Painting Together

I wanted to post this completely random video of Zane and Emmy painting because I liked a few things about it:
* I love when they'll sit together and color or paint or work on something for a while.
* Emmy takes her time painting and carefully tries to use different colors and hold her paintbrush delicately. Zane, on the other hand, still doesn't take very much time and just goes for it.
* I thought it was cute how since Zane was making a painting for me, Em decided to make one for Zack.
* She still says "da" instead of "yeah."
* Before I started taping, she kept saying, "Look at mine, Zane!" and he would respond with something like, "Oh, wow!" or "Good job. I really like it." Then, she stopped but it was so cute.
* I love how Emmy says, "No thanks" at the end - she responds with that ALL the time to any sort of question we ask her.

Untitled from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

Last few Weeks

Here I am playing catch up again on pictures and videos. Better late than never I guess.

For Emmy's actual birthday, during the week, we went to the zoo with my good friend Tammy and her two little girls. All four kids wanted to walk on their own - which led to a lot of chasing and running. It was a little chaotic, but we all had fun and fortunately didn't end up losing any kids along the way.
They love the meerkats...
Last weekend, Zack stayed home with the kids all weekend while I went on our church's women's retreat in Frasier. They had a lot of fun. The most hilarious part for me was when I called to talk to Zack at almost 9:00 Saturday night and the kids were still up watching a movie, eating ice cream after getting back from Chucky Cheese's. He had a lot of fun hanging out with them and even got them ready to go to work with him on Sunday on time. Way to go!

They added some new art to our walls.
And got some new glow-sticks (Sorry about the food on Emmy's face).



Last week was a super rainy and cold week, so we did some indoor things. We tried a museum in Lafayette nearby and it was awesome.

Their favorite part was the pirate ship. Zane took it so seriously, dressing up, finding the treasure map, navigating, etc.





Emerson's favorite part was this huge doll house - she stood and played for about 30 minutes.
Zane dressed up like a dinosaur and slept in his cave.
Testing out the pulleys.
Connecting pipes.
On Saturday, Zane had his end of the year school party. They had a trike-a-thon, where the kids got to ride around a circle path as many times as they could. They also got to play with their friends from school.




After Zack spoke at our old church Sunday, we went out to lunch with some Monument friends. Zane got to sit with the big boys!
This week was also our last day of swimming lessons. Both kids love being in the water and did great.

Here they are getting ready...
Can you spot Zane?
He raised his hand when she asked who knew the answer to something and then showed her the right way. So funny.


He's a little stiff and cautious but still does pretty well. :)

Untitled from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

Emmy, on the other hand is a complete dare devil. She doesn't understand any kind of boundaries and would be happy just being on her own in the water. She doesn't really get that I need to be there to hold her.

When she jumps in she tries to jump away from me! What 2 year old does that? I can't look away for even one second.

Untitled from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

Butterfly Pavilion

We've never been to the Butterfly Pavilion so I decided to take the kids to check it out last week. Besides the fact that there were a million elementary students on a field trip there, we had a good time.

First, we did story time and Zane and Emmy got to touch/hold a hissing cockroach! Notice, I only said Zane and Emmy... there was no way I was getting anywhere close to it. Then, they posed for this picture.

Zane loved every single animal he saw and asked tons of questions, like if each one was poisonous, what they ate, if they were nocturnal, if they had a spine, etc. I think he especially liked the "Leaf Bug."
He got to "hold" Rosie the tarantula. I thought for sure he'd be hesitant because he usually says he doesn't like spiders, but he did great. Emmy really wanted to have a turn, but you have to be 3 to do it.

Untitled from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

Checking out the fish.

They got to feel Star Fish and Horseshoe Crabs.
The actual butterfly area was so awesome. There were so many butterflies everywhere around us. We all loved it. Zane really tried to catch one on his finger, but never got one to land.
This was our favorite butterfly...

Piggy Wiggle

Zane came up with a bunch of new names for our new baby, but he settled on Piggy Wiggle so that's what we all call him now. I am 19 weeks along now and doing well. We found out last week that we are for sure having a boy. It's funny because I was wrong guessing on every single baby. I was positive Zane was a girl, sure Emmy was a boy, and really thought baby #3 would be a girl. I was thinking it would be fun for Emerson to have a sister close to her age, but I also think with her personality she'll be able to keep up just fine with two brothers! Zane couldn't be more excited about it and we are too. :)

A Day in the Life of...

I think we're all starting to feel more settled in. It's been nice seeing the kids so happy here. I think they miss some of their friends, but they love our new house and new stuff to do. Our family has visited a lot so they haven't had a chance to miss them yet. I feel like everyday in our family is a new adventure. We always find new ways to have fun - well, usually Zane figures out new ways to have fun and we follow his lead. Here are some things we've been up to.

Zane and Emerson love, and I mean LOVE having a backyard to go out to and back in when they want. We have a few rules, one being that they need to be wearing clothes. Well, the other day they took this rule seriously. I was on the phone in the other room and the back door was open with the screen door closed. They worked together to push the screen totally out, Zane went and turned on our sprinkler, and they ran through the sprinklers together in their clothes and all. When I found them out there they were CRACKING up and were soaked.

This is a video of another time they wanted to run through - which is basically every time we water the grass. This time they got in their swimsuits first but it was freezing outside. That doesn't seem to matter to Zane at all, but it sure did matter to Emmy.

Untitled from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

Here's "Tekarana" one of Zane's made up characters that he likes to act like. He's a superhero of course. He might remind you of Spiderman, but don't be fooled. Notice his two different gloves and cool hat. We call him "Teka" for short.

Here's Emmy tackling and sitting on Tekarana.
We've been able to eat out on the deck a few times. We've also brought this little table inside to eat on it there. Thanks for the table, Judi and Bob...it's come in very handy!
The kids and I went on a long bike ride the other day. We need to buy Zane a big bike with training wheels, but for now he's content with this bike. We always ride behind Zane so we can give him a nudge on hills.

Playing together in our sandbox.
Zane loves music. He's always loved rap, especially Kanye West, so we have several edited versions of songs, so he can listen. He was singing and dancing to him on Zack's headphones.

Untitled from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

Emmy being Emmy



I love these two little sweet things. The moments that they love each other are the best and genuinely make me feel so happy. Sometimes they can be so good to each other - I wish it was all the time!

Jumping

A few days before Emmy's birthday, my dad and Kris drove up to set up her birthday gift - a new trampoline. I like it because it's small and all surrounded by nets. I don't see myself ever letting them get a real big one but this one is really fun for them right now.

Untitled from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

Loving their new toy



Zane with his friend Luke at Emmy's party