future brings. This recital was Disney-themed, so all the songs were from Disney movies… He played “Zero to Hero” from Hercules…and his piano teacher even dressed up as one of the Disney characters. Can you guess which one??? Here is Austin with his teacher, Sis. Kjar

Logan lost his first teeth on the same day, with a little help from Mom. On March 15th he lost his “two front (bottom) teeth”

Logan was again featured in the school district’s Young Masters Art Show this year. On March 31st we trooped over to the Blossom Athletic Center to view his artwork that was chosen. This is his favorite thing to do, and I hope he continues with this amazing talent. Here is Logan’s artwork, done with string and watercolors.

A couple of years ago Logan had a hernia that presented itself one night, then decided to disappear before the ER Doctor could even take a look at it. We thought that was the end of it, but in April it came back. Another ride to the ER, and another disappearing (“reducible”) hernia later we got a referral from our Pediatrician for a Pediatric surgeon. Logan had his hernia surgery yesterday (Friday, May 6th) and is recovering amazingly well. He came home from the hospital & slept like a rock for 5 hours, then got up and has been acting normal since. Thank goodness kids are so resilient!!! Here he is before & after surgery.

I got Austin, Logan & Carson registered for the Shockwaves Swim Team again this year. This will be Carson’s first year, and he is so excited!!! They start practices on May 16th and have swim meets/practices all through the month of June. Add in 2 birthdays, Grandma coming and a C-section, it sounds like June will be our busiest month yet!

Recently both Logan & Carson FINALLY learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels. They are both ecstatic and want to ride all the time now. Carson actually learned first, only because Logan was a little hesitant to try. Both of them however just got on and after a few seconds of holding onto the bike were off on their own.

Carson recently decided that he needed a new haircut, so he took it upon himself to do the task. It definitely could have been much worse, but it was bad enough (for my taste) to require Mom’s help. This is Carson after his haircut, and then Mom’s version.

Jackson is hanging in there with the rest of the boys. He’s as cute as ever, talking so much now and just being loveable. He is learning so quickly and half the things he says I don’t even know where he learned it from….Nick Jr??? He can now count to 10, knows about 8-10 colors by sight, knows the names of several shapes, and most importantly (to him) he knows the names of all the Monster Jam monster trucks. He is obsessed and constantly plays with the little toy monster trucks that we have. He’ll be 2 ½ just after Hailey is born. Here are a couple cute pictures of him (and Carson).

Our “puppy” Shelby is now officially much bigger than our other dog Addie. She’s also been very annoying with jumping up, constantly knocking over their water bucket, barking, and a little bit of biting still. I know she’s still a puppy, even though she’s so big, but I hope she’ll calm down a bit soon….especially after we get her spayed! We ended up buying her a barking collar to avoid those 3am barking bouts. There were just too many fun birds or squirrels in our trees in the night to sleep I guess! The collar beeps when she barks, then if she keeps barking it beeps & gives her a small shock. It gently increases up to 5 shocks. She hasn’t completely stopped barking, but it’s working good enough to get some good nights of sleep, so I’m completely happy with the $14.99 we spent on it. This picture was taken today. When we got her in January she couldn’t even get her head up & over the bucket to get a drink.

Well, that’s all I can think of for this time. We hope you all have a wonderful summer!!!

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

March 2011 Update

2011-03-10T12:34:00.001-08:00

It’s a GIRL!!!! Yes, we’ll officially be welcoming a baby girl into our family this June. Soooooo exciting for us…even the boys are excited when I buy cute “girly” stuff for her. They have been wanting a sister for a long time, especially Austin. Well, their wish will be granted. Heavenly Father saw fit to send us a long-awaited girl to complete our family. I am officially due July 6th, but we are planning a scheduled C-section for June 24th. Yay for us!!!

As of March 1st, Rhett has now been with American Income Life for 1 year! Here’s hoping for a much more prosperous one to come!!!

Last month I learned that my Primary Secretary had been called to be the Stake Primary Secretary. So, eventually I’ll be losing her. Then I just found out that my 2nd counselor will be moving ASAP. I don’t know if I can handle all this stress!!! I know somehow it will all work out, but it’s the getting there that’s hard to deal with. Good luck to Cortney in her new adventures!

Austin recently finished a big 5th grade project called “Living Museum”. All the 5th graders had to choose a historical person and portray them. He chose Orville Wright (of the Wright Bros.) and had fun learning about the invention of the airplanes. They each had to research their person, make a webpage about them, then the big event was a live “museum” in the cafeteria where they stood around the room and parents/students wandered through listening to their speech telling about themselves. He even had to dress up like Orville. Here’s Austin on the day of the “Living Museum”.
Austin as Orville Wright

On February 1st Austin was also in his last PTA program of Elementary School, as he’ll be moving on to Middle School next year. The P.E. teachers had been working with all the 5th grade classes to come up with dance or exercise routines. Lucky for Austin, the boys in his class and another were chosen to do a “basketball routine” (basketball is his all time favorite thing to do). The routine was performed for all the parents & families. Way to go Austin!

We’ve still struggled at the beginning of this year with illness. After the Bronchitis went away, we have had to deal with ¾ of the boys having the flu, 2 ear infections, and a very unpleasant virus that Jackson had, which included his gums, tongue & throat covered with small “ulcers” or blisters. Let me say that those were a few LONG days of no fun with a baby who’s mouth hurt & wouldn’t eat or drink much. He also had an ear infection at the same time, so he was definitely NOT a happy camper! Knock on wood, but everyone is healthy and well now. We hope it stays that way!

Something fun that Carson, Jackson & I did on February 18th was go to “dollar days” at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. We were there with several other moms & kids and had a great time. The boys LOVED the petting zoo and carousel especially. I thought Jackson might be afraid of the animals in the petting zoo because they were so close, but he loved every minute of it….even when a deer kept trying to eat his shirt!
Carson on the John Deere. Grandpa Stewart would be proud!!!

Carson on the carousel

Jackson on the carousel

Jackson's shirt getting "eaten" by a deer

Carson petting a baby Pot Bellied Pig

Jackson & Carson with the sheep & goats

Jackson & Carson petting a pig

We are enjoying our “Texas Springtime” now with cool nights and days in the 70’s and 80’s. Park days have returned and we are loving this time of year. I continue to swap kids 2 days a week, which gives me some much needed Mommy time.
Carson & Logan "hanging out" at the park

I am getting into project mode. There are many changes that will be made in our household getting ready for our new baby. Austin will be moving into his own room (guest room), Carson will be moving in with Logan, and of course we have to get Jackson’s room ready for Hailey to join him! I have many projects planned…I just hope that I have the energy to get them completed. Here is a list of items I need to start on….

Paint Austin’s room (I’m making him a Spurs room)
Paint Jackson/Hailey’s room
Sand & Paint 3 dressers
Repaint the crib & changing table
Repaint Carson’s current, soon-to-be Jackson’s bed

Those are just the main projects, which unfortunately also include removing everything from the closets to paint, and then reorganizing them. Our guest room closet is where I’ve been storing all my extra craft materials, wrapping paper, and random other things. Now I have to find a new place for all that so that Austin can have a closet! There are also several little sewing/craft projects that need to get completed before she is born. Good thing I have all the time in the world to get them complete…..right???

Our “puppy” Shelby (4+ months) is now the same size as our other dog Addie. She’s going to be a big girl! It’s amazing to see how big she’s getting so fast. I keep having to loosen her collar every couple of weeks. She’s as fun as ever, but still in puppy mode and likes to bite & chew on anything that is within reach, including any body part or clothing that happens to be close by. Going out in the backyard is definitely a new experience! We need to get her into the vet for shots and spaying ASAP! Our other dog Addie is “in the doghouse” if you’ll excuse the pun. She has been escaping out of our yard ever since moving in almost 2 years ago. Just when we thought we had fixed the fence or covered up any area for digging, she finds another way. In getting another dog we though that would solve the problem, since she’d have a friend to play with. Not so. Now, she just gets out and Shelby follows her. In the last month we have had countless people calling about them, or stopping by bringing them home (lucky they have tags!). The last straw however was one night at 3:00am when we got a call from a bar down around the corner from us. They were just closing up and our dogs wanted to join them I guess. When Rhett got back w/them he didn’t chain Addie up, so when I checked about ½ hour later, sure enough, she was gone again. Driving around the neighborhood at 3:30am is not my idea of fun. Needless to say she has been chained to our patio post since then. She can get to food, water, doghouse, blanket, shade, sun, grass, dirt or cement. She has quite the luxurious “prison cell” I must say. Anyway, neither dog has gotten out since then!
Austin with Addie & a very dirty Shelby

Well, I guess that’s all for this month. Again we miss you all & love hearing from all of you. We hope you have a great March!!!

Love,
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson & soon-to-be Baby Hailey

February 2011 Update

2011-02-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone! I missed out on a January update, so here goes…

First of all, we thought our Christmas was going to be slim pickings due to our financial stress, but we were very blessed by ward members, anonymous cards in the mail and family members alike showering us with gifts, money and gift cards. We are so grateful to have the wonderful family & friends that we have. We love you all!!! Hopefully 2011 will be a much more prosperous year for our family.

Speaking of prosperity, we have recently and will again this Summer add to our family. Our neighbor found 4 abandoned puppies and brought them home. We had been wanting another dog so ours would have a friend, so we are now the proud owners of a cute female black lab-mix puppy (approx. 3 months old) that we named Shelby. She is already growing fast & we know she’ll be bigger than our other dog (Addie) soon, just simply by looking at the size of her paws. She’s going to be a big girl!

Near the end of June we will welcome our newest little family member. The ultrasound at 13 weeks looked like a GIRL!!! We are still being cautious about the sex because it was early, but I saw what I saw, and saw no signs of a boy. We have another ultrasound scheduled next week and should be able to confirm. I am now almost 19 weeks and am feeling great! Hopefully this will be the little girl we’ve hoped & prayed for.

It looks like we’re finally turning the corner into some success with Rhett’s job. He is the recruiting manager at his agency, and his boss has had nothing but the best things to say about him. He’s had better luck with making sales lately and also has about 8 agents under him now. That means when they make sales, he makes money also. He will have been with the company for a year as of March 1st, which also means he’ll start making residual income from the policy renewals. Can’t wait for that! Rhett celebrated his 38th birthday on January 24th. He doesn’t look or feel a day older however…

As for me, I’ve officially been Primary President for over a year now. It has been a great year and I have a wonderful presidency that helps & teaches me all the time. I feel so grateful for them and all they do. I am getting used to some changes (with the new handbook), but overall things are going great, and I can’t complain. I have a great calling! We now have 90+ kids in our Primary (including 14 new Sunbeams) with 90-95% attending regularly, which basically means we have a lot of fun with a lot of kids! I was surprised this past Sunday however, when we had Stake Conference and they told me they were taking my Secretary! Mindy has been my right hand, and tends to keep my mind on track more than not. I will definitely miss her and all the help she has given us (especially me!). Good luck Min on your new Stake Primary Secretary calling!

Austin and Logan started off the year with a bout of Bronchitis. Austin got to the point that we were fearing pneumonia, but with a couple of weeks of antibiotics and breathing treatments in them, they are both doing much better. They continue to get good grades in school (all A’s as of the last report cards) and enjoy learning. Austin is still a basketball fanatic and Logan loves to build things and draw.

Carson is a big helper around the house, wanting to help with dishes, laundry, cleaning bathrooms and especially mopping the floor. He keeps me on my toes with his energy. Both him and Jackson are involved in 2 different playgroup swaps, which leaves me childless for approximately 6 hours each week…much needed time that I use for errands, grocery shopping, and relaxing in a quiet house.

Something fun that we were able to do (one of Rhett’s birthday gifts) was attend “Monster Jam” for the 2nd year in a row. We again had so much fun, and it was something to remember. It was definitely a wet night however, as we were dodging raindrops, jumping puddles and small rivers while walking to and from the Alamodome. All in all it was a memorable night!

SNOW in San Antonio??? Yes! We have lived here nearly 6 years and the boys finally saw their first Texas snow! On Friday, February 4th we woke up to a sheet of ice covered with a thin layer of snow. Of course the boys had to go straight outside and touch it first (to make sure it was real), then proceeded to play in it off and on all day long. No snowmen were built, but there were some snow angels made in the driveway. The schools were closed (along with most of the freeways) and we just enjoyed a fun SNOW DAY!!!

Well, I guess that’s all for this time. We hope you all have a prosperous year, and that we can see more of you this year. We love you all!

Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson and Baby Zimmerman

December 2010 Update

2010-12-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

Well, the first thing we did this month was say goodbye to Grandma Stewart on the 3rd, as she was off to the frozen wonderland of Idaho yet again. We’ve been having days in the 70’s and enjoying our Texas Christmas. We had a great time with Grandma here, as we always do…

On the 4th, I took the kids to a Christmas Open House at a nearby nursery. The day was complete with Santa, train rides, inflatable bouncer, and food including hot dogs, chips, water, roasted corn, hot chocolate & popcorn. The best thing was….it was ALL free! I know they do a pumpkin patch at Halloween time, but I have yet to take the kids. Now that I know how awesome it is, I will be sure to take them next year.

That same evening we spent some time with our good friends at beautiful Brackenridge Park, where my friend Maggie took some photos of us. She always does such a great job and I love how the pics turned out! Here are a few of my faves.

Austin had his Christmas piano recital on the 6th. His new teacher (Sis. Kjar) holds her recitals in the chapel at our church, so that was a first for him. He was able to play “Calypso Rhumba” on the baby grand!

Carson & Jackson had their first trip to the dentist on the 9th, which went marvelously well for both of them. I wasn’t surprised about Carson liking it, but Jackson surprised me by not crying at all when she was prying her fingers in there to look around. He was also recuperating from an ear infection. What a trooper!

Rhett and I have both been busy in the ward choir, preparing for our upcoming Christmas performances. We will be singing 2 numbers this Sunday (19th), along with both of us being asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting that day. Our topic is “Keeping Christ in Christmas”. It’s been nice to focus on that version of Christmas and not get caught up into the commercialism of the season. Then, on the 26th we will be doing a music and spoken word Sacrament Meeting, which involves me singing a solo of “Away in a Manger”. It’s been fun to have Rhett joining me in choir. It’s been since before Austin was born since he was able to be involved.

Well, there’s not much else to say…except that we will be adding to our family in 2011. Yay!!! I am expecting our 5th child in early July, however I already have my c-section date picked out, so if all goes well, on Friday, June 24th we will be delighted new parents once again. We are definitely crossing our fingers for a girl, so any extra fingers that can be crossed for us would be appreciated. We’ll keep you all updated on how things progress.

We hope you all have a marvelous holiday season filled with love, peace and joy. We love & miss all of you that are far away, but think of you often.

Happy Holidays!
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson, Jackson and Baby Z.

November 2010 Update

2010-11-01T18:28:00.001-07:00

Well, it’s been 2 months since I last posted, so there’s a lot of catching up to do!

Rhett spent 4 days up in Dallas for Management Training in September. He was treated very well, as they stayed at a really nice hotel and ate at 5 star restaurants or country clubs every day. As of today, Rhett has been with his new company (American Income Life) for 8 months. He recently got a new boss, who’s trying to get things up and running a little better than the previous one. Rhett was recently assigned his own office, and now has to wear suits to work every day. Good thing he has 3 of them. The life of being in Management!

I have been busy taking care of a household of boys as a single mom most of the time, since Rhett’s job takes him away from us so much. I hate to say it, but I’ve pretty much just grown accustomed to him not being around. Hopefully that won’t last very much longer. Please!!!

Primary is going really well. I have received several compliments about my Presidency & how we run things. We had our annual Primary Program on September 26th and it was marvelous! We had so many compliments from people saying it was the best one they’d ever seen. I was shocked!

I started having scrap nights at our house once a month, just to change the atmosphere and also to make it so the boys are not home alone as much on those nights, or so that I don’t have to drag them along.

Three friends and I have a kid swap that we’re doing on Tuesdays. It gives us each a couple of hours each week to be kid free, then once every 4 weeks we have 8 kids age 4 & under at our place. It’s kinda crazy, but worth it.

