We rode on the train, which Zach thought was pretty cool:
Visited the petting zoo
and took a hayride
In the end, we picked out a couple of pumpkins and called it a day.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Pumpkin Patch
The weekend before Halloween, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and visit a local pumpkin patch.
We rode on the train, which Zach thought was pretty cool:
Visited the petting zoo
and took a hayride
In the end, we picked out a couple of pumpkins and called it a day.
We rode on the train, which Zach thought was pretty cool:
Visited the petting zoo
and took a hayride
In the end, we picked out a couple of pumpkins and called it a day.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Random Zach Moments
It's amazing how fast babies grow up, isn't it? I've been amazed how much Zach has changed just in the past 4 or 5 months.. totally insane.
So.. here are a few of my favorite Zach moments over the past few months:
Mom finally got enough guts to actually give him is first 'real' haircut. Here he is (not smiling, of course -- there's a camera) showing off his new 'do:
He LOVES helping with housework, with mopping being his hand-down favorite. I even altered my swiffer so he had a 'mop' of his own. Oh if only this fascination with housework will last...
He has a recent fascination with bicycles. So.. I got his tricycle out so he could start to try and ride it. He loves getting on/off but has yet to master the whole pedaling concept. He must have been watching all the other OTHER bicycle riders, because he insists on wearing his helmet when he's outside playing with his tricycle, and for the first few days, he wore it a fair bit inside as well. Just can't get enough of that helmet. Oh well.. you're never too young to practice good safety habits.... right???
He went to his first Home Depot Kid's Workshop in October. Daddy's dream come true -- they built a helicopter together and he was totally adorable in his little orange apron.
We went to the go-kart races in downtown Lancaster where we got to see very cool 'race' cars. He wasn't convinced at first -- they were a little loud, but he was definitely hooked by the time the last race was going. He kept telling me about the race cars for days...
and he even made it onto the front page of the local newspaper (cuz he's so darn cute.. right?? Especially when he refuses to smile...)
Once the weather finally cooled off (he wore a polo shirt to church all summer because the Nursery room is terrible in the summer), we got to break out his spiffy suit. He looked so grown up..
Finally.. here he is doing one of his most favorite things -- 'riding' on Daddy's tractor. I like this shot because it looks like he actually knows what he's doing. ;-)
So.. here are a few of my favorite Zach moments over the past few months:
Mom finally got enough guts to actually give him is first 'real' haircut. Here he is (not smiling, of course -- there's a camera) showing off his new 'do:
He LOVES helping with housework, with mopping being his hand-down favorite. I even altered my swiffer so he had a 'mop' of his own. Oh if only this fascination with housework will last...
He has a recent fascination with bicycles. So.. I got his tricycle out so he could start to try and ride it. He loves getting on/off but has yet to master the whole pedaling concept. He must have been watching all the other OTHER bicycle riders, because he insists on wearing his helmet when he's outside playing with his tricycle, and for the first few days, he wore it a fair bit inside as well. Just can't get enough of that helmet. Oh well.. you're never too young to practice good safety habits.... right???
He went to his first Home Depot Kid's Workshop in October. Daddy's dream come true -- they built a helicopter together and he was totally adorable in his little orange apron.
We went to the go-kart races in downtown Lancaster where we got to see very cool 'race' cars. He wasn't convinced at first -- they were a little loud, but he was definitely hooked by the time the last race was going. He kept telling me about the race cars for days...
and he even made it onto the front page of the local newspaper (cuz he's so darn cute.. right?? Especially when he refuses to smile...)
Once the weather finally cooled off (he wore a polo shirt to church all summer because the Nursery room is terrible in the summer), we got to break out his spiffy suit. He looked so grown up..
Finally.. here he is doing one of his most favorite things -- 'riding' on Daddy's tractor. I like this shot because it looks like he actually knows what he's doing. ;-)
Project Completions
I mentioned back in the spring that this was the year of 'projects' -- and that it's been, with the biggest one being the shop we were building on the back part of our property. Now that we're nearing the end of the year, we've completed them all.
