Monday, March 10, 2014

Playin' in the snow

Jeremy took the day off in the middle of one week in February. It was so warm outside...30 degrees! We were really excited to be able to play in the snow.
 We took a walk to the park. Turns out they made an ice pod, which is a big patch of grass that they turn into ice for skating (in the foreground of the picture).
We dragged Dallin around on the ice in the sled. He fell asleep, and didn't like it if we stopped.
Tanner had a tough time walking in the snow. It was hard to tell how deep the snow would be because the wind has made drifts everywhere. You could be walking along just fine in a few inches of snow and then all of a sudden you sink into snow up to your thigh.

Here's a picnic table. The snow is up to the seat. We thought that was pretty deep... until it snowed  6 more inches the next day... and then 9 inches four days later.
Tanner has been asking to go to the playground all winter. So he was pretty stoked to be there.
Don't be deceived by these shallow footprints. The snow is about 2 feet deep here, but it's all frozen over and Tanner is too light to push it all down.
It was so warm, I had to unzip my coat!
As mentioned earlier, the next night, we got 6 inches of snow. It covered up all our tracks from playin.
If I remember correctly, this was the first wet snow we got this winter. It was really hard for Jeremy to shovel and snow-blow. Our path to the door looks like a snow canyon.
I took the boys on a pretend picnic. Tanner says "picmic," lol. We made our lunches, got a blankie, went for a walk around the house and found this sunny spot by the front door.
It was a great way to enjoy the new fallen snow.
Can you find our mailbox?

Friday, March 7, 2014

Dallin's Life in Huntington Beach

I made this movie about 6 weeks ago and posted on Facebook, but I want to make sure that you all get a chance to see it. It's of Dallin's life for the 10 days that he lived in Huntington Beach.

CLICK HERE to see the video on the actual website. Or you can watch it in this post:



Thursday, March 6, 2014

Photo Journal

These photos are from Feb 3- Feb 15.
I love the way Dallin straddles my hip.
I think Tanner is such a good eater for being 2 1/2. Most days he eats a huge breakfast. "I want pancanks, ceweal, oatmeal, eggs and bacon and that's all I eat!" His favorite food is pancanks. (I put spinach and zuccini in them, with peanut butter on top). He eats pretty much everything except plain zucinni and spinach (one of the reasons I put them in the pancakes). Some other favorites are carrots, hummus, tomatoes, rice, beans, chicken and any fruit. He almost always says please and thank you on his own (I'm convinced he learned this from his babysitters Kayla and Genine in HB). And when he is done eating, he will often clear his plate without being asked. 
Dallin is a pretty good eater, too, trying more and more foods everyday. He has a sweet tooth, so for pretty much every meal, I mix green veggies with applesauce, yogurt, or banana because he won't eat them otherwise. We give him almost everything from our own plates to try, too. He really loves all meats including ground beef, steak, chicken, and fish. Anything that's slimy- noodles with sauce, fruit pieces, tomato, blueberries- he just squeezes and studies with perplexity.
Dallin learned how to wave! He first waved at Brother Blake at church. He also holds his hand up towards people, as if to make some kind of greeting gesture to them. Very cute! 
The week of Feb 3-7 was one of the hardest we've had with sleepless nights. Tanner complained of growing pains. Dallin was teething. Both had runny noses, too. 
Luckily, we were able to get a break from the kids by going to Jeremy's work party at a fancy winery out in the country. They did the "price is right" and Jeremy was the host. He got tons of laughs, and everyone was very impressed with the Plinko board that Jeremy made.
The next day, we took the kids to a play place that Jeremy found in a nearby drug store. It was the perfect remedy to help with the boys' cabin fever.
Then we ate at Culvers, which is a popular fast food place out here. This is Tanner's extremely sad face, but I can't remember what he was crying about. He also has a very distinct, hooty cry that he does when he is being overly dramatically sad. It's just as funny as this face.
Love the face.
Love the thighs. We don't see baby skin that much since we wear so many layers to keep warm.
Baking with Dada.
First time finding the dirt in the potted plant.
Soooo tired. Dallin was sitting here cooing and the next thing we realized, he was asleep.
This is how we keep warm in the basement.
Valentines day was simple and fun. 
We made lots of heart decorations during project time. 
The boys did the heart prints at Story Time in the library. I can't believe how close in size Tanner and Dallin's hands are. Tanner has always had small hands and shorter fingers. Dallin, on the other hand (pun intended), has pretty long fingers! I measured and compared the length of their middle fingers. Dallin's is only an eighth of an inch shorter than Tanner's. 
Jeremy and I went out for lunch at the Old Mill Restaraunt. We looked really nice, but forgot to take pictures because we were having too much fun with this present that I made Jeremy.
I filled this container with 50 things that Jeremy does on a regular basis that shows he loves me. I wanted him to know that I notice all the things he does for me and the boys, especially because I'm not always as appreciative to him as I should be. 
And why not end this post with a cute picture of Dallin? Taken Feb 15.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Swimming Trip

