Ask Me How My Morning Is Going.....

As we transitioned back to normal life after our company left us, we had two mornings that were particularly troublesome.

The first morning - Kaleb and Zachary were the issue - sleeping in, not cooperating, creating moments of crisis from things like unacceptable socks (too thick!), shoes (there is a string in my shoe!), shirts (there is a tag in that one, there is a cuff on the wrist on that one!)  By the time that we got ourselves together, we were actually late getting Zachary to school!  To put that in perspective, we usually leave the house by 8:15 at the latest, but this morning - we didn't leave until 9A!!!

The next morning however, we had an altogether equally frustrating experience but it was all at the hands of Addison.  Amy has been working extremely long hours as it is year-end close, but that night she actually had a bit more sleep, so while the morning was frustrating, it was actually met with amusement rather than "pull-my-hair out irritation!"  First, Amy got Addison up and dressed for the day and then went into her room to actually get dressed herself in a work suit and then out the door we go....  She walked out, to discover that Addison had climbed up onto the bathroom counter (chair was too close to the counter!) and crawled over to sit in the sink where she was happily sitting IN the sink, chewing on Karis' toothbrush.  While that is gross enough, what really took the cake was that she had turned on the water faucets as she sat in the sink, so was sitting in a lovely cascading waterfall!  Happy as a clam!   Outfit change #2 for the day.....

After changing Addison, Amy went into Zachary's room to help get him ready to leave, and when she walked out, she was met with this scene......

Umm, never have we seen this type of mischief before with our two boys.....thankfully the water was clean in the toilet!  And then you ask, how did she manage this - did she lift the lid?  Did she climb up and then down?  Unsolved mysteries... Outfit change number 3 coming up.....

After outfit #3, we gathered ourselves to get out the door, so while Amy was getting the food and bags etc, she walked out into the garage to get into the car, to discover that Addison had found a bucket full of beach sand (from our Christmas holiday excursion), and had dumped it all over herself!!!  You must be kidding me!!!  At this point, practicality won out - she was picked up, brushed off (now sand all over Amy as well....who cares about a little sand on you at work!!!) and off they went!  The wheels definitely were off the bus this morning!!!

Phrase of the week:  As we drove away from this disastrous morning, Amy said something about the wheels falling off the bus - to which Kaleb responds "What bus?"  Zachary then says "We have to put that on the blog!" and Kaleb replies "Why?" Zachary informs him "We put precious things on the blog!"  Yes, we do! :)

The second cute interaction happened at Chik-Fil-A - Amy took Kaleb out on a "date night" just himself this week.  It was frigid again (okay, the weather can't decide what it wants to do - 70-80s one day, and then 50s the next!), so we had on coats etc.  As we were getting ready to leave, we were talking about our coats keeping us warm and he asked why they keep us warm. Amy replied that it was the insulation in the coat.  Kaleb asked "what is interlation!?"

Christmas Holidays - Family Pictures

This is our last Christmas post, before going on with "normal" life, but we took the opportunity to try and capture family pictures while the whole Z-gang was here.  It is hard with 15 people, including two babies, to try and get a decent picture - so a few of these pictures are creations of Photoshop - taking from 4-5 separate pictures to try and make one that was a decent final product! :)  Gotta love Photoshop!

 

Alas, by the time we tried to get a picture of Papa-Z and the girls, Addison was completely over pictures, but we were happy to get one of Gram-Z and her girls! :)

Christmas Holidays - Week 2

Connie and Dennis arrived on the 31st, and Korey, Rachel and Gianna arrived on the 1st.  Then the whole gang was here.  We had Kaleb sleeping in the office on a pull-out chair, Zachary sleeping in our room on a pull-out couch (yes, our room is ridiculously wide enough to have a pull-out couch and still walking room), and Addison was in our closet.  She was not a fan....while on the other hand Kaleb and Zachary both wanted to continue sleeping in their temporary homes after the company left - Kaleb saying that the room was brighter (he does not like dark rooms) and Zachary because our room was quieter (he does not like his fan, although our room had a fan and a noisemaker....go figure!).  The Z-parents on the other hand were DELIGHTED to to have them all go back to their intended sleeping rooms (although of course sad that company had left) because it was hard to get a good nights sleep! :)

That Thursday, we had our family Christmas dinner, gift opening, and then we all headed out to the Solar Bears game, in the Florida Hospital box seats (again, thanks to Deiningers).  The kids had a fun time, dancing to the music to see if they could get onto the big jumbo-tron (although the cameras were not at an angle where they could actually see our jiving children!).

Matching Canadian t-shirts, front row seats of the box!

Friday, we had intended a family outing to SeaWorld that day, but the weather was FRIGID (from mid 80s the week before to 40-50s).  Korey, Rachel and Gianna stayed home to keep poor Gianna out of the cold, as well as to nap, and the rest of us headed out for a partial day.  We were dressed up for it, and our hands were still freezing if we were in the shade with the wind blowing.  Zachary went on his very first "serious" roller coaster - Manta!.   He reported that he loved it - good deal, you have to love roller coasters to be in our family! :) Amy would have gone as well, but she was "wearing" Addison in a baby carrier in order to share body heat with her, so decided that dismantling the whole thing wasn't ideal, so Daddy went with him.



