Friday, December 27, 2013

Christmas time has come and gone!

Boy was it an awesome Christmas this year! 

It was Avery's first Christmas and I have to say he enjoyed it very much!
Michael's parents and sister came out to visit and spend the holidays with us. We had such a good time with them here, we didn't do much though because somehow Michael got sick. (Someone always gets sick during Christmas time). 
Tae and Avery woke up, well we had to wake Avery up, on Christmas morning and three hours later we got done opening presents. They got a ton of clothes as well as even more toys. I think we could open a toy factory here we have so many. As I type Michael and Tae are in Tae's room playing with his new Christmas train that Grandma and Poppy gave him. 
It was such a good Christmas and now we are ready to ring in the New Year!
I'm going to stop typing now and just put up a bunch of pictures! 

Here are the pictures that would have ended up on a Christmas card had we sent them out. So Merry Christmas to everyone who was suppose to get a card! 




Also indeed we had are first EVER white Christmas this year!


And here are pictures of Christmas morning,




        






Tae and Avery got awesome presents from Santa this year. Tae got a bike and Avery got a walker!


Happy Birthday Jesus! If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have this glorious day to spend together! I am so thankful that I am getting to know Him more and more! I can't wait to teach my kids the meaning of Christmas and what it is really about! 
Until next year, see you all in 2014!


Thursday, December 5, 2013

All moved in!

Sort of... Just waiting for our stuff to get here! 
The drive from Mesa to Fort Morgan was a long one, 16 hours and 5 minutes to be exact! The kids did amazing, we seriously got so lucky. They only started fussing when we got stuck in traffic for an hour in Colorado Springs! Tae didn't go potty in his seat at all. We stopped on the side of the road at least 15 times. Once when we stopped Tae had a great conversation with Michael: 
Tae: no daddy I want to go potty in that tree 
M: no Tae go potty right here in the rocks. 
T: no daddy I want to go on the tree
M: no Tae right here 
T: okay daddy but you get me a white rock 
He seriously made a laugh when we arrived at the hotel and he had like 20 rocks! 
We got into the house and are working on making it are new home, it will help when we have furniture. 
We are slowly but surely adjusting to the weather. Being from AZ I never understood why people had separate waredropes for summer and winter, being here I understand it now. You can't wear shorts in CO in December! 
I'm currently working on making friends :) I found a few social things to attend which helps get us out of the house. 
I am looking forward to living here though, it's something different and forcing me to branch out! 

Leaving AZ! 


All bundled up and can barely move!! 

I will post pictures of the house after the goods arrive :) 



Friday, November 29, 2013

Fun at the zoo

Went to the Phoenix zoo for the last time in a long time. Of course Tae loved it and Avery was the perfect baby! 

Overload of pictures!







Must I also mention my story of how I left Avery. We parked the strollers to go into the petting zoo and as we were walking in Chelsea goes, "hey where is Avery?!" Oh my goodness I just left him sitting in the stroller. I ran out to get him and he was just chilling trying to touch the tree!! Such a good baby!! 




Sunday, November 10, 2013

New Hair Color...

Went to Wal-Mart with Michael and Chelsea today and decided I wanted to dye my hair. As we were looking at dye Michael picked out my color, I was hesitant but decided to try it. I've never done this to my hair before. Usually it's the lame brown or blonde color...

So here it is my new hair color 
and I am DIGGING IT!

Before I dyed it...


During...


It's...


R.E.D.

And I love.love.love it! 
I might actually keep it.
So thank you Michael for daring me to go this color!


Saturday, November 9, 2013

Reminiscing

Four years ago today Michael and I both left our homes bright and early and headed off to the Army. Michael in Kentucky and I in Arizona left this morning having no idea what was going to happen in four years. 
A lot has changed and many things are different then how I pictured them happening. For instance, when I left this morning four years ago I did not picture myself being married let alone have 2 kids. I pictured myself getting out of the military, with today being my last day. I pictured myself moving back home to AZ, going to school, just living the life of a young 23 year old. NOPE that is not at all what happened. 

This morning four years ago I cried, my dad cried, everyone cried. I left, got on a plane and headed to South Carolina. It was the hardest most stressful day of my life and I wouldn't take it back for anything. I was headed into a new life, one on my own. No more mommy and daddy to take care of me, it was just me and I was scared.
I loved the military and HATED it all at the same time. It taught me so much and even though I cut my time short I learned so much and still use those things I learned in my everyday life. 

