2016 Goals

Every year I make the same few goals- money, weight, time for myself....

This year is a little different. I'm going to be more specific.

My goal for weight is to lose and keep off 20 pounds by eating low carb and keeping active.
In June I dropped 20 pounds, and then gained back 15 after we moved. From November to the end of December I was able to lose 5 pounds. I'm going to keep this up and do my damnedest not to gain any of my lost weight back.

I'm going to take a little more time for myself- I'm going to take time to blog, color in my adult coloring book, and felt. I'll try my best to take advantage of nap times, but maybe I will see if David will give me 45 minutes after dinner to have me time.

I also need to work on being more patient. Especially with Natalia. She's a toddler, she doesn't know better and I need to take a deep breath and not be so quick to anger. My goal is to always count to ten and take a deep breath when I feel myself getting frustrated. I want to be a good mom, I don't want my daughter to think I don't love her. Patience is taught, and I need to be the role model for my daughter.

My new year's resolution for Natalia is that she will sleep in her own bed at night. Every night. For at least most of the night. I don't mind if she climbs in with me after her daddy has left for work... but there's too many people in our bed!

We will see how well these goals go. I'm feeling pretty confident.

Happy New Years Everyone!

2015: A Year in Review

The last few years have been amazing and full of change. This year was no different! At all!

Lets start at the beginning...

David and I turned 25 in January. A quarter of a century old! It was weird, but we settled into it quickly since we are already pretty good at this pretending to be adult thing. You know, having a kid does that to you.

Natalia turned one in February. This spoiled little girl got two parties! A super hero party in Pullman and a Princess party in Bothell. How many kids can say they are that lucky?!

Princess eats her cake

Little Super Heroine opens presents

David graduated with his bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering in June and was off to his start his career only a month later.

David's career took us away from Pullman and to the other border of Washington! We now live in Vancouver, WA- just across the river from Portland. We have settled in nicely to our new apartment and home. David loves his new job and we love Vancouver and all the fun places to adventure to around it! Natalia and I have made new friends and started a tumbling class along with joining a hiking group. 

 2015 was a year of change and progress in our lives. We are finally starting to settle down and find the groove of our life as a family. Who knows what 2016 brings... maybe a house?

Happy New Year everyone! 

From our little family to yours!

Post Christmas Exhaustion and More

My fitbit says I slept for 10.5 hours last night, that I woke up 3 times, and that I was restless 14 times...

Yet, I feel like I haven't slept in days. The constant go-go-go of the Holiday season has finally caught up with me.

And as tired as I am, I wouldn't change a thing.
Christmas was amazing this year.
We didn't travel at all for the first time in what seems like forever. It was so nice not to drag Natalia around until she was so overtired we couldn't calm her (happened last year). Plus this year she got to experience Santa for the first time in her own home and let me tell you, it was legitimately magical for us.

She woke up on Christmas morning a little grumpy, but as soon as we showed her the play kitchen that Santa had left for her... her eyes lit up and she ran over to it. She was so excited! Natalia has played with it constantly since Christmas morning. Santa did really well this year!

My parent's joined us for Christmas eve and morning while my mother in law joined us for Christmas day and a few days more (she left today). Having guest after guest can be exhausting, but honestly I loved every minute of it.

The overwhelming generosity of our family and friends shocked me this year. I know and have always known that we are loved and have amazing friends and family, but this Christmas season they came out of the woodwork. Having moved to Vancouver with no friends or family within 3 hours of us has been a little bit of a struggle and sometimes its rough. This Christmas reminded me that no matter how far our friends and family are, their love embraces us.

My parent's gifted us a zoo pass (among many other beautiful gifts). We went on Saturday, and Natalia and I are planning another trip in the next week or so! The Oregon Zoo is beautiful and so well put together! I highly recommend it to anyone coming through Vancouver/Portland. We are going to get a lot of use out of our zoo pass!

David's mom showed up on Christmas with a SUV full of gifts from her side of the family. It was like out of a movie! Sure, 80% of them were for Natalia (as it should be!). His family graced us with many beautiful gifts. I'm so excited to have a fitbit that accurately records my activity! I think it will be helpful for my weight loss as a reminder to keep moving!

