March review

I was a little lazy and never wrote a to-do list for March.  We did do stuff I promise it's just a matter of remembering what all was done.

-Potty trained Ian well at least 98% trained when home and out in public with us (zero accidents while out in public) and about 95% trained at the sitters.  Some nights he's completely dry while others not so much.

- Thanks to my dad going to pick up and deliver a load of mulch to our house, we gave our landscaping a little face lift.  We also rearranged plants now that spring has sprung we were able to take full inventory of what all was in the ground. 

-guest bedroom got painted, trim is still needing to be finished.

-Marcus' Christmas present from my parents got installed.  He got a flag and flag pole and I'm here to tell you that a 4ft hole is very deep.

-we colored eggs for Easter, Ian enjoyed bossing us around and telling us which colors to color them after he colored on them with the magic crayon.

Well now that we are over halfway through the month of April I better get a jump on what happened in April around the Z house.

Christmas 2011

Wow, it seems like Christmas was a long time ago but it hasn't even been a month.  We celebrated 1st with my family on Christmas Eve at my parents, Christmas morning at our house with just the 3 of us, and then Fri Dec 30th with my in-laws at our house.  Ian was a great present opener, he got the hang of it very quickly and was quickly became the resident gift opener for his Grammie and PaPa Jim.

Here's an album from our days of celebrations!



Hope you all had a Mrry Christmas!!!

letter

Dear Husband,

I know you LOVE to LOVE Christmas as you have been listening to it at night as you fall asleep since late October.  And I too enjoy Christmas music but not before Thanksgiving.   So I have a compromise to offer to you, you listen to your Christmas music as much as you want at a reasonable volume by reasonable I mean so that I can't hear playing when I'm in any other room in the house except the bedroom and even then it should be just a faint sound. Agree? Agree!! Fabulous!


Love
Your Wife

Halloween

Halloween this year was a complete 180 from last year.

We'll start with the costume, after searching eBay we became the proud owners of a 102 Dalmations costume.  Absolutely adorable costume that is so warm, soft, fuzzy, and so cute and perfect for my doggie loving boy.

It arrived and like any excited parents we put Ian in it kicking and screaming literally it took 2 of us to get him it.  As we were attempting to dress him I asked Marcus "should it really be this difficult or require 2 adults to put a costume on". Once it was on he screamed and screamed some more and his legs went all noodlely.  The only time he stopped crying and stopped being all noodlely was when he had a hershey kiss in his mouth.  So I hung the outfit up on his closet door so he could use to the idea of being an adorable dalmation.  We continued to offer the outfit as a choice of his daily wardrobe option in hopes he had warmed up to the idea. Well, 2 days before halloween and there was ZERO interest in being a dalmation doggie. So, we came up with a being a constructor worker like Bob the Builder Ian has overalls, plaid button down shirt, a hammer and yellow hard hat...PERFECT right??  Well this is what Ian wore for Halloween, we didn't go trick or treating due to the time (5-7p) our town did it and our schedules we didn't even get our light turned on till about 5:45.  Ian enjoyed watching all the kiddos coming up to the door he only was frightened by one and only tried to shut the door about 3x. Oh and this is the only picture I could get of him.

Contractor Ian

adult supervision required

We had 4 adults to 1 child and my child ended up having one blue leg, one blue hand  (He looked like Chevy Chase from the movie Vegas Vacation) and got spend about a half hour pantless while his dried.  Marcus ended up with one blue shoe, sock, and a slightly darker shade of blue jeans on one leg.  My MIL ended up with a green strip in her hair and myself ended up with a speckled blue foot and one blue pocket on my coral hoodie. The floor has a nice blue spot now too.  My FIL was the photographer and then the spot cleaner guy.  And all the eggs are colored however they have a few cracks on one end.  Ian has yet to pick up on the term gently and he wanted a close up view of the blue cup.  Hence everyone having some blue on them.  Good news all the blue came off our skin and clothes (we used Shout as soon as the incident took place).  The floor not so lucky good thing my in-laws are planning on replacing it this spring/summer.

