A few of our favorite things

Great East Texas Balloon Race (July 2012)!

Ducks and parks!

Gregg County Fair!

Longview World of Wonders Science Expo!

(Photo from Astronomical Society of East Texas)

(Photo from Astronomical Society of East Texas)

(Photo from Astronomical Society of East Texas)

Just a few things we’ve done recently. Tons more to come, as usual!

Adelyn is 3 years, 5 months old and Colton is 16 months, 2 weeks old.

The sweet side of life.

Also titled: Sometimes we go out for treats because we want to.

Our first time having snocones:

Pure joy, am I right??

Addy and I shared a cold chocolatey treat (no coffee, thanks…) on the day we closed on our house:

And this was on a Tuesday, because… well, it was a Tuesday:

Hope your weekend is a sweet one!

Adelyn is 3 years, 4 months old and Colton is 15 months old.

Need a vacation?

Way back at the end of June, the hubby and I took a week long trip to Aruba with his parents while my parents watched the kiddos. It was our first trip without kids in two years and we needed it. The most stressful thing we did on the trip? Trying to decide if we wanted to go to the beach or the pool. Or where to eat dinner. Oh, and when my maxi skirt got caught in the airport escalator on the way home. That was kind of scary. {{I managed to yank my skirt out before I ended up half naked in front of a baggage claim full of people… yikes.}}.

Just looking through these photos makes me feel relaxed. Come, join me on a trip to Aruba!

The Aruba International Film Festival was going on while we were there.

Richard Kind!

Lindsay Zivney! Nancy Zivney! {{We walked the (deserted) red carpet after dinner.}}

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary in Aruba! {{Happy Anniversary, dear husband. Love you!}}

We booked a 2-stop catamaran snorkeling trip as our anniversary present.

Oh look, two more celebrity sightings.

Last full day in Aruba.

How I spent a majority of every day. Reading the “Game of Thrones” series. (SOOOOOO good!)

Nom.

It was a fantastic trip, but we sure were excited to see these little faces when we got home. 🙂

Thank you, Dan and Nancy, for inviting us on such a great trip! And thanks, Mom and Dad, for watching the kids so we could go on such a great trip! Can’t wait til next year!! 😉

Adelyn is 3 years, 3.5 months old and Colton is 15 months old.

Early 2012 Photo Dump

I keep a folder of photos on our desktop that are just waiting for a blog post. Some have a general theme, some are just random cute pics. I looked in it today and found a ton of Addy photos from the beginning of the year (Seriously. February.) and I honestly can’t remember if I ever posted them. So now I’m just going to put them all up in one big post for you to enjoy. I suppose I could call this post “Things Adelyn liked to do at the beginning of 2012.” (because, you know, I think that was the topic I was trying to work on…). So enjoy lots of pics of Addy, a few of Colton and some other randoms tossed in there for good measure. 🙂

Building block towers. (Feb 2012)

And then knocking them down.

Washing her car. (Feb 2012… I know! February, washing her car? Welcome to TX.)

Going for walks in her tutu. (Feb 2012)

Feeding the ducks. (Feb 2012)

Colton was hungry too.

Taking a ride. (Feb 2012)

Daddy time. (March 2012)

Zoo Fun. (March 2012)

Popsicles. (March 2012)

Swings with Great Grandmother Dollins. (March 2012)

Bluebonnets! (March 2012)

Goggles. (March 2012)

Naps in the car. (April 2012) {{Isn’t this funny? Same poses for both kids.}}

Looking sweet. (April 2012)

Watering her plants. (April 2012)

Helping Momma cut Daddy’s hair. (April 2012)

Being silly. (March 2012)

And last, but not least, Colton’s cheeks. Nom. (May 2012)

Okay, early 2012 is officially done. Next up, the second half of the year.

Adelyn is 3 years, 3.5 months old and Colton is 14.75 months old.

Moving highlights

We have internet!

We didn’t take many photos during the move (for obvious reasons) but here are some highlights from the first few days of us settling in. {{Don’t worry, once we are actually settled and there aren’t boxes still hanging around – oh yes, there are boxes still hanging around – we will do a little tour of the house.}}

PS. Follow me on Twitter (thezivneys) and Instagram (zivlinny) to see even more of our “everyday” life.

First dinner in the new house!

The house had some pretty horrendous paint in the mudroom/laundry room/bonus room, so one of the first things on our to-do list was to paint that area. See, isn’t it, erm…lovely? {{It was hand painted, so part of me feels really bad about covering it up, buuuuttt, it’s just not “us”.}}

So let’s prime. My parents managed to get everything primed (and even a little painted) before they went home, so now I’ve been working on the rest of the painting little by little.

Even wet, the primer makes a huge difference.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen…

Installing a cat door in our garage door.

What were the kids up to during all this time, you ask?

Oh they were busy snuggling…

And working…

And playing ostrich…

And cleaning… {{just call her “Cinderella”!}}

And climbing onto things…

And trying on old Halloween costumes.

They really love the new house. There’s so much room for them to play in and explore, and the bonus room upstairs is probably the best part. We spend a fair chunk of the afternoon up there horsing around. Addy has been mastering puzzles and is even working on her tracing skills!

A HUGE thank you to my parents, sister and our friends for helping us move and get settled. We seriously couldn’t have done it without you!!!

Adelyn is 3 years, 3 months old and Colton is 14.5 months old.

He did it!

Colton started walking! We’re so proud of him. He’s been steady on his feet for a while now and he liked to cruise around, but he just wasn’t quite ready to let go and walk. But that changed when he decided to go after his little toy school bus.

This video is from his second day of walking. After a good nap and a snack, he decided it was time to take a tour of the new kitchen.

