Nikon

I have been wanting a DSLR camera for quite awhile and thankfully my husband knows his stuff when it comes to these things...so taking in his knowledge and taking in the things I wanted in a camera it was decided that the Nikon D5000 camera would be the one for me/us! So for Christmas and my birthday I asked for money to go towards the camera and after receiving some great monetary gifts from people and saving some of our own money we were finally able to purchase it tonight! The battery is charging as I type and I can't wait to get my hands on it and start learning all of its cool tricks! I plan on doing a few little photo-shoots (of my kiddo of course and some friends kids) here and there once I learn what I'm doing and I can't wait! Let the picture-taking begin!!

Cheesy picture of me I know...but hey, I'm excited!

Smarty Pants.

My good friend Christina was watching Zane for me a couple weeks ago and she taught him what his mommy and daddy's "real" names were...she thought this would be useful knowledge to him if he'd ever get lost. Duh, why didn't I ever think of that! Anyway, this kid has a sponge for a memory and really only has to be told or hear something once and he's got it down pat. I thought I'd see how much he knew and I was shocked when I asked him when his birthday was and he replied to me right away with "Halloween"...to my knowledge I have never told him (I'm mean, I know) when his birthday was and so I'm not sure who taught him that one, but whoever you are...thank you!

Here is a little video (fuzzy reception again, sorry) of me asking him the following questions (and here are his answer too in case you can't understand him in the video):

What is your name?: Zane
How old are you?: Two
When is your birthday?: Halloween
What is your mommy's name?: Lisa
What is your daddy's name?: Josh

Building a truck.

Daddy bought a model truck tonight for he and Zane to put together! Zane was so excited when he came downstairs after his bath to see all of the pieces neatly placed out on the dining room table just waiting to be put together! I wish I would've taken a picture of all of the pieces they had to start with, but I didn't get my camera in time for that...but here are a few pictures of them putting it together and of the finished product! I can tell this will be a fun project for the boys for years to come, they really enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching them!

Ahhh, the sweet sound of new floors!

Josh [and his dad] have finally finished the downstairs flooring project! The baseboards are up, transition pieces in place and walls are all painted...and a week before the Easter deadline Josh put in place!! I LOVE IT!





Now, when can you guys get started on the upstairs?? haha!

REBA (and others, haha)!

2If you remember that on Valentine's Day this year Josh totally surprised me with 15th row tickets to go see Reba at the Tacoma Dome! She was touring with LeAnn Womack and George Strait! To say that Reba was amazing in concert is an understatement, she seems like the most down to earth fun person and it was great to be able to see her perform! Admittedly I don't know a ton of songs by either LeAnn or George, but regardless it was awesome to see them as well! Josh was such a trooper going to the show with me and he really did try to have a good time! He even admitted at the end that all of them were "good entertainers", that's big coming from him, haha! He definitely wins the "Husband of the Year" award in my book!

The love of my life:










The only downside to our night was that we parked in some cheap-o lot and you know what they say "you pay for what you get"! We left the concert at around 11:30 p.m. and walked back to our car to see that we were TRIPLE parked and were not getting out anytime soon. We walked around for a little bit and headed back to our car to find that we were still blocked in, so there we sat with other angry customers to this lot waiting for the cars parked in front of us to move! We waited about an hour and finally made it out of the lot!!

Josh next to our car:


The 2 cars blocking us in:

Everett Children's Museum

Zane was invited to a birthday party at the Everett Children's Museum this past weekend and I'm so glad we took the drive up there for it! I had heard great things about this children's museum and everything I had heard was true! I think the water tables were his favorite part! I really liked the outdoor area on the rooftop, very cool stuff everywhere! This place was amazing! I can't wait to go back up there one day soon and take Josh with us!!





I couldn't believe he climbed this all by himself...I was on pins and needles watching him, but he did great!




Look at those eyelashes...ahh, melt my heart!

Scrappin'.

Last Sunday Zane and I had the pleasure to tag along with my friend Brenda and her kids to a few of her favorite scrapbook stores down south (we started in Centralia and worked our way back to Tacoma stopping at 4 stores...I think it was 4). I stocked up on some awesome paper that I can't wait to put to use! Someday I vow to finish Zane's 1st year scrapbook, someday I will!!

Here's a cute couple of pictures of the kids in the backseat while on our drive, they all did so well in the car (probably helps that they were able to watch a movie)!

Being Silly.

Just some fun silly pics of the little man over the last week.

He's special, but not that kind of special!

We finally bought Zane his first bike helmet and as soon as he saw me bring it home from the store, he couldn't wait to get it on his little noggin! This kid wore that helmet ALL NIGHT and he was not riding his bike most of the time either! Silly kid, at least he likes to wear it though!

