Chris and Kenni

happenins

2012-01-17T18:15:00.005-05:00

Z has figured out how to get her clothes off, which she'll accomplish the second we get home from any outing...

How many licks does it take to get the center?

You know the Plain White T's "1 2 3 4" ? It's one of her favorites.

Zuri is 2 and Christmas

2012-01-04T17:14:00.005-05:00

The festivities were exhausting.

I just love her little smiles

Zuri's new hoodie.

Dot got bandana bibs. (they keep the drool at bay, very nice)
Dot also got binky's for Christmas.

A little Christmas cheer. She wasn't as into the Belle doll as I thought she'd be. That's alright cause she got a good amount of toys from family on her birthday. These slippers were a nice hit though. She wore them around the house yesterday paired with just her pull up. Very humorous.

Zuri's birthday. Hailey got her a cute little "it's my birthday" dress and Chris taught her the latest trick, a hug/squeeze.

one.

2011-12-23T01:34:00.002-05:00

Dot at three months. A common face of hers.

How zuri wanted to decorate the tree.

D. helped decorate the tree by staring down the lights.
This kids last day being a 1 year old. I can hardly believe it.
I wish I woke up with hair like this:

Zoo

2011-12-16T02:08:00.003-05:00

This is a totally late post, but oh well, I wanted some of this documented.

We went to the Zoo a few weeks ago and Zuri loved it. I'm pretty sure she would have been perfectly thrilled to hang out with the sea lions the entire time. Dot was awesome and slept the whole time. Luckily my friend, Whitney, had a double stroller and we could just stick our babies in that. man, I need to get me one of them!

Dot and her boy pal, Tate. I love the binky action going on here. Throw that with the glare Dot is shooting at me for taking her out in the cold and I think we got ourselves an entertaining little video!

This is pretty loud...Just warning you.

The Zoo is a billion times more fun with little kids. We'll definitely need to go back again soon.

The girls

2011-12-13T13:23:00.002-05:00

I'm doing a bit of a lazy day at home with the girls and posting some videos that just make me happy. Zuri's is longer for those who don't want to watch a minute and a half of my chatty kid. But come on who doesn't want to do that?!

I did this video just so you can hear what Zuri says when she can't pronounce something. It makes me laugh very time maybe because it reminds me of what I would do in Spanish...

Dot is starting to laugh now. I missed more of the giggles and got the 'laughing so hard I'm choking and now have the hiccups' part.

Your professional opinion.

2011-12-05T00:44:00.004-05:00

Chris and I are planning to get one of these Disney Dolls as Zuri's Christmas present. The problem is I don't know which one of these two I should get for her. Which one do you think she'd like better? ok, ok, which one do you like better cause in all reality she wouldn't care which one she'd just love a doll. I can't make up my mind (surprise surprise). So I hereby ask for your professional opinion.

It's between miss Belle here:

Or miss Aurora. (although she looks like Rapunzel to me.)
Aren't they cute? I just love there big faces. They remind me of my own kids faces and their sweet round cheekies.

Sunshine

2011-11-29T18:52:00.003-05:00

That was our eventful morning. How was yours?

Here comes December!

2011-11-26T18:14:00.006-05:00

I got the camera back and figured I should share some more moments from November before we cruise right along into December. Holy smokes, were did this year go? But might I add how much I love the holidays? I do, I looove them. Yesterday while driving home about every 5th car had a big ol' Christmas tree strapped to its roof. It was fantastic.

A little sneak peek of our Christmas cards..

She has more than outgrown her tub, but she still loves it.

All their faces are too good not to share.

(Note the phone thief.)

She reminds me of a hamster storing her food for winter....

in her cheeks.

Zuri can always get D to smile

her two month birthday

Hailey and Nic brought us some delicious cupcakes one night...

Zuri didn't go to bed for quite some time.

I'm pretty sure she thought they were well worth it.

Our happy babe

I decided to have Chris cut Zur's hair. It's now up to her chinny chin. It's pretty adorable,

I'll get pictures up soon.

I am very very delayed on Thanksgiving talk. I do want to say I'm incredibly thankful for both mine and Chris' family. Everyone is a complete joy to be around and talk to. I miss my family a lot sometimes, and I am grateful for modern technology. My mom, dad, papo, and siblings are just a quick call away. I'm thankful for friends close and far. They always give us good laughs.

Just a few things/people I'm grateful for...

My big sis, Cami.

I'd be a lost mother without her. I miss our giggle fests

while our husbands stare in complete amazement and confusion.

My mama.

She's the smartest, bravest woman I know. I love her so much.

My in-laws.

They are an amazing example of compassion and selflessness.

My beautiful baby girls.

They make me want to be a better person.

Kelso.

He's so loyal and will never stop loving us.

iphones.

I never get lost now.

it's awesome.

Heating.

I love not shivering while

feeding D in the middle of the night.

And of course

My Christian.

He's the most amazing of all.

I'm thankful for the love he has

for me and his girls.

For how well he takes care of us.

I'm thankful he married me.

Tomorrow we bless little miss Dorothy. We stuck to the untraditional route and she's wearing a dark dress. (Zuri's was pink). There's another thing! I'm thankful Chris holds the priesthood. what a comforting thing.

ABC's and 123's.

2011-11-22T17:43:00.010-05:00

Zuri at her friend, Melody's, birthday party. super super fun for her.

How grown up are my kids? It's unbelievable sometimes that I've had them for so long (I know, two years is sooooo long, right?)

Zuri has been blowing my mind with all the words she says. She'll all of a sudden spew out phrases, like "ok, con- on! Et's go!" or "the bebe is a craw-yin!" She started counting to ten the other day out of the blue. How she learned that I'll never know. It's not like I walk around the house all day counting from 1 to 10. (wait, do I?) I guess all those trips to the library are paying off. I was boasting with pride especially when she repeated the entire alphabet. I really have no idea if that's about the age kids start doing all that. None the less I'm proud of my smarty pants. (Brag much? yes, yes I do.)

Miss Dot is following the ambitious suit. Just past the two month mark and she'll roll over on occasion which is just plain crazy. She's sort of getting better at sleeping that's still a work in progress... She's got the prettiest little silver blue eyes though, and a killer little grin to go with them. Majority of the time she is very happy just talking away to us or the ceiling. She's my bundle of joy.

I have a bunch of pictures on my camera, but Chris needed it for work this past week. We'll have to do with phone photos for now.

I heard Zuri in her room the other day saying, "poop, an pee!" Lamby is getting potty trained apparently

Kelso and Dot at 2 months....
Kels and Zuri at about 3 months old. He's still the baby snuggler.
Loving herself some cooky dough...

and yes she's still refusing to wear clothes much of the time.
It's gotten chilly. Baby bundling is required
Matching hats from aunt Hailey. Perfect for Christmas, yes?

Our little counter.

Before I forget! I am going to make the blog private, so if you want an invite e-mail me. kennebec.vial@gmail.com.

My little nephew, Josh, called me today (he's going to be 4 next Tuesday). I asked him if he knew what Thanksgiving was and he said, "It's when you thank Heavenly Father." Thad-a-boy.

Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.

Goals goals goals

2011-11-07T18:03:00.002-05:00

I did it. I finished my Senior paper and I sent it in.... Please oh please pray it will pass this time for me. I kind of, nay, never want to look at it ever again. Not that I didn't enjoy how my sr. show turned out, I am just so sick of reading about how I did it. I bet my professor is real sick of it, too.

I wanted it done by October 31st. But a week late isn't too bad right?

I'm still exercising...sort of. I've lost a bit of my drive just like I always do. I'm still doing it though, just not as often. I wanted to start running, but that means I'd have to go before or after kids are asleep and now it's winter and dark during those hours. I don't particularly like running in the dark.. We'll see if I can start to swing it sometime soon though, I miss listening to my music loudly. Maybe that can be my motivation?

I took few cooking classes this weekend with the Vial ladies. It was awesome to learn some delicious meals. I also learned how to hold a knife properly. Who knew the right way kills my finger? It's true, I have a bruise. I'm either that weak or that strong.

Chris went hunting in Montana this weekend with all the Vial men. (the main reason was to have his cousin ordained so he can go on his mission soon, but the hunting was a good bonus). He shot his first deer. Now we have some venison stew to look forward to, yum!

I guess we both had our very stereotypical weekends didn't we?

Miss Spot

2011-11-07T16:43:00.006-05:00

My friend, Nicole, gave me a little photo shoot gift after Dot was born. We couldn't get our schedules to match up quite right until D. was about 5 weeks, but here are some photos from it. It was good to get even more photos of little spot. I felt like Zuri had a billion more pictures by the time she was a month old. Here's to catching up.

oktober

2011-11-01T01:22:00.006-04:00

Happy Halloween. And Happy Birthday to my little bro, Chanson. He's 20 today...No longer a 'teen.' my little ones are all growing up.

We didn't do anything for the holiday. I know, we're lame. I needed to go grocery shopping (bad) but you know that awesome feeling when your fridge is just packed with food? ahh, I love it! bless-ed us. Plus Zuri screams "no owl!" every time we try to get her costume on. sigh, it's so tragic. I spent a good amount of time making it pretty precious. It's cool, I made it big enough that maybe one day she'll want to play dress up or something like that. Maybe next year she'll be more into the concept of dressing up and getting lots of free candy. (so I can eat it).

This kid:

Is pretty cheery. She smiles a bunch and slept for 5 hours straight last night. Took her long enough! She still stays up way way too late for me. One day we'll sleep again.

Good thing she's this sweet all the time.
Saturday we went to the Zombie Run our cousin put on at Lee's Farm. (She did a great job, it was fun to watch). There was a lot of fun stuff for kids to do. Zuri got a pony ride and just wanted to sit in this little train made from jugs for awhile. Chris taught her to say 'peace' with the little sign, it becomes 'i love you' instead. It's funnier this way.

Can you find my kid?
splits mean nothing to this girl. She sat like this for awhile.

Weston was a pretty cute monkey, too.

A ride in daddy's car munchin on a fruit roll-up. Lucky kid.

Hailey and the twins watched Zuri for me last week and she came home wearing this over her pjs. I'd be worried if she didn't come home in an outfit like this from a house full of girls :) (and yes, she wouldn't take off her pj's either).
A bit out of order, but these are the owl wings. Dot at least modeled them for me at the trunk or treat when Zuri wanted them off.
We tried potty training for a few days. I called quits. Zuri could probably do it with some good time, but I'm not as ready as I thought.

I loved this though, wheelie pal by her side and all.
Zur has become very particular, the normal almost two year old things. She wants to wear clothes when she wants. She takes off her pj's in the crib and if I don't put clothes on her she rubs her poop all over herself. Yup, that happened. Figured I could spare you the pictures I took. I was laughing, but it still is gross.

Little Princesses

2011-10-16T20:44:00.003-04:00

I don't know what it's like raising boys... But I sure do love having girls cause they can wear stuff like this:

She surprisingly did this pose by herself. Granted she was a bit cranky from a not so long nap, but you can't tell, right?

1 month-er

2011-10-14T15:29:00.002-04:00

Here she is. One month down.

Doddie is an awesome baby. She mimics Chris' faces and seems to (almost) always be perfectly content.

I had to throw in the super baby action.

The Vial ladies threw us a be-lated baby shower (the first was postponed due to my fake labor...) It was a great party with delicious food and lots of socializing (always needed) and our little ladies got hooked up with a great amount of adorable clothes and toys. I looove having girls! Thanks to everyone.

Let us begin!

2011-10-11T18:19:00.006-04:00

This has been a very entertaining month already, and I can't believe it's really October much less almost mid-October... I thought it was September still. woops.

My goals are going quite nicely so far. I'm cruising right along into my second week and my exercising goal is great. I started working out in the mornings after I fed the girls, but it got a little tricky cause they were both awake. Zuri would try and copy me though and that was fun. I switched to evenings this week and so far so good. Zuri's in bed and Chris can tend to Dot. No idea if my body looks any different, but I feel good.

The paper...eh, not so much progress on that. I'll get back to ya.

Next week I am going to begin potty training little miss Zuri. I figure we can give it a good shot. She's not afraid of the toilet and she loves underwear. we'll see what happens. Anyone have good training tips? I'm all ears!

I wanted to get some more recent photos of Doddie up cause she really is almost a month old. wow. She's still the awesome baby, yet still decides to go to bed way later then I'd like.

The girls first trip together in the bimmer

she does a wicked blue steal

I realized it had gotten real quite and I found her like this.

Dot somehow ends up in the bed almost every morning

this is Zuri's "hey baby" face and pats

When my mama was in town

I can't stop laughing when Dot gets the hiccups. She sounds like a mix between a squeaky toy and a price check.

And we must throw in a new Zuri trick:

Goals

2011-10-03T16:09:00.002-04:00

I often have lists of things I need to get done. The lists used to contain mostly of school things which made them much much longer. I'm still a lister, but I've got a few goals in mind that I need to accomplish. Not to sound like a dork, but when a professor expecting me to get something done on time (which was always obviously) I could crank that something out right on schedule. Leaving me feeling very satisfied with my (procrastinating) self.

I figure if I tell my blog-life then I'll have to report so I don't feel like a failure/slacker/procrastinator...what have you. You shall be my support and my pressure to perform blog world. Don't let me down!

I have a big plan, well two big plans:

Plan/goal 1:

Finish my senior paper for good. That's right, I still haven't gotten it 100% approved. This has been very frustrating to me. I have done a good 8-10 drafts and they each keep coming back for more review. I know I'm not the best writer, but I'm not the worst either. And yes, truthfully I didn't exactly review it solidly each time. I just kept hoping it would be good enough because 'they' say it's so close each time. Well how close is passing!? My heavens. I've gotten pretty bitter about the thing (especially cause I worked my self to a major stress level between that and senior show) and I've taken a good couple months off from it. Until now.

Now I'm going to finish it. I want to turn it in by the end of October. I must. I need to feel the satisfaction of REALLY getting my diploma reading 'December 2011 Graduate.' Necessity.

Plan/goal 2: to get back in shape. Not necessarily pre-pregnancy weight cause I have never really felt a need to know my exact weight (why the pressure?) plus I love sweets too much to make myself feel that frustrated. Just a good healthy, (I'll ignore my sweet cravings better) somewhat toned Kenni. That's what I'd like.

I bought a series of work out dvd's right after I had Zuri. Mom's into Fitness by Lindsay Brin I felt kind of silly working out to a TV, and she says the most hilarious things such as "squeeze your bun cakes!" but it kind of worked wonders in no time. I did the 'boot camp' section for a month and lost 6 pounds, finally getting me to my pre-pregnancy weight. (I'm not for numbers, but it felt nice anyways). .....then I got pregnant again so that all came back. But the point is, I'm going to try and do it again. It has an 8 week program on the DVD and I'm going to do it. That's right. I will.

So those are the goals! wish me luck.

Meanwhile:

I think the girls will be owls for Halloween. there is a cute DIY costume I found on Pinterest that I think I'll use. Not sure what Chris and I should be. We don't really get into dressing up much...ok, ever but we should do something, right? any suggestions?

21

2011-09-24T18:18:00.003-04:00

The 23rd was Zuri's official 21st month. Lots has happened for her the past few weeks. She does great with Dot still. She did try to share her soccer ball today, luckily it barely missed Dot's head.

A good part of having another munchkin is that so far Zur has gotten great with other people. She used to not go anywhere with family if I wasn't right there with her. Now she is off without a thought. That's great. She's gotten a bit more independent as well. She's starting to walk down the road by herself to Hailey's house. I have to keep an eye on her wondering self. Thank heavens we don't live too close to any traffic.

Today was Dot's two week check-up. (Yup, 2 weeks already. oh my, oh my). It was just a PKU test and the nurse said we could just wait while she took D in back. Zuri ran screaming after the nurse when she started walking away with Dot. What a good protective big sister already. I was touched and I'm not gunna lie, I got a little teary eyed with her brave action. I love my baby girls.

Zuri talks a whole bunch now. I still can't understand half of it. She's good with showing though.

She learned how to open the front door. Awesome. Dead bolt time it is.

Is still obsessed with Backyardigans. Although I have cut down her time with any show. Pandora Toddler station, I've decided, will become our new thing.

The tent has become the nap station:

Here is the hiccup video I mentioned previously. you can't hear Dot too well, but Zuri's copy hiccups are more obvious.

Lil' Doddie

2011-09-19T01:24:00.004-04:00

This is my favorite

The Monday before Dot came about.

This post is much delayed, but I just haven't been very into staring at a computer screen the past few days. Two kids really is much more to pay attention to. That sounds a bit oxymoron, huh?

I thought I'd give a little birth story because lets face it, who doesn't want to hear one of those? (sarcasm inserted). Really though, compared to Zuri's birth story this one was a piece of cake. We learned a lot from our first labor experience and we did almost exact opposite this time around. Worked out almost perfectly.

I wanted to be brave and all natural hypnobirthing with Zuri. I still think it works great for some women. I'm not one of those women though. I take pills the second I feel a headache coming on so really what would make me toughen up with my body contracting at an alarming amount of pressure? I took Staydol (spelling?) with Zuri and it whipped my mind good and clean. Focusing on anything was impossible much less knowing what was happening around me. The epidural after 15 hours of labor was my saving grace. At least I got a healthy baby out of that awful experience.

That labor was more traumatic for Chris cause he actually remembers all of it. He's not one for seeing his woman in pain. We decided this time I'd get an epidural early on and to skip any other drugs to keep my head clear.

Wednesday the 14th we went into the hospital to get me nice and induced. I was definitely nervous about knowingly going into labor and with my test run a few weeks ago I had the pain fresh in my mind. Luckily, I was already dilated to a 4 when we got to the hospital. So labor went something like this:

7am. Show up get the babe and contractions on a monitor

8am. hook up an IV to get some fluids in me.

830. Doctor breaks my water

9am. contractions start.

10 am. contractions are regular and coming on strong. I'm dilated to a 5. I ask for the epidural.

11-12. anesthesiologist come in explains the risks of epidurals etc etc. I suck in my fear of getting poked and he numbs my back. not so bad. He inserts the second needle....goes right through hits my spinal fluid. I loose about 5ccs. hmm....what?! Well that was one risk explained. I didn't have any cartilage in that spot and the needle just went on through. There was no way he could tell. Doesn't happen a lot, but it happens. He felt so bad and said he could give me a blood patch, but he couldn't do it right away (something about the swelling has to go down)

Well I had no idea what happens when spinal fluid is lost was so roughly explained: the fluid level around my brain obviously dropped and my brain lost its cushion around my skull. Therefore, I got a 'spinal headache'. Wasn't awesome, but I'd take it over contractions any day.

After that hiccup:

1-2pm I was laying on my side which made my headache almost non existent. That was a nice pain-free hour.

about 2pm. hit the awesome 9 cm mark. My nurse left to get all the birthing equipment. Then I felt 'pressure' and needed to push. Chris called for the nurse and the doctor came runnin. Alicia was bringing Chris food to keep him energized for what we thought was going to be a much longer event. She got to watch the exciting show down up close and personal. Luckily Chris' family is totally cool with stuff like that (as Chris puts it, ' we grew up on a farm,' literally). We figured it was appropriate since we were naming Dot's middle name, Kae, after Alicia's.

2:08pm. Little/not-so-little 9 pound Dot was born.

She's an awesome baby. She's an excellent eater which is a huge relief. My experience with Zuri on that part was also awful (k, I do have great experiences with Zuri I swear. Labor and nursing her just aren't part of those). She's a great sleeper...during the day. She wants to play around mid-night. Chris took care of her for me so I could get to sleep last night. He ended up with a hickey on his arm from Dot latching onto him so strong. Kind of hilarious. And she smiles a whole bunch. who knows if it's gas or not and I don't care cause she's so stinkin cute.

Zuri is tolerating her well. She'll give her kisses if we ask her to and I got her to compare her feet to Dot's and she thought that was funny. Yesterday she tried sharing her toys and gram cracker with Dot and when D got the hiccups Zuri started mimicking her. I got it on video, I'll post that later. Mostly she just ignores her and on a few occasions when I've been holding her she's come up to me and calmly says "no baby". It's pretty funny and at the same time I feel a bit guilty. I've tried to pay a lot of attention to her still though. Having my mom here has been wonderful. Much easier to transition and take naps. Over all so far the experience has been a positive one. Big sigh of relief!

Here is to our little Doddie and our big kid Zuri. Our sweet baby girls.

August to September

2011-09-05T16:05:00.010-04:00

I've been trying to be better about taking pictures of my every day life the past week or so. I really wanted to get some shots of Zuri during her final weeks as an only child. It's funny how one gets sentimental about things like that... Here's a little photo essay with commentary of my life with Zur.

Hailey got these flowers for me after our hospital trip. They are so real they look fake and I think they are fantastic.

Nate and Caitlin made Dot this awesome diaper cake. This is after Zur and I took all the goodies off. Cool, huh?

Above is Zur playing with the bottle top. She thought it was all for her. haha, little does she know...

This little guy has somehow been in our lives since we moved here. We found it outside and no matter how many times I think we've finally lost it for good it will show up again. For example: I thought Zur dropped it in Target and I found it the next day inside the diaper box I had bought there. Hmmm..

The more I see Zuri get attached to certain toys I can't help but get a little attached, too. She loves this bin and her bus.

