Lots of Pics! Young's Farm

Sunday 10/30 we went to the very last day of the Young's Farm Pumpkin Festival. There are soooo many good pictures. ;-)

We left at 0700 and got there at 0800 for breakfast (I just realized I was typing in military time, I do that cuz of work) and it was soooo good! Fresh pumkin pancakes, herbed potatos, farm fresh eggs and fresh turkey sausage for the boys! I'm so sad we won't get to enjoy their delicious restaurant again (we have gone a total of 3 times in the past 2 years). Zander liked his pancakes but not the pumpkin and he loved the eggs, toast and sausage.

We were done before 0900 and walked right in the festival with no crowds, yay!


Excited! and he actually sat in the stroller!






Tractor driving!


requisite farm animal picture, love them!






Daddy & Zan


Zan & Mama


Zander loves to 'drive' the tractors and loaders.






This tube was so cool!















We took the hay ride tour of the farm and it was really sad to hear the farmer talk about the farm closing. Politicians basically wanted the land and home or business property is taxed more than farms. So a while a go a law passed taking water away from farms. The farm was losing 25% of it's water to the state and can't continue to do business that way. The farm is moving to Oregon. We've only been to the farm three times but we're really going to miss it. And it's a shame that this resource and these jobs are leaving Arizona. We should be buying locally and supporting locally owned businesses but lawmakers make it hard on them. AZ is losing fresh, locally farmed turkeys (that are not treated with any antibiotics or growth hormone) and locally farmed produce. It's really sad.

The farmer stopped at a patch of remaining sweet corn and we got to get off and pick sweet corn of the stalks and eat it right there. It was wonderful!

Zander & the corn


Zander was super excited to see the grasshoper on the ground.


Zander loves popcorn, and he really loves fresh cheese popcorn!


I LOVE THIS PICTURE!


"More popcorn!"


A picture to show just how early we got there.... we were the only car in the restaurant parking lot when we left but the rest of the place was packed! (that's my parents car, haha)

jeessh, that was a lot of pictures! I'm going to miss Young's Farm.

Playgroup Halloween Party pics!

I'm sooooo behind on pictures! Our AP Playgroup had a Halloween Party and it was so fun for the kids! I'm so glad we had the party because I feel that Zander is still too little for trick or treating and we don't need the candy in the house. The party involved a candy search but Zander had no clue what was going on and prefered trying to eat pumpkins, lol. Oh, and he loves doritos so if theres a streak of orange artificial cheese on his face it's from them. ;-)


Eli & Zander looking at the dogs through the back window.


Zander & Eli playing at the play tables upstairs. (Lindsey, our moderator has a great house for kids!)


Elvis on a trike.


Bunny Annabell.


"mmmmmm, pumpkins!"


Cyrus


Zander decorates his pumpkin.


Cyrus, Zander and Ashley (she was Boo from Monsters, Inc. She looks just like her!)


Zander & Cyrus


Tuckered out with his puppy after the party.

There are more kids in the group but I didn't get everyone's pictures. I love our playgroup! Zander loves to play with Cy and Eli, he always asks for them.

2 more pages

These coordinate with the last park page I did. I took so many great pictures that day, I love them all!

4 scrapbooking pages!

Finally got a chance to scrap, it had been over a month!

bubbles, butterflies, chalk, and dirt

We had a lazy Sunday. We slept in until almost 10! Zander ate meal-meal (oatmeal) for breakfast and promptly requested bubbles. So Mr. Dirty Face and I headed outside and Doug and Vinnie joined us. I didn't know Vinnie liked bubbles that much but he really does. We played with bubbles for a long time.

I brought out the camera when Zander noticed a butterfly in the bougainvilleas. We watched it move from little white flower to little white flower drinking nectar for a long time. Zander stuck out his finger and said "come here butterfly!" so we tried to get it to come to us. When it flew away he said "Bye bye butterfly, see you later!"

Then we played with sidewalk chalk. Zander spells his name "Z-A-N-D! Zander!" or he'll say "Z-A-N-E-R! Zander!" so fun! The butterfly did come back for a second visit so we watched it again.

