online shopping is my friend

I was very proud of myself the other day; I went for almost two months not buying one thing for myself (exclude food obviously). Some of you might laugh at me for how silly that sounds, but I like buying occasional inexpensive items of clothing. And what did I buy? A very cute dress and scarf from the wonderful Modcloth.com. both on a good sale might I add!

We had a nice jaunt down to Roanoke Friday night as well to buy a Snoogle (and awesome pregnancy pillow) from Target (they didn't have one at that one, next visit to Wayensborro I guess) we got Zuri some cute summer clothes ( her shirts are now all belly shirts. It's pretty funny she'll notice then lift up her shirt then point to her belly button and laugh.) I guess you could say I've had a shopping fix for a bit.

By the way all of these clothing items are in prep for graduation outfit for my senior show. They have a grand purpose. It has to be more strategic then normal cause I have to predict what size my belly will be by then. I'll be 4 1/2 months pregnant and with Zuri I didn't start showing really tell 5 months, but this kid? oh goodness my belly is already starting to puff out a good amount. I guess when they say your second pregnancy belly gets bigger faster is true.

So that's my fun life! aww clothes.

Meanwhile! Our chimney is getting rebuild. Thanks to Chris getting our insurance to cover it we will no longer have to worry about a rotting chim.

Chris has just about finished painting the kitchen walls! The green turned out very very nice, I like it.

Mid-terms are this week. Which is awesome because that means spring break is soon and the end is near! But not awesome because I have an insane amount of work to do for the Show by the beginning of April. Wish us luck! Hope youre all doing well

Zuri helping me file my plate in the studio

The ktich. (these are all from the phone sorry for the dark)

Zuri purchases in Roanoke

She never did get the bink concept.

our little cow

snuggle time with Kelso

These are photos from Zuri's birthday bash up in Washington. Yes I know it was like 2 months ago, but I am just getting to posting them. My bad! Thank you Court Court for taking and making these awesome cupcakes with Carmel. I'm still very impressed.

(I love my moms cake stands)

Up at the art studio. She learned how to knock and it makes us laugh pretty good.

First bit of February

A little of what's going on.

Zuri discovered her hair clips were cool and wanted them all in at once.

Just a hammy face that cracks me up.

Zuri put this on Kelso's booty and it made him look like a live stuffed animal.

He's such a good pup.

Her modeling her new pig tails. She actually does a pretty good job keeping them in for some time.

She's getting good at words lately. She says 'thank you' and this 'two, tee.' I'm not sure how much is just a mimic, but I love it anyways.

don't be scared

Chris told me I quite possibly got a little type happy on the last post and this is true, so I'm sorry and this one will be much shorter. I promise. (I have no idea how I'll ever get to talk about his siblings if I shouldn't type so much at once.. We'll figure that one out later).

I really just wanted to talk about one of our latest achievements that I am very proud of. Don't get too excited it's about Zuri of course :) Remember how we've always had a dreadful time getting her to sleep and stay asleep? Well our horrible days of that are basically through! Thank heavens, we were starting to die.

A little over a month ago Chris told me it just had to stop. I agreed, but I had no idea what the heck we were suppose to do. She was rocked and fed to sleep (I know that's like number 1 'no' in every single baby book/article known to mankind) her whole little life. I just didn't know how to stop feeding her to sleep and I absolutely HATE it when she cries to sleep, because she doesn't just cry she screams bloody murder for a very very long time. Then she would wake up 3-4 times a night cause her diaper was so full. Why was it so full? oh, cause we just kept feeding her back to sleep every time she woke up. Nice little cycle we had going one right?

I tried the "No cry-sleep solution" book I found, and I read all sorts of articles on how to stop feeding your kid to sleep. That didn't work for us. Zuri was just way too dependent on having us there to fall asleep. It was getting stressful and once we found out I was preggers again Chris said that was it, we all needed to sleep.

He did all the research this time and made sure we stuck to the plan. We had a good routine already, but instead of staying with her we would put her in her crib give her a little pat a 'love you' and left. uuuuhhh it was awful! The first few nights she screamed for over an hour. Screamed! I had to stick in my ear phones to not freak out.

