Happy Birthday Corey!!

Today is my cute Hubby's birthday! Big shout out to his mom, Linder, thanks for raising such an awesome son and for giving him life!! The tradition in Corey's family on birthdays is to go around the room and say something nice about the birthday boy or girl. Well since today is Corey's 33rd birthday I am going to say 33 things I love about him! Here goes.......

1. He is such a wonderful father. Our girls love to play with him! He loves kids and would love to have a few more. Sorry Corey not going to happen ;) !
2. He is a fabulous husband. Super good about taking me on dates and showing me that he loves me. He treats me with respect and I love him!
3. I love that Corey is nice to everyone. He has a way of making people feel welcome and comfortable around him.
4. He is so funny! This is one of the things that I first fell in love with (besides his big muscles). He always makes me laugh. He can put a smile on my face even when I really, REALLY want to be mad.
5. He is handsome.
6. His devotion to his family is second to none! When we first got married Corey stepped into the father role for his little sisters flawlessly! He loves his siblings soooo much. He would do anything for them. He just loves to be around them. I love him for it.
7. I love the way he loves his mom. He thinks so highly of her. Anytime he talks about her it is with love and respect. He loves to tease her but if you know Corey that means he likes you! You know what they say about the way a man treats his mother. It is all true.
8. He is so positive. He tries to look for the good in everything.
9. He is such a hard worker and good provider. He will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
10. I love that he gets sooo excited about things. Christmas, BYU football, Jazz games, his birthday!, our girls sports games and even dance performances. He is honestly like a little kid on Christmas so fun!
11. I love that I can totally one hundred percent be myself around Corey. I was soooo not looking for love when I met Corey so I was not trying to impress him and he still liked me....go figure?
12. He is in the young men's program and he just has a way with the boys they like him and think he is cool yet they respect him and know they can't be ding dongs . I love love this about him.
13. I love his testimony. He is so strong and has helped me become more strong.
14. He is a hottie with a naughty body!
15. I love to hear Corey laugh...it makes me smile.
16. Corey is happy 98% of the time. It is contagious.
17. He is so so good about understanding that I need time to be Jill...not mom, not wife just Jill. He is super supportive about GNO, scrapbook weekends and girls weekends away with my family, his family and my friends. Seriously in the last year I have left at least 6 or more times for the weekend and he is wonderful about letting me go and knowing I come back a happier person!
18. He loves to take me away on vacation. He makes it a priority. It make me feel loved.
19. He is competitive. I love that he loves to win and be the best at whatever he is doing. We are a tough pair to beat at Cranium I tell you that much!
20. I love to watch him play sports. He is competitive like I said, but he is always nice to the people his is playing with and playing against. He is always respectful of the umpires and referees which makes me respect him more.
21. I love that he is a flirt. Good thing I am not a jealous person (unlike him). Most of the time the "flirting" is Corey just being nice and being himself. BUT he still flirts with me like he has to win me over. Love it!
22. I love that he doesn't care that he has all girls. I have people say all the time oh are you going to try for one more so Corey can have his boy.....NOPE! He loves his little girls and has never wished them to be boys. He even lets them play with this hair, paint his nails and show him hours of their dance moves.
23. He loves people to come to our house. He loves people to come watch movies, go swimming, eat dinner, play games ANYTHING as long as they are here. He just loves people.
24. I love his baby face. It means when he his 70 I will look like I am married to a 45 year old. Score for me.
25. I love that he loves my friends. He always asks how everyone is doing and genuinely cares about them and likes to be around them.
26. I love the aura he gives off. He has a great energy about him and he loves life. Really he is a kid stuck in a 33 year old body.
27. I love his willingness to compromise. We learned early on in our marriage we had been raised very differently. Different parenting styles and different marriage relationship examples. We have learned what works for us which would not have happened had we both not been willing to compromise.
28. I mentioned his devotion to his siblings. He also loves my family and makes every effort to get along with them. He has a blast with my family. Sure makes life easier when your spouse likes your family and puts effort forth. I appreciate greatly!
29. I love that he loves to swim. I know this sounds kind of funny but let me explain. At the end of a work day he would rather go outside and chill with his ladies than veg on the couch and watch TV. He is hilarious in the pool throwing the kids around, racing them and doing "tricks" off the diving board and slide.
30. I love to watch him coach his little soccer team. He is so cute with the kids! Almost every parent has told me how much their child loves Coach Corey and loves soccer because of it! I love to watch him running on the sidelines to encourage his team to do their best!
31. I love that he puts up with me! I am glad he has put up with me for 11 years! He is super patient with my flaws and downfalls.
32. He always tells me I am a good mom and that I am doing a good job. It means the world to me!
33. EVERYTHING!! I love this man so much. Sometimes it is overwhelming to really think about how much I love him. I honestly do not know what I would do without him. He is my rock, best friend, person I run to for help and comfort. There is no one in this world I would rather be with than him!!! I love you Corey........I hope you have a wonderful birthday filled with lots of hugs and kisses and fun!

