Batching It

Two weeks ago, Karis headed out to Utah for his annual ski trip.  Upon the end of each, he faithfully texts Amy to say "off the mountain!" so she can breathe a sigh of relief that he is okay for another day!  He had a grand time with the guys, and Amy made the most of her time at home with the kids (starting off with the trip to the Tampa Zoo where she was licked by birds!).

Eating breakfast one day in their house - thanks I believe to Mr. Doug!

A whole group shot

The pre-ski exercising! :)

 On the home front, we made banana bread (yum!) and hit the church's Saturday night Veggie-tales movie - before hitting Sunday hard with both soccer and basketball.  Whew - three busy days in a row made for a fun-filled (and tiring!) weekend!

Apparently one Z-child must always be unclothed as we bake in this house......

Drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn while watching the movie.

We, along with you and all of the rest of the world (is it a world-wide holiday????) celebrated V-day as well last weekend.  With the fact that we just hate to wait in long lines for a restaurants, we typically just get take-out food and enjoy the peace of our own home.  So, we decided to get the kids into the fun as well and had a "candle-light" dinner at home and exchanged our cards.   Addison kept singing "happy birthday" when we lit the candles, so it was a bit confusing - but we ended the night with letting the kids blow out the candles multiple times! :)

Several of the Valentine's Day cards were just so precious that we decided to take a picture and put them on here for posterity sake.  The first is from Blake, Jenn's oldest boy that Zachary has been bonded with since they were 18 months old.  He wrote a card to Zach in their school class - and it just melted Amy's heart!  The second is from Zachary - very sweet as well, and we're very pleased to see his printing improving so much!

Phrase of the week:  Mommy, my legs hurt - I guess I just have sensitive bones.  Poor Zach - he had a few days where his legs were hurting (probably growing pains - the kid is growing like a weed!!) and he was befuddled about how his legs could be so sensitive!

Addison's phrase lately is "Addi do it Mom!!" - she is quite insistent that she MUST do it and gets very upset if she is thwarted!

The Bird Whisperer

Last weekend, Amy took Friday off, and accompanied the kids on a field trip to the Tampa Zoo (year #2 for this as it is SUPER fun!).  We took Addison this time, as she is old enough to have a nap later in the day.  We had a really good time, but the oddest experience was walking into the lorikeet feeding cage where all of us got some of the fruit juice.  There were a lot of people in the cage, but apparently Amy was "The Bird Whisperer" - they were all flocking to her - landing on her arms/shoulders/hair (maybe it's my shampoo).  It made it easy for the kids to be able to feed them as she could just bend down to their level.

 

The licking of Amy's hair was less than desired.....umm, is there a shower nearby??

Addison just loved feeding the birds - unlike the giraffe which is pictured later!

As it was a school field trip, there were several families that we knew well - including the Bergherms, Biris, and Meidingers (who weren't in this picture as they were looking at the giraffe).


A moment with mom...

Gotta love these munchkins!

One of Amy's favorite things is the feeding of the giraffes - how cool is that!?  Anyway, Zachary sort of disgustedly said the night before "Oh mom, you just want to feed the giraffes to see if they'll lick my hair again..... I remember that they did that, because I read your blog!"  Busted.  Ha ha ha - it is STILL fun even if they don't lick your hair!  Addison wanted nothing to do with the giraffe giant - saying "Addi no like it!  Eat me!" so it was just a picture of the boys.

No licking of his hair...

Kaleb wasn't 100% sure about doing this, so it is a favor to his mother....

Here's the whole group!

Only a face a mother could love....

The smaller kids have a great time going on the carousel - this is Maddox and Marshall M with Addi.  Marshall and Addison are close to the same age, and Marshall used to really love Addi - but that was when she was quite shy and hesitant of other people....she played 'hard to get' long enough that he's now moved on, although they do still like to play together!   Addison now does seem enamored with Marshall, and when Amy asked her one day what she did at Jennifer's, she said "Go Marshall house!"  Well - in truth they had just gone to the library where they normally see Marshall....ha ha ha, apparently Addi thinks that Marshall's house is the library! :)

Maddox, Addison and Marshall (right hand side)

Happy as a clam

Always a fan favorite.

Kaleb showed his caring heart again as we were walking through and there was fish food that was "free" (also interpreted as the coin machine was broken, and the food was just coming out anyway) - so the kids were all swarming it and poor Maddox and Marshall (being the smaller kids) weren't able to actually get any of the food.  Kaleb noticed, and went up and got the food and turned around and gave it to them so that they could feed the fish.  Makes a mom's heart proud!!!

On the way out, we took an opportunity to get a family picture - proof of the fun day that we all had!

