Chocolate

Before I forget, I wanted to post about Zoey's cute creativity lately. For her birthday she got a lego dollhouse basically. She loves to play with it. The other day she was playing and put the frying pan up to the lights that are on both sides of the front door and said chocolate and then she sipped it out of the frying pan. She then shared the chocolate with both John and me. I just thought it was so cute and creative. I guess she used the lights as a faucet of some sort for her chocolate. What a silly girl. She also fed her lego people the chocolate. By the way, Zoey does love chocolate in real life. We have lots of halloween candy so she gets some everyday usually. She loves chocolate and chocolate milk, but oddly enough did not like hot chocolate.

It's November...already!

Wow, my last post was July 28th. I'm pretty good at this blogging thing eh? Oh well. I'll attempt to catch up in the next month or two ;)

Well the most important big news...

On our 3rd anniversary (8/29/2012) we found out we're expecting baby #2 due May 7, 2013. We're all very excited even though Zoey has no idea what's going on. And mostly I haven't updated because I've been sick and haven't wanted to do much of anything really.

I am now just about 15 weeks which I feel good about. That means only 25 more weeks or less than 23 if this baby is early like Zoey. I've been to the doctor ( a new one this time) and everything looks good and I've seen our little wiggly baby on the ultrasound and it's so much fun. Last time we only had the one big gender ultrasound and other than that I never saw Zoey. So it's been fun to see this one more. Our big ultrasound this time is scheduled for Dec. 11 so that'll be fun to find out boy or girl. I think girl, John thinks boy. So we've got our bases covered.

I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures over the past few months either. Mostly I've been sleeping on the couch. Zoey's been so good to play by herself or watch her movies.

For the first time, Zoey let me put her hair up for church yesterday, so that was fun!

Apparently John doesn't like to go somewhere to get pictures taken (like JC Penny last year). Even though I always can get good deals from groupon. I wanted to do it again this year for Zoey's two year pictures and have a family picture for Christmas cards but he talked me out of it, so we might be using the above for Christmas cards. He just thinks it's a waste of money when I can take good pictures. But it's just not the same and I'm kind of sad.

Zoey turned 2! But that will be it's own post with pictures. And we got a BUNCH of fun snow this past weekend which we played in and took pictures so that will be another post too... at some point. I think 1 post is good for today.

Zoey's First Haircut!

Zoey is just about 21 months old and has never had a haircut. She just doesn't have a lot of hair. She has however been sporting a pretty nifty mullet lately. I just haven't had the heart to cut it since she finally had a little length to her hair.

The mullet

In pony tail

Well, it was time to let the mullet go so I cut it off! I put it in a ponytail so that I could save it in her baby book. And I have to say I think I did pretty good for my first haircut on a wiggly little girl.

Before and After!

No more mullet

3 inches!

Sporting the "wet" look

While drying. You can see it's not entirely even, but I don't think many people will notice

Now she has big kid hair. not a baby anymore!

3 inches of baby hair is now gone. She's getting to be such a big kid I can't believe it. Where did my baby go?

Dinosaur Hair

When my niece Emily was small I was her nanny. I would do her hair all the time and my favorite was what I called dinosaur hair, which is a modified mohawk for girls :)

Emily's dinosaur hair

Well I don't usually put things in Zoey's hair because she takes them out right away but I decided to try dinosaur hair one day. It lasted about 10 minutes. Enough time to take some pictures. But oh it brought back so many memories :)

Mom, WHAT are you DOING to me?!?!

Jobs

For the last year John has worked at Larry H Miller Honda selling cars. He loves talking about cars and everything so he really liked the job. Except it's really hard to sell cars to people. Every few months the supervisors would get on his case about selling more cars. Plus the hours are long and we would hardly ever see him. And since he didn't sell a ton of cars, we didn't make a lot of money. But we did have enough to get by which we were grateful for. We've been passively trying to get a new job since the beginning of the year, but he didn't have time to look for jobs and apply. So we didn't apply a lot.

