Nursery rhymes

I didn't realize how far behind I am in my postings. I'm just going to start from today and try to work backwards this week.

This morning Zoe woke up in a really good mood, so we were able to catch this on video. Her language skills are flourishing. She does Little Miss Muffett and Hey Diddle Diddle pretty well.

The child is almost nonstop chatter lately. It's fun to listen to her talk and hear what she's thinking about. We're actually starting to have short conversations.

A cute phrase of hers is "Hey (insert name here), whatcha doin?" The other day we went to the pond to see the ducks when she asked, "Hey ducks, whatcha doin? Swimming!"

Enjoy the video and check back soon for more pictures and updates!

Milestones

I haven't officially started potty training yet, but Zoe had her first experience at using the big girl potty this afternoon.

She woke up with a dry diaper after nap time, so I sat her on the toilet and asked her to go potty. After a few seconds I heard the successful tinkle sound! So of course I jumped up and down like a fool cheering for her. Her little face just beamed as she cheered "I go on big girl potty!" So, we promptly called Daddy, Memaw and Poppy, and Nana and Papa to share in our celebration.

If you have tips on potty training a girl, I'm open for suggestions.

October 17

I say the date because it was such a full day. Fun, but full. It all began with a hike with the Young Professionals group at church. Only six of us showed up, but a good time was had by all. We hiked Indian Trail in Ogden, which is just north of us.

What was supposed to be an "easy" hike according to Elaine, turned into a difficult 4 1/2 mile climb. OK, we didn't climb the whole time, but it felt like it. Poor Matt hurt his knee at some point, so Eric volunteered to carry Zoe down from the summit. I was very proud that she let someone else carry her. She even talked to him during the hike. It helps that he gave her a huge leaf, bigger than her head, to carry and he kept asking her questions.

Zoe did get cold since she wasn't exerting herself. The rest of us were shedding layers and had sweat through our shirts by the time we made it down the mountain. That evening Matt and I could barely walk, and climbing stairs was pure torture.

After nap time we had one of the girls from church over to watch Zoe. There was a mystery dinner at church and Matt had a part in the play. Yummy food, funny story (written by one of our members), and seriously funny amateur acting. At least Matt didn't put on his pretend Southern accent. I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face. Ask him to do it for you sometime. It's pretty bad. :)

Once we finally made it home and got Zoe to sleep we crashed hard. It was difficult to get out of bed in the morning, and three days later I'm still hurting. Maybe next time we'll take a shorter hike.

Click on the picture to see a few more shots from our day.

October fun

I know, I'm way behind on my posts. I have at least two, if not more, posts to get caught up on. So, I'll start with the most recent events and work my way backward as I have time. :)

This evening we took Zoe on what we hope will become a family tradition. There's a farm down the road that specializes in corn and pumpkins. So of course they offer "hayrides" to the pumpkin patch in which every person gets to pick out their very own pumpkin fresh off the vine. They have a tractor that pulls a big trailer (no actual hay involved) out to one of their many pumpkin patches and we are set free to find our perfect pumpkin. Our tractor driver comes and cuts your pumpkin from the vine and brushes all the thorns from the stem so you can carry it back to the trailer. Zoe loved the ride out to the patch. She kept saying "I ride tractor" the whole way out. She also really enjoyed getting to roam among the pumpkins while Matt and I picked out what we wanted. It was a little hard for her to maneuver the mounds and vines. She and gorilla took a couple of tumbles and were a little dusty by the time we made it back to the car.

The farm also had some other activities to participate in, but it was getting dark and we were getting cold and hungry. Maybe next year we can start a little earlier in the day. Click on the picture to see the rest of our fun.

Antelope Island Balloon Stampede

Saturday morning we awoke to a blustery day. Of course it was windy... we were supposed to go watch the hot air balloons lift off and they won't go up if the weather isn't right! Just like the last festival we went to, a cold front was blowing in, promising to mess up our plans. Fortunately the wind subsided for a little while and our outing wasn't a bust.

We drove out to Antelope Island, on the Great Salt Lake, even though the wind was blowing pretty hard. Several people were leaving as we drove in. Their loss. We stuck around for a little while, looking at the typical festival booths, and were rewarded for our patience. We witnessed four balloons being filled and three of them launching. It's a neat thing to witness if you never have. The whole process takes timing. As soon as the balloon is filled you'd better be ready to go. It's hard to keep the balloon on the ground for very long if it isn't tethered.

