Look Who is 9 Months Old!!

Zane hit the big 9 months on the 16th! I can't believe how fast he has grown. Elise is finally able to really play with him. He loves eveything she does and is always belly laughing at her. Here is a list of the things we love about Zane:

1. He is always smiling and laughing
2. He loves to snuggle
3. When I pick him up from Ms. Charlotte's he shakes both arms up and down with a big smile on his face and then pulls me in for a round of kisses. You know the open mouth gooey baby kisses
4. He loves to eat meat (Elise still struggles with this one...makes it hard to find food sometimes)
5. He waves hello and goodbye and you have really never seen anything cuter
6. He plays pat-a-cake
7. He has awesome hair
8. He blows kisses (sometimes this can be mistaken for waving...)
9. He pulls himself up on everything (and manages to get hurt about every 10 minutes - but he is getting better about that)
10. He puts everything in his mouth - I have Elise on patrol for small things on the floor
11. He has cute little baby bun cheeks
12. He dances - especially if Elise is twirling around in a princess dress
13. He loves to touch your face (more like pinch it with small baby sharp finger nails)
14. He loves the water
15. He plays with toys and is so intrigued by them

The list goes on and on and on...Everyday we say how happy we are to have him.

Everything is going well here. Elise is soooo excited for Halloween. We have to count the number of days until Halloween everyday. The reason being is as she said "The thing I love about Halloween is the candy". I guess we better hit a few trick-or-treat parties. It is usually so cold here by Halloween that you don't go out on Halloween night and go trick-or-treating. You go downtown in the day and hit all of the businesses and all the kids are out. It's great because you get to see everyone and you aren't totally frozen. Makes picking out Halloween costumes interesting since you need to plan everything around wearing a coat....

Busy Summer

It has been a bit since the last post. Things have been crazy here trying to work and raise two kids....Summer is going way too fast and the weather hasn't really cooperated. Today when I took the kids to school it was 45 degrees!! Anyway we are enjoying ourselves. We were able to make it out to Minnesota to visit Jess' mom and to WI to see the rest of the clan. We are now getting ready for a nice two week vacation to head out to see my family and Jess' dad and go to the beach. Boy am I looking forward to some time in the sun and sand.

Elise has been busy with her summer program at school. Yesterday she came home with 4 necklaces that she had made. She is so smart and full of ideas. We just put up a big playset for her in the backyard and she couldn't be happier as she loves to swing. The morning Jess put it together she came running down the stairs in the morning ready to get to work.

Zane is growing like a weed and is just so much fun to have around. He is getting close to crawling and is up on all fours rocking back and forth. He can scoot around pretty good. Although we never had to baby proof for Elise I think we better get cracking on it for him cause he seems eager to grab at everything and put it in his mouth. Oh well, time to get that banister put on the stairs.

Jess has been busy with work and the band. They have been playing out more and now have a keyboard player (something Jess has wanted for a long time). I will post the website address once I figure out what it is. He is also getting ready for his third year of the Enduro. HTe Enduro is a 70 mile off-road bike race outside of Laramie (at 8500 feet). He feels more ready than ever. The rest of the family will be volunteering at one of the aid stations.

I have been really busy with work and I am hoping it will slow down, although there is no end in sight. Otherwise it has just been busy trying to keep up with two kids. Zane has yet to sleep through the night so I am looking forward to that magical day when he does....so I can sleep more than 3 hours at a time...how quickly you forget about the whole sleep deprivation thing after they start to get a little older and then bam there you are all over again. At least I know he will sleep through the night eventually...

Below are some pictures I had taken a few weeks ago. I will try to post some more later this week.

Lazy Afternoon

Well another storm is brewing so we are indoors (not to mention we've all had the stomach flu this week). Things are going well here. We are just waiting for summer to come so we can be outside more. Zane is growing like a weed. Elise is fascinated with letters and spelling. When I woke up this morning she had been copying words onto paper. Very cute! They had a little art show at school last night. All of Elise's pieces (I thought this would make a great candy name) sold (to us of course...). I will snap a picture of her writing and post it next time. Check out the picture of Zane giving knuckles, he loves to do that. I also posted a pic of Jess' band from their last gig.

Spring Time in the Rockies

Well spring has hit full swing here and that means wet heavy snow and lots of it. We have been keeping busy with tent cities and hiding easter eggs. You would think that hiding easter eggs would make sense with it being easter and all except we have been playing easter egg hunt for two solid years. Elise loves it and she always wants to fill the eggs with presents. Everything from rubber bands to legos. I started back to work this last week and it went very smoothly, like I never left. The deadlines were waiting for me the minute I walked in the door. Zane has adjusted very well and even decided to take a bottle from the woman that is watching him on her first try. This after we had tried 5 different bottles and 2 sippy cups. Oh well, boys will be boys...

Elise's birthday

Well this is a little out of order but I thought I would post a few pics of Elise's birthday. She turned 4 this year and we had a gymnastics party. Turned out great and all the girls had fun!!

I am finally getting around to updating our blog. The last few weeks have been busy. I am enjoying having time off to spend with Elise and Zane. Zane is growing up so fast and no longer looks like a newborn. He is busy talking and kicking and loves taking baths. We had some photos taken when he was 6 weeks old (can you believe he is almost ten weeks old now....). I have loaded a few.

Zane is doing awesome. He is such a sweet baby and loves to snuggle and to be held (even when he is sleeping). Luckily, my friend's mom is going to watch him when I go back to work so he will get lots of attention. He will be the only one she is watching. He sleeps pretty good at night and has slept as much as 6.5 hours so I am hoping he keeps that up...

Elise finally got to go skiing. She did awesome and was going down the bunny slope by the middle of the day. Jess was in a snowboard race (the Chen cup) and came in fourth!! The Chen cup is a race that includes employees from environmental companies around Denver. Zane and I spent the day watching Elise and Jess. He isn't quite ready for skiis... We plan on getting a few more trips in this year.

Finally creating a blog...

Well after much hesitation and many excuses I am finally creating a blog. We have been very busy over the last few weeks with the arrival of our second child. Zane Michael Askey was born on January 16 and we couldn't be happier. So far he is a sweetie and is very content as long as he is being snuggled. My mom and Jess' dad came out to help out and that made things much easier. I am not sure what I will do when I am on my own. Elise has taken on the role of being the big sister and is always wanting to help. We have talked about the different cries a baby has and so now she offers advice on what he needs...He seems to fit right into the family.

Both Jess and I are working for Trihydro, an environmental engineering firm here in Laramie, and are enjoying our jobs. I have taken off a few months to be with Zane although I still find myself working a bit.

Elise is busy with school and her art. She has also been learning how to ice skate and just started gymnastics. She is very much a girl and loves all the princess stuff. She also has been really working on writing and is constantly asking how to spell things.

We hope to get out and do some snowboarding before the season is over and we would really like to get Elise up on skis this year. We are planning an addition on our house so that should keep us pretty busy over the next few months. So that is what is going on with us. I will try to update this with new pictures but it may take me a bit to get into the swing of it.