Grandma's House

I'm comin' Grandma!

This weekend we flew to Denver to visit Kevin's parents. It was a much needed vacation from all the things we've been up to lately (babysitting kids, painting, being sick, living in the the north pole and being sick.) We woke up to fly out on Thursday morning to a beautiful sunny but SNOWY Utah. We flew to Denver (about an hour flight) and I swear we were in California! We quickly shedded our jackets and only wore them a handful of times while we were there.

It was such a nice day on Thursday we decided to take Zack to the Zoo. The Denver Zoo is alot like The Hogle Zoo, I think, but they had alot of animals that I had never heard of nor seen before. Zack was kind of zoned out. We kept telling him to look at the animals and he just looked at us like we were weird.

Buying the hat to keep the sun off his face was a lost cause!

He finally started getting excited when we saw the penguins. Maybe it's because they were the animals that we could get closest to and they were very active.

He also liked the giraffe's, I think that is his favorite animal.

Monkey Love

Chill'n with Grandma and Grandpa at the Denver Zoo

Some other FUN things we did were:

Jump on the tramp


Play with Abby

Ride the tractor

Explore with Grandpa

Play with kids a little more my age

(just kidding Jeff and Leisel!)

Fix the tractor

We played games!
(I'm still wondering who invited this weirdo)

We also went to see the Columbine High School Shooting Memorial, which was very cool. We had to go eat at Claim Jumper, Kevins favorite place in the whole world! We also had Zacks 9/10 month pictures taken. They turned out really cute!

We saw some pretty HOT shots from the court

While Zack watched from his tractor, very seriously taking in the game

Then Bebe got sick :(

This cuddly thing is not our BABY!
Crackers and juice every 15 minutes, the poor thing was starving!







There's our baby! Everyonce in a while we got a glimpse of the REAL Zack.

And finally, waiting for our bags at the SLC airport.

After sleeping the whole way home on the plane he was still exhausted.

Thanks to Curt and Rita, Jeff and Leisel for letting us come see you! It was a great trip! I know Zack had lots of fun even though he didn't feel well. Grandma, sorry about the couch, the living room carpet, bedroom carpet and the chair. You were a good sport! Thanks also for doing our laundry so many times!

Zack's first haircut

Zack is having his pictures taken next weekend so I thought we would go in and have a little trim. We cut off more than I thought but that's okay. I love it!

Pre-haircut pictures, so we can always remember the fluff!

At first he really didn't seem to mind. Then he figured out that we had restrained his hands by putting the cape on him.



He really did okay until it was time to cut around his neck and ears. Then we had to hold his head, we tried distracting him, feeding him food, giving him a cotton ball and eventually we gave him this file to chew on. Maybe he filed down his sharp teeth!

Never take a fingernail file away from a baby! I was trying to get a cute picture without the file...

Rough Week

This last week we babysat a family of 5 kids for a friend of a friend. We stayed at their house in Riverton and pretty much just tried to keep the kids alive. Our own child turned out to be the challenging one! We started our babysitting job early on Monday (the 15th). Zack started getting a cough on the Thursday before. By Sunday he was really miserable and sounded terrible! His nose also started running and by Monday he was coughing so hard he threw up everytime he ate. What a nightmare to be in someone elses home when your baby is sick!!!

Lucky for me the kids were all pretty good at taking care of themselves. Even the 2 year old didn't require a ton of attention. But it was hard juggling it all anyway! I was tempted so many times to throw in the towel and take my sick baby home but we some how got through it! We had Zack sleep in the closet because it was dark, quiet and it was a smaller room for his humidifier to fill up the room with moist air. One day he took a 3 hour morning nap and a 3 hour afternoon nap! It was glorious but I have to admit, I didn't know what to do. Occasionally the 2 year old would fall asleep so I got a little nap too. We got to come home on Friday and it is so nice to be home! We did have alot of fun. Kevin became good buds with the kids because he is fun and would play with them and wrestle them. They probably didn't think I was very cool because all I was worried about was cooking for them, cleaning up after them and keeping my baby alive.