Zoe was pretty interested and just patiently watched. She liked seeing the balloons float up into the sky and would exclaim "Balloon up in sky!"

Afterward we stopped at McDonald's for brunch and to let Zoe play. She enjoyed playing basketball with her daddy in the play land area. They have so much fun together. Matt took off to go fishing for the afternoon and Zoe napped while I enjoyed three thunderstorms rolling in. We got a lot of much needed rain, and I got to enjoy the rare thunder and lightening. I do love a good storm. (Especially now that we're out of the threat of tornadoes)

All in all, it was a fun Saturday.

Enjoy the pictures!

Just plain silly

Our daughter has quite the personality. You just never know what she's going to come up with. For example, she decided on the way home from the airport on Labor Day that this is what people say:

Then she found one of my winter hats in a box and has decided that she has to wear it around the house.

What will she do next? :)

Oh, and then there's her new talent:

Labor Day fun

This year we were blessed to be able to go to Lovelady, TX to visit our friends. We went last year, but this year's attendance was probably twice that of last year. I think there were 34 of us that stayed at the Rollo's house. We had a full house on Saturday with friends from Fort Worth and Lovelady coming for fajitas and games. I think the adults were close to being outnumbered by the children. :) Well, maybe not, but there were a lot of kids running around. It's a fun sound to hear children playing together.

Zoe enjoyed being around all the children. We have a book of pictures of all our Texas friends that we went over and over with her before we left, so she was able to identify a lot of people. By the end of the weekend she was calling people by their names without having to be prompted. Even now, when we look at pictures she knows who people are. She's just amazing.

Zoe had her first exposure to fishing. Well, she's been with us on hikes before when Matt's fished, but this time she actually got to hold the rod. Matt let her "help" him with his pole for a little while. They I tried to show her how with a kiddie pole. We tried to cast, and of course she wanted to do it herself. She swished the thing around a few times and then threw the entire pole into the pond. Brian and Howard were frantically trying to get it out before it sank and someone had to go for a swim. Thankfully they were successful in retrieving the pole without getting wet. We quickly ended our fishing lesson after that. :)

We had a lot of fun and hope we're able to go again next year. Check out our pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jenny.crill/LaborDayWeekend2008#

and our friend Jenny's pictures at
http://drennonfamily.com/brewton/gallery/lovelady08/

Fun August

We've had a fun month. We've been to the Treehouse museum, the zoo, the park (several times), a balloon festival, a new garden in Salt Lake City, picked strawberries at a local farm, and worked in our own garden.

The Treehouse Musem in Ogden is a really cool building with tons of fun stations for the kids to explore. We have yet to visit all of the stations, there's just too many for one day! This time Zoe discovered the train room. There are a couple of tables with magnetic trains you can build and pull on tracks. There's also a big train made out of foam blocks that the kids can climb on. Obviously a room the little boys love, but a few girls were found there too.

Every year there is a hot air balloon festival in the Ogden canyon area. We decided to go out to watch the evening launch with Zoe on a Friday night. Unfortunately a cold front was blowing in, so the wind kept the balloons from going up. We still had fun listening to live music and running through the field. Zoe particularly liked chasing a kite some kids were flying.

I went to Idaho for a ladies day so Matt kept Zoe for the entire day. They ventured out to the Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City in the morning. You'll notice in the pictures that Zoe's wearing a sweater, in AUGUST! Crazy weather here! Zoe had fun chasing squirrels, climbing on stone lizards she called iguanas, planting plastic vegetables, playing in the fountain, and having a picnic with her daddy.

She's becoming quite a little helper around the house. I gave her my old swiffer broom so she could help me clean up after dinner one night. She enjoyed pushing it around the floor while I got the real work done. :) She's also helping me in the garden some. Helping is a lose term. She steps on the plants and squats down next to me while I pull weeds. She also waters my shoes with the watering can. We have a few strawberry plants in our back yard that have actually produced a little fruit. The variety we planted tastes like honey. They're yummy and it's all I can do to get the things washed before Zoe gobbles them up. Hopefully next year we'll have a bigger crop.

That about sums it up for this month. Tomorrow we leave for our friends reunion in Texas. We're very excited to see everyone and catch up!

Check out the pictures that go along with our stories here.

Too funny!

Last night, on the way home from Bible class, we decided to stop at Starbucks for a treat. Our Starbucks parking lot is adjacent to the Walmart lot. As soon as we turned in Zoe exclaims, "Go Walmart!" Then, while waiting at the window for our drinks she cries out, "Chicken nuggets?"

