Can you believe...

Zoey has been home 16 months today?!?!!?

Last year at this time, we were celebrating 4 months home! So I've decided to use that same post a year ago to see how far we've come!

Amazing how fast time has gone by! Hitting our four month mark is a big deal since we waited four months and 4 days for our travel call after receiving Zoey's referral. She is doing remarkably well and has turned into quite the chatter box and much more of a toddler rather than a baby. She currently says about seven words, which sort of happened over night! She says bye bye (and waves), hello, uh-oh, go, no, mama and dada. She says probably 50+ words now and repeats every single word we say! The biggest milestone we have reached is that she is sleeping through the night consistently now! It's amazing what a difference that makes in our house with everyone! Her naps are better during the day and she is much happier during awake time. Still sleeping through the night and still an excellent napper! This girl now loves to sleep! Often times, we are having to wake her from naps and from sleeping in in the morning! The carseat is finally facing forward and she is now comfortable riding in the car with or without big brother. She absolutely loves the car now and enjoys just getting out even for short errands...She has definetly got a little naughty in her as she often does things she's not supposed to with a big fat smile on her face and promptly throws a little tantrum when we divert her attention elsewhere! Um, she has a lot of naughty in her now, and the tantrums are much, much larger! But that's part of being a two year old, right?!?! She will sit still for the most part so I can do her hair in the morning and while she still doesn't love her baths, she tolerates them much better than before. She loves the baths now, still have to catch her in a good mood to get her to sit still to do her hair! She is just walking everywhere and enjoys other people, as long as they don't try and pick her up! She runs everywhere, walking is no longer an option and she still enjoys people as long as they don't try to pick her up! We are so happy with our family of four and continue to enjoy our two little blessings! We are definitely happy with our family of four and still continue to enjoy our two little blessings!!

Here she is one year ago today...

Organizing...

(insert huge sigh of relief here)

Lately, my house has been cluttered to the max. We have been busting at the seams! I keep saying to myself that maybe we just have too much stuff and need to not only declutter, but just get rid of stuff! The biggest issue lately has been all my craft stuff. It's everywhere. It occupied the second desk in our office, part of the kitchen table, a few shelves on our entertainment center, and don't even get me started on my craft table upstairs in my bedroom.

If you're a fan of the show Friends, it totally reminds of me that episode where Ross dates that girl (played by Rebecca Romijn) that has an apartment like an episode of Hoarders and Ross literally has to move a pile of stuff over just to put his jacket down!

Yah, my craft table totally looked like that!

I just didn't know what to do with it all till I finally figured out that I had the perfect spot...if I could just get organized! In our house, the laundry room is upstairs and is a pretty large space. Shelves line on entire wall, floor to ceiling. But most of the stuff in there was just scattered, not organized, and taking up way more space than it needed to. So I cleared it out, bought a ton of clear plastic bins, and started organizing.

And wah-lah! Now every item has a space...it's amazing!

Even my craft table got a facelift, that is, you can actually see it's surface now!

I should have taken before and after pictures, but truth be told, I didn't want CPS to have proof that my house actually looked like it did at one point in time. :0)

I just have to say that my house seems to always be a work in progress. Next week I plan to take a room a day and get it organized. We'll see how that goes. It seems I am always getting overwhelmed with the clutter and lack of organization at my house.

So, is your house organized exactly how you want it and does it stay that way?

Big and Little

Zoey's great grandmother (or Froggy Grandma as we call her at our house!) sent her this adorable book for her birthday! She absolutely loves it! We read it every day, sometimes 10 times a day, and sometimes I actually have to distract her and hide the book to get a little break from reading it! She has memorized it and will sit on her own sometimes and read it to herself knowing exactly which words go with each picture! I had to get her on video doing it! I wish I had her reaction the first time we read it...she laughed so hard she could barely breathe! So here she is enjoying her now favorite book (Bi-bim-bop, or just "Bop" as she calls it, moves into second place now that she has this one). You can hear her saying some of the phrases before I do as she has it so memorized!

It's called Big and Little by John Stadler, but Zoey calls it "Ta-dah!" and you'll see why when you watch the video. :0)

And on a side note...Happy belated 84th birthday to Froggy Grandma! We love you! And thank you for this fantastic book!

I may just have to do another giveaway soon with this one!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A little toddler riddle.

What do a spilled bag of cereal on the pantry floor,
a sink left running in a bathroom
and three muddy dogs who were let in the back door that were waiting outside to be bathed, have in common?

That's right. A little toddler named Zoey who opened all those doors all be her little toddler self and was the culprit behind all those acts.




So now, what do the pantry door, the bathroom door and the back door all have in common?

That's right. Only the best invention for toddlers ever! Door handle covers that are definitely toddler proof! (At least for now anyway, she's been eyeballing how we use them and I think she's starting to get the idea! Praying for at least a few more months till she can figure it out!)

The next Mary Lou Retton?

