Baby Updates

So fun happenings with Zachary:

- he is really interested in his hands, sucking on them and grabbing for things
- his bottom two teeth are giving him fits, are babies supposed to get teeth this early?
- his giggle is the best sound in the whole world
- is often heard gagging himself, trying to bite on his hands to help his teeth, but often shoves fingers down his throat
- is a master schoocher, many times he ends up on the other side of the room
- starts with his baby sitter on monday!

Kenna's Fat Lip

McKenna has become quite clumsy. We think it is because she is growing, and because she has to go everywhere at the fastest pace possible. So between running and not paying attention, she trips a lot. Yesterday she was getting ready to go to Heathers to go swimming. She decided she wanted to wear sandles and was running to the door to leave. Her foot got caught up in a bag on the floor and she face planted into our hardwood floors. There was a little blood and a lot of crying, but after putting a little ice on it, she seemed in good spirits. By the time she got home last night she was over it. But I felt so bad about her poor little mouth :(

--"look at my wip mommy!"--

Kenna's First Camping Trip

I have been wanting to go camping all spring. I loved camping when I lived in Washington, and I was determined to try and come as close to that experience in Iowa with my kids. Obviously Zachary is a little too small to enjoy the great outdoors, so Gona and Baca watched him overnight. He was a great baby, doing his normal sleep 9-5 routine...we are really lucky, and apparently Gona and Baca were too! He did wonderfully!

After dropping Zachary off, we headed to Acorn Valley campground. It is literally 15 minutes from our house, but is right on the lake and in the woods. We reserved a site that was about 150 feet into the woods, so it wasn't too far of a walk from the parking lot, but it was totally secluded and private. We set up camp and invited Gentrys to come for dinner and a bikeride, then for smores afterwards!

Kenna was a great helper, and the weather was amazing! Mid 70s and it got down to mid 60s overnight. Kenna announced at 9:30 that she was tired and went right to sleep. Josh and I relaxed and enjoyed the fire and stars. We actually slept quite comfortably and got up around 6 with the sun. Then we went to play at the playground and packed up to head home.

--here is the campground, we were in #103--

--so excited. We had been talking about camping all weekend--

--kenna helped set up the tent--

--gentrys came to roast hotdogs and eat smores, but didn't stay the night--



--we rode our bikes down to the lake--

--playing at the "beach"--

--nolan skipping rocks--

--shelly keeping him from jumping in--

--decided to get their feet wet--

--gentrys--

--getting our shoes back on--

--the view was awesome--

--riding back to camp--

--roasting marshmallows--

--mmm s'mores with "choc-a-lit"--

--catching lightning bugs--

--the morning was actually quite chilly, 3 blankets did the trick--

--the aftermath of sleeping--

--daddy's breakfast creation, bananas wrapped in crescent roll dough--

--kenna doing the zipline "the zipper" as she calls it--

We had such a fun adventure. It was the perfect little getaway for a three year old. We were really impressed with the facilities, very clean, with bathrooms and a shower. There was a playground, hiking trails, and lots of great scenery, and so close to home! We will definitely go back!

Deep Thoughts by McKenna

As we are walking downstairs this morning..."mommy, I can carry my baby and my lion. When I get bigger, I can even carry daddy!"

As she was eating her breakfast..."mommy come quick, there is milk on my tray!" Mommy: "did you spill?" Kenna: "nope, my banana jumped out of my bowl and spilled the milk."

While we are packing for camping..."mommy, can I bring baby and lion and blankey camping with me?" Mommy: "sure" Kenna: "good, because they need to be snuggled at night time."

Splash Park Again

Today was a great day. We thought we would beat the heat by going to the splash park. But, we learned our lesson last time and rememberd to bring a bucket! So, after we mailed a little baby gift for baby Grant, we went on a journey to get Kenna a bucket. After eating lunch at panera, we headed home for a nap. We told Shelly and Nolan that we would meet them at the park after nap. We ran into Paula, Sam, Willum, Char and Macie while we were there. So we had so much fun!

--Nolan's first trip to the park, and he was fearless!--

--kenna was scared of the water at first, but thought putting her bum in the water was hilarious!--

--there were some battles over the buckets--

--she loved dumping water on herself--

--more dumping of the water--

--zachary slept almost the whole time, next year he will love this!--

Dance Camp Day #2

Here are some cute pictures from princess camp day #2. She loved it so much! And mommy really liked dressing her up.

--showing off her new outfit--

--spinning--

--kenna and chloe--

They get dance shoes this fall. Right now we are making due with what slips on :)

The Things They Say

All morning Kenna has been "packing" for camping this weekend. If it were up to her we would be bringing every baby she owns, all of her stuffed animals and her stool because she might "need it at the camping place."

On the way home from princess dance camp yesterday she was telling me all about the things they did. 'Today at da princess place I hand a wand and we said bipty bopty boo and danced round and round." She has also been really into pretending lately. On the same drive she says "mom, how about you are cinderella and I be the fairy mother and you are crying cause the mean sisters ripped your dress and you look at the stars, and I come down and make you a BEEEautiful dress."

I need to get a camcorder and just record her for a day to remember all of the fun things she says.

Zachary had his first cold. Luckily it only lasted a day, and asside from wanting to be held all day, you would barely be able to tell. I think secretly I enjoy the fact that he wants to snuggle all day with his mommy. I am just glad you feel better little one!

Princess Camp

This week Kenna and Mommy headed to princess camp. It is a chance for 3-4 year olds to see if they like organized dance. We went with Chloe, and it is for three days (just an hour each night.) They get to color, decorate crowns, dance with magic wands, and do a few dance routines. Kenna did great! She even had to go into the studio without mommy cause parents aren't allowed! I couldn't believe she went in there totally fearless with the rest of her class!

