So Far This Year...

We have been keepin' pretty busy!

Getting used to juggling two kids consumes most of our time, but living near both sets of our families fills in the rest! We've been lovin' it!

My Dad turned 50 this January!
We had him flocked with 50 flamingos in his front yard!

The Carrs had a super-cute Valentine's Day Party!
Clearly, Kaitlyn enjoyed the sugar cookies.



Zack loves to sit in his walker.
Look at his cute little feet! They can't even touch the ground!
You can also totally see his little elf ear in this picture.

Zack has also started grabbing either side of his face with his hands when he is really upset. Does it remind you of anyone?






Zachary James Crosby was blessed on February 28, 2010
at his Grandparent's home in Dover, Florida.
Those who participated in the circle were:
Jacob Crosby (his father), James King, Sr., Robert Crosby, Mark Riebow, Jared Crosby, Jonathan Crosby, Matthew Riebow, and Joshua Crosby.
It was a beautiful day!



The New York Crosbys were down for over a week!
We loved seeing them because we rarely get to.
Kaitlyn and Gwen got in some play time together, and we all got to catch-up!

One day, Mom had scheduled family pictures and we got some lovely shots.
My favorite is this one of Zack and his Grandpa King.
They have the same hands, so we were trying to capture that but Zack wasn't cooperating.
Grandpa King did great though!
I love, LOVE this shot!

This past weekend we went to Disney World! Woo Hoo!

Kaitlyn got to take some pictures
with some of her favorite characters.
She loves, LOVES, Lilo & Stitch.
She gave them each very big hugs!

And she actually had us get out of line for Dumbo to go stand in line to see Tigger & Pooh. I think Tigger is her favorite. He loves to bounce and she loves to jump!

Kaitlyn is a very lucky little girl. She has already been to Disney at least a half a dozen times because her Nana had season passes. So, when Jake and I took her she had already ridden almost everything. However, she hadn't ridden on the Tea Cups. As you can tell by her facial expression, she LOVED them! She and her daddy were spinning the tea cup as fast as they could!

We have a few more Disney Trips coming up because we took advantage of the Florida Resident $99 - 4 Park Pass. We also have a family wedding (my cousin Kelli) on the horizon.
We'll keep ya posted!

Tomorrow's Forecast....

a perfectly winter day filled with cold and rain. So, I highly recommend pulling out your stockpot and whipping up one of these babies!

The first, is a delicious Ham and Potato Soup. I have previously blogged about this fabulous dish and my addiction to Bennigan's Baked Potato Soup that started back in college.

The second is a new recipe found by my mother and craved by my husband. It is a perfectly hardy soup in need of some nice crusty dippin' bread! The recipe is for Italian Sausage Soup. The following makes 6 servings:

Ingredients

• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 (14 ounce) cans beef broth
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can great Northern beans, undrained
• 2 small zucchini, cubed
• 2 cups spinach - packed, rinsed and torn
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a stockpot or Dutch oven, brown sausage with garlic. Stir in broth, tomatoes and carrots, and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes.
2. Stir in beans with liquid and zucchini. Cover, and simmer another 15 minutes, or until zucchini is tender.
3. Remove from heat, and add spinach. Replace lid allowing the heat from the soup to cook the spinach leaves. Soup is ready to serve after 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

I had totally forgotten.

So, it has been almost 2 months since my last blog. A new born baby, in combination with a two year-old who is determined to get her way, is ridiculously time consuming. Who knew? I keep giving myself hurdles to get to. Such as, when breastfeeding started back up, I started a mantra, "Just 10 days Give it 10 days. Ten days for the searing pain to go down." And it worked! Then it was, "Just 2 months; two months until I can sleep again. Surely, in 2 months Zack will be sleeping solid in his own bassinet." WRONG!

I had totally forgotten everything I had learned with Kaitlyn from the wonderful Ms. Tracy Hogg (who sadly had passed away before I ever even discovered her). Jacob is the one who brought Ms. Hogg into our lives. He is an avid researcher anytime we invest in anything. He grew up in a home where the "Consumer Reports" subscription was regularly renewed, and I am grateful for it. You can imagine, when we found out we were pregnant for the first time, there was a good deal of time in bookstores. Jake found this book one day at Borders, "The Baby Whisperer".

