i haven't even posted about our new baby boy Camden yet! but that will come as i catch up. i wanted to share these couple of pics though because it's so fun to see my children's resemblances to each other! Brady especially likes pointing out what he sees in Camden. he always says, "that Camden has the same wrinkly forehead that he did when he was a baby" (from baby pictures he has seen).
zach at a few days old
camden at a few days old
zach at a few days old camden at a few days old
too cute (even if camden had some serious jaundice going on!)
every once in a while this summer chris has gotten home from work early enough for us to take off and do something fun with the kids. this particular evening wasn't dreadfully hot. chris got home around 7:45, leaving us enough time to play at a local park for about an hour. the evening is my favorite time of day.
zach has become quite the climber this past year. he is very coordinated and loves to climb up, down and across anything. there isn't very much that holds him back, and since he has become quite skilled he has never fallen.
we like this park the best because it's in a pretty setting, has fun exploratory playground equipment with a dinosaur theme, has walking paths and a fun laser light game the kids (and daddy) enjoy playing. this park gets the wiggles out big time!!!
playing the laser game-
i can't get enough of this little guy lately it seems. most of my pictures are of him- trying to capture this fun age of excitement and exploration. he has the cutest mannerisms and little voice and i am reminded daily that {although i wish i could freeze him right here in this phase and age} that he is growing rapidly and learning how to stay up to speed with his big brother and sister.
pretty soon he won't be our baby anymore. i think he is starting to grasp the idea that a new little person will be coming to live at our house. he often says "i am big." "i am going to be a big brudder." (brother)
i love that he was potty-trained in 2 weeks. he doesn't wear diapers or pull-ups at all anymore, not even at naptime or bedtime. no accident in bed yet. a {HUGE} blessing to a momma who DID NOT want two kids in diapers at the same time!!!
i also love that he gets himself dressed and more often than not his shoes are on the wrong feet and his underwear and pants are backwards. he is fiercely independent; however. as are ALL of my children. so, wherever we go, he goes that way. no worries. he'll eventually figure out that the zipper goes in the front and not in the back and that it's actually much more comfortable to wear your clothes the right way.
he has his own sense of style too. if he's not wearing his baseball cap then he usually requests to have his hair done (spikey, like you see it the most). he also wears his shades all over the place, but mostly in the car so the sun doesn't bother his eyes.
he loves to brush his teeth every morning and night and WILL NOT let anyone help him, other than to put the toothpaste on his brush. he will scream at you otherwise. he will scream at you if he doesn't like anything you're doing to him. this can be a good and a bad thing. no stranger is ever going to get their hands on this child!
this cool dude will be 3 at the end of October, and since we have baby #4 coming mid-September we did NOT want two in diapers!
the week after we got back from our 4th of July trip we started potty-training hardcore, even though we'd been working on it a little since he turned 2. I had started potty-training with Zach at the beginning of January but soon after we found out we were moving and expecting (once morning sickness came on strong there way no way after that) and I was still doing daycare with other two and three year-olds who were all excited about using the potty too. TOO much!
anyhow, zach has been doing great! we had a rough first week where he didn't seem to understand the feeling of needing to go BEFORE he had an accident, but then it suddenly clicked one day and he goes by himself now. He has only had a few accidents at home, but we are working on when we're out and about.
we are proud of this little guy who keeps us hopping!
tonight at dinner zach finished his first helping of spaghetti and said, "more."
i said, "how do we ask for more?"
zach, "more mom!"
a few weeks ago some friends had us over for dinner and games. their little girl, who is 3 walked into the kitchen and looked at chris, then whispered to her mom: "is he a giant?"
* oh and i failed to mention in my previous post that i've also somehow been managing to run a full-time daycare since the beginning of september, most days having 5-6 EXTRA munchkins underfoot, and i mean literally underfoot! god is granting me this capability because in my small world my three dear children are usually all i can handle most days!*
today zach told me "i am zachary." this is the first time he has referred to himself with his own name before. my does it sound adorable coming out of his mouth.
later, as we're driving to dinner he starts shouting out: "that is stupid." i instantly said, "oh zach, that's not a very nice word. let's not say that word, ok?"
zach: "ok mommy. i sorry."
brady: "what word did you say zach?'
zach: "i said THAT'S STUPID!" (yelling it to brady)
it is getting so entertaining to have him pick-up on conversational speech.
this post is all about my zachy over the past year. the random pictures that i've been saving for a post just like this!
i found this picture that had gotten overlooked somehow. it's of zach at around 7 months with auntie shawnae!!! look at his bald little head and chubby cheeks!!!
1 year (things he can say...)
no, no
ball ball (he says it twice in a row)
mamma
these pictures were taken a few months after moving into our house in idaho falls. zach took a tub in the kitchen sink one day, can't remember why. when we got our piano he absolutely loved to sit and gingerly play on the keys, especially with auntie shanwnae!
sometimes we find zach wearing the funniest get-ups! like all of our kids he loves to dress-up.
uncle bryce got zach "ernie" for christmas. we often find him snuggled up in bed like this, and sometimes telling zach that it's time to get ernie to sleep is the only way to get zach asleep!
zach missed a nap on the day that we went to our friends' baby blessing and we caught it on tape that he was falling asleep in chris' lap!
