Happy Veggie-Turkey Day! :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Just teasing with the title of this week's post - a little good Adventist humor! We don't eat a lot of meat anymore, but we do have turkey on Thanksgiving Day still!

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day with the Deiningers, Johnsons, Johnsons, Heisler (no S as it was just Lorene!), Lysiuks, Zbaraschuks, and Zbaraschuks. We were commenting that after about 10 years here in Orlando, this might be the first time that we've all had Thanksgiving together. We've posted some pictures of the fun below!

Photo 1 - Kaleb enjoying a toy while the others ate!
Photo 2 - Zachary and Luke enjoying some good old fashioned cereal - the big dinner apparently didn't really appeal too much!

Photo 1 - Karis and Dennis enjoying a bit of snooze after the big dinner!
Photo 2 - A photo of the big bunch together - about 16-17 including the kids

Dennis - dubbed "Papa Z" by Zachary arrived safely on Wednesday night. It is so great having them here, and having Amy's mom in town, as these are such great memories to create as a youngster with your grandparents!

Karis and Connie went to the FH Thanksgiving concert last Friday night so that was a fun way to start off the week. It was the choir from Oakwood, Mark Masri, and an Eli (saxophone player but I don't remember his last name).

On Sunday, we had Kaleb's official "6" month pictures (yes, a bit late) taken by Jennifer Soltren. Amy's coworker had used her for her twin newborn pictures, and we like to try out new photographers, so decided to use her for this set. She was fast, friendly, creative and relaxed, so if the pictures turned out as well as the actual experience was, we'll be very happy!

The week ended yesterday with a trip to the zoo in which Zachary actually was brave enough to feed some of the animals so that was really fun! We are now the owners of an annual pass, so that will provide hopefully many fun nature-oriented outings! We also put in a couple of quick trips to the stores to check out the doors - doing our small part to keep the economy going!

Kaleb seems to be getting the hang of rolling over - at least from his stomach to his back. Amy keeps threatening having a pediatric therapist come out to evaluate him if he doesn't get his act together, so maybe just maybe we're making some progress!

Oh - as an update to last week's mystery illness for Zachary - apparently Rotavirus is going around so it would appear that he got a touch of it. Sadly, Amy now has some sort of gastrointestional issue this weekend, so here's hoping for a speedy recovery as that is just no fun!

We wish all of you a wonderful holiday season now that Thanksgiving has kicked it off officially. Our wish for each of you is that you will see the many things that you have to be thankful for, and the many blessings in your lives - both the big and the small.

Phrase of the week: Muzaack! Zachary loves to listen to his music CDs in the van, lucky for us as this is a good incentive to get into the car when we need to go somewhere!

Action Packed Week!

This has been an eventful week with the start of our week beginning with the night out at the FH Gala - entertainment provided by Michael Buble. It was quite fun as always to get dressed up and head off to the resort - this year the auction was not as "lively" due to the economic slump, so there were some good deals to be had but we kept our wallets in our pockets even in the face of such temptation! The night was a little nerve-wracking as about 30 minutes before we left, Amy went in search of Zachary (the house had become suspiciously quiet...bad news as any parent knows) and she walked into his bedroom to discover that he had pulled his top dresser drawer out all of the way and somehow pulled his body up into the drawer (he basically do a pull-up as he could stand on a low chair to reach the edge of the drawer, but there was nothing from that point to climb up on - apparently the child has strong arms!). After managing to heft himself up into the drawer, he then stood UP in the extended drawer so that he could play with the humidifier on top of his dresser. While having an instant heart attack, Amy managed to get him out of the drawer and down while a stern lecture immediately began. It was a testament to the seriously solid piece of furniture that it didn't fall over on top of Zachary - we'd have been going to the ER instead of the gala! Where, oh where, did Mr. Safety-man go?? We want him back! :) (This feat was not documented with a camera as time was of the essence, and we don't want to do a live re-enactment so that he doesn't get any more ideas!)

