Nate, Amber, Zak and Cole

Last 3 or so months in an attempted nutshell!

2012-01-07T20:39:00.000-08:00

Oh great....my last post was in SEPTEMBER!!! Wow. I'm awesome. Guess I'll try to give a quick overview of what we've been up to since then!

October highlights: In October my little sister Jillyn and her 2 kids came to visit us. Nate was busy with school and her husband had a busy week combining so we thought we might as well get together for some fun! We did a craft, took our kids to the park multiple times and stayed up late chatting! Zak went on his first field trip with preschool to the pumpkin patch where they got to do a hay stack maze, a slide on hay stacks, a hay ride and pick a pumpkin to take home. Nate's school also hosted a harvest festival where the kids did a pinata, went on a hayride, did 3-legged races, etc. We did trunk or treat at church and then took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

Zak's 1st field trip to the pumpkin patch!

One of 3 costumes Cole debuted on Halloween. The other 2: shark and skeleton
On the hay ride at the harvest festival.

Henley and Cole watching Zak and Heston throw rocks in the river.

Henley and Cole swinging!
Just too cute not to post!
We had to FORCE the boys to take a break from the tire swing when their faces were turning green!
Heston and Zak enjoying push-ups!

November highlights: November 17th I turned 27! CRAZINESS! Nate totally surprised me with a Kitchenaid mixer! I never saw it coming! I was super excited! What a sneaky and awesome husband I have! We took a long overdue trip to Utah for Thanksgiving and got to see both my grandmas and a bunch of my cousins. We hadn't been to Utah since before we moved to Hawaii (over 2 years!) so it was great to see everyone. We also got to see the Garners who were some of the first friends we made in Hawaii. They live in Utah now and drove to Ogden to hang out for an afternoon. So fun! The boys did great traveling but both got a 24 hour bug while we were there which was no fun. All in all a great holiday!

Cole not wanting to wait for Zak to feed him a bite of his berry smoothy.
Zak thinking it's hilarious!
Now they've got it down.
With my mom's mom and her husband Roger!
With my dad's mom!
Chilling with the Garners!
Zak and Julien reunited!

At the big Berg Family Thanksgiving!
Different cousins brought all kinds of fun crafts/projects/games for the kids to do during Thanksgiving!
Zak painted this bird house for like an hour.
My new kitchenaid and birthday cake.
I couldn't believe when I found Zak asleep on this wooden chair. Holy uncomfortable.

December highlights: In December my sister Amy and her son came to visit us for a couple nights. Her husband was going out of town on business...and as usual, Nate was busy with school so she came to Christmas shop and hang out! We didn't get too many pictures because our kids got sick but we had fun hanging out! We went to a "Christmas parade" in Selah and were surprised to see about 4 cars drive by and then it was over. I think we stood there shocked in the shortness of the "parade" longer than we actually watched a "parade." It was ok though, we got to take Zak to see Santa who was there, went out to dinner and then went Christmas shopping as a family. It was a fun night that we hadn't even planned on having. Cole got his first haircut by my friend Leah. Cole started taking some significant steps and started walking! Santa came to Zak's preschool. We went to Idaho for Christmas and got to see the lights downtown Caldwell, visit lots of family and friends, celebrate our 5th anniversary (which I have no pictures of), spent a night in La Grande with Nate's sister's family, and just hung out. Zak and I got sick over Christmas with sore throats and fevers but we still had a great time. Back to our anniversary, we just went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, shopped and stayed out overnight with no kids! Thanks grandmas and grandpas for watching our kids! =)

Zak coloring/snacking with cousin Eli. Libby and Eldon in background.

At the Caldwell lights downtown with Aunt Jill, Heston, Papa Berg and us.
Nate's brother, Jeff, Nate, me and Heston
Zak helping make Christmas treats. He lasted in the kitchen MUCH longer than I anticipated. Very impressed!

Santa and Zak's preschool. Siblings were invited to visit! Cole LOVED it! =)
My friend Leah, cutting Cole's hair for the 1st time.
Zak visiting Santa after the "parade" in Selah.
Getting a picture with Dad before the "parade" started. Good thing too, because the parade was over before I had a chance to get another!
Cousin bath time!

January highlights: I know we're just at the very beginning of January but I'll update up to this point. We had 2 families over for a small New Year's party here in Yakima. It was great ringing in the new year with friends. Nate bought me a plane ticket to HAWAII!!! Woooohooooo! 6 days with no kids and sunny beaches and GREAT friends!! Can't wait! Leave the 20th! Now for the big news......ZAK turned 4!!! He was pretty excited for his birthday. He was so excited to turn 4 like his friends across the street (who are now 5!) I had planned on not making him a cake because each year on his birthday, he never eats the cake. So I planned on ice cream sundaes but when I told him that, he insisted he wanted a cake. He asked for a chocolate cake with "no white and no sprinkles just chocolate." So that's what we did. The most basic chocolate cake with chocolate frosting with no decorations or anything that might not taste right. Just chocolate. Well we went bowling and to Burger King (Zak's choices) then came home and opened presents and then I asked if he was ready for cake and ice cream and he kept saying no, he just wanted to play with his new toys. After a bit he came in and asked if he could have a popsicle! I was like "No way! We have cake and ice cream!" So FINALLY he was ready and I gave him cake with a slice of vanilla ice cream and he ate ALL his ice cream and one bite of cake! That's it. Good thing a made his chocolate cake! haha Some of Zak's favorite things are animals. He loves watching national geographics on animals, cartoons about animals (Wild Kratts being a favorite), he loves giving us random animal facts, loves playing superheros, loves trains, and wrestling. He is such a good brother who is almost always willing to help make Cole smile when he's fussy or share his snacks with him when Cole wants a taste. He's great at helping Cole walk (even though he doesn't really need it anymore) and is always there to regulate on other babies that might take something out of Cole's hands. =) He loves helping me clean and cook and is definitely a rule-follower. He's such a good boy and is great at telling the truth. He stresses a little more than Nate and I which we're not sure where he gets that. Almost every morning when he wakes up he comes and gives me morning loves (a big hug/snuggle). He moved up to the Sunbeam class in primary at church and feels like such a big boy. He likes to show us how big his muscles are, how tall he is, how fast he can run, etc. We just love him to pieces!

Zak's uneaten cake and gobbled up ice cream. Lame.

Track Dad built!

Zak with his loot of gifts! A tad excited? Maybe?
New swords! Let's fight!
Zak helped me make the frosting for his birthday cake.
Shared his frosting beater with his bro.

Looking good in his new apron getting ready to make frosting!

Happy Birthday Zak video!

Zak's 1st day of Preschool!

