Christmas Lights at Temple Square

So, we have this tradition.... every year we go up to Salt Lake to look at the beautiful Christmas lights at Temple Square. This tradition began in 2004 when Joe proposed to me while we were up looking at lights at Temple Square after the Christmas Concert :) And we've gone back up there every year and managed to continue the tradition with Zach! Zach loves it (of course) and has so much fun running around yelling out all of the colors of the lights.

We were very lucky to have such a nice randomly walking by man take some GREAT pictures of us, he even positioned us nicely and up on the steps so we could get the whole Temple in the background! I love going up and seeing the lights, it seems to make the already amazingly beautiful Temple look even more beautiful!! I hope we can carry on this tradition for many many more years to come!

Christmas Decorating!

After we got back from California, we broke out the Christmas Decor & got busy!! Zach was SO excited to put the ornaments up on the tree, I think he put most of them up by himself :) He picked out a Spiderman/Green Goblin ornament this year, and has been dying to get it out of the box, so when I told him we could put it up on the tree it was a most joyous day for him!! I love that he is old enough to remember the tree from last year, and that he is SO excited to decorate it. Everyday when he sees the stockings he checks in them to see if Santa came yet :) I keep telling him that Santa wont come until Christmas which is still 2 weeks away but lets be honest, that doesnt mean anything to him!

Zach showing off his new ornament

putting the first ornament up on the tree
Zach & daddy trying to find good spots for their ornaments!

and topping it all off with the star!

ta-da! Merry Christmas!

Baby Magleby #2 on the way!

Well, that pretty much says it all, we're expecting Baby Magleby #2!! Our Due date is June 21, 2011 and we cannot be more excited!! We told Zach right away as soon as we found out because we figured it would take him the entire 9 months to get used to the idea... as most of you know he is extremely leary of babies... he doesn't know what to make of them especially the crying part... he has very sensitive hearing as it is, and is very emotional so when the crying goes on and on it really upsets him. We're hoping that since they baby is ours, and will be here 24/7 he will get used to it, and it won't bother him so much. He seems to be getting excited about the idea.

Down to the nitty gritty... so in hopes of not repeating what happened with Zach's premature birth we've set up a pretty good plan with my OB. He was FANTASTIC at listening to my list of things that I've researched over the last 4 years and wanted to try. He mentioned Incompetent Cervix right off the bat which I have to say was a bit of a relief... because once you know what it is you know what you can do to prevent it... not knowing is the hardest part!! So that being said here is our plan to keep this lil one in here as long as is humanly possible:

1) A Cervical Cerclage. We'll be going in a few weeks to have one placed (once finals are over!). Basically in the case of Incompetent Cervix the cervix can't hold the pressure of the growing baby and it gradually begins opening up and most of the time you don't know it until it's too late. So the purpose of the cerclage is that they sew the cervix shut and (if we make it that long!) they remove it at 37 weeks. In the event where it is placed as a preventative measure rather than a rescue measure (once you've started dilating) it has an 85-90% success rate (success is counted as making it to 37 weeks and beyond).

2) 17p (alpha hydroxyprogesterone) shots. I'll be doing these once a week from weeks 16-36. These are found to be very helpful in pregnancies after preterm births of preventing subsequent preterm births. This was the main thing that I have researched over the last 4 years as the Dr's had previously said no to Incompetent Cervix. I cant even tell you how many case studies, message boards and other websites I've researched this one to death on. I was so excited as soon as my Dr said yes before I even finished talking about it. He said that he has had a lot of good experience with it and was going to recommend it!

I'm feeling very positive about this, and have very good feelings (as well does my Dr) about this pregnancy going farther than we did with Zachary. We go in in a few weeks for an ultrasound which we are SO excited about... I suppose the one good side to a High Risk pregnancy is all the extra ultrasounds, lol. So we'll keep you posted!!

Thanksgiving pictures!

