An addition to the family....

Long since overdue for some kind of update I had the inkling to post a couple of pics tonight. No particular order here, just some of what has been happening in the last few months.

Zach pulling Maddy - before he ditched his training wheels and got his new bike...

Chilling in Midway with Jed and Heather Clarke - we found a skating rink, raided the lost and found bin for warm clothes and proceeded to skate. Jed and Heather somehow pulled out their best Nancy Kerrigan impressions.

First Monster Truck Show

Just another day in the life of Zach. Check out the blur of Madelyn in the background

HA! You all thought that the new addition was a baby....nope, just a piano that Rachel loves like a baby.

This requires no caption. 

Valentines cookies.

Not many words. Just lots of fun the past couple years since the last post. Life is good!

-Daniel

So much to say....

One of these days I should probably post about it.  Seeing as we have had another kid since our last post......

Ahhh.....One day.

First Fish!

So as a dad you get some moments that you love and look forward to.  I am not a huge fisher myself.  I loved to go fishing with my stepdad growing up and have plenty of great memories with him.  So the other day Zachary and I got to go fishing for USSynthetic fishing day.  The company puts together a day each year for people to go fishing and have some lunch.  Rachel was tied up with Youth Conference for her calling so I decided to just go and I take Zachary along for some father and son time.  I figured that we maybe would get all of 20 minutes of fishing before he gave up but oh well, right?

So we drove down to Salem Pond and I casted out.  Not 10 seconds later I had a bump and Zachary got to reel in his first fish.  He was excited and kept telling it "Hello Fishy!"  We took some of the obligitory pictures that ended up being cute.

When it came time to leave Zachary wanted to hold his fish for the ride home.  Luckily our lunch came in a box so I threw the fish in for the drive home.  

Back home I explained to Zachary that we needed to gut the fish so we could eat him.  He was a little worried about me cutting his fish up but in the end he was okay with it.  We will probably cook the tiny fillets tonight and split it between him and I.  Rachel still won't eat trout.  

Ahh.  The joys of being a dad.  I love it.

Seriously.  Look at that kid!  He was so happy!  I am so blessed to be able to have these little moments with him.  They remind you why you suffer through sleepless nights of crying and tantrums.  I love this kid.

Starting Summer

Uhh, so I guess this blog is supposed to be closed but I still think that we will post occasionally. Or maybe just me. Either way I am posting again so here we go...

So we have been having fun this year as summertime slowly comes around.

So of course I have to talk about Zachary.  The kids is stinking cute.  This was his favorite sitting/hiding place for a little while. 

It has also been quite a while but I should probably also mention this next picture:

This is Tori from my work's cafeteria.  Yes, Zachary is buddies with everyone there and he had quite the friendship with Tori.  He used to always find her when he came to lunch and would help her hand out change from the register to people paying.  Unfortunately she is no longer there (she had another baby and wanted to be a mom full time) but Zachary is still buddies with Luis the grill chef and also love to stop buy and visit Shuryne and Lacy from HR when he comes and visits me.  They make sure to load him up with obscene amounts of candy before he leaves and he absolutely loves it.

Yes, this picture looks random but I just had to comment.  This was done by Zachary as he was playing one day in the kitchen.  What is this?  He told me that Ramone is "pooping."  I loved it.



This is Zachary's favorite activity.  Occasionally I will bring home some liquid nitrogen to make ice cream (which is awesome by the way...) and we always end up having to play around with it a bit.  He loves watching it disappear into the carpet and then running around over it and feeling his feet get cold.  He actually remembered the name of it this last time too.

So Memorial Day weekend we went up to the "Day out with Thomas" up in Heber.  I swear to it Zachary was SO excited leading up to it.  He constantly was asking Rachel and I how long he had till he could go see Thomas.  If nothing else the anticipation was worth every penny we shelled out for the tickets.  So we got to take a "ride" on Thomas.  I use that term loosely because really we kind of rolled down the tracks some 300 yards or so and then went back.  Zachary loved it though and he loved seeing the trains.

Here is Zachary stuffing his face with cotton candy (he loves the stuff, what kid doesn't?!?) and showing off his Thomas tattoo on his face.  He also was sporting a James tattoo on the other cheek for the next couple days and he absolutely loved them.  In the end we had to take him swimming at the pool to strategically remove them. 

We had an awesome time.  Zachary's love for Thomas the Train has been fun and it is perfect timing for this thing.  We will see if he even cares for it by next year...

Every year we get hooked up by Rachel's sister Andrea with tickets to the Shriner's Hospital Dreamnight at Hogle Zoo.  It is super fun to go each year and we really have started to look forward to it.  This year Rachel's other sister Cheryl and her family went along too.  As you may know Zachary loves Cheryl's kids so it made for a fun night with them.

This is Zachary in his "Shoot Shoot" pose.  He occasionally thinks he has a laser in his arm like Buzz Lightyear and goes around shooting people and things.  We really need to get it on video.

THE END

I don't think Daniel or I will ever really be diligent about posting on this blog, so without further ado, this blog has ended. :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

We found out on Wednesday that we are having a girl! Crazy. For Zachary's sake, I hope she will like to play with cars . . .

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

I didn't get any pictures of this, since it may be considered inappropriate to some (I did get some requests for a video of the following incident, and I am sure I could get Zachary to replicate it, but for some reason I just don't think that would be a good idea). Anyway, here is a good story:

The other day I was downstairs and I heard Zachary all by himself upstairs laughing. It wasn't just your ordinary laugh. It was the kind of laugh a parent fears. Like when they are laughing because they found out how shaving cream works and now your bathroom is covered in the foamy stuff. So dreading what I would find, I go upstairs . . .

Oh my freaking goodness!!! This kid is too much sometimes. There he was, with his pants and underwear off, peeing into our fan that sits on the carpet (Keep in mind that the fan was on). The pee is spraying back all over him, which is why he thinks this whole endeavor is so hilarious. I didn't think it was very funny at the time, but looking back I guess it was, in a way.

Needless to say, this kid is fascinated and obsessed with peeing. Here are the places he has tried to pee, sometimes successfully, and sometimes he got caught before he could act:

* In the fan again, twice

* In our backyard grass

* In rocks wherever he can find them

* Off the balcony at my brother's townhome in Nevada. Twice. Not cool. He has neighbors. Zachary's excuse was, "I just wanted to pee outside." He was only successful once.

Worry not, we have been taking corrective actions against this problem, but like every parent of a two-year-old boy knows, it isn't cut and dry. In the meantime, I am just turning to my standby hope of "it's just a phase, right?"