Christmas

As I look back though my pictures I feel like such a bad parent. Matt and I were so caught up in the holiday and Zachary that we didn’t take any pictures of the main event. All we have are video. We had a great time and Zachary was a very good boy because Santa brought him a lot. Our Christmas is always an event that lasts at least three days. By the end we are exhausted as I describe it you may begin to understand.
It all starts on Christmas Eve. That is when we get up at around six in the morning to get ready and head to Lapeer to celebrate Christmas with my family. We get ourselves ready and then pack the car with gifts and everything we will need to survive the long day. We usually get to my parents around 10 and bring bagels for everyone for breakfast. We then open presents around noon. I was so proud of Zachary. He was so good at opening gifts. Not only did he open all of his he even helped others open theirs, if they asked. He was so into it we were surprised. We knew that he would be more active than last year but we did not expect it to go as well as it did, considering the first toy he got at his birthday distracted him from opening anything else. My parents gave him a kitchen which he loves and there are times we cannot tear him away from it. At around six my dad did dinner for my family along with friends and family that can make it. We played games and exchanged more gifts and we left around 10:30. Zach did not nap or fall asleep until we got into the car. When we got home we unpack the car, put Zach to bed, and got things ready for Santa, and Matt and I finally got to sleep around one.
Christmas Day Zach woke up around seven. After eating breakfast, Zach went to open his presents. This opening did not go as well as the day before. We had to take some breaks and he quit with four presents left. He got a lot of clothes from Santa because he needed a new wardrobe so we didn’t fault him for not being as interested as the day before. Last year’s winter clothes did not fit. After getting ready, and packing the car again we headed to Monroe for Christmas with Matt’s family. I thought my family had spoiled Zach this Christmas until we had gotten to Matt’s Mom and Dad’s. They really went all out and bought him so many toys. It was too bad that Zach was not really interested in opening anything. He opened things with some encouragement but we had to help him a lot. They got him an art easel that I thought he was going to be too young for but he loves to color and draw on it in our basement. We had a wonderful time but again we did not end up going to bed before midnight.
On the 26th we woke up and tried to clean up the mess that had accumulated in our kitchen. The previous nights the presents just got dropped into the kitchen and they stayed there. However, we still had places to be. We got ready and headed back to Lapeer at noon for the Peplinski Family Christmas party. We always have a blast with my family and this year did not disappoint. We opened presents (Zachary would not even look at his.) and played Little Horse Big Horse, which my grandmother invented with her friends. We let Zachary go home with my parents early so that he could sleep because he didn’t nap for the third day in the row. However, when we went to pick him up after ten he had just fallen asleep a few minutes earlier. My parents are just too interesting and fun for him to sleep.
As we went to get Zach out of his bed in the morning he looked at us sadly and asked,” Presents?” Matt and I could not help but laugh because we have never seen a kid look so happy to hear the word, “No.”

And Christmas Begins…

Matt and I love Christmas!!! In July Matt usually starts talking about how he wants to decorate the house; how he wishes it wasn’t six months away, and how he hopes we have snow. I am usually just as eager to discuss these topics, but I try not to bring it up first. This year we are especially excited because Zachary is old enough to actually get the concept of Santa, and opening up gifts. We cannot wait and it will not come soon enough. But I do have to say that hiding gifts is a lot harder than it sounds.
I was really excited to decorate the tree. Now, we are fake tree people and that suits me just fine. However, I cannot claim is it because it is cleaner, because my tree sheds glitter and we will be picking it up throughout my house the whole year. But I was in a sorority so I can live with finding glitter all year round. It is just easier. You open it up and plug it in. (Yes, mine is pre-lit.) But mostly it is because that is what I had growing up. I loved helping my mom decorate the tree and I was excited for Zachary to help me. I knew he was still too little to do the breakable ornaments with me but he could help with the other ones with a little assistance. Matt, on the other hand, wanted to do it while Zachary took his daily nap. But Matt always complains that I am going to put too many ornaments on my tree, making it look bad, and it looks good every year, and I put every ornament I have on it. So I ignored his request and decorated with Zach. Granted we broke two ornaments, it took a lot longer than it would have if we had done it without him, and we were both exhausted in the end, but it was worth it to watch his face lit up when we turned it on for the first time.

Thanksgiving

So you can tell when things get crazy around my house because I quit blogging. I am sorry and I will attempt to catch everyone up on the last few months in the next week. Since the last blog we have celebrated four holidays, five family birthdays, an anniversary and a funeral. Needless to say we have been on the go.

Here are some shot of Zachary right before Thanksgiving. I remember making pilgrim and Indian hats when I was in grade school so I had to get pictures of Zach with his first one. Plus he loves putting on hats. However, this is a keeper and will go into his keepsake box because the feathers are made out of Zach’s footprints. How cute!