With the fact that she missed her nap, she was out in about 15 minutes on the way home.....but in this uncomfortable position, it didn't last long! 

Phrase of the week:  Karis was getting Addison dressed again after a diaper change this week when he didn't pull up her pants properly.  Feeling that the pants situation was not quite right, she looked down and declared "Daddy, my booty fell out!!" 

Celebrating a Milestone Birthday!

Last week we hosted a birthday party for Amy's mom - who was celebrating a milestone birthday....that may or may not have had something to do with the year 1945.....we had her friends over, including the kids that she currently babysits (the Js and the Cs) - it ended up being about 18 people in all, so it was a fun evening to celebrate this momentous occasion!

We pushed the easy button and catered it from Olive Garden, which made the evening a very relaxed one.  Amy stole an idea from Lorie (sister-in-law) and created 'placemats' with interesting facts and trivia about 1945.  Did you know that this was the year that the Slinky was invented and the ballpoint pen went on sale in New York for a whopping $12.50 (which at the minimum wage of 40 cents per hour would have taken almost one week of work to save up for!!). And of course this year marked the end of the World War II and the start of the UN.  Important stuff - but not so special as the birth of Bobbi Babiuk - a lady who has spent a lifetime caring for others and giving of herself!  We're blessed to call her Mom and Grandma! 


Celebration #1 two weeks ago on her actual birthday!

Building legos with Grandma is always a special time!

It was a momentous weekend, because of course the "Big Game" happened on Sunday - hosted by the Cochrans.  It was super fun as they had lots of people over, and we all watched with baited breath to see what would happen.  After the whole "deflate-gate" the Z family was a house-divided with Zachary already being a Seahawks fan and Amy deciding that she couldn't cheer for a team that went against the rules (she's as rule follower, what can we say?) with Daddy Z still cheering for the Patriots.  We all know how that ended - with Daddy Z being the victor.  The play of the game had to be that guy catching the ball after it bounced all over him to kingdom come while he fell onto the ground and then had the wherewithal to pick himself up and try to keep running!  Wow!

A panorama before the eating began!

Watching the game...still happy at this point! :)

Addi could care less about the game - only about holding baby London!

In other news, we headed out to watch the Science guy the weekend before and didn't manage to post the pictures.  He had lots of fun experiments and at the end, had a musical instrument that you "play" by not touching at all!  It had a magnetic field around it and the volume and the pitch changed as your hand moved.  The boys thought that was quite something special, and so did Mommy!

Phrase of the week:  The boys have gotten into saying who they "like" for the opposite gender.  One night as they were telling on each other (he likes so-and-so, much to the other brother's horror) - when Amy asked Kaleb "Oh, I thought that you liked Lindsay?" and he said "Not right now, I may come back to her though!"  Ha ha ha - what a Casanova!  Let's be clear, they don't really have the concept of what "like" means, and they are all good friends with these girls, but it did make us laugh!

Zachary seems to be going through a growth spurt and his legs/bones are aching.  This week he fell over a cone at school and had to sit out most of recess as he was hurting.  When Amy was talking about it he said "Yeah, whenever I hit my legs they hurt.....I just have sensitive bones."  Never heard of "sensitive" bones before - but sadly we have experience of course in our own childhoods of growing pains....not fun!

Heart of Gold

Our post this week is a big of a proud moment as a parent - a moment in which you see how special your child is on the inside where it counts.  This week Kaleb was playing a game of "Around the World" in his kindergarten class in which two children compete against each other at each round, and the winner continues to the next round.  Kaleb usually does very well at this game, and this time was no exception.  When he beat his opponent Eva, he looked her and the teacher and said "That's okay, I'll be out instead of Eva so that she can keep playing."  What a heart of gold - Kaleb is such a special kind-hearted person!  We are so proud of you Kaleb!

 

Over the past few weeks, we've had the final Christmas get-togethers as well - with both family and friends. The kids are always so disappointed when Christmas is finally over of course!

 



What started as just a tiny group of 5 adults 15 years ago has certainly grown as children, spouses, and more friends have joined!

 

We had Jeff and Niesha over, and Zachary was thrilled to be able to play Ping-Pong with Jeff!  Addison thinks that she needed to get into the action as well but she's just not quite tall enough to grab it!

We had a fun evening as well when we had a large group bowling experience - everyone had a grand time.  Even little Addi got into the action (good thing for the bowling ramp that she could just push the ball down!!)

 



As always, the kids have been having a lot of fun outings lately - and very educational.  They recently went to the Wycliffe museum where they learned all about the Bible translations and the spread of the gospel.  They've also been to the Science Center, where they had great fun with the new exhibits there.  Addison was the lucky duck who was able to go to the Fun Spot on the day that they had free entrance (poor boys were in school!) - she had fun going on all of the various rides!

