Zeke's blessing weekend

My mom came to town last Thursday and is LoViNg being grandma! I don't think the kids mind clobbering her with love either.

We had the house full of 8 kids 5 and under, with 7 of them between the ages of 18 months and 3. So to get the kids outside for awhile I set up a sensory activity for them. My father-in-law got some of the "green" packing peanuts in a box from his latest eBay purchase. These packing peanuts are made 100% from cornstarch and dissolve in water. They are nontoxic and easy to clean up so I thought it would be fun for the kids to play with them. I set up trays full of the packing peanuts, set out small bowls of water, and hid little Halloween dollar store toys in the packing peanuts. I thought it would keep their interest for 20 or so minutes but after an hour they were still going! The adults just sat around taking pictures, playing themselves, and blowing bubbles for the kids- a fun time for all!

The kids had a GREAT time playing in the packing peanuts and water! We put little toys in the packing peanuts for them to play with and the favorite were the tiny bottles of bubbles. Most of the kids enjoyed the packing peanuts more after they started to dissolve in the water and got really sticky and gooey. Hudson and Maddie enjoyed getting in the trays and had no problem getting messy! I was happy that they liked my activity and when the kids all took wonderful naps after playing I was even happier.

After Rosalee had played in the water and packing peanuts she took some of her "treasures" and started organizing them on the steps. If you look closely you can see that her pants are oddly wet. Note to self- don't put your potty training daughter in underwear and then let her play in water.

Maddie had a nice time sitting in the water washing her feet off in Trouble's water bowl. But I guess she needed it after playing in the cornstarch and water...

Sadly I only got a few pictures from the blessing day. I was up late Saturday night preparing the food for the Sunday lunch as well as finishing my talk that I had to give at church. (Seriously who asks a new mom to speak in church, let alone on the day her kid is getting blessed!?!) Normally I would have been bugging everyone to hold the baby and would have chased my family around with the camera but I was too exhausted to think straight. I did think, "oh I should get a picture of Jesse with Zeke" but when I turned around Jesse was coming up the stairs in basketball shorts and a t-shirt. There were a lot of family and friends that came to the blessing and then to our house afterward for lunch. When I get some pictures of Zeke in his outfit and of the four of us I'll post some of the things that were said in his blessing along with the names of those who came.

Zeke with his great grandpa James

Rosalee and Kaylee having a conversation during lunch. I wonder if Kaylee found it equally as weird as I do that Rosalee was dipping pickle chips into her marshmallow frosting.

Here's the only pictures I took yesterday of Zeke in his blessing outfit. He was passed out asleep on the couch with everyone in the room talking, playing, etc. I took the next picture to show how much taller Zeke is than Sydney. It amazes me that they're only two days apart and he's about two inches taller than her. This will be one of the rare times I'll be able to say that my kid is the taller one. Poor Zeke, he woke up to have his cousin chewing on his hand.

Zeke was tired from being handled by everyone and had an EASY time sleeping at night.

Check it out!

Our friends have the pictures they took of Zeke and Rosalee on their photography website. When I get the CD of photos I'll share some more, but for now go check these links-
http://rognonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/09/rosalee-rexburg-idaho-photographer.html

and

http://rognonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/09/many-faces-of-zeke-newborn-rexburg.html

I love all of the pictures but my favorites of Zeke are the bottom right picture where he looks mad and the last picture. My favorites of Rosalee are the first one on the right, the bottom right one of the next set (where she's leaning on the couch), and the one of her on the swing, and the last one. Like I said, I like all of them, those are just the best of the best. :)

For those of you in the Southeast Idaho area, or Utah and come up here to visit often, give them a call and schedule a photo session. You will NOT regret it, I promise!

Thank you Anna for donating your win to us so we could get these pictures taken!

Literally

Rosalee is a very trusting loving child. She listens to her parents (most of the time anyway, but come on she's almost 2!) and believes them 100%. When she tells her parents she wants to do something and they agree, she thinks she can do it. When she tells her mother that "Trouble need a bath, she stink" and her mother says, "yes, we'll give Trouble a bath" she thinks that the dog will in fact get in the tub and be bathed. Here are some things that I often forget about children.

