Double?!

Parenting has been a challenge the past few days…..we thought Zach was getting his terrible two’s a whole year early. Zach is normally a very easy going kid…..the past few days we have experienced:

• Diarrhea diapers (yup – he’s had his 1st blowout…this 2nd blowout and this 3rd blowout!)
• Gags eating “solid” food and throws up (in Tuscano’s lobby Saturday afternoon none the less….)
• Suddenly starts crying in the bath tub while playing with this toys
• Successfully scratched up the back of his neck and inside of one of his ears with his killer claws (yes – we do cut them)
• Cries when he drops the toy his playing with…heaven forbid he bend down and pick it up….
• Falls asleep for bed at 7:30pm – and sleeps 12+ full hours!

Well – at our morning visit with the pediatrician we learned Zach has DOUBLE ear infections. Our sweet little baby isn’t turning into a terror – he has a legitimate reason to not feel or act “good”. Finally a visit to the doctor where the co-pay was well spent!

Zach at 11.5 months

Christmas Pictures 2008

We wanted to share some of the highlights from Zach's first Christmas

 

Zach had the chance to meet Santa TWICE this year! :) This Santa was at Aunt Mary's house.. Zach was really excited and liked to pull on Santa's wiskers.. Santa didn't enjoy that part so much I bet ;-)

 

Grandpa Gray with Santa and Zach

Grandpa Gray and his little elf.. Zachary

Sarah decided to make the largest Gray family cookie ever.. in honor of Zach.. Ok, and just for a bit of fun.

Zach with his Christmas Eve gift.. a polar bear! How cool!

Zach is Mommy's little helper.. He can unwrap anything in no time at all.

Grandpa and Grandma celebrating Christmas with us

Sarah unwrapping her gifts.. Indian food! Fitting for her since she is such a great chef!

 

Zach got a bus for Christmas! He loves it

Jen's friend Kwang got Zach a rocking horse.. This thing is awesome.. Plays music and everything!

Thanks for sharing this special time of year with us. Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas

snow FUN!

The second time we took Zachary out in the snow he enjoyed it a bit more. We made a snowman this morning!

I don't need a nap....

Zach has been fighting his naps A LOT lately-especially if there are people over...or if we are playing Rock Band (he wants to be the drummer)...well, tonight we tried putting him down for his last nap...and it started coinciding with his dinner time...so we figured, if he has a full belly maybe he would take his nap faster. I guess we were RIGHT!

Random stuff on a Saturday

Why do birds keep flying in to the windows of my house? The windows aren't open....yet a bird has smacked himself into a window of my house THREE TIMES this morning.

Also....the FED EX delivery guy just dropped off a package...in a BUDGET MOVING TRUCK. Last night we saw a UPS truck with a UHAUL trailer hitched to the truck. Either everyone is mailing more packages this Christmas....or they are short vehicles...or short staffed?

The snow keeps coming....

We have received our fair share of snow this week....I believe there is about a foot of it in front of our house. What a perfect time to bundle Zach up and introduce him to the "cold white powder" stuff.

Whoa - check out my new snow threads...boots and ALL!

This was about all we could get him to do....just lay...no movement....no smile.
Maybe next year there will be a smile?
Our "sled" (really is an old moving box) - didn't even do the trick...no smiles from Zach!

Never a good thing

This is what I got when booting up my laptop this evening....never a good thing!
......they say once you go Mac you won't go back.....I am starting to see why....

Economic Soap Box

We just drove past the gas station.... $1.49 for a gallon of 85 octane unleaded. $1.49 a gallon! Gas hasn't been this low in four years. So we got to thinking (a very dangerous thing...) - when gas prices kept rising the cost of everything else did as well. Delivery of any item cost more because gas cost more resulting in higher priced food, etc.....airline tickets went up because gas cost more. Well....as gas prices have decreased, have you noticed the price of anything else get cheaper? We sure haven't.....someone out there is still making a killing...and it isn't us!