What have I done to my daughter?! I don't know where she came up with chicken nuggets. We don't eat out that often, and when we do, it's not drive-thru. I have to admit that we do frequent Walmart several times in a week. Maybe it's time to take a break from the shopping. :)

E-I-E-I-O

Zoe has started singing along with me when we sing "Old McDonald". She'll even tell me what animal she wants to have on the farm. I caught it on video yesterday. There are two takes since she gets distracted sometimes. Enjoy the video!

Our new baby...

...NO, I'm not pregnant. :) But, we did get a new car this weekend. We traded in our Civic for a 2006 CR-V, and we love it. We decided that since we were planning on more kids, and we already fill the car up even on short road trips, we needed something a little bigger. Hence, the new car. Plus, the dealer here sent a letter offering to buy the Civic, and then offered us a good deal on the CR-V. We're happy, and Zoe has more room, and I can keep the stroller in the trunk and still have room for stuff.

In other news, we're organizing. We bought shelving and a tool chest for the garage. This entire spring/summer I haven't been able to park in the garage because of all the junk. Matt's been working on the Mustang, and we had all the gardening tools and supplies in my parking space. So, we put together shelves last night and started loading them. Once we get the empty boxes hauled off to the dump I can start parking in the garage again, which will be nice since the new car has black leather interior and it's still hot here.

I guess that's all for now. :)

Memaw and Poppy's house

Zoe and I took off for Alabama while Matt went to a conference in Pittsburgh for a week. We had a good time, wish I could say the same for Matt. Zoe's changed a lot since the last time we were there, plus the weather was better. She loves playing in the back yard. My parents have a swing set, sandbox, kiddie pool, tree house and a ton of trees. Oh, and a fountain surrounded by lots of flowers. AND, bird feeders galore.


One morning we sat on the swing for 30 minutes and watched the birds and squirrels eat and play. Zoe loves to watch them and it makes me wish we had birds in our yard. We have no trees or bird feeders. Maybe next year we can hang a feeder somewhere in the yard. If you ask Zoe what the hummingbird says she'll tell you "Fly away, zoom!"


She loved to play in the fountain. Unfortunately a few flowers lost their lives to float in the water. She also loved it when Poppy would fill up the fountain and spray her with the hose.


We took her to Bass Pro, of course, to look at the stuffed animals. They have a huge fish tank full of different fish that she loves to look at with Poppy. We found a stuffed squirrel so she could see one up close. That's one huge store!



And what trip would be complete without a visit to the zoo. It is hot and muggy in Alabama, so we didn't stay for too long. Our favorite exhibit was this one monkey. He was jumping all over the place and playing with the kids at the window. I tried to catch him on video, but just like a kid, they won't perform when you turn the camera on. :)

The monkey is swinging in the top right of the picture.

We had a great time, but were ready to come home in the end. We missed Matt and our beds. We'll see Memaw and Poppy in December though, along with ALL of her aunts, uncles and cousins from my side. Fun, and crowded!

Have a look at the pictures and enjoy!

Hats

It's so funny the things kids do. We were watching Curious George after naptime this afternoon. The man with the yellow hat had to get his hat cleaned, and George accidentally threw it out with the trash. Zoe then decided she wanted her hat. Not just any hat. I tried to give her the pink baseball hat, but she had to have the sun hat she wears when we go outside. Then she would take the baseball hat. This is what she did:

She is so silly, and I love it!

Update

As promised, here is the update on pictures and videos from our weekend in Colorado. Enjoy!

Farmer's Market

This morning, as we were getting ready to go to the farmer’s market, Zoe started screaming. (I think just to hear herself) We told her to stop screaming and to use her words (like she understands what that means). I asked her what she wanted and she promptly said “Bacon”. Ha! She’s never had bacon before, and we weren’t even eating breakfast. Where in the world did that come from?

At the farmer’s market she discovered the fiberglass horses that have been placed around town. There were two at the entrance to the market that she enjoyed touching. Unfortunately one of the horses jumped out at Matt and knocked him to the ground when he went to chase after Zoe. Matt has a nice bump on his head and a headache. Zoe got to pet a real horse from the western demonstrations.

This afternoon she found a box that was filled with shredded paper. I was in the kitchen working on dinner and Matt was doing something on the computer. We found this:





Always up to something! Check out the rest of the pictures from today and the zoo trip.

Go to the zoo?

