S L O W L Y coming back to life

MAN! Having 2 kids has literally kicked my butt. I remember just after I lost my job in January thinking to myself "I need to have this baby,i'm bored out of my mind". Back then Zack was a very content child and didn't really care to have me around. Boy did I get it! Don't get me wrong, I really do have 2 very good kids. But even 2 good kids is a ton of work!

Ruby is a fantastic baby. Although Zack was sleeping through the night consistently at this age she will about half the time. She still sleeps most of the day and she eats like a cow. If I hadn't been given so much formula I would have had to rob a bank by now. Ruby is smiling quite a bit now and she even laughed at me the other day. She is such a sweet little girl and we love having her in our home!

Zack, Zack is a freakin psycho. Gosh I love him. But seriously, since Ruby was born he has the energy of 16 little boys. He constantly is wrestling with the dog, will not leave her alone! He is very sweet with Ruby always concerned with where she is and what she is doing. He has recently become a little food artist. Whatever he is eating usually ends up smeared all over his hands as well as the table. He used to be such a clean eater! Whenever he is in trouble he makes smart remarks like "this is fantastic" or "you're killin me". How can I be mad at that? He pushes my buttons but that sneaky smile always finds its way back into my heart!

Pictures of the last month. Enjoy!

Our cousin Ashley and Ruby Easter weekend.

These girls are 6 weeks apart. Ruby is now the same size.

No joke.

Easter Weekend

A few days ago

(Trying to catch a smile)

My babies

This is part of the reason I am going crazy. Kid #1 only takes naps 30% of the time now. The other 70% he spends doing this and then passes out 10 minutes before it's time to wake up.

And this sweet little thing is what keeps me from really going crazy.

"Mom, these are my dancing shoes."

Zack quotes from this week.

Not wanting to wear jammies on our walk last night. "I don't want to wear my jammies, it doesn't make sense"

Ruby was sleeping the other day, Zack asked "Is she having a baby train dream?"

(no Zack, only you dream in "train")

About nursery last week "Wendy wasn't there today," (sad sad voice) "because I missed her".

About our ride on the Frontrunner the other day "this train is fantastic!"

3 YEARS OLD

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FAVORITE LITTLE BIG BOY!

The festivities will go down like this:

Thursday: Ride the FRONTRUNNER to Ogden's train

museum and where ever else we feel like going.

I'm thinking for his birthday dinner I will make spaghetti.

It's one of the VERY few things he will eat.

Saturday: PARTY at the park with family.

When asked who he would like to come to his birthday party he said "You, me, Kevin, and Grandma and Grandpa, and NOT everyone else." Too bad buddy, I already invited everyone else.

I've been asking him for a while what kind of cake he wants for his birthday. His answer was "A RED CAKE". That's easy, but I really would like to do something a little more exciting. We'll see what I actually come up with.

Last night we were talking about Zack's happy birthday, he said to me "It's not a happy birthday, it's a sad birthday." I asked why, he replied "because i'm sad." He was s

ad because he didn't want to eat potato soup for dinner.

Which brings me to my next story...

Does anyone know how to successfully FORCE your child to eat??? I've tried everything. Including NOT forcing him. This child is SOOOOO picky and stubborn. The other night I asked him to at least try whatever it was we were eating. He put the spoon close to his lips, quivered a little and put the spoon back down, dramatically saying "I just can't". Most of the time I'm tired of battling this child and I make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (thank heaven who ever invented that!!!!). But sometimes I get brave and think maybe I can conquer his stubborn eating habits. Last night was one of those nights. We had potato cheese soup. He used to love it. (On second thought, he used to eat anything, ANYTHING.) I tried to talk him into