One thing Kevin really enjoyed was their ginormous bath tub in the master bedroom. I didn't get a picture of him in it, plus our blog is "G" rated. But I caught Zack in it.

You can hardly see his head over the top of the tub.

All in all it was a good experience for us. It really made us want to add children one at a time. Not 5! And slowly as well. It was an adjustment to all the sudden have 5 more schedules to juggle. It was also fun to live in a huge house for a few days. Kevin really enjoyed having big kids to play with and tease. I... enjoyed going to bed each night!

Our Valentines Day Bash!

Valentines Day Morning:

When we woke up Kevin handed me a piece of paper that had a clue on it. Looks like we were going on a treasure hunt for my special Valentine. The clue sent me down to the kitchen sink. There I found this microscopic piece of paper folded a million times that sent me somewhere else. A few clues later I found my gift under the bed. Kevin had bought me some shoes that We had already looked into buying but couldn't find the right size. I'd been to a few stores just the night before and still couldn't get the size. I was totally surprised by the shoes. He also got my a HUGE chocolate heart the night before.

His present wasn't ready yet so he didn't get his for a while.

Meanwhile.....

Here is Zack taking a nap. I always go in to check on him a few times and this time I thought he looked so cute with his little feet sticking out of the blanket.

While Zack was taking his nap I sent Kevin to run some errands for the party we were going to have that night. The night before Zack was playing on the kitchen floor and tipped over the garbage can. I mentioned to Kevin that there was this really cool garbage can cabinet that I wanted at Gardner Village. I told him maybe I would get it when we finished painting the kitchen and all our other construction was done. So when Kevin was bringing in the things I sent him out for in comes my garbage can cabinet! I was totally surprised! I can usually figure out what Kevin is going to get me based on the clues I give him throughout the year. But I didn't expect this at all, or the shoes for that matter. If you have a last minute husband it pays to mention things out of the blue and then send them on errands!!!

Note: I was disappointed that my shoes and trash can weren't stuffed with socks, fake money, and the phone for fillers. (that's what I found in my stocking at Christmas, he wanted it to took full.)

It's supposed to be a hamper but when I saw it a few months ago I thought it would be a really cute garbage can for my kitchen.

After that I gave Kevin his gift. Nothing great this year. I am always out-done by him no matter what. I got him a new body pillow because I stole his good one. He also got a gift card to PF Changs and by his request some chocolate lips. I got him the biggest one I could find. It was about 2 inches by 6 inches. The chocolate heart he gave me was about 25 times bigger. (I think he got me the heart so he could eat it!) I also made him a funny card and got him 2 snickers bars. His all time favorite. I don't think he got around to opening his present for a few days though. We had a really busy weekend and week!

Later in the evening before our guests arrived we had Zack open his present. We already gave him the batman ball that we got so we didn't wrap it. Here he is opening his Valentines lion that he really doesn't care about!

He was clearly more interested in the paper...

My 2 Valentines

For Valentines Day this year we decided it would be hard to find a babysitter and decided to stay home and have a quiet dinner. Boy were we wrong about the quiet part! We invited my brother Matt over and his "friend" Ana. With them came my older brothers kids: Anabella, Lily and Alex. We decorated the house and had the kids dress up for our fancy Valentines Day dinner. I wouldn't let the kids go in the kitchen because I didn't want them to see the decorations yet. I told them it was a surprise. Once we got in the kitchen Lily asked "Where's the surprise?" I told her it was the dinner and the decorations. She then asked "When can we see the gooder surprise?" I had to make something up. I told her that after dinner we were going to have a pink heart shaped cake. That seemed to satisfy her.

We actually got a good picture of all 4 kids, although it took a few tries.

