thanksgiving.

i cannot believe thanksgiving has come and gone already! blowing my mind. how can it possibly be christmas so soon?! three weeks until levi's done school. not that i'm counting down or anything. ;) 

this year we went up to the beach house because we didn't want to drive a long time with levi only getting done on wednesday. {byu was awesome and let us off on tuesday. i miss that} we had a great time, the weather was uh-mazing, like it always is, and the company was pretty good too! 

we love coming here. it's so gorgeous.  everytime we leave we realize we need to do it more often. plus, free babysitting when we come with family. cha ching! 

grandma bettye so graciously bought us chuggington and thomas trains to play with at the beach house {i think she did it so he would want to come back and make us come too. well, it worked because now he's even more obsessed}. so did he want to play outside? no. did he want to go to the beach? no. he just wanted to play with the ridiculously overpriced trains. {seriously though. hank and his coal car were $25 bucks! good thing he has nice grandmas who pay for business like that, because his parents most definitely will not.}

greysen also got a new exersaucer so that was pretty exciting for him. 

and for zak, who thought he was entitled to play with the toys as well. 

i just love these guys. they're so silly. and cute. 

now we know where the ridiculous face comes from. 

 our thanksgiving feast was excellent. greysen was asleep for most of it, so instead of taking pictures of the three of us that were awake, we took them individually so our child will not feel left out in 20 years from now when he looks at his mom's awesome blog and reads all the fun things they used to do. 

three generations of preciousness. and some awkward smiling. so great. 

zak and his "binoculators". sometimes the stuff he says is just so cute. 

 grandma kim and zaky. 

grandma bettye and grandma kim. 

the spouse and i spent thanksgiving evening child-less at the gilroy outlets, soaking up the freedom and shopping for christmas presents until we got too tired and more people started showing up. {did you know the outlets open at 9 on thanksgiving? freaking awesome. i'm pretty sure most people thought they did at midnight because there was no one there until then. it was great! and plus, we don't stay up super late to go shopping. we're parents. and poor.}

hurrah for the holidays! 

fat face.

this fat face {yes, he will be scarred for life because i called him that. i don't care} is four months now.  and i just love it. he's getting to the fun age, aka the "i still want to be somewhat cuddled and squished and kissed by mom because i don't know how to talk and i can't tell her i hate it, unlike my obnoxious/suddenly teenaged brother who hates everything mom and dad do to cuddle with him" age. 

but seriously. how could i not want to squish those cheeks all day when they look like that? 

and that belly to be honest. because i've waited four months for him to get fatter. 

plus, he's just so happy all the time. unless he didn't get a nap. and then he's a psycho. 

he is 15 1/2 lbs now and 26 inches long. both in the 70th percentile still. we've {and by we, i mean me} have been re-sleep training him, since he went through a growth spurt and continuous rolling over that ruined his sleeping skills for several weeks. but we are back on track now, with him sleeping from 8:00-6:30 without being fed or rolling over. hallelujah. 

he can roll over from his stomach to his back. and scream his head off in the middle of the night because he hates it. it's really fun to wake up to. thank goodness we're somewhat past that. 

he's pretty close to sitting by himself. 

he loves to stand on anything. 

we've finally gotten to him waking up happy most of the time and not crying. that's a big moment for us. because mom is in a much better mood when she's not woken up by screaming. 

he loves to grab toys now, which is exciting and helpful for entertaining while mom is making dinner. 

his brother frequently asks "mom, what does baby greysen have to say about that?" whenever he is making noise. and it's just so cute when he says it. and when he asks greysen what he's talking about. 

man, i just love that fat face. and his brother too. 

fog harbor.

two years ago this weekend, we drove to San Francisco from Utah for Levi's dental school interview. it was probably the worst vacay ever {ghetto hostel, teething, pouring rain, snow storm, just to name a few} but we like to commemorate it each year because it was the beginning of our "new life". in particular, we go to a restaurant on pier 39 called fog harbor {totes delish btw} every saturday before thanksgiving. keeping with tradition, it poured rain this year, just like the two previous ones, but it makes for good memories. =) 

unfortunately, because thanksgiving is a week earlier, this time they didn't have the tree lit up. super lame. but we still had a good time, ate and didn't get kicked out of the restaurant because of one wild child who tried to eat all the butter, who shall remain nameless. 