Now that Zoey and I have some definite girl time with big brother at school, we decided to try out something fun and headed to our first mommy and me gymnastics class at a local little gym.

As expected, in the beginning, Zoey wanted nothing to do with the instructor, taking her shoes off or allowing me to put her down. But after she observed the class already in session and I explained to her what was going to happen, she practically threw her shoes off and ran into the room! She was very timid and shy and would not let go of my hand, but warmed up slowly by the end of the class, at times, pushing my hand away when I offered it to her for help! That's just Zoey! She definietly has anxiety with strangers and being around kids her age that she doesn't know, but will warm up a bit without letting her full personality out in public. She saves that for us at home! This is one of the things I'm hoping to help her accomplish with this kind of class as she still gets paniced in situations she is not comfortable with. (And I know...this sounds like most two year olds, but trust me, she has some severe panic attacks in these situations sometimes.)

Let's just say she has some major motor skills goin' on! She handled every apparatus with ease, including the balance beam and in regular Zoey style, took on the bars like a pro! While the instructor had to help the other kids climb the mat and hook their hands on the bar, then give them a little push to start them swinging, and finally let them down gently to land on their feet, Zoey waited till no one was around, (she of course refused to stand in line and do what everyone else was doing!) climbed the mat, jumped from the mat to the bar, caught it with her two tiny hands, and proceeded to swing back and forth before dropping to ground and landing on her feet!

All. by. her. self.

Did it surprise me? Not really. That girl hangs from my car door handle while she's waiting for me to load up the car and get her in! (Which, by the way she did today and hit the tire with her newly clean leggings, so she was absolutely filthy before we even left for class!)

So here's some pictures of the next Mary Lou Retton...she's well on her way!

And sorry some of these pics are dark or a little blurry, I had no motivation this evening to edit them. :0)

We survived!!

The first day of kindergarten!

I have been nervous about this day for weeks! It's such a big thing to have a child start school! (At least for me it is!) But I know he will do great and is so ready! He had some trouble going to bed so early last night even though we started "training" him early last week for this new bedtime. I think he was a little nervous too! But he finally settled in and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning and excited! We dragged poor Zoey out of bed still in her pj's with a bobo in her mouth and all to take him as a family on his first day. I was so relieved that they were allowing the parents to wait with the kids and take them to their classrooms the first day.

He slowly went from excited to less excited, to a bit of panic mode, to finally a few tears as he realized we weren't staying! I of course cried too, especially seeing he was so upset. But we waited a few minutes after stepping out and peeked back in to see him doing just fine! It was strange to be home with Zoey all by ourselves and while we had a good time, she definitely missed her brother! I put her down for an early nap to wake her in time to pick Braedan up from school. I cannot tell you how excited I was to go and get him!! I missed him a lot! My kids are never really away from me at all and if they are, they are usually just hanging out next door with my parents, so it's a very strange feeling to not him there for that long! He said he had a great time and even made a few friends already! He even said he only got into trouble "one time" today! (Apparently he touched something he wasn't supposed to!)

He loves his class, loves his teacher and loves going to school! I am so proud of him and feel so lucky to have such an awesome son and know that he will have a great year!

Here's a few pictures from his first day...you can tell as the pictures progress, he's slowly starting to freak out a bit!! But he did great and can't wait to go back again tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday {Park Time}

Today...

I'm diggin' the new bangs. :0)

The Big Bang Theory

So, I had this big theory...

about bangs...

more specifically, bangs for Zoey.

See, my big theory is that if she had bangs, her hair wouldn't hang down in her face...

So, after debating for weeks, I took the big theory and decided to follow through with it...

By cutting bangs for Zoey this morning.

I'm happy to report that my theory was correct...

cutting bangs does indeed keep her hair out of her face...

and while she is still gorgeous with them...

it's a change that will take a little getting used to!

Then and Now

August 15, 2009

August 15, 2010

August 15, 2009

August 15, 2010

What in the world have we been up to?

You may have noticed a lack of posts the past week or so...for good reason! We've been busy! So what exactly have we been up to?

Well, for starters, we celebrated Zoey's birthday...and with the help of my beautiful niece's,

we made pupcakes as Zoey loves puppies!

And now, for the second year in a row, we make a special cake to remember her birth mother,

and wish her peace...

We registered someone for kindergarten! I can hardly believe it myself! I am definitely in freak out mode waiting for school to start and have already cried just thinking about sending my Braedan!

We've had plenty of cousin time as all eight grandchildren were here the weekend of Zoey's birthday! Which my parents loved!



We even had some time to dress two particular cousins in the same outfit!

And we were out of town a few days to help celebrate my sister's graduation from nursing school!

Zoey kept taking cousin's shoes off and wearing them! But she was quiet and calm through the ceremony, so whatever to keep her busy!

Be sure to check out what else has been keeping me busy by clicking here to see the big sale in my Etsy store!

Whew! Now back to work!