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with Matt’s family. (We had decided when Zachary was born that the duel Thanksgiving meals had to stop because we didn’t have time to enjoy family at either one. So now we rotate. ) It was a great meal as always but a lot smaller and more personal than in years past. We decided to do Thanksgiving with just Matt’s immediate family. I think that Zach enjoyed this more than the big family get-together because he tends to be a little shy around people he doesn’t see very often. After hanging out with Matt’s family and dinner we drove from Monroe to Lapeer to get a few hours of sleep before we got up to shop until we drop.

We just started going shopping, the day after Thanksgiving, as a family around five years ago and Matt and I love it. We cannot believe that we had never done it before then. We love the rush, the anticipation and of course the deals. However, we have never been crazy enough to wait in a line anywhere. We normal hit up stores in the following order. Kohls, Target, Jo-Anne Fabrics, Old Navy, and then we eat Big Boy breakfast and split up from there. We normally get there just as the store is opening or just before. This year we waited in our first line outside because Target was a zoo!! I have never seen it that bad before. Not only did we wait 30+ minutes to get in the store but then we waited almost two hours to check out. We got in line almost immediately after walking in the store. (That is why we go together and bring the boys.) They are so good at waiting in line. The line was so long we had time to go to Joanne Fabrics and Meijer twice (shop and check out) while the boys waited in line. It was crazy. Luckily, my dad watched Zach and got him good and tired so we all could take a nap in the afternoon.

Halloween '09

I love Halloween!! I am not into dressing up myself but I love to decorate my house, carve pumpkins, eat goodies, and dress everyone else up for trick o’ treating. Zach was a lot more active this year and it made it even more fun. As you can see this year we decided to make Zach a giraffe. I’ll be the first to admit that it was not my first choice but I could not have asked for a cuter costume and better yet he enjoyed being in it. Had I gone with the lion that I wanted at first I don’t think Zach would have had as much fun. Matt dressed up as a zoo keeper or outback guide. I like getting them to dress in theme. When Zach wants to be Batman you better believe I will try and get Matt to dress up as Robin. So far he has not complained but he also has not had to go that far out of his comfort zone either. Zach was pretty shy at first but he warmed up to the idea really fast. By the time we hit our last house he was trying to take several hand full's of candy out of our neighbor’s bowl. In his defense every other house let him take two or three because we are really close with them all. We didn’t go that far, (only four houses), because Matt and I had our family over and we felt bad making them man our door and we knew we were just going to eat all the candy he collected. We already had a ton from his school party. He came home with a paper lunch bag full of goodies he couldn’t eat that Friday.

The one thing I was really excited about doing with Zach this year turned out to be the thing he hated most about Halloween. I could not wait to carve pumpkins with Zach. This is my favorite thing to do and Matt gets so made because I always want to do crazy difficult things to my pumpkins. But this year I was going to do something easy and simple so Zach could help out. I thought he would be so excited to clean out the pumpkin with me. Squishing the pumpkin insides in his hands and getting it all over him so that I would have to give him a bath afterwards. I was so excited for the mess and I didn’t get any of it. In fact, this was probably the cleanest year Matt and I have ever had. Zach was all about his pumpkin until I cut it open and put some of the pumpkin guts in his hand. He screamed bloody murder and would not even come near the pumpkin after that. Anytime I started to come near him with pumpkin in my hand he started whining and trying to get away. So I got messy all by myself this year. Afterward he warmed up to his pumpkin again once we showed him how cool it was in the dark all lit up. There is a picture of him giving his pumpkin a kiss goodnight on Halloween. It is something he done every time he is outside with the pumpkin since it has been carved.
I wanted to end my blog with a big THANK YOU to everyone who came and celebrated Halloween with us. The food that you brought was delicious and Matt, Zach and I had such a good time with everyone. We cannot wait for next year. Halloween is at our house for anyone who wants to come!

Getting Old; Nope Not Yet

Matt and I had our first adult night out without Zachary in quite awhile. We took Zach to Grandma & Grandpa’s in Monroe while Matt and I went to Lapeer to go to a wedding with my family. We had a blast and I couldn’t believe how crazy this wedding was. I always think that as I get older things will slow down and I will become calmer and lamer as the years go by. However, every once in a while I am reminded that I went to Michigan Tech and that old habits die hard. My entire family ended up playing drinking games with the bride, her son and her nephews. Even my little sister, Deanna, joined in on the fun and she is a very picky drinker. I couldn’t believe it. I also have never seen my brother-in law Justin dance. He was really cutting it up on the dance floor. We had such a blast and luckily, I still have a little brother that is not of age and was able to drive us all home. The next day we went to pick up Zach and he didn’t miss us at all. He always has so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa that he doesn’t care if we are there or not.