Now most normal children would get the pictures about a week into it. Took her about a month and she still cries a little when she goes down, but very long explanation short she is now an expert sleeper. It's freaking wonderful. She dives for her crib now and doesn't care much about her bottle. (weaning completely is in sight) She wakes up once about midnight for a snuggle then goes right back down. ahhh the sleep is wonderful for us.

This was a huge feat for us. I know it sounds silly, but it was really not awesome. We have learned the hard way for the next round of child. I thought I'd share the joy!

Hope your Valentines was wonderful. Chris got me a beautiful rose bouquet (from a fancy florist even!) and I got him a pack of soda (silly I know, but I try to keep him healthy so I never buy him soda unless he asks or buys it himself) But he found it in the car trunk the other day! Surprise ruined, but it's ok cause he was pretty stoked about it.

Our other news is Chris quit his job. Today was his first day off his crazy schedule and it was wonderful. He is now very motivated to work on the house to get it in ship shape for summer selling time! He is currently painting the kitchen and put in a new track light above the sink last night. It looks great already. We picked green for the color and we hope it works out. We don't normally go bold for walls, but we'd like to be a little different.

Well that post wasn't shorter then the last (sorry) I have no idea how to edit apparently.

As we know it. Part I

This is a long one, so if you don't feel like reading about stuff that probably has no importance to your life you can click out and I won't even feel bad.

I am always sad when people don't update their blogs all the time and here I am being that person who has disappeared for a bit. And not like anyone has a life anyways so everyone should post daily,right? haha, aren't I funny?

So yesterday was a thinker day for me (I know, shocking). We will start my little story with the morning. Zuri and I went to the midwives up in Augusta to check out Zur's newest little sibling. Yup, 8 weeks and 5 days (give or take). The little olive (named for size not actual name, although now that I think about it I kind of like it) has an excellent heart beat and moved a bit, but not nearly as much as Zuri's first ultrasound, I'm hoping that this trait carries through cause from what I've noticed with siblings their babies are more chill. NOT that I don't love Zuri's energy, obviously look how many videos I do of the kid. Chris wasn't able to come up, but Zur was good company and she did much better then I thought she might being moved room to room and not being held constantly when someone new would come in the room. I was thinking a target trip would be fun after, but it was way past her nap time by the time we left and I had my blood test so we opted out instead for a BBQ sandwich (very tasty) a few sips of milk and she was out cold. It was cute.

This long drive home (45 minutes, geez. luckily the speed limit recently got changed from 65 to 70 mph, thank you VA) is where I bring you to my second notable moment of the day. I started thinking about babies of course and my siblings and how cute their babies are and how cute the rest of the Hardy and Vial babies will be. Then I realized how grown up we all are. Then I started thinking about my big brothers and how I miss them. It was weird, but I really missed them thinking about it all. (of course I miss the rest of my family too don't feel bad guys.)

My big bros are awesome, and great guys. Kj's name (Kyncade) has already been given to one kid in my fam, but we have the name Yancee on reserve if we ever have a boy and feel he is worthy of the name...and of course if it's not taken by someone else first. They were awesome boys to play with as a kid, they were always hilarious and mine and Cami's heros. Kj loved doing circus games and building blanket forts that took up two huge rooms in our house, he was pro. And Yancee was the best with pets and finding random creatures to adopt (sometimes much to my parents dismay). Then this brought me to my next though, I talk about siblings a lot on my blog, mostly my sister, Spam, and both our mama's. But I rarely explain who is who and Chris and I are surrounded by many sibs. Unless you are very close to us or you are part of us then you probably don't really get why I think certain people are so wonderful. So I have decided to do a little debrief of the fams. More for my enjoyment I suppose, but if you like the info then fabulous.

The Hardy folk:

Dad: A complete nut case and hilarious. He's the center of most of our family story telling simply because he gets a kick out of how funny he is which is even more funny. He's a cool guy.

