Think Pink!

Final Zbaraschuk score - Boys:  2    Girls:  1

We had our 20 week ultrasound this week and had positive confirmation that we were having a girl.  It was quite shocking really to think after 2 boys that we'd have a girl, especially when Karis is the youngest son of 3 boys!  But, the ultrasound tech (after repeated questionning) is quite certain that it's a girl.  Now let's hope that she was right, because this will be a bit awkward to now plan for a girl only to have a boy arrive! :)  It was exciting news, and a bit emotional as we think about all of the fun and challenges that come with raising a little girl.  Now we can begin in earnest to pick a name and re-do the nursery decor!

In other news, we had a successful weekend last week in which we FINALLY were able to get our family pictures done with Grandma B.  The weather was finally cooperative after a month of trying.  The boys were very cooperative, so we're hopeful that we got some nice pictures.  The photographer was quite clever, and would tell the boys to frown in order to break their frozen smiles before telling them to smile, so we should have at least a smattering of natural smiles in the lot!

Karis took the boys to Oak Haven farms to pick strawberries, along with a gaggle of our other friends, while Amy went down to Ikea in order to get some paraphrenalia for the boys' upcoming birthday party. While Ikea may be a cool store, it is a nightmare to get out of. It took Amy about 15-20 minutes of following the "maze" in order to actually get out of the store and by that time, she was good and mad. It was clever of them to construct their store in a way that forces the customer to walk through the entire warehouse, but seriously, not sure that it was the wisest thing to have customers steaming mad by the time they checked out!

The hired help is sitting down on the job....

A fun hayride at the end of strawberry picking

Phrase of the week:  "Dad, can you come deal with this kid!?"  This is from Zachary shouting from the living room where he wanted Karis to come take charge of mis-behaving Kaleb.  If only Mom and Dad had someone to call come deal with these kids when we've had enough! :)

Soggy Weekend

Last weekend we had many fun activities, but the Florida weather has been on a very ODD streak in that it is beautiful during the week and then on the weekends it rains.  This has been going on for about 6 weeks now, which has definitely become a problem because we've been trying to get some family pictures taken on a Sunday evening now over the past month - all to no avail.

Last weekend, no surprise, was soggy.  We went out to the park where we got rained on (thanks for the pavilion we were able to enjoy our picnic supper though) and then on Sunday we headed off to SeaWorld to celebrate Braelyn's birthday in the rain.  We literally walked around in SeaWorld ponchos (at least the kids did, because who has child-sized rain proof coats!?) all morning.  While wet, we still had a fun time with the rides and shows, and of course singing Happy Birthday to Braelyn!

Picnic Supper in the rain

Poncho Kings - thankful for the protection

The boys table at lunch

The birthday girl

 The other item this week was that Karis took the kids to Chik-Fil-A on Tuesday for Kids' Night while Amy received VIP treatment in the E&Y box at the Amway Center for the Orlando Magic game (talk about royal treatment, who wants to go to a game and sit in a regular seat anymore?)  Anyway, it was face painting night and Jennifer texted the pictures of the boys faces once complete.  Kaleb's engendered a response of "Oh, how cute!" and then Zachary's came, which generated a gasp of  "Hairy Scary!"

It's a shark! It's Kaleb!

WHO IS THAT?  It is a very scary Zachary dinosaur!  ARRR!

 Phrase of the week:  Zachary's common phrase these days when he's playing, reading, etc is to say "Come on, you can't be serious!"  He has clearly heard it from an adult and has now adopted it as his own.  It gets the point sometimes when you have to tell him to move on to another phrase because your adult brain cells are going to explode if you hear it one more time! :)   Kaleb's phrase relates to his face "shark" in which he'd ask Karis as he ate his sandwich "can you see my shark's teeth?  Is he chewing?" :)

Deer Valley Bliss

Zachary has once again discovered his love of skiing and of snow (was there ever any doubt?).  There is now no doubt in either Z-parents minds that when Zachary is an adult, he will live where it is cold and there are mountains - much to his father's delight!

We headed off on Sunday to Deer Valley, Utah for our annual ski vacation (Amy's work conference) with Johnsons and Deiningers.  Cochrans did not join us this year,  which was a disappointment to be sure.

Very enamored with Baby Erik!

Zachary was in ski school from 10A - 3:45 each day and had a blast.  No repeats of last year's dramatic "I'm not going back!" thankfully.  He is turning out to be quite a good little skier - and even though he'd be skiing all day, as soon as he returned to the condo he would want to immediately go outside and play in the snow.  Thankfully Cole wanted to do the same, so the two boys would go outside and throw snowballs at each other!

The joy of simply being in the snow!

