Cowboy Zeke

Sally the horse, Debbie & Zeke


Zeke sitting on Sally like a real cowboy!

This last Saturday we were invited by Debbie, a friend at church, to come out to the ranch where she keeps her horse. Zeke was so excited about going to see a horse. He talked about sitting on the horse and wearing his cowboy outfit of course. When we first got there he was a little unsure of Sally the horse. Debbie took Sally out and had her exercise and run around. It was amazing to watch Debbie in the coral with Sally. She would make her change directions, run faster or stop without ever raising her voice. Sometimes it was just a movement Debbie made or a sound with her mouth. Zeke did finally get on Sally but was not ok with Sally walking with him up there. Which was fine we were excited he even sat on her!

Busy

Sorry we have not posted in a while. We have been very busy. We spent Christmas with my family in Fresno. Both sisters and their families were there and on Christmas day the rest of my moms side all came over for the big meal. We had a lot of fun hanging out with family.

It has not slowed down sine being home either. We found out back in November that we are expecting Baby Number 2, should be arriving around July 9th. Zeke seems to be very excited about having a baby brother or sister. He often just starts talking about what he and the baby will do. One thing he is concerned about is that we will have a bed for the baby. So he will be very happy when we start putting the room together.

We have also been potty training Zeke. And so far he is doing great. He wears his undies all day and is only in pull ups during naps and night time.

Here are a few pictures from the last month or so. Hope you enjoy!


Helping make his dinner one night with his apron and chefs hat. He made the hat at preschool that day and loved it!


Building with Daddy using his new Handy Manny Tool Bench from Santa.


Doing art with Gigi over Christmas. The older kids made ornaments, gingerbread houses while there.

Preschool Christmas Party

Today we had a Christmas Party at Preschool. The kids started off with a Book Exchange, then headed upstairs where a special someone came by to visit.



Zeke is more into the whole Santa idea, but was still not ok with going to sit in his lap. So he ask his teacher if she would take a picture with him. One of Zeke's big things to do to draw attention away from him is to show the person something else. So as soon as he got up there he had to show Santa his shirt.



Zeke got Zurg! (He is from Toy Story 2 and that is what he asked Santa for this year) After opening his gift he did yell "Thank You Santa" from our seat.



Zeke back at preschool enjoying pizza, fruit, juice and cookies.

Here is Zeke all dressed up and ready for our Treat in a Trunk at church. He loved wearing it, he was flying all over the place. At his preschool party he wanted Brice to help him fly, so Brice would pick him up and Zeke would put his arms out. We had a fun night with friends at church. He even went to Pizza as Buzz Lightyear.



After going to the Farm to get our Pumpkins this year, Zeke decided we needed to turn our pumpkins into pumpkin pie. So we went to the store bought the right pumpkin and came home and made it. It was really good and pretty easy! The above picture is Zeke getting ready to take his first bite. It had just come out of the oven not long before!



I just thought this one was cute. One day he wanted to dress up in his cowboy clothes, complete with bandana, and badge!

Trip to So Cal.

This last week Zeke and I went to Southern California to help my sister, Amber, with the new addition to the family Wesley Stephen.



Here we are with "Baby Wes" as Zeke says. He wanted to hold him all by himself and did great!



We also got to see my other sister, Tali and her family every day! Tali watched Zeke a few days so that I could go with Amber to work to help with Wes. This is one of the good ones I got of all the cousins. It is pretty funny to look at the pictures as we were trying to capture this one.



We also we able to meet up with Paul and Ethan one morning. We played at their house at Pepperdine. After we played for a while we headed over to Malibu Seafood for lunch. This is one of my favorites of the two boys. Ethan is dipping his chip in Roasted Garlic Hummus that Paul brought. Zeke, well he is dipping his chip in ketchup.

These last two pictures are my favorites of Zeke right now. They were both within the last two weeks. The first one is at the park in LA with my sisters this last week. Caelan brought Zeke this hat to use while playing. Zeke wore it the whole time, then she let him borrow her flower sunglasses, which he did not take off till we got back to Ambers.



