Lots of Love

I just love Chrissie.
I love that today when I had a migraine and was recovering in the shower (when I'm sick, I take to water), Chrissie came into the bathroom and in her sweet voice, with her head cocked to the side, she asked, "would you like some tea to feel better?...Strawberry?" She then brought me some tea. And, of course, I felt better much better.
I love that the other morning while she was getting dressed, she was singing/shouting, "Angels we have heard on high! GlOOOOOOOOOOO-R-I-A!"
I love that the other day while she was mopping the bathroom floor (she decided on her own to clean the floor, apparently, she thought it was dirty) she was singing, "Oh, Sing sweet nightingale! Aaaaaa!"
I love that in the middle of the night Chrissie will come running into our room, hop into our bed, and say, "What's the rule?...Cuddle with Daddy!!" (Sort of a thing Rick started when work got really busy). Rick told Chrissie that if she wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to come into bed with mommy and daddy, that there is a rule: she has to cuddle with daddy. Just the other morning, she woke up and asked me, "Where's daddy?" I replied, "He's at work." Chrissie then said, "But I want him....I want to cuddle with him."

And Matthew...

I love that he smiles at anything and everyone. Anytime someone says "hello" to him he smiles and then immediately buries his head into my shoulder.
I love that he is all boy, but, still a tender little guy. He has flipped himself out of the bebe pod more than I can remember and bruised his head several times (and for some silly reason I continue to put him in it). And when he got shots, he didn't even cry. He just sort of whimpered and stopped the moment I picked him up. However, nothing makes him cry more than when I talk in a stern voice or wipe his nose.
I love that the other night when I had to sleep with him (he was teething) he would cry unless our noses were touching and he was holding my finger. I love him.

And lastly, I love being a mom.

Tea, Tea, Glorious Tea!

There is nothing finer than a tea party, according to Chrissie. About two months ago, I was feeling guilty that Chrissie wasn't getting as much attention from me with a new baby in the family. So, I decided to have a little tea party with her. We wore dresses, hats, and "slippers" (my high heel shoes, it comes from Cinderella's glass slippers). We had raspberry tea with various finger foods, and had one on one conversation (mainly Chrissie just talked in a mumbling, rambling sort of a way while I listened and replied, "oh really!" Chrissie and I often have these "conversations," which primarily occur while I'm doing housework. She will sit there, flip through a book, and just ramble on and on about something. Or she will ask me, "What should we talk about?).
From that moment on Chrissie became a tea party lover, "Mommy should we have a tea party? Should we? That would be fun?!" She would daily request a tea party. She would make me wear the exact dress I wore the first time, requested the exact same food, but, she forgo the raspberry tea and just wanted water; this all became a bit cumbersome. However, as tea parties became more frequent she fortunately demanded less.
And, now, she is having at least five tea parties a day. She is always bringing me tea no matter where or what I am doing. She even brings tea to Rick while he is taking a shower. Or she will set the table for us to have tea while I am busy in another room and then run to where I am and say, "should we have some tea?" And, of course, I accept. The other night as I was tucking her into bed, she sat up and said, "We need to have some tea!"
Our home has become quite British as Chrissie offers tea to any of our visitors. I love it. I love seeing her imagination at work. She doesn't just offer tea in the traditional tea sets. She pours tea into her various dishes, from cupcake pans, to bunt pans, to plates, etc. And she does this every day, multiple times a day. And for some reason, watching her have a tea party with her toys, animals, or me, never gets old--only sweeter.

Halloween Costumes

This year for two different Halloween parties we dressed up as the Incredibles, according to Rick's request. He enjoyed the whole spandex thing a little too much.
I think Chrissie has only seen the movie once, so, we practiced posing at home. And anytime someone would take a picture she started posing. She was awesome.
BTW, I thought I would post a picture of our bishop/one who dressed up as Dolly Parten for our ward trunk-or-treat. I don't think he got the "no-cross-dressing-at-church-functions memo." However, we thought it was great. (Joan, I thought you would enjoy this).
And for Halloween day/night Chrissie dressed up as a pink butterfly. And Matthew was a caterpillar. Chrissie insisted on being a pink butterfly. She came to the fabric store with me. I was picking out blue and black fabric and she saw the pink and shouted, "that's so beautiful!!" And started taking my blue/black fabric out of the cart. Then she saw sparkly pink fabric and once again shouted, "oh! That's so beautiful!" Needless to say, she ended up being a very pink and sparkly butterfly.

