The Zorio Family

Thursday, September 29, 2011

John's Birthday, Our Visit to Tate Farms, and Our Little Pea in the Pod (12 Weeks)

On Tuesday John celebrated his 27th birthday! He was off work, and so we celebrated all day. We visited Tate Farms, a local pumpkin patch and more! When we went last Fall Dawson really enjoyed it, but he was a little too small to do a few of the bigger slides. This year, however, he did it all!

He loved the farm animals like bunnies, sheep, baby chicks, and goats he got to pet, although he thought the sheep was dirty! Haha. We also got to see a baby cow being bottle fed, and Dawson has not stopped talking about it. After the petting zoo, we headed over to the newest "attraction," a jumping pillow. It was a huge inflatable pillow for kids (and adults) to bounce on. Dawson was in heaven bouncing outside!

Next we checked out all the slides. He enjoyed the one attached to the combine that he also liked last year, but he also braved the HUGE slide with Daddy. You can see just how big it is in the pictures! Dawson then had fun on some regular swings and some swings made out of saddles. Of course our little guy spotted all the tractors around, so we had to climb on all of them and pretend to drive.

One of Dawson's favorite parts of Tate Farms this year were the Corn Cribs. These are basically just big square pits full of dried corn. He had a blast jumping off the sides of the cribs into the corn and trying to walk in it!

After all the jumping he was ready for a snack so he shared a pumpkin slushy with John. You can't get a pumpkin slushy just anywhere! :)

Next Dawson and I took a brief ride on the Corn Train, little corn cars pulled by a tractor. Then we headed over to take a hay ride out to the fields where the pumpkins were growing. It was a bumpy ride, but Dawson loved it! When we got to the field, Dawson and I searched for the perfect pumpkins, and then John tore them from the vine.

We picked a perfect day to go to Tate Farms, because with it being a Tuesday afternoon early in the season they were not very busy at all! It was perfect for Dawson to be able to run from one thing to the next and us to be able to keep up with him while letting him run around. After a great day at Tate Farms, we headed home to cook John's birthday dinner. He had requested steak, so we had creamed spinach bowls for an appetizer and steak and baked potatoes for dinner. Then, of course, we had birthday cake. Dawson helped me make the cake that was white with orange sprinkles. John said he had a very happy 27th birthday!

Our Little Pea in the Pod: 12 Weeks

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 12th week of my pregnancy with Baby Zorio #2. We head back to the doctor next week, and we're looking forward to hearing the heartbeat again. Not much is new on the baby-front, we know that he/she is growing, and we're still thrilled!

Check out all the photos below...

Dawson petting one of the bunnies.

Dawson and Daddy petting the sheep.

Dawson and Daddy looking at some more goats.

Dawson and Daddy coming down the HUGE

slide and having a blast!

They made it to the bottom, and Dawson

loved it!

Doing the combine slide.

Driving a John Deere.

Our little farmer.

The Jumping Pillow.

More fun on the Jumping Pillow.

One more picture of Dawson on the Jumping Pillow.

We went through the hay maze, and I

finished first! I had enough time to climb up

on the viewing deck and snap a picture of

Dawson and Daddy finding their way through the

last of the maze.

YAY! They made it out!

Jumping in the Corn Crib.

Daddy and Dawson swinging.

Mommy and Dawson sitting in the corn train.

John getting the big pumpkin we chose

off the vine.

The pumpkin patch.

Dawson wanted to sit on our big

pumpkin.

Dawson trying to blow out John's candles

before John came in the room. Dawson has

been singing "Happy Birthday" nonstop

since Tuesday.

Dawson showing off the pumpkins

we brought home.

Dawson's newest obsession: A Writing

Spider. This writing spider built a web outside

the playroom window in between two shrubs

last week, and Dawson has watched and talked

about this spider more than anything else!

Sometimes we even have to go outside

to check on the spider. We don't get

too close, but we are VERY interested.

(We did a little research, and writing spiders/

harvest spiders are harmless to people. I still

don't just love it being there, but we can't get

rid of it now. Dawson loves it too much!)

Yesterday I asked John to take our 12

week picture, and Dawson ran over to the

spot I always stand and turned to his side!

So here's the 12 week picture with Dawson

in his pjs.

And here's the official 12 week picture!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Our Growing Pea in the Pod (11 Weeks)

I thought I'd do a brief update on our little pea in the pod! :)

I'm currently 11 weeks pregnant, and our baby is about the size of a lime. We had an ultrasound at the doctor for our first appointment at 9 weeks, and I've posted the picture below. Our ultrasound was SO clear! We could see our baby's arms and legs and everything, but when the pictures were printed they're not quiet as clear as the images on the screen. Our ultrasound tech was great, and she even switched the machine over to 4-D for us to get a brief, detailed look at our little one! The lady who did our ultrasound did comment on how our little one was moving all over the place during the ultrasound, so it looks like we're going to have another busy one, just like Dawson! :)

We are determined to have made up our minds on a final boy's name and girl's name before our ultrasound which we expect to be in November. This is what we did with Dawson, and when they told us during the ultrasound he was a boy we already knew his name! And this is exactly the way I want to do it again. We have it narrowed down to a handful of boys and girls' names, and so we just have to select the perfect one!

No blog update could be complete without mention of Dawson, so here you go...Dawson is maybe starting to get a little more interested in talking about babies. He has mentioned the baby twice on his own, which I think is progress from saying "no thank you, welcome" when we asked him if he wanted a baby just a couple of weeks ago!

Just three pictures to share for now...

Ultrasound picture from 9 weeks.