The garden was finally built in Mid-May and planted (All those milk jugs are attempting to protect my tender tomato plants from the AV wind):
Miraculously, in spite of wind, watering issues and, well, the fact that I was actually trying to GROW something (what was I thinking?), the plants did, in fact, start to grow:
We had our first harvest in Mid-June:
and, in spite of the rabbits killing everything else, we had more tomatoes, peppers and squash than we knew what to do with. In fact, it kept producing up until Halloween when we went through and picked everything prior to the first frost.
Amazing. Something I planted actually produced edible food. I learned a ton and will definitely be doing a few things differently next year, but as an overall, I'd count it as a definite success.
OK.. now for the shop.. the framing was completed in May and the stucco went on in Mid-June:
It then took us a few months of endless work to finally complete the electrical, the grading around the building, and all the other interior details needed to get a final inspection buy-off. We finally accomplished it and were officially 'finaled' on September 13th. We've been boxing up and moving stuff out there ever since. Chad has been busily trying to organize his area and hopefully once this baby is here and we've gotten over that shock, I can get out there and do some organizing in mine. The interior is still pretty rough.. but at least all the big stuff is DONE!!
The garden was finally built in Mid-May and planted (All those milk jugs are attempting to protect my tender tomato plants from the AV wind):
Miraculously, in spite of wind, watering issues and, well, the fact that I was actually trying to GROW something (what was I thinking?), the plants did, in fact, start to grow:
We had our first harvest in Mid-June:
and, in spite of the rabbits killing everything else, we had more tomatoes, peppers and squash than we knew what to do with. In fact, it kept producing up until Halloween when we went through and picked everything prior to the first frost.
Amazing. Something I planted actually produced edible food. I learned a ton and will definitely be doing a few things differently next year, but as an overall, I'd count it as a definite success.
OK.. now for the shop.. the framing was completed in May and the stucco went on in Mid-June:
It then took us a few months of endless work to finally complete the electrical, the grading around the building, and all the other interior details needed to get a final inspection buy-off. We finally accomplished it and were officially 'finaled' on September 13th. We've been boxing up and moving stuff out there ever since. Chad has been busily trying to organize his area and hopefully once this baby is here and we've gotten over that shock, I can get out there and do some organizing in mine. The interior is still pretty rough.. but at least all the big stuff is DONE!!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
30 Weeks
The week after we got back from vacation, we had our 30 week ultrasound. All looked good and we got some pretty good 3-D shots.
Vacation!
Over Labor Day weekend, we took a few days and went up to Angel's Camp in the northern California foothills. We spent 3 days there doing a little exploring around town, up at the Calavaras Big Trees State Park, and a through a few of the neighboring areas. Nothing too exciting, just a nice low-key few days to relax and enjoy a different part of CA..
From there, we drove to Monterey where Chad had a conference at the end of the week. We always love going up there and took the opportunity to take Zach to the Aquarium. He, of course, loved it. I think he couldn't imagine a place that had THAT many fish!!
(As a side-note.. I have to explain that Zach has decided that looking at the camera is totally beneath him -- much less smiling. So.. while you'll have to take my word that he is still a VERY happy kid -- I have no pictures to prove it)
Overall it was a nice relaxing trip, and to make it even better - Zach traveled like a champ. It was a lot of driving in a very short period and he was amazing the entire time.
From there, we drove to Monterey where Chad had a conference at the end of the week. We always love going up there and took the opportunity to take Zach to the Aquarium. He, of course, loved it. I think he couldn't imagine a place that had THAT many fish!!
(As a side-note.. I have to explain that Zach has decided that looking at the camera is totally beneath him -- much less smiling. So.. while you'll have to take my word that he is still a VERY happy kid -- I have no pictures to prove it)
Overall it was a nice relaxing trip, and to make it even better - Zach traveled like a champ. It was a lot of driving in a very short period and he was amazing the entire time.
Catch-Up (and a little Backtrack)
OK.. in a hope to get this thing up to date before the baby comes and destroys all hope of doing so, I am going to (hopefully) post quite a few posts in the coming days. This will hopefully give me a clean slate to go on once she gets here. At least that's the hope. Besides.. I really should be less of a blog slacker... We'll see..
