It's Magic!

How does this keep happening?  Our lives usually are pretty quiet, but all of a sudden in the last six months there has been enough going on that we keep getting behind in our blog posts!  So, another catch-up post to be had....

In February, we had a couple of sporting outings - the first actually was when Z-parents went sans children to the Tampa Bay Lightning game - it was a work event and as it was 2 hours away, we decided that we would go without the kids and save the super late night (It was midnight before we ourselves crawled into bed).  It was in the box there, and it was super fun as it was right before the Olympics, so we talked about how several of the players were heading out the next day to the Olympics. 


Karis outside of the arena as we walked in

Later that month, we accepted four tickets to the Orlando Magic game - taking the boys to make up for the fact that they had missed out on the hockey game.  We realized right before leaving however that this too was going to be a work event - us along with 12 of Amy's coworkers!  The boys were very well behaved though and it worked out nicely.  One of Amy's bosses, Terry, sat down beside Zachary and started quizzing him on math questions, using the scoreboard as the source for numbers - Zachary surprised him by being able to quickly and accurately do all of the double digit addition and subtraction immediately in his head and come up with the right answer!  Good job Zachary!

Watching the game with their front row seats in the box!

We are slowly trying to recover from the trip to Jackson Hole.  The kids have been sick this week, so it has taking a long time.  With the fact that we "sprang" ahead, we're feeling it here!  One night, TWO of our smoke alarm batteries decided to die, so they of course went off two hours apart, waking up the adults in the family - that day was not a good one, to say the least!

We had another strange night in which we woke up at 4A (Karis accidentally woke Amy up as he got out of bed to go to the bathroom), and we realized that the house at the back of our property (in another subdivision) was rhythmically turning their lights on and off - every few seconds (so too quickly to be a motion light we're thinking).  It kept doing that for quite a while - we laid in bed discussing this for about 15-20 seconds, beginning to worry  - what if this was their signal for help and we were ignoring it?  Karis finally called 9-1-1 and they headed out to determine if there was a problem, but we never heard back as to what happened.  Odd.

A few weeks ago, we had Adventurers Sabbath at the Apopka church - we typically don't attend those events as we go to our normal church, but Zachary was a deacon so we went over there.  Kaleb was indignant that he didn't have a part in the service, so hopefully next time he gets chosen!  At least he got to march in with the group, so that was a good thing!

Beautiful smile!

Kaleb and Jonathan marching in

Brother bonding time:

Playing on the I-Pad together

Playing with their dinosaur collection - trying to keep baby sister from wrecking it!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the last month (ahh, the time to be in Florida EXCEPT if you have allergies - if you have allergies, you want to chop your head off every time you go outside for any length of time!!)  We have enjoyed playtime outside on the driveway, and Addison has been playing with chalk etc.


We had a group of friends over for Sabbath lunch in February, so all of the kids were outside on all of the "vehicles" - although Zachary and Esi were playing football instead!

Impossible to see, but Zachary is hiding in the box on the driveway - didn't realize it when this picture was taken until he started to climb out, and then we zoomed in on the picture and can barely see his arm where the 'lid' is open! :)

Addison is recovering from a terrible cough that began while we were away last week.  She is getting all 4 of her canine teeth, so the poor child has been quite clingy and temperamental this week.  She is a big fan of course of Daddy, so they have had some bonding time.

Big helper - loves to sweep the wood floors!

Phrase of the week:  Karis asked the boys where Addison was this week, and Kaleb's reply was "maybe getting into 'mis-drift'"  Ha ha, love two things about that phrase - how Kaleb says mischief, and the fact that she probably WAS getting into mischief!  He knows her well!  This child continues to amaze all of us with her "tornado" tendencies - running from one thing to the next - and she is so crafty (and we don't mean artistic!) - Miss Jennifer uttered the very true words the other day "Oh Addison, use your powers for good, not evil!" as we watched her little mind spinning on what she could do to accomplish her goals at the time.....  Karis one day remarked that Addison appears to be the most mechanically minded of all of our children - the youngest, and the girl!  You go girl! :)  She definitely has the ability to think through a problem and get it solved so that she can continue on her merry way - regardless of whether she is SUPPOSED to be doing any of that! :)

Steep & Deep

 

Steep and Deep - that is what Jackson Hole is known for, and the reputation is well deserved.  The Z-family, minus Addison, headed out to Jackson Hole Wyoming for the week on Amy's annual conference.  The boys were beside themselves with excitement.  On Monday, we headed over to Grand Targhee, which was an easier mountain and very enjoyable.  We had a good time other there, although the weather was not cooperative and socked in the upper part of the mountain to the point where at times the males said that it was hard to even see their feet, and that they were struggling with vertigo.  After that, some of the party decided to join Heather and Amy on the lower part of the mountain where the visibility was better (although the runs were not as challenging as they might have liked!)

