Preschool Christmas Program

Last Tuesday Zamara had her first Christmas program with her school, Abundant Life Preschool. She was amazing! Well, she picked her nose through the whole second song, but she was still amazing.

Here is the video.

Cutest Video Ever!

This video doesn't really need any explanation. We took it on the way home from sledding today. How adorable is our daughter?!? SERIOUSLY, she is amazing! She can say Addis Ababa better than we can!

Sledding Video

We went sledding this afternoon after ZiZi's nap. It is actually a drainage ditch near our house, but when it snows it is perfect for sledding. We were not sure how she would do after her meltdown on Tuesday about the snow. But she had so much fun...after each run she would say, "ZiZi's turn!" Craig did much better with her. The 1 (and only!) run I did with her ended up in a bit of a crash. She was fine though, once I got all the snow out of her nose. We only did 5 runs and figured we should leave while she was still having fun and not after another meltdown.

3 feet of snow!

We woke up this morning to 3 feet of snow...IT WAS CRAZY! We tried to walk around the neighborhood and go sledding but the snow was too deep to walk and it was too fluffy for really good sledding.

You can see the picture of Craig with Zizi on his shoulders--the snow is up past his thighs. Zizi got tired 1/2 way through the walk. In some of the pictures it looks like she is laughing but I am pretty sure she was crying. I hope we didn't traumatize her too much!

We stayed in the house the rest of the day. I made Zizi a tutu and we danced around for a while. Craig tried to make it into work but got stuck on the road in front of our house. A few of our neighbors had to come and help him out!

I also straightened Zizi's hair while she was watching Tigger and Pooh. I had wanted to do it for a long time. It doesn't look too great yet. It needs to grow out more and I need to use the right products so that it comes out silky instead of frizzy. But it was fun to see how different she looks with straight hair.

First Snow!

It is snowing and I am putting off going into work and driving in it. It is beautiful to look at, but not so fun to drive in. This is our first snow storm of the year. We got up, had breakfast, and bundled Zamara up in her snow clothes. Since she was so little last year, this is the first year she has ever really played in the snow. We had a great time. Zizi spent a lot of time eating the snow and licking off her runny boogers. We tried to make a snowman but there wasn't really enough snow on the ground. We did make a snow angel, though. After work today we will try to go sledding if the snow sticks around.

Thanksgiving in Denver

Hi everyone. We got home from Denver on Monday evening. We had a great trip visiting Craig's family. We were busy the whole week, but had an amazing time with everyone. Zamara really loves to be with family. I miss those times when we are here in Flagstaff just the 3 of us. Here was our week in a nutshell:

Tuesday: we drove from Flagstaff to Phoenix and spent the night. We had fun swimming in the pool before bedtime

Wednesday: few from Phoenix to Denver. Very uneventful. Got the rental car and stopped at Mustard's Last Stand for hot dogs on the way to Craig's parents house.

Thursday: Thanksgiving, of course! Craig Uncle Ron and Aunt Virginia came over with the 3 boys. Ethan loved Zamara. They held hands most of the day--very cute. Ethan was so good with her.

Friday: early morning shopping, lunch at Parisi, and then off to see Santa Claus at the downtown tree lighting in Littleton.

Saturday: This was a big day--we took Zizi to Casa Bonita for the first time. It's the Disneyland of Mexican Restaurants--as cousin Chris would say (we later found out he stole the line from SouthPark). Zizi loved Casa Bonita! She could have eaten the chicken and cheese enchaladas all night! We also took the lightrail to downtown Denver and walked around for a while before we went to Casa Bonita

Sunday: church, swimming, and celebrating Grammy and Papa's birthdays at Red Robin.

Monday: we flew back to Phoenix and then stopped at the Spaghetti Factory for dinner.

Christmas Gifts

Oh it's that time again...lots of you have been asking what to get ZiZi for Christmas. She would anything you get her. But that being said, here are a few ideas:

1. We are giving her a princess "kitchen" that we found at a baby consignment store in town called Maddie and Mo's--since I had a credit there, it didn't have to pay anything for it. So she could use some things to go with it: play food, pots and pans, dishes, etc...

