Little Little Zachary

I took Zachary to his 6 month check up with the pediatrician the day before Thanksgiving. He had grown an inch, his head grew a little, but he only gained 4 ounces. That was probably not even accurate because he hadn't pooped for over a week. (It ALL came out on Thanksgiving day! Wow) So, Zach is 12 pounds at 6 months. I have been ordered to supplement with formula and up the table feedings and I have to bring him back in a month for a weight check. So far i have fed him food 2 to 3 times a day on top of nursing every 3 hours and an extra bottle at some point in the day. All this food and Zachary still doesn't sleep thru the night! What he does do is poop, a lot. I love my little baby- but, grow baby grow.

SB Gymnastics Club

Today I took William to the Santa Barbara Gymnastics Club to check it out. You can come and try out a class for free... so we met up with Gina Hodson and her almost two year old and did just that. William had a blast! He REALLY enjoyed jumping, rolling, swinging, running and climbing all over the equipment and pads they had there. He followed directions really well and kept right up with the other kids that come on a regular basis. I think we might need to enroll him in a few classes for the new year :) Wish i was allowed to take picture in there. Maybe I will sneak in a few next time.

Arizona

This past weekend I took a trip to Arizona with my Dad. We both wanted to visit Grandma and Grandpa and the Hixon family. It was a short but wonderful trip. We had a day visiting Grandma, going to lunch and visiting Grandpa. I got lots of time to hang out with my sister and Dan. William had the time of his life playing with Asher! Man those two were so fun to watch, they were both so happy! I got a quick trip to IKEA. A night run with Camie and Brysons birthday party. A church day without nursery! Lots of awesome pictures of my boys.... the trip was worth the drive for sure.

It was also a nice way to break up my "no Billy" time. He left on the 1st with the hot shot crew to the east coast on an assignment. He flew to Tennessee and has been working in Georgia. He should be back on the 17th. This is the longest assignment of the fire season for them. Once they get back they will throw their season end party and it will be back to a normal schedule until May! Hooray for a husband at church again.

Glad i got to go to Arizona.

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween we decided to be a star wars family. Billy looked at Zachary several weeks ago and said he would make a good Yoda because his ears stick out a little. So, from that comment stemmed our costumes for the holiday. I went to the thrift store and found a few key items for cheap, the craft store for some material and a friend for some borrowed clothing. I sewed Zacharys yoda cap and robe (which ended up to be way to short) then i sewed Williams Ewok head peice. It was not a lot of effort which was a good thing considering we were only in the costumes for maybe 30 minutes for the tail end of trunk or treat. I guess we may recycle the costumes again in a couple years. Then my efforts wont be a total loss. Because last year our costumes were such a hit at trunk or treat... we have this reputation to live up to i guess. What are the Wrenns going to be this year?? Well, this was us- I tried.

Help out?

Yesterday i stopped for my weekly visit to Trader Joes to buy groceries. Every time i am checking out they always ask me if i would like help out. I always decline with a smile and manage my two kids and cart of food out to the car just fine. Well yesterday the checker looked at me and insisted he ring the bell for a helper, so i went with it. Wow! It was so nice! The guy wheeled my cart, which also carried William, out to the car and unloaded all my bags while i buckled up the kids. He made funny noises for Williams entertainment as he pushed him and then whisked my cart back to the store so i didn't have to make the trip. How nice is getting help out! I might have to except the offer more often! I love Trader Joes.

Thank yous

I decided to take a stab at creating a thank you card. After visiting my sisters in Utah in August and going to a card making night, i got inspired. I got to make some really cute cards that others had designed and thought i should attempt this art too. So, here are the thank you cards i sent out after Williams birthday party. I like the way they turned out and they were very simple. Thank you to my inspirational sister!

Birthday Surprise

Billy surprised me with a very special gift for my birthday. A beautiful painting by our great friend Kevin Gleason! Kevin is VERY talented and has a very fun and colorful style to his art work. I have always loved Kevins work. We went to one of his art shows earlier this year and his most recent painting was hanging on the wall and titled " Canyon Wren". Billy and I looked at each other and said - That's us! We should have that painting in our house!

My sweet husband had been thinking about it ever since and made the purchase for a wonderful birthday surprise. I love it and i think it looks perfect in our home out here in the canyon under the oak trees.

Tarantula

William and I spotted our first Tarantula of the season yesterday! It was a big one, cruising down the street in front of our house. William was really excited and kept shouting "big spider!"
Ooh the wonderful wildlife in the forest :)

Williams Birthday Party

I am very overdue in writing about Williams 2nd birthday party!

We planned a little BBQ and party for William (and me) on the 21st of September. It was the day before our birthday because it was Billys day off and we could all enjoy it together. We invited the neighbors over and a handful of other friends and family to enjoy the evening with us. I made the invitations and I also decided to create a treasure hunt for the kids to find their party gift bags. It was a hit with the two oldest girls there and a few younger kids, including William, came along for the walk. I sent them once around "the loop". (Our neighborhood is a big loop that is exactly a quarter of a mile, the size of a track, very convenient for me and my jogger!) The kids found there buried treasure and then we ate bbq hamburgers, hot dogs and yummy salads and fruits. I made two cakes- one chocolate baseball cake with banana frosting & one funfetti cake with cream cheese frosting. So yummy! The kids played at our "park" in front of the house and i think everyone had a good time.

William loves playing with the neighborhood kids. It's really fun to watch them all together, they are so darn cute. The highlight of his night was opening his Thomas the trains from Grandpa and Grandma. He loves those trains! I found a train table on craigslist and tried to get it all fixed up before his birthday... it's a work in progress. I will have to write about it when i'm all done.

Happy birthday William!

