My First Black Friday

Today I shared my first Black Friday experience on my cousin's family blog.

Read Here

Zach's Birthday Weekend

It's hard to believe my little guy is already one year old. He went from this to this one 12 short months.

 In our new ward I made a friend who had a baby on the same day in the same hospital and the SAME doctor delivered our babies. What are the chances?! We decided to take our boys to a places called Jabbers on Friday for their birthday. Its basically a big padded room with toys in it. CHAOS! Pure chaos. Zach had fun and I tried to keep him out of the bigger kids way.

 Later that night Jacob and I had to pick up a few things from Wal-Mart and just as soon as we walked in Zach exploded. Vomit everywhere. At first I thought maybe he was just too excited after he ate and his food hadn't settled well. We tried our best to clean him up but this was the one time I go into a Wal-Mart bathroom and there were no paper towels. Of course. We thought it was a one time thing but he was looking a little pale and his eyes were looking a little red and then it came again. All over the tape and eggs we put in our cart. So we high tailed it out of there. Out of all the places that Zach could have thrown up, I am SO glad it was Wal-Mart. This seemed perfectly normal for Wal-Mart. No one stared at us and by the time we were leaving Zach's first mess was already cleaned up. Then our poor little boy threw up 4 or 5 more times before FINALLY sleeping through the night.

On Saturday my parents came and we did some birthday shopping. Then Sunday was Zach's big day. Jacob started the day with a stack of blueberry pancakes for Zach's breakfast.

Later we had dinner with both sets of grandparents and opened presents. Instead of a cake smash, Zach had a banana cream pie smash, a Curtis tradition. He had a great day with his family and was all tuckered out by the end of the day.

 On Monday he had a check up with the doctor and he was not happy. I think he's realized what goes on there. He weighed about 24.5 pounds (73rd percentile) and he's almost 32 inches long (95th percentile). That's a BIG boy!

We love having Zachary Bronco in our family. He's so happy and confident and makes my heart melt everyday.

The Unhaunting

Jacob and I are really enjoying our new house. There are tons of neighbor kids. TONS! They are pretty quiet in the morning, going off to school. In fact, I've never heard one child in the morning, but its the afternoons that get crazy. They are either screaming (you know, happy little girl screams, the kind that ironically sound like someone might be dying), soliciting for school fundraisers (I am STILL waiting for my Paula Deen cookie dough), or telling us about our haunted house. Yes, haunted.

It all began when Jacob's mom and I met the neighbor kids after a long day of cleaning. Four very cute little boys, and three girls. Three loud girls. One introduced herself as Carmelita, or so I thought. Turns out her name is Carlita and only I heard Carmelita because I am white, according to Jacob, who is also white but speaks Spanish fluently. She will always be Carmelita to me. The kids all seemed really nice but then they asked us if we knew our house was haunted. WHAT? Haunted? No one told me that. Last I heard real estate agents had to disclose all the creepy things. Was this why the house was so cheap? Carmelita said that when ever they saw someone doing a tour they'd run up and tell them the house was haunted which I believe because these kids aren't shy.

The next day Jacob and I came to the house to do more cleaning and two little other girls told us they put their ears up to the door one night when it was empty and they could hear sounds, like people talking and loud thumps. One of them said she screamed and ran away and then she saw the garage door open a little. I don't really believe in haunted houses, so I tried really hard not to think about it. (At least the garage door part I really didn't buy.) Crazy kids and their imaginations.

A couple weeks later we were moved in and getting comfortable and I had forgotten all about the haunted house rumors. I was pretty excited when we had our first door bell ring. Maybe a neighbor was bringing us cookies and welcoming us to the neighborhood? Optimistic, I know. There were two little girls I hadn't seen before with a lost kitten. I told them it was cute but not mine and right as I was about to close the door one of the girls asks, "Did you know your house was haunted?" Okay, now it was starting to get to me. I had to get to the bottom of it so I said, "Really?! What happened?" The little girl told me there was a man who killed himself in our house named Franklin. Now our haunter had a name. Great. I asked her when she heard this had happened and she said that it was a long time ago before she was born. She told me she was born in 2002. The house wasn't built in 2005! HA! I told her, her friend, and her kitten off and sent them on their way. I kept telling myself that there was no way this house was haunted. There was only one family that lived here before us and they were a nice Christian family from what I could tell from their wall decor. I had to use complete logic to convince myself that this was not true.