The biggest thing that has happened with me is that I had a needed surgery on September 27th. I have had a growth on the back of my tongue since early January, and it was finally removed. None of the several doctors that I saw ever thought it was cancer, but they wanted it to come off just to be safe. It ended up being a benign Pyogenic Granuloma. My ENT said it could grow back, but they’ll just cut it off again. Fun for me!

Austin has started taking piano lessons again. I’m trying another teacher again (this is his 3rd). I just want him to like it and so far it’s just something else that he “has to do” and doesn’t enjoy it. His new teacher likes letting the kids play fun songs that they know and enjoy, and she says he’s doing really well, so we’ll see how it goes. So far he’s having mixed feelings. If it doesn’t work this time I’m not going to make him continue.

Austin and I went to an orientation at Driscoll Middle School that he’ll be attending next year. He had so much fun touring it and trying to figure out which locker he wants. He’s very excited, but I’m shocked that I have a child old enough for middle school!!!

Logan is doing very well in school this year. Only a couple of folder marks for behavior this year vs. only a couple of smiley faces for behavior last year. He loves learning and is excelling in every subject. He is in the Gifted & Talented program again this year and we are very proud of his accomplishments. He still loves to draw & write and is starting to read really well.

Carson is enjoying our weekly outings to the park, and the kid swap group each week. He wakes up almost every morning and asks if he can have a friend come over or go to a friend’s house. Luckily on those certain days he gets his wish!

Carson & Jackson at the park!

Jackson keeps me smiling. He is such a happy toddler, and loves to play with his brothers and friends, and in the Nursery at church. He keeps me on my toes trying to keep him out of stuff, but for the most part I just love having him around. In the mornings Carson will get Jackson out of his crib, and he will come downstairs, climb up onto the bed with me and cuddle. I love that boy!!!

The 3 big boys have been bitten by the bike-riding bug lately and constantly want to be outside riding either their bikes or scooters. Unfortunately we only have one bike with training wheels, so Logan & Carson have to take turns. I think that training wheels for the other bike will be on my next shopping list!

I recently took the boys to the Zoo for the first time in more than 4 years. I remember being pregnant with Carson the last time we went. Too long! We had a wonderful time and the weather couldn't have been nicer. Carson & Jackson especially had fun at the petting zoo, where they fed & brushed "Brian" the goat. Afterwards we all had a great ride on the Zoo train through Brackenridge park. What a wonderful day with my boys!!!

Atop the elephant statue

Brushing "Brian" the goat

On the Zoo train

Our ward had a fun Halloween Party on October 30th, complete with a chili & dessert cook-off, pumpkin carving contest, 2 haunted houses, inflatable jumpers, a ghost craft, cupcake walk and last but not least, a Trunk or Treat. I made Rhett, Logan & Carson some Rubik’s cube costumes, which was fun. Austin came up with his own “warrior” costume, Jackson loves dogs – hence the puppy costume from Sam’s club, and I made a black cat costume for myself with items from Hobby Lobby. Very little money, but a lot of time was spent on costumes this year. We all had a great time, then got to relax on Sunday and not answer the door or go out ourselves. It was a great “Mormon Halloween”.

These sure took a lot of time to make!

The whole family dressed up! Carson & Logan won a prize for their costumes in the Primary age category.

That’s about all from us this time. We look forward to having my Mom come again for a visit in 2 weeks. We love it when Grandma comes!!! She’ll be here for Thanksgiving, which will be a nice treat for us. We look forward to the holidays & wish we could see all of you. We love & miss you!!!

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

September 2010 Update

2010-09-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

What a great month August was!

We had a super fun weekend with our friends from the good old days in Hobbs, NM. Brad & Whitney and their family came for a visit. It’s such a great feeling to know that even if you grow apart by many miles or 6 + years in time, the friendship is just as strong as ever. We loved every minute of their visit….and the kids had a great time too!

Whitney & Maren - BFF's!

Brad & Rhett (and Jackson)

Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson Zimmerman
Grace, Abby, Olivia & Wilson Henderson

Rhett was promoted to Manager at his company, American Income Life, which means he’s working more hours now. He is now helping with recruiting, interviewing and training new employees. He also gets paid a higher commission % now, so we’re looking forward to that. He’s been there 6 months, and continues to LOVE it!

School started on August 23rd. Fifth grade for Austin, and First grade for Logan. They both like school and I’m glad to have the peace & quiet that the day tends to bring with them gone. No arguing or fighting!

Austin & Grace - age 10, friends since they were 1 yr old!

Logan & Olivia - age 6

Logan & Austin - First day of 1st and 5th Grades

Carson & Jackson play together well and can easily be entertained with Blue’s Clues on the free On Demand channel. They are both part of a kid swap group that a few of us have started on Tuesdays. Five moms take turns hosting 10 kids at their house, then we have 4 weeks with no kids for 2 ½ hours. Oh, what can I get done??? Today it was called sleeping in!

Carson & Wilson - age 4

Jackson loves to play in the backyard!

He was too tired for even one more cheese puff!

August also brought many changes in our ward Primary. First, we got a new Bishopric counselor to oversee our needs…so there was some orientation needed there. Then we had a super fun End-of-Summer swim party at the Bishop’s house. Everyone had a great time! It helps that they have the best backyard ever!!! We’ve also been dealing with many staffing changes and continue to work towards our annual Primary Program on September 26th.

With the rain & wind today the temps finally dipped below 90. The humidity level was up of course, but with the lower temps it was so nice! What a great day to curl up with a good book. Unfortunately I just finished the series I was reading (Fablehaven…that I would recommend. Really fun!) and I haven’t gotten the book yet that I want to read next. The power was out for 3 ½ hours and I couldn’t even run the dishwasher or do laundry….or even get the ironing done! So, I sat & made bracelets. Thanks Hermine!!!

Well, I guess that’s about it. Hope you all have a great September.
We love you all!

Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson

August 2010 Update

2010-08-05T12:41:00.001-07:00

Rhett recently had some interesting things happen with his new job. He works for American Income Life, selling life insurance. Another company, Liberty National (owned by the same corporation – Torchmark) recruited him to work for them. The job sounded like there would be better opportunities, including better pay, so Rhett switched companies. While he was waiting for his agent # to be assigned (so that he could start selling) his boss from AIL told him that he didn’t think Torchmark allowed agents to jump from one company to another, that they have a 6 month waiting period in between. So, Rhett contacted Torchmark and found out that it’s actually a 1 year waiting period!!! Luckily, his boss at AIL still wanted him….so to make a long story short, Rhett still has a job.

As for me, I’ve been busy with kids and Primary now that the swim team season is over. We’ve made some big changes in Primary lately and had some massive staffing needs, but I think we’re on top of all that now. I also got a new 1st counselor recently and it’s nice to have a fully functioning Presidency again! We’re now gearing up for our annual Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. Our ward is pushing this as the biggest event of the year in helping with Missionary Work. We’re all going to be inviting our friends, neighbors, teachers, etc. to come listen to us sing about Jesus Christ. So, you’re all invited on Sunday, September 26th @ 11:00am.

I’ve recently started getting into some home projects that have been neglected. Every 6 months we have a bulky/brush pickup that the city does. They come around with a big claw and trucks and pick up all the tree limbs, fence boards, etc. that people are getting rid of. Well, that begins this week, so over the weekend we did a lot of needed yard work. We now have a decent sized pile of brush in our front yard waiting for the trucks. I painted the kitchen almost a year ago, but never finished the baseboards, windowsill and door/door frame. So, that was another project that got finished over the weekend. Now I have the windowsills in the office and living room to do, and the trim on the stairway and upstairs bathroom to finish. I have probably only 1/3 of our house painted so far…..so many more rooms to go!!!

A friend in our ward asked me if I would make paracord survival bracelets for him to sell. So, that’s something that I’ve been doing in my spare time (while watching TV in the evenings mostly). They are woven bracelets that are made from parachute cord that can be unwoven and used for many outdoor survival needs. There is about 16+ feet of nylon cord in each, along with 7 strands of thin cord inside that can be used to make fishing line, traps, etc. I think they are pretty cool! It’s something easy to do that can help me earn some extra cash.

On July 9th Austin participated in his Second Swim Team Championships Swim Meet. We’re very proud of the accomplishments he’s made in swimming this year.

His first event was Butterfly, coming in 5th of 18 swimmers with a time of 20.99 seconds.
Second event was Freestyle, coming in 14th of 37 swimmers with a time of 19.03 seconds.
His third event was Individual Medley (his first year doing this). He came in 10th of 10 swimmers with a time of 1 minute 52 seconds. Earlier in the season his times on IM were 2.19 and 2.12, so he REALLY made some major improvement there!
Fourth event was a Freestyle Relay, coming in 10th of 13 teams with a time of 1.16.91.

On July 21st we celebrated Austin’s 10th birthday. We tried to make it the best day ever!!!….since he hasn’t had a real birthday party since he was 3. He had his favorite breakfast - French toast, opened presents, went shopping to spend his birthday money, we went swimming as a family, then he had 5 friends come over in the evening for pizza, cake, fun & games, and to watch his favorite movie – “Percy Jackson & the Olympians : The Lightning Thief”. All in all, he had a great day!

On July 12th we celebrated Logan’s 6th birthday with a HUGE party! It happened to be the end-of-year swim party for swim team that day, so we had a potluck dinner and swimming…and Logan came home with 2 trophies. One for participating on the team, and another for being the Boys age 6 & under “most improved swimmer”. Way to go Logan!

When we got home we had birthday cake with some friends, the Clayton family. Logan also got to go shopping to spend his birthday money. He chose a “Thomas & Friends” building to add to his ever-expanding train collection, and a gumball machine.

Carson has had a lot of opportunities to “swim” this year, and we are excited to get him on the swim team next year. He is not afraid of the water by any means and with his floaties on he is very good at both freestyle and backstroke already. I’m sure he’ll be a great addition to the team next year! Carson is having a fun time with his brothers home this summer. I’m sure he’ll be sad to see them off to school again in a few weeks...although I know I’ll be totally fine with that!!!

Jackson is now 19 months and just too cute for words! I can’t get enough of that little guy. His personality is blossoming and it’s so fun to watch him learn. He talks quite a bit when he’s home, mimicking things people say or do, but when he’s out of his “element” he clams up. Several people have asked me if he ever says anything. He sure does! Jackson has also become quite the climber, which we have to keep an eye on. We’ve also recently had some close calls with him on the stairs, wanting to come down without turning around. He is just testing his limits I guess…he definitely keeps me on my toes! Jackson recently had his very first haircut at 18 ½ months. Our kids have all been born with very little hair, but Jackson wins the prize for going the longest before his first haircut.

Well, I guess that’s another month summed up for us. We look forward to school starting, cooler weather and hopefully visits from some of you!

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

June 2010 Update

2010-06-22T20:03:00.001-07:00

Happy Summer Everyone!

Rhett hasn’t had much going on except work….as usual. He is busy trying to build up his Life Insurance clientele. We see him a lot more now than when he first started this new job, so it’s much easier to plan around his schedule. He is really enjoying what he does, so that makes it all worth it! And…..he took the TX State Insurance Exam and passed, so he’s a fully licensed agent now. Woohoo!!!

As for me, Primary has been kicking my bootie lately!!! I’ve had some major issues to deal with recently that have been VERY stressful. Hopefully we’re over those hurdles now and I’m looking forward to smooth sailing from here. So far this Summer I’ve been busy with Shockwaves Swim Team practices, meets (timing at each so far), and dealing with household chores that don’t seem to last longer than a few minutes. Oh, and I celebrated yet another milestone on June 7th….my 36th birthday. It was uneventful as usual, but I received an overwhelming amount of well wishes on my day from many friends and family. I truly am blessed with wonderful family, friends, and neighbors.

Austin has been doing great in his swimming this season!!! We’ve had 3 swim meets so far, and he has placed 1st & 2nd in almost all of his events, and a 3rd here and there. Austin started doing 100 Meter Individual Medley this year, which he is excelling at. For those who don’t know, that’s 4 lengths of the pool doing all four strokes (Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle). He dropped 7 seconds on his time yesterday! Austin is becoming so helpful. Whether it’s helping with Jackson, chores, or babysitting his brothers for short periods, he is doing a great job! Austin attended Cub Scout Day camp June 15-18th at McGimsey Camp here in town. It’s a 140-acre scout camp in the middle of San Antonio. He had a great time, swimming (of course), fishing, BB gun shooting, archery, hiking, arts & crafts and rock climbing. Austin loves being a Cub Scout!

Logan FINALLY swam in his first meet yesterday…25 Meter Freestyle. He has been on the swim team for 2 seasons now, and we were so excited for him to finally participate in a meet. He came in last place, but we were just so glad that he finished. Yay Logan!!! Logan continues to love to draw. Most times I find him at the table complete with pen or pencil, crayons and paper drawing some pretty amazing things.

Carson turned 4 on June 2nd. He had a very special visitor come for his big day. Grandma Stewart flew in that day from Idaho. He was so excited! She recently had surgery on her shoulder to repair a torn rotator cuff, so she came to TX to rehabilitate. Austin had his first swim meet that day, so we didn’t have much of a party, but we did have cake & ice cream and he opened some presents. It was a good time!

Jackson has been teething again and such a grump, then about 2 weeks ago one of his teeth finally came through and he’s a completely happy-go-lucky guy again. Thank goodness!!! He is learning to talk as he likes to mimic anything you do or say. He knows to point to several body parts when asked, and his favorite is the belly button! He loves to babble and makes up the cutest “words”. We are enjoying him so much during this stage of his development. He also learned recently that running gets him places much faster than walking, so here we go!

It was great to have my Mom here for almost 3 weeks. She was able to heal quite a lot. The first day she came was a week after surgery and I had to do pretty much everything for her. By the time she left yesterday I only had to help with a couple of minor things. While she was here she wanted to accomplish 3 goals: get a perm, get a pedicure, and heal from surgery. Mission accomplished! I gave her the perm and pedicure (complete with cute little purple flowers on her toes), and the healing happened on its own. One fun thing we did while she was here was go to the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus. She had never been, and was awed by the talent of both the performers and the animals. I’m not sure what her favorite part was, but I know she thought the elephants were amazing!

Well, another month is almost upon us. We are having a great Summer so far, and look forward to much fun in the time remaining. Austin will be going on to 5th grade and Logan will be in 1st when school starts again. We’ll just enjoy our time together while we have it. Hope you all have a great Summer also!

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

May 2010 Update

2010-05-01T13:36:00.001-07:00

Well, with all the rain we’ve had this Winter and Spring, we are truly enjoying all the beautiful wildflowers that are everywhere! Texas is definitely a beautiful place to live. This picture was taken on our street at the entrance to our subdivision. Pretty!!!

Rhett is working a lot with his new job. He’s gone pretty much all the time, except for some random times of the day that he gets to come home for lunch, etc. He’s definitely trying really hard to make this new job selling life insurance a success for our family. Rhett is also now studying for the Texas State Insurance Exam, which he has to take by the end of May. Right now he is working off of a temporary license. One night while I was hosting Scrap Night at our house he called from a client’s home saying that he had locked his keys in his car. I ended up going out and saving him at 10:00 at night in the middle of nowhere-ville San Antonio. Definitely a place I’ve never been before, or want to visit again! We later found out that our roadside assistance plan that we have on our cell phones includes “lock out” service, so next time he’s on his own. Rhett continues to teach Primary, and it’s nice that he’s not working on Sundays anymore. At least we get to see him one day a week uninterrupted.

As for me, I’ve been busy lately (as usual) with a hundred things going on. I recently completed 400 homemade birthday cards for our Bishopric to send out to our ward members (I already gave him 100).