trying the soup by telling him he used to love it when he was a baby. He was interested in that fact but it didn't budge him. We tried bribing him with muffins, eat your soup and you can have a muffin. That didn't work either. So I came up with a game. Close your eyes and open your mouth. He didn't trust me so we tried it on Grandpa first. We might have tricked him just a little by giving my dad a bite of muffin instead of soup. Next grandpa got an apple. I moved on to Zack. First bite he trusted me, it was a muffin. Next bite was potato, it fell out of his mouth because he sensed it was foreign. We lost his trust with that one. By now i'm putting my hands over his eyes so he wont peek. We had to gain back his trust by giving him more muffin. Next bite, just soup, no potato. BIG MISTAKE! That delicious soup hit his tongue and you would have thought he just got a shot in his arm. BLOODY MURDER SCREAMING. Drool and soup pouring out of his mouth. 5 adults in the room laughing uncontrollably. We never got him to eat the soup. He didn't get his muffin. This morning he had a PB&J for breakfast. After he ate it he happily exclaimed "I can have my muffin now because I ate my sandwich!" Nope, not how it works. Nice try.

One more dinner story.

Me: Zack eat your black beans. Zack: I can't, i'm too busy.

Me thinking: Really? You're just sitting here in front of your dinner.

Our dog lives for fruits and vegetables. She will eat almost any of them. So naturally when we are making anything involving fruits and veggies she sits and begs for them. One night she was sitting next to me whining for something and I kept telling her no. Zack called over to her and said "Bernie, you had your food yesterday!"

This morning I told Zack he needed a haircut. His reply was "My hair is happy though. He will be sad if you cut him".

7 weeks old

ONE

TWO

THREE!!!

LOVE YOU CRAZY BOY!

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

I love these Mormon Messages and there are so many of them that have touched me on a very personal level. I want to start posting one every once in a while, perhaps every week. We all have struggles and if you are like me, you need daily boosts of hope, faith, and love.

Happy Easter, may you feel his love and grow closer to him this day.

Zack & Ruby

I had the kids pictures taken about a week ago. They turned out so great! I wish I could have purchased the whole cd so I could show you all of them. The girl that did them is amazing and we have had her do our pictures several times. Check out her website: www.photographybydmc.com

I think this one makes Ruby look chubby, I love it!

Wish I would have picked a more contrasting background though.

This is one of my favorites with the deep red blanket.

This pose was so difficult! Ruby was so relaxed that as soon as Mary was done "molding" her she would let go and Ruby would just fall over. It was so funny to watch. Mary said that most babies would have been so mad by the time we actually got the shot. I think this one probably took her 30 minutes or so to get just right.

I made her little red bracelet for this one, I wish I would have picked a

different background or something. Still love the picture though.

This one was really fun, I LOVE the background. I didn't get the full

body shot because Kevin didn't like that her little bum was showing.

On to this little stinker. Boy he was a peach! He didn't want to do anything

Mary asked him to do. He had his own idea of how he wanted the pictures to look I guess.

Again, wouldn't pose, just wanted to do his own thing.

I was almost in tears when we were doing shots of the 2 of them. Zack wanted

nothingto do with it. He didn't want to hold or touch Ruby.

You should see the shots I didn't buy! At one point he look at us and with

these sad puppy dog eyes mixed with this little celebrity attitude he said "i'm done".

Luckily we did get him to do this one though. I would have been so upset if we hadn't gotten at least one good one of them.

Last but not least, my adorable 3 year old. What a little stud!

Heaven Sent

INTRODUCING........

Ruby Kay West

Arriving Monday March 28, 2011

8:08 AM

Weighing in at 6 lbs 6 oz and 19 1/2 in long

And for those of you who like Labor stories.............

It all started about 9 months ago... JUST KIDDING!

My due date was April 14th. Although I had it in my head that she would be born in March, March 30th to be exact. Mainly because I don't like being pregnant and wanted to be done sooner, but also because we have a lot of April birthdays and not so many March birthdays. Zack was also 2 weeks early so I was convinced that she would be too. Deep down I was sure I couldn't be so lucky.

I had a doctors apt on the 23rd and my doctor told me to pack my bags but make an apt for the following week just in case. He really didn't think I would make it to the following week though. This got me excited and I quickly started to try and put myself into labor. You could have found me doing some of the following things last week: wii fit aerobics, wii fit hula hoop (not recommended, it hurt!), touring homes in Day Break, shopping, THOUGHT about cleaning the carpets again, and any other kind of house work I could think of. None of these things were working. Or so I thought.

