Savor The Moments

In the hustle and bustle of life, it is easy to miss the small moments to savor and it struck Amy one day as she walked into the kitchen and looked down at the garbage can and saw a perfect little person handprint.   To some, this may look like we need to clean our house better, but to Amy, this was a moment to savor - there won't be little handprints around in just a few short years.....let's love them while we have them!!

The weather has turned beautiful here in Florida - no humidity and lovely moderate temperatures.  We took advantage last weekend by going out to the park and playing soccer in the evening - even Mom played! :)  It actually was all the little kids against the big kids....and you can imagine what the score was, so when one of the little boys came over to complain Amy and Teri went out to play on the little boys side and even the score.  Sadly it ended only being a tie even though there were two adults out there!  Sadly there are no pictures to prove that Amy was actually playing soccer though (Karis is not so diligent in the picture arena! :) )

The next day we had a party to celebrate Cole's 9th birthday - it was a nerf tag party, and the big boys all had lots of fun. 

Addison has started to say "mm-hmm" in a sing-songy voice when you ask her a question - it is super cute so we tried to capture it on a video.

Random pictures:

Color coordinated Z children - hardly ever happens, so had to capture it for proof!  It was spring colors, so a bit "off" in terms of timing but hey - it's Florida - it's always warm!

Pumpkin patch time has arrived!

Sit-in diner - just grab a stool and some granola, and dig in!

Using Jennifer's rug as a blanket....already got her sunglasses on!

Sitting at the front door to watch the boys playing outside...

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

We celebrated in style last weekend for Canadian Thanksgiving - making a pumpkin pie (DADDY making pumpkin pie with two helpers).  Yes, you'll notice that apparently in the Z-household we don't believe in clothes....this is our "reduce the laundry" strategy! :)  We loved how Addison says pumpkin pie, so couldn't resist posting this video here to commemorate it by.

Pumpkin Pie!

Our boys are growing up so fast, and they're making us very proud with how helpful they can be! Zachary has been doing the dishwasher now for some time, and we decided that it was time for Kaleb to begin to learn, so here he is pitching in to help! Good job Kaleb!

Loading the dishwasher

Addison has discovered a toy that Zachary used to adore as well - it is a Leapfrog Fridge magnet (although we've never put it on a fridge!) where you put letters in it and it teaches you the sounds of letters.  She has been quite enamored with it as well now that we have introduced her to it.

The chees-o smile when you say "Let me see you Addi!"

A few weekends ago, we had the awesome opportunity to go to "Family ID" at the Forest Lake Church and learn about creating a family values chart, a mission statement and a family slogan.  It was challenging to say the least - especially with two non-creative people - but aren't most things worth doing ultimately a challenge?  We were a bit sheepish as we struggled through this as a couple - finding ourselves having words at times.....until our pastor's wife came over and shared with us that she and her husband...the pastor...got into a huge fight when they did it the first time..... Okay - so if the pastor and his wife can get into a fight going this, maybe it isn't so odd for us to be setting off sparks as well! :)

During the session, they showed this video about "How to be a dad" -  it was so catchy and fun, and so true of what being an engaged father can look like, that we wanted to share!  And no, we're not trying to advertise for Cheerios - it just happened to be the catchy commercial!



Last weekend we headed out to Chapin Station to enjoy the beautiful weather.  While we were there, the Grodacks joined us as well as Cochrans.  It was SO NICE to be outside!

Young and innocent enough not to realize that perhaps a girl sitting on a boy's lap is not the best idea....

Love Calleigh's laughter!

Miss Independent....with child 1 and 2, Amy never would have allowed them to climb without being right there to catch them...  By child #3, parents are worn out and tired, and allow their children to do things that they could potentially fall on!!!

Can we say "static cling?!"

Phrase of the week:  Hand!  Mama, hand!  This is a nightly ritual for Addison - as Amy stands up from the rocking chair to put Addison to bed, she begins to say Hand, Mama Hand!  As soon as Addison is laying down, she puts her hand up in the air and Amy has to lean into the crib and hold her hand for a few moments.   Then Amy lets go of her hand, puts the drop-gate of the crib up, walks to the end of the crib and Addison then insists on "Hand!" again - so Amy reaches over the end of the crib for a few moments, and then says "good-night Addison, hold your ears! (instead of Mommy's hand!)" and finally is able to leave the room and close the door!  It works the exact same way every single night - no deviations!

