Daffodils

We take our sweet friend Nellie to church and activities with us.

She is darling and is so kind and loving.

The other day when I dropped her off from church she asked me to hold on a minute and ran to her yard and picked some of her daffodils for us to enjoy.

What a day brightener.
I had Sarah carry them into the house...

 Sarah: "These flowers (daffodils) smell beautiful!"

Me: "What do they smell like?"

Sarah: "They smell like bananas and RAINBOWS!!!"

Abby liked to smell them too!

Here is my other day brightener.

Asleep...

Or awake...

I can't help but smile anytime I look at this little guy.

And yup, these eyes are still looking blue.

Warm Spring Weather

I love Pittsburgh Falls... but the springs quite honestly are not my favorite. 

They are cold... rainy and well... gloomy.

So how could we resist taking a long walk to the park {on Sunday} to enjoy this rarity in Pittsburgh weather. 

Sarah has been fascinating watching everything bloom. 

We don't have many spring bulbs... but she was excited to see our crocus that had popped open.

It is about a mile and a half walk to get to it and once we were there all the girls could do was run around. Sarah has really discovered her speed in running and loves to show off how fast she can run.

We've been talking up soccer, I really think Sarah is going to love it. 

She already can dribble the ball pretty well. 

Abby getting a little lesson from Daddy.

Sarah stealing the ball from Daddy.

We did play on the playground for a little bit before it was time to go.

By the time our short little visit to the part was over, both girls were pretty tuckered out from running so much. I wish this picture showed how rosy Sarah's checks were... you can only see it a little bit.

And now that we've had a couple of warm weeks... we are headed back to the chilly 40s.
*sigh*

A few more from Kirtland

So I sat down to catch up the blog and started getting pictures ready to put on here, and I thought I hadn't posted about Kirtland yet... and then realized I did, but wanted to talk about a few of these pictures really quick... nothing major, just want to remember. 

I really wanted to get some cute friend shots... but the kiddos were all so happy to be out of the car that pictures were just unrealistic.

Here is the attempt at getting all of our kids together.

And I literally took one picture before Abby and Naomi bolted it.

Here is a picture showing Sarah and Emery howling at each other.

I think I mentioned this in my original Kirtland post... just wanted to share the picture.

Anywho... on to catching up the blog so I can post about the Cherry Blossoms!

Two Months

My lil' man, two months old.

He is really starting to chunk out and I LOVE it! I just giggle at his little thighs every time I change his diapers... ask Ryan, I ask him to come squeeze them. Every. Time. (I'm sure he is sick of it).

I'm not really good at tracking measurements... but since we just had his 2 month check up I know he is 14.6lbs (I think at one month he was just shy of 13lbs).

The "filling out"is the only thing I can notice, he hasn't really gotten that much bigger.
Here is a side by side comparison from last month. 

Go HERE to see more pictures of Zak at one month.

He is really into blowing bubbles.

Not that he really knows what he is doing yet, but it sure is adorable.

 It think it is possibly because this little chunk must constantly be thinking about food... so he has lots of bubble making "solution". hehe

I have yet to capture a really good smile of Zak on my camera.

Everytime I duck behind it he stops smiling and looks for me.

 See him reaching his head up, he is trying to look over my camera to find me.

He loves to sing and coo. 

When he is in a talkative mood I can't help but drop everything and just cuddle and talk with him.

Here is kind of what his little coo-face looks like.

I mentioned this in a previous post but he really loves chewing and sucking on his hands and fingers. He'll be sitting in his car seat, covered up and I'll know he is awake when I hear smacking noises coming from under the tent. Why is this so adorable? I'm pretty sure if I walked around smacking my mouth all over my hands I wouldn't get the same response.

He hasn't quite figured out how to grab things, but he is getting closer. He will however grab onto his left hand with his right and pull it into his mouth. Don't think it is quite intentional though. 

Gotta document these little thighs growing... hehe! LOVE IT!

