Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

So far, we have had a great one.  I am not sure when Halloween became a season, but it seems like we have been celebrating all week.  Thursday, Robby had his Halloween party at school so we all got dressed up for that.  Yesterday, was Kirk's Trick-or-Treat party at work and our ward Trunk-or-Treat.  Today, is Kirk's dad's birthday so we are heading to their house, and he will most likely take the kids trick or treating.  Three days of dressing up is way too much for me, but the kid's are loving it, so all is well.

Zoe thinks this whole Halloween thing is amazing.  She loves dressing up and looking pretty, so she loves her costume.  It helps that she is dressed up as Minnie Mouse so anytime she sees her reflection she starts yelling "icky, icky."  She loves that everyone tells her she is pretty and gives her candy.  She also is fascinated by everyone else's halloween costumes.  She saw someone dressed as a banana at Robby's school and thought it was the greatest thing ever.  She was yelling after him as he walked down hall, "hi nanana."  It was really cute!

Robby has never been a big fan of dressing up.  He decided to be a vampire this year and it worked out really well.  I was planning on painting his face white, but he wouldn't let me.  The kid is so pale this time of year though, that he really didn't need it.  He did let me paint his hair black and use makeup to give him a widdow's peak, which is far more than he has ever let me do before.  I must say, he makes one very cute vampire (and also has quite a resemblance to Eddie Munster.)

I took some pictures yesterday, outside Kirk's office.  Here are some of my favorites.


My two very adorable kids.


She makes such a sweet little Minnie Mouse.


Her hair works perfect for this costume.  It makes her ear headband just blend right in.  So cute!


This picture just makes me laugh.  She looks like evil minnie.  Really though, she was just happy and giving me a funny smile.


Robby with his vampire teeth in.  He didn't wear them very much, but since he is missing his two front teeth, he kind of looks like a vampire anyway.


Move over Edward, that is one good looking vampire.  Looking at this picture makes me wonder where my little boy went.


Pretending to be a vampire.





They were having so much fun playing around.  This is probably my favorite picture even though it is blurry.


Wednesday, September 9, 2009

First Day of School

I am a little late on this one, since school started 3 weeks ago, but I guess better late than never.


Robby started second grade this year.  He loves school and was so ready to get back.  He is really enjoying it.  He has a great teacher and everything seems to be going well.  I am so proud of him for being such a good kid and for always trying his hardest.

He is at a really fun stage.  He is starting to understand the world and we have some great discussions. His most recent fascination is with license plates.  Who knew that you could have full conversations revolving around license plates?  We have had many.  His vocabulary is increasing.  It seems like almost everyday he uses a word that I have never heard him use before.  He is just a lot of fun to be around.  I am very glad he is my son.

Robby is happy and excited to go to school each day.  Zoe, on the other hand, does not think it is such a great idea.  She hates that he leaves her every day.  She loves to walk him to school.  She will talk and smile the whole way, but then, every time, she cries the whole way home.  Poor kid.  Luckily, they are usually both happy at the end of the day when he comes home again.





Wednesday, August 19, 2009

After the Braids and Before the Bath

Last week, I put 25 braids in Zoe's hair; by far the most we have ever done.  Yesterday, I took them out and wow, did she have some crazy hair.  You can really see how long it is getting and how much she actually has.  I love it.  I actually procrastinated her bath until later in the day because I loved watching her run around with her wild hair.




Friday, August 14, 2009

Lagoon


On Tuesday, we went on an impromptu trip to Lagoon (amusement park) with a few of our friends.  We had a great time and enjoyed hanging out together as a family.

This Lagoon trip was the first time that Robby was tall enough to ride all of the rides.  He is a roller coater fanatic; he loves them.  He was so excited that he could finally ride them all.  I was such a fraidy cat when I was a kid and was petrified of roller coasters.  I am so glad that he isn't like me, in that way, and that he can enjoy them now.  He loved every ride he went on.  Plus, two of his best buddies were there, so that made the day even better.  He had a really good time.


Zoe, as usual, was a little angel.  I can't believe how well she does at places like that.  She is so patient and flexible.  She seems to really enjoy watching the people, being outside, and seeing new things.  She rode a lot of the little kid rides.  She was pretty indifferent about them.  She seemed to enjoy a few of them, but mostly she didn't care either way.



My favorite part of the day was watching Robby take care of Zoe.  He was so good about riding all the little kid rides with her and keeping an eye on her.  Whenever they rode together, he always kept his eye on her, making sure she was okay and that she was having fun.  I think he had fun watching her enjoy herself.  He is such a great big brother.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Robby, the Toothless Wonder


In the last week and half, Robby has lost both of his top front teeth.  He looks so goofy and cute without his tooth.  I love it!



