Precious Moments

Zachary has provided us with some precious moments this Sabbath - we have managed to make it through multiple weeks now in church with fairly good behavior (we say "fairly" as there have been moments where an outside voice was used, and when our feet just somehow kept kicking the pew in front of us until a parental hand could grab hold and take care of the situation - but fortunately there have not been many instances of this, so we'll stick with fairly well behaved! :)) Today in Sabbath School, he seemed to really enjoy it - he would jump up to participate in the songs. During story-time, he ran up to the front to sit right in front of the felt story board (imagine about 6 inches from the front!) - the teacher slightly moved the board back to create a little more room, and Zachary scooted himself forward to be closer! Ha ha! He wanted to be up close and personal with the story of Jairus! :)

When the teacher brought out the felt characters, before she could identify Jesus, his little voice rang out "Jesus!!" - it was clearly one of those moments that stick in a parent's mind. He usually isn't very 'bold' with other kids around, so this was truly a first for him to sit at the very front of the room in the midst of all of the other kids and to be so engaged in the story.

Later, when we were at home, we went out onto the deck to enjoy the beautiful weather, and Zachary was playing in his toy car - he told Amy that he was going, and when she inquired where he was headed off to, he said "I'm going to church!" - not a bad place to head off to on Sabbath! :) We have a GPS in our van which he always insists is turned on, so in his play car, he always informs us when he is turning the map on and off, and then he pushes a button in the "ceiling" of the car (the GPS is stuck onto the top of the windshield in our van, so he mimics the location of the map in his car as well!). He also has to have his "muzac" on in both the van and the car - so driving his pretend car on the back porch is serious business! He has also finally gotten the hang of the motorized three wheeler as well - he was always trying to move it with his feet before, but now he understands how to get it to move on its own. The strangest thing with this motorized trike - in the middle of the night the electronics seem to go "haywire" and the horn starts to beep constantly - Amy has heard it several times as she gets up to pump so had to go out and unplug the wires under the seat to get it to stop. Well, Zachary long ago figured out how to plug everything back in (going to have a mechanical little mind it appears!) but couldn't figure out how to drive it until now! He still sometimes forgets to look where he's going though....:)

Photo 1 - definitely not watching the road - EYES ON THE ROAD ZACH!! :)

Photo 2 - just hanging out - oh to be so limber again!

He has also become very affectionate towards Kaleb - hugs and kisses, wants to sit near him, and mimics Kaleb's sounds (clearly some of this is to get parental attention but he does seem to be having a good time with Kaleb now!)

Bad hair day for Zach - and Kaleb seems quite thrilled that big brother is hanging out with him!

Kaleb is doing well - he has become so alert and aware of his surroundings in the last 3-4 weeks, it is just amazing. He is sitting and reaching for things constantly now. While Zachary seems to need a fair amount of personal space, Kaleb loves you to be very near to him, in his face where he can see you and interact with you. It'll be so interesting to see their little personalities as they grow older. His naps are all over the place - some mornings he sleeps for 1 hour and others it is a marathon 3 hour nap - poor Jennifer snuck in there one day to be sure that he was still breathing he slept for so long!

Kids grow WAY TOO FAST - Zachary only got to wear this outfit once, and now Kaleb has worn it once. So, this outfit has only been worn twice in its lifespan!

Our church is hosting Mark Finley's "Discoveries08" series beginning last night. There were 1,300 people at the 7P service last night in the church, plus it is being broadcast over the HopeChannel network and over the Internet. It'll be amazing to see what God does during the next few weeks.

This week is going to be busy for Amy as she is hosting the AHS controller's conference - it isn't too bad to handle but it is always a relief when it is done. Next week she has to head off to another conference for work, so Daddy Karis will be "batching" it for 2.5 days with the boys.

November is definitely going to be a fun-filled month as Grandma Z is coming for a visit on November 11 and then Grandpa Z will be joining her over Thanksgiving.

Phrase of the Week: "You're cute, Daddy!" - this was out of the blue one day - apparently Zachary was feeling extra love for his daddy! He has become quite the little parrot, so we really have to watch what we say but it is so cute to hear him put phrases together!

Happy Birthday!

This was officially our birthday celebration weekend!

Yesterday, we celebrated Amy's A. Louise and cousin Kathy's birthdays - Kathy's family had gone on a short cruise (how fun!) and on their way back to Tennessee stopped in to celebrate as both Kathy and A. Louise share the same birthday! It was quite fun to see everyone and visit even though it is always too short! We have discovered that Zachary definitely has a love for cake - when the cake came out, he jumped onto Grandma B's lap and grabbed her spoon away from her to dig in! So, it will definitely be up to us parents to keep the sugar consumption to a minimum as he definitely has found a liking (again, not hard to imagine with a mother who has a sweet tooth!)

A.Louise & Kathy about to blow the "2" candle out - sadly, this was the only candle in our house (clearly from Zachary's 2nd birthday) but we figured that it could represent 2 lovely ladies' birthdays! :)

Today, we zoomed over to a lovely park on this lovely day (read: 72 degrees Fahrenheit!!) to celebrate Cole H's third birthday. There were lots of folks at his party - both familiar faces and some new, so it was fun to have brief chats with people that we don't see very often. The one thing that we've learned with parenting is that there are no more in-depth conversations anymore - only brief ones with half-sentences as you try and keep up with the kids!

Picture of Zachary watching Cole blowing out his candles - the kids all had firemen hats on, so it was quite precious!