2 The only other gift we are getting her is a barbie doll. So anything to go along with that would be great. Clothes, accessories, etc...

3. Anything for dress up. She loves hats and clothes and shoes

4. DVD's: Veggietales, Disney, Yo Gabba Gabba.

5. We started a college fund for her so if you would like to contribute to that, we would also appreciate it as well. (And since she is so young she wouldn't know if you gave her that instead of a toy, anyway). I know it is not as exciting, but I know she would love it.

6. She loves books as well. She really likes ones with a lot going on on each page.

7. She also has an American Girl Bitty Baby (thank you uncle Mike and aunt Angie!) and she loves to dress her and undress her, but we only have the one outfit for her. I think Zizi would love to have more outfits for her.

Lastly, Craig and I don't really need anything for Christmas but if you really would like to get us something here are some ideas:

We bought a Wii and a WiiFit so we always like new games for that

Craig loves Jamba Juice, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, etc...

I love Anthropologie, Bath and Body Works

And as always here are a few recent pictures. The first 2 are from the night we put together our Operation Christmas Child boxes for children all around the world. You can still help out: go to www.occ.org for more info. In the last picture, Zamara finally realized that she has pockets on most of her clothes. Doesn't she look cute?

love, Laura

Some not too bad pieces of media

Hi everyone,

I have been meaning to post about a few things for way too long so here I am. Real quick.

A great song to download..."daylight" by Matt & Kim. I think the album is called Grand.

Other good songs we've recently come across..."Obiero" by Ayub Ogada. Album is called En Mana Kuoyo. We came across this song on a really cool Flagstaff photographer's website. It was Kdi or Ldi photography or something like that. Good luck finding that in a google search! I dare you! Anyway, very cool pix. I think Laura and I have finally found a local photographer that we would be EXCITED about having take pictures. Yeah! I think Beth from Laura's Stroller Strides community recommended that one. Good rec!

Also, another Beth recommendation....."Yo Gabba Gabba". An incredibly cool kid's show. You know that kid's show that you hope exists out there somewhere...the one where the parent AND the child like it.....well "Yo Gabba Gabba" is it! I will try to add pix of those three things. Wish me luck!

Finally, 2 movies Laura and I have liked....2012--not nearly as bad as we thought it would be. It was actually quite enjoyable. A summer popcorn movie in the winter. Perfect.

(500) days of Summer. A group of old ladies left the theater right behind us and said, "that movie didn't go anywhere" or something to that effect. Exactly. Great movie.

(not a)LEGAL DISCLOSURE--I GET NO COMMISSION FOR ANY OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS UNFORTUNATELY.

Zamara-ism

Last night we had breakfast for dinner--one of our favorites. I made blueberry pancakes (ala the Sneaky Chef recipe). Zamara was in and out of the kitchen while I was making the pancakes. When we sat down to eat she gobbled up her first pancake and then pointed to the stack on the table and said, " more mama cakes, pease."

Sooooo adorable! So now pancakes are called Mama-cakes.

This picture was from last week. I put her hair in two french braids for the day. I took them out before she went to bed. Her hair looked to crazy after I took the braids out. We always have to get pictures of crazy hair!

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween at our house this year. Zamara went trick or treating with her friends William, Kate, and Alana. The kids all had a lot of fun. At the first house, Alana walked right in the door and down the hall. Once they got the hang of it, they had a blast. Zamara even walked right up to some the doors and knocked. The best part was that Zizi didn't know there was candy inside the wrappers...so Mama and Daddy got the candy!

Pumpkin Carving Party

Hi everyone! We just got home from our friends house. We had a pumpkin carving contest. The parents did all the work. All the kids thought it was too messy. I am also adding a crazy morning picture of ZiZi with Kramer hair.

Aspens in the Fall

One of the greatest parts of living in Northern Arizona is watching the aspen trees change color each year. This last week Craig's mom was in town and we made 2 trips up to the mountain to hike and take pictures of the fall colors. We borrowed a friend's toddler backpack (Thanks Michael and Kyla!). Here are some pictures...

Labor Day!