2011-09-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, September 7th, Zak had his first day of preschool. He was super excited the days and night leading up to it...then the morning of, I couldn't get him out of bed. I kept telling him it was preschool day and he kept sleeping. Finally, I told him I was going to go to preschool without him and he shot up and out of bed. After he got ready he ran outside and yelled to the bigger kids who were walking to school or bus stops "Guys, I'm going to preschool today!" Very matter of fact- like. It was so cute how proud he was. The first day was just a one-hour day and parents got to stay. So we saw where his cubby would be and met other kids in the class, which quite a few we knew/recognized from church, and sang songs and explored the classroom and had cookies and juice. Zak is so excited to be going to school. I'm also quite excited for some free time for 2 hours 2 days a week! haha Although I can not believe I have a kid old enough to be in preschool!! We love this boy and I'm so excited for all the adventures/field trips and projects and things he'll learn in school!
I could not get this boy to just look at the camera and give me a nice smile. He's so over smiling for pictures so this was as good as it was going to get.

We've got ourselves a CRAWLER!

2011-08-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Love this picture of Zak. Notice the drool running down his neck. Click the picture to enlarge! So cute! =)

This is a little sloppier than his normal crawl...but he just hates performing when I start the video. Actually most the videos of him crawling have Zak jumping the way so Cole doesn't get the toy (Zak's) that I put out for him to crawl to.

Cole LOVES the bath!

2011-08-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

Where to begin...

2011-08-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

I seriously do not even know where to start filling everyone in on our last couple of months. On June 15th we sadly left our home of two years in Hawaii to move back to the mainland. We were sad to leave Hawaii and really sad to leave the friends we made there, but have been super excited for our next adventure which would be moving to Yakima, WA for Nate to start medical school. So we are now here in Yakima, getting to know the area and meeting new people etc. We found a 3 bedroom duplex that is super close to Nate's school and is surrounded by a lot of young families which is fun. So between getting into Idaho on June 15th and now, we have visited family in Idaho, visited Nate's sister Shauna and her family in La Grande, vistited my sister Amy and her family in Heppner, visited Nate's other sister Shelbey and her family in Pilot Rock (all those sisters live in Oregon), came to Yakima to find a house, back to Idaho to visit family and get our stuff, camped, moved to Yakima with the help of Nate's parents, Nate's mom had chest pains while helping us move and ended up having open heart 5-bypass surgery here in Yakima, so we got to have all the Hogg siblings visit our new home here, my sister Amy and her family also visited to help us try to get as moved in as possible before all the Hoggs got here, mother-in-law did 2 weeks of recovering in Yakima, then we all went back to Idaho, then back to WA, and Nate has just finished his first week of school which has been all orientation. He's definitely liked what he's seen and is ready to just get school started. Hopefully that was all understandable. Before we left Hawaii we spent a lot of time trying to get all the things done there that we loved to do and wanted to do one last time before we left and also trying to spend time with our friends that we knew we were going to miss. The last little bit before we left we got to do a beach day at Waimanalo with our friends and play volleyball which was so fun....like ususal. Our good friend Holly is a dolphin trainer at Kahala Resort near Waikiki and so we did a dolphin encounter and she was the trainer that did it for us which was super cool. Nate and I went on a date to the revolving restaurant in Waikiki called the Top of Waikiki and then walked on the beach and chilled for a bit. We hiked Koko Head a couple times and spent time at Ala Moana Beach Park. We ate yummy Asian and local/Hawaiian cuisine that we'll miss and walked around Waikiki and just hung out with friends. Our friends gave us an awesome going away party the night before we left and it was a lot of fun. We loved our time in Hawaii and all the awesome new things we got to experience because we lived there. We were so lucky to have made such awesome friends there that we'll hopefully be able to keep forever! Now pictures of it all...hopefully in some type of order! All the pictures are in the exact opposite order of how I wanted them. So if you start at the bottom and scroll up, then they will be in chronological order! =)

All the Hogg siblings with their mother the night before her surgery.

Cole, Stephen, Paco (dog), Nate, Zak and Jeff at Succor Creek
Zak couldn't wait to fish! Nate hates fishing but was excited to show Zak how.

Checking out the chicks with cousin Heston.
Flying with a 3 yr old was quite easy. Cheetos, apple juice and a movie all while he got to ride on a plane. He was one happy camper.
Cole's ride on the plane was quite different. These ladies took him from me and he continued to get passed all over the plane and was in multiple photos with all these Asian ladies.
Last night with his buddies. Teague, Kingston, Zak and Bentley

Mark and Holly Holland, Dan and Anne Moss with baby Issak, Becca holding Jackson, me holding Teague, Chandler, Nate holding Zak, Mike holding Bentley, Front: Olya with Holly's baby Mason, Heber with Holly's son Kingston, Joseph and Marlise Ahuna with my baby Cole. =)

Holly holding Kingston, me holding Teague (anne's son), Anne holding her baby Issak
Nate and Chandler. Chandler's wife, Lieren was in Utah and couldn't make it. =( We were thinking of her though! =)
Ala Moana Beach

Me with Kino and Bedi at Phucket Thai. Thanks for entertaining our boys while we were trying to get moved!

Yuck! Spit up ALL over me!
We couldn't stop cracking up. Waikiki
Top of Waikiki

Me, dolphin, Holly, Nate =)

Feeding lettuce to the sea turtle.
Nate 's boss, Yuki
Us with Nate's lab. Yuki, us, Hideki, Yuuki and the girl that was replacing Nate.

View from top of Koko Head
Top of Koko Head
Check the incline
Maybe halfway?
About to start...
Checking out the "princess"
Kept following the "princess"
Waimanalo
Kingston (in the back) with Bentley and Zak in Waikiki
Cole, Mason, and Jackson being beach bums in Waikiki

Smiley Baby Babble

2011-04-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Laughing boy!

2011-04-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

Cole had his baby blessing!

2011-03-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Just after Nate gave Cole a beautiful blessing at the Tabernacle.

Sadie and Miriam Clift happened to be visiting Honolulu from Idaho and were able to make it to his blessing. It was so nice having them there!

Some of my girl friends: Kellie, Olya, me, Lieren, Sadie. All these girls are wearing heels and I'm wearing flats...that's why I look so short!

Daddy and Cole outside the Tab after the blessing! It was a little bright outside so Cole was having a hard time opening his eyes.

Some of the men who helped with the blessing: Heber, Eli, Lame, and Chandler. Heber actually was a little late and wasn't able to help, but he was there (right outside the doors!). Uncle Steele helped with the blessing but left before we could get the picture. The bishopric was also there helping. Lame served in Samoa with Nate and is from Tonga but is just in Hawaii visiting.

A day with the dinosaurs!