The boys took ski lessons all week, and did great in terms of having a lot of fun and gaining new skills.  We were at Jackson Hole the rest of the week, which was a very difficult mountain.  Their blues seem to be the equivalent of black runs at other mountains, and their greens are very short and limited in number.  The weather was odd - it was snowing almost every day and then the last day it was RAINING!  Who ever has heard of skiing in the rain!?  We did it though as we had taken the kids out of ski school that afternoon to actually spend the afternoon skiing with them, so we just stayed out and got drenched!

The week was full of very fun memorable moments - a few of which we wanted to share:

1.  Karis, William and Rob were skiing down the mountain when Rob stopped to wait for the other two on a relatively flat area.  A man flew past him shouting "There is a moose coming!  GET GOING!!"  Sure enough, Rob turned around and a mother moose was racing towards them.  Needless to say he got himself in gear quickly and skied about 200 yards down the mountain and turned back to see what was happening - the mother moose got tired of the chase and turned back at that point.  Karis and William were behind Rob, so they just stopped skiing and watched this all unfold below them!  On the topic of moose, we literally saw 1-2 moose every single day that we were there - we've never seen that many ever!  They were on the outskirts of town along the roads, in the rivers etc. Pretty cool.

2.  On Wednesday, Amy and Heather were picking up the kids when we noticed a mother and her son sitting on the snow playing together.  The little boy was black, and the mother was white - which caught our attention as we walked by - thinking that perhaps the little boy was adopted.  Anyway, in a moment the mother got up and walked right by Amy and spoke to her companion - Amy's mouth dropped open as she realized it was SANDRA BULLOCK!  Heather didn't believe her, so Amy followed her into the ski school to get a second verification, and yep, no doubt about it - it was Sandra Bullock!  She apparently bought a home outside of Jackson Hole.  Amy actually saw her again a 2nd time the next day.  Both times Amy was "cool" and did not gush or ask for an autograph - figuring she probably wanted her privacy - but inside Amy was screaming! :)

3.  On Wednesday, we went to a nearby tubing hill - which was super fun as there were two runs and we could race each other.  Zachary and Kaleb were racing each other one time, and the men at the top (the ones that worked there) gave each one of them a huge push to get them really going - well Kaleb wasn't situated on his very well - and he literally flew off the tube and began to slide down the hill!  The man realizing what had happened dove through the air to catch Kaleb, and managed to grab him before he got too far.  Kaleb would have been fine as the hill wasn't that long or steep, but it was certainly dramatic!

4.  That same day, Luke got hit in the face with a snowball which resulted in much crying and wailing.  As we drove home, the boys all said they wanted to play snowball fights again - Amy said "No, someone has already been hurt so we're not going to be playing that again.".  Luke turns around and says to her "Auntie Amy, it's okay, I was just being overly dramatic and a little crabby!"  Ha ha ha - that's the first confession we've ever heard of its kind! :)

Zachary, whether excitement or sheer obstinacy, got up super early every day - even earlier than he did at home even with the time zone change.  He got up at 3A (5a our time), 3:50 (Mommy, I slept in today!) and Amy in desperation came with a bribery system - $10 for sleeping in until 7A, $5 for sleeping in until 6A, and $1 if you wake up earlier than that but yet don't wake up Kaleb (who was sleeping in the same room).  It worked one day as he slept until 6:15 but the next day he could only make it until 5:20 (although I suppose that's better than 3:50!). If we had stayed longer, the incentive was then going to shift that if you didn't sleep until at least 6A, you'd have to PAY US money!  Alas we didn't make it that far!  Kaleb had no trouble time shifting, so this continues to boggle our minds with Zachary.  We're re-thinking our summer trip to San Diego, and whether this may be an adults-only trip! :)

Addison enjoyed her time home with Grandma, and sprouted 3 of her canines!  She came down with a cold, so unfortunately woke Grandma up pretty early at least one day.

Kaleb and Kieran in ski school (Kaleb at the back).  Notice the grey weather!

Following Kaleb and Kieran down the mountain run (Kaleb in front now)

Zachary in ski school (in the red, black and white jacket at the far right of picture)

The Z-family at Grand Targhee

This was a sleigh ride at the National Elk Refuge (elk in the background)...

Pretty close to this big bull....

Kieran and Kaleb - awesome skiers!

Deiningers, Cochrans and Zbaraschuks after a "train" ride down the tubing hill

 

Another family picture moment!

The boys on the trip....(except for Erik and Elin, as they were too little to join the tubing fun)

Enjoying the last few runs the last afternoon!

The boys desperately wanted poles, so we let them finish the last run with the adult Z poles.

The last night we took a group shot - the Johnsons had left to see Kent's sister, we we're missing them but otherwise it was the Deiningers (Jr and Sr), Cochrans, and Zbaraschuks

 

Phrase of the week:  Why do we have to go home?  Why don't we live here? (Kaleb) Oh good, it is only 51 degrees at home - I hate to sweat! (Zachary)

Outings, Parties & Dates!

We have had a lot of fun outings going on over the last several weeks, so this entry is trying to recap all of the fun things that the family has done - how is it that we get behind so easily!?

The kids went with Jennifer to the Science Center, which of course is always a big hit.  Addison in particular loved the water attractions!

I love how Kaleb sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating! :)

Good times!

Lounging around - it's hard work!

Then Heather H and Jennifer threw a Valentine's Day party where they had crafts, the trampoline, fun pictures, goodies etc.  The kids stayed for as long as they possibly could playing and came back with great tales of playing all sorts of games!

Very handsome men!

With the news with Addison - she is a thrillseeker and mischief maker if there ever was one!  She was giddy with delight when Uncle Kent turned her upside down and swung her to and fro!

Does not appear to have any head rush.... :)

The point of this picture was to showcase the fact that Addison managed to unravel her brand new tights on the very first day by pulling on a loose string.....but isn't the expression on her face just priceless?  Look at that little Miss Attitude!

Growing up with four older brothers,  Addison had very little chance of not being tomboyish - and the boys love her so much that they'll let her do just about anything she wants....and this day she decided that she wanted to do a dog-pile and be on the very top! :)


Ride 'em cowboy!

Amy began a new tradition this year of taking the boys out individually on a date night once a month.  It has been fun to spend some one-on-one quality time with them.  We have done it twice thus far with Kaleb choosing Chik-Fil-A (they get to choose!) and Yum-Yums Chinese food and Zachary choosing Perkins and Yum-Yums (two weeks in a row.....Chinese lost a little appeal the second time around! :))

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb was wanting to have something from another room and was demanding that his mom go and get it for him....when she answered "I'm not your servant" to which he replied in an adamant voice  "Yes you are, you're my mom!"

Zachary's funny conversation came with deciding on which restaurant he wanted to go to - he said he would pick something closer next time but this time (the first time we went) it was all about his belly and his belly decided he wanted Perkins!

 

Black Eye

Who else would you think would get a black eye?  Of course the Tiny Tornado!  Our boys have never had a black eye, so this was a bit of a new adventure.  It is hard to see in the pictures because of the lighting but Addi had quite a little green shiner on the top of her right eye!  Thankfully she was no worse for wear, but it does make us chuckle at the trouble this girly can find herself in!

Riding her toy in the bonus room (still with the black eye)

Reading stories with Daddy (and still with the black eye!)

Taking a rest with Daddy.....did we mention the black eye? :)

In a totally random picture, this is currently what our dining room looks like.  Isn't it a decorators marvel?  The huge brown thing on the wall is a piece of felt - we got the idea from one of Amy's employees at work as she complained about the fact that this room is SUPER LOUD with the fact that we don't have much in it and the sound echoes and bounces around on the walls.  Her son is an architect and suggested some felt panels, so Amy took it all the way in her desperation to quiet the room down.  It worked like a CHARM - we intend long-term to get acoustic panels with artwork on them but for not, the $16 piece of felt is primo! :)  Notice also that we now have an "eclectic" dining room table - our old one and then the D's kitchen table as they replaced theirs with a new dining room table (very lovely) - anyway, we're "housing" it for a while at our house.  It has come in handy as we can fit 14-15 people around it, so lots of fun to be had! 