Later in the week, our excitement began one night about 45 minutes after Zachary went to bed - he had been quite (presumably fast asleep) when all of a sudden he started to cry. That being unusual (the silence and then crying....not so unusual for him to fuss immediately when we leave the room if he doesn't want to go to sleep), so Amy went in to check on him - as she opened the door, she was met with projectile vomit flying towards her as she stood in the doorway. GREAT. That was a 2 parent clean-up job (clean-up on aisle 2 please! :) as it was all over Zachary, the crib, the walls, the floor etc. Once we cleaned him all up, back into bed he went (no fever, no other symptoms and he frankly was in a great mood saying that he wanted to play, play!!!). Sadly, this repeated itself twice more that night about once an hour until it finally seemed to pass. Poor kid - it is never fun to be sick. It seemed to just be a short bug as he was right as rain the next day.

Two weeks ago was Kaleb's first hair "trim" - definitely not enough hair to actually call it a hair cut but it was time to even up his hair - he had really long hair on the top (ha ha, it was starting to look like an old man's comb-over!), so Grandma B came over with her magic scissors and evened everything up. Kaleb was definitely not an easy customer like Zachary's first hair-trim - he kept wiggling and moving his head around frantically trying to see what was going on up there - so the adults were laughing most of the time trying to contain his head!

The weather has cooled down here and we're enjoying the lovely Fall weather. Tonight is the FH Thanksgiving concert, so Gram-Z and Karis have gone to enjoy the music. We're looking forward to Papa Dennis coming this week to join us for a short vacation, and Sunday we're having a photographer come to the house to catch Kaleb's over-due 6 month pictures (yes, we know that we're late, but better late than never!). Zachary's been having a fun time with Gram-Z.

Phrase of the week: "Mommy, I dripped" - after the projectile vomiting episode - drippin' is code word for "spit-up, puke, vomit, drool" - any short of liquid that comes out of Kaleb or Zachary's mouth is referred to by Zachary as "drippin'" - we guess that it's better to call it drippin' than anything else! :)

Lift Off!

This week has been an exciting one with it beginning with Grandma Z's arrival and culminating in watching a night launch of the space shuttle!

Gram-Z arrived without mishap and Zachary has been having a great time playing. Kaleb at this point still pretty much just cares that his basic needs are met! :) Papa (Zachary's name for Dennis) will be arriving the week of Thanksgiving.

It has become tradition for the "Farming Game" to be played every time Connie visits

The week ended with the two minivans making the trek out to the space coast to watch a night launch of the shuttle. This is the second time that Karis has been to a night launch and the first time that Amy and family have gone. It was definitely an experience to see although the traffic back was CRAWLING - we waited around to let some of the crowds disperse and it still took us 3 hours and 45 minutes to get home. The boys and Amy slept in the back while Grandma Z kept Karis company on the way home. With that long of a drive back, it may be a while before the family attempts to do this again!

Luke & Zachary munching their PB&J sandwiches together

Photo 1 - Zachary perched high up on Daddy to watch the "Fire!!!" (Zachary seemed to relate to the fact that he was about to watch fire in the sky than to the fact that it was a shuttle

Photo 2 - As we waited for the crowds to disperse, Amy played "Ring around the Rosey" with Zachary

Kaleb's 7 month birthday came and went this week - he is now 18 lbs 10 ounces with clothes on, (so probably slightly over 18 lbs without) and is 26 inches long.

Phrase of the Week: "I'm tired Mommy" - Zachary has started to tell us that he is tired - although he still doesn't love to then have to lay down! When he wakes up especially early he has shared this with Amy - to which she's thinking "So are we - why didn't you sleep in longer!?"

Super Daddy!