A few days later Jacob and I saw Carmelita and I was glad when she deemed our house unhaunted. So far the only thing that's haunted is our microwave. It makes rattling noises when there's a lot of wind. Here are some pictures. I know I need to decorate our walls. I have plans, I just need to follow through. And what to do with plant shelves?! Right now we have our festive fall leaves, that look a little droopy.

Homless Man Zach

Zach celebrated his first Halloween today! We dressed him up as a homeless man and he was a dang cute homeless man if you ask me.

His cousin had the same idea (or saw the same pin on pinterest) so Zach had a twin for Halloween! Pretty cute homeless cousins.

 We got together with all the Idaho cousins for chilli and apple cider. I am not a huge fan of Halloween but seeing all the cute kids dressed up makes all the candy buying semi worth it. (And I really do mean semi.) And once they hit 12 (and that's pushing it!) its not cute anymore. Then its just annoying. Thankfully I only handed out 4 pieces to cute little kids before we went to my sister in law's house and we dumped all our candy in their candy bucket.

 All the younger cousins dressed up!

 We didn't take Zach knocking on any doors. We figured he couldn't eat the candy and Jacob and I didn't want it. But he did check out the candy bucket for the trick or treaters.

I only have one child who I don't give candy to and I am already happy to have all the candy out of the house. I am going to be such a boring mom!! Pre-apologies to Zach. Having Halloween over means the real holidays are coming and Zach's first birthday in 11 days!

A Big Week with Big Changes!

This week was just one big sigh of relief! On the 31st we closed on a house we have been waiting for since February! (It was a short sale.) I will probably never do a short sale again. It just takes too long and there is so much uncertainty. But this is a perfect home for us and I really felt like we should be there so we waited and waited and FINALLY signed the stack of papers. (I also stole three pens from the title company. They were nice.) We love the house and we're working to get it ready to move in. Jacob's mom and I spent all day Tuesday literally scrubbing the house down and there is still a lot to do.

And a couple days before we signed our papers Jacob was offered a new job with the Department of Health and Welfare. All I have to say is Hallelujah! That job offer couldn't have come at a more perfect time. Full time with government benefits.  We spent so many hours talking about how bad we needed this and just as many hours praying for a full time job. Finally it all just came for us. We will have a permanent job and a permanent house. In three years and a half of marriage we have lived in 5 different places and between the two of us have had 6 different jobs. And now I feel as if we are finally settling into life and I think I'll like it.

After we signed our papers we watched the Boise State game which was a huge bummer. (This might be a long football season.) Then we headed to Utah to visit with my family and enjoy our weekend before cleaning and moving.

Here is our home! (Taken by the realtor way back in February.)

Swimming Weekend

We spent a majority of our weekend in the water. On Friday night we went to Quinn's Pond in Boise, which is a beautiful hidden gem. Driving up I thought we were going to get our car stolen. It was a pretty bad looking neighborhood, at least for Boise. But when we got there, there was this beautiful warm inlet of the Boise River. The water was so nice and refreshing and Zach is definitely a water baby. He was splashing and kicking the WHOLE time.

There were paddle boarders and SURFERS. Yes, surfers in Boise. On the other side of the pond, there is a rapid, where if you position yourself just right, the water coming down and the water pushing back will hold you in one spot. So people would hop on surf boards or kayaks and try to stay in the rapid as long as they could. I loved that spot and it made me forget that I was in Idaho for a while.

Today we went paddle boating. We chased ducks on our boat and tried spot all the fishes and there were some pretty big ones.

 Then finally, this afternoon we went to the YMCA with some friends who had free passes. They had a splash park for little kids and Zach loved the little fountains and he also had himself an admirer. She even kissed him on the cheek! Zach, however, was not at all interested in her.

 

I was proud of my little boy. So far he has shown very good taste in girls. The girl at the Y seemed bossy and pushed the water down with her foot so it wouldn't spray up for him to play with. But he smiles and flirts the nice ones! Keep it up, Zach!  (Poor baby just wanted to play.)

Recently...

We have been busy!