Zachary the weather-man

 Addison is continuing to sprout up before our very eyes, and thinks that she is much older than she is!  While she is not quite big enough to do it properly, she has decided that SHE must be the driver now in Kaleb's green motorized car.  Watch out!!

 

 

Convincing her brother to give her a piggy-back ride....

Speaking of growing up, since getting back from Canada at Christmas Addison has figured out how to get out of her crib.  She climbed over the end, put her foot through the crib bars to "guide" herself down until her foot hit the mattress as she hung on with her hands.  Once she hit the mattress, it was a simple matter of just stepping down onto the floor.  Quite ingenious and she never once actually fell out of the crib.  However, that did start a lot of "jack in the box" nights and naps where we would put her into bed and she would get up every 30 seconds.  She knew she wasn't supposed to so she would throw herself back into the crib when she heard a parent coming - and one day Karis walked in to see her throwing herself into the crib and landing on the mattress on her head....thinking that wasn't the best safety environment she has now graduated to a toddler bed!  The jack in the box moments have actually decreased now that she's in the big bed and she seems to be sleeping pretty well.

Phrase of the week:  I 'uv' you mom!  Addison now is quite free with telling us that she loves us - how to melt a parent's heart in about 1.5 seconds! :) 

Christmas Wonderland

We headed up to Canada on Dec 26th to celebrate Connie and Dennis' 50th wedding anniversary.  It was so awesome to be able to participate in honoring their marriage - what an inspiration to us! 

It was the first time that Addison had flown, so we all wondered how the long day's journey would go.  She was excited about the trip, and all of the kids were anxious to get to Canada to see their cousins and the snow!  When the flight took off though, Addison was a bit nervous and said "get down!" - uhh....that's not going to happen girly!  But, she became distracted and soon settled in for the flight.

 We had a layover in Minneapolis that originally was only going to be 45 minutes, so Amy was nervous about making our next flight if our first leg happened to be late....but the winds were with us and we ended up being early - so much so that we had time enough to grab a decent lunch before the second flight.  On the way from one plane to the other, Addison decided she'd had enough walking......good thing this wasn't the Atlanta or Chicago airport, she would have been trampled if she'd tried this trick there!

When we arrived, we headed out to Amy's aunt and uncle (Elaine and Murray) in Alberta for a few days to be able to see them, their daughter Kim and her sons Nikolas and Lucas, and Amy's grandma.  The kids all hit it off immensely and had great fun running around together.  Addison really took to Nik, and he was very much a big brother to her while we were there!

It was such a treat to be able to visit with the family and catch up as it has been since Zachary was about 18 months that we were out to the farm.  Karis and Uncle Murray are two peas in a pod with a farmer's heart, so they headed off together for much of our time there.

Not to be left behind, the rest of us tagged along on Sabbath to see the bison that they raise - so fun to be able to see them up close and personal (from the truck of course!)    They were quite "frisky" play fighting and running around so that was kind of neat.

The Z family on the way to the bison adventure

Now that's a big boy....

 The kids were in heaven when they discovered that there was a snowmobile on the premises and they could be drug around on a sled behind it.  What fun!  Kaleb ended up being in the front of the sled many times though and didn't have his neck gator quite up far enough, so on the second day his poor little check started to turn a little white, so fearing frostbite we had him stay in the rest of the day to be sure that he was okay - which he was - no peeling at all!

Zach and Nik

Thumbs up from Lucas and Kaleb

Is she not just the cutest ball of fluff you've ever seen!?  She loved the snow!

And they're off! 

Even Addi got a turn!

What fun - thanks Uncle Murray!

 Amy's Grandma/Baba (Ukrainian for Grandma) came to the house on Sabbath, so we really enjoyed being able to see her.  She is celebrating her 92nd (hopefully our memory is right on this one) birthday.  What a blessing to see her!


Amy, Grandma, and Kim

The boys enjoying watching some hockey with Uncle Murray

While Aunt Elaine engrossed them in a bedtime story

 On Monday morning, Kim and her kids headed back to BC and we loaded up to head to Karis' place.  It was a 5 hour drive, but the kids were happily entertained watching the original version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory while Addison napped, so it worked out well!  They were super excited to see their cousins Emily, Connor and Kaylie, and of course Gram-Z, Papa-Z, Aunt Lorie and Uncle Kent!  The weather was super cold up in Canada - with some days in the -30 Celsius range - in fact the morning that we left it was -45 C at 5A in the morning!  BRRR.  One day was nice enough though that we went out to the sledding hill for some fun - what would a trip to Canada be without sledding!

Apparently this particular run exhausted Kaylie and Kaleb!

We love the snow!

