2yrs

Ian,

My lil Buddy you are now 2 and I don't think I can say this enough I love that I have been blessed to be your mommy and that you are my boy.  Your stats are as follows: Head 19.5in, Height/Length: 35.5in, and Weight: 29lbs 8oz.  You are in the 75th percentile all around, despite your super picky eating habits you are growing as you should!

You have learned so much since my "all about you" post.  Your vocabulary grows daily you know the following words: 

Doo-stool
Ooes- shoes
Ducky
Doggie
Ma
Papa
Dada
Mom
Momma
Mommeeee
Happy
Bowl
spoon
smoothie
Eat
Elro-Elmo
Illow-pillow
Ack-Cracker
Uck-cup
Blow- in reference to blowing nose
Oak- coat
Pee
Bar - in reference to granola bar or fruit crisp bar
Ilk-milk
Nana
Poppy
WooWoo- anything fire related
Booboo- booger
Mickey
Ee- monkey
Money
Donkey
Blankie
Hat
Movie
Buddy
E-Ian
Me
Banana

Knows word and location of:
Eyes
Ears
Nose
Tougue
Belly button
Toes
Booty

When asked a question you will respond by saying hmmm....with finger up to your mouth and then you will point to object/item you are wanting.



You still love your doggie and any crocheted blanket, you enjoy watching Elro (Elmo), you love your hat and usually don't go a day without wearing it some days you wear it the entire day through naptime and all.  You still nap beautifully 2.5-3hrs a day.  You started potty training around 20mos old and have great success at home and out in public but not so good when away from Mommy and Daddy.

You can add another hash mark to your Disney World tracking sheet you are up to 2 visits and 1 visit to Disney Land with 8 plane rides.

You Buddy make a lot of people smile.  You are shy in unfamilar places but once you find your groove it's tough to get you to go bye bye.  You are 99% a momma's boy and I'm fine with that!  You are 100% boy from your hat, to your jeans, to your personality you are all boy.  We recieve lots of complianments on how well behaved you are which makes for some proud parents.  You are loved, you are kind and you are important!!

LOVE YOU,

Momma

blow

tractor vs leaptop

The tractor is from my grandparents, it orginally belonged to my uncle and my grandpa fixed it up and they presented it to Ian on Christmas Eve.  He loves it, he can't quite reach the peddles yet (blocks have to be added) but as you can see he enjoys just sitting on it.

The Leapfrog Leaptop is something we knew we wanted him to have.  At his sitters he is known to grab one of the many "computers" take it to the picnic table and play with it. We have it personalized to him and also have selected his playlist. He is a happy boy!

Bundle Up with Old Navy

This past weekend myself and 3 friends (one was unable to be there) got to into Old Navy and walk out with a pair of pants of our choice, a sweater of our choice and a winter accessory (hat, scarf, gloves) of our choice all thanks to Crowdtap.  I can't tell you how much fun it is to walk into store and pick out whatever you want no matter the price. The 3 friends I invited are either married, have a child, or have started a business and the one thing we have in common is that none of us rarely buy for ourselves without shopping in the clearance section one piece at a time in many seperate trips.  So big thanks to Crowdtap for choosing me!

We'll start with Mary Clare and her outfit love the trouser jeans and green pea coat sweater. Both pieces can be seperated and worn with other items in her wardrobe.  I'm thinking this sweater will be packed to accompany MC on her next ski trip to Colorado

 Katrina 1st look includes Slim Flare Jeans paired with a patterened cardigan and can we also point out adorable Miss Lexi, Katrina's shopping partner!

Look #2 for Katrina includes the patterened cardigarn and this time Ultra Flared Perfect Fit Khakis which this outfit falls under business casual so it can be worn at work, both pieces can be seperated and paired with others and can also be worn for a nice dinner out. She also picked a gerat scarf that can be worn with a lot of different outfits. She went with look #2!

For myself I went with a classic white sweater with a fun double v-neck.  Paired with trouser jeans and my accessory (not pictured) is a black infinity scarf.  The biggest decision I had to make was do I with skinny jeans or trouser jeans.  I opted for trouser jeans as my current ones are about 2 sizes to big and my current skinny jeans are only 1 size to big and hubby really isn't a fan of skinny jeans at all.