21 months+
no way!
mine
no, now!
hat
car
wuter (water)
cup
schwin (swing)
nigh-nigh (night night)
hi
bye-bye
wivy (livy)
bady (brady)
just in the past few weeks Zach has really started talking and understanding so much more. He responds to questions with "I do!" or "mm, hmmm." It's so cute.
we got this ball for zach one saturday afternoon because brady and olivia frequently earn new toys when they cash in their fake dollars from our token system. we thought zach deserved some fun things as well so he got this and a new basketball hoop and baby basketball. he loves to throw and he loves balls. he carried this ball around for days, everywhere he went until somehow it got punctured and died a slow death in our backyard
in may zach learned how to get out of his crib! enter big boy bed earlier than i had planned!
a few random pictures from this past summmer:
zach's first ice cream cone
super messy face after a BBQ and eating tomato soup and grilled cheese
silly zach sometimes falls asleep in the "DARNDEST" places!!!
getting down and dirty with friend, max
zach and his cousin audrey enjoyed making music together!
when we (meaning me) were refinishing the kitchen cabinets there were several days without cupboard doors. the upper cabinets were off for several weeks but i got the bottoms done as quickly as i could to avoid zach doing this and getting poisoned!
uh-oh! one sunday afternoon zach woke up from his nap before mommy and daddy did and while bug brother and sister were "watching" him he found a sharpie and not only used his artistic skills on himself but also on our family room- he didn't miss the couch, the ottomon or the carpet. after several attempts at getting it removed from the carpet via every pinterest and google search i could find, we were still left with a dark/off-colored ring. so, i got the area rug i've been eyeing for several months! (new couches hopefully in the future...maybe in a year? would LOVE dark leather...and thank goodness i hadn't gotten around to recovering my ottoman yet!) after a lot of scrubbing, one clean baby set to go!
always getting into trouble!
yeah, i gotta say, we made a cute baby...crusty nose and all!!!
eating ice at brady's baseball game!
2 years old!!! some of his favorite sayings are:
"I know mom"
"Hi mom!"
"I jumped!" (or "Can I jump?"- he stand and wait for you to tell him yes)
"I did it!"
"leave me alone!"
"I didn't do it....Brady did (or Daddy did it)"
he can pretty much say anything, it's just whether or not you understand what he's saying!!
HaPpY BiRtHdAy ZACH!!!
we love having you in our family! you make everyday bright, happy and silly. you are developing such a fun personality that is all your own. you love to jump, sing, hear daddy make "elmo" voices, run around and laugh.
*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating! continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*
my baby's birthday was waaaaaaay back at the end of october. sadly he has not had his share of the limelight that he so deserves! he wasn't quite walking yet on his birthday, but began walking about within the first few weeks after he turned 1. he is adventurous and brave, full of spunk, laughter and cuddles. he is learning words but does not like to use them!
zach LOVED to play with this kitchen set but it was ALWAYS a mess and underfoot. when we found out we were moving i packed it all up and sold the kitchen. i have wicked plans to make an new one for olivia under the built-in bunkbed in the playroom!
he also spent many hours back and forth, back and forth, in this swing. he absolutely loved it and would chill there for hours without hardly a peep. he loved to watch me mow the lawn, or weed or sweep or clean or watch everyone eat at the patio table...let's just hope that maybe he loves it as much this year? i have a TON of yard work to do!!!
he is often found dumping out drawers, stealing the tupperware, biting the lids and being altogether cute and rascally at the same time!!!
Birthday Party
i promised myself that i was going to keep things simple for zach's party. i have a tendency to go over-the-top. yeah, it's a confession. in lieu of wiping myself out in exhaustion like i usually do as the party-prepping queen of madness, i made a simple banner, strung up some balloons, and pulled out my trusty chalkboards for decor. the cake was even simple, two-tiered with rainbow chip frosting and a tiny little bunting.
i also "went a little over-the-top" by making a "first birthday" onesie. well....he had to have SOMETHING special to wear!
zach got his own cupcake. i'm not into giving a baby a whole cake...that's a bit, ummm, ridiculous to me.
starting out cautious, "you mean i can eat a whole cupcake mom?!" ...then, "Mmmmmm, this is tasty!"
to sheer delight....
to a thoughtful stage of wondering, "where has my cupcake gone?"....followed by the rage of knowing that there is no more!
we had quite a few good friends and family over to celebrate zach's milestone with us. earlier in the day we got a visit from grammie and grandpa graf, and aunties shawnae and chelsae. we opened our special delivery from aunt nickie, uncle nick and the girls. out popped a bunch of balloons! best. idea. ever! there was also a cute ball popper hidden amongst the colorful orbs!
he also got a big ball popper from grammie and grandpa graf. (like my facial expression?!)
picture for zach from cousin, Lexi and from friend, Lily
i also spent a little (ok, waaaay to much time) making these cute bean bags. they weren't hard, but i played around with with fabric color scraps i wanted to use and then had to cut out all of the numbers in black felt and i hand stitched them on with a blanket stitch. z
zach didn't really get the concept of throwing them into the bucket, but hopefully before too long he'll like to play with them and we practice colors and numbers together.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!
you have made our family so much happier with your cheesy smile, contagious giggles, rascally ways, chubby cuteness and snuggle buggles!
.JPG)
