Catching up

It feels like a lot has happened this summer. It has been so busy that I didn't make time to put an entry together...Where to start...

Theo and I had our third year anniversary together! Those 3 years went by really fast! Here are a few things that I have learned about marriage:

1. Everything gets much busier when you have a kid. You need to schedule almost everything. I'll take the decrease in spontaneity for our cute little Zacha (That is what his cousin Maisy calls him, I think it's cute).
   
2. Boys are messy! What I mean by this is that boys love to get dirty. He loves his outdoors activities; camping, paint balling, shooting, you name it, he loves it and is good at it.
   
3. Theo LOVES being a Dad. I always knew he would be a good Dad...but he is not just good- he is an AMAZING father. So loving and attentive, even when he has a whole list of things he needs to get done, Zachary always comes first. He even offers to change Zachary's dirty diapers! I am so lucky.
4. Laughter is so important. We laugh about the silliest things everyday; and that's important. It keeps us happy and keeps us focused on having fun each and every day.
5. When it is his night to cook-we are definitely going to have BBQ; even if it is pouring rain.

I sure love Theo! I'm so grateful that I married my best friend.







We went to Brier, WA and Cannon Beach, OR. Zachary loved the water....even though it was freezing cold. He didn't care that his legs and feet were turning purple. He kept trying to jump in the water. We also went on the ferry, which was lots of fun.
He loves animals. Whenever he sees any kind of furry creature, he starts making animal sounds and pointing. It is hilarious. Sometimes he will call the animal a 'doggy'. 'Doggy' is pretty much his universal name for any four legged creature.
Zachary had a great time playing with his cousins. He wanted to be just like the big kids. He would follow them everywhere. I wish we all lived closer...
Taven taught him how to use a shovel at the beach. Now, every day, Zach gets out the big spoon from the kitchen and tries to shovel our carpet.




For Father's Day, I surprised Theo with tickets to the Tim McGraw concert! It was so good!! I loved seeing him live...



We also made a trip up to Calgary. That was fun. I had forgotten how cold the summer could be up there. We had snow and hail. I'm not complaining...it was a nice break from our scorching heat in Utah.


Zachary is such a little ham. He makes us laugh all day long. He is a great kid...hopefully we can make more just like him.

Zachary is 9 months old!

I can't believe that Zachary is already 9months! He is almost one year old! Crazy.
He had his wellness check up this week and is doing great. Zachary is getting to be a great little walker. He will even pull or carry things around with him wherever he goes. This is his favorite thing to take around the house:
He is also into climbing EVERYTHING! It is crazy. I think he is practicing to be a rock climber, just like his Dad.

I left the room for a quick second,
and came back to find him in the stroller

I love summer

I seriously am in love with summer. I love the hot weather and all of the fun things that we get to do. We have been on some good hikes lately. Last week we went up to Diamond Fork hot springs by Spanish Fork. It was so beautiful! I was surprised at how hot some of the pools were. Some of them had boiling water in them; they were that hot. It would be perfect for a winter day...but not much fun when it is already scorching outside. We did find one pool that had some cold water running through it, so it was perfect for Zachary and for us to play in.




You can tell by Zachary's face that he is just loving the water. That boy is a little fish. Once he is in water, it is a big struggle to get him out. This hike was way fun, we went with some great friends and spent about 7 hours out there. Theo ended up needing stitches once we were back home. He decided to explore a waterfall, which would have been perfectly fine if he were wearing shoes; but, he wasn't. He ended slicing the skin between his big toe and the toe next to it. I'll spare you the pictures, it is pretty gruesome. He thought it was pretty cool that you can see the bone. Theo really didn't want or think that he needed stitches. He was ready to do the whole, clean it out and put super glue in it; which by the way, I am sure works, but I think it is so weird. So, we did in fact go in and get stitches. About 12 stitches later, the Dr. said that if he hadn't come in, the wound would have for sure gotten infected and taken forever to heal. This was Theo's first visit to the Dr.'s since we have been married. That is pretty good for 3 years of marriage. Especially since everyone said that it was a good thing he was marrying a nurse because he gets hurt a lot.

Here's some pics from the hike:



Zachary and his girlfriend












Here is the waterfall Theo cut his foot on.

Guess what world- I'm walking!

Yep, it's true. little 8 month old Zachary can now walk. We can hardly believe it. He looks so funny when he walks around; his arms stick straight out from his body and his legs don't bend. Just like Frankenstein, not that I would ever call him that. So, instead, we call him Zachenstein (thanks to Alicia:)). Our video camera won't let us upload video, so, you'll have to settle for pictures for now.

