Here Kitty, Kitty!

Yikes again! We were so busy and during that we all had 3 terrible colds back-to-back. Now that we are all finally feeling better I have time to get back to things (such as this blog) that take a backseat when things get crazy!

We do have some very sad news that I would like to share first. Last week, April 20th, we had to make the very tough decision to put Harry down.  It was a heartbreaking decision for Zippercow and I to make and Little Moo still asks if we are going to pick him up from the vet, which means we have to explain to him all over again that Harry passed away. He asks less now, but the retelling just makes it hurt more. He was with us for 16 great years and if you had ever met him you would know that he was quite possibly the friendliest cat ever. He will be missed. 

 

Moving on to things that aren't so sad, Zippercow has completed a very important phase for getting ready for our little baby boy on the way. Oh yeah, we haven't shared that yet, we are expecting a BOY!!!! Little Moo wasn't too keen on a brother, it took some convincing but now he is excited. Anyhow, back to what I was previously sharing. Zippercow built a cat cage for in the garage. It has a door on the front so that the litter boxes can be accessed as well as any clean ups that are necessary. And now there is also a cat door that leads from the house to this cage, so the litter boxes are no longer going to be in what is now the baby's room. We even put some toys and a new scratching post in the cage for them. It took them a few days to get used to going through the kitty door, but they are getting used to it. I'm so proud of my Zippercow he made the plans, and built this great cat cage and put the kitty door in. They may seem like small things, but each time we do something (even small things) we customize our house to be the home we want it to be. Next will be painting! Three rooms, double yay!?!

 

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Testing, Testing?

Some things have changed with how we can post to our blog so I wanted to see if it still works. If it does I will post more later. If it doesn't..well I'll post tomorrow. 

And so..

Again, a month goes by before I've even noticed it, yikes! So here is what is going on.

We purchased a minivan. Yes a minivan. When we had discussed the eventuality of needing a second vehicle Zippercow was set against a minivan. He had grand ideas for medium sized SUVs and had no desire to be one of THOSE people who drove minivans. I personally never minded, but since he didn't want one I went along with the other options he had researched. And as we would soon discover those other options were at the high end of what we could afford and we were trying REALLY hard to keep the payments close to what we were paying for the Mazda (which is now paid off, hurray!). So we started looking into the smaller SUVs with third row seating. Now I'm sure you are thinking "crazy lady you are only going to have two kids why on earth would you need a third row?!" and as I've had to explain a couple times,  I watch my niece during the week as well so once Little Moo starts preschool (not to mention appointments and now we will actually be able to go to the park!)  I will need to have room for three (yes three) car seats. Anyone who has had the pleasure of strapping the behemoths into a car will tell you, you can never get more than two into a backseat safely. Anyhow,back to how we ended up with a minivan. We looked into smaller SUVs with third rows. Smaller is an understatement, cramped and uncomfortable is more like it. We did a lot of looking online and just were not finding what we needed so we went to a couple dealerships. First I must say that I hate working with salesman more than..well anything. The first place we went she took down all the things we were looking for, high on our list of priorities was price, and though we said it repeatedly she didn't ask what our price range was . After all the info she gathered she brought around a vehicle. It was not ANY of the vehicles we discussed and was about twice what we were willing to spend. She was excited and had it ready for a test drive. I took one look at the inside and new it was out of our price range. I wouldn't even get in, which I'm sure disappointed her. I know how it works, they hope you love it enough that you'll find a way to afford it. We aren't those kind of people. We do a lot of research, we always sleep on our decisions, and the more pressured we feel, the less likely we are to just leave, which I have done before. We left and went to another car lot. The salesman was nice and while he still didn't show us anything we wanted to see he paid attention to what we wanted to pay and that we needed it for a family. He pointed out how difficult it is to buckle children into the smaller SUVs because you have to fold the seat down to get to the back row, which for me would mean taking the seat out or climbing over. Yikes! He did pull around a 2008 Kia Sedona that was perfectly priced and we fell in love. So roomy, no climbing over things, space for the stroller or groceries behind the third row..lets just say I was sold. And surprisingly so was Zippercow! But since we had not researched this vehicle we "slept on it" did some research and discovered that it is quite safe and reliable. So now our driveway houses another vehicle. One of which excites Little Moo so much that he asks multiple times a day if we are going anywhere, apparently he was sold as well!

