Archive for February, 2008

All in a day’s work

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Zeke has already established a good daily balance of work, play, and rest.

After breakfast, Zeke helps with the dishes…

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Before lunch, he takes motorcycle lessons from his daddy…

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In between naps, Zeke catches up on his reading…

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And also periodically checks to see if Daddy’s chair tastes as yummy as it looks…

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After dinner he sweeps the floor…

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And makes sure he takes a 2 minute drink break…

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Before bed, he inspects the oven drawer to make sure all of the pots and pans are out on the kitchen floor…

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“Yep, all out now”

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Then, to the great appreciation of his parents, Zeke sleeps through the night (usually) until his next big day filled with more work, play, and rest…

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Zeke and his phones

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Zeke is really into phones, and when he doesn’t have a phone, he invents one.

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the spoon phone

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the maraca phone

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the mini boom box phone

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mommy’s phone

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the shoe phone

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the bumble bee phone

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the wireless mouse phone

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the real phone

He’s so cute, he’ll put things by his ear and laugh and talk to them. He loves to talk to Grandma on the phone, but he gets so excited and pushes the buttons and hangs up on her!

Runt of the litter

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

Well, it’s official, I am the shortest one in my family already. We went to my parents’ home last week and I noticed my youngest brother Carlin was getting tall. He’s 13, and I didn’t think he would pass me up so soon. Out of my 8 siblings, I will be the shortest from now on, which is ok :)

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(Jimmy tilted the camera to make Carlin look taller in this one)

Busy boy!

Monday, February 18th, 2008

Zeke is learning all sorts of fun things lately. While I was changing his diaper, he figured out how to get the lid off of his Gerber baby puffs. He tried to drink from the can once he opened it, and was shocked when he a big pile of puffs came out all over his face. I had to hurry and wash my hands (and of course take a few pictures) before I could help him clean them up and zip up his jammies.

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Soon after, he found his formula can that we keep in his diaper bag. He knew exactly what to do with it, and he was even faster this time!

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I love this one because you can see just how busy Zeke is. He loves opening the dishwasher and playing with it, but soon he’ll get bored and move on to the oven drawer and pull out all of the pots and pans, and finally, he’ll attempt to open the bottom drawer, (which has a safety lock on it) and try to get out all of the treasures he sees in there. I’m afraid it won’t be long before he’ll have the safety locks figured out too. Tonight he learned how to climb over our banana chair blockade that we keep in front of his bathroom door. He’s one smart little guy!

¡Amor!

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Pictures for Valentine’s Day…

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This was our engagement picture. I had braces at the time, luckily I got them off one week before our wedding!

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October 10, 2003

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I never pictured myself having an October wedding, but it worked out beautifully.

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This was right around our first anniversary. My high school is big into alumni, and each year they would invite alumni cheerleaders to come back and cheer for the homecoming football game, it was really fun. I love this one of Jimmy!

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This was our official honeymoon in Hawaii. We got married during fall 2003 semester, so we didn’t go on a long honeymoon until May 2004. We set our camera on a pole, and put it to self-timer mode, and we were both surprised the picture turned out.

Z family Valentine Party

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Last Saturday we had a fun Valentine’s party at Zeke’s Grandma and Grandpa Z’s house. We went sledding, made Valentines, and frosted sugar cookies.

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Dad Z, Mom Z, and Dallin. Jimmy’s dad made these chair ski sleds, they were so much fun! At first I was thinking it would tip over, but they never did.

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Mike, Jimmy, and Zeke going down on the chair

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Zeke was too tired to get excited about the snow.

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Rachael showing her homemade valentines

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I loved this one that Kristin made for Zeke. The arrow through the heart is a glow stick.

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Zeke’s favorite part was being the taste tester for the sugar cookies

Picture Tag

Monday, February 11th, 2008

I was tagged by Erin to do a picture post with my 10 favorite pictures. It’s been really hard to choose, considering I have over 6,000 pictures since Zeke was born! I tried to pick some that I haven’t posted on my blog before. They aren’t in a specific order, I love them all, it would be way too hard to sort them in order numerically. These are a few of my favorites, but I feel like I could have posted hundreds of others… Zeke is just so cute!

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I love this one because it reminds me of his sealing and blessing days, and he looks like an angel

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I took this one just last week, I love how Zeke’s screaming so big you can see his uvula!

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A day we’ll cherish forever, this was just minutes after placement, look how perfect Zeke is!
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Zeke at 6 months. He always wanted to be independent and feed himself, and he was so happy whenever he was able to. He has mush in his nose, but he’s still having a great time!

