My Home Improvement Wish List

Since I am 99.9% sure that we are going to be in our house for a while...I have complied a HOME IMPROVEMENT WISH LIST:

1. New gutters. Since we put on our new roof nearly 2 years ago and did not replace the gutters I think it is time.

2. I NEED A SECOND BATHROOM!!!!!! Bathroom needs to be created in the basement.

3. Update the one bathroom that we have. (I'm undecided if this should come before my #2 wish)

4. My kids share a room. I know that this should not be a problem...but I never had to share my room growing up. I want them to have a space of their own. So ultimately I would love to make our garage a master suite (doesn't that make it sound all romantical?!) and give one of the kids our current room. The master suite would include double doors going out to the backyard since we don't have a back door on our house (gotta love old houses).

I wish that I could just snap my fingers and this could all happen! Oh and sell wish #4 to the hubs.

Zoo Lights

Last Saturday we went to the Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo. I have to admit that my expectations were not that high for this. But I was really impressed!

I think that the only animals that we saw out and about were the tigers. But the lights were amazing!

It wasn't too cold but we made sure that the kids were bundled up.

This is what Zachary looks like at 9pm without a nap. And of course Monkey made the journey with us.

There was a guy there doing ice sculptures with a chainsaw. How does one discover a talent like that? Do you just one day decide to pick up a chainsaw and see what you can do with it?

Christmas on Temple Square

I love love love Christmas on Temple Square. But the crowds? Ummmm....not so much! We thought that by avoiding Monday night that it would be less crowded. It was like Mutual Madness! I think that every teenager in the Salt Lake Valley was there. Irregardless, we have a wonderful time looking at all of the lights and Nativites.

I should now by now with two little ones that it will be virtually impossible to get all of us to look at the camera at the same time. But really....is it too much to ask?

Love these two! I don't know if it was because of the crowds or what but Zachary had to be touching Zoe the whole time. It was like he was being the big protective brother. He either had his hand on her head as we were walking or on her hand.

Thanksgiving

I didn't take many pictures from Thanksgiving but these are a few of my favorites. We of course had to get the token Joe and the turkey picture. I'm certain that I have one for the last 4 Thanksgivings that we have been going to St. GeorgeThis Thanksgiving was lots-o-fun! It is typically just us and Jared and Andi's families. But the whole Davis clan was there this year...all 28 of us! We had so much fun. Zachary was in heaven with all of his cousins!

And I love this one of Mother D and the two babies of the family....our Zoe and Esther's Matthew. There is about 5 months difference between the two. It was great to have everyone together...hopefully we can do it again sooner rather than later.

Clean Up

This is what I found after we had cleaned up toys in the living room yesterday...baby Jesus in the palm tree and Anakin Skywalker in the manger. Oh the imaginations of a 3 yr old!

I Am Thankful For...

Since Zachary is getting older and starting to understand things more now...I decided to do something a little different for the month of November. Every morning we would write down something we were thankful for. We hung this up in the kitchen so that it would not be missed or forgotten. I loved it! To hear what he was thankful for each and everyday was truely a blessing. Some days he would really sit and think about what he was thankful for. It was fun to watch him and then have him say something like, underware (oh yes we wrote it up there).

Halloween Fun

I loved this outfit! And loved the fact that I got it for $4!!!

Still no teeth. I don't remember when Zachary got his first tooth. But I thought that it was by now.

My Iron Man and Lady bug....he's already talking about when he is going to be for next Halloween.

Carving with Daddy

Zachary had fun carving pumpkins for the first time with Daddy. Although he thought the insides were "too squishy".

Can You See The Love?

I am truely blessed with wonderful children. I'm not going to lie and say it is always rainbows and sunshine with them...but for the most part they are great kids. The love between these two is immeasurable. Anytime Zachary walks into the room Zoe lights up like a Christmas Tree. Zachary is costantly hugging and kissing her. At times I wonder if Zachary is getting enough attention with her around. So I try to play with him on his own or do things just the two of us. But he often complains when she is not there. I took him to the library last night and he put on his "sad" face on the way there because Zoe stayed home with Daddy. If Zoe is ever crying I can count on Zachary to make her laugh. I'm so grateful for the love that these two have for one another and hope that it continues throughout their lifetimes.

My Little Mover

Most days this is where I find Zoe...halfway stuck under the couch. She definitely gets around. And not necessarily in the forward direction. She has yet to master the crawling forward motion. She gets everywhere by rolling and scooting backwards...hence getting stuck under the couch. She is definitely my little squiggly worm now.
On another note...look at that picture again. I hate that I am readjusting the couch cover every time someone gets up from it. It would be so much easier just to go out and buy a new couch instead of covering up the lovely flower print. Joe like to call it the "early marriage motif". Why doesn't money just grow on trees?

