All About Zach

Zachy, the sweetest baby on the planet, turned 16 months this week! Life is busy as a 16 month old. Here are some of his latest:

1. Bye-bye baby curls! Zach got his first-ever haircut this week. When I went to brush his hair last weekend, I realized he had so much he could have a couple of ponytails, haha. Much to Hannah and Lizzie's chagrin (who thought his curls were adorable), I decided that enough was enough and that I needed to trim him down. For my other boys, I always took them to a professional for their first cut. Their hair never grows in evenly as a baby, so it isn't an easy cut job. For Zach, however, I knew that taking him to a professional would be a disaster. He is crazy shy of everyone and would probably have had a meltdown. I knew that I would have to do the job. Gulp! Ammon and Lizzie helped hold him (and hold his arms down) and I grabbed the clippers. Throughout the entire process, I kept freaking out (and freaking the kids out) that I was butchering the whole thing. In the end, though, it turned out pretty cute. Phew! What a big boy we have!

From the front

And the back

2. Shy guy! When Bekah was reading through one of my old posts where I mentioned some of the nicknames we use for Zach, she piped up "You forgot Shy Guy!" Zach is incredibly nervous and shy. I think the two are actually separate issues. He is very shy around other people. If they look at him (or heaven forbid - talk to him!) he will immediately cover his eyes. The funny thing is that he smiles under his hands so he just ends up looking super cute. This, in turn, encourages people to try to talk to him more. Unfortunately, this never ends well. Zach will start screaming and crying like someone is trying to murder him. Poor guy. He is also VERY nervous/embarassed about things. If he is feeling nervous, he will cover his ears (the funny thing is that my Emma Sue used to do the same thing). Many, many times he uses one hand to cover an ear and one to cover an eye. Cutest little guy.

Sometimes all I have to do is say "Zachy!" and he will immediately cover his ears

I think his ears are well protected much of the time ;)

I had to steal this picture from Katie - he doesn't typically cover his eyes for me, just his ears. :)

3. Our little executive - Zach has taken after the tradition of his two elder brothers and is obsessed with electronics. He knows how to swipe to get the lock screen off of all our devices (ipad, tablets, phones, ipods). He even (somehow!) was able to bypass Ammon's numerical password screen the other day. He loves computers and is always wanting to sit on Lizzie or I's laps as we work during the day (we share an office-I work at one desk and she homeschools at another). We sometimes sit him in Dad's computer chair in the hopes that he will leave us alone. :)

He loves playing with the mouse and keyboard

On this particular day, however he kept refusing to stay seated

I finally realized that he was wanting to touch the monitor. I think that he believes every electronic surface to be a touch-screen (since he loves to use tablets and phones so much). Cute guy was disappointed!

4. Self-feeding - our guy is in that cute stage where he is trying to hard to use a spoon when eating. I can't say that he is very successful most of the time but he sure is cute! Notice that he is eating in our office (haha). He likes to sleep in so Lizzie and I are usually busy at work by the time breakfast comes around. We just roll his highchair in and he eats in there with us.

5. These boots are made for walkin'! He is really an official walker these days (I consider a baby to be a walker when they walk more than they crawl - when they use it as their default means of travel). He walks everywhere although he still struggles a little to stand up in the middle of a room by himself. If he falls, he tends to crawl to the nearest surface (wall, table, toy, even a shirt or something makes him feel safer. He walked so much later than our other guys that I was feeling nervous. I think he's good, though. Just likes to take things at his own speed (which is...nervous, be cautious, and wait!). I just have to be patient that he wants to do things in his own time. :) Note: if you make it to the end of this video, you'll catch a "shy guy" moment.

 

Boyer 5 - Week Two

Here are five happenings in the Boyer household this week:

1. "A confection" - We had a first in the Boyer home this week. Bekah started not feeling well and was having a lot of pain when, uh, well...using the bathroom. Eventually we were having lots of screaming and crying and pain every time she had to go. I took her in to the doctor where he diagnosed her with a urinary tract infection. None of my kids (or Joe or I!) have ever had one before. Craziness, eh? When the doctor told her that she would need to take some medicine she burst out, "See Mom! I told you I had a CONFECTION!" Cutie. She is doing (mostly) better.

Poor thing really wasn't herself!

