Merry Christmas!!

We hope you had a great holiday and were able to enjoy time with your family and friends.  Christmas is such a fun and beautiful holiday!  We have had a great time spoiling the boys at Nana and Boppa's house and are really looking forward to seeing many of you over the weekend as we celebrate together.  Love to you all!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

7 Months!!

It may be Friday the 13th but that didn't stop us from celebrating Gunnar being 7 months old!  I think he had a great day.  He got to eat a lot, nap, play with his toys and Zach finished the night off by making Gunnar laugh so hard I'm pretty sure his belly is going to be sore.  Here is my smiley little guy.

Christmas is quickly approaching so last weekend we took the boys to see Santa and a couple of his reindeer.  Zach and Gunnar did great!  Zach made sure to tell Santa that he wanted a cement mixer and a duck towel and that we would be at Nana's house at Christmas.  Oh, and he thanked him for sending Tricky the elf to our house.  Tricky is our "elf on the shelf" and he lands himself in all kinds of different places around the house.  I'll have to try to take a couple of snapshots of Santa's little helper.

And lastly......we have had some snow this week so Zach had been a little snow bunny and plays in the cold and snow almost daily.   Gloria, our nanny, was nice enough to snap this photo of him making a snow angel.

My Turkey is Three!

Hi Everyone! 
Zach turned three this week on the 26th.  I can't believe it has already been 3 years since he was born.   He is so big and grown up now.  We have very grown up conversations now about trucks or school buses or favorite donuts.  Seriously, if you play with and speak with Zach it just seems like he is a bit older than 3.  And the doctor thinks he looks 4 but I think that is really due to the fact that he is 36.5 lbs and 39.5" tall. 

Anyway, Zach has been talking about his birthday party since early this summer and all he has asked for is that it be blue and that his cake look like a car.  Hmmm....how do you do a blue themed party?  Everything is blue!  Blue tableclothes, blue balloons, blue party favors, blue streamers, blue cake and most importantly.....everybody wears blue!  We had a party for him over the weekend and everyone joined in the blue fun by wearing blue.  All the children got to play games for prizes and I think everyone had fun. 

On his actual birthday we celebrated with a family dinner with both sets of grandparents where we all ate Zach's birthday dinner request........Steak!!  Yum!  And while the cake at the party was a cupcake cake made by the local grocery baker, the car cake was made by me.  I think it turned out great and Zach loved it!!

The new birthday toys are still quite exciting so we have spent our Thanksgiving morning watching the parade and playing with Z's new loot.  We will have dinner tonight at Rich's parents house so I better get to cooking.  I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing day with family.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (we don't have a pilgrim, indian, or turkey hat so a viking it is......)

 

6 months!

Hey hey.....Gunnar is 6 months old!!  I don't have his stats yet but he will be weighed and measured tomorrow at the doctor's office.  I can't wait to see how big he is!  When we carry him around he sure seems big.  My left arm is getting stronger thanks to this little guy.

And a quick game of hide and seek......where's Zach?!

 There he is!!

We say "Boo!"

Happy Halloween everyone!  I know, I know.....Halloween has come and gone however in our house we are still lighting pumpkins every night and snacking on lots of candy.  Zach picked up some good sweets however I over bought this year so we have a lot of leftover Halloween treats.  We have had a busy few days so I tried to snap a few shot of all the activities.  I hope you are all doing well and had fun over the spooky holiday!

This was a shot I took of our happy little pumpkin before I left for work on Halloween.  This little guy is always smiling.

 

Zach decided that he wanted to be a pilot again this year.  Seriously.....he came to this conclusion himself because he can now enjoy the fun of peddling his plane.  I was of course more than happy when the idea of dressing up like a blue car turned into just repeating last year's costume instead.  I think the blue car may still be an issue for his upcoming birthday because for some reason he thinks he needs a costume for the occasion.  Anyway, since Z was an aviator I decided to make Gunnar his paratrooper.  Unfortunately it is a little hard to see the homemade parachute hanging off his back.

