I made the Deseret News

I went to the BYU Career Fair yesterday, won an iPod Shuffle, and got interviewed by the Deseret News.

oh baby.

Lots of Little Things About Zach

Zach's been changing so much lately that it's been hard to keep up the blog updates for journal writing purposes. This blog has ended up being really long and probably will only be appreciated by Zach's grandmothers. (Just to warn you).

Some recent and random firsts:

- Dec. 26 -- Zach had his first trip to the zoo. It was really fun since the Denver Zoo puts up tons of Christmas lights every year. More to come on this when I finally get around to blogging about Christmas (another first for Zach :) ).

(We had to keep fixing his hat which would turn to cover Zach's face as he looked around)

- Jan. 19 -- Zach found a fun new game: empty out the toy basket one toy at a time and taste each as he goes. Now his messes with the toys are more of his own making rather than from us setting the toys out for him. This opens the way for another new game: basket rides.


- Jan. 19 -- I forgot to mention that this was the day Zach first swallowed something he shouldn't (as far as we know). He managed to swallow a piece of York Peppermint Pattie candy wrapper before I could finger swipe it out of his mouth. So far no negative side effects.

- Jan. 21 -- Zach managed to "throw" food on the floor for the first time. (Trying to feed Zach solid food when he's tired is not a good idea. A spoonful of carrots decorated the floor until I got Zach down for his nap.)

- Jan. 22 -- Zach had his first "real" bath in the regular bathtub. The word to describe the experience is "slippery". He was able to flip between his front and back but if I hadn't joined him with my pants rolled up things would have been out of control.

- January -- There's not really a specific day for this but Zach has been getting a lot more ticklish which is a lot of fun for Derrick and me. His ribs and thighs seem to be especially vulnerable :)

Other fun things we don't want to forget:

- Zach has been extra giggly lately. His laugh is so contagious!
- Zach gets this intent look on his face when we're changing his diapers and he pumps his legs like crazy. Sometimes it looks like he's trying to pedal a bike. This makes changing his diapers a bit tricky at times. It doesn't help that now he's started trying to roll away. It's a good thing our changing pad has curved edges.
- Zach showns that he definitely knows me and likes to be with me. I love seeing him hold his little arms out and lean towards me.
- Zach has started leaving one toy in his mouth while using both hands to play with other things.


- Zach loves playing with tags. Often while he's playing with his toys, burp cloth, or blankets he'll find the tag and it will grab his attention until he's fingered and tasted it for awhile.
- Zach loves watching Baby Signing Time. When we need to get something done we just put him in his walker and turn on the DVD. While watching he'll often lean forward with his arms hugging the top part of the walker.
- So far Zach has only figured out how to move backwards in his walker.

Some more pictures of Zach just for fun:

Jason and Cassie Wedding

My twin brother Jason married Cassandra Conrad on Jan. 17th. That's the 4th wedding in my family since Apr. '06. Four weddings in less than three years - my parents are becoming pros at this.



The wedding took place at the Salt Lake temple and was performed by my Grandpa Jones who's a sealer. It was the first time our entire family was together since the two babies were born. It was freezing outside the temple during pictures so we left as soon as we could. As you can see, Zach didn't appreciate the cold.


The reception ended up being a real party with crazy dancing and really good food. Here are some more pictures :)


Zach was really cute in his sweater vest that matched the wedding colors. I can't believe how grown up he's looking!



Zach was also a big hit with the ladies...and the photographer, and other random strangers. (The dance party went past his bedtime, hence the jammies)


Jason's friends lifted him up in a chair during one of the songs. It was amazing he didn't fall off.

Wedding Flowers

My brother Jason got married last Saturday and I was in charge of all the flowers - bridal bouquet, 2 corsages, 9 boutonnières, bridesmaid roses (just had to tie a ribbon around them), and the cake flowers. It was a lot of work but I had fun doing it. Thankfully I had some help taping and wiring from my mom, Derrick, and a few people from Cassie's family. We didn't get many pictures but here's a few to show how they turned out:

The Supplies

Coming out of the temple

Up close (at the end of the day)

The Cake

6 1/2 Months and Movin'

It's hard to believe that Zach is already 6 1/2 months old. He's been growing so fast and is so much fun. I don't think I could even begin to describe how much I love this kid.

