Ho Ho Ho...Merry Christmas!

Today Chris and I took Blake to the mall so that he could sit on Santa's lap and tell him all the things he wants for Christmas. Well...maybe just to sit on his lap and get a picture taken actually. Blake didn't seem phased by the experience. He looked at Santa kind of expressionless. I'm guessing next year might be a different story. So here is a picture from his first experience with Santa Clause and just for the fun of it we have also included some pictures we got taken Thanksgiving weekend of Blake with his cousins Ashlei and Allison. My mom made them matching outfits. It's hilarious and very cute all at the same time. And at the end just a cute picture of Blake with his Santa Clause hat on.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Is it really December already?

Well time is flying by these days. November came and went so quickly. I honestly can't believe it is already December and Christmas is almost here. However, I have to say that I am super excited this year! It will be Blakes first Christmas and I think it makes it so much more fun for Chris and I...even though the little guy will have no clue. Just a couple of days ago we got our Christmas Tree. We took our annual trip down to Home Depot and picked the thing out. I know...not very festive of us, BUT, they have great tree's and they are cheap. :) So the tree is decorated and Blake loves the lights. Here are a couple of pictures of us at Home Depot. I can't believe we actually took a camera there. It was pretty embarrassing if you ask me. But we had to document it for Blake.





And the final result...a gorgeous tree if you ask me.




Blake also had his 4 month check up at the doctors office today. He weighed in at 18 pounds 1 oz and he is 26 1/2 inches long. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that three of his vaccines were combined, so instead of getting 5 shots he only had to get 2! yay!!! I was anxious all day about this.

We took a ton of pictures in November. Enjoy them!

November 2008

Tummy Time!

I know I haven't posted anything in a little while and I was sitting here thinking about what I could update you all on. So...I realized that I have some cute pictures of Blake doing tummy time! It has been big on our agenda these days. He's not a big fan of laying on his stomach, but he is defintely getting better. So anyhow, thought I would share. Hope you are all doing well.

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of Blakes 1st Halloween. He was the cutest little dinosaur I have ever seen!

Someone thinks Daddy is funny

So last night when I was at the grocery store Chris and Blake were hanging out together. Apparently Blake thought Chris was pretty funny. Chris caught his excitment on video so I thought I would share. Very Cute!

Happy Birthday Blake, You turned 3 months old!

Yesterday was a big day...It was Blakes 3 month birthday. Chris, Blake and I made a day of it. We went to Half Moon Bay to the pumpkin patch where Chris and his family went when he was growing up. It was so much fun...and will be even more fun when the little guy can run around. It will definitely be a tradition we will keep doing. The pumpkin patch was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. It was such a beautiful day that after the pumpkin patch we went to Half Moon Bay Brewery and sat outside and toasted our little guy with a pumpkin ale. We then headed off to the Mavericks for a little walk and ocean view. A very nice day all in all...we had a wonderful time. When we got back home Chris and I decided some more celebration was in order...so we dished up a bowl of ice cream put a candle on it and wished Blake another Happy 3 months! I guess we will have to do it again in another. I mean he will be introduced to solid foods then...very monumental. ha!

Blake's 3 Month Birthday!

Visiting family in Red Bluff

Last weekend we took a trip up to see the Einck family in Red Bluff. My cousin Melissa was here from Maui with her daughter and my aunt arranged for our whole family to take a family photo. We were able to visit with everyone after the photo and had a big family barbeque. Blake and I also went to a baby shower for Aimee's sister Amanda which was lots of fun. And...on Sunday we went to Ashlei's 5th birthday party. It was definitely a fun filled weekend.

Look what I can do!

I know it has been awhile since I have posted last. Shame on me. But I think I'm going to make up for it today. Here is the first post of a series of three. Yipee!! October has been a very eventful month. Blake is smiling more and more each day and he has really started to talk. He is really learning how to use his tongue to make noises. It is so fun to have a "conversation" with him. I have posted a couple of video's for all of you. One is of him smiling and the other is from the other day when he was being vocal. Enjoy!





Here are also some pictures from this month!

Misc October Photos (Blake 2 months old)

Smiles...

So...Blake has started to smile...real smiles...although its pretty hard to catch them on camera for some reason. So the first thing we want to share is a picture that we caught the other night. So cute!

From Blake 2 months old (weeks 9 through 11)

The past couple of weeks have been fun as usual. We went to Santa Rosa/Sonoma last weekend to celebrate Eileen and Vicki's wedding and had a great time. Blake met more of his family and family friends.

