A Zach Update

So I'm sure a lot of you are wondering, what's up with Zach these days? Why haven't we seen more of him? Well to be honest, it's just really hard to capture Zach in a picture lately.  He is super active and so much fun.  He has been walking since Christmas which means a lot of activity.  It's been so much fun watching him grow up.  Most days I can't believe how different he seems.  He started shaking his head no to things which causes some frustration but we're learning to deal with this new level of independence.  Zach loves to explore things and I end up getting a whole lot of nothing done because I get distracted watching him.

He likes to watch us cook so we put him on a chair to watch.  It's fun having a buddy to help in the kitchen.  His favorite game right now is to throw things over the gate at the top of the stairs, especially balls.  So our stairs are a constant hazards zone.  I can't wait to get him outside in our yard.  He is going to appreciate it a lot more this year and it will be fun to watch him.  Um...what else? He's communicating really well in his own little language and that's fun trying to figure out what he's saying.  Zach can point out different body parts and can say some animal noises like neigh, meow, sss (for a snake) and hoo hoo for an owl.  He loves throwing balls and playing basketball with Tommy.  Zach also gets sad when Tommy leaves for class which is cute and slightly heart breaking.

So I don't have many pictures because this is a normal photo shoot:

So I have all but given up on photos of him.  But here are a few rare moments that I managed to capture by some miracle over the last few months and by rare I mean a lot because it's been 3 months since I last posted anything about Zach:

ON THE PLANE TO ARIZONA

A PRESENT FROM SANTA

CHRISTMAS JAMMIES AND SANTA GIFTS

ZACH GOT HIS OWN CHAIR FREE OF CHARGE

STEAK AND SHAKE

WATCHING K-STATE BOWL GAME

ZACH'S RIDE

LOVE THIS PHOTO

HE LOVES OLIVES

FIRST HAIR CUT

FIRST PICTURE

ZACH LOVES FORTS

FACE PAINTING

ZACH'S NEW SUIT COAT (FOR $4!)

HIS TENT ($15!) I LOVE A GOOD DEAL

OUR ATTEMPT AT CHUCK E CHEESE

ZACH'S FIRST TIME IN THE SNOW (HE BORROWED GLOVES FROM HIS COUSIN DELAINIE)

ONE OF OUR MANY UNINTENDED ROAD TRIPS

MY ATTEMPTS AT HOME MAKING

WE STOPPED IN MY OLD TOWN IN FEBRUARY

ZACH ZONING OUT FOR A BIT.  IT WAS A ROUGH DAY

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!  WE HAD PESTO PASTA BC WE DON'T CARE FOR CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE

HAIR CUT #2

MOMMA AND Z

A SPRING TIME SNOW.  THIS SIGHT ALMOST BROUGHT ME TO TEARS

 ZACH WAS NOT A HUGE FAN OF THE RIDES AT CHUCK E CHEESE

 ZACH SUPER HYPER AFTER BEING IN A CAR FOR FOUR HOURS

 MORE HYPERNESS

 ZACH LOVES FISHIES

 HE'S LEARNING TO RUN

 US AT THIS CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTER.  THE LITTLE BOY WAS FASCINATED BY ZACH

Michigan

So I've kind of lost my interest in this blog.  I apologize to all my adoring fans out there.  There just isn't too much going on and my family still doesn't get that we have a blog which was the main purpose of me making this blog.  When I go to see family I don't take pictures because it's exhausting having to take care of one child in a different time zone and don't feel like documenting much of it.  Our camera is poor quality and it's a nuisance to have to plug my phone in to the computer and upload photos. 

I thought that I could handle this Michigan weather and up until March I did pretty well.  But I'm ready for warmer weather.  I want to take Zach out so he can run around.  I want to take him to the swings.  I want to get out of this house and have a place to go besides the store where I end up spending money I shouldn't.  I ended up taking on a photo project for my dad because I knew I'd be spending money that wasn't mine.  I want to go run outside (okay now you know I've hit rock bottom, if I'm saying that).  I want to look out my window on March 18th and see sunshine hitting the grass and not a blizzard.  I want to look at the weather forecast on St. Patrick's Day and see temperatures in the 40's and 50s instead of the 20's and 3 straight days of snow.  Basically, I'm losing it being cooped up inside. 

I want to read a good book but all I have right now are political and historical books.  As much as I love that stuff, the political arena of today has depressed me so much lately that I can't stomach those books right now.  I want a good fantasy book where I can escape this crazy mess we're in that no one seems to think exists.  I haven't found a really good book like that since the Mistborn series (thank you Britany!)  The Percy Jackson were pretty good, but I blew through that in a week so it didn't have the lasting impact I think.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Politics was interesting for a while but now it either makes me so angry or so depressed I've banned the news mostly from my life for a bit.  I look forward to seeing the Republican party change in the next decade.  I predict it will die because many of the old timers don't want to accept the change in the way politics are done and that they are quickly becoming obsolete.  However it's rather depressing to see a party that helped usher in one of the greatest presidents of our country is slowly fading into the pages of history. 