Every single day I think about what would my life be like if I had not got discharged 3 years early. I think about where the military would have taken my family and what it would have put us through. I do sometimes regret the decision I made, the one where I got out way to early, but then I think about how much better my life is now that I'm not tied to the Army. I am able to stay home with my kids, I can leave whenever I want, and most importantly we make significantly more money then if I had stayed in. 

Even though I was only in the Army for a year I will never ever forget the experience I went through and the friends I made. I thank the Army everyday for giving me Michael and giving me my children. Who knows where I would be if I had not joined and left this morning four years ago!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Where in the world did October go?

It's November, which means it's the start of the holiday season! 
October is over and to be quite honest it flew by. It was a very busy month for the DiFrank family including moving!! That's right we are FINALLY out of Wickenburg!


Moving was super stressful and quite disorganized, I wanted to write a blog post about how to make moving easier but our experience this move was anything but easy. We were literally packing boxes the day we moved and just loading random stuff into the truck that didn't have a box. However it got done and we are finally out of Wickenburg! Ahh so exciting!! I do have one tip for packing that I did learn off of Pinterest, oh how I love that sight! 
To prevent us from having to take all of our clothes off of the hangers I learned this tip,


Pretty fancy ehh!! It made moving the clothes SO much easier, just slip on a garbage bag, shove the clothes into them, and when you arrive take off the bag! BAM done!

Also here we are in front of our first house we ever lived in! I will honestly miss this house, we brought Avery home to it and it's the first place I actually enjoyed living in! 

    

And then Halloween happened! I had the cutest Buzz Lightyear and Woody this year! Tae had so much fun trick-or-treating, he took the candy right out of the people's hands and straight to his mouth. He was so cute I can't wait to go again next year!




Bring on November! I have joined a gym and am ready to kick off these extra pounds! I am also ready for Thanksgiving and tons of turkey! Yum Yum!
Here is to a great month and an awesome holiday season! November means December is coming which means CHRISTMAS!


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

I'm really struggling...

Can we say TERRIBLE TWOs! Holy moley this kid is crazy, everything makes him scream. He will ask for something I will give it to him and tantrum. My neighbors probably think I abuse my kid because he screams so loud, ALL DAY LONG. You don't give him what he wants and it's like the world is ending, he falls on the ground pounding his feet and hands into the floor screaming. He is rejecting naps lately, it's a struggle to make him go to sleep, he used to be so good at sleeping, he would tell us when he had to go down for a nap or bedtime.

Then we add packing on top of a crazy two year old and then add school on top of that, I am overloaded. I mean I logged out of my Facebook on my computer, that has to say something. I feel like there isn't enough hours in the day for me to get things done and yet here I am blogging. Hehe...
I can honestly say this is the first time I am about to have a break down because of how much stress I have on myself. I don't mind moving and it's odd that I'm feeling this way because it isn't the first time we've moved or that we've moved while I am going to school. 

I guess lack of sleep could be doing it to me as well. Avery still wakes up twice a night and then lately is deciding that 4:45 is a perfect time to start the day. He then decides that he needs Tae up to hang out with him, so by 5 in the morning here we are in the living room watching Buzz Light Year. 

Oh man I just need to breath, and get off my blog! Only 3 more days and we will be done moving and I can relax, I'll be living in a bigger city with more support there and more things to do! 
So 3 more days Nichole, YOU.CAN.DO.THIS!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Fall is in the air...

Not Really!
It's suppose to be almost 90 this whole week, that isn't fall in other parts of the country but here in lovely AZ we call that fall.We may not have leaves changing colors here in good old Wickenburg but not having temperatures in the 100s makes it fall for me!
This past weekend we traveled up to Prescott to enjoy some fall weather and pumpkin picking! It was so nice up there with the high in the 70s and the low in the mid 30s! So relaxing, well it would have been relaxing if Tae wouldn't have decided to hit his terrible twos this weekend. That kid was C-R-A-Z-Y. 
Anyways back to pumpkin picking, we went to a place called Freeman Farms in Chino Valley. It was a cool little pumpkin patch, we got to pick our own pumpkins from the vine (I can say I've never done that before), then we went on a hay ride (Tae LOVED it), we got to pet some animals like a pig and a cow, and they some some other cool activities that we didn't participate in because Tae was being terrible.
Overall the trip was super fun and we got some pretty good pumpkins to carve (pictures of those coming later)! Tae had fun and so did Avery who just wanted to eat the dirt! Hey whatever makes a kid happy right?



Tae picked his very own pumpkin!


Avery was kind of like ehh whatever I'll eat this vine down here!





The only picture of me this whole trip, I took it myself!