Here are a few pictures and updates:

SIZE

Zach now weighs 20 lbs 11 oz. and is 27.5 inches tall. He's growing so big! As a result of this he's outgrowing things. He was looking so squished in his infant car seat that we bought him a new one for Christmas. It really weirded Zach out the first time he tried it but now he seems to really like it. It should hopefully last until he's big enough to use a regular seat belt. Zach was kind enough to model it for you.


Also, Zach has graduated from his baby bath tub to the regular tub. As you can see he was getting a bit big for his tub.


SO MOBILE!

Though Zach figured out how to roll from front to back when he was 2 1/2 months old he finally figured out how to roll from back to front on January 2nd!

Since learning to roll he's going all over the place and getting into things. He still hasn't figured out that rolling into hard things is not a good idea so we have to keep a really close eye on him. He often heads straight for out futon which isn't the most baby friendly. (We've started propping pillows in front of it).


It probably helps that he's incredibly close to crawling. He can push himself into a crawling position and use his hands to spin in a circle. I'm still getting used to seeing him move all over the place in his crib and play with his stuffed animals. It's pretty entertaining :). I never know where in the crib I'll find him and can't do anything to prevent his sleeping on his tummy.


Zach is so curious and loves being able to explore. I love watching him and never get tired of it!

SOLID FOOD

Back in December we started Zach on rice cereal and on New Year's Day we started introducing him to veggies. So far it's been a success. Zach is a really enthusiastic eater as long we warm up his food. We got some amazing facial expressions and a huge mess the one time we made the mistake of leaving it cold. He attacks the spoon with a wide open mouth and I have to be careful that the spoon doesn't go in too far. I wanted to try making a good amount of Zach's food from scratch so for Christmas I got 2 baby food cookbooks and a thing to puree. So far so good :).


TEETH

Zach has been drooling and chewing on everything for awhile so we figured that teeth were on their way. 2 or 3 days ago one of Zach's bottom middle teeth poked through the surface! It's a sharp little guy. I'm really going to miss his huge toothless grins once more come in.

Magic Show

For Derrick's work Christmas party we went to his boss' house for a steak and potluck dinner. There was probably the biggest variety of food that I've ever seen at one table. It was so good!

At the end there was a magic show put on the boss' brother. After throwing cards to the audience I had the "lucky" card and was the participant who got in the box. Derrick started video taping part way through the trick. I think the video speaks for itself. Enjoy!

This little guy turned 5 months old on Dec. 1st.


In honor of turning 5 months old Zach got to try rice cereal for the first time. We let Zach suck on one of his spoons in order to help prepare himself for this "momentous occasion" while I made up the cereal.


Having your first taste of semi-solid food on a spoon can be a bit confusing.


True to form, Zach eats as much rice cereal as we give him. I think he'd eat anything we gave him. At first Zach's tongue just pushed the food back out as he tried to eat it unless we kept the spoon in his mouth until he swallowed. Zach is needing less and less help as he's getting practice.

Other fun things with Zach: he blows spit bubbles, makes more sounds, puts everything in his mouth, shares his impressive amounts of drool with us, pivots on both his back and his front, loves to play standing up (with lots of support), has more hair again, smiles more and laughs. We love our Zach! He is such a wonderful baby and makes us so happy!

Lappy Fixin

So recently the hinge on my laptop broke. Sad but true. It really had been on its way to breaking since I bought it on ebay a year ago. For some things the time will eventually come. But a few weeks ago the one side came completely off. I tried at first just throwing some JB Weld in there, but it only lasted a couple hours. Then I got all excited and thought I would be able to buy a new laptop. I looked around a lot, and then fortunately (or unfortunately?) a guy in my class said that I could probably find a replacement hinge online. We got to lookin and had a cheap fix within 10 minutes. This afternoon the piece came, and tonight after some screwing, soldering and some more JB Weld just to be sure, I now have a working hinge again. Woohoo!

