My Little Leprechaun!!!

Zack is our special little leprechaun. We have had good luck everyday since he has been in our life! I feel like I have such a unique kid since he has red hair, and he has had it since day 1. Blythe claims that he belongs to her, but we know better. I always thought she'd have a red head and not me. Every house needs at least one red head in it! It keeps things interesting. Yesterday Zack saw Matt putting on his tie for church and decided that he wanted one too. I have had a hard time finding one for Zack so if any of y'all know where to find one let me know. He had one last year but of course he is too big for it now. Anyway, I thought he looked so funny with such a big tie. It was like he was going retro or something!

On Saturday our friends Marci and Justin brought over there 3 month old baby. Zack practically attacked her and smothered her in kisses. It was really cute. He wanted to take her out of the carrier and hold her by himself. One day he will be a good big brother. Please do not leave comments on how he needs a sibling! And no, this is not me announcing that I'm knocked up-Happily I'm NOT!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Sad Day...

Yesterday I received some very sad news...Brett Favre is retiring from the NFL. I know many of you won't understand, but he is one of the reasons that I started watching football in the first place. Let's just get this out of the way-he's hot. (Matt knows I feel this way, and that I won't leave him!) And he's a great QB! I really became a Packers fan over the years. Matt is happy to see him go b/c now he thinks the Lions will actually do better in their division now. WHATEVER! The Lions suck but that is a blog for another day. One of my childhood dreams was to go to Green Bay and watch him play, and now one of my dreams has come to an end before it was fulfilled. Maybe he really isn't going to do it and his love of the game will bring him back, but if not then I now have a little hole in my heart where my favorite QB no longer plays.

Zack Turns TWO!

I know I'm a little late on this but Zack turned 2 at the beginning of the month (February that is). Ok so I said I'd be better about blogging but that was a lie. Anyway, my parents came out for the weekend of Zack's b-day and we had a "sports" themed party that Saturday. It was with family and my co-workers (who I consider to be part of my family) and we all had a great time. I have to give thanks to my in-laws who provided a place to have the party, and for letting us get candy all over their garage floor where we did a pinata. I am so thankful that everyone came and helped in our celebration of Zack's life. We love our little boy so much. He is our world and the reason I get up everyday.

Sorry if I missed anyone in the pics-there were so many!

Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese...

Everyone loves this recipe and I've been giving it out a lot lately so I thought I'd just post it. This is my mom's recipe, so I have to give credit where it's due.

8 oz. box macaroni noodles (Creamettes brand preferred)
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk (or cream if you have it)
1 1/2 cups milk (whole or 2% is best)
3/4 stick margarine
3 cups SHARP cheese-grated
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt

Cook macaroni and drain well. Dump it in the crock pot. Add the other ingredients and stir really well. Cook on LOW 3 1/2 hours. You'll probably have to add salt and pepper to taste, but I usually leave it to the individual. Also, the crispy dark edges are the best so you may want to cook it a little longer or if your crock has a warm setting, put that on once it's done and it will crisp it nicely. Hope y'all enjoy!

Birthday, Tucanos, Park City, SLC, The Pie...

This week we were pretty busy. My friend Sirley and her husband Marc came into town and we went out for dinner to Tucanos on Thursday night. I haven't seen Sirley since Zack was 2 weeks old. She came out to see him then, and she couldn't believe how big he is now. I'd also lost a few pounds since she had last seen me and I also started walking upright again! Friday was Matt's 32 birthday! He has been sick for almost 2 weeks now, so we had made plans to go out on Friday night with his family, but he just didn't feel up to it. We went out to Los Hermanos (just matt, zack, and me) and then relaxed at home. Matt went to the dr. Saturday morning just to make sure nothing serious was going on. He hasn't had his voice in over a week. The dr. told him it was just a bad case of laryngitis. He is slowly recovering. We also went to Park City on Saturday to do a little shopping. It was in the upper 20's-cold! Matt wanted to go and I said ok-afterall, it was his b-day weekend. Then we went back to SLC to have pizza at The Pie- a U of U hangout that I had never been to. I felt like a traitor-go cougs!-but the pizza was good. So now that I have probably gained 50 lbs. in the past few days, I will be eating bread and water until next weekend! Just kidding. Hope everyone has a great week!

Potty Training 101...

I've been writing so much about poop that I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to the poopoo corner and coloring the background brown. Anyway, Zack is almost 2 and I'm considering potty training. (I was thinking about getting him a potty for one of his presents! Or do I not use a little potty and make him use the big toilet?) I have some pretty good indications that he is ready: He likes to try to pull down his pants when he is in the bathroom or sees someone else go. He also always says "I poopoo" and then grabs his butt. Or he grabs our hand and takes us to his changing table b/c he doesn't like to sit in it. I think these are pretty good signs to start the whole process, but I don't know where to begin. So, I am asking all of you mothers to give me your advice. Please keep in mind though that I am not home all day so also consider how you involved your husbands and others with the process. (Matt is really good at these things.) Thanks everyone!

Happy New Year!

I don't do resolutions, but I guess I will try to blog more this year! I know I've been a little (lot) slack, and thank you everyone who has been reminding me! It's really hard to blog b/c every time I get on the computer, Zack always runs into the room and literally climbs up my body so that he can get on too. Then he tries to play with the mouse and bangs the keys so it's just one big joke. And I can't do it when he goes to bed b/c unfortunately he still sleeps in our bed and won't sleep unless Matt and I are both in it. We joke that at least it's been free birth control for now!
Thanks for all of the Christmas cards(both the mailed and emailed)-it's good to know that people remember us even though we're so far away. What have we been up to? Well, I pretty much worked through the holidays b/c it's better to take the time off in the summer to go to SC. It was a white Christmas-which I hate b/c I hate the snow and cold. Christmas Eve we went out with my in-laws (Lee and Diana) to Outback and then to see the movie National Treasure 2. Zack does pretty good in movies now, so that's nice. (A few weeks ago we also saw Enchanted-cute movie). It has been a long time since we've gone to the movies. I get bored sometimes watching them, but that's another story. Back to the latest: Christmas morning Zack woke up and we taped him but the video was long so that is why I didn't post it. He was really cute and sort of got what was going on but not quite. After playing with toys and talking to Grandma Frana, we went to Aunt Kristi's for lasagna and to play wii and every other electronic game console there is.
On the Thursday after Christmas I left work early b/c I felt really tired and achy. I didn't really have any other symptoms so I took advil and just slept and felt better by the next day. However, that night Zack started pooping and it had a little red in it and I thought it was just the pizza he had eaten before, but by Friday night I knew that it was blood in his poopy diapers. Being the microbiologist that I am I thought the worst-E.coli or Salmonella, so we went to the dr. to have it tested. Turns out that it was just a really bad viral infection-probably something kin to rotavirus, etc. (Finding out the results was a joke-the dr. office would never get back in touch with me and basically I could have tested it and known it wasn't bacterial by the time they told me the results.) We were changing his diaper hourly for 3 days straight. (Sorry for all of the details but I figured everyone wants to know what was happening). By New Year's Eve he was well enough to leave the house so that we could go out to lunch, but we rang in the new year in our bed with Zack in between us.
On New Year's we went to Matt's brother's house (Michael and his wife Cheryl). It was requested that I bring crock pot mac-n-cheese by their son Justin. He loves it. Played some more video games there and then came home and watched a little football. Jeff our nephew spent the night and Zack followed him around the entire night and next morning. I went to work on the 2nd and for now things are back to normal. Maybe I'll take some pics soon to post...but y'all know me! Later!