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I love this one of Sam and Zeke! Zeke was only one month old, and it looks like he kissing Sam back!

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Zeke in Hawaii at 3 months old. What a funny guy!

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This is Jimmy when he was little. He idolized “Mr. T” who was black, and so one day he tried to color his skin black with magic markers.

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This is little Jimmy too, he was a good sport to be the reindeer and pull his older brother Dave like Santa.
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Zeke at five months old. I love seeing him in little jammies that show off his cute chubby legs!

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This was the first morning after our first day and night with little Zeke. Jimmy and I had taken turns staying up the whole night with Zeke to make sure he didn’t disappear (he seemed to good to be true!) It was so wonderful to wake up to such a darling sight! I love how Zeke’s tiny hand is up by his chin.

Thanks for the tag Erin, it was fun to go back through my pictures again.

Now I need to tag 5 people, I’ll tag: Janae, Leslie, Jennifer, Kim H, and Whelmar

Play group at the Dino Playland

Friday, February 8th, 2008

Thanks Stephanie for planning a play day, we had a great time!

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Zeke and Jack

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Zeke and Kaitlyn trying to sneak away. Kaitlyn is Zeke’s first kiss, he kissed her on Sunday!

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Dax looks so tough in this picture

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Zeke looking back to see if he made it away without being caught

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Zeke loved coming next door to look at this shop

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Zeke stole this poor little girl’s waffle fry, I didn’t know if I should make him give it back or not because he immediately shoved it in his mouth. Luckily the girl’s parents just thought it was funny, the little girl doesn’t look like she thought it was funny though :-)

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Later, Zeke’s cousin Dallin came to play too while his parents went on a date

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home again with his buddy Dallin

From God’s Arms, To My Arms, To Yours

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

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There’s a new book out by Michael Mclean titled “From God’s Arms To My Arms To Yours”. It is a collection of adoption songs that he has written, with pictures and commentary before each song, and it comes with a CD of the songs. Jimmy and I have enjoyed listening to the CD.

A year ago this month we got the news of a lifetime when we found out we had been selected by a birthmother! We met with our caseworker at LDS Family Services one evening, and it was then that we received the sweetest little scrapbook from Zeke’s birthmom, Samantha, announcing we were going to have a baby boy! In the scrapbook, Sam included the lyrics of “From God’s Arms, to My Arms, to Yours”. This song has such a special meaning to Jimmy and me because of that experience. A month later little Ezekiel James was born! Zeke was the most darling newborn we had ever seen, every feature was so perfect and precious! After placement, (which is when adoptive parents receive their baby), it was very surreal holding little Zeke and knowing that we were finally parents! We had waited over 3 years for our little bundle of joy, but believe me, while we were waiting, it felt like decades! Some days it seemed as though us being able to be parents was only a fairy-tale fantasy.

In Michael Mclean’s book, there are some new songs that are really nice, one that I especially like is called, “Something Perfect”. It’s from the perspective of an adoptive parent, and it’s about the day when they receive their baby.

Something Perfect

There’s an ache that’s missing today
There’s an emptiness that’s been filled
There’s a cloud that’s lifted and drifting away
There’s a raging storm that’s been stilled
There’s a joy that’s real
There’s a wound that’s finally healed
There’s a future replacing the past
There’s breath of new life in a cast

And there’s something perfect happening here
And this moment will bury the mountains of fear
And through countless tomorrows it won’t disappear
This something that’s perfect happening here

No one knows, so no one can say
That tomorrow all will be well
Will the brightest promise that shines on today
Shine tomorrow? No one can tell

But one thing is sure
And will be forever more
When such unselfish love has been given
The world just made more room for Heaven

And there’s something perfect happening here
And this moment will bury the mountains of fear
And through countless tomorrows it won’t disappear
This something that’s perfect happening here

I love “Something Perfect” because I think it captures a lot of the feelings we had when we were placed with Zeke. Life now had so much more meaning, and there was a new hope for the future. The constant ache in my heart was gone. It was so painful wanting so much to be a mother, but not knowing when, or if that would ever happen. It was as if in an instant all of my internal longing and emptiness, was taken away when I held my baby boy.

It’s amazing how much unselfish love is involved with adoption. I am so thankful for Sam, and the love she has for Zeke. I would imagine placing Zeke will be the hardest thing Sam will ever do, and we are eternally grateful for her selfless choice.

Zeke is the joy and sunshine of our lives, a great blessing from Heaven!

Happy 11-month birthday Zeke!

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Zeke is already 11 months old today! Time flies so fast!

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