Mace Alan Hopkins (by Travis)

Today at 4 PM Marcie gave birth to Mace Alan Hopkins. He was 7 lbs 11oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Both the baby and Marcie are doing great. We will post some pictures tomorrow.

The Forgotten Christmas Pics

So, typically I take pictures with my camera for special occasions etc and we use Trav's for everyday things. Well, I got the camera out today to take a few cute pictures of Zane...and low and behold, there were quite a few of our Christmas pictures. I thought I would share a couple of my favorites and one from this morning...

This is just a representation of the beginning of the end! For Christmas Zane got a couple of sets of Handy Manny tools (from his favorite show, if 18 month olds can have a favorite show, yikes). He's taken a special interest in the screwdrivers and he carries them everywhere. I mean everywhere. I find them in the snack cupboard, the new babies room, my sewing box, and who knows where else (because one is missing right now). He even uses them to 'work' on his firetruck and slide.

I just thought this was the cutest. Sydney and Brooklyn just can't get enough of Zane now that he can walk and will follow them everywhere. I'm so grateful that they embrace him rather than shut him out.

And, this morning, we took a few pictures of Zane to mark 18 months since things are about to get quite hectic around here. This is one of my favorites! Zane, blue is definitely your color. I just keep wondering how long this super human cuteness of his is going to last.

Zane's Last Days Before Being a Big Brother (by Travis)

This has become a common occurance as of late. Every day Zane is more and more self reliant. Pictured here with a whole box of Teddy Grahams just back from the store. He loves to do this with raisins and gold fish crackers too, I don't think there has been a day in the past 2 weeks that one of us hasn't stepped on a raisin in the family room.

At stores Zane likes to either ride in the cars that are carts or if they don't have those he has to push the cart. Here we are at Costco with a printer a few other items in the cart and Zane pushed it all over the store. All I did was steer. Marcie would do the shopping and I would steer Zane toward her because he wouldn't stop. It is kind of like shopping with a hocky puck on ice.

2008 in Review (by Travis)

What a great year! Zane grew up before our eyes. In January he started sitting up and staying there.

In February we went to Oahu and the Big Isaland. Zane played on the beach and swam in the Ocean. He went on his first boat ride to sleep with the whales (not a typo), he slept most of the time but had a lot of fun when he was awake.

In August we went to the Grand Canyon. Perfect timing to just learn how to crawl and walk along things. No one fell in, that we knew. It was fun to spend a long weekend in such a quiet place.

Right when we got home from the Grand Canyon it was Zane's First Birthday and Swimming lessons. He struggled with opening the presents but had fun with all of his favorite people in one place. He did swimming lessons with Aspen and Daniel really i think we paid to hang out with our friends in a pool.

In the fall we spent an eveining and breakfast with Marcie's family at the Spruces in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Lots of fun.

In October we went to Walt Disney World with Marcie's Family. We did everything. Here you see Zane ready to go into Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It was the highlight of the trip.

For Halloween Zane was Squirt from Finding Nemo. Here he is with Aspen and my dad. Aspen is the cutest sock pupet anyone has ever seen.

We spent the morning at home opening presents and then went to see all our family. This is Zane tearing up another present. He likes to tear pieces off one at a time, hand them to someone, say 'thank you', and do it again. Christmas could have taken years at that pace so we had to kick in a little help so he could see what was inside, then he would get excited and tear things open.

Thanks to everyone for such a great year. We are 2-3 weeks away from having our second son so 2009 will be quite an adventure.

A Great Christmas (by Travis)

We had an amazing Christmas. Here Zane is opening a book from Daniel. Thanks everyone for making this Christmas Great.