The result of our egg coloring experience...

Skidamarink I Love You

The title of Ian's current favorite book which was his V-day gift from my parents last year.  Luckily I have it memorized and can whip out the words at any point. 

Sharing his book with Lexus

Ian's other love...

Marcus and I aren't big into celebrating Valentine's day this year we all went out for breakfast.  It was delightful and  because we ate later in the morning no lunch was required and dinner will be leftover pizza.  Tomorrow Marcus has the fire academy so I will be spending the evening with my other favorite guy with a trip to the grocery store.

This weekend involved making Valentine's for Ian's party at his sitters for Valentine's Day.  I was tossing the idea around of just getting a box of Valentine's from the store and writing them and being done with it or making sugar cookies.  I love to bake and gonna toot my own horn here I make some pretty good sugar cookies with homemade frosting (toot toot) and I in general like to make my own stuff whenever possible.  So I went with what I love to do and make an good Ole Fashion Homemade Valentine's.  I only knew of one allergy and that is to red dye.  So for the big cookie I went with white frosting and red sprinkles but for the lil boy with the allergy I used sugar sprinkles.  All the kiddies also got 4 smaller hearts and those I did tint the frosting if nothing else his mom can enjoy them!



Treats for his friends at the sitters



All ready to go

up close of one.

Happy Valentine's Day to each and everyone of you!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday



From our house to yours, may you have a blessed holiday with the ones you love!

Ian's Baby's 1st Christmas ornament




Our Tree!!

Wishing my Aunt Judi a very Happy Birthday!!



Aunt Judi playing "dun da daaaaa" with Mr Nicholas




Ian sporting his Christmas outfit Aunt J got from him last year!

 

Oh What Fun It Is To Ride In A....

Two Dog Open Sleigh!!!



No Animals were harmed



These pictured were featured on our Christmas Card that went out to our family and friends.  I will admit I was not a fan of this idea but it turned out great.  The orginal idea was for me to be in the pictured dressed as a Elf...I declined.  Marcus built the sleigh in about 3hrs on a Saturday morning from wood can you say...TALENT!?!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!!

watch out for the carrot

Isn't it a sooo cute??

I know everyone is resisting the urge  of coming over to use my bathroom after seeing this gem.  I became the owner of this gem via a work gift exchange.  We do white elephant and I do enjoy white elephants as you never know what your gift is going to be something nice or something obnoxious/useless (snowman toilet seat cover). After our gathering I called Marcus to inform him of our new bathroom accessory and and as soon as he got home from work that thing went on our toilet.  I figured we give it a try and well folks, it didn't even last 24hrs.  The lid won't stay up for any type of business to occur...I gave it a try and it will now go in the re-gift closet.  Yes, I re-gift and I feel no guilt in doing so.  Might want to stay clear from my gift if we are ever at a white elephant gift exchange gathering together.

recap

Yesterday was Ian's 1st Thanksgiving and he slept through both dinners. And actually I was kinda glad about that. Everyone was able to enjoy their meal without playing "pass the baby, or entertain baby". Marcus and I enjoyed 2 dinners and we practiced moderation. Each only having 1 helping of the things we like. We both came away feeling full but not over stuffed and our pants still fit..SUCCESS!!

Dinner 1: was at my parents, we arrived early to assist in preperations. My dad was frying the turkey and all was well until the fire went out and they couldn't get it re-lit. So the turkey headed inside to continue cooking and beverages were passed around. Thanks to skype we were able to see my sister and talk with her. Ian got to "play" with my cousins it was the 1st time they spent any real time together. Due to turkey glitch we ate about an hour later and all was well. We had all the typical turkey day foods: mashed potatos, sweet potatos, turkey, gravy, dressing, fresh green beans, rolls, pumpkin pie, and fudge. There might have been other things but you see I'm a picky eater and only had the following: turkey, both kinds of potatos, green beans and of course pumpkin pie.