Zach turns 8 months old today so here is a catch up on him. He recently learned how to crawl! Yikes! I am excited and nervous all at the same time. It only took him once to figure it out and now hes a crawling machine. Sometimes he still has trouble moving the left leg though. He is starting to get in the stranger danger phase but he will smile at everyone as long as someone he recognizes is in the room. He is a HUGE flirt and loves the ladies! Zach will put on a show for just about any woman he sees. We love our little Zach.

Zach and I took a quick trip to California at the beginning of July. He spent a lot of time looking like this.

He ended up really liking a yellow strainer my mom gave him to play with and wouldn't let me take it out of his mouth, even when he was asleep. He'd wake up, shove it back in, and fall back to sleep. And I had one of my favorite Bay Area treats! The ultimate ice cream sandwich. An Its-It! Mint ice cream with oatmeal cookies covered in chocolate.

On the Forth of July we went to a park in Boise that had a sidewalk chalk drawing contest.  Most of it wasn't really my style, but it was pretty amazing what people could do with chalk and cement. Zach hung in there and was a good sport for us.

Other than that, we are waiting for the weather to cool off a little. 100+ degrees is no fun and not ideal for babies. Come on cold front!

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend Zach and I made a quick trip to Minnesota to visit my grandma! I haven't seen her for three years now and I can't remember the last time I went to Minnesota.

I will first say I have a new respect for single moms. Especially single mom's traveling. It is NOT easy. Thankfully had the nicest woman sitting next to me who happened to be going to see a brand new grand baby. So she held him for me and he melted like butter into her and fell asleep and she was 100 percent okay with it!

She loved meeting Zach and I think Zach really liked her too. She would say, "Can you sing?" and Zach would always bellow back at her. He was such a good boy on the trip. He put on a show for everyone and never got too fussy. Go Zach!

My dad went along too and he took us to a small town called Stockholm in Wisconsin where we ran into a rare gem, The Stockholm Pie Company. I ordered Caramel Apple Crunch pie. Let me tell you, I have never had pie quite like this. One bite and I was taken back at how good this pie was. I've been sitting here thinking of how to describe just how good this pie was, but there are just no words. I hope these pies are in Heaven.

This photo of The Stockholm Pie Company is courtesy of TripAdvisor

I found out that they ship their pie!! So this will be my reward when I finish loosing all this gol' dang baby weight. 

Before we left we went to see my grandpa's grave. Zach loved sitting in the grass and staring at the daisy's that planted themselves right in front of the headstone. It is always good to go back and reconnect with family... and eat pie. 

Kraft Macraoni & Cheese

I'll admit it. I love my mac and cheese! I ate mac and cheese so much my dad told me that I would turn into macaroni with cheese. My mom would cut up hot dogs and I'd call it macaroni and cheese with pennies and I'd put ketchup on top! The drool is forming RIGHT now. Every time my parents went on a date, I had my own date with mac and it was wonderful.  Just when I thought my love for Mac and Cheese could not possibly grow anymore, they go and make me fall in love all over again!

I "liked" Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese Facebook fanpage on facebook and every once in a while I will comment on their posts. A while ago, they posted, "'LIKE' this if you eat your mac and cheese outside." So I responded, "I ate my mac and cheese on the beach once and all the seagulls attacked. Not a good experience. I prefer to keep mine indoors." 

Today craft responded, "Hey Kate, thanks for sharing your story about the seagulls trying to skim your mac & cheese. It looks like we need to warn the rest of our fans about the danger of seabirds, look for the post." http://www.facebook.com/kraftmacaroniandcheese/posts/10150834303348267

I did not see the response before I saw this picture with the caption, "Warning: If you're eating mac & cheese at the beach, you may attract some unwanted attention."

I thought Mac & Cheese was using my post! And I was right! THEY WERE! Jacob helped me find the original post and I finally saw that Mac & Cheese had made a shout out... TO ME! I never knew this love went both ways, but it does. 

My dear Kraft Mac & Cheese, I vow never to buy the generic brand again.

Nothing In The World...

I was watching TV today and an interviewer asked a little boy if he could have all the money in the world but never see his family again, would he take the money. The little boy answered no.

There is absolutely nothing that I would trade for these two boys, not even for a day.I love them too much!

