Thanksgiving Week

We had a very full and eventful week with lot's of family, food, and fun.

We started the week off with the Broncos vs. Chargers game. Trust me, this is an event in itself at our house. Emmy and I wore Broncos gear and the two boys wore their Chargers jerseys.

Jordan and Ben came over to watch the game with us...I love how Emerson is looking at her in this picture.

Then, on Monday, we drove up to Keystone with Zack's parents, Gigi and Papa, and his sister Becca, her husband Chris, and their little guy Fisher. We got to stay for 3 days and although none of skiied or snowboarded, we had fun just hanging out. We loved spending time with them and are so thankful to have such a great family. Here's the whole family at a restaurant. Fisher was asleep so didn't get in the picture.It was super cold while we were there, so we bundled up big time every time we went out. At one point, it was 0 degrees outside...brrr!

Zane pushed Emerson all around. What a big guy.
Here's Emerson hanging out with her cousin Fisher in their Bumbos. Emerson is so loud, squealing all the time and Fisher would just stare at her and smile quietly. So cute.
We all played some Wii while we were there, including Zane. He's golfing...


Zane and I went on a few walks to explore. We found this little dog house that was like a little clubhouse. He spent a lot of time hanging out there. He liked pretending that he was snowboarding.

At the end of the day, we just put Emerson's tights back on with no skirt...how embarrassing!
Then, we got to spend a few days at home with Gigi and Papa. It was so great having them here. We had a delicious Thanksgiving meal and got to relax a bunch. Zane got to do some Yoga with Gigi.

He also got some gifts from his grandparents. This is his crown and Tinkerbell doll. He was stoked...and yes, he does play with boy's toys too. :) :)
Thank you guys for such a great week.

Finally, on Friday, we spent the day with my side of the family. We ate Paninis for lunch and pizza for dinner and played some games. Here's Emerson just hanging out.
I like this one because if you look close, you can see her two bottom teeth.
My mom taught Zane how to put the cards into this game and watch them fall. While waiting for them to fall, he was saying, "Poof." His cheeks puffed up every time.

ERW and ZMW Updates

What's new with Zane...
* His vocabulary and talking in general is completely unbelievable. Lately, it has just exploded and I feel like he says a ton of new words and sentences every single day. It's so hard to show just how amazing it is in words, but it's so fun! I love it.

* Lately, he acts like he is sick and asks to see the doctor (his favorite is to have a fake cough) so he can get "fixed." He also says, "Emerson is sick. I gotta fix her. Ok, now she's all fixed."

* When he prefers something, he says, "I want that better."

* His imagination is developing incredibly and he's so good at pretending to be other people and assigning us all roles too. The other day, he was a robot and he said to me, "Hi, I'm a robot. I'm kinda nice and I'm kinda scary. I won't scare you."

* He calls Emerson a big girl and says, "She's not a baby. She's a big girl." Or asks her, "Are you happy now, big girl?"

* He uses adjectives correctly and he's using more complex ones all the time like, boring, sweet, scared, beautiful, tiny, awesome, perfect, huge, brave, tough, late, early, spicy, sour, freezing, warm, etc. I love when he says, "Look Mommy, I made this look beautiful" when he colors a picture. I also love when he says, "This is going to be really really fun! or "This is going to be sweet!"

* He makes up songs and sings words to familiar tunes, or sometimes his own tunes. We usually sing a tune when doing things or going places, like "Going to the gym. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going to the gym. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other day, when I told him we were going to take a bath, he started singing, "Gonna take a bath. No, no, no."

* He says, "Just a little bit. Not that much" in the right context.

* He asks Emerson what she's talking about when she babbles.

* He connects things well, like when something happens to him, he says it's like a character in a book he read, or it reminds him of another time he did something similar.

* He's still struggling off and on with staying in his bed. It's funny though, because before he goes to bed each nap or at night, he tells us either "I'm not going to get out of my bed today. I'm going to stay in my bed" or "I'm going to get out of my bed today. Sorry." and he totally follows what he says.

"When playing with toys sometimes, he says, "No, this isn't OUR (or YOUR) toy, it's MY toy."

What's new with Emerson...
* She's pretty much sitting up all alone now and just tips over every once in a while.