Curious George is a good motivator for him to walk


It was 32*C (90*F) here today. It felt way too hot! Ugh. The dry desert heat. I think I would tolerate it better if we had an ocean nearby :) However, since we don't, we got out the little swimming pool for Zachary. It was his first time using it. He loved it! He spent the whole time splashing, singing, and trying to coax Piper into the water with him.

This was how he spent the afternoon:

This is his singing face

This last picture is hilarious. He kept trying to play peek-a-boo, but it wasn't working so well for him because he couldn't get his eyes covered. He was laughing so hard at himself for quite a while. This expression here reminds me of something that Theo had said when he was young: "I am the funniest kid in the world!" I wonder if Theo's family would agree with me? I guess Zachary is going to be the second funniest kid in the world.

Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was such a treat. Theo did a good job of making me feel special all weekend. On Sunday, I woke up to a happy baby who gave me slobbery kiss, after slobbery kiss (it was as if he knew it was Mom's day and smothered me with love).

Then I was given my Mother's Day gifts, which included: Things in a box (it's a REALLY fun game), the first of the

Twilight series, peanut brittle and a big cookie.

Then we had banana pancakes, YUM. They were very good. What a lucky girl I am!!!



I even got a present for Piper, even though she is not a mom yet, I thought she deserved something. Apparently she thought so as well. She knew exactly which gift was hers, and she wanted to devour in right away. Piper is such a good dog! She has a great temperament and is so good with kids. I swear she thinks that she is Zachary's mom. She licks his tears when he's crying and she'll bring him her favorite toys so that they can play tug-a-war. Here's a few pictures of her present:

Waiting for us to let her take the toy...


Sharing with Zachary.


Finally, her favorite part, destroying it.


We are so lucky to have Zachary. He is so happy and makes us laugh all of the time! I can make him smile at any time of the day. He can be full out crying and I can make a face or say something silly and he'll give me his huge gummy-smile (he doesn't have any teeth yet). Around our neighbourhood and at church, he is known as the happy-smiley baby. Did I mention that he is a big time flirt? He loves to be around females! For example, last semester we went to one of Theo's classes every Monday. Whenever Zachary would get bored, Theo would take Zachary to walk the aisle of the class. Whenever he would spot a girl, he would stop and smile at her until she would smile back. When they did, he would giggle and keep walking, looking for the next girl. It was hilarious! Anytime he would see a male, he would quickly look away and look for a girl to smile at. So cute! Here are a few of his great smiles:



at 4 months


at 5 months


at 6 months


at 7 months




around 7 months

Utah

Provo is turning out to be a fun place to live. I wasn't too sure about it at first, but we are having a great time. Just the other day, Theo mentioned how special this house is going to be. He said, "this is the house that Zachary is going to learn how to walk and crawl in". That was a cool thought to me.

The weather here is beautiful compared to how cold Calgary can be this time of year. I feel like it is already summer! Tomorrow it will be 70*F (which is 21*C for all my Canadian friends=)).

Zachary has started to walk using a little push toy we bought for him. It has proven to be one of the best investments. He walks around the house so fast and has the widest grin on his face. He sure loves his independence.




Zachary L-O-V-E-S his solids. He also loves to share these with one of his best friends. If I ever turn my back on Zachary, while he is eating, to get something, I can be sure (100% of the time) that I will come back to find Piper nearby...Here is why:

So, I have been thinking about changing how I format my entries. I am going to start writing my posts for Zachary. That way, he will get 'letters' from me. I would have loved to have had this kind of thing from my Dad. To know how he thought and what occupied his time and stories about us.

We finally made a blog!

After much procrastination, we have finally made a blog. We have so much news! I guess it is easiest to start with our move to Provo, Utah. That was always the deal-once I was finished with school in Canada, we would move to Provo for Theo's school. He feels good being in school and progressing in his education.


So here is a picture of the Max's truck (we used it to transport some of our things). Theo took a trip down earlier and brought the majority of our stuff. Once the border officers saw this contraption, they didn't want to touch it and didn't even ask what we were bringing across...ha, we could have smuggled anything we wanted!

Mom, Aimee and Max drove down to the half way mark with us; where Theo's brother Jesse met us and we switched everything into his truck.

Here are some pictures of the trip...

Last few moments with Grandma Brenda.


Aimee taking Piper on a walk while I fed Zachary.

We love our house in Provo. It is a good size for us! Three bedroom with a huge yard for Piper. If Zachary was old enough, he would be able to enjoy the swing set...but for now, it is fun to have for the cousins to use.