Three at last!

Zac has officially turned 3! I have been using the term "almost 3" when people ask me how old he is since they looked at me like I was dumb when I said he was 2.

Zac was really excited to make his birthday cake. Like most kids, he got to lick the beaters.

Joe is an amazing cake designer/decorator and made Zac a John Deere birthday cake.

Zac, of course, loved it!

Getting present-opening pictures was difficult because I couldn't get Zac to look at me. He was too busy trying to play with everything the second he unwrapped it.

Happy Birthday Zac!!!

Christmas 2011

Christmas will forever be my favorite holiday. We went Christmas tree hunting with Joe's brother and sister-in-law, David and Krystal. We found some cute little trees. Joe and Zac did the decorating.

My mom made some little teddy bear Christmas tree ornaments in John Deere overalls for us last year. Zac likes to hug them.

Our finished tree was pretty cute.

We had a Christmas party at my mom's house. Erin organized a lot of fun games. While all of the grandkids were decorating cookies...

My child was eating the frosting off as fast as possible.

Getting all 7 grandkids on the couch at once - looking mostly happy (or at least not angry) - is difficult, but with 4 cameras flashing we got one good picture.

Christmas morning pictures were disappointing. After 2 pictures the batteries died on the camera. I guess I should've asked Santa for some.

But we all had a great Christmas, even if there isn't any proof.

Zac's Travels

Most of my recent pictures involve Zac riding on some new piece of equipment.

It started at his cousin's house. My brother built a go-kart. Zac thought it was amazing (which it kind of is)

His 4-year old cousin, Chet, is quite a talented driver.

Joe restored a tractor in high school. That was a long time ago. Since then it needed some pretty hefty repairs but Uncle Stephen & Aunt Ruth bought it and got it running again. Zac and Joe had the same look of excitement on their faces as they drove down the road.

Right before Christmas we went down to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights with the Brown family. We took the train from Odgen to Salt Lake. Zac was so excited to ride the train - but, well, so were we!

Halloween 2011

Zac helped my mom pick some pumpkins out of her garden this year and he was very excited to carve them!

He demonstrated his jack-o-lantern faces...

The finished product...

Zac went as a heavy equipment operator/construction worker for Halloween this year. So while all of my friends are posting these cute pictures of great costumes they have expertly sewn, this picture is the making of Zac's safety vest. We found an orange garbage bag in Joe's classroom. It is the kind they use for highway cleanup (only this one was from the county weed management association, to be filled with the weed "Woad"). Fortunately, Joe is very creative and crafty and while I watched he came up with the pattern, added some staples and tape...

and we ended out with a cute little construction worker.

We were excited to go trick-or-treating, but we didn't really explain the basics before we left. At the first house Zac tried to go inside, and when the lady held the bowl of candy out to him, he took the candy I had given him out of his bucket and tried to give it to her.

I think the whole process scared Zac. After every house he would say, "Let's go home."

The first thing Zac did when we got home was rip off his hat and vest and start in on his candy - beginning with his Reese's Peanut Butter Cup...

He's a smart kid.

Snow Day!

We had our first snow day today! But it's OCTOBER 6th! We skipped fall!! But Zac and I had a good time playing in the snow and building a snowman.

Zac was SOO excited to get out into the snow! First we had to find all of our snow clothes (which are now too small for Zac - hence the wrists) which were, of course, in the bottom tote of a huge pile of totes in the very back of a very full closet.

There was a ton of snow!! We had about 3 inches on top of the car when we went to get some groceries around 10 am.

Our snowman is sitting on top of green grass. His eyes, nose, etc. are made from wood chips left over from Joe splitting firewood. I was supposed to have gathered them up for kindling, but I figured I'd wait until we were done splitting all of the firewood. Now they are all buried in the snow.

Zac had a good time rolling the snowman. He kept grunting like it was really heavy and hard to push. (Which it kind of was)

Zac tried to use his loader and dump truck to clear off the grass. When he got frustrated because the tires wouldn't roll on the snow, he decided to lick the snow instead.

Overall, we had a really fun time, but I'm hoping fall decides to show up eventually.

June and such

We had a really crazy June. We spent more time on the road than we did at home. Joe was interviewing all over Idaho (and Oregon). We were able to spend time with family, which was nice, but it was SO much travelling!!

Zac was really proud of the "Woody" hat he found at Grandma Jensen's house.

Zac has also decided that you have to take a "laptop" to work. So he's ready to go.

Half-way through June we figured out that stopping at rest stops (as opposed to gas stations) helped Zac release a little energy, making the rest of the trip much more bearable.

We were really excited to get to go to Boise for the IVATA (ag teachers) Summer Conference. Our friends had just moved to Boise, so while Joe had to sit through meetings, Zac and I played all day with Katie and Lincoln.

We went for a nice hike one night. Zac likes to make sure Lincoln is doing what he is told, only usually it is Zac telling Lincoln what to do. Any time Lincoln would get behind, Zac would go grab his hand and say, "Come on Sinkan"

After I lost Zac at the zoo, I decided it was worth the money to rent a little wagon.

The boys seemed to like the geese by the greenbelt better than anything else.

I was pretty impressed with the monkeys. There is a reason monkey bars are named after monkeys.

Zac liked the giraffe.

They had some fun toys to play on. Zac went on a safari...

slid down the neck of a giraffe...

and played in an eagle's nest.

After we left Boise, we went down to Burley. Zac thought driving the little blue Ford was great. (I used to like it too!)

Rhett entertained all of the children with the lawnmower and trailer!

Joe turned 31! this June. He wasn't really excited about that, but we lit up his french toast anyway.

We got home the night before his birthday, and his sad little birthday cake didn't even get frosted.

He did, however get a book of children's stories he had growing up. He and Zac love them:)

We went for a little hike to celebrate .

We couldn't leave until Zac got to "cook deener".

We were still in Moscow for the 4th. Zac was really excited about the fireworks...

until he got to hold them himself.

Joe was a little scared of them too :)

After the hours and hours and days and weeks of travelling Joe got a job teaching in Soda Springs, Idaho! Yay!!! It's close to family, a small town, and a beautiful area - exactly what we were looking for!

We got to go to the train park in South Weber with some of Joe's family. Uncle Stephen built this amazing little train that we got to ride all around the park. Zac was in HEAVEN! And honestly, I thought it was great too!

For being such a little engine, it sure was tough. At one point we had 8 adults and 7 kids on the train.

It was the little engine that could.