BEFORE

painted the boys bathroom (no more pencil Spiderman drawings on the wall)

AFTER

and pulled off the first of many Primary Activities with our new Presidency. On April 10th we had a Cub Scout Fundraiser Spaghetti Dinner and Primary Talent Show. The event was well attended, and we had a great show. Austin played “The Star Spangled Banner” on the piano, and Logan & Carson danced to “Beat It” by Michael Jackson. Well…more like Carson danced around (including the moonwalk) while Logan stood there with stage fright. Everyone is still laughing about their dance! All of the boys also displayed some artwork that they had done. It was a great time for all! As for my extracurricular activities, I’m in charge of the Scrapbooking focus group that we have twice a month, I head up the once weekly “park day” outing, I’ve been working out 3 times a week with some ladies in our ward, just started a “kid swap” 4 days a week for Carson, attend Ward and Stake choir practices, Ward Council meetings, take care of my family and home….and try to fit some Primary Presidency meetings in the midst of all this. Did I miss anything???

Austin has been busy also. He has been studying for the math & reading TAKS tests that were this past week, has been participating in the Wetmore Chorale (school choir), finished his year of piano lessons, lost another tooth on April 23rd, got registered for the “Shockwaves” swim team again (which starts on May 17th), decided he wants to earn money to pay for (at least half) of a Spurs basketball camp next summer that he wants to attend, just finished his antibiotics for a double ear infection, and participated in the Cub Scout Pack 424 Pinewood Derby this week. He was 4th seed going into the races, but wasn’t as victorious as last year when he placed 2nd overall. His car looked awesome though (“Bumblebee” from the Transformers movie), and everyone had a great time as usual. This week Austin was chosen at school to be a morning “Patrol” for next year, which means he’s on a team of 5th graders in charge of making sure all the traffic (vehicles and pedestrians) are safe getting to & from the school. It’s an honor reserved for kids showing academic stability, good citizenship and positive leadership qualities. Way to go Austin!!!

Logan continues to show improvement at school in his conduct as well as his reading capabilities. He is also a very good artist and recently 2 of his pieces were chosen to be in the North East Independent School District “Young Masters” Art Show (Austin was chosen to participate in this same event in Kindergarten also).

During “Fiesta” (a big, week-long party in San Antonio) the Kindergarteners hold a fiesta parade and walk through the school with their homemade “floats”. Logan wanted a bus, and this is what he got. I had a little fun with my Cricut! Logan is also registered for his 2nd year on the “Shockwaves” swim team. We have new coaches this year, and when we got home from registering, Logan had a sad look on his face. I asked him what was wrong. He said “I miss her!” I asked him who, and he said “JJ”. She was his coach from last year that spent so much one-on-one time with him trying to get him to swim. She will definitely be missed!

Carson is CRAZY about Transformers! He is constantly talking about them, transforming the ones we got the boys’ for Christmas, watching You Tube videos of people talking about how to transform their transformers, etc, etc, etc. He is sort of obsessed I guess you could say. Oh, well. They all go through some sort of phase I guess. Carson also loves playing basketball with Austin. We have an over-the-door hoop upstairs in the playroom. They also brought in the Little Tykes hoop from outside so that they could have a full court. They will spend hours playing an entire game, including time-outs, half times, breaks (with Gatorade as their drink of choice). They even have a timer (from my kitchen) and a scoreboard (marker board easel). They are especially lucky when they can talk Logan into being the official, scorekeeper, timer, or all of the above. They even have to wear their jerseys just like the pros. Austin actually has Spurs shorts and a jersey. Carson is the “Carson City Hoops”. It’s quite entertaining! Carson is also enjoying the “kid swap” that we started last week. Four mom’s in our ward take turns one day each week watching 5 kids. Which then gives each of us three days without our 4 year olds and one day watching all of them. Quite a good deal I think!

Jackson is still getting new teeth, most recently his molars. There are always more to come though, so he’s been grouchy off and on lately because of that. He also started this new thing where he loves to “squeal” if he doesn’t get his way or something he wants. It’s especially annoying when we’re in the middle of Sacrament Meeting. One of the cutest things he’s done lately is learn how to fold his arms when we have family prayer. He just started doing it one day, none of us even showed him how. Now, whenever we say “fold your arms”, he does it quicker than anyone else. Very cute! Jackson will be 16 months old tomorrow. Where has the time gone? My baby is growing up so fast.

We were hoping to be able to see some of you this Summer, but with Rhett’s loss of job, and a slow financial start to the new one, we will not be able to go on any vacations this Summer. Bummer of a Summer for us!

Well, that’s all from us for now. Have a great month!
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson

PS. GO SPURS GO!!!!!

April 2010 Update

2010-04-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

I found this free blog background and just had to have it for this month because I just took some new pics of the boys in the Bluebonnets. It's been 3 years since I last saw them....thanks to the drought we've been having. Now everything is covered in wildflowers. It's so pretty!!!

Well, another month is gone…and what do we have to show for it??? Let’s see…

Rhett loves his new job. Me, not so much. It’s a difficult schedule to work around, so I’m hoping it will get better. Rhett is enjoying the challenge of selling life insurance and he’s doing pretty good at it too. He probably drives between 50-80 miles each day, has a new laptop, bought a GPS and uses his cell phone constantly. He NEVER even had one before this past Christmas when I gave it to him, now we need to get him a different (better) one because of his work needs. Luckily we can write it off as a business expense!!!

My life is hectic, crazy, depressing some days, busy, fun, happy, enjoyable, and exhausting (sometimes all at once!). I am enjoying my calling as Primary President and have our first quarterly Activity coming up. The Cub Scout Fundraiser Spaghetti Dinner and Primary Talent Show is on April 10th. It’s a fun night to look forward to! Something not so exciting is that I found out on Thursday that I need surgery. And, to top it off I don’t have health insurance! I have a growth on the back of my tongue. The ENT said he’s never seen anything like it in his 15 years, doesn’t know what it is….but knows it needs to come off. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for it.

Austin missed 2 ½ days of school this week due to a nagging fever. He got feeling better though just in time to go to Cub Scouts on Thursday night to get his Pinewood Derby car cut. Now we spend the month sanding, painting, weighing and making it the best we can for the Derby on the 29th. Austin decided his car this year is going to be a Chevy Camaro painted just like “Bumblebee” from Transformers. It should be fun! Last year Austin came in 2nd place in the Derby, so we’re hoping he does good again this year.

Logan is FINALLY doing better in school. At our Parent/Teacher conference his teacher and I decided that Logan needs a sketch pad handy at all times that he can get out and draw whenever he’s done with his work…or even as a reward for being good. In his teacher’s words “he is a gifted artist”. One day he was being a little bothersome, so she told him to draw a picture of anything he wanted. She said he stopped & thought for just a second, then started drawing a bunch of circles, then circles within the circles. He ended up drawing a whole page full of donuts, complete with pink, brown or white icing and sprinkles. Wow! Mrs. Lucas is going to be entering another of Logan’s drawings in the “Young Masters” art show in our school district. Exciting! (Austin had the same experience in Kinder).

Carson keeps me on my toes. He has so much energy…luckily we’ve been going to a park once a week so he can run off some steam. I measured the boys today and Carson grew 1 ½ inches in the last 6 months. He is now officially the same height Logan was last year at this same time…and they’re 2 years apart. For the most part all of the other kids wear clothes from how old they were last year. Carson however, isn’t even 4 yet and already all the 4T clothes are getting too small. This is something new for me! It’s nice to know at least one of our kids got Rhett’s height genes.

Jackson is soooooo CUTE!!! I can’t get over how cute he is. He just keeps me smiling all the time (well mostly). It’s so nice that he has free reign of the house now…although we have to keep certain doors shut or he loves to make messes. He tends to stick close to Carson and they play together great while the other boys are at school. He’s even been venturing in the backyard with the boys lately. He mostly sticks to the patio, but goes exploring a little too. He is teething again, so he’s been a little under the weather. He already has both top and one of his bottom molars, and he’s getting the other bottom one now. Poor baby! Jackson LOVES his Daddy!!! He gives a big smile when Daddy comes home, and cries every time Rhett leaves. Don’t get me wrong, he loves his Mom too, but has a special place for Dad. We just can’t get enough of him!!!

We FINALLY got our backyard fence fixed to the point that our dog Addie can’t jump over it anymore…..or so we thought. About 2 days after getting the last boards & lattice up, she was wandering around out in the street. It happened 3 or 4 times again, so once again she’s tied up on the patio. Dumb dog! Why don’t you just stay in!?!?!

Once again we’re grateful for wonderful family and friends….and love hearing from all of you! Until next time…

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

March 2010 Update

2010-03-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Good News to start off this update….Rhett got a new job!!! He started on March 1st and is really excited about this opportunity. It’s a complete career change though, so that’s making it interesting. He’ll be working for American Income Life selling life insurance. The company has been around for about 60 years and mainly works with unions up North, but here they mainly work with Government employees. They already have a customer interest around 8,000 people in San Antonio, so there’s lots of work to do. He will have a temporary license for now, but will have to take the State Insurance test to become a fully licensed agent. He’s really excited, so we’re hoping that this new job will be just what we’ve been looking for. Due to his new work schedule he can’t work at Sears anymore, so he gave his 2-week notice last week. Here we go on a new adventure!!!

As for me, life as the Primary President is going well. I’m actually surprised at how well I was prepared for this calling. I guess being the Secretary for 3 ½ years gives you a lot of knowledge! I seem to think that I need to be doing more, but then realize that the Secretary just has a lot of busy work to do…now I just have a lot more responsibility. I have started working out 3 days a week at the church with some friends doing mainly “Zumba” (Google it if you don’t know what it is), but we have thrown in some yoga, Abs of Steel and Dancing with the Stars workouts also. I am feeling good, but unfortunately haven’t seen many results yet. I’m hoping I’ve just been building muscle and that now the pounds will come off. We’ll see!

Austin continues to do well in school. Math is the one subject he struggles with (he gets that from me unfortunately), so Rhett has been put in charge of helping him with that. He has busily been preparing for the Writing TAKS test, which is tomorrow. He continues to love basketball, and recently started having us record Spurs games that he watches over and over. He is a true blue (well, black actually) Spurs fan!

Logan found a new favorite thing…“Chuggington” (thanks Mike). It’s a new show on Playhouse Disney. He loves watching the episodes, and also loves playing games on their website. He continues to struggle at school with discipline…which included a chat with Mr. Morgan (the Principal) last week. We just don’t know what to do with him anymore! Although “Chuggington” is now the thing he gets grounded from if he disobeys. One good day down and hopefully many to come. He started in his G/T (Gifted & Talented) class two times a week, and that seems to be helping. I think sometimes he just gets bored. The G/T class has so many things to do that he doesn’t have time to get in trouble.

Carson is just full of life. He never slows down! He loves to be a helper….cooking, laundry, etc. He is also a big helper with Jackson.

Jackson finally learned how to go down the stairs! Yay!!! He’s been proficient at going up for a few months, but now there’s no more baby gate blocking the stairs 24/7. He loves to go upstairs and explore the playroom. Almost always it is full of fun and exciting toys that he doesn’t usually get to play with downstairs, like legos and trains. He loves to go up and hang out with his brothers. He is such a happy guy and we love him to death!!! He is 14 months old today.

That’s about all from us this month. We are grateful for Rhett’s new job and all the love and support we received from friends and family while he was searching. Now we are looking forward to a great new adventure. We are sad to be losing our “cousins” as the boys call them. Rhett’s sister Melissa and family (who live in Austin…1 hour away) are moving to Denver, CO. We will miss all the fun times spent with them! Now how am I supposed to get the rest of my house painted???

Thanks for your love and friendship!
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson

February 2010 Update

2010-02-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

Well, a few big changes recently happened in our family. Here’s the scoop!

Rhett officially ended his contract work with AT&T on January 20th, so he’s once again job hunting. If you haven’t been keeping track, this is the 5th time in our marriage that he has been laid off of work. What rotten luck he has! Anyway, he’s had a few interviews with staffing agencies, so we’ll see what happens. We continue to have faith that the Lord will help us through this situation yet again. Rhett is still working at Sears, however they have recently cut back everyone’s hours, so he’s working there even less than before. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers!!! On January 24th we celebrated Rhett’s 37th birthday. This is a pic from Rhett's birthday.

On Sunday, January 24th (yes, Rhett’s birthday) I was sustained as the new Primary President in our ward. Wow!!! What a surprise. We knew that there were going to be some counselor changes soon, but none of us expected this. I served as the Secretary in Primary for 3 years and loved every minute of it. Thanks to a marvelous President, who kept me under her wing and taught me pretty much everything she knows, I am hoping that I can do her proud. I have a great Presidency and look forward to working with them and teaching the children of our ward. My counselors are Jodi Peterson – 1st, Cortney O’Neill – 2nd and Mindy Clayton – Secretary. I am excited for the challenge!

On January 20th, Austin participated for the second year in a row in the Wetmore Elementary School Spelling Bee. This year however Austin made it to the 3rd round and ended up in the top 7 spellers. Way to go!!! Last year he got out on his first word. He continues to surprise us in his advancements in school. He is especially good at writing stories, and is busily preparing for the Writing TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test. Austin lives and breathes basketball. He loves to play, watch and especially talk about it. For Christmas he got “warm ups” like the players wear, and now has a Tony Parker (Spurs player) jersey. He would wear them every day if he could.

We were blown away when we received a letter from the school saying that Logan had been chosen to participate in the Gifted/Talented program. With all his difficulties he’s been having with behavior it just surprised us I guess. We’ll see if it helps or hinders him to be participating in this special class 2 days a week.

What else can I say?…Carson loves to play Wii. It’s his favorite thing to do…and he’s pretty good at it. His favorite continues to be bowling. Carson became a Sunbeam this year, so that officially puts our entire family in Primary each week. Rhett is still a teacher, and Jackson hangs out with us of course. Carson is enjoying it and loves being a big kid!

Jackson is FINALLY sleeping in his crib in the room he shares with Carson. Thankfully he learned how to sleep through the night also. It just took me ignoring him in the night for a few days (hard, but it had to happen), and all of a sudden he stopped waking up. It makes for a much happier baby and a MUCH happier Mom that we’re getting more sleep. At Jackson’s 1-year check up the Dr. informed me that he’s getting his top molars. One is already through. My baby is growing up so quick!

Something fun that we were able to do as a family was go to "Monster Jam" on January 16th. We had sooooo much fun, even though it was REALLY loud!...(and we all had ear plugs in too). We had to park downtown and walk about 1/2 mile to the Alamodome, but it was worth it. The best part was that Rhett won the tickets on the radio, so it was a free family outing (minus the parking and dinner of course). We also got pit passes to go down before and meet the drivers and take pictures with the monster trucks. The boys LOVED it! Here is a pic of them in front of "Grinder", which is also the truck in the video clip that is doing some tumbling moves, then lands on its "feet" and keeps going. In the end however, it did end up on its top. I didn't catch the live version, so this is a replay they showed on the screen. My camera doesn't record audio, so it's a silent film...Crazy!!! The other video is of "Grave Digger", one of the most famous monster trucks doing some crazy stunts. It was a great time had by all.

Well, I guess that’s all that has happened this past month. We look forward to the New Year and hope that it will be the best yet for us. Wish us luck in the job hunt and we hope you all have a wonderful month!

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

January 2010 Update

2010-01-08T04:46:00.000-08:00

Well, December was a fun-filled month for us. The excitement of Christmas in our new house filled the air. Rhett wasn’t so fond of having a 2-story house to put Christmas lights on, but that probably had more to do with the fact that he was putting them up after dark on a 30 foot ladder with a flashlight beamed from below by Austin. That same night I ordered a 1-million candle-power spotlight from Cabela’s so next year won’t be such an ordeal.

We enjoyed spending time with my brother Brian’s family who visited us from December 27-31. We spent many hours walking around Sea World, San Marcos Outlet Malls and Downtown San Antonio visiting the Riverwalk, Alamo and historic King William District full of 100+ year old homes. Some of us were even lucky enough to get to see “The Lion King” at the beautiful Majestic Theatre for my Mom’s birthday on the 30th. We hope they had enough fun to want to come back again soon. We sure had a wonderful time while they were here!!! They were a little disappointed however to miss out on our normal weather of 60’s and 70’s. Instead it was in the 40’s and 50’s. Oh, well. We still had a great time! At least they aren't here this week since it's dipping down into the teens and twenties.....Brrrrr!!!