Watch Baby Grow:

11 Weeks Pregnant.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Zorio Family is Growing!

John, Dawson, and I are excited to announce that our family will be growing in April! Dawson is going to be a big brother!

I am currently 10 weeks 5 days pregnant, and the baby's due date is April 10, 2012. We could not be more excited about this new addition to our family. Although, when we first asked Dawson if he wanted to have a baby at our house his response was, "No thank you, welcome," I think he will love being a big brother. That silly boy! John and I can't wait to have another little one to take care of.

When we went to Tennessee last weekend we announced it to our families at John's birthday dinner. I took Dawson upstairs to change his clothes for dinner, and when we came back down he had on a shirt that I made for him that said "Big Brother Dawson." Of course, our families were very excited for us, and my sister-in-law informed me that it was time for pink! We shall see! Sometime in November we will find out the gender, and this time around I have no true preference...I think it would be awesome to have another boy so that Dawson would have a brother to do boy stuff with, but at the same time I would love some pink in our lives!

Over the course of the past week we have told the rest of our family and friends our good news. Here are some pictures of the growing baby and proud big brother Dawson!

6 Weeks Pregnant.

7 Weeks Pregnant

8 Weeks Pregnant

9 weeks Pregnant

10 Weeks Pregnant

(I called these pictures "Watch My

Baby Grow," but John thought a better

title was "Watch my Shirt Shrink" Haha!)

This is the shirt I made for Dawson

to wear so he could announce that

he is going to be a big brother!

My silly boy in his bean bag chair

proudly wearing his "Big Brother Dawson"

shirt!

One more picture in his

Big Brother Dawson shirt!

I Went to the Animal Fair...

Last weekend we went to Tennessee to visit family and go to the Knoxville Zoo. Although John's 27th birthday is not until the end of September we decided to go ahead and celebrate while we were with family. Don't worry because he'll be getting another birthday cake and gifts from me and Dawson on his actual birthday!

On Saturday evening John's mom cooked his favorite, chicken and dumplings and deviled eggs. John's parents, Emily, Drew, my parents, and Logan were all there to celebrate. After dinner we had yummy white cake with white icing (John's favorite) that Em had decorated with Tennessee colors. We sang happy birthday, and then Dawson got to help blow out the candles.

After dinner John got to open his gifts. One of his gifts-ladder ball-provided entertainment for the rest of our evening and the next afternoon! We set up ladder ball in the back yard. Dawson ran around playing and jumping on the trampoline while we all took turns playing. Logan, who had never played before, dominated the game. Dawson loved all the attention and getting to be outside. John had a great early birthday party!

The next day was the day we planned to visit the Knoxville Zoo! We got there early when they opened, and it felt like we had the zoo to ourselves. There was hardly anyone there that early on a Sunday, and the weather was perfect! Also, all of the animals were awake and playful (except the tigers), so it worked out perfect!

Dawson's Nana and Grandad (which he has recently started pronouncing "Nainy" and "Mandad") came with us, and Dawson had a ball seeing the animals with them! One of Dawson's favorite animals we saw were the chimpanzees. He has not stopped talking about these monkeys since we've been home! We had never seen the chimps act like this, but they were being SO loud and fighting over a blanket. We, of course, told Dawson they were just playing. After a while they were let inside where we could see them even better. Then we got to watch them eat icee pops which Dawson thought was really cool! One monkey was a little dirty, and, of course, couldn't miss this. He pointed the monkey out and said, "Ewie! Monkey nasty. Gross!" After that, he was done with the monkeys! Haha!

Dawson also got to see an animal show with trained dogs and birds while we were there. There was an African Crane in the show that Dawson was convinced was a peacock (remember his obsession with peacocks since we went to the Birmingham Zoo in May??). Well this African Crane got a while hair and flew off during the animal show! They said it was the first time this had happened, and they managed to eventually get him back after the performance...it made for an even more interesting show though! Dawson liked watching the animals talk, dance, and fly right above his head!

Dawson has also been talking about the elephants and the zebras. He says, "Elephant. I don't like it. Mouth dirty with grass." One of the elephants was eating hay while we were there, and Dawson remembers his mouth as being dirty. We got to see the elephants and zebras really close up (along with a lot of other animals), and Dawson was thrilled. He has continued to talk about all the animals this whole week.

After we left the Knoxville Zoo we walked over to the Tennessee Valley Fair which just so happened to be in town while we were there! Although we didn't go on any rides, we had a good time! Dawson enjoyed looking at the rides, all the people, and everything going on around him. We had a little fair food for lunch, and played some games. Dawson enjoyed the fishing game the most where he won a little stuffed penguin.

After playing some games we walked into the pavilion where there were all kinds of tractors set up, and Dawson was in heaven! I think he sat on all the tractors there! After looking at the tractors we walked over to the animal area. Dawson thought it was awesome that he got to pet a cow and that it licked him (don't worry we washed those hands!). He has talked about this a lot too! After seeing the cows, we walked over to the sheep. Right as Dawson reached out to pet one it looked right at him and baa'ed really loud! It scared Dawson, and he said, "No woofing sheep. It scare me!" From our entire day of seeing animals, this sheep has probably been what we have talked about the most since we got back home. After seeing the animals at the fair we were all worn out and ready to go.

That evening after Dawson took an awesome nap, we went to visit Dawson's Great Mamaw, Lolly, Pop and Uncle Logan while John met one of our friends, Lance, for dinner.

On Monday after stopping by to visit Pop and go on one ride on his John Deere, we loaded up to come back home. We had a great time in Tennessee visiting family and seeing the zoo and the fair. Here are some pictures from our trip...