updater.

this blog keeps getting more and more neglected. you'd think with levi studying for boards and finals and going on externships that i'd have plenty of time to write about our happenings. instead, i spent my time watching fringe {omg. sci fi. so not into that. but sooo into fringe.} and suits {it almost makes me want to go to law school. almost. love that show} during nap time, and bed time. it's a dangerous game having amazon prime instant videos. 

in any case, here are some crappy iPhone updates of our venturings recently. 

zak has a little friend, logan, who he adores and loves to play with. they are totally adorable, and i wish we could be here to see them grow up together. 

 the boys and i have been venturing on runs/walks around the city, since it has been "indian summer". it's been quite lovely around these parts. i bribe them with treats and they walk/sit in the stroller enough for me to work on dis fitness =) 

we went to the circus for the first time. i'll be honest i'm not a big proponent for it, after having read water for elephants/thinking of animals. it made me sad to see tigers doing tricks, but zak thought it was cool. i don't think we'll go again though. hurts my heart to see them forced to do things for the attention of kids. 

greysen thought it was very enjoyable, obviously. 

we had a movie and pizza night and made magic shell. again, greysen thought it was super cool. 

oh and this magic shell was da bommbbbb.

grandma kelly and aunt dixie came for a few days before levi's oral surgery exams. we did some touristy things, went to muir woods, ate at ghiradelli's, golden gate park, and so on. it was quite fabulous. 

we played in the one day of rain a year. it was quite exciting for us to put on our rain boots for the first time in a looong time. 

greysen has been sloooowwwwwly inching closer to walking more than 6 steps at a time. for some reason he will only walk on carpet. he's such an adorable weirdo. 

but he's just so cute, that it's ok. his squishy face. ahhh.

and lastly, zak has been frolicking with his lady friends. he's building up quite the reputation with the ladies in preschool already. 

super exciting things happen in the lowry household obviously. next up: my favorite place, disneyland! 

swim.

during our exciting month alone, zak had his swim lessons in fresno for two weeks, and he was looooving them. last year, he cried the entire time, except for maybe the last two lessons. so, we spent the whole year leading up to this talking about how awesome swimming is and how he shouldn't cry. and we succeeded! parenting win!

he did amazing. the swim lessons he gets are focused on rescue swimming- him being able to swim to the edge of the pool and get out if necessary. this time around, he learned to roll over to breathe when he needs to, so basically he can brave the ocean unsupervised now. ;) totally kidding fyi. 

he also had the same girl as last year to teach him, so he was loving it. plus, she's super cute, so that helps too ;) last year he brought her a pinecone to show his affection, this year he just kept telling her to come play with him in grandma's pool. 

at the end, he gets to be announced as a champion, and gets a medal and blue ribbon. basically the highlight of his life. any excuse for that kid to celebrate himself ;)

greysen and i deserve a reward for braving to 102+ temperatures every day to just sit and watch big brother swim in a nice cool pool everyday. 

i have a cool video of zak kicking trash his last lesson, but alas, blogger does not want me to show it to all my faithful followers. in any case, i'm so proud of my kiddie and how awesome he did this week! 

updating.

fyi: these pictures have absolutely nothing to do with anything. i just figured a post with no pictures is boring. 

1. the day that i posted greysen's update he started to crawl. he loves it. and spends most of his free time trying to get someplace to stand up. he now can be found spending an hour before falling asleep standing up in his crib jumping and laughing. it's kind of cute. but mostly time consuming because we got things to do baby, an extra hour devoted to naps is not working for me. but he's just so excited....

2. levi and i joined a gym. i get up at 5:00 to go to spin class. all i can say, is that i better be extremely sexy soon burning those 700 calories. i need greysen to walk so i can pawn him off on the kids club at the gym so i can go while levi's gone. chop chop kid. 

3. zak has decided to take the longest time known to man to begin to eat his dinner. it typically ends with us threatening to put him in bed before he will take his first bite. it's the worst. 

4. both of our devil children have decided that waking up when the sun comes up is sweet. unfortunately, zak doesn't go back to sleep, and ends up whining and crying most of the morning because he's so tired. we have yet to recify this situation other than ignoring them/creating "special toy time" so that zak may or may not fall back asleep staying in his room playing with toys. i hate the sun. 

5. levi is leaving in two weeks and i don't know what i'm going to do with my children for a whole month all day err day. sad day. 

6. my new hair color makes me look albino. i need a tan. or a fake tan because i'll never get tan ever. 

7. i have no tv to watch now because it's summer time. it's kind of the worst. 