We continue to love the Olympics.  So far, Kaleb's favorite sports are the "bob race" (aka bob sledding) but he does love to pretend to be a figure skater and "twirl" around the house! Zachary's favorite is curling (good little Canadian!) and the luge.  He was however devastated when the US men lost in hockey against the Canadians - he was definitely cheering for US in that one.




Our little "bob racer!"

We had a few other random pictures from Disney that we wanted to share - the boys are growing up so quickly!

 

 

Disney

On Superbowl Sunday, we decided to join the masses and use our Disney tickets to head out to the Magic Kingdom - we had been told that Superbowl Sunday the crowds were minimal and frankly that is the only way that the Z-parents can abide the thought of going to Disney - we just don't like to stand in line for an hour to experience a 60 second ride! :)  The Bergherms came with us, as they are the experts, and we knew that our day would be much more enjoyable with friends, and expertise, along! Addison spent the day with Grandma, as we didn't think that she'd be able to last for such a long time, and little Miss Tornado surely wouldn't take a nap in the stroller if there was something to see! :) It worked out perfectly, because older boys and the men all went home in order to watch the game while the smaller boys and the moms stayed later at the park the enjoy more rides.  The weather was perfect, so all in all it was a great experience!

 

We were able to do a ton of rides, thanks to Jennifer's wisdom of which ones to hit first etc - we didn't do Space Mountain (didn't think the boys would be old enough for that "thrill" yet and the Splash Mountain was closed, but we did the majority of the other rides except for Peter Pan - who wants to wait an hour!!



Riding in the boat on the way over - all set!



Enjoying the jungle cruise

See, no crowds that we could actually get a good picture of the castle!

Front row to watch the parade - and this was after we just happened upon it (we hadn't staked it out an hour in advance....perfect!)

Kaleb and Mom on the Dumbo ride.

Phrase of the week:  Ding-dong!  It is a tradition, we've taught our babies that if they press on our belly-buttons we pretend it is the doorbell and say Ding-dong.  Addison loves this game, and so is now walking up to one and all (not just parents!) and lifting their shirts to find their belly buttons to press them!  So much for personal space!

Catch up!

With all of the posts about our Z-Christmas, we have some catching up to do - so this will be a mish-mash of things - because let's be clear, we'd rather be watching the Olympics than writing a clever blog entry! :)  We love the Olympics!!!!

A few weeks ago, we had the traditional post-Christmas get together with Cochrans, Deiningers and Johnsons to enjoy some visiting and of course the kids love the gift-giving! :)

 

Karis also went on his annual "mens-only" ski trip - the very one in which he broke his ankle last year.  This is always an anxious 5 days for Amy as she's managing the house and kids by herself at the same time as she's in year-end and work is crazy....but add to this the fact that last year he came back maimed, there were a lot of prayers going up!  Thankfully, each day the guys would text Amy with a picture of Karis - happy and whole!

Grandma Bobbi had her birthday as well - and we enjoyed a delicious supper over at Aunt Louise's to celebrate another year!

While Karis was away, Amy took Zachary to his "learn to play hockey" skating lessons - and was thoroughly impressed!  The skating skills that they teach on that side really are impressive - they weren't playing hockey but were learning how to use their full stride, do hockey stops, concentrate on edging etc. And it was nice that they all had to have a helmet on - safety first! :)

Phrase of the week:  "A-boo!"  Addi loves to say A-boo - especially as Peek-a-boo is one of our favorite games!  She also likes to say "baby!"  In other developments - she's absolutely a cheese lover (must be the Syfert genes!) - and Amy gives her the baby bell cheese snacks to eat from time-to-time - and today she decided to grab one when the door was off and managed to get the red wrapping paper off before starting to just bite right through the red wax!  Gotta have me some cheese!  She also said "Je-fer" once (not sure if it has been repeated or not! :)

Kaleb lamented one night as Amy was telling him that he wasn't allowed to do something "Why are mom's so cruel?"  It is such a rough life! :)

Zachary shared with us that his favorite Bible characters are Joshua and Noah - so wanted to save this for posterity sake.