YEEE HAW!

The past few months have been a whirlwind of change, but mixed in with all the chaos we've had a lot of fun! Here's a recap of what we've done:

• We went camping for the first time as a family of four! In Texas we found a quiet, secluded camping site nestled next to a tributary off of a small lake. That night we celebrated Bobby's birthday with Little Debbie cakes and campfire-roasted, bacon-wrapped shrimp (delicious!). Henry had a great time squishing bugs for Mommy, catching his first fish with Dad, and throwing rocks and sticks in the water (he had a BLAST!). Jefferson took the brunt of the trip by acquiring several bug bites and a few scratches, but in the end I think even he enjoyed it!


• Bobby was hired as a senior analyst at Cerner in Kansas City.


• We packed up and moved out of our 3 bedroom 3 bath apartment in a matter of 3 days, drove straight up I35 to Kansas City, spent the night, dropped everything in a storage unit, spent the night again, and then flew to Utah.


• Bobby and I visited family in Utah for 2 weeks. After that, Bobby flew back to KC to start work and I stayed in Utah to house sit for my parents for 3 more weeks while they were on vacation.


• Bobby drove back to Utah for Thanksgiving, we celebrated Henry's 2nd birthday the day after, and drove back to Missouri the day after that.


• We waited a little over 2 weeks to close on our house, and we finally took possession of it on Dec. 17th! We had a cleaning service go through the day we closed to sanitize bathrooms, etc. (to make my life easier) and moved everything from storage to the house on the 18th (with the help of good friends Josh, Bill, Lindsey, and Uncle Tim).


• Dec. 23rd the first family from out of town arrived and we hosted Christmas festivities in our new home!


• Dec. 27th Willie, Bethany, and cousin Paul went with Bobby and Henry to Fun Run--a GREAT place to wear out little boys for tired mommies.


• Dec. 28th, 4 years, 4 moves, and 2 kids later, we celebrated our 4th year of marriage :)

Now that Christmas has past and most of the family has gone, our lives are mainly focused on the tasks at hand; for Bobby that means his job at Cerner and fulfilling military requirements, and for me it means getting the rest of the boxes unpacked, putting things away, and wrangling two kids in the process. We love our house and it's location, love our neighborhood, love our ward at church, love that the Kansas City Temple is less than a mile from our front door, and LOVE knowing that we won't have to move again for a very long time (well, ever, if we want it that way). Everything seems to be falling into place, and that feels good. We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and hope that the new year will find you happy and focused on the things that matter most. We love you guys.

Henry's first Kansas City snowfall

Soo...

I don't have any pictures to post because our camera is somewhere in storage.... Next week once we've moved I'll do a major blog catch-up and fill you all in on what's been happening in the Zenk world for the past couple of months. See you next week!

We're Here!

We've made back to the old homestead, and are now just waiting for the home part. We will hopefully be in possession of our keys by the end of next week. In the interim, we're staying in an extended stay hotel. I'll tell you, I don't know how the pioneers did it--living in those little one-room houses with 10 children... I have 2, and keeping everyone asleep is less than easy--especially when one isn't sleeping through the night yet. How did they make it happen?? I guess they just got used to the noise of people being awake at bedtime. Anyway, I'm super excited to get into our house so that each boy can be in their own room, our schedules can get back to normal, and so we can settle down, once and for all.

Silhouette Giveaway!

For all of you crafters out there, tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com is having a giveaway for a Silhouette--a great little gadget that hooks up to your computer like a printer, only instead of printing, it CUTS THINGS OUT. But that's not all--go to tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com to get a better idea of everything this unique little contraption can do. I think I'm in love :)

Phew!

I don't have any pics to post today, but I just wanted to give a shout out to all the single moms I know out there, whether they're actually single or just single parenting while their spouses are away, I just want to say YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING... I've been on my own for 3 weeks now and I have to say, IT IS TOUGH! I'm definitely looking forward to getting Bobby back this weekend and having a little mommy time :) YAY for Daddy! I love that guy :)

Surprise!

We're moving! And you'll never guess where.... to Kansas City! IN FACT, our new ward at church is sandwiched right in between the Liberty 1st and 2nd wards. Can you believe that? Who would have thought?! We are looking forward to living in the midwest, and although things are much different than we left them, we are excited to call KC our home again. One thing we ARE sad about though... we lived in TX for the FOUR HOTTEST MONTHS OF THE YEAR only to deal with snow again this winter. Ah, well... I guess I've got everything else to be thankful for! ;)

Cookies Make Everything Better

Henry and I were homebound last week (due to little Jefferson being sick) so we decided to make cookies together. Henry was a great helper and made sure to taste the batter at every stage along the way. I thought he would enjoying seeing how cookies were made--from single ingredients, to batter, to dough balls, to oven, to cookie--which he did, but he was no longer interested once the cookies were baked. He took one, tiny, bite and handed the cookie to Dad. :) Even though he wasn't into the finished product, we had a BLAST working on a project together! I love hanging out with this little guy! :)

Miscellaneous

Our Jabberwalkie

Zenk and Jones progeny enjoying an afternoon together (thanks Josh and Lisa for coming, you guys are the best!)--little Laila cracks me up :)
Grandma Zenk and Henry playing outside
Completion of another spaghetti dinner

Stockyards

The stockyards in Ft. Worth is one of our favorite places to hang out---they have awesome BBQ, and the atmosphere is young and fun. Plus, they have rodeos every single weekend of the year! You can't get much better than that ;)

We went about a month ago during August--it was HOT, but still lots of fun. Henry peeked in on Jefferson every so often to make sure he was alright.
One of Henry's new passions... "BIKES!"
The goat station--it was after hours, so we didn't get to pet them... but we did get to see some mischievous little critters that escaped their individual pins and found their way to the bags of food. Funny little guys...

