Tanner's Photo Shoot

I told myself that all my kids would get their pictures taken at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 years, and then yearly after that. Well, poor Tanner my third child got pictures at 1 month, 4 months (oh I already messed up) and now these are his 9 1/2 month pictures. Well, better late than never I guess. I thought they turned out really cute. We brought his blanky along just to personalize it a little. Tanner has started being attached to a blanket only recently. It might have something to do with the fact that I force it on them by running and getting their blanky whenever they are hurt, etc. I think it's kinda cute!

Welcome Baby Ellie

She's finally here! Ellie Anne Merrill was born on May 30th (Grandpa Merrill's B-day) weighing in at 7 lbs 6 ozs and 21 inches long. We are so excited for Mike's youngest brother Casey and his wife Annie. Check out how cute she is! Everyone was a little worried because apparently Casey wasn't the cutest baby when he was born.

Casey is going to make the best daddy! I am sure Ellie will have him wrapped around her finger.

So cute!

Walking for a Cure

Last Saturday, we participated in the Great Strides Walk of Ogden as we do every year. The walk is to help raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. I have two adorable nephews, Brayden and Noah, who were born with CF. It is a devastating disease where the body produces thick mucus clogging one's airways leading to lung infections. It also affects the pancreas and inhibits the body from absorbing foods. The expected life span is only 37 years old. I am so glad my nephews have been relatively healthy thus far and we pray continually for a cure. Here are some pics of this year's walk. They always have fun games for the kids, prizes to win, and yummy food to eat.

Wow, doesn't my hubby have great form? My parents also came out for the event.

Ogden Clinic came and tested our blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. I am holding some device that tested my body fat.

Castle Park

A couple of days ago, my friend Heidi and I took our kids to what we call Castle Park. It is in Fruit Heights just off of Highway 89. It is a really neat park where the kids can walk around a castle with slides, a pretend boat, and swings. The weather was great and the kids had a blast. Below are some pics of our fun!

Gage posing as usual. You can see the Castle playground behind him. There are swings off to the right, and a tiny tot area behind the Castle.

Here's the inseparable threesome. They pretty much played on the tire swing the entire time. Landen always tags along with the big boys. He reminds me of myself in my younger days trying to tag along with my older sister Brandy. Sorry Brandy, but Gage is a lot nicer to Landen than you were to me. I'm glad we get along now.

Here's Tanner who just finished up a nice chocolate chip cookie. He is usually pretty happy if he has something to eat.



Ava loves Baby Tanner.

San Fransisco Bay to Breakers

What a party is all I have to say. Last weekend, Tanner and I went to visit my sister Brandy in San Fransisco and more importantly run/walk/sight see in the Bay to Breaker 12K race. My parents, sister, brother and my grandma all went for the weekend. My dad and brother picked Tanner and I up at the airport last Saturday and we drove around San Fransisco seeing the sights. That night, we all went out to eat at Cattleman's steakhouse. Thanks grandma. Thanks also to my parents for the plane ticket to get me there!

The next morning we woke up by 4:30 to catch the 6:30 ferry into San Fransisco. We all dressed up and my dad planned on pushing my grandma in a wheelchair the entire 7 miles. People actually run it seriously, but my family went for the party. It took us a 1/2 hour to get to the starting line because the streets were jam packed with people. It literally is a day long party where people dress up, drink, and have a good time. I don't know how people can drink that early in the morning but they do. We made it in an amazing 3 hours and 15 minutes which isn't all that bad considering we had two babies with us. We saw many naked men and women and I think my baby smoked/smelled more than just cigarette smoke unfortunately. j/k. Below is a slideshow of the craziness. Sorry, no naked guys. Link to my sister Brandy's blog if you want to check out a hot old guy!

Tanner at 9 months

Tanner turned 9 months a few weeks ago. I can't believe how big he is getting. We went to his 9 month checkup and he weighed 19.2 lbs and is 27.7 inches long. The doc said he is 30-40 percentile for both. I thought he would be in a higher percentile because he is defiantely my chunkiest baby. He unfortunately has a second ear infection and we are on round 2 of antibiotics like the first one. So, Tanner has been a little cranky these last few weeks.

Tanner has gotten to be a really fast crawler/climber. He goes straight for our stairs and heads up. If only I could teach him to go down. Tanner also has a thing for Landen's cars much to Landen's dismay. Tanner has been such a blessing to our family and we are so grateful he is a part of it. It is so fun watching him grow and his cute personality coming out.

Let's Play Ball!