My mom came on December 24th and will still be with us until January 10th. It was fun having her here for Christmas. It had been 5 years since we spent the holidays with any of my family. We were especially surprised when she gave us a Wii for Christmas. Needless to say we’ve been playing a lot of games while she’s here. She has kept busy helping me with my gaggle of boys also. Jackson is her favorite however, as he loves to snuggle with Grandma and receive her hundreds of kisses. We have been having a great time and have kept busy, most recently making a quilt for Carson’s bed to match Jackson’s crib set. I also gave my first at-home permanent to my Mom. I was able to get back at her for all the hours of torture she put me through as a young girl getting perms at least twice a year. It’s no wonder I love having straight hair now as a grown woman.

Here are the boys pics in their Christmas PJ's.

Rhett is AGAIN searching for a new job. His contract with AT&T ends later this month. We’re just hoping that he can find a job soon that has health insurance benefits and paid vacation, etc. For 2 years now Rhett has been the only one with insurance (other than me during my pregnancy), and any time he takes off is unpaid. It would be nice to have a “regular” job again with all those nice things. Rhett is getting ready to celebrate his 37th birthday on the 24th of this month. He may be getting older, but his ability to win things on the radio is still going strong. In the last month he has won tickets to a Spurs game, and most recently 4 tickets to “Monster Jam” (a monster truck rally).

In mid-December Jackson was recuperating from an ear infection, when he started getting an odd-looking rash. The Pediatrician told me what to give him and sent us on our way. That was on Friday, so when things took a turn for the worse on Saturday I ended up taking Jackson in to the E.R. We were whisked into a treatment room immediately where 5 nurses and a doctor busily began putting in an IV, giving him meds, and checking his vitals. They wanted to admit him to the Pediatric ICU overnight to monitor his respirations, but we ended up coming home instead. Problems with breathing are usually the first signs, and here we were 48 hours later with just a rash. It turned out to be an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin he was taking, and with the help of an epinephrine shot, some Zyrtec and a steroid for a few days, he was looking/feeling back to normal soon.

Here are some pics of him as his rash started, got horribly worse, then him in the ER after his Epi shot...looking better already!

Jackson turned 1 on January 2nd, and we celebrated at home with a cupcake cake and some presents. He started officially walking on Christmas Eve. Grandma told him he needed to wait for her…and he obeyed. He had been taking a few steps here and there, but that day he just decided to take off, and hasn’t stopped since. Now I’m trying to work on weaning Jackson from nursing, so that I can get him out of our room and up into his own. He is our first child to decide he doesn’t like binkies and so he has nothing other than Mom to calm him & get him back to sleep at night. I wish he slept through the night, but no luck yet. Last Sunday Grandma stayed home from church with Jackson because he hadn’t been feeling well (fever, diarrhea, etc.). When we got home, Grandma informed us of the reason for his illness. He had 2 brand new teeth!!! That makes a total of 8 now. What will he surprise us with next???

My Christmas present this year consisted of a new bedding set, curtains, new shower curtain, rugs & bath towels for our room & bath. I can’t wait to paint in there and our room will finally feel like the Master Suite I’ve imagined us having someday. Now we just need a King sized bed to complete it…(I purposely bought the bedding set in King size). Rhett got one surprise this Christmas. I got him a cell phone. He has never wanted one, but he has one now thanks to me! We got a deal by adding him to his parents “friends & family” plan, so there’s nothing he can say about it!!! Call him at 720-256-1031 so his phone gets some use.

Austin was chosen once again to participate in his school Spelling Bee on January 20th. I guess he was the only one who got all the spelling words correct in his class, so here we go again. We’ve actually been practicing a bit this time though! Austin is officially obsessed with basketball. He is constantly doing air jump shots, and especially loves the Nerf basketball & hoop we gave him for Christmas...so he can actually play basketball in the house.

Logan is slowly learning to read, but he is excelling in other areas at school…including not getting so many folder marks for bad behavior. That in and of itself is a major feat! He enjoys bossing Carson around, and always wants to be in charge. Sometimes he is successful…other times not so much. Logan & Carson are only about 3 lbs. and 2 inches different now, so I get a lot of people asking if they are twins. Thank goodness NO!!!!

Carson is quickly becoming a pro at the Wii, especially bowling. He does a sort of dance half the time and the other half he’s laying on the coffee table or kitchen counter, but somehow seems to get quite a few strikes out of it. It’s fun to watch him learning and enjoying it.

Well, I guess that’s all the news I can squeeze out this month. We look forward to another eventful year in 2010.

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

December 2009 Update

2009-12-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

In November we started "park days" again twice a week since the weather is now bearable to be outside. Well, maybe not today...it's raining and only 42 degrees. But most days it's in the 60's and sunny, perfect park weather!

I was asked to speak in church on November 8th. I guess it was my turn, since it's been about 4 years since the last time. I was given the subject of the Sacrament, and thanks to a couple of good talks from some General Authorities I came up with a pretty good talk, or so I was told. Thank goodness that's over with for a few more years!

During that same weekend, my sis-in-law Melissa and I made my new kitchen curtains. They turned out marvelous...thanks to her sewing expertise!

Some friends and I decided that since there are so many "Twilight" fans in our ward, that we would make a big deal out of the "Twilight Saga: New Moon" movie coming out. I hosted a New Moon party on November 19th with lots of good food, complete with Bella's birthday cake from the movie (Thanks Morgan!)... Then it was off to the theater where we waited in line for 2 1/2 hours for the midnight showing (27 of us got our tickets 2 months in advance). It was fun and hectic at the same time, but definitely worth it. The movie was awesome!!! I've now seen it 3 times. And I'm still totally Team Edward!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Rhett's sister Melissa & family came from Austin on Wednesday. On Thanksgiving Day we went to Sea World. We had been told that it's pretty empty on Thanksgiving, so that makes it the perfect day to go. No crowds or waiting in line. It was awesome! We saw the 4 holiday shows, rode some rides, then had lunch at Whataburger on the way home. The rest of the afternoon we leisurely prepared our Thanksgiving meal. A fried turkey, potatoes & gravy, corn, a new recipe for sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, and of course pies! The only problem we encountered was forgetting the cranberry salad from the fridge. We ended up having it the next day. What a way to spend a day with family! Later that night Rhett's brother Robert & family came from Houston and we all had an enjoyable weekend full of shopping, movies, temple attendance, visiting with friends, and yummy food...well, the kids may think differently about the food part.

Austin is getting so big! When did he grow up? All of a sudden I have a grown up boy who is too big to pick up, generally kind to his brothers, and is a big help around the house. He is especially helpful with Jackson when I need an extra set of hands. He is thoroughly enjoying Cub Scouts and loves learning. Last month he earned several awards. We've been trying to work on things for Family Home Evening that will help him to accomplish certain requirements, especially his religious knot.

Logan is finally catching on to the concept of reading. It’s been a slow start (compared to Austin…which is what we have to compare with). He is enjoying school and you can tell he loves learning. He’s constantly saying “that’s a popcorn word” (words they are learning that “pop up” in daily reading). He loves to do projects and especially loves to draw. He’s very good at it too! This is a picture of Santa & his sleigh that Logan drew.

In November all the Kinder classes had “Nursery Rhyme Day” and the kids went to school dressed like their favorite Nursery Rhyme character. Logan picked Little Jack Horner. I dressed him in a pair of sweat pants that doubled as knickers, a white t-shirt that said “What a good boy am I” and then he had a pie tin and a fake plum that Rhett drilled a hole in so it would fit on his thumb. The Kindergarteners got to walk around the halls in a “parade” for all the other grades.

Carson is eager to learn about whatever Austin & Logan are doing. He likes to be involved in “homework” whenever possible. He is such a sweet boy and has been picking many flowers for me lately from our yard…mostly weeds, but occasionally a rose from the one bush that survived when we ripped out a bunch of old tangled bushes behind our house.

Jackson now has 5 teeth. He got a new one on Thanksgiving Day, just in time for turkey…and another one showed up just yesterday. I’m hopeful that these teeth are the reason for him not sleeping well lately and that it ends soon. We have caught him a handful of times standing on his own and definitely see signs that he’ll be walking soon. He’ll be 11 months old tomorrow…he’s growing up so fast! Where did my baby go? I finally finished painting the crib and Rhett got it set up in Carson’s room. Last week I bought the new bedding to match the color scheme I’m going for in there. One of these days I need to get some energy to paint in there.

We look forward to a wonderful holiday season and time spent with family and friends. My mom will be here from December 23rd until January 10th. My brother Brian & his family will be here from December 27th-31st. Can’t wait to have fun with them. Some of us are going to see “The Lion King” at the Majestic Theatre for Mom’s birthday on the 30th.

That’s all for this month. Have a marvelous holiday season!
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson

November 2009 Update

2009-11-02T09:32:00.001-08:00

FINALLY we have a new family picture! Jackson is 10 months old now and wasn't even born in the last one...so enjoy!

With the help of an extra paycheck in October, we were finally able to purchase a new dining room set. Thanks to Sam's Club we got an awesome table for an awesome price. We were able to put away the plastic folding table that we've been using for the past several months, and are now enjoying enough room for everyone at the table PLUS food...what a concept! I also found a lazy susan at Target that matches almost perfectly. Love it!!!

Last week I participated in my first ever real live Pedicure/Manicure. As a Primary Presidency, we decided to treat ourselves after pulling off yet another marvelous Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. We went to a day spa and had such a great time relaxing and enjoying ourselves. What a treat!

Austin is doing great in school. He was picked by his teacher last year to be a "breakfast buddy" this year, which means he helps out in the cafeteria every morning helping the kids who eat breakfast at school. He has turned out to be quite responsible lately and it's fun seeing him "grow up" a bit. Austin is still having issues with piano lessons. Not sure if he really wants to do it or not. When he works at it he's really great! It's an ongoing struggle...

Logan, on the other hand, has been nothing but trouble at school since the beginning. He has had "folder marks" for bad behavior almost as often as "stamps" for good behavior. The problems are varied...hitting, calling names, not listening/paying attention, playing around, not participating, etc. You name it! We have talked with his teacher several times and can't figure out what's going on. Logan even had a chat with the Principal last week! We have talked with him extensively, taken favorite things away, bribed him, threatened him with other consequences, but nothing seems to work. Last week I tried just making him sit in a corner of my room by himself with the door closed...solitary confinement you could say. Well, he promptly fell asleep! He's definitely a "just leave me alone" kind of person. He would love to just sit & draw/color all day long (which he's VERY good at by the way). If only life would just leave him alone!!!

Carson is a ball of energy and wants to be involved in everything. I guess he picked up part of my personality where "I don't want to miss anything". He loves to play with anyone, anywhere, and hates going to bed at night. He is a big helper with Jackson...sometimes too helpful. Jackson will be playing with his toys in another room and Carson will pick him up, bring him to me and say "Jackson wants you". Lucky me! Not only do I have a baby crawling around after me all day long, but when he's not, he's under my feet anyway because Carson placed him there!

Jackson is getting to be pretty independent lately. He learned how to crawl up the stairs, and is very fast too! Thank goodness for the baby gate. He has also learned that there's lots of fun stuff in the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and loves to pull everything out. After he broke a glass vase the other day I decided it was time to buy the cabinet locks. What would we do without all these awesome baby-proof products??? He also surprised us on Halloween night by climbing up onto the chair in the family room. What fun is in store for me!

We ended up being over an hour late to our ward Trunk or Treat (due to some mis-communication), so the kids only got candy from 3 cars. We invited our friends (Clayton's) over afterward and Mike & Rhett took the kids Trick-or-Treating while Mindy & I hung out with the babies and handed out candy at our house. That's my kind of Halloween!

My friend took a bunch of new pictures of us in our front yard and I think they turned out great...thanks Maggie!!! I finally have pictures to put in the blank frames that are hanging on my living room wall...if only I could actually get them printed now.

Well, I guess that's all from us this month. We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season...and we hope to hear from you!

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

October 2009 Update

2009-10-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

So, I was planning on having a brand new Zimmerman Family picture to post on here today, but then Mother Nature decided to send a little extreme weather our way and it ruined our outdoor photo session we were going to have with my friend Maggie. Hopefully next time…………..

Well, the painting has begun! The kitchen has been painted a beautiful butter-yellow, the ½ bath now has light lavender paint (in honor of my Mom's favorite color...purple) instead of nasty wallpaper, and the office, living and family rooms have the freshest coat of paint…a light buttercream ivory (very subtle, but beautiful). All of this painting is due to my wonderful sis-in-law Melissa for her nudging, persistence, and one heck of a talent with a paint roller! We slaved away over the last month whenever she would visit and were able to accomplish a lot this past weekend while listening to General Conference. I also bought a new mirror for the 1/2 bath and took out the old medicine cabinet...what an improvement! The only rooms left to paint on the main level now are the Master Bedroom/bathroom and the laundry room/pantry. It’s so nice to finally walk into a house with a little personality. It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do!

Rhett started playing Fall league softball on our ward team. He has adjusted his work schedule around the weekly games so that he can attend…and get a little exercise. We love to go watch him play, especially since he’s so good at it. The boys also like that there is a sand volleyball court to play in while we’re there. It’s definitely “bath time” when we get home from one of those.

I am keeping busy with life. I look around at all the projects I could work on, but a lot of days it just ends up that only the necessities (cook, clean, etc.) get done and I haven’t gotten very far with some things I’d like to do. One of these days I’ll just leave everything else in the dust (literally) and just do something because I want to! A couple of friends and I are planning a party for November 19th. All you “Twilight” fans out there know that “New Moon” comes out in theatres at midnight on 11/19-11/20. Well, we decided to party beforehand, then off to the midnight showing. We recently purchased tickets for 27 of us. Sounds like a lot of fun to me!

Austin started taking piano lessons again. He’s not sure if he likes it or not and he’s told me a few times since last year that he wants to quit. We keep telling him that it’s such a wonderful talent to have, but it doesn’t seem to help. I told him we’d try one more year with a new teacher this time. When we moved to our new house it just happened to be up the street from a friend of mine who teaches piano. How convenient! Austin just walks or hops on his bike for piano now. No more hauling all the kids into the car and then finding something to do with all of them for ½ hour. Thanks Camille!

Logan continues to enjoy Kindergarten. He has had a rough start however. The school’s projected numbers for Kinder classes ended up being lower than expected, so 2 weeks into school Logan’s class was dissolved and the kids were split up through the other 6 Kindergarten classes. He has also been getting multiple “folder marks” (various problems at school). The majority of them had to do with another boy in his class that was having problems with self-control. I guess he liked to hit and push people, and after so many times Logan just decided to take things into his own hands. However, since the parents of the other boy and the Principal have been involved, things have been much better.

Carson has been turned to the DARK SIDE!!! His oldest brother’s love for all things super-heroes has turned Carson into a superhero monster. He can’t go to bed at night or wake up without thinking which superhero he’s going to play first. Superman and Spiderman are the culprits most often. Although if it ended there it would be okay…but when he has to dress up like “Clark Klent” (as he says it) or Peter Parker it can get a little interesting. At that point it involves an extra layer of clothing, glasses, jackets, ties, cameras, having his cape tucked into his pants, etc. It’s quite a production. It drives me nuts (quite literally) some days, but kids will be kids, right? I hope it’s just a phase, and a short one at that…but I don’t think it will be. Austin started loving Superheroes when he was 3 and now that he’s 9 he loves them just as much.

Jackson is now 9 months old (20 lbs. 9 oz. and 28 inches) and is into everything!!! Paper is his most favorite thing to find lying around (thanks to his brothers who love to draw Superman badges all day long…aaahhh!!!!). He’s also a big fan of taking the books off our wall of built-in shelves. Jackson is a pro crawler now, even up on his hands and feet sometimes when he’s on the hard tile. This past Sunday (10/4) he finally figured out how to climb the stairs. NOOOOOO!!! Rhett found him just chillin’ on the 3rd step. Luckily since then he hasn’t been back to try again. Just yesterday he learned how to walk with the use of his push toy. I’m not ready for him to grow up so fast! He is just a bundle of fun and such a joy to have in our family…and soooo super CUTE!!!

