Happy Four Months! And Easter and Utah trip

So I'm finding I'm getting behind on blogging.  So much has happened since the last time I blogged.  First Easter:

So we had a great Easter weekend.  Stake conference was the same weekend.  We had a general authority come and speak, Elder Robins and he brought us a great message and I was grateful for the message and renewed testimony of our savior.  We went to Tommy's parents house for Easter.  Zach got some toys but I forgot to get a basket so...no basket but still, the toys are what's important.  But did I take a picture? No of course not.  But here are some photos from the day.

Uncle Matt with Zach

Zach and Grandma May

Family Photo

Happy Easter From Delainie!

 Now the story behind this cake is that at first it was supposed to look like an easter egg that had cracked.  But then it looked like pacman so I added an eye.  Than we decided to try and make it a bunny.  The result is as follows - an evil easter bunny.

On the 17th (a little over a week ago) Zach turned 4 months old!  I can't believe it.  It seems like he was just born.  He went to the doctor and got more shots (yay....).  But he pulled through well.  He didn't cry until the second shot which made it easier because he wasn't crying while they're trying to give him yet another shot.  As you can see he is 25.5 inches long (73%) and 13 lbs (20%)  So he has a body comparable to Gumby.  A very cute gumby!

 That night as we were packing, Zach started laughing when I made a weird noise.  I caught him on video but I apologize for the funny noises I make.  It's worth seeing Zach laugh though.  I can't wait for him to laugh all the time like this!

 

The next day we jetted off to Utah for Tommy's brother Mark and my brother Joe's graduations from BYU.   Zach pretty much slept for 75% of our travel time which was awesome!! I always feel guilty not meeting people or chit chatting with them at airports because you always here about people having great missionary discussions at the airport for some reason.  Well while we were waiting for our flight, I ended up talking to this really nice lady.  I was all proud of myself for being friendly and thought, "maybe we'll get around to talking about the church"  Well, she actually is a member already.  In fact, she goes to Tommy's parents' ward and we know a lot of the same people.  But it was really fun anyways getting to know someone new.  I'm terrible at that kind of stuff and since we're moving soon it was great practice.  

Zach waking up from one of many naps

Daddy and son going for a stroll around the airport

 I was so frustrated when we got to Utah because I realized I forgot my camera.  So we have no evidence of even seeing Mark and Joe.  We don't have any photos of them from their graduation or anything!! I was doing so well in Arizona too.  But we had a great time.  I never want to have our families live near each other and us have to share our vacation time with them ever again.  I felt like I hardly saw anyone including Tommy because we spent a lot of time split to give both families equal time.  We love our families and our brothers so much and it was hard not being there 100% for anyone.  But we still had so much fun!  We got to stay with my cousins the Cooks which was a blast! The kids are growing up so fast and they are so much fun! They all loved Zach and it was so nice to have them meet him.

Thursday Tommy got to spend some good time visiting with Mark.  They got to work out together and then we got to visit with my other cousin Sarah.  She has 4 boys that are great and it's fun to see what a house full of boys are like.  Wesley really liked Tommy which isn't surprising because Tommy is so funny with kids. Then we got to go see Tommy's family in Salt Lake where they got to meet Zach.  Mark made a really good lasagna dish but I spent most of my time trying to get Zach to go to sleep so I felt like we hardly got to hang out which was sad.  But we were thrilled to be with family none the less.  Oh well, other opportunities will come soon!  ;)

Friday was graduation.  I went to my brothers and Tommy went to his brothers that way Zach didn't have to sit through 4 hours of ceremonies.  Joe's ceremony went on forever...it took 45 minutes before they finally started reading names.  The Dean talked a lot... to give you a frame of reference, it only took 15 minutes before they were reading names for Mark's ceremony.  SO I spent the whole time texting Joe sarcastic comments and Zach did what he does best, he slept. 

Saturday we went to the new mall in SLC called City creek.  While we were there, Clinton from What not to wear was there! and we got to see him.  Pretty awesome.  Mark and Misty joined us but everyone ended up splitting up.  The Mays (Tommy, Mark and Misty) went one way, my mom and I went girls shopping and Joe, my dad and Zach went suit shopping.  Tommy and I came away with some pretty good clothes. One bonus to living in Manhattan is there no where to shop so I at least save us some money that way.  But when we go out of town we always try and go to a mall to update our wardrobes just a touch.

So here are the few photos I collected while I was there. 

Boston and Zach hanging out

Nana, Zach, and Me at Graduation

Zach and Coach.

I love this photo of Z.  It seems so poetic

I love this picture because I have one of Delainie doing the same thing

See!

 

 Friday Night Tommy and I got to go on an impromptu date.  We ended up in a toy store!

Zach's face when uncle Joe started reading him a story

Zach started warming up to Joe's story

Zach does not like cold water....

Uncle Joe and Zach!

Matching colors.  Not an accident...

Well we made it back from Utah and Zach has already changed so much in the one week since then.  He loves being on his tummy.  He went from only hanging out for about a minute before he started fussing to about 5 minutes.  It helps to have a mirror for him to look at himself with.  Does he get that from his aunt Shellie?  

Zach is also learning to roll. I put him on his belly one time and he rolled to his back.  However he really could care less for the most part about rolling.  But we're working on it.  He has been discovering his feet this week as well which is helping him to roll, even if it is involuntary!  

We've also been working on his standing.  At first, we would stand him up and he would try and sit right away.  Now he's pretty solid.  Most babies wobble a lot but he just stands sturdy.  I'm thinking he got his dad's legs. 

We have been working on cutting down Zach's pacifier time to only naps and bedtime.  I feel like it was becoming a crutch for Tommy and me more than it was for Zach.  It was a bit frustrating but I learned how to understand Zach and what he needs more so I don't feel bad about limiting it.  He is also finally growing out of his swaddle.  He was fighting us too much on it and is no longer waking himself up with his arms.  So we felt like we could unswaddle him.  I'm glad to be done with it because I was never any good at getting a good swaddle anyways.

So we have been wanting to get Zach one of those toys he can stand in so he can strengthen his legs.  We got a huge blessing and were able to go to this huge baby garage sale where people all over town donate or sell their used baby stuff.  The biggest blessing is that a friend of ours was kind enough to give us access to the pre-sale the night before which is only for the sellers and volunteers.  But I found that there are 3 presales that day.  So basically, if you don't get to the presale, you're wasting your time. We were not only able to get him the standing thing but My dad asked us to pick a gift out for Zach as well.  We were able to get him three toys that normally would have cost us between $25-50 each and got them plus a baby gate plus a pair of shoes (normally $10-15) for $44!! I'm not ashamed to say I bought this stuff second hand because they were all practically new! Plus, they're plastic and easily washed and disinfected.  Thank you Stacey!

Enjoy the photos!

Mirror Mirror, on the wall...

it took him all week but he can now grab both feet at once!

A great close up

We can't forget Brady! Such a cutie!  Shellie said in her text, "He has all these toys and all he wants to look at is the fan"

Bye bye swaddle!

Possibly my new favorite photo...

Thanks Coach!

His new standing toy!

Lastly,  I am done working at Medical Search Associates.  I'm pretty sad to say good bye to the people I work with.  I learned so much at that job not only about recruiting but about myself.  Due to a series of events and some spiritual promptings, we felt like it was time for a change in careers.  I feel completely at peace with the whole decision which I think is the biggest indicator that we made the right decision.

Okay, one more last thing, we started packing!! We just finished patching up holes and painting over everything.  We feel like we started a little early but with all that's going on I'd rather be the tortoise than the hare.