Other than the purchase of the van we are still slowly working on making way for baby. Mostly we are waiting for the temps to be steadily about 10 degrees warmer so we can open windows and paint. The weather has been so beautiful that everyone around here has just been itching to work in the yard, but it isn't quite warm enough yet. We are also trying to patiently await the ultra sound that will hopefully tell us the gender of our little baby (who has been moving all over the place!). March 18! We are counting down the days, hopefully the baby will cooperate!

So that is what has been going on, but I'm sure I will think of other things. Mostly I'm just enjoying the magic of the van, but more on that later!

"My favorite color is blue, but I LIKE red"

Little Moo is now officially off the floor. You may remember a post I did awhile back about his "big boy bed" that was actually the mattress and box spring on the floor. The point of that, of course, was to keep him closer to the floor in case he fell out of bed but this last weekend we bought him a frame to put his big boy bed on and he couldn't be more excited. Mostly because it is red. Here he is on his new bed.And about five seconds later he bounced himself backward smacking his head on the window sill. I was afraid of that. So now you see him with a "boo boo" buddy in his hand (because why would you put it on said boo boo, duh!) still pretty excited about his bed. And who wouldn't be? It's red!!!!

 

His New 'Do!

I finally did it! I have been contemplating just using the same clippers I do for Zippercow on our Little Moo for months now and this month I finally did it. I REALLY like the little boy haircuts we were getting from the professionals, but because of his many cowlicks the haircut would only look good for a day or two and then it just was always sticking up everywhere. While I'm sad he won't have little boy hair anymore  it has been a couple weeks since I've cut Little Moo's hair and it still isn't sticking up! It took him some getting used to, he was very disappointed when he first looked in the mirror because he thought I had changed his hair color but alas, it is just shorter! He's gotten use to it and was excited when Daddy got his last haircut and exclaimed "Daddy your hair is like mine!". So I of course have some pictures but want to say that it was dark and the flash made it look a little thinner in some places than others, but lets face it he does have his Daddy's hairline (poor thing!) There are a few fly-aways so my first attempt wasn't perfect, but I believe the phrase goes "practice makes perfect" or something to that effect.

Making Way For Baby!

So much to do, and well at this point, still a lot of time. We are currently working on clearing out the third bedroom. For those of you who don't know, our home is big enough for a family of four but not much bigger. So we are trying to make room for this baby. We like the size of our home, but it does force us to be creative with our space.There is a lot that can't be done until spring, like painting and moving the cat boxes to the garage (that's a whole different but large project) but before any of those things can take place we have have to find places for all this other..junk. We are pretty good at going through our things and selling or passing on what we no longer have a need, because lets face it, we simply don't have the space to hold on to everything thing! But somehow we still have tons of things that don't really have a home that have landed in the third bedroom catch all.

 

So now what?????

 

I am certain at this point our closet will be come very full and I need to find a place to put all of our gift wrap and bags. And there is still  just stuff. How we acquire it I am not sure, but it needs to go!   I'm very much looking forward to this being a baby's room (can't you tell!) but am at a bit of a stand still. Any ideas?

Christmas Has Passed!

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year, yet another great time to remind us of all the special people in our lives. And we have a lot!!! What has made it an even more spectacular Christmas is now Little Moo is way into it, but better yet not in a "got to have it" kind of way, but everything seemed new and exciting from the lights on houses, to trees and Santa. We had my family here for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then Zippercow's family came over throughout the next week. So much fun! We would like to thank everyone for the thoughtful gifts and cards, we have such loving and generous friends and family!

 

I do realize this post is long since due, and I had part of it done and got busy with Little Moo and our 4 month old niece. And boy, do they keep me busy!

 

We hope everyone's new year was just as great!

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