2011-03-25T20:24:00.001-07:00

A dinosaur exhibit came to the Bishop Museum here in Honolulu and I was so excited to take Zak to see it!! We went with my friend Becca and her sons Bentley and Jackson. Zak and Bentley loved checking out the dinosaurs and REALLY loved digging for dinosaur bones and checking out the gift shop. The dinosaurs looked awesome, but there weren't quite as many as Becca and I thought there would be. The boys didn't seem disappointed though..so I was happy. While we were there they also got to check out a show in the planeterium....I had to duck out early to nurse Cole, but Becca was kind enough to stay in their with her boys and Zak. The part I saw was pretty boring, but Becca said it got a lot more exciting after I left.

My boys!!!

2011-03-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

Day of Delivery!...swollen feet

He's here!

He apparently got up to go the bathroom and was too tired to finish pulling up his pants.

Bedtime is party time apparently for Zak.

1st bath!

I may have lit his candles a little too early. They were pretty much melted all the way down by the time we got to singing for Nate's birthday. He's the big 2-8. AND was accepted to medical school!!! We are so proud of him!!!

Zak turned 3!!!

2011-03-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Our Z-man turned 3 Jan. 6th! Poor kid got slightly jipped because I was so MISERABLY pregnant and Nate was super busy with his masters thesis presentation. But we managed to get him the 2 things he REALLY wanted which were chocolate cake and green ice cream (mint chocolate chip). Grandparents on both sides sent him super fun gifts and he also loved his balloons. At 3 years old Zak is loving dinosaurs, cars, trains, and is potty trained! He loves playing basketball and tackling with his dad and is an awesome helper when it comes to baking with me or setting the table for dinner. We sure do love him!

Our new baby boy is here!!!

2011-03-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

This post is WAY overdue...like most of them have been. BUT, on January 19, 2011 we welcomed our baby boy Cole Steven Hogg to the world and our family. He came at 5:29 p.m. and weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces and was 21 inches long. Labor was quick and easy and we just love him to pieces! Here's a video of Zak meeting him.

Trip to Idaho, Christmas, Anniversary, misc. CRAZY

2011-01-13T23:53:00.000-08:00

Quick Catch up on Us

So I haven't blogged in forever like usual but a lot is going on lately. December was busy with our anniversary and Christmas and starting to really focus on potty training Zak. January has been busy with Zak's birthday, lots of changes and things going on at church with the new year and my being in the primary presidency, Nate preparing and presenting his masters proposal (and passsing with flying colors, I might add), we're in the process of moving to a bigger apartment, and I'm 9 months pregnant, so we'll be expecting our second little boy any day now. We're busy, we're happy, and doing well! This pregnancy has been quite a bit different than my pregnancy with Zak...but no major problems or concerns so that's awesome. Although I may need to post a picture of my feet...if you can even call them that. They're huge. Swollen. Balloons. Zak has done awesome with his potty training and it has been a fairly unfrustrating process. I think I waited long enough to potty train him that by the time we really started working on it, he was ready and although not super willing at first, came around very quickly and was old enough to understand when I just told him point blank that we ran out of diapers and don't have anymore. When he started asking me to go to the store to buy some more so he could #2, I knew a boy old enough to ask his mother to go to the store to buy diapers was old enough to learn to use the potty. He's done awesome. He loves wrestling and playing basketball with Dad. He also loves to characterize everything into boys and/or girls. Like if he and Nate are playing basketball he tells me to watch out so they don't get me, because basketball is for boys. And he's always looking and my jewelery and nail polish telling me it's for girls. Tonight he told me girls eat salad and boys eat goldfish. Boys run and girls walk. Boys have big muscles. And every once in awhile we'll be in the car when a song comes on the radio that is being sung by a girl, and he asks me to change it to a boy song, which is any song that has a boy singing. He cracks us up most the time and knows how to push our buttons the other times. He's excited to be a big brother and always tells us that he's going to share his toys with the baby. We'll see what happens! I haven't uploaded pictures from his birthday yet...but I will get on that soon!..hopefully. But this post is carazy long anyway so I will cut this part off here!

Aloha Oe to the Garners!

This is Zak and his good friend Julien saying farewell. Julien's family moved to Utah while we were visiting our families in Idaho over Thanksgiving. This was the night we were flying out. We were so sad to come back to a Garner-less Hawaii. We miss chilling with them and Zak sure does miss his buddy!

Trip to Idaho in November

On November 17th...my 26th birthday! Woa I'm getting old! ...we flew to Idaho to visit our families for Thanksgiving. Nate hadn't really left the island since we've been in Hawaii (year and a half) and needed a break from work. We had a lot of fun catching up with family and relaxing Idaho style. We got to see Nate's little bro, Steph, who'd just gotten home from a mission, meet Nate's little brother, Jeff's girlfriend, Alyssa. And see pretty much all our siblings except Parker and Sarah who live in St. Louis and Steele and Kiersten who live here in Hawaii.

Zak got much better acquainted with all his cousins on both sides and loved playing with his grandparents toys and in the snow. He got to see cows, horses, tractors, trailors, etc. All the things he loves to look at out the window while we'd drive.

Nate also got the opportunity to interview at the University of Utah for medical school while we were home. He drove through a crazy snow storm to get there on the 28th...interviewed the 29th and drove back to Boise and then we flew back to Honolulu on the 30th. We're so proud of him for getting an interview and hope to hear good news in the next few months!
Playing basketball with Grandpa Berg at McDonald's playland. Hawaii's fast food places do not have play lands so Zak thought it was pretty sweet.
We got to ride on a train to the North Pole and visit Santa Claus. Zak loved it. Trains + Snow + Santa = one happy boy!
Snow at the North Pole
On Santa's sled
Picture out the window on the train ride up to the North Pole.
1st snow ball of the trip!
One tired boy!
Checking out the cows with his cuz, Heston.

Helping Grandma make her famous popcorn!

Christmas 2010

I took hardly any pictures at Christmas...but here are a few. Christmas Eve we had a marvelous prime rib dinner with our neighbors Heber and Olya and Nate's brother Steele and his wife Kiersten. It was a great time! Then we drove downtown Honolulu to check out Christmas lights. Then we went to our friend Mark and Marty's to have dessert with them for Mark's birthday. We then went home and read the Christmas story out of the Bible as a family and opened one gift and put Zak to bed. Nate and I had a great time wrapping and setting up for the morning. Christmas morning we got up and did Santa stuff... and then Heber and Olya came over again and we had breakfast and did presents from each other and family. The rest of the day we just relaxed and then did Christmas dinner with our friends the Moss's who just had a new baby a few days before. We spent the evening with them and had a great time. It was a very relaxing holiday for us!