We’re glad that the weather is cooling off a little bit. It was such a long, hot summer! Thank goodness our house has much better A/C and ducting than our old house. Our bills in this house over the summer were the same or less than our little house. Nice! We’re looking forward to fall and the holidays. It is such a wonderful time to reflect on the year and plan for the year to come. My mom will be visiting with us this year for Christmas and possibly my brother & his family also. It will be the first time in 5 years that we’ve spent Christmas with any of my family. My mom will be here from 12/23 until 1/10. We already have tickets to see Broadway’s “The Lion King” on her birthday, so that will be lots of fun.

That’s all from us this month. We hope all is well for you & your families…

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

September 2009 Update

2009-09-01T00:18:00.000-07:00

My how time flies…September is upon us and what have we accomplished this month? How does this sound?…

First of all I must mention that we are working on getting an updated family picture taken…since Jackson is still in utero in the last one. Patience is a virtue!

Austin started 4th grade and has the same teacher from last year…no he did not flunk!!! Mrs. Smith moved up to 4th grade, and Austin was hoping to get her again. His class is small (only 17) and they meet in one of the portables in back of the school. They had an exciting moment last week when one of the A/C units in their building decided to die and went out with a bang…and lots of smoke! They evacuated and spent the remainder of the day in the Speech classroom inside the main building.

Logan started Kindergarten and is LOVING IT!!! He was assigned the same class as his friend (and sometimes enemy) Alex Clayton. We warned the teacher that they are like siblings…they get along well, and they fight well too! Logan got Austin’s Kinder teacher, Mrs. Buell (except she was Ms. Jordan back then). Logan’s first day of school started with him crying, then being fine while I took him to class. He had a great day, until they tried putting him on the wrong bus in the afternoon. Luckily Austin was being a VERY good big brother and told the bus driver that Logan wasn’t on the bus. Together they went & found him (crying with a teacher) and between the 2 bus drivers, the Principal and Austin they got him onto the correct bus. What a crazy ending to the first day of Kindergarten!!!

Carson doesn’t quite know what to think about school starting again. Part of him wants to go to school, part of him loves not having to share any toys all day long, and part of him longs for his brothers to play with. Sometimes he’ll ask “Mom, where’s Logan & Austin?” I tell him they’re at school and he says “Oh”, and that’s the end of that. Last week he decided to try flying from the couch to the chair, and ended up landing on the corner of the coffee table with his eye instead. Thanks to our friend Alex (previously mentioned) and his recent multiple trips to the E.R., we followed their treatment regimen and after cleaning the cut very well (and waiting for the blood to stop oozing) we stuck it back together with some super glue gel. Don’t put anything on it & wait for the glue to come off on its own. Works like a charm!!!

Jackson has hit many milestones this past month…actually the last week! He is now crawling (more like an Army crawl), pulling himself up to standing, getting to a sitting position from crawling or laying down, and most recently started clapping. Jackson also decided that he didn’t like his binky anymore, so that was easy to get rid of. He is now 8 months old (on the 2nd), has 2 teeth and continues to be the best baby ever!!!

For anyone wondering, Addie (our dog) is completely recovered from being hit by a car in July. Her broken pelvis must have healed nicely, because she is running & jumping around like never before.

As for Rhett and I, we are plugging along. Rhett’s contract position at AT&T came to an end in July, but lucky for us he was given a 6-month extension. They are in a hiring freeze and are trying to be able to hire him permanently. Keep your fingers crossed! I am enjoying only having 2 kids at home now that school is in session. I am finally getting the last boxes unpacked (5 kitchen ones just yesterday) and getting pictures/clocks/décor hung on the walls. I am hoping to start painting this weekend, as I finally know what I want to do with some rooms. We have 3020 square feet of blank walls, so it’s quite overwhelming. I’m starting one room at a time though, so don’t expect any miracles!

We hope you all have a wonderful month & as always we love hearing from you!

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

August 2009 Update

2009-08-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here’s our month in a nutshell…or maybe something a bit bigger.

In early July we held the Zimmerman Reunion for the first time in Texas. It was decided since 3 of the Zimmerman kids live here it was the best place. We had a great week together of fun, sun and SHOPPING!!!

On July 12th Logan turned 5!!! We celebrated the day with family (Grandma & Grandpa Z. and Aunt Vicki & kids were still here). I made yet another “Thomas” cake. He had a great day! He is so excited to start school on August 24th. Kindergarten…look out!

On July 17th, Rhett and I celebrated our 11-year Wedding Anniversary. Has it really been that long? It seems just like yesterday…but then I look at all the places we’ve lived and 4 kids later and realize yes, it has been that long. We celebrated by going out on a date (which NEVER happens). We went to a matinee of “Harry Potter”, then to dinner. Jackson accompanied us, so it wasn’t as romantic as it could have been. Oh, well!

Austin finished up the swim team season in style by being awarded the 7-8 year old “Most Improved” trophy at the end-of-year party. He did very well at Championships…enough to make it to the “All Stars” meet on July 18th. He did awesome in both of his events. His medley relay team took 1st place (Austin swam the freestyle leg), Austin took 4th place in his individual Butterfly event, and our “Shockwaves” team took 2nd place overall out of 24 teams. Congrats!!! On July 21st Austin turned 9. We celebrated by going mini-golfing, then enjoying more cake & ice cream. “Spiderman” was the theme for his day. Austin will be in 4th grade this year…I can’t believe how grown up he is.

On July 22nd we noticed that our dog Addie was missing from our backyard. She had been escaping a lot since moving here, although we thought that problem was fixed when Rhett replaced the missing fence boards. This time she dug her way out! She was missing all day…and into the next day. We spent time driving around the neighborhood calling for her and asking neighbors about her. One neighbor said he saw a brown dog get hit by a car & killed at the intersection near our house... we were hoping it wasn’t her. On July 23rd about mid-day I had a “feeling” to check in her doghouse, and there she was! I could tell she was hurt, so I took her to the vet. He confirmed that her injuries were consistent with getting hit by a car. She must have been hit, then crawled back to our yard & into her doghouse where she knew she was safe. She has a broken pelvis and several scrapes & bruises. Poor dog! Her fracture is one that will heal on its own, so she’s just recuperating with the equivalent of dog Ibuprofen…and she’s doing really well. She now walks with almost no limp and seems to be pretty much back to normal. Thank goodness!!!

Carson’s newest accomplishment is…being potty trained!!! Hallelujuah! He just started a week ago, and is already a pro. Definitely the easiest one to train so far. What a big boy my 3-year old is becoming. I don’t know what I’m going to do when it’s just Carson & Jackson home with me when school starts…how will it be?

Jackson started “talking” this week. He started babbling a lot and pretty much only says “da-da-da”. I took him to the Dr. for his 6-month check up recently and he is now 26 ½ inches and 17 lbs. 10 oz. He is always so happy to just sit & play. He definitely lets me get a lot done. I’ve actually been getting some scrapbooking done since I’m further behind than ever!

That’s about all from us this month. Hopefully all our friends & family are doing as well. We love to hear from you!

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

July 2009 Update

2009-07-01T22:28:00.001-07:00

This month has flown by…let me see if I can remember the highlights.

We moved into our new house on June 1st…thanks to many helpers!!! I was actually sitting at a swim meet with the kids while Rhett and lots of friends were moving us in. We couldn’t have done it without all their help. Thanks!!!

On June 6th I got the surprise of a lifetime. My mom showed up at my door unannounced! It was the most marvelous birthday gift I could have ever received as I was turning the big 35 the next day. She was required to take 1 week off at work, so she decided it was a perfect time to come to Texas. She called my friend Mindy a couple of weeks before and let her in on the secret…also so that she could get a ride from the airport. I had been cleaning all morning (with no shower I might add) and looked less than desirable. It took me a few seconds of bewilderment before I realized that yes, it really was her and that she had come at a perfect time. That’s when I cried. I needed a lot of help to get my house put together. We had a wonderful week with her here.

The kids and I have been spending our time at the pool for swim team practice (every morning starting at 8am). Austin continues to improve and has been enjoying competing at the swim meets. He has been on the relay teams for both the medley and freestyle relays for each meet this season as well as competing in his individual events. Now it’s on to championships next week. He loves to swim!

Logan on the other hand never quite got to the point of being able to swim in a meet…although last week he finally got the confidence he needed and now knows that he can do it. He can successfully swim ½ the length of the pool without holding onto a lane rope or the side of the pool. Yay!!! We haven’t had him try the whole length yet. His coach agreed that he made marvelous progress this year and will be rarin’ to go next season.

Carson turned 3 on June 2nd. He has been playing “dress up” a lot lately. He loves to put on Rhett or Austin’s clothes, hats AND shoes and wander around the house. One of his favorite things since Austin became a Cub Scout is to “dress up” like a scout, carry Austin’s Wolf book around, and sing songs from Pack Meetings. His favorite is “I’ve got the Cub Scout Spirit up in my head…” Most of the time he improvises on the scout kerchief and usually ends up using my dish rags. Oh, to have the mind of a 3 year old again…

Jackson is now 6 months old. He just started sitting up unsupported a few days ago and is such a joy. He loves to be held, to roll around on the floor, play in the exersaucer, or just to sit and look out the window. I sometimes sit him in the Bumbo chair in front of the patio door and he just looks and looks. I recently started him on baby cereal, veggies and fruits and he loves to devour them. He’s growing up so quick! At Christmastime there were 6 pregnant ladies in our ward. We recently got together for a luncheon and took some cute pics of the babies...see below. Jackson is at the bottom and clockwise we have Luke, Austin, Ashton, Andelyn and Aliya. I obviously didn't get the memo about naming babies with an A!

We look forward to the next couple of weeks with Rhett’s family coming to town for the Zimmerman reunion. We have lots of fun activities planned and hope the weather lets us enjoy them all. It’s been in the 100’s already with a heat index up to 110. We are in a drought and can only water 1 day per week, so the lawn is looking pretty rough. Hopefully we’ll get a break in the heat and be able to enjoy all the fun we’ll have with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Brothers and Sisters.

Hope you all have a great month.
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson

June 2009 Update

2009-06-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well…it’s over!!!

We closed on our house sale on Friday (5/29) and closed on Monday (6/1) on our new home. Thanks SOOOOOOO much to our wonderful friends the Clayton family who graciously took us in and gave us a roof over our heads for a few days. We also found a temporary home for our dog Addie with our friends the Peterson family, where she hung out with 2 Huskies for a few days. Thanks so much to them also!!!

Monday was a busy day with Rhett’s work, closing on our home, moving, and a swim meet! We split the responsibilities and I took the kids to the swim meet while Rhett and some friends from our ward moved us into our house. Thanks to all those who helped!!! Our friend Mike wondered how we fit that much stuff into our little house. I guess that just goes to show you what a good organizer I can be!

We are currently living in chaos, but adjusting to the change wonderfully. I put 12 boxes of food storage in my pantry and still had oodles of room. Yay!!! I didn’t have a pantry before. The boys LOVE the playroom (so do I) and now spend time enjoying all their toys that have been in storage for a few months. Austin is in Lego heaven.

Austin is once again enjoying the Shockwaves Swim Team and is becoming one of the top swimmers in his age group in Butterfly and Freestyle. He is excited for school to be out this week and looks forward to spending the summer in our new place.

I registered Logan for the Shockwaves this year also, thinking that I’d rather NOT have 3 non-swimmers at the pool this summer. He had second thoughts about it at first, but is now doing quite well. Not good enough yet to be entered in a meet, but hopefully soon.

Carson celebrated his 3rd Birthday on Tuesday 6/2. We bought him a house!…and a remote control car. He spent the day running around in the new house climbing on all the “mountains” of boxes. We had pizza (thanks to another wonderful friend, Tiffany) and cake & ice cream of course. I look forward to seeing "Wicked" for my birthday next week!

Jackson turned 5 months old on Tuesday also. He is rolling over back & forth now and can’t keep things out of his mouth no matter what it is…clothes, bibs, fingers, thumb, toys. He continues to be the best baby ever and is almost always happy & smiling. What a blessing he is to our family.

That’s about all from us. We are so glad that we were able to sell our home quickly and find something we love. I look forward to decorating the new place…and of course organizing! We are blessed to have wonderful friends & family and we love you all. Have a great month.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I can figure out how to do it on our new computer! Stay tuned...

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

May 2009 Update

2009-05-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

Exciting news!!! We sold our house! Yay!!! Also, our offer was accepted on the house we want to buy, so it's happening! We have already had both home inspections done and we're looking at closing on both at the end of May or first of June. It will be so nice to have some room to breathe! Our 1084 square feet has been good for us, but the 3020 square feet will be so nice...especially the playroom!!! It's officially my favorite room in the new house.

On 4/30 (Thursday) Austin was VICTORIOUS!!!...well, almost. It was his first ever Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He has a "hot wheels" car that he wanted his to look like, so we ended up with a Dodge Challenger. It turned out looking great! Austin was 1st in ALL of his heats, even beating Jonathan's car 3 times...but alas, it was not meant to be, for in the final race to determine 1st & 2nd place, Austin & Jonathan's cars were neck and neck until the very end when Jonathan's car won by a nose. Austin was awarded a very special trophy made by Brother Christensen, who had helped the boys cut & shape their cars. Austin thinks his yellow Corvette trophy is pretty cool! In other news...Austin took the Math TAKS test last week & thinks he did pretty good. Also, he'll be starting swim team again in a couple of weeks. Fun!

Logan finally got his missing vaccinations and is ready to be a Kindergartener. He is especially excited to ride the bus with Austin. We just found out that when we move they will ride the same bus as their friends Aimee & Alex. I'm excited that the bus stop is practically in front of our new house. Here it is at the end of the street.

Carson is definitely in the "Terrible Two's". Lately I have found muddy footprints through most of the house, Vaseline smeared in too many places to count (including himself), the vacuum cord ripped out of the machine, toothbrushes used to clean the bathroom floor, juice box/candy & popsicle wrappers strewn about, Cricut keypad overlay cut with scissors (and it wasn't even mine!). This is just to name a few of his recent doings. He definitely keeps me on my toes...he's just too cute for his own good.

Jackson at 4 months now is growing up so fast! He smiles & laughs all the time now and is attempting to roll over. He is the best baby ever and I just can't get enough of him. He'll definitely have lots of friends as there have been 5 babies born since him in our ward.

We look forward to having the Zimmerman Family Reunion in Texas this year. Fun times ahead!

That's all for now. We hope y'all have a great month...we'll be busy packing!
Love - Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson

April 2009 Update

2009-04-02T12:22:00.001-07:00

Well, the time has come. Our house has a "for sale" sign in the front yard, the pictures have been taken, and our house will officially be on MLS soon. How exciting!!! It's been the most stressful time of my whole life getting our house to this point, but now it's just a matter of keeping it clean with 4 boys in the house...wish me luck!

We have (or will have) all of our extra "stuff" in storage as of this weekend. Our storage unit is full, but thanks to a wonderful friend with an empty 24 foot trailer, we are making it happen. Our realtor said the #1 priority with getting the house ready to "show" is replacing all the sheetrock in the garage ceiling. It has pieces that are falling down, patches where Rhett fell through, etc. so it's got to go! I have a "before" picture below. Rod & Melissa (Rhett's sis) are coming this weekend (for General Conference really) and we're going to tear out the old ceiling & re-sheetrock the entire thing. This week we have concentrated on getting stuff to storage and I have been painting. We always had too much furniture in our office to paint in there, so now that we're moving out I finally got the opportunity to paint it. It's now Jackson's room/office. I think it turned out great! See picture below.

Some other exciting news is that we found a house we want to buy. It's still in our ward, and even Austin's school boundaries. It's 4 sides red brick, 3020 square feet, 4 spacious bedrooms (all with walk-in closets), 2.5 baths, 2 car garage, living AND family rooms, dining room AND eat-in kitchen, covered patio, and best of all a PLAY ROOM!!! I'm already in heaven. Hopefully the sale of our house will go quickly and the other seller will accept our offer. Wish us even more luck! Any of you who have been to our current house know that this would be a HUGE improvement.