I ventured out with Zoe on Friday to the zoo while Matt went to work. It was a nice cool morning and not too crowded. The animals were out playing and making all sorts of noise. Zoe’s latest obsession is with the gorilla. I think it’s her favorite animal by far. There’s this statue of a gorilla outside the ape house that is as tall as I am. When she saw it she started squealing and beating her chest making gorilla noises. You’ll have to check out the videos from the day. Then, when we actually saw the gorilla she tried to climb up the gate to get to it. Fortunately she’s too little to have any success!

We also rode the train on this trip. When we were walking through the discovery zone where it is she heard the whistle and saw it coming and got all excited. She started squealing “Ride the train!” It’s not a very long ride, but just long enough to keep her attention. She’s turning into such a big kid.
















Zoe’s talking up a storm, and you can actually understand her most of the time. She’s saying sentences like “Where did it go?”, “There it is.”, “Ride the train.”, “Go to the zoo.”, “Daddy eat!” It’s really cute, and amazing. She understands so much!

Matt's birthday weekend

We took our annual trip to Colorado for Matt's birthday this past weekend. What an eventful weekend! We arrived late on Wednesday night and had some activity planned for every day we were there.

Matt took off on Thursday morning with his brother-in-law, Clayton, and Clayton's dad for a camping/fishing trip. This past year Matt's gotten into fly fishing and is taking advantage of every opportunity to be out fishing. They had a good time together, from what I hear. The exciting part was that Matt caught a rainbow trout. Too bad it's catch and release. I have a picture on Matt's computer that I'll post later. The bad news was that the fish caught Matt. While Matt was holding the fish to take a picture, the fish decided to make a break for it and the hook got caught in Matt's thumb. He ended up having to go to the emergency room on the way home and got a tetnus shot to wrap up the trip. Otherwise, a good trip.

While Matt was on his trip, Zoe and I went with Nana and Papa to visit her new cousin, Nehemiah. Again, those pictures are on Matt's computer and will be posted later. If you can't wait to see what he looks like you can check out his blog under Michael and Jennifer on my links list. He's a precious little boy, and so tiny! Zoe did well with him around. She said his name over and over and even gave him kisses. Her ultimate fascination was with her Uncle Michael's turtle, however.

On Friday Zoe and I went with Matt's family (he wasn't home yet) to a BBQ in Denver with their church congregation. We had good food and fellowship. I don't know many people there, but I meet more every time we visit. We had intentions of Zoe staying up to watch the fireworks, but she faded too quickly. Maybe next year.

Saturday we got up early and went to the Denver Zoo. What fun! Zoe enjoyed riding in a wagon and seeing many animals we don't have at our zoo in Salt Lake City. She even rode the train for the first time. Clayton and Rhianna and Papa went with us on this outing. Zoe's favorite animal this time was the gorilla. They have a big room that the gorillas play in with a window wall for observation. Zoe was up at the window when the gorilla came face to face with her. She beat her chest and made gorilla noises. She kept making gorilla noises for the rest of the day. We got her a plush gorilla as a memory of that visit that she's been carrying around. She calls it "go-ri-ra".















Sunday was Matt's actual birthday. His present was to take Zoe to her first Rockies baseball game. I was a little worried how this was going to work since the game was during nap time. She did beautifully and ended up sleeping the entire ride home and then some. Matt taught Zoe how to say "Go Rockies!" She's pretty good at it. Zoe enjoyed being outside and being able to scream as loud and often as she wanted. I don't think she bothered the people around us. :)
















We made it home safe and sound on Monday afternoon just in time for us to eat a late lunch and take a nap. Good fun and good memories! Take a look at the rest of the pictures and videos here.

Road Trip

Zoe and I took a road trip to St. George, Utah to visit friends from Texas. They were out visiting their parents who live in St. George. We've really missed our friends, so any chance we get to meet up with them, we try our best. Unfortunately Sandy and the kids are the only ones we have any hopes of seeing with any regularity. We do enjoy our visits with them, and send our love to all our other friends in Texas that we haven't been able to see.

The last time we went to St. George, Zoe was only a few months old. The drive down took a L-O-N-G time and we had to endure spells of screaming and crying, not to mention construction and traffic. This time around went much smoother. The trip is supposed to take around 5 hours from our house to the Ditoro house, and we made it in 5 1/2 hours. Amazing! And, Zoe was pleasant and slept for a good part of the trip. I'm so grateful that she's becoming a better traveler.