Little Witches' Party

Last weekend I threw a Little Witches Party. Thanks to my sister-in-law Mindy for giving me the fabulous idea.
I woke up quite early Saturday morning to prepare and Chrissie was up soon after (Rick got up with me as well to help, he's awesome). Chrissie would skip around the house yelling "a little witches' party," and randomly hug my leg and say, "I love you all day long" ("all day long" is her latest phrase that she tags on to pretty much every sentence.) Each girl was to bring a witches' hat to decorate. We had lunch, decorated sugar cookies, and had a pumpkin pinata.
This party really got me into the Halloween mood with all the extra spooky decorating and cooking. We had a frozen apple juice/7up concoction for our spooky brew, witches' hats cupcake, pumpkin sugar cookies, and broom party favor bags. Plus, a delicious salad for the adults and other simple food items for the kiddos.
Halloween has definitely moved up on my list of favorite holidays (Christmas is first and forever will be). However, I thoroughly enjoyed Halloween this year. We had such a fun October.
Chrissie was beside herself the entire party. She was sooo pleased that all these people came to her house; and so was I.

The second picture is my very happy smile. In fact, I'm so excited that my veins are bulging from neck (nice). I love my little girl.

Low Inventory

Yesterday afternoon, I babysat two boys whose mother was having a baby. Upon greeting the oldest, Jackson, who is three, he said a quick hello in his Texan twang and ran into my house and did a quick toy inventory check. As he was doing his inspection, I had a brief chat with these boys' morning shift babysitter. While this lovely lady and I were chatting, Jackson came running back and said,
"Miss Vonne?" (the morning babysitter)
"yes, Jackson."
"ya know what? These guys don't have any boy toys. It's all girl stuff."
So, I ran quickly to Matthew's room searching for whatever boy toy I could find. In the mean while, Chrissie was trying her best to play/be a hostess with Jackson. She first showed him her beautiful, pink, princess umbrella, which he looked at rather appalled. And then Chrissie went into her land of make believe. She opened up the umbrella and said, "hurry, its raining." He, of course, replied in his very matter-of-fact voice, "It's not raining. We're in the house." So, then, Chrissie ran to her play kitchen and asked Jackson, "Would you like some tea?" He looked at the empty tea cup and he didn't reply. So, she asked again, "some tea, tea?" He looked at me for an explanation, which I didn't give him, then he replied, "um, no."
So, then I jumped in feeling quite satisfied with toys I had rounded up. Should him the basket of what I considered boy toys, he inspected them and said disappointingly, "these are baby toys."
I gave up and sent them outside to play where he was satisfied with the tricycles.
Then came craft time where we were going to make some paper pumpkins. He of course replied, "Why are we making paper pumpkins?" I replied, "Because it's fun." That became my answers to a lot of his questions:
"Miss Vanessa, why do you have pumpkins in your house?"
"Because its fun and festive."
"Miss Vanessa, why do you have cobwebs in your house?"
"Because its fun."
And that was the manner of our conversation for the rest of the day.
Jackson and Chrissie got along quite well. Chrissie did an exceptional job sharing. Something we've been working on. She is not the best sharer (not sure that's a word). However, she did very well that day I believe for two reasons one, because we've been talking about being polite for months now and two, because her toys were never really threatened, since they were too girly for Mr. Jackson. Fortunate for the pumpkin craft, which he did end up enjoying despite it was paper, and for painting. I rolled out some paper, taped it to the table, and he and Chrissie and a blast painting.

Jackson definitely taught me what Matthew needs for Christmas.

Ode to Rick

Chrissie had been talking about "daddy's birthday" all day and kept shouting "I love him! I love him! I LOVE HIM!!" And the moment she heard the garage door open she bolted to the door with pigtails in her hair and a birthday hat on, yelling, "Happy Birthday Daddy! Happy Birthday Daddy!" So a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the man who can do anything.
Besides the fact that Rick is extremely good looking, he can do anything. He is incredibly handy inside the house and out--from the plumbing to the electric to tiling our floors to building the bookcases to landscaping our yard to operating on a person's brain.

Not to mention he can sing, play the guitar and the piano. The list can go on and on, but, the quality I love most is his absolute devotion to me and his family (both immediate and extended).

Taking care of the kids doesn't overwhelm him. Oddly enough he wants to give them a bath, play, read to them and snuggle with them at bedtime. He prefers doing these simple activies over golfing or other manly activities.
Involving the kids in everything he does comes naturally to him. You bet Chrissie is right there helping him with whatever project he is working on: from fixing the sprinkler head to building a piece of furniture.