1. Their timeframe and mine is not the same. I think the dog will be bathed sometime in the next week. Children think everything will happen right now.
2. Children often use the same word or name for several differnt things.
So I filled Rosalee a bath because she was covered in marker and ketchup. (Two different activities that both ended up in body art...) When she ran off to the bathroom she grabbed her new stuffed dog that Jesse got her at the fair. It looks kind of like a bulldog and is called Trouble by Rosalee. Before I could put the pieces together she whipped her toy into the full tub and with a smile on her face said, "now Trouble no be stinky." The dog has gone EVERYWHERE this past week so I guess a little water can't hurt.

She even got her brother's sponge scrub thing and proceeded to wash the dog.
Oh and a third thing I forget about children- they may be small but they are quick! Escpecially if they are doing something potentially naughty. I shampooed Rosalee's hair and turned around to get the camera for a picture of her nice spike. When I turned around the last of the shampoo (thankfully it was almost empty) was being put on the dog toy. Rosalee's response, "now she smell clean, not be so stinky."
Ah, children.

Fun at the fair

Jesse worked at the Eastern Idaho State Fair all of last week. He started work at 6 in the morning and would come home at 10-11 in the evening. The only way for the kids to see him is if we went to the fair and brought him dinner every night. It was great because it gave me something fun to do with the kids everyday, allowed them to see their dad, and kept my husband from eating greasy fair food 6 days in a row. We always were lucky enough to find parking close by on the street so we only paid to park once and we got in for free because Jesse's boss gave him a pass for me. Excluding Saturday the 12th (our crazy spend money day) I only spent $5 at the fair. I love having children too young to care about cotton candy and rides! I've already posted some pictures from the fair in the last two posts, but here are the rest of them.

Rosalee was excited to find "Rosalee size horses" and asked to stop at every one to talk to them.

Dinner and a show! We'd sit in the barn and eat dinner with Jesse every night so we got to see some of the competitions. I enjoyed the draft horses the most but I think they scared Rosalee a little.

What would I do without my baby backpack to help me hold Zeke!?

This is Minnie Mouse the miniature horse. Rosalee knelt by the pen for fifteen minutes talking, singing, and laughing at the horse. Ask her today what she liked about the fair and she'll tell you, "Minnie Mouse, she horse, I like Minnie Mouse horse."

Jesse felt bad about being gone all day so he'd eat his dinner as fast as he could so he could walk around with Rosalee until his break was over. Even though he smelled to high heaven like horses and barn Rosalee enjoyed riding on his shoulders and having Dad time.

We would look at the same animals every night but Rosalee didn't care. She would sit at the pen and talk with the animals about random things and sometimes she'd even sing to them.

Of course Rosalee loved the petting zoo and probably could have spent hours there. She pet a llama, an emu, but was afraid of the tortoise. She'd touch the tall, fast moving, try to eat your hair and hand animals but the slow moving boring one- yeah he's evil!

She was SO excited to ride on the train, especially to sit in a pink pig seat. (Just check out that cheesy face she was giving me!) But when the thing started moving she grabbed the sides tight and had a look of terror on her face. By the time they were done she was smiling again and asking for "more time".

Rosalee was confused at why the horse was moving

A rare awake moment from Zeke so I decided to show him some goats. His eyes kept going cross and he tried to roll out of my arms into my lap so I don't think he's a fan...

My mother-in-law bought Jesse a turkey leg one night and Rosalee just had to help him with it. I'm pretty sure it was as big as Zeke!

This was Rosalee's favorite thing, beside the animals, at the fair! She went on it every night we visited Jesse. She insisted on always riding in the pig seat. She even waited for the train to go once because she HAD to sit in the pig seat. She was so excited to ride it that she kept shaking her fists and grinning.

On Saturday Jesse was able to take a few hours off of work and come play with us. His boss gave him some free ride coupons so we took advantage of those and rode every kid ride (and some adult rides) we could. Zeke actually was awake for some of the fair (see my post about him being 1 month) but spent most of the time asleep in the stroller. I guess it doesn't matter since all he could do is sit and stare at things. Rosalee and Jesse enjoyed eating their way around the fair with corn dogs, lemonade, deep fried snickers, and other greasy delicious items while I had some chicken and potatoes from the Cajun restaurant booth. For as much fun as we had I was pleased with how little we actually spent. It's nice having someone work at the fair so we can get free/discounted things!