We were able to do a little site seeing of the city and a few places nearby. We went to a dinosaur museum and saw some pretty interesting footprints and tail drags. We drove through Snow Canyon and saw some beautiful rock formations. All that was interesting and more for the grown-ups. Zoe's favorite part of the excersions was the park. There is a neat place downtown that has fountains that shoot water out of the ground for the kids to run through. Zoe was very brave and enjoyed getting wet and watching the other children playing in the water. She slipped a few times, so eventually ended up just watching from the edge. There is also a "river" that the kids can run/walk through and splash around in. She enjoyed walking around and playing with the rocks. She's becoming such a big kid!

We were sad to have to leave our friends after such fun. Hopefully we can make it to Texas soon, and we'll definitely come down to St. George next time our friends are in town.

Check out the rest of the pictures and videos.

Summer nights

I'm so bad about keeping up with this blog. We have fun, and I take pictures, but then they don't ever seem to make it on here for you all to enjoy.

Well, tonight Zoe was especially cute. We have a dry patch in the back yard that doesn't seem to get water from the sprinkler system. So, we're having to water it the old fashioned way. Zoe came outside with me this evening to get it set up and decided that she wanted to check things out. She had a blast! I had a hard time getting her to come back inside.

And then of course she had to take a ride in the swing before calling it a night. Click on the picture to see the rest of the fun.

Happy Birthday Nehemiah!

Today our nephew, Nehemiah Richard Crill, was born. Finally! He's a week late and put his mother through 29 hours of labor! He is 7 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches long. We don't have any pictures of him yet, but we do have a really cute video of Zoe saying his name over and over again. She's saying "Mia-miah".

Nehemiah shares his birthday with my niece Kylee, who just turned 6. Happy Birthday Kylee!

Riverdance

Zoe loves playing with her Daddy. One of her new things is to dance a jig. I caught just a few seconds of it today on video. Of course, Matt encourages all silliness and often joins in. They have lots of fun!

Check back soon for pictures and updates about our recent family vacation. I have the pictures on the computer at least, I just haven't had the chance to write anything down. I promise, it'll be soon!

Trees are next

Zoe discovered that if she takes the top off of the chair her aunts bought her for her birthday and puts it in front of the recliner, then she can climb up into the chair. So, she did it over and over and over again this afternoon.

In the land of make-believe...

Zoe likes to pretend she's a bunny. Memaw sent her bunny ears for Easter and this week she's decided she wants to play with them. The ears are a little big for her head still, so they fall off easily. Maybe by Halloween she'll have grown into them. :) Meanwhile, we're embarking on the world of pretend. She feeds her animals and dolls and makes them act like they're walking around. It's really cute to watch her little imagination blossom.

One, two...

THREE! Zoe has discovered her love of the slide. We've had a stretch of warmer weather lately, so we've set off to our favorite park to explore, feed the ducks, and have fun. She's started doing this cute thing where she says "two" when you count her down. Check out the video to see what I mean.

She's becoming more adventurous in her explorations too. She found a tunnel that looks like a lion's face. She won't go into the tunnel, but she was curious.

I am so blessed...

I just put my sweet Zoe to bed after a fun Mother's Day. She's grown so much in the past year! Her legs are so long that they hang off my lap when I'm rocking her to sleep. I love bedtime, and not because it means a few hours of peace and quiet. :) I love gazing into my sweet baby's eyes as we sing her lullabies and she sucks her thumb. I love snuggling and cuddling as she drifts off to sleep. I love reading her stories, over and over again, as she gets excited about what she can find on the page.

I love how she tries to help with the laundry by pulling all the clean clothes out of the basket and carrying them around the living room. (She does bring them back to me.) I also love how to imitates me cooking with her own kitchen tools I've given her. I love how she tries to help me brush my teeth in the mornings. I'm not too keen on having the baby's toothbrush on my face though. :) I love her sweet, open-mouth kisses and how she touches my face, just because.

I'm thankful that God has blessed me with such a wonderful daughter.

More from our visit to Colorado

After we recovered from the baby shower on Sunday, we went on a family picnic to a nearby park. It was Matt's brother Ashley's birthday and he requested we take Zoe out for her first picnic. It was a gorgeous day for a picnic. We ate lunch at the pavilion where Zoe pointed out and said Nana and Papa and what sounded like Mikey(for Uncle Michael) without being prompted. Pretty good! She really enjoyed riding on the tractor and cow that bounce back and forth.



That night I made a pavlova for Ashley's birthday cake. He's moving to Australia to get married soon, so this was the last time we'll see him for a while. I wish Matt had been able to come with us.