These here are her Wheely-Pals. Discovered at Wal-mart and the best little buy. She LOVES them. Plus they're cute to me too. bonus.

I loved this picture. Then I realized what she was doing with her finger...that child.

More pals. She loves anything with wheels.

It's pure excitement and screaming when Dad gets home from work.

A morning walk. I didn't even bother changing her out of her pj's.

She loves the feel of dirt. She scrunches her toes and wiggles her feet around in piles all the time.

The grapes on the farm are coming in and they are delicious.

And what's my life without Paisley and Kelso?

Something like this:

This just makes me giggle. All of these are for separate Vial families. (Two are for Beesleys' and they are in-laws so it counts).

Nice little life we have, right?

poop.

2011-09-03T02:42:00.002-04:00

False labor much? That was me twice yesterday/early this morning. I was high with anticipation and now I'm exhausted from NOTHING happening. We've had a nice tour of our new hospital though and the staff is awesome. Couldn't be more pleased with that. Zuri had a blast with Grandma and Weston while we were being taken for a practice run with Dot.

What a tease. I'll let you know if the real thing does actually happen. Obviously cause pictures of a Dot will actually appear that time around :) Happy Friday and Happy birthday to our little nephew, Weston. He's 1 today and is one very cute kid.

Thursday

2011-09-01T16:53:00.002-04:00

I might be in labor. I wish my labors were more obvious like in movies. "Honey! My water just broke!" Nope. You'd think I'd be able to tell, but I've had a bit of practice labor the past few months that I'm not 100 % on the decision. It's been since 9 am that i've been having contractions (It's now 2pm) and they aren't easing up. Zuri's labor was more obvious cause I never had practice contractions with her, plus it was past her due date.

So here I sit on my bed, eating my sandwich while Zuri naps and listening to Kelso snore. Seriously, he is snoring like a human. I give him crap for being so clingy lately (yes, my dog is clingy) but I do love him and enjoy his company. His loyalty is so sweet.

I did about zero prep for labor this time around. I'm not sure why...the first time was kind of a bust with hypnobirthing classes that I figure I'll just stay calm and more alert this time around. No drugs except an epidural if it gets awful...which lets face it. It will get awful :) I'm not worried or stressed thinking about it though. Strange.

Zuri had her first Dr. appointment at the new doctor today. It broke my heart, she got three shots in her little arms. The Doc was a bit rough with examining her. Not sure if I feel very good about that.. The office kept everyone moving in and out fast which was nice, but I felt a little too rushed. For being a brand new patient they didn't really spend much time checking Zur out. Luckily I had colored goldfish as a surprise treat all prepped and ready for the shots, and that was a little saving grace.

Thank you gold fish people for making a snack every kid on this planet loves.

I'll get back to all you faithful blog readers (I really have no idea who you are, but thanks for humoring me) if labor is to be...and if it's not well then my hopes have been blown up. Thanks for the kindness of practice labor, body.

P-Town

2011-08-27T14:18:00.011-04:00

A few weeks ago we did a little trip to downtown Portland. It's such a fun city. We haven't spent much time there yet, so this was a good little trip. It's been 'hot' here. Hot to me, but nothing compared to the past three summers we experienced in VA. There is a city fountain that we thought Zuri might like. Wrong, the girl is so prissy about cold water that she freaked out when Chris took her in. It's true, she's my kid. It was really fun to watch people though and the fountain is beautiful.

Our bare foot wonder who refuses to wear shoes. ever.

D-day is reported at three weeks from yesterday. My Dr. keeps telling me that I might have her early since she's measuring large. Why would you get my hopes up like that?! If I just keep telling myself she'll come late then it won't be a big deal, right?

I have kicked into a severe case of nesting. I painted a little kid chair we had on our porch (where did that come from anyway?) my entry coat hanger/shoe area, and now I'm on a mission to paint our bathroom tonight. I scrubbed Zuri's car seat this morning. That was long over due, wow. Those things get disgusting. Fridge and washer and dryer are all nice and clean. I've been using up old fabric. Made a bouquet of t-shirt roses from my old band t-shirts that I couldn't part with, but didn't know what to do with. Problem solved! Recovered some pillows and made some curtains. I can't stop all morning and then suddenly I realize how exhausted I am and I don't do much more production the rest of the day besides cooking. I think I'm psyching myself out for having two kids and not being able to do as much at first. Shoot, at least my house is clean now.

That brings me to Zur. she is so big. I haven't reported on her in awhile. Gasp! How could I do such a thing when this blog is basically all about her?!

She turned 20 months on the 23rd. How insane. She's gotten very strong and coordinated. She dances around and spins until she can't move anymore which is always funny to watch. She's 'talking' a lot more. I can barely understand some words so I can only imagine what she sounds like to other people when she starts chatting. So far I can get 'milk,' 'cookie,' 'uh oh,' 'woof woof,' 'water,' 'beep beep,' 'love you.'....and others. She is a little artists as well. I had to hide all forms of drawing objects cause she began to figure out that drawing on everything is so dang fun. We got her a chalk board and figured chalk was a safer more washable bet...she still draws on everything. Whatever, she's a kid and should enjoy it. Although yesterday she got two wipes out and went around cleaning up all the marks she could see around that I hadn't gotten. yup, definitely my kid. I'm so proud.

Here is something funny, she's taken up binky's. Yeah, remember when she refused them and would scream every time we tried to put one in her mouth to get her to sleep? It's my fault really. She started chewing her nails so bad and when she had her sippy cup she'd chew the tip tell it broke, which was kind of annoying cause then milk and water would get all over the place before I noticed what went down. I just gave her a bink one day to get her to chew on something else and now she loves it. Luckily she's not too addicted, I didn't let her have it for nap or bed yesterday and she did just fine. Let's just say I reserve it for her chewing outbursts. (does that make her sound like a puppy?)

She's getting so beautiful and grown up. Yesterday it struck me when I looked back at her in the car. She was sitting with her ankles crossed, sipping some water and watching the scenery go by. She's not a baby anymore and it makes me sad and proud at the same time. I do love her active self and how happy she is to just hang out with me all the time.

The week end

2011-08-11T13:52:00.004-04:00

Last week end we drove up to Washington to help my parents move out of their house. My little sister, Carmel, is great with all the kids in the family. Zuri just loves her and will do anything she tells her to. Such as the dance routine.

The first video is kind of long. I tried to trim it down, but it saved in some strange mystery folder in my computer and is now lost forever. woops.

Tuesday, Hailey enlightened my life with a thing called IKEA. No, I'm not that deprived, I know what it is I've just never been there. It was awesome. I am now in love with that wonderful world. (Swiss is in my blood so it makes sense right?)

This was my grand buy. They kid toys are so inexpensive I could hardly believe it. I thought since I NEVER buy Zuri toys she might enjoy this fun tent. Success, it's a total hit. Yay, mom! She goes in and does full on dialog to herself while peeking out the windows and all. I'll have to film it one day.

belly and toesies

2011-08-08T14:19:00.002-04:00

I'll start with a Dot update. The ultrasound went great. The fluid in her kidneys have completely gone back to normal. Her body is ship shape and measuring a week early...yikes. I've been having pretty intense contractions all day, but I hear that's normal for the second babe. I got an excellent look at her face and man this girl is rooolly polly! I love it. She's got some hair too and I can't help but think of what she'll look like compared to Zur. 5 week count down is on.

I really like my new dr. office as well. It's a well organized office and everyone is very cheery. Just what a pregnant girl needs, right?

Zuri let me paint her nails the other day. The color has almost all chipped off, but I thoroughly enjoy having a girl to play dress up with.

It's so nice having a back porch.
I keep hearing my professor's voice saying sunsets are a cliche, but I like these anyways cliche and all.

I realized yesterday I have no good pictures of the Dot+belly. Since we don't have our wonderful Brinn I asked Chris to take a few for us.

Tumble, climb, and jump.

2011-08-02T18:59:00.006-04:00

It's August. How strange. Just over Six weeks until D-Day for little Dot. We have an ultrasound scheduled for this Friday to check up on her kidney's. She moves ALL the time which makes me feel very confident that she is doing just fine.

Chris and I signed Zuri up for a gymnastics class a few months ago and it just started today. Zur was a little hesitant at first (I figured she would be, she's very much like that) but once the other kids started jumping around she went for it. I have to admit we were both tired by the end of class. The parents stay with their kids to help them up on the tramp, bars, etc. It was good exercise for me too!

I liked how the teacher didn't just let the kids jump around and do whatever. The gym had individual obstacle courses that we would go through which made it very structured for learning new moves with the little bodies. (bear crawls up walls were my favorite). I am impressed with how strong little kids really are.

Out of 5 or 6 other kids there was only 1 other girl in the class! I was surprised, but Zuri kept right up with everyone even though almost all were a bit older. I was very proud of my bug.

Her mouth looks so huge showing off her grill. two more teeth to go and all her bitters are in.

Mid-July Sunshine

2011-07-25T00:42:00.013-04:00

This post is all over the place, but hey what's my blog for?

There are many wonderful u-pick farms here. I had been wanting to try one out, but wasn't sure if Zuri would stay close enough for me to focus on picking and her. So the ladies went to the lavender farm when Grandma Wright and Aunt Heather came up for a visit. It was lovely and smelt oh so wonderful.

Dad V. let me borrow his D3 which made for some great photos.

Zuri's been loving the out doors plus it was a nice warm weekend. Even with sunscreen she got a little toddler tan.

My Nana made all us grandkids handmade bears before she passed away. I recently found mine and Zuri loves her. It's fun to see her cuddle and tote it around so much. I admire Nana's skills much more then I did when I was younger. It is really impressive how well the bears are made.
Zuri's 'smile' face is probably terrible looking to other people, but it still makes me laugh every time.
Chris was working on the tractor and of course she loved having a ride.

Kenny Chesney sing-a-long? How sexy.
This was my latest project. I bought an entire panel of fabric on sale at wal-mart when we first moved into the upstairs of the house in Virginia... It ended up only being something like 18 bucks at the time and I thought I'd use it for curtains there. Well it's kind of a punchy pattern so it wasn't going to work in a living room for us. I've just been waiting for some thing to do with it. I finally figured it out.

Our closet. Wonderfully huge and incredibly exposed.

I was thinking I'd just find some sheets at good will or something and make a curtain. This worked much better. I didn't have to buy anything new. mission accomplished. (pardon the crapy photo quality.)

Skip to a little bath time enjoyment. I love the mini-beard.

Zuri occasionally will eat her bubbles when she first gets in the bath. It's gross, and hilarious

a little giggle

2011-07-16T17:12:00.003-04:00

a little veggie licking.

She just started dancing randomly the other day and running around. I got a kick out of it. Filming kind of stinks because if she sees the camera she'll quit what she's doing to come look at herself. No, she's not narcissistic at all.