Undershirt, Long-sleeve shirt, Sweater, Coat, Hat, and usually carried in a baby carrier against Mom - and didn't seem to be cold at all! :)



The whole family, with the exception of the smart ones who stayed at home in the warmth!



That's right, so cold that snowmen abounded! :)

Enjoying the new penguin exhibit (although can Amy just say, the Penguin "ride" is pretty lame-o!)

On Saturday we had Rachel's Nana and Papa over, as well as Deiningers (Rob is Rachel's brother, for anyone who didn't put that connection together) and Lisa's mom Lorene.  It was fun to have a visit and catch up with everyone!  We took some casual family pictures while everyone was here, but in order to not get "lost" in the length of this post, that will be the last Christmas Holidays post next time! :)  After the pictures, the kids all engaged in a quasi-baseball game with Uncle Karis pitching.

Connor taking his turn

Action!  Ready to hit it out of the "park"!

Cochrans had us over on Sunday for a dinner in order to catch up with Korey (we were all at Andrews University together).  Devin was handing out kisses right and left!  Addison made a game of rolling off of their ottoman onto the floor (can we say thrill-seeker!?). Later on, Gianna was sitting in a little chair and Addison tried to sit down on it at the same time, and it was SO FUNNY, Gianna just pulled her leg back and gave Addison a good "boot" to the backside as if to say "I don't think so, this is MY CHAIR!"  Ha ha ha!

No way, no how, this is my chair! :)

Addison giving Gianna a hug!

The rest of the week was a little more quiet, with Kent and Lorie's crew hitting as many of the theme parks as they could now that the holiday crowds were beginning to dissipate. They had gone to Disney on the 31st and literally spent the entire day rubbing shoulders with the other tourists in lines that were as long as 3 hours!! (NO THANK YOU!).  They were able to hit Busch Gardens, Hollywood Studios and Islands of Adventure.   Not to be out-done, Uncle Karis bought fireworks so that they could have a "show" each night they were here as well!



Apparently it was too loud for Zachary, although it was Kaylie that chose the TNT LOUD one! It made Auntie Amy scream like a little girl! :0

The rest of the family enjoyed some quieter home time where the babies could "play" together.  There were games played (board games, and the pool table)  We had fun each night at the dinner table asking "What is your favorite..." type questions.  The kids really got into it, and would come up with their own questions as well!  Gram-Z baked up a storm as normal, so we all stuffed ourselves to the gills!  Lorie is a fantastic cook as well, and jumped in with both hands and feet (bless you Lorie!).  Emily even showed "how its done!" making crepes and specialty grilled cheese sandwiches (yum!), and Korey and Rachel were not to be outdone, so they made delicious stir-fry!  There certainly was never a shortage of food, and there were almost daily trips to the grocery store as we didn't have the fridge space to keep food for 15 people for the week in advance! :)

Going for a walk together!

Making a favorite - nylishneky (spelling?)

Dunk it, Connect Four

So happy there are two girl cousins the same age!

Somewhere under there is Uncle Karis!

No Z-family Christmas gathering is complete without some serious male projects going on, so Karis put them to good use, and they were clearing out brush from the property, cutting down a tree, mowing his lawn - happy as a pig in mud! :)

The Red Wonder, working his crew! :)

How is it that Papa-Z ends up having to push the wheelbarrow when his sons walk beside him?? :)

Our kids enjoyed playing with their cousins so much, and Kaleb and Kaylie were put on nightly "concerts" which included guitar, singing, interpretative dance, and a "whale" show!  They stayed up very late each night (it is only Christmas once a year, right?), but even so went to bed earlier than their Canadian cousins - thus generating this week's phrase of the week below! :)  And of course, no vacation is ever complete without the ever presence of electronics, right?

We are sad to see everyone go home, and can't wait to get together again!

Phrase of the week:  "Why do Canadians go to bed earlier than Americans!?"  Kaleb was indignant, wanting to know why this difference between the countries existed!  It made Amy chuckle every time! :)

Umm, not sure how many berries actually made it INTO her! 

 

Christmas Holidays - Week 1

Yes, it is going to be that kind of a post - a LOOOONNNG one - we have been out of commission because we have had the Zbaraschuk Christmas down at our house this year, and so we wanted to just entirely focus on the fun with the family and thus did not post anything, so now we have lots to catch up on!