We really enjoyed getting to see Matt's family. Here are more pictures.

Saying goodbye

We had to say goodbye to some very dear friends recently. We've been living in Utah for a year and a half now, and in that time Paul and Anna Goh and their boys have become some of our closest friends here. They are from Singapore and were here while Paul studied bow making in Salt Lake City. Now, Paul is going to be working to open a factory in China. Anna and the boys returned to Singapore while waiting on the final plans to be made for their move to China.



The Gohs were one of the first people to meet our precious Zoe.



Anna has been my outing buddy with the kids.



Anna has also been a wonderful teacher for Zoe's bible class.



Titus was a fun student to teach in my Wednesday bible classes.



Titus and Justus have been two of Zoe's first friends. She misses running on the ramp at the church building with them.



Paul is a wonderful song leader, very knowledgable in the scriptures, and a lot of fun to play Nintendo with. :)



We will miss you terribly! Here are the pictures from their going away fellowship at church.

Visiting Nana and Papa

Playing in Nana's kitchen

Playing piano with Aunt Rhianna

Reading with Uncle Clayton

Zoe and I traveled to Colorado this weekend to visit Matt's family and to host/attend Matt's sister-in-law's baby shower. Jennifer is due in June with their first child, a boy named Nehemiah. She looks beautiful and they're excited about the birth of their son. We've had a good time visiting family, as always. Zoe's had the most fun today I believe.

Tulip Festival

Zoe and I went on an outing to the Tulip Festival with seven other ladies from church this morning. We drove about an hour to Thanksgiving Point, south of Salt Lake City, to see what had bloomed. They have planted 250,000 bulbs on the grounds. It's beautiful! We've had a COLD winter and cool start to the spring, so many of the bulbs haven't bloomed yet. Still, what has looks beautiful. It was chilly and windy today, which can make for a miserable time outside, but we braved the cold and enjoyed the flowers.

Enjoy the pictures!

Poor, sick baby

Zoe's sick, and has been since Saturday night. She had so much fun playing in the garden during the day, but that night she started to run a fever. Well, the fever lasted until Tuesday afternoon reaching as high as 102.4. Then, on Wednesday morning she woke up with a terrible, blotchy rash all over her chest and neck. So, I took her to the doctor. He said it's viral, so we just have to wait it out. It's not a raised rash at least, and it doesn't seem to be itchy. It just looks awful. Today it's spread to her face and legs. The doctor didn't say it's contagious, but I'm keeping her in just in case. I'd hate to get our friend's kids sick.

And, the doctor said one of her ears is pink and she still has lingering sinus problems. So...he put her on another round of stronger antibiotics. She had just finished Amoxicillin for the sinus problems, but it wasn't strong enough to kick it out completely. I hope by the end of next week she's back to her normal perky self. She's been pretty moody and clingy this week.

My poor sweet baby.

So cute

The other day I was chatting with my mom online so she could watch Zoe on the web cam. Well, Zoe decided she wanted to ride in Daddy's computer chair with some of her toys. This is her with a few of her pals getting dizzy.

Such a hard worker...

I have to say that my husband is one of the hardest working men I know. Not only does he work 9 hour days and travels to California several times a month, he also finds time to take care of his family, stay active at church, and do sweet things for me.

This weekend, after a long week at work, he spent all day Saturday creating two flower beds from scratch. Friday night one of his co-workers came over to help him remove the sod from 4 beds. Then after breakfast on Saturday Matt set out to digging up the two in the front yard. This is no easy task! We have hard clay for soil and lots of rocks. I tried to get out and help dig while Zoe napped, but I'm too weak to make much progress. So, I just hacked apart the clumps with a hoe while Matt did the digging. The results are beautiful.

Right in front of the house we planted a daphne shrub, some day lilies, shasta daisies and some ornamental grasses. We filled in with a few annual plants (I'm not sure what kind they are). On the front side of the house we put in two more rose bushes. The house came with two small rose shrubs that are red. We decided to add a little more vibrant colors to those. The front bed should bloom later this summer. The daphne already has a few white blooms on it.

Now we have to attack the back yard! We're going to put in some more shrubs along the back of the house and fill in a corner with some other interesting plants. Hopefully we don't have a bunch of dead plants by the end of the summer. :)

You can see the pictures of the progression here.

Presents from Daddy

Matt brought Zoe the cutest gift from his trip to Los Angeles today. She figured it out pretty quickly, but still needs some practice...

