Engaged!

Sorry it's been a little while since I've posted but I wanted to make sure I posted about my twin brother Jason getting engaged last Wednesday! Here's a picture of Jason, his fiancee Cassandra, and Zach at a "not-Thanksgiving" dinner we had at our Jones grandparents' house last Sunday:

(In case you were wondering, a "not-Thanksgiving" dinner is a dinner where you have all the Thanksgiving food but not on Thanksgiving)

We really like Cassie and are excited that she's going to become our sister-in-law. She's so nice and fun to be around. They've got their work cut out for them since they're getting married on January 17th.

Jason did a good job surprising Cassie. She didn't think it was going to happen until this weekend, she'd just come down for a nice relaxing night. :) First, they went up to the Y to look out at the view and take some pictures or something. Jason "accidentally" locked his keys in the car. So, being the brave soul he is Jason went up to some total strangers (some friends of his that Cassie hadn't met yet) and asked if they would give them a ride that ended up at Kiwanis park. At the park, Melissa, Nate, Derrick and I had helped by setting up a table with Martinelli's and candle light. Their song "Back at One" was playing on repeat and they got to dance to it. He got down on his knee, and began to rap. Actually he might have rapped later but he did give a custom rap at some point. Apparently Cassie said yes.

Here are a few pictures from the proposal:

The table

Happily engaged

Quick update on sick baby

Thanks to those who have shown love and concern for Zach. He's been slowly improving but still wakes up more than usual at night, coughs, sneezes, and has a stuffy nose. He's become quite familiar with the baby nose suction thing and saline drops in his nose. He doesn't seem as miserable as before so that's a good thing!

Sick Baby

Zach has his first cold. It's been coming on gradually this last week but really hit him last night. He woke up a couple of times very upset and having trouble breathing because he was all clogged up. The choking sound he makes is scary. He calms down alright after saline drops and the little baby suction thing.

He seemed to be doing alright this morning but we ended up taking him home from church early. Poor guy, he seems so miserable. Hopefully this will pass quickly.

(He's not crying in the picture. His eyes have been watering a lot today.)

Shots Round 2

With turning 4 months old Zach had to get more immunizations last Monday. It took forever with all the people trying to get flu shots. Here he is after we got home:

A Very Belated Halloween Post

This year we had 2 costumes for Zach and the nice thing was that all we had to spend on costumes this year was on supplies for the hat. Here's Zach in his fireman costume on Halloween:


We didn't push the hat on all the way because I made it a little too small and it'd leave red marks. Since Zach was being a fireman Derrick decided he wanted to be a burn victim that Zach rescued from a fire:


Because Zach is so young we only went trick or treating at Derrick's Aunt and Uncle and Grandparents who live nearby. We also got together with Derrick's old roommate Craig and his wife Mindy to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We figured that was our most Halloween-like movie. They have a cute little 8 month old boy who's the same size as Zach. Here's Zach ready to go:


We had a ward party on November 1st and dressed up Zach as "Mr. President" and we went as his secret service body guards. I had to borrow a suit coat from my brother. It was pretty huge on me.


Zach fell asleep pretty early into the party. You don't usually see secret service agents with a burp cloth on their shoulder :)

More on 4 Months Old

It was a little late last night to finish posting updates and pictures of Zach from the last month. (We've been a little picture happy). Here's the traditional shocked/confused look that I post of Zach every month:


This last month Zach has gotten a lot more playful. His favorite way to play is to grab at things with his hands and feet at the same time. Our little monkey is so much fun!


A week or two ago he started really fingering his toys and trying to eat them. Wow...the things parents get excited about:


Zach's been getting better at sitting up and can balance for several seconds on my lap. Here he is showing off his balance skills on our futon. I like how it looks like he's doing a gang sign (he did that on his own).


Zach prefers trying to stand to trying to sit. We're starting to think he might try to skip the sitting and crawling stages. Here his is playing with Aunt Melissa:


On another note, Zach has moved from using the pacifier we got from the hospital to some new ones we bought him. Here he is modeling it for you:


We sure love our Zachary!

4 Months Old!

Zach hit the 4 month mark today. He is so fun and more interactive all the time. I love that this picture shows what his smiles look like. When he gets really happy/excited and/or starts to laugh he opens his mouth huge like this and shows off those toothless gums :)