It's a MIRACLE!!!

And no, it's not the one I was talking about a few posts ago.

This MIRACLE has been a long time coming.... A REALLY LONG TIME!!!!!!

Which of these 2 children doesn't wear diapers anymore?

If you guessed the girl you are wrong!

IF YOU GUESSED THIS GUY YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! (I wouldn't have guessed him if I were you)

And I owe it all to Shake n' go Mater! 
I first introduced the potty to Zack about a year and a half ago. Yes, i'm crazy, he was 18 months old. His cousin who is 2 years older was over, Zack loved watching him go potty and seemed really interested. Mistake #1, I had no idea what I was doing. 
So here we are 432 or so days later. (So much for the 3 day method)

To be completely honest though, it only took one day. He decided he was ready on Saturday and we have only had 1 accident since then.

Shake n' go Mater was the prize for going potty. If he used the potty he got Mater, if he had an accident Mater went back on the shelf until Zack used the potty again. I tried bribery before and it never worked. I think Mater worked because he is something Zack had wanted since he fell in love with the Cars movie.  

I am so proud of this little man!Or as he would say it, "i'm the biggest ever!"

Brother & Sister

Zack is such a good big brother! I think it is amazing how a teeny little 2 month old baby can recognize her big brother and immediately be calmed because he is paying attention to her.  This morning Ruby was in the swing crying. Zack came from his bed and told me he was taking Zhu Zhu (one of his pets) to tell Ruby it was okay. I followed him into the family room and watched as he talked to her and told her she didn't need to cry. He adjusted the swing speed, at her request of course, and even put on some music for her. Then he noticed that one of her socks was missing and started looking for it. He found it and tried to put it on her. Then he told her if the swing went faster she would get bigger. (I didn't know that!) He also brought her some toys. He is now playing with his trains and she has fallen asleep, but he keeps getting up and going to check on her. Oh how I love this boy and his little sister! I'm sure this little man wont always be so loving and kind to his little sister, which is why I am blogging this moment and  can have proof that he does love her.

 Heck, anyone who has a little sister knows there is an amazing sense of accomplishment that comes from being able to torment and irritate even the cutest, nicest sister, especially if her name is Emily. I will shamelessly admit that I probably tease my sister more as an adult than I ever did growing up. You know I love you EM!

Rubylicious

These are all pictures taken with my phone. 

I swear my phone camera is better than my actual camera sometimes! 

The first few were taken just yesterday. Ruby is now 8 weeks old!

And a little Zackalicious... 

This is from Christmas, we went to Tepanyaki  for dinner and he didn't like anything they had to eat so he just played with his chop sticks. He put them in his mouth and said "mom, i'm an octopus." I think he meant walrus though. 

 Ruby, probably 2 or 3 weeks old. 

About a month old

This one is a total KEVIN face. I think I have a similar one of Kevin at this age with the same face. 

These last 2 were taken a few days ago. 

Some Random Thoughts

First of all,

I was watching Oprah yesterday, I like Oprah don't get me wrong, but after watching a few minutes of her final episode it left me wondering....

"HOLY MOLY, What will her funeral be like??!!"

Secondly,

Have you ever been frustrated with your child for doing something that you taught them? Not even accidentally taught, something you purposely taught them?

Zack has always been a pretty good cleaner-upper and maybe a little too good sometimes. He will usually use the excuse that he has to clean up in order to stall going to bed. I've also taught him to gently put things away rather than throw them.

So last night we were putting cars away, I was in a hurry because I needed to get him ready for bed. He was going REALLY slow. I kept telling him to hurry up and help me. Then comes my "duh mom" moment. Zack tells me "i'm cleaning them up softly". How can I argue with that? After all, I'm the one that encourages him to put things away softly so they don't get broken.

Also,

Mr. Camping, you have big ears. My dad tells me his relatives always had big ears. I wonder if we are related. We could be related because i'm not good at math either. 5 months though? REALLY?

Next on the agenda....

LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRL!

(Notice she doesn't have big ears. Or does she???)

And,

I saw THIS story on the Today Show this morning

and it touched me.

(I also cant figure out how to link you to it.... I'll work on it and be back later.)
Did it work?

In the mean time,

I want to be that kind of person.

And,

I love THE BIGGEST LOSER and I can't wait to watch the finale tonight!

A few pictures of my babies....

Ruby and cousin Hayden, he is 1 month older than Ruby.

There was a picture here that I just realized I had already posted a few weeks ago.

Just to give you a taste of my insanity...

Last night Kevin and Zack were coloring, they were coloring a vacuum to be exact. I was holding Ruby and needed to get her to sleep and I needed a blanket. So I asked Kevin to get me a blanket, but instead of a blanket I asked for a vacuum...??? When I realized what i'd said I couldn't even think of what I was really trying to ask! Needless to say he brought me a toy vacuum and then brought me a blanket.

And last but not least.

I. AM. SO. BLESSED. and I believe in Miracles.

Details of our latest miracle coming soon...

Have a wonderful day!

Dear #1

Dear Zack,

If you would like to continue having a place to sleep and stash your trains...

You better not TOUCH Grandma's tulips, ever again!

The last person/dog to mess with Grandma's tulips spent a

whole day (or maybe more) in the kennel.

Just a suggestion.

Love, Mom

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!