Anniversary & Mother's Day

Tyler and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary last week! It was our first time leaving Zach with a babysitter and I must say, I am a fan (the poor babysitter who had to listen to Zach scream for half an hour was probably not as big of a fan). We had dinner at Portland City Grill in downtown Portland, which is on the 30th floor of the tallest skyscraper in town. Great food, fantastic view and a handsome hubby to share it with - doesn't get much better than that :)
















 

Look at us crazy kids:

 

Mother's day was quiet and relaxing (aka: perfect). When it was time for the primary kids to sing their Mother's Day songs, Xander got up and started walking towards the stand and Ryan followed right behind him as if she knew exactly what she was doing. Once she got up there, the Bishop had to find a stool for her since nobody could see her and she "sang" right along with the other primary kids. What can I say, she's a diva who loves attention.

Xander handed me this card after church, and at first I chuckled at the fact that he had 6 fingers, but after I opened it and read the poem, I cried. It read:

This is my hand

My hand will do

1000 loving things with you

And you will remember

When I am tall

That once my hand

Was just this small

What a perfect week of celebrating life as a wife and mother. I'm one lucky lady!

I'm a hypocrite...

Alright, I'm a blogging hypocrite. I hate when people only update their blogs every couple of months when clearly I'm guilty of the same thing. And the more time that passes without me updating, the more work it is and the more I put it off.  So here I am with a couple months worth of pictures...

Here's my mom with the babies on Zach's blessing day (March 4th).  As you can see, Xander inherited some Guest picture taking genes:

 

 And my dad with his 2 newest grandsons, both named after him:

Smiling little man...just as long as you're holding him and giving him your full attention:

 Easter egg coloring:

 Me and the little lady on Easter (still haven't figured out where my little blonde/blue eyed baby came from):

 The kids in the backyard.  It was probably around 55 degrees when I took this picture.  She loves being outside...rain or shine, clothed or not:

 My adorable great aunt crocheted some hats for the kiddies.  She sent 4, hoping they'd each have one that fit.  She didn't take into consideration those Guest head genes so Xander's hat barely fits on Ryan's head:

 And we got a new car! I really loved my old truck but it didn't pass Portland's emission test and the cost of fixing it was almost as much as the car was worth, so we upgraded, yay!

In Denial...

I've been telling myself that Zach isn't growing bigger, the washing machine is just shrinking his newborn clothes. So I was pretty sad when I had to put him in his first '3 month' size outfit today and he filled it out completely. 

 Here is my hospital picture.  My dad usually adds the caption: "Excuse me, nurse?  When will we be getting fed again?" 

I snapped a photo of Zach holding a similar pose.  Apparently he would like more food also.

 Me and the little guy:

 This is the result of telling Ryan to, "Hurry and get dressed and get in your car seat!" Pants and a jacket, no shirt. Fine, just as long as she figures it out before her teenage years :)

2 Weeks Old!

 Zach is 2 weeks old today and it is my first day alone with all 3 kids...yikes! It must not be too bad because here I am blogging about it. 

Xander and Ryan are completely in love with the little guy.  Zach sort of has his days and nights mixed up, and they say you should let the other kids be loud during the day because it will help the baby know that it's time to be awake.  I don't think it's helping.  Xander and Ryan make noise non-stop and it just lulls the little man to sleep.

The week Zach was born, my in-laws stayed with the other two kids while Tyler stayed with me in the hospital. Last week my mom stayed at our house to take care of me and the kids. She cooked dinner every night, entertained/bathed/dressed/fed/read to/played games with the older kids, let me sleep in every morning, did my shopping, cleaned my house and countless other things. Maybe I'll have 10 more kids if it means getting spoiled for a full week every couple of years :)  I feel pretty lucky to have such an awesome mom and wonderful in-laws, as well.

Uncle Jake, who is on a mission in Brazil, sent Zach these little baby booties (thanks, Jake!):

 Do you know how hard it is to get 3 kids to look at the camera and/or smile at the same time?

I should probably go check on that screaming coming from upstairs now :)

Zachary William

He's here!  Zachary William was born Monday January 16th at 12:30 pm.  He was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20 inches long. He's about as docile as they come.  Even in the delivery room, he just quietly looked around, taking it all in - which was freaking Tyler out because he was expecting screaming.  So far, when the little man needs something, he just gives a few squeaks.  He'll have to learn to speak up around his loud siblings, but for now, I'm not going to complain about his sweet little squawks. 

Flexing his muscles:

 Ryan and Xander are simply enamored with the little guy.  Both want to hold him every second of the day and when it's Xander's turn, Ryan will stand next to him and shriek, "That's MY baby Zach!!" until Xander relinquishes:

 

 Me, Ryan and Zach at the hospital.  Yes, I am wearing the super attractive and flattering hospital gown for our first family pictures:

 

 Coming home from the hospital:

 

 Hanging out with daddy:

 

We are so excited for this little guy to be part of our family!

Scary Santa

Of all the babies in the world, I figured Ryan would be the least likely to run screaming from Santa, but due to some poor nap-time planning on our part, she was extremely cranky when we went to our Ward Christmas party last week. Oh well, I always enjoyed these types of Santa pictures more than the ones with kids sitting happily on some strange old man's lap...

And here is Xander's first letter to Santa. He spouted off an extra 10 or 12 things that he wanted to write but since he was running out of room, I just had him sign it and call it good. Like he'll ever know.

Translation: "Dear Santa, SpongeBob SquarePants, Monster Truck, Spiderman. Thanks, Xander.

When I asked Ryan what she wanted to write for her Christmas list, she just repeated "Candy" over and over. Easy enough.

AND we have our c-section date set! Baby #3 will be here January 16th, YAY!! Just waiting for that whole nesting myth to kick in...my house could really use it.

Obligatory Halloween Post

Here is my required Halloween post. Xander chose to be Spiderman and Ryan got to use a recycled frog costume (See Xander 2 years ago).

This was our first year in our house so for the very first time in the 7 years we've been married, we actually had trick-or-treaters! The only drawback was that I wasn't able to tag along with the babies and watch them trick-or-treat. Tyler took them out and was in charge of taking pictures...I was able to salvage 2. Photography is not one of his many talents (sorry, honey).





These are some spider cupcakes I made for a Halloween party we went to a few days ago:

Even baby and I dressed up:

Happy Halloween everyone!