On Monday, they pulled him aside at work again to tell him he needed to sell more. In fact, 4 more cars in 5 days or they would have to fire him. I guess it just got to be too much so he said he would just quit right now. That morning he'd also gotten a call for a job interview that looked promising. I do have to say that getting a text saying he quit his job was very shocking. I was very nervous about what the future would bring. But after talking it over later we really felt like this was going to be a good thing. For one thing he could completely focus on getting a new job which he really needed to do. Also I feel like people help you get a job when you don't have one more than if you're trying to get a different job from the one you have. I think we applied for another job that night also.

He interviewed with Hoj Dock and Door on Wednesday morning and really clicked with the place and the people. Good company, good job, good benefits. We heard about the job from our brother-in-law through a friend of his who works for a competing company. Basically it's doing maintenance and stuff on warehouse dock lifts and things like that. Where semi's unload stuff. He was really excited about it when he came home but they told him they'd let him know the middle of next week. They don't really advertise their jobs so they'd had 5 applicants and 2 hadn't called back yet about interviewing. And they were planning to hire 2. I thought those were pretty good odds (2/3) in John's favor. Later that day, John got a call to set up an interview for the other job we'd applied for. How exciting! This was a job installing and maintaining stairlifts for the elderly in their homes.

On his way to that interview today he got a call from Hoj extending him the job offer! Yes, we're so excited. He still did the interview to see if that would be a better job, but they didn't have health insurance since they don't have a lot of employees and the pay was slightly less, with less room for growth. So after 2 1/2 days of retirement (unemployment), John is employed again! He's such a rockstar. And it's a good job with good pay and I think he'll be very happy there for a long time.

We are so grateful for all the support we got during this week. There were many people out there praying for us and I know that helped us. Plus John and I were able to attend the Temple on Tuesday which we haven't been able to do in so long with his work schedule. That was such a blessing to us. I'm so happy for our family and especially my husband. He's so wonderful and so hardworking so that I can stay home to raise Zoey. I love him so much and can't imagine being any happier. He's definitely my best friend and we just have so much goofy fun together. We've actually had a blast this week of unemployment because we all got to be together as a family. Zoey loves her daddy and loves having him home. I'm excited for his new job with much more regular hours. We should be able to have family dinner together now and Zoey will be able to see him every day after work before bed. We feel so very blessed by everything in our lives.

Wall-E

It used to be Bolt, but now Wall-E is Zoey's favorite movie. When she wants to watch it she either says "wawe, wawe, wawe" or "direc, direc, direc" (for directive, which is in the movie). Now when it's starting up even before the music starts she starts singing. The beginning of the movie starts with a song from Hello Dolly that starts with "out there". Zoey sings out loud and it sounds more like "up eee" or "haa peee". But it means out there. It's so cute :) Sometimes she says "bee" when they get to the part about Barnabee.

Also in related movie news, I was watching the movie Leap Year the other day. It's rated PG so I didn't think there'd be anything to freak out Zoey. One part she's at the top of a big hill and it starts raining and she starts running down the hill to catch her train and she slips and starts slidding down the hill and screaming like a girl. Zoey was standing right in front of the TV and was watching and just starts screaming like she doesn't normally do and then she turned to me with a look of terror on her face and ran over to me. At first I just thought she was imitating the screaming but then I realized she was actually scared. Poor girl. I told her that everything was ok and she calmed down really fast. I couldn't help laughing at her cute girl scream though. :)

July 4th and Fireworks

Zoey's been getting more hair lately and I've been trying to figure out what to do with it. Do I cut her mullet? Do I let her have some length? Do I cut her bangs? I've just been brushing then aside when they're in her eyes. So I experimented a little with putting it up which lasted like a minute each time since she pulled everything out but here are some of the things we did.

I like the cute pigtails, if only she'd keep them in

This one looked a little too redneck so I took it out myself

My current favorite, except she won't leave it in (and isn't her fourth of July outfit cute?)

