Please Welcome...

the newest member of our family circus, one Roman Wayne Zickgraf! He was born at 9:25am Thursday, November 13, 2008. He weighed in at a perfect 7 lbs and measured 19 inches long. He seems to be working to make this transition as smooth as possible for all of us. He's been very mellow and patient... a little trooper. He had the greatest little cough as soon as he was out, followed closely by some rather indignant squawking.

So, enjoy some pictures of our little guy. Oh, and if you want the full account with all the grisly details, check out The Audition, my pregnancy blog. I'll have a detailed post up sometime tonight!

Xandri's 2nd Birthday

My littlest girl turned two!

Her Grandma Zan and Muckabee (Derek's childhood name for his grandma) came down to be here on her birthday... Xandri, of course, was delighted to have her "Ga's" here. Her birthday was pretty low key. She had all her favorite meals which made it really easy on me: cereal and ramen don't take much prep. And we made her a "butterfly" cake. Doesn't hold a candle to the butterfly cake Avril got for her third birthday, but we'll class it up for her third or fourth... whenever she's old enough to have an opinion of her own! (Not just adopted from Avril...) And we watched the new Tinkerbell movie about four different times.

Anyway, if you'll note in the collage, you'll see a few of my favorite birthday "events": Xandri discovering the presents before it was time... yeah, she got a couple boxes open. That's what you get when your priority is a camera for the memories.

She loved her little Sleeping Beauty doll. She was pretty intent on it (and on it's shoes) and kept it with her all while opening her presents. She immediately put her fairy wings on as soon as they were out of the wrapping paper. And she immediately disrobed her baby doll as soon as it was out of the wrapping paper! And she knew exactly what to do about those candles! (Ignore the "votive" look. Naturally, I found the real birthday cake candles after we needed them.) All in all, it was an excellent day for my little two year old.

Not so much for Avril... all she wanted was to open and keep some of the presents for herself! She had a really hard time letting Xandri have the limelight.

So what is the two year old Xandri up to these days?

-she's stringing words together into three and four word sentences
-she loves coloring
-she's a big mimic... from copying words and phrases to copying actions, I have my hands full with my mini-me/mini-Avril/mini-Daddy
-she adores her big sister and follows her everywhere (which means they fight everywhere...)


-she's started to self-potty train (yes, that's right, folks! We found her on the toilet all by herself having successfully eliminated in it! We've also since found her in slightly more awkward positions given the fact that our giant toilet has not yet been outfitted with a little person potty seat. Poor kid was hanging on for dear life!)
-she's learning a lot of sass and has some serious attitude and loads of personality
-she's definitely a drama queen
-she can do it herself ("I/me do it!")
-she's clear up to the 25th and 30th percentiles for height and weight (can't remember which is which)-- this is a big accomplishment since she started out in the 5th!
-she loves princesses, fairies, wings, dresses and all things girly
-she's starting to hit- a lot
-she has a great little imagination, fed largely by Avril's own
-she loves taking baths
-she has her own avant-garde sense of fashion...

I absolutely adore this precious little girl I've been blessed to raise. She adds so much life, light and joy to my life! The world is a better place with her in it.

Disney Genetics Lab...

I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard...


Disney Lab Unveils Its Latest Line Of Genetically Engineered Child Stars

Say It With a Look

This look just says it all...

A New Level of Mischief

This one thinks the best way to rebel against naptime in her crib is to take her diaper off. Or all of her clothes and her diaper and her blankets. And then wake up two hours later in a cold puddle, crying.

This one thinks that if some of her bangs are too long, she should take matters into her own hands. After all, Mommy's busy-- Xandri was drawing on a doll in pen and needs a reprimand. Why bother Mommy with such an easy thing when you can just take care of it yourself?

EDIT: I forgot to mention this horrible story. As if these cute little frustrations weren't enough (oh, yeah, and the crayon on the wall? Yeah, it's happening.), I catch Avril teaching Xandri how to say, "Oh my G**" today. It makes me so sad that my 4 year old has already been exposed to the casual taking of our Lord's name in vain. We talked about it a year ago when it started and I thought it had been resolved. She knows now that we don't say our Heavenly Father's name so casually. So the fact that she was teaching-- quite literally ("Xandri, say, 'Oh'" "Oh" "my" "my"... ) my almost 2 year old to say something she knows is more than inappropriate was altogether shocking to me. We had a talk about the commandments and how Heavenly Father has commanded us to use His name with respect- and "not take His name in vain". I think it had an effect, but who knows when/if it will crop up again in a year?

Halloween Fun

(Avril & Lucas making spiders from their hand cutouts)

So my friend Betsy invited us to go with them to the zoo-- free day for Halloween and all. The girls loved it, there were a lot of fun activities to check out and plenty of candy to be had. Not to mention the fact that the zoo is right next to an excellent park...

Checking out the geese...

Betsy also invited us to a little Halloween shindig for the kiddos... Of course the cookies were first on the to-do list.

This is Avril's "pretty princess" face. I think her eyes take on a certain "come hither" quality. What do you think?



Watching some "scary" Winnie the Pooh movie...