Monday, June 15, 2015

Cousin Zoey turns ONE!

Back in December, Pete's sisters little girl, Zoey, turned one! They moved back closer to "home" last summer, and we are so thankful to have them closer than a 20 hour drive! :) The theme was WinterONEderland. Adorable. They were in the process of buying their house, so she had the party at my mother-in-law's! So sweet! 




















Happy birthday, Zoey! We can't wait for all the fun memories ahead!




Thursday, June 11, 2015

Halloween Koala style

Halloween in pictures. 2014




My grandmother!



Gaga and Papa





Eesie and Poppie (sorry, tilt your noggin)





Zetta, 23 months old




Nora, 8 months old








Thursday, June 4, 2015

Zetta turns TWO!







Hang with me over the next few months as I get caught back up on life! Back in November our sweet baby, Zetta turned 2 years old! She woke up to cinnamon rolls and streamers! We went to visit my parents that evening at their little part time job and enjoyed some delicious frozen yogurt. They even had balloons for the birthday girl! Zetta's best buddy, Mila, also came and played for a bit. Who would have guessed balloons would be so much fun ;) 











Over the weekend we had a simple bonfire, chili, and s'mores party for our winter baby. The weather held out until she was opening her last gift, and then it started sleeting so we moved the party inside! There are a lot of pictures, but I couldn't pick just one! I loved this party! It was simple and so much room for all the little kiddos to run around. This just might be Zetta's party theme for the rest of her life! ;) The pictures are not in any particular order. I had a whole s'mores bar with different chocolates for the middle and you could pick from cookies or gram crackers, for your "bun". We had the party at my parent's house, and my dad will never disappoint with the size of the fire! 














































(Sorry, I cannot get this to flip! grr.)











Happy 2nd birthday, Zetta Mae! We love you so, so much! 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Cousin Day

A few months ago my sister came down for a wedding and I got to babysit her kid's! It was a fun filled day!  We loaded up from my parent's house to head back to my house in hopes Zetta would fall asleep in the car(and she did!) so when we got home and transferred the little kid's- Wyatt, Sloane, and I just played outside until they woke up. It was so fun to play with them and just hear their little laughs. 





After they woke up, the "big" kids and I loaded up and headed out to my aunt and uncles to see their new puppies! Nora stayed back with Pete because last time we went out there she was terrified of them!! The kid's had the best time running and playing! 





(my aunt will kill me if she sees that I put this picture on here :))



After we ran around the whole house, fed the chickens, looked at the cows, we loaded back up in the car and headed to get pizza and play at the park! There was another little boy there, and Wyatt just jumped on in and started playing with him while the girls played together. It is fun to see him play with kid's his own age and be confident like that! He is getting so big! My sister gave strict instructions to not let them fall asleep on the way home or I would have a LONG night ahead of me! We chatted about the day all the way home, took a bath, played with Uncle Pete and baby Nora a little before he took them downstairs to watch a movie while I put Nora down. By the time I got down there, Zetta and Sloane were out cold and I snuggled up with Wyatt for a little bit until he fell asleep. My parent's came and picked them up after they left the reception and took them back to their house. Those kids were worn OUT and are the champions of car transferring. My dad loaded them in their car from my house and unloaded them back into their beds at their house without either of them waking up. That is a successful cousin day my friends! I cannot wait until the next time! 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Life lately

I've never really been a consist blogger. I do really well for a few months and then just stop making time for it. It is something that I really do enjoy. I love reading other people's blogs (all types: mom blogs, nutrition, fitness, crafting, etc.) and I like looking back on what I actually do have on mine as well. I don't keep a personal journal so this kind of acts as that sometimes. Who knows if I will ever do anything with these posts, but it is therapeutic for me to type it out at the time, so I guess that counts for something. Once again, a lot has changed in our lives! I am going to type everything out in bullets because that is the easiest way for my brain to sort everything I want to type out.

-- We moved to a new house a the beginning of February and I absolutely adore this new house. I love it, and really think we will stay here for a while. It marks off many of my "must-have's", but lacks a few things. They are little things, and I don't really feel like are necessary at this point in my life anyway. I am so content there. It finally feels like a home to me and not just another house.