8.  zak says the funniest stuff now. i don't even know what to do with that kid. i need to do a blog post devoted to his zak-isms. i'll leave you with: "mom! that construction worker is riding a motorcycle!! who'd imagine that?!"

well. i just read through that and it was depressing. let me add some happy things.

9. i am re-doing our bedroom furniture and it makes me so happy to look at them. i did our two night stands and i have two dressers to do this week, and i am so excited. it's been neglected for the five years we've been married. time to pinterest this bad boy.

10. levi and i are planning our graduation trip sans kids for next march. i want to go to an island where you stay in a hut above the water. that is more reasonably priced than bora bora. any idea where?

11. i wish i could buy a million peonies and stick them in vases all over my house. i love them so so much.

12. i'm going to the ke$ha concert next week and i'm super stoked. we gonna get a little cray cray!

13. i'm also running a neon run this weekend, like the color run, except with at night with black lights and glow in the dark paints. should be sweeet!

ok, that sounds happier than it was. here's another zak-ism to end this post.
"mom, i want me and dad and greysen to go to red robin and you can go to a meeting all by yourself. i'll go eat hamburgers with dada. oh. and greysen. and not you"

i see how it is kid. dad gets all the "cool" cred. 

firetrucks and cupcakes.

my child is three years old. what? how is that possible? we were in the middle of his party when 12:10 hit, and i briefly got swept back to the time when he was born... the chaos, surrounded by people we love, all about zak, being so happy. and it was the same then as it was yesterday. i love that we get to celebrate him each year. 

since last birthday season, i was pregnant and lacking any motivation to plan a party or do anything remotely cool for zak or levi, i tried to do a little better this year for both of them. 

so, zak's {awesome} mom decided that we should go to the fire station and get a tour. and it was a smashing success if i do say so myself. zak had been counting down sleeps {since about 21} and was ecstatic to finally get there. unfortunately, he gets all cray cray in new situations so he didn't look like he enjoyed it much, but i know he did because he keeps talking about it. 

prepare for an overload of pictures you've probably all seen on facebook. but i have to document for posterity. =) 

we started the morning off bright and early, 6:30 to be exact. blech. mom and dad were setting up until late, so that time came very early. zak requested green pancakes with chocolate chips and sprinkles for breakfast. don't worry, we provided him with a green smoothie before we left the house as to somewhat avoid the inevitable sugar high and downfall of the day. 

we didn't buy zak much for presents, seeing as he gets hooked up by everyone. plus we don't have tons of room for more stuffs anyways. we're cool parents like that. 

but the one thing i was excited to buy him was this tool bench. he's in love with it. when he's not playing with all the other millions of toys he got this weekend. 

we also bought him a watch, some books, and his pride and joy-- GUM. we made him wait until he turned three until he could chew some. he lasted about 5 minutes before it went "down down down to his tummy". that's a work in progress. haha 

we started zak's party at 10:00, which is a perfect time for a party btw. we got home before nap time, and it was fabulous. 

the firefighters were amazing. they did such a good job talking to kids, and i loved that they made zak large and charge. they also made an announcement over the dispatch to wish zak a happy birthday to all of the south city stations. it was pretty sweet. 

we had about 20 kids come to the fire station. the fire fighters did really well talking to them, and showing them their cool digs. 

this guy lost the coin toss and had to put his outfit on for the kids. so funny. he did it very quickly, but the darth vader voice threw off all the kids for sure. zak was terrifed of him. it was pretty cool to watch though. 

this fire fighter was a hot tamale, to be honest, i didn't even notice until it got pointed out that he was by all my lady friends haha. good thing i have these pictures to remember ;)

showing them the saw. oooohhhhh. 

my party got a little out of hand, i expected more people to say no when i invited them, so our gracious friends volunteered their perfect house to host all of our kids. and it was perfect. the kids had a blast, and the parents got to relax and hang out. 

these are just a few of the decor. love me some party planning. it was so fun. i also love me some cupcake making. i'm pretty proud of it, in case you haven't seen on instagram and facebook. haha. 

so i found this balloon wall on pinterest. unfortunately, i'm not the master photographer like the people on pinterest, so mine didn't look as cool. but oh well.

after nap time, zak opened some presents, and then we went to red robin to continue zak's celebrations.

levi's friends bought zak this hot wheels thing. and he loves it. lucky for him, he got a bagillion hot wheels to play with it. unfortunately, it's super humongous and loud. oh well.  

some of our favorite friends from provo spent the evening with us after the party. these boys love each other. and i love how they can play with each other even after time apart. they're just so cute. 

we had the best time yesterday. love my favorite toddler. just wait for the favorite things post from him to mark our turn to 3-year-old-hood.