Rock Creek Canyon

Zach kept talking about the flamingos!

Its so great to be together!

The lights were so fun!

And of course, they had a motorcycle Santa. Zach was excited about this one too!!

About half an hour outside Burley is Rock Creek Canyon, where some family, (idk the whole story behind it), decorates their house to the MAX and lets people drive through or walk through. They've even put up a Christmas village in their garage. Every square inch of roof, of yard, trees, etc is covered in different kinds of lights from shorts and flip flop lights, to farm ones, beer pint ones, they have poker card lights and pink cell phone lights, you name it, they had it! As well as large things like Santas and Snoopys. They had a live camel there too. Zach loved it. (And I did too!!)

Blue-eyed Boys

See any resemblance? :) It's fun!

Love the hat!

Woops! Came out sideways but still cute.

Not much to say, other than life is going on! I'm not too good at blogging, but I like to update pictures every once in a while. I should do better, the way some people post every day or for every big event and even the little ones, but sorry, I don't. :)

Anywho, Kellan had the cutest outfit on on Sunday with a little hat, so we took some pictures, and I've got a few of him smiling too. He's such a smiley little sweetie. Oh, another piece of good news, Zach is potty trained! YAY! And Kellan's been sleeping eight hours at night, so that's awesome too. Anywho, here they are.

I'm Alive!

I made the boys matching taggie blankets.

Little Kellan, on his way home from the hospital.

Brothers!

Zach's first time holding Kellan. He kept saying, "I love my baby brother!" and "So cute!"

Hey everyone! I'm not even sure if anyone will see this since I'm such a slacker and haven't posted in about six months, but I decided to update it since we have another set of big news.

Drum roll....

Kellan Mark Pearson was born last Friday, March 12. He was 7 lbs. 14 oz., and has been such a little blessing! He's got the cutest little squeaky cry and his big brother is so good with him, he's really an easy baby, and I just feel so blessed to have two such adorable boys! I got induced so that we could plan it for Duane to be there, and it was so nice to have him for the entire time, instead of the frantic phone call and the rush here from Burley. Mom has been staying with me for the week since Duane had to go back to work in Burley (gotta go where the money is, right?), and she's been such a big help.

Sorry about the lack of book updates. My manuscript got rejected, but that's been a blessing as well. It's really pushed me to work hard and get the book even better. I took an online class on character development and it has reshaped my whole story, so I'm basically rewriting it, but it's so much better than it was before! I'm going to a writers conference in Portland this August, and I'll get to pitch to four agents one-on-one while I'm there, so hopefully someone will show some interest! But I'll also send out more queries and just keep trying until someone picks it up!

Anywho, here's our boys!

EXCITING NEWS!!

Many of you know I've written a book and have been trying to get it published, which is not an easy process. I sent out query letters in June and received 100% rejections. But that was probably a good thing because it got me to do some more research (which I should've done in the first place! Hey, live and learn, right?) and I completely revamped my query letter so that it was kick-butt awesome compared to the last one I did and last Tuesday I submitted it to about seven more agencies.

I was having internet problems and finally Friday morning I asked Mom to check that email account for me and she sent me this.....

"Thank you for submitting your query to $%^&@. We read it with great interest and would like to see the full novel as well as a 3-5 page synopsis describing the book."

An agency in New York wanted my full manuscript!!! I nearly fell over! I did a lot of screaming and a weird kind of surreal, happy crying and I called Duane to read what she'd sent (she sent me their actual words) and I was so muddled he could hardly understand me, but it was an exciting day!

Usually agencies only ask for a few sample chapters, so I was a little blown away that they wanted the full thing up front, and they said they read my query with "great interest." WAH!! Anywho, I finally got everything exactly as I wanted it and sent the manuscript and a synopsis Sunday night. So now it's just a waiting game. They said it'll take up to 12 weeks to review my work, and that I was welcome to check with them after 8 weeks. What am I going to do for 8 weeks? JK

Needless to say, I've been very excited. I know it doesn't mean I'll get my book published. It is possible that they won't like what they read and I'll get the rejection later, but it's a step in the right direction in any case!