Now onto my 3rd person who wasn't able to attend I choose her outfit for her.  And wouldn't you know it, its the same exact outfit MC went with. What can I say the pea coat sweater is really cute.

Those that were able to attend had a great time and all of us will get a lot of use out of our items!  Thanks Crowdtap and Old Navy 

Christmas Card

We took our Christmas card photo this past weekend

From our not so perfect family to yours,

Merry Christmas!!!

xoxo

The Z's

Florida in December

Last week Ian and I went to visit my sister for 6 days and 7 nights.  We had a blast, our week included prepping for a 30th birthday party (includes making cupcakes completely from scratch), body pump classes, cx works class, group training sessions, Sea World, Tough Mudder race (my sister, not me), butternut squash and sweet potato soup, spaghetti squash and fish, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, visit with our grandparents, menchies, Ikea, swim lessons/playground fun, visit to the town of Celebration for the Christmas set up that including a ice skating rink (made out of plexi-glass), snow (had a scent of dawn dish soap to it and the look of soap suds) and a train powered by a smart car. Here's some pics our of week!!

Advent Calendar

Ian's Ma made him an Advent Calendar:

He loves to do move the little santa multiple times a day, that could be out of excitement for Christmas or that there are mini hershey bars.  I'm going with the latter, the calendar is generally something Marcus and Ian do together as when Marcus was a little person he loved count down.

December

Another month has come upon us and already we have things to tackle like some of the leftovers from November like:

Layout photo collage for wall in living room

Christmas shopping/DIYing

Share Pinterest love

Organize MB closet

And we are adding:

Organize guest room closet which has turned into a collect all

Paint kitchen cabinets

Celebrate someone special in our house turning 2!

finalize art work for dining area, we have agreed on the photo now just figuring out a size

Watch every Christmas movie we own at least 2x a rent what we don't own.

Change Ian's bed into a toddler bed??

Continue potty training

Come up with a head board/window treatment for MB

Celebrate sister's 30th bday with her

At this time that is all my little brain can come up with. 

the big three zero

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY MARCI!!!!

See you tomorrow afternoon!!!!

November Wrap up

Gah...where is this year going?? We have items to tackle.


Christmas shopping/DIY-ing- we're getting there

Post about lastest Crowdtap giveaway-DONE

Go through more of Ian's clothing- so far we have sold 3 lots of Ian's clothes and will be done till spring time
Organize MB closet better- we have talked about no moves have been made yet

Share some of my Pinterest love- SLACKER been busy pinning and actually doing just gotta share my love with you all

Layout a wall collage on living room wall- thought about it haven't done it

Continue search of new to us appliances and cabinets- we can mark oven off, and thanks to Black Friday a new fridge has been delivered.

Locate reasonably priced window treatments for living room- When I told my mom the price range ($6.99 or lower) pre-panel she was shocked and not very confident I will locate them. My plan PROVE her wrong, I have them located just waiting for a SALE! - Ahhh success 4 panels for $25 (after tax) can I get a WOO HOO?!?! They will be going up after the holiday season.

Ready to see what else the month has in store for us.

Decorate house Christmas- for some reason I completely forgot at the beginning of the month that "hello, we decorate our house every year for Christmas the weekend that follows Thanksgiving".

Build new bed frame and move location of bed, the new bed frame is higher than our previous one and who knew it but that would slove our issue of Miss Kota Dog getting on the bed.  

 Install recessed lighting above breakfast nook

Z House moments

Thanks to my sweet boy I have had some heart melting moments. I'm totally soaking in these moments as I know that won't be forever. We've also had some "this is what is to come" moments

Walking into his room in the morning to open the shade and get his day started I'm greeted with a "Hi" and as I pick him up from his crib he lays his head on my shoulder pats my back and say's "Hi Momma"

Ian manged to lock both myself and Marcus out of the house.  Luckily inlaws are 13 houses away so I ran down for the key they have to our house.  When I came back Ian was standing in the picture window, I told Marcus as he was trying to talk through the door to Ian to get him to unlock it.  he said yeah, I know I told him we were going bye bye in attempts of him wanting to join us. Instead he went to the window to watch.

We're potty training and Ian has learned that saying "mommy pee" can delay his bedtime up to 45min...Problem fixed we stop liquids an hour before bed and give him 3 chances to go potty before going to bed.

