Koby smiles

Maybe he just wont smile at the camera when I am the one holding it!

Christmas morn'

I haven't got a good excuse, I just didn't take many pictures. I only took a handful on Christmas morning and didn't take ANY pictures the rest of the day. Could be that both the kids and I were sick, my mom, sister-in-law and niece were too. Or maybe I was just too lazy. Anyway here are the pics from Christmas morning while we were opening gifts.

Steve opened this sweatband first and wouldn't take it off-finally I just gave up and took his picture with him wearing it.





It's like a Christmas miracle-Koby is smiling! We figured he would love to own that movie since he watches a DVR'd version frequently. (He also says 'gosh' and 'yes!' a lot!)Morgan was very excited about the easy bake oven-I hope to let her use it in the next day or two.

Scouts

Last week Koby earned 5 merit badges! Way to go Koby & Way to go Steve who is the scout master! I think between the 5 boys there was over 20 merit badges.

Beautiful girl

Whenever I look at Morgan I can't help but wonder how she turned out to be so beautiful. Here are some snap shots of her from the past week.




Just a few side notes: First thing she said after she got done talking to Santa, "fake". Second picture-we were waiting for scouts to start and had gotten there early-she suggested I take a few pictures of her, not just Koby who was getting merit badges. Third picture-taken at the Bar J Wrangler concert, which she loved. She was freaking out because of the Santa that was roaming around and she was mad at me because we didn't move higher so he wouldn't come near us. Again she used the word, "fake". She said she loves the real Santa just not the fake ones. I tried to tell her that they are not fake, they are Santa's helpers because he is so busy.

Family pic Dec 2010

If you read this blog, then the newsletter below will be old news. Maybe boring even. But I didn't want anyone to feel bad for not getting a Christmas card/newsletter from us.

Holiday card:
Zabriskie Family 2010

Another year is nearly over and our lives are busier than ever-but in all of the madness of rushing from place to place, we have much to be grateful for and we know we’re blessed. One of our greatest blessings is that we’re able to announce that we will be adding a baby girl to our family in March! We are all so excited to meet and love this new little one.

This year we were able to take a few family vacations. In June we went to Idaho for Becky’s grandfather’s funeral. Although it was a sad event it was very nice to visit family that we rarely see. This was also a great chance for us to meet our new nephew/cousin Colt, for the first time. We also got to spend a weekend with the Zabriskie family at a cabin in Northern Utah. We spent the entire time swimming, boating, fishing, riding 4-wheelers and playing games. In July Becky got to go to Denver for work and was able to convince Steve to come along for the whole week. Their favorite part of the trip was the King Tut exhibit at the art museum-where they spent hours exploring. While they were gone, the kids spent the week getting spoiled by Gramma and Papa!

Morgan is in Kindergarten this year and she loves it! She is learning so fast-she loves to sound out and write words, sentences and stories. She loves to ride the bus and has made a lot of new friends. This year Morgan got to take swimming lessons, dance classes and play soccer. She is so excited to be a big sister-with huge plans of dressing up and playing with her new little sister.

Koby is a very busy teenager. This year he graduated from elementary school and is now in Jr. High. He is learning to play the cello in his orchestra class. This year Koby also got to spend a week at scout camp and go on several bike trips-working up to a 50 mile ride with Steve and the other 12-14 yr old scouts. He is getting ready for basketball season which starts in January.

Becky stays busy with her family and church callings. She spends her free time reading, taking pictures and keeping the whole family organized. In March she took on the project of painting the kitchen and a bedroom, making our home look even nicer.

Steve has run in several 5k races this year and continues to improve his time each race. He’s working hard at living healthy and is a great example of perseverance. He is still the scout master in our ward which keeps him extremely busy. He really enjoyed all of the bike rides and campouts this summer.

We hope that you all have a great holiday season filled with love, laughter, friends and family! Happy Holidays! Steve, Becky, Koby & Morgan

Double digits!

