It's Been a While!

I am sooooo behing on my blogging since I went back to work in August! So quickly, before the next load of laundry needs to be folded, here are some pictures to show what we have been up to!

My beautiful baby Zach will be ONE on November 10th! I cannot believe it! He is such a sweet boy! He is not walking yet, but I give him about another month and I think he will be ready! He says "Dada" all the time, but he only says "Mama" when he is crying or upset. I can't believe how light his hair looks in this picture!


My precious Klara loves going to school each day with daddy. We are extremely happy with the Lee daycare. Klara goes five days a week, and Zach goes 3 days a week and stays with Mimi the other 2 days. Klara talks our heads off and says something new everyday! She is currently obsessed with watching Mickey Mouse videos in French. I have no clue why.

We went to Memphis over fall break to visit my sister and her family. While we were there we went to a cute little pumpkin farm. The cutest thing there was not the pumpkins.....it was this adorable airplane swing that Zach loved. I have got to find one of these!


The kids all got pumpkins and we painted them when we got home....then they painted each other!

Group picture at the pumpkin farm......



We ended our fall break by having dinner with great friends. I was semi-successful with this picture. Even if the kids were not smiling, they all looked in the direction of the camera at the same time!

I tried to get a picture of Zach and his only little buddy Luke, but Luke was not too thrilled by this photo session! I think his scowl is pretty darn cute though!

Hopefully I will find more time to blog in the near future, but for now this is all folks!

Disney Vacation 2010

I never really planned on taking my kids to Disney World until they were out of strollers and diapers, but when Alex's parents wanted to take Alex and his siblings' families to Disney this summer my plans changed. Though I was dreading changing diapers and fixing bottles in the middle of Disney, we still had a fabulous time! We all stayed in The Dolphin in the Epcot Resort and loved it. We rarely see Alex's family, and this was the first time that Lori and her family met Zach. (Picture left to right...top row:my family, Lori (sis-in-law), Carmen, Julio, Juan Pablo, Jorge...bottom row: Nickole, Cristian (bro-in-law), Camilla

I was most excited about seeing Klara's expression when she saw the castle and princesses for the first time. Let me tell ya.....it was precious. She was beyond amazed when she saw the castle and the princesses. We did not see any princesses walking around the park, but we finally saw them doing a song and dance in front of the castle as we were leaving the park. Klara's face made me tear up! It was like she was seeing the most amazing thing she had ever seen in her life! Precious!




Zach was such a good baby while we strolled through the parks. Despite the BLAZING heat, he sat in his stroller and did not complain. I think he was busy watching all the little girls walking around the park dressed up like princesses! Klara joined that crowd and dressed up like Tinkerbell. She was too young to do the princess salon, but they did sprinkle some pixie dust in her hair (which is still there even though it has been almost 4 weeks since we have been home!).

Here are some random pictures from our trip!

Strolling through the park....word of advice: invest in renting a stroller AT the park because it is very hard to take the buses with stollers, babies, and bags because you have to fold your stroller up and carry it!

Zach and his ears Downtown Disney at the Lego store

Our hotel - The Dolphin
Klara and her Minnie

Beach pictures in North Port, FL

My flashers are on....move out of my way!

My flashers are on.....MOVE OUT OF MY WAY PEOPLE!!!!! Those were the words I was practically screaming at people as I drove like a crazy mamma to TC Thompson's ER last Monday. My Monday started out quite happily as I worked in my new classroom at Black Fox Elementary. My hubby stayed home with the kids and took them to the dr. to get some shots. I came home around 1:30, and Alex left for a meeting at church. Zach decided he wanted to wake up from his nap early, so we sat in the recliner and sang "Yes, Jesus Loves Zachy." This is when I noticed that Zach's eyes rolled upward and to the right for a split second. I didn't think anything of it until it happened again, and again, and again. He rolled his eyes upward about four times in the span of five minutes. I knew something was not quite right. I called his doctor's office to see if it was related to his shots. They said that it was not and that I needed to take him immediately to TC Thompson's ER to have a CT scan. That is when mommy freak-out mode started. I called Alex....no answer. I called my parent's house, and my brother answered the phone and did not know where my mom way. I pretty much hung up on him which sent him into his own frenzy since his crazy crying sister would not tell him what was going on. I finally got a hold of Alex while I was slinging things like a mad woman into the diaper bags. I woke Klara up as gently and calmly as possible, and in a sing-song voice told her it was time to put on her shoes, get a snack, and get in the car. Thankfully Alex pulled up as I was hauling the kids out the door into the car. We jumped in the car in the middle of a hurricane force downpour and started towards the ER. I had no idea how to get there so I left hysterical messages on Hollie and Jennifer's phones.....sorry girlies! I thought the fastest option of getting there was to put on my flashers and drive as fast as I could without getting arrested. I prayed the entire time that I would not pass a cop because I would not have stopped if they would have tried to follow me. I did not go over 85mph......I think. We made it to the ER and my dad met us in the parking lot to take Klara home with him. Zach got his CT scan (which was very traumatic) within about 30 minutes. We got the results about 30 minutes later. Praise God, the results were clear. There was nothing abnormal in his little brain. However, they really had no explanation for why he rolled his eyes. They said sometimes crazy things happen with vaccines, but I am not one of those overprotective vaccine people. I was not convinced. I came home and did some research on the computer. I almost immediately found a website called upgaze.org. It described a condition called paroxysmal tonic upgaze (PTU). The little babies in the videos did almost the exact same thing that Zach did, but they rolled their eyes almost constantly. Zach only did it four times, and the episodes were spaced out. I called my bff Hollie (P.A. at his doctor's office) and asked her about it. She did not know much about it and asked Zach's doctor. His doctor said that she had actually thought of PTU when I had first called the office. So.......if he does have PTU it is not really a bad thing. It is a condition that goes away around the age of 2. It does not get worse; it only gets better. If Zach rolls his eyes again (which he has not so far) then his doctor would send us to either a neurologist or an opthamologist. I emailed my friend who is an opthamologist (praise God for friends who work in medicine!), and he said that it sounded like Zach was a normally developing baby, and the fact that his CT scan was clear should give us hope that it is nothing worse than PTU. He said we should in fact pray that it was PTU rather than some other crazy brain condition that could be a lot worse. So to end this rather long story, we are praying that Zach does not have PTU or any other condition. However, if he does, then I just pray that God will be glorified in the situation and that my baby would be healed.

My beautiful boy

Sibling Love

My sweet Klara has finally started showing her sweetness to....

my sweet little Zach.

Today she actually shared her dollhouse with him! This is huge! If he manages to get one of her toys, she usually takes it away from him. I guess today was her turning point!

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

I am pretty sure this is what it means to sleep in heavenly peace. Isn't he beautiful?

Then he wakes up, but he is still beautiful!

Cannibalism

Well, I am not really a cannibal, but who could resist just eating this up? Aren't those rosy cheeks the most delicious thing you have ever seen?

Creative Discovery Museum

Last month we took Klara to a birthday party at the Creative Discovery Museum. We were able to drop Zach off with my parents at the camp ground so that I would not have to tote around his little chubby cuteness! Klara had a fantastic time playing. She was pretty scared at first, but after we played in the grocery section she really warmed up and had a great time!

Playing in the water with Jeremiah

blowing bubbles with daddy

picking veggies with daddy (why am I always the camera person?)

This was quite confusing for Klara!

Yay! I finally made it into a picture!