It's so fun to just play.

You can barely see the orange butterfly in the middle-top of the picture. It's the thought that counts. :-)




Dirty face and jammies!

3 pictures

Zander watching TV with Hex cuddled up to him:




The playroom, cleaned!

My handsome 2 year old!

Portraits from Kiddie Kandids. These are just the pictures - the final products with enhancments, borders, montages, b&w, and phrases came out AMAZING but I'm too lazy to scan :-) I love KK pics!






He looks so big now!

Call me crazy

call me crazy, but...

I took Zander to edgefest with me tonight. I had no one to go with and instead of dealing with getting someone to watch him and going by myself I just took him.

We watched:
30 Seconds To Mars
Rise Against
and
Incubus

Incubus played Nebula and covered Let's Go Crazy, so that made my night. I don't think I've seen them play anything off of S.C.I.E.N.C.E. since Sno-Core.

He was mostly very good and we had fun. Thankfully, it's at a park so there was slides (it's actually the splash park but it's all turned off) and lots of grass for him to run in. And I wasn't the only crazy with a child, he played with some other kids at the park.

So yeah, call me crazy. :-)

When we got there 30STM was just starting and I was holding him and he was chewing on one of his cars. When the music started he was in awe. They had a big screen next to the stage so we could see that very well. He got so excited when he'd see the drums on the big screen then he'd point to the stage and say "drums!" After a song was over he'd set his car down on me and clap, he loved to clap.

Later, when we were playing in the park when Incubus was on he'd be running around and then he'd just stop and find something to beat on. He loves to "play drums" with music.

He also did a lot of dancing.

So I think he had a good time. Taking a 2 year old to a concert was a bit of a challenge, I was really tired, but I think it was a cool experience for him. I took along a backpack with cars, bubbles, a handy-dandy notebook and crayon, and diapers and all that good stuff. He did end up having a dirty diaper during Incubus and I just found a quiet place under a tree and changed him, no one was around.

Today when we were talking about it he said "I watch a-music, play drums. Watch a-music on TV!" meaning the big screen.

Pictures!!!

10 Month Pics from Sears (we did these last Tuesday)

and from the last time I uploaded any pics from my camera, 7/4. (Oi, I have a crapload of vacation pics to take care of still!)

Zander loves books and he really loves to give them kisses!

Zander funny / swim lessons

Zander has a runny nose, he's had it for a few days and I don't know if it's a cold or alergies or from all the fires we have here and ash falling from the sky.

a n y w a y . . . He's tired and teething again so I was trying to get him to sleep. I gave him a few Hyland's teething tablets that he gladly ate up. He grabbed the bottle of Little Colds from me and put the dropper top in his mouth and began to suck, like it was a nipple! I said "Zan there is no milk in there", lol. Then I gave him a dropper full of the cold medicine to help with his runny nose. He does the cutest thing when he has it: he shudders and shivers and shakes his head because of the taste. Then he opens his mouth and tries not to taste it and whispers "ooh, ohh" while shuddering. So dang cute.

We had our last swim lesson tonight and Zander recieved his first of many "Certificate of Completions". I'm such a sap I got all teary eyed reading it and thinking that this is the first of many. Swim lessons were fun, Zander really likes to people watch. He didn't learn to swim and I wasn't expecting that at all. But he was exposed to the water and the atmosphere. I learned things I need to do to teach him to swim and I got over my fear of getting him to take a breath and dunk his head under water (I was so scared!). Zander was a few months younger than most of the babies there. The other kids were working on kicking more than he would, but I know what to keep doing now. Definitely worth $6 for the lessons. :-)

Zander video clips

Low speed video download

High speed video download

This is Zander dancing on Saturday. I wasn't trying to get him to dance, he was just crawling around dancing to the music and I grabbed my camera. Now every time we watch the clip on the computer he dances.

Zander updates...

Zander told my mom "uh-uh" on Friday. She asked if he wanted picked up and went to pick him up and he said "uh-uh" and turned away because he wanted to stay on the floor.