In the morning of the Fourth we went to see Zoey's first parade. I have to say, it was kind of slow, everything spaced out. Lots of politicians. Not too exciting. The couple of bands were fun and a few floats. But Zoey got bored after awhile and I didn't really blame her. She danced a little to the music which was probably her favorite part... and the taffy she got to eat.

The jets flew over and Zoey couldn't figure out where the sound came from

If you know Zoey, you know she likes her sleep. Used to go to bed by 6:30 every night. Now she usually goes to bed about 8 and is up around 8. We wanted her to see the fireworks for the first time so planned to keep her up for them (they started at 10). John's sister and her family came down and we all went swimming in the afternoon which kind of wore Zoey out. So I tried keeping her up but she was so tired by 8:30 that we decided to let her sleep and then wake her up when we were going to go. She was so happy that I let her go to bed. We also had been invited to a fireworks show someone in our ward was doing on Friday. So our brother-in-law Chris was too tired to go to the fireworks so we had him sleep on our couch and left Zoey home for the 4th's fireworks. She probably would have been grumpy that we woke her up and not liked how loud it was because we were right where they set them off.

So Friday I made sure we didn't go swimming so she could stay up until these other fireworks that started at 9:15. She was a real trooper. We went shoe shopping with my friend Tika so I could get my silver shoes for her wedding (which I'm a bridesmaid in next week).

Found a hat

What a cutie!

 While I was buying some shoes Tika took Zoey to walk around and they happened to find build-a-bear. So Tika decided to get Zoey one with some clothes. Zoey loved the store and pushed the pedal to put fluff in the bear and stuffed her heart in. It was very cute. She liked giving the bear a bath too but didn't care about the clothes. After they put the bear in it's box "house" and Zoey just dragged it around the mall with us as we were leaving. It was so adorable since the box was almost as big as her.

The cute bear. Zoey was moving around too much to get a picture with her and the bear

So then later I took Zoey to the park by our church where the fireworks were going to be and we played on slides since she loves slides. She calls them a "sly". So this show we saw was awesome. The fireworks are smaller than the city's which was good for Zoey because they weren't as loud. But they went on for a good hour and a half and there were constantly fireworks going. It was so much fun. Zoey really liked it all at first and would go "whoa"  or "ooooo" and point to them. But as it got later and she was more tired she started getting annoyed with the noise. She would say "pop pop pop" as she complained about them. Right before the finale we went to the car so it would be quieter and we were able to see the rest of it even though she still complained a little. We got home and got her in bed about 11pm which is VERY late for her. She still woke up at 8 and was grumpy until she took a 3 hour nap at 11am. Usually she only naps for an hour and a half or two hours. John even made it to the fireworks from work about halfway through them so that was great too. I'm glad she got to see some fireworks and it was an incredible show, I think we'll go to these every year! All in all a great 4th of July!

Sickies

A few weeks ago on a Tues or Wed Zoey randomly got a fever. I thought perhaps it was her last tooth coming in. She didn't act very sick. A little grouchier than normal but otherwise fine. I gave her medicine to help with the fever for the next few days but didn't think she needed to go to the doctor. Then, that Saturday John texted from work asking me to come pick him up because he was sick. This is very unusual because he drives to work so if he was sick enough not to drive home that wasn't good. We got him home and he was nauseous, had a headache, and a fever of 102.6 . I thought he had the stomach flu. He slept until he felt less nauseous and could take some IB profin for the fever and headache. Before Zoey went to bed I noticed she had a slight rash on her chest and belly. Needless to say, we decided we wouldn't be going to church the next day. I researched online after Zoey went to bed to figure out if I should take her to the doctor and figured out she most likely had Roseola which completely explained the fever and then a few days later when the fever breaks, the rash. Not serious and by the time the rash is there it's almost over. So good, no doctor for Zoey.

