Zach turns 2!

I can't believe this little Zach of mine turned 2 this month! He still seems like a baby to me. For his birthday, he woke up to balloons! He loves balloons!

Emmy helped him open his presents (aka...open them herself). He wasn't too interested anyway. Then Emmy proceeded to color in his new coloring book that she picked out for him.

Zach just liked taking the crayons out of the box and putting them back in.

He loved his balloons!

Eventually he decided to play with his presents.

At 2 years old, Zach:

-still can't/won't talk (we started speech therapy with him)
-still won't sleep through the night consistently
-loves to play chase
-loves breakfast and eats a ton of it and won't eat the rest of the day unless it's pizza or yogurt
-loves stroller rides
-is always trying to get in the car to let us know he wants to go somewhere
-calls everything a "dee" or just grunts
- loves his puppy and carries it around like a Linus blanket
-also loves his binkie (which is going to be torture to wean him off of it)
-likes to watch Dora with Emmy
-loves baths and loves to wear his towel on his head after he's done
-loves his dad
-loves to play in the drinking fountain at church
-loves to open and close things
-has the best hair and eyelashes

He is in the 75% for height and 45% for weight.

Anyway, happy birthday to our Zach-man! Now please let us sleep!

Escapees

Emmy has learned how to unlock and open the door and the garage door. Oh boy! During Conference, Emmy had let both her and Zach outside and they were running down the street in their pjs! What sillies. Speaking of conference, Emmy was so excited for "the President Monson show". She did really well at listening for the most part.

And Zach's new favorite thing to do is run over to the neighbor's house and knock on the door and peek in the window.

Good thing he's so cute. I love those chubby little cheeks of his!

I'm glad that they are starting to play better together. They got flashlights one day and played in the closet shining their flashlights in the dark.

Witches

We love to go to Gardner Village for the annual Witches scavenger hunt. We took Emmy's friend along this time, and they had a ball!

Their favorite part was getting up on this pumpkin stage and dancing to the Halloween music!

Emmy would never have done that if it weren't for her friend. I'm glad she had fun and came out of her shell a little!

Hiking

We took the kids on their first "hike" last weekend. I have really missed hiking, and with the possibility of us moving to a non-mountainous region, I wanted to at least try and take the kids. I picked one that looked pretty easy and short: Cecret Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Well, we never made it to the Cecret Lake trailhead, but instead found a little trail with some fun rocks for the kids to climb on.

Emmy LOVED it! She was climbing all over the place and having a ball. Until it was time to turn around. Then she pouted the whole way back to the car. What a stinker!

Zach had a blast walking on the trail and examining the stuff on the edges. He has started calling everything a "dee" (whatever that means) so he would point at every tree, bush, flower, rock, weed, etc. and yell out "dee!" But he had fun too.

It was a gorgeous day in Little Cottonwood Canyon, and I'm so glad my kiddos enjoyed the "hike". I'm determined to find more short, easy hikes to take them on before it snows.

Pumpkin patch!

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch last week for FHE. It was fun as usual. Emmy was very serious about picking out her pumpkin. She tried lifting this one for several minutes before consenting to let Dad put it in the wheelbarrow.

She didn't really love the tractors.

But Zach thought they were the greatest thing ever!

He had the time of his life driving those tractors.

He cried when it was time to get off.

But the corn maze made up for it. They both loved it, although Zach kept trying to go straight through the corn and not stay on the path!

Emmy wanted to go through the corn maze over and over. After the 5th time, we finally said it was time to go. She pouted and cried that she couldn't go again.

Me and my honey in the corn maze!

Another fun year at the pumpkin patch.

Everyday moments

Just some random everyday moments!

Emmy loves to color on this coloring app Matt downloaded for the tablet. So does Zach.

Zach has turned into quite the little climber. He was so proud of himself for getting up there.

One day Emmy was dancing around with this bear and singing. It was pretty cute.

And then she gave the bear a checkup.

Bedtime stories. Emmy thinks that now that she's 4, she needs 4 books at bedtime.

Zach loves to drop these frisbees on the kitchen floor and listen to the sounds they make. He used to do this when he was younger too.

And nothing like having a dinner of chicken nuggets on the laundry room floor. That was a long day.

Dress ups!

When the Ogden Temple was rededicated a few weeks ago, we did a babysitting swap with our neighbors so Matt and I could go together. When the McDonald kids came over to our house while their parents went to the dedication, they had a blast playing dress ups!

They kept changing outfits and wanting us to take pictures of them in each one.

What sillies!

It was a fun time! And it was really nice to be able to go to the dedication together!

Singing in the rain!

We had a couple of good rainstorms a few weeks ago. Emmy and her friend really wanted to go play in the rain one day. They had a blast! They ran and sang and jumped and splashed.

Of course Emmy was wearing her wonder woman cape and her friend was wearing a Snow White dress.

Then they came in and said they needed hats and mittens, and proceeded to go back out and jump in the gutter.

They had so much fun!

Lakes, mountains, and farms

One Sunday afternoon we took a drive up to Silver Lake. The kids had fun climbing and exploring!

We also went to Wheeler Farm another day. Zach had the time of his life being able to wander around and see the animals! It was the first time I didn't bring the stroller for him, and he loved it!

They especially loved the goats. I love it when outings go well. Because sometimes they are a disaster! Like when we went to the aquarium last week and Zach just screamed the whole time!