He now waves 'bye-bye' reguarly. But it's not a wave with his hand, it's a full arm wave. And he knows what it means, when we're saying by to people he does it. It's so cute.

On Sunday Zander shook his head "no". I was sitting on the couch with him and I think Mickey was trying to get him to do something and Zander shook his head no and turned away from Mickey.

I think he's pretty darn smart! :-)

Zander happenings

In the past week or so:
-Zander has started dancing to the music. Any music will do, even when Daddy turns on the metal channel. If he's standing he'll bounce up and down, if he's sitting he'll rock back and forth. It's the cutest darn thing ever!

-I picked him last week at my parents and my dad was playing paddy-cake with him and he clapped. From then on he's been clapping reguarly. He'll just do it whenever he feels like it but if you start clapping after he's clapping it's even better, he loves it! Tonight when I sang him ABC's and Old McDonald he clapped along!

-Yesterday Doug said he walked along the length of the couch and crossed over from the couch to the chair. Today he walked along the length of the bed. His love of standing also means he doesn't really want to sit. He doesn't want to sit in the caseat, the stroller, the high chair......it's a battle for mama to get him to sit anywhere.

-I took Zander to the mall play area this afternoon and if I sit him at the top of one of the little slides he leaps towards me. He also does this when we're swimming and I sit him on the side of the swimming pool, he just leaps off the edge. He's quite the daredevil!

Food!
-I gave Zan some Yo Baby yogurt on Sunday. He likes it OKAY, he doesn't love it and he doesn't hate it. He makes these really cute and funny faces. Doug gave him plums yesterday, he loved them! Zan and I went to Olive Garden with my family last night for Mickey's birthday and I got ministrone soup, he happily ate the beans and zuchini. And then he ate some of the mushy part of my eggplant.

We have 2 weeks of swim lessons starting next week!

Zander is 9 months old now, I can't believe it!

Zander's First Concert!

Zander and I went went to a concert and skateboarding thing at Fiesta Mall, it was fun! When we got there we saw Mike Valleley and Nyjah Huston skate. Then we went back to the car to sit in air conditioning and wait for Alien Ant Farm to play.

When we got back out to the skate area we were standing in the shade and this girl said hi to me, it was this girl Shannon that I used to work with at personnel. She was there with her son and her friend and another little boy. So I talked to them for a little bit. The boys were climbing trees and Zander was laughing hystarically at them as they swung from branches like monkeys.

Then AAF came on and we went and watched. Zander didn't watch the band as much but he was so excited to hear it. He was in the sling and he started bouncing and kicking his legs and smiling. He watched some BMX guys during AAF. We sat down in the shade at one point and the coolest boxer puppy was sitting next to us and we got to pet him. Then we stood back up to watch AAF and Zander fell asleep in the sling. I was worried about it being too loud for him, but I think everything was fine. I used one hand to cover up his outside ear and he slept up next to me. There were other little kids and a few other babies there. (Zan was the only one in a sling though!)

After their set they came out and signed autographs and I got Zander's hat signed. We had to have a memento from his first concert! All the guys in the band were way cool and asking how old Zander was. This one girl was like "are you getting his head signed?" I'm like "no, his hat!" then she said, "Oh, cuz that would have been really cool" lol.








It was a good day!

Food!

Zander ate bites of the following tonight, we went to Sweet Tomatos for dinner: garbanzo beans, kidney beans, peas, carrots, sweet potato and CHICKEN! He really liked the chicken.

"caTT!"

Last friday Zan and I were reading one of his board books with animals and we get to the cat and the dog and we pet them and he leans over to kiss them (so cute!) and then he sits back up and pat's the cat and says "caTT!" he emphasizes the T. Sooooo cute! How smart is my kid? And he repeatedly said it and patted the cat.

Then Sunday we were over at Doug's parents house and Doug's dad was holding the cat and Zander was sitting in the high chair and he said "caTT" and everyone heard it! I told my mom afterwards and she said "oh yeah, he says cat" I guess he's been saying it for her. Anyways, that's my kids first word besides mama, hi, and hey.