Mr. QB

Zachary has started to play I9 football again, and this season the QB from last year has moved up to the next section, so Zachary was chosen as the QB this time!  It was interesting in the beginning as he said that he only wants to play defense but after Daddy told him that he used to play the QB when he was a young man, Zachary decided to give it a try.  The Wolverines (the team that Zachary plays on) has won both games handily thus far - scoring something like 67 points.  It makes us parents feel a little bad for the other team, but there will surely be games where they don't win, so they'll get to experience the other side of the coin at some point.  We're proud of Zachary - he's been keeping his head well under pressure and can throw and pass very well.

Blake is the hiker - Zachary is ready to take the ball

Passing the ball off to his runner

Kaleb started a soccer skills camp last weekend, and was showing some really good field sense - instead of bunching up with the other kids he was figuring out where the ball was likely to go and running out there so that he could intercept the ball.  Good job Kaleb!

He's on the end, looking up at the camera  He liked his coach as he had a 'mohawk'.  It's the little things....

After football, we went to celebrate Esai's 9th birthday.  They played flag football, had batting practice in a batting cage, then pick-up game of baseball - it was truly a boys party, and so much fun!

There were a few girls here, but most of the boys are from the football team or siblings.

Running for their candy as it dropped from the pinata

Kaleb taking a swing at the batting cage

Zachary has quite an arm already - he threw the ball all the way from first base to third base!!

Kaleb's having an interesting experience - instead of losing his baby teeth, they've decided to stick around a little longer while the adult teeth grow in.  You can see in this picture that his two bottom front adult teeth are growing in behind his baby teeth!  The dentist told us that the baby teeth would fall out but we're still waiting.......perhaps he'll be getting the teeth pulled instead if they don't fall out soon! :)  This is the sad reality as they inherited Amy's mouth (too small for the teeth!) instead of Karis' mouth.

Hmm, thinking the baby teeth are going to get pulled..... On another note, see how long Kaleb's eye lashes are!???

Addison, aka Baby Spice this week, has been in love with her dolly - and is insisting that she take a nap with baby.  Daddy is very indulgent....

Addison is showing off her skills - wondering how a 2 year old figured out that she could suction this cup to her face.....this kid has such an engineering mind!!!

Phrase of the week:  'Allo' - this is the word for "hello" but instead of meaning "hi" - it means, please give me your cellphone!!!  She calls everyone's cellphone the "allo" because she knows that people talk on it! :)    

We were driving somewhere together, just Amy and the kids, and somehow the conversation wound it ways around to roses.  Kaleb informs us - "We don't know why roses have thorns yet....scientists are still working on that."  Ha ha - I'm sure that is top of the list for scientists to be working on, figuring out why roses have thorns! :)  Have faith, God will tell you when we get to heaven! 

Grandma Norma!

We had a super treat this last week when Grandma Norma came from Canada to visit!  She was down here for the NAD Women's Conference, and we all were so thrilled!  She taught Zachary had to climb stairs when he was 18 months old, and then taught him how to play the game Trouble when he was almost 4, and he always remembered her!

Kaleb was only 20 months the last time we were in Canada at her place, and so he didn't have the same memories....he asked Amy "How come I don't remember, I must have had my eyes closed the whole time!" :)

Playing Trouble again!

Zachary was especially in love with Grandma Norma!

Last Saturday night was Induction at Adventurers, which is always so fun to get together and see all of the kids in their uniforms!  Zachary is not pictured as he was in an emotional state as he apparently hated that uniform that particular day, and thus would not take a picture for his mother! Oh well - we all know what he looks like thankfully - so just imagine him pictured! :)

Marching in

Addison practicing to be an Adventurer someday!

The Z-family all fell victim to the stomach flu this week - thankfully it only lasted 18-24 hours.  Amy hosted the annual Controller's Conference on Monday/Tuesday, so was so thankful that she didn't get it until Wednesday!  After a miserable day, we were all back on our feet.  We were thankful for Grandma as she was able to watch Addison on Tuesday and then the boys on Thursday afternoon (as Karis was out for the count in bed, moaning every 30 seconds that he was going to die! :)

Karis came home on Tuesday to discover Addison sacked out for her 3 hour nap on Grandma - that's true love to lay on the couch for three hours with your Granddaughter laying on top of you!

 After recovering from the stomach bug, Kaleb then came down with a double ear infection the very next day!  Boo!  Can we just say how much we love Nite-Lite Pediatrics though - it is literally 5 minutes from our house and so fast!

Waiting for the doctor to come in..

A close friend of ours came for the annual conference, Stephanie, so we were pleased to be able to spend some quiet time with her on Sabbath and catch up.  Good friends are jewels to be treasured! We miss you Stephanie!