Apples, Apples, Apples!!!

Zachary cannot get enough apples. If it were up to him it is all that he would eat ever since our trip to the Orchard. He doesn’t care if it is apple sauce, cold or hot, on the core or off, he wants it. In fact he won’t eat anything at dinner unless it has a small bite of apple on it. At the Orchard he ate whole apples right from the tree and now he doesn’t like it cut up into pieces; he wants to eat the apple whole, like big kids do. We end up peeling the whole apple and then giving it to him to eat. We learned the hard way that we needed to peel the apple. The first one we gave to him he would take a bite and when he got skin he would proceed to spit it out. We ended up with so many little half eaten apple bits all over the house that we have peeled everyone since then. He will eat the thing right down to the seeds too. I am going to have an apple for a kid if he doesn’t slow down soon.

The Upland Hills Farm

My mom has been pestering me to take Zach to Upland Hills Farm, in Oxford, MI for over a month now and Matt and I were ready to throw in the towel and say to her, “We can’t do it this year mom, maybe next year.” Something always came up. The weather here has been so cold and wet, Zach has been fighting a cold, (that we are currently praying doesn’t turn into an earache or something worse.), and we are constantly running here or there. However, my mom was so persistent that we gave in and I just wanted to say, “Mom, Thank You! You gave Matt and me a day with our son that we will remember forever. It was perfect and if you had given in to us it wouldn’t have happened. Thanks for being so stubborn!”

The day was just a few degrees shy of a perfect fall day. I didn’t know until we pulled up that I had been to Upland Hills Farm almost every year as a child. I immediately recognized all of the wooden jungle gyms shaped like mini barns, old tractors sunk into the ground to climb on and most of the barns. A ton of fond memories with my family and all of my childhood friends came flooding back. I had a ton of fun there and was immediately excited to share that experience with my son. And the day did not disappoint.

It started with Zach getting up close and personnel with several dozen ducks. He got to feed them and I have to say that even though he got nipped once by a very impatient duck, this was one of the highlights of his day. He kept trying to go back to the duck area every time we set him down.

Zach got to pet a baby goat that was trying to eat all of the flowers around the barns. He also got to pet a cow, and a little black kitten. He was so cute to watch walk through the barns. We have been learning what sounds the different animals make and Zach tried to talk to each of the animals as we pointed them out. He could be heard mooing, baaing, neighing, and oinking as we walked through the different barns and saw each animal up close.

After eating some donuts as we warmed up in the sun we went for a hayride through the woods to the pumpkin patch. Luckily, we had not got pumpkins yet and we got to run through the pumpkin patch with Zach. He had so much fun running from pumpkin to pumpkin as Matt and I tried to pick out two that weren’t too big to carry. The patch was on a hill, and in an open space Zach is fearless. There were a few times we thought he was going to go head first tumbling down the hill but he didn’t care because he was having too much fun.

Matt and I cannot wait to go back for our next trip with him because Zach is at home on the farm. Let’s hope I can keep this love alive within him as he grows older.

Happy Birthday Uncle Ryan!

Here are some pics that we took for my brother-in-laws birthday.  We hope that he has a great one and love him tons!

Make a Smilebox greeting

What a Great Weekend!

What a great weekend!!!! On Saturday we went to my sister’s MSU / U of M football party. Matt and I didn’t go last year and we really missed it, especially since State won. Matt missed it again this year because he got to go to the game with my dad. My dad has been a MSU football season ticket holder for as long as I can remember. Matt had a lot of fun even though it rained and his team lost. But I don’t think he is allowed back to the party because he has missed the party twice and Sate has won both times. For those of you who aren’t from Michigan, this is a HUGE feat. State NEVER wins. Well, I shouldn’t say never, they do win about every ten years or so. But twice in a row has not happened in around 40+ years. My family is so pumped!!!

Saturday was also my brother’s senior homecoming dance. His girlfriend Brooke came down from Central to go with him. I remember when he told me that he would never go to a high school dance when he was a freshman. How things change when a girl gets involved.

Every fall Matt and I look forward to our annual trip to the apple orchard to pick our own apples, eat some donuts and drink cider. I think it is one of the things that makes the fall our favorite month. This year we decided to change things up and check out a new orchard closer to our house. We went to Erwin Orchards with my cousin Tina, her husband, Steve, and her three girls, Emma, Lidia, and CiCi. We had a blast even though it rained on us a few times. As you can see we got to be quite silly.

