Happy Birthday to Zach!

Zach turned 1 on Thanksgiving this year. We celebrated in San Francisco, but I really wanted to make him his own cake also, so we had another celebration this past weekend. He's an amazing 1 year old. He's so interested in everything- he loves to try to put things together and tries to figure out how everything works. He is such a happy, smiling kid!

Zach and his "bu" (bus) cake

After eating the cake:

Celebrating in SF with Pete's mom's side of the family:

warning- overload of pictures

Seeing as I haven't updated this blog since the beginning of October, I am including a lot of pictures! We went to San Francisco for Thanksgiving this year and had an absolute blast. Here are some pictures (and others):

Visiting Grandpa Bill in Petaluma, CA

Z having fun at Muir Beach in CA (very fun spontaneous excursion on our way back from Petaluma)

Lilly found some starfish:

Z and Grandpa Bill:

Muir Beach:

Lilly hanging out with Aunt Jean:

Celebrating Zach's first birthday (is anyone surprised that he enjoyed the ribbon and wrapping paper more than the actual present?)

Hanging out with Meg's cousin, Mary:

Yum!

Lilly enjoyed Boudin's bread:

Zach, chasing a pigeon at the wharf:

Lilly, all dressed up to go to a wedding in Chicago with Pete:

Zach reading (one of his favorite things to do)

Zach in one of his halloween costumes

The kiddos dressed for Halloween (the skunk outfit was too small, but way too cute for me not to put him in it for a picture)

Fall

Here are some recent pictures. We've been pretty busy so far this fall- I started back at work 2 days a week, Pete has been travelling more often for work, Lilly is in preschool 3 days a week and Zach is with his Grandma (Pete's mom) while I'm at work. Lilly is starting to read and Zach is constantly on the move and into everything.

Apple Orchard- I had no idea Zach was really eating the apple until I realized he had been very quiet. He ate through the skin! He got really upset when I took the apple away from him. I did give him another, but didn't trust him to eat one in his carseat, so I had to throw it away! He also kept saying "ap, ap, ap", so maybe he's saying apple! Of course, that could just be the speech therapist in me- hearing words!

Lilly eating an apple (of course, she won't eat the skin, so I had to bite into all of her apples first!)

Lilly posing with her roller skates (I know these are kid skates, but she's pretty good with them! She refuses to have me help her)

Zach and his bus (or "bu, bu, bu, bu" as he likes to say whenever he sees this toy). This is by far his favorite toy. He pushes it around our house and is super fast with it. He also loves balls (he's so typically boy- he loves things that move and sports). He loves to throw the ball to anyone!

Zach walking (almost)!

This is a little blurry (mainly b/c our original video is in HD and is like 102 MB and I couldn't get it to upload, so I had to resize this one), but here's Zach and his first steps! Crazy 10 month old we have- he's into everything now. He climbs into our kitchen cabinets, puts everything in his mouth (his crib bars look like a beaver has been visiting him), and is a super happy kiddo!

Birthday Party #2

We celebrated Lilly's birthday at Pete's parents' house tonight along with Eric's birthday (which is the 14th). I think Lilly is birthdayed out since she fell asleep promptly 2 minutes after getting into her bed tonight!

Lilly attempting to cut the cake:

Lilly and Kit (the big present!):

Uncle Eric and Lilly:

Birthday Party #1

Lilly had her "friend" party today. It was supposed to be a water party, but, it started raining right after the party started, so we moved it indoors and tried to improvise. I had about 8 games planned, but the girls only got to two of them since they took almost an hour to do their craft (suncatchers). They did get to do the water balloons at the end since it stopped raining (why we did this, I'm not sure- it took me about 45 minutes to fill them up last night and they were all gone in about 2 minutes). We have a family party tomorrow, so I'll post more pictures then.

Summer photos

Here are some more fun summer photos:

This is how we get him to go to sleep at night (just kidding!):

the lazy susan can be a fun toy also:

Zach's new moves- he's almost crawling! He actually goes from sitting to his stomach and then pushes himself back up to a sitting position. He also tries to pull up on everything (the fireplace, the floor lamp, the side of the bathtub), so this weekend I made Pete lower the mattress in Zach's crib since I had this image of him pulling to a stand and then flipping out over the top!

two cute siblings on 4th of July

Lilly trying out her skates (this was the only time she would let go of Pete or I- to stand perfectly still to take a picture)

Visit with the MN Jacksons!

Last weekend we ventured up to MN to visit Timothy and Tanya (my brother and his wife) and their kids. We had a great time even though it was very rainy and then super hot!

Catching toads!

crawling...almost!!

Here's a video of our little mover:

This is totally new for me. Lilly rolled like a total of 3 times and she didn't crawl until almost 11 months. Zach rolls everywhere and tries to get everything (the curtains, the heating grate, the dvd player, the fireplace, etc). I think we might have to babyproof the house with him (unlike Lilly who was strangely not interested in our ipod, dvd player, curtains, wires, anything really) when she started crawling.

Summer

Pete's sister and her 4 kids were in town for the past 6 weeks (they were in the process of moving). Lilly, of course, had a blast with her cousins (especially her cousin, Jane, who is a few months younger than her). Here are some pictures of our past few weeks:

Grandpa and Laura during Danny's birthday soccer game:

water balloon toss (or attack if you look at Lilly)

Peter trying to catch the water balloon- he kept saying that he wasn't closing his eyes and now i have the photo to prove that he did

cousins at church before Laura and Zach's baptisms:

Liz, Meg (Zach), Carolyn (Laura), and Trish

Isn't Zach's outfit super cute? He looks like a little Elvis!

Aunt Liz and soon to be Uncle Eric (Zach's godparents)

1/2 marathon

Go Pete!!! Here he is running the 1/2 marathon last Saturday in almost 90 degree weather! Lilly wanted to know if he won...he was 656th, so pretty close. The second picture is when he's running into the stadium (the ending of the race).

Toledo

This weekend we went to Toledo, OH for a wedding. The kids were great throughout the wedding and reception and I even lost Zach at one point (he kept being passed around and he was kept at one table for about 20 minutes). We went to the zoo today (not the best day since it is a holiday and it was 90 degrees). The Toledo Zoo is really neat and has a bunch more animals than our little zoo here, so Lilly had a good time.

The polar bears: