Zach's 8th Month...

Month 8 has been a busy month for Zach. He has finally learned how to sleep through the night... not every night, but a good majority. He has learned how to clap his hands... see the video below, he has learned how sit up without being held... see pictures below, he has learned how to get up to his knees, no crawling yet, but it I don't think it will be to terribly long. Seems like all at once he is developing all these new skills. His hair is growing fast too, I almost sent him along with Marty to get a hair cut last weekend (J/K)! Zach and his sister get a long pretty well. Mostly Zach is facinated with Gracie and will just burst out in laughs sometimes. It is pretty cute. Gracie likes Zach too, except when he gets a hold of her hair or her toys or sits on Mommy's lap... then some jealousy can come out.

One year ago...

I know I am very, very behind on my blog posting... and I was doing so good at the beginning of April. Anyways I downloaded the camera tonight and realized I have all these cute pictures of Gracie's 2 year birthday party, coloring Easter eggs, planting some trees in the yard, going to the park... the list goes on and on. My hope is to put a few of these events up, but I thought I would put the following pictures up tonight. I am sure my sisters will appreciate remembering what we all looked like 1 year ago in May 2008...

One year ago May 2008, Christy was about 8 almost 9 months pregnant, Shelly was around 6 months and I was 5 months. Christy, I am sure was completely miserable at this point, Shelly was just about to get to that point and I was in the stage that the bump was finally looking like a baby and not an excessive weight gain!

One year later and we all have the following cute bundles of joy.

Kate almost 1, Joe almost 9 months, and Zach almost 8 months.

Boy how a year can go by so fast.

Stay tuned for hopefully more postings later this week... (key word is hopefully...)

6mo and 2 yr pictures

Zachariah Martin 6 months old and Gracelyn Elizabeth 2 years old.

They grow up soo fast!

The All-Nighter

• So I am sitting here thinking... about what the term all-nighter means. I think I had my first all-nighter back in grade school when my church youth group did a lock-in at a bowling alley and we stayed up all night of course bowling, and then watching movies, eating pizza, drinking pop, eating popcorn... who knows what else. The point of course was to stay up all night.

• Then I think in high school the all-nighter may have been a post-prom party hosted by the school. Again the goal was to stay up all night doing activities such as a hypnotist show, movies, popcorn, games, ect.

• As I approached college the all-nighter started to change a little. It now could be staying up all night to study for the midterm, or it could once again be staying up with friends doing, you know, what you do in college.

• Now I am thinking what the all-nighter currently means in my life. It is very much the opposite of years past for now it means my little boy has slept ALL NIGHT and I also had the long desired pleasure of sleeping ALL NIGHT (last night) as well. Little Zachy has only done this less than a handful of times in his 6 1/2 months of life... so it is very much appreciated.
  
• So what would I rather have the crazy days of staying up all night to party and hang out with my friends or sleeping all night as my little boy sleeps. I don't know. I think it is a toss up. As I love my children dearly and wouldn't trade a million, trillion bucks for them, I do miss the carefree days of when all I had to worry about was myself. Now that I have my head thinking about this thought, I guess it really isn't that hard of a decision. I choose my all nighters that I get now. I cannot imagine for even a tenth of a second not having my Marty, Gracie, and Zachy in my life. I wouldn't trade them in a million, trillion years for that once carefree-only-worry-about-myself time.

• Thanks Zach for giving Mommy an all-nighter. You can do it again real soon, she won't mind.

Funny Gracie

I have to share this story with you all, cause it is just so cute. Gracie for the most part sleeps very well in a big bed and rarely will wake up at night. A few times she will come into our bedroom or she will wake up crying. A few times I will be sleeping in bed facing the edge and I will for some reason wake up, open my eyes, and see Gracie staring at me. That is a little disturbing, because initially it is kinda scary to wake up in the middle of the night and see someone staring at you, but also disturbing because... how long has she been standing there? Has she wondered to other places of the dark house in the middle of the night? This leads me to the adventure I had last evening and the funny part of this story, which was what I woke up to last night. My little Zachy is still enlightening me by waking up at least once a night to eat (just 3 weeks ago it was still 2 times a night!). So at 3am last night I wake up to him crying, which as I said is the usual for the night, but the unusual part was as I get up I find Gracie sitting straight up in the doggy bed that is in our room. She is wide awake, just sitting like a good little girl with her blankie. It was like she was just sitting there patiently waiting for me to wake up and find her. But this gets me thinking how long has she been waiting? Did she stand next to the bed and stare at me for a while? My only guess is she did, and when I didn't wake up she decided she would wait in the doggy bed. Luckily Willie (the dog) has been sleeping sprawled out on the floor because he is hot with his thick winter fur. What if Zachy hadn't woken me up? (I am patiently waiting for those nights). My best guess is she would have fallen asleep in the doggy bed and I would have found her in the morning all cuddled up with her blankie. Then I think, if only she would try to wake me, by touching my nose or talking a little... then I would just gladly pull her in bed with us. But no, my sweet little Gracie just sits and patiently waits. Why can't she be that patient during the day? So that is my adventure for last night. We will see what tonight brings.

Sweet Dreams My Darlings.