Hogg informed me of a great many things, but the most important was EASY. No, seriously, she titled the cycle of events your child should go through as "E.A.S.Y." She said we shouldn't be rigidly clinging onto a timetable, more a cycle of behavior. E: Eat, A: Activity, S: Sleep, Y: You time. Somehow, I had totally forgotten that from baby #1 to baby #2. I had also forgotten that you have to 'teach' your baby how to sleep in their cribs. I had been randomly placing Zack in his bassinet hoping he would take to it.

Nevertheless, we are now back on track, teaching Zack how to sleep by himself and continually going through the cycle of predictable events of E.A.S.Y. Even though I am still not sleeping as much as I would like, and Zack still hasn't fallen completely in love with his crib (He is sleeping pretty solid from 9p-3a. Then it's anyone's guess when he's going to fall back asleep.), I know we will get there... thanks to Ms. Hogg.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Zack's 1st Santa Picture

Last Saturday, Zack and I were home alone while Katie and Jake went out on a little "Daddy-Daughter" date after running some errands. My dad was installing a new porch light when he noticed Santa Claus riding through the park on a motorcycle. So, Zack's first picture with Santa... was on a motorcycle.

Zack Attack

We definitely have a lot to be thankful for...Zachary James Crosby was born today at 2:15 p.m. I'm sure Rachel will have plenty to say about this jam-packed day, so I'll stick to a rundown of the facts and post some pictures (which is what most of you want anyway). We had planned to have Zack as a C-section on Tuesday, Dec 1, but Rachel started having contractions (and other pre-labor symptoms that I won't mention here) yesterday that progressed to a point at which the doctor told us to come on in today. After some excellent attention from the good folks at St. Joseph's Hospital, Zack arrived, weighing in at a back-breaking 10 lbs, 6 oz...a record (as near as we can figure) for both sides of our immediate family. Zack is 21 in long and has a "melon" circumference of 14.5 in. Thank goodness for modern medicine. Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes thus far. We are truly amazed at how many people care for us and our little ones. We love you all so much. Keep those prayers coming. More pictures to follow in the coming weeks.

Little did she know...

That's my boy!

"You mean I have to stay out here?"

First kiss from Mommy

Cuddling with Mommy

"I see you Daddy...and I'm going to eat you out of house and home"

We've Got a Big Boy... a Very, BIG Boy!

Katie was 7lbs 10oz at birth. She was a very average weight, average height, healthy baby girl. So, when the ultrasound tech announced at my 32 weeks appointment that Zach was also of average weight (6lbs 5oz) there was no shock.

Well, today was my 36 week appointment and I was schedule for yet another ultrasound. This time around the ultrasound tech kept measuring and measuring. Finally she says, "Well, I can't make him any smaller." "Huh?" I think to myself. "He's 8lbs." she says. EIGHT POUNDS! I still have 3 weeks left! How did this happen?! No wonder my belly has been so sore and I've received new, angry stretch marks. I have a mammoth growing inside of me! A little linebacker-in-waiting! This also explains the past month of restless nights with extraordinarily sore hips.

After the ultrasound tech, I go to see the OB. She clarifies, "He's not 8lbs. He is 8lbs. 10 oz." She then proceeds to feel around and measure things because they could have added or subtracted a pound from Zach's estimated weight. I'm tall, so she is thinking my belly will be all squishy and he'll be smaller. Wrong. My belly has been rock-like for the past few weeks. Not only that, my uterus is 3cm larger than it should be.

We've got a big boy in there. A very, BIG boy.

Here he is in all his 8lb 10oz glory!

I just want to squeez those cheeks and kiss those lips!

The Week of the Family

Well, today was the start of The Week of the Family in Tampa Bay. The local members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been encouraged by the Regional Authorities to participate as much as possible. Check out the website to see all of the activities they are sponsoring this week. They're even having discounted movie tickets, dinners and kids events.

