The new addition is here...Grayson Grant Zanger

We would like to introduce the newest addition to our family...Grayson Grant was born December 20th at 10:18am via c-section. He weighed 9 pounds 5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. We are all settling in at home now to enjoy the Christmas holiday.

I have attached a link to some pictures we took of the birth day through yesterday.

Enjoy!

The Countdown Begins!

Baby boy Zanger #2 will be delivered via c-section on December 20th at 9:30am unless he decides to enter this world earlier. Only 6 more days left of being pregnant and I couldn't be happier. Hives and carpal tunnel BE GONE! And on top of that comfortable, restful sleep is non-existent - and even though a baby brings a whole different type of sleep deprivation, I'm READY!

We are all very curious how big this baby will be considering Blake was 10 pounds. I really can't tell if I feel/look bigger or smaller. My friends tell me I look smaller, Chris tells me I look bigger (thanks husband) - who knows! What I do know is that I'm a lot more uncomfortable. I don't know if this is because the baby is positioned breech or if its because he is bigger or maybe its because I have gained 10 more pounds with this pregnancy than the last, or the fact that I was a lot more active (swimming, walking, etc...) when pregnant with Blake. I guess we will find out sooner than later.

Wish us luck on a smooth delivery and before you know it we will have pictures posted of our newest addition. Yay!

Oh Christmas Tree

Yesterday we took a trip up to the Santa Cruz Mountains to a Christmas tree farm to cut a tree down. I'm so glad we did! For the past three years Chris and I have gone the lazy route and have picked out our tree at home depot. Now while HD has really great trees for cheap, it definitely was worth the extra time and money to see our little guy running through the trees so excited to pick out his Christmas Tree. We thought we would share some pictures of our Christmas Tree cutting adventure and the finished product with Blake debuting his Christmas jammies.

(Please note the silly fish hat Blake is wearing. He is obsessed and wants to wear it everywhere. We even had the pleasure of him wearing it to the grocery store today)

Heading out to look for our tree




Helping dad cut the tree down


Helping carry the tree


And of course we couldn't leave without riding the tractor


Our tree and a proud little boy!

November & Baby Update!

Well if December flies by as fast as November we should have a baby here in what will feel like tomorrow.

We had a nice visit with Chris' Grandma Ruth last week. We were able to join her for dinner and Blake had a lot of fun playing on her mechanical hospital bed. she let him push lots of buttons and he was having a blast.

Since I'm so close to my due date we weren't able to travel for Thanksgiving so we stuck around home. We had a really great time with Aimee and her family in Gilroy, which is like my second family. Blake had an absolute blast playing with all of the kids and we had an instant babysitter with Aimee's sisters girls who are 14 and 10. Who could ask for more! Made for a relaxing Thanksgiving. The only downfall was with all the spare time I had I think i ate enough for 3 grown men that day. I was shocked when the doctor told me this morning i had only gained 3 pounds from last week. I was convinced it was going to be 10. ha!

The day after thanksgiving we went to Christmas in the Park in downtown San Jose with our playgroup friends and decorated our community tree. We had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and contributing to the beautiful display of christmas trees for the community to enjoy.

and last but not least... a BABY UPDATE!

So I'm 36 weeks as of Sunday. We had our weekly doctors appointment this morning. This baby is a stubborn one and is sitting in frank breech position (butt first). We went ahead and scheduled a c-section for December 21st but we are secretly hoping either baby turns around or just decides to bless us with his presence early that way we can be home and settled before Christmas. Cross your fingers for us! Either way though we are so excited to meet our second baby boy!

Here are my 34/35 week belly shots

35 weeks with baby #2


34 weeks with Blake

Halloween Time!

October seemed to be filled with lots of halloween related activities. Blake got to visit the pumpkin patch with his playgroup friends, grandma einck and mommy and daddy. Lucky kid! We also had an adventure at Happy Hollow and a Halloween party with our playgroup friends. Always a good time!

Blake spent a week at his grandma and papa eincks mid month. He had a great time and mommy got a much needed break to get some things done around here. B keeps talking about his visit. He is now addicted to the book puff the magic dragon (which my mom read and sang to him everyday) and wants me to read it before bed every night as well as at any point he wakes up during the middle of the night. I think i'm a little puffed out...but he loves it so I will continue doing it. Blake also immediately announces "papa's tractor" to anyone who might step foot into our house. I think we might have a country boy on our hands.

We ended the month with Halloween of course! Blake was a super hero and he did some trick-or-treating with our friends and neighbors. It was tons of fun and he loved getting all the candy. Lucky for us he was only interested in the lollipops - so the rest mommy and daddy can eat.

