Thoughts

I was listening to Mormon Radio this morning and a talk by President Eyring called, "Because He First Love Us - Part 6". In it he was talking about spiritual progression...he said that it is dangerous to think you can stand still. That really hit home...I think I have been standing still. That's about to change!

My Sweet Girl

CHEESE!!!!

Zoe is developing quite the little personality....not to mention an attitude as well! She is so very VERY different than her brother. She is not afraid to let you know what she thinks. And she is getting very good in the dirty look department. I'm afraid to admit that she probably inherited that from her mother. Zoe's favorite place to be right now is outside. But unfortunately, will all of the wet weather we have been having here in Utah we haven't spent long periods of time outside. But she will bring us her shoes and jacket, wait by the door, and grunt or yell at us until we can take her out. Silly girl! She seems to be growing up much faster than it seemed with Zachary. I just want her to slow down...but she just doesn't listen!

Button Egg

I been bitten by the crafting bug again....here is a little number I did a couple of weeks ago. I found this button egg here. It looked easy enough so I did it!

Face Plant

It was nice enough outside yesterday that I let the kids run around the yard for a bit. All was good and then Miss Zoe took a face plant on the driveway. Awesome! Can you tell she is really upset over it? The funny thing is yesterday morning I was looking at this picture of Zachary soon after he had his first face plant and then Zoe fell later in the day. Gotta love those scuffed up noses!

Dino Park

Thankfully, Joe had a Saturday off. First time in months! We almost forgot how fun he was to play with...until I'm able to snap off a picture like the one above. We went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. Zachary loved it!

The weather was nice enough to enjoy their play area.

Now that Zoe is walking all over the place I should probably invest in some shoes for the poor girl. I've been holding off for as long as possible. So grateful for the swings...that way she could play without running around in her socks.

We loved our time with Daddy! It was so much fun!

El Destructo Baby

This photo was taken just before my strong arm of a little girl broke one of the doors in half. And the funny part is that she knew she did wrong. Her bottom lip stuck out and immediately the tears started coming. LOL!

Courageous Parenting

One of the Conference talks that we will be discussing in our 4th Sunday lesson this month is Courageous Parenting by Elder Larry R. Lawrence. I've listened to this talk several times this morning. Some of the things he said that caught my attention were:

• ...parents are responsible for the protection of their children. That means spiritually as well as physically.
• ...parents who love their children cannot afford to be intimidated by them.
• Parenting is not a popularity contest.
• Sometimes we are afraid of our children-afraid to counsel them for fear of offending them.
• It is important for husbands and wives to be united when making parenting decisions.

I know that both of my children are still quite young. But Zachary specifically is a little sponge right now. It is a scary world out there with tons of unrighteous influences. And I pray that our children are never affected by Satan's tactics. I hope that Joe and I are never afraid to counsel him. I want him to know what the Spirit feels like and to be able to recognize it. I love to listen to him pray at night and say the things he does in his prayers. I want him to know that Joe and I are his parents...parents who love and care for him deeply. I know that as we counsel with the Lord as a couple regarding our children we will always do what is right. One more thing that Elder Lawrence said is the following:

"Our Church leaders have counseled us to establish righteous patterns in our homes. Consider five fundamental practices that have the power to fortify our youth: family prayer, family scripture study, family home evening, family dinner together, and regular one-on-one interviews with each child."

I know that there are some of these things that we can improve upon in our home. I am grateful for this talk. And grateful for technology that allows me to listen to it over and over. I am grateful to have been blessed with my children and pray that I can raise them to be a righteous son and daughter of our Father in Heaven.

Summer Where Are You?

Summer where are you? We want to run around in our bare feet eating lots of watermelon!

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.