Posts Tagged ‘zane’
Wii Family Game Night
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Our lives have been crazy busy lately. Between Gymnastics, Cross Fit, Homework, Errands…There alway seems to be more to do then time in the day. Tuesday was a rare day for us, we were all home, house was straightened and we were all looking forward to a little quality family time. A couple weeks ago I realized that we are not going to be able to go bowling as a family for at least the next 3 years. That is a conservative estimate. Have you ever taken a one or two year old to the bowling alley? Of course not, that is because you would not be here to tell about it if you had.
Since bowling alleys are off limits for us for a while we decided to have a little Wii Bowling Family Competition. First up was Ian. Ian pretends to hate it when I take his picture.
I take my bowling very seriously. Fun fact – everytime I posed for a picture I got a strike. Until I realized that, then it stopped happening.
Rachel had an unfair advantage. Evidenced here.
Nobody has ever lost a Wii Bowling Family Competition while wearing a 4-H sweatshirt. It is unheard of.
Zane loves Wii Bowling, however, he does not like it when other people get strikes.
In fact he really does not like it. So much that he tries to go when its other peoples turns to make them lose. Then he gets in trouble and cries.
It does not last long though and soon he was back in high spirits and bowling like a PRO.
He has excellent form.
Family game night is really important for us. We try and make it a weekly thing, and even though it does not always happen, we all really look forward to it. It is really good for Zane as well. I don’t know if you could tell, but he is not the best loser. I wonder where he gets it?
Tags: bowling, ian, rachel, wii, zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink 4 Comments »
Boo!
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
First things first…
Go Giants!!! WooHoo!! (Pardon Rocky’s dirty shirt…he is not the cleanest eater!)
Okay, Happy Halloween! Zane looks forward to Halloween all year, and this year he decided to branch out in his costume choice. He has been a cartoon character or superhero just about every year since he was born, and this year he decided he wanted to go scarier. He surprised us all by deciding to be a vampire! (We later found out his best friend was also going to be a vampire, so it wasn’t the most original idea, but oh well…). The greatest thing about the costume was how easy and cheap it was! I think the whole costume was $12.
Don’t tell Zane but he is probably the cutest little vampire ever! Big brown eyes and sweet little smiles do not instill fear in many people.
Zane and Carys had a fun time trick or treating together downtown. They told me that if anyone asked if they were brother and sister they were just going to say yes. They just wanted me to be aware.
Then there was Rocky.
Rocky was not the biggest fan of Halloween, these are the only 2 pictures I have of him where he is not sitting in his stroller. He prefers to watch from the sidelines. He was the sweetest, most snuggly little elephant ever!
We made our three usual stops. First, Trick or Treat Street downtown. We went right at 2pm when it started and I am so glad! By 3pm it was so crowded we could barely walk and we were out of there! Rocky decided to stick at home for that one, and Rachel was nice enough to let us take Zane and Carys while she hung out with Rocky while he napped. Then it was back home to drop off Carys and grab Rocky and Ray and head to the Mall. It is much less stressful than downtown. You basically just walk in a circle around the mall and there is much more room for strollers. Rocky just hung out while Zane loaded up on the treats. After that we grabbed a quick bite before heading out for the real door to door trick or treating. Zane is a funny trick or treater. He is a pretty cautious kid who is generally afraid of strangers so walking up to people’s houses and talking to them is not his most favorite thing. Plus, he hates dogs and things that jump out at him, so if a house has either of those things he will yell out SKIP! and just keep on walking right past it. We trick or treated for just over an hour and he was content. I think the only thing Zane really likes about Halloween is dressing up. He is even always giving away his candy!