Zach playing with Reighlynn

Making some yummy birthday pizza's

Zach was really excited for all the cheese!

Singing happy birthday to Joe!

Grandpa trying to sneak a piece of Zach's cinnamon rolls... he wasnt having any of that!!

Nathan & Katie

Thanksgiving 2010!

This year for Thanksgiving we made a super quick trip down to California to have Thanksgiving with my family!! It was so much fun! We flew in Thursday morning, (which was also Joe's birthday) and made it home in time for lunch, got to see JT & Kasaundra and their cute lil twins and Nathan & Katie with Reighlynn which was so fun! We had a relaxing afternoon and had fun hanging out with the fam!

That night, in honor of Joe's Birthday, we made homemade pizza's and had some yummy cake. Zach loved the cake and managed to eat most of Joe's piece! :) The next day we celebrated Thanksgiving, having everyone there except for Stephen & Lacie and Anderson (we missed you guys!). There was lots of yummy turkey... yummy mashed potatoes... yummy stuffing and corn... all the amazingly yummy traditional Thanksgiving yummyness!! Topping it all off with of course the pumpkin pie and chocolate pie :)

All in all it was a perfect trip down, we got to see lots of family, do lots of relaxing, and feel plenty rejuvenated! I love trips like that, where you don't need a vacation afterwards to recover from your vacation!, lol.

Shutterfly!!

first off let me say how much I LOVE shutterfly!! I love that they have so many wonderful things to choose from. We've made a photobook of Zach's NICU stay with them, and it turned out so perfectly!! We also made a small soft copy 5x7 size photobook of Zach's first trips to Disneyland and he loves looking through it and pointing out all of the fun things we did there, and the fun Characters he got to meet.

Pictures capture so many of our favorite memories, it can take you right back to that very moment, and is something we treasure so much in our family, pictures mean so much to us. Being able to use a site like Shutterfly really helps to get some memories organized now that I am SO far behind on scrapbooking.... I am really considering just making Zach's baby book on here, since clearly I haven't worked on it since he was about 4 months old.

This year we are going to be doing our Christmas cards through Shutterfly, our first time using them for this and I am so excited!! They have SO many cute designs to choose from my favorite being this one!! http://http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/cool-peppermint-dots-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

This is also another cute one: http://http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/snow-pals-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476


They also have really cute calendars which work as great presents for say Grandparents, or even for yourself!! http://http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars


If you're interested in trying Shutterfly this year for you Holiday Cards then you're in luck!!
Bloggers get 50 FREE Holiday Cards from Shutterfly!! Sign up at http:// http:// http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Halloween 2010!!

Well, our Halloween week this year was crazy busy to say the least!! :) Tuesday night we went to The Pumpkin Patch so Zach could pick out his pumpkin... as always he had a blast looking at all the different pumpkins until he found the right one!! :)

Thursday afternoon we made our yearly Halloween costume trip to take Zach into Grandpa Magleby's work. Zach had a blast riding the elevator up and then was so excited to see Grandpa and everyone in the office was excited to see him! They were all charmed by his cuteness & offered him candy which he quickly accepted!! I'm so bummed I forgot to take pictures while we were there!! :(

Then Friday night we went to our Ward Trunk or Treat which was a little crazy, a little crowded, but Zach had a lot of fun playing the different games to get his candy prizes :) He then LOVED the cake walk, where he got a cupcake. We didn't get too many pictures since it was so crowded, but we did manage to get one of War Machine with his cupcake :)

Saturday night we went over to Grandma & Grandpa Magleby's house to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood :) As per tradition JT & Kasaundra came with us and for the first time the twins got to go trick-or-treating too!! They were such cute lil' skunks!! So here is everyone who dressed up in their Halloween costumes: Delilah the skunk, Kasaundra as the lady from Bones, Zach as War Machine, Linda as Spider-Grandma, JT as the guy from Bones, and Porter the skunk!

