HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZEKE!

I can't even believe that it's been a whole year since I had this little angel. He's the SWEETEST baby anyone could imagine. Currently, he's cruising along furniture, has 8 teeth and eats just about anything (including an entire bratwurst last night), and he usually sleeps 14 hours at night straight through. Plus a 2 hour nap at some point during the day. Sometimes 2.

This is his 1 year old picture from after church yesterday. I tried without the binky, but he wasn't focusing! He had just woken up from his nap, and friends were there!

For father's day, as well as Zeke and Kurt's birthday that is today, we had the Waller's over. Kurt, Lindsey, and Chase came over to play and BBQ. After dinner, the dads were enthralled in some XBOX, so we took the boys out back to play in our kiddie pool. They did have fun, this is just the only picture of both of their faces.

Then we got cleaned up and opened presents. Zeke got a busy ball popper, duplo legos, and cars from us, books and clothes from Nana and Papa, and a baseball and glove from the Wallers.

Here he's a little scared of his cake. In all fairness, it is on fire.

But once it's extinguished (with some help from daddy) he seems to cozy right up to it.

You can tell he's really enjoying it, because we're getting the "cheesy" smile.

It's all fun and games until someone rubs their eyes with red frosting all over their hands.

Then we stripped him down, and gave him a bath in the sink.

We LOVE our sweet baby, and we can't imagine our life without him. He's such a blessing, and he teaches us so much every day. I'm so excited about his little brother (or sister) that's coming this winter, and watching them grow and play and learn together.

Zeke LOVES strawberries!

One evening last week I picked all of the strawberries out of my garden. They're smaller than store ones, but I got 2-3 cups full. I sat with Zeke on the sidewalk out back, and he dug right in. After about 3/4 of the container was empty, I thought, "This is sure cute. I should probably get my camera." So you're catching the tail end of our strawberry extravaganza. He clearly loved them.

"This is delicious!"

"NO!!! They're almost gone!"

I think Reggie wanted a bite, but no luck!

Viva la familia!

Last week, I took a trip to Oregon, and then Washington to see some family.

Jacqui, Dan and Levi came down to see some friends in Reno. Then we caravaned back up to Oregon all together. Levi is the CUTEST uncle. He took such good care of Zeke and Paolo the whole time! This is us at Black Bear Diner in Mt Shasta City, with Mt Shasta in the background. It's a really pretty drive.

When we got there we just had to go see Nana and Papa, and they suprised us with Heather and Isabel coming down! We went to lunch and had a pretty good day. Zeke showed off his straw skills by sucking down literally half of my chocolate milkshake.

He's also taken a liking to sunglasses. It's pretty cute. Here he stole Isabels. He just started doing it on the way to Oregon with Jacqui's. They were pink too. Uh-oh.

Zeke loved playing with his cousins. Here he is with Paolo.

This is at the family reunion in Washington with Jared. He is my cousin Zynna's 9 month old.


I'm sure he was tired, but mostly it was warm in there. I think he liked the nice cool floor.


All the hot ladies. And their babies. Jacqui and Paolo, Zynna and Jared, Aunt Coca, and Zeke and Me.



Finding his new love. Strawberries. I never bring him food because he can eat basically anything, but here it was limited, so he ate about a dozen that day. I had strawberry juice all over my nice white pants.



Here is a lot of the family that was there. I could even tell you most of their names now! YAY!