This week went off without a hitch - well, almost - as Daddy was all by himself with the two boys when Amy had to drive up to Amelia Island for a conference. The only "eventful morning" (Karis refused to say nightmarish morning!) was Tuesday when he got Zachary up, changed his diaper, put on some diaper rash cream from a lovely new tube of cream, and then left the room to put the diaper in the garbage in the garage.....well, by the time that he returned to the room to put on Zachary's clothes for the day, YOU GUESSED IT - diaper rash cream = Zachary's a mess! Zachary can't seem to resist the temptation of a tube with any form of cream in it, so by the time Karis got back, it was all over him. Having to bathe your child first thing in the morning before going to work is not the brightest way to start off of your morning, but Karis, whoops "Super Daddy" took it all in stride.
Amy thought that she would enjoy a luxurious three days up at Amelia Island, sleeping in and in general lazing around while she wasn't in the meetings. Nope - sleep was not to be had. So, even though there were no baby sounds coming from the dual monitors on her bedside table, she still woke up at the regular times as if her body was trained to wake up and listen for the kids. Oh well, it was worth a shot! She did manage to catch a bit of laryngitis while she was up there, so her voice is messed up - it sounds like she's turning into a man! :)
Daylight Savings is definitely not our friend - whoever thought that moving the times back and forth by 1 hour was a good idea did not have kids! Kaleb woke up last weekend at 4:30 in the morning - even though we put him to bed later than normal to try and help him sleep longer during the night. Ouch - very painful! It does seem like we're over the hump again though as the boys are starting to sleep again until 6:00-6:30. Kaleb is doing fabulously without the swaddler blanket, so he's officially done with that business now!
Zachary is spending the night at Grandma B's tonight, so he will be having a grand old time. We have dinner plans with friends, so Amy's aunt Louise is going to come over and watch Kaleb while he sleeps. It's been a long time that we went out for dinner with just adults, so we plan to enjoy the conversation immensely! It is strange to not have both boys - it is so quiet!
For those who know Amy well, know that she is a bookworm. She has recently been reading a book about raising children based on biblical principles that is absolutely a great book - it is called Shepherding a Child's Heart. It is quite revealing on the motivations and attitudes that drive most of our children's behaviors (and frankly it applies to adults as well) and encourages parents to use the Bible as a foundation for the values and character traits that we develop in our children. Instead of just focusing on our child's behavior, it talks about focusing on their heart from which all behavior comes - so fix the heart's attitudes = fix the behavior. Now, the one caveat to the book is that it does involve spanking as one aspect of raising your children using biblical principles, but even for parents against spanking, it is so much more than that one aspect that it is very much worth the time to read it.
Phrase of the Week: "wash hands, wash hands!" - Zachary is apparently like his father in many ways, one of which is his desire for cleanliness. Karis used to apparently tell his brothers to wash their hands all of the time, and Zachary now insists on having things clean around him - even if he's in the middle of supper if his hands get dirty, then we must wash them!!! Oh well - the daddy genes are strong! :)

Picture of Karis and Zachary in similar poses (Kaleb on the left, Zachary on the right)

I'm a Big Boy Now!

Kaleb has made the final transition to not sleeping with his swaddler blanket - the last bastion was the night-time sleep, and we finally took the plunge on Thursday night and didn't put it on when he went to bed - Amy was trepidatious to say the least as he'd been waking up this week about 5:30A or so - she was sure that he'd be awake in the middle of the night with no swaddler! But, he surprised us and slept in until 6:15! Yippee!

Anyone with kids knows that when the time changes for Daylight Savings, these are not fun times - we're hoping that the boys switch over quickly to the new time - Zachary has also been waking up early (something with a 5 in front of it - so we're desperately hoping that it isn't 4 something tomorrow!

Amy heads off to Amelia Island to a conference this week, so Daddy will be batching it with the two boys. She is wondering if perhaps this will be most restful! She'll sadly still probably wake up at 5 wondering if the kids are about to wake up! :)

Amy's friend Maria from college is down visiting her sister this week, so they had a wonderful visit today catching up on all of the news that is going on with our families.

Zachary has clearly caught on to what "time-out" means - this week he has been testing the boundaries by doing things that he knows he's not allowed to do - such as play with the remote - well, when one of us comes into the room and catches him, he has started to automatically take HIMSELF to time-out when we say "Zachary, you know better". It took Amy off-guard the first time - she hadn't intended on putting him in time-out but rather intended just take it away and give him a scolding, but hey, seeing as he put himself in time-out that settled that!

Phrase of the Week: You're cute Daddy! Daddy thought that was quite funny as Zachary told him that he was 'cute' - not something that Dads get called very often!

The first co-bath between the boys!

Kaleb enjoying the jumper while Zachary lounged in a child's rocking chair that Amy's grandpa made.

Ready to go to bed - without the swaddler blanket!

Our little chick!

Kaleb's 6 month picture