Karis' first week back at work went well - he is getting back into the swing of things. Amy has managed so far with the two boys by herself in the morning, and Kaleb is adjusting with no problems to being with Jennifer (babysitter) - Blake and Zachary have had a great time playing together again. Zachary however is exhibiting a hard case of separation anxiety as when he senses that Amy is about to leave, he gets up from whatever he's playing and runs over ---sobbing and grabbing her legs. It is very sad, but Jennifer says that it lasts for about 2 seconds once Amy's out the door, so that is a blessing.

Daddy with the two boys...

Playing horsey...

Phrase of the week: "It's delicious!" as Zachary dug into the cake with gusto! :)

We think that Zachary has a fascination with underwear - Mommy's, Daddy's, and his future Elmo underwear for potty training day to come - of course the underwear are never on his body in the right place - but hey, who says that underwear shouldn't be on your head!!?

Visit with the Gruias

As mentioned in our last post, we had the Gruias come to visit from Oct 2 - Oct 10th. Carmen and Amy became best friends way back in high school (and some days it really feels like WAY BACK! :)) and have kept in touch since. Carmen was accompanied by her husband, Ervin, and their two daughters - Anique (5 years old) and Ava (almost 3 years old - so just about 6 months older than Zachary).

We had a great time, it was such a wonderful visit to re-connect old friendships and and to get to know each other's families. The kids all did really well together - we weren't sure how Zachary would do as he not only would have to share his toys, but he had to give up his room (Anique and Ava slept in the bunk bed that is in his room, and Zachary slept in a pack and play in our master closet! :)) He did really well though - we were quite pleased for the most part. All of the kids loved the sand box and the riding toys out on the back porch - the little red car was the favorite. One morning, Zachary was out in his car 'driving' it around when Ava got up and joined him outside - where she pronounced "Get out of MY car!" Zachary calmly got out of the car and gave her the keys! :) Ha ha, the signs of a gentleman already! Ava was very precocious - she at one point was in her little dress and came out from the room, stopped in front of Zachary and asked "How do I look?" - poor Zachary, he just looked at her, shouted "BYE!" and turned and high-tailed it out of there! I guess that he doesn't know how to compliment the ladies yet! We laughingly discussed having an arranged marriage between Zachary and Ava - maybe not such a bad idea in today's society! :) Just teasing! The only point in the week when we thought that Zachary might be ready to have his space back was when he walked into his room one night, tried to climb into the crib and when Karis said "No, we're going to bed in mommy and daddy's room again tonight," Zachary responded by saying "No, go nigh-nigh here, close the door!!!"

Hey - that's my hat! :)

Having bedtime worship together - 'Uncle' Ervin is very entertaining as you can see from these pictures!

Carmen and Ervin were such easy guests to have, we told them that we could all try out communal living someday! Amy is always depressed when company leaves, but was especially sad yesterday when the house was empty again.

Zachary thought that the top bunk was great fun - the ceiling fan is going to be a problem we can see...

Zachary playing his first game of air hockey with Dad - a true Canadian at heart!

The week flew by with 2 trips to Seaworld, 1 trip to Magic Kingdom (the Zbaraschuks actually stayed home that day to give the kids a bit of a recovery day) and then 1 trip to Animal Kingdom. One trip to Monkey Joe's, 1 trip to the park, and 1 trip shopping for the ladies rounded out the rest of the time. The weather cooperated for the most part - the day at Animal Kingdom was quite humid but it could have been much worse than it was, so we were not going to complain!

Photo 1 - Seaworld had the Sesame Street characters - Zoey was a particular hit with Zachary and Ava although Zachary had his pictures taken with all of the characters!
Photo 2 - Anique and Ava enjoying the red car together.

Photos 1 -Like Father, Like Son! Isn't this picture too cute with Zachary sitting watching the water play with his Daddy!

Photo 2 - apparently the fun was too tiring for Zachary, he had to lay down and take a rest!

Re-energized, Zachary could start running around again!

On another note, Kaleb has hit a major milestone - he has started to sit on his own! Yippee for Kaleb! He had his six month doctor's visit this week in which was 16.5 pounds and 25.5 inches long. He continues to be about 2 inches shorter than Zachary at the same time period, so it'll be interesting to see if he is just starting off slow or if he'll remain shorter than Zachary over time.

This is the first time Kaleb has sat up on his own entirely - albeit a bit like the leaning tower of Pisa! :)

One of our favorite onesie's - it has a sheep face on the front with the words "Here a baa, There a baa, Everywhere a baa,baa.." and on the back it has a sheep's tail! Too cute!

It was just a wonderful time to catch up on memories, and there were both many lighthearted and conversely serious spiritual conversations that we had over the 7 days. It was also great to swap ideas on family-life, raising kids, and recipes. We were very blessed to have them here.

Next week we return to real life - which we are not looking forward to at all. Monday is Karis' first day back at work, so Amy will be all on her own in the mornings to get the boys up and out the door. She reminds herself that there are many single parents who do this on a regular basis, so it is just a matter of getting a routine! Life has been pretty easy over the last 3 months with not having to worry about morning routines, packing diaper bags and lunches and leaving on time. We were so very fortunate to be able to have Karis take off the three months, so we count that as a major blessing.

Phrase of the week: "You're all right, Kaleb" - Zachary said in all seriousness yesterday as we were driving around and Kaleb was crying. Clearly he listens to what his parents say because that was an exact parody of what we've said in the van to try and calm Kaleb down! Zachary is a little 'mini-parent!'