This one is after he realized he had cowboy hats and boots like Andy from Toy Story. He wore this hat and his boots the whole first couple of days. With shorts, pjs, diaper, whatever. They became the shoes he wanted on to take Cocoa out to go potty.

Black Diamond Mines

Last Friday we decided to go to the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve and walk around. Brice went there with Rick a while back and walked one of the trails and checked out a mine. So we thought that would be a fun thing for us to do as a family. It was a gravel/dirt road for most of it, then we cut off the main trail to go see one of the old mines. The walk was very pretty looking at all the golden hills and big trees. We figured we walked around 4 miles (maybe a little more). Zeke was in the stroller the whole way in. Then when it was time to go see the mine we had to park the stroller and walk in from there. Of course after that he did not want to get back in. He also insisted on wearing his jacket the whole time!


Brice and Zeke walking the little trail to check out the old mine.



Brice and Zeke in the mine. Notice the bars behind them. That is the end of the mine, as far as you could go. Zeke did great walking in that dark tunnel. I think I had a harder time then he did. Next time we will have to remember to bring a flashlight!


Zeke and I after the tunnel.


The view on our walk back to the car. You are looking out into Antioch.

It was a very fun day and we would like to go back and check out all the different mines you can go into. We were looking on the map and not too far off the main trail was another mine. It looks like there are a lot over where we have our Easter picnic for church.

This last week we had my sister, Tali, and her 3 kids stay with us while her husband, Cliff, was home working. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them. This was the first time we got to spend time with the new baby, Corbin. Zeke loved Corbin! He loved to put his pacifier in or lay next to him on the play mat. The picture below is one of the many times Zeke was next to Corbin while playing on the mat.



One day Tali and I took all the kids to the Oakland Zoo. We got up and ready and packed our picnic lunch and took off. The kids did great! That night we all got ice cream! This is one of my favorite picture of the kids from the week.



Brice and I are off to camp next week so today Tali took all the kids to GG & Papa's house for Cousin Camp! The kids were all very excited. All morning they would say "Are we going yet?" "When are we going to GG & Papa's?" It was very cute! Thanks so much to Tali and my parents for taking Zeke so that I can go help out at FDC!

Happy 4th of July!

This weekend my sister Tali and her family came up. We have been having so much fun. Cliff has to head back to LA tomorrow to work but Tali and the kids are staying a bit longer. We have a lot of fun plans in store for the kids.

Here are all the kids tonight after dinner.



All the kids are off to bed and we are waiting for homemade ice cream and warm peach cobbler. I can't wait!

A Day Full of Birthday Parties

Saturday we celebrated Zeke's 3rd Birthday. His birthday is not until the 26th, but our church has VBS that weekend so we decided to do it early. We had 6 friends (plus some parents and some helpers) come and celebrate with us in the morning.

We started out by making place mats. Each kid colored two Car pictures, then we glued them to a piece of construction paper then onto poster board. We sealed them up with clear contact paper.



Next they frosted their own cupcake ice cream cone. I tried to make red frosting, but it ended up more hot pink, but they did not care. So if you want hot pink frosting use the whole bottle of red food coloring:)



After that we opened presents and then moved outside where a jump house was set up.



GG & Papa got to our house Friday night so they were here to help set up for the party. Then in the middle of the party Mima & Pa pulled up. After all the kids left we had lunch and then the guys went out to get food for dinner, the ladies rested and Zeke was too excited, so he did not sleep very much. It took a while then GG went in and got him to sleep. Aunt Judy & Uncle Dick came out from Concord to join us all for a family birthday dinner. We had all had a very good dinner. Then we opened presents and had cake!

Brice helping Zeke blow out his candles. They would get one at a time.



Here is Zeke riding his new scooter with all the protective gear. He knew exactly what to do and took off.



It was a very busy weekend, but we all had a great time being with friends and family!

Chopsticks & Cherry Picking

Last week Brice and I went to San Francisco for a few nights to celebrate my Birthday. We stayed at Hotel Nikko which is right by Union Square. So we a family here at church watched Zeke for the 2 nights, and another family watch Cocoa. We took BART in and had a great time. We had dinner with some friends from Santa Rosa and then just walked around and relaxed the rest of the time.

