Things To Remember About Christmas 2010

*This year has been tough for us, but we made it through! I think because of the year that we have had it made Christmas this year all the sweeter. Here are some things I would like to remember about this Christmas Season: A few weeks before Christmas we decided at the last minute to take trax downtown to see the lights on Temple Square. It was a busy night, but warm. We made it downtown around 7 pm but hadn't had dinner yet. Being a weekend and near Christmas every restaurant was packed and the food court at the Gateway was a nightmare. We settled on Applebee's but ended up waiting there for about 30 minutes. After eating and catching the train again to Temple Square it was around 8:40. We took a really quick walk around temple square and headed back to trax, standing up all the way back to our stop in Sandy. Zack loved riding the train. He named the first one Spencer and the second one we rode was called Coco.

*Zack and I were sick for a few days a few weeks ago and I was able to work from home so we got to spend some extra time together. He is always overjoyed when he gets to stay home as am I. I really took for granted the nearly 2 years I was able to stay home and be with Zack everyday. Working full time has definitely made me appreciate being with him and savor every moment. One of my favorite days was probably when we made monster trucks out of his Lego's. As the day went on his monster trucks kept getting taller and taller. It was so fun to watch him build them and play with them.

*I wont forget the day I locked my only set of keys in the car in the driveway of our babysitter. They were so kind to call their insurance co who came out and unlocked it for me. That same night Kevin was driving home and blew a tire. His tires were only 2 weeks old. My dad was not far away and met Kevin to help him change it. Our friend whom we got the tires from ended up replacing it at no cost. That evening we were talking about our day and kind of feeling picked on, when we looked at Kevin's alarm clock and it starting showing all sorts of weird numbers and times. We started laughing because it seemed that day everything we looked at went wrong. We couldn't get through this life without HUMOR!

*Since Kevin has a newspaper route we sent out Christmas cards with one of the Sunday papers. My aunt and Grandma came and helped us put 360 of them together. We have received several of them back with money in them. (that was kind of the plan) But we have been so surprised by how generous people have been! It's been fun to watch for the mail everyday to see if we get any back. On Christmas morning Kevin placed newpapers on the porch of anyone who had sent him a tip. I hope they realized that and knew that we are grateful to them.

*We were able to go with some of our family to the Tabernacle Choir and David Archuletta Christmas program. We had heard horor stories by all who had tickets that they didn't get in, or they were sent to the tabernacle, so we went extra extra early and got fairly good seats. The program was a bit broken up but wonderful all the same. President Monson was attending that morning and I remember the spirit being so strong as he walked in and the whole conference center stood up. Since it was their final performance we got to hear from David Archuletta, President Monson and others. It ended up being a really great experience and we are so glad that we got to go.

*Christmas morning I couldn't get Zack to go in to see the tree and see what Santa had brought us. I think he thought Santa would be in there, and you know what he thinks about Santa. I finally got him to go check things out and when asked where all these presents came from he told me "Bernie did it" (my moms dog). I then asked HOW she did it and he said "with her mouth". This child tried to come up with every possible excuse that it's not Santa that brings presents. The following day at church several people asked if Santa had come to our house and he told them no. He is such a funny boy.

*One present he opened was a plain gray box. When he got the wrapping off my brother Matt exclaimed "it's a box!" Zack replied "yeah, a box for my trucks". He then opened the box, emptied the contents (a shirt and some pants) threw them over his shoulder and started talking about how cool the box was. Oh how I wish I had that moment on video!

*On Christmas Eve I sent Kevin out to return some things at JC Penny and use a coupon I had that was expiring to get me a diaper bag for the baby that I wanted. I felt a little bad sending him out on Christmas Eve to get something so silly but with the coupon I would save $4 and the bag happened to be on sale as well. I texted him while he was out and he told me they didn't have the bag and that the return line was horrible. I felt so guilty. When he returned he handed me a gift card with the money from the returned items on it. However, Christmas morning all wrapped up under the tree was that bag I had so guiltily sent him out for! Sneaky guy, he just told me they didn't have it and he took an empty gift card to make me believe his story. I should have known!