Zamara is officially 18 months old now. She has grown 4 inches since her 1st birthday! She is getting tall and has really thinned out. It is crazy because she is a little girl now, not a baby. She talks constantly and is obsessed with Elmo and Pooh Bear. She puts their names together and calls them "Elmopooh". She is also good at reminding us to pray at mealtimes. If we forget, she will fold her hands and declare "AMEN!" until we pray. She is developing quite a little sense of humor. It is exciting to see her learn new things each day.

Laura's parents came to visit over Labor Day weekend. We had a great time. It was the first Laura's stepdad Ralph had been to our house with Zizi here. We both really appreciate them taking the time to come and visit.

One of the projects we worked on (and are are still working on!) is a play structure in the backyard. It is HUGE! I had no idea how much work would go into it. We are almost done though. We will show you the evolving pictures when we are finished. Zizi loves to play in it even though it isn't done yet.

We also went to the county fair over the weekend. It is a total small-town thing to do. It is not a great fair, but it was good enough. It is always fun to walk around, eat greasy food, and talk to your neighbors. Very fun! Zamara got to see a lot of animals--she was able to pet a chicken--she thought that was pretty cool. We didn't go on any rides, but Zizi played in a bounce house for a little while. I am sure we will be going on A LOT more rides next year.

Zamara had another first today--she got her finger slammed in a door at school for the first time. We are surprised it hadn't happened earlier, to be honest. It seems like little fingers are always in the way when doors are shutting. She is fine. They put some ice on it and gave her some extra cuddles and love. It is swollen, but it didn't seem to hurt her this evening during dinner.

Well, here are some pictures from this last weekend.

Happy Birthday Bekkah!

Today is Laura's sister Bekkah's birthday. Zamara had a very special message to give to her auntie...enjoy!

Disneyland Pictures

THE PICTURES WE PROMISED

We have been having problems uploading pictures to our blog. Hopefully this will work. More to come...

pictures!

Hi. Sorry it has been so long since we have updated our blog. It has been crazy here for us. We just got back from a BIG trip to Los Angeles with our high school students. Craig took a week off and we brought Zamara along. It ended up being a good trip, but Zizi had a hard time with her mommy working long days. Craig was the pastor's husband the whole week. It was kind of funny because a lot of youth pastor's bring their wives and kids...so Craig was the "house husband" last week. I think he decided that he couldn't do it full time though. It ended up being a good week for our students. God moved in a powerful way.

We flew out a couple days early to spend some family time together. We went to Disneyland. Zizi was too small to really enjoy it, but she was very exicited to meet Pooh Bear. When we got up to the front of the line to meet him, she got very scared. The rest of the day she kept yelling "mickey!" and "pooh!" It was so cute! Our friend JJ had a year pass to Disneyland so he met us there. He is Zamara's self-proclaimed "Godfather", although I have to say that JJ makes a good godfather. She loved him and snuggled right up after only a couple of minutes.

During the week we also went to the beach a couple of times with the students. It was Zizi's first time at the beach. She LOVED the sand, but was a little unsure about the water. She like to point and say "wader", but she wanted nothing to do with the real thing.

The last picture (or maybe the first) is of Zamara's giant puke in the middle of the night. I was out talking with students and Craig woke up to her crying. She had puked in her bed and had gotten it EVERYWHERE! It was very impressive. Craig got a few really good pictures of it. Basically all the food from dinner and her snack had just sat in her tummy waiting to come back up. Craig had to give her a shower in the middle of the night. He said she kept falling asleep in the shower. It was not fun, but now that we can look at the pictures it is kinda funny. Even after the shower, we found puke pieces in her hair the next morning. Poor thing was all huddled in the corner of her pack and play trying to get away from it, but by that time she had already cover herself in it.

On Saturday we went to our little local 4th of July Parade. It is the typical small town parade. Zamara had a great time. She loved every minute of it.

Today I got an email from a friend who had found Zamara on someone's web page. It is for a scrapbooking store in town called "About Memories and More". Someone had snapped a picture of Zizi and put it on the webpage. It is an amazing picture!

Here is the link to the site: http://aboutmemoriesandmore.typepad.com/were_so_much_more_than_a_/2009/07/the-4th-of-julyin-pictures.html#comments