We seem to have a bit of a safety nut. While in the shopping cart I thought I would be a "fun" mom and let him ride in the basket. Well, he wanted no part of that basket he wanted in the seat with the strap. On a separate shopping trip the cart we had didn't have a functioning safety belt so I draped it over his lap well he picked it up, held it out and said "mommmm".
And then just the other day we stopped at the woo woo station (fire station) to see Papa Jim and he thought he would be a "fun" Papa and let Ian sit in the fire truck well he wanted no part of that as he wasn't strapped in. At least he is a safety nut in a good way!

Till the next installment of Z House Moments

letter

Dear Husband,

I know you LOVE to LOVE Christmas as you have been listening to it at night as you fall asleep since late October.  And I too enjoy Christmas music but not before Thanksgiving.   So I have a compromise to offer to you, you listen to your Christmas music as much as you want at a reasonable volume by reasonable I mean so that I can't hear playing when I'm in any other room in the house except the bedroom and even then it should be just a faint sound. Agree? Agree!! Fabulous!


Love
Your Wife

dog walker

Please disregard my childs face when I turned off the camera, not his best look.

If you need a dog to rent for your child to walk or pretend that they own, I have 2 that fit the bill!!  Really though Kota Dog is great with Ian, she lets him sit on her back jump and pull her ears.  Lexus pretty much just tries to stay out of his way she deoesn't bother him he doens't bother her. 

groovin'

Double (L)oven

I feel like I have been talking about this since we moved into our house but good things come to those who wait right? We also get to cross something off of November's list!

I could only find one before picture of our antique gem that came with the house.  It was gas, house heating, not safe old thing.  We replaced it with a Kitchen Aid Superba built-in double oven.  We lost a little bit of drawer space under the oven but nothing from the top cabinet. Installation was completed last night thanks to Marcus and Uncle Don (Marcus' uncle) and this morning as soon as I finished my workout I pulled out my recipe box and got a list started of ingredients that I would need to test it out.  I did very little baking in the old oven as I said before the old one was un-safe! We could consisently smell gas and when I did use it, it heated the whole house...not very GREEN!  So needless to say my cookies we delightful and Christmas cookie season is just around the corner, I think we will be reducing our production time, we might even need more cookie sheets.   But before Christmas cookie season we have Thanksgiving and I do believe we will be hosting Marcus' family seeing as though it will be my first hosting experience I prefer to do it small and well there will be 10 of us (but only 9 will actually eat).

We will continue our hunt for black appliances and eventually cabinets will either be replaced and painted or painted a light gray color and a new black counter top will grace the top of the cabinets.  And beautiful new tile will be under our feet. It's a process but worth the wait!

Patching it

As we did last fall we did the same this fall.  We took Ian to a pumpkin patch unlike last year Ian actually had a say in picking which pumpkin he got.  Although dispite having such a say in which one he got he wanted no part and no pumpkin meant his standards.  So after a process of elmination we got one pumpkin to carve and one Ian's size that he wanted to show to the goat.  He wanted no part of the carving but was a good sport and stayed on the counter for part of it.

Activewear

Well, folks I was lucky again with Crowdtap
 

Being someone who wears workout pants 10-12hrs a day when at work I like them to be comfy, perform well, and look good (aka make me look so small).  I'm also known on somedays when off to Ian to also sport workout pants then too. Hey, don't judge one must be comfortable when being used a human trampoline.

A few weeks ago I had purchased these from Old Navy:

I love them for running and that it's. When it comes to workout attire I have well workout attire, work workout attire and running attire.

Workout attire: usually constants of a good sports bra (or 2), a shirt or tank top that isn't too baggy you don't need fabric getting in your way when it comes to burpees or instanity, and either shorts (but not running shorts) or workout capris. Oh and when i workout at home I always do it barefoot.

Work workout attire: good shoes usually when I get new running shoes my old ones become my work shoes since they have a few 500 miles on them and are in still overall good use. Yoga bootcut pants are my work workout pants of choice and usually a work shirt and good zip up hoodie.

Running Attire: Now, here we have 2 categories we have warmer months attire: tank top, good sports bra(s), running shorts, headband and shoes.  And we have cold months attire: shoes, running pants (like pictured above), good sports bra(s), and a nice long sleeve shirt, gloves, and a headband.