Also, once we got back to the hotel the kids passed out super early considering they didn't take naps! Michael and I had some school work to get done so where did we have to work? 
That's right, the bathroom!!


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

I guess I should learn

I've never been one to actually do my hair for the fact that every time I try to curl it, it's flat within an hour. I have very straight thin hair and it can be annoying. 

The other day Michael made the comment that I always wear my hair in a ponytail or bun and never actually do anything to it. That would partly be out of laziness and partly because I wear sweats and t-shirts on a daily basis, no need to do my hair for that. 

So I guess I should learn to curl and do my hair. Guess I better start watching YouTube videos then. 

So here is my first attempt at curling. Guess it doesn't look that bad. Here's to trying more! 


Opinions???

Saturday, October 12, 2013

1/2 time x2

Well six months has came and went!
Little Avery Nathaniel has reached is half birthday! He is officially 1/2 years old!!
My baby is getting so big and doing so many new things. I swear I wake up on a daily basis and he is doing something new.

Right now he can sit up on his own, I don't have to worry about propping pillows behind him anymore. Just plop him on the floor and give him some toys to play with.
He is drooling like CRAZY, like literally soaks 2 bibs a day, and I'm not sure if it's because he is teething or if he is like his brother and just drools a lot. 
When I do lay him down on his back he likes to roll from his back to his front and back to his back over and over again. It gets him where he needs to go, or sometimes gets him in places he didn't want to go. I'm pretty sure he will be crawling soon, when he lays on his tummy he likes to bend his legs up to his tummy! It's getting close.
He is wearing size 6-9 month or 9-12 month clothes! I can't help but buy him new clothes every time I go to the store, even though he has Tae's old clothes! However the clothes story is a whole different post. Makes me sad getting rid of them.
This kid also hardly ever cries. He is seriously such a good baby!
Sadly, he still isn't sleeping through the night. There was a time that he went to bed at 8 and slept until 5 then back to sleep until 730 but that ended quickly. We are still waking up 2 times a night :( no fun. However, on a positive note he is getting so much better at napping. 2 naps a day is what we are at AND I have him and Tae napping on the same schedule. Woot Woot! (That means nap time for mommy)
Avery loves playing with Tae and to my surprise Tae loves playing with Avery. Tae will bring Avery toys, including his cars, and sit there and play with him. It is so cute. I really hope my boys grow up to be best friends.



My sweet 1/2 year old. I love you Avery! You are my baby and forever will be my sweet AvyBaby! Can't wait to see you grow for the next half of your first year and the rest of your life! 


I must also add that yesterday Tae turned 2 1/2 which means he is now closer to 3 :(. My baby is growing up and it makes me sad/happy/sad. 
Right now he likes to eat like the cookies monster, meaning hardly any food goes into his mouth and all of his food goes on my floor! 
He loves Buzz and Woody (Toy Story). 
He remembers stuff now and it baffles me what he remembers. For instance, a few months ago he had this tiny red tracker, where it went I have no idea, and the other day he cried and cried because I had no idea where that red tractor was. I'm sure he lost it at the park or somewhere. He searched every where for it. 
He constantly asks to go to the park, on an hourly basis even if we just came home from the park he wants to go back. Finally he isn't scared of the slides and will go up and down them 100 times! 
Pretty much knows all of his colors and most of his shapes. Seriously the other day he pointed out an octagon to me, I was amazed. Sesame Street really does teach kids things because I know me nor Michael taught him that. 
Finally, Tae loves and I mean LOVES to dance. I play music for most of the day and he will just hang out in the living room dancing! 
This kid makes me laugh on a daily basis. He is the light of my life! I get frustrated with him at times but who can stay mad at a face like his for too long. We love him to death and are so grateful that he came into our lives! 

TaeBug you were the best surprise ever and a gift from God. We are so thankful for you and love you with our whole hearts. 

P.S. Planning 2 birthday parties is already giving me anxiety! The next 6 months will be interesting :)

Monday, September 30, 2013

First project of many...

For the past few months I have been really wanting to paint some furniture. I've begged Michael to let me paint something and he finally agreed that I could paint this ugly desk that we had. I mean it was hideous and he insisted we HAD to have it. 
I still need a lot of practice before I attempt to do my dressers! I will just be practicing on cheap furniture until then! I also want to do our kitchen table, chairs and our stands next to the couches! 
So here are before and after pictures!

I painted it with homemade chalk paint. It was so easy! Just mix the paint with some POP and water and BAM you got chalk paint! No sanding required. 




This table looks perfect in my bedroom now and I love love love this color. It's called intense teal! It's intense alright and I love it! I seriously can't wait to paint something else!