Zack Says

Another old post... written in November 2011

Yesterday Zack and I were talking about Santa's beard. He asked where his beard was. I told him he didn't have a beard, thinking maybe he was referring to the fact that Daddy has whiskers and he doesn't. He then said to me "no, that beard that we made at the other church." I was shocked, and this is why: 2 years ago, TWO, on Thanksgiving we made Santa beards out of paper and cotton balls, and my almost 4 year old can remember that!

 Tonight we were saying prayers. Before prayers I usually suggest some things that he should thank or ask for in his prayer. His first prayer, or the "opening prayer" as he called it he just asked that he could eat his dinner so he can ride the train at the mall. Thoughtful kid eh? I kind of got after him for not giving a more meaningful prayer and we talked again about what he might say. I suggested family members etc. When he gave his "closing prayer" he said "thank you that mommy doesn't have to go to work anymore and can stay home with me forever". I haven't worked since January so I thought it was a little weird that he would bring that up.

Zack asks questions all day long, ALL DAY. I wish I had a recorder to follow us around all day and count just how many questions he asks. Tonight they consisted of, where did the snow go? Why did it melt? How does the sun melt it? Why is the sun hot?  in another conversation he asked, where is our old house? who lives in our old house? who lived in our new house before we lived here?

Ruby's Tricks: 6 & 7 months

I just found this, it's 5 months late...

Our little Miss Ruby is growing up so fast and is quickly learning how to gain independence!

She has been rolling for a while but last week she rolled under the rocking chair and got to the wall and was playing in the electrical outlet, she has even started scooting herself backwards and is working on getting up on her knees. Zack crawled at 11 months, i'm pretty sure she will be crawling long before that!

Ruby has been perfecting her voice, she communicates through growl, high pitched scream, whine, or on Sunday she started saying "mama" and I think she is trying to say "no no" too.

Kevin also taught her to shake her head "no" which she loves to do when she's eating.... makes for a huge mess! And I swear she knows what it means, she always does it when it seems she doesn't want something.

Ruby had her first ear infection, which isn't something to brag about but Zack has never had one so it was a new thing for us! Whats really sad is that I thought she was teething, she had been really cranky one day so we gave her pain reliever, numbed the gums and sent her to bed. She got up every hour that night and would only sleep if I was holding her. The next morning I was running errands while Zack was at school. My mom called me (remember we live with my parents) and the first thing she said was "Ruby has an ear infection". My first thought was "oh yeah?" but I said "oh, did she keep you up all night?". She told me to take her in to the Dr so I did. Sure enough that's what it was! Now i'm a little paranoid about them.

She also got her first tooth. My mom and I were talking about how she's been teething for months and nothing has ever come of it. My mom then reaches in her mouth and sayd "she has a tooth!" I think we were so involved with her being sick with a cold and her ear infection we didn't even notice it!

Playing catch up

I'm so behind and it's only going to get worse ...

In January we got together with some friends and made these adorable jet packs that we saw on pintrest. 

BLAST OFF!

Funny story, while we were in the garage spray painting one of the kids locked us out. After a good 10 or 20 minutes of screaming and pounding on the door the boys finally heard us and Zack managed to unlock the door and let us back in. 

Princess already enjoying her kitchen. I knew this would be a good buy! Got it at a garage sale about a year ago for 20 bucks!!!

One of Ruby's favorite things to do it dump the bucket of play food and chew on it. 

Zack studying his pictures of cars from the car show. 

PIGGY TAILS!

VALENTINES DAY!

The week of Valentines both Zack and Ruby had the flu.

 Grandma Rita always sends cards in the mail on holidays. 

 The awesome dollar folded into a heart made him perk up a little. 

Ruby was more excited about her card than she let on... she wouldn't let me take it away. 

 Appreciating the door decor

Cute heart tights that someone gave us.

Got one good smile out of Zack! 

I made a treasure hunt for Zack to find his valentine 

but he didn't feel up to it until later that night. 

The note on the door gives him the first clue. 

Finally enjoying his puzzle and batman cars. 

Ruby enjoying a Valentines Day bath. 

Wish I had one of those!

I made this amazing cake found on pintrest. 

It looked fantastic! It tasted like an omelet. The recipe is Martha Stewarts, 

not sure if I will trust her again. It had 9 ex-large eggs, 

i'm thinking that's possibly where the egg flavor came from. 

Just a guess though.

In the background you can see flowers for me and my mom. 

We have some incredible guys in our lives!