For dinner I made Kevin's favorite food, spaghetti. It's his moms famous recipe. I got up early that morning and made the sauce so it could simmer all day. We also had sparkling cider, green beans and garlic bread. Zack even had Gerber spaghetti which he wouldn't eat because he was sick. At dinner I assigned everyone a date. Since we had 4 girls and 4 boys it was even. Kevin and Lily were a date, Matt and Anabella were a date, Ana and Alex and Zack and I. I did this so that I would get to eat my dinner. I told the adult of the pair that if their child date needed anything they would have to get it. My date, Zack, turned out to be a real challenge so I later traded Zack for Lily, soon after that Lily became really needy as well. Why me?

Here is everyone with their dates.

Matt and Bella

Krazy Kevin and Crazy Lil

Zack and I

(My date isn't getting a goodnight kiss!)

Alex and Ana
(I think she had eastiest date of all, even though he was messy)

After dinner I finished our heart cake that was now round. The frosting didn't work out. It wasn't a really good recipe. Because nothing worked out with the cake I let the kids decorate it with Valentines candy. They loved that part! I didn't get a picture of it for some reason. But it was beautiful! I had to practically bribe Matt and Ana to eat it. After cake Kevin got out the birthday party poppers that he bought. (He must have gotten confused about what we were celebrating.) Needless to say the confetti was a huge hit! Very messy and I am still finding it everywhere, but they loved it!

What a night! I was so exhausted I went to bed before everyone even left.

9 months old!

Yesterday my baby turned 9 months old. Kevin commented that it was like a milestone. He has been with us for longer than we were prego. I don't totally agree because being pregnant seemed like 10 years.

Here are some facts about Zack at 9 months:

1. He loves everyone who will pay attention to him.

2. He loves food, pretty much anything I put in his mouth. (Grapefruit, kiwi, BROWNIES, hot cocoa, cream of wheat, celery, vinegar, wait that's Alex) Except rice, rice frustrates him because it is too small to chew or gum so he spits it out.

3. He is obsessed with his face. He loves looking at pictures of himself and the mirror still makes him smile.

4. He likes touchy feely books. Even if it doesn't have things to feel on the pages he will point his finger out and try to feel the book anyway. He also loves his book with the doggy in it. I turn to that page and ask where the doggy is and he will point to it.

5. He is proud of himself for holding his bottle, even though he gets into trouble by tipping it upside down.

6. When he eats he is very entertaining. I call him my little baby "what about Bob". He scrunches up his face, purses his lips, squeezes his fingers together and says "mmmmmmmm". I've been trying to capture it on my camera but I've only got it on video. It is soooo funny.

7. Zack loves to pull off his socks and eat them.

8. Last night we discovered that he loves to play ball. We bought him a batman ball for valentines and it's big enough for him to hold and toss away, kind of.

9. He loves to watch Elmo but is afraid of Tellie.

10. He also loves his Baby McDonald movie.

11. I can usually stop him from whining if I sing Old McDonald to him.

12. David Archuletta can calm him down like nobodys business. I though it was a fluke but in the car, I just turn it on and silence! I tried it for naps and bedtime too. Works like a charm!

13. He is still working on getting his chubby tummy off the ground and crawling. All of his friends are crawling now. This week I have seen some improvement so maybe it will be soon.


14. He already is bigger at 9 months than Kevin was at a year. We have created a monster!

15. Zack weened himself of his binky about 3 weeks ago. He still finds it in his bed occasionally and will suck on it but not if we give it to him.

16. He loves to be outside. Even if it's sitting in the stoller while I shovel the driveway. He always tries to talk to anyone who walks by. He will yell out "Ah?".

17. Zack has 4 teeth. The top 2 came in last week.

18. Bathtime is a favorite around our house. It takes up some time and Zack loves to splash! Thank heaven for our little bath seat!

19. Zack loves it when Daddy comes home. He will hardly take his eyes off of him.

20. He is not a cuddler. If you get too close to Zack he will push your face away. His favorite person to do this to is his aunt Le'a. This is a real lovely picture of me, but you get the idea.

Gotta LOVE this baby!

Baby loves brownies!