Throwing snowballs with Cole

Getting ready for the chairlift with Dad

Zachary skiing behind his dad down the green run named "Success"

We also went to the tubing hill again, which is always fun to fly down the runs - this year they let more people go together, so the Deiningers and Zs went together for a total of six tubes flying down! :)  Great fun!

Zachary takes a picture with an adoring fan

Amy of course did not partake in any skiing or tubing this year, and enjoyed restful afternoons of reading and relaxing before heading up the mountain to pick Zachary up from ski lessons and watch him demonstrate his newfound skills.  This went swimmingly until Thursday afternoon, when she suddenly came down with the stomach flu - complete with throwing up, diarrhea and stomach cramps that could rival labor!  It was a miserable afternoon but thankfully medication was able to bring it under control to the point where she could at least start drinking Gatorade to ward off complete dehydration.  Serious praying began at this point so that she'd be able to get on the plane and head home on Friday morning.  Thankfully we were able to come home, as we were anxious to see Kaleb!

Kaleb last year at home with grandma was spent in mind-blowing fun!  They went to the Science Center twice, Gymnastics, Gym N Swim, Skating, the Butterfly Exhibit, and topped it off with the Zoo.  No time for lounging around!  They had a great time, and Grandma of course shared some funny stories which we've excerpted one below:

Last night when he was getting ready for bed, he decided he HAD to put his jammies on without a diaper. I told him he would catch his pee pee in the zipper and it would hurt.

K: "No, I won't"
G: "You better be careful then"
K: "It won't hurt, I'll push my pee pee in"
G:"You won't like it if you catch it in the zipper"
Kaleb then starts to pull up the zipper
G: "You want me to help you? You need your diaper on first."
Kaleb begins to dance a quick jig, jumping and yelling "OUCH!!!!!" (pee pee caught in zipper!!)
G: "I told you it would hurt!! You need to go pee first anyway!"
Kaleb mutters "Fine" and undresses and goes potty.

Rather than coming to get his diaper on, he puts on his jammies again,and then does a dance
chanting "It's going to hurt, It's going to hurt!!!" (but wouldn't get his diaper on)

I pulled up the zipper finally with him doing the "it's going to hurt" dance! He was happy once it got past the point of injury!!

Phrase of the week:  "You don't need to ask Mommy, you can ask me, I'm always right. " Zachary has a very confident view of his abilities at this point and believes that he now possesses all knowledge!  Kaleb's phrase is "MommyDad!" - Why bother wasting time, just call for them both and see which ones comes! :)

Good Ole' Dick and Jane

The big story for the week is that Jenn has been doing the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" with Blake and Zachary, and as of Lesson 18, we have a child who can now read simple stories on his own.  He LOVES IT!  He is catching on so fast it is totally amazing.  We were a bit stumped because a lot of our "easy" books though still have big words in them, when Karis came to the rescue and remembered the old Dick and Jane books from when we were beginning to read.  We received them in the mail today and Zachary read through one already like the expert he is! :)  Good job Zachary!

We had a special treat today when Amy came home early (not feeling great, which wasn't the special treat) and Jeff and Niesha dropped by.  Jeff has been struggling with vertigo for several months, so we were delighted to see him up and looking a bit like his normal self!  We have been coaching the boys that he isn't feeling well (to ensure that they don't pounce on him the moment they were ever to see him), but Zachary was thrilled to have Jeff sit with him on the couch and read!  Amy enjoyed the chat with Niesha while Jeff entertained Zachary!

Reading Dick and Jane

Last weekend Amy's mom had a sleepover with the boys - which almost means freedom for the parents, great fun for the boys and TERRIBLE SLEEPS for Zachary.  This time was no exception, and he had an allergy attack after going to bed that didn't subside until about 11P and then he woke up around 4A not feeling very well (which ended up being nothing).  Anyway, with such little sleep they came home a little before lunch and he ended up crashing on the couch - he slept on the couch from 1P until 4:30P!

Unfortunately for Zachary, while he slept on the couch (even after Amy tried to wake him up), we had a birthday party that we attended for Leif that he missed.  He was very disappointed when he woke up, but at the point where a Mom can't wake up the child, you just have to concede that he is plumb exhausted!

Very cute train themed party - what a good little conductor! :)

Amy had a special treat of going to watch Kaleb in his gymnastics "Parent Watch Week" - the class is HUGE this year compared to when Zachary was in it (about 10-15 some days vs max of 4!).  He is having a fun time, and loves to repeat the rhymes that she makes up (such as "Teeter, Totter, Teeter, Totter, Stick your Face in Muddy Water!" - the rhymes are things that they say as they do stretches etc - so this particular one they split their legs in a straddle and go back and forth until at the end they put their faces down on the mats in front of them and come up "sputtering" from the muddy water!")  Too cute!