When Gage learned to walk, he starting dribbling a soccer ball around the house. Everywhere he went, he would kick a ball. Mike and I thought we had a future star in our home. Then when he turned two, he started losing interest in balls and started focusing on crafts/coloring. When he turned four, I signed him up for soccer thinking his old skills would come back. Gage hated it. He didn't even make it through a practice. I will be honest, I was pretty sad. Now that I have three boys, I have come to realize at least one of them will play soccer right? Well, I have wanted Gage to at least be active and participate in some sort of exercise. I asked him if he wanted to play T-ball and he said yes to my astonishment. I don't think he even knew what T-ball was. It might have been due to the fact that I bribed him with any toy he wanted but we don't need to divulge any details. We started the T-ball season two weeks ago with practice and our first game was last Tuesday. Gage is absolutely loving it! He looks forward to the games and his having so much fun. Gage is a lot more aggressive than I thought he would be. When he is in the outfield, he chases after every ball. We have had to talk about only getting the ball when it is in your area.

Mike taught Gage the baseball stance when in the infield.

Gage is able to sometimes hit it when pitched!

Gager the Graduate

Gage had his end of preschool program yesterday. He has gone to the Syracuse Montessori Preschool for two years now and I can't believe he will start kindergarten the end of July. The Montessori has been so good for Gage. He has learned so much and his attitude/moodiness is much improved. They sang so many cute songs and then Gage had a little speaking part when the class told a story. I don't think Gage fully understands that he won't see his teachers/classmates again. Landen will start there this fall.

This is Gage getting in position. My pictures during the program turned out too dark to see because they turned off the lights. Gage looked like an opera singer when he sang because he was so animated.


This is Gage with his best friend Zach. They have been buddies since birth. Unfortunately, they will go to different kindergartens since we moved. I have a feeling they will still keep in touch since they go to the same babysitters and I hang out with his mom all the time.

This is Gage with his reading teacher Mrs Brinkerhoff and his math teacher Mrs Rowley. He is going to miss them!

Le Mans Raceway

Being the awesome mom that I am, I won 4 tickets to the La Mans Races at Miller Motor Sports Raceway from 97.1 ZHT. Landen's dream became a reality. The races were last Saturday, and I had to miss it because I was in California visiting Brandy. I am sure Landen's face was priceless. The first pic is their view from the seats. These cars went roughly 110 mph but the fast ones went 180-200mph.

Mike said they spent over 2 hours in the pit getting pictures and autographs. Some "hot" car girls invited Gage and Landen in the back for a private photo shoot with the drivers.

I thought Gage would be a little bored during this day, but Mike said he was having a blast because in the pits they got all sorts of free stuff like posters and cards. If anyone knows Gage, he is quite the junk collector.

Landen was always so serious when posing by the cars. He means business. Gage loves to make silly faces.

Mother's Day Weekend

We had quite a busy weekend. It started out Saturday morning with me taking Gage and Landen to Lagoon. We have season passes and have yet to go. I was told that they are only open on weekends and Saturdays haven't been that busy yet so I was really excited. The gates open at 10 am and being the Zampedri that I am I wanted to get there a little early to get our pictures taken for our passes before anyone else showed up. We pulled into the parking lot at 9:50 am and it was packed. I about died. What the heck was going on? I notice all these cute girls all done up and in dance costumes and think to myself, why wouldn't I pick the day Lagoon was hosting a dance competition? And come to find out, Lagoon opened at 9am that day! Thankfully, kiddie land wasn't that crowded. Gage and Landen were able to go on all of their favorite rides. We started out by going on the two haunted house rides towards the entrance of the park. Gage would ride these all day if I would let him. He has them memorized. Poor Landen hates them. He is so scared so he gets to sit in the middle with his eyes covered. Next we are off to the bumper cars. It is so fun to see how much bigger the kids are this year. As everyone knows, Landen loves cars. Last year, Mike and I would be standing on the sidelines shouting, "Turn your wheel!" and poor Landen would just be staring at us and before you knew it the ride was over. This year there was no stopping the two of them. They looked like old pros turning the wheels. We went on a few other rides and had to hurry home by 1pm.

My cousin Cari got married Saturday afternoon at the Red Moose Lodge in Eden. It was beautiful. The kids had a blast running around and of course I forgot my camera. We were then able to stay the night in one of the rooms. I was looking forward to sleeping on a king's size bed but Tanner had other things planned. He was literally up all night. I don't know what his problem was. He is my worst baby ever when it comes to sleeping. I was so embarrassed because we all know how thin hotel walls are.

This is a picture of the monster sleeping when he's not supposed to. Doesn't he look innocent?

Mother's Day afternoon we headed off to Mike's parents house. Their backyard borders Mike's brother's backyard which is the pic above. The kids have a blast playing with their cousins.


Mike gave me earings for Mother's Day. Gage gave me a cute poem with his hand stamped on it. I am so thankful for Mike and my kids. I have such an awesome family. I am also grateful for my mom and mother-in-law who help me out so much.

Side note: Gage and Landen only agreed to pose for mother's day if it was on the trampoline. I'll take what I can get.