A Domestic Engineer

2011-07-14T14:20:00.003-04:00

I never really wanted to be a working gal when I grew up. I had no idea what I could really do as a career and I knew I wanted to be able to be home with kids cause I just figured I would be married early on in the game.

Lucky for me, that's actually happening. I got married at 19, had a wee babe at 21, and was able to stop working at 22. Then I just kept moaning about finishing school. Well that happened too. So now what do I do with all my time? Cause I have a lot of it.

My brother-in-law, Tyson, has stated that a 'stay at home mom' is a domestic engineer. I've always liked the sound of that much better. It makes one sound much more awesome. I now declare myself: Awesome.

Zuri and I have managed to keep ourselves entertained throughout the days now and I'm so so grateful that the weather is so nice and calm here that I actually like being outside now. For example, I did some weeding this morning while Zuri ran around in the grass. I think my current goal is to get the area around the house looking pretty. Yes, pretty. As in plants and flowers to take care of. Strange if you know me. I don't typically take on such an idea.

Here is my question to you. I know ZERO about gardening. Any suggestions on what to do? When's the best time of year to do it? did I miss my shot and should we just do bark chips for the rest of the year? I don't want to do anything crazy or that involves lots of money cause....well not quite there yet. And I also don't want to spend all of my time working on it. It's a smaller space so I thought it might be manageable for a beginning like me. Any suggestions would be wonderful.

Hope you're having a lovely July.

FHE

2011-07-12T17:22:00.005-04:00

The lovely view from the yard.

If you know Chris and I well enough then you know we have never done family home evening. Shameful, we know. As much as my parents tried to make FHE happen every week when I was home it ended up being a nice big fight fest with each other. (It's hard to get that many people to enjoy being around each other when they have other things they want to do. By that I mean me, I was a terrible culprit against Monday nights. I'm awful)

This means that I've never really considered doing FHE with my own little family. Here's how it happened. I saw a commercial with someone eating a s'more. hmm....s'mores. Who doesn't love a good fire roasted treat? Chris said we should do that for family time in our own fire pit in our yard (got one of those now, sweet!)

It started with me being grouchy (by grouchy I mean a total evil pregnant woman) so I guess it started off like it did in the old days, but once Chris got the fire going and Zuri was running around with Kelso and his new buddy Paisley we were ship shape.

I definitely didn't plan a little lesson or anything, but gotta start somewhere right?

A recent face

Kelso and Paisley

The same reaction to 'smile"

Having a small airport right next to us makes for up close landings/take offs

She towed this marshmallow around all night without taking one bite.

Guacamole chip-face

Happy Summer!

2011-07-08T20:08:00.010-04:00

It has been an eventful few weeks! I said I'd provide pictures when I got the internet and low and behold it really happened!

The family reunion and the 4th of July were full of:

car and tricycle rides

lots of swimming and playing by the water
and dancing.
Alicia and Weston
The can-can?
She's gotten a bit of sun
Hailey is the queen of fun activities
Bubbles with Eddie

cracks me up how her skirt flips up when she wiggles her hips, I mean walks.
There were also grueling horse shoe matches between Chelle and Brig

A nice view of Mnt. Hood from the grand Farm house.
Yep, that's a water balloon
A much more distraught Weston

Balloon chasing
"Where'd it go?" from Zuri when the balloon popped. It was very sad.
Kelso hates water, but he tolerated hanging by the pool.
And Zuri has put on everyones shoes but her own.
A small bundle of cousins
Sponges make great pool toys
Moose
Grandma and Weston

And the beautiful balloon arch....that died shortly after from windy weather. It was pretty cool though
There you have it. A nice few weeks.

busy busy

2011-07-05T13:27:00.002-04:00

I used to blog all the time back in the old days when I worked and went to school. Now I never do. What has happened to me!? Well, to tell the truth it's cause we don't have internet in our house yet. aha, you thought I was just slacking.

It has been a good few weeks. We moved into our new place, went to visit my family up in Washington, had the Vial Family Reunion, and partied a good Fourth of July. I have loads of pictures...that I haven't uploaded yet. Look forward to a very photo oriented post in the future.

Zuri and Chris have had fun swimming. Zuri has perfected her trampoline jump and gotten many slivers and cuts like a good child should. I've eaten an insane amount of delicious food. And Kelso almost completely disappeared on us last night during the fireworks. I thought he was lost forever, but he'd never leave us I've decided. he came back at about midnight all nice and happy and could be!

Awkward Family photo?

2011-06-12T21:07:00.002-04:00

At another family graduation. Congrats kasandra!! Zuri refused to smile with her eyes open. It was so funny that my eyes weren't even open.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oregon!

2011-06-10T16:08:00.003-04:00

Chris and Dad made it back to our new home last night. The Mack did great, and the Mack Dog (Kelso) did great as well. He's much happier to be off the road. And I must admit it is wonderful to have Chris back. Sleeping in a bed without the husband and dog was kind of weird. Zuri wouldn't stop talking when she saw Chris, we suppose she was telling him all about her adventures she has had so far while we were without him. Here is what we have discovered the past could days:

.We found our bank, and Target....and then a Cold Stone.

.The grandest mall I've ever been in. Zuri had a melt down (I still don't know why) but once I finally found the car she was just fine.

.We then found an even better Target where Zuri did not melt down so she got a Pillow Pet for her good behavior. Of course she did not need another stuffed animal or another toy for that matter, but she was just so happy when she hugged it in the cart I just turned into a complete sucker....

.We then found a Quiznos to have an early dinner at.

And today we are off with Hailey and the little girls (five including Zur) to discover a new library! Cause really, what's a childhood without a library?

Basically we have found everything that I have been living far away from in Virginia (minus a library) Here's what I'm loving so far about our new location:

.The weather. It's been in the 60's-70's and beautiful.

.It's green everywhere of course, but there is a lot of color with beautiful huge flowers. Lots of pinks and purples everywhere. I love it!

.Lots of farm land around. Just wonderful hills of green.

.Driving in cities. I feel like I was loosing whatever skill I had of driving living in a small town where people lolly-gag in their cars. I began to lolly-gag and I do.not.like. when I lolly.

.Obviously the many stores (there's an H&M here and thanks to Brinn, I'm hooked) and entertainment around. That's splendid.

.Having family around to ask questions about the area. They've been awesome on sharing info and mom sharing her car so I can go off and about on my own.

.Few bugs. I've gotten one mosquito bite, but it didn't itch bad at all and that's amazing.

.The vast room for Zuri to play. We went to Hailey's for dinner last night and Zur learned how to jump on the tramp with the girls, pet Dutch the steer, and roll in the dirt like a real kid.

Chris is already beginning his work on the BMW that has been waiting patiently on the farm for his return.

While Chris was on the road we were using up too many of our limited texts. So I started using Photo booth to send stuff to Chris. Since we didn't have Zuri's little basin she got to be all adult on us in the tub.

Day 3

2011-06-08T18:47:00.001-04:00

We just pulled out of Cheyenne dad was a little anxious to get back on the road. You know how the fuel pump hose is made to pop off if you forget to unhook it? Well it works like it should. I came out of the store and sure enough he had the hose in tow ready to cruise on down the road. Luckily they go on just as easy. would have been a great photo. Everything's going great. We are more than half way by far and will pull into Ogdan tonight.

There's supposed to be a license plate there. We're not real sure when and where we lost it. We do know we didn't have it leaving Buena Vista.

This some of the left over flooding back in Missouri. We saw a wendy's sand bagged to the roof.

It's getting a lot cooler.

Yesterday was really hot. We had to cruise windows down the whole time. It took a toll on us but today has been awesome.

Well BVers we'll see you all later and those in Oregon, we'll see you tomorrow.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

St. Louis

2011-06-07T17:50:00.001-04:00

We just passed st. Louis and we're shooting for Kansas city. Switched drivers and back to cruisin. I don't have a photo but my left arm is totally burnt and my right is all white it's like that vw commercial. I think you can see it here http://www.tvspots.tv/video/32918/VOLKSWAGEN--SUNBURN

A drive by of St. Louis

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Illinois

2011-06-07T15:07:00.001-04:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Louisville

2011-06-07T11:50:00.001-04:00

We're just about through Kentucky, hoping to make good time to st. Louis. Here are a few photos from the road.

The Mack.

The walmart radio installed in transit.

Tunnel into Louisville.

According to the map we've only gone an inch.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

snuggle bug

2011-05-31T22:14:00.003-04:00

It's been pretty hot here this week and the upstairs is getting pretty sticky. Luckily Zuri seemed to fall asleep well tonight and when I went to check on her a bit ago she was seriously spooning her teddy bear. The sight of it made me pretty happy. She's so funny.. I love my little bug.

one week

2011-05-29T21:11:00.004-04:00

Photo by Brinn Willis

I am coming to my final week here in Buena Vista. Which means it's beginning to set in that I'm really leaving my home of four years. Four years isn't really too long, but it's the longest I've lived in one place since I was 16. And in these four years a whole lot of life changing has happened. I moved across the country from my family, (save Cami) met my husband, got a dog, improved a home, had a baby, and graduated college. Pregnant. In my short 23 years that feels like a lot to accomplish. And I am proud of Chris and I. I feel like we've done a lot together already.

Cami threw us a little going away party Saturday. We had some close friends come hang out with us and it was nice to have people say they would miss us. And yes, we will miss you too. I don't make friends easily...close friends, but I have made some very good friends here and It will be sad to leave them. Which is why I haven't mentioned it before, I don't like good-bye's and I don't like saying "I'll see you again soon." Cause really, who knows when I'll see these good people again. I'm sure I will one day, but it makes me sad to think I have to start over in that department and I don't like to bring the good-bye stuff up. So this is the only time you'll hear it. Not cause I could care less about leaving BV, but cause I just don't enjoy that part of it. I don't handle sad well.

I've been thinking of what I will and won't miss about BV just so I can remember the better of it all and here's what I've gotten so far:

I'll keep the dislikes short just so it doesn't seem like I'm a total ninny. I seriously won't miss:

.The giant bugs, mosquitos and gnats.

.The summer heat and humidity. It kills me.

.The long distance to get to any civilization. (by civilization I mean Target)

.Driving an hour to get to my Dr.

The better part of BV I will miss:

.The fall.

.Big snow storms.

.Thunder storms.

.The purple and yellow blossoms in Spring.

.Fire flies.

.The family and singles wards.

.The total lack of traffic.

.My professors.

.The small business owners.

.The SVU intimacy of knowing everyones business and them knowing mine.

.Our neighbors. They are awesome.

.Our couple buddies and their babies.

.Cami and her fam. Caleb's girly sounding good-bye's and Josh's 'peace out' everyday.

.I'm sad mine and Cami's latest beans won't get to know each other the way Zur and Caleb got to.