And yes I find it completely necessary to have so many categories for workout attire.

Anyways onto crowdtap, I was given the responsibility to go my local Old Navy and pick out one pair of activewear bottoms and one activewear top. I was torn as to what workout category I should add too.  I went with work workout:

And running:

But here it is all put together so now it's a running errands outfit and a work workout outfit:

This weekend I will be pairing the top with my running tights here's a preview:

*Note: I'm not a barefoot runner, just too lazy to put my shoes on for this little photoshoot.

Halloween

Halloween this year was a complete 180 from last year.

We'll start with the costume, after searching eBay we became the proud owners of a 102 Dalmations costume.  Absolutely adorable costume that is so warm, soft, fuzzy, and so cute and perfect for my doggie loving boy.

It arrived and like any excited parents we put Ian in it kicking and screaming literally it took 2 of us to get him it.  As we were attempting to dress him I asked Marcus "should it really be this difficult or require 2 adults to put a costume on". Once it was on he screamed and screamed some more and his legs went all noodlely.  The only time he stopped crying and stopped being all noodlely was when he had a hershey kiss in his mouth.  So I hung the outfit up on his closet door so he could use to the idea of being an adorable dalmation.  We continued to offer the outfit as a choice of his daily wardrobe option in hopes he had warmed up to the idea. Well, 2 days before halloween and there was ZERO interest in being a dalmation doggie. So, we came up with a being a constructor worker like Bob the Builder Ian has overalls, plaid button down shirt, a hammer and yellow hard hat...PERFECT right??  Well this is what Ian wore for Halloween, we didn't go trick or treating due to the time (5-7p) our town did it and our schedules we didn't even get our light turned on till about 5:45.  Ian enjoyed watching all the kiddos coming up to the door he only was frightened by one and only tried to shut the door about 3x. Oh and this is the only picture I could get of him.

Contractor Ian

November

Gah...where is this year going??  We have items to tackle.

Christmas shopping/DIY-ing

Post about lastest Crowdtap giveaway

Go through more of Ian's clothing

Organize MB closet better

Share some of my Pinterest love

Layout a wall collage on living room wall

Continue search of new to us appliances and cabinets- Thanks to criagslist we have located some great leads but they were so great we missed out.

Locate reasonably priced window treatments for living room- When I told my mom the price range ($6.99 or lower) pre-panel she was shocked and not very confident I will locate them.  My plan PROVE her wrong, I have them located just waiting for a SALE!

Ready to see what else the month has in store for us.

another month has passed

As you saw on September's update we have a few leftovers to tend to first:

Refinish kitchen table and chairs- Table DONE we are undecided on chairs at the moment.

make a house to do list- DONE and it's LONG

give the flower area in front some fall lovin'- DONE, thanks to my grandparents they split some of the mums from their house and they are now in front of my house, they also gave us 2 brand new ones and my MIL gave us 1 as well.

nail down kitchen cabinet color (black or gray): yeah clueless

landscaping in front- DONE we made more sense out of the plants that were already there and just put them in new spots. See pictures above

celebrate anniversary that was back in August- DONE lunch at Olive Garden and a movie back at home

start Christmas shopping- our sitters, and my SIL are both DONE thanks to Pinterest getting my DIY on. My co-workers gifts are almost completed have to make 2 more and then get my baking on for their cookie plates.

It was a small list to start with but we can add:

Remove half eaten bunny from fenced part of the yard to out of the fence area- DONE, still throwing up in my mouth from that one

Organize Ian's clothes and sell some- DONE but more to go

Pay off helmet- completely worth every penny!!

Put some nails in the walls and hang some decor:  We have progress

We are getting somewhere with the house as well Christmas shopping.

Table

Well here it is what I've been talking about since August updated list

I know the before pictures are not the best but all I know is that is looks 100x better than it did when I brought it home.  Marcus used a black stain that had polyurethane in it, gotta love a 2 in 1 product. It took a couple coats and few lessons learned along the way but it looks beautiful.  The other thing I love is that we got the table and chairs for all of $50.  We are still undecided on the chair style we want and have yet to compromise on a light fixture. All good things come with time, right?? Anyways, I'm loving that we have a table again and not just a table but a table that I love!