Not much news on the boys. I registered Logan for Kindergarten the other day, only to find out he's missing 2 vaccinations!

Jackson is 3 months old today!!! We think he's following in Carson's footsteps and getting a tooth. Austin & Logan didn't get teeth until 10 and 9 months respectively. Carson on the other hand popped one out at 3 months. Jackson has all the classic signs of teething...drooling, runny nose, etc. so we'll see. I'm not fond of nursing babies with teeth. Ouch! A fun thing is that he has begun smiling a lot and even laughing. He's such a happy baby!

We were fortunate to be able to buy some much needed new appliances at the Sears "friends & family night" earlier this week (with Rhett's employee discount, plus 10% off). We needed a new dishwasher to complete the "new appliances" part of selling our house. We also bought a new dryer. We've had a new washer for a few years, but our dryer has been dying a slow death for awhile. We've had it for 10 years and it was at least 20 years old when we got it, so I think it's time for it to go.

That's about all the fun & exciting news from us. Hopefully we'll have great news on the sale of our house & purchase of the other to share next month!

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

March 2009

2009-03-02T11:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome Spring!!!

This past month for me has been full of Spring Cleaning (sort of). We are planning on putting our house up on the market soon, so I have been going through every nook & cranny of our little house packing up stuff to put in storage so our house doesn’t look so “full” when we show it. For those of you who have been to our house, you know how “full” it is…especially the office!!! The plan is that we’ll sell our house & be able to buy something bigger for our growing family. Right now we’re pretty much bursting at the seams in our 1086 square feet. We of course have a lot of projects that need to be done in the next few weeks, so it will be a busy time…especially with Rhett working 2 jobs. He will be buying new blinds for the office & bedroom windows tonight, so that’s a start.

Austin is nervous about the TAKS test tomorrow. They have been preparing for it in class though and I’m sure he’ll do great. This is the reading test…the math test is next month. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is the Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills test that is required in our state to be passed in order to move on to the next grade level. Wish Austin luck!!! He is trying to decide whether he likes taking piano lessons or not. He likes learning, but doesn’t like the homework part. I hope he doesn’t get frustrated & want to quit. It would be a nice skill for him to have.

I ended up at the Emergency Room with Logan last month. He had what appeared to be a hernia (in his private area) and he was screaming out in pain. We had a friend of ours who is a Dr. look at it and he said it would probably require surgery. Well, he cried & cried the whole time getting to the E.R., the whole time we were waiting, the whole time the Admitting nurse was checking his vitals, then he stopped once we got settled into an exam room and said “Mom, it doesn’t hurt anymore!” I was just looking to see when the Dr. came in to examine him, and sure enough, it was gone!!! They determined that it must be what they call a reduceable hernia, which comes & goes on its own. So basically it resolved itself within a few hours. The only problem is that we don’t have insurance on the boys, so we ended up with a hospital bill of more than $2000!!! What is up with the cost of healthcare I say??? All we did was sit in the waiting room, get his temperature/blood pressure checked and then they did an ultrasound. Luckily we’ll be getting our tax refund back soon.

Carson hasn’t had as exciting a month. He just hangs out & plays with Logan all day. He has pretty much stopped taking naps, although he’ll fall asleep on his own once in awhile. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be though because it helps in getting him to bed at night. We’ve determined that Logan & Carson can’t be in the same room when going to bed. They just play, talk & laugh for hours, despite the threats we give them to be quiet. We decided that when we get a bigger house we’ll put Austin & Logan together, since they’ll both be getting up for school next year.

Jackson is 2 months old today and is growing so fast. He is getting chunky and is just so loveable. He is truly the best baby anyone could ask for and I’m loving spending my days with him. He continues to be the center of attention with his brothers and they can’t seem to leave him alone sometimes…especially in church!

Over the past couple of weeks we have been able to take the kids to some fun things. First of all the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo was in town and we went as a family to see the animals and have some fun. We watched pig racing, visited the petting zoo, bounced on the inflatables, and rode on the carousel, along with seeing some of the animals. The next day I was able to take the kids to a Train Show at a convention center downtown. We saw tons of model train layouts (including one made of Legos), rode on Thomas the Train, and bought some train souvenirs. We all had a great time!

I guess that’s all for us this month. Hopefully by this time next month we’ll have our house ready to put up for sale. We have lots to do between now & then, so wish us luck!

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

February 2009

2009-02-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

Life with 4 boys is fun and exciting…and not too much different from 3. We are settling into life with a newborn again…lack of sleep, lots of diapers, etc. Jackson is growing rapidly at 1 month old now and starting to wear size 1 diapers and grow out of some of the “Newborn” clothes. Rhett blessed him yesterday at church and we were grateful that Rhett’s brother Robert & sister Melissa and their families from Austin were able to be with us for Jackson’s special day. I ordered his blessing outfit online and ordered the XS (up to 8 lbs) specifically because he was born so little. Well, the outfit came and looked like it was made for a 12 pounder instead…it was sooo huge! Oh, well. We made it work and it turned out to be a great day. My mom was able to crochet his blessing afghan while she was here...thanks so much Mom!!!

Rhett continues working at AT&T as a contract worker (no word yet if & when this job will end). He is also plugging along working at Sears. We were able to get a new stove for our house this past week (thanks to Rhett’s insider info). We got an $1100 stove for $300. What a deal!!! Can’t wait to get it in & try it out. Rhett has been sick for the past couple of weeks. He missed a couple of days of work while he was in bed trying to feel better. He’s good now, except for a lingering cough. Rhett celebrated his 36th Birthday on 1/24. He had to work at Sears, so we went & ate lunch with him and took a birthday cake to share. Not much other celebrating, since he was sick!

Austin was selected to participate in his school Spelling Bee a couple of weeks ago. We helped him prepare some, but not a lot. He was so nervous!!! We told him that just being selected means he’s a good speller anyway, and to just do his best. There were 22 kids in the Bee and about 18 of them misspelled their first word…including Austin. His word was “maestro”. Austin was so glad for it to be over with.

One of Logan’s classmates at church & friend Emily Hammond passed away a couple of weeks ago. She had a syndrome called Ring Chromosome 18 and had multiple physical problems. She had such a sweet personality & will be missed.

Carson has recently shown some interest in potty training. We’ll have to get working on that. It would be nice to only have 1 in diapers!!!

All of the boys adore their new baby brother, and can’t help but want to be around him, hold him and kiss him constantly. What a loving family to be born into!

Hope you all have a great month!
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Jackson

January 2009

2009-01-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

Jackson has arrived!!!

We have a new family member to introduce. Jackson Wesley Zimmerman was born on Friday, January 2nd at 1:45pm. He weighed only 6 lbs. 10 oz. (a surprise to us all) and was 19 inches long. I had been measuring 3 weeks big for about a month, so we were expecting around an 8 pounder. What a petite little guy he turned out to be! The boys couldn't wait to come to the hospital to visit, but were especially excited today when we came home from the hospital. Austin called us wondering "when will you be here?" They love taking turns holding him, although Carson's turn lasts only about 5 seconds until he's ready for something else. We love him so much already!!! Here are a few of the best pictures. Enjoy!

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

November 2008 Update

2008-12-02T15:05:00.000-08:00

Well, this past month has flown by…where does the time go?

We haven’t seen much of Rhett lately as he recently began working a 2nd job (part-time) at Sears in appliances again, selling stoves this time. We are preparing ourselves financially to be able to buy a bigger house next year and the extra income will help us to get on top of things and build up our savings again. With the new baby set to arrive in one month, we feel we will need more space SOON!!!

As for me, one month from today (January 2nd at 1:00pm to be exact) I am scheduled for my C-section. I can’t believe how quickly it has come and I can hardly wait these last few weeks! I started getting all of the baby clothing & bedding cleaned and prepared. Then I guess I’ll be getting my bag for the hospital packed. You can never be too prepared, right? My mom booked her flight and will be staying with us from December 30th (her birthday) until January 17th. We will be so lucky to have her with us for such a long time…her longest trip visiting us ever!

Austin has had an exciting month! First, he was chosen to represent his 3rd grade class in the school Spelling Bee to be held in January. He is a little nervous about it, but is an amazing speller and I’m sure he’ll do great! Also, he lost 2 teeth in the same day, his 7th & 8th teeth to fall out. See the picture below. I think these are the first ones he has pulled out on his own…but they were practically falling out of his head anyway. He had a little problem with the tooth fairy this time though…she forgot to come! (or so he thought). I checked later while he was outside playing & when Austin looked again he found $2 sitting under his pillow. He was flabbergasted because he said he had searched everywhere the time before. She’s so sneaky!!! Austin will be participating in his first piano recital next week. He’s very excited and doing a wonderful job with his piano lessons.

Logan & Carson haven’t had much going on. They are enjoying the days playing together or with our dog. They spend much of our beautiful fall weather playing outside in the backyard. They both look forward to being new big brothers soon, and love to give my belly hugs and kisses.

We spent Thanksgiving week up in Austin at Melissa & Rod’s house (Rhett’s sis). The kids played hard and Melissa & I had a blast just being together. We really didn’t do much except hang out, but it was nice nonetheless. We were able to go see “Twilight” for the 2nd time, thanks to Rod’s babysitting skills!!! Melissa was able to take some new family photos of us in the beautiful “hill country” near their home, so I hope you enjoy the new pics! We look forward to spending the Christmas holidays with them as well as Robert & Heather (Rhett’s bro). It’s nice to have some family close by, especially at this time of year.

That’s about all from us this month. We hope you all have a great holiday season and the next time I update this I’ll have little Jackson to introduce. Until then…

Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson

October 2008 Update

2008-11-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

So, let’s see. Recently we have had some fun and exciting…and not so exciting things going on.

Rhett – Summing up from our last post, we found out the pitcher from the other team ended up with 30+ stitches in his chin from Rhett’s line drive. Oooops!!!

Maren – I am currently measuring 1 week ahead in my pregnancy. Only 2 months to go. My mom is planning on coming and spending around 3 weeks with us when Jackson is born. So exciting!!! At my last appointment, my Dr. said that my iron level was a little “borderline”, and since I’m having a C-section he is having me take an iron supplement daily to get my blood built up for surgery. Other than that, my pregnancy is going great!

Austin – Halloween. He finally decided that he’d had enough with Superheroes (for the last 3 years) and decided to be a skeleton. We got such a great deal on his costume too! I got the shirt for $1 at Old Navy, black sweat pants for $5, face makeup for $2 and then I made the pelvis & leg bones out of some white self-adhesive vinyl that my friend gave me. So $8 and 45 minutes later for the face paint, we had what I think turned out to be a pretty awesome costume!

Logan – Luckily he doesn’t really care yet what he is for Halloween, because the pumpkin costume we had from when Austin was 4 was just fine with him. He made a super cute pumpkin!

Carson – For Halloween he was a bat (thanks to another hand-me-down costume). Carson caused some excitement at church on Sunday when he decided to pull the fire alarm. I had left Sacrament Meeting early with him (to get the Primary Room set up) and next thing I know the fire alarm is blaring and Carson is the culprit. Our ward was just getting ready for the closing prayer when the Bishop got up & said that they were required to have everyone leave the building. Luckily some members from the previous Ward were still around and someone had the key to turn it off. Word trickled through our Ward that it wasn’t really a fire and only a few people ended up outside, thank goodness! I was mad at Carson first for doing it and scolded him with a slap on the hand and a “No touching!” remark. It took him about 20 seconds to realize that he was both A. In trouble, and B. Scared from the blaring alarm…so he started sobbing, which made me start sobbing (pregnant hormones I’m sure!) and I reassured him that everything was okay. Needless to say it took both him and I several minutes to get calmed down after the chaos we caused.

For a few days before Halloween we had noticed a small leak coming from the bottom of the toilet in the boy’s bathroom. There was also some wet carpet on the other side of the wall from the bathroom (in the corner of the dining room) that we thought must be caused from the leak. So Rhett took the toilet off and found that the wax ring was cracked. After a trip to Home Depot he replaced the wax ring and re-set the toilet. Voila! No leak! We thought that would solve the wet carpet problem, but it seemed to persist for a couple more days. I would suck up water from the carpet 3-4 times a day with our carpet shampooer (thanks Mom! It has come in handy several times). We finally realized that there must be a leak coming from the shower, so after our Ward Halloween party & “trunk or treat” we came home and a friend of ours (thanks Travis!) helped us cut into the wall and fix the leaky pipe. It ended up being a small leak coming from the joint. Now we just have to fix the sheetrock to make it look like a pretty wall again. Another home repair done inexpensively (it cost $2.90 for the new copper joint at Home Depot).

Rhett’s sis Melissa & family came for Halloween so the kids could trunk or treat together. That weekend we also visited Retama Park (a horse racetrack) with them and had a fun family night out for less than $10. What a deal! They have these fifty-cent nights where you just have to pay for parking and everything else is free (except hot dogs & drinks are fifty cents). We watched several horse races and the kids enjoyed face painting, caricatures, clowns making balloon shapes/animals, pony rides and a petting zoo. After 2 of the races the jockeys gave Carson their racing goggles. He was ecstatic!!! He must be too cute to resist.

So that's about all that's new this month. We look forward to spending time at both Thanksgiving and Christmas with our "Texas family" (Rhett's sister & fam and his brother & fam). Luckily we are all sticking around for the holidays, so we can at least spend time together! We hope you all have a great month.

Love- Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Jackson

September 2008 Update

2008-10-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well, September has come & gone and what do we have to say about it?

Our Air Conditioner stopped working! That would probably be fine if we lived in Idaho or somewhere that the temperatures weren’t still in the 90’s every day. We lived through a few days of 90-degree house temps before we called someone. They of course wanted us to get an all new system and ductwork…right around about $7000 worth of work. We of course don’t have that money, nor do we want to pay it. Luckily we have a friend of a friend who works with A/C and he came & fixed the major problems for $125. We have some ductwork that needs fixing and we’ll need to solve some venting issues in our attic, but we’ll be able to get it all done for WAY LESS than $7000.

Rhett has started a work out regiment, which involves playing softball with our Ward on Tuesday nights, and playing basketball at our church on Wednesday nights. He is enjoying the time spent playing ball, not so much enjoying the aches and pains he sometimes has afterwards. This past Tuesday Rhett was up to bat and hit a line drive straight at the pitcher. It hit him in the chin/jaw area and was bleeding enough that some team members left to take him to the hospital. Rhett felt really bad about that!

As for me, I’m hanging in there. Only 3 months to go! This baby has recently taken to kicking me pretty good, and I’ve been having quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions over the past few days. I’m feeling well however, just tired a lot. I try to rest as much as possible with 2 little ones around all day. I’m pretty lucky though and I probably get more rest than a lot of pregnant moms. During General Conference for our church this past weekend I was able to get 2 major projects completed. My Christmas cards, and the baby announcements. We were at Rhett’s sister Melissa’s house, and I had plenty of helpers, so thanks for that!

Austin was a little hesitant at first to start Cub Scouts, mainly because he didn’t know what to expect, but he has jumped in with both feet and enjoys it a lot. A few weeks ago they had the Raingutter Regatta. While Austin’s boat looked really good, we never tried it out beforehand, and unfortunately found that it was top heavy and didn’t really sail so good. Oh, well! It was a valiant effort for our first try. See the picture below.

Logan has decided lately that he’s an artist and wants to draw almost constantly. His Sunbeam teacher at church has even commented on his awesome drawing ability. And I must admit he draws pretty well for a 4-year old! Below he is showing off a picture of a train that he drew.

Carson has recently reached a HUGE milestone…getting rid of the Binky!!! Last weekend we took the short trip to Austin to hang out with family, and forgetting the binky, we decided it was as good a time as any to drop the habit. He has adjusted well to falling asleep without it, and I am so relieved. The picture below of Carson was so funny. He was upstairs playing with his cousins & brothers, and all of a sudden he was coming down the stairs with this huge sombrero on his head saying “Yee haw!” It was quite cute!