Just looked at the side bar that shows how many days left in my pregnancy...it is no longer triple digits! Whoo-hoo! I really needed some good news, it's starting to feel like I will be pregnant forever. Sadly, I am not one of those women who love being pregnant, which may explain why we have only two children-soon to be three.

Concerts

On Thursday night we got to attend the MJHS orchestra winter concert. It was pretty cool to see Koby up on stage playing his cello.



Then on Saturday, mean mom that I am, I volunteered Koby to play his cello for the family Christmas talent show-he did great. Thanks to his cousin Alysheah who played the piano so that he wouldn't have to do it alone. There was over 100 Zabriskies at this party!

Cute Peyton

On Tuesday night Morgan and I watched Peyton. (My 2 year old niece.)

She climbed up on my lap, patted my stomach and said "baby". I thought it was incredibly adorable.

It wasn't quite so adorable, when she next patted one of my breasts and said, "baby" again. I hope she isn't expecting 3 babies to pop out of me in March.

Christmas busyness

We are in the middle of getting everything ready for Christmas. We put up our tree on Friday night. I thought the kids were going to die of impatience while waiting to get it "finally" up. Steve actually brought all of the decorations into the house on Thanksgiving but we were not all home at the same time until Friday night.

This week we have four Christmas parties! That is in addition to Koby's 2 basketball practices, an orchestra concert, scouts, my meeting and basketball for Steve, work and school-can you understand why I am tired? And that isn't even using the pregnancy card.

I do love the holidays, the parties, food, family, decorations, lights, nativities, secret santa, music, etc. I just wish that I had a little elf fairy that could visit for the holidays. I could just lounge on the couch offering my advise and tips and our little friend could do the work.

"Take my picture"

Morgan loves to have her picture taken. So this weekend after I bought myself a new camera, she offered to let me try it out by taking many pictures of her. Here are a few...






Also on Sunday she let me do ringlets in her hair-she looked so adorable! Well, even more so than normal!

Must hurt to smile

I sure love this guy! The other day Koby's friend Jose came over to our house. Steve invited him in and told him to go into the kitchen where Koby was cooking dinner. You should have seen the size of Jose's eyes! He was so shocked. As soon as he got into the kitchen his first question was, "Koby you can cook dinner?" He was so impressed. Koby seemed to be pretty proud of himself-so maybe I am not just a mean mom that makes him cook dinner once a week. He probably still doesn't understand why I want him to be able to cook, clean, do laundry when he leaves home.

Babysitting tips

Lately Morgan has been playing her own version of house. She loves to pretend to be the mom, her stuffed cow is her husband, they have a couple of kids and I am the grandma who needs to watch the kids. On Tuesday night she decided she and her husband needed a night out, so she brought her two children over to my house. She took the many things out of her bag-bottles, diapers, bibs, blankets. I told her she could just lay the babies down at the end of the couch since they were asleep and I was watching TV. Morgan and her husband decided to go out to the movies, which meant that she set up the DVD player in the kitchen and watched the Bee movie.

In the mean time I had to run Koby and several young men to the church for their activity. While getting my coat on she said, "Don't forget you are babysitting!" I told her to just tell her dad to listen for them and I would be right back.

After her movie was over she came "home" to see that her babies were still sleeping on the couch. Needless to say, she was a little ticked off at me.

"Mom you can't just let them sleep the whole time!"

WOW! I am a huge failure as a babysitting grandma-thankfully I have a lot of time to hone my skills.

Unconventional gratitude

Only one more week until my favorite holiday! I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving-just like every year. A lot of people have been blogging or facebooking something that they are grateful for everyday and I really meant to do that too but I failed and I don't want to try to come up with a good excuse-I was just lazy. BUT, that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about all of the wonderful blessings in my life.

There are all the usual-Family, friends, home, Savior, church family, gospel, scriptures, jobs, freedom, our baby, education, good schools & good friends for our children, good health, music, etc.

But recently I had an eye opening experience. We also need to be grateful for the not so good things in our lives. My brother Matt, gave the following examples:

1. I don't like doing dishes but a sink of dirty dishes means that we had food to eat and I am grateful for that.

2.I don't like my husband sitting on the couch watching football games all the time but I am grateful that he is there rather than out at a bar somewhere.

