Fun times on the farm

Last Sunday the weather was AMAZING at my parent's house! After church we decided to go out in the woods and try to find some frogs. Every night we could hear them loud and clear so we knew there were some. The weather was just perfect too. We had fully sunny skies with 50 degree temperatures. My cousin and her daughter came out to visit us and it was fun to see the girls play outside. Jesse also got to ride my Dad's motorcycle which he LOVED! The only downside was that some jerk ran him off the road. Jesse and the bike were fine (minus a slightly bent brake pedal) but I think it was enough to stop him from riding for the week.

My boys!

Rosalee had fun stomping around in the thick mud of the pond. Even when her boot would get stuck she still was happy.

The little frog my brother found near our main pond.

Here are some shots of us having fun out in the woods. I use to spend hours out there as a kid so I love to see how much fun Rosalee has out there.

Jesse had fun catching a small frog for Rosalee. She kept saying, "Ooohh, aahh, yellow!" and "Froggy!!!!" It was great to see how much her face lit up from seeing it.

Dad and Zeke having fun in my parent's woods.

My dad with the kids

We found an endangered salamander in my driveway! Jesse had fun making a little habitat for it after showing it to the kids.

Rosalee found Grandpa's tools when he opened the garage to get the motorcycle out.

My parents have a bull and he's HUGE! I think it's funny that Rosalee likes him and he's frightened by her.

This is the picture Rosalee took of the bull. She had some fun with the zoom.

The best of 8 for a shot of my cousin and me with our kids

My dad has had his Ducati since 1981. He got it out so Jesse could ride it around.

Can't blame a girl for trying to get a shot of her man in some leather pants. Hahahahaha!

Ready to ride!

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My dad made this swing set for us when I was in elementary school. I love seeing my daughter, and my cousin's daughter, having as much fun on it as we did.

Zeke found wiggling around on Alyssa's lap better than posing for a picture.

I promise he isn't trying to crush her head, he was trying to get her to look at the camera for a picture.

My brother Jesse... a bit bothered by my trying to take his picture.

25

Today I am a quarter of a century young. (Old is for people who feel, well, old!) My husband is at work and I'm eating macaroni and cheese for breakfast with Rosalee. My next task is to pack our bags so we can head to Washington tonight to see my family. My mom was nice enough to get us a hotel room tonight in Oregon so we don't have to make the 12 hour drive in one haul.
THANK YOU MOM!!!!
I don't know why people ask, "how does it feel to be ___?" because 25 feels just like 24 and even 21, to be honest. But if I compare 25 to 18, 15, or 5 then we'd have something to go off of. I like 25, it seems like a nice age. I'm old enough to have a valid opinion but young enough to go sky diving. I can get away with acting silly with my kids, wearing crazy bright tights to church, and eating spicy food all day long.
Yes, I think this will be a great year!

More Zeke

We got the proofs back from our family photo shoot and I love pretty much all of them! I have the cutest family and it is causing me some issues with limiting how many pictures I get. But as soon as I have them narrowed down, and here at the house, I'll be uploading them. Zeke's eyes look SO bright, beautiful, and blue with the natural light I just am IN LOVE! (Yeah, we're crazy enough to do outside pictures in Rexburg, Idaho in February!) Rosalee was in an odd mood so we don't have as many pictures of her, but like always, she's gorgeous. Jesse and I even got some couple shots because we can't remember the last time we got pictures of just us. So be looking for that post!
Now on to Zeke's stats!
We went to the doctor on Tuesday and Zeke is a healthy, happy baby. He had to get 3 shots and he didn't scream too loud. As soon as I picked him up he calmed down considerably. The nurse was in love with all the crazy sounds and huge cheesy grin he has. She kept talking to him and rubbing his tummy just to get him to "talk". The doctor was pleased with his growth and development. Zeke kept rolling around the exam table so he had to keep turning him and picking him up to keep him from falling. The only thing that was off was how much we feed Zeke. At this point he should eat 3-9 tablespoons of baby cereal and 1-2 tablespoons of single flavor fruits or vegetables. I still breastfeed him, which is good, but we give him cereal 1 or 2 a week. The doctor wants us to be better at feeding him daily and to start adding vegetables to his diet. Despite being behind on feeding Zeke, he's growing great!
Length~ 27"--75th percentile
Weight~ 16lbs--30th percentile
Head~ 17"--80th percentile
We have been warned that within 1-2 weeks of consistent cereal feedings Zeke will probably have a growth spurt. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

NOT a fan of peas... but it was the first time so maybe we'll have more luck later!