Watch out world, here I come!

Busy Busy Busy!

Okay, so Zach attack has been having tons of fun lately. It was his second birthday on the tenth and we had a little party for him. He couldn't quite figure out what to do with the lit candles on his cupcake, so he picked it up and tried to shake the flames off! It was hilarious.

He also carved his first pumpkin and that was fun. He has to go out onto the front porch to say, "Hi pumpkin," and take its "hat" off (the lid).

And last night we had a Halloween party at my mom's house and Zach got to wear his costume. He made such a cute little caveman. I suggested we all play the caveman game where you grunt instead of talk (I just made it up, can you tell?) Anna's kids loved it, but it got a little out of hand. Still, Zach was a cute caveman. We looked everywhere to find a little bone or something for him, but didn't have much luck, so I squished a piece of aluminum foil and spray painted it white. It didn't last long, Zach kept wanting to play with it.

Okay, sorry, caveman pictures to come later. As I've said before, I'm not a pro at blogging!

Leaves

Long time no blog! We moved down the street to our real estate house and not only is the space great, but we have an awesome backyard. Zach has a book where the skeleton rakes leaves and then I saw a little rake at the dollar store, so he was ready for the leaves to begin to fall. And we went out into the backyard and made little piles, he with his tiny rake and me with the regular one. And he loved to run and flop himself down onto the little piles. It was so cute.

The Zoo

Mom and I took Zach to the zoo about three weeks ago and his favorites were the tigers, the bebas (zebras) and especially the kangawoo.

We went at a really bad time of day though--right at lunch--so practically all of the animals were asleep. The monkeys, the tigers, a lot of the animals. Bummer.

Mo-Cycle!

Holy bananas, it's been months since I've posted. Sorry everyone!

The first thing we hear from Zach in the morning is "Mo-cycle" (motorcycle) and that's all he talks about the rest of the day. yak yak yak mo-cycle. It's so funny. Our neighbors all know when he's outside because he goes nuts walking past the three motorcylces parked in our parking lot and he always asks, "Sit on it? Sit on it?" whenever we pass.

Duane used to have a motorcycle but he sold it a few years ago, but he borrowed his dad's for a few weeks this summer and has taken Zach on a few rides and I take Zach out to it at least once a day to "sit on it." And he has a little red motorcycle that he carries with him everywhere we go.

Yes, I am ALIVE!!!

Here is little Z in his Easter suit (he actually got it for Christmas and it's just barely fitting though I had to hem up the pants). His legs are so short! It's not the best picture, but I still think he looks so scrumptious. Sigh. I love my little boy.

Whenever I take Zach to the park, all he does is go up and down the stairs, since we don't have them at home. It's funny. And he likes the slide. And the swings, actually. The first time I put him in one of those diaper swings he just giggled nonstop.

And here is Zachary and his cousin Heber (whose dad joked about the fact that he had a pink bucket). These boys are so cute together. Zach was taking his eggs out and when he wasn't looking Heber took them and stashed them in his :).

Holy Bananas!! It's been about three months since I posted! Sorry ya'll. The screen on our laptop went kaput and would've cost like $500 to fix. Thank goodness for those plan thingies you can get when you purchase a new computer, we didn't have to spend a dime. It turns out the screen was completely shot . So it's been gone for about a month. My mom has wonderfully let us borrow her laptop, but then we've had internet issues, and then blogging just takes so much TIME!! I know, I know, excuses, excuses.

So Happy Easter. We had tons of fun yesterday. We had plans to go to the egg hunt in Sugar with my sister in law and her little boy Heber who is about eight months older than Zach and it ended up being so crazy! We got the parks mixed up and then when we finally found the right one it was too late, so we had our own egg hunt at the park in Sugar, and my sister Anna's kids were all there too, so it was fun. Zachary is in nursery now (hooray!) and they did an egg hunt in there today too, so he's had lots of candy. And then tonight we went over and had dinner at Anna's house with everybody. I love having family so close; I feel very blessed.