Great Day For the Park

Henry L-O-V-E-S going to the park! He will run and run for a good hour or so until his energy is spent, and then he'll take a little rest...

...but it's never long before he's up and at it again! Last time at the park we brought his tricycle which was a perfect way to entertain his second wind :)

New Words

Words Henry can say at 21.5 months:

Dog, milk, cheese, juice, more, yes, no, bye, hey, what, moo, meow, wet, dad, mom, Jesus, please, night, hiss (snake), tractor, socks, shoes, berries, turtle, toys, Buzz, king, queen, chick, bike, water, car, truck, choo choo (train), babies, church, boom, fast, chair, tire, sleepy, bed, eyes, nose, hair, cheeks, ears, head, neck, arms, legs, hands, fingers, toes, feet, belly, back, ouch, run, slide... and more I'm probably forgetting. He is so cute and we just can't get enough of him! :)

The Little Things

Life is great--every time things get crazy around here, whether because of busy schedules, cranky kids, or a messy house, something always happens to soften my heart and help me see how truly blessed I am. I love my kids and my husband more than I could ever say with words. I love facing the challenges life brings knowing that with faith in God, an optimistic heart, and a good work ethic, my family and I can conquer anything together. I love knowing that families are forever--and that God planned it that way for our eternal happiness. God has truly showered us with blessings. Below are just a few of mine.

The way my sweet Jefferson looks at me:

The miracle of kindred spirits.
Henry getting to see a squirrel up close.
My little boy getting to play in the water.
Seeing my husband and son having a good time together...

...and excitedly sharing a treat with each other.
Henry getting to be an innocent little boy on a slide, having a great time.

God is in the little things, and I love Him for that.

4 Month Stats.

As of yesterday, Jefferson weighs 13 lbs. 10 oz. (20th %tile), and is 25 in. long (49th %tile). At four months Henry was 15%tile for weight and 75th for height--just as a reference.

4 Months

Jefferson turned 4 months old on the 11th of this month, and he couldn't be a healthier, happier, baby! We love him to pieces and enjoy watching our two boys get to know each other better all the time. Here are pictures of both Henry and Jefferson at four months. Perhaps they look more alike than I thought? What CUTE boys!

Jefferson

Henry

Our Adorable Jefferson!

An Artist in the Making

"Light on my hand... very interesting."

"I think I shouldn't have bitten the tip off."
"I'll try to put it back on."
Love this little guy :)

Finally moved in...

Now that we're finally a little more settled and only have a handful of boxes left to go through, we decided it was time to get out of the house and do something fun. We live close to the Ft. Worth Zoo, so we went to check it out with Henry and Jefferson. It. Was. AWESOME! Henry loved the animals, and especially loved riding the train. :)

Below are some pictures of Henry playing in his first heavy rainstorm! He LOVED it!



Our most recent and significant purchase! I have never appreciated two machines more (other than the ones we drive).
Henry playing dress-up in Daddy's hat and glasses--a new favorite game. :)
Here is our happy little Jefferson :) He is getting bigger everyday!
Cousin Maddox came over to visit the other night and even though it was passed Henry's bedtime, we decided he couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend time with family. We brought him downstairs to watch a movie with Maddox.
We're loving Texas so far and can't wait until all the boxes are gone! Thanks for all the help and support we've received!

Everything's bigger in Burleson...

Whew!...What a few weeks we've had. The drive was long, but we're finally here in Texas and somewhat settled. From Utah, we stopped in Denver and then in Amarillo. We were on the road for Father's Day so while we were in Amarillo we were going to stop at one of 3 restaurants featured on Man Vs Food... but they were all closed (good for them!). We were a little disappointed with not being able to eat the food we'd been reminiscing about all day, but were justly rewarded a few days later when we met up with family at the Stockyards in Ft. Worth for some BBQ. Henry ate everything he could get his hands on (even the lemon out of his water glass). He was lovin' those ribs!

And the beat goes on...

Things have been busy here in the Zenk household. I've been kept on my toes chasing after my beautifully active Henry while trying to satisfy Jefferson's need to be held (a new experience since Henry never was a snuggler). Bobby has been very busy with a myriad of things--namely, full-time school plus work during the week, and after all that, he's been making weekly trips to Texas to work weekends in order to get a jump start on things. So, the past couple of months have been hectic, but they have been great for us as we've anticipated our move and have been getting in last minute visits with friends and family. Here are a few pictures from the past month of Bobby and the boys (somehow I wind up always taking the pictures and rarely make my way into them--I'll work on that!). Enjoy!

I came outside and saw these two sitting together on the swing having some father/son time. I sure love these two!
This is Henry's new favorite spot--the dog's water bowl. He loves standing in it, stirring it (with anything/everything), dumping it out and splashing in it, and even (heaven forbid...) pretending he's a dog (yes... on hands and knees) and drinking from it.
This is our growing Jefferson! Now that his vision has improved, he really looks things over and studies them--it's cute to watch him see things and people for the first time. He is such a good, sweet little baby!
This is Henry and his cousin Jasper. They had fun playing together a couple of weeks ago when Jasper came to visit.
And last but not least, this is what a typical morning at our house looks like before Bobby leaves for the day. I am so incredibly lucky and blessed to be married to a man who adores his children as much as they adore him. He is a wonderful husband and father and we love and appreciate him so much. I love you Bobby!