Hope everyone enjoyed October as much as we did. Only about 8 more weeks until the new baby arrives. Will have another belly shot and update coming this months sometime.

xoxo

Baby Boy #2 Update

Everything is going well with baby #2. 31 weeks as of yesterday. We are going to the doctor every 2 weeks now. I'm measuring normally - but i was measuring normally with Blake and look how huge he was! I did find out recently that I don't have gestational diabetes with this pregnancy which was fantastic news. We are really hoping for a smaller baby this time around - but we will roll with whatever comes our way. I have to say that as smooth as everything is going this pregnancy is slightly different than the last. I definitely have heartburn much more and I am more uncomfortable now that i have entered my 30 weeks. And I'm a lot more tired I feel like. Maybe that is because I'm also chasing around a 2 year old. This baby moves very similar to how Blake moved around - Very slow movements, not a lot of sharp movements which i'm thankful for. For a little fun I put together a couple of belly shot sequences. One of when i was pregnant with Blake and the other is this pregnancy. I'm feeling like I look bigger in this late stage than I did with Blake. Hopefully that just means that I have gained more weight and that this baby isn't bigger. Please cross your fingers for me. ;)

Red Bluff & Walla Walla

September was a great month. We spent the beginning of the month in Walla Walla with Chris' family. It has become a tradition that we head up to the northwest for Labor Day weekend and partake in the traditional Walla Walla activities which include country concerts, labor day parade and the good ol' fair. All activities I grew up doing, so why not expose the darling little boy to them. We always have a wonderful time and this year was no different. I forgot my camera however so not many pictures to share - only those from my phone.

Later in the month we headed up to Red Bluff to spend a few days with my family. Chris went deer hunting with my dad and brother and the girls (+ Blake) stayed behind and had a great time hanging out. My dad bought a motorized john deere tractor for the kids and Blake could not get enough about it. He is still talking about the tractor and the horsies and the Rhino that my mom takes him for rides on to feed the horses. A total boy we have on our hands. I love it!

Well enjoy the pictures from the month. I have been a little lazy about taking picture these days so there aren't too many. I have a feeling once baby #2 gets here we will be snapping away again.

Baby News....

So I was horrible at taking pictures in August and have almost nothing to share so I thought I would give you all a baby update. We had our 20 week ultrasound about a month ago (I guess this update is coming kind of late). Everything looked great. Baby was doing well, moving around a ton and his little heart beat was as strong as can be. What more can you ask for. We of course found out the gender and are so excited to have another boy! The baby was laying breech - which later in pregnancy won't be such a great thing but for now its not too worrisome since the baby moves around quite a bit. I go in next week to get my gestational diabetes test done - chances are I will have it again, but I'm sure hoping not.

Ultrasound pic and belly shots! Enjoy!

20 week ultrasound picture of baby's face


Belly shots!

Oh July...you flew by WAY to fast!

So now that it's the middle of August I will finally get around to posting our July pictures. We had a very eventful month of July. Here is a quick recap of the month...

• July 4th we spent at home poolside with our friends Aimee and Kris. It was probably the most mellow 4th of July Chris and I have ever exprienced. Good times!
  
• We took a trip to Trinidad, Ca for a long weekend with the Einck family and some family friends. Blake loved the beach and we definitely will be visiting this area again.
  
• BLAKES 2ND BIRTHDAY! So much fun to celebrate another year with the coolest kid I know. We had a wonderful time and Blake loved his birthday and eating CUPCAKES!
  
• The Burkes came to visit! yay! They were able to celebrate Blakes birthday with us and we had a fun filled 5 days going to Santa Cruz, Happy Hollow and just hanging out!
  
• The last weekend of July we went to RB to celebrate Blakes birthday with the Eincks and also to celebrate my cousin Melissa's little girl Amira's 3rd birthday.

Phew...That was a busy month. Wait until I post about August. ;)

I just want to also mention a few things about Blake. Now that he is 2 we have our challenges but he is also so much fun to be around. He is starting to talk more and more and it's fun to finally be able to communicate with him. Some of his interests lately are:

• BIG TRUCKS...especially firetrucks and garbage trucks
  
• Watching me cook and helping "blake help", "blake watch"
  
• Throwing tantrums and whining. ha! Mama and Dada don't love that
  
• Playing outside watering plants, riding his four wheeler and playing with Zoe
  
• Another thing thats cute is that he calls Chris and I...MiMi Mama and DiDi Dada. Not sure where that came from but it has stuck.

So anyhow...here are our pictures from July. There are a ton!

