Z Sisters

Here's our weekly Zackrison Sisters update. See last week's post on Christine's blog here.

In reverse order...

CHRISTINE

Hey sorry, the update might need to go up without me this week, I don't really have the time to focus on it for now and I don't want to hold it back from going up anymore. I have a test I should be studying for and a project due today.
Sorry. Love, CZ


So we give CZ a pass. She's just GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE THIS WEEK. nbd.

RACHEL

Last Week:

• I did work a lot, although not as much as the week before. By the end of the week I was hitting the wall. And that's ok. I worked the last Saturday I'll have to for a long time.
• I stopped into Anthropologie during a break on Friday. It's been so long!
• The baseball game was fine, not as awkward as I feared. The client's wife was very chatty and her friend was very drunk. So that was entertaining.
• We went to the Marriott School Alumni dinner. There were TONS of people there. Prez U.'s talk was directed mostly at the Ambassadors and dignitaries at the dinner so I felt like an observing bystander. Not too exciting.
• I hung the mirror on our wallpapered wall. Finally more home progress!
• I got pulled over while I was driving home from work one night (morning?) at 5am. I made an illegal u-turn (on purpose), was driving without my license, didn't a VA license (even though I've lived here for 18 months and it's required after 30 days), did not have a current VA safety inspection (didn't know I needed one) and my insurance card was expired. Nonetheless, the police officer showed pity on my and let me off with a warning. Amazing.

This week:

• Buy and hang a tie rack and belt hooks from Bed Bath & Beyond
• Spray paint the frame in the kitchen from gold to white. It'll match better.
• Haircut Wednesday. Mentally preparing for a fix on Thursday in UT if I hate it.
• My car failed the Virginia safety check last week. We have a list of things that need to be repaired which we'll try to do on Tuesday. Sad...
• Drop off the dry cleaning before we leave town.
• Plan our budget for the upcoming trip to UT.
• FLY TO UTAH FOR GRADUATION & FAMILY VISITS!!!!!!! So, so excited. Next week's update will be interesting, since everyone's plans will overlap. Can't wait to see it.

IE LI

Last week:

• went to the farm to see the baby animals
• registered Mei Li for kindergarten. I hope her teacher is wonderful and that she makes wonderfully nerdy friends.
• made Chinese egg tarts with a friend
• went to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum
• did four workouts
• went to bed early Sunday and Monday nights. I went to bed really late for the rest of the week. I am incapable of going to bed early when Steve is working late. I used that time to clean and talk to my mother and sisters.
• had our cabinets painted white. I'm actually not thrilled with the paint job that they did, but they seem to not want to talk about that with me. I'll have to keep pestering. I hate pestering.
• missed the BYU Management Society Gala. I tried giving Mi Na a bottle earlier in the week. She didn't know what to do with it. I tried putting her down at 6 PM one night and that didn't work. So in the end, I just did not feel comfortable leaving Mi Na. I'm sad that we missed it, but Steve was very kind and understanding about it all.
• made ribs for the first time at Steve's request. Steve is so easy-going all the time that I couldn't say no to such a request.

This week:

• Go to Provo! See you all there!

ANNEE

Sisters,

You will not believe me when I tell you my photo was not staged in the least! To get that kind of look, you authentically have to have not showered for a couple of days, have had only a few hours of sleep the night before, and generally have given no regard to what you look like.

Last week:

1. I attended over 10 hours worth of Church meetings. I’m not complaining, lots of things were accomplished, merely stating it for the record. Maybe it was more than 12 hours. It’s kind of all a blur at this point. No doubt my Bishop had even more, so truly my degree of gratitude for the magnitude of his service is pretty great right now.
2. Hosted my second of what I hope will be many a fun sewing nights. It was delightful.
3. See item number 2, I sewed three dresses last week. One was the prototype for the other two, which are now safely tucked away to be pulled out in time for Easter! I’m really excited.
4. Went on the kindergarten wide Zoo field trip. Spent a most lovely day at the zoo with my all time favorite kindergarteners.
   