While there we did find some kid chopsticks. Recently Zeke pretends to eat with chopsticks just like Daddy. He will fold his straw and try that, and usually ends up using his pointer and middle finger. The ones we got have animals on the top, so we got a panda and giraffe. Here is Zeke using them the first night we were all home. He ate three pancakes with them. He will pretty much use them to eat whenever we let him.



Today we went and picked Cherries and Boysenberries. We went with another family from church. The kids loved it. As soon as I showed Zeke what to do he took off. They carried their little buckets, would snack on some every once in a while and the rest went in the buckets. We walked out of there with 1 1/2 pounds of cherries. Zeke and the other little boy were done by the time we got to the berries. They were not really able to do those, so they just ran around while the little girl, her mommy and I picked berries. It was a lot of fun and plan to go pick other fruits and veggies soon.

Fresno

This last week Zeke and I went to Fresno and spent the time with Mima & Pa. We had a great time hanging out at the house. This is yesterday with Mima right before we got in the car to head home. Yesterday morning when Zeke got up I told him we were going to go to coffee with Mima and her friends. He looked at me and said "I don't like coffee." So he had his Hostess Donettes (Powdered & Chocolate) that Mima bought and his milk.


One day Zeke and I went to the Fresno Zoo. We fed the Giraffes for the first time. Zeke told me he wanted to so we went in and he decided he would stay in the stroller. So I fed the Giraffe. The girl told me to hold the leaf up but don't let him have it yet. So I did that and the giraffe put his whole mouth over my hand!
We also ended up seeing Aunt Tali, Uncle Cliff, Caelan, Brenna and Corbin at the Zoo. We walked out to our car and their van was parked right next to us. We were not able to go up to my parents because the kids were sick. So we were all being very careful not to pass it to each other. At least they are here for the year! So we will figure out another time to get together and hang out. We did get to see my family at lunch Sat. when we pulled into town, so that was nice.


Zeke drinking the last bit of Mima's Coke while in the pool one day.


Zeke in the pool at our house before we left for Fresno.

We got home yesterday to very nice weather. When we left Fresno it was 104 so it was nice to hear the weather in Antioch would be a lot cooler then that the next couple of days!

Last week Zeke, Cocoa and I made the trip to Southern California to see Aunt Amber & Uncle JJ. Amber was on Spring Break so we decided it would be fun to hang out. We got to look around for a lot of baby stuff which was a lot of fun. Papa also decided to come down for a few nights since GG was still in Texas. Before we went down I would tell Zeke about Aunt Amber having a baby in her tummy. He knows the baby is growing in there and wants to see the baby. So on their blog I just scroll down to the ultrasound picture for him to see and we point out the features on his face. So when we got down there one night he was out with Amber and was asking about the baby in her tummy. He would try to lift her shirt up and ask to see the baby. Amber would reply with you can't see him yet, he is still growing. The next morning I was getting him dressed and he stuck his belly out and said "Baby Corbin is in my belly" (that is my other sisters baby that was just born at the end of March). I said "Really?" And he came back with "Yes, he is my favorite!" I thought it was so cute. He has never met Corbin but will soon!

One afternoon after Zeke got up from his nap Aunt Amber pulled the Otter Pops out for all of us. That was Zeke's first Otter Pop and he loved it. Amber and I loved ours as well!



We got home Friday night and the Tadd & Bridget and their kids came to our place for the weekend. I was bad with the camera so I will see if Bridget got any good pictures. We had such a good visit with them. Zeke got up Monday morning asking for them all. He loves all his Aunts, Uncles and cousins!

I am just excited that when Zeke asks about all you guys I get to tell him "We get to see them all in a few weeks!"

Happy Easter

Here is Zeke in his new outfit. He was looking pretty good this morning!



Here is Zeke on our way to the church picnic/egg hunt. He made these ears at preschool this week and got them Friday. When Brice went in to get him Sat. morning Zeke was in bed reading a book and had the ears on.