Happy 2nd Birthday Blake

Enjoy the video! I promise i will post the rest of our July pics very very soon.

June!

So I'm a little behind on my posts, but still wanted to share our pictures from June. We celebrated Chris's birthday at the beginning of the month. We were lucky enough to have a visit from Melody and Al. We had a lot of fun with them. We also celebrated father's day in Discovery Bay this year with our friends Aimee and Kris and their little boy Cooper. It was a really nice relaxing weekend and the dads had a great time.

Here are the pics! Enjoy!

First Belly Pic!

Here goes the first belly pic. 15 weeks!

Baby Zanger #2 on the way

Thats right...#2 is on the way. Due December 27th! Christmas baby for the Zangers. Wish us luck.

I have been feeling great. A little tired but no morning sickness. I'm a lucky girl. However, I will probably be blessed again with carpal tunnel and gestational diabetes so I think i deserve to have a good first trimester.

We had our 12 week ultrasound yesterday. Here is a profile picture of the baby. Looks very similar to Blakes 12 week ultrasound pic that is in his room.



We will find out the sex of the baby in a month or so. Any thoughts on what you think we might have?

Stay tuned...

Camping and stuff...

Ok, so i know i'm a bit late with my May post. I mean in a couple of weeks I will be posting June. Time is flying by. Lots of exciting stuff going on.

May was a great month the weather finally is getting warmer and we went for our annual Memorial Day weekend camp trip. Always a good time!

Blake is becoming more of a two year old everyday. He is learning to test his boundries, which just thrills me. He is a great kid though. We are lucky. He is saying new words right and left. "Shit" is still at the top of his vocabulary no matter how hard we try to change that. ha! What can you do...He also likes to say "big trucks" and "heavy" when he is lifting something up. Both of these words are said in a very deep voice. He's a funny kid and we are enjoying every minute of watching him grow up.

Here are our pics from May. Enjoy!

Easter and some other stuff...

We celebrated Easter with my family in Red Bluff this year and we had a lot of fun. Ashlei and Allison came over and we had a jam packed Saturday - we colored easter eggs, made sugar cookies, sang karaoke (btw - Blake loves the microphone), had an easter egg hunt and a big dinner with the family. Good times!

What else...

Well blake has been enjoying having Kara and Gracie back and he loves playing with his new little pal. They are so cute together!


Having Kara back has been great. With the change of seasons and not having to be at daycare so much we haven't had any more ear infections to date. yay! knock on wood though. We hope it continues.

Blake is 21 months old now. He is talking more and more lately. He has surprised us a couple of times with his vocabulary choices - good and bad surprises. The good surprise just happened yesterday when I sneezed and he said "bless you". I wasn't sure i heard him correctly but when i sneezed again he said "bless you" again. I was shocked. Who taught my child these wonderful manners - It certainly wasn't me or Chris. Whoever taught him I am very grateful. I do know however that his bad choice in vocabular has definitely come from his mom and dad. He has grown very fond of the phrase "oh shit" and he knows the correct way to use it. While napping the other day i hear him say "oh shit". I wait for him to fall asleep and then enter his room to find his crib bumper thrown over teh side of his crib only half way tied on. Since then he has consistently used the phrase every day multiple times. We are trying not to laugh and trying very hard to ignore him - but its proving a little difficult. We hope this phase ends quicky and maybe he decides to say "bless you" a little more.

Here are our pictures from April. Enjoy!

R-O-D-E-O!

The annual Rodeo weekend trip to RB was April 16th through the 18th. We had a great time. Blake loves spending time at his Papa and Grandma Eincks house. All day long you hear "horsies! horsies! Outside! Outside!" Lots of room to roam and fun things to do for everyone. My parents put on a great party as usual and the weather this year was perfect! Chris and I decided to stay an extra night and go to the rodeo with my parents on Sunday. My grandparents were so kind to watch Blake that afternoon/evening for us so we could go and just hang out. We had great seats and Chris and my dad watched part of the rodeo from the platform. Good times! Here are the pics from the weekend. There are a lot and if you are familiar with the Rodeo don't be alarmed by some of the "late night" pics. ha!

Hats & Boots

Well March has been a really nice month. Most weekends have been pretty mellow and we have been hanging out at home working on the yard and enjoying the beautiful weather we are having. So what else is new...

Blake is obsessed with hats and his cowboy boots. You will see that in most pictures he is either wearing a hat or the boots. He even likes to wear his boots over his pj's. This boy is very particular about what shoes he wears and has to pick out his own shoes. Blake has also learned the word "NO" and he uses it constantly. At this point its kind of cute and hasn't become a problem - but i can forsee our future and it doesn't look pretty. Blake wanders around the house having conversations with himself that consist of "blah blah blah, NO, blah blah". He is obviously telling someone they can't do something. He even talks to Zoe and tells her no on occassion.