 

these are our previous years adventures. 

because this was one of our only adventures we go on, i made us take lots of pictures. but most people who i made do it, didn't get the stroller sooo we only have one child in all of the pics. no big deal. =) 

then when i decide we really should take pictures to make sure our second is documented as being here, he refuses to cooperate. boo. also, i may have dressed them so they all match. =)

 the end. 

pumpkin.

it was gorgeous on sunday, so we decided it was the perfect day to carve pumpkins. of course by the time we got to it, it was foggy and gross, but whatevs. we still had a good time. zak decided he might be interested in scooping out the guts, but quickly realized that he would rather have dad do it. he's not one for gross/squishy things. he did however enjoy stabbing the pumpkin. typical boy. 

in case you couldn't tell, zak picked this pattern out. 

 yes, that is a "kitty-bat". 

 i love this. 

 ugh. this is a sick picture of us {we'll blame it on the freezing cold wind}, but we needed at least one with the four of us. happy halloween! 

three big ones.

this little man is three months. holy moly. i can't believe it's been that long already. he still is the most amazing baby, and we are so lucky to have him. 

i think that he's finally growing out of his awkward newborn phase. if only he would get some more hair now. =) 

- he sleeps most days from 9:00-7:00. it does vary by an hour to two sometimes, but even still, he makes mommy so so happy. 

- he is so happy. you don't have to do anything to make him smile. i love it. 

- he loves to stand up and check the world out. 

- he's started talking and laughing, and it's the cutest thing in the whole world. 

- he loves his hands and sucks on them all the time. 

- he refuses to sleep anywhere besides his bed still. which is obnoxious, but it's ok because night time is so so good. 

- he really wants to sit up, but still hates the bumbo. he lasts maybe 5 minutes in there. he's doing a pretty good job though sitting for a few seconds, for being only three months. 

- 

blessing.

this past weekend, we had some of our family and friends here for greysen's baby blessing. it was a great weekend. we had dinner at five guys {bringing back provo memories}, and breakfast at millbrae pancake house {if you live here and haven't been, go. now. no really, go. it's fantastic!}, and then we started the real festivities at the zoo, of course, to show everyone our favorite spots. 

 we couldn't go to the zoo and not do the train. 

we loved having some of our favorite provo friends down with us! 

it was a beautiful saturday to spend at the zoo, and then bbq back at our place. 

sunday turned out to be foggy and gross, but we took a few pictures at the church to document all who were there. 

then we had brunch back at our place. and i made everyone take a picture with greysen, even though he never looked at the camera, but it's ok, he's just so handsome anyways =) 

 this picture is still hilarious, no matter how many times i look at it. 

we're so glad that everyone could come and celebrate with us. we had such a great time with our family and friends. thank you all for coming! 

zakary's favorite.

the man is officially 2 and a half, so in honor of his half birthday, i asked him what his favorite things were at the moment. i don't think these are all accurate, but they are exactly what he said when i asked him. 

what's your name? my name is zakary lowry

favorite food: cookies and grilled cheese

favorite drink: orange juice
favorite number: three

favorite letter: C for cat

favorite toy: helicopter

favorite tv show: ummmm..... the tv. chuggington. jake. umm.... tv. 

favorite movie: the horsie movie aka tangled

favorite special treat: fruit snacks, captain crunch berries, ummmm. chocolate milk

who are your friends? ronin and playgroup

favorite thing to do outside: eat popsicles

favorite thing to do with dad: play

favorite thing to do with mom: watch tv {i swear we do other things, but that's at the top of the list apparently}

favorite person: greysen 

favorite thing to do with baby greysen: play with him 

favorite place to go: i'm just getting my boogers out right now mom. {someone just learned that word. gross}

favorite song: jesus wants me for a sunbeam and ba ba black sheep have you any wool

mom's favorite quotes: 

"mom.... i'm just doing something right now ok?"

"it's so beautiful mom, so so beautiful"

"mom, it's too too tricky for me, i need some help" 

"mom, i just wiped all my boogers on my shirt". also gross, apparently he had a runny nose this week. 

"mom, please glow away so i can play trains all by myself". he's not allowed to say that to us, but it cracks me up how he says "go away"

"mom, i'm so sorry mom. i'm so so sorry for...."- this one always tugs at my heart strings, especially when i'm mad.

hilarious/obnoxious things he does: 

- last night he put his head in the toilet while brushing his teeth. i had to leave the room because i was laughing so hard while telling him that was gross and we don't do that, while levi was trying to discipline him. 

- he says "cheeeessseeee" when we say he should smile at baby greysen so he'll smile back at him. 

- he still cannot figure out how to not come out of his room at night time. we're going on eight months now. it's ridiculous.
-he is very loud. like very loud. like other kids get scared of him because he yells songs in their face, loud. i'm not sure how to tame him, but he could really use some.
- he gets very aggressive and crazy when he's tired. sometimes i wish he'd have an older kid come knock him around so he wouldn't be so obnoxious to everyone, but we don't have any friends like that. {i swear i don't really want him to get hurt, but just to be put in his place would be nice. he's very dominating}

but despite all the things he does, we love our crazy two and a half year old, and we are exhausted every day by the time he goes to bed.