Funny story about my flowers, they came a few days before Valentine's, 

Kevin likes to do that so I will be surprised. Kevin was home sick that day and I was 

down stairs changing a diaper (cuz I do that about 16 times a day) The door bell rang, I wasn't going to run to it, my bro has ups deliver a package nearly every single day. Kevin yells from the bedroom "You'll want to answer that." I yell back "changing a diaper!" he yells back, "just go answer it!" And me, not liking to be told what to do, finish the diaper, i'm sure it was a nasty one, and went up to answer the freaking door. To my surprise there was this guy walking some flowers across the street. He heard me and came back. I had a naked baby (with a clean diaper) in my arms so he brought them in for me. 

Poor Zack missed his valentines day party at school because he was sick. 

He was so excited though that his class had made up a valentine bag for him. 

These are his Valentines that I spent so much time making. (not really)

At least his teacher was willing to pass his out for him.

This Boy

Have you ever seen or heard of Sid the Science Kid?

If you haven't had the pleasure, it's a cartoon on KBYU, 

Sid is a curious kid, he asks questions all day long, 

he is very smart and just trying to figure the world out.

I have a Sid at my house, only he is in human form, and I can't turn him off 

with a remote control. He follows me wherever I go, wondering about every single little thing. 

My day is a never ending interrogation. 

My only relief is when he is at school or eating pizza or sleeping.

I tell myself all day long "don't crush his spirit."

But it's so hard, a simple question of "what kind of jelly do you want"

turns into a drawn out argument about what happened to the pineapple

 jelly that he didn't even like and why did Grandma give it away 

and does that person even like it? 

and what if they throw it away? 

is there fire at the dump?

 on and on and on.......

Twenty minutes later I am still trying to get him to pick a flavor of jelly.

This boy is amazing, he is so smart, he is sooo funny, 

and his imagination is....... well, he takes after his dad. Which is a compliment.

Kevin's sister tells me stories of him when he was little and the funny little things he would do. 

They are alike in so many ways. And I am A-O-K with that. 

Fact is he is just curious.

Someday I will be begging him to talk to me. 

So for now I need to chill out, 

listen, and continue making up answers for his questions. 

Fearless

(I thought this post was more important and/or interesting than my

 daughters 1st birthday post)

As you know I have this little girl, she is cute, like really cute. She is also sassy, 

and she poops a ton. 

And eats like a full grown man. She thinks she is hot stuff. 

She can't walk yet. 

But you want to know what she can do? 

Or rather, what she thinks she can do?

Just a little info, she is standing at the top of our stairs.

Watch this video....

Yep, that's right, she thinks she can walk down the stairs. 

If she is standing on the other side she grabs the railing and will catch herself. Luckily I was sitting there videoing her and caught her. 

This is the other way she likes to go down the stairs

WHY NOT HEAD FIRST?

OR MAYBE SIDEWAYS?

NAH, I'LL JUST WALK DOWN,

 LIKE EVERYONE ELSE

I'm pretty hard core 

Facts about Ruby's experience with stairs, 

She rarely climbs up them, and once she climbed up 4 stairs, 

and climbed back down on her own. I guess it's possible that 

she gets up in the middle of the night and practices. 

Last night I had a dream that she got out of her bed and climbed into Zack's dresser,

the middle drawer to be exact, and was throwing all his clothes out. 

I wasn't even surprised. 

And when I woke up this morning 

I was trying to figure out if it had really happened. 

Good think I am freaking cute. 

Pray for my mom, she doesn't even know what's coming. 

We are 49ers

Some of us..... and it's not just ME. 

According to Zack, Ruby told him she likes the cowboys just like me.
Bah ha ha ha ha ha! 

Seriously though, I don't really care about any of them.

But I still like to support my faithful husband who adores the 

I first learned of Kevin's true love on our 2nd date, it was on this date that he asked me to come to Denver with him about a month from then to go to the 49ers vs Broncos game. This ended up being about our 7th date and also the weekend we discussed getting married and purchased an engagement ring. 

A few years ago he had a car in which he placed an ENORMOUS vinyl stating his love affair with the 49ers, covering the entire back window of his car. People would drive by our house and slow down to look at the ENORMOUS sticker. We were kind of a landmark. Neighbors would give directions and say "drive past the house with the ENORMOUS 49ers sticker on the car." My cousin once borrowed that car and was kind of harassed because of it. Kevin also received his share of scrutiny from cops, cowboys fans that will not be named, etc etc. 