Zeke is 6 months old!

Yesterday Zeke turned 6 months old. I can't believe half of a year has passed since the day he was born. We both still have scars from that night, but the pain and sadness from then has passed. We spend our days smiling and laughing together most of the time. I haven't really started him on baby cereal and jar food yet, but I'm pretty sure we'll start this week. Today we got nice family pictures done, and he has his doctor appointment on Tuesday, so I'll update his stats and cute pictures then. For now I'll just brag about how cute and wonderful he is.
Zeke acts like he wants to crawl but whenever he leans forward he face plants. I try not to laugh but it's so cute to see him try to crawl with his face in the carpet.
He now signs "milk" if he's hungry, wants me to pick him up, or sometimes if he sees me walk in the room. I am convinced he thinks that "milk" means "mom".

Zeke has the wonderful gift of falling asleep whenever, and wherever he's tired. The other night Jesse was holding him on his lap and Zeke just passed out in his arms.

Zeke has three expressions- normal content, crazy happy, and concerned. His concerned face is my favorite because his eyes either get really big or he creases his eyebrows.

Rosalee decided Zeke needed a crown. She said, "Now Zekey be a prince like Princess and the Frog!"

I guess she decided she needed a crown too. I like how Zeke looks confused and concerned about what we're doing.

1. They have the same nose.
2. Jesse and Zeke have the same eye color and Rosalee and I have the same eye color.
3. I'm pretty sure he's head is almost the same size as Rosalee's. In fact he's not much shorter than her and probably will be the same height, or taller, by the time he's walking.

Zeke is getting REALLY good at sitting up on his own now. Most of the time if he starts to lean forward he'll brace himself on his knuckles. It kind of reminds me of a baby gorilla.

I just can't compete with Dora! If Rosalee is interested in something, so is Zeke. For now it is just curiosity but I imagine one day it'll become either a great builder or destroyer of their friendship.
Here is a great video of Zeke and the funny noises he makes while "talking".

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The joys of our lives

Nothing huge has been going on with us but I wanted to share some of my recent pictures. The kids really are such great joys in our life. They can be silly, crazy, frustrating, exciting, happy- and we love every second of it! There are times I have to stop what I'm doing and just laugh because of the antics these two can get involved in. I can't imagine what it'll be like when Rosalee is 4 and Zeke is 2. For now, I'll be thankful Zeke rolls and doesn't crawl or walk!
One of the fun things we've done lately is buy colored bath foam. It's basically shaving cream with a little added soap, but it's cheap and Rosalee loves it, so I don't care. She was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and ended up with a sticky goatee. I put her in the bathtub and then covered her with some foam. As the following picture shows, she had FUN!

Something that always makes me smile is looking at my Zeke's eyes. They are blue-gray and they melt my heart. He has his Daddy's eyes and I'm glad.

Something funny that Zeke does is roll around and purposely wrap himself up in blankets. His favorite blanket to become a baby burrito in is my old baby blanket. This blanket is 25 years old, disinegrating from old age, and faded beyond belief. I have to hand wash it because I'm afraid it would completely die in a washing machine. If I try to take Zeke out of the blanket he fusses so I just let him roll around in it until he gets hungry or falls asleep most nights.

Zeke likes to pucker his lips and make all kinds of funny noises. The best is when he does it, very loud, in church during the prayer.

I think Rosalee likes impersonating her Grandpa Jerry. Here she is in a one piece thermal outfit with crazy hair. The hair is all natural people! Could you imagine what I could do if I used some hair products and tried to make it spike out all crazy!?

Rosalee is a bookaholic. Here she is reading one of her books in her bedroom. She does this almost daily and I finally got it on video.

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Too much TV

On Monday night Jesse called us from the hotel in Montana to say "goodnight" to us. When Rosalee got on the phone this is how the conversation went-
"You come home Daddy?"

"No baby, Daddy's in Montana until tomorrow."

"Okay Daddy. Say 'hi' to Hannah Montana for me."

"Um... okay, goodnight baby."