Mama: no longer only titled 'mom' once Cami coined her 'mama' I don't know if I can call her just mom now. She's my sweet mama. Has adopted my first pup, Pippin, and is a homemaker at heart but one hard workin woman and she rocks at both.

Yancee: He's the military man of the fam (aside from dad)He's currently stationed in Iraq (not in harms way thank goodness) He's be big bad rough and tough dude with the sweetest, kindest heart you'll find. He has a little fellow, Adryan who is now 6? 5? he's grown up...who lives with his mom, Rocio in Miami. He married his wifey, Kimmy (living in Utah) in 06' and they had their first babe last August (right?) Carstyn. I haven't met him yet, but I hear he is one chill kid. Kimmy and I have been friends since we were 16, we have had many fun adventures together. I miss her.

Kyncade: Aka, the KJ. He's the tall one, 6'7". I like to tell people about him cause they can't believe someone as short as me and as tall as him came from the same gene pool. It's true. I always wanted to hang out with him and his cool cat friends when I was young, but of course I wasn't cool enough :) Then we discovered after his mish that we had the exact same music love and we have shared tunes every since. He married his wifey, Courtney (the court court) three months after Chris and I (although they knew each other much better and for longer then Chris and I did :)) Court and I go way back as well. We played lacrosse together in HS and lived together in Long Beach. She's the cute blonde of the fam and is a bundle of energy and drive. We also had many funny times together.

Camden: (Spam/Cami) She's the wonderful big sis to everyone. She jokes that she couldn't wait for KJ and Yance to get married so she could finally have an older sister...then they married ladies my age. Spam will always be the wisest and most experienced of the Hardy women though. She married Tyson in 06' and they now have little Josh and Caleb and numero three on the way. She's due about 5 days before me. We really haven't planned the same pregnancies, but somehow they have happened twice now. You hear all about her all the time so I feel she needs little explanation on how awesome she is.

then there is me...

Chanson: (Chanz) he's the newest member of the SVU following and Chris' bromance buddy for Zombie movies. He's the Connan look alike and has taken a recent love for swing dance and piano. It's very cool to see him grow up here with us....although a lot of that is taking my car and using the gas... He's still cool.

Ammon; (Chubby). He was the rolly polly baby of the family with the giant brown eyes and cute little freckles. Low and behold he's now taller then me and more buff. I feel the nick name may be dying and it makes me sad. He's the character of the family, like dad he makes us all laugh constantly with his voices and acting out made up characters.

Carmel: (mellie) Sweet little Carmel. Cami and I claim we raised her cause mom was so exhausted with the rest of us. Of course mom did her mothering with her, we just had a nice bond with our baby sis. She's the tall skinny girl of the fam and is just as boy crazy as I was at 13. (yikes) She is one of Chris' favorites just because she's so genuine with everyone. She's also the best with all the babies.

So that's my fam. It's not nearly as huge as Chris' family (as you will soon see in Part II) but I love them all and I miss the ones who aren't here with us.

Today: we had a couple come look out the house ( they may be interested for buying in May) which gave me an excuse to take a whole lot of hours the past three days and seriously clean our horse. I like to think I do ok with keeping the house tidy and cleaning the toilets, but some good hard cleaning is not always the easiest to come by. (like all busy and not busy mama's know) I was able to clean after Zur went to bed Wed and Thurs, but today I had to get some stuff done. I thought it'd be quick, but low and behold two hours later I am still sweeping, mopping and scrubbing and I find Zuri sucking on the toilet cleaner. Awesome. It was locked thank goodness, but the kid thought it was funny! Guess I'll be locking the cleaning cabinet to keep her from thinking poison is candy.

Well, wow. I apparently can't stop tonight. Here are some pictures to make the gabbing less annoying. I have more videos of the Zur to post, but I am waiting to film a new trick she does with the anti-draft door blocker (what the heck is the right name for that?)

These are the photos' Brinn took for us a few months back and I can't believe how much Zuri's hair has grown since then! (Kelso's too come to think of it)