Kitchen is done!

Josh and his dad finished the downstairs flooring yesterday minus the bathroom which should hopefully happen soon! It looks beautiful, I absolutely looooove it! We need to get a few transition pieces (picking those up Thursday night) and put some baseboard molding on (will get that this weekend) and it will really look like a finished piece of artwork down there!!!



I am not the only one loving this floor! Zane loves how "super fast" his cars go!!


Zane is also really enjoying helping clean the floor each night...the posing was all his doing!

Toddler Bed Trials and Tribulations!

So as you know Zane spent his first night in his toddler bed Saturday night and he did pretty good. He went right to bed and fell right asleep, there was no getting up, playing with toys...nothing, picture perfect really. Well, until midnight that is...then all of a sudden I heard a THUD and then a "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", Zane's crying. I flew out of bed after throwing a couple expletives to Josh (since he was the one who just had to make this change, haha) and ran into Zane's room. He was fine of course, just a little startled. He went right back to bed and that was it.

Last night, pretty much the same story as far as going to bed...he went right to bed, no getting up, no playing with toys, just fell straight asleep. Thankfully I wasn't woken up to a thud in the middle of the night this time! Instead, I went in to wake him up this morning and this is what I found (BTW I took this picture with his light completely off, just a bright flash I guess):

Notice the pillow on the floor...I started putting that down at night so hopefully if he fell out again, it would be a little softer of a landing. I guess it doubles as part of the bed now!!

What a goofball!

PS Please disregard the disaray his room is in...since we are re-doing the floors downstairs almost all of his toys have been moved upstairs, so its just a disaster! And its driving me crazy...can't wait to move them back down tonight!!

Flooring!

Josh and his dad have been pounding away (no pun intended) at the flooring all day today and what an awesome job they've done!! I think they started around 8:30 a.m. and stopped for a quick lunch and otherwise have been installing like crazy! It took them a little while to get into their groove, but once they got it all figured it out's been pretty smooth sailing and it looks BEAUTIFUL! For those of you that have seen our house, the entire downstairs will be getting new flooring as well as the laundry room and hallway upstairs (upstairs bathrooms will get a new flooring later and stairs and bedrooms will stay carpeted). So far they have all of downstairs done except the kitchen (that'll get done tomorrow) and the bathroom (that'll get done once we buy a new vanity). Major progress though and I love it!!

What a treat to have grandpa here on a Sunday...Zane was thrilled to see him when he woke up this morning!


The before pictures:




The progress pictures:




The just about done pictures:




What a swell husband and father-in-law I have!!

Happy 1st Birthday Luke!

My friend Karena's little boy turned 1 earlier this week and his party was today! Luke knew exactly what to do when that cake was put in front of him, so fun to watch him just dive right in! This was one spoiled little kid...just as it should be!! We had a lot of fun and Zane did so well without having a nap today; what a trooper!













Zane hijacked the car from Luke (literally) and was not going to give it back and even cried when he had to leave it there, silly kid! Good thing Luke is still at that age where he doesn't care when things are taken from him...I told Karena to enjoy those days, because they won't last much longer!

Officially a toddler.

When is your child officially a toddler? Some might say once they can walk. Some might say once they can talk. Some might say when they turn 2. I say tonight is when my child officially became a toddler...he has moved out of his crib and into a toddler bed (well, he's still in his crib, its just now been converted into a toddler bed). I was so against this and Josh had been pushing for it for a few weeks now, I really thought I was winning the battle until this morning...when Zane finally made the climb...out of his crib, urgh! I officially lost the battle with Josh as soon as that happened!

While Zane was in the tub tonight Josh went to work on changing his bed. The look on Zane's face when he saw his "big boy bed" as he calls it was priceless...but I'm still not 100% ok with it!! There are a couple reasons why I'm not totally ok with this: 1. is because I don't want to deal with the battle of him not staying in his bed at bedtime and nap time and 2. because I don't think I want to fully admit that my little baby really is growing up and I think that is the biggest reason! I know its really not a big deal in the scheme of things and I know that its a GOOD thing that he's thriving, growing up, getting bigger and a GOOD thing that he gets his big boy bed, but I guess the selfish part of me wants him to be my little snuggle bug forever!

Ok, enough of the sappy stuff...here he is right after he saw it, so excited!







And here he is after I tucked him in tonight. He actually asked to go to bed tonight! I'm happy to report that he's been in bed for about 10 mins now and I have heard/seen no signs of him getting out of it...maybe this won't be so bad after-all (then again, its only been 10 mins)!!!