This week:

1. Stepped in as substitute at the very last minute Monday morning for the elementary school P.E. Teacher. Surprised both Henry and George when their classes came later that morning to P.E. They were not expecting to see Coach Earnest there!
2. Decided I could sew together my queen sized quilt that I blogged about HERE ( http://madeonmaple.blogspot.com/2011/04/im-going-to-do-it.html), before I left for my trip to Utah. I’m losing faith that it will happen. But I will not fully give up until it’s time to board the plane!
3. Will leave on a five day trip to Utah, all alone! I will miss my family, and they will totally miss me, and my kids miss their cousins and wish they could come. But, a “momcation” is totally priceless every once in a while. I’m so excited to see all five of my siblings gathered together for a few fun nights.
4. Excited about attending BYU commencement exercises while remembering when Darin and I walked together across that graduation stage 12 years ago! I was barely pregnant with Henry at the time. Where has the time gone?!

SARAH

First of all, on the subject of these pictures, I'm seriously struggling here. It's like pulling teeth to get anyone else to take a picture of me, so when I want to say "wait do it again and let me look slightly normal first" the complaining is intolerable. It's kind of nice actually having some pictures of myself from time to time, but I guess I'll have to go back to the mirror next week. This is seriously lame.

Last Week:

• SPRING BREAK!!! Since we weren't going anywhere this year, we made a list of activities and everyone got to put one or two on it, and then we made a plan and every day did something from the list. The weather was good half the time, so we planned our indoor/outdoor activities accordingly.We survived, but it did not make me super excited for the impending summer break. The good times were great, but there's just so much bickering all the time it's maddening.
  
• Scott took one day off and we took the boys to Snowbird. On the last run of the day we finally talked them into taking the tram up - of course that was the best run of the day and we wished we would have been on that side the whole time.
  
• Hiked the Y with my 4 kids plus Christine, Mom and Dad, with Huck strapped to my back all the way up. My legs were serious jello on the way down. Dad carried either June or Huck pretty much all the way up and down. Mom & Christine helped carry kids too. Next time maybe we'll get a sitter for them.
  
• Made serious progress on my work project that I'd been avoiding for weeks, and learned a ton of new skillz. There's still lots more to do, but it's a real load off to at least have it started.
• Announced the lineup for this year's Rooftop Concert Series. I'm really excited. There's going to be some really great shows this summer.
  
• All 4 kids got haircuts, which included me pinning Huck down and holding tight while he screamed and she clipped. The kids called him "Jack" all the way home thinking he looked like his cool older cousin with his new 'do.

This week:

• Get ready for Oliver's Baptism - bishop's interview, call Grandma, assign talks/prayers/songs, plan luncheon, invite friends
• Get ready for house guests - change sheets, clean towels, clean out closet space, grocery shopping
• Get ready for The Lower Lights show - plan room setup, hang posters around town, guest list, merch sales - do we need more stickers/buttons, make signs, promote online
• Find a sitter so I can go to CZ's graduation without Huck & June on Friday morning.
• Maintain regular life stuff too -- more progress on work project, soccer games & baseball tryouts, work out
• Pull the trigger on my Anthro shopping cart. Ladies - what do we think of Maxi dresses this year (besides hating the name)?
  
• Plan all of the above well enough so I can RELAX and ENJOY all the great time with family this week. Can't wait to see you all!!!
  

we should catch up sometime

I'm only a month behind. Here goes...


I know I already blogged about my birthday, but I just found this picture of the amazing yellow cake with chocolate frosting we had. It might not look like much here, but Mom's repair job melting the frosting and pouring it over the cake to re-assemble the crumbled pieces was quite impressive and even more delicious. We're on a bit of a diet right now, so this is looking particularly tempting to me tonight.