Dinner 2: We left my parents soon after we ate, since the turkey glitch set us behind in our schedule everyone had to adjust. Thank goodness for understanding in-laws. We enjoyed some of the same foods we enjoyed at parents but also enjoyed homemade noodles, carrots, ham and some other stuff I don't like so I didn't pay attention. I know you're trying to figure out how one can be picky on Thanksgiving...I'm just a not fan. Turkey isn't really my thing either which I think makes it easier for me to not over eat. After dinner we all watched the movie Date Night which is a pretty funny movie and reminds me that we need a date night. Maybe that will happen in December. We headed home as Marcus had to work today, poor guy he did take Wednesday as a vacation day (we both had the day off although I still did some work) in which we cleaned the house as if we were having guests over and he worked on stuff for his jeep.

Overall the past 2 days have good and productive. I'm done being professional until Monday and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

10 thanks

No, I don't only have 10 thanks but since we all have lives here I decided to save us all some time and only mention 10. In all honesty I could go on and on but as noted we all have lives and with that said let's get it underway in no particular order.

1. Ian, my sweet baby boy who is the light of my life. Gosh I love that kiddo!

2. Marcus, I'm one lucky girl who has a husband who gives and gives and puts up with my wackiness.

3. Family who loves us.

4. A job, it may not be the job I want but it's a pay check.

5. Our home, it may not the house we want but we have roof over our head and thanks to #4 we are able to pay for it each and every month.

6. Basic essentials: we have food in our fridge, fuel in our cars, clothes to wear, clean water to drink.

7. Ability to be picky when it comes to what clothing we wear, food we eat, car we drive, TV/Movies we watch, so basically the abilty to choose

8. Health, everyone is in good health aside from a few sniffles every now and then.

9. Our Country, we may not agree with everything but we are living in the land of the free. Big thanks to all my family who have served for our country, Thank you

10. Friends, may not get see some often but knowing they are there warms my heart.

May you all have a blessed Turkey Day!

A Few Thoughts

We'll wrap up the week with a few random thoughts.

1.Time change, we fell back an hour this past weekend and I must say I prefer this time than the spring forward time. Yes, I know it takes a while to get use to it being dark by 6p. I much perfer driving to work in the daylight rather than darkness it makes having to go much more doable.

2. I have come up with some great ideas to get for others for Christmas but as usual I think of them in the car, shower, while working out, etc and therefore not around anywhere to write them down.

3. Tuesday morning Ian wanted to start his day early so we were up at 5 something and I had yet to put my contacts in and just had my glasses and he attacked me and bent the frame. Marcus was able to fix them luckily.

4. ADD kicks in when I try to pick out pictures and arrangements.

5. I can dress Ian for about 5wks without doing any of his laundry aside from bath towels, pj's, and bibs. Yes he has a tons of clothes.

6. I made the 1st batch of sugar cut out cookies today. This is the 1st double batch of many to come. I will frost/decorate them later for now they will go in the freezer.

I think that's about all I'm sure as soon as I post this I will come up with something else to add...oh well. Hope everyone had a great week.

Halloween 2010

Ian celebrated his 1st Halloween we did not go door to door as there is no point. So instead he made appearances at my parents, Marcus' parents and Uncle, and my Grandparent's in which my aunt stopped by and my uncle walked over (he lives right next door kinda like on Everybody Loves Raymond but not like that at all)

Ian receivced: puffs, skidders (slippers with grippers), raisins, cheerios, a lil stuffed pumpkin, animal crackers, frosted animal crackers, and some money. I'd say for not going door to door he made out and was super cute!!!

Here's some pics of our lil guy thanks to my dad.

crafty

I like to be crafty and tap into my inner Martha Stewart. When my craft bug comes out Marcus usually becomes a little concerned. As he usually required to assist in some way if he doesn't want any injuries to occur.

I've made mosiac coasters, mosiac framed mirrors (hey, I had materials leftover don't judge). I made all of the favors for our wedding. I like crafts what can I say. Often times I will walk into a gift shop and see something and then see the price tag and think I can make that myself and there is no need to pay that price for something I can do myself.

I made this a few years ago and Marcus was required to drill the holes for the ribbon. I offered but he quickly took over.