4th Anniversary

Nate and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary on Dec. 23rd. I didn't think Nate was really even thinking about our anniversary...especially because he'd been having a super busy month at work and hadn't even been able to put too much thought into Christmas. I was kinda planning a back up plan for him in case he didn't get around to planning anything. So I talked to a friend about maybe babysitting and thought we'd just go out to dinner or something and maybe do some Christmas shopping. We take turns planning our anniversaries...this is why I was trying to not take over! haha Anyway, Nate totally surprised me with tickets for a sunset dinner cruise in Waikiki on the Star of Honolulu. I was excited to be doing something that sounded so romantic as well as relaxing and kind of quiet. I was also a little worried that the food would be too fancy for my tastebuds but everything ended up being really good!

The buildings with green roofs in this picture are where Nate spends his days. He works there and also has had some classes here. It's the John A. Burns school of medicine.
Beautiful Waikiki sunset!

The menu to let you all know what those dishes were comprised of.
Swan shaped butter!

All my pictures are backwards again! grrrr

Manoa Falls Hike

2010-10-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

On conference Sunday, our friends Brint and Brea suggested we hike to Manoa Falls between sessions. We thought it was a great idea to get out of the house, enjoy some nature, wear Zak out, and do a hike we hadn't done before. Little did we know we were about to embark on one wet, rainy, muddy, slippery hike! Zak and Duke loved jumping in the puddles (and the river for Duke). Zak also loved throwing rocks in the river. He wasn't so sure what to think when it really started raining, but we had a great time. I didn't get pictures of us with the Hiatt's...but they were there too. Trust me.

Holy humid! Nate and I posing with the crazy bamboo.
Crazy bamboo...

Such a cute family picture....right?! NOT!!! But it's the only picture that proves we got to the waterfall. So this is us, in all our soaking wet glory! I didn't realize what i looked like or I would've just take a picture of the boys with the waterfall! Fun times!

Making Cookies!

2010-10-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I was craving pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Lucky for my, I have a son who loves to help me bake....or at least stir and sample. He kept saying it was splashing him so he wanted an apron too...We didn't have one for him, so we were resourceful and just tied one of Nate's old t-shirts around his neck.

I turn my head for one second......

And again.... pumpkin batter grosses me out, i've never tasted it. Zak seems to think it's amazing though!

Bonfire and Movie on the beach

2010-10-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was our friend Kellie Hatch's birthday. Her hubby threw her a birthday part with a fire for weiner roasting, other yummy treats, a projector and screen for a movie, and great company. It was a ton of fun!

The fam! I think my mouth may have had food in it...oops

Kellie blowing out her birthday candle!

You can't see the movie in the picture...but don't worry, we could!

Heber manning the weiny roasting

The yummy snacks I spoke of!

Zak and his buddy Bentley

Me, Lieren, and Brea

problems with pictures

2010-07-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Ok I planned on uploading like tons of pictures....but am having some problems after only like 5. So hopefully i can add more soon!

We're baaaaaack

2010-07-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

SOOOO, waiting like 5 months between posts is no fun. I start getting overwhelmed about posting again because I'm so far behind but i'll try to give some quick highlights of what we've been up to.

I left off in February. Hmmmm I have no idea about what happened in March or April we'll see if I have any pictures from those months to remind me. In May, Nate finished the 1st year of his 2-year Masters program and University of Hawaii. He did awesome and has really enjoyed his research. Zak and I took a trip to Idaho to visit family so Nate could get in some extra studying for qualifying exams and the MCAT. Zak did AWESOME on the airplane and slept pretty much the enitre flight from Honolulu to Salt Lake. He stayed awake from Salt Lake to Boise and just played and looked out the window etc. He loved seeing his Grandma's and Grandpa's on both sides and some cousins and aunts and uncles. We were a little bummed the weather wasn't better.... it was freezing....but we still had a great time. We were in Idaho for about 3 1/2 weeks and were ready to be home again by the end. Zak and I were both missing Nate like crazy so it was good to be reunited. And I got some flowers from my sweet hubby when we got back to the house. =)

June seemed to fly by. Nate woked and studied hard for the MCAT while Zak and I had some beach days to make up for our lack of beach in Idaho and had fun catching back up with friends here. Then this month Nate took the MCAT. YEAAAAAAH!!! He has to wait like 30 days for his scores to come back but I'm so proud of him for how hard he studied and worked and I think he did AWESOME!

Zak is 2 1/2 and is getting so big. He can count to 10 and knows most of his letters. He can say short bedtime prayers by himself. He has a book of dinosaurs and can name them all and tell us whether they're plant-eaters or meat-eaters. Still not potty trained....but my goal is to actually start trying to potty train him asap. =) When he needs to go poop he goes into the bathroom, shuts the door, poops in his diaper and then flushes the toilet. So we're kinda missing out on the biggest step....but hey...we gotta start somewhere. He loves collecting rocks whereever we go so he can save them to throw into the ocean the next time we go. So at pretty much any given time you can go through my purse and find at least a few rocks...or find them in random places at our house. He loves finding bugs and squishing them, running playing cars, trains, animals, dinosaurs...etc. He's very protective of me these days and let's Nate know if he's not playing soft enough with mommy. =) Or if I say something and Nate says something different, Zak gets pretty worked up repeating what I said to Nate. Zak loves when Nate comes home and LOVES to have Nate play tackle with him. He likes to get thrown on the bed or do little flips (with nate's help) and all those things that mommy's just aren't so good at.
I did the summer reading program with Zak that the library puts on and he LOVES getting new books and reading them over and over. He got to earn some prizes too which was fun.
We have so much fun taking Zak out and doing stuff as a little family. Zak's definitely a stubborn little guy and knows what he wants and when. We love him though and are so greatful he's part of our family.

I guess that's kinda it for now. Sorry it's kinda random. I feel a little scatter-brained but I finally did a little bit of catching up at least!!

Yes, it's true..I updated our blog!

2010-02-10T23:43:00.000-08:00

Where to begin??? I guess I'll just summarize our recent happenings by month and try to give you a quick overview of what we've been up to the last few months.