We have also entered the temper tantrum zone - we have these daily, most of the time because we don't really understand what Blake wants - and then other times we understand and he isn't getting his way. The typical toddler tantrums. Fun times!

On another note - this past winter was pretty brutal on us in terms of illness. Blake started daycare in September and since then he has had 6 ear infections. We have spoken to a couple of ENT's and think that ear tubes may be in blakes future. We are going to try a few things before we go to tubes - but if the ear infections continue it will be our best option. We hired Blakes nanny, Kara, back. We are so happy about this and can't wait for her to start next week. Blake will only be going to peppertree 2 days a week and Kara will watch him on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We are hoping that with this change and with summer coming we will have fewer colds and ear infections in the coming months. Wish us luck!

Well enjoy our pictures from the month - lots of outside pics of Blake and some pictures of the Easter Egg Hunt we went to this past weekend.

Big Boy!

It just amazes me how fast time goes by and how big Blake is getting. Last weekend Blake pulled his big basket out into the living room and was climbing in and out of it so I thought I would snap a few shots. Wanted to share a series of photos over the past 20 months of Blake and how he is filling up this basket more and more each day.

10 DAYS OLD


6 MONTHS



20 MONTHS

The Latest Family News

So its been awhile since I've posted any "family" news or pictures of Blake. So here you go! Things are going great. Just trying to survive winter and all of the colds Blake has come down with over the past few months. Bring on Spring and Summer. I'm READY! Nothing new has really been going on, besides our trip - which you have already been updated on. Other than that we are just laying low and spending time with friends and having lots of playdates.

Chris' mom and step dad came down for a week to take care of Blake while we were in Mexico - so it was great to see them and spend a little time with them. We were thrilled that Blake was able to get some quality time with them as well.

Here our our pictures from the past month or so...enjoy!

Mexico

Well its probably about time that I share details and pics from our Mexico trip. First off I want to say that I miss the sun! I'm over winter and I want to go back to Mexico pronto!

We had a great time. How could you not - 7 days of pure relaxation. Ahhh! We had two days on the boat while we traveled to Puerta Vallarta. While the weather wasn't super warm it was still sunny and enjoyable. The first night on the boat was Super Bowl Sunday. My dad, brother and Chris became very acquainted with the bar staff as they ordered bucket after bucket of coors light. I think everyone knew them by name at the end of the night. We watched the game on the largest TV I have ever seen. Lots of fun - probaby the best Super Bowl I have ever experienced. Second day of sailing consisted of recovery from night one - so a lot of lounging, eating and of course the hair of the dog...which was pretty much the theme of the week.

SIDE NOTE: A funny thing (because i'm sure while looking through our pictures you will be saying "who are these people") is that we ran into one of Chris' co-workers and her boyfriend on the ship. They had no idea either one of them were going to be there so it was quite the surprise. They ended up hanging out with us throughout the trip which was a lot of fun.

Puerta Vallarta
Our day on Puerta Vallarta was lots of fun. We went on a tour that took us to the small town of San Jose, on a hike, to a woman named marias shouse for homemade tacos and lunch on a private beach. The highlight of this tour though was the mexican gatorades we drank on the way back to PV. These things were delicious and will be a regular around our pool this summmer. YUM! You will have to come over to find out what they are made out of ;) Here is a picture of our rig and the group we went with.


Once we got back to PV we headed over to Senor Frogs with our new friends Paige and Dan. It was Paiges birthday and we met her in the taxi on the way there - she decided she wanted to party with us - so we went along with it. They were lots of fun. The best part (not really) was being subjected to the crazy balloon hats they made for us. Had to share this...


Mazatlan
The next day we were in Mazatlan. Probably my least favorite of the three places we went - but we had a fun day walking around, eating, drinking and hanging out on the beach.

Cabo San Lucas
Well this was probably the best day of the trip. Weather was gorgeous and Cabos is just really pretty and a fun place to be. We had all been to Cabo before so we knew what to expect and where everything was at so that helped a ton. Our first stop was "The Office" for food and bloody mary's and then that led to beer and it was only 9:30am. We traveled down the beach and ended up crashing a pool/bar and spent most of the morning early afternoon there. My mom and Darcie decided to go shopping and since I wasn't buying anyting I decided to stay with the guys. Probably not the wisest decision on my part because beer drinking turned into tequila drinking and that is never good. All I have to say is getting back on the ship was a little foggy and I hit the sack at about 4pm. Ouch! We will definitely be going back to Cabo - however I will be stearing clear of the tequila. :)

So anyhow - the trip was fabulous. We had a really great time. Thanks again Mom & Dad. Loved it!

