Open House

Our friends the Krotosky's threw Logan an "open house" party today. It was a great opportunity for all our friends and family in the area to come and meet Logan.

This is the awesome cake they brought! It was SO YUMMY!

Our hosts the Krotosky's

Laura and baby Gracie!

Even the "guys" held Logan - good job DAVE!

Our neighbor Krissie with Logan

We had a great time with everyone. Logan's hair was quite the topic of discussion since it is still really long - we think the nickname of "wolverine" is going to stick for a while!

Logan - 1 month old!

Hah! He is already one month old! Where is the time going?

Precious Moments

Look what Jen walked into in Zachary's room this evening:


Dustin was reading Zach a book with trucks in it. Zach went and got some of his trucks that were in the book. They were laying on the ground - having some "guy time".

Shoe Fetish

Most women have a shoe fetish....right? I think that would mean they buy tons of shoes for themselves. Jen seems to have a shoe fetish for what we buy for Zachary...not herself. Check out the latest purchase at Kohl's:


When she got home with the Kohl's bag, Zach was VERY interested in what was inside. Jen dug out the Vans shoe box and Zach went CRAZY...he LOVED the shoes! He had to put them on right that instant. He began to run around the house in his new shoes....and wore them all night long! Here he is hamming it up for the camera with his new shoes:

Dustin asked where his matching pair of shoes were......apparently Vans doesn't make velcro shoes for adult men ;)

Cocoa Bean Cupcakes

Dustin's sister Sarah introduced us to this place in Rexburg, Idaho called the "Cocoa Bean". It is a cupcake cafe. They sell all sorts of drinks - kind of a like a Starbucks but with chocolate instead of coffee. They also see these AWESOME gourmet cupcakes. How can you resist something that looks (and tastes) as good as this?

Jen was surfing the web and found the Cocoa Bean blog and learned they opened a store in Provo, Utah (22.8 miles from my house according to google maps) at the beginning of 2010. WAHOO! For all of you that live in Utah and read our blog....you HAVE to try the Cocoa Bean. That is what we did tonight! Jen bribed Dustin with Bombay House Indian food for dinner - and we stopped at the Cocoa Bean for cupcakes on the way home.

Look what we are munching on for the rest of the weekend:

The favors Jen picked starting on the top row, left to right are - Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Madagascar Vanilla Vanilla, Hostess With The Mostess. Bottom row, left to right - Grasshopper, Better Than Whatever (this one is the BEST of them all!!), Pumpkin Chocolate Chip.

Soooooooo worth the 22.8 mile drive ;)

Model Train Show

This morning we got a phone call from one of Dustin's co-workers telling us there was a model train show at Thanksgiving Point today. Zach LOVES watching the trains go by our house so we figured he would love seeing a bunch of model trains. Man - we were right!





The place was packed - but everyone had a good time. Zach left the show saying "choo-choo".

Enough about the kids....

It is no surprise that Jen does the blogging....right?

I was looking back at the last several posts made and it is all about our kids ;) I guess there is nothing wrong with that....but....there are four people in this family not just two. So this post is dedicated to Dustin and Jen.

Jen - recovering nicely from the C-section. This one was a lot less painful after the surgery compared to the C-section with Zachary two years ago. Her doctor says it is because some of the nerves never fully regenerated after the first c-section, so Jen doesn't feel pain from those nerves with the second C-section. She actually was up and walking around the same day she had Logan....she probably pushed it a bit too far too soon as she did black out in the hospital during day #2 after having Logan (Jen blames the black out on the liquid diet they had her on - the nurses were quick to get her REAL food after the blackout...and no issues since!). Jen hasn't really needed any pain pills since leaving the hospital. The only annoyance right now is headaches - they seem to get worse with the less sleep she gets. So we are trying to drink lots more water - sever ties with Diet Pepsi and take advantage of Massage Envy.

Dustin - what a stud. I can't say I know too many husbands that help out like Dustin does. Once Zach goes to bed, he watches Logan every night until at least midnight so Jen can get 3-4 hours of continuous sleep. On weekends he even gives Jen Friday and Saturday nights off of Logan duty for more continuous sleep. Dustin cooks dinner more than Jen does. Dustin plays with Zach the way he loves it (must be a guy thing). He is the ultimate handyman and spends what ever "free" time he gets to work on that 1958 Chevy truck restoration with his father.

I could go on and on...but I am tired...and am going to bed! I will try and sprinkle more "non-kid" updates in the mix moving forward (for my own sanity sake).

Zachary - 2 year checkup

Today was Zachary's two year wellness checkup. It cracks us up that every time we go to the pediatrician's office, the FIRST think Zach does is head to the candy bowls. I think he downs a dum-dum sucker and some smarties before he even sees the doctor. Today - the red bowls looked to only have smarties in them. Zach was NOT happy. He actually started crying. So after they took all his measurements Dustin took Zach back out into the hallway to show him there wasn't any dum-dum suckers in the red candy bowls. Well - leave it to Zach....he stuck his hand in that bowl of candy and dug and dug and dug...and FOUND a root beer flavored dum-dum sucker at the very bottom. Good think root beer flavor is his favorite. He was all smiles for the rest of the pediatrician visit (except for the Hep A shot of course).

Here are his stats for two years old:

Height = 34 inches (25th percentile)

Weight = 27 pounds 12 ounces (50th percentile)

Head = 49cm (50th percentile)

We were a bit surprised they said he was only in the 25th percentile for height...Zach is taller than most 2 year olds we have seen. The doctor wasn't concerned....to take this measurement they lay him down on the table and mark the top of his head and the bottom of his feet on the paper covering the table and then measure the distance on the paper. The weight....I think Zach has enjoyed his holiday goodies ;) He was stuck at 24 pounds for the LONGEST time....and for the past three months has been around 26 pounds. Since we have been to the doctor a lot with Zach the past two months....it does look like he gained almost a full pound in the past month. As soon a summer rolls around and he is running and playing outside again I am sure the weight will stagnant again!