I would just like to interject her and point out that I have not had a single piece of Halloween candy, or even a treat at all for that matter, since October 9th. Ian and I are right in the middle of a Cross Fit competition at work (more on that later) and we have been trying to stick to a mostly Paleo diet. This basically means that if cavemen didn’t eat it, neither do we. We have not been perfect at it, but we are light years away from where we are a month ago and I have never felt better. If you know me at all, you know that me not eating candy is highly out of character. I once ate a snickers bar for breakfast for an entire month in high school and have spent countless hours trying to come up with new combinations of Jelly Belly flavors. To say that Zane’s halloween candy smelled divine is an understatement. But, I held strong.
When we got home Zane did what every kid does – organize his candy. This is always a very complicated process that involves creating unique categories for some of the more “special” candy that he received. One house gave him peanuts, in the shell, not wrapped. Zane decided the only group they belonged in was the group of garbage in the trash. Then he had 20 minutes to eat as much candy as he could, and then 4 minutes of teeth brushing before he was off to bed. He has been in there for 5 minutes and is already asleep. Here’s to a very fun, stress free day!
Tags: Cross Fit, halloween, Paleo, rocky, zane
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Zane Lennon Graham
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
Zane was born exactly 4 days after our 1 year anniversary. For those of you keeping track, that is TWELVE months, so no, I was not pregnant when we got married. I made sure to wear a skin tight wedding dress just to prove that point. When you get married at 19 you have to put up with a certain amount of gossip, and getting pregnant so quickly does not help your case. Ian and I were SO not ready to be parents. Getting married so young is already a gigantic tornado of change, throwing a baby in there turns it into a freaking tsunami! I was absolutely terrified of raising a baby, I had not even been around that many babies growing up. So, I did what I still do in any situation that scares me, I researched the heck out of it! I read DOZENS of pregnancy books. I learned about birth plans and episiotomies, breast feeding, jaundice, any information that could possibly be related to pregnancy and newborns I devoured.
I had a pretty easy pregnancy with Zane. I did end up on bed rest for a couple months after falling down the stairs at work (thank you workmans comp!) but otherwise, it was uneventful. Even my labor was pretty simple. Zane was 6 days late, and at my regular weekly check-up my Midwife told me I was already dilated 4 centimeters. She said if my water did not break by 4 that afternoon to come into the hospital and they would break it manually to get my labor started! I imagined some kind of water balloon/tack situation. At 4 pm on the dot, Ian and I checked into the Birthing Center and waited patiently while they hooked me up to some machines to track my contractions (which I was not feeling at all). As I was sitting there waiting for the nurse to come back in, I felt this explosion in my belly, followed by immediate gushing of fluid. Horrified, I told Ian and my Mom that something was definitely wrong! Turns out, my water had finally broke, and at the perfect time. Zane always has been very considerate!
Tags: birthday, childbirth, zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink 3 Comments »
Zane’s 6 Year Old Birthday Interview!
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Tags: birthday, interview, video, zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink 1 Comment »
Zane’s Last 5 Year Old Picture!
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
I just hugged the 5 year old Zane goodnight for the last time! Tomorrow I will be hugging a 6 year old!!!! I cannot even think about it right now. Prepare for tears and a sappy, nostalgic post tomorrow. My baby is so big. In case you are wondering, he is doing a peace sign AND a thumbs up at the same time.
One with Dad.
And with Mom.
I am already getting choked up just looking at these…
Tags: birthday, zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink No Comments »
Thank You.
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
This blog is a great outlet for me. It allows me to write things out, get things off my chest, to let things go and allow myself to feel better. It also allows me to share a piece of my life and my story with others. I absolutely love sharing stories with people. I love hearing that something I wrote made someone laugh, or to hear that someone shared a similar experience. I just feel like life is such a journey, and we are all in this together, so we might as well share our stories and try to help each other out.