Also I feel like all of these t.v. shows that I absolutely loved are all being ruined, and it's mostly NBC's fault.  The office is a car wreck you DON'T want to watch happen.  It's like they brought in the people from the most disfunctional non funny show ever (2 1/2 men?) and let them write the ending.  Seriously, no character is who they are, Andy's a prick, Angela's an angel, Pam doesn't support Jim, Dwight has a somewhat normal brother and sister that never existed until last week (cause based on Dwight's stories about his upbringing that makes sense) Kevin's insightful, and Jim's a selfish jerk.  Up all Night - they took a shotgun to that show and tried to revamp the entire show until nothing was left except smoldering ashes.  Community - a truly brilliant show that they handed over to the interns to write.  Project Runway has the most self absorbed people with sub par talent.  And Dance Moms (I know, how can I even stand to watch it? Um because I lived in that world for four years of band and four years of cheerleading.  Believe it or not, I've actually had parents try and run a rehearsal with the coach standing right there!) I've found myself rooting for Abby and booing Christy!

I apologize for such a depressing blog, I blame the weather.  I also blame the newness of the area still.  I know I felt this way at this time in Manhattan too.  I know we just have to keep pushing through and we'll find we belong here. I know it's always darkest before the dawn.  I'm so grateful for a husband who keeps me positive and laughing through it all.  I'm so grateful for Zach.  I think I would have gone crazy long ago without my little buddy to hang out with while Tommy's busy with school and his calling.  I'm grateful for the gospel because it brings peace in these wintery times. 

Gun Control

 The thing I love most about life is that there are absolute truths.  We can look at raw data and debunk all kinds of nonsense other people spew out from their mouths without taking the time to actually look at the information that, in this day and age, anyone can access, even a little ole' housewife like myself.  I challenge you to read the article because it's very informative and there's no opinion.  Some may say this is conservative rhetoric, but seriously, these are hard facts collected from the government over years and years that any person can access, if they cared enough to know the truth and not just listen to what someone says.

http://www.mrconservative.com/2013/02/5026-debunking-gun-myths-in-the-media/

Even though all of these facts are just amazing, my favorite is
"In 1976 Washington D.C. passed a major gun control law banning people from owning guns in their homes.
In 1976 Washington D.C. passed a major gun control law banning people from owning guns in their homes.

• After this the murder rate in D.C. went up 134%
• The D.C. Gun Ban was later overturned by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

For those who still aren't convinced AFTER READING THE ARTICLE, just do yourself a favor and leave this country, you have no respect for the governing documents (and clearly have no desire to understand what they mean) and that they were created to protect your freedoms you wish not to have.  Please stop trying to take away mine.

Or, find in the scriptures where agency was taken from people as a way to protect them.  Wait!!!! I found one: Satan's plan worked that way.

Insanity

Insanity has hit our household.  We started the Insanity workout videos and let me tell you, Insanity doesn't even begin to describe these workouts.  When the people being paid to demo the workouts are stopping in the middle of the workout because they are so exhausted, well...I think that pretty much sums up how intense these workouts are.  Now imagine a mother who has done fairly moderate working out for the last two months but then took about 3 weeks off decides that it's a good idea to try.  Add a cold sore (which as silly as this sounds, really does make you feel exhausted and sometimes a little sick) and the end of ab two week cold and you get me on Monday.

Monday was only the fitness test and I about died during the WARM-UP!  Moving on to the fit test, they have you do 8 different workout movements seperately for a minute each and you have to do as many reps of that one movement.  Needless to say after 2, I quit.  I rejoined Tommy for the last two and then completed the other four that evening.  After the morning workout (which again, I only did half of) I literally crawled up the stairs and had to take a breather halfway up while Tommy was still downstairs, trying to regain his composure.  I finally crawled the rest of the way up and crawled back in to bed at about 8:45 am.  Tommy soon entered, said, "good" and laid down on the floor.  I found out later that that was exactly where he had wanted to be.  We laid there while listening to Zach babble in his crib.  We figured we could leave him in there for as long as he wasn't screaming because neither of us could muster the strength to move from our corpse position.

I spent the rest of the day in a fog and decided that working out in the morning wasn't going to 'work out' and moved my workouts to the evening.  We also moved the workouts to the garage because there's a lot of jumping.  Tuesday was spent nursing muscle aches and dreading the workout ahead of me.  It's not too bad because of the 45 min work out, 10 minutes is a warmup, 6 minutes in the beginning and at the end are stretching.  It's just the 20 minutes in between you just try not to think about.  I'm really bad about water intake when I exercise but I drink at least two 24 oz water bottles during the epic work outs without any kind of mental push or reminder to do so.

Is it fun to complain about my efforts to finally lose the baby fat? Yes, because otherwise I might end up crying.  Also, yesterday was a "rest workout" (kind of an oxymoron if you ask me) and people on the video still stopped in the middle of some of the exercises.  I swear if I don't end up looking like  a supermodel after this 9 week workout, I'm quitting dieting/exercising all together and throwing out my skinny jeans for good and stop dreaming of the day that I might some day fit into them.  Then I'll buy a whole carton of Ben and Jerry's and plow through that bad boy as I accept my fate as a fatty.

Happy Birthday Zach!!!!!

So I'm posting this a day early because we're going out of town tomorrow and I will not have time tomorrow.  I can't believe it has already been a year ago tomorrow that this little guy came into our life.  We love him so much and look forward to more memories with him. As I was going through his photos I felt like there should be some slow nostalgic song playing.  So in your head you should imagine your own sappy song playing.  Mine was, "Forever" by Chris Brown.  I don't know why, but that song always makes me feel happy and nostalgic.  Enjoy these photos of our baby boy growing up.  WE LOVE YOU ZACH!