Yesterday, we went to IKEA and got Natalia a big girl bed! It had been our plan to do it for her second birthday and my mother-in-law was generous enough to gift it to her. Thus far Natalia has decided that she adores her bed and has spent most of today playing and reading on it. Earlier today the house went silent (yikes!) so I went to check on her. Only to find that she had fallen asleep reading in her room. She's so sweet. Hopefully this bodes well for getting her to sleep in there at night! I'd love to have my bed back!

New Years is just around the corner, and so is my yearly "Year in Review" post. Are you ready for that?!

No motivation

Does someone want to come clean up after Tornado Natalia that has once again ripped through my apartment?
She's asleep so you might get a whole 30 minutes of the living room staying clean!
Please?
Anyone?
I don't know if its the new medication my doctor put me on or what but I feel like I'm constantly on the edge of a migraine. I can't keep hydrated. It sucks. I'm tired all the time! Yuck!
Someone pour me an espresso!
And help me tidy my apartment?!

Merry Christmas!

Twas the Week Before Christmas

And the house was a mess,
The dog was in a cone and on antibiotics,
And presents hadn't been shipped...

So basically, Christmas is ruined.

No, that's an exaggeration. Christmas is going to be wonderful and I'm so excited!
After some unexpected expenses (emergency vet visit for the dog, and new cabin air filter for the Honda) we are actually doing okay and will have a relatively low stress holiday!

Natalia has been amazing about not messing with presents and the tree. The felt tree my parents made her is probably the reason she's been preoccupied.

I'm so excited for my parents to arrive for Christmas Eve! And then my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law will be here for Christmas day! Its going to be a lovely holiday without travel for the first time in 7 years!!! I'm so excited!!!

Natalia sat really well for Santa this year too which was awesome!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

After a Storm

After days like yesterday its nice to have a good day with your toddler.

Today was filled with laughter and dancing and making silly noises- which makes hell days worth it. They help me remember that storms pass, even with toddlers.

Natalia has started singing. I don't know where she picked up such a musical personality with drumming and now singing, but I enjoy listening and watching her. I can't carry a tune in a bucket or keep a beat to save my life, but maybe there is hope for her. During quiet time today we were watching "Home" (if you haven't seen it on Netflix, I highly recommend it! Very cute movie) and she joined in with the alien when he started dancing. It was adorable and hilarious all in one.

Its amazing to watch her ability to comprehend the world around her expand. Its also frustrating to see her unable to communicate her thoughts and needs to the same extent. Being a toddler must both absolutely suck and be totally awesome at the same time.

A storm

I know I said I was going to try and blog weekly- that was in October. In my defense my main computer died. Now I'm using my husbands regularly since my daughter has decided that my chromebook must be a toy for her to play with any time I pull it out.

Anyways....

Today was one of the roughest days I have had as a parent. At one point I considered walking out the door and never looking back. I just wanted her to stop screaming and whining for 10 minutes. Nothing I did made her happy. Even looking at her caused her to scream and throw herself to the floor. Toddlers are awful. Nothing satisfies her sometimes. She was an unholy terror from the time she woke up at 10 to the time her daddy got home at 6. That's 8 hours of non stop screaming and crying and whining. 8 hours is a stretch... I did get her to pass out for about an hour and a half. I wanted to get a few things done (like Christmas cards...) while she slept, but I was so exhausted from the day that I slept too.

On top of the possessed toddler I also spent my day vacuuming, spraying, and scrubbing in attempt to thwart the plague that has descended upon our home (fleas). I hate fleas. I think I have pretty much won the war at this point, but we will see what tomorrow brings.

I think today was the accumulation of a long and crazy week for Natalia. We spent Monday through Friday of last week with my parents in Seaside (an amazing trip) and then this weekend we celebrated my brother's 21st birthday. After such a crazy week I made the executive decision to stay at home today and just "relax" this morning. I don't know what part of being at home set Natalia off, but damn. It was too rainy (flooded streets, and unsafe walking paths) to go outside with her so she was stuck in the house all day. You would think I forced her to sit silently in the corner the way she responded to being inside with me.

Natalia has now joined me at the computer, so any random characters added to my post are courtesy of her... I suppose I will wrap this up since she has decided that my computer usage is an affront to her way of life.