We also found a nanny to watch Blake when I return to work in November. Her name is Kara and she is so sweet. She actually started working for us last week. She is coming a couple days a week this month so that we can all ease into this change. She is great and we really look forward to working with her and having her here to help us out.

I have posted some pictures from the last couple of weeks (click on the picture above). Enjoy!

2 Months Old

Blake turned 2 months old on Tuesday and today he had his 2 month check up at the pediatricians office. He was a trooper! He had to have 5 shots in his tiny legs and I think it was harder on Chris and I than it was on him. He is taking a snooze right now while I write this so the baby tylenol probably kicked in. As with every appointment he was measured and weighed. He is 14 pounds (97th percentile) now and 24inches in length (85th percentile). He is growing good.

Here are some pictures i took on tuesday to document his 2 month birthday.






Last week we went up to Red Bluff so that Blake could meet his family up there. He was introduced to aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents and friends. He had a very eventful weekend! We took tons of pictures...but these are a couple of my favorite. To see all of our pictures from the weekend CLICK HERE

Our 8th Week...

Our 8th week was pretty mellow which was a nice change. We hung out a lot at home with the exception of this past Sunday. We took a family outting to San Francisco to our friends Jill & Aimee's house for dinner. We had a great time with them and our other friends Adrienne and Ryan. Always nice to hang out with good friends. We have posted some pictures from the week. Blake will be two months old on Tuesday! We will definitely take some more pictures to document that momentous occasion. Its hard to believe this guy is only 8 weeks old. We were in Bed Bath and Beyond this week and he was mistaken for a 6 month old. I guess thats what happens when you are 8 weeks and weigh 15 or so pounds. We have a big boy on our hands. He's just perfect! Love to all!

From Blakes 8th Week

What a fun couple of weeks

So Blake will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and the last couple of weeks have been very eventful.

Chris' sister Carrie flew from New York to visit her new nephew and we spent lots of quality time with her. We had bbq's at the house and spent a day in Santa Cruz & Capitola. Fun times! It was great to see Carrie and we can't wait for our next visit. Carrie's departure was last Tuesday and Chris' older sister Colby and her family came for a visit on Wednesday. It's a revolving door around her these days. ha! We had tons of fun with the Burkes and Blake met two of his cousins Hayleigh and Rory. Rory was infatuated with Blake, his binkies and his bouncy seat. Too cute! We took another trip to Capitola and Santa Cruz with the Burkes and had a great time...I think Blake had a great time too. We then all headed to Discovery Bay for the weekend to enjoy some sunshine. It was HOT! This was our first overnight trip with Blake and it went so well. He is a dream!

Blake is changing so much as you can see from the pictures. His eyes are so much more alert and he is curious about everything. We have even gotten a few smiles from him lately. Hopefully we will catch one on film this week so everyone can see.

Love to all! Again, Enjoy!

Blake turned 5 weeks on Wednesday!

Time is flying by so fast. Blake turned 5 weeks old yesterday which is just crazy to me. He is so wonderful and it's so fun to see what sort of new things he will do everyday. He is on the verge of smiling and Chris and I can't wait for that. It will be any day now. This past week has been lots of fun. We had a playdate with a friend of mine and her 11 week old baby who is such a cutie and a chunk. We had a fun time this past weekend at our friends bbq. We are starting to venture out more and more. My mom also came for a visit. Blake got some quality time with his grandma and it was great to have the extra help and the yummy dinners that came along with it. We will miss her when she leaves tomorrow. So as always we have posted some pictures from the week. So until next week...

Blakes 5th Week

Blakes 4th Week!

Well I can't believe this little guy has been around for 4 weeks now. Time is flying by. He will be 1 month old on Saturday...he's going to be in college before we know it. ha!

So anyhow...more pictures for all of you. We had had a family outing at the park this past weekend and Blake had his first bottle yesterday. Exciting stuff!

Make sure to click on the picture below to view the whole slideshow. :)

Blakes 4th Week

Blake's Third Week

Week three has been fun. We are getting into our routine and learning how to function on little sleep. We have had some visitors this week including a surprise visit from my aunt Megan an cousin Daisy from Northern California...such a fun surprise. We posted some updated pictures from the week. ENJOY!

Blakes Third Week

Two weeks old!

So we survived our second week all on our own, just the three of us. I think we have a really good baby to thank for that. We have had some visitors this week and have even had a couple adventures out...a walk around the block, a trip to target and grocery shopping. ha! Today we are going to the Referral Realty annual company barbeque where Blake will make his debut.

Our biggest and most exciting activity of the week was having a photographer come out to our house and take pictures of Blake. Here is a sneak peak...we will have all of the pictures available for view in a few weeks. So excited!





