Spring has Sprung...finally! (4.3.09)

After what seemed like a very long winter, spring finally came to the Flathead Valley. Zane enjoyed getting to venture OUTSIDE! Poor kid, he hasn't had a lot of time outdoors. You can tell how excited he is to be free outside.

First Haircut

Today Zane had his hair cut for the first time. I was a little nervous because I wasn't ready to get rid of his sweet curls even though they were getting a little long especially in front.

Before...

Our awesome friend Jen- if any one knows curly hair, it's her!

Look how long it is when wet...

The first cut...

After...

Jen did a great job! Thankfully the curls are still intact.

18 months and counting...

Last Tuesday Zane turned 18 months. I cannot believe that he'll be 2 in 6 months- it doesn't seem possible! He is very active and enjoys dancing, running around and just being silly in general. There's never a dull moment around here- that's for sure!

He has always seemed to enjoy music and has been quite the dancer. He also enjoys instruments of all kinds. He loves the piano and organ at Grandma and Aunt Noanie's. At church, he loves his weekly guitar time with our friend Andy who leads worship. So much so, that he is obsessed with Andy and the guitar. During the service and during practice before, he will sit so still and just watch Andy play the guitar. He even became obsessed with a toy guitar in the nursery. So, I finally decided to get him one of his very own. Here he is with his favorite toy- the "bitar" as he calls it. He finally has learned how to hold it, at first he would kinda just hold it up in the air. It seems as if he might be a left-handed guitar player.

Here's a little video of Zane playing his guitar.

We have a Saturday morning breakfast burrito tradition. This past Saturday morning I was in Luke's office talking to him when I realized that Zane was being awfully quite in the other room. When I walked into the living room, this is how I found Zane. Apparently, he had found the left over salsa on the table and decided he wanted to eat it. We also found bits of leftover tortilla strewn about the kitchen and living room.

On Sunday, we went over to our friends Shane and Julie's house for lunch. They just had baby Gabe in January and Zane is obsessed with him. He wanted to hold him or be close to him at all times. He was actually pretty gentle with him.

Zane and "Bady" Gabe
It seems just like yesterday that everyone referred to Zane as Baby Zane. He looks like such a big boy compared to lil' Gabriel. He's getting too big! We will go to the doctor on Wednesday and I'm anxious to see just how big he is.

Videos

Here are a few videos from the last month or so.

He still enjoys dancing...


Here's a video of Zane sweeping. I had just swept the kitchen and not put the broom up yet. I love the part when you can tell he wants me to move because I am in his way.


And last, just a couple of the animal sounds he knows- I'll have to try again to get them all in there.

17 1/2 Months...

Warning: this post is long overdue and contains many pictures of Zane!

Wow, Zane will be 18 months next month! He is definitely becoming more of a little boy and less of a baby. It seems like he does something new everyday. Within the last few weeks, he finally made the transition from two naps to one, and this has been great because he's been sleeping in most mornings 'til almost 8! He is gaining his independence in several areas. He likes to help me out around the house, especially in the kitchen- specifically "reorganizing" some of our drawers...

and sorting the tupperware... (this was before Luke got the childproof locks on, now he cannot get into the cabinets, only the drawers as evident from the last picture!).

He loves to help out with the laundry...

as well as sweeping.

He likes to feed himself, especially things like yogurt...

and slowly, but surely, he is getting better at using utensils...

Luke taught him how to put raspberries on his fingers.

I finally decided it was time to let him experiment with crayons- he will actually scribble a little, but each coloring session almost always ends with at least one little bite of crayon in his mouth...

He even wants to blow dry and comb his own hair (yes, that's right, I said blow dry- the kid has a lot of hair, okay!).

Here are some other random shots from the last month or so...

with Grandma Barb

I love that smile!

Go Cardinals!

This is how I found Zane after one nap- he had slept almost 4 hours due to an extremely late night for him the night before. I heard him stirring and looked at the monitor to find him sitting up with both legs hanging out of the crib.

Fun times with friends...

and a few more of my sweet son...

Zane, we are enjoying getting to know the little person that you are becoming each day. Thank you for filling our days with laughter and bringing us so much joy! We love you so much, sweet boy and are so proud of you!

Splish Splash I Was Taking a Bath...

Here's a little video of Zane taking a bath the day he turned 16 months...I cannot believe how big he is getting. I'll post more on that later. For now, I leave you this video to hopefully tide you over until I have time to post some pictures.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well, I am behind yet once again! I meant to get all these snow pictures up while we were in the midst of the worst winter storm I've experienced since we moved here 2 1/2 years ago. Even the locals say that they hadn't had this much snow since "the big snow of '96." Not only did we have lots of snow, but we had many days with negative temperatures!

It all started the week before we left for Luke's graduation in Alabama. The morning of the day we were to leave, we woke up to drifts in the driveway between 3 and 4 feet high. In the non-drifted areas, Luke measured the snow to be at least a foot high. Luke started to shovel and thankfully, our neighbor who usually plows out our road made a couple of passes in our driveway, which saved Luke so much time and energy.

This is what Luke encountered when he opened the garage door.After we got back from Alabama, it continued to snow. One day, I think it was on New Year's (all the days started running together- there was a lot of snow!) we had at least 18 inches in less than 24 hours! There were several days that Luke spent most of the day shoveling and/or snow blowing our drive as well as our families', and some neighbors' too. It was crazy!

18 inches!
Almost 2 feet on our back deck- and this it after Luke had just cleared this part of our deck the day before!

Our back deck- Luke said the snow was so high, he could not even tell where the deck ended and the snow began!

Samson next to one of the huge berms of snow in our driveway

Just a few random shots...

These were taken just before sunset one day- we do live in a beautiful place (cold for sure, but definitely beautiful!).

We've had a bit of a respite from the bitter cold and snow as we've had highs in the 40s the last few days. About half of the snow has melted away or just settled down, but the ground is still covered with about a foot of snow.