Last night we were talking to Zeke about the Easter Bunny coming to bring Zeke goodies. Well Zeke had a bad experience with the Easter Bunny at Preschool. He just thought the Easter Bunny was scary, which he kind of is scary looking. So when we told him that he got this scared look on his face and was not ok with the Easter Bunny coming in our house. So we said we would meet him at the door. The Easter Bunny would not set foot in our house. Well that still was not ok. So Brice was fast and asked if he could go meet the Easter Bunny somewhere. Zeke was ok with that. So we decided that Brice would go meet the Easter Bunny at Target and get the goodies from him and bring them home. We then had to go check the house just to make sure the Easter Bunny was not hiding in our house.

Preschool Egg Hunt

Today we had the Preschool Egg Hunt. Since it has been raining off and on throughout the week we had it at church instead of at the park. There were 500 eggs in our auditorium! (it was preschool kids and siblings) Zeke had his bunny bag that they made at school and his bunny ears. Zeke was doing fine until the Easter Bunny came by for a visit. Zeke was done at that point. He kept crying and wanting Daddy. He also kept saying, "Let's go home!" So Brice came and got him and took him outside were he and Bruce, an Elder here, were working. Zeke stayed there until we were ready to go home. He is Zeke and Bruce in the back of Bruce's car. He was eating a piece of candy which made him feel much better!




Here are some flowers from our yard that I cut this afternoon. When we take Cocoa out Zeke always wants to go see the pink flowers:)

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. We have been very busy at our house.

Hope you enjoy these pictures.

This Zeke in all his green for St Patrick's Day. He picked out this bow tie when we were shopping with GG one day. He wanted this one over the plain one of course.



Here he is with the blanket mommy finally made for him. Every time I make something, he will ask me if it is for him. So when my parents were up here last we went and bought some fabric. This weekend I was making a blanket for a baby shower, so I made Zeke his pirate blanket as well. When he woke up from his nap he loved it! He wanted it wrapped around him like this for a while.



This weekend we also bought popsicle molds. We came home and mixed up lemonade (which Zeke calls Nemnade) and put food coloring in the molds to make them fun colors and pour the mix in. When Zeke woke up from his nap he got a Nemnade Popsicle. He really enjoyed it. We had them again at Small Group and Zeke sat at the table until his was completely gone. He did not give up even when the other girls were done and wanted to play. Zeke sat there the whole time until I took the stick from him when I said it was gone. Then we all picked the color we wanted and made more for next time. We will be making a lot more popsicles this Spring and Summer.

Snow

After the week of Christmas Zeke and I headed to my parents to visit with them, my grandparents and my Aunt Julie, Uncle Steve, Chelsea, Randall from Texas. The plan was to Stay until Wed. then head home. But I ended up with a cold so we stayed until Sat., when brice came and got us:) Randall had never been to California so we were going to the major sites. We went to the Big Trees right inside the gate to Yosemite. Well we tried to, a 2 mile hike in the snow to the parking lot, then a little further to the trees. So we just walked and enjoyed the snow. Then to the coast one day, then Yosemite valley floor another. It was busy but we had fun. And Zeke was able to get to know them all better.




Building a snowman with GG.


At the start of our walk back down. After this picture Papa started pulling Zeke down the hill with Zeke on his knees or bottom. Zeke loved it! After one little bit that is how he wanted to go down.

Christmas

This Christmas we were with Brice's family and had a lot of fun being together. We all stayed with his parents, total we had 17. four out in a camping trailer the rest inside. Four of that is also under the age of 5! It was just fun spending time with everyone.

Here are a couple pictures of the week. I know not very many, I was bad with the camera, sorry!


Watching TV with Batman. Santa brought this for Zeke and he loves it. He shares with him, wrestle him, talks to him. It is fun to watch him with his new buddy!


Cousin time in the tent Taylor got!

Wedding

This last weekend we went to Texas for my cousins wedding. Brice did the ceremony and Zeke was the ring bearer. Here are a few pictures of the wedding. Zeke made it the whole way down then came and sat by GG and Papa. Enjoy!