Oh, thank goodness you are such a happy little boy!

 Don't know how mommy would survive otherwise.

Love his little profile.

He has such long, pretty eyelashes.

Just like Daddy.

Although I tried to hide away and take all of these pictures... the sisters still managed to find us.

Happy Two Months Zakster!

(March 9th)

Day trip to Kirtland, Ohio

Ryan and I were itching to get out of town this weekend so we planned a little day trip to Kirtland.

It was so nice. We weren't pressed for time, we just got up, threw some lunch and snacks in the car and headed out when we were ready. I loved it!

Because we were in no rush (and Ryan and I have both been there before) we got up to Kirtland around 1pm.... oh wait. Back track for a second. 

We stopped at a rest area for a potty break and lunch. I opened the door to get the girls out and looked down to see Abby had no shoes on.
Seriously?!!!
We did have one black sunday shoe of Abby's and one black sunday shoe of Sarah's... but Abby couldn't keep her foot in it. But apparently that is what she thought I meant when I said "get your shoes on Abby". The did match... just not in size. 

Nice effort Abby. 

So after a short stop at Target... and a new pair of shoes later,

we continued on our trip to Kirtland.

Didn't even take a picture of the temple. 

One of the grandmas will get a postcard of it in the mail... the others with get completely random ones... G'ma Newey I think Sarah specifically picked out the Joseph Smith one for you... don't ask. 

(Oh... but that won't be anytime soon, they've yet to make it out to the mailbox)

But we did get a cute picture of the family. 

Our first family {of five} picture.

There is a little museum for the temple run by the Community of Christ and had a couple of interactive things for the girls. 

Abby of course loved the dress up clothes.

And thereafter pointed out any picture of a pioneer girl and called her "Abby Princess"

Sarah looked around and fiddled with all of the more informational stuff.

She really liked the station that played various hymns.

We then headed over to the LDS visitors center and watched a little film and did a condensed tour of the homes. (The girls were done). 

I think the highlight of the day (for the girls) was going to Chick-fil-a and letting them play for a good hour on the equipment. Ryan and I were able to sit and visit and it was just nice.

So... if any of you want to visit us, we'll happily take you to Kirtland for a day so you can experience this all for yourself. (Except you Brooke... I'm sure you've had your fill. *wink*).

Park Time...Again

I'm Sorry.

It is just that time of year.

The weather turns nice... we go out... you get lots of park photos.

Ever since Sarah discovered she could do the monkey bars (see HERE) she always wants to come to this playground. It is her new favorite.
Especially when her BFF Emery is there with her.

Abby has no fear when it comes to playground equipment.

She LOVES climbing the ladders and such.

Unfortunately... it leaves me feeling slightly awkward around those super protective parents who give me quick disapproving glances that I'm not hovering by Abby in case she falls (a whole three feet).
Meh... raise your kids how you want, I want mine to feel like they can do things on their own. 

Here is Abby getting in on the best friend shot.

Oh how I love these two girls! Such good friends!

Love it!

While we were there I thought it would be fun to make a moving picture.

In the process we got a lot of fun pictures of them going up and down the slide...

 over, and over, and over.

 Perfect plan for tuckering them out, no?

Love Sarah's laughing face! 

Here is what we created... 

Love these sunshine filled park days!

On the way to the park we had a crazy thing happen.
We were driving down the hill to get there and there was a man sitting in his car which was perpendicular in the middle of the road. 

Odd. 

Well it turned out to be a 70+ yr old man who's car had died. 

We tried to jumpstart it but it didn't work.

So we pushed it to the side so he could be in a safer spot while he waited for his son to come and help him. Funny image. I wish I was a cartoon artist so I could sketch it. 

Picture me... pushing this little old man in an old Mustang off to the side of the road. 

It was pretty funny... aside from the part where the man has a bad heart, and I was worried we'd lose him any minute during this process.