Sunday, March 28, 2010

Cute Randomness

--picture of the kids and me on my birthday--


--he's standing on his own...we tried to get a picture--

--sooooo wiggly!--


--lookin for trouble!--

--he has been sticking his tounge out a lot lately - we think it might be beacuse of teeth?--

--how cute is this face?--

--love it!--

Look Who is ALMOST Walking

Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday Ankeny had a big Easter egg hunt for all the kids in town. There were a TON of people there! They had the fields divided by age group, so Gentry's were in a different field than us. So we lined up and waited for the signal to send the kids running. We had coached Kenna that all the kids would run, and we would be waiting for her when she was done; not to steal other kids eggs; and to have fun. Well, when the signal was given to start, parents were elbowing, running with their kids, pointing at eggs screaming "there's one!" What is wrong with people? They were 3 and 4 year olds, I think they could figure it out! For a split second I lost sight of kenna...I started to panic thinking she may be trampled by egg obsessed parents, but she came running up to me, very proud of all the eggs she had found.

--kenna's winnings--
--crazy parents!!--


--once again...it was freezing! Next year Zachary can play too!--

Gona and Baca Day

Today we spent all day at Gona's and Baca's. We picked up lots of fallen tree branches, ate leftover baked potato bar from Tali's fundraiser on friday, and Eski and her kids came over to play too!

Baca gave Zachary his Harley jacket...its a tad large (5T) but he'll grow into it!

--kenna striking a pose--


--groucho kenna and bomber jacket--

--groucho kenna again--

--zachary with his skull cap on...harley of course :) --

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Pasta and Washington

Yesterday I asked Kenna what she had for lunch at daycare.

Kenna - pasta
Mommy - oh, you love pasta, did you eat it all?
Kenna - yes and it had chicken and peas in it. We also had fruit. But mommy....
Mommy - what?
Kenna - my pasta had noodles in it?

So funny...we always call pasta noodles (or noods when she was little.)

This morning we were talking about where grandma rue lives. We told Kenna she lives in Washington. She then told us that that must be next to the dryer...took us a minute to associate washington with washer....aw the things kids say.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

12 Month Checkup

No surprises - Zachary is a BIG BOY!

Head - 18.5 inches (50th percentile)
Weight - 23.3lbs (75th percentile)
Length - 30.5in (80th percentile)

Healthy, happy, 7 teeth and growing like a weed!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

30th Birthday!

For my 30th birthday, I am lucky that my hubby doesn't mind going with the flow :) A few months ago I called him because I heard Bon Jovi was coming to Kansas City. We saw him in Des Moines last year, and he is by far one of my favorite artists. He puts on an AMAZING show. So when I said I wanted to buy tickets, he didn't sound thrilled, but told me to go ahead. After the tickets were posted online I went to ticketmaster and searched for the best seats available. The ones in the "pit" (first 8 rows or so) were $1800 each!!! YIKES. Okay, search for next best. There were ones in the 4th row for around $100. WHAT! I booked them very quickly and have been so excited ever since!

Warning - this post contains a ridiculous amount of Bon Jovi pictures!

My mom came into town to watch the kids so we could make a weekend out of the event. We left on Sunday morning with the plan to just drive around and find a hotel. I had asked around to some friends and they recommended the Raphael. Coincidentally enough, Josh had been perusing the web that morning and stumbled upon the Raphael's website. So we typed it in the GPS and off we went. We made it there in about 3 hours, but we couldn't check in until 4pm. So we parked and walked around the plaza. Kansas City is known as the city of fountains, and the plaza was the first major outdoor shopping center in the country. It was also built in the 20s, when it used to be just a cornfields.

We checked in then headed to the melting pot. I think both Josh and I realized just how much we miss the big city. Lots of shopping, great restaurants, things to do...oh well, its only 3 hours away!

The next morning we got up late, had coffee and checked out. We drove downtown to the new power and light district. It looks as if all of downtown had a face lift. New store fronts, restaurants, shopping and bars. We had a great lunch at Bristols where fish is flown in daily. Then we were talking about going to a museum. Unfortunately almost everything is closed on Mondays. Luckily Josh had asked the concierge what was open on Mondays and he recommended going to the Arabia steamboat museum.

It was quite a surprise! What an amazing piece of history to stumble upon! 20 years ago some farmers located a steamboat buried in a cornfield just off of the Missouri River. It had been buried and totally preserved under the earth for 150 years!

--Reconstructed water wheel from the Arabia--

--the Arabia was fully loaded when it sank, over 200 tons of treasures on board--

--Arabia was considered the "wallmart" of 18th century merchandise--

--products from all over the world completely preserved--

--pickles, canned fruit, etc all still edible (not that I tried any - bleck!) --

--hundreds of thousands of beads from the middle east--

--this is what a tool shed looked like in the 1850s--

--every single metal item had to be tediously removed from the clay, scraped and preserved so that it wouldn't rust--

--hundreds of thousands of metal items from nails to hinges--

--josh on the "mock" deck of the Arabia--

--here is a map of where the Arabia was found--

Some of the coolest things we learned were around the preservation and deterioration process. When the teams started to remove the steamboat, they could have just left it in the air to dry. If they had done so the wood would have literally deflated into mush. Being submerged for so long had compromised the material it was made out of. Cotton literally disintegrated made from organic materials had disappeared. Luckily the team that dug it up immediately exposed the wet wood to preservatives. This filled in the holes that being unearthed had created and kept it fairly true to form.

