Memorial Day Weekend

Quick updates on  the fam:

Zac-Is working hard at his job like usual. His foot is still bothering him so he's going to see a specialist.  We really hope it heals up soon so he can be back to his old self.  Zac has been enjoying his calling in the EQ but that too might be changing soon because he just got called to be a High Priest.  

Ilene-I have been keeping busy with the kids and also the start of a potentially new business.  I really don't know why I'm doing this but I got this idea and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I thought I would give it a try.  If you care to check it out the website is www.seatnsnackcovers.blogspot.com If anything I have definitely improved my sewing skills and that has been fun.  I am still working with the stake sports and am currently in softball season which has been so much fun to actually play this year.  

Anne- Anne has enjoyed the new warmer weather and loves being outside.  Though in this very rainy spring she has found a new love of puddles and splashes (and sits) in them whenever she sees them.  She has also come a long way with her shyness and stayed in nursery for two weeks in a row without us! Her favorite phrase these days is "Do it!" which means she wants to do it herself.  It's very cute to see her finally wanting to do things on her own.

Rachel- Rachel has had lots of first in this last little while.  She got her first two teeth (on the bottom) which has caused her a little discomfort and lack of apatite but she's better now.  She has also started crawling!  She mostly army crawls but she gets to where she wants to go fast!  She also likes to explore and put things she shouldn't in her mouth so after almost three years of having kids we finally have to babyproof our house (Anne just wasn't an explorer so we never had to worry).  She has also made some new sounds such as dada, mama, baba, and Prbbbbbb (the tongue noise which is probably her favorite).

Shizzy-This little girl is getting big fast.  She is no longer the meek little puppy she was a few weeks ago.  She has lots of energy and loves to play fetch.  We're working with her to not jump up on us and to stop nipping.  I am very excited for that phase to pass.  She also had a slightly traumatic experience in her doghouse so she now likes to sleep out on the grass instead.  Poor thing probably wishes the weather would warm up as much as we do.

Shizzy's first bath

Rachel's first tooth

Fun in the castle

Cutie

On the go

Rachel absolutely loves Shizzy and makes a special puppy sound whenever she sees her.

I sure love my hubby :)

I think I could enter this one into some kind of contest.  She has the most mezmorizing eyes I have ever seen.

I love my little girls.

Rachel loves her mushy food and her favorite by far is bananas that I make in the blender.

And Anne likes to finish her leftovers.

Red Fridays (Old dresses = new shirts :)

I put this one in to show how much they move around while we're trying to take pictures.  It's amazing we get any good ones.

On Saturday we took Shizzy down to Utah Lake (about five minutes away) and this is what we saw when we got there.  Crazy.  Utah has and is going to have some major flooding this year due to all the snow and rain we've gotten.  It's very weird and cool to see everything so green.  Very different for Utah. 

 But we paid $9 to get in there so we made the most of it.  Anne and Shizzy had a blast playing in the water.

 And on Monday we visited my Grandparents' grave in Salt Lake.  It was very nice to see so many people at the cemetery honoring their loves ones.  That's what Memorial Day is all about.

Weird weather for Memorial Day.  The forecast actually called for snow, but we didn't get any in Provo, just the mountains.

 Afterwards we found a Chuck-E-Cheese and decided to check it out.  Zac and I had not been to one since we were kids so we thought it would be really expensive.  But it turned out to not be that bad! It was actually a lot of fun.  Anne loved the "show".

 We just got the salad bar and the meal came with four tokens which was just enough for Anne to enjoy the little rides.  We didn't get a good picture of it, but besides the merry to round they had a cool big jeep that moved around.  That was definitely Anne's favorite.  She loooooooves our jeep.

Six months and Sickies

Our little Rachel America is six months old! Can you believe it? I sure can't. She is growing up so fast...kinda. At her checkup she went down in her weight and height percentiles (14th and 20th) which is hard to believe because she loves to eat and has the cutest little rolls. But we're gonna start packing on the calories like we did with her big sis. She now eats two solid meals a day and loves it! She's eaten rice and oatmeal baby cereal, bananas, pears, peas, beans, carrots, squash, and puff cereals. (She's also tried bites of bread, ice cream and chocolate..shhh...) I think her favorite food by far is mandarin oranges. The doctor said it's ok for her to eat them now so I help her squeeze the juice and let her suck on it while I'm holding it and she absolutely loves it! I didn't think I was going to make my own baby food this time cause it was a hassle but after seeing baby food prices...that's just ridiculous. So it's back to the blender.
Sorry this is kind of out of order, but I had to put this in here because I forgot to on the last blog. A great shot of Rachel with her Grandpa Russell.
So the sad part of the last couple weeks is that we've been to the doctor six times. Three times for Anne, once for Rachel, once for Zac, and once for Shizzie. Anne had a crazy bad sick stomach that was making her scream and writhe with pain and then throw up every ten minutes for three days so we were a tad concerned. They ran a bunch of tests but couldn't figure out what was wrong or how to help her. So she basically looked like this for three days. She didn't smile, didn't want to move, didn't want to eat, she just wanted to snuggle with her blanket and sleep. It was so sad. Mother's Day morning she woke up completely healed and back to her old self which was the best Mother's Day present I could have ever asked for. (Rachel's doctor visit was her six month checkup, Zac's visit was for his hurt foot, and Shizzie's was for her shots.)
Our strong girl. She loves to push up on her hands and toes. She even pulled herself up on me to an almost standing position!
And as you can see is on the verge of crawling. She can army crawl a bit gets up on her hands and knees every now and then. But she is already mobile because she rolls everywhere.
I ran another race, the Provo City 5k which was a lot of fun. The course went through downtown Provo which was neat. I finished 6th in my age division with a time of 29:32. So I was happy...until we happened to hear the awards ceremony where they gave medals to the top five finishers in each age category. The competitor inside of me was urked and bummed but I know I went as fast as I could. Next time. I'm training now for the Freedom Festival 5k on July 4th.
Anne giving "Ra" love.


Our daughter has about an eight foot reach we've discovered and nothing on our kitchen counters is safe. We heard a rustling in the kitchen one night and then silence for a couple minutes. So we asked Anne to come in the living room and this is what she had found, eating them like a bag of chips.
We had girls night last week while Zac went shooting with a friend. Our fun included making a fort:
..painting Anne's toenails which she calls "pitty toes"..
My computer is weird and put this way out of order. Sorry, but it is too cute of a picture to delete.
...and my toes. I know shocking. I had to borrow toenail polish from a friend because I don't own any.
More girly fun. Our friends downstairs invited us down for a tea party which included yummy punch and gourmet cupcakes..mmm. I think the mommies had just as much fun as the cute little girlies.

At the beginning if Rachel didn't want to eat this is what she would do.


Daddy's big helper. She helped Dad mow the entire back yard. Now everytime she sees a lawnmower she wants to help whoever it is mow their lawn too.

Anne has started singing and can sing the ABC song! She does it much better than in this video but...this is what we could capture.


Gotta love zuberts.


Rachel started talking on Mother's Day (another very wonderful present). Her first and favorite sound is "Dada"

Aunt Jennifer recently sent us some awesome fairytale books that have one page for the parent to read and the other for the child to read. Right now she repeats us but she is already starting to recognize familiar words like Anne and the. I can't believe she's only 2 1/2.