Duane has been working with his friend Jason laying tile at one of the humongous houses up on the hill by the temple. They've also started a band and are set to compete in Battle of the Bands on July 4th. Duane is pretty excited.

I (drum roll please) have been writing writing writing, and I think I've finally finished my book. It is adventure/sci-fi/romance, and I've had a few people read it and really enjoy it, so that gives me hope. I've been doing some research (I need to do more) on finding literary agents and writing query letters and such so that I can hopefully get it published! WAH!!

Zachary is adorable as ever. He is a little parrot, learning new words every day, and I'm amazed at how quickly he is learning to speak and learning other things. He says so many words, I can't even count them, he speaks really well for his age. He already knows all of his shapes and loves to play with the shape-o ball, the one with red on one side and blue on the other and you stick the little yellow shapes in their spots. He walks around going "circle? square?". He loves it. I took him to Wal Mart the other day and he kept pointing and saying "star star" and I finally figured out he was talking about the star between Wal and Mart. He blows me away, just so observant and so cute. And he especially loves the warmer weather. He'll hand me his shoes and say "play outside?" It's so nice to live so close to the park! We're two blocks away from Smith Park so that's awesome.

Anywho, this is turning out more like a journal entry, but life is good! We make life a perpetual spree. :)

Swimming!

Last Saturday we went swimming with Duane's cousin and his wife and it was so fun to take Zach! I bought him some cute little swimmy trunks with fish all over them last summer, and he only wore them once when we went to the splash park, so I was glad to have another excuse to pull them out again. And he LOVED the pool. I was a little uncertain because he was crying while we were in the changing room, but once he got in the pool, it was hard to keep a hold of him! He also loves his baths, so I guess it wasn't that big of a surprise for him to have so much fun in a really big bathtub ;). So Duane and the guys went off and played basketball while I sat in the shallow end with his cousin's wife and Zach Attack, but it was great.

Christmas

We came to Burley for Christmas this year. Zach was so excited to finally get to play with all the shiny boxes under the tree that we've been telling him not to touch for a few weeks. His grandparents and uncle were also very excited to have him there. Little kids make Christmas fun. Or more fun, anyway.

His Grandma and Grandpa Pearson gave him a John Deere tractor and he loved it. He "drove" it around all day. A farm boy, just like his daddy.

We also got a TON of snow in Burley. Duane and his dad spent half of Christmas day digging out his dad's pickup, their driveway, and then rescuing a bunch of other people that'd gotten stuck. It pays to have a nice big loader. (Side note: When Duane and I got married, a tractor was a tractor. But I've soon learned that they've all got different names like, loaders, excavaters, backhoes, harvesters, etc.) Even though they all look pretty much the same to me!

What can I say other than Cute?

The other day we laid Zach Attack down for his nap, but he didn't go to sleep. Duane was out in the front room with me playing his guitar and I don't remember what I was doing, but we could hear Zach in there playing and babbling, just doinking around, so after about half an hour I asked Duane to get Zach out of his bed. Duane went in and serenaded Z, and this was the result. My favorite part is when he starts shaking his little arm. He's so funny, anytime he hears music, he shakes his little booty. The arm shaking is a recent acquisition, by the way.

I know I posted earlier about his talking, but Zach is such a jabber monster! He walks around jibbering in his own little language and he'll have actual conversations with us, even though we can't understand a word. He does say words, though. His list includes: bye bye, dada, mama, uh-oh (as you'll see. He's just started to throw things on purpose and say "uh oh" and it's so adorable), thank you, more, amen, door, star, no (of course), and yeah yeah and yay. I'm drawing a blank, but I think that's all. He gets more fun every day. Sigh. What a proud little mommy I am.

Let It Snow Baby!