--Nora got tubes right after we moved into the new house (we were actually still staying at my parents at the time). She started sleeping through the night since we moved. I think it is a combination of her crib not being in our room where if she wakes she see's me and wants me and that she finally doesn't have fluid on her ears for the first time since she was 3 months old. She turned one March 24th, started walking at 11 months, just like her sister! She is still nursing 3x a day (morning, when I get home from work, and bedtime). I really don't know how to transition her off of those feedings without going cold turkey. Half of the reason is because I am lazy, and do NOT want to be engorged or pump, but I also enjoy our little time together. She's my girl! I'm sure it will happen when we are both ready...

--Zetta is really starting to take a liking to school now that she only has a month left! :) Her vocabulary surprises me every single day. Some of my favorite phrases are "Oh, sure, I would love too.", "I love you so much", If she asks us something and we say no, she always, always says "Oh, well I thought you wanted too" or "well I thought you wanted some" until we finally take whatever she is trying to give us, "Oh, sure", "I forgot about that" and many more I cannot think of right now. She still does not really like any meat. She prefers yogurt, cheese, black beans, ANY fruit, green beans, corn on the cob. She will eat ham or bacon, but that is about it.
She did have a little accident swinging right when we moved into our house and they are almost positive she had a stress fracture. She didn't walk on it for two weeks. We ended up getting two X-rays and seeing a orthopedist, but they didn't want to expose her to more radiation just to tell us it was indeed a fracture. I am just happy that she is better. It was so so sad to see her limping and crawling around.

--I got a new job! I am now the office manager of Cultural Exchange Network! It was a huge change going from a job that was EXTREMELY flexible with hours to working 9-5 everyday. I thrive more off of a routine, so it is going better that I thought, for me and the girls. They will be starting a little daycare in June, so then I think we will all have our schedule and know what we are doing everyday. I will always be grateful for my job at Orange Monkey and the flexibility it allowed while my girls were still in there baby stages, but I really feel like this is where we are suppose to be. I am so excited to see how it all turns out, but I can finally see over the mountain that we have been climbing for the past year. To be totally honest, last year was a hard, hard year for me personally. I was a sleep deprived mom of two kids under two, trying to work a full time job without full time childcare, move houses, and who knows what else. Like I said I loved my job, but I am not cut out for management of a small company with a bunch of high school employees. Maybe when my kids are a little older, but right now I couldn't commit the time and effort it took to get the job done, so that was extremely stressful for me. I just always felt like I was letting someone down. If it wasn't my work, it was my husband, kids, family, or friends. I was just trying to juggle so much and it finally broke me. I am excited to be working a 9-5 where I can mentally check out at 5 pm and only worry about taking care of my family until I go back to work in the morning. Some people can leave work at work, but I am not one of those people. I really cared (and still do) for the family I worked for at Orange Monkey, so I just wanted to always do my best for them and really treated it as if it were my business, and I just couldn't get it off my mind when I knew I was suppose to be focusing on my children. Anyways, that was really deep, and all to say that I cannot say enough how relieved I feel everyday when I leave work. It was a much needed change for me (and my sanity)!

--Pete is staying busy as usual! He currently owns 7 properties (2 for sale, 4 rentals, and our house), and the biggest news is that he recently purchased Orange Monkey! HA! After ready my section above I am sure you are rolling your eyes and thinking he is crazy! But, in all honesty, I am excited. That place has so much potential and it just needs someone to run it (without getting a paycheck), and someone who knows more about running a business and has true business schooling. He will be taking over everything because I do not have the time at all. I get excited when I envision the future and we stop by on a Saturday and the girls run and play. Zetta loves it there, and I would have hated to see it close. Cape needs kids entertainment, so I hope that we can provide something that encourages family fun, for us, and our community!
I could not survived without him this past year. He stepped up when I couldn't do things, and never once said a bad word or lost his patience. He has SO MUCH on his plate, but can always stay cool, calm, and collected. I admire that trait more than anything! He is the best dad to the girls, helps with baths, dishes, dinner, does all our laundry, goes to the store, and so many other things that I haven't mentioned. I am so blessed that God chose Pete to be my husband. We are polar opposites, but that is why we work, I guess. He keeps me grounded, sets me straight when I loose focus on what's really important (ie- my family, not the dishes, messy floors, voice mails, or the other 100x that I struggle looking past). He deserves a huge gold star and more.

I think that is about all that is going on in our lives! Who knows when I'll post again, but it's always fun to check in even if it is only every 6 months!