So.. before I can catch up, I need to pick up a few loose ends. In going through my pictures, I realized that I missed two rather important Summer trips.
The first was a trip to AZ where we went out to Lake Mead for the day on Chad's cousin's Pontoon boat. While he wasn't a huge fan of the life vest we made him wear, Zach LOVED being on the water and even loved being in the water -- in spite of it being FREEZING cold. We were afraid that he wouldn't even go in. In order to prove us completely wrong -- he ran right in and fell down face first into it and came up laughing. It really was a beautiful morning out on the water and a refreshing break from the every day. We enjoyed our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson as well before heading back home.
The second was Zach's first trip to the beach. We went to El Capitan up by Santa Barbara for the ward campout in mid-July. We took Lindsey with us (since they were visiting from TX), and went up early in the day so we could get in some beach time. Zach loved the water and playing in the sand.
By the end of the afternoon, he was covered inside and out with sand (he decided eating it was fun too), but he had a blast and that's all that really matters -- right?
So.. before I can catch up, I need to pick up a few loose ends. In going through my pictures, I realized that I missed two rather important Summer trips.
The first was a trip to AZ where we went out to Lake Mead for the day on Chad's cousin's Pontoon boat. While he wasn't a huge fan of the life vest we made him wear, Zach LOVED being on the water and even loved being in the water -- in spite of it being FREEZING cold. We were afraid that he wouldn't even go in. In order to prove us completely wrong -- he ran right in and fell down face first into it and came up laughing. It really was a beautiful morning out on the water and a refreshing break from the every day. We enjoyed our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson as well before heading back home.
The second was Zach's first trip to the beach. We went to El Capitan up by Santa Barbara for the ward campout in mid-July. We took Lindsey with us (since they were visiting from TX), and went up early in the day so we could get in some beach time. Zach loved the water and playing in the sand.
By the end of the afternoon, he was covered inside and out with sand (he decided eating it was fun too), but he had a blast and that's all that really matters -- right?
Monday, August 22, 2011
Water Baby: Part II
So.. last summer I posted Zach's first pictures in the pool. He loved the water then, and nothing has changed.
I signed him up for an 'Infant Survival' and 'Baby Swim' class this summer because I just really felt that with the pool in the backyard, my kids should learn to swim as early as possible. He LOVES it and has been progressing amazingly well for how young he is and the short time we've been doing it.
I had to drive 70 miles round trip once a week for four months (there were no baby swim programs in this valley, so I had to drive down to Santa Clarita), which was a huge time/gas commitment. However -- I'm extremely glad I did it -- the results have been amazing.
Without any sort of flotation device, Zach can jump from the steps and 'swim' a short distance, jump off the side of the pool and turn around (and ALMOST grab the side -- he's just not quite strong enough), if pointed toward the steps, he can swim to them, pull himself up and get out of the pool, he's pretty close to floating on his own, and with a little help he can even dive for rings off the bottom of the pool.
Now, granted, his swimming isn't the most graceful or the most efficient.. but the point is that he can do it. We can work on all that other stuff later when he has a few more motor skills.
I signed him up for an 'Infant Survival' and 'Baby Swim' class this summer because I just really felt that with the pool in the backyard, my kids should learn to swim as early as possible. He LOVES it and has been progressing amazingly well for how young he is and the short time we've been doing it.
I had to drive 70 miles round trip once a week for four months (there were no baby swim programs in this valley, so I had to drive down to Santa Clarita), which was a huge time/gas commitment. However -- I'm extremely glad I did it -- the results have been amazing.
Without any sort of flotation device, Zach can jump from the steps and 'swim' a short distance, jump off the side of the pool and turn around (and ALMOST grab the side -- he's just not quite strong enough), if pointed toward the steps, he can swim to them, pull himself up and get out of the pool, he's pretty close to floating on his own, and with a little help he can even dive for rings off the bottom of the pool.
Now, granted, his swimming isn't the most graceful or the most efficient.. but the point is that he can do it. We can work on all that other stuff later when he has a few more motor skills.
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