For the longest time, every time Maria would drink from her water mug with a straw, Kaili would just lock onto her with the most intense stare. So about a week ago, Maria decided to see if she could drink from the straw herself. Kaili puckered her lips around the straw and sat there as though she expected something to happen. Maria took the cup again and showed Kaili an example of what to do and then once again gave it to Kaili. Low and behold on the second try she sucked water up to her mouth. With a look of joy and accomplishment she grabbed the straw again, and from there on she's been hooked. Every time she even sees that container she locks on to it and won't stop until she gets at least a few drinks of ice water if not the whole thing.

We have a new nascar fan in the house! And she is going for the best driver in nascar!

Here is our cutie getting her dinner. I think she got more on her face than in her mouth!

I know in this pic it doesnt look that like that big of a fire, but it is. I was messing around with some of the settings on my camera, and what ever I did made this one look like the fire was small.

Well Maria didn't have such a great first mothers day. She ended up getting a fibro attack in her hips and had pretty much a rotten day. She is still not back to normal, although she is getting better. It probably didn't help that this past weekend we had a retreat with the Accord group from church. For those who don't know, Maria and I lead worship for the singles ministry Accord at our church. This past weekend we had a retreat at a christian camp near Central City NE. That meant late nights and a stiff bed. That combo doest do Maria any good. We had an awesome time though. Our worship went really good and the speaker was very good as well. Bill Myatt (an assistant pastor at our church that leads the Accord group and a great friend of ours) and I built a mans man bonfire. We would have gone even bigger but we had a tree right above the fire pit, so we were limited some what. It was so hot you had to stand 6 to 10 feet away, and even then you couldn't have your face looking right at the fire is was so hot. Bill and I were pretty proud of our fire until we were talking with another group that was there and one of the guys said he had a bonfire that was 40 feet tall! We took that as a challenge for next time! I will put some pics of the fire up tomorrow.

Kaili is getting SO big SO fast! People always say kids grow up so fast, but you don't appreciate or understand that until you have kids of your own. We have so much fun with her! It is so awesome seeing all the new things she does and just how her personality is growing. We play a new game with her that she loves. We stand her on her feet on the bed with our hands around her waist, then we say READY?!?!?! and let here go! She falls backwards on her bottom and busts out laughing! We will do this over and over and she never seems to get tired of it. Another thing that Kaili loves is here walker. We have wood floors and one of those walkers with wheels that they sit in and can walk themselves around. She is so good in that thing it looks like she has turbo boosters on. She gets herself going so fast and then she will pick up her feet and coast! It is so fun to watch her in the walker! Marias parents have a hot tub at their house. We took Kaili in the hot tub a couple of weeks ago, and I think it is her favorite thing to do. She goes crazy splashing and laughing! We bought a little floaty thing for her to sit in. She sits in it just like the walker and then it has a ring of air around her waist and then some mesh and then a bigger ring around all of that, so she can play with her toys on the mesh. On Sunday she was laying back resting her head on the back of the first ring and just lounging. She looked so relaxed and cute!

Well we found out what a knot head I am. Every year at HP in October, you have to update you benefits and make any changes you want to. They have to be done by the end of Oct. Well I added Kaili to our insurance and thought we were all good. Now 7 months later, we are getting med bills for Kaili, and come to find out Kaili was not covered under my insurance until Jan 1 2006! I didn't take into account that when you update your benefits every year in Oct. they don't take effect until Jan 1. So now we have to find out how we are going to pay for all these bills. If you could keep that in your prayers that would be great, because we don't have the money for them.

Well that is all for now!
From the Z's

Here is Kaili's Great Grandpa Howie, whispering sweet nothings to his sweetheart (Isaac's maternal Grandfather).
This is a contest between Great Grandpa Al and Kaili on who can look more serious (Isaac's paternal Grandfather).
Here is Kaili hanging out with Great Grandparents Howie, Barb, and Al.
Kaili is hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Brown on New Year's Eve. (Maria's parents)
Here are Kaili's great grandparents remembering what is was like to have a little on around. I think secretly they are glad they can give this one back when they are done. :)

Kaili Sue Zellmer

The little bathing beauty, in her stylish two piece!
Our beauty little girl with a smile on her face.
Bubbles are fun!!!Oh, bother! There's never anything good in the news!

Mom and Dad say I'm always looking at the world through rose colored glasses but I choose to think I'm just a positive person!