Phrase of the week:  Typically our phrases are things that the boys have said, but this week it is a story on Amy.  She has been suffering from allergies (springtime is never ending here this year!) for the last 3 weeks, and has been taking Benadryl (with doctor's blessing) at night to manage the congestion/itchy throat/sneezing etc.  About 11:00 Kaleb woke up sobbing his eyes out (very unusual) and came walking across the house.  She jumped up out of bed and picked him up in the kitchen - but was so out of it that she wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next.  Thankfully Karis got up with her, and she said to him "What should I do, should I give him Benadryl?" (Benadryl apparently has become a fix-all in her mind in the middle of the night!)  Karis wisely says "No, he probably just had a bad dream."  At 12:30, Kaleb again wakes up crying and she goes to his room to comfort him - and says in a mumbled voice "Kaleb, you're okay - don't wake up again (yeah, right Mom, as if that is going to work! but it did work!!).  However, by that time, Amy couldn't fall back asleep and it wasn't until 2:30 that she finally dozed off - only to wake up at 4:30 with the fire alarm beeping......dead battery.  She is so out of it, she asks Karis what it was and he says "fire alarm, but I'm not sure that I can fix it because it is so high on the wall, I don't think that I can reach it."  He leaves the room, and comes back in after fixing it.  Amy inquires "how did you fix it"  to which he replies "I climbed the wall."  Amy is so sleep-deprived at this point that she says in amazed wonder "Wow, I didn't know you had that talent - You're Spiderman!"  There was no more sleep to be had that night, so it was a rough day after very little sleep.  In the morning, she realized that while she was married to an amazing man, he in fact wasn't Spiderman - just very resourceful!  He had pulled out a small step ladder and had then hoisted himself up onto a cross beam in our kitchen where he could then reach the fire alarm.  Nice work, but VERY THANKFUL that he didn't fall off that cross-beam in the middle of the night!

French Cuisine

Last week we had the pleasure of going over to Tangie and Allen Isidro's home for a French cuisine extravaganza.  They are known for their amazing creativity with food and entertaining, and this was no disappointment!

We had a main course of lamb and quail, along with pasta for the kids (and who are we kidding, for Amy too who is has become more and more vegetarian over the years - although she did try a little of each).  The Zs brought mini quiches (easy and yummy!), Deiningers were to thank for the yummy pasta, and Cochrans brought baked brie and an intense French green vegetable concoction.  The Cochrans are our other friends who have cooking skills that lean towards the gourmet (or cooking with flair!) side of food.  It was all delicious, and the kids had fun playing while the adults enjoyed visiting.

The next day, we woke up with a full day planned only to find that our power was out.  So, we packed up and headed over to First Watch to enjoy pancakes in another setting!  The boys were very well behaved, and it was quite enjoyable the entire time.  It used to be that waiting on the food took quite a bit of entertaining to keep everyone happy and contained, but not so much anymore!

We had original plans for getting family pictures taken with Amy's Mom that evening, but the wind did not cooperate and almost blew us away (and in fact blew the photographer's light over!) so we delayed until this week.

Always industrious (how did I get so lucky to marry such an amazing guy!), Karis has started to paint Amy's Mom's house.  It is going from a washed out, threadbare green to a creamy color.  It has been a bit of a drama with the HOA to get an approved color, so we're crossing our fingers that it all ends well with no further ado.

Phrase of the week:  "Zachary, what did you do today?"  "I kissed Calleigh today."  "What!?  What were you doing?" "We were playing "Married"  Kaleb then pipes in "Yeah, and I kissed Calleigh too!  And Evan did, and Blake was supposed to kiss Aubree, but she said No, so Blake kissed Calleigh too!"  Well now, first kiss at 3 and 5!  If this was any older we'd be having some serious conversations but hopefully this was a one time event!  Good for Aubree for protecting her virtue! :)

Learning to play the "limbo" at Adventurers last week.

SuperBowl & the Campout that Wasn't

With last week's post being the big riddle reveal, we  have a few things to catch up on!  A few weeks ago, we headed over to Cochrans for an amazing Superbowl party - completed with three TV screens - and a large gathering of friends and food.  It was an adult-only evening for the Z parents, so we enjoyed the relaxation of eating, watching TV and talking without worrying about what our children were doing. 

Blue tongue - thanks to cookies made by Ms. Jennifer!