After we finished Trick-or-Treating Zach got to call Uncle Dan and they chatted it up for a bit, and Uncle Dan read him a book which he sure enjoyed!

Linda tickling Porter with her cape, he loved it!!

Overall it was such a fun week and Zach was really into trick-or-treating this year. Every house we left he would hold up his bucket and say "I got another candy!!!" like everytime it was such an exciting surprise to get another one!!

My little Study Buddy

Zach has been quite interested in my Anatomy book.. here's a little background on why...

Zach thinks that all things skull/skeleton are Pirates... due to the Skull that is on a Pirate flag, therefore every skull is a Pirate... he LOVES Halloween decorations for that reason. SO... fastfoward to my anatomy book...

I try not to study too much while he is awake, I can usually get a good amount of studying in during nap time and at night after he goes to bed at night, but this week I've been studying for my Midterm (which was today) so I've been studying a lot more than usual. Thankfully Zach has been very interested in it (thinking it's a pirate and all) so he has been asking a lot of questions about what is what, so it's really helped me to study. At one point this week I had checked out a skull, a hand & a foot so refresh on them and Zach thought it was the COOLEST thing in the world :) He is sure such a good study buddy :) If only he thought History was as interesting...

Zach comparing the book to his "Little Pirate Boy" that he picked out this year... he loves it

The little Nole

Zach has become quite fond of watching Football with Daddy this year :) It's Joe's dream come true, he's been waiting for this since the day we found out Zach was a boy!! It helps that with my having a lab Saturday mornings, it's just Joe & Zach here & they have sure bonded over football. They can be found cheering together, even if Zach isn't quite paying attention and he hears Joe yell "Touchdown" and Zach will drop whatever he is doing, run to the TV and yell "Touchdown!!"

melts my heart!!

I sure do love my Zachy Maggy!! He always says the funniest, cutest things, and some of them just melt my heart... his latest thing is coming up with some duo that we are... SO for example today when I put him down for his nap he says "I so love you Spiderman" which then means I say " I so love you Venom" :) It is so cute... we've been Spiderman & Venom, Spiderman & Green Goblin, Batman & Flash, Iron Man & War Machine, Curious George & Man in the Yellow Hat (i never get to be George though!) and Optimus Prime & Bumblebee...

It cracks me up every time, and sometimes when he throws in a new one it takes me a second to think of who the opposite would be :) I sure do love this kid!

Busy Busy Busy

Yikes, it's not like I'm very good at updating the blog on a regular basis as is but now it's probably going to be a lot less likely!! :) I just started back at BYU this semester... my 8 yr long semester off has officially ended :) I'm kind pretty excited and since I'm going at night it's probably going to be a few years before I'm done... but it's been kind nice being back at it :) keep your fingers crossed for me... I think I'm gonna need it :)

here & there... round & about...

Fun pics from around and about the house!! :)

Zachy Maggy was so proud of himself for writing the letter Z!!

This is what happens when you think your 4 year old is playing nicely upstairs in his room...

Sleepy War Machine taking a quick snooze...
Some very rare mommy & zachy snuggle time!!

writing his letter B's!!!

On Labor Day we finally made it up to the Living Planet Aquarium!! We've been trying to get up there for a long time, but it never seems to work out with our schedules!! Zach thouroughly enjoyed himself, he especially loved the fish tanks!! :)

"It's a REALLY big froggie!!"

Zach really wasn't sure how he felt about petting the mantaray's... he kept patting the water, so they kept sqimming by but when they would get close he would pull his hand out & wave :)

Penguins!!!

It was a great trip!! Fun was had by all, and I'm so glad we finally made it up there!!

First Day of Preschool!!

Another year, and another First Day of School!! Zach was SO excited to go back to school, and has been dying to wear his new Iron Man backpack!!

His new teacher is so great, he really seems to like her a lot!! He did so great at drop off, in fact he just waked right in put his backpack away and ran off to play!! MUCH better experience than the first day of school last year!! :)