Three Month Photo Session

This week is dedicated to Addison's 3 month photo shoot - we ended up getting a Groupon for Pwnage Studios where we could get the CD of all of the pictures (LOVE Groupon! :)).  Two photographers came to the house, and we were able to get some cute pictures.  She is growing so quickly, so we are thankful to be able to capture these moments!  She still has blue eyes (not yet showing signs of changing!), and her hair is brown with some lighter glints in there, so who knows what her hair will end up.  In her list of accomplishments this week, she has learned to roll over from her back to her tummy (only going to the left side though!).  She still loves to blow bubbles with her lips, and is beginning to reach for the things above her when she's on the activity mat.

Miss Gianna Mae

We are excited to announce the arrival of our niece Gianna Mae Zbaraschuk to proud parents Korey and Rachel.  She arrived on December 8 at 4:05AM - the interesting to note is that is Gram-Z's birthday AND the oldest Zbaraschuk grandchild Miss Emily!  What are the odds that in the group of 7 cousins that two of them would share a birthday with their grandma!  Wow!  She was 7 lbs 14 ounces and 21 inches long.

Thankfulness

It was truly a Happy Thanksgiving in the Z-household.  We have been very blessed this year with the birth of Addison, happy healthy kids (did we just jinx ourselves by saying that?), and a visit from the Z-grandparents!

Some serious soccer action with Papa Z!

We started off last Thanksgiving holiday with a yummy-to-the-tummy meal over at Johnsons, along with Deiningers, and our whole clan.  There were 15 in all, as Kent's parents were there, Karis' parents and Amy's mom.  It was their inaugural time using the dining room table, so that was exciting.

Kaleb holding Eric in a pretend "side-car" as Luke pushed them both around!

The next day, Karis and the fam, sans Amy and Addison, headed off to meet the Cochrans and Johnsons at the corn maze.  It's our third year of attending and the corn was so short this year that it only was about 5 feet tall - not too hard to do the maze in those conditions! :)  Faithful readers of this blog may remember that last year at the maze, Kaleb was doing the zipline and slammed the end - after which he lost a line of hair.  This year when he talked about going to the maze, he very soberly informed Amy that he was "not going on the zipline, because I don't want to lose my hair!"  Apparently he too was traumatized by the experience as much as Mommy was, because he remembered it all on his own!

Zachary flying along on the zipline - and Kaleb came next even with the trauma of losing his hair last year (although of course Mommy had given Daddy STRICT instructions that he would stand at the end of the zipline and catch each child before they could hit the end of the zipline - to save the hair at all costs!!!)

A Papa-Z's delight - Kaleb on a tractor!

How do we say PROUD - Kaleb catching his first fish!

Sabbath we put our on party hats again to celebrate William's birthday out at the park .  Jenn made a yummy cake - mmm, mouth is still remembering how delicious it was.  The kids had fun playing and we were off in a separate isolated section of the park, so it was quite private which was fun.

Addison and the birthday boy!

Hanging out with our daytime Mommy!

In true Karis "Mr Productive Man" fashion, he decided that with his Dad here, he would tackle painting our house.  We kept it the same color - who are we kidding, the Z's take forever to make decorating choices (or not at all) and who wants to have to get permission from the HOA board?  It was just easy to paint it the same.  He got a paint sprayer, and between his Dad taping and his spraying, they finished the majority of the house (except for the trim) in one day.  Major difference from the last time that we did it where it took 8 people working all day, plus Karis working on other days to tape and prepare the house.  So, the sprayer seems to be a winner!

The boys needed to clean up some paint off the driveway, so were getting water for their bucket one tiny glassfull at a time!  Ha ha - it took forever before Mommy took pity on them and got a hose! :)

Last weekend, we also put up our Christmas tree - which is wild excitement for the kids.  They were really excited about putting up the Christmas ornaments.  It marks the beginning as well of the nightly "Christmas Light Pageant" as Daddy and the boys drive around looking at various Christmas lights on the homes.

