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.

Christmas 2010

I guess I should stop bugging other people about updating their blogs and work on my own. We just don't have too much excitement around here right now!

Christmas......... was AWESOME!

This year was a little different for us this year. Living with my parents and not having as much as we are used to to spend on gifts, I was really worried about how our Christmas would end up.

Turns out you don't need $ and having my family around made it so much more exciting!

I really tried to remember the meaning of Christmas this year and focus on the season rather than shopping and stress.

TIP #1 for achieving this......... amazon.com

I made a list of things we wanted to get for Zack based on our budget, and found them all for free shipping and cheaper prices on amazon and never once went into a store. I don't think.....

TIP #2 I purchased a book from Deseret Book called "A Christ Centered Christmas". I instantly loved this book for this reason, The author tells this story of her 3 year old: "We were driving around near Christmas time listening to Christmas music on the radio. My 3 year old said to me "mom, you believe in Jesus Christ and I believe in Santa." The author then tells how that comment made her realize that we spend way too much time focusing Santa Clause and forget to teach our children about Jesus Christ. That had real meaning to me seeing as my child wanted nothing to do with Santa and it was all I could to to get him to acknowledge his presence in the holiday.I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing, but it really made me think more about the true meaning of Christmas and so what if my 2 year old doesn't believe in Santa. That would actually save him some heartache later on! Next year we will begin the traditions suggested in this book head on and hopefully it will continue for years to come. I highly recommend this book!

TIP #3 We pretty much only bought gifts for our parents besides Zack. Might sound a little like i'm not a giving person, but I didn't have the time or money to do a whole lot so we just didn't.

TIP #4 I don't know how anyone else handles gifts between spouses, but we have always set a budget and usually gone over board, as well as buying things for ourselves. This year we set a very strict $50 budget and that was that. I was amazed at my husband and his creativity to make me something. I wish I had the energy to do the same! I think we will stick with the $50 budget from now on, it encourages us to be creative in our giving and holy cow is it less stressful! Even better neither of us got silly things that we didn't need. The gifts we did get were more meaningful.

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures this year, mostly video. I should have seeing as i've lost our entire batch of Christmas pictures from last year! What do you do? At least I put some of them on the blog.

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!