OK, we'll start with Scott's Birthday, celebrated over the weekend of March 12-13. Having a birthday as an adult is always hard, but having a birthday as an adult on a Sunday when you're in the bishopric is even harder. I tried hard to make the whole weekend special, but try as I might Scott refused to wear the "It's My Birthday" button on his lapel to church, so I don't know how special he felt on his actual birthday.

We did manage to have a funfetti cake and a coldstone ice cream cake on various occasions over the weekend. We also had a fabulous meal at The Tree Room at Sundance Resort, which has become an annual tradition for us. Scott's brother Brett was in town with his snowmobiles so Scott and the boys went up to Strawberry Reservoir for a ride. Scott's big gift from us this year was a BMX bike. He's working hard to remember all the tricks he could do as a kid and impresses us regularly with his wheelies and bunny hops. It's become a fun low-barrier-to-entry activity he can do with the kids.

Scott used his birthday money to buy himself a fancy RC car. Oli bought himself one too with his allowance he'd been saving for 6 months plus birthday money, and we already had one that Brenden can drive, so now we have 3 of these monster powerful RC trucks that the boys like to drive over obstacles and off jumps and through the snow. Great to have another activity to do together. Less great that they regularly break (remember the jumps and obstacles?) and need new parts which means I've become best buddies with the super cool guys at Hobbytown USA.


Moving forward a week, March 21 we celebrated June's 4th birthday.









Needless to say this is one she was really looking forward to. Her birthday was on a Monday this year, so I was again determined to try and get all the celebrating done in a day.








June woke up to streamers and balloons and a pile of presents. By 8am they were all opened, and she was thrilled with the lot - most especially her pink girl's bike. She rides that thing every day, rain or shine, and has perfected skid marks and riding standing up like the boys. She is fast and strong and I'm training her with daily rides around the block to be able to keep up with the family when we ride together.


















On Monday afternoon we had 8 little friends come over for a very simple party. We had them all wear costumes and played 3 games: musical pillows (which then also turned into freeze dancing and follow-the-leader), chubby bunny (not sure they got the concept, but they sure loved the marshmallows), and cupcake decorating (notice none of the games required any advance preparation - just baking cupcakes). We sang happy birthday, had a cake with pink frosting, handed out party favors (classy "pooping chickens", as June calls them), and by the end of the day June was literally ready to tear down the streamers and call an end to her big day.

The next day was filled with a show of all the things she could do now that she was 4 -- put on her seatbelt herself (hallelujah!), go to the bathroom herself (double hallelujah!), do handstands. And she tried really hard not to do anything that 3-year-olds liked to do anymore. She wanted to only watch 4-year-old shows and play 4-year-old computer games, which proved to be quite disappointing when we explained to her that 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds like the same shows and games.

In any case now she's 4 and she is a big girl. I am impressed and scared at how mature and capable she is. She is strong and coordinated, she is curious and smart, social and friendly. Of course she is also head-strong and bossy a lot of the time, but she can also be a very sweet little sister and big sister and funny and without guile and just a joy to have in our family.

So, moving on from birthdays...

The past month has brought sure signs of Spring. We've done what we can to spend time outside, and are reminded how much we love where we live when all the neighborhood kids congregate on the cul-de-sac to hang out and play night games. I love that the kids are outside, I love that they're being social, and I love that I can see them out my window while they're doing it.

I've been riding my beautiful Madsen bucket bike every day lately.

We finally made it to feed the ducks - one of my favorite activities. Even June was able to ride herself all the way there and most of the way back. Luckily the Madsen bucket comfortably fits 2 kids plus a mini-bike, so no trouble when she tires and wants to rest for a bit.

The kids spend plenty of time every day on the neighbor's trampoline. What ever will we do if/when they move?! Might we actually have to break down and get one ourselves?! NO!!! Say it isn't so!!!

