www.kailemeyersphotography.com

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She did Zachary's newborn photo's and is an amazingly talented photographer!!

Valentines Day 2011

I love love love Christmas but Valentines Day comes in a very close second! This year was extra special at our house with Zachary joining us in his first Valentines Day.

We woke up that morning to a suprise visit from the Valentine Cupid! He had left each of us a special valentine box and decorated our kitchen!Later that morning JC watched Zachary so that I could go do my visiting teaching. I had a blast making sugar cookies that night before for each of the ladies and their families.

After returning from my appointment, JC had got some flowers and a sweet card. Don't get me wrong, I love roses, but I am deffinitely a tulip girl! LOVE tulips! They were gorgeous!! Thanks again JC! You're the best. Later that night JC went out and got us some Taco Bell and brought it back home. We had previously decided that we weren't going to go out and fight the Valentines Day dinner crouds and decided to get something we both liked-hence Taco Bell for Valentines Dinner! :)

Zachary-Month 11

He's almost a toddler and I'm not ready to let my baby go. Time has gone by too fast! At the same time, it's been very entertaining watching him discover new things. He has definitely made our lives so fun and we look forward to watching him continue to grow and develop.

Some of the things he is doing are:

Drinking out of a sippy cup-no bottles!!

Jabbering more!

He saying "Ma ma"!!

His sense of humor is coming out more

He initiates "peek-a-boo"

He is eating more solid foods

He LOVE grilled cheese sandwhiches

We love you Zachary!

Let the birthdays begin!

After the new year we roll right into "Birthday Season" at our house. I am the lucky one that gets to start off the festivities. This was the first birthday that I didn't have to wish for a baby. JC and Zachary sang "Happy Birthday" before church. Afterward we came home and had yummy dinner of fish sticks and baked potatoes! Afterward, we cut my ice cream cake that JC got from Baskin Robins. (I forget how sweet that stuff is-but a little slice was oh soooo good!!)
The following day did a little shopping and went to dinner. I always like trying new and different places so this year we went to a place her in Anchorage called "The Sourdough Mining Company". It was really yummy, homemade cooking in an old, rustic, setting. As you walk in the front door there are rocks on the walls and JC was reading that they were rocks from old mines in Alaska. I love stuff like that! After dinner there was a place across the street that I wanted to go check out. As we walked in we realised it was just another souvenier shop for Alaska stuff but then we were greeted by the most amazing sight a girl could come upon...That's right, a hottie hottie standing next to one of the largest chocolate fountains around!! It was SPECTACULAR!! Thank you JC and Zachary for making it a great birthday weekend!

Zachary-Month 10

We are now into the double digit months of age!! Where has time gone?!?! My baby is growing up WAY too fast and I am scrambling to find the pause button! In the mean time we are having SO much fun watching Zachary grow and develop. He seems to have turned into a toddler over night!

He loves being more and more mobile. His favorite thing to do is go down the hall, get into the front entry shoes and then go straight for the bathroom and the toilet paper. Lately when he hears the dishwasher open, he heads for the kitchen to play! He loves sliding the rack back and forth and taking the silverware out and playing with it. Even though it's extra work on my part, I love watching him play. He is also pulling himself up to things by himself and is walking along things such as the couch and table rail.

He is getting more and more teeth too! EVERYthing goes in the mouth or gets gnawed on. It'll be nice to get all those pesky teeth in. Along with teeth he is "chattering" a lot more. The other day I was feeding him pieces of banana and was telling him about bananas. He started mimicking me and said, "nana" "nana". It was a proud moment for this Mom!

He is also starting to somewhat recognize who JC and I are when we say, "Where's Mom?" or "Where's Dad?" The other day he heard the front door open and I said in an excited voice, "I think Daddy's home!" He looked towards the front door and wanted down. He heard JC's keys jangle and crawled to the bottom of the steps at the front door to go find JC. It was SO cute! I got all warm and fuzzy inside. I love that he loves his Dad!

In month 10 some of his firsts were:

First Christmas

First ride in a sled

First time standing on his own (for about 3-4 seconds)

First time hearing fireworks (New Years Eve)

First Pancakes

First real haircut (ok second)

It's Baby's first Christmas

The day I had been waiting for all year finally came-Zachary's first Christmas!