GREAT NEWS in the Zimmerman family. Last Friday we received the news that our niece Grace Cluff is CANCER FREE!!! Her PET and CAT scans revealed no trace of the tumors or cancer anywhere in her body. Needless to say we are relieved and excited at the same time. She’ll still have checkups regularly for the first year and will still be doing school at home until January, but we are so grateful that she was able to be healed. It makes us realize (once again) how strong PRAYER can be. Thanks to all of you for your concern on her part.

Next time I’m sure we’ll have Halloween pictures to post, so we’ll update you then!
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Jackson

August 2008 Update

2008-09-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

It’s a…..nother Boy !!! I am a little disappointed due to the fact that I was sooooo hoping for a girl, but I can look to the fact that he’s growing well and really healthy to keep myself excited about it. I have 4 months to get used to the idea of having 4 boys! I told Rhett I was going to come home and spend some quality time with our dog because she’s the only other female around! He just laughed. Other things that are looking up is that my pregnancy has been going really well and I’ve only gained 3 lbs so far! I am feeling great, other than the tiredness of course. I find that if I sleep in as long as possible during the morning, then I don’t feel like I need a nap during the day. When I do end up napping, then I can’t fall asleep at night. What a lovely cycle that becomes!

Rhett has started looking for work again. With the announcement that AT&T will be moving their corporate headquarters to Dallas, they have been outsourcing some projects…namely the one Rhett was hired for (he’s a contract worker). In the last few weeks he has been moved to 2 other projects. He’s still working, but we just don’t know what the future will bring, so we’re getting ready for anything! A couple of weeks ago Rhett was released from his calling in the Sunday School Presidency and called to be a teacher in the Primary, teaching the 10 year olds. This means that our whole family is in Primary on Sundays now!

Austin started taking piano lessons on Tuesdays after school from a friend in the ward. Ever since we brought the piano home from my mom’s house, he has been intrigued by it and LOVES to play “heart and soul” (or at least he tries a lot!). I’m glad he’s finally learning something else to play. Austin started 3rd grade on August 25th and loves it so far. His 2 best friends since First grade are in his class, so that makes it especially fun for him. His teacher (Mrs. Smith) is out on Maternity leave until the beginning of October, so he has a substitute (Mrs. Bibb) until then. I met them both at the school Open House and they both seem really great! His only qualm so far about 3rd grade is that he has to take the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills) test this year. I’m sure he’ll do great, but he’s a little nervous. Good thing we have until March & April to worry about it!

Logan and Carson continue to keep me on my toes during the day. They usually don’t wake up until about 8:30am, so that’s nice! I usually go back to bed for awhile while they watch TV or play. Luckily, they are very good to stay out of trouble while I catch a few “Z’s”. The rest of their day consists of trying to see if every toy that we own will all fit in the living room. I have these 6 Rubbermaid drawers filled with all of our toys…all organized of course!!! Logan & Carson love to dump them all out to use the bins to sit in, play on, etc. What a mess that becomes. I recently started threatening to throw toys away if they’re not cleaned up within a certain time frame. You should see how quickly they move then!

We spent Labor Day weekend with the Texas half of Rhett’s family. Melissa & her family and Robert & his family all came from Austin. Rhett’s mom has been at Melissa’s house helping out since Grace got sick, so she came also and we had a great time with everyone. We all got a chance to go to the Temple, which was nice because we haven’t been in awhile. We followed them back to Austin on Sunday night to spend Monday at their house since Grace had to be at the hospital for a medication dose. The kids all have such a great time playing together, and Austin’s comment the moment we left was “now I’m going to be bored!” That seems to be his mantra lately.

Overall things are going well for our family right now. We are all in good health, so that’s something to be grateful for. We’ll just have to see what the Lord has in store for us next. Please keep us in your prayers!

Later -
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Boy (probably Jackson???)

P.S. Our niece Grace is almost done with her cancer treatments. She started her 5th (and hopefully final) round of chemo yesterday. She’ll be evaluated in a few weeks to see if the cancer is gone or not. Their family blog is updated often with her details. Feel free to check it out at http://rmcluff.blogspot.com/

Here's a super yummy recipe to try. Enjoy!

Black Bean & Corn Salsa

1 can white corn (drained)
1 can yellow corn (drained)
1 can Black beans (drained)
1 Avocado
1 Tomato
Green Onions (sliced)
Green & Red bell peppers

Dice veggies small and mix everything together with 1 packet Good Seasons Italian dressing packet. Chill and serve with tortilla chips ("Scoops" work best!)

July 2008 Update

2008-08-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it’s been a month and a half since updating our blog for very good reasons. One, we were out of town for a month…and secondly, our computer crashed while we were gone and Rhett just got it up and running again. Thank goodness!!!

I have lots of fun and exciting things to tell about this month. First and foremost, we will be adding another member to our family in January. I am 15+ weeks along now and feeling great (other than the tiredness of course). The baby is growing well…actually about a week bigger than it should be, making my due date January 16th. I’ll have another scheduled C-section of course, so that means more like around the first week of the year. Rhett is rooting for the end of this year for the tax stuff! We don’t know the sex of the baby yet, but are all hoping for a girl. We’ll let you know when we find out.

The next exciting news is that we just added another member to our family. Wow, our family is growing rapidly! While the kids and I were in Idaho visiting my mom, Rhett decided to buy the boys a dog for their birthdays (we were on vacation during both Logan & Austin’s birthdays). We came home to the most beautiful, nice, calm, quiet, 2 ½ year old female shepherd-mix. Her name was “Sharon” from the Humane Society, but the boys renamed her “Queen Adelaide” after Carson’s favorite movie character (Lightning McQueen) and where Rhett served his mission in Australia. Rhett and I went along with that only because we convinced the boys that we’d call her “Addie”, so that’s her name. She has been a lot of fun and the boys LOVE her. It’s kind of fun to have another female around. If the baby turns out to be a girl, we will almost have caught up to the males in this family!

Our summer vacation consisted of the following saga: WARNING! This is kind of a long story!

We left our house on Friday, June 27th at 5:00pm and arrived in Denver at Rhett’s parent’s house at 8:30am the next morning. We spent a week there visiting with his family at the annual Zimmerman Reunion. Rhett and I won the men’s and women’s family races…even with me being pregnant!!! We went to a speedway and watched car racing, spent the day at Elitch Gardens (an amusement/water park), we were FINALLY able to take a tour of the Denver Mint and then enjoyed an evening at the stadium for a “Rockies” game. Lots of fun piled into one week.

We left Denver on Saturday, July 5th and drove to Layton, UT to stay with our friends Heather & Jared Andersen. It was fun to catch up with them since they moved from San Antonio a year ago. On Sunday afternoon I took Rhett to the airport for his flight home. He called me about ½ hour later saying that his first flight was delayed and wasn’t going to make his second, so he ended up staying with us that night. We visited with my friends Amy & Russ and their families that evening. It was so good to see them again! Rhett ended up leaving on his flight at 6:00am Monday morning.

Later that same morning the boys and I packed the car (again) and headed for Rexburg, ID to spend 2 weeks with my mom. It had been 2 years since I had been “home” and it was so nice to be there again. We kept busy while in ID also. My mom and I went to the new Rexburg Temple, we visited Yellowstone Bear World…thanks to Mike & VaLene who always let us in for free!!! We all got the chance to feed the baby bears this time, which was such a neat experience. We visited with my brother Gary & his family in Idaho Falls one evening, we drove to Boise to visit with my brother Brian & his family one weekend, we went to the splash park & carousel one day…and visited “Taco Time” a lot! YUMMY!!! We ended our time in Idaho at the 2008 Stewart Family reunion, which is all the descendants of my grandparents. We camped from Thursday, July 17th (our 10th wedding Anniversary) to Sunday, July 20th at Heise Hot Springs near Ririe, ID. Rhett flew into Idaho Falls on Friday, July 18th and was able to spend some camping time with us, but unfortunately our time had come to an end and we had to leave on Sunday morning, so that we could make it to Denver that night. We were hauling a U-haul trailer filled with stuff (my mom’s piano included…Yeah!) and about 3 hours into our trip, in the middle of “no-where-ville” Wyoming, the car broke down. (I failed to mention that we had traded cars with Rhett’s sister Melissa for the trip. Mainly because of the built-in DVD players and the hitch for the trailer). Anyway, it ended up that the Suburban’s muffler pretty much almost fell off. It was hanging precariously close to the road. After talking to my roadside assistance people and a towing company in Pinedale, WY, we decided to try to make it to Pinedale for the night. We drove about 25 miles at about 20-30 MPH and luckily made it there safely. Our problem now was that we were in a small Wyoming town on a Sunday afternoon where no auto repair shops were open. We were lucky to find a reasonably priced hotel room for the night…$75 as compared to $165 (the going rate). The next morning Rhett took the Suburban to the shop and by about 1:00pm they had determined the following: we needed a whole new muffler assembly, which would have to be ordered from Salt Lake City and brought in the next day…and cost about $500. We decided that if we could make it to Denver we could get it fixed quicker and for less, so the guy removed our entire muffler and tail pipe and we threw it in the U-haul with the rest of our stuff and we were on our way! It was a loud trip to Denver, but we made it there by about 11:00pm Monday night. Rhett’s dad had made an appointment for us at 7:30 the next morning at MIDAS to get the muffler replaced, however after really looking at the situation, it wasn’t the muffler after all…it was the catalytic converter causing the problems. So we went quickly from a $200 situation to a $1000+ situation. By about 5:00pm on Tuesday afternoon the car was fixed and we left Denver at about 6:15pm. We hadn’t planned on driving through the night again, but we also hadn’t planned on having car trouble. We arrived home in San Antonio at about 11:00 the next morning (approximately 73 hours after leaving Idaho, instead of the 27 it should have taken). Rhett went straight to work as we had planned on him missing one day of work (no pay), but not 3!!!

Since arriving home it has been a mad dash to get the house cleaned up, 17 million batches of laundry done, 2 months worth of ironing to do, OB/GYN Dr. visits, getting our hard drive transferred to another so that Rhett could wipe ours out and start over. It’s so nice to be back up and running again! I’ve also been gone so long from my Primary calling that I’ve been trying to get everything updated and myself back in the “Primary Secretary mode”. This past Saturday we also had to do a quick cleaning-out of our deep freeze, since Carson had left the door open overnight and everything was defrosted. We were able to save some things, but many ended up in the trash. We also spent some time in the garage rearranging things so that we could finally park the van in there again. We spent the rest of the day at Sea World with the other 7 billion people that were there. It was the most crowded we’ve ever seen it!!!

Needless to say we’ve had a crazy July, but some fun and exciting things to report. The next exciting thing to happen in our family is that Austin will be getting baptized a member of our church on August 16th. We hope all is well for you and your families. We will update you again soon on the happenings of the Zimmerman family!

Love you all –
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby-to-be

P.S. A lot of you have been asking about our niece Grace and how her cancer treatment is going. She’s a little trooper is about all I can say! They have a blog at http://rmcluff.blogspot.com/ if anyone wants to check on Grace’s progress. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers you’ve sent our way on her behalf!!!

June 2008 Update

2008-06-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Well, where has the time gone? It seems like life has been a blur this past month. Here are the latest & greatest happenings in our family.

Yeehaw! We FINALLY have a 2nd car for Rhett to drive to work. What a relief for me! We were able to get a good deal on a 2000 Toyota Camry. It is a 4-cylinder (so great gas mileage), has leather, sun roof, power everything…so it turned out to be a great buy. I don’t know which of us is enjoying it more. I’ve only driven it once, but it has made my life so much easier!

More exciting news…after almost 3 years of having dial-up internet we finally broke down and signed up for a bundle deal through AT&T. So now we get our phone, Dish Network and high speed internet for a great deal. What a difference it makes! We can actually use our phone and the internet at the same time…who would have thought? This means however that we now have different email addresses:
Rhett – rhett.zimmerman@att.net
Maren – maren.zimmerman@att.net

We finally got our living room, dining room and hallway work done. A friend removed the popcorn ceiling, patched up some cracks, textured the ceilings, then painted all the walls, doors, trim, etc. It looks great and it’s so nice to finally have it done after talking about it for about a year. We had most of the furniture out for about a week though, so then it made me think that I don’t want all that stuff back in. We made a few minor changes and left out a couple of large items. It feels so much more roomy and open in there. Check out the before & after pictures below!

I spent my 34th Birthday this year (June 7th) celebrating with our niece Jane who was baptized. We spent the weekend up in Austin, TX at Rhett’s sister Melissa’s house. Mom & Dad Zimmerman were there as well as Rhett’s brother Robert and his wife Heather and new baby Riley, who was also blessed that weekend. We enjoyed spending time with them! It’s so nice to have them close by. We've had some bad news in the Zimmerman Family this past week however, and I'm asking for all of your prayers. Our niece Grace Cluff (Melissa & Rod's daughter) was just diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma Cancer. She's only 5 and we are hoping and praying for the best. Please direct some of your prayers her way. Thank You!!!

Austin finished up school on June 4th and was promoted to the 3rd grade. He truly enjoys school and still tries to play it often at home. Austin is swimming with the Stoneridge Shockwaves swim team for the 2nd year and is LOVING IT! He has improved greatly since just learning how to swim last year. He has had 3 swim meets already and has been involved in some relays. He has learned the Butterfly and Breaststroke in the last few weeks and is already doing great at it. He is also a pro at diving off the starting blocks.

Logan has been enjoying playing at the pool every morning while we’re there for Austin’s practice. He isn’t afraid of the water at all and his favorite is to do running cannonballs off the side. I’m going to try to get him in swim lessons sometime. While playing at a friend’s house one day, Logan’s friend threw something that happened to catch him right between the eyes. He had a pretty good gash there, but with the help of some super glue in the beginning it is starting to heal nicely.

Carson celebrated his 2nd Birthday this month on June 2nd. We had a quiet little family party involving cake and presents of course. Carson has started talking so well lately and it almost surprises me daily at what he can now understand and communicate to us. I love it when they get to that stage!

We are looking forward to our big family trip this summer. It’s coming more quickly than I realized… we’ll be leaving next Friday!!! We’ll be spending the week of July 4th in Denver, CO with Rhett’s family at a reunion, then we’ll drive to Salt Lake City to see some friends for a couple of days, Rhett will fly home to work and I will continue up to Rexburg, ID to spend a week with my mom. He will then fly back on July 18th (one day AFTER our 10-year Anniversary) to spend a day or so with my family at a reunion, then it’s a LONG HAUL back to San Antonio. My mom has agreed to let us take her piano back with us, so we’ll be literally HAULING a trailer back filled with all those things I still have back in the house I grew up in (dolls, dollhouse, books, etc.). I just hope we have a girl someday to share them with…

Well, that’s all I can think of for now. I have a new recipe to share this month. These are the best tasting oatmeal cookies I’ve ever had!!! Enjoy.

Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson

Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies
1 c. butter Crisco
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt
2 ½ cups oatmeal
2 c. flour (loosely measured)

Roll into balls – press with palm. Bake at 350 for 14 min.

May 2008 Update

2008-05-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

Well, the month of April has come & gone and we have had a crazy month!!!

First of all, after much contemplation, we decided on a plumbing company to come and make the necessary repairs to our sewer line that was damaged. For such a feat, it ended up being less than $900 (compared to some of the other quotes we received ranging from $2800-$3500). Our home-owner’s insurance refunded us the money I paid Roto-Rooter to get our line cleared the day of the “problem”. They also sent a claims inspector, who wrote up an estimate of approximately $2200 worth of damage done to our bathroom and carpet. Actually, there’s very little noticeable damage at all…a little warping of the bottom of the bathroom vanity cabinet is all. Anyway, now we have a check from them for the repair of our bathroom that doesn’t really need to be repaired.

So, the plumbing company found an interesting thing inside our sewer line. Notice in the pictures below the many large trees we have in our front yard??? Well, the sewer line was cracked in half and had a hole in it…as well as a large root that had grown inside our pipe. See the picture below. It was approximately 2/3 the size of the pipe. We were lucky that the break was just at the edge of our driveway, because they were able to dig down and fix it from the side of the concrete. All in all, they dug a hole one day, next day the repair took 2 hours, then the hole was filled in. End of story.