*For months Kevin has been sneaking around working on some sort of project for me but I didn't know what. One Saturday he claimed he needed to got to Ogden to look at somebody's snowmelt. He said he wouldn't be very long, and I knew right then and there he was lying to me. Hello, a quick trip to Ogden?? I was sure he was lying when I called wanting to do something that night and all the sudden he could be home an hour earlier than planned. But I kept my lips zipped and let him dance around all suspicious like. Christmas morning he surprised me with a video of music and pictures of us and Zack that his sister had helped him make. I bawled like a baby. It was so fun to watch and see how we have changed since we started dating.

*Zack's cousins gave him a foam sword for Christmas. When he pulled it out from under the tree he said "Look, it's my fire hose!" and that's what it has been ever since. He has been spraying us with his fire hose for days and I am perfectly fine with him thinking that is what it is!

* We do a nativity with Kevin's family every year and dress up the kids and have them act it out. This year Kevin was the narrator and he decided to try and do it in the voice of Michael York, the narrator at the David Archuletta and Tabernacle choir program. We could hardly keep a straight face listening to him.

*Last Sunday in church Zack kept pushing the chair next to me into the people behind us. I nicely whispered "please don't push the chair" and he replied in a very loud voice "Mommy don't yell at me!"

*I made a gingerbread train for Zack out of graham crackers and when I was finished he told me it was "wonderful".

*Christmas evening we went out to Tepanyaki for dinner. They don't make anything that Zack likes so he just sipped his sprite and played around. I got out my chopsticks and taught him how to drum with them. Before I knew it he had one chopstick hanging out of each side of his mouth and he said "I'm an octopus", pretty sure he meant walrus, but it was still cute!

Best of all we were able to spend lots of time with our families!!!

Our Non-Believer

The warning signs were there early on but went unnoticed. Until this year.

This year they are undeniable.

This is last years picture with Santa. You can tell he is suspicious.

"Who does this guy think he is? I know all about YOU, Santa Clause."

At our ward Christmas party a few weeks ago he refused to sit on Santa's lap. His exact words were "I don't like that guy". So he doesn't want to sit on his lap... no cause for concern.

The confusion started with Grandma Rita, Kevin's mom. Every year Kevin's parents travel here from CO for Christmas. In a conversation between Zack and Grandma on the phone Zack was told that Grandma was coming for Christmas. (This boy is a sucker for Grandma's)

Ever since then when asked if Santa was coming to his house on Christmas his sharp reply is "NO! Grandma Rita is!" I can think of numerous conversations had between myself, Kevin, my sister and even the girl cutting his hair the other day.

Several times he has asked for a certain toy and we tell him "If you are good maybe Santa will bring it." On Tuesday night he told me he wanted the useful engine shed for his Thomas trains.

I told him maybe if he is a really nice boy that Santa would bring it for him for Christmas. His reply once again was "NO! Grandma Rita will!" I told him he'd better call her and let her know. LOL

Seriously, I cannot convince him that Santa is coming on Christmas to bring presents.

SO, I guess we are off the hook! SWEET!

(Grandma Rita, I will be e-mailing you that Christmas list soon. ha ha)

Just remember, YOU CAN HAVE ANYTHING IN THE WORLD IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT GRANDMA!

This little boy has so much energy lately! He has always been a fairly mild child and hadn't ever really gotten into much mischief but holy cow, it's like I have a different child now!

SOME FUNNY THINGS ABOUT ZACK LATELY.......

*Last week he renamed himself Thomas the Train, I became Percy the train (and he uses the whole entire name) and he named my moms dog Spencer, who is also a Thomas train. Every time he calls her Spencer I just crack up, Spencer is a funny name for a dog.

*Today we were at the mall and the store we were in had red carpet. As soon as he saw it he

dropped to the ground and started feeling it and saying "this is a nice red rug. I love this red

rug". He crawled around on that red carpet the entire time we were in the store.

*The other morning while I was getting ready for work he was banging on the door and came in with a hammer he had built with lego's. I asked what he was doing and he said that he was building and had built me a temple. Sure enough he had!

*A few weeks ago he started calling my parents Mom and Dad. At first I told him I am MOM and he said "no you're mommy". Enough said, it makes sense because after all that is what we call them. For a while he did it to be funny but the humor has worn off and he doesn't do it as much now.

*I was putting something away in his room the other day and he asked him what I was doing. I told him I was putting things away and he said "Interesting". I've heard him use that word a few times but never in the right context!

