Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures taken over the last month or so. I haven't been very good lately at posting... seems there is never enough time in the day! Zach is growing so fast. Gracie is saying more and more words everyday, we can actually communicate quite well. Enjoy the pictures.

Gracie trying to brush her hair!

Cousin Sebastien

Gracie, Zach, Sebastien

Grandpa Sohre and his two smallest boys, Zach and Joe

Zach scooting

Zach can scoot on his back... it is so cute. He sure is a kicker. His legs are constantly going. In this clip he was laying on a blanket until he got going. He probably scooted 4-5 ft!

Visit to Pittsburgh

Last weekend from Saturday to Tuesday the Malecek crew made a trip to Pittsburgh, PA to visit Marty's sister Lisa and her family, Mick, Bridgette, and Miller. We went via plane and amazingly the flights went fairly well. Both Gracie and Zach fell asleep for about an hour on both flights. Our visit with the Mekkelsen's was lots of fun. It was warmer there, about 50's or so. We went on some walks outside, got to watch a couple of basketball games of Miller's (he is in 6th grade), ride the incline to see the big city from up above, eat some good meals made by Lisa and Mick, the kids played with Miller and his friend Jeremy, and just did a lot of good hanging out and visiting at their home.

As I am posting these pictures the blog won't let me rearrange them for some reason, so they are out of order, but I think you will get the idea.

This is the little cart you ride in for the incline.

The city of Pittsburgh, where the three rivers combine. It was kind of a foggy day.Auntie Lisa and Zach.
Auntie Lisa playing with Gracie. Mick watching in the background.

Gracie and Miller eating suckers.

At the top of the incline ride. Lisa, Zach, Gracie, and Terri.

The ride to the top of the incline. Mick, Gracie, Marty, Lisa, Zach.

No more kisses Auntie Lisa!!!

Miller & Jeremy playing with Gracie and Zach.

Tagged - How Fun!

I’ve been tagged to play along with this game! Here are the rules:

1. go to your documents/pictures file on your computer

2. go to your 6th file

3. go to your 6th picture

4. post and blog about it

5. tag 6 people to do the same

6. smile!





How fun... This was our dog Willie and my sister Shelly's dog Colby in Dec. 2006. Colby came to live with us that year cause Shelly ended up in an apt. building that did not allow dogs. We had a lot of fun taking care of him. Willie and Colby would fight and play all the time. Other things about this photo... Marty and I were at our first house we lived in on the farm. It seems forever ago that all we had was two dogs... not two kids. At the time of the photo I was probably 5-6 months pregnant with Gracie. Now look at us just two years later... new house, new job, two new kids, no more Colby... but we still have good'ol Willie!!

I can't tag anyone, cause the two blogs that I look at have already been tagged, but I thought it would be fun to do the reminiscing about the photo.

Zach rolling over

I finally caught Zach on video rolling over. He didn't quite get his hand out on this clip but usually he does and then after a minute or so he will cry, because he does not like to lay on his tummy. Then I roll him back ... then he rolls to his tummy again... then he crys... Crazy kid!

Zachariah 3 months

Here are a few of the pictures we had taken of Zach on January 3rd. He was 3 months old.

Updates

Hi Everyone-
I haven't posted anything in quite some time. 2009 has been off to a busy start. Just days before Christmas I found out I was to be hired by Willmar Medical Services in the Willmar Diabetes Center as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. I started December 29th, which was quite sudden. So my maternity leave was shorted a little, but I guess worth it because I now am doing a job that I want to do with much better hours and schedules. I am working 32 hours a week with Tuesday being my day off. The sad part is our kids having to be in daycare so much and me not getting to spend as much time with them. I very much enjoyed my 3 months home with the kids. Gracie is learning so much and of course Zach is growing fast as well... which leaves me the main reason for this post... he is officialling rolling over from back to tummy. He did it randomly a couple of times in the last week, but today (my day off!) he did it like 10 times! I guess he wanted to wait till I was home to witness it all. What a good kid he must have known I was having a hard time going back to work and leaving him and his sister so much. I tried to capture it on video, but of course then he wouldn't do it. I'll have to keep trying. We had 3 month pictures taken of him of which I don't have ready to show off, so hopefully in the next few days I can share some pictures.

Well-baby checks

We had doctor check-ups for both kids today. 18 month visit for Gracie, of which she is actually 20 months old right now, and 2 month check for Zachariah.