Last weekend, we were supposed to go camping on Friday night with Cochrans, Deiningers, Biris, Vargas' and Hilliards.  However, the weather forecast showed a high chance of rain and thunderstorms, and it just didn't seem prudent to put one's family in a tent out in the middle of large trees with a chance of Florida thunderstorms, so several families ended up declining to go for the night but we headed out the next day to enjoy the weather.  Thankfully for those that decided to brave the potential risk of lightning, there ended up being only light drizzles.

As the kids were highly disappointed that we missed the campout, we let them sleep in the Thomas the Train tent on Friday night.   The adult Zs decided to sleep in the comfort of our bed, and went to sleep about 9P when we checked on the kids several times to hear only silence.  At 3A however, both boys trotted into our rooms to inform us that the tent had fallen down (because of course it isn't a REAL tent, it doesn't have anything to keep it moored in place!) - so Amy put them back to bed in their respective bedrooms.  Zachary was up at his usual 6:15A, and then sleepily informed us that it had been a "rough night" because Kaleb had been talking and kicking him so much (Kaleb is a rough sleeper!) that Zachary didn't fall asleep until 1A.  WHAT?  While the Z parents were blissfully sleeping, our eldest child was up until the wee hours of the morning.  Just GREAT!

Getting ready for his "sleep" in the tent  - poor Zachary!

  With that in mind, we stayed at home for naps before heading out to the campground.  When we arrived though the weather was lovely and we had great fun with the bike riding, and the supper outdoors, complete with smores at the end!

Kaleb and Kieran enjoying a ride

This time, Kaleb decided to be a ladies man, and hoped on with Miss Maddie!

The kids table enjoying their haystacks

Somehow Kaleb conned Ms. Vasti into holding his smores and feeding him!  What luxury!

 The next evening we went to the church for a Valentine's Dinner, which focused on dating one's spouse.  It was very inspirational and so we too have decided to re-institute a date night once a month!  It was great fun to be there with two adjacent tables filled with our friends.

For Valentine's Day itself, Grandma came to take the boys out on a date while we took the opportunity to get some take-out and head over to Crane's roost where we ate under the stores at a quaint little stone table.  It was very fun, and one of the best Valentine's  in recent years!  Kudos to Karis for his creativity!

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb was eating supper, taking his forever LONG time to eat, after which he informed Amy that he was hungry for fruit, and that he wanted strawberries.  Then, he tilts his head up, closes his eyes and informs her "And Yes, I'm very sure!"  It struck all of our funny bones, because apparently we must ask him if he's sure a lot! :)

God's Plans

The last two weeks, we've included some fun riddles in our blog - to recap they were:

1.  What bakes in an oven but does not get eaten?

2.  What gets a shower but does not get wet? 

We thought that this would be a unique way of revealing God's latest plan for our lives.  It is God's plan, and thus extra special, because this was not on our plan radar.  However, we're learning to trust that God's way is best!  So, with no further ado - the answer to the riddles - and the answer to what is happening in our lives, is revealed in the picture below.

This news has come with a lot of mental adjustments of course - but we've now had 14 weeks to wrap our minds around this new development!  Our newest Z-family member will arrive August 7th - assuming that God answers our prayers and keep this little bun in the oven instead of an early arrival that Kaleb graced us with! :)

While surprising to us, the news has also been surprising to others around us.  One especially funny response came from our Canadian family - who dressed up like they were part of the Mario Brothers and donned the appropriate SHOCKED faces (see below for proof! :)

On the other end of the spectrum, one especially sweet and touching response was Evan B's desire to give the ultimate gift to the new baby - the gift of his beloved pacifiers which he has staunchly REFUSED to give up until now.  We had a little "ceremony" in which they were all gathered into a lovely tin and presented to Amy for preparation of the baby's arrival.  AHHH! - How precious is that!?

We shared the news with our Orlando family and friends by taking the picture above and making a puzzle out of it - so when they put the puzzle together they discovered the news.  The awesome part of that is that when we announced it to our friends, at the end of that evening the Cochrans also announced that they too were expecting - with a due date 3 weeks before ours!  Perfectly timed best friends about to be born! :)

Zachary is desperately wanting a baby sister, although Kaleb is being obstinate and going against his brother to pray for a baby "brudder."  Zachary has informed Amy that if she'd only start praying NOW, that he's sure that the baby would be a girl.  He has also taken to whispering his prayer for a girl at the end of his prayers so that Kaleb can't hear and subsequently pray for a "brudder" - thereby vetoing out Zachary's prayer.

Everyone is getting excited about this new change, and with the completion of the first trimester, Amy is starting to feel a little better.  Thankfully the nausea was pretty mild, but the sleeplessness and exhaustion was pretty bad.  Little by little the energy is coming back though for which she's grateful.