Also-the Arabia had an abundance of brown, clay doorknobs which were very popular during this time. And it housed many leather goods. Similarly to wood, if the leather were left to dry in the air, it would shrivel into nothing. The historians have taken the boots, cleaned them with purified water, exposed them to preservatives, and finally placed in a high heat dryer. Their industrial strength dryer has been running non stop for the last 20 years! We had a blast learning all about this steamship!

The rest of the day was spent walking, shopping, going to a 5 star movie theater downtown to see Alice in Wonderland in 3d! The seats were plush leather with sub woofers in the seat - really cool!

--gas and light district was very cool and modern. This outside room touched all the bars with cool seating, fire pits and great places to socialize!--

After a tasty dinner, with horrible service, we walked over to the Sprint Center and got ready to get to our fantastic seats. Well weren't we surprised!

--this is the view we had, OH NO!!! Luckily the cameras moved throughout the concert, I was going to be so mad!--



--and then it begins, and the crowd goes wild--

--I could not believe how close we were!--

--the band was amazing, played over 2 hours--

--Bad Medicine, one of my favs--



--at one point the band started chanting "jukebox." so Richie starts playing "born to be wild" by steppenwolf and the band rocked the whole song!--

--At one point JBJ came out and was about 5 feet from me!--

--he sang Hallelujah, brought the house down!--

--strike a pose!--

--my new camera rocks!--

--singing just to me with Ricky rocking in the background--

--another closeup--

--then the WHOLE band came out to the stage right in front of us!--


--wardrobe change--

--the power and light district all lit up at night--

We snuck out at the second encore to make it to our car before the 15,000 that were at the concert got in our way :) We had to head home at midnight because we both had to work the next day...YUCK! What a PERFECT birthday weekend!!! I could not have asked for a better time :)

Fun Videos

Here are some things that Zachary has been up to lately!



--he enjoys bouncing back and forth when he eats...too funny--


--his favorite game is give it back and take it..guess we need some work on fetch--

Mommy's Reflections

Zachary - I can not BELIEVE that you are one today. I think this has been the fastest year of my life. I remember bringing you home from the hospital, so much more confident than we were the first time around. You have always been so layed back, only crying if you were hungry or overly tired. I love that you are starting to find your independence wanting to get into everything. You are so observant and can take hours examining a ribbon or shiny toy.

I appreciate your humor. You find the world hilarious, with the funniest time being post-bath. You love to crawl back and forth on our bed and bury your head in our pillows with giggles. And your big sister is just the funniest thing you have ever seen.

You idolize Kenna always wanting to play with her cinderella castle. Always getting into her toys, and for the most part she is patient. But there are times when she is not, and turns your name into three syllables. "ZA-KA-REY!"

You love your Rylee. Your first word was "da-hee" (doggy.) You giggle when she tries to eat the food you drop when you are eating. And BOY can you eat. You have not become too picky, but we definetly know when you are done. You throw your cup on the floor or start throwing food.

I think you will walk any day now. You will stand with toys in your hand, then realize you are standing without holding on. Then you reach out to steady yourself - not quite grasping the freedom you would have if you just took a step.

My favorite part about this age is your desire to cuddle. When Daddy or I come into the room, you speed crawl to our legs, pull yourself up and say "ahh" trying to tell us you want to be held. You have always been cuddly, and I can tell that you are becoming less-so over time and I know that is part of growing up. One of your favorite new skills is the ability to point at everything and say "dat" almost asking us to explain what it is.

Reflecting on a year ago, I couldn't beleive this day would come. I cannot wait to watch you learn and grow this year. I love you so very much! - Love mommy.

Zachary's 1st Birthday

Although Zachary's birthday isn't until Wednesday, we decided to celebrate a little early while my mom was here. For my birthday Josh and I decided to spend a weekend in Kansas City, with the grand finale of our trip going to see Bon Jovi. Mom flew in Friday night and stayed through the following Wendesday. It seemed like I barely got to see her because we were gone, then I had to work on Tuesday, but the kids sure had a good time!

--the party was on Saturday, just simple this year with family mostly--

--daddy was in charge of decorations, the kids loved the door!--

--kenna sporting Zachary's birthday hat--

--we did a mexican theme with make your own quesadillas--

--couldn't get a picture with kenna and nolan....nolan looks like the flash in this picture!--

--of course he hated his hat--

--Gentrys--

--look at all the presents! We also had taco dip and home made jalapeno poppers--

--kenna was a big fan of the cupcakes and apple cake--

--after zachary got started he ate the whole cupcake!--

--he loved his #1 balloon, he just started pointing a few weeks ago and was constantly pointing up at it--

--kenna was such a great big sister helping him open his presents!--

--I think he liked the ribbons the best!--
HAPPY BIRTHDAY little man! I can't believe you are already one!!!