Just a couple of videos to capture the kids fun

The one above is Addison's first run down the hill - holding her gloves in front of her face to keep the snow out of her eyes! :)

This is Zachary - the last bump looked like it jolted him pretty good as he flies off of his sled!

Kaleb's perfect run - smooth as silk!

 We celebrated the anniversary on Wednesday, with a lovely cake and some games that Lorie put together.  We walked down memory lane as they reminisced about their courtship and wedding.

All the grandkids except for Korey and Rachel's two kids - Gianna and Nik

On New Year's Day, we headed in to do some candlestick bowling (why, oh why, do they not have it down here!?  Only my northern friends can understand what I'm saying! (You know who you are!! :)), it is just perfect for the kids - it is something that they can do and have fun at an early age!

Aunt Lorie took her under her wing and helped her bowl...

And then introduced her to Smarties....what every good Canadian should love!  This girl is already a chocola-holic!

This particular bowling alley also has an area of games etc, complete with bumper cars, bouncy hours, air hockey etc.   So the fun continued after the bowling was finished!

Forget throwing the ball from the end of this thing....Addi will just crawl all the way up there!

Snuggle-time with Papa-Z

We played TONS of games while we were there, which was really fun to make those memories.  Uno, the farming game, Guesstures, Scattegories, Life,Charades and more.  The kids really got into it, so it was hopefully something that they will look back with fondness.

Playing crokino (spelling?) with Uncle Kent

Such an attractive face Addi has....only a mother could love! :)

Notice a trend here?

We of course took the opportunity to get a group shot - but it should be noted that we're missing dear members of the Z-family - Korey, Rachel, Gianna and Nik - we missed you guys!

A grandkid picture (Partial!)

Then the whole group shot.

The trip back was exhausting - we had a 6:30A flight out of Saskatoon, which is 2 hours from the farm so we decided to stay in a hotel overnight near the airport.  We got a suite as Karis' friends were coming to visit and we thought it would make sense to have a couch etc to visit while the kids went to bed.  That meant that  all 5 of us actually slept in the same room, which we learned a lesson for next time!  Addison had gotten into a habit over the holidays of wanting to sleep with Mommy, so there was no way she was going to stay in her pack-and-play while Mommy was in the bed RIGHT THERE, so she ended up in bed with Amy.  Amy slept with Kaleb, while Karis slept with Zachary.  Addison rolled around on Amy all night while Kaleb would flop hither and thither on the bed.  Amy spent the night avoiding multiple kids and dodging flying hands while trying to keep the two kids from actually waking each other up....all the way thinking "Why didn't I sleep with Zachary, look at Karis so peaceful over there!"  When the alarm went off at 4:45A, she expressed that very notion to Karis who told her that he hadn't slept a wink either because Zachary was plastered all over him (to keep warm because he doesn't need covers Mom!!!) and kept elbowing him in the head!  That's it, next time the Z-parents are going to sleep together and let the kids just kick and shove each other all night!! :)

Sheer exhaustion won out on the flight home and she slept all 3 hours on the 2nd flight - from take-off to landing!

Crazy Addison story:  We're now officially frightened of what the teenager years may be like with Addison ....her mind is definitely more devious than the boys! :)  She is a chocolate lover as mentioned, so both stories revolve around this obsession.

The first incident occurred when we arrived at Karis' farm - Amy was unpacking and the boys had been given two pieces of chocolate.  Amy put them on the dresser and noticed Addison looking at them...Addison then looked at Amy and said "Mommy, leave room."  Wanting to see exactly what she'd do, Amy cooperated and walked out with Addison then informing her "Close the door."  Hmm, so Amy closed the door to just a tiny crack open so that she could see - and Addison looked over and noticed this so she ran over and slammed the door shut!  After about 10 seconds, Amy opened the door sure enough to find Addison doing her level best to get up to reach the chocolates on the counter!  Smart girl to put all of those pieces together of what she'd need to do in order to get these treats!  It makes a parent proud and horrified all at the same time!

The second incident came after Connie and Dennis' celebration.  They had been given a Pot of Gold chocolates (for their golden anniversary).  The open box was put on the stairs and we all went about our business.  Well the next day someone asked where the chocolates were because they couldn't find them.  Addison then about 30 minutes later appeared downstairs with chocolate ALL over her face, and the empty box of chocolates in her hand!  Sheesh!  Later on that morning, Kaleb and Kaylie came rushing downstairs from Zachary's bedroom where they held out a handful of chocolates, saying "Addison must have taken the box upstairs and hid in Zachary's bedroom because we found these chocolates in his bed under the covers!"  Apparently she must have thought she was a squirrel and would hide some away for next time!  Heaven help the Z-parents when she turns into a teenager!