Daddy squished a snowball and handed it to Zach Attack

Again, this isn't Zach's first snowfall, but last year he was a little lump that we carted around in his carseat, most of the time covered with a blanket. So yesterday we bundled him up and walked out our front door with him to watch him explore the fluffy whiteness. I love to see the curious expression on his face as he's trying to figure out new things and I wasn't disappointed this time to see it on his face, followed by smiles as he decided he liked the new white stuff.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

This isn't Zach's first Christmas, but it's the first time he's been interactive enough to figure out that something different and special is going on. We put up our tree shortly after Thanksgiving, (and can I just say that I LOVE Christmas!) He had fun with the tree after it was put up, and he's done pretty well listening not to touch it, though he's broken one ornament and he likes to pull the bows off of the presents. The other night Daddy said, "Zach get away from the tree please," and Zach went around saying "Away! Away!" the rest of the night. Ah, a new word. It's cute. He's so fun. And Zach plays a game with us. He knows he's not supposed to touch the tree or the presents, so he'll reach his little hand out and glance over at us to make sure we can see him, and we say "no no," and he'll smirk and pull his hand away only to reach it back out. He's teasing us already! Little Stinker!

Zachary is Walking!

The Saturday after Zach's birthday, he took his tentative first step at Grandma Bills' house toward her sitting in her chair. And it was all flat-footed from there! He'd test distances out, taking no more than two or three steps between things, but yesterday I'd turn my head and he was walking from the couch to the dining table or from the piano to the cedar chest at mom's house! And he walked (with my help) all the way out to the car yesterday. Hooray! No more carrying him! (or at least not as much :) He was getting so heavy!

Here he goes!

Jabberwocky!

As Lewis Carroll puts it in his poem,

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."

It reminds me uncannily of Zachary's endearing speech. He talks in sentences and with voice inflections, using his hands to emphasize certain points, but it's in his his own little language. And I absolutely LOVE it!
AND...
Success!! After many trials and errors, we were able to victoriously record Zach's jargon. Every time we would try before, he'd be in the middle of jabbering and as soon as he'd see the camera, he'd stop, which always drove me nuts because it's so stinkin' adorable! But hoodalalee and hooray, we got it.

DOG!!

Here is the dog we got Zachary for his birthday. He LOVES it! From the minute he saw it in the store, to the day we gave it to him (aka yesterday) he giggled every time he saw it and his face would just light up. The dog is super soft and about four times as big as he is but Zach loves to tackle it and then snuggle. It makes a good friend for the little guy.

Zach's First Birthday Party!!

Yesterday we had Zach's birthday party even though he doesn't turn one officially until October 10th. It was a combined birthday party with Zach's cousins whose birthdays are really close to his and it was so much fun. It was a Halloween Costume Dress Up Party so all the kids (and the older kids too-ahem, like Duane and me) got dressed up. First I did Halloween pictures of all the kids in their costumes, and we played pin-the-face-on-the-pumpkin and spoon tag where the kids had to make it to the other end of the room without spilling the candy pumpkins in their spoons, and we decorated cupcakes. Then it was time for cake and candles. We placed Zach and his cousin Skyler (both turning one) in their high chairs and gave them their cupcakes with a candle in them and immediately Zachary reached out and touched the flame...and we all know what happened next. It scared him, and he began to cry. But we lit it again and this time he smiled and liked the flickering flame. We helped him blow it out and then he dug in. After cupcakes, they opened presents. It was a super fun party!








What a fearsome little lion!!

Okay, okay, adorable
is more like it!

Zach decided Skyler wasn't eating his cupcake fast enough!

Zach in his cute new hat with the gloves still pinned on.

I love Paris in the Fall (or Rexburg, anyway)

This morning we had our family pictures taken and they'd turned out so adorably cute! We went out to the Blue Heron Inn which, before a few days ago, I hadn't even known existed even though I've lived in this area for most of my life. It's just a quaint little bed and breakfast between Rexburg and Rigby and the fall colors were gorgeous! I was so happy that it was such a stunningly beautiful day.