NOVEMBER: Hmmmm, I can't remember too much of this month. My 25th birthday was on the 17th. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a big group of friends all of which had no family on the island and weren't going home to celebrate. I think there were almost 30 of us there. It was hosted by our friends Kellie and Darrick who live in a high rise with a big room they can reserve for parties, etc.so that's where it was held. It was a lot of fun. Looks like I can't remember too much more of this month. Oh ya, Nate's brother Jeff that had been staying with us since August went back to Idaho and my friend Sadie came and visited. Lots and lots of fun!
DECEMBER: This was a busy month as I'm sure you can all imagine. Although I don't have many pictures from the holidays because my camera decided to break on Christmas EVE!!! Yes, I was quite upset..but we did get a few picture from our disposable camera we got that night. This was our 1st Christmas we've celebrated totally on our own. (Oh, and our anniversary was on the 23rd) We just hung out on Christmas Eve for the most part and had a BBQ on the beach (Magic Island) with the Garner Family. Steak, shrimp, fruits and veggies, salad..Mmmmm. That night Nate and I had a blast getting the house and gifts/stockings ready for Zak. Christmas morning was so much fun watching Zak realize that all the boxes that had been under the tree had fun things inside of them! For quite awhile after Christmas he'd bring me random things asking me to open them...things that don't open. I think he just thought everything had fun surprises in them after Christmas. We all got spoiled and had a nice relaxing day. Until Nate and I fell asleep for a mid-morning nap when there was a knock at our door with our neighbor telling us Zak was out playing in the parking lot! SCARY! Woops! Anyway, he was safe, don't worry. =) We had dinner with our friends Dan and Ann and had lamb and mashed potatoes and rolls and salad and had AMAZING bread pudding for dessert. Although we missed our families, we had a great time with just our little family on our first Christmas alone.
JANUARY: There's a couple we know from Idaho who are living on the North Shore in a beautiful 4 bedroom 4 bathroom house right on the beach. They were in Idaho for the holidays and their son's wedding and let us stay at their house over New Years. Nate and I went up on Dec. 30th and then Dan and Ann and their son Teague, came up the 31st to help us ring in the New Year. It was so relaxing getting out of Honolulu and just having a real kitchen and yard and our own beach to chill at. We snorkeled and laid out and then had a fun time watching all the crazy fireworks that were going off, off all the different shores that we could see. Zak's 2nd birthday was Jan. 6th. We threw him a little party at Chuck E. Cheese and he loved it. He got spoiled by friends and family and probably just a tiny bit by us. I made him this snake/caterpillar/creature cake and he was not impressed at all. Apparently he's only interested in chocolate cake b/c he got a free slice of chocolate cake from Chuck E. Cheese and he was all about it and it didn't even look like a cute little snake thing! Oh well I guess...I tried. Grandma and Roger vacationed on Maui and then, lucky for us, came to Oahu! They took Zak and I out to lunch one day and we went for a scenic drive while Nate was at school. Then, their last night here, they took Nate and I to dinner and on a little shopping trip! It was so much fun to see them and spend some time with them and get spoiled by them! =)I can't remember if anything else happened this month...
FEBRUARY (as of yet..): Nate's birthday was on the 4th. He turned the big 2-7! We made him bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast. Then, he worked and schooled most of the day. Then we went and got him some sa-weet snorkeling gear. Then we went to eat at Buca di Beppo with Brint and Brea while our awesome friends Olya and Heber watched Zak. Then we came home and had an awesome ice cream cake (made by me)with Heber, Olya and Stephanie. We're horrible planners...so sorry for other friends we didn't have come celebrate with us..it was all very last minute. Promise. =) My friend Brea colored my hair caramel brown. Um, and I think we're now current. WOOOOHOOOOOO! Sorry I didn't write in a very interesting way... I was just trying to hurry and bring us current without getting into major details and typing 4 million pages. So now for the pictures!
*Drag cursor over picture for caption, or part of a caption. Half of them cut part of the caption off*

LAME

2010-01-27T22:12:00.000-08:00

I totally just wrote out a big ol blog catching everyone up on our lives ie. Christmas, New Year's, Zak's birthday etc and I lost it as I was about to upload the pictures. SO.....I will blog sometime soon, but just know that I tried. More to come on a day when i'm in more of a chatty type mood! =)

Fun visit from my parents and Halloween!! TONS of pictures!

2009-11-07T23:16:00.000-08:00

We had a very busy and exciting October. We had to move out of our luxurious apartment because our landlord sold it. So we packed and said goodbye to our dishwasher, washer and dryer, swimming pool, bbq area, workout facilities, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, gated parking, a/c, and moved into a tiny one bedroom apartment. We did say goodbye to the expensive rent though and are now saving almost $600 a month!! We are VERY excited about that. Good trade I think. Honolulu's rent is out of control. But we've really enjoyed are new apartment. We're very close to a couple of parks and it's a much quieter apartment. Anyway, We moved into our new apartment October 19-20th about...and my parents came from Idaho to visit on the 22nd. We were so excited to have them. Here are some pictures of our outings with them. Nate had 2 tests that week so wasn't able to come to everything, but came when he could which always made the outings even better! All these pictures are WAY out of order and some of the captions might be misplaced as well. That's why I'm not such a great blogger I don't wanna take the time to put it all in order. The locations of pictures are: Waikiki Beach, Waikiki Board Walk, Aloha Stadium, Yogurtland, ToDai, Waimanalo Beach, Pearl Harbor, Hanauma Bay, Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC), North Shore, Haunted Lagoon, and I think that's all. There may not be pics of all these things either but we'll see...

Zak LOVED sharing the backseat with Grandma

A lady was teaching Zak how to hold still to feed the birds. She took pictures of my mom doing it with us, but none of those ones turned out.

Waikiki Beach

He and Grandma were couldn't stop taking pictures together

Taco's El Ray all the Way from Caldwell! There's NO Mexican food in Hawaii! Thanks Mom and Dad! =)

Grandma showing Zak the light with some BBQ chips after snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

Had a Sunday picnic at Waimanalo

Just pretty

Hawaii vs. BSU

I LOVE this picture my mom got of Nate and Zak! Both have eyes open and are lookin too dang cute.

To Dai, a Japanese and Seafood buffet

Yogurtland. All kinds of different soft serve, self-serve frozen yogurts and TONS of toppings. Serve yourself as much as you'd like and they charge you by the ounce.

Japanese students on a field trip to Pearl Harbor couldn't get enough of Zak. They were chasing him all over the place. I'd never seen anything quite like it!

Me and my dad at Pearl Harbor

Zak and Grandpa Berg at Pearl Harbor

At the Polynesian Cultural Center

From the village of Fiji at the PCC

Zak looking so pretty with a flower in his hair like mom

At Dad's birthday dinner. He was trying to get my mom to try baby octopus salad. ewww

While walking through the mall, the Dairy Queen girls came up to Zak and just gave him a free ice cream cone. Blonde hair and blue eyes goes a long way in this environment =)

Our star enjoying a sucker

Zak going trick or treating with his cute turtle of a friend Julien. Zak was a basketball player..or NBA Star I mean. Due to our busy month, we forgot to get him a costume. At about 5 pm on Halloween we went costume searching but nothing was anywhere, so we came up with this and thought he looked dang cute!

I know we have more family pictures from this night...and better ones, but I'm not sure where, so this will have to do.