Nothing makes him happier than to be with family. And nothing makes me happier than to be together. He is the most loving person I know. He has such a tender heart. I absolutely adore and admire this guy. And I feel so blessed to have him apart of my life.

Orlando

A few weeks ago, Rick and I, along with the kiddos, met Rick's entire family out in Orlando for a week of fun.
We had a wonderful time. We spent two days at Walt Disney World. We went to the Animal Kingdom on one day. Another day we went to the Magic Kingdom and had lunch with the princesses in Cinderella's castle. Chrissie was a wee bit worn out and hungry, so, she was a little "shy" (to put it politely) with the princesses. However, now, she talks fondly about that lunch completely forgetting that she absolutely refused to interact with the princesses.
And another day we went to a water park where Chrissie was in her element. I was amazed at how brave she was going down the big slides. She loves the water.
I would have to say that the best part about this trip was hanging out with family and playing at the pool. I'm so blessed with wonderful in-laws who have amazing kids. And Chrissie was a fish and I just loved watching her swim. I, especially, enjoyed spending time with Rick who is so busy otherwise.

do-re-mi

Remember the scene in The Sound of Music when Maria is inspired to make the von Trapp children outfits from her bedroom drapes? Well, I felt a little like Maria this past weekend (whether that is a good or bad thing I'm still not sure) as I decided to use drapery fabric to sew Chrissie a dress. Instead of Chrissie matching other children, however, her dress matched one of my skirts that my mother-in-law had made me (which I absolutely love). I'm still not sure if I'm crazy, cheesy, weird, or ten years old, but, I had so much fun making Chrissie a matching dress. And, of course, Chrissie loved her "so beautiful" new dress. The best part was Chrissie sitting in my lap squealing with delight as "we" sewed the finishing touches on her dress. I'm not a seamstress by any stretch, but, I'm sure enjoying my new little hobby.

Family Fun!

I love nothing more than spending time with family. Due to the fact that all of Rick's vacation time seems to be used up for family, I seem to live from vacation to vacation; trying to keep myself busy until the next vacation, so, I don't get too excited. During July we were fortunate to spend some time with family from both sides. Despite the driving for a total of about 50hrs, we loved seeing brothers and sisters, moms and dads, nieces and nephews, Rick's extended family, and friends. Chrissie absolutely loved being with cousins, however, by the end of the trip I think she was a bit overwhelmed by all the love. Probably, more to do with the fact that we spent time with my side of the family last and my nieces who are older than Chrissie, just love Chrissie so much and want so badly to be her little mommy that I think she gets thrown a little out of whack. And what did Matthew do, you ask? Well, he pretty much smiled the entire time.

Thanks to Rick's cousin, we got to go horseback riding one morning. It was Chrissie's first time on a horse and she loved it. Here she is just relaxing on the horse. But she much preferred trottin' around.

Chrissie and I with Rick's sister Mindy and her kids Isaac and Claire at Rick's Grandma Walker's 90th birthday. Poor Claire had the stomach flu.

Matthew and Grandpa Lochhead

Rick and I. It's amazing how once we had kids Rick and I seem to so rarely take pictures of just the two of us.

Chrissie doing a somersault.

Chrissie and her cousin Isaac chillin' by the pool. Chrissie has had a couple of major accomplishments this summer, one, she is potty trained (yippee!). And the other is a result of living in Phoenix, she has learned how to swim. However, because we live in Phoenix, she has become a bit of a pool temperature snob: if the water is not bath tub temperature she refuses to go in.

Chrissie with her girl cousins on the Zinn side (my side).

Matthew with the boys on the Zinn side.

Time to Celebrate!

The second years (or least they used to be). Rick is so fortunate to work with such a great group of guys. And I'm fortunate that two of them are married to wonderful girls.





July 1st in the medical world is the start of a new year. So, Rick has started his third year of residency. Not only has he moved up a notch on the very, very tall totem pole, but, he is now a senior resident. Basically, he has finished his worst year of residency (Junior/second year). And now residency is a piece of cake, right? (ha! I wish) Only five more years to go.... To celebrate the finishing of Rick's junior year, our little family and some of Rick's classmates went to Greer, Arizona. We had a wonderful time. Rick and I especially enjoyed the weather and scenery. Chrissie, however, enjoyed the ducks and the horses. And fishing with Dad, of course.