Our weekend

Our weekend included working out in the yard and a trip to Home Depot, that place was packed! We went there with a big scheme to fence in our garden so all the animals don't eat it up this year but ended up walking out empty handed after much debating in the chicken wire aisle. Do you ever do that? I mean we spent about 45 minutes there and ended up walking out with nothing, I'm sure the workers kept walking by saying " Gee, those people are still there!". It sort of feels like wasted time but I guess it was fun to just get out of the house and see what our options were.Saturday was one of those days that looks really nice and sunny from the kitchen window and then when you go outside you have to run back into the house to grab your winter coat. Surprise  It's winter again! That was Saturday. We still went out in the yard and weeded a little and Dusty washed the cars. We wrapped Zara up in a blanket and she took a nice nap next to us while we worked. Sunday turned out to be beautiful and a lot warmer. We are still trying to figure out how we can sleep in and have enough time for all three of us to eat and get ready, we're getting better and almost didn't have to sit in the metal seats at church :) This week our goal is cushy seats! After church we took a walk in the park by our house. The weather was great and it was fun to see so many people out enjoying the day. Hope this coming weekend is just as fun.

random family photo

Taking pictures is so easy nowadays with phones it sort of blows my mind sometimes. One evening I was waiting for the carpool to Young Women's and we started taking "family pictures", we were just messing around but we took quite a few. It's funny to me to think about if we had been using a camera with real film, we probably would have used half a roll of film and most of the pictures would have turned out fuzzy (but we wouldn't know that till we got the film developed). Instead we took as many photos as we wanted and even caught Zara smiling in one. Granted my phone doesn't take the highest quality of pictures but it's still fun!

Rub a dub dub

We gave Zara her first bath shortly after her belly button fell out and she loved it. I was nervous that she would hate the water and cry the whole time but I made sure the water was warm, warmer than I would have thought to make it, and not too cold (thanks Mom!). Low and behold she didn't even cry, in fact, I think she really enjoyed herself. I finally took the fabric part off the tub because it was making her slide down and get all scrunched up and I think she likes it even better now. Dusty can't wait to take her swimming someday.

A Bunch Of Pictures

When Zara Mae was 1 week old a friend from our ward offered to take some pictures of her and we think they turned out pretty cute! Thanks Tim!

One Month Old

Zara Mae, You are one month old! We can't believe it, the time has gone by so fast and at the same time it feels like you have been here forever. So far you have been a dream baby, you really like to sleep, especially at night which we are happy about and you are a good eater and...spitter-upper. You are still sleeping in the co-sleeper next to Mom and you really like it, and so does Mom. Maybe we will try your crib out soon for a nap or two. It takes a while for you to wake up and it's pretty entertaining to watch, you stretch and stretch and squint your eyes for about 10 or 15 minutes before you decide it's officially time to wake up.  The binky is your friend but you are starting to need it less and less. You enjoy just hanging out with Mom and Dad on the sofa or in your swing. You really like looking in the mirror that is above your swing, there are some birds that move around and you like looking at those too. You are just starting to make little baby noises and it's pretty cute. You have discovered your tongue this past week or so and really like to stick it out at us. You've been a smiley baby the past few weeks especially if someone is smiling at you! We've taken you outside on some walks and you really seem to enjoy looking around at everything but usually you end up falling asleep halfway through. This past weekend we worked outside in the yard and you just hung out in your bouncer and watched us until you fell asleep. You are starting to hold your head up pretty well on your own but we still have to help you out sometimes. Tummy time...is not a fun time...yet. We have started giving you more baths and you love them. You really like to kick your feet and you aren't even bothered if water drips down your face when we wash your hair. Yes! You have hair! You are starting to learn that those hands of yours can grasp stuff like clothes and hair. We moved you up to size 1 diapers, that means you're not in newborns anymore and you have outgrown some little onesies and sleepers, especially the ones that have feet attached at the end. We think you weigh about 11 lbs but we won't be sure until we go to your 2 month check up. You are a sweet baby!

