Zac, Kami & Zion: 2010

12.26.2010

CHRISTMAS 2010

Christmas was the best ever! I can't believe that last year I was exactly 10 weeks pregnant on Christmas day. We woke up early and did the "IntelliGender" test and it said we were having a boy. We were so excited, but that was nothing compared to the joy and excitement we experienced this year having our little boy here with us. We started our celebration on Christmas Eve with the annual Christmas party at the cabin. Sledding, gift exchange, yummy food, grandma's turtles, grandpa's ornaments and a nativity made it such a great day. I love Christmas Eve at the cabin and I'm thankful for what a fun tradition it has been my entire life. Later that afternoon we went to Gary and Leesa's house for a Christmas party with Zac's family. We started a new tradition this year called the "Namaste Christmas Gift Exchange". We all drew names and rather than buying a present we gave gifts of service and talent. I think it was such a fun idea and it made us put a lot more thought into what we were giving. The highlight of the night was definitely the Dance Central on the Xbox Kinect. SO MUCH FUN!!! We ended the night at my parents house for a slumber party. My mom gave us all new jammies and we spent time drinking hot chocolate, snacking on cheese and crackers, wrapping presents and lots and lots of talking. Santa found us and Christmas morning we woke up around 7:30 to open presents. Zion was spoiled, of course, and me and Zac made out pretty dang good, too! Zion's favorite gift was his jumperoo. He jumped and laughed and jumped and laughed all day long. He was so dang funny. After a breakfast of Shirley's cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausage, and banana pancakes with buttermilk syrup, we stopped by Gary and Leesa's for a minute. Then we went back to my parents house and spent the rest of the day playing with Zion's toys and watching movies with my family. This really was the best Christmas ever. Even though people always say kids make everything better, I never really understood, but now I do and I couldn't agree more! Zion, thanks for making this the best Christmas ever. I love you little buddy!

Here's our little family Christmas morning at Nana and Papa Houtz's house

In front of the Christmas stash

Zion loved the wrapping paper

SPOILED little guy! At home in his jumperoo with his mountain of toys. He got some really cute clothes too, but they were already in the laundry when I took this picture.

Catch up Nov-Dec

I have been such a horrible blogger, so I'm going to do a couple posts to try to catch up.

We split Thanksgiving... the first half of the day we spent at my parent's house with all of the extended Houtz family, and the second half of the day we spent at Gary & Leesa's with Zac's brothers and all of Leesa's kids and their families. It was a great day!

Thanksgiving night the "Elf on the Shelf" brought special Christmas jammies to get Zion in the Christmas spirit. He loved them and the Elf!

Zion has really been packing on the pounds. He had acid reflux so bad when he was a newborn, but now that he is eating baby food his milk stays down. He has gained 3-4ish pounds since his 4 month check up. He LOVES food. So far there is nothing he hasn't liked, even my homemade split pea and ham soup. I pretty much make all of his baby food. I just throw whatever fruit or veggies we are eating in my VitaMix and then freeze it in little snack size Ziplocks. He absolutely loves clementines. When he sees me peeling one he gets all excited. I bite the end off and then let him gum it a little and suck the juice out and he goes crazy! It's adorable. The next picture is of Zion eating his bananas at CPK.

I turned 24 this month and had the best birthday ever! My family spoiled me with gifts and then we all went to Happy Sumo for some delicious sushi and then to my parent's house for my mom's amazing homemade key lime pie! YUMMY! Here are some family pictures we took walking around Riverwoods after sushi.

Zion got to play baby Jesus in the Larsen family Christmas nativity. I think he did a pretty good job!

I think that quickly raps up the last month. Christmas post to come!!

11.18.2010

Look who's 4 months old

I cannot believe it has been 4 months already. Time goes by so quickly, but we are soaking every minute of it up. It is amazing how much Zion is changing every single day, and I feel so grateful that me and Zac are able to spend so much time home with him. I feel like our work schedule couldn't be more ideal for raising our little monster. I absloutely love the stage he is in right now. He is so much fun! We took him in last week for his 4 month check and the little guy is exactly double his birth weight! He's up to 12 lbs 4 oz (5th percentile) and 24 inches (15th percentile). Here are a few recent pics-

Waiting for Dr. Penrod to come check him

He started eating rice cereal and loves it

Zion still loves bath time

And watching cartoons

I love this little man more than anything. He is the best thing that has ever happened in my life, and now that he's with us, I can't imagine life without him. Love you little bug!

11.02.2010

Baby ZION Shark

Everything is better with kids. Even though we only have 1, and he doesn't understand a thing about it.... HALLOWEEN was the best having a little buddy to share it with. He made the cutest little shark!

Our little family

Zion with Nana and Papa Houtz

Zion with Papa Houtz & Grandpa Gary (Zion's busy watching tv)

Zion with Grandma Leesa

Zion with Aunt Heather

10.07.2010

3 months old

Now that the little guy is almost 3 months old (this Saturday)... I guess it's time to play a little catch up and post about his life so far. I have been so bad at blogging since he was born. We have seriously had one thing after another and been so busy with him, but even more so with our business. We just got done moving our gym to a new bigger location and it has been a ton of work. I'll post all about that later. Fortunately Zion has been such an easy baby and has handled all the chaos like a champ. Now that life is settling down a little bit, I'm setting a goal to blog twice a month. Zion is changing so fast and I want to be able to remember everything. Like I said, he has been such an easy baby. He has been sleeping through the night, anywhere between 9 & 12 hours, since he was 8 weeks old. He has created such a nice schedule for himself... he eats right around 8 am, noon, 4 pm and 8 pm, and usually only takes one 3-4 hour nap after he gets done eating at lunch time. I'm not sure how we got so lucky, because we really haven't done anything to encourage this schedule- he has just done it all on his own. He is developing such a fun personality. He is so smiley and talkative and such a dramatic little guy. He is getting so much bigger, but is still pretty small. At his 10 week well baby check up he weighed 9lbs 12oz (6th percentile) and was 22.25 inches (16th percentile). Here are some of the things that Zion loves and hates-