Monday, August 3, 2009

You Only Get One First Birthday

So, it took me almost a month to get this posted, but finally, here it is.  Sorry it is a little picture heavy.  I had planned on dividing into several posts, but I am afraid it will never get done if I do that.

We had a lot  of fun for Zoe's first birthday.  We had a fun party with both Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunt Emily.  She got way too many birthday presents, but loved them all.  We had tasty cake, fun decorations, and all in all, just had a good time.  And we took a lot of pictures, since she won't remember it.  It was a great day to celebrate the last year.  We have been so blessed to have Zoe in our life and look forward to many more happy years and fun birthday parties.

I may have went a little crazy on the decorations, but hey, my baby only gets one first birthday. Plus, I am using them all to decorate her room now.  I sewed a pink and green fabric banner.  It was an easy, fun project that I will probably have to do again soon.   I also sewed Zoe a cute skirt, appliqued some stars on a t-shirt, and made a party hat, all out of the same matching fabric.  Then I made some fun tissue paper flowers (instructions here) which we hung from the ceiling.



I need to decorate my house for special occassions more often.  It was so festive; it made me happy just to walk in the room.  It was kind of hard to take it all down, but now it looks cute in Zoe's room, so all is well.

Zoe got a lot of fun presents.  This is only a few of them.  (Ya, she is a little spoiled.)


Emily gave her this really cute phone.  It reminds me of when I was a kid.


I wasn't sure if she would like this stoller, or if she is still too young, but she loved it.  As soon as she opened it, she knew exactly what to do with it and pushed it around all over the place.


Kirk's mom and dad gave her this very cute doll, which she loves to give hugs and kisses too.  I won this great CD on a blog giveaway.  All of the songs have her name in them somewhere.  It is really cute.  (Side note- This is also the only picture that shows her hair.  These were my very first real cornrows.  They actually turned out pretty cute.)


This was probably the biggest hit of the birthday.  One of our friends gave her this little stuffed Lilly doll.  It sings a pretty annoying counting song.  She thinks it is the greatest thing ever.  She loves Lilly.


My favorite present was this bike seat that we gave her.  I love that it puts her in the front of the bike so she can see what is going on.  It is so fun to go on bike rides with her and Robby now.  She loves it, and even loves to wear her helmet.

Our final activity of the day was eating cake.  As is tradition, I made her a cake that she could dig into and eat any way she wanted.  She enjoyed herself quite a bit.  We probably should have done it a little earlier in the day.  She was a little overstimulated and tired by this point, so she wasn't incredibly patient, but I think she still had a good time.


The cakes.


Robby enjoyed blowing out her candle.


At first, she had no clue what to do with the cake.  She knew she wanted to eat it, but wasn't sure if she wanted to touch it.  She tried the bobbing for cake method, but it didn't work out too well.


It didn't take long though before she figured out how to use her hands.  After that, there was no stopping her.






Saturday, July 11, 2009

Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby


I can't believe that my baby is one.  One year ago today we got the call that our baby girl had just been born.  I was swimming at the time (how crazy is that), but was so excited.  Then followed one of the longest nights of my life, while we waited for the next morning when we could go and see her.  It was love at first sight and every moment of the last year has been an incredible blessing.

We had a blast today.  Lot's of family, way to many presents, cute decorations, tasty cake, and a huge mess.  I have a million pictures, but I am way to tired to go through them tonight.  I will probably be posting them for the next week.

Happy Birthday Zoe!  We love you so much and are so glad you are a part of our family!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Independence Day


We had a gret 4th of July celebration this year.  July 3rd was my sister, Emily's, 19th birthday, so my family came and stayed for the weekend to celebrate.  Kirk made a yummy german chocolate cake, which we all enjoyed, a lot.

On Saturday, Kirk's parents came over for dinner too.  It was fun to have a house full of people and enjoy a good dinner.  After dinner, Kirk's parents had to go home, but the rest of us went to BYU to watch the fireworks.  We staked out a spot on the lawn a little ways outside the stadium.  We were there a couple of hours early, but we had a lot of fun just hanging out.  Zoe thought that it was great fun to be outside, with all the people.  She really enjoyed the blanket on the grass and had a good time laying down on it and rolling all over.  She also really enjoyed wandering around and making friends with all the people around us.  Robby spent most of the time sitting on the blanket playing with my iPhone.

The kids loved the fireworks.  Zoe kept clapping and putting her hands up in the air.  She seemed to think they were pretty cool.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the weekend.






Zoe likes to pretend that everything is a phone right now.  This time, it was her shoe.






It was a great weekend.  I love it when we get to spend time with family.  I am so thankful to live in this great country and to enjoy so much freedom.