Sunday night we went to bed. I woke up for my normal 1:45 bathroom break and in a lot of pain. I didn't think much of it because I had experienced these same labor pains before and nothing happened. At 3:00 I decided to start timing them. I found a really cool website that times contractions and does all the work for you. All I had to do was click to start and stop. Which was nice because I was laboring all by myself. Since Kevin gets up so early I didn't want to wake him unless this was the real thing. As I watched they were fairly consistent, weird I thought.... I wonder what this means. Ha ha. I wanted to believe it, but I didn't want to get my hopes up and I definitely didn't want to go to the hospital and get sent home!

The contractions were fairly painful but I was managing. They were about 2 minutes apart lasting usually 45 seconds. I couldn't remember if that was a good thing or not. I woke Kevin up at 4:00. He asked if he should hurry and go deliver his papers (he has a paper route). I laughed, no, I think we need to go to the hospital. He called the newspaper and they were a little upset that he didn't give them more notice. Geez Ruby, why couldn't you have called ahead to tell us you were coming?! Are you kidding me, more notice? I don't think this woman has ever had a baby. There isn't a more unpredictable thing on the planet! And the fact that this was my second means they come and go even faster!

So the plan was for us to go to the hospital and get checked out and then call my mom to tell her to come over. We checked in and found that I was dilated to 6 1/2. WOW! OK Rachel, don't move, or breathe... Kevin sent my brother to pick up his papers and he brought them to the hospital so Kevin could leave as soon as I was nice and cozy with my epidural and he would be back in an hour. I got the epidural and we awkwardly explained to the nurses that my husband had to leave to do his paper route and he would try to be back before the baby was born. It was all very comical.

Kevin returned as promised in an hour. Luckily I was still hanging out and Ruby had decided to hold on for a bit. They had just discovered I was at a 9 and hoped that the doctor would show up soon. The doctor showed up and my water broke. He told the nurse to do a practice push with me and 3 big pushes later we had a baby.

I was teasing the doctor because Zack was born on a Monday morning at 8:02 AM, it was 7:50 and I told him I wanted them to be born at the same time, fully knowing it would be a while. I didn't think it would be that easy and Ruby was born at 8:08 AM.

Ruby is a VERY good baby, just like Zack was. She eats and sleeps, hardly ever cries and if she does it wears her out and she falls asleep after only a few seconds. She looks alot like Zack did. (will post picts of the 2 of them as newborns later) Ruby also makes alot of the same facial expressions that he did. I've heard also that she looks alot like I did when I was born but all my baby pictures are in the storage unit so I haven't been able to compare yet.

We sure are loving having this little girl around!

Dear Zack

I had to do one last post about this cute little boy I have before our lives get flipped upside down by baby sister.

Zacky Boy, when I think of you these words come to mind: CRAZY ENERGY, laughter, curious, strong willed, silly, sweet, joy, imagination, smart and the list goes on. You have been such a blessing in my life. When things are hard all I need is your silly little smile or laugh and I know that everything has to be okay. You have been a trooper this past year as our lives are constantly changing, you just keep going without missing a beat. You are such a good boy, SERIOUSLY, mischievous maybe, but generally you don't get into too much trouble.

Zack you been very interested in drawing recently, you want to color more than play trains it seems like. Hard to believe I know! This last week as we were drawing you traced your hand and did a pretty dang good job at that! I had no idea you could do that. You amaze me every single day. You are even very interested in writing letters and can spell your name.

You have also become quite the little singer, always have been, but you have mastered quite a few songs and we can find you singing several times a day. Your favorite you learned from nursery, it's the speckled frogs song. You also enjoy the leap frog alphabet song, the cars theme song (which is hilarious to listen to as you really don't know the words) the "weensy weensy" spider, and many others that I can't think of right now. I have an awesome video of you singing the speckled frog song but I can't get it to download. Maybe coming soon.....