The ladies riding in style in a pink elephant

Rosalee ran up to the duck pond game and just started grabbing the ducks out of the water. The man just laughed and let her pick out a small toy. We gave him a dollar for being nice to us.

Rosalee's first roller coaster ride

This is one of those pictures that you frame and put on your desk I think. Rosalee is holding the dog that Jesse won for her at the dart game.

The only ride Rosalee didn't like was the merry-go-round. Odd, yet true. As you can see by the look of terror on her face she was convinced she was going to fall off. She kept saying, "all done mommy, please all done" it was both sad and hilarious.

Jesse and Tia enjoyed some big kid rides while I gladly stayed on the ground with the kiddos.

Exhausted from a fun day at the fair with the family

1 month old already!?

Last Saturday Zeke turned one whole month old. It seems like his first month of life went by A LOT faster than Rosalee's. Here are some interesting facts about our tiny son-

*Rosalee calls him Zekey. We aren't sure where she came up with it but I find it ADORABLE! I can see it now, he'll be 17 and bring home a date to have his older sister call him Zekey. Oh how sweet it will be.

*He still wears preemie size clothes. The length of newborn clothes fit him but not the waist and bum. The clothes hang weird on him and he looks like a sack of potatoes.

*His dried umbilical cord fell off randomly last week during tummy time. Thankfully he was in my in-law's bed and not mine. :)

*He eats every hour to hour and a half during the day and then sleeps four to five hours at a time at night. Most days I feel like he's attached to me all day because he pretty much is!

*He can go from asleep to screaming mad from starvation in less than 10 seconds at times. Every now and then he'll give us the hunger warning signs but most of the time it goes like this- asleep, smack sound, screaming at the top of his lungs.

*He loves making o shapes with his mouth and is starting to make coo sounds at us.

*He smiles at us if we talk to him and laughs in his sleep.

*He LOVES to be snuggled! The tighter he's swaddled at night, the better he sleeps and if he's held by someone he'll go right to sleep.

*He has three looks-

Content, just hanging out

Starvin' Marvin

Happily sleeping

Labor Day weekend

For Labor Day weekend we had 5 out of 6 of Jesse's siblings here in Blackfoot. This weekend started the Eastern Idaho State Fair and my mother in law's birthday was on Labor Day so it was a great excuse to get everyone together. We also got to show off Zeke and meet our newest niece Sydney who was born two days after Zeke on the 14th.

Here we are sitting along the road watching the parade that kicks off the fair. (The older girl in orange is our niece Allie.) As you can see in the second picture Rosalee doesn't go ANYWHERE without a book. The only thing that would get her nose out of the book were the horses. Her favorites were the draft horses pulling carts and the fancy dressed "cowgirl princess". Some of the people would throw candy to the kids and Rosalee really didn't care about it. I had to practically shove the candy in her face to get her to eat some. Oh well, more for me! Zeke enjoyed the parade like he enjoys everything else- by spending the first half eating and the second half sleeping.

Jesse and my father in law got the tub installed and running in time for the kids to come. So Rosalee and her cousins Allie and Kaylee got to break it in. Kaylee was frightened of the jets but Rosalee was IN LOVE! She kept giggling and rubbing her back up against them. Now every night she asks if she can go in the bubble tub.

Jesse the pooper scooper!
I can't complain too much because his employment means free admission to the fair for me and a guest of my choice.

Rosalee gnawing on a tiger ear (I've always called them elephant ears but when in Idaho...) sadly she wasn't the biggest fan of it.

Unlike the tiger ear Rosalee was a fan of cotton candy and helped herself to as much of it as she wanted! I took the second picture from Lindsey's blog because I was too busy laughing hysterically to get a picture of my piglet child. When we got back to the house she kept taking some from her cousins. If they'd put a piece down she was on it faster than lightening!

The snacks that Rosalee ate were provided by her Uncle John and Aunt Lindsey. Here she is sitting and eating more cotton candy with Hudson (in the red) and Gavin. John has a daughter but she was busy sleeping (like Zeke) so we didn't get a picture of her.

Twin cousins!
Here is Zeke with his cousin Sydney being held by my brother in law Jared. These babes were born less than 48 hours apart.

Monday was Linda, my mother in law's, birthday. Jenny (Jesse's sister) made her a cupcake bouquet for dessert that the kids enjoyed helping her eat.