Youch!

Zechariah's noggin takes a beating just about every day. I'm thankful we haven't been to the ER for some stitches yet! Sometimes his injuries aren't from his own doing, but his big sister Ainsley's. This one was purely an accident (that I witnessed with my own eyes) but he has had a similar injury on the opposite side of his forehead that was on purpose. Both happened with a door. The on purpose one happened when Ains was trying to keep Z out of her play kitchen fridge so she slammed his head in the door. Nice, huh. This accidental injury was the result of Zechariah running to get to the bath (when he hears "bath" or the water running in the tub, he's ready!) and Ainsley trying to close her door. He was running full speed through the door and she didn't see him coming...boy did he fly! As you can see, he made a full recovery and the bath made everything better. All that is left, a few days later, is a small bruise and tiny scab. I am amazed at how resilient kids are and how quickly they heal.

Sleepy Z

I was talking on the phone today and Zechariah wouldn't stop crying. I picked him up and carried him around while walking and talking and that seemed to make him happy. After a few minutes, he put his head down on my shoulder and fell asleep! I laid him down on the rug in the playroom and there he slept for about 45 minutes. I think he was a little freaked out when he woke up because he didn't quite know where he was!

Play Date

Ainsley had some friends Rider and Grace over last Friday for a play date. Rider is in Ainsley's class at school and BSF. They were also born the same day. We've known Grace and Rider's families since all the kids were born. We all go way back to the original mommies group! Grace is back in town while her daddy finishes some training and then they will move back to Vancouver, WA this summer. It is great having her and her mom, Krista here for a little while!

Chowing down on some good food!
The little picnic table was stored behind the couch so they thought it was hilarious to climb back there...here Rider is trying to get Ainsley back out.

After Rider left, Grace and Ainsley decided to try on Ainsley's pajamas

Monkey Man and Princess Girl

Here are a few pictures of the kids and their latest adventures. Zechariah loves to play with Ainsley's golf clubs. He has quite the swing and is a little dangerous with them!

Ainsley and her princess barbie doll. She loves to carry this one around the grocery store and let her sing (you press her necklace and she sings a song) and people just stare! But don't worry, I don't let Ainsley wear that outfit too! She'd love to but I just can't do it.
Here is my monkey man. This little "castle" (as Ainsley calls it) used to have a slide but we had to take it off because Zechariah was always climbing up and just going over the other side without a thought! I got tired of rescuing him so we took it off. He will climb on just about anything. He's pretty good about using other things to help him climb like overturned bins for the toys, the basket of books, drawers, bowls...whatever he can find! We are very thankful that he hasn't made it out of his crib yet! Yesterday Zechariah was on Ainsley's bed and she was in his crib. It was quite comical!
These boots are made for walking! Ainsley loves her pink cowboy boots and will wear them with just about anything!

It's Been a Little While

One of her famed "outfits" she changes into when she's supposed to be napping. She also has a leotard with tutu on underneath the nightgown so it made her bottom look huge!
Z playing "choo choo" with one of Ainsley's princess dresses. She's the one pulling the other end.

For some reason, Z loves to take the pillows off the glider footrest and then sit inside. Here they were having a race to see who could get in first.

Not too much going on in bloggerville. The kids have been up to some pretty interesting antics but most have been caught either on the video camera or just by our ears.

The other day Ains came running into Z's room while I was changing him and she said, "Mommy, come here when you're done, I have some pictures to show you." She went on to tell me that she wished she could have been at our wedding. I presume the pictures she wanted to show me were the ones hanging in the hallway (of our wedding). I told her that it would have been hard for her to be there since she wasn't even born yet. She replied, "I want to have a baby." Here is how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: "It's a good idea to get married before you have kids."

Ains: "I already have a baby...Z is my baby! When can I get married?"

Me: "First you need to go to school and graduate, then go to college and graduate and then fall in love with a nice man. He'll ask you to marry him and then you'll get married."

Ains: "What is his name?"

Me: "I don't know, only God does. God already has a person in mind for you to marry."

At this point I thought I heard her ask about his name again so I turned to try to explain that only God knows and this is what she said, "Mom, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to God!" (said with her hands on her hips....I know what you're thinking, where does she get that?!) I had to laugh. I wonder if she got an answer....

One day we were driving home from gymnastics and an ambulance drove by, lights flashing and sirens wailing. Ainsley asked where they were going and what they were doing so I tried to explain to here that when someone gets hurt or needs help, the ambulance is like the doctor on wheels until they can get to a hospital. I asked if she could remember the time the ambulance came to our house when Zechariah was 5 days old. She said she could but I'm not sure she did. Then I told her how I had been in the ambulance when they came to take Gramma Sue Sue after her stroke. That's when Ains said, "Like Cinderella and the stroke of midnight!" =0)

Then yesterday she told me there was a scarecrow in our house and that he ate people. This was a few days after there was a woodpecker in her bedroom that wasn't letting her sleep. She hasn't been taking naps, just playing (which really means dressing up in all her nightgowns and miscellaneous clothes. Refer to first picture!)

Zechariah is talking up a storm. He babbles all the time...way more than Ainsley ever did at this age! Last night he said chocolate and elbow. He loves chocolate! He calls grapes "balls". Pretty much if it's round, it's a ball. Still can't get him to call Jack anything other than Bailey even though he knows they are two separate dogs.

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to get some more recent photos posted soon.

The Office

While Mike was on Christmas break, he wanted to do a project so we took down the wood paneling in the "office" (our second living room). Since there was drywall behind it, all we had to do was tape, mud, texture and paint. It took a few days because we ran into a few snags and then changed the final paint color. All in all, it was a learning experience and hopefully, in the future, it will be a positive to potential buyers!

Look Ma, no paneling!
I filled in all the nail holes with joint compound
Then, we mudded and taped the seems and holes
Getting the texture on
Texture complete

Now for the color...except we didn't like it once we painted the whole room. It was called "dust bunny" and it was a little too light. You could barely tell we painted the room a color so we went a little darker...

Ta Dah! Here is the finished product!

Now it looks like a normal room (minus some of the clutter and things that need to be put away!) and it feels very warm!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning Revisited

Christmas Eve we had "poppers" with fun paper crowns, jokes and a toy inside. Thanks Anna! Everyone had fun popping them and seeing what was inside.

Then the kids opened a few gifts
This was the spread we had for Christmas breakfast at our house. It was delicious!
Zechariah enjoyed opening presents! He did really well tearing the paper and wanted everything opened right away...even if it meant "some assembly required". Thankfully this soccer ball didn't need to be assembled!