I also enjoy to crochet which for Marcus he is just required to wear what I make him. His co-workers have told on him though as he never wears his scarf into work. He would wear it when he left the house and then apparently once he was away from house he would strip himself of the scarf. And if you recall back when I was on bedrest I started taking apart his scarf. So maybe this fall I will work on making it into a hat as when I asked Marcus what I should make out of it he said a hat.

I started last night and well...after having about 5 google windows opened trying to figure it out I went to youtube. I got the 1st row figured out now I just have to perfect the 2nd row, needless to say Marcus can probably expect to receive a hat by next winter. As when I make anything new I tend to take it apart at some point and start over mostly because after about row 5 I finally figure out what it was I suppose to be doing in all the other rows. When I first started to crochet I think I made the same scarf about 3x until I deemed it good enough to wear in public. Now, I know I could take a class but really do I want to sit around with a bunch mature ladies as we discuss chains and gait?? No, I much prefer to figure it out on my own and ask for advice from others along the way. Heck I taught myself how to do from following pictures in a book, there was one set of instructions that my aunt had to come over and assist me with but other than that on my OWN.

Ian and I went to the store yesterday to do some pricing on a Christmas gift idea and while at the store we strolled the aisles and I got a idea for this years Christmas tree. Something simple but yet it will add a little something to the tree. Also got some other ideas that I would like to try when the time is right. So till then you can find me with a ball of yarn and a hook when I'm not cleaning, cooking, tending to Ian's needs, or until another book is picked for book club.

close to my heart

I remember when Marcus and I were walking the halls at the hospital as we attempted to speed things along our walking route contained the NICU hallway. And during our 1st round of walks as we walked by the NICU I told Marcus our goal is to not end up in there. As my family has quite the NICU track record, my uncle, sister (Jamie Elaine 12/24/78-4/1979), my cousin and I really didn't want to add to our record. They do however have a great NICU as Memorial's NICU is the regional referral center for north central Indiana and a portion of southwestern Michigan. I at the time had no idea how highly they were rated when it comes to NICU's. Anyways if you recall Ian did end up having to camp out in the NICU as he had a few things to figure out and needed close monitoring as he got the hang of things. You can read about his stay here.

During our 2nd visit with Ian we were given a blanket that we still have and is part of Ian's history. We don't know who made this blanket: and they don't know who received it All I know is someone took the time to make a beautiful blanket and my baby was lucky enough to receive it. It occupied him in his car seat as he needed extra support around his lil noggin. We were actually given 2 blankets one for around his noggin and another to cover him while in the car seat during transporting him from the hospital to the car and then from the car to the house. We gave the 2nd blanket back to the NICU for another family to have.

Now, I don't knit or sew but I do crochet and I know the time it takes to make blanket let alone a blanket that is even on all sides and has the right gauge in each stitch and it's not easy. Not only did someone donate their time to make a blanket but they also donated the materials and good yarn/fabric can be pricey especially when you are talking about blankets for babies who have sensitive skin.

According to Memorial's website they have over 400 newborns admitted to their NICU each year. That means over 400 blankets are given to families each year. Blankets that have been made especially for the NICU babies, to offer comfort and warmth to the families as they receive the care necessary in order to get their babies home.

Did you know there is a way you can help? You yourself can donate blankets to the NICU. No time or not crafty enough? Then Courtney from Courtney Bock Designs can help you, help the NICU. She has started Operation Warm Christmas which is an amazing project that the NICU will benefit from greatly. Click HERE to read more about it. You have that hard to person to buy for or trying to figure out what to get for the person that has everything? Then help the NICU and donate a blanket in their name. You can contact Courtney here

Want to share Courtney's project with others? Go for it, she's ready to be locked in her sewing room for days upon days with her dog Lola.

here they are

My handsome guys




Dressing like a big boy:



Ian with his Easter basket G-Ma & G-Pa Z:


I'm sure there is more but this is all you're going get. If you want to see more they will be on facebook later this week. I still don't feel 100% and now it seems Ian and Marcus are getting whatever it is I have.