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 :)

Happy Halloween!

Fall Leaves

For Family Home Evening this week we decided to take pictures of Zach with the fall leaves outside our apartment. It was getting dark so we had to work fast (Derrick as photographer and me as baby poser). Here are some of our favorites:

He was a bit confused at the process (not unusual).

He looks like he's about to crawl doesn't he? That's still a few months away...

Guess what Zach had for dinner.

He's actually examining the leaves here.

Is he surprised by us taking pictures, his plaid pants, or the fact that he's sitting on his own for a few seconds?

Zach loves trying to stand and can support his weight well (though he has absolutely no balance on his own).

Yay for leaves!

Fireman Costume

For Halloween this year we have two costumes for Zach (I couldn't decide between the two ideas). One of my cousins gave us a baby fireman costume at a baby shower. The only thing missing was a hat and since I couldn't figure out where to find one Zach's size I decided to make one. Using pipe cleaners, felt, and piece of gold paper, and a glue gun. The cost came to a grand total of $0.40. Here's the result:

The frame

The finished product

Zach and Derrick on our way to a trick-or-treat thing in the Tanner building. (don't mind the cell phone pic)

Happy 20th Birthday Melissa!

You are such an amazing sister, sister-in-law, and aunt! We're so happy you and Nate live close to us so we can see you so often. We love you!

Small Acts of Service

I just wanted to use the blog to tell a quick story about how when we do kind things for people, no matter how small, they can really mean a lot. Last week I babysat two little girls for a few hours. Our apartment is short on toys for little girls so we decided to go to the little playground in the middle of our quad. With Zach sleeping in the car seat, I carried him with one arm, a one year old in the other, and the three year old walked. (Still not sure what I was thinking :))

We played there for over an hour but things started harder since both Zach (who'd woken up) and the one year old started demanding to be held. The three year old didn't want to stop playing so I was stuck. I had a few prayers throughout this process to figure out what to do since I don't have 3 arms.

A friend from the ward who'd been out on a walk with her 10 month old daughter. She offered to hold Zach for awhile and then later helped get him back into his car seat. With the three year old still refusing to go back inside, I asked this friend to watch her while I carried Zach and the one year old back to my third floor apartment. While I was trying to figure out how to get the two settled enough to run downstairs for the three year old, she and my friend, who was carrying her daughter, showed up at the door.

These simple acts of kindness may not seem like much but they were such a big help at the time. Even now, a week later, I'm still filled with gratitude to this friend who showed up at the right time to be an answer to prayer. I'm also grateful to Heavenly Father for being aware of our needs and answering prayers.

Adventures of First Class Flying

I decided that our trip home from the Boston/New Hampshire trip over conference weekend deserved its own post. Let's just start out by saying that it was an incredibly long day - We got to wake up at 4:55 a.m. eastern time (2:55 a.m. our time) and arrived at the SLC airport around 7:00 p.m. (mountain time)

Our flight from Boston to Atlanta was pretty uneventful. While we were waiting for our connection to Denver we were informed over the intercom that the airline had overbooked the flight and that they would appreciate it if any people with flexible travel plans could volunteer to be changed to a different flight.

Derrick decided to talk to one of the airline people and volunteer to give up our seats if they could get us a direct flight to SLC. This would be ideal for us because in Denver we would have had a 2 hour layover, had to switch planes (so go to baggage claim, recheck everything in, and go through security again; all with a 3 month old). Doesn't that all sound exciting?

The airline found us a flight that left about 4 hours later but arrived in SLC just 30 minutes later than we otherwise would have. Sitting in the airport for hours with an infant is much nicer than in the cramped space of a plane. While we were waiting to get our new tickets Derrick and I were joking about how cool it'd be if we somehow ended up in first class for the flight. We were shocked to find out that that was the case! The airline gave us a great deal for switching and helping them out of a tight spot. Just for switching and delaying our arrival by 30 minutes, we received first class seats, a flight without anymore layovers (avoiding the craziness in Denver), and two $400 travel vouchers to use at some other time!

While hanging out at the Atlanta airport we got to listen to General Conference talks from Saturday using Derrick's iPod (he'd downloaded them the night before).

(Zach likes to shoot is pacifier onto the floor, especially at dirty places like the airport. We get to hold it in or expect to wash it a lot.)

We also got to get creative to find ways to entertain ourselves and Zach:

(Not quite sure what was going on here :) )

And now for the joys of first class flying (a first for all 3 of us)

- You get to board first and you are given drinks as often as you wish throughout the flight.

- More roomy. We had wider seats with only 2 people per section.


- While everyone else was being served their choice of peanuts, pretzels, or cookies, we were served this:


- A few more random things: The glasses were glass rather than plastic, our own personal TVs popped out of our armrests, the headphones were complimentary, and we even received hot towels to "freshen up" before eating. I didn't know people really did the hot towel thing.

Even with all the comforts of our flight, flying with an infant is hard work. Especially flying with an infant who's been traveling all day and completely exhausted. During the times we could walk about I had to walk the aisles with Zach who'd also pooped through almost every extra piece of clothing we'd brought for him. It was pretty funny to watch him on the floor after we'd gotten to my grandparents house. He just laid there and kicked like crazy for at least 10 minutes. I guess he was tired of being cooped up all day too.

