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!! 

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!

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! 

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