I spent most of April dealing with insurance issues as Rhett’s COBRA continuation of his health insurance kept bringing up problems with us getting his Insulin prescription filled. After almost 3 weeks of very desperate calls, including many heated conversations and some tears, the problem was resolved…only to find out that by having insurance it only saved us $75 on his prescription!!!

So after almost 10 years of marriage we finally have a nice refrigerator! When we moved into our house in New Mexico we bought a refurbished one. Since then it’s been in storage twice and I must admit it was not in the best condition to be harboring our food. I could share a really gross story about it, but I won’t! A family moved out of our ward this past weekend and sold their 2 year old white Hotpoint side-by-side fridge with water & ice in the door to us for what Rhett called a “deal” (and since he used to sell fridges for 2 years, he knows what he’s talking about!) We are keeping our old one in the garage for now to try to use it as a secondary fridge, but we’re not sure it’s going to make it. We’ll see.

Rhett is working hard at his job and loving it. We love his new schedule as he’s home from work by 4:30 most days. The boys love having all that extra daylight to play with their dad.

I am just trying to keep my house clean and family fed. Some days that’s easier than others. I participated in a yard sale with some friends last month. It feels nice to get rid of things and I was able to make a lot of extra room in the garage. Add that to the Primary Talent Show that I helped pull off in the same weekend…and I am exhausted!!! I hope May is a lot less stressful.

Austin is looking forward to starting swim team. Practices start on May 19th. School is winding down and will be out on June 4th.

Logan has recently found a new love…drawing! He’s always asking me for paper and a pencil and he’ll sit and draw for hours. He still loves trains, but I don’t think he’s had them out to play with for a couple of weeks.

Carson is growing by leaps and bounds. A friend of mine has a girl born just a couple of weeks after Carson. She is always marveling at how big he is. She jokingly one day said “What size shoes are those Carson…7 ???” He then leaned forward just enough for her to see the size 8 on the back of his shoe. She was amazed. I think her daughter is still wearing size 3-4 (sorry Jodi!). Carson has also started talking really well this past month. He says lots of things now that we actually know what he’s talking about. That’s always a nice milestone to hit. There's a cute picture below of Carson & his friend Bentli on the tire swing at the park. I figured I needed to have at least one cute picture, since the rest are sort of boring or gross...

We look forward to summer and the chance to see many of you. We will be visiting some friends near Longview, TX over Memorial Day weekend, then we’ll be heading to Denver, CO and Rexburg, ID (with a short stop in Salt Lake City, UT) this summer for both of our family reunions. We hope to see many of you on those trips. Until then, have a great month!

Love - Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson

April 2008 Update

2008-04-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

Well, another month is past and gone. Where does the time go? We had a fun and exciting March. Let me tell you all about it…

My mom came for a visit from March 14-24th and we had a wonderful time visiting with her. Normally when she visits we have a fun-filled week planned, however she happened to be here during Spring Break this time and we wanted to avoid the crowds at Sea World, the Zoo, etc., so we pretty much just spent time hanging out and relaxing. Mom and I were able to go to the Temple, lunch and shopping one day. Boy, do I need that once in awhile!!! Mom also helped me with some redecorating ideas for the boys’ room (I’ll share more about that later). She also accompanied me to Scrap Night and we had a lot of fun making cards together too. It’s so nice to spend time with her! I recently bought a bike for myself and a trailer to pull Logan and Carson in. It’s so much easier to go to the park than pushing the double stroller around. The kids love going for rides and it’s helping me to get the exercise I need!

Austin has spent a lot of time outside lately riding his bike and playing on the trampoline. I keep telling Rhett we need to get a big play structure for the backyard, but he’s not quite on board with the idea…yet! Austin is getting great grades in school and loves to draw. One of his recent favorite things to draw is an outline of the United States (including all 50 states). He was drawing it with crayon at a restaurant one evening and the servers were amazed at his ability.

Logan loves to play in the dirt. If you let him outside, he heads straight for it. He loves playing with buckets and shovels and dump trucks. Maybe he’ll be a landscape architect someday?

Rhett took Carson’s crib apart and built a Trundle for under the bunk beds. We bought a twin mattress and voila, Carson is a big boy now! He loves sleeping on his new bed by his brothers. Since the crib is now gone, I did some rearranging in the boys room and I painted the walls a light blue. I also bought matching patchwork plaid comforters for their beds and it looks great! There is so much more space in there now. It feels like a new room. See the pictures below.

Logan & Carson are recovering from some viral infections that they picked up somewhere. The Dr. thought Logan had Strep Throat, but the test came back negative, so it turned out to be viral. Carson on the other hand had little “ulcers” or blisters all over inside his mouth, but after being to the Dr. it turned into what’s called “Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease”, which means he ended up with little blisters all over his hands (a little), feet (a lot) and mouth of course. Luckily they both felt pretty good through it all. It’s amazing what Tylenol and Ibuprofen can do!

That’s all for this month I guess. We are truly enjoying our “Spring” and have been doing some overdue yard work. Temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s equal perfect conditions for being outside. Hopefully we’ll have just as much fun this month!

Hope to hear from all of you soon! Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson

PS. Okay, so before I even sent a message out to all of you about this update, we had some crazy happenings...on Monday afternoon I was busily paying bills, checking email, etc. When I was finished I came out of the office & noticed the carpet looked wet. I opened the bathroom door and there I found about 1/2 inch of water EVERYWHERE and water coming into the bathtubs and toilet. I ran to get some towels from the other bathroom and found water in there also. Long story I'll try to make short: I called Roto-Rooter & they came to clear the line ($225), while doing so they hit a couple of "hard spots". Because we have many large trees in the front yard they thought it could be a root problem, so I agreed to them doing a "camera" ($275). Lo and behold about 30 feet out in my sewer line they located a separation in the pipe...and it just so happens to be not only UNDER THE DRIVEWAY!, but also only about 3 feet from where it would be a City issue. Aren't we lucky? Needless to say I've been playing hostess to our home insurance inspector and several plumbing companies coming for estimates. Thank goodness for our tax refund we got last week! Although we were going to use that towards buying a second car... Anyway, that's my week in a nutshell. I'll probably post pictures next time of our yard & driveway dug up. That should be fun!

March 2008 Update

2008-03-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

From the land of BEAUTIFUL (Winter???) weather, we say hello to all of our wonderful friends and family who are reading this. Here’s the most recent “scoop” on the Zimmerman family.

Rhett has been thoroughly enjoying his new job. He has had a couple of busy weeks where he has worked 60+ hours, but mostly he’s home by 5:00, giving him plenty of time to hang out with us…or play video games! He’s recently been hooked on the Playstation 2 and plays it a little too often for my taste. All in all, he loves the new job and the wonderful people he works with.

My life seems to have completely changed recently and I don’t know the cause. I used to be at home all the time and have plenty of time to do the things I like to do (after the housework, etc. was done of course!). Now it seems like I can’t even keep up with the housework! My church calling as Primary Secretary is keeping me busy, which includes weekly Presidency meetings at my house. Add that to weekly play group and park visits, grocery shopping, etc. and I feel like I’m in a whirlwind! Hopefully things will die down soon, so that I can take some time to breathe.

Austin was home from school sick 3 days at the end of February (which also included a student holiday and the weekend), making him “down for the count” for a total of 6 days. First it was just a fever Wednesday night, so we didn’t think anything of it, but it continued through the weekend, so Monday I took him to the Pediatrician and found out he had 2 ear infections and a throat infection. I thought getting his tonsils/adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears last year would keep him from all of this, but I guess not! Last week we had our “Great to be Eight” program for all the kids turning 8 and getting baptized this year. Austin will be baptized a member of our Church on Saturday, August 16th and you’re all welcome to attend!

Logan and Carson are as good as gold. They play quietly together most of the day, sometimes making me wonder what they’re up to. When I go out to check on them, they are just in their own little world playing with cars or trains, or watching TV. Now that the weather is getting nicer, they LOVE to play outside in the backyard. Carson has been jumping on the trampoline a lot and Logan just loves to play in the dirt!!! A perfect boy! Unfortunately, Logan ended up getting sick with Strep Throat just after Austin started feeling better, but thanks to Amoxicillin he’s feeling great again.

We recently had to get our car repaired, since several things were happening to make it act funny. All of the things that were wrong were tied to 2 problems…bad ignition coil and temperature sensor. We also had to get new front brakes. I ended up renting a car for the day. A friend works for Enterprise and he got me a smokin’ deal on an awesome car…a Ford Edge. If any of you are looking for a really cool car, I highly recommend it. I wished all day that it was mine!

During February Rhett was able to repair/replace several sections of our fence line (we share with 6 different neighbors). That was all spurred into action because the city was coming around for a bulky/brush pickup and we wanted to get rid of all that nasty old wood. It looks so nice! Rhett did a great job. I also painted our bedroom and got a new bedding set, so our room feels like it’s brand new. Definitely a nice change! I included before & after shots in the pictures below.

Well, that’s about all from us. We look forward to Spring and Summer and seeing some of you. As always, we love hearing from all of you. Until next month…

February 2008 Update

2008-01-31T18:24:00.000-08:00

Rhett’s new job at AT&T is marvelous and he is enjoying it immensely. He only has to work for 8 hours a day (so far) so he goes in around 7:30 and is usually home by 4:30 or 5:00pm. So nice for us!!! This job will be requiring overtime however (beginning next week), so the long and the short of it is that Rhett will NOT be going to school this semester. He withdrew from his classes and plans to start up again next semester…and the CPA saga continues!

We celebrated Rhett’s 35th Birthday on January 24th with a small family celebration. The next night I took him out on a DATE! That word is almost unheard of at our house. We went to dinner then went shopping for some new work pants for him. I’m sure he really loved the shopping part. We were going to go bowling, but it was getting too late, so we opted to go home & get the kids in bed. We decided it would be more fun to go with some friends anyway.

This past weekend our church Stake was split. We had 16 wards in our Stake, so they split us pretty much North vs. South and the new San Antonio Texas Hill Country Stake was created. We both got new Stake Presidencies (of course). We stayed a part of the San Antonio Texas North Stake. I was priviledged to be part of the choir for the Stake Conference. Recently I have been singing a lot more and I am remembering why music is so good for the soul. I sang a solo in Sacrament Meeting a couple of weeks ago and I have received so many compliments. A lot of people (close friends even) said “I knew you sang, but I didn’t know you could SING!” Rhett received several compliments about me also and he just told them “I taught her everything she knows!”

The Spring bug has bit me and I have been Spring cleaning. I am forever trying to come up with better organization ideas to make our little house seem less full of stuff. I have the motivation to paint again, our bedroom this time. I picked out the paint color (to compliment our adjoining bathroom) and I even have a new bedding set picked out. After having the same bedspread for over 5 years it is time for a change! I have recently bought some new decorating pieces for our home and it is feeling nicer each day. My favorite is a huge antique-looking clock to hang above the entertainment center in the living room. It is on a 12-foot tall wall with absolutely nothing on it, so I decided I needed a big clock. The best part is that it was 50% off!!!

My other blog http://mimzyscreations@blogspot.com/ hasn’t quite turned out the results I was hoping for, but I have had a few various orders from local friends. I have a couple of friends who would like me to do some scrapbooking for them, so I guess it keeps me busy enough. If you hear of someone in need of my services, please remember to pass the word along that I’m open for business!!!

In a week or so our good friend is going to come in with some of his workers and do some patch work on some cracks in our ceiling and walls in the living room. They’ll also be removing the popcorn ceiling and texturing it, then painting the walls, ceiling, trim & doors all through the living room, dining room and hallway. I can’t wait until it’s all done. It will look like a brand new house!

A few weeks ago we got a new Primary Presidency in our ward. I was lucky enough to be picked to stay as the Secretary. The previous president told the new one I was the best secretary she’s ever had, so that made me feel good! I actually work a lot on my calling as it seems there is always something to update or change. I really enjoy the calling and am glad to be working with the children of our ward.

As for the boys, there’s nothing new. They are all just full of energy (as always). Austin just got his 2nd semester report card and is getting A’s in every subject and a lot of positive comments from his various teachers. He is still reading far above the level that he should be at by the END of 2nd grade. Reading, writing and drawing are his forte! He also recently learned how to do a front flip on the trampoline. Logan seems to think that life isn’t good without the living room floor completely covered in trains, toys, etc. His latest thing is to make a long train through the house with all the toys, trains, boxes, chairs, etc. as train cars. Oh, what an imagination! Carson continues to keep me on my toes getting into and on top of things. I’m just glad he can’t open doors…yet!

That’s about all from us this month. We love hearing from all of you. Check out the new cute pictures of the boys below.

Love- Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson

New Job!!!

2008-01-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

Hip, Hip, Hooray! Rhett has a new job! AT&T made him the offer on Friday and we accepted (of course!). He will begin working on January 21st as a Tax Accountant preparing and filing multi-state tax returns and handling sales tax reports. It's the job we were hoping for after all the interviews were said & done. We are thrilled! A big plus about the job is that Rhett will be making a significant amount of money more per year. Yeah! Maybe we can breathe a little now. Our biggest sigh of relief is that the job is here in town so we don't have to worry about moving to a new state (like our past is riddled with).

Rhett's schooling is up in the air right now as we're not sure what the new job will entail. He may be able to take one of his classes he's registered for this semester, but not sure about both. We'll update you on his school status in our next posting.

Thanks to all of you for your love, support, prayers and kindness! We couldn't have made it through the rough times without ALL of you.

Welcome to our Family!

2008-01-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a month it has been. I can’t tell you how blessed we feel after an abundance of love has been showered down on us. As our Christmas letter stated, Rhett was laid off just after Thanksgiving from his job at Clear Visions, Inc, where he had worked as the Assistant Controller/Human Resources Manager for 2 ½ years. What a surprise!!! We bounced back quickly though and he is currently working a temp-to-hire position doing Fixed Assets for Pioneer Drilling Company (mostly natural gas, but some oil). He is enjoying the work, but is still interviewing for that “dream job”. He has had several interviews last week and this week, so we keep praying that he will continue to be led in the right direction. Rhett only has 3 classes left, then it’s off to the CPA exam for him. Yeah!!! I can’t believe we’re finally this close after all these years of dreaming about it.

Getting back to the “shower of love” I spoke about, we were surprised almost daily at the outpourings of gifts, money and food given to us. It definitely helped us have a little bit merrier of a Christmas. We were amazed by the amount of support that was shown us while we “weathered the storm”. Thanks to all of you for your continued love and support that we feel from you. We love you all!!!

I have a couple of new things to share about me. I was finally able to figure out how to offer my creative services to those in need! My other blog is at http://mimzyscreations.blogspot.com/ which offers my homemade cards, scrapbooking expertise and jewelry making. If you or someone you know are interested, please check it out! Also, I decided to make a change from the mundane "highlights" in my hair, so I dyed it. Cinaberry is the color...yes, that's red! If you want to see a picture of me with red hair, I suggest you check out my other blog site!!!

Austin received a baseball glove, bat and balls for Christmas, a United States puzzle and his special favorite…a file box complete with 2 reams of paper, crayons, pencils and folders (to keep his art in). I don’t know that he has stopped drawing yet!

Logan had yet another “Thomas” extravaganza for Christmas. We got him an electric train set (40% off I must add), books, coloring book, puzzle…all Thomas! He was (and still is) in train heaven. Our biggest news about Logan is that he is FINALLY potty-trained. We can all sing Hallelujah to that one!!!

Carson’s Christmas included an animal train, puzzle, book and another favorite…Winnie the Pooh. He has LOVED Pooh bear since we got him a stuffed one at Disney World this summer. Carson’s most recent accomplishment is learning to climb out of his crib and up on top of the bunk beds. Fun for me!

Things are going well for us now. I’ll keep you updated on Rhett’s job search. We loved hearing from a lot of you via emails or Christmas cards last month. Keep the updates coming!!!