Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween and it was so fun to have a baby to make a costume for and get all dressed up. Zeke was our little Zebra for Halloween and he was so cute! Usually he hates hats on his head but he didn't mind his Zebra hat. We went Trick or Treating and he loved it, I think he loved it because we were outside. We went with cousin Nissa, Aunt Gabi, Aunt Elissa and Grandma, it was a lot of fun. Can't wait for next year. Last week we went to Boo at the Zoo and it was so crowded but Zeke loved looking at the Zebra's he was so intrigued!Zeke and mommyZeke enjoying a sucker! I had to give him something to keep him still while I took the pictures. :)

Zeke enjoying the Zebra's. I don't know why but he just stared at the Zebra's.

Pumpkins!

For family night this week we carved pumpkins with our friends, Grant and Natalie and their two boys. It was a lot of fun. We decided to try something a little bit different while carving our pumpkins so we used some power tools. Zeke didn't know what to think about the slimey pumpkin seeds, but I think he enjoyed himself. He really liked eating the top of his pumpkin.Brandon using the saw to cut open his pumpkin!

The finished result!

Welcome to Holland!

I absolutley loved General Conference. I have really been thinking about what President Monson talked about, he said that we need to find joy in our journey which can sometimes be a really hard thing to do. It is especially hard with Zeke's hearing loss I have days where it is just hard and I don't want to compete with keeping his hearing aids in. With Zeke's hearing loss, a lady from the School for the Deaf and the Blind comes to visit with us once a week. About a month or so ago she brought this story for me to read and it has been on my mind a lot lately so I thought that I would share it.

It is called Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this…
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!” you say. “What do you mean, Holland?” I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around… and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills… Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”

The pain of that will never, ever, go away… because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.
But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things… about Holland.

When I read this it touched me so deep. Zeke is such a blessing in my life and I really wouldn't want him any other way. He was and is supposed to be the way he is, and even though I wanted Italy I have found so much joy in Holland. I am so grateful for Zeke and the things he has taught me and will continue to teach me. Zeke is my Holland and I am looking forward to my journey in Holland. I really couldn't have asked for a better baby. Zeke is so full of life and so happy and such a sweet and special spirit. I love him and I love being his mom and I am finding so much joy in this journey to Holland.

Best Friends!

Zeke has a best friend named Drake. They are about 5 or 6 months apart and get along and play pretty well. I think that their favorite game is to pull out eachothers pacifiers and put them in their mouths. They also really like to play on the keyboard.

MILK!

This is going to be a quick post but I just thought that I would let everyone know that Zeke did his very first sign. On Sunday I made Zeke a bottle of milk and Brandon and I were both doing the sign for milk asking Zeke if he wanted it. Well he got a big smile on his face and signed milk! Hooray! 8 months and he already signed his first word. I am so happy, I love being a mom! I am so happy that Brandon was able to see it with me. Zeke also does the sign for dog but I don't know if he knows what it means because he does it all the time when there are no dogs around, but I guess it could be because he wants to see a dog. The sign for dog is patting your leg with your hand a couple of times so it is a pretty easy sign to do. Anyway, hooray for milk!