Zabriskie Family: January 2015

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Mommy Tip: Playing and Being Pregnant

This pregnancy has been a tough one. There are a lot of days when I am hardly able to stand long enough to make a sandwich for the kids or even just walking to the bathroom will cause me pain. I feel guilty all the time when the kids are so bored and I have to be laying down on my side to keep from cramping.

Here are some games that I have found entertain the kids enough to get the boredom out:

1. Find an online spinner, I used THIS ONE and put different things they can do in the front room on the spinner. I put twirl around, hop on one foot, and dance. This got the wiggles out and didn't make any mess!

2. Legos! I grabbed our tubs of legos and the boys made different creatures while I reclined and put blocks together for Elizabeth to take apart (That's really the only way she'll play with them). It does make a mess, but we made a game out of picking them up. I held the buckets and had them race to see who could fill up their lego bucket first. It helped that I made a rule that the Legos had to stay in the front room, so I could point out more block for them to pick up.

3. Fort.

I had the boys pull out the chairs from the dinner table and their big blankets from their beds. I did have to get up once to help keep the blankets from falling down. It entertained them for a while and made reading time fun for them.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Grandma's are Awesome!

We are so blessed to be living close to family and the kids love going to Grandma's House!

Sickness...

Since before Christmas we have had a sick bug that just wouldn't let go! We went to see a doctor three times to get this taken care of and our coughs are still hanging on by a thread.

Poor Michael got the worst of it and he was the reason we went to the doctors last time.

Unfortunately he had a bad reaction to Amoxacillan... I was worried with the outbreak of measles in Utah when the spots first showed up, but since the change in prescription, the spots have been slowly fading.

We are finally not miserable, but I can't wait until this cough is gone all the way!

Elizabeth's Growing Up

Elizabeth has had a couple mile stones the last couple weeks!

She's been asking to sit on the toilet since before Christmas and will even pull her pants down until we sit her on the toilet. She finally went potty in the toilet! We haven't started to actively potty train her, because of me being unable to bend over and pick up as much, but it's coming soon!

Elizabeth ate a whole bowl of cereal without me helping her with a spoon! Yes I was holding the bowl the whole time to keep her from knocking it over :)

With all this growing up, Elizabeth stilll loves to cuddle and pile on the blankets.

Mommy Tip: Quiet Time

I've only been doing this for two weeks, but it's been going really great!

Just after Tim turned three, nap time was a real struggle. There were days when he wasn't tired and nap time was more of us fighting to have him stay in bed than him actually getting some rest. And let's face it, Mommies need time to themselves for a little bit. So, I'll admit, I gave in. We made quiet time where he would watch a movie, so the other two could sleep and I could sit down or nap myself. And it worked most days.

As Michael got older, he realized that Tim got to watch movies while he had to go to bed, nap time turned into us fighting him to stay in bed, which would keep Elizabeth up and then the whole household was grumpy. So we gave in again and let Michael sit with Tim during quiet time. This didn't work so great. My boys are really good friends and like to play all the time. Quiet time wasn't quiet and nobody was resting, which defeats the purpose of movie time.

Two weeks ago I got this wonderful idea!!! I don't remember how I came up with it, but I did!

Since Michael has been sick, he's been napping really well in his bed, so I took advantage of it and kept making him go to bed, but now I will let him take ONE book with him in bed. The first couple days I had to keep going to the doorway and tell him he couldn't make noises, so he wouldn't wake up Elizabeth. He'll look at the book for a bit and eventually just put it down and go to sleep.

I have Tim in the front room still, so he and Michael won't be tempted to keep each other awake. I put on a book on tape for Tim, so he won't play with the book and can listen to a story with his eyes closed. There have only been a few days that he hasn't fallen asleep. I have a timer set for an hour, so if he doesn't fall asleep, he knows quiet time is over and can get off the couch.

It's still an adjustment for them to not watch a movie for quiet time, everyday I have had to tell them that they aren't in trouble and didn't get TV taken away, but that we're trying something new, so they can help their bodies get big and strong.

It's really working for us and I finally feel like quiet time is a productive rest time.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Videos

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Our little Dancer

Christmas 2014

The Christmas season started with decorating our house:

Our new nativity set

Lots of Christmas kisses

We're so cool, we decorate our backyard with real deer!

It's hard to tell, but there are six back there.

It was Tim's turn to put the star on top of the tree this year.

Criman Christmas Party:

Jon and my dad got new Cabella's shirts.

More pictures coming soon from my dad's camera.

The kids enjoying their gifts the next day

Tim's Pre-School Program:

The last day of school, Tim had a Christmas Program with his pre-school. He loves his school and did an amazing job! I'm hoping the videos we took with my mom's phone didn't get lost when she changed phones, so I can post them.

Zabriskie Christmas:

Friday night we started to head to Casper, but our van broke down at the gas station down the street from our house. We finally got it towed and was able to find a rental car last minute that was allowed to go to Casper. Luckily we were only planning on driving halfway and had a hotel in Rock Springs waiting for us. We arrived in Casper Saturday morning and had our Zabriskie Family Party that afternoon.

We even had a visitor!

Sunday morning everyone was busy getting ready for church.

Playing with Cousin Aria

New Christmas dress from Grandma Criman

Papa Z got a snow blower for Christmas and was able to try it out the next day!

Monday the kids played legos with Uncle Tom.

Later that day we saw the new Hobbit movie and it was really nice to have adult time.

Tuesday Tom taught Jon and Michael how to make his bread.

Elizabeth and Aria helped Nana eat her lunch.

Christmas Eve Michael and Tim helped Grandma wrap gifts.

We were able to meet Dörthe's boyfriend Hendrik and now they're engaged!!! We're so happy to have him join the family!

We took the boys to get hair cuts.

I didn't notice how choppy they were until we left... But I was able to fix it later.

The boys were exhausted with excitement. Quiet time was actually quiet!!!

Hot Cocoa and cookies for Santa. Carrots and water for the reindeer. Michael was so concerned that the deer would have something to drink, so we filled a bowl for them.

Santa Came!!!

Christmas Day!

Wake up Daddy!!!

The reindeer left a mess outside!

Sadly I didn't check my memory on my phone, so these were the only pictures I was able to take Christmas morning.... Someday I'll have a big girl camera....