You still refer to yourself and others as trains. The other day after eating lunch you said to me "mommy, i'm a dirty train" held out your hands and said "my buffers are dirty!".

The other night Bernie was lying on one of your blankets that was on the floor. Being very protective of your blankets this was disturbing to you and you tried to pull her off. You kept saying "Bernie get your legs off, you have hair!". The funny thing is you don't mind at all rolling around on the floor with Bernie or lying on top of her.

You are quite the little character, living at Grandma and Grandpa's house is a blast for you! Although sometimes I wonder if you are a little confused by this living arrangement. You have been calling Grandma, MOM and Grandpa, DAD (sometimes Grandson) and recently you have insisted on calling YOUR Dad, Kevin. I am usually Mommy but sometimes Rachie. We sure get a kick out of you and never know what you are going to come up with next.

I love your imagination, you are always turning something into a train or a car. Whether it be the rocking chair, a family member or dog, often times your red shoes are called your tires and you race around the house, always winning the "Piston Cup".

You love going to nursery and love your nursery leaders. The other day we were driving home from church and you were telling us all about your brothers and sisters and naming the other kids in your class. I couldn't figure out why you were calling these kids your brothers and sisters. My mom happened to be in nursery that day and we figured out that they had sung "i love mommy she loves me"...... and that they had gone around the room and said "I love so and so" about each child. We are thinking that's where you picked up that they were your brothers and sisters.

The other day you and I were flipping through the new Friend magazine (thank you Grandma Rita!). I was telling you about each picture and we came across one of Ammon. I told you it was Ammon and you told me "he's dead". I told you he wasn't and that you didn't even know what "dead" means. You insisted that he was "dead". Then being the bright intelligent person that I am, I realized that YES, Ammon is dead. DUH.

I could go on and on. I can't believe that you are almost 3 years old. Where does the time go? It's funny to look at your baby pictures and think you used to be this tiny little thing that didn't say much. You are sure making up for that now! I love you so much baby boy! I can't begin to imagine what life is going to be like when we bring baby home. Sometimes it scares me, but I know she will be just as special to me as you are.

Spring is peeking at our house!

We had some really nice days last week! We found ourselves playing outside alot and taking a few long walks. We cannot wait for Spring to stop teasing us and be here for good!

The video is proof that we are getting a little stir crazy and bored. Spring or baby sister get here fast!

No animals were harmed in the filming of this movie. I'm pretty sure she thought it was her birthday. :)

Trip to the News

Today my mom took Zack and I to the Zoo. Zack kept forgetting that it was the Zoo and calling it the News for some reason. It was a little chilly in the morning but really not bad at all. Towards the afternoon is was really nice and we didn't even wear our jackets.

The highlights were the monkeys of course, the elephants were a little intimidating for Zack but he thought they were cool. He loved the snakes and turtles and the wildcats. He would get right up to the glass and talk to them like he does to our kitty.

I thought he would like the giraffe's more because he has always been interested in giraffe's but he didn't really care about them. The tigers were really cool. We got to see one of them bathing in the pool of water that they have for them. They were really neat to watch and fairly active.

We were disappointed that the Zebra's and bears and lions were gone. They are renovating that side of the zoo, but the exciting thing about that is we got to see 5 backhoe's and dump trucks and all sorts of other things. He was disappointed that we couldn't go ride one.

I bribed Zack all day yesterday with the promise that we could ride the train at the zoo and what do you know? The train was closed. He was disappointed but not like I thought he would be. You know this kid and trains.... He was excited to see the tracks and wanted to go play on them.

Zack is a funny kid, he doesn't get too excited about playgrounds. My mom took him up to the slide and after finally going down he decided it was a little fast for his taste. He wasn't interested in playing on any of the other things. He is funny though because he will usually go try things and then decide he isn't comfortable with them. The one thing he liked was a great big log that you can climb in. He didn't climb in it however, instead he sat in the entrance and pretended it was a train.

Go figure. We could hear him yelling but couldn't figure out what he was saying. I walked over and took some pictures as he sat there and yelled to the other kids "don't forget your tickets!" and "i'm the conductor!". Seriously my kid is the biggest train dork there is and I LOVE it!

This picture holds special meaning to me. This is in the monkey house near front of the zoo, you know where the lion drinking fountain is? When I was little my dad worked at the zoo and we used to have family parties in that building and could go into this part of the monkey house from the auditorium. All of us kids would swing and do flips on these very bars! I should find a picture. It was fun to see Zack enjoy something, and in the very spot, as I did when I was a kid.

The reason we went to the zoo was my mom wanted extra credit for one of her classes. This is the picture we took for "proof" that she went. Thanks for bringing us along mom!

My baby boy isn't going to be my baby for long!

Change is in the air

Can you believe this little boy is going to be a big brother in just a few weeks??? I've been watching Zack the last few weeks and marveling at how BIG my little boy is getting (he just informed me that MY Dad is HIS Grandson ha ha) and I can't believe how time flies!

As I sit here week after week, I have to admit I'm getting nervous to be a mommy of 2 and also to go through the whole delivery thing again. It's so freaking unpredictable! Can I go through all this again? Ha, the answer to that is YES. I would go through labor 75 times before doing 9 months again. I hate being pregnant! This go round has been 100% different, in good ways and bad ways. The beginning of Zack's pregnancy was awful because I was sick for 3 months and wanted to die. After that his wasn't too bad. (that I can remember) His delivery was pretty good too. This little girl has been different. I wasn't nearly as sick with her in the beginning but am finding that being pregnant and a mommy at the same time is difficult! I have so much more to do than last go round and this little person who needs my constant love and attention. Besides the fact that the last month I have been having migraines on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. The other thing about being pregnant for the second time is your body is a little bit different. I have already exceeded my delivery weight with Zack. Something every woman jumps for joy over discovering, and the best news of all is I have 5 weeks left! YES!

Zack is slowly grasping the concept of a sibling. Although it's still going to slap him in the face. He likes to talk to baby in my belly and sometimes is really sweet with her. He also gets excited when we talk about her coming because he knows that Grandma Rita is coming then too and we all know how much he loves his Grandma Rita! He also likes to look at her diapers. I got one out one day and showed him how tiny they are. He was relieved to know he wouldn't have to share his diapers with her. He got to meet a new cousin the other day and I was telling him that our baby is going to be just like that. He wasn't too interested. I hope he likes our baby a little better. I worry that he is going to totally freak out, he has been really testy lately and constantly wants me to hold him or carry him and has to follow me wherever I go. He'll get the hang of it though, I think he'll enjoy getting her toys and keeping her binky in. But I think the thing he will like most is picking her clothes out each day. He has enjoyed picking things out at the store when we go shopping for her. He will be a really sweet big brother, so long as she doesn't mess up his trains!

Just a little something I whipped up

I made this a week or so ago for my nephew Luke. The pictures don't do it justice. I loved how it turned out and then I washed it and saw how perfectly frayed it was and I fell even harder! I had to hurry and give it to him before I kept it for myself. Zack was so upset that I gave it to Luke before he had a chance to see it. He had a special interest in this blanket because it's like one that I did for him a few years ago.

Word of the Day BOASTED

There is this little boy that lives in my house. He is quite a character. He loves trains and plays with his train set on a daily basis. Most days that is all he will play with. (BEST INVESTMENT EVER!) He also enjoys watching the Thomas the Train episodes. Recently he has been watching them and the reenacting them with his train set. The first time I heard him doing this was the other day. It went something like this (screaming) "Thomas! Out of the way!" followed by a calm "Gordan said." If you could only hear it! If you've seen the episodes you will recognize the lingo. At the moment Victor is wheeshing and the caboose just boasted. This morning I was putting his track together, my most important task of the day. Zack was already putting his trains to work when I heard him say "Thomas is driving up the hill, he boasted". I died laughing. Have you ever heard an almost 3 year old use the word BOASTED? This afternoon we were eating a snack and he told me that he had just boasted. What a little character! I've been trying to get his narrations on video but i'm always too late. I'll keep trying.