Happy Anniversary

Three years ago today I married Jacob! It was a good choice. Here's a re-cap of the last three years.

-Had five different addresses. The post office can't keep up with forwarding all our mail.
- Lived in three different cities, two different states.
- Worked at SO many different jobs... that's the life of a college student. (Entering all those W-2's for our taxes took FOREVER.)
- Both of us graduated from BYU-Idaho.
- HAD A BABY!

I re-read the blog I wrote describing our first 48 hours of marriage. We spent our wedding night in San Francisco and the next morning we traveled back to Idaho. On the airplane, I feel asleep with my head on Jacob's shoulder and it kept falling down, so eventually he just held it up. We stayed the night at a hotel across from our apartment because we weren't sure if our power would be on when we got there and on top of that, we'd have nothing to eat. School was starting on our first full day back in Idaho. So we got ready at the hotel, ate the junky breakfast, and filled clean plastic trash bags and plastic laundry bags we found in our hotel room with extra muffins, bread and bagels for our lunch that day. We've come a LONG way! Thankfully those are things you mostly forget about, and we can laugh about it now.

Today for our anniversary Jacob bought me a raspberry plant! I've been asking for one for a while now. I made Jacob a pop-up card... lame. When Jacob came home from work we left Zach with his parents (THANK YOU) and we went to a resturant in down town Boise called Bardenay. I got a Mediterranean pita that was to die for! A Boise gem. When we came home, we put Zach to bed and now we are both sitting on our computers. We probably sat silent for a good 10 minutes. Happy Anniversary!!

I love my Jacob very much. He is a great dad and a hard worker and I couldn't ask for more.

Easter and Candy

For Easter Jacob was so nice and surprised me with my favorite egg shaped whoopers and egg shaped Reeses peanut butter cups. He even made me go on a hunt for them. Now, I don't know what you guys do with candy, but I eat it. Ever since I've had this basket of candy under my nose, he has been telling me every day that candy is bad for me and I shouldn't eat it. What is a girl supposed to do? I am getting scolded for eating the candy HE BOUGHT FOR ME!

Jacob is a good husband. I am very grateful he went out of his way for me. He wanted to make me happy and he wants me to be healthy. Solution: SHOES.

So for my parents, cute pictures of Zach.

Happy Easter! I've Got Candy...I'm going to eat it....Chomp!

I've turned 24!

I turned 24 on the 19th! I feel wrinkly. Yuck. But I had a good day. I woke up to Zach in the early hours. At first I told myself that he just wanted to be the first to say happy birthday. But then he decided to stay up for a couple of hours. He was having a great time but I did not end up enjoying our birthday hang out. What a dirty trick.

For my birthday I wanted to make mini eclairs instead of a cake and they were perfect! Thank heavens for Cheryl who helped because I've turned into a half project-er. I get half way there and get bored. So she made vanilla cream filling and chocolate frosting.
Jacob is a great gift giver. He remembered how fun I thought this fish pitcher was. I talked about it for so long so he surprised me for my birthday! It's called a gurgle fish! When you poor your drink it makes a Glub Glub Glub sound.The next day Jacob took me to pick out jeans that I could get over my large postpartum butt until it shirks... if it shrinks. My family would probably tell me that I'm stuck hauling it around forever. But I am determined. I miss my old jeans.

In other news Zach had a great 4 month check up. He weighs 16 lbs 13 oz (79th percentile) and is 26 and 1/4 inch long (83rd percentile). I just love that boy more and more everyday. He is so social and will smile at anyone and he laughs so hard when you get him going. We tried some rice cereal with him which he doesn't understand yet. He just kept trying to suck on the spoon and all the cereal fell out of his mouth and down his shirt. Better luck next time, Zach!

We're just hanging out and having fun. I don't feel like we've had blog worthy events in our life recently so until we do I've decided to blog stories from my teenage years... at least the ones that have past the parental statute of limitations. Some will be secrets for a few more years.

A Step in the Right Direction

If you are my friend on Facebook, you may have read/commented on this post, "How do you moms out there get your children to nap? Zach just wont nap. ever. even when he's super tired." I got tons of good advice and I knew it was time to let him cry it out. So I set up a routine where I give him some snuggles and pats on the back for a few minutes and lay him in his crib. He got a musical elephant (like a musical bear, but an elephant) from my uncle, so I decided that would be his nap time trigger. When I put him down, I pull the elephant tail and walk out of the room.