Zak after a long night of trick or treating

Shrimp Shack on the North Shore..Giovonni's. Our friends the Greens let us stay at their BEAUTIFUL home up there and joined us for lunch

Samoan dancers

Samoan village and holy crap he climbed a coconut tree!
I apologize for the crazy order of these pictures, but you get the idea! ...I hope. And sorry for the spell of small pictures in there. I forgot to make them bigger...don't be mad at me Jill! Our other exciting new is....Nate's experiments are working and his research is progressing more and more and he gets to start doing some brand new stuff he's excited about. I can't give you all the info because it's top secret...and I just don't understand it all. But it's exciting! =) Zak is talking like a crazy man these days. He just busts out new words all the time like he's known the word for years and has just decided to start using it. It's a lot of fun. That's it for us for now. We're loving being together here in Hawaii!

Random happenings of the last little while

2009-09-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

I've been getting asked to post pictures of my arms for an update. I keep forgetting to take pictures of them. I finally remembered but it happens to be night and the lighting isn't great, but you get the idea. They're WAY better! Good as new, practically!

We bought a family pass to the Honolulu Zoo. It was only $20 for the whole family! It gives Zak and I something to do on those days where we need to spice up our life. One Wednesday, Nate got out of class early so we all decided to go to the zoo. It was so much fun having him go with us!

This is Zak's new favorite past time. He likes to take weird things out of the cupboard and just move them from place to place. He can do this for hours. Put them all on the couch and then the entertainment center then the floor then who knows...

Day at Ala Moana Beach playing with Uncle Jeff. It was soooo rocky! And I fell right on me knees on the rocks. It killed walking into the ocean too. I'd never been on a beach that rocky before! It was still rocky until you were like in to your neck!

After a busy week at work/school, Nate's boss gave him the day off today. In the morning we went apartment hunting because our landlord has put this apartment up for sale officially. For the rest the day we drove to the North Shore and wanted to go to Waimea Bay. Little did we know there would be no swimming signs EVERYWHERE because the waves were so freakin' huge! It was way fun to watch the body boarders and surfers though. Even funner to watch the people who didn't know what they were doing and would be told to get out of the ocean over the loud speaker because the life guards didn't want to have to go rescue them. I was thinking that'd be way embarrassing! Anyway here are a few pics of the waves there. We also went to Turtle Bay and were planning on going to Shark's Cove but passed it and didn't really feel like looking for it. It was a fun day though!

Zak's 1st dentist appointment!

2009-09-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

Fun at Honolulu Zoo!

2009-08-31T02:13:00.000-07:00

These are the last pictures taken of the good 'ol days when I still had normal arms/hand. Later that even is when that fateful burning pot happened.

Zak loved these fish at the Keiki(child) area of the zoo!

Haunuma Bay for Snorkeling!

2009-08-31T01:51:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we went with some friends to Haunuma Bay for snorkeling. We saw lots of cool fish. Nate even saw an eel. It was kind of a hike down to get there but was a beautiful view on the way down. It was a lot of fun. Zak was plum tuckered out on the drive home. I think he was out before we even got the car on! =)

Burns, Blisters, Bandages, Embarrassment!

2009-08-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

So Thursday, August, 13th, 2009 was a bad...bad night. It all started out innocently enough with a plan to cook hamburgers on the grill and deep fry some french fries for dinner. Well, I waited for Nate to get home from work and then sent him down to the grill to cook the burgers. We live on the 12th (top) floor of our complex and the bbq/recreation area is down on the 1st floor. So Nate took Zak outside with him so he could run around while Nate grilled and I stayed up planning on frying us up some french fries. Mind you, we hardly ever have french fries and even more rarely do we fry them. We always bake. But, I'd been craving fries so I wanted to treat myself and fry them. I did work fast food all through high school so I knew exactly how to go about doing it...or so I thought. Well, I was warming up some crisco (another new thing for me...I always use just oil) and just as I went to check on it to make sure it was all melted and put the fries in...the whole pan of crisco burst into flames. It was the biggest kitchen fire I'd seen. For the life of me, I could not think what to do. I knew water was not for grease fires but I could not think of one alternate method to put a fire out. Our microwave is above the stove so I picked up the pan to move it because I didn't want it ruining the microwave or catching our cabinets on fire. So I set it on the floor because it's tile and try calling Nate a few times to ask him how to put out the fire. In the meantime, the fire is getting more ferocious and Nate's not realizing his phone is vibrating. So I start panicking even more and decide to just fill the bathtub up with water and drop the whole pan in the bathtub. Even though I knew you weren't supposed to us water with a grease fire, I didn't know why...and I figure if the whole this was just totally submerged it could only be a good thing. So as I'm walking my flaming pan to the bathroom...the motion of walking with the pan out in front of me or something makes the fire shoot up my arms. I drop the pan and run out of the apartment not knowing if our apartment is on fire or what. Luckily it wasn't. Although I did suffer some 2nd degree burns and our apartment will now need to be re-carpeted..all is well here at the Hogg home. I go to the doctor daily to get my bandages changed and my wounds cleaned so I'm just getting better and better. My wonderful husband stayed home Friday and Monday from work and is doing SO much to help. He's now going to work, has to do dishes (my right hand can't get wet and i'm right handed), bathes Zak, changes most diapers, has been making meals, etc. I can't get my arms wet at all, so I have to bathe keeping my arms out of the water while Nate washes my hair, etc. He's been working like crazy to make things easier on me. Thanks for everything Nate! You're the best husband ever!

Misc. pictures

2009-08-04T16:10:00.001-07:00

Pearl Harbor a couple months ago

2009-08-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

Nates first blog!

2009-08-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone that reads our blog. I am very happy to have the priviledge of making our blog post. We are happy here in Hawaii. We have officially moved to our new and hopefully permenant residence for Hawaii. We enjoy the swimming pool, work out rooms and BBQ patio area. We like the new quiet neighborhood that we live in (except for the freeway). We live 3 blocks from the church, the grocery store, and the local park, which is pretty nice. So everthing for everyday living is close, however we did purchase a car. It is a '99 Nissan Altima. It has a little less than 60,000 miles on it. Sweet ride.

We also got a calling in our ward being primary workers. The class we are assigned to at the moment is the Valiant 11-12 year olds. They are a great group of kids.
This past while I found out that I recieved my Graduate Assistantship which will pay for my school tuition and plus living cost....which makes living in Honolulu affordable. Without it we would probably be shacking up with our parents again in the Fall. Which wouldn't be all that bad, but unfortunately doesn't get us any closer to being real life grown-ups.

Z-man...he is the coolest little boy ever! He is trying to talk more, but unfortunately his efforts end in a language called Babel; which only mom and dad can understand 50% of the time, well actually mom understands 90% of it. We took him to Target this week and we bought him a new corvette car that was $5 and plays the NASCAR electric guitar intro. Another sweet ride.