Not "quite" the perfect week....

As I sit to surf the web...it hits me that I haven't blogged in a week. Why haven't I blogged? Well...it turns out this has been a week....that I would just like to forget! Recap:

• Sunday - we both give talks at church; decorate the Christmas tree we cut down two days earlier. Head to bed, 30 minutes later hear our tree crash to the floor (compliments of our cats and too small of a Christmas tree stand). Spent the next hour tying our tree to the banister of the stairs, picking up broken ornaments and sucking a couple gallons of water out of the carpet with the steam cleaner.
• Monday - exhausted from the Sunday night mishaps. Buy a new "larger" Christmas tree stand, redecorate the tree, and make the shopping list for Dustin's work Christmas party which is at our house on Wednesday. Zach decides his new bedtime is midnight and literally cries and screams from 8pm to midnight.
• Tuesday - exhausted from Monday nights activities and a child that didn't want to go to bed. Learn of some issues at work that will obviously take more than the allotted 8 hours of my day to fix. Come home (thank you to Dustin for getting take out for dinner!) finish decorating the house for the party tomorrow night and head to the local Walmart (YUCK) for food/christmas gift shopping - 1.5 hours later (10pm at night) I return home to find Zach wide awake...he decides his bedtime is yet again not 8pm, but midnight.
• Wednesday - exhausted from Tuesday's activities and decided to take the day off from work to catch up on my mental/physical health....this included sleeping in until noon and getting a massage. Then enjoying the Christmas party at my house this evening. 8:30pm rolls around....and Zach still doesn't want to go to bed....urgh...midnight yet again.
• Thursday - wake up at 4am barfing. Can't afford to take another day off work (remember the full plate at work on Tuesday and I just took the day before off!)...skip breakfast, skip lunch...walk out in the middle of two separate meetings to go barf in the bathroom at work....by the end of the work day I realized I had motion induced nausea - get an earful from everyone that I am pregnant (NO I AM NOT!)....head home and veg on the couch (big thanks to Dustin for taking the Zach duties for the night...which included the midnight bedtime). After chilling on the couch for an hour I realize I can't move...my muscles had tightened up so much. I start getting the chills...head to bed with my electric blanket cranked.
• Friday - wake up at 8am (should have been up at 6am to get to work on time), realize my motion induced nausea was gone and I can actually keep down breakfast. Generally feeling better but just exhausted - but yet again can't skip work because of too much going on at work. Good thing I did go to work because several problems were solved - and lots got done...I actually left the work day feeling accomplished. Come home, play with Zach, enjoy a Cafe Rio burrito for dinner (take out compliments of Dustin again)...at this point I look at Zach's teeth and see that tooth #6 was about to break through and the gums physically look like they hurt - seriously, you know when you get that pimple on your face that just won't pop but hurts sooooooo bad...this is what Zach's gums looked like for tooth #6. I think I get smart by giving him Tylenol before bedtime...and Zach actually falls asleep drinking his 8pm bottle (THANK GOODNESS!)...put him to bed, thinking finally after 4 nights of being up to midnight he would get a normal nights sleep....WRONG! 9pm rolls around and Zach is up crying, crying, crying...that tooth is just killing him. I try orajel for the first time...didn't help...I think it actually made his upper lip swell. 30 minutes later I give him highlands teething tablets...he calms down...and 30 minutes later falls asleep laying next to me on the couch. I tip toe to put him to bed and he actually sleeps until 8:30am Saturday morning!
• Saturday - wake up and finish wrapping the Christmas gifts I couldn't get to the other days this week...seal up a package to head to North Carolina...we hit the road so I can mail that package - find it will cost me $90 to get it to NC on Wednesday, $19 to get it there Friday....one of the gifts in the package is for a Thursday birthday - sorry Craig, the $19 won out...your gift (which you will love by the way) will be a day late. Next stop hair cuts for Zach and Dustin - which actually turned out much better than our first hair cut experience with Zach....no tears this time....and he is still mesmerized by the yellow balloon. Now I need to start making a list of everything else to get done before Christmas!