Canning Galore!

Last Christmas Joe bought me a bunch of canning stuff. We had dabbled in it last year. But this year? Oh my! Watch out! Mother D brought us a ton of peaches from Cali a couple of weeks ago and I was able to can about 25 quarts. Then the neighbor brought me a bunch of peaches from her tree. So they all got canned as well. The funny thing is...I don't think that all of these peaches are going to last us past Christmas the way my family goes thru them.
Yesterday a friend came over and we canned salsa and tomatoes....and in a couple of weeks we are going to have oodles and oodles of tomatillos for salsa verde. After yesterday I will be happy not to see another tomato any time soon. But I just looked out the window and my tomatoes outside are ripe. Can you guess what I will be doing later in the week?

Fun at the Fair

Mother D has been in town for a few days with Heather and we decided to go to the fair while they were here.

Can you believe that these are the only pictures I took at the fair? As we were walking up to this race car Zachary was commenting how it was like McQueen...and if you don't know who that it you either don't have kids or live on another planet. The gentleman that was standing by the car said that just like McQueen real race cars don't have headlights either...they have stickers for lights. I didn't think that that was really true...I guess you learn something new everyday. He let Zachary get in the car and he was in Heaven! You could barely see his head.

Heather headed home yesterday. We were sad to see her go but glad that we get Mom for a little bit longer.

Camping

We finally went camping 2 weeks ago...the whole family. Joe and Zachary have been going every week for about a month now on overnight adventures. But I finally took some a day off of work and we went!
Ignore my hair. This is what I look like after camping in the rain and the mud. Yup...it poured on us.

Here are our camping buddies...Spencer, Chandra, and the lovely Sydney.

Zoe was content to stay in the tent and play with her toys while the rain and hail came down.

The ever adventurous Zachary tried to climb every rock and tree he could find.

Let me introduce you to Bessie. At least I like to call her that. Joe will probably beg to differ. Joe was involved in an accident a few months ago and the Pathfinder was totaled. As a result Bessie became a member of our family.

Zachary tuckered out on the drive home. You should have seen all of the mud on his clothes. Nothing like being a boy and camping!

Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo early Labor Day. I knew it would be a busy day so we got there right when it opened.
Look at that perfectly gummy smile!

We have season passes to the zoo and I have never been to the Discovery play area. Amazing that as small as our zoo is here in Salt Lake that we have never been to this area. Zachary had a blast!

I cannot get enough pictures of her smile. She looks like she has got little golf balls in her cheeks. Look at those things!

Can you tell that he is saying "cheese"? We finally made it to one of the bird shows and it was pretty good.

Big and Strong

Zachary planted some carrots earlier in the season and they were finally ready to pull a week or two ago. He was so excited to finally eat them after making sure that they were watered and got plenty of sun. As he was eating them with the "special sauce" (aka ketchup...yuck!) he would say I'm getting big and strong over and over. Ask him...he'll be more than happy to show you his muscles!

Yup...he's a Davis!

Not that there was any doubt before...but this picture abosolutely proves that this boy is a Davis. He has developed the same talent as Grandma in being able to touch his nose with this tongue. And let me tell you...he is so PROUD of himself!

Saucers

SERIOUSLY!!!! Her eyes are as large as saucers! What a doll!

Cousin Fun

Zachary recently enjoyed having his cousins here. Zachary adores his boy cousins immensely. And wants to do everything that they do. Here he and Logan had a blast running through the sprinklers one night. Can you see the absolute joy on his face?!

Drive-In Fun

In preparation of Toy Story 3...Zachary has been slightly obsessed with his Buzz Lightyear and Woody dolls. Wait, can I call them dolls? Ummmm....let's just call them toys. Yup, that sounds better than my 3 yr old playing with dolls. He wanted to wear his Buzz shirt, shoes, and Woody hat (from his Halloween costume) to the movie. Of course I couldn't find the hat until this morning.

What would a drive-in movie be without friends and tons of junk food? Can you see Woody's face in the lower right hand corner of the picture? Yup, he wanted to see himself on the BIG screen!

And here is Zoe in her normal position on the blankets. Since she is not much of a cuddler (which makes me want to cry), she spends most of her drive-in experience laying down. But she'll be sitting up before we know it and enjoying the movies with us.

Can You Believe It?!

Can you believe that this little sister is eating cereal? And this big brother is potty trained? Well, maybe not all the way....work in progress, what can I say?

Finally!

FINALLY!!! Some nice weather to spend time outside.