2. Imagine me, a missionary! - On Monday night, we had the missionaries over for dinner. It was kind of stressful for me. I had a busy day at work and didn't have time to run to the store until just before they came. One of our benches at our table and BOTH of the adult chairs have recently broken, so I had this crazy mishmash of computer chairs and one of the kids even used the exercise ball to sit upon. Once the missionaries arrived, my social anxiety sort of kicked in a bit and I felt really awkward trying to make sure that everyone was happy. Neither of the missionaries was particularly naturally chatty so that just contributed to my unease. Anyway, I have to say that once they left I felt pretty relieved. As we were cleaning up, though, Ammon said to me "Man. That was so awesome. I don't know about you, but I LOVED having them come over." I guess that is what it's all about!

(I was going to take a picture of us with the missionaries, but my phone died. Oh well)

3. A treat surprise - This is totally random, but one day this week Hannah went to get some ice from the ice maker. This is what came out instead:

That is a creamscicle! It came right out of the ice maker.

Hannah's surprise. :) We laughed and laughed and laughed

4. Wild weather - We have had a few rain and wind storms this week. The kids have been enthralled - excited and nervous all at once. :) Here is a quick video of our excitement...

5. Dreaming of Fall - I guess this weather has been making us yearn for fall. I pulled out the autumn decorations earlier this week. On Sunday, we decided to make pumpkin pie for Sunday dinner. All of the kids helped. It was very fun. Joe even insisted that we turn on some Christmas music while we worked (I know, I know...haha). It was very festive and we had a ball. We are so excited for the upcoming holidays in the coming months.

I REALLY don't know how to decorate at all! I was wishing sweet Kerri lived close by to help me out. :)

Sweet deliciousness...

Boyer 5

I am sitting here trying to be diligent about my new goal of blogging - and a fly is SERIOUSLY getting in my way! Just when I think it's gone, it buzzes right in my face again. Ugh! I swear the darn thing is in love with me or something.  ;) Anyway...back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here are five little tidbits about our family this week. :)

1. It is almost autumn. Autumn has almost beat out winter as my favorite season. I know, right? Who would have thought? I love feeling the chill in the air in the mornings (as the dreaded heat of summer finally dissipates), the leaves turning colors, lazy Saturdays raking leaves or watching football. Nothing can beat it. Fall is also harvest time. Of course, we are really not gardeners in any sense of the word. We hate yard work. We can barely keep the weeds from taking over our small flowerbeds, much less tend to an entire garden! Fortunately, there are those in our family and ward that take pity on us and have shared of their abundance with us. We have enjoyed fresh peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, corn, green beans, and more! My cute visiting teachers came over and taught me how to make fresh homemade bread - which was uber delicious and surprisingly easy. Joe has made zucchini bread (or bikini bread, as Bekah calls it, haha) multiple times. Zachy can't get enough of that good stuff.

Fresh Zucchini bread, cucumbers, and corn on the cob (which came already shucked!) all from the sweetest elderly ward member

2.  "We can do hard things" - Our family goal/theme for this school year is "We can do hard things." Most of our little Boyer family really struggles with some sort of social anxiety. Sigh. They got it from their mother. It is extremely difficult for us to "put ourselves out there." We decided that we need to work on overcoming these issues. We have set goals to invite friends into our home on a regular basis. This is very difficult for a couple of the kids who shall remain nameless (but their names start with A and L, haha). For some of the kids where it is not quite as hard a thing to do, they are working on other aspects. We all have areas where we struggle with this - in one way or another. Hopefully we can overcome some of these weaknesses this school year.


3. Homeschooling - Lizzie is homeschooling this year. She is doing the Idaho Virtual Academy and is wonderful at her work! She is diligent about getting right on it every morning. She typically spends 3-4 hours on her school work. She then practices the piano and calls it a day. She is really a great helper for her mom at home. She watches Zach whenever I need and takes care of things during my meetings. One thing I am concerned about with Lizzie at home is her social anxiety. She is very nervous about making new friends, but I know how important it is for her...especially since she will be starting at Kuna Middle School next year. Even though she is not at a school building, she still has to "do hard things" when it comes to friends. As such, she needs to get together with friends whenever possible. She doesn't love it. I mean, don't get me wrong, she usually always has a fun time once she's there, but it is the setting it up and initial awkwardness that is tough. We're working through it! Last week, I took she and her friend Holly (who also homeschools) to Wahooz for a little fun during the day. Lizzie had a great time.