We also went and scoped out the Premiere Outlet Malls here in Hawaii. Having a car turned about to be more expensive than I had anticipated. Lol. Amber got a few items, a dress, some sandles and a pair of white shorts. Zak got a couple of things also. The outlet malls are really awesome here, and cheap.

2009-07-10T01:23:00.001-07:00

We made it to Hawaii!!

2009-07-09T00:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're finally here in beautiful Hawaii! We got here at the end of May and are enjoying all the new scenery, environment, culture...everything. I had a bit of a slow start enjoying my time here, but it's getting better and better all the time. It's not that I wasn't loving the ocean and the views and stuff...I think it was just hard knowing how far away I was from anyone I knew and not knowing how to get around very well, especially on the crazy buses. Nate's loved it here since day 1. I also took a little longer getting used to the humidity and things.
Nate's working at the John A. Burns School of Medicine doing research on fertility type stuff and is really liking his work and the people he works with. The hardest part of his job (i think) is that his boss is Japanese and then the other 2 people in his lab are Chinese and Japanese. The can speak english....but are still pretty hard to understand. He's excited because he was officially asked to continue working in the fall which will qualify him for a tuition waiver which is what we were hoping for! Yeah Nate!! He's also taking a Kaplan course to help him study for the MCAT which he'll take....sometime. He goes to work 2-2.5 hours early everyday to study so he can still have his evenings free to spend with Zak and me...isn't that sweet?? We're so proud of him for getting the job in the fall and for all the hard work he does! We're also really excited for his kaplan course to be done!...at least i am!
Zak and I spend our days doing....whatever we want! =) We were living in Waikiki the first month we were here so the beach was just a couple blocks away. Zak is still a little hesitant with the ocean (because of the waves) and started off hating the sand (which he has since gotten used to). We'd go to the beach or just go walk around Waikiki checking things out, go swimming, go to the park, go to the store, go meet Nate for lunch, etc. Some of Zak's favorite things to do here are CHASE BIRDS, check out all the police cars/ambulances/fire trucks, and swim (in the hot tub). He's the only kid at the beach that would rather chase the birds than swim. We hear SOOO many sirens here and every time we have to run out to the lanai (balcony) and see if we can see where it's coming from and he laughs his head off. He's picking up a lot more words and has a big new fake laugh he does and also is 'swimming' really well. He'll let us plug his nose and put him under water, he jumps off the edge to us...we can't take our eyes off him b/c he'll jump if we're not looking too, and tries to swim under water.
Some of our adventures here have been hanging out at Waikiki Beach, taking a drive around the whole island to check it out, going to Waimanalo (sp?) Beach, going to the Pan-Pacific Festival, going to King Kamehameha Parade, going to Pearl Harbor and visiting the USS Arizona Memorial, Ala Moana Shopping Center (HUGE), snorkeling, boogie boarding. We've seen crazy Japanese drummers, Hawaiian dancers, awesome fish and birds and flowers..
Ok, I'll end this it's getting super long

2009-04-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

sorry, I don't know why the captions to my slide show are so freaking huge!

2009-04-01T20:33:00.001-07:00

So much to do...so little time!!

2009-04-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all for being so horrible about keeping our blog very updated. So much has been going on with us I don't even know where to begin. Guess I'll just jump into the big stuff. SOOOO, Nate graduated from BYU-Idaho in December after doing an internship that fall at C of I in Caldwell, Idaho doing research. We were living with my parents during his internship and were kind of just winging it as to what we'd be doing next. After being in limbo for a couple months, Nate has been accepted to the University of Hawaii's Masters program in reproductive physiology. He was also offered a job to work in a lab there doing research, so he'll be paid to do that and also receive a tuition waiver since he'll be working for the school. I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he's done to get here! We feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do this...and live in Hawaii! =) I, on the other hand, have been accepted into Nail Technology School. haha Ok, so they take anyone who pays. But it's been fun and I'm hoping to be able to do it out of our home at some point to be able to help us make money, but also stay home with Zak. We'll see what happens and if I can cut it.
Zak is pretty much just a little boy now, not even a baby at all. Which apparently has been the case for awhile. But he is SOOO much fun! He loves playing 'Ring Around the Rosies' especially the falling down part, he loves cars, balls, throwing (everything...can be scary)..and animals. He can do the noise for anything that growls, cockadoodledooooo, he says 'hot', paco, Mmmmm (when he's going to eat), I think those are his newest, I'm pretty sure I've posted about his others. He's also acquired quite the sweet tooth. He just points to the cupboard until someone finally gives him a chocolate chip or something. I've definitely had to start regulating a little more. Going outside is also getting a little crazy..he wants to be outside all day everyday. He'll have a runny nose and a cough and it's 40 degrees and he won't come inside until I just have to make him. But he loves sliding and just exploring outside.
Hmmmmm, I don't think anything else too major is going on right now. We feel really blessed right now in our lives and are so thankful to be accepted into a program and progressing a little more to our ultimate goal of being able to be 'settled'.

Zak loves Gameshows

2009-02-06T19:42:00.001-08:00

So, for some reason our son loves the show Family Feud. He loves the clapping and the lights and the noises. He just can't leave the clapping. Maybe he'll be an entertainer one day.... hmm... here's a little video of him watching his show

Slide Show!

2009-01-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

Anniversary, Christmas, Zak's 1st Birthday....Woa I'm behind!

2009-01-13T21:27:00.001-08:00

So I haven't posted since Halloween! Holy moly am I slow at getting stuff posted. Well a lot has been going on with us. Nate has finished his intership and has applied for a job in Salt Lake with a company called ARUP (i think)... He had a phone interview and we're hoping he gets another. We think moving to SLC would be a fun adventure, plust he'd work 7 days on then 7 days off which would be nice for me to have him home so much. They also pay for him to do more school and have full benefits. So keep us in your prayers that this works out! =)

My grandma and her husband, Roger came along with my mom's brother Rick with his wife and son. It was so fun to see them all and also have my sister Amy and her husband Mike in town. The whole family was at my parents and we had a lot of fun with everyone. We did dinner with both my family and then Nate's family so we definitely got stuffed! My uncle took a bunch of pictures then so I will post them when we get them back from him.

December 23rd Nate and I had our 2nd wedding anniversary. Nate surprised me with a super cute new dress and some awesome black patent leather heels. Such good taste... We went to the temple and then stayed at a cool hotel in Boise minus Zakary. Our first night in year without Zak... It was so relaxing! We checked into the hotel as soon as possible and had planned to go out to a nice dinner but decided to have chinese food delivered and just watch movies and hang out in our hotel room in sweat pants all evening and night baby-free. It was so nice. Zak stayed with my (Amber's) parents and did awesome without us. They said he slept through the night and did great. Although it was so nice to have a little getaway...we were pretty excited to come home to the little guy and see how excited he was to see us.