* She's starting the crawling motion, but not crawling yet.

* She still screams and squeaks and squeals all day long!

* She eats SOOO well. So far, she's eaten all the fruits and veggies we've given her with no problem.

*She's sleeping from about 7:30 - 5 or 6 most days now and then usually still goes back to sleep again until about 7 or 8. She also takes 2 good naps a day, sometimes 3. Trust me, this is very good news.

My Birthday

The definition of a fun birthday has definitely changed. Now, my ideal birthday was to take Zane and Emerson somewhere fun because when they are having fun, we're having fun. So, after the three of them let me sleep in and then sang "Happy Birthday" with their princess crowns on, we went to Artsports, a huge gym with trampolines, bungies, ropes, foam pits, swings, huge mats, etc. Zane tried everything and Emerson even tried the swing and laughed the whole time. Then, that night, Zack and I got away to dinner by ourselves. AAAAHHHH. It was a nice day. I'm going to enjoy this last year in my 20's!!!!!
Who do you think Emerson looks more like? It's getting more and more obvious that she looks so much like her Daddy. :)





Here's Zane on the swing. He kept telling me, "I'm not gonna laugh. I'm just gonna laugh a little bit." and then laughed. It was so funny...I have no idea why he said that. Then, he got to run and jump on a huge long trampoline on the floor, and in the last video, he is jumping off a really high spot into the foam pit. He just went for it each time. Brave little guy!

Old Pictures

Here's a bunch of semi-recent pictures that I just got from my Mom that I wanted to add...

Zane hanging out with Grandpa Dave..

Emerson is a rolly polly, and this time almost went a little bit too far.
Bath time in the sink.
More Halloween pictures.



She loved playing with all the candy on the floor. Luckily she can't open wrappers yet.



This picture is from one day when we were getting ready to go home and Zane was SOOO ready to leave and was super tired. He stood by these bags forever just saying, "I'm ready to go home. I'll carry these bags." He wouldn't do anything else.
Here are some pictures from a Rockies game that we went to.
Playing with Aunt Nell...
Both kids took a nap during the game. Zane made it to the 8th inning before he zonked. :)


Here's Zane sneaking a sip of a Diet Coke.
Eating a huge hot dog.
Zane and I were trying to make Emerson laugh.

Pals

Zane and Emerson are buddies these days. I think Zane really loves having someone to "play" with, which really means to listen to him, watch him, laugh at him, and let him give and take toys away from. Emerson also likes having someone to "play" with, which really means to sing and dance for her, growl at her, and give her toys back. By the way, a sidenote...In all of these pictures and videos she's trapped in her Bumbo seat, but Emerson really does spend time in other places besides there...I promise.

Zane has been teaching Emmy new things lately. The other day, she was holding a ball and he said, "Look at me, Emmy. Do this." and he showed her the motion of throwing.
Here, he's teaching her how to share a blanket, he's teaching her how to do "cheers" with their cups and yes, he is wearing Mickey Mouse ears.


He's getting more creative in the ways he makes her laugh. He didn't even know I was watching when I caught him playing with her toy to make her laugh in the first video.

In the second video, he was reading to Emerson and showing her pictures. Then, when she was reading this one, he started pointing and saying "dog"to show her how to say it and what it was.

Goin for a Dip

Today I took Z and E swimming at the rec center pool all alone. I have to say, I've been scared to go, imagining all that could go wrong or be too hard by myself, but it was totally fine. Emerson slept for the first half of our time there and then she woke up happy and ready to swim. It was her very first time in the water and she loved it. From the second she got in, she started splashing and playing. Zane went down the slide by himself for the first time too, which occupied almost all his time, doing it over and over and over. We really did have fun.

Hanging out together during snack time. Look at Zane's hand holding Emerson's belly on the right side. :) He asked to hold her.

Trying on Tuxes

My sister is getting married in a month and we are getting so excited! The other day we went to try on tuxes for Zack and Zane. Zane kept saying he was a prince when he had his tux on and didn't want to take it off. I'm wishing now that we would have put the bow tie on too. I just had to post some of these pictures of my little man checking himself out in the mirror. What a cute ring bearer...just my opinion. :) :)