We called Zoey a speckled from while she had her rash and constantly were singing the speckled frog song :)

Now John, like many men it seems, can be a big baby when he's sick. So Sunday he's complaining about everything and I'm nursing him as best I can. Monday comes and he doesn't go to work again but they tell him if he is going to miss another day he'll need a doctor's note. So I ask if he thinks he'll miss Tuesday and wants to go to the doctor. He keeps going back and forth. "I should go in tomorrow" "I should go see the doctor" I told him it was fine either way but I didn't think the doctor would do anything, just tell him he had the flu. He kept complaining about how tired he was and that he just had no energy and a bit of a sore throat. I still thought he was just being a baby. Finally he decided to go to the doctor. We went and they did a strep test- negative. Then after talking with him more the doctor was like, hmm sounds like mono, let's do a mono test. I was like, huh, never thought about that. Well that test came back positive. (and boy do they do those tests fast now, like 5-10 min and we had results!) Sure was nice to know exactly what he had (and yes I felt bad for thinking he was just being a baby when he had a legitimate reason for being so tired). Doctor wrote him a note excusing him from work for the next week so he could try to rest and recover. He told him he could go back earlier if he was feeling up to it but the more he rested the faster he would probably get better. He ended up staying home the whole week which I think was a good thing. It was nice having him around so much and Zoey got a lot more comfortable with him and would sit with him sometimes which was cute. But why don't they plan these things better and not overlap their illnesses? Makes for one tired Mama bear. But at least I didn't get sick!

Mostly June

Look Mom, I'm in a teeny tiny box!

Yeah so I'm not that great at updating regularly. Really, maybe, I might get better. So, June was a good month as far as I remember. Zoey's getting so big. She's not even a baby anymore, but a little girl. Oh, how the time goes. She's talking more and more everyday. She still says a lot of gibberish, but there are times that I swear she says sentences. Like she said "I dropped bird" when she dropped her bird. I was like, uh did you just say that? But I'm pretty sure she did. It's amazing how fast they learn things. Seems like she learns new words everyday. My favorites lately are "puddalah" (which means pickle, and puddle sometimes too), "Direc, direc, dire" (which means directive, Wall-E is currently her favorite movie and she picked it up there), "bop" (which is how she beeps at things that have beeped), "peeeee" (in a very cute girly voice which means please). Zoey loves playing on our bed and lately face planting all over it.

It's been hot here and we don't have A/C so we use our pool a lot. I love having a pool. Zoey and I go about 4-5 times a week usually. We got her a puddle jumper floaty which works so well! Keeps her head out of the water and she doesn't mind wearing it so I can swim laps while she plays on the stairs and if she jumps in the deep part she's still ok :) So nice.

First bike ride of the season

Daddy-daughter bike ride

Trying to lounge like dad but it was so bright!

Cheese-ing it up

She's a floater!

Cute little girl talking on the phone outside

Look at that little grin :)

Practicing her surf skills

Stef and Jaxon came to swim!

Bubbles! She's a big fan now

She can climb up this all by herself and then go down the slide too

Whee!

Focus on the fence

Focus on Zoey

Daddy and Zoey together

Zoey loves pushing the stroller. Looks like she's ready for a brother or sister to push around

Rock came to play!

Still loves sitting in small boxes

 Her new trick. Discovered she could push this box tot he fridge so she could get more papers and magnets that she couldn't reach before. Silly girl.

Hehehe, she fit all the way through one leg hole.

Playing with her doll

She tries so hard to make her stand up on the table but for some reason the doll always falls over :)

Splashing in the sprinkler puddles

I love that she's closing her eyes when Pascal's are wide open

She found a hiding spot in the closet in our clothes hamper after I took the whites out to wash them.

Decided she wanted to sit at the table like a big girl but we don't have a booster for the chairs so we used the computer chair. Except it was huge so we added padding behind her so she just leaned back and enjoyed her comfy seat.

Awww, I love when Daddy reads with her

Yep, John put her in the dryer and she loved it

Anytime Zoey hears something beep (microwave, oven timer, car horn) she always says "bop! bop!" and gets concerned if we don't do something about it (if it's the microwave or oven). It's so cute we had to get it on video.