We were able to stay pretty dry by just taking a few breaks for donuts, cider and caramel apples. We were happy with how many apples were still on the trees because it allowed the kids to still get into the fun by helping us adults pick apples and fill up our bags. Plus they got to sample while we were picking. Even Zach got to enjoy eating an apple while walking through the orchard. Usually by this time of the year our normal orchard is pretty sparse and only Matt can do the picking. Zach had so much fun that he fell asleep, on my shoulder, on the tractor ride back from the orchard. Luckily we had brought his little red wagon and so he got to sleep for the last hour that we were there without being disturbed. He woke up only after we started uncovering him so we could get him into the car to go home.

Birthday Thank You!

Hey all

Matt here, just wanted to post the thank you slide show from Zach's First Birthday! Thanks again to all who could make it!

Love,

Matt, Ami and Zachary

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Fall Fun

Everyday Zach finds new ways to surprise us. I know that he is going to constantly learn new things and be able to do them but it still shocks me when it happens. Zach got a bear that talks for his birthday. It helps you learn colors, parts of the body, numbers and it sings. Well we discovered that one of the songs that it sings when you press its hand is ‘When You’re Happy and You Know It.’ Zach starts clapping along with the song. Both Matt and I were like, “Is this a coincidence?” So we started to sing the song and do the other verses and Zach does the motions right along with us like he has known how to do it for weeks. He cannot even sing some of the song and yet he recognizes it and can do the motions right along with it. Like I said before, a total surprised. At least I know he is learning things at Day Care.

Here are a few pictures of Zach at the fall kid’s fair that we went to this past weekend. It is a free fair that our city puts on every year. We were really glad that our neighbors let us know about it because we all had a really great time. A lot of the crafts that they had there were just a little too old for Zach but there was still a ton of stuff for us to do. We were able to walk through the gardens, ride the horse, play with a tub full of corn kernels, sit in the fire truck and police car, pet some huge bugs, eat cookies and hotdogs and pick our own pumpkin. I would have to say that the corn was Zach’s favorite because he wanted to carry around a few pieces the entire day. Next year I know we will be running around crazy getting into everything and Matt and I can hardly wait. But next year we will make sure not to forget our camera.

Zachary is One

Sorry to all that it has been so long since our last blog. Who knew planning a kid’s birthday party could be so stressful and time-consuming? That is right Zachary is now one year old!! I can’t believe it myself. It doesn’t seem like that much time has gone by. It really does fly. The party was a complete success and Zach got a ton of toys. We ended up having a barn yard theme and the weather was perfect (79oF) so we were able to have everybody in our backyard.






We could not have asked for a better day. The barnyard theme was my Cousin Tina’s idea and it was a great one. We had so much fun shopping for cow balloons and coming up with themed games. It was really easy too. Tina made Zachary’s cake and I have to say she did a great job and was a huge lifesaver because I definitely could not have pulled off something that cool and gotten everything else done.

Zach was so funny to watch eat his cake. Matt and I had tried to keep most sweets away from Zach so at first he was a little leery. He would stick just one finger into the frosting and then put it into his mouth. Then he looked at us like, “Am I going to get in trouble for this?” After that it was bob for the cupcake. He really didn’t use his hands. He just would go down get some frosting and then sit up. He wasn’t interested in the cake part, just the bright pink frosting.












We definitely opened present wrong. Who knew there was a wrong way to open presents? The first gift Zach opened was from his Aunt Jenny and it was a train that made noises and lit up. He wanted nothing to do with presents after that. All he wanted to do was play with the train, even though it was still in the box. I felt really bad because the little kids at the party ended up opening most of the presents because Zach didn’t have a great attention span after that.


About a week before his party, we started playing with the stuffed cows that my friend from Georgia, Alison, got me a few years back. One of them moos and after all of the farm toys that Zach got for his birthday he is mooing like crazy. He defiantly knows what a cow is and what noise it makes. He runs through the house mooing now. He has one in particular that he carries with him everywhere. It is so cute.

Zach is also walking. He started walking behind a push toy a few months ago. Luckily a few days before he started to walk behind toys at daycare our neighbor gave us one of their old walkers. So he was able to run around the house at home. He started walking on his own about one month ago. He is a pro now and is practically running. This is probably because his favorite game to play is chase. It doesn’t matter if you’re chasing him around the house or if he is chasing you. To Zach it is all just as much fun.


We went to the doctor for his 12 month shots and check up and got told that we need to fatten our kid up. Zach is 31.75 inches tall but only weighs 21 pounds. He is in the 95% for height but only 30% for his weight. The doctor, Matt and I know it is because we cannot get him to eat real food. He eats cheerios, Kix, Crackers and Yogurt really well. In fact, if we let him he would eat a whole sleeve of crackers in three days. However, it is a fight to get him to eat anything else. We have gotten him to eat a few things once but when we try them a second or third time he wants nothing to do with them. After about an hour of fighting we just make up a plate of baby food and he eats it all and seems full. He even pushes away the plate and says “ALL DONE”. Any and all suggestions are welcome.