Christmas Eve was spent with my parents and then most of Christmas day was spent at Nate's parents. Zak got a bunch of new cars, balls, a fire truck, clothes, a cart, a little church outfit, and books. He loved his cars and balls. He drives his cars around and says "brrrrrr". And he loves to throw the ball to people, then they give it back and he'll walk away and throw it to them again over and over.

For his first birthday (January 6th) we had people over for dinner and cupcakes. He got more stuff and was spoiled rotten and didn't even know it. haha I think the parties are more for the excitement of the parents.

Anyway we had an amazing year and are very blessed to have such an amazing family.

2008-11-10T15:18:00.001-08:00

Halloween with our walking boy!

2008-11-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

SO much fun feeding himself!

Gotta love the soggy bread on his shoulder

Sleepy lion after a long night of trick-or-treating

On the prowl

Just cute

So we're a little late getting up Halloween pictures, but better late than never! For Halloween Zak was a lion. He went trick-or-treating to just a few family and friends and was dead asleep after the 4 house visits. We had fun getting him dressed and especially doing the little photo shoot.

Zak has also started walking like crazy! It's so fun to see him pop up and start walking kinda slowly and then goes faster and faster until he can't really keep up with himself and falls or gets to his destination. He usually walks with his hands high in the air which just adds to the cuteness.

He had his 9month wellness check up last week (which he was actually 10 months old...but just got him in) and he wighed 19.2 lbs. and is 29 1/2 in. tall. He was in the twenties for his percentile in weight and the 80's for his height. He eats just about everything, but aparently doesn't feel like gaining much weight. His favorite game is to be chased. It cracks him up to have someone coming after him! He's also loving to feed himself. He thinks this is one of the funnest things ever and he always offers mom and dad a bite of whatever is in his slimy hand. So generous!

Nate and I are doing well. We're loving our calling as Sunbeam teachers. Our class is doing sharing time in 2 weeks...so if anyone has good ideas for that let me know! Nate is still just doing research and is liking it as long as there is stuff for him to be doing. I just fill in at odd jobs here and there and stay home with Zak. That's basically our exciting life for now!

We're so excited for the Holiday season and definitely ready for them!

Zak walking. He's kinda grumpy about it when he's gotta do it on demand, but doing it on his own, he loves!

2008-10-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

Standing all alone! With a stick even!!

His signature pose! He loves to get up on one knee and play or clap or wave a toy around...whatever..

First week as Sunbeam teachers!

2008-10-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Squishing little man's cheeks!
He loves to walk...with a little help of course

Here we are!

Nate and I had our first week as Sunbeam teachers today! It was so much fun! Kids definitely do say the darndest things. They have a primary program next Sunday so our second time with them we'll be performing! None of them have done a primary program before so they're kinda shy about going up and talking in the microphone. No worries though, Nate and I have been practicing their lines!

We went on a little family photo shoot today as well. Zak did not want to smile for the camera for the life of him. He was wanting to check out everything around us. We still managed to get some cute shots though. I think I'll need to go on another shoot though because I just didn't quite get all that I'd hoped for with the shots of all 3 of us.

The Hogg clan is heading for Eastern Idaho this weekend! Woot Woot! A friend is getting married so we're going to their sealing on Saturday. So it should be fun to visit Rexburg again. We haven't been there since we moved...which I guess has only been about 3 months.

I'm not sure what new things Zak has started doing this week. Oh, he has figured out high fives! That's a fun one. He loves using electric toothbrushes....not really brushing. He's even started to "roll it and roll it" (from Patty Cake) and he can also "mark it with a Z" and "toss it in the oven"....it's super cute...he's had the clapping down for awhile, but the rest is starting to come. He's still loving to say 'uh oh' and has even added his own touch and will sometimes say "guh oh" instead.

We're loving the fall weather and having it start to cool down. I was ready to start busting out jeans and long sleeves.

That's us this week!

Zak's 9 months!

2008-10-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

So Zak has reached the 9 month mark...well technically I think he is really 9 months and 1 week. He's getting to where it seems like he's starting to do new things almost daily. He now gives us kisses which is definitely fun, he waves and a new thing he does is say 'uh oh'. He loves to say 'uh oh'. He'll say it over and over especially if someone is saying it to him as well. One of his favorite games is probably to drop something on the floor or kinda throw something and then say 'uh oh'. He's loving to play with baseballs and golf balls...probably because he can palm them. He likes to hit at them and watch them roll all over and follow them then do it again. Hurtling things is also becoming one of his favorite past times. When Nate or I are lying on the floor, he just loves to climb over the top of us, and then climb back over again and again.
We have to put bar stools in front of the stairs so that he doesn't go up the stairs without supervision, but he's started trying to go through the stools. Not under, but through. He typically gets caught in the bars lying on his stomach looking like superman with his arms and legs sticking out.
Today we went shopping for shoes for little Zakary and found out he wears a 4...is this normal for a boy his age? It seemed rather large. But what do I know...?
Nate is loving his internship. He should find out about his MCAT scores any day now! We're excited to see where these scores will lead us.
Nate and I have been called to teach primary which we're pretty excited about. We don't know what age group yet or anything, but still we're excited. Well, I guess this is all for now. We'll hopefully get some pictures up soon!

2008-09-29T21:34:00.001-07:00

Trying some corn on the cob with his new chompers!

Sneaky peek of Zak's bottom teeth!

2008-09-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

We are now bloggers.....sorta

2008-09-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Hogg family finally has a blog! How we admire all of you that have such cute and updated blogs....this was a lot trickier than I thought it would be. I've finally got down a few basics though and will hopefully get better and better the longer we do this. Nate and I are in Caldwell, Idaho living with my (Amber's) parents while Nate does a 10 week internship at the College of Idaho on how breast cancer matastisizes (sp?) into bone cancer. He took the MCAT a couple weeks ago and is just waiting for his scores. From here we'll be off to podiatry school, medical school, or will be working a little longer until getting into one of those schools...we think.

Zak is getting big. He's got 4 teeth that have come through now. 2 on top and 2 on bottom. Teething hasn't been the most fun, but what can ya do besides just wait it out. He'd been sleeping through the night and since teething wakes up at least once a night. His little teeth are just too cute though. He also is 'pat a caking' and just starting to wave. He's mastered crawling and walking along furnitur and crawling up the stairs. I've found it a whole new experience to put a baby to bed who can sit up and stand up whenever they want instead of just having to lay there. Each day is definitely a new learning experience!