So Now I am going to try some unconventional gratitude of my own.

I am grateful that I have been sick for the past 22.5 weeks because that means that I am still pregnant and that my baby is alive and healthy. I am grateful that I have been throwing up, nauseous, tired and miserable because it means that in another 17.5 weeks I will have a new baby to hold, cuddle and love.

I am grateful for a mortgage payment because that means we have a nice warm home to live in. We are safe, warm and protected in our home. I am grateful that it often becomes messy because that means we feel comfortable living in our home.

I am grateful that Steve and I have to go to work M-F because that means that we have money and insurance and are able to provide for our needs. I am grateful that Morgan gets to go to a great babysitter while we are at work because that means even more people get to teach and love her. Others get to see what a wonderful girl she is.

I am grateful for church callings that keep us busy because we get a chance to serve people, to learn about them and to love them. It gives us an opportunity to show our Heavenly Father that we are willing to serve his children. It also keeps us too busy to get into trouble!

I am grateful for Koby's ornery teenage attitude because it means that he is exploring and learning who he is. He is learning to stand on his own and figuring out who he will be. I am also grateful that teenage years will eventually come to an end and getting through them will help us to appreciate and love each other even more.

I am grateful for Morgan's homework and that it requires adult help everyday. Helping her with her homework has helped us to develop a better relationship and I love watching her learn and explore new things. It also means that she goes to a good school and will get a good education. It shows her how important gaining knowledge and getting an education is to me.

I could probably go on forever but this is enough for you to see a glimpse of what I learned this past week. I truly am blessed and loved.

I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving and holiday season.

Proof that teenagers still have stuff to learn

Yesterday on our way home from Grandma's house we were talking about the baby and when she will come home.

Koby asked, "What happens if the baby just comes out while you are sleeping?" Gotta say it would be a bit easier to just wake up with a perfect baby in your arms.

Then he later asked,"How did you have time to take me to Karla & Faran's house before Morgan was born."

I had to explain that the birthing process isn't quite that fast-at least not in my experience.

I really figured that he knew all of this from when Morgan was born but I guess he doesn't really remember and I haven't shared my horror child birth stories with him-much to his relief I am sure!

Big sis

Morgan is so ecstatic about becoming a big sister. She talks about it daily, if not hourly.

(As a side note-I am sure that Koby is excited too, but he is a teenager and a boy and so he keeps his emotions a bit more subdued about the whole thing.)

Anyway, Morgan was so excited to call people and tell them that the baby is a girl. Here she is walking around the room, sharing her news with her cousins.

Morgan has a lot of plans for this little girl-she wants to pick out her clothes, take her shopping, paint her nails, do her hair and makeup. She would like for them to having matching hair sometimes. (I did tell her that if the baby is like her, it will probably not have any hair for several years-but she said that was ok, she would wait.) She wants the baby to play barbies with her. Morgan is actually excited to share her room, we'll see how long that lasts.

Another interesting thing that Morgan has been doing is sticking dolls under her shirt and pretending she is pregnant-and it's not always only one baby-triplets are her favorite. Then after the "pregnancy" she has to take care of the babies and I get a lot of practice babysitting them. She also enjoys coming up with new names for her babies.

I know that she will be a great big sister!

Halloween pics-finally

I was having some problems downloading pictures but finally here are pictures of my kids from Halloween 2010.

Morgan is a fairy (costume created with dress up clothes that we all ready owned) and Koby was a nerd.

Our baby

Yesterday we got to see our little baby girl. Yep, that's right, another girl!

Morgan has been going around with this little superior "I told you so!" attitude.

I was so relieved that everything was perfectly normal. I was so paranoid that something would go wrong. We did find out that she is a bit stubborn and doesn't like being told what to do-I think she will fit right in at our home. =) She was curled up right behind my belly button and she just wouldn't move, no matter what the ultra-stenographer did. But he was patient and we got to see everything we needed to know that she is developing perfectly!