Lizzie and Holly loved the video games. They probably would have been happy just playing with those!

Lizzie spent some of her "tokens" to let Zach try a ride. He was...well, very Zachy. Nervous!

I can't say that either Holly or Lizzie have a future at professional mini-golf :)

My cute, chubby boy!

Fun on the go-karts

4. What did we do for fun over Labor Day? Well, not much, haha. We did take the kids to U-Swirl (of which I have no pictures) and Walmart (of which I do!). Once upon a time, we used to take lots of kids to Walmart on a frequent basis. Today, it is rare to have more than one or two (and most often I don't have any kids). It just really isn't that fun. :) After U-Swirl, though, we needed to swing by the store. Initially, Ammon, Hannah, Lizzie, and Emma wanted to stay in the car. We just took Caleb, Bekah, and Zach in with us. I told the kids that if anyone decided that they wanted to come in, that they ALL had to come in (I had visions of the Boyers spending the entire day searching for one another throughout the store). They had a single cell phone on them with which they could call me. Well, somehow the car alarm got set off and they didn't have the keys to turn it off. Needless to say, Emma got totally freaked out. I can just imagine what people thought - all the windows were down, the car alarm was blaring, Emma was screaming, and the older kids were probably getting all frustrated with her. Anyway, they made their way inside to find the rest of us.

The chaos as we're reunited. I like how you can see that Joe is trying to make room for other shoppers. :)

Ammon was thrilled about the whole thing - actually, he soon went back to the car

Emma chose to stay with her other Amigos, where she was safe and sound :)

5. Z to the T to the B. We say that a lot. Okay, maybe just me, lol. It means Z (Zacharias) to the T (Timothy) to the B (Boyer). We call Zach a lot of nicknames. Z, ZT, ZTB, Zachy T., Mr. T, Mr. Baby Pants, Pants, and I'm sure the list goes on. Zach is just almost nearly, not-quite a full-time walker. He is trying, though! He walks most of the time, but can probably only make it 15 steps or so before he falls. We are so proud of him, though! It is very exciting for all of us. Emma loves her baby brother. For school, she needed to bring in a bag of things that represent her. She wanted a picture of she and Zach together. Darn it if I couldn't find one for the life of me. No problem, we figured. We'd just take one. Easier said than done...

Can you tell that Emma was frustrated by the end??

We finally just took one with Dad holding Zach (the next day too...as you can tell by the change of clothes). It wasn't just she and her baby, but as close as we were going to get!

We love our Z!

Ammon - our running inspiration!

Ammon qualified for varsity at his first cross country meet this week! This was his goal for the year, so to make it on the first attempt was amazing. He will run his first varsity race tonight! I am so proud of him. He started running cross country out of nowhere the summer before his Freshman year. The bishop of our ward mentioned that kids today don't get enough exercise and encouraged Ammon to start doing something. Ammon chose to run. He had ZERO experience. The first few practices were like torture. His form was completely off (he is still working on this one, but is SOOO much better!) and he had never really run more than a mile at once before. Suddenly running 5+ miles every day (some days it is more like 8-10) at practice almost killed him. It was a good lesson for me as a mom, though, because I would have been perfectly happy for him to quit. I really just didn't think it would be his thing. He was finishing very close to last in almost all his races. He stuck to it, though, always giving his all.  It is not uncommon to see Ammon throwing up after his races. He didn't worry about being behind everyone - his goals were always to beat his own individual times. He has done that a lot! I believe his personal PR is almost six minutes faster today than when he first started racing. His coaches took note of his dedication and determination. After this last race, his coach came up to Joe and told him how impressed he is with Ammon - that he is always willing to do whatever it takes. To qualify for varsity, you have to be one of the first seven (I think it is seven...) Kuna runners to cross the finish line. He was sixth. Of course, there is a down side of running on the varisty squad (besides the extra miles at practice). He will probably, once again, be at the back of the pack during races rather than the front of the junior varsity guys. He is okay with that. I am just so proud of him for sticking with something he enjoys. He has taught me such a lesson about doing hard things and I love him for it!

It was very hot and dusty at this first meet (in August!)

There were large hills and this stream the kids had to run through (FOUR times!)