Phrase of the week:  "Gi/Guy" (think of the french way to say the name Guy", not the American way to say hi to a guy").  We had figured out that this is Addison's word for "Yes" - not sure how in the world this is supposed to mean Yes, but it does!   The odd part is that she mastered the word "Yeah" perfectly this week, but doesn't say Yes!  Amy asked her when she got home, "Are you feeling better" and she casually replied "Yeah" (like, no big deal mom! - Amy was in amazement!)  Addison has also started to say "Bamma" for Grandma!

Karis and Amy were hugging in the kitchen one day, just standing there, when Kaleb looked up from the table and told us "Stop, you've been hugging too long!"  Apparently we were making him uncomfortable! :)

Ride for Ronald

Last weekend, Karis rode 60 miles for a charity event "Ride for Ronald" - it was a beautiful day to do it, and they made great time.  He really enjoyed it - much more than when he did the 100 miles a few years ago.  The finish line was quite a fair distance, so the rest of the family headed to a local community festival but Rob provided at least a picture of the group while they were on the road.

Karis is somewhere in this pack of men riding!

On the Sabbath day, the boys got a "bee in their bonnet" and decided that they had to hit the beach one more time - even though it was cloudy and RAINY!  When telling them that it wouldn't be that nice of weather, Zachary replied "Who cares, you're wet at the beach anyway, so what difference does it make it if is raining?"  Karis decided that he couldn't argue with that, so took the boys to the beach while the lady Z-family members stayed at home nice and dry!  Blake and Evan went with them, so they had a lot of fun and we had a quick supper with the crew when they got back.

Playing soccer in our entry way when they got back from the beach

While Karis as on his ride, we headed over to the Altamonte "Let's Move" festival and enjoyed free samples, a bounce house, a "grip strength monitor" and more.  It really was fun, and the weather was perfect!

a balloon hat!

Watching the foundations

The grip strength test was actually quite fun - Zachary was able to apply 40 pounds of pressure, and Kaleb shocked us all with a whopping 35 - not bad for being 2 years younger!  Amy could only do 65 pounds of pressure - sad how the boys will soon surpass her!

Addison doing her grip strength

All of the kids enjoyed a free sample from Planet Smoothie - yum!

There was a bounce house, and true to form "Problem-solver Addison" quickly figured out that if she wanted to jump like mad and not fall, that she could hold on to the mesh windows and she'd be sturdy enough not to fall down as she jumped!  We love the first picture - that is Kaleb on the left hand side with the number 4 on his back - mid-air jump!

Showing off their face paintings

One last view of the water before heading on home...

It was hilarious - there were hoola hoops at the festival, so the kids were trying their best to do them. The adults tried too, but our hips couldn't move the small hoops fast enough to actually get it to work!  Addison tried her very best to mimic the motion of the hoops, which while she wasn't doing it properly, it was so cute that she tried to make it look like the boys were doing that we posted this video too!

Phrase of the week:  A while back when staying with Amy's mom, she said something about "waiting with baited breath" and later each boy tried to use the phrase - with both of them going wildly astray! They weren't said immediately together, so it made it all the more funny that they both tried use to use the phrase and got it so wrong!
Kaleb's phrase:  Grandma, I'm waiting with loaded breath!
Zachary's phrase:  Oh, I'm waiting with fishy breath!

Addison's words this week are "Bama" for Grandma and "Allo" - which is her word for cell phone - she always calls the cell phone (which she dearly loves!) "Allo"

Sporty Spice

Addison seems to be an awesome mix of both girly-ness and sportiness so far.  She definitely loves purses, shoes, and dollies and then amazes us with her athletic prowess at times!

Amy took her to run a few errands the other day, and she insisted that she had to take her purse along with her!  While there, Amy turned around to find that Addison had taken off her shoes and was able to try on a pair of boots! :)


Really, who needs boots in Florida!?

Showing off her purse and big grin

Last November we noticed that Addison was able to actually walk/trot behind a soccer ball and kick it in a straight line (even though she was only about 14-15 months).  Karis was finally able to get a video of her doing it - we're pretty impressed that she can do this - maybe she'll be a soccer star some day.


One night recently Amy had to work late, so wasn't able to put Addison down to bed like she normally does.....so Zachary stepped in to snuggle her before bedtime.  Hopefully the sibling love remains many years from now! :)

The boys have been obsessed lately with these maze balls that they got for presents over the last year or two - both of them have been trying to see how far they can get before the ball falls off the track - it has become a nightly routine!