Too cute

Is this not the cutest thing ever? Little baby converse shoes....I am tempted to pay the $25 for a pair for Zachary - just WAY TOO CUTE!

yuck - they ate what?

This plate of butter has been sitting on our counter since Thanksgiving (Thursday). We just noticed that the left side of this stick of butter has a bunch of LICK MARKS on top of it....yes OUR CATS HAVE BEEN EATING BUTTER! It's that just gross? Needless to say - this butter has gone in the trash.

The Christmas Tree hunt

One tradition we decided to start when we got married is that we get our live Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving - that way we can enjoy the Christmas "feeling" for a good month. So today we fired up the 97 Chevy (Dustin's dad's truck that we have been babysitting here in Utah) and headed up to Farr West, Utah. Why the 60 mile drive you say? Believe it or not - that is the only place online we could find that has live Christmas trees you can cut down. This family owns some land and they grow them so people can cut them down for Christmas. We went to the same place last year and thought the selection of trees and price was very reasonable. Believe it or not - the taller the tree the cheaper it is.....so of course we had to go for the cheapest and get something at least 10 feet tall!


Zach and Dustin ready the hunt for our perfect Christmas tree!


You can see how serious of an event this was....

Zach checking the needles

Our 11 foot or taller TREE! Dustin and Glen cutting it down

Loading the tree onto the "tractor" back to our truck

Loaded onto the 97 Chevy...man look how tall it is!

Three generations of Grays

Family shot

Zach says, "lets take it home!"

Have you ever...

Have you ever done anything on this list? I saw this on a friends blog thought I would give it a try....feel free to copy and post too! The red ones are my (Jen) accomplishments so far in life!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (been to it, was unable to go to top)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

52 out of 99 - not too bad for the first thirty years of my life! :)

Tooth #5....AND #6!

Okay I feel like a bad parent for not noticing sooner! We were playing with Zach tonight and noticed tooth #5 fully broken through - it had probably been there for a couple of days (upper left side next to his front two teeth)....and tooth#6 is just now starting to break through on the upper right side . 10 months old and SIX TEETH!

Who is this big guy?

We were walking around the mall - trying to do some Christmas shopping....and who was there? SANTA! He was already posing for pictures - and Thanksgiving isn't until next week. We couldn't resist having Zach take his very first picture with Santa. Zach kept turning and looking at Santa and pulling his beard.....ten snapshots and $24.99 later - here is our picture to remember:

This was as close to a smile we could get - it was already about an hour past Zach's nap time....and he was ready to crash.

Jen's 1st sewing project

Jen has been working with Dustin's Aunt Pat on some sewing projects and here is the result. We think it turned out pretty good!


It is table runner...and we are making use of the left over pumpkins from Halloween :)

$1.92

Gas at our Costco has finally fallen under $2.00!!! Regular unleaded was $1.92 a gallon today - I don't think it has been that low for at least a year. Now if only our 401K's would magically gain back the 30% they have lost so far this year!

Bah Humbug

What would you do if someone in your neighborhood just finished putting up their Christmas lights? Yes - on November 11th! Bah humbug is what we say! It DRIVES US CRAZY when you walk into a store and they have Christmas decorations up in August, or Valentines candy out the day after Christmas...can't we just enjoy one holiday at a time?! Here are the rules we agreed to:

• Halloween decorations cannot be displayed until October 1st
• Thanksgiving decorations cannot be displayed until November 1st
• Christmas decorations cannot be displayed until the day after Thanksgiving.

We have found that doing it this way helps us enjoy each and every holiday...and doesn't allow for us to "skip" one. As for the house in my neighborhood - they must not be celebrating Thanksgiving this year!