We have taken a bunch of pictures this week that are posted to kodak gallery. Here is the link: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=mbznfrh.4nfbdwtx&x=0&y=-drwkpy&localeid=en_US

Our First Week at Home

It has been almost a week since we arrived at home with Blake. Things are going very well. He is such a good baby which makes things much easier on Chris and I. We think he is probably the cutest baby ever, although we understand that might be biased. Grandma Mel and Grandpa Al have been staying with us and really taking care of Chris and I so we can take care of Blake. They have made us the most wonderful meals and really have helped out more than we could have asked for. They leave tomorrow and we are so sad. :( We will be on our own for week two...so stay tuned... Enjoy the pics below, if you click on the slideshow the pictures will be bigger.

Introducing Blake Charles Zanger

Hello everyone. Well he is here and we are so excited. It is truely amazing how much you can love someone. He's the best!

Blake Charles Zanger was born July 23rd at 11:07PM after 22 hours of labor. He weighed 10 pounds even and 21 inches long. Needless to say he is a BIG baby and will never have the opportunity of wearing anything with the size "newborn". I guess this is why i was asked if i was having twins on multiple occassions while i was pregnant. wow!

So anywhow...this is quick as life has all of the sudden gotten very busy. Please enjoy the pics. More will definitely follow.

Love to all,
Rachel & Chris

Week 39 and 4 days

So...our ultrasound appointment was this afternoon and we have been told that our little boy's weight is estimated at 9 pounds 4 ounces. He's definitely a healthy boy. Let's hope maybe they are off a bit and he's not that big. Obviously this is never the news you want to hear as your due date is creeping up on you...and obviously we would like him to bless us with his presence soon because it seems like he has been baking long enough. We have our prenatal appointment with our doctor on Friday, we are assuming if I haven't gone into labor by then we will be scheduling an induction. Again...stay tuned...we will be back in touch on Friday. :)

Think good thoughts that Blake will arrive SOON!

xoxo

Week 39 and 3 days

Today we had a NST scheduled and just wanted everyone to know it went well. The baby is doing great. Heart rate was a steady 120 and movement was good. He obviously is doing fine where he is at right now but we wish he would come out to meet us.

Tomorrow is our ultrasound appointment, so stay tuned...

Week 39

So it's week 39 and counting the days until this baby comes...

On Monday we had an appointment for an NST (non-stress test) for the baby. Because i have Gestational Diabetes my pregnancy is considered high risk and this is a routine thing for high risk pregnancies. Blake passed with flying colors, he was very active and his heart rate looked great.

Today we had our prenatal appointment with Doctor Kearns. I'm still measuring normally and have dialated 1 cm and my cervix has softened (no effacing yet). Wish it was more...but oh well. We did go ahead and scrape my membranes to see if that will help the process a little. Can't hurt right? So now we wait...

If our little man doesn't come before we have an ultrasound appointment scheduled for Tuesday to see just how big he is getting. We will keep you posted...

Have a great weekend everyone!

Week 38

Its week 38 and we are pretty anxious for our little guy to arrive. Of course hoping its sooner than later. I had an appointment with the dietician on Thursday and my gestational diabetes is under control, if my numbers continue they way they are we shouldn't have any problems with the baby having low blood sugar when he is born. Phew! Our 38 week doctor appointment was yesterday and everything is looking fine. I'm still measuring normally and we decided to hold off on any pelvic exam until next week. There is no rush to induce as Chris and I have let our doctor know that we we are not interested in induction unless it's medically necessary. Dr. Kearns is on the same page as we are with that so that is nice. As much as i'm "over" being pregnant...it's not that bad and i can still sleep and get around. Chris has been concerned with my swollen feet, and as much as i reassurred him that it was normal and that it wasn't a sign of preclampsia (my blood pressure has been fine all the way through and the swelling has come on gradually for the past few months) - we did talk to our doctor about it and she confirmed that it was just edema. :) We are going in for a NST (non stress test) to monitor the baby on Monday to see how he is doing and then i have another pre-natal appointment on Friday. So of course we will keep you all upated...

We took some belly pics in the past week - It's defintely BIG! I swear i get asked daily if i'm having twins. It's very interesting the things that complete strangers will say to you when you are pregnant. funny!

Week 37

Hello! So we had another doctors appointment today. Nothing too exciting to report. All I can say is that little mans hearbeat sounded great! Technically I'm 36 weeks and 5 days - So 37 weeks starts on Friday. :) Baby is full term on Friday and I would be very happy if he decided to come a little early. We can only hope.

So I have finally finished the nursery! Thought everyone might enjoy seeing some pictures...