2 days left!

I hope I am not jinxing myself - -

Only 2 days left in January, and I haven't hit a deer yet! (For those who need the "back story" - the past TWO years I have hit a deer in January. In 2007 it was in the Trailblazer, on our way to Colorado. 2008 it was in the Sunfire on my way to work....)

Say a little prayer for me!! :)

3 months!

Wow - my little boy is officially 3 months old! Where has the time gone???

Here's a shot of the "month-day" boy.....as he got some tummy-time for the night. (I think he's going to be a thumb-sucker.....) :)

A smile this morning before it was off to Julie's.....

You forget just how chubby they are when they are immobile....Zach is certainly getting the rolls on his legs - they're just too cute! To emphasize my point, here's a shot of Alex when he was about 7 months old. (I couldn't find his 3-month shot, it's on a CD in the bank safe deposit box...) What a chunk!!!

OK, on to other activities of the night.....Andy tried to teach Alex the rare form of catching black olives in your mouth. (Yeah, I thought it was a GREAT idea......)

First you put it in your hand.....

Now toss it up into the air and open your mouth WIDE.....(I especially like the look of skepticism on Alex's face...as if to say, "Yeah, right, Dad....like you're really going to catch that in your mouth...")

And then chew it!

Then Alex wanted my water glass. After he finished the water, he began to entertain all of us (Zach included) by saying "hello" by looking through the bottom of the glass. (Zach was so thrilled he fell asleep...)

"Mommy!!!"

"Zach-y.....HEY! Zach-y!!"

The other night Alex decided that Zach needed some bonding time with the napkin holder. (Aunt Elly, another instance for your "piled upon" club...)

And the boys, bonding. ("Hold that!")

Well, that's it for now! Hopefully we'll be posting again before the 4-month!! :) (Just kidding.....)

Picture-palooza!

Hey Everybody. We're not gonna waste a whole lot of time writing at you tonight, because we have a whole bunch of pictures to share with you. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Now onto the pictures.

Alex has learned how to make Zach smile, which is a lot more fun than freaking him out.
Smile!!!
A semi-toothy, red-eyed smile from Alex.

Preparing to go out and play in the snow with daddy.
Alex looking absolutely thrilled in his snow-suit, boots, and daddy's hat.

All bundled up and ready to go. The snow-suit reminded Christine of Ralphie's little brother in "A Christmas Story". Every time Alex would fall down, daddy would have to help him back up.

Now what, daddy?

This is how you make a snow angel.

Oooh...now I get it.

Daddy trying to make Alex snow angel. He did not like it.

Watching snow fall.

Alex spent most of his time outside dusting the snow off of the ground in front of him.

Whilst daddy and Alex were living the high life outside, Zach enjoyed a quiet nap inside.

Next, Alex got to experience the sled.

Faster daddy, faster!

Where did my daddy go?

There he is.

Back and Better Than Ever

Well maybe not better than ever, but here we are, back with another blog update. Rather than try to recap the past few weeks for you, we will give you a general summary of life for each of the occupants of the house.

Christine: Work is going well. She has been very busy, which makes the days go quickly. She has stopped writing her to-do list on paper because she is afraid of killing to many trees and creating a world wide ink shortage. Plus, its much easier to edit on the computer. Her No Child Left Behind report passed with flying colors, which was a huge relief for her. She is currently with 4 separate students for a half hour each, and the school is currently trying to give her three more, which means she would officially have to add 1.5 hours to her day, making her the only person alive to live a 25.5 hour day. For those of you doing the math, that means she lives 343.5 days to our 365 days. So when the rest of the world is on December 31, 2009, Christine will only be in the second week of December. Crazy stuff.

Andy: Outside of performing obscure and completely pointless calendar math tricks, Andy has been busy at work. December was a slow month in the clinic for a number of reasons, but so far this is the busiest January he has ever had. Other than that, life pretty much consists of spending as much time as possible with his girl and his little boys.

Alex: Alex is still obsessed with Thomas the Train. He has a number of Thomas toys, multiple Thomas books, several Thomas DVDs, and has even developed and insatiable thirst for the comedy stylings of the late George Carlin (the narrator of the majority of Thomas episodes). Okay, so he doesn't care much for George Carlin, which at this age is probably best. Other than that, he is going to daycare (and coming home with occasional battle scars), and still loves playing ball and generally treating his mommy and daddy like his own personal jungle gym.