Half way

Today I am 20 weeks pregnant! What a milestone-half way there!

Tomorrow we are scheduled for an ultrasound-I can't wait! I just want a licensed professional to tell me that my baby is perfect and developing just right. With this pregnancy I have been way more paranoid-I am claiming it is because of the miscarriage I had earlier this year and that it has nothing to do with me getting older and more like my grandmother-the habitual worrier.

We are also hoping to find out if the baby will be wearing pink or blue. I have been asked frequently if we are going to wait and be surprised-these people must not know me very well. I am the queen of planning ahead. As soon as I can know, I have to know. I have so much to do to get things ready for this little one.

I do have to say that seeing on the sidebar that I still have 140 more days to go is a little depressing. BUT, I am trying to be positive and remember that before I know it, this little baby will be here, and growing up just as fast as my other children.

Smart girl

The other day Morgan was complaining of a sore throat. I kept trying to get her to drink water or juice.

Out of the blue, she says, "It feels good when you swallow your pride."

I was kind of in awe-I mean how many 5 years would you hear say that?

Then I realized she meant that when she swallowed her spit it helped her throat feel better.

Koby's 13th

Today my little baby boy turns 13-it's hard to believe how fast he has grown up. We spent the weekend celebrating. We never can seem to celebrate the kid's birthdays on just one day!

Koby asked to have a few friends sleep over on Friday night,(I am told it's not called a sleep-over but a bro's night-thanks for the info Jenna-I gotta try and stay cool!) a few ended up being six additional teenage boys. We fed them pizza, root beer floats, chips and licorice-really healthy food, I mean look at all of the food groups we hit! They played night games outside at the park and played a lot of X-box and watched a movie. We are lucky that Koby has such good friends. They stayed up very late and got up very early. So Koby spent most of Saturday looking like this...

On Sunday evening we invited family over for cake and ice cream. We are lucky to be surrounded by so much family that love him. He got some awesome gifts and we did our best to embarrass him. This is the cake that I sliced into before remembering to take a picture.



After everyone left we gave Koby one of his gifts since he had picked it out himself and he wanted to wear it to school today. Morgan is trying to do "heavy, heavy hang over thy poor head".


Anyway we are so glad to have Koby in our family! I hope that you have a great day, Koby! I love you!

Halloween fun run

On Saturday night Steve ran in a 5K. The race started at 7PM and went through parts of American Fork-including several roads through the cemetery. A lot of the runners dressed in costume-which we loved checking out.



It had rained all day long but thankfully it cleared up during the race and we just had to contend with the cold rather than the cold and the rain. The kids and I waited in the car until just before the starting time and then sat back in the car until we saw the runners getting close to the finish. Steve improved his time again and had a great time. We are very proud of him! The after-shot:

After we got home we made some warm cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate to get us warmed up.

crazy hair day & choc puddin'

Today was crazy hair day at Morgan's school. We decided to do several "popcorn balls" on her head. She sure looked adorable and my lack of hair dressing skills actual was beneficial in this instance!


The other day while watching Peyton we had chocolate pudding. I couldn't help taking a couple of pictures of her. It is always so fun to have her in our home!

Life is too short

Life is too short and too unpredictable.
We should not wait for a tragedy to strike to realize how much we love our loved ones.
We should never wait until it's too late to tell people how much we care about them.
Life is too short.
It's unpredictable and we may not have the time later to do all the things we meant to do.
I wish that it didn't take something so tragic for another family for me to remember how blessed I am.

Favs from the "fall photo shoot"

I forced my kids to smile and look adorable for a little photo shoot-they should be used to it, I do it all the time. Here are my favorites.





The first one below I love just because both kids have real smiles.




The walking away shot...

Awards at school

At Morgan's school, once a month they have an awards ceremony. Each teacher gets to choose a scholar of the month & citizen of the month from their class. They also get to pick two other "special awards" which can be anything from learned how to listen to always smiling. Morgan got an award last week for being a great helper in class. We are so proud! Way to go Morgan.