The doctor looked at his ears and they looked good! No more infections (good think too as we only have two days left of our 20 day treatment!). We also got a referral to have his speech looked at to see if we need to start doing any type of therapy - so hopefully that turns out good ;)

No more wellness visits for Zachary until he turns THREE!! Fingers crossed for no more ear infections too!

Our TWO year old

Today Zachary turned TWO years old!! We can't believe how fast the time has flown by. We decided to forgo the big party this year...just too much going on this year with the addition of Logan to our family. We wanted to make the whole day about Zachary and enjoy our time together.

The day started out with giant Costco muffins for breakfast. Zach made a pretty good dent in his muffin.

Next....hamming it up for the camera with a special "I am 2 years old" ribbon.

Lunch was at McDonalds - we ate and played in the playland with Grandpa Gray.

...and apparently Zach knows how to flirt with girls now ;)

This is the cake that Jen made for Zach - it is a giant cupcake cake. It is a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Zach was drooling in the kitchen the whole time Jen was decorating it.

Got to love the party favors ;)

We sang and blew out the candles about ten times......Zach loves his birthday.

The cake was soooooo YUMMY!!! This won't be lasting too long in our house!!!

Happy family!! Logan was sleeping so he didn't make it into this picture ;)


Zach had so many presents from all the family - he is the king of cars and tractors now....here he is with Grandpa Gray with some of his new vehicles.



Zach is such a grown up boy....we call him our little man. His vocabulary is improving more and more every day. He is a happy kid and we love having him in our lives!

10 days of antibiotics

Today marked the 10th and final day Zachary was suppose to be on antibiotics for his double ear infection. We had the inclining that something was still not right. Zach is still putting his fingers in his ears and has been losing his balance a bit here and there. So after a cranky morning with Zach - Dustin graciously took Zach back to the doctor during his lunch break today.

Well - the worst ear from 10 days ago looks good, it is the second ear that wasn't "as bad" 10 days ago that still looked infected. Apparently 10 days of amoxicillin wasn't enough. So now we have 10 days of Omnicef. Fun oh fun. We have Zach's 2 year appointment with the pediatrician next week - so these ears better look brand NEW by then!

2 week check up

Today we had Logan's 2 week check up. Here are his stats:

Length = 21.0 inches (75th percentile)

Weight = 9 pounds, 13 ounces (75th percentile)

Head = 37.25 cm (50th percentile)

We were amazed that Logan gained a whole pound in two weeks. He weighted 9 pounds, 1 ounce at birth but only weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces when we left the hospital four days later. He definitely LOVES to eat!

The only issue we have right now is a bit of gas - we started the Mylicon and it appears to be helping (whew!).

Gingerbread house

We decided to do a gingerbread house this year - after Christmas. With everyone that was going to be in town after Logan was born we figured it would be a great activity for everyone to enjoy. We even got the gingerbread house kit 50% off as we bought it the day after Christmas. Of course - it was the day before Jen's parents were leaving town that we ended up actually decorating the gingerbread house.....I guess we can say this is our last piece of "Christmas" for 2009 (even though it is 2010!). Zach had a blast helping "decorate" the house...and of course eat all the candy pieces. I think we was on such a sugar high all he wanted to do was sleep later on!!

And the next day this is what Zach wanted to do with the house (can you blame the kid?)....
I think this will be a tradition we do every Christmas season!

Apple Pie

Jen's parents brought a ton of fruit with them from California - fresh from the farm itself! We decided one way to get through all the apples was to make an apple PIE! None of us had ever made an actual homemade apple pie - so we cracked open the Betty Crocker cook book.....and went to work....

These are the apples we still have left!
Ready to bake!
Oh so delicious!!

We were surprised how easy it really is to make a homemade apple pie...and how DELICIOUS it was...I think we will be doing this again REALLY SOON!

Garfield

I think we are all a bit jealous at the rate he can grow his hair!

Garfield has some serious chops!

All boy

Zach LOVES his tractors and cars. Of course he got TONS of them for Christmas this year ;) He has been having fun hauling ALL of them throughout the house the past week. His favorite place to play with them is at the top of our stairs. Of course mom and dad don't exactly like him hanging out at the stairs....but this doesn't stop Zach! So if you are headed to our house some time soon - be sure to look before you step down our stairs!

Double - AGAIN?!

Remember the events of our lives at Thanksgiving time? Zach with a febrile seizure and double ear infections? Well.....

A visit to the pediatrician today revealed Zach has yet ANOTHER double EAR INFECTION. No joke. He was rather cranky this past weekend and had a runny nose since Friday. He would stick his finger in his ear every once in a while, but never make it seem like they hurt. No fevers. How can you have a DOUBLE EAR INFECTION and it not be obvious? We are baffled.

This makes 6 trips to the pediatrician in the past year that confirmed ear infections. Somehow our pediatrician thinks this is "normal"......we may be getting a second opinion.

Logan - 1 week old

What? Logan is already one week old?! Dang. Our little cutie pie is keeping us smiling. He is a happy little guy and doesn't do much fussing - of course he lets you know when he is hungry. He has pretty long legs (which you can't tell from the picture below). Most of the size 0-3 month onesies we have that have pants end up being too short in the legs for Logan. Go figure.

Logan - 1 week old