Tagged

I've been tagged with a few different things...this one seems like the "easiest" for me to do....so here it goes! This is Jen by the way.....finding something else to do besides blog on our recent vacation...time has been short the past few days!



Five things I was doing 10 years ago:
1- Recovering from a concussion due to a nasty rollerblading accident.
2- Starting my junior year of engineering school at BYU.
3- Grading math department student homework to pay for groceries.

Sad...but I can only think of three things....I guess that is/was the life of a college student!


Five things on my to do list today:
1- Blog about Tahoe vacation
2- Go grocery shopping
3- Make lunch/dinner menus
4- Pick up the house after my unpacking tornado
5- Take down the Halloween decorations

Interesting that none of this things got done today....

Five of my favorite snacks:

1- chocolate (anything)
2- green grapes
3- strawberries
4- crumble donuts (dang vending machines at work!)
5- diet coke with lime

Five jobs I have had:
1- Lifeguard
2- Swim Instructor
3- Engineering teaching assistant for Microprocessor design class
4- Photolithography summer intern (an engineering thing)
5- Device/Process Integration Engineer

Five Things I would do with a million dollars:
1- buy a sportscar
2- buy a new wardrobe
3- travel
4- pay off our parents homes
5- put the rest in savings

Five things that made me laugh this week:
1- Zach learning to "growl" from his cousin Scott.
2- Someone mistaking my nephew for a girl because he was pushing a baby pink stroller around. 3-Actually winning some money from slot machines in Lake Tahoe.
4- Watching Zach dance in his highchair to the music playing at a Mexican resturant.
5- The way Dustin made our suitcases "stretch" to get all our stuff back from California.


Five people I tag to answer these same questions:
1- Stephanie
2- Taryn
3- AnnaMarie
4- Charis
5 - Rushell

Ah - vacation time!

We left this morning and headed to California (by plane of course) for a week vacation at Lake Tahoe with Jen's family. We just checked into our resort...and this place is AWESOME! We had two SUV's loaded up with our gear/food (it is a condo we are staying at) and when we arrived this evening we were greated by the valet - who quickly unloaded both vechiles and took all our stuff up to our rooms....now this is a vacation! If you are ever in Tahoe - I highly recommend Marriott Timber Lodge! More post to come as the week long vacation plays out!

Halloween Night

We had a great time Halloween night! We dressed Zach up in his dragon costume and hit a few houses down our street. Zach loved being in his costume - so we let him stay it in as long as we could! Some pictures:


Isn't Zach cute?
Such a ham!
what is this that I have?
oh yeah - goodies for me
A quick note on the candy....Zach dug through all the candy in his trick-or-treat bad and picked out TWO three musketeer bars to chew on. He apparently is a fan of the silver packaging!

Too much candy and too late of a night!

Uh oh....

We are in for a world of hurt......Zach's new "trick":

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we did our pumpkin carving. Looking around the house we had FIVE pumpkins! Seems like every place we went Zach would find a new pumpkin to admire so we would end up getting it. Zach looked a bit disappointed his pumpkin friends got cut all up.

We ended up carving our two big pumpkins. One turned out to be a bat...the other a pumpkin face. Be sure to vote on who has the better carving skills and made the pumpkin face! Our finished products:

Pumpkin Patch

As a kid Jen's family used to always go to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins for Halloween every year. Pumpkin patches are getting harder and harder to come by these days! After some googling - we found one in Sandy, about 15 minutes away. We hit up Mabey's Pumpkin Farm for some fun on Saturday afternoon. We were quite impressed with this place...normally pumpkin farms only have grown one "type" of pumpkin...at Mabey's they had several different varieties to choose from! Who knew there were more than one type of pumpkin?!

The weekend before Halloween and still lots of pumpkins to choose from
Zach tested this one out and decided it wasn't the right one for us
Oh yeah...this is the one....it is almost as big as Zach!
3 generations of Grays!
Ready for the wagon ride to the car