--here is the crown she decorated--



--a few of the girls in her class--

--kenna and chloe waiting to go inside--

--showing off her matching hairbow--

--spinning in her cute outfit--



--smelling the lillies outside--

Because Kenna did so well, we are going to enroll her in fall classes, should be so fun!!

Hmmm - Are These Two Related?

I remembered this picture of Kenna when I saw the picture of Zachary below...too funny! Definitely related!

He is Mobile!

I noticed this the other day, but caught it on camera today. I set Zachary down on his play mat to clean up the kitchen. I came back and apparently he was bored with the mat and wanted to look at Kenna's Dora toy. He had scooched across the floor. I am pretty sure it is unintentional, but now I know I can't leave him on the bed or couch unattended anymore!

--notice the proximity of baby to mat--

--fixated on Kenna's toy--

--busted!--

--this is unrelated, but he is never as happy as when he is naked--



--another unrelated picture, but look how he is filing in the carseat! Getting so big!--

My Little Pooper

This post is purely for my memories - not for entertainment value :) Zachary is such a funny pooper. When we brought him home, we couldn't believe what was coming out of that kid. He had 6-8 poopy diapers everyday. Then, at about a month he stopped. He switched to one dirty diaper every other day. Ever since then he has been pretty consistent, one poopy diaper every other day. But we aren't talking a quick wipe and change into a clean diaper, he is an outfit destroying pooper. It goes down his legs, up his back and in his hair. McKenna never had this problem. Josh and I will shout "not it!" at the top of our lungs when we start to hear the inevitable diaper filling grunts. We think that the problem may be that Zachary has no butt (sorry son, but you don't) and the poop flowith over.

So sorry to all of those that actually read this post. I just wanted to remember these fun times as I just finished bathing my little man, and frantically rinsing yet another outfit, in an attempt to de-stain it! When I am home with him during the day, the "not its" don't do me any good :)

Helpin Daddy

This weekend was quite productive. I put almost two yards of mulch around the house and down by our trees. For those of you who don't ever mulch, two yards is a lot! Josh made good use of his time moving everything out of the garage, and reorganizing it. We were one of the few houses in our neighborhood that had a three car garage and no cars parked in it. So it is MUCH more functional now. With wagons, strollers, bikes, trailers, scooters, balls, snowblowers, lawnmowers, tools and other endless junk our garage had quickly gone out of control.

While Josh was cleaning Kenna was "helping." She had endless hours of fun using the stud finder on bikes, cars, and basically anything that would make it beep. Later we were driving somewhere and she was telling me about it. "I used the black ting that had lights to fix da stuff. I like dat ting. Daddy keeps it in his treasure box." I suppose a tool box is Josh's equivalent to a treasure chest...nice :)

We also had an impromptu BBQ with Stones, Dick and the Millers on Saturday. I was thinking we could invite a family over for some hamburgers, while I'm at the store Josh calls and told me that he had invited 7 people over....yikes! Turned out great though. We had a great time, and Kenna and Kevin played really well together! Slowly Kenna is learning to share. Zachary did great. He just looked around, snoozed and enjoyed being passed around. We are lucky to have such easy going kids!

We do the Zoo

On Sunday I wanted to attempt a day trip to Omaha. I have heard great things about the zoo there and thought it would be a fun outing for all of us to take. It was definitely the first road trip for Zachary and both kids did great! Saturday night we rented a mini van to make the journey a little more comfortable and loaded it up with car seats, strollers, snacks, clothes, umbrellas, jackets and entertainment. You would have thought we were going on a weeklong vacation, but I'd rather be prepared! We left around 7am and got there around 9. I fed Zachary while everyone else went to buy tickets. We were worried that it might be kind of cold, but after an hour or so it warmed up. We had such a good time, and I think McKenna really enjoyed the animals. Before we left Josh made her a picture book of animals and when we saw them she marked them off. Once her book was complete he promised her ice cream, which I think was her most favorite part of all :)

--we started in the desert exhibit--

--this monkey was posing for the camera, Kenna said "look at his bum, gross!"--

--she kept asking "are those weal, or pretend?"--

--gorilla valley was a little underwhelming, but they really are so big!--

--this one was posing for the camera--

--Kenna enjoyed riding the merry go round--

--the peacocks were fearless, and trying to steal some of April's popcorn--

--the aquarium was really cool, jellyfish were beautiful--

--these were like the fish on Nemo, swim up!--

--I love these tunnel aquariums. We saw stingrays, sharks, giant turtles, really cool!--

--one of my favorites, the penguins--

--daddy and kenna rode the skylift that went over the whole park, josh said it was the scariest thing he has ever done, because he was so worried about her falling!--

--at the top of the lift was the best parts of the zoo, so pretty. Here we are standing on a bridge looking at some monkeys--

--kenna liked the elephants, the funny thing is there are houses on the other side of this cage. Can you imagine elephants in your front yard? Weird.--

--they had these metal sculptures all over the park. This one was too cute--

--making sure her brother is having a good time--

--the long awaited ice cream reward for completing her book--

--April, Kenna and half of daddy--

--lots of pretty landscaping all over the zoo--

--kenna hasn't ridden in a stroller in months, but she sat in it for most of the zoo, but her favorite way to travel is via daddy's shoulders--

--I'm glad we saved the jungle exhibit till the end. It was so humid, but definitely worth it!--

--very pretty, such cool animals too!--

--crossing the scary rope bridge--

I cannot believe how well the kids traveled. Towards the end of the day (around 5-ish) we were getting home and Zachary was getting tired of the carseat. But I don't think the trip could have gone any better!