Her are the stats for both:

Gracie:
WT: 22lbs 8 oz --- 15 percentile
HT: 32 in --- 39 percentile

Zach:
WT: 13 lbs 12 oz --- 91 percentile
HT: 24 in --- 86 percentile

Just to compare Zach to Gracie -at her 2 mo check up she was:
WT: 10 lbs 12 oz (50 percentile)
HT: 23 1/2 in (80 percentile)

They both got shots too... poor babies of mine. They cry so hard when those nasty nurses come in with those terrible needles. Gracie goes "owiee" and holds her thigh on the way out of the clinic. Fortunately I think she has already forgotten about it and Zach is sleeping right now, so hopefully they don't bother him to much tonight or tomorrow. They check out to be a healthy baby and toddler.

Giggle Giggle

Zach has started to giggle! It is so cute. Marty can get him going the best and I caught a little bit of it on the video below.

Another New Nephew

We welcomed another Nephew, Sebastien, to our family on November 18th. This is Marty's sister Debbie's baby. He weighed 6 lbs 15oz (I think, or something around there). I wanted to get these pictures up right after I took them, which was a week and a half ago, but time again has slipped away. In these pictures Sebastien is 1 week old, Zach is 8 weeks old, and Gracie just about 20 months old. Zach looks like a Moose compared to Sebastien. As you can see in the bottom picture Zach has started to smile and we even got a giggle out of him the other day! It is so precious. He is growing up sooo fast already! I think he is going to outgrow Gracie by spring time.

So we are finally to the conclusion of our baby additions to the families this year:
June - My sister Christy's baby Kate
August - My sister Shelly's baby Joe
October - Our baby Zach
Novemeber - Marty's sister Debbie's baby Sebastien
It has been quite the year. Hopefully next year won't be as eventful.

Zachariah's Baptism

I know this is kinda late... but time slips away sometimes... well all the time.

Baptism is such an important event in Zach's life and

I wanted to be able to share pictures with everyone.

Zach was baptized on October 18, 2008 at our church in Redwood Falls. We did it at the 5:30pm service on a Saturday. He was 2 weeks old. Zach's Aunt Shelly and Uncle Kevin are his sponsors. Zach slept through the entire sermon, which was before the baptism, and then about a minute before the baptismal party goes up to the front of the church Zach's eyes open and I knew we were in for a singing from Zach. He cried the entire time we were up front. His poor tummy was hungry! After the service we had a gathering at our house to celebrate.

Grandma Betty crocheted this beautiful baby blanket for Zach.

WELCOME TO GOD'S FAMILY ZACHARIAH!!!

Halloween Fun!

Last Friday for Halloween Marty was busy catching up on things on the farm so I took my troops to Christy's house by Mankato to go trick-n-treating with her 4 kids and their neighbor friends. It was a beautiful evening and the kids had a blast. I don't think Gracie really understood the concept of going up to people's houses but she loved wearing her FROG costume and of course she loved the candy. It is funny how kids develop a liking for chocolate so young!

We started the afternoon going to the nursing home to visit the

kid's Great-Grandma Summers.
Then we ate pizza with Christy's neighbor friends and then off to the streets of Eagle Lake to collect that candy. Oftentimes Gracie would get candy in her bucket and then, the nice girl she is, would offer it to everyone else. She didn't understand it was for her! She also would start sucking on the wrapper of the candy until she got a hole in the wrapper and then chocolate would leak out for her to eat. Finally we got smart and gave her a sucker.
Carter was the fearless Cowboy who willingly pulled his sister Paige and Gracie around in the red wagon. Thanks Carter!

This is Zach's outfit for the evening.
His shirt says "I Luv My Mummy"Then Saturday night the Daly's had a birthday party for 3 of their kids. Costumes were required. We again had lots of fun with the cousins. They are all so cute.
I say Spenser wins the prize for best costume. He was a Pirate.
Me and my troops. I was a surgeon and I recruited Shelly to be part of my OR crew. We had a tough case that night, we hit a couple of bleeders, but I think the patient will make it. It will be critical for the next 24 hours. I let you know.

MN First Snow Fall of the Year

I woke up this morning and Marty says... "It snowed outside, like 2 inches." I look out and it is one of those beautiful picture perfect snowfalls, with the snow clinging to the trees. Of, course early November may be a little early for snow, but if you look past that and see the beauty of the snow... then it is very enjoyable. I thought some of you ex-MN people would enjoy seeing this too, so I have posted a few pictures that I took this morning... some before the sun was fully up.

When Gracie woke up this morning I took her to the patio door to look out at the snow and the first thing she says is "oh, oh" ... as in "what happened out there?" I don't think she remembers snow from last year and I don't think we ever really even played in it since she was still small and not even walking yet. So after the day got going and I rounded up Grandma Betty to watch Zach for me I took Gracie out to play in that pretty snow. She wasn't to sure what I was going to do with that sled at first, but once I started pulling her around I think she decided she liked it. It was a fun time for both of us.