We left off with the last post with Aunt Ev and Uncle Ken's visit.  We had a lovely time, but what we didn't include in that week's post (as we were still in the throes of really figuring out how bad it was...) was the fact that Addison at the end of their visit reached up onto the kitchen counter and grabbed a corning ware 9x13 dish off oft he counter and pulled it down onto her foot.  We heard the loud crash, so Amy ran into the kitchen and thought 1) thank goodness the dish didn't break, throwing glass everywhere!!! (especially as it wasn't our dish) and 2) why is Addison holding her foot up in the air while she's standing there?  Well, the dish didn't break because Addison's foot broke its fall.  It was immediately (and we do mean immediately) black and blue and swollen.  After finishing up our visit, Amy decided that we had better be safe than sorry, so she took her to the Nite Lite Pediatric urgent care (new location right by our house!! Yeah!) for an x-ray.  The doctor thought after looking at the x-ray that two of her toes were broken.  Boo - especially in light of 3 weeks of a full-house, constantly carrying a child with 2 broken toes was going to be a nightmare.  They told us to follow up with an ortho doctor that Monday.  The next day, Addison insisted on being carried in the morning, and then started to hobble around later on it....and by that afternoon was running around like no big deal.  Tough as nails that kid!  On Monday, we found out the GREAT news from the Ortho surgeon that she did not see any evidence of a break on the X-rays, and that there was nothing to worry about other than severe tissue damage, which healed without mishap.  Whew! :)

That Sunday, we opened presents with Grandma B, and headed out to enjoy the Christmas lights over at the Johnson subdivision where their neighbor puts on a live nativity scene every year!  The family continued opening presents on Monday night from Mommy and Daddy (what good fortune, these kids ended up having "gift openings" at least 5 times over the next 2 weeks!)

Getting ready for the action to begin!

Waiting for the actors to get in place, as if they were watching a play!

Addison adoring her doll (and giving it fish kisses) sitting on her "new" chair, just her size! 

 It is so funny, Addison can already do fish lips, but our two boys cannot!  We did a series of "training" sessions trying to get the boys to do it, and we FINALLY got Kaleb to where he could do it, but Zachary's lips just cannot seem to be molded into fish lips!  Ha ha. Addison was so funny with her doll, she would give it all kinds of kisses, but no kisses for any live person - no way!

Zachary sporting his soccer outfit from Real Madrid.

Kent, Lorie, Emily, Connor and Kaylie arrived on the 24th, and the fun began!  Connor and Zachary were perfect for each other, loving to play sports, watch sports, talk about sports....you get the picture.  Kaylie and Kaleb continued on from their prior visit with no delay....two peas in a pod.  They played CONSTANTLY together with their imaginative games without ever any fighting.  Kaleb is so easy-going, and would sit and play Polly Pockets ("She's so pretty!....much to Karis' dismay) and crafts, and whatever else they came up with!  Addison fell in love with Auntie Lorie, and was quickly racing to grab her legs shouting "UP!"

Auntie Lorie showing us how to do pig-tails with her hair! 

We headed out to Legoland on Christmas Day.  Unconventional right?  But it was AWESOME, literally maybe the longest line was 5-10 minutes and most of them you could get off and immediately ride it again. The weather was a perfect mid-70 degree, and we just had a wonderful time.  Addison was indignant however about being left behind with Grandma B, but we didn't think that the long day would be a good idea for such a little person!  Cochrans joined us for the majority of the day (sans Heather and Devin), so it was a nice group that we had.

Too precious - Kieran, Kaleb and Kaylie holding hands!

The first Z-family picture moment!

Ready to roll!

Kent, Karis, and Emily & Kaylie - all set!

Amy and Kaleb, with him telling her to cycle faster, so they could higher!

Two brothers and their kiddos!

Super fun ride, with the whole point to send sprays of water on unsuspecting other passengers and onlookers!  Do you see the delight on their faces!

Poor Kaylie - although she got them good just before this with a water sprayer of her own!

That weekend, we headed off to the beach, where the weather did not cooperate as much as we would have liked - it was a bit cool and overcast but we did enjoy ourselves.  The kids did get into the water for a while (although the Floridian boys quickly got cold and decided that the sand was better!)  We went to Daytona Beach, thinking that it would be the closest and empty, but there were lots of people so it was not ideal as of course there were people driving on the beach and with small people, it was a worry.

Huddling together to warm up!

These two were officially done with the water at this point!

Emily hanging out with Addison in making a mess!

Kaylie - full of life, full of vigor!

Loving the beach, and look at those curls!

The Zbaraschuk cousins!

The two peas...in a pod! :)

 A few other "smaller" activities that we did in the first week (small, but yet still so fun) included heading over to Rebounderz to watch the kids bounce themselves silly, bowling, and Wonderworks (such an undiscovered gem for us, we'll definitely be back!).  On the 31st, Connor and Zachary had a real treat when Deiningers offered us 4 extra tickets to a Magic game, so Karis, Kent, Connor and Zachary headed off to enjoy themselves, complete with all-you-can-eat food!

Zachary in the green shirt, Kaleb in red helmet by Zachary, and Connor in the blue outfit by Kaleb

What more could you ask for - a game, good and personal TVs!

 We will work on the Christmas Holidays - Week 2 for next week's post!  We hope you're not exhausted after this long post! :)