Today, they had the kick-off at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa. My Dad was in charge of the the Church's volunteers and being a liason with the organizers. Most of my family volunteered, while Katie, my sister Bekah, and myself went to enjoy the free admission at the Museum.

Of course, as most things go now-a-days, it was all about making Kaitlyn happy. We started off meandering around the main complex and quickly realized it was not going to be holding Katie's attention. So, off to "Kids In Charge" we went. There is a huge building souly dedicated to kids exploring and learning. A much better fit for a toddler.

The first thing that hooked Kaitlyn was an "exhibit" sponsored by Publix. There was an orange grove, a farm, a deli and a grocery store filled with fake foods and conveyer belts.

Kaitlyn really liked picking the "balls" and taking them to the farm. She loves to have a job.

Then we found that there was an "Astronaut Training Program" we could participate in. Katie was too small to do most of the activities (which were all some kind of bounce house/obstacle course/velcro wall. The smallest bounce house was just her size and it contained a slide.

Bekah tried out the last challenge, which was a huge slide housed in the farthest corner of "Kids in Charge".

She burned her heels on the canvas on her way down. Ouchie!

Bekah is such a good Aunt. She followed Katie all around, wherever and whenever she wanted to go. She also crawled in and out of these tunnels with her. Bless her. There is no way (even if Mommy wasn't 8 months pregnant) that I would have been that patient.

Katie was also really drawn to this light table with translucent colored shapes. You could stack them up and see different colors... kind of like an open ended kalidescope.

On our way out to the Lowry Park Petting Zoo, we passed by a live band that was rockin' away in the 88 degree heat. They didn't let a little heat and sweat stop 'em!

When I think petting zoo, I think sheep, goat, bunny.... definitely not snake.

We didn't get to see what else they had because Katie dumped her snack in the dirt (on accident) and then decided to start running around the ampi-theater. Then, she started to have a fit when we tried to corral her. It was definitely nap time.

So, bye- bye MOSI. Thanks for the fun!

Trunk or Treat Till You Drop...

from heat exhaustion!

We here in Central Florida suffered a 90 degree day on Halloween this year. I remember many a Halloween from my childhood with my costume sticking to me. Luckily, Kaitlyn is still trying to grasp the concept, so we only hit the Trunk or Treat at our church and skipped the actual Trick or Treating that evening.

Kaitlyn was Dora the Explorer this year, while her Daddy was Swiper! I was a witch who was too hot to even wear her hat. Needless to say, bright Florida sunshine and a parking lot do not make for a lovely comfortable combination.

Besides the heat, our building's wards put on a pretty good event: Hot dogs, chips, popcorn, a cake walk, costume contest, pumpkin contest, games and Trunk or Treating.
The glistening evidence is below:

Katie was most concerned with continually checking up on her haul.

Swiper from behind. I have to say, I nailed the design of that tail, even if I couldn't whip out some gloves.

This was our game... you had to throw the ghosts back into the haunted house. After Katie was done making the rounds, she was the most avid participant. She kept climbing in the back of the car to get the ghosts and tossing them out so that they were rolling all over the parking lot.

Here's Katie checking out all of our melted Kit Kats. Poor candy.

We took Chloe too. Bad idea. It was so hot she was sweltering. Not to mention, she loves people and just wanted to jump up and lick everyone to death. Or once we finally tied her leash to the car, she would whimper anytime she wanted to follow someone who walked away. She is such a drama queen.

Pumpkin!

Kaitlyn officially loves, "Pumpkin!"s. She shouts this phrase anytime she sees them and she counts the 2 we have on our porch every time we walk past.

Since we live in hot and humid Florida, we carved our "Pumpkin!" today in hopes that it will survive until Halloween. Here are the before and afters:

Not too horrible for having not done this in a decade.
Also, this was Kaitlyn's "Pumpkin!" carving outfit, a John Deer t-shirt and a tutu... classic. (She had recently woken up from a nap. Hence the glare full of contempt.)