That is where the Thank You comes in. I was feeling a little bit sad today and chose to blog about it. Mostly, just so I could let it go. I am one of those dorky people that would write letters to people but then burn the letters so the people never actually read them, but I still felt better. I don’t like to hold things in. I believe in accepting things, then letting them go and moving on. After I wrote that blog, I immediately began to feel better. Well, this evening I received a phone call from someone who shall remain nameless (not everyone wants their name on the internet, although I am not sure why not, the internet is such a warm and fuzzy place…) that had read my blog and insisted on paying to send Zane to camp. I am absolutely floored by this incredible act of kindness. In no way was my previous blog intended to make anyone else feel bad. It was simply me venting about the guilt we sometimes can feel as parents. To this person that made this incredible offer, Thank You So Much. You will be getting some very cute pictures of a very happy little gymnast in your mailbox!
Tags: gymnastics, thank you, writing, zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink 1 Comment »
The Guilt
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
As a parent, how do you get over the guilt? Especially the guilt of not being able to give your kids something that they really want. I am struggling with that today. Zane is on the gymnastics team, and next week they are having a week long camp. Most kids on his team are going, and it is an extra $160 on top of what we pay a month already. I have worked really really hard to keep gymnastics in our budget this Summer while I have been out so many kids. We simply cannot afford this extra money right now. Now, I have to tell Zane and I seriously feel as if I am going to cry. He wants to go so bad. He already told us that we don’t have to buy him any birthday presents, all he wants is to go to camp. Well, camp is a lot more than we would spend on his birthday presents this year! I know it wont always be like this, hopefully I will find more kids soon and things wont be so tight. But for now I am feeling really bad. I know not going to camp is not going to be the end of the world, but it is something important in his 6 year old life that I cannot give him and that makes me feel lousy.
Tags: gymnastics, parenting, zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink No Comments »
A Moment To Brag
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Today I took Zane to the store to get some new shoes. His were seriously falling apart and getting so tight that every time he had to put them on there would be a lot of grunting and rolling around on the floor in frustration. Usually he wears these slip-on Vans that cost way too much money but are ridiculously cute so I buy them anyways. Well, times are tough right now so I bought Zane some much much cheaper shoes at a different store that I am really happy with. The only problem is these shoes have laces. Zane has never had laces before, only slip-ons. In the car he asked me how to tie them and I told him I would teach him later today when we got home. A couple hours after we were home and settled, he brought the shoes to me and again asked me to teach him to tie them. I told him all about making the knot, then a bunny ear, going around, through the loop and pulling them tight. He said okay. Then he started practicing. He asked me to clarify the loop a couple times, and the size of the bunny ear, but other than that he just kept trying. I had already moved on to another task, but a couple minutes later I noticed him walking around with tied shoes. The kid already figured it out! I was so surprised I made him untie them and show me that he could do it, as if they had magically tied themselves the first time. Sometime he just amazes me. He learns things so fast and easily. Anything we teach him he immediately commits to memory and it is learned.
Here he is all proud of himself!
Tags: zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink 1 Comment »
The BIG Weekend
Monday, July 20th, 2009
This weekend was Zane’s 6th Birthday Party! His real birthday is not until the end of the month, but we decided to have his party early since we were having all his cousins over for a sleepover! Looking back, maybe not the best idea to have both GIANT events on the same weekend. We ended up with 12 cousins, and then another 9 kids came to the party on Saturday. Early on Friday Zane got the most Awesome birthday gift EVER from my parents, a TRAMPOLINE!!! He was so excited! It was perfect timing since all his cousins were able to use it also! Although it did cause a lot of this conversation:
Kid- Is their turn over yet?
Me-Not yet, I will let you know.
KId-Are you suuuuurrrreeee their turn is not over yet?
Me-No, I promise I will tell you when it is your turn.
**One MInute Later**
Same Kid-Is their turn over NOW? They have been on for hours!
Me- They have been on for 3 minutes, and if you ask me again, you will lose your turn!
**30 seconds later**
New Kid- Is their turn over yet?!?!
Me- **Burning Trampoline to the Ground**
Tags: birthday, family, zane
Posted in The Kitchen Sink 2 Comments »
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