Our camera broke the day we were in Mazatlan - so we don't have too many pics, sadly. But if you are interested in seeing what we took click here

Workout Update Week 2

Well...Monday was great and then there was a slight setback. I know i said I would power through even if I was sick. Well that didn't happen. Tuesday through Friday stomach virus won! Boo! Although I did lose 3 pounds because of it, not the ideal way to lose weight but hey I will take it. Saturday through this Monday I was back on track. Stay tuned...

Workout Update

I survived week 1 and worked out all 7 days. yay for me! Yesterday was hard to motivate and I ended up cutting the workout short. I figured out today it was because i was bored. There are 3 levels to this video and my thought was that i would do level 1 for the first week and then move on. Well I did that but i think if I would have went to level 2 yesterday I may have done the whole half hour. But you can't go back in time so anyway...I'm on level 2 now and feeling good and determined to stick to my goal of all 30 days. Wish me luck!

Car Keys & Ipod

Blake has a couple of new obsessions - Car Keys & my Ipod.

Everytime he sees my car keys he reaches out for them, if i let him hold them he has a death grip when i try to pry them away and today after i picked him up from school he kept saying "car keys" over and over and over again. It was pretty cute.

He also loves my ipod. He loves listening to the music and dancing and has a special fondness for pushign the buttons over and over again. I took a funny picture of him on Friday with my ipod and the telephone. He was very busy talking and listening all at the same time.



I have some video of Blake saying some of the words he knows. Hopefully i can get it posted soon.

Mexico & Motivation

So we are going to Mexico at the beginning of February...a month from Thursday to be exact. With the holidays just ending and the fact that I feel like I ate enough for 3 grown men over the past month and a half there is no way i want to put on a bathing suit. I'm not sure who is going to be reading this but I felt that if I documented somewhere a plan to get in shape that I might actually hold myself to it. ha! We will see. So here is my plan to hopefully motivate myself to lose a few pounds and feel semi good when squeezing myself into a bikini.

I will be doing at a minimum Jillian Michaels 30 day shred - everyday!


I don't care how sore I am or if I'm sick I'm doing it. If i can't handle 20 minutes of workout a day that is sad. I hope to also make it to the gym a few days a week since I pay for it - although I'm semi embarrassed with the fact that i haven't been in over a month. Hopefully they don't categorize me as one of those "new year resolution" faker worker outers. Although I probably am one of those at this point.

I figured this was a good place to start since I have about 30 days until we board our flight. I'm not looking for miraculous results, but i seriously need a starting point here. So I will report each week how much I worked out. If you happen to be reading this blog a comment or two to help encourage would be greatly appreciated. Although I secretly hope no one reads this blog just in case my results are embarrassing. :)

Wish me luck!

Christmastime!

We had a very eventful Christmas holiday this year. The festivities were kicked off on Christmas Eve at our house. Chris dad, stepmom, sister Carrie and Grandma Ruth came over and I cooked my first holiday meal. I have to say I was pretty happy with the results. We had a very nice evening and had a little gift exchange too. Blake was definitely the highlight of the evening. Auntie Carrie bought him these small cars that you roll backwards and the shoot forward super fast. Blake was and still is in love. He yelled CARS! CARS! CARS! to everyone and picked up a car and walked over to everyone showing it to them and telling them that it was a car. It was seriously the cutest thing ever.

Christmas morning we woke up and came out to the living room to reveal Blakes santa gift (tricycle) to him. It was anticlimatic to say the least. He was still half alseep and didn't care one bit. After he woke up a little he got into it a little more and started opening up his gifts. Not very much excitement but what can you expect for one and a half. Next year i'm guessing will be even better. I made breakfast and had everyone over again as well as Chris' stepsister and her family. After breakfast we jumped in the car and drove 4 hours up north to have dinner with my family. I'm really glad we made the trip. It was the first year in a long time that the WHOLE family was together. My grandparents and all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and cousins kids were there to celebrate. It was definitely a great time.

And well...it doesn't end there. My brothers birthday was on the 26th and since he was turning 30 we had a big celebration. We headed up to Mt. Shasta on Saturday morning for some skiing. It was so much fun and a perfect day. After skiing we went out to dinner and then bowling. I was seriously exhausted after all of that - but a great time. Happy Birthday Brandon!

Well that sums up our holidays. click on the link below and you can see all the pictures!

Happy Holidays!

Christmastime 2009