Now it is your turn. In following Zimmerman family tradition you can leave you comment on what you like about Corey. He is going to love this!

Back to School

Starting school is so bitter sweet! I have absolutely loved having everyone home for the summer. Chillin' all day doing whatever we wanted to do! NO SCHEDULE! (except bedtime that never changes for my poor kids!) At the same time I love structure and schedule. The girls were super excited to start school. Addy and Kenley both got super cute teachers that I am excited to get to interact with this year. While the older girls started school I did get a chance to enjoy some time with the younger ladies at my house. We went to the zoo.....which was a monumental moment in my life. It was the first time in EIGHT years I have gone on an outing with children with NO STROLLER!!! It was fabulous. Not having to maneuver the stroller in and out of places and crowds. The younger ladies and myself....mommy's girls as we have referred to them this week have had a wonderful time! Meanwhile the elder sisters have had a most fabulous time at school. Coming home talking about what they learned and who they played with. One funny story-Makenley came home yesterday and said she had played with a little boy from her class last year named Charlie, he is so cute. She said he told her that last year he had a "crush" on her but not anymore! Crushes what??? She is only 6!! She said she had no idea that he had a crush on her. I think this will be a typical pattern for her through school....so oblivious to things like that, she really just doesn't care. I can only hope it will stay like that forever!! Makenley
Adelyn
So I say farewell to swimming all day, getting up late, hanging out in our pjs all morning, staying at home for days at a time not stepping foot in the car! Hello to getting up and moving, practicing piano everyday, dance classes, soccer practice, soccer games and worst of all Hello to the car which I will now be spending WAY to much time in for my liking!!

ONE good hello.....some peace and quiet!!!

FHE

Last week for family home evening we thought it would be fun to walk to the Mt. Timp temple and have a little picnic. When we were almost there some of the girls started to complain that their feet hurt. Keep in mind the temple is about 3/4 of a mile from our house. Not that far!! I found myself reminding them about the pioneers and how they walked way further than that everyday!! So the rest of the walk they continued to cheer one another on by saying, "lets be good pioneers!". It was really cute.

After we ate the girls had fun running back and forth and back and forth and back......you get the picture. Isn't it funny how their feet stoped hurting??? It was really fun to watch them hold hands and run together as Corey and I were reminiscing about getting married at the temple and how much the trees have grown and how we were sitting there watching our 4 kids!! Time flies!!


We had such a fun time talking about the temple and having the girls ask us questions about the temple. I think they were a little bummed out that they didn't get to go inside.....someday, someday!!

Lazy Days of Summer

My little Maycie fell asleep while hangin' out in the pool. We had all of our cousins over and I guess she was just to pooped out to notice that it was sooo loud!!


Oh I just thought it was so sweet. I took her out of the pool and she laid in that floaty for another 1 and 1/2 sleeping!! I am so sad to see the summer leaving us!!