Starting the 1st of December our bedtime routine with Zachary included a signing a Christmas song and reading a Christmas story. My Grandma Murray was always reading stories or poems she had written. I was lucky enough to get the copy of her purple binder with all her Christmas songs and stories in it. My cute Mom also sent a collection of Christmas stories that we read from as well.

Another tradition we have is to purchase an ornament for the tree that represents something significant from that year. Obviously this year we purchased a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament. We bought two of the same ornament so we can start Zachary's ornament collection for when he moves away from home and goes to college or starts his own family.

We had SO much fun decorating and shopping and wrapping presents. Most of all though, I love the Spirit that is in our home around Christmas time.

JC had to work Christmas Eve so Zachary and I went to a friends house for a Christmas Eve party she was throwing. In JC's family making homemade pizza for Christmas Eve dinner was tradition they had and when my friend Heidi heard that she asked if JC would share his family tradition for her Christmas Eve party. I was in charge of the dough and everyone else brought toppings. The little kids were given paper plates and got to help spread the dough for their own personal pizzas. It was a blast and SO yummy! We took pictures, read stories, watched the Christmas story video and had fun laughing and just hanging out with everyone!

Zachary and I left the party a little early so we could go pick JC up from work. As JC was walking out to the car he had his hands full of a couple toys that his co-worker had given him. We have felt so welcomed and loved here in Alaska and seeing this warmed my heart a little more.

After we got home we did Zachary's bed time routine and everyone got into their matching Christmas pajama pants that I made and JC read from the scriptures the story of the 1st Christmas day. As I sat there holding my own son I couldn't help but think of Mary and the immense love she had for her son. My love for my Savior increased all the more that night. Afterward we put Zachary to bed.

After we thought Zachary was asleep we opened the front door for Santa and he came inside to leave Christmas for Zachary. He had to assemble one last thing before he left. The noises from assembling this particular gift woke Zachary up. We finished up and got ready for bed ourselves. We were SO tired but Zachary wouldn't go back to sleep so we ended up having a family sleepover in Mom and Dad's bed with Zachary. I lied there feeling SO grateful for the happenings of the past year and for the love of friends, family, and our Savior that we had experienced many times over. I could help but fall asleep with a huge smile on my face-for THAT is what Christmas is really all about.

The next morning poor JC was having a hard time sleeping as he waited for Zachary to wake up. It was SO funny to watch. At one point he wanted to go wake him up but I asked him not to. Finally when Zachary woke up we got him changed and went directly to the living room. All month long we'd had a gate up to keep Zachary out of the tree ornaments and gifts. We brought Zachary out to the living room where JC had previously taken the gates down. We put Zachary on the floor and assumed he would go right for the tree and the gifts. We waited on the edges of our seats with excitement and waited for Zachary's response! After a few brief moments of staring and the tree and the gifts, Zachary turned the opposite direction and started crawling away. We quickly put him back in the right direction and showed him that he was now allowed to tear the paper on the gifts. He just wasn't as thrilled about things as we thought he would be. We just laughed. He was SO spoiled but Grandmas & Grandpas and cousins! After opening and exchanging gifts we cleaned up and I made breakfast. After Zachary went back to bed JC and I called and talked with our families. We spent all day just being lazy and hanging out in our pajamas. It was one of my most favorite Christmas'!!

Zachary-Month 9

Month 9 was filled with much excitement and anticipation at our house as we prepared for and had Zachary's first Thanksgiving. It was a perfect day; snow falling outside and smells of yummy turkey inside. I purchased a special plate just for Zachary so he could sit up to the table with us and eat Thanksgiving dinner. We are introducing more and more solids so I decided not to puree his dinner and let him try to "finger feed" himself. That worked for all of about 10 seconds before he started flinging the mashed potatoes, ha ha!

A few days after Thanksgiving, we pulled out Christmas decorations and the festivities began. Zachary has so much fun with the decorations and got to try his first candy cane-yum!

This month we also went in for his well check up and his stats were as follows:

Weight: 25.6 lbs

Length: 29 in. long

As you can see he is not small in stature at all. He is wearing 12-18 month clothes and continues growing! He is still going through stranger anxiety and when the doctor came in he was talking with us and Zachary started crying. We all kind of shrugged it off as I held his hand but the poor kid kept crying and screaming until the Dr. finally left the room. I felt bad but Dr. Penman assured us that it was normal.