I first did this on Monday for his first nap. He only cried for about 20 minutes and slept for an hour. I was quite pleased and he seemed pretty happy after his nap. The second nap didn't go so well. And by bed time, he was so tired he fell asleep before I had a chance to put him down which was fine with me because I didn't have it in me to listen to him cry it out for a third time.

Today he slept in his car seat while we ran errands so I did not get to try nap time again. But tonight, Jacob put him down and pulled the elephant tail walked out and we barely heard a peep! Go Zach!! Thank you everyone for the advice!

Jacob Turns 27!

Twenty seven sounds SO old!! For his birthday (which was on January 25th) I got him some old man slippers which he has ended up loving. Zach picked out a Boise State thermal with a lot of help from his Grandma Curtis. Actually, she did all of the work. Zach was asleep. We celebrated with roasted chicken breast and potatoes. It was a delicious meal and for dessert we had banana cream pie. Jacob loves his mom's banana cream.Jacob is a great husband and a great dad. He works hard and doesn't complain. He loves to play with Zach and is the best at getting him to smile. I love Jacob very much!

Its so weird to think we're really growing up now!

Two Monther

Here is the obligatory monthly update on Zach.

He had his two month Well Baby check up yesterday and the stats are in!
Weight: 13 lbs 10.2 oz which puts him in the 83rd percentile.
Height: 24 inches which puts him in the 79th percentile.

He smiled, tried to giggle and did all sorts of showing off for the doctor yesterday and she said Zach looks great. We get so many comments on how big he is and believe me, I know it! Who would have thought that Jacob and I, as average as we are, would have produced a Goliath baby?! My muscles are tired and hopefully all this lifting will start to make a difference and tone my arms! His head is in the 42nd percentile or something like that so I am guessing he is going to even out soon... or he'll just have a small head.

Zach is such a good boy. He doesn't cry or fuss unless he is tired or hungry and he sleeps through the night. His record is 9 and a 1/2 hours, but usually its more like 7 or 8. Go Zach! He loves his baby gym. He'll sit under there and be perfectly content batting at the toys and kicking his legs. He loves the Jack Johnson station on Pandora and will try to sing along with me. He also loves when you talk to him and he'll babble right back at you and will just keep smiling and smiling as long as you are talking to him. Zach has began to try and giggle, but he's not quite there yet.

He has picked up the habit of sucking on his fist when he is hungry, but sometimes he does it just to fool me. The one time I saw him sucking on his thumb he ended up gagging on it. He still doesn't take a pacifier. He just spits it right back out once he figures out there is no milk coming from it. Zach also has a hard time going down for a nap. He will kick, fuss, and make all sorts of angry grunting sounds until he gives it up.

So that's Zach- happy, big, nap hating, two month old!

I am still getting used to the fact that being a mom is the new norm. I am trying to think of things to do to keep myself busy and feel productive. I have become pretty good at cleaning and keeping things tidy. Any hobby ideas out there?

End of 2011 - Cliffnotes Style

2011 was a crazy year! We moved 3 times, Jacob graduated and we had a baby!

My parents came to town for Thanksgiving and while they were here, we had Zach's baby blessing. He looks SO tiny in this picture.

For Christmas we flew to California to be with my family. Here is Zach on his first flight. He was such a trooper. We gave him a bottle during take off and he slept straight through the landing. We only bought Zach cute socks because we knew that he was going to be spoiled anyways, and he doesn't know the difference. He did a perfect job playing baby Jesus in the nativity my aunt Kelly orchestrated. He slept right through it! We did all the normal California things. Fentons, El Charro, family and all sorts of running around.

On New Years Eve we went to a Hockey game with some friends. We had awesome seats and the tickets included a roast and potato buffet dinner. It was delicious and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the players aren't allowed to fight as much anymore, so that was the only bummer. I was really hoping to see a good fight. I am thankful for grandparents who were willing to take care of Zach while we were gone. Then we came home, watched Psych until midnight and went to bed. We are quite the party animals.

No huge plans for 2012 yet, but we are excited to see what will happen. Hopefully 2012 won't be anything like the movie.