.Kroger's chocolate milk.

.Seeing Chanz grow up at college.

.Our house....man I'll miss it.

.My hair stylist, Robin, she's a miracle woman.

.And our family photographer, Brinn. I've never had such awesome photos of us all.

That's all I can think of at the current moment...But I'm sure there is more.

Farewell in a week BV.

Zuri and her noodle

2011-05-27T17:44:00.001-04:00

So we're sitting here at dinner, dying because Zuri just figured out how to slurp.

YouTube Video

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A little blasting of the past

2011-05-25T00:12:00.005-04:00

Cami found these amongst her collection of photos and I thought they'd be fun to share....for no apparent reason. These are back in California in 2006 for her and Tyson's engagement party. I was only able to get off work to have a quick dance, but it was really fun.

Ok, the real reason is for me to relapse on what my long hair looked like. Lately I find my self wishing I could have it back in a flash instead of years and years of patients. I do like the short though...I'm beginning the debate of 'to grow, or not to grow'

Cami and mama. We picked up a lot of our mannerisms from her. It always makes me laugh when we realize we're all three doing the same thing.

yup. That's for real! mad skills

I had to throw this in cause I don't think I've ever posted pictures of my oldest brother, Yancee. So this is the mystery brother. He's cool. (And home from Iraq, yay!)

And of course the other more important reason for the random photos is Father's day is coming up. This year I want to make it real good for Chris. We didn't do much for my pop-pop when we were kids and I think I'd like to change that. I want my babies to know how great their dad is and to celebrate it. So here's my pop-pop. He's pretty hilarious when he gets a chance to kick off his shoes and party.

My Dad LOVES dancing with his girls.

Kid books. really.

2011-05-23T21:57:00.002-04:00

I try to make it to the library every few weeks to get Zuri a bundle of board books that we read at bedtime. The Lexington library has a much larger selection of toddler books, but we don't make it over there often so we just head to the BV library. Which is still cool cause there are never any other kids there and Zur can just play freely with the toys and puzzles.

My point with the slim pickins' at BV library is it's easy to find some kind of old and kind of weird books. Like this one : Titled, "Baby is Happy."

"Baby is happy.

Baby is sad.

Baby is good.

Baby is bad.

Baby is grumpy.

Baby's in bed."

Uhh... seriously?

Progress and Kid Books

2011-05-21T21:54:00.002-04:00

Today was a busy Saturday. Which is good. We need busy Saturdays since we have such busy weekdays with school we have to make up for the lost time.

Here's what we did:

I got a hair cut. (I'll miss Robin miserably. I hate finding new hair stylists...I trust no one with my short locks)

We all got a nap in. yep, a busy Saturday and still squeezed in a two hour nap. It was glorious. Especially because my second trimester has been more of what a first should be like. It's like my body decided to switch it up a bit this time around.

Chris went crazy on the back yard and cleaned it up a TON. The back yard was a complete mad house jungle when we first moved in and each year Chris makes it less so. It's getting close to become a real yard, but with limited time and funds it would be any perfectionists dream. Which I'm sure our neighbors would like cause their yards are immaculate :) It still looks a million time better then before though. And I'm sure Chris now has a bunch of ticks wiggling all over him. yuck.

I packed up and sorted through all of our clothes. I'm pleased to say we took a whole car full of stuff to Good Will. I don't have a terrible time parting with clothes, but they do need a good sort through now and then. It was good to have a little cleansing. I didn't realize how little clothes Zuri really needs. I just love little girl clothes though. They are my favorite things to buy. For sure.

We have breakfast for dinner. One of my faves. French toast, sausages, and strawberries. Zuri has never had french toast and she loved it. She even ate a bunch of sausage too. I was surprised to see her snarf it all down so joyfully. Well...not too surprised I guess she's a good little eater.

A quick Wal-Mart run and then Zur went down for bed. I suppose it doesn't sound like a ton of stuff got done, but I think it was a good progress with getting ready to move.

And of course a little Zuri chatter for myself:

She is kind of the greatest munchkin in my little life. She's been so happy and enjoying everyday so much. She is starting to do little crazy dances and shakes her head back and forth like crazy for a bit just to be funny and entertain us all. It totally works.

She found a little bug crawling on the floor the other day and seriously just sat and played with it for a good 20 minutes. She'd set it on her arm and watch it crawl around a bit and when it would fall off she'd repeatedly say, "where'd it go?" until she could find it again. It was the funnest thing to watch. And yes, I let my kid play with bugs apparently.

My recent favorite has been her saying "cute!" when I put shoes or clothes on her. I say it to her all the time to make it so she likes getting dressed in day clothes or pj's instead of fighting them. Guess that worked out well. I get a kick out of her daily excitement.

She's also starting to bite her nails.... Not just finger nails, but toes nails too. (watching her wiggle her toes into her mouth is stinking funny though) WHAT?! She's only 16 months! I used to have a terrible habit of biting my finger nails. Tell they bled sometimes. not so good. I mostly broke the habit in high school, but every now and then I'll bite them if I'm nervous or bored. She must have noticed and picked it up. Bad example mama.. Any suggestions on how to break her of it? I have no clue.

She's one fun kid though. She and I went to lunch together today and she just hung out eating some waffle fries and alternated sips of root beer and a mango smoothie. A nice little memory of Zuri bug.

That is my ramble on for the day.. I love the Zur and my hub and my dog. They're a good little trio for me.

UVA and an assortment of ramblings

2011-05-18T23:17:00.004-04:00

I know in my last post I said little Dot was all healthy and ship shape. Well the midwife called the next day and said her kidneys were a bit too big and if we wanted we could get a better ultrasound up at UVA to get a better look. I'm pretty sure they have to say that so they don't get sued.

What is the problem with dilated kidneys? According to the nurse today she said it's one of the better things that could go wrong. (I still don't feel like anything is really 'wrong') It is either a sign of down syndrome or a blockage in the urine track.

After todays very detailed ultrasound (we have a billion great pictures of the little dot now) down syndrome is pretty much ruled out. They said the kidneys are still dilated, but 80 % of the time whatever the problem is resolves itself by birth. Just in case, we'll have another ultrasound in the 30 week area and if they are still too big then she'll get an ultrasound of her own after she's born to see if she'll need minor surgery or not.

It's just good to know so if she does show signs of fever or whatnot after she's born then we'll know most likely what the problem is. Resulting in no kidney failure....cause that really would be bad.

So that was our Wednesday. Zuri hung out at Aunt Cami's as usual and it was weird how much I missed her on our day trip up to Charlottesville. But we did have a quick lunch at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant, Lemongrass. That was nice. I just love Vietnamese food no matter what. It's awesome and I crave it all the time I swear.

Zuri is starting to notice my belly getting all big now. We ask her to find the baby and she'll poke my belly button then proceed to laugh like crazy. I think she may have some words confused:) I think she'll be a great big sister. Minus some eye poking that she seems to do with other babies... She puts her stuffed animals to bed with blankets and tries to put diapers on them. She's got a good maternal instinct already. What an awesome kid. I just love how fun she is.

Maymester is cruising along ! 11 days of classes left. Wow. Thank heavens for Chris or I'd die in Spanish 4. He's my human dictionary. I really do appreciate Cami for watching Zuri EVERYDAY from 10 to 3 and Lauren for helping on the days when Cami's got her dr. appointments for her recent babe. Where would I be without all this service? Oh, right without a degree. What will I do with this degree? psh, who knows. (the goal currently is to keep printing and try to get into some galleries later on)

The MOVE. Is in just a few weeks. I started packing up last week. We have both our parents coming to visit/ help us at the end of the month. Thank heavens for them too. we seriously have some incredible families. Score for us!

Dot

2011-05-10T23:19:00.004-04:00

August 2009 we had our first fun experience discovering what Zuri bug would be, and today we got our second fun experience! I love ultrasounds. Zuri was awesome for us. A little wiggly at first once she realized there was something going on with my stomach she got nervous and started freaking out. She was fine once she could sit right next to me and laugh at the exposure of my belly button instead of hers.

Our scanner is on the fritz so these are taken through the handy phone. They work though!

Apparently the Chinese gender calendar is much more truthful in its ways than the cake. We are having...

a little niña!

She was in one tight little ball for the first little while. It took me rolling on both sides to get her to show us anything. I don't blame her, that's a bit invasive I suppose. I normally wouldn't post the image above, but we thought it was funny how you could see her shinny little bun cheeks. Ultrasounds are insane with how well bones and organs can be seen. It was fun to watch it all.

She's a perfect size and all ship shape health wise which is excellent news. I was a bit worried just because I haven't been as cautious about chemicals and foods with this girl as I was with Zuri.

We are thinking of the name Dorothy. We'd call her Dot. After my great grandma. She sounded like a pretty fun lady. We need to name our next kids from Chris' side of the fam so it evens out the scores! (Zuri's middle name, Rose, was from four generations of ladies on my side. nice)

Thumbs up. She's got a nice sense of humor I think.

The Cake Has Been Cut

2011-05-09T22:19:00.003-04:00

Our friends, the Soffes', told us about a fun gender predictor game that they did with their first bebe. I totally love that crap too so I was all for trying it. This is how it goes: you make a cake that is half blue half pink and frost over it so you can't see the color. THEN you spin the plate and cut wherever you please. Whatever color you cut into will be your baby's gender. Interesting, yes? I thought so.

Tonight we had a little mini party of our own. Lauren made the mini cakes, the men chatted and little Mack and Zuri run around like the good little buddies they are. (except for when Zuri smacked him with a brush instead of asking him to move. You'd think she could say that much for how much she talks :) She did say sorry though, which surprised me cause I had no idea she could say that. So sorry little Mack.)

I'll let Lauren tell you what she got (uhh spoiler alert the magical cake said a girl which I agree with) and I cut....right into the middle of blue and pink....hmmm. an IT?!? WHAT! so we just counted it as a fluke and I took it as maybe the babe won't let us take a look tomorrow at the grand show so we won't know. Better than an 'it' baby right? We cut again cause I wasn't about to settle on that and we got BOY.

We will see tomorrow afternoon! Any last minute guesses? So far the vote is very much towards a girl with only two boy votes (one is mine).

Thanks Lauren for making the cakes. very fun times.

A little trip to the Zoo!

2011-05-04T21:51:00.003-04:00

On Monday we took a little trip down to the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke. I have to admit I had no idea there was a zoo in Roanoke. Goes to show how adventurous I am around here. It was fun! Totally off season and that was perfect. No people (pretty sure we were two of four families there) and perfect weather. Thanks mama!

Picture-esk moment on the tiger.

It took us a good fifteen minutes to get past the first two animals.

Papo made sure we got pictures of him with his great-grandkids.

Grandma Hardy (isn't her hair awesome?)