New Skills

Zoe's learning how to feed herself with utensils. This particular morning we were working on the spoon with one of her favorite foods, yogurt. She's doing so well! Sure, she gets a little messy, but she gets most of it in her mouth. :)

Baby Animal Days

Our daughter isn't afraid of anything. I was really surprised at her reaction to the animals at the farm. Matt and I took Zoe up to Logan on Saturday for the baby animals festival at the American Heritage Center. They have a petting zoo, ax throwing, pony rides, booths of neat stuff, people dressed up like pioneers, and sheriffs riding on horses among the grounds. I'm sure there were other things, but that's what I can remember. :) We participated in the petting area and a couple of the booths.

Like I said, our daughter is fearless. The first pen we visited had sheep in it. The mama kept pacing back and forth and baa-ing because a farm hand kept picking up her babies. Zoe stuck her hand right in to pet the mama. Later she was able to pet the lamb. It was pretty crowded, and she isn't the most patient of children. She wanted to touch everything. The piglets kept running around the pen, so she followed. Eventually the piglet got cornered and she was able to touch it. She also petted a calf, a kid, a duckling, a bunny, and a turtle. The chicks weren't available for petting, just to look at. Oh, and she pet one of the sheriff's horses. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that one.

She was thoroughly exhausted after that outing. She fell asleep in the car, and so did her daddy on the way home. I ended up leaving her and Matt in the driveway to finish their naps while I went in to prepare dinner. We'll definitely plan to do this again next year.

Unfortunately Blogger isn't letting me upload pictures, so click here to see the them.

Happy Easter!

Zoe was much more responsive to her easter basket this year. :) We put a few gardening tools in it, some stuffed animals, and an egg that had a rabbit you wind up. The rabbit was her favorite thing, of course. When will we learn that you don't have to spend a lot of money to entertain a one year old! Actually, we didn't spend much money at all, but the rabbit was less than a dollar. Cheap entertainment.

A couple of ladies at church organized an egg hunt after morning services for the kids. They had the field divided for the under 2 and then the older kids. It was a pretty chilly day, so all the grown-ups wanted to get back inside quickly. Zoe was pretty good at picking up treasures and putting them in her basket. She was especially proud of the Mike & Ike candy she collected for her daddy.

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Chasing ducks

We have this awesome little park a few miles from the house. It has a pond with ducks, geese, and seagulls, pretty walking trails and a cool playground. We decided to venture out one cold, yet sunny, afternoon to explore. As soon as we got out of the car Zoe was mesmerized. You could hear all the squawking and quacking from the top of the hill. At first she wasn't sure what to think, especially when the birds swarmed me when I pulled out the bread. But it wasn't long before she was trying to follow them into the water. :) It was all Matt could do to keep her from going in after them. Muddy knees and runny noses, we headed back home to some warmth.

A couple of weeks later I took her out (it was much warmer). This time I was smart and took the stroller so we could stop and look at the ducks and then continue on at a reasonable pace to the park. She really enjoyed playing outside. I think her favorite was the swing. We didn't spend a lot of time there due to LOTS of kids, but we'll definitely be back. Since Zoe's learned to walk on her own she wants to take off. She tried to take a ball away from one little boy and tried to walk in front of the swings to get a closer look at the other kids having fun. We have lots to teach her about sharing and safety. The park was a hit, and a nice change of scenery after a long winter.

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures and a couple of short videos!

Party tricks

I know, it's bragging, but check out my talented daughter. :) She can do more animals, I just couldn't remember what they were at the moment.

Look out world!!!

I know I've been delinquent in posting, and I'll catch up soon I promise. That being said, I had to post today's accomplishment. Look out!

More details...

Yes, indeed Zoe had a wonderful birthday. We flew out to Colorado for the weekend so she could spend her special day with more people than her mommy and daddy. She was surrounded by many people that love her. Unfortunately none of my family were close enough to join us. We'll be going to see each of them throughout this next year though.

We started the festivities on Saturday by going to the Denver Aquarium. It's quite a nice place with several displays of fish and other aquatic animals. She enjoyed watching the otters play and watching all the fish swimming. Every once in a while she'd say "ish" and point to the tank. She was quiet in awe most of the afternoon. We took turns holding her and pushing her in the stroller. Matt's dad, brother Michael and his wife Jennifer, sister Rhianna and her husband Clayton and Clayton's dad went with us.