Out with the old and in with the new.

1st Time Mountain Biking

So my father-in-law loves mountain biking and goes every chance he gets regardless of weather conditions. After making various trips to the Bowen home over the past two years we decided that I needed to try mountain biking for the first time.

We drove to a trail called Rustler's loop. Derrick, Dad Bowen, and I got on our bikes while Zach and Mom Bowen walked part of the trail.


I was nervous at the beginning and then during several of the more rocky and steep parts of the trail but had a lot of fun. I received several bruises as battle wounds from getting bucked around on my bike and fell over once. I guess it could be an early birthday present to my father-in-law to say that I'd be happy to go biking with him again sometime... though I definitely would need more practice before doing anything more technical. It also wouldn't hurt to get in better shape :).

Bringing up the rear

Posing as mountain bikers

We survived! (and got back before dark)

Happy Baby

Over the last couple of weeks Zach has started laughing. I can't get enough of it! I was finally able to catch the end of a laughing episode on video when he was playing with Grandpa Bowen (Nov 28). Enjoy!

Here's another laughing video I got of Zach 2 days ago. Apparently I make weird sounds and say dumb things to try to get him to laugh.

1st Driving Lesson - Nov 28

On Black Friday we went shopping with my family at the outlet mall in Silverthorne. I asked my dad to hold Zach for a second while I got Zach's clothes out of the diaper bag and this is what I found when I looked up. I guess we're starting him out young.

Hiking or Should I Say Bushwhacking? - (Nov 26)

After spending the morning taking Zach to visit Grandma Bowen's 1st grade class and watching Twilight, Derrick wanted to take us on a hike through the canyon area behind his house to the Colorado River. We got Zach bundled up and then started off.

I think for about half of the time we were bent completely over ducking under trees or climbing over fallen ones. We also had to jump a small stream both ways. This was difficult with Zach in the backpack. I had to be careful to keep him from falling out of the pack and from getting attacked by all the tree branches. Trying to cross a stream with an 18-19 pound baby strapped to you is also no easy feat. It made for a good adventure though and it was fun to see the river and a bunch of eagles' nests near it.

Here's a dark, cell phone picture showing off the tree full of eagles' nests.

My handsome husband showing off the landscape near the river.

Cousins

I think everyday we were in GJ Zach was able to play with his cousin Ryan. Their playing is understandably limited but at least Zach stayed awake most of the time. There were a few times Ryan tried to squish Zach and grab his face but Zach survived pretty well. Here are a couple of pictures of the two cousins that Derrick's brother Tyson took and posted on the Bowen family blog:

Playing with Tyson's Wii motes. Looks like Ryan has it figured out a bit better than Zach does.

Zach loved these sea creatures. Apparently they taste great...or Zach's in the process of teething.

Thanksgiving Break

We had a really fun Thanksgiving break. It was so nice for Zach and me to have Derrick free from class and work from Monday after work until the next Monday. We love having him around! We were at Mom and Dad Bowens' house in GJ for most of that time but did make a short trip to visit my family at a cabin 3 hours away in Leadville. We're so grateful to have family within easy traveling distance!

We weren't very good about pictures during the trip so we'll need to get some of the ones from Grandma and Grandpa Bowen. We did get some pictures that I want to blog about but I'll separate those into different posts for easier reading.

Family Pictures - Nov. 1

About a month ago our friend Ken Ross from the ward took some family pictures for us. We went to the Provo temple grounds and love how they turned out. Ken did a great job!

Here are a few of my favorites:

I love that Zach is randomly pointing in this picture

I've Been Slacking

Sorry to anyone who actually reads this blog that I've been such a slacker at blogging. With the holidays there's just so many other things to do! Still, I've got lots of things to blog about so here comes what will hopefully be another bunch of posts :).

New Theme!

Jen has been buggin me for a bit to update the visual style of our blag. So we picked something a little piratey. Enjoy!

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 :)