Zach is 3

Zach turned 3 on the 12th and it has been a wild ride ever since. Everyone talks about the terrible twos but nobody told me about the terrible threes. Man I miss the twos. Well all this terribleness started with an awesome day, Zach's birthday. Actually it started the night before his birthday. We went to Chuck E Cheese with the Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma. It was a blast.

Then we cam home and opened presents

Then we had this awesome garbage truck cake that I spent all day making. I hate to brag but it looked pretty dang cool.

It was a fun night but it wasn't even his birthday yet. So on his birthday he woke up to a party in his room:

Then we had some friends over for a little party. We did a scavenger hunt to find pumpkins, decorated the pumpkins, and enjoyed some delicious cupcakes. He loved it!

Then we ended the night with a garbage truck pinata. Give this kid a stick and he goes crazy. It was pretty awesome.

Of course mom and dad had to give it a few swings too

It was a great birthday! Celebrated to the max!

My little animals

We had our ward trunk or treat lat weekend and man did my kids look cute. Here they are, my monkey and my elephant:

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this week with some of our friends and had so much fun.

Zach got to pick a pumpkin

We got to ride on a hayride

Zach got to run around the maze, which he loved. If you know Zach you know he loves any excuse to run around wild.

Zach got to climb the huge haystack. He loved it but I was terrified. I was mostly terrified that he was going to push another kid off of it. No worries, he did awesome!

I think he liked jumping down more than he liked going up.

We got to go to the petting zoo. Zach loved the bunnies but had no interest in the other animals.

So much fun!

Best Zachy Quote EVER!

I toot. (pause) Lets try it again. (pause) It's not working. We need batteries.

6 Months

Happy Birthday Zach Attack!

Ray is AMAZING!

Ray ran his half marathon today and rocked it! He beat his time from last year by 7 minutes and made it look easy. He is one amazing dude!

Zach thought it was pretty cool that his dad got to run across the finish line

Whitney wasn't nearly as impressed

We think that Ray is pretty AMAZING!

"I got to say prayer"

This was so cute that I thought I should share it with everyone: Normally Whitney goes to bed about an hour before Zach goes to bed so putting Zachy to bed is pretty easy. Last night Whitney was having a hard time going down so she was still awake and fussing when we put Zach to bed. So amongst all the chaos of trying to deal with Whitney and put Zach to bed we forgot to say family prayers. Well around 1 am Zach woke up crying. I went in to ask him what was wrong. He kept mumbling something but I couldn't understand him. Finally, he lifted his head up, looked at me and said "I got to say prayer." So, at 1 in the morning we folded our arms, bowed our heads, and Zachy said a prayer. I left the room and he went right back to sleep. That kid is so funny. Of course he would remember in the middle of the night that we forgot to say our prayers. I love that little guy!

Storytime

Seriously, how cute is this? Zach and I went to get Whitney up from nap and Zach asked to get in Whitney's crib to read books to her. They laid there for like 15 minutes just reading books. It was so special. Some of the happiest moments in my life are watching those two play together. I just love it!

Of course, story time ended with Whitney sitting on Zach (don't worry, he loves it)!

Whitney Update

I have been meaning to write this post for weeks but life has just been to busy. So here it is, finally. We took Whitney to Seattle in June to have all of here tests done to make sure that her hemangioma is not affecting her heart or brain. We had all sorts of tests including an MRI, echo cardiogram, and an EKG. We had all these tests done in one day. It was a long rough day for us all but especially for Whitney. She had to me put to sleep for the MRI which was so sad. It was hard watching her be put to sleep but it was even harder watching her wake up. She was so confused to out of it. She couldn't even lift her head. It was like she was a newborn all over again. It was so weird. All the tests for her heart looked good and the MRI looked good but there was one little problem they found. No one really knows if it is a big deal but she has too much space in between her ventricles(I think that's what they are called). Right now our doctor is not too concerned but he thinks she will need another MRI a few months down the road to see if the extra space goes away. Here she is all ready for her MRI:

Here she is after her MRI:

After all the tests were done we started Whitney on medication to try to get her hemangioma to stop growing. We knew there were side effects to this medication and we have definitely seen some of them. Before starting it Whitney was the happiest baby ever. She very rarely cried and was always smiling and laughing. She also was a great sleeper that NEVER woke in the middle of the night. In the first week after we started the medication she woke up 3 times in the middle of the night. She also started crying a lot more. She would just all the sudden start screaming and there was really no way to calm her down. She didn't laugh as much either and for the first few days it was even hard to get her to make eye contact. After the first week things got quite a bit better but she still had her meltdowns and didn't laugh as much. Just this last week has been so much better though. I think she is finally back to her normal self. She has been so happy and smiley and she didn't have any meltdowns all week. I am so glad to have my baby girl back! Whitney will be one her medication until December. If we take her off of it and her hemangioma starts growing again we will have to keep her on it until she is one. Luckily we have already seen a huge change in her hemangioma. It is much lighter in color and it is now even with the skin, before it was raised off the skin. The medication is working like it is supposed to which has made this whole process worth it. Whitney is so beautiful and so special to us. We love her so much and are lucky to have her in our family.