Congratulations to any of you (if any) who made it to the end of this extremely long post. Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa Jones for picking us up from the airport and letting us use your house as a place to meet up with the Davises!

Quick Re-cap of Boston and NH Weekend

During the first weekend in October, we flew with Derrick's parents and brother Tyson to Boston for his sister Meesa's wedding. Thanks again Mom and Dad Bowen for your generosity which made it possible for us to go!

We got to stay Wednesday night at my parents' house in Louisville and then got up very early to fly to Atlanta and then to Boston. Zach did pretty well on the plane but was exhausted by the end because he couldn't fall asleep. He didn't enjoy missing his nap times.

Andrew and Meesa were sealed Friday, Oct. 3rd. Jamon, Jean, and Tyson watched Zach while we were in the ceremony. Some of Andrew's nieces and nephews surprised them with some streamer shooters when they walked out of the temple.



Here's the whole Bowen family together (except for Ryan):



It was pretty cold and windy so we had to get creative with a blanket :)



At the luncheon/reception in New Hampshire there was a ring ceremony, lunch (obviously), and a cotillion. During the cotillion we learned the Virgina Reel. Derrick and I are at the top of the line and Jamon and Jean are in the middle.



Zach hung out with Grandma Bowen to watch while we were dancing. He looked pretty comfy.



Derrick got to fulfill his little brother duty and help decorate the car:



On Saturday everyone (except Andrew and Meesa) hiked up Mt. Major. Zach slept most of the time. He just woke up on the steep parts where we were climbing up rocks. At the top was a beautiful view of Lake Winnipesaukee.

3 Months Old - (Oct. 1st)

For some reason I like to post pictures of Zach looking shocked when I document his month marks. I did that for the last 2 months and thought I'd continue the tradition. This post is more for journalistic purposes so it will probably be boring :).

- Zach smiles a lot now, especially after he "eats breakfast" in the morning. We've only heard him giggle a few times (once last night and this morning in particular) but look forward an increase this month.

- Zach has been "talking" a lot. He's got a really deep voice for a baby and he loves to hear himself make all kinds of cooing sounds. Most of his talking is accompanied by huge toothless grins.

- We go through several outfits a day and have used about half a bottle of Oxy Clean spray due to the explosive nature of Zach's poop. It often shoots straight up and out the back. If anyone has any advice on how to prevent the poop from leaving the diaper we welcome the advice.

- Zach can hold his head up so much better. He loves to change between sitting and standing on our laps while we hold his fingers. He has a ways to go before he can balance on his own.

- As evidenced by the double chin in the picture Zach loves to eat. After several weeks of working at it we've stretched the eating times from every 2 hours to every 3. This has made it possible for him to only wake me up just twice a night even with an earlier bedtime. We haven't had him weighed for a month now but using our inaccurate form of measuring (weighing Derrick with baby and subtracting weight of Derrick without baby on our cheap scale), Zach is about 16 pounds now.

- Until about 2 weeks ago Zach refused to go to bed until 1 a.m. every night. As an answer to prayers, we discovered that he'll let us put him to bed between 9 and 10. If we miss this window we've got a somewhat grouchy baby until 1.

- Zach loves to kick. His favorite toy is his Kick and Play. He'll also just kick like crazy if we set him on a blanket on his back. It's really funny to watch.

Here's a video for the grandmas. It was taken a month ago but gives the general idea...and I'm obviously a dork when it comes to commentary:).

- On a final note, Zach started to figure out this last week that toys exist and will hold and examine them. The play possibilities are expanding!

Making a Baby-Sized Tie

Have any of you noticed that there's really not much color variety as far as baby boy clothes go? Derrick's sister Meesa got married on Oct. 3 and had reds and oranges (fall colors) as her color scheme.

After some failed shopping attempts to find something for Zach that went with the colors, we decided to go with the white button up shirt from Grandma Bowen and make a tie that went with the color scheme.

Derrick and I went to DI and looked for a tie that was in the right colors. I expected to just find a man's tie and then invent some way to change it to fit Zach. We were really excited to find a little boy's clip on tie in the perfect colors. So $3 and a few hours later, here's the result:


In order to make the tie closer to Zach's size I cut about half of it off. I experimented on shortening the skinnier part first so the back of the wider part looks better.


Here we are showing off our wedding clothes (Zach had just barely woken up). He was a pretty big hit with his tie :). Notice the bagginess of his pants and his rolled up sleeves. We had to go with clothes a few sizes too big to escape the baby blues.

12 Weeks and rolling

Zach has been so much fun to watch and play with lately. His face is very expressive, he makes all kinds of noises, and he is starting to get a bit more mobile. Zach can now roll from his stomach to his back! (Baby steps right?) This video takes place yesterday, a couple minutes after he rolled for the first time. (Sorry about the VERY high pitched voice in the background :) )

Zach also kicks a lot while on his stomach and make some forward progress until his arm gets caught underneath him. We'll see how long it takes for him to figure out arm and leg coordination.

On another note, we moved Zach from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his room last Friday. We're still trying to convince him that he likes the crib.