There is something so comforting and peaceful about watching someone sleep, especially little kids and babies, especially your own babies. As I stand there and watch my kids I think how could anyone not love a child. As I see my kids sleeping deeply it reminds me of how vulnerable and helpless they are. How much they need me. How much I need them. How much I adore them. How much I love them. They don't even know I am watching them. They don't even know I am thinking of them no matter what I am doing or where I am every day. They are mine and I am theirs forever and ever! In light of our upcoming Easter holiday... these very feelings of mine make me think of how God feels for us, his children. He is watching even though we don't realize it. He is thinking of us every minute of every day. We need Him. We are His and He is ours.

Happy Easter my dear friends.

SWEET DREAMS MY DARLINGS.

MAY GOD'S BLESSINGS AND LOVE FOREVER SURROUND YOU.

It's a Baking Sunday

This was actually a couple of Sundays ago... but I never was able to finish the page to get it posted, so I am finishing it now. The Sunday started out with the idea I had to make homemade pecan Carmel rolls. A friend of mine had posted some wonderful pictures and step-by-step instructions on her website... and I thought "I could do that" So Gracie, Zach and I were off for an adventure to make from scratch homemade Carmel rolls. I have made rolls before, but mind you it has been several, several years and at the time I had the little girl hands and my dear Grandma Sohre had the big girl hands. Amazingly I still remember some of her tricks and the way she did things. I miss those days of spending the whole day with Grandma making rolls, and of course I miss eating them! Hopefully this adventure can happen again in the Malecek home and I can pass onto my kids the treasure of making homemade rolls!

Gracie is my biggest helper. She will bring the big chair over from the dining room table all on her own and start digging into the utensil drawer. She has learned that Zach's high chair is on wheels and she can push him over to where she is to join in the fun. As you can see Zach is enjoying himself as well discovering the joy of kitchen gadgets!

It's time for Gracie to be in the highchair and actually help out.

She has learned that the best part is always sampling and licking the spoon!

Now for the prize we are trying to create.

I think I need to learn how to dissolve yeast a little better, because they didn't rise the best... but hey this is my first time by myself... so I am learning.

Rolls that are fresh from the oven. Remember these are Carmel rolls......so on to flipping them over and ta da... don't they look yummy?
Of course we had to share with Grandma Betty and Grandpa Joe so we dish up a few servings. Grandma Betty has given up sweets and rolls for lent...

but we got her to cheat a little (don't tell)!
Gracie eating her 1st homemade Carmel roll along with her dolly.

Zach will get to eat his later in the liquid breastmilk form.

So there was our Baking Sunday Adventure.

We hope we made your taste buds water!

Downloading the Camera

I was just downloading my pictures today and thought I would post some of the cute ones. Well, to be truthful they are all CUTE, but I cannot post them all. We have been enjoying the warm weather as I have said in earlier posts. I can't wait until we get a playground/swing set up out on the yard so Gracie and Zach can have more activities to do outside. Little Zach finally tuckered himself out in the Jumper!!! It's about time. This guy can jump forever.

Lots of fun in the Exersaucer.


We just started feeding Zach some solids, well about 2 weeks ago, but just in the last few days has he really took a liking for it and I think more is now going inside his tummy instead of on bib on the outside.

My cute little Gracie.

My cute little Zach showing off his tongue. He does this a lot lately... sticking out his tongue and blowing bubbles.

Both my cute little kids - it is a challenge to get them to both look at me at the same time to snap the shot... so I treasure these photos when they are both looking... not crying... not rolling over... not being naughty.

Play time with Daddy.

A visit to Great-Grandma Summers. She thought Zach was a handsome little guy.
I came to the realization the other day that my kids will not both be in diapers together forever (I hope!)... and I should treasure these moments of having two little bottoms in Pampers and Huggies! They are adorable. So here is some of the sights that Marty and I experience every evening as we get ready for the bath tub. I took some of bare bottoms too... which of course are also adorable, but not appropriate for blogging. I know, someday they both are going say "Mom, why did you ever take these pictures? I can't believe you did that."

1st Tooth

Mr. Zachariah has gotten his first tooth. I was in the process of popping through about 1 1/2 weeks ago, but this last weekend it thought it would show itself off. It is the bottom right. The bottom left is going to be coming shortly. We can see the white under the gum. Zach says "Dad... bring on the pork chops!".

Today was my day off from work and since the temps outside are so lovely we went to Ramsey park in Redwood and went for a walk. Me and the two kids in the double stroller. Gracie got to enjoy herself at the playground on the slide. She sure has grown and become more brave since last summer. She even went down the big slides by herself and of course cried when it was time to go. It is hard to believe last week on Tuesday we had a snow storm and now today I was at the park with the kids. Gotta love the great outdoors. Last evening after supper the kids and I and Grandma Betty went for a walk down the gravel road too. It is times like this that I wish I didn't have to go to work all day or that I had an outside job.

I hope every one else is enjoying the weather.

Our Entertaining Little Zach

Zach loves his Jonny-Jump-Up. He can go for what seems like forever without taking a break. You would think those little legs would get tuckered out, but oh no... they just a keep on jumping. In this clip his Big Sister is also helping him out.

You will need sound for this one. Marty can really get Zach going with his giggles and laugh.