Phrase of the week:  Addison is starting to put multiple words together a bit more often.  This week it was "I tursty (for thirsty)" 

Kaleb asked Karis "When will I have a sleep partner?"  NOT FOR A LONG TIME BUDDY! Maybe when you're 30!  Kaleb also told Amy that he had a girlfriend at school....Elizabeth...but don't say anything to anyone as people may tease me!  (Another Romeo on our hands..first it was Lindsay last year, then Elizabeth and now it has even switched to Leilani!)

Zachary was very intent on deciding where we were all going to live when he was an adult (apparently he is a pre-planner like his mother).  It had to be somewhere that he could ski, so then it became a negotiation between the mother and father of the house....Amy picking Denver and Karis picking Calgary.  It was quite distressing to Zachary that we weren't in agreement because he apparently was making this lifelong decision that very evening......we'll keep the ultimate decision a secret to not make either the Canadian or American relatives upset based on the final outcome! :)

Lucky Monkeys

Lucky monkeys, Lucky ducks - whatever the animal - we're lucky folks! :)  Last weekend we had fun by checking out a new indoor play place called Lucky Monkeys - it is geared for kids up to 12, although I would say probably 6 years old is in truth probably as old as would normally find it fun for multiple visits (although Zachary did say that he had fun, but I think that was in large part due to his Uncle William created an "earthquake" on the inflatable teeter-totter thingy and seeing how long the boys could hold on!

Addison had to be as close to Elin as possible!

Riding the tree "swing" - with Uncle William pulling it to go faster.  Even Addison had a great time hanging on for dear life!

Addison has started this funny habit - no matter what she's doing, if you say "Addi, let me see you" - she'll swing around to look at you and puts on this huge cheesy grin - expression below - and she'll repeat this every single time.  It is hilarious, and so useful when you want her to look at you for a picture!







 

Hanging with big brother

The funniest moment at Lucky Monkeys was when Addison decided that she wanted to fill her shirt with these balls - and made herself look like a woman......probably the biggest chest that she'll ever have!  Ha ha ha!

In very exciting news, we have a brand new nephew - a picture of perfection!  Korey (Karis' brother) and Rachel had a baby boy Nikolas Aleksandr on August 28, and he weighed in at 7 lbs 8 ounces and 21.5 inches long.

Last weekend, our cousin Jeff organized a skating outing for the Florida Hospital church (showing his Canadian roots!), so Karis and the boys tagged along to enjoy some ice time!  Their skills came back right away!

 

Hanging out with cousin Niesha!

 

Daddy-time!

Apparently Zachary is cold! :)

 We also had the pleasure of having Blake and Evan with us on Saturday morning while Jennifer had a blood test done for her pregnancy.  Kaleb was uncertain about whether Amy would be able to pull off getting to Sabbath School with five kids....she assured him that it would be possible even though she doesn't have as much practice with the 5 kids as Miss Jennifer does!  They all did fantastic though, so we did in fact make it!

Proof that we made it to church - so this is what having five kids would be like! :)

Phrase of the week:  Love, Love, Love!  Addison didn't actually say the true word love, but she mimicked the sound perfectly.  We were in church two weekends ago, and the pastor was repeatedly, loudly, saying the phrase "love, love, love!"  About halfway through the church service, Addison decided to yell it out as well after he did, so she shouted "Love, love, love!"  Folks around us started to laugh at her (we were sitting in the very back of the church), and then from the pulpit the pastor said "Well, at least the kids are listening to me!

Grandma the next day asked us "Were you in church" to which we said yes, and she started to tell us the story of this little girl (Grandma goes to a later church service, so had heard the story through the grapevine in her Sabbath school).  She said that it reminded her so much of something that Addison would do that she just had to share the story with Amy.....to which Amy had to sigh and say "Yep, that does sound like Addison.....so much so that it WAS Addison! :)"

From the Kaleb-front this week, Amy had a super funny bedtime conversation with him as well....

Kaleb (very seriously, and a little sadly):  Mom, I'm going to go bald soon.
Mom:  Why do you say that?
Kaleb:  Because my hair is going to get 'loose' and fall out.
Mom:  No, not all men go bald.
Kaleb:  Well, Daddy's hair got all loose and fell out.
Mom (chuckling inside about this "loose" business):  True, but not all men go bald.  Uncle William isn't bald."
Kaleb:  Oh yeah, you're right!  His hair didn't get loose!  But wait, his hair got all white!!!"
Ha ha ha, well - I guess it's a choice between loose hair and white hair... :)