See April Fools! post . 

I'll admit, I've given him a lot, ok, A TON of crap over the years. The 49ers have had some rough seasons in the past. I've tried however, to be mindful of his faithfulness and show him by buying our children ridiculously ugly things like this.... 

Which reminds me, I need to find that so Ruby can wear it in a year. 

This year the 49ers did really well, I can't tell you stats or anything, but from what I hear, they were impressive. They were one of the final 4 teams to play in the super bowl. Before their final game, in which they lost :( I wanted to make something special for the kids to wear during the game. NFL gear is CRAZY expensive and now I have 2 kids to outfit so I decided to make them some shirts. 

They actually turned out way cooler than I thought they would. Kevin thought I bought them!

Zack is so proud of his shirt and wears it every time it is clean.

You can tell that Ruby isn't really a fan, I really do think she prefers the Cowboys. 

And I really do think that i'll be sleeping on the couch tonight for that comment.... 

Ice Skating... is not a sport we are going to pursue!

Sunbeams

Miss Bed Head

This is what we get to wake up to! 

(The only thing you are missing is the screaming)

The Auto Show (Zack's Heaven)

I am so behind... 

Back in January Kevin's little brother Jeff came to visit us. I saw a groupon for the car show so I got tickets for the boys to go. Jeffrey and Zack both have a passion for cars. Mustangs in particular. 

Look how cute these two are!!!

They had an area with power wheels for the kids. 

Kevin said for most of the kids it was like bumper cars,

 but Zack actually did really well. 

Mini Van MADNESS! (Don't knock it till you try it!) 

 We cannot wait to get one... 

This boy knows his way around a car.

Of course Mater was there! 

And last but not least. The Ferrari, sadly roped off. We saw a Lamborghini in a parking lot the other day. Zack wasn't very excited about it. I wish I could show the picture I took on my phone of his very un-excited face. He said he doesn't like Lamborghini's, he only liked Mustangs and Ferrari's. On the way home we passed a Ferrari dealership and he said we should go buy one. I told him we would have to sell both grandma's houses and his uncle Adam's house in order to buy one and then asked if he thought that was a good idea. He told me it wasn't and that we should just sell all the bad guys houses instead. That would be a good idea wouldn't it?! 

Crib Bedding a few months late....

I started this project in December of 2010. After I had found out I was having a GIRL. 

I really started this project when Ruby was about 5 months old maybe.... 

I made the bumper pads in about 2 days. Totally beat myself up about that.Really? Why did I think it was going to be so complicated?!

My goal with this project was to make her bedding girly, and NOT baby. This way she (or I, like she cares) can enjoy it for a few years. And how could I not incorporate red into it? 

One of my young women asks me all the time what Ruby's name it. The other day I finally said, just look at what she's wearing, it's almost always RED. Well, not always. But of her 5 pairs of shoes, 4 of them are red. Totally not my fault! 

Enjoy.

Dust ruffle, this is the second idea, bought new fabric and 

used the red which was supposed to be on the bumper pads.

I didn't even end up using the original fabric I bought for the ruffle. I'll probably use it for another sheet.

Whole ensemble. I don't love the green on green. Bought the polka dot fabric for something else, can't even remember, used it for the sheet because I had it. 

The QUILT, the thing that brings this mess all together. The squares and circles are printed on the fabric. My grandma and I hand quilted it to look like it was pieced. I wish I had a better camera so you could see just how good it looks. The binding was also changed, I didn't use the original fabric I bought. I wanted so badly to do scalloped edges and put a great big stip of red around the entire quilt. Pretty sure if I had done that this quilt would have never been finished!

Whole ensemble minus weird green sheet. I put one side of the bumper pads in because Ruby was smashing them all up to see outside the crib. I really liked the 2 fabrics next to each other, wish I would have made it that way. 

 Bumper pads, again, moved to Ruby wouldn't smash them. The original idea was to put  a red fabric on the inside but I decided it was too loud. I think that's what ended up being the dust ruffle. I had to buy the pink extra. I think I went to 2 different stores and bought some of the fabric even on etsy. 

I think she likes it... :) 

Something funny about this line of fabric. This company came out with a similar line just as I was finishing up and it's called "Ruby". I don't like it nearly as much as this though. 

I bought some embroidery hoops to hang on the wall. I'm going to put all the extra fabric in those. Maybe by the time she is 2 they will be up. Who knows, maybe this will give me the inspiration to get it done!