Then, on Sunday, amidst the snowstorm, we celebrated with a party. Some friends from church were supposed to come out, but the bad weather prevented them. Services were cancelled for the day, so we didn't expect anyone to get out. I had made a 6 inch 3-d bear cake for Zoe. Actually I made 2. The first one didn't work out so well so we had to make another using a different mix. My sis-in-law, Jennifer, showed me how to do the icing, so I went to work. I'm proud of my first attempt at cake decorating. :) See the previous post for Zoe's reaction to the cake. FUN!

Zoe also decided to take her first steps on Sunday. She went between me and Matt a couple of steps before collapsing on him. Of course we didn't have the video camera out.

On Zoe's actual birthday we went into Denver to the outlet mall to get some clothes. She rode with me on the merry-go-round.

Happy Birthday Zoe!

For more pictures click here.

Zoe's First Birthday Party

Here's the video of Zoe's party at my parent's house. The party consisted of Zoe being the center of attention, treating her cake like a stuffed animal and having a great time! She also took her first steps over the weekend and has become more daring every day since. I'm sure Jenny would post more details but she fell asleep on the couch over an hour ago...

What's next?

This has been a trying weekend. It all started with our ER visit on Thursday (see previous post). Saturday night Zoe decided that she didn't want to sleep in her bed anymore. She woke up at 11:30 and wouldn't let me put her back down in her bed. After almost 2 hours of trying, dry diaper, bottle, and Tylenol, I just had to let her cry. She screamed for an hour before finally falling asleep. So, Matt and I didn't get to sleep until after 2, closer to 3 and had restless sleep.

THEN, on the way to worship services tonight we were rear ended by a little old lady while sitting at a stoplight! Fortunately no one was hurt, nor were the cars.

THEN, trying to get Zoe to sleep tonight she started the "don't put me down in my bed" thing. I left the room and let her cry for a few minutes. When I picked her up she proceeded to throw up everything that was in her stomach. Both of us were covered in nastiness. She's finally asleep, hopefully for the night. I'm praying that this next week will be better...

A scary night

What an adventure for a Thursday night. Around 8pm Matt started having some sharp pains in his chest and a tingling in his left arm. So, I called 9-1-1 and the ambulance arrived shortly to check him out. They didn't see anything indicating a heart attack on their equipment, but advised us to head to the hospital and have him checked out. So, Matt rode in the ambulance while I threw some stuff in the diaper bag (of course not a bottle!) and followed with Zoe in tow. Somehow I beat them to the hospital. They ran blood work, did an EKG and a chest x-ray. Everything checked out normal. So, at midnight they released him to come home. Still don't know what caused the pain, and Matt's still complaining of some chest discomfort. I know it sounds like we overreacted a little, but chest pain is serious business. Fortunately Matt's fine. Just a few red marks on his chest from the sticky pads.

Chinese New Year

We have some friends here, Paul and Anna, who are from Singapore. They are celebrating the Chinese New Year and invited us over for dinner last night. Sadly, Zoe started running a 101.9 fever, so we had to go to the doctor instead. Needless to say we were disappointed that things didn't go as planned. Thankfully Zoe seems to be better this morning. Anna made dinner and packed it up for us. We had a spinach salad with mushrooms and yellow peppers and an interesting dressing. She also made sweet and sour pork and rice on banana leaves. Very yummy. For desert we had almond tofu with longan. It was like a sweet chilled soup. The longan tasted similar to pears. It was all delicious. Unfortuantely we didn't get to enjoy it with our friends. We did show Zoe the gifts they prepared for her this morning. Here's a video of her playing with the Chinese Rattle Drum. Thanks Paul and Anna!

Little Girl Giggles

We've found the thing that seems to make Zoe laugh. She loves playing with her socks. She also loves sitting on our couch. Today we had the perfect combination of socks, couch and Daddy to have our own little giggle fest. :)

Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl Sunday at our house was a fun lazy afternoon. Unfortunately worship services were canceled due to heavy snow. However, that meant that I got to watch the entire game for the first time ever. I have to say I'm glad football season is over for now. I'll be glad to have Matt back on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights. :) Zoe's favorite part was when we switched over to Animal Planet for Puppy Bowl IV.

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First time in the snow

Today was a sunny day so we bundled up and took Zoe out into the back yard to experience the snow. We've had a lot of snow this season. Matt says he thinks there's about a foot of snow in the yard. (I don't think it's quite that much)





At first Zoe didn't mind it so much. She was even laughing at Matt throwing snowballs at the fence. Then she decided she'd had enough. We carried her around the yard to look at the snow. We were only out for about 5 minutes. I'm sure next year she'll be more interested.