This was finals week. It's been so beautiful here being outside is actually a nice thing.

I found more amusement with random creatures...Like these guys. Zuri loved them too

This is more of a joke with Chris, but I just love how these little guys move about. SO entertaining.

and THIS was the funniest to watch. Zur is the best.

Chris and I started our summer classes today...Who knew that graduating was such a tease! I have never wanted to be done with school so bad in my life. I kid you not. My classes have fun people though so at least they have that going for em.

A little bit of that...A little bit of this

2011-05-01T21:08:00.006-04:00

Saturday was mine and Chris' big day of graduation! It was fabulous, and very unbelievable at the same time. Thank you to Dad Vial and everyone else who took all the photos for us. It was great to have it all documented! I'm sure there are more to come, but these are what we have now.

Zuri slept through most of the ceremony

Spam! and Papo in the back

Chris' mom and dad

Chanson was in the choir who sang Shenandoah. Oh so pretty

Look at that stud.

Chris' Political Science advison, Dr. John

My art advisor/mentor/coach. Professor Himes

President Smith. He got pretty excited that we brought Zuri along. We had to, it's tradition my parents walked with me

President Smith

There you have it ! Thank you so much to our families who helped us through. I really don't think it would have been possible without you guys. Especially Cami watching Zuri, I couldn't have graduated without her help.

It's a bitter sweet thing. I thought being done with BV would have been the greatest thing ever, and although I really don't enjoy the blazing summers or the freezing winters here it's been home for four years. It's where I met Chris and it's really all we've experienced so far together.

And I've loved living so close to Cami and her little family (by the way, her next baby is yet another boy! FUN!) I hope we do again someday. It's a little frightening and sad to leave our home in about a month, but I'm very excited to be close to our families on the West Coast and start off a new chapter of the v-love lifestyle. The changes are coming! Chris will be doing research at his dad's law firm and we'll have another munchkin in September..wow

It was GREAT having so much family out here. Chris' parents came out early Thursday morning and helped/ saved us with finishing our final projects for school and my parents and papo came out early Saturday morning to party Hardy style.

Next Tuesday is the Little Bean's day! We find out what it is so anyone have guesses for what the little one is? I keep calling it a he, Chris is convinced it's a girl. I quite frankly would love either. We have many names for either so no pressure there.

April!

2011-04-29T16:50:00.004-04:00

This month just flew by. Full of stress, exhaustion, and extreme Senioritus. As all final semesters should be.

Tomorrow is the day! We will graduate! It's like a miracle and so unbelievable all at once. It will be great to be done.... Ok, fake done. We both have Maymester.. But that's nothin, right?

I wanted to put up what I've got on my camera now before pictures with the parents in our big goofy gowns go up.

Chris's birthday was on the 23rd. He turned 26 and Zuri turned 16 months. She's a big kid now.

Zuri and her buddy Mack

A bread break

It's gotten nice and springy here. Perfect for outside play time

Watching....I don't know what

This is my current fave. She's been so funny with 'yes' and 'no' She uses them pretty appropriately most of the time.

She's so ready to change this next baby's dipe. Who knew stuffed animals were so handy in teaching?

The Adventures of Zuri. (center back seat style)

2011-04-23T19:59:00.003-04:00

More Senior Show

2011-04-19T01:43:00.003-04:00

I'm working on a paper but I though I would take a minute to put up a few more photos from Kenni's Senior show.

This first one is a Monotype so it is a one time print that cannot be duplicated.

I'm pretty sure this one is named "Welcome Home".

This second print was done using a copper plate that Kenni designed and etched in acid a few times in order to get the final product. It's named "The Wave".

These are two of the copper plates she used to print her pieces. In all she did 4 Etchings and 4 Monotypes

As part of the show each presenting senior gave an explanation of their show and how they were inspired to create what they had produced. She was well supported, and I was told by numerous people that I have a pretty rad wife.

If you haven't had a chance to see the show go take a look. A lot of people have said this has been a really impressive year for all of the seniors who participated.

Senior Show

2011-04-15T21:19:00.008-04:00

I will take this as a perfect opportunity to post many pictures that Chris took at the Senior Show art opening! Yes, it is done! I'm pretty alright with what I've done, but it's weird to think I actually have done it and there's no going back. There are some pieces that I should have worked a bit harder on, but you know...there is always something that can be done better.

Lots of people came though and that was pretty cool. I felt like the art peps were well supported. The family I used to babysit for came! It's fun seeing the kids get so much bigger. Our neighbors came up to see the show, too which was super nice of them. They've always been incredibly nice to us. (plus they just love Zuri bug) Then there were friends and fellow school buddies. My math professor ditched out (lovingly) on her husband's book signing tonight to make it to the show. She's awesome like that. And of course Chans and Cami came to represent the Hardy clan. It was good to have people there for us all.

We start here with Chris and Zuri adventure outside. Chris taught her how to wiggle her nose and ears. Here she wiggles his nose.

Wiggle your ears!

nose wiggle

Sara Beth and her Oliver. I didn't ask her if I could post this...If you don't want it sara I'll take it off. You guys are just so cute

My part of the show. There are two other pieces that are on the other side, but that's the gist.

Chanson and his possie outside

Zuri on a walk earlier today

She takes over this stuffed cat from Caleb everyday. Poor guy. He's so nice to share, and she just LOVES it

Josh's ride...That Zur also takes over.

"where's your nose?"

She got her first real haircut this week. To balance out the mullet..It turned out good and she held perfectly still looking at pictures of herself on my touch.

My favorite jeans. I wish they came in my size

Very talented at coloring

And this is a nice shot of some pretty trees that turn purple this time of year. It's only for a short time, but we love them.

And this is the wonderful Maple Street itself. Beautiful, yes?

I hereby invite you to the ball!

2011-04-13T21:20:00.004-04:00

Since I suck at getting any sort of invites out. (don't be mad, I've been busy) Here is my invite to all you loyal-Vial-blogger-readers...which I know is not many, but just in case.

And since I am also at the end of the alphabet I speak last for the oral presentations. Which means my butt is numb by the time I get to stand up and people will be counting down the number of speeches by then. I apologize ahead of time, I share your pain.

I would love it if you came though! At least to the exhibition opening! We got the show all hung and ready to go Wed. night. A fellow art student husband helped me get started and Chris was able to come up and help do the rest (that's right, I just watched, made sure the frames were straight and held the child while the men did my work. Thanks guys!) It all looks very official all set up. I hope everyone else's goes well too.

Happy Wednesday!

My husband the great!

2011-04-07T08:39:00.000-04:00

It's about that time in our lives when we really will actually graduate from college. I know, what?! Who are we outside of school life? Hopefully productive folks.

This week has been absolutely insane, yet strangely very functional. Chris finished his latest draft of Senior paper Sunday night/very early morning. And has been working on his math skillz.

I've been working at the art studio for way too long of hours getting everything ship shape for the opening next week. Since I have to have everything completed and ready to hang by Friday it's been some serious crunch time.

Luckily, I was in way better shape then some of the other seniors. Which makes me sad for them. I am getting reeeaal sick of being up there for so many hours. Some have been up there pulling all nighters all week long. There are two girls I am completely impressed with and I can't wait to see all their work hung up. I'll post some photos of their oil paintings later.

My great husband though! He has made sure that I get my little self up to the studio to get my prints done. He and Zuri have had a lot of bonding hours this week. Which is very cute. tonight when I got home she saw me and got excited then wen't running back to play with Chris. I liked seeing them hanging out and happy. He's been great with making sure she'll all taken care of fed and bathed. He's even cleaned up the house for me. Did I score a hot man or what? yup, I did.

Another honorable mention goes to Cami of course. She's still going strong watching bugs with her boys and pregnant self everyday when we're in classes. Life would be impossible without her here. We love your pretty little face Spam.

So here's to graduation. Two and a half more weeks of this school crap and we can pretend like we're done when realistically we still have Maymester, but that doesn't seem bad at all to me. Summer terms are a breeze in time! Plus we get to party with both our sets of parents and my Papo for graduation. talk about sweet.

In case I don't get invites out (cause that's very realistic for me) the show opening is April 15th from 4-6pm in Main Hall Ballroom. Then Gallery opening will be at 6:30 to 8pm. Until graduation the doors should be open in Fawson House to check it out. In case you don't want to sit around all night Friday and listen to 14 of us gab about our work and would prefer to just see the final results that's the way to go.

March

2011-03-31T22:15:00.004-04:00

Photos exist on the bottom if you are against reading my mind. Happy March!

This really is just a random update on what's up with school and such. It's nothing fun to read for anyone I'm sure. I think it's more a way for me to process and just get out what I got in me little noggin. You'd think I should right in a journal or something... It's true I should. Although!! I have a plan to someday in the near future create a art calendar/journal. I know exciting sounding right?

school! I am done with my final draft of Senior paper. That's due next Tuesday. Final paper is due later next month. Thank goodness it worked out so well. Prof. Himes and Carrie Brotherson really saved us on that this year. (apparently last year was rough without them. )

Senior show....That is alright. I thought I was a little more ahead than I am. I showed Himes everything I had today and he opened my eyes on how much I really need to do. Hopefully one or two more long nights working on the prints will finish them up properly and then another one or two nights to work on framing and I'll be complete!!! I really hope time doesn't kill me.

Chris is working on his final senior paper this weekend. He is not enjoying his topic as much as he'd like, but I actually think it's pretty interesting (corruption in HIV prevention. oooo very tv show like, huh?)

He's doing great in his Civil War class. He's been poppin out A's like easter eggs.

Zuri is getting a little 'tude on her, (maybe it was more obvious today) but I'm on a mission to get that out of her system pronto. However, she is talking all the time and actually using words I understand. Impressive. like "up" "dance" "see ya" "excuse me" "kelso" "milk" and "woof" (hilarious)

And since I had a math exam earlier this week I didn't have homework tonight. This meant making 6 dozen muffins for Chris' singles ward. No prob thanks to Betty Crocker. Thank you dear.

For the rest of March here's a few goodies.

Playing Angry Birds. She loves it

Last chance she has to wear her little snow suit.

Every time she sees the camera she wants to look at pictures of herself.

Her and Kelso are getting close

This was when Chris was putting in the Kitchen floor. She'd just sit there and wait for him to come back from the garage and watch him work. It was pretty precious.

yes, yes another one

2011-03-27T20:39:00.003-04:00

I realize that I've been posting so much that it's gotten to the point where no one comments anymore (Don't worry I'm not that offended) But I had a very interesting experience happen to me this morning and I just thought it was way too weird of a story to not share with my little world. Here it tis:

Chris went up to his church meetings at about 10:30 this morning and at about 11:30 I went upstairs with Zuri to read and put her down for her nap. While we were reading I heard the front door open. I called out to tell Chris that Zur wanted to see him, but he didn't answer. I figured he was just being quite in case he thought she was asleep. Well Zur and I walk into the upstairs hall and I see a woman crawling up the stairs. Um...yeah. A woman I don't know. crawling. up my stairs.