June blows bubbles for Huck

Brenden takes Huck for a walk

Huck has discovered 3 households in on our block that have dogs. This one is down the street and the dog is visible through the fence. The other two are indoor dogs that live next door and across the street from us. Huck has also figured out how to open our front door. So whenever we forget to lock it, we can usually find him at any one of these locations playing with the "da-doo" (his word for dog). He will even walk himself up to the neighbors front doors, knock, and be let in, before we notice he's missing. So we're working on keeping closer track of him now. He is definitely a dog guy, so I am very grateful the neighbors have nice kid-friendly dogs they are willing to share with us.

















Brenden has gotten acquainted with some nice boys nearby who also like to ride bikes and they've started building their own jumps up in the undeveloped foothills near our house. The boys are both getting quite brave and skilled at jumping.


My poor lemon tree has not been doing so well, so I'm happy for some good weather to finally be able to move it outdoors and hopefully let it heal. I've re-potted it to make sure it has good drainage and the roots aren't covered too much, and am encouraged that the branches are still green and there are two little leaves still hanging on, so I'm still hopeful of a recovery.

Unfortunately, Spring in Utah does not mean 72 degrees every day. It means every day you have a 50/50 chance of 65 degree weather or 6 inches of snow.

April 3rd

So when the latter happens, we're forced indoors and have to find ways to occupy ourselves.

Here, we see June with the neighbor twins each with one bowl of water and one bowl of cereal "dog food".

June's nest

Cooperation (this game didn't stay fun for very long)

"Baking" a cake "together"

Huck loving up his own "da-doo" after his bath

costumes are always fun

Huck's nest

This recorder has provided hours of *beeping* fun since June got it for her birthday

He has a way of making you forget about the mischief he just got into and is sure to get into again soon.

On occasion, when the weather forces us indoors, we do actually get bored at home and are forced to venture out on an adventure. A couple of our favorite spots right now are:

Power Tumbling (pptutah.com) - they've just moved into a huge new facility which is amazing - 10 trampolines, 4 foam pits, climbing wall, trampoline runways, and much more.

and bungee jumping at the Provo Town Centre mall (notice June's toy panda bear got to ride along too)

My sisters and I have continued to keep in touch through our weekly combined blog updates. You can see the past few weeks linked below (the above pictures of Christine and I doing headstands together is explained on 3/21 and 3/28). It's been a great way to keep in touch, and also a fun excuse to talk about myself more than my kids from time to time.

Annee's blog - March 21

Ie Li's blog - March 28

Rachel's blog - April 4

Christine's blog - April 11

Guess it'll be back to me next week.


Other things we've been doing:

• Brenden got to meet Governor Herbert on a recent field trip to Salt Lake City
• I've been working hard planning this year's Rooftop Concert Series
• The Lower Lights have a show in Provo on April 22
• We're going on a trip to the east coast at the end of May - anyone have any suggestions for what a family of 4 should do or where we should stay or how we should get around for 2 days in NYC and 2 days in Boston? Then we head down to a week at a NC beach with the whole Zackrison crew. Can't wait!
  
• Scott and I are getting back in shape with help again from Total Health and Fitness
• In connection with the above, I've been going back to 6am yoga classes at B3 Yoga in the Riverwoods
• I got to hear Oliver speak beautiful chinese at his parent/teacher conference. Such an amazing program Wasatch elementary has put together.
• My work at Intuit has picked up lately, which is hectic, but some pretty "fun" new projects have given me renewed enthusiasm for my job.
• Soccer season is upon us, and this year we have June and Oliver both signed up. Oliver's a champ. June loves the gear but is still a bit apprehensive about playing on a mixed-gender team (?!). Nevertheless, that's two practices and at least 2 games every week. Fun.
  
• I'm sure I could go on, but let's just call it quits there, shall we?
  

And thus we are officially caught up, and thus we see how much goes on in a busy family over the course of a month, and thus we see how regrettably fast time flies. But they are good times, so no complaining here.