Zach: Like most babies, Zach is growing like a weed. He is only waking up 1 time per night, for which mom and dad are truly grateful. He is sitting up in his Bumbo with surprisingly good neck and head control, and smiles a little more every day.

And now onto a few pictures:

Alex sitting in the Bumbo seat to the left, Zach asleep on the couch to the right.

Alex in the Bumbo.

Zach asleep on the couch.

Zach, after having wrestled the Bumbo away from Alex.
Happy Zach in his car seat.

Zach, the coolest baby in the world.

Colorado Christmas Weekend

We were out in Colorado this past weekend to celebrate Christmas with Andy's family. It's always short trips because Andy's company has a policy not to allow people to have time off when it's associated with a holiday, so we left home Friday evening and returned Sunday evening. The boys sure are troopers - that's a LOT of miles in a week's time!!

Saturday we were able to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Bowin, Great-Grandma Marge, and Uncle Dallas. When Marge brought her presents, she included a roll of white wrapping paper (it went along with one of Alex's gifts). Alex, of course, had a different use for the wrapping paper.

And the video of Alex's bat.....

Alex nestled in to snuggle with his Uncle Dallas for a while. Alex really enjoyed playing with him - he especially liked his hat! They played catch, ran around being silly, and just had a great time.

Alex had a LOT of fun in the kitchen playing with the fridge magnets - he'd throw them up and try to hit just about everything - the sink, the oven, the top of the fridge, and the ceiling fan! Here he was "caught in the act" act, plus you get to see how silly he can be with his reflection (in the oven door), and how he calls everyone for dinner!!

Sunday we headed over to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Wagner's house for the family Christmas. There were quite a few people there, and more food than you can imagine. Alex especially liked the chocolate-covered marshmallows and the cereal mix. Here he is stopped for a minute to eat while rolling on the floor.

And here's an action shot! (I got a new camera for Christmas, and it's still not fast enough to keep up with him!!) :)

Alex also had fun playing with Matthew. Matthew is a 1st grader and Andy's cousin. We think that Matthew needs a brother or sister, because he seems to do really well with younger kids.....right Kendra??!?!? :)

As most of you know, I did get a haircut over the break, and despite my best efforts to NOT have my picture on here as much as possible, I can't avoid it any longer.....so here you go.

Now it will be another 3 years before you get a shot of me again. :)

2009 enters with a BANG!

Literally!!

This morning, Alex was being his usual silly self, and went into the kitchen. All of a sudden, we hear a bang, and Alex begins crying/screaming immediately. Andy ran into the kitchen, and Alex was on the floor. He brought Alex into the living room and held him for a few minutes. When he settled down, he got off of Andy's lap and we noticed the HUGE knot in his forehead - right between his eyes, running the length from his eyebrows to hairline. He must've ran into a corner of something......I don't know what happened, but I do know that it's going to leave a bruise. It's still somewhat swollen tonight (and the little booger won't let us put any ice on it), but he's been acting fine (and his eyes are okay, too).

Then, to add insult to injury (or to add one more black and blue place to his face), this afternoon he was following Andy into the bathroom, tripped, bounced off of the tub and smacked his right cheek on the toilet. Yes, he's going to be black and blue there, too. We've kept the tylenol on the counter, and he's asked for it a couple of times while pointing to his head and cheek. Poor fella - - but, as you can tell from the picture below, he's awful upset about it.

Zach's had a rough day, too.....he's really congested and hasn't been eating well. He will swallow a time or two, then SCREAM.....and have tears coming out of his eyes. We've been giving him tylenol, too, just because he appears to be in so much pain. He's not running a temp (thankfully), but we just don't know what's wrong. He's been especially fussy the last two days, and then today he has been having trouble eating. (Added later: Zach just finished a 5-ounce bottle in one sitting! Yea!) If it's not getting better by early tomorrow morning, I am calling the doctor, because he really has me worried.......

So please keep both of the boys in your prayers. Thanks!!

We're hoping for a far less eventful second day of 2009. :)