So a very long story short. We still don't know what was going on with her exactly. She knew her name and her address, but she thought she was home. Plus she had been walking around outside in her pajamas with no shoes or coat. I thought she was hurt, but she kept saying she was fine and she'd leave. I didn't want her to just go out in the 30 degree morning so I called Chris, and he rushed down and took her back to her house. (she was in her 40's by the way so rules out Alzheimer's right?)

Weirdest thing ever! It totally freaked me out. Someone could just stroll on into my house! While my husband wasn't home! She wasn't a psycho or anything things just weren't clicking to her. Totally nuts. Now my doors will be locked day and night. Apparently being home doesn't mean it's fine to leave doors unlocked. I thought night time lock up was good enough. uhh nope.

Well that was interesting wasn't it? Chris is going to go check on her tomorrow and talk to her husband (he actually knew who she was...her dog often gets out and wonders up to our house) We're just glad it wasn't anything insane, like a crazy guy who came in. Chris still had me learn how to use his gun. Always looking out for me that one :)

My Sunday was peachy besides that episode. Hope yours was good too!

Friday

2011-03-25T20:19:00.002-04:00

Today:

.Discovered one of my diamonds in my ring is gone. That sucked.

.My mind in spanish failed me. again.

.Realized I have a week and a half to complete my sr. show.

.Went to the library with zur and watched her play like a little grown up.

.Watched Chris work away in the yard while I made dinner.

.Zuri loved reading her new library books. She particularly liked "Biscuit" and tried to mimic "woof woof" very cute.

.Bought some Jimmy Eat World songs. A much overdue notion.

.Now it's off to the art studio to enjoy them.

Not a shabby day.

Where Zuri hangs out during class

2011-03-23T11:03:00.001-04:00

YouTube Video

senior show

2011-03-20T23:39:00.002-04:00

Professor Himes has started a SVU art blog. And it's lookin pretty good. The latest post was works in progress for 5 of the 14 art majors. Mine is one of them! (let me remind you it really is a work in progress. It is my first run of the latest etching lots to go) So check it out and see what you think of some of the guys I'm working with. I think it'll be a pretty good show this year.

SVU art program.

Some odds and ends.

2011-03-18T20:09:00.004-04:00

Lots of new floors have been put in at our house lately. Last week Chris put in the new kitchen floor. Well that's fantastic I must say. And today we had new carpet put in the living room, guest bedroom and the stairs. I seriously did not know how badly we needed it. I knew the old stuff was gross, but it was seriously some unpleasant carpet with an awful yellow tint and so many stains it was outrageous. Who knows how old it was. This new carpet Chris picked out is awesome and with a new pad under it feel plush and comfy. I spent more time on the floor today then in a chair.

Zur loved Chris' mask he had on while sanding the trim.

This is some random info about our fam. We like to snooze. We LOVE our naps. Spam and Tys used to tease us that we would get these kids who would wake up at like six in the morning so we never could sleep in again. We got lucky and I don't know how it happens, but Zuri will wake up between eight and nine. Which is kind of insane for a one year old, but I pretty much love it. I used to have her as my alarm at 8, but lately she's been even later so I had to resort back to the lame old-old fashioned way of alarm clocks. She still goes to bed at the same time too. She must be growing or something.

Anyways, back to the proof of our sleepy eyes.

Kelso Snoozin

Chris snoozin

Mama snoozin

Zuri bug snoozin

Happy Friday.

1:00 am

2011-03-17T01:01:00.001-04:00

I'm trying a post from the phone to see how it works.

This is Zuri bored out of her mind watching out the window to see if her mama's car is home yet.

YouTube Video

We went on a little chocolate malt date when Kenni was in class

This is the new floor in the kitchen. I was reluctant to put it in for a while but it went together pretty fast.

Zuri loves taking Kelso on walks.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

talker

2011-03-11T20:10:00.002-05:00

Here's something funny Chris discovered Zuri does. She talks in her sleep. last night she said a perfect "cheese" while sound asleep cuddling with Chris. Well, at least her dreams are nice and happy.

She also has taken to people a bit more. She says hello to random people in the store, and at least for some of them they love it.

Uncle Chanson is a new crazy fun play time friend. She was going insane laughing because of him tonight, it was awesome.

She LOVES pillows and blankets. If I even touch one she'll try to take it away. Rude? yes. Funny? totally. So I made her a little baby pillow tonight for her to play with. I'm super excited about it and although it only took me like 10 minutes to make I feel like a real mom for sewing her something.

Wish us luck. Within the next month Chris and I:

Have both our senior papers due.

Senior show has to be done. umm.. yikes. (although it is going in a better direction then I had originally though)

Chris is working on a bunch of projects right now so lets just hope they all come together for him.

What Chris did this Spring Break:

Drove to Richmond twice (to take my bro and his friends on the first leg of their fun S-week Philly trip)

Tore out and put in a new kitchen floor. It looks so awesome, I love it much much more then the old nasty stuff.

He recruited Chans and his friends to help him paint trim in the downstairs. It's in the process still, but it looks sooo much better.

What I've done this Spring Break:

Kept Zuri out of the way of the projects. We've had lots of fun together, although I feel a bit useless when it comes to helping, but keeping little mitts off new paint apparently is helpful.

The Third

2011-03-08T19:58:00.003-05:00

Here it is folks. Our third year together has come and gone! We now are officially rolling onto our fourth. I can't help but smirk at statistics. What is it exactly? The third year is the most common year of divorce or something like that? I know that's rude and ridiculous of me, but I'm proud of us. We made it through happily and we haven't "grown apart" so screw those stats! Of course having Zuri has made things much more challenging, but in a more rewarding way.

Chris said something sweet (and you might think it's cheesy I liked it though) the other day. I said, "wow, what were we like before Zuri came about?" I said it in a joking tone, but his response was all serious, "I honestly felt like there was something incomplete about us before. We needed our babies." cute right? then he added some comment about why else I would think he kept trying to knock me up? Cute right? (hear the sarcasm)

So here we are, he's playing Tiny Wings on the couch (very addicting fun game might I add) and I'm slouched next to him in my not attractive pj's blogging about our marriage. Oh how nice that we did fall into that other marriage stat about how you just become very much like yourself once you're hitched. Thanks for always making me feel comfortable, handsome. It's been fun for me to have these three years so far.

Our plans tonight? Well the unmentionable of course.... (really you can't expect me to leave that out. I've also become very crude at times since I married Chris) and we're planning on watching Conviction. We'll tell you how it goes. The movie, not the former thing. Geez don't be so dirty.

online shopping is my friend

2011-02-21T23:35:00.005-05:00

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

2011-02-15T20:56:00.003-05:00

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

2011-02-14T20:26:00.002-05:00

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

2011-02-10T20:47:00.008-05:00

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)

Hilarious

2011-01-20T00:16:00.001-05:00

January

2011-01-16T20:17:00.004-05:00

Zuri is currently obsessed with chap stick and she wouldn't let me put on my apron, so I put it on her

So far this month... It's been eventful? More busy I suppose, but the busy would be directed more towards describing Christians life. We flew back from the west coast on the 4th, got home at 3am the 5th and went right into school life the 6th.

Thanks to Cami it has so far been working with Zuri. I think the little bug had server separation issues when we first got back since she had been constantly around lots of people she was unfamiliar with which meant she would cry like crazy when I'd leave for class... She still does most of the time and it breaks my heart and I leave thinking how lame it is that I couldn't have been wise enough to just take spanish when I was a Freshman like the other kids thought to do in my class.

As a result I'm in two freshman classes with many kids who say things that get on my nerves instantly. Such as "I don't have time for this homework." "What the heck is she talking about? What's the importance of figuring out the size of a room in square feet? I'll never need that crap." or my personal favorite, "I'm so tired, I never get to sleep."

I've almost slapped a few kids on many occasions and say something to the affect of "You have no idea what 'no time' means" and you have absolutely no idea what tired is. I had one girls in my Spanish class the other day say how crazy her sister-in-law was for going to school with a baby and being pregnant..."I don't know what she's thinking." hmm.... oh well, only 5 more months!

On a happier note! Zuri is growing so fast, she's a little babbler and every so often when we're home she'll just holler "DAAADDDDDEEEE" as loud as possible, then go trotting around looking for him. It's pretty cute. The man works so hard and alll the time. He's been gone since 10 this morning and it's now 8:30.. He goes to work at 8:30 every morning, leaves at noon to go to classes then goes back to work tell 5. It's been a very very busy few weeks for him. But I am very grateful he is working for us so I don't have to. It'd be impossible with my weird schedule anyways, but still, I'm glad I can be with Zuri at home much more.

Zuri has learned from Caleb how to give a high five followed by a pound-it, which she does by putting her pointer finger and thumb together it's the girliest pound it I've ever seen, but it cracks me up every time.

The other day we got a box from Mom V. with our many gifts from Christmas we couldn't fit in our bags home. I was watching Josh and Caleb when it came and it was FULL of packing peanuts, the kids went crazy and my house turned into a winter wonderland. Cami came in and said "oh my gosh, did my kids do this to you?" nope, our kids did this and it was very entertaining to watch the destruction.

I am half way done with my dinning room curtains.

I am beginning my senior show in a few weeks...I think I know what I'll be doing. I was assigned to find the top 20 modern printmakers and in the process I have found some beautiful work. I encourage all of you to go look prints up. They aren't nearly as awesome on the computer as they would be in person (like all art), but still the process is fantastic and the work that comes from it is amazing to me. We are working on drypoint in my printmaking class right now and it is really cool how it turns out.

Zuri's hair is almost long enough for pig tails, but until then all I can do is a little topsie tail

The box madness

a little dad time and a little dance time.

I realize this is a whole lot of videos, but I liked all of them enough to share all of them :)

ALSO!

My sister is a chocolate ere for Dove Chocolate and I'm throwing a party Jan. 28th (I haven't sent out invites yet so if you want one let me know, it's delicious chocolate tastin!) There is a sweet Valentines box for sale right now so I thought I'd put a word in for it. If you're interested...Just let me know, you don't have to live here to get one!

-There are 24 chocolates in the box with six different flavors: dark chocolate mousse, passion fruit sorbet, cheesecake, tiramisu, lemon meringue pie, and cinnamon roll.
-It costs $39, that includes shipping
-It ships to the recepient on Valentine's Day
-You can send a personal message in the box (up to 60 characters)
-They are handmade right before they are shipped
-Must be purchased before Jan. 31

As Cami put it, "Basically it is the "sweetest" present for your valentine." :) If you want to participate in the challenge of getting 14 people to order it from you you get a box free ! (yummy!) I can testify of the amazing-ness of Doves, Chris and I got some stuff a few months ago (sea-salted caramels, chocolate covered almonds that were cinnamon dusted, and marshmallow chocolates and they were a-maz-za-zing. I highly recommend them to all!