Phrase of the week: Mommy, I just LOVE pulling out my teeth!  Please Zachary, don't pull them out before they're ready - how will you eat!!? :) Zachary has now lost his third tooth - top right one - he yanked it out all on his own! Kaleb's constant phrase this week has been "I am going to bake with Gram-Z!  What fun!


Zachary has now lost three teeth - looks like a hockey player! :)

Notice that Kaleb has on his protective eyewear for the serious business of baking butter horns with Gram-Z!

O Where Art Thou!?

Instead of O Romeo, Where Art Thou? - the Zbaraschuks are shouting O Camera, Where Art Thou?  We have completely lost our little camera - the camera that we use for most of our pictures because it is small enough to grab and take pictures wherever we are.  We had it on Tuesday because we took pictures of the Z grandparents playing with the kids, but now it has completely disappeared.  Could it have been raptured!?  Ha ha - just teasing!  We have been tearing the house apart, but it will probably show up in the oddest place at the end of the day. 

With that in mind, this post may not have pictures from last weekend, but we'll resurrect some previously downloaded pictures that we have not included before and hopefully have some pictures again next weekend from our other camera.

As mentioned, we have been enjoying a visit with Papa-Z and Gram-Z this week.  They arrived on Tuesday and have been the delight of the kids since then.  Papa-Z has been run ragged with soccer, hockey, table hockey, riding bikes, etc with Zachary.  Kaleb has been conning them into playing hide-and-seek, playing under blankets, baking buns with Gram-Z and imaginative play.  Of course Addison just soaks up being held and cuddled as much as possible! :)

Last weekend we headed off to the FH Gala, complete with Martina McBride this year. Sadly, this year for whatever reason we were lacking in energy and enthusiasm to attend - perhaps it is the sleep exhaustion and just busy-ness of life right now.  Thankfully when we got there, we kicked up our energy levels a notch and had a really lovely time both visiting people out in the silent auction area as well as at our table.  Karis was egging Amy on to bid on a live auction trip to Holland under the guise of her 40th birthday (which thankfully is NOT this next year! :)) but she was not to be persuaded.

The second week back to work is a vast improvement over the first week.  Thankfully the mental toughness is starting to kick back in, so instead of coming home to be a crying mess, Amy is starting to find her footing again and managing to keep it together-thanks for the prayers!  Milk supply is still a concern but with a prayer she keeps making it through one day at a time.  Addison is growing well, so that concern is starting to ebb away.

Phrase of the week:  Mommy, can I have some of your chapLICK?  (aka chapstick?!)  Kaleb just loves to have chapstick on, so is always asking to have some - and Mommy thinks that it is too cute to correct his word skills! :)  Mommy, I spelled "boarders" for 57 points!  Zachary loves to play "Words with Friends" with his Dad on the Ipad, and is becoming a crazy-good speller.  Often though he'll just try different letter combinations to see if he can get a "hit" on a true word, but once he figures out a word he tends to remember it for future games.


Zachary playing soccer with Kaleb and being VERY PATIENT and kind - letting Kaleb score and encouraging him!  Such a good big brother!

Zachary desperately wanting to get on the roof - which his Mother outlawed even though his Father thought it was fine!?  Poll for other moms - would you let your 6 and 4 year olds get on the roof?  Perhaps I'm too protective?

Playing in the sandbox - Zachary would play in it a lot, but Kaleb has been only been in it a few times.

Hmm - not sure that the bassinet is intended for two big boys! :)

Preparing their garden for the next crop...

Intrigued by that cute girl in the mirror up above her head! :)

A Little Wiggle Help

What are brothers for?  Certainly to lend a hand when needed, right!?  Zachary of course is in the stage of losing his teeth.  He has his mother's mouth, which means that his bottom teeth are coming in behind his baby teeth, which kind of makes it hard to get the baby teeth out as they aren't actually being pushed out by the adult teeth!  So one night at supper, Kaleb decided to help Zachary out by wiggling his baby tooth for him!  It was super funny!  Zachary did manage to lose his second tooth this week (certainly helped by Kaleb's wiggling we're sure!)


Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!

Amy had the pleasure last Friday of attending another field trip with Zachary and Kaleb to the play "Chasing George Washington."  It was fun, and hopefully the kids learned a thing or two about the White House and our past presidents! 


The Bs and the Zs - they look at stair steps in this picture, although Blake and Zachary are about the same height (some leaning is occurring with Blake in this picture!)

The first week at work has been difficult for Amy - her milk supply with this pregnancy has been difficult to maintain (thus frequent pumping sessions etc while she was at home) and with going back to work with the fact that it is hard to pump at work and the additional stress, the milk supply has been going down.  This of course adds more stress.  But, Amy's mom had some good words of counsel, which were basically "You're doing all you can, just keep it up and if you have to give her formula, it won't be the end of the world and you'll know that you gave it your best effort!"  It is Amy's fervent prayer that we can at least make it to 7 months as she'd like to start Addison on food around that time (which is about the same time as the boys, with Kaleb actually being age-adjusted about 8 months old) and avoid the formula, but we'll see.  Work is stressful as it is the busiest time of year, and there are some major projects going on that feel like landmines about to blow - but one day at a time....

Karis on the other hand has been, as expected, an exceptional stay-at-home Daddy!  Addison has been constantly amazing him with her happy-go-lucky nature (can we hard-wire this happiness into her so that we don't have a lot of female drama later?  If anyone knows how, please let us know!).   Kaleb has had a fun time as well, although one day - much to Karis' chagrin - all he did was ask to go to Grandma's house - and this was after spending most of Tuesday with her!  Gotta love Grandmas! :)


3 months old!

School is going very well as expected for Zachary, and one of the things that receives a lot of focus on in Kindergarten is reading time.  He reads so well right now (we're guessing in the 2nd - 3rd grade level) that this is pretty easy.  If the kids read 300 minutes per month, they get a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut each month.  Zachary was so proud to get his first personal pizza!  They also had a very fun learning series that they just finished where they learned about various parts of the world as they put together the various ingredients of an apple pie!  Did you know that one place that cinnamon comes from is the kurundu tree in Sri Lanka?  We didn't!  This all culminated in the actual baking of the apple pie in class (yum!) and then when the lapbook came home with the recipe, Daddy made it with the boys at home (double yum!).

Personal Pizza is Perfect!

The chefs!

Kaleb continues to participate in his soccer class on Thursday mornings - although he adamantly states that he does NOT want to go - and why you ask?  Because he doesn't want to sweat!  What is it with sweating in this household?  Zachary was the same way at this age, but now has outgrown that to a point where sweating is just part and parcel of playing hard!  The soccer class is inside, and the teacher has them playing all kinds of games to help them learn listening, balance, aim, speed etc.  It is quite clever, and he has a very fun time when he actually gets there (and doesn't actually sweat that often! :))


Kaleb is in the orange jersey as he is "it" for freeze tag!  Lots of running - leads to sweating! :)

Phrase of the week:  Whoopsy-Doozie!  This was a phrase that Kaleb uttered when something didn't go as he had planned - it was hilarious and of course we didn't correct him on what the phrase should have been!

Karis bought a new hockey stick for Zachary (for our little hockey set that Auntie Lorie sent us a year ago!) - anyway, look at the HUGE BOX that it came in - how ridiculous!

Hi Ho, It's Off to Work Shes Goes!

Does she remember how to work?  Do they remember that she works there after being gone 4 1/2 months?  Will they notice when her head hits the desk in a comatose state of exhaustion?  What is she going to miss out on at home when she returns to work?  These are all questions that are going through Amy's mind as she prepares to go back to work on Monday!  It is an exciting time - Amy is blessed that she loves what she does and the people that she works with, but also a time of mixed emotions as she gears up to be back in land of the working world and leaving her sweet little people at home.