Things Zion loves

* His binky
* Going for rides in the car
* Bath time
* His swing and bouncer
* Anything with lights
* Watching movies (Seriously! We were watching Ironman 2 over the weekend and he did not look away from the tv for more than half of the movie.)
* The baby bjorn... especially when mom and dad are at the gym working out with him in it
* Cuddling!
* Talking to himself in the mirror on his swing
* Clasping/ rubbing his hands together... it always looks like he is plotting something mischievous
* Sitting in his bumbo chair

Things Zion hates

* Being cold
* Getting his milk taken away to be burped
* When he gets startled (Zac talks really loud and is always really excited to see Zion when he gets home from work, so this happens often.)
* Not being able to put his binky back in his mouth no matter how hard he tries
* Tummy time
* That the little giraffe on his swing won't talk back to him
* When he accidentally flips his bib up and it covers his face

Here is a pic of Zion hanging out at work with mommy and a few of him talking to me when he was getting changed this morning. I love my little bug!

10.05.2010

Bear Lake 2010

Every year over labor day, my grandparents rent a bunch of condos in Bear Lake for all of the family to get together. We have so much fun laying by the pool and lake, playing mini golf, volleyball, cards, and of course the annual in-law vs out-law softball tournament. My favorite part about the trip are the Bear Lake raspberry shakes that I eat daily. I seriously look forward to them all year and then just splurge all weekend! This year was by far the best because we had little Zion to share it with. He was exactly 8 weeks old and such a doll. He did really well the drive up and back, slept well during the nights and didn't fuss during the day. We had a blast, and I am so thankful for my Granny and Grampa Houtz for doing it for us! Here are some pics. Enjoy!

8.11.2010

Zion's newborn pictures

On Zion's 1 week birthday we took him up to Salt Lake to get his pictures taken by Mary Clark at DMC Studios. Several of our clients have used her and all raved about how good she is, and we couldn't agree more.

7.15.2010

Introducing Zion Lee Price

ZION LEE PRICE

Born July 9, 2010 @ 9:40 pm

6 pounds 2 ounces & 19.5 perfect little inches

Thursday night my contractions started getting even more painful. I told Zac I couldn't go to work Friday morning because I had a feeling we would be having little Zion and that I needed to get some rest. I tried to sleep as much as I could but I was in pain. I woke up and decided to get everything ready, just in case. I scrubed the house top to bottom. Did all of the laundry, sheets, bath mats, rugs, everything! Showered got ready and put the last couple things in my hospital bag. When Zac got home at noon we tried to take a nap for a little while, but I was in so much pain. I was trying to breath through the contractions, but they were worse then they had ever been. We got in the car and started driving toward the hospital. I told Zac that if I got sent home again, I was going to have them give me some morphine and sleep the week away until they could induce me on the 16th. We decided to stop at my OB's office and have them see if I had dilated any more so I didn't have to face the heartbreak of being monitored for an hour and then sent home if I didn't progress. The doctor felt one of my contractions and said these are labor contractions. She checked my cervix and I was dilated to a 5 so she called the hospital and told them I was on my way. We got to the hospital at 4:40 pm and they had all of my paperwork pulled so we were able to bypass registrations and head straight to the room. I was still afraid they were going to send me home. When we got back to the room they immediately hooked me up to IV fluids, and I asked the nurse if it was for real this time or if they were going to send me home. She reassured me that I wasn't leaving the hospital without my baby! We called our families and my mom, dad, Cyd, Gary and Leesa all came up. We let them come in the room and talk with us while I labored and ended up leting them stay in the room for the whole delivery. Of course we made our dad's look out the window during the time I was exposed. We spent the next 2 hours watching the nurse get the room set up and doing the paperwork. At 6:40 pm the doctor came in and broke my water and I was given an epidural and I was completely pain free. It was fun having my family in the room. We just chatted and joked around and had a good time. A little after 7:00 pm they started me on pitocin... still no pain. A little after 8:00 pm the nurse came in and check me and I was only dilated to a 6. I felt discouraged that I had only dilated 1 cm in the last couple hours. A little after 9:00 pm I started feeling pain in the left side of my back and belly. I told everyone I didn't think the epidural was working anymore. The baby's heart rate which had been super steady through all the contractions, started dropping just a little bit and my mom said I was probably ready to deliver. I didn't believer her because it had only been an hour since they last checked me. They came in and gave me another dose of the epidural and 5 seconds later the nurse checked me and said I was dilated 10 cm and the baby was at a +2 station and it was time to call the doctor back in and start pushing. I couldn't believe it. I started pushing and about 30 minutes later, at exactly 9:40 pm after 5 hours of labor in the hospital, I heard the most amazing sound in the world. Baby Zion was crying before his shoulders were even out. When the doctor held him up for me to see I couldn't believe how beautiful he was, and how much hair he had. We thought for sure he would be bald just like me and Zac were. He turned pink so fast and didn't need any oxygen. After all of the stress we've had the last couple months over the preterm labor, I am so thankful that Zion made it exactly 38 weeks and is perfectly healthy. I feel so blessed to be his mommy. He is the most amazing little guy. I can already tell he is going to do great things with his life. I love him so much.