Stats

I took William and Zachary together for their check ups last week. It went a lot better than i thought it was going to!
Williams 2 year check up : height- 33 inches weight- 28 pounds
Zacharys 4 month check up : height- 23 inches weight- 11 pounds
Zach is in the 3rd percentile just like William at his age. My little guys :) Although William is about caught up to most of his friends now.

Momma

Right now it is hunting season for deer in the LP forest. This means that a lot of deer come and hang out in the park around the homes because they are smart and know they won't be hunted there. We have one particular mother deer that visits us every evening around the same time looking for a handout.We call her Momma. She hears the door open and rather than running the other way, she comes closer looking at me with those eyes that say "do you have any food"? How can i turn down a nursing momma deer! So i toss her something to eat. Now when i make salads and prep fruit i always save the scraps for our deer friend. William gets really excited when he sees the deer. He shouts "oh! deer friends" it's super cute! We just love it up here in paradise!

William gets his first hair cut

It wasn't easy, i loved those baby curls, but today i cut Williams hair. I was tired of the daily battle of "doing" his hair with water and a hair brush. Everyday William would watch me get my hands wet and come toward him and he would immediately run the other way screaming "no no no". I would catch him, wet down his hair and brush it out to bring out his curls. Today I asked William if he wanted me to cut his hair and he said yes. So, i sat him in his chair at the table, fed him TJ star cookies and started to cut. I thought it turned out pretty good for my first time cutting an almost two year olds hair. It's still shaggy but not out of control. It no longer will stick straight out over the ears. And the ringlet curls are no longer hanging down the back of his neck. Well, i think it was time.

I did pull his curls into a little ponytail to cut them off and i did save them in a plastic bag. So, as soon as i get that far in his scrap book (if i ever do) they will have a home there.

William did a really good job sitting there for me while i cut his hair... and if i had a better camera i would have taken some better shots of his new do. I guess i get what i get until we buy a camera.

Hawaii in a jiffy

Well, I made it to Hawaii after all to see my really great friend Julie get married. It was VERY last minute. Bought my ticket late Wednesday night when i saw a cheap one and left super early Friday morning. Thanks again Mom & Dad for Watching William so last minute! Zachary & I were not even there for 4 whole days... we took a red eye home Monday night and got to LAX at 5am on Tuesday. Sadly, i didn't even stop to take one picture! (I know, am i even related to Tracy??) We haven't bought a camera yet, but i do have an old one i could have used if i would have stopped to think about it. Basically i just helped with the wedding all weekend and by the time Monday rolled around for my "almost whole day" to enjoy myself, i was worn out and not feeling all that well. I didn't even drive to the north shore :( I did however sleep at the dolphin house my first night there which is where Julie and I were roommates.
Zachary was an amazing traveler but the time difference threw us both off as far as sleeping went- bummer. Zachary had sleeping threw the night down before this little last minute adventure.
The Wedding reception was really nice. Hawaiian food, dancers, hula and a serenade. I also went to the ring ceremony on Lanikai beach, it was beautiful and not to hot, but kinda windy. I stood with Kim Johnson and her son Leo and got to chat and catch up with her while we were waiting for the event to start. I also drove Julie to the beach which was pretty special, she told me if she knew i was coming for sure she would have asked me to be her maid of honor. I was flattered. Wedding days can be so hectic if you let them.
On my way home going through security I alarmed their system twice and had to be completely patted down (aka: totally violated) and my two very carefully packed carry ons were ripped open and spread everywhere! When they were all done going threw all my things they left it for me to pack back up with a baby in one arm... oh how i love flying :) I wanted to cry.
We made it back to the parking lot in LA only to find 3 very "comical" letters tucked under my wiper, accusing me of hitting a car, which set off the alarm, which killed the battery. Hum. I think i would have noticed if i hit a car and set off an alarm. I was called a loser and idiot and told that i got my license on idiot day! The notes were written in crayon and looked like the hand writing of a 5th grader. Plus they wrote in text abbreviations and obviously didn't have spell check ! It was confusing at first at 5am... but then it was just comical.
Anyway, now i am recovering from being sick. I came home not feeling well and just got worse. High fever of 103.4, red and swollen tonsils- which makes it impossible to eat because it kills to swallow, achy body and trying to handle 2 kids. I have no clue how Zachary is getting enough to eat and how my body is still able to keep up with milk production with all this, but i'm glad it is all working. I'm starving and would like to eat the left overs in my fridge before they go bad, hope my swelling goes down soon. Mouth issues are NO fun.
That pretty much raps up my super fast trip to Hawaii with no pictures.

Oak Tree Down!

This evening while we were sitting at the dinner table we heard a cracking sound, looked out the window and watched as a HUGE branch fell off one of the oaks outside. It was crazy. We jumped up and went out to see it up close. It fell over the entire road and missed hitting anything important, phew. As we were standing and talking with our neighbor who also watched it happen, we heard more cracking! We all ran away from the tree as the rest of it came crashing down right where we were standing!! Wow! I was holding Zach, Billy was holding William... so we all got to witness the rotted oak finally fall apart.

Our neighbor Dustin (who works on the hot shots with Billy) jumped in his truck and drove with Billy down to the compound to grab chain saws. I think they were pretty pumped to cut up the tree. So the kids, neighbors and I spent the rest of the evening listening to chain saws ripping up the tree until it was to dark to work. A perfect ending to a beautiful day in Paradise (for Billy!) I on the other hand got to clean the kitchen, bath the children and calm them down from the very loud noise- all on my own. Good times in the wilderness :)

I need a camera

Entering the blog world will be a lot better once we purchase a new camera... we are working on it. Just need to make a decision. In the mean time, i can blog about my trip to Utah and use pictures from my sister Tracy. I will do that when it is not so late and i'm not so tired :)

A Blog!

Today I am starting a blog! Crazy!