Catchaphrase

2011-01-10T22:14:00.003-05:00

Courtney also took all of these (I'm sorry I have no photos of her....why is that?) This was our New Years event playing Catcha-phrase with my fam and my Papo, he's the biggest trooper wearing the hat and playing the game with us.Papo

Kj

Court Court in Washington

2011-01-10T21:50:00.013-05:00

Courtney, my sister-in-law, (once was room-mate) took all of these while we were up in Washington. We went down to Manchester Park, just a few minutes from my parents house. It was fareeeezing, but Zuri didn't even care how numb her fingers were as long as she had her volleyball she was happy.

Ammon, mom, Chans, Kj and pups

Kj and their dog Sally.

Carmel

My first pup, Pippin. He's now mama's, but I still love him. Looks a lot like Kelso, huh?
Chans, mama and Ammon

There you have it!

woodchuck

2011-01-05T23:53:00.002-05:00

Hailey has served me well once again. Our last night in Oregon. This is Zuri's new response to "smile" when her picture is taken. We love our little woodchuck.

thee photos

2011-01-04T01:52:00.009-05:00

My sources are serving me well with getting me their photos quickly. Thank you Hailey and Courtney and Dad V.

We begin with Zuri's birthday party:

This is the only photo I can find of her wearing her birthday girl crown.

Cousin C.C. touring Zur around

the "eyo?"

New shoes

A quick jump to Seattle. The youngest four sibs. Carmel, me, Ammon and Chanson

Zur getting the swing from Ammon and Carm

Seattle! beautiful photo Court.

The heart coat

Talking to Uncle KJ

ammon and chans

This is how she spends most of her time now. glued to my leg.

I actually was not around for this, but I thought it was pretty funny and explains my brothers perfectly

Those are some for now! Hopefully I'll get some more from my people.

December

2011-01-02T01:25:00.003-05:00

We were thinking we'd be wise this break and pack light, so light that we wouldn't take our camera. I know, we don't even know who we are anymore either. We are relying heavily on those smarter people who did take photos this break so those will come later.

But just for the record and before school starts and I forget everything here is what has gone down...that I can remember.

.We survived finals and passed all our classes. One step closer to graduation.

.I realized I really enjoy printmaking, which is a good thing since I don't have a big connection with any other medium.

.We went to Oregon. awesome.

.Zuri got a pretty fantastic winter coat complete with a heart sewn into the back.

.Ate lots of delicious food. Korean BBQ, Vietnamese Fou, and Grandma and Omas cooking. Yum.

.Had a great birthday party for Zuri in both OR and WA. Oregon complete with big party, presents and adventure at Out of this World Pizza. Washington threw in the great baking of Courtney and Carmel cupcakes topped with creative panda bear faces. Very cute. Zuri loved the frosting.

.Christmas was full of fun and Zuri running all over the place with her bigger cousins.

.Zuri learned to climb chairs and how to climb down stairs.

.Zuri has officially gone off formula, all about the whole milk now.

.We discovered Backyardigans is a fantastic kids show. I could sing all about it for you if you like.

.Shopping is still my favorite game.

.I discovered it is really going to bite not living close to Spam.

.We went up north three hours to visit my Hardy clan. They have a beautiful view of Seattle.

.Took a fairy over to Seattle and I realized the North West can get quite frigid.

.I love my court court face and my munchkin siblings...and my not so munchkin siblings.

.My mom, dad, and papo are absolutely fantastic game folk.

.Chris embarked upon a Risk game with the Hardy men that lasted tell 4am. Chanson won.

.Spending New Years in a hot tub, drinking Martinellies straight from the bottle and watching the Space Needle go crazy with fireworks was pretty rad.

.Portland is a really cool city, I hope we live close to here soon.

.True Grit and Easy A are great movies. And Cheesecake factory makes wonderfully rich cakes (yum.)

.Zuri can now blow kisses, fold her arms, sign please, thank you, dada, and wave bye-bye and says hello by putting her hand to her ear and saying "eyo?" can say "love you" in a cute baby voice and "sheep says...Baa" She also sings back when sung to by Christian, it is the cutest thing ever.

.I went canoeing with Chris, his sister, Alicia, and her hubby, Tucker, yesterday....Little did I know I was getting into a much bigger/longer ride then I thought. I pretended to be a grouch (I have bad past associations with boating attributed to my very eventful father) but it was actually very fun this time.

.I got 4 cavities filled..ouch (don't make fun, I have terrible teeth and it's been six years since I've gotten x-rays), but thanks to a wonderful blessing of my brother-in-law being the dentist it saved us an incredible amount of money.

.I love families, they take such good care of us.

So far that's all I can think of. I love the NW, I hope we can get back sooner then it took us last time (two years). Now it's on to another long flight with Zuri (one of the two flights out was absolutely not awesome) and home again to begin another and last one of our semesters at SVU! It will be Christians first time graduating from a school (very exciting) and well, I'm very excited about the next chapter of our long life.

a little Christmas Eve Canoeing

2010-12-24T23:26:00.006-05:00

Back in Virginia with the snow fest before we left.

I miss my little Kelso

Chris took Zur snow riddin'

Back to today! Chris decided it'd be fun to go out on the river that is in his parents back yard. So we did! Zuri loved it until she realized how lame it was that she couldn't move at all. It was a fun little Christmas eve adventure.

Her birthday was great! We just gotta get some photos uploaded from Dad's camera. Until then, Merry Christmas!

Our Kid

2010-12-23T02:00:00.003-05:00

Oregon has been an adventure so far. Lots of people which freaked Zuri out at first, but now she is enjoying the attention and lots of shopping...who's loving that? That would be me.

Monday night Chris' mom had a piano recital with her students and Zuri was dancing right along to the Christmas music. She loved it. Rich took this shot and It just makes me happy, our little dancer

Tomorrow is her first birthday!! I can't wait, we're having a lunch/party for her with the fam at a pizza play place (?) never been, but I have heard is spectacular! I'll post photos as soon as I can of our little one year old munchkin.

Merry Christmas!

December so far.

2010-12-11T23:23:00.003-05:00

These are just some random videos I've taken the past few weeks. That's all I seem to use my older point and shoot for these days...Hence why I'd like a flip someday.

the main tricks:

Kelso and his lady friend Poe are playing in the end, that's the creepy noise.

She goes crazy for her blueberries for breakfast. I was trying to get her "mmm" sound as she eats them. She appreciates flavor so much.

She sings with Christian. She also took a pretty bad hit into the coffee table. Ouch, It got infected and she had to get some antibiotics since the cut was too close to her eye she couldn't have a cream. It's all healed up nicely now.

She learned to sign thank you and please this week, i'll catch those via video sometime. I am very proud of her good manors.

Meanwhile in between all the filming of these delightful videos life is still cruisin. Chris has finished his senior paper he is now working on the final draft. He wrote another paper today without me typing (I'm very proud) and he has a new job he started this month! He sells fine Italian Linens to Hotels/spas etc. They are actually very nice linens, I would totally buy some if they didn't make you buy in bulk.

I am doomed for my math final Wednesday, but I'm now seeking for divine intervention with an incredible flow of all that i've learned this semester to come crashing back into my brain for the three hours I need it most.

I went to do the second print on my two runs, only to discover I've been compromised and now will have to reprint many many, and by that I mean almost all of my 15 prints. However, through that set back, I've decided I'll do my senior show with Prints this coming semester. Hopefully it turns out better then this edition did.

Finals are done by Friday, I'm helping Brinn shoot a wedding on Friday , Saturday is a prep/clean/laundry and packing day. Sunday it's off to West side!

K and C.

The Kitchen!

2010-12-06T22:57:00.006-05:00

Here it is folks. The walls are not painted yet, but this was the biggest of the biggest projects upstairs. Well, I take that back. Christian had redone the two upstairs bathrooms last year...those were big projects too. I just actually helped with this one :)

The very old wall paper...it was gross.

The very old stain. Also very very gross

The overall nasty

Our friends let us borrow their steamer to get the wall paper off. It saved our lives.

Zuri helped too.

Chris sanded EVERYTHING. Poor guy couldn't feel his arms after, but he got a new sander out of it so he was pleased.

Beginning painting

Our Drawer tower

Cabinets all together, painted a beautiful! We love them much much more.

The walls will have to wait until after Christmas break, we are thinking a nice deep green..or a lighter green, not sure yet. I love it all! It's much cleaner and soo much brighter, I keep turning the light on thinking I'm switching it off cause it's so light. Thank you Christian!

I don't know why this underline has happened....and I don't know how to make it stop. Oh well!

November

2010-11-25T19:55:00.006-05:00

Zuri turned 11 months on the 23rd. That's amost a year guys...what?!!?! I can't get over it. She already acts way older then her age. She toddles around and is basically running. Here's what's happening this month.

.Zuri now says "hi" and "hi eyo" (Kelso) in addition to her bye's, daddy, and muma.

.Her hair is getting thicker and curlier, I love it.

.She has started to shake her head, not your normal shake though. She tilts her chin up high squints her eyes and sticks out her bottom teeth while shaking. I gotta film it someday.

.When Chris asks Zur for kisses she head buts his mouth.

.She can blow kisses.

.Chris taught her how to give "pats on the back." Almost every time you pick her up she'll give love pats now.

.I really want a flip videocamera.

.My math class is like death.

.I have learned that holidays are awesome excuses to take a break from normal stresses of life only to take on temporary stresses of buying decorations and making lots of food for people. It's fun though!

.Cami makes yummy food. I already knew that though.

.Tangled is an AWESOME movie.

.Chris is still the best.

.I finally sewed something. I got the two pillows done.

.We started fixing up the kitchen! Photos to come. It looks awesome.

.being sick when you have a kid is so lame.

and

.I found out my hair could do this...

I hope you had a good T-day. I'm thankful for my little family and my big family and having a warm beautiful home. I can't wait for Christmas!!

school

2010-11-21T20:46:00.003-05:00

I have quite a huge math test tomorrow...half of what I should know I don't understand one bit. So instead of studying I am making curtains and pillows for my dinning room window and sun bench. I have had the fabric forever. two days of school left tell break means nothing to be. I'm beyond over it.

And the curtains look awesome so far. Thank you Wal_Mart for your discount fabric!

Chris has his senior paper due in a few days also...We will be working on that very late into the night I'm sure. The end is in sight, but still so far in the distance! I want Christmas so badly.

This is in Target about a month ago, I totally should have bought this for her.

In Wal-Mart a few months ago too. Best $2 I've spent