On the other side, Karis is now officially on leave for the next three months - lucky dog!  He gets to enjoy her as she becomes ever more alert (without the "joys" of nursing and pumping every 3 hours while juggling keeping the baby happy and the boys entertained while sitting in a chair for an extended period of time!).  He'll have the boys with him as well a few mornings when Zachary isn't at school and Kaleb isn't out at gymnastics and soccer etc.  Kaleb and Zachary will still go to Jennifer's on Mondays to do their "art" because we are SO NOT crafty and to enjoy playing with Blake and Evan - but the rest of the time they'll be at home when they aren't at home/activities.

This morning Karis pretty much summed up our life with Addison by commenting "She is just the most happy baby, she hardly ever cries, and just gives you these whole body excited smiles when she sees you - this is amazing!"   She truly is amazing - as long as we keep her fed and get her down for naps on time (currently still about 75-90 minutes of awake time), she is as happy as a lark.  She has mastered blowing bubbles this week, and loves to make the sound and of course cover herself with drool as she blows bubbles!  Also, she has started to be coordinated enough to actually rub her eyes at a bit when she's tired.  And of course, there are the "whole body quivers of delight" when she gets excited to see you as she wiggles, grins and of course shows off those dimples! :)  Her eyes still at this point do not show any change from blue.....wondering if she may be the only one in our family with blue eyes!  Wow!  She is going to bed around 7:30P with a dream feed bottle around 9:30 and then we typically wake her up between 7A-7:30A.  We're lucky parents to be sure!


Our little sleeping beauty

 Last week we went out to the Adventurers campout - although just for the day.  The boys had a fantastic time playing and enjoying themselves on a beautiful 80 degree day.  Although Daddy was not feeling so great - at one point he ended up at the van while Amy was feeding Addison and said "I'm cold" and put on his JACKET!  Immediately she knew......Karis was sick!!  Yep - sure enough, he had gotten a fever and was down for the count for the next 24 hours of so.  Thankfully Amy has not gotten it yet, although we're tempting fate again as Karis got a slight cold at the end of this week as well although it does not seem to be progressing much past a stuffy nose.

Riding bikes out at Kelly Park

Last Friday, Amy took the boys out to a field trip with the school to the Orlando Art Museum where they learned about archaeologists and artifacts.  Unfortunately it ended up a bit on a low point as Zachary touched an art exhibit and was asked not to touch it, and ended up being embarrased and uncooperative the rest of the time.  On the other hand, Kaleb walked around holding the hand of a much older girl that he'd just met (she took him under her wing!) and was loathe to leave when it was time!  Karis would be so pleased to see Kaleb holding hands with a girl after all of his recent  "girly" moments of wanting to be Mary in Sabbath School (complete in all pink outfit), yelling in story-time that his favorite color is PINK! with his arms thrown wide open in the air, and informing us that he wanted a "blue purse" like Grandma's for Christmas.



Learning about artifacts and how to go on a dig!

Phrase of the week:  A few weeks ago, we reported that Zachary had lost his first tooth.  What we forgot to mention is his comment the next morning when he got the "loot" for his lost tooth (again, the Z parents don't typically tell the kids that these make-believe characters are real, but thought it would be fun to at least give him a a $1 even though we didn't tell him that the tooth fairy existed).  Anyway, so when he came out to the kitchen table and saw his $1, his first comment was "I thought it would be FIVE dollars!?"  What?  Is this inflation or what?! :)  Kaleb's phrase is "I ate a little cras-berries!"  This is translated to mean, I ate some craisins! :) 

Zachary has graduated to using the grass blower all by himself!

Showing off his gymnastics skills

King of the World!

This week, one of the phrases that Kaleb could  be heard shouting was "King of the World" as he and Evan stood in Jennifer's van with their heads poking out of the open window and arms thrown open wide.  It was as if they were auditioning for the remake of the Titanic!  Jennifer and I were both stumped as to how they even knew that phrase (Evan had been the originator of the phrase) - but Evan answered that he heard his cousin say it!  It was awfully funny, so we were able to capture a picture of the two cute munchkins as well.