*When he is not torturing his best friend Bernie (my moms dog) he is in his room playing cars or trains.

*He has recently discovered the sugar, flour, oil and things stored in the pantry and has taken it upon himself to relocate them to the table or even the living room on occasion so he can line up all his cars on the pantry shelf.

*He has always been too afraid to get out of his bed since we put him in a big bed. (It is about 2 feet from the floor) He finally got the guts the other day to climb over the rail and out of bed. But still in the mornings he still would just play until I came to get him out of bed. This morning I was hoping to sleep in a little since I didn't go to work and I woke up to the sound of little size 8 feet running around upstairs chasing the dog already. It's a good thin

g I heard him because no one else was home.

We love having this crazy energetic boy in our family!

Halloween

Zack is not a fan of costumes, it was battle last year and I knew it would be this year. So when deciding what he should be I figured it would be easier to get him to wear something he thought was ridiculous if it was something that he really liked. So with that said, I decided on

MICKEY MOUSE. A good friend of ours made Zack a new Mickey hat (we lost his o

ur last day in Disneyland earlier this year) so I decided it wouldn't be too hard to make the rest of the costume. I bought a black turtle neck, black tights (yes my son wears tights), I made red shorts and my mom made the more complicated things like his white gloves and big yellow shoes.

Zack and his cousin Miles,thank heaven Miles had his nose painted or we would have never convinced Zack to have his done!

Getting ready to go out in the cold and rain! (He has 3 pair of pajamas on under his costume.)

The group of wild Animals we went with.

We didn't last too long in the cold, but Zack didn't care. Here he is back at home checking out his loot. I think he is a fan of Halloween now that he knows why we dress him in ridiculous outfits.

Checking out the loot again........

And what boy wouldn't share with is best friend?!

Bernie realized she was not going to be eating any candy and went to lay down, but Zack was still interested in showing her every single piece.

Even down to the very last large Hershey's bar. (Did you make it to Diane's house? We did several times!)

This was taken on actual Halloween, you can see faint chocolate milk mustache.

Some characters found around our house on Halloween.

(Kevin's lovely wig found in my brothers gutter, sure hope the kid that lost it didn't have lice!

)

And who could forget good old "Evil Lips"?

Finally, carving pumpkins! (See pictures of our pumpkins at the top of the post. I could not get the picture to move down, stupid Blogger!)

BIG NEWS

DOESN'T HE LOOK THRILLED?

We are having a baby. It still doesn't seem real. We are so excited though! I don't think Zack quite understands the concept yet but I think he will be a great big brother. This time around has been 100% better than with Zack. I was really sick with Zack for about 3 months, this time I really have only felt bad in the evenings, which has been a huge blessing because I am working full time and have a 2 YEAR OLD to deal with this go round. I am due April 18th and we will find out the sex of the baby in 3 weeks.

According to Zack

This morning about his shoes: Mommy, just socks! I don't want to wear shoes, I'm too strong!

About his shirt that is a tad too big: Mommy, i'm too big for this shirt.

Concerning the cat pushing his door open this morning: Me: Did the kitty wake you up?

Zack: Yeah the kitty waked me up AGAIN! Me: That is a crazy cat. Zack: No the kitty isn't crazy, she's funny.

Yesterday morning: My mom was trying to tell Zack goodbye for the day, sometimes he is very loving but most of the time he might as well be spitting and scratching you when it comes to affection. He was growling and whining at Grandma, not a very happy camper. We drive the 3 streets to his babysitter. He runs into the house and exclaims "Hey guys! Look at my Niners shirt! Hey look at my niners shirt!" No one cares. Can you say Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

An ordinary morning, not wanting to go to daycare: "No mommy, don't go to work, you don't have to."

Last night at dinner: Zack threw his fork on the ground for the dog to fetch. I told him not to throw things. Seconds later GRANDPA throws a wad of tin foil at him. Zack says: "Grandpa, we don't throw things." Seconds later Zack throws a grape across the table.

About the present left on the porch from the potty king (potty training failure blog to come):

Zack: It's a present! Me: Who do you think it's for? Zack: Anabella!

My mom said, at least he is thinking of others! Anabella is his cousin who's birthday we celebrated the next day.

Me hitting the brakes a little hard in the neighborhood this morning: Zack: oopsie daisy

It's about time...

for some SUMMER!