From Jan 31-Feb 2, we took a weekend trip up to Minneapolis to enjoy the indoor Water Park of America. This fancy place is across the street (well, freeway) from the Mall of America.
The hotel is attached to the water park, so once we checked in we never had to go outside. (Ok, that's not entirely true. Jeremy braved the cold a couple times to get us take-out and necessities from Walmart. That was very awesome of him.)
We got a great discount on our hotel rooms since Jeremy is a Hormel employee. We also got our waterpark tickets for free, which must be a blessing for paying tithing because we should have been charged like everyone else.
The hotel was so nice! We always enjoy hotels because the boys can explore and mess up everything and it doesn't matter. But we REALLY enjoyed hotel living this trip. We watched lots of TV, ate lots of snacks, giggled and cheered and jumped on beds and, best of all, blasted the heater as high as we wanted! 
Jeremy and Tanner played sumo wrestling on the bed by stuffing their shirts with pillows.
Saturday was the big swimming day. Dallin looked so cute in his swimming diaper. I realized this was going to be his first time in a swimming pool. Turns out, he is a little FISH! He squealed and gasped and giggled and splashed. He kicked his legs and his entire body when we held him in the deep pools. He crawled fearlessly through the shallow ends. He was mesmerized by the bubbling water in the play areas. And he loved splashing and getting water all over him. What a happy little guy!
Ready and excited to swim!
The park was super fun- and WARM. We had to be cautious with Tanner though because he was running a fever and complaining about his ears hurting. We successfully kept his head above water the whole time. (It helps that he hates getting his head wet or being splashed on. He's always been like that--quite different from Dallin). And don't worry, no ear infection came of it.
We played around this playground and enjoyed the fountains. 
We spent two hours exploring the park in the morning, went up to our rooms for naps and lunch, and then enjoyed a few more hours of the park in the afternoon.
The most fun was spent floating down the lazy river. We rode it both in the morning and afternoon, floating through the park over and over and over again. The boys LOVED sitting in the tubes with us. Tanner and Dallin made each other laugh and giggle uncontrollably.

In our double inner tube, we floated along singing songs, playing "I spy" and tickling games, and just watching all the people coming and going. This was one of those amazing moments where I was overwhelmed with joy to be a part of this little Zavoral family. 
On Sunday, we attempted to go to church near our hotel. But the crowded situation with the hotel elevators (and no access to stairs) made it take forever to get out of the place. So we jumped to the next item on our plans, which was Mall of America to see what free fun we could find. Jeremy's coworker took these family shots of us in the Mall of America. We ran into her and her family several times that weekend!
We were very entertained by the Legos at LegoLand and other toys in a bunch of other stores. Then we ate lunch and went home.
It was the perfect weekend trip to brighten our spirits from all this cold!
Here's my favorite picture from the trip. It features Jeremy's new teeth with no more braces, Tanner's T-Rex face, Dallin's adorableness and my new haircut.
Isn't our family so good looking!?!