Zara Mae when she was 1 week old in a blanket and headband made by Dusty's Grandma.

Blessing The Babe//Easter Sunday

Easter this year was awesome. Both our families were able to come celebrate and participate in blessing Zara with us here in Nashville and then we had a huge Easter dinner all together. I wish I had more pictures of the Easter dinner shenanigans, but I was too busy eating to take pictures.

The day started off with Zara meeting Grandma and Grandpa Walkenhorst for the first time. Then we headed out to church for the blessings. Fortunately my Dad had mentioned to take lots of outfits because babies tend to have lots of diaper messes on important days. I am so glad we listened to his advice :) We put Zara in a sleeper for the car ride and saved her blessing dress for when we got to church. We are driving along, I am in the front with Dusty and Zara is chillin' in the back in her car seat  Things are going great, just driving along, Zara is peaceful and quiet in the back and we are thinking that this whole car thing is pretty easy. We pull up to the stoplight about 2 minutes from the church parking lot when all of a sudden we hear a huge noise from the backseat, Dusty and I looked at each other and we both knew what had happened but we couldn't really do anything so we just laughed but I think we were both nervous what we were going to find when we got to church. Needless to say I got to try out the diaper changing station at the church sooner than later. I couldn't believe the mess this little baby had created, I was so glad she wasn't in her white dress, it would have been ruined! At least she was happy through the whole thing. 

Here she is in the little slip that goes under the blessing dress. My Grandma Shutt made the slip, dress and bonnet for me when I got blessed and my sisters wore the dress too. Thanks to my Mom who helped me get Zara all cleaned up and into her dress in time for Sacrament Meeting. 

 

She was so good during church and the blessing, Dusty gave her a beautiful blessing and we were so grateful to have our families with us. 

Dusty's Grandma Mary made the beautiful white blanket that Zara is wrapped up in, it is so soft and kept her toasty warm the whole day. 

 After the blessing we headed home to have Easter dinner, it was so yummy and everyone just jumped right in and started making all sorts of food. The only picture I have is of these pre-dyed eggs from Costco that we made into deviled eggs. We were so full after all the food that we didn't even eat the dessert till Monday

Houston We Have A Problem

Well, not a real problem....this is what I found when I went to check on Zara Mae this morning. Yes, that is a binky suctioned to her ear, I couldn't stop laughing to myself, and then of course I took a picture. It reminded me of a little alien antenna. She must have spit it out and then rolled over it in her sleep. Maybe she was just trying to block out the loud thunderstorm?

Feels like summertime

The past few days we have had beautiful weather here in Nashville. I think it even got up to 82 today. I love it and can't wait wait for summer to officially start, tomorrow we are supposed to have thunderstorms all day so I know this nice weather isn't here to stay for long. Dusty came home from work and it was still light out so we decided to put Zara in the wrap and go for a walk before it got dark. Once we started waking we realized we hadn't really had dinner so we decided to try this place around the corner from our house called City Limits and it was good! We got a bagel with jalapeño cream cheese and a panini with Brie and pears on it. I'm a little bummed it took us so long to try this place out. And for a Wednesday night the place was packed! There were even locals sitting around playing cards, it looked like a weekly club or something. I think we will be going back very soon! Zara did great just hanging out in the wrap with Dusty.

3 am

Stayed up a little longer than planned after our early morning feeding to party with this funny girl. I'm glad someone is this happy at 3 am.

Fun in the sun

Today between conferences we went to a picnic in the park with some friends. It was so sunny, I was worried we were going to get sunburned! Zara Mae borrowed some sunglasses from her friend....just a little too big.

Zara Mae

Long time, no post! We've been busy over here spending all day and night with our new little babe! Zara Mae is finally here and we are loving every minute of it. We were so lucky that our families were able to come hang out with us, we had so much fun with everybody!