Rich's big Chicago race, the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k, was today so he has spent the past several days working on the set-up downtown.  Yesterday I took the boys down to visit him and pick up my race packet because I actually convinced myself to run a 15k.  I'm happy to report that I survived!  The race was fun and the weather was awesome and I had a fantastic running buddy to help push me and keep me entertained. 

Oh....and lastly this little character made it to Palatine (roughly 45 min drive) and back last night nestled warmly in the back seat door handle.  I can't imagine what little boy may have put her in such a dangerous position!

5 Months

Yep....that's right.  Gunnar is 5 months old today.  Woohoo!  He is getting bigger and bigger.  He is a pro at rolling over to his belly now and really likes to eat rice cereal.  I think he just enjoys eating like a big boy.  

Someone this weekend told us that Gunnar looks like his mom.  Not so sure about that yet but he seems to favor Zach however he is much darker in hair and skin tone.  Here is Z at 5 months....

http://www.zmakesthree.blogspot.com/2011/04/5-months.html

Here are a couple of videos a little play time with the boys and one of Zach's first solo flights.  He is actually better at steering than this video shows but he got distracted by being recorded.

 

And Rich and I celebrated a friend's birthday recently at their house where they hosted an Octoberfest.  It was a lot of fun but the most fun was probably touring their house that they had completely renovated themselves.  The house was originally built in 1902 and they brought the home back to a classic version of the original state.  The work was truly impressive.  Anyway, the only photos we came away with were our Oktoberfest cutout photo and a photo of their stove.  Ha!

 

Zach to the Rescue!

We often find ourselves "to the rescue!" as Zach calls it.  We each get to pretend to be a fire truck, police car or ambulance and rush off to rescue someone.  Last week we headed to the park and while Gunnar and I were the "police car" Zach lead us on his bike/firetruck.  He made it almost the whole way on his bike but got tired in the last block and ended up in the stroller with Dad carrying his bike.  Even firefighters get tired!

Last weekend we drove up to WI to go apple picking.  Zach actually got into it more than I expected.  We came home with way too many Honeycrisp apples so let me know if you have any good suggestions on what I can make/bake with apples (other than apple pie).

Yesterday the boys had an exciting morning with their nanny, Gloria.  She took them to Chuck e Cheese.  Zach had a blast and I think Gunnar really enjoyed taking in all the new sights and sounds.

Rich has been in Denver the past few days for work so last night Zach got to snag his spot in the bed.  He did a pretty good job going to sleep and I think I only had to turn him 90 degrees to get his feet out of my face once.

And today ESPN's College Gameday was broadcasting from Northwestern University here in Evanston so I went over to check out the fun.  Thanks to Grandma and Boppa Jim for looking after the boys and being my taxi.  The event was really fun and the excitement was contagious.  And I found an ACC alum that was serious about her football (see photo below).

Big Bellys and Helping Hands

Hello everyone!  I hope you've all had a good week and are getting a chance to relax this weekend.  This week we took Gunnar in for his 4 month check-up and he is a tank!  Yep....he is apparently the weight of an average 7 1/2 month old and the height of an 8 1/2 month old.  I guess we make big boys!

Gunnar weighs 19 lbs 5 oz and is 27 1/2 inches long!  Here is our centerfold shot.  Hey ladies, look at this belly and these hot rolly thighs!

He can now roll over as well.  It isn't a regular occurance yet but he has done it twice.  Unfortunately I've missed it both times but this is what he looks like once he makes his move.

And he is ticklish little fella too!

Zach has been showing Gunnar just how life works around here lately.  Grandma and Zach spent some quality time building dogs and funny boats out of the blocks last weekend while Gunnar watched from his playmat.

On a final note, some might say that Rich and I have high expectations but we think we should start our children early.  It is never to early to start helping out around the house!  In fact....we have our toddler helping with the lawn.