Happy Birthday Maycie!!!

Maycie is THREE!! I can not believe that my baby is three, but it is true!! We had a great birthday celebration. We had the whole Zimmerman/Darrington crew over for a bbq. Maycie had a great time playing with her cousins and aunts, uncles and grandparents!! Here she is blowing out her candles and wearing a new dress she got for her birthday. This exactly what she asked for a blue dress! (thanks Randy and Jess) She loved all of her new dresses!
She got some fancy new shoes!!

Showing off that she is three!! Since she is now three I will tell you my top three favorite things about Maycie.

1. Her smile. Not only do I love her pretty smile, but I love that it is on her face 95% of the time! Makes my life easier and it always brings a smile to other peoples faces!

2. I love that she is such a mama's girl!! I love when she says mommy nice....daddy eww!(sorry corey) She is always ready with love and a mooch (smooch) for me!

3. Love the way she dances! I am not sure where she got her moves from...but she can shake it! Corey says it is from him...I beg to differ.

Wedding Bells?!?

So the other night at dinner the girls started asking me about getting married. They were asking me about my dress and all that good stuff. I told them that I still had my wedding dress and after dinner they could look at it if they wanted to. They were all so super excited to look at it and wanted to try it on. One of my own personal memories is trying on my moms wedding dress.... it was so much fun. This memory is one of the reasons I really wanted to buy and not rent a wedding dress and also why I have kept it for so many years.

Here's Lexi being Lexi. She knew we would think this was funny so she had to do it!
Makenley really got into the posing and loved having the dress on.
How freakin' cute is she!! Maycie has the best smile ever!
Adelyn took this very seriously. Kinda freaked me out and made me a touch emotional (I am not sure if it was the thought of them getting that big or thinking how my pocket book is going to shrink when paying for 4 girls weddings!!) Thinking of shopping for my own little girls wedding dress'! Crazy....luckily I still have at least 15-20 years....hopefully!
This was super fun! They all felt so big and grown-up!

Highlights and Lowlights

So I know it has been forever!! We have had so much going on. Some good some not so good! Lets start with the low light so we can end on a high note! Corey's Aunt Angie passed away a few weeks ago. This is his moms second sibling to pass away in the last six months. It has been a little rough! My Grandma Darrington passed away. This is a high and low. High because she has lived a great life and has been relatively healthy. The low is that it is always hard to have someone die and miss them. My Dad had open heart surgery about 2 weeks ago. He is doing really well....but it was really scary!!! I have never been so scared of losing one of my parents as much as I was then. It was awful to see him after the surgery he looked terrible! I tried so hard to keep it together while I was in the hospital room, but I defiantly lost it as soon as I walked out! I went to see him Monday afternoon and he look amazing and he said his heart feels better than ever so I guess that is a little bit of a highlight that he is doing well. All of the death and illness has made me think and rethink about a lot of things. Life is just way to short to be wasted on silly, petty things! It helps me to remember that my family is the very most important thing in the world to me! I want to spend as much quality time with them all as possible. It also makes me think about my health. I have a renewed outlook on exercise and eating right. It has always been important to me but I have an even greater desire to do it just to insure that I stick around to see my great grandchildren! It also makes me want my kids and hubbie to be healthy so that they will be happy and healthy!! So on to the highlights!! We have had a lot of fun swimming parties with lots of friends and family. Corey's sister Kaycie came in town for a few weeks which is always a blast! My girls absolutely love her to death. She and I are super close and love to talk and play Cities and Knights for hours and hours! Grandpa Don came into town. The girls always have fun with him and you can't really beat Don's milkshakes! My sister Keli found out that she will be able to adopt the two little girls she has been doing foster care for!! She has had them for over a year and I am super excited to have them be permanent nieces!! There is nothing sweeter than seeing a little family be sealed in the temple. I look forward to that in the next few months!! We really have had some fun this summer and lots of good news! I promise some pictures and another post really soon!!