To think, 7 months ago, the kids were this little…

Adelyn is 3 years, 3 months old and Colton is 14.5 months old.

Silly Colton

Please check and respect the way Colton is kickin’ it in the grass.

He literally just sat there, holding his feet up.

What a ham.

Adelyn is 3 years, 2 mos old and Colton is 14 months old.

Our House

{{“…in the middle of the street.”}}

Welcome to our new house!

That’s right folks, since I last posted, we’ve bought a house. And today, we closed on it. Soooo, this is officially our home!! I know we’ll have a ton of pics to post soon, especially as we’re getting settled. But for now, here are some shots of us unlocking the front door for the first time. 🙂 {{Of course we need to take that shot! We are first time homeowners!}}

Colton says “Hurry up and open that door, I wanna explore.”

And guess what we have in the master bath? A big tub! The kids love it already. Who wouldn’t?

We are so excited. And you know that I’ve been busy on pinterest. We’ll keep you posted! 🙂

Adelyn is 3 years, 2 mos old and Colton is 14 months old.

Life

Life, my family and friends.

Life has been busy around these parts.  House hunting and doctor visits and trips and traveling and relaxing and laundry (oh, the laundy)… it’s no wonder I haven’t blogged in close to a month.  

a)  Yes, we are in the midst of house hunting.  We are so ready to own our own home.  Decorate, paint, organize, garden… you name it, we want to do it.  It’s tough trying to decide between school districts, whether or not we want to build, whether we want to live out in the country or in a neighborhood… what is BEST for us?  Tons to consider when you’re talking about a purchase that’s, oh, a pretty big chunk of change.  {{Tangent:  Don’t things sound so much more expensive when you reference a million dollars?  $250,000 or a quarter of a million.  $333,333 or a third of a million dollars.  $500,000 or a half a million dollars.  Just me?  Okay then.}}

b)  We took the kids to have their one year and three year doctor’s checkups together and, really, it went surprisingly well.  Addy wasn’t as scared as at her 2 year check up {{mainly because we bought her her own doctor kit and she’s been playing with it almost every day since that 2 year appointment}}.  Colton, on the other hand, started fussing when the doc came in, and with good reason… he got 4 shots and a prick on the finger for his anemia test.  I guess he just remembers these things!   Surprise, surprise {{not really}}, we have a couple of lightweights… Addy is 6% for weight, 23% for height and Colton is 5% weight, 73% length.

c)  At the end of June, Derek and I got to go on our first “solo” vacation in two years.  My parents watched the kids for a week while the hubby and I spent 7 glorious days in Aruba with his parents.  The kids were great for Grandma and Grandpa {{or so they say… ::wink::}} and we missed them a ton, but we definitely needed that time to relax and be stress free.  Oh ya, and sleep.  I’m working on a post about the trip with tons of photos, so hopefully that will be up soon.

d)  Of course, coming back home from Aruba and having to do all the laundry and cleaning and such was a draggggg… and I still feel like I’m playing catch up.  Ha!  Sometimes I’m overwhelmed with the need to get rid of the clutter in our house.  Maybe a garage sale is in order, especially before we move.

Anyway, no pics today (so sorry!).  Just wanted to do a quick write up so you guys knew that we were still alive and kicking over here.  Promise, I’ll post some great pics soon. 🙂

Monthly Update – 1 year old!

Colton is 1 year old!

Can you even believe it?!?! Where has the past year gone? I still think of Colton as my wee little infant. My tiny boy who doesn’t crawl or climb or eat people food. He’s my baby, and he’ll stay that way forever. Except he really is a one year old. He climbs and pulls up and crawls and jabbers and shrieks and eats like a hungry little horse.

At 1 year old, Colton:

• Still takes 1-2 naps a day. Goes to bed between 7-8pm, depending on his last nap. He sleeps through the night (for the most part) and wakes happy in his crib. He still puts his hands up to head head when he’s tired and I.love.it. So sweet and endearing.

• Has 5 teeth, plus a couple more that have almost poked through. This teething business is for the birds though… no one likes cutting teeth. They do make chomping up food a lot easier though.

Addy took this picture of Colton and I absolutely love it. I crack a smile everytime I see it. 🙂

• Speaking of food, he’s a huge eater. He prefers to feed himself and alternates between using his pincer fingers and entire fist to shovel food into his little mouth. No food has been rejected, although this absolute favorites are cheese, noodles and strawberries, and his least favorite appears to be cottage cheese (isn’t that a type of cheese, lil man???). He only nurses once a day, right before bed.

Such a good boy, cleaning out his bowl.

• Crawls with his tummy off the ground except when he wants to go super fast, then it’s back to army crawling.

Likes to climb into/onto/under things. He is an active boy for sure. Doesn’t like to sit still for long! He has figured out how to climb into a tunnel at the park, into the laundry basket, into my cupboard. He pulls himself to standing in his crib, on his pooh bear train, and most recently, he climbed onto Addy’s little green chair. Both feet, up on the chair. Nearly gave me a heart attack, seeing him balanced there..

• Loves to snuggle. People or animals (stuffed or real… watch out cats, he’s coming for you!), they’re all perfect snuggle buddies. He can dish it out or take it. And, same as always, he adores his sissy.

• Loves our inflatable pool. Coat him with sunscreen, give him a hat and a toy (or the hose) and he’ll be content for a loooong time.

Splash.

• And as always, he’s the happiest boy I know. I think he gets it from his Daddy. 🙂

• Nicknames this month include: Bear, Bearson, Bear Bear, Foosa, Foosa bear

Adelyn is 3 years, 3 weeks old and Colton is 1 year old.