Then yesterday we went to the library without Zeke. Rosalee was really excited to have time with just me and I enjoyed not having to worry about two little ones while out and about. Zeke had a good time making a mess, I mean eating, his baby oatmeal with Grandma. When we went to the library I told Rosalee she could pick out some movies. She is in love with the Signing Time movies and I was excited that there were 3 new movies available to check out. While walking around in the movie section Rosalee made a squeal and our conversation went like this-

"Mama, I want this one!"
"Which one?"
"I want this Hannah Montana movie."

"Hannah Montana? Are you sure?"
"Yeah! I want this Hannah Montana movie so I can see my Dad."

Lesson of the day

If you ask Rosalee what she learned today she'll respond, "We don't eat paint."
That should tell you what kind of day it is at our house...

But before I get into that I'll write about last weekend. Last Friday was my sister-in-law's (Tia) 25th birthday. My other sister-in-law Jenny came up from Utah to celebrate with us. Their cousin Valerie has a birthday this week so we decided to combine the two into one. For dinner on Friday night we had Hawaiian haystacks and cake. Jenny loves to decorate cakes so she came with some fun ideas on what to do. She was brave enough to let me decorate one of the cakes and I'm surprised at how well it turned out!

Can you tell that they're purses? Jenny made two 8" cakes and then cut them in half. She frosted the two halves together and then covered them in more frosting. I made Valerie's cake and I want to use this same technique to make some more cakes. I'm thinking about making it into a face resting on the platter and then when I'm brave enough, making it into a dragon for Zeke's 1st birthday.
Later that night we sang and danced to karaoke. It made me happy to be able to dance around like a fool and sing some sweet 80s songs into the late hours of the night. Even Rosalee got into it so a great time was had by all!

On Saturday we went swimming in the morning. As you can see, Rosalee LOVES going swimming! Her new suit is still a bit big for her, but I like that it helps her float. She is getting brave about being in the water and it kind of scares me. She saw Jesse in a different part of the pool so she climbed out and went over to him. She was about to jump in (he was in the 4 foot deep area) but he yelled at her to stop. Thankfully she actually listened to him that time! But seeing how fearless she is and how good she's getting at developing swimming skills motivates me to learn how to swim. Yes, I'm almost 25 and couldn't swim to save my life in a kiddy pool! The local pool here is offering some adult swim classes in mid-February that I might sign up for.
She found the crown and had a GREAT TIME!

Zeke now likes grabbing anything he sees me holding. These are some of his self portraits. He also thinks that if I'm drinking out of a cup that he needs to take a drink too. Maybe I'll get a video of that because it is REALLY cute!
Now on to today... it started out fairly normal. Jesse woke up and got ready to substitute teach at the middle school. I woke up with a nasty headache and sore throat but the kids were still asleep so I drank some water and went back to sleep. Jesse also packed a suitcase before leaving because he's spending the night in Bozeman, Montana. He's going there for a prospective graduate student day. I'm sure I'll be writing about his quick trip in the next day or so. Then the day continued as normal as most other days. We went to WalMart to buy some toothpaste for Jesse and life got interesting. I thought I'd be a nice mom and get Rosalee some more vehicles to paint (she had SO much fun last time!) and some red paint to add to our collection. Aren't I a nice mom? While I was looking at some frozen dinners to send with Jesse I guess Rosalee picked up the bottle of paint and started playing with it. I turned back to the cart and saw her chewing on her fingers. Nothing big... until I noticed her face and fingers were red. Oh no, she bit herself! No, worse! She twisted the lid off and got paint on her fingers. Then for whatever reason in her 2 year old mind, she decided to lick/suck on her fingers. So I got to freak out and try to find the non-toxic sign on the label but there wasn't one! Luckily there wasn't a toxic, death, you'll die now sign either so I didn't have a heart attack. I quickly found an assistant manager who kindly pulled some baby wipes off the shelf and helped me clean Rosalee up. Then he took me over to customer service where a lady called the 800 number on the paint bottle. She told me that the paint isn't toxic, but I might want to call my doctor and talk with a nurse. Thankfully the manager didn't charge me for the baby wipes (Thanks nice helpful man!!!!!). At home I called the doctor's office but the nurse was out for the day. So the receptionist told me to take Rosalee to Urgent Care if I was concerned. She thought Rosalee would be fine as long as I made her drink a lot. After talking with my mother-in-law I decided to stay home and force Rosalee to drink like a camel in the desert. (Good thing I bought some raspberry lemonade at WalMart today!)
Now I'm here with my kids, sans husband, watching a movie laughing at how crazy my day can easily become!