Zachary started playing intramural soccer at FLEEC a few weeks ago, and is enjoying it very much.  He has become a bit of a soccer fanatic after the Olympics, so this is right up his alley.  Blake and Luke are both on the same team, so it makes it even more fun.  Thankfully, it is perfect timing after he gets out of school at Champion Prep - although once Amy goes back to work, Jennifer will be taking him on the days that Grandma can't come watch Kaleb and Addison while they nap.  Can we just say once again how lost we'd be without Jennifer!?  We love you Jenn!

Zachary as goalie, stopping the ball! Good save!

Amusing himself as he watched his brother play soccer - remembering the days when he used to travel in this car seat!

Another audience participant!

Even Mom has been convinced to play soccer on the back porch!

Another blessing that has occurred over the last month that may not have been previously recorded in our "life's dairy" is the fact that Amy's mom has officially retired from working.    And not a moment too soon!  She has been crazy busy since then, with the fact that Aunt Louise had her knee operated on and has needed some chauffeur services AND the fact that we have taken advantage of her Grandma babysitting skills many a time to come over and watch the kids while we go out for whatever reason.  We are doubly thankful that her career at FH ended with her working up in the Maitland area, which precipitated her moving from a 30 minute drive away from us to only a short 5 minute commute!  What would we do without Grandma!?  Kaleb particularly now is daily asking for his Grandma to come over, he's loving it!

November is a month to celebrate Thanksgiving, and this post is clearly a thankful themed post!  We are thankful that Addison is completely back on track with her daytime and nighttime sleep habits.  Her naps are now back to a 90 minute nap (except for the last nap of the day which tends to be short, making the desired early bedtime achievable, so we aren't complaining!), and she's back to her happy self.  However, during our time of trying to figure out how to fix the napping issue, we completed the sleep training - translation - instead of helping her go to sleep by holding her (inward facing with face buried in our elbows with either a jiggling or rocking motion for literally only a few minutes before she'd be dead to the world), we have started to put her down to go to sleep on her own.  It took about 1 day (how easy was that!) and now she goes to sleep on her own within a max of 10 minutes.  Easy peasy! 


Gotta love the dimples!

We completed a major "to-do" this week by getting Addison's birth announcements out in the mail - what a relief to have that done before Amy has to go back to work on Nov 12th.  Where did the time go!?  So, check your mailboxes, you should be receiving them soon!

The boys had a short-lived (another thing to be thankful for!) fever this week - lasting 1 day for Zachary and 2 days for Kaleb.  But, we laid low for those days and just tried to take it easy.

Literally laying low! :)

Lastly, the post would not be complete without a final wrap-up of the house "soap opera."  We mentioned last week the trials and travails that we were having with the appraisals and the fact that our mortgage broker and realtor had both recommended that we offer a "cash" price using the low first appraisal (so basically how much cash would we put in above that value above what we could get a loan for).  We did that, and the owner was basically not willing to come down to meet that first cash offer, or our final "cash" offer which we gave last Friday.  That same Friday, we received word that the buyers on our house had decided to go elsewhere, understandable after a two week wait!  With all of those things coming together, we felt that our prayers had been answered by either a "Not now, or not this house" and we felt at peace with sending the contract cancellation notice after she did not accept the last offer.  Amy is thankful (a lot of things to be thankful for in this post!) that she does not have to spend the last two weeks of her maternity leave in the stress of showing the house again and instead can just enjoy the time with Addison.  As well, it is so nice not to have to move during the busiest time of the year for her at work.

Phrase of the week:   Kaleb has been enjoying playing with his backpack and one evening asked Amy "Do you know where my "pack-pack" is, and my two lizard friends (two little play lizards) Kaleb and Kieran?"  Too cute on both accounts! Zachary's saying came this week while discussing soccer when he informed Amy that "My soccer team is not very good - some of the kids are too little and some of them are just not trained!"  Who knew that kindergarten kids were expected to be trained!? :)