Since November, Justin has been super busy with school, work, and getting a new calling. He was asked to be in the High Council so he is traveling or in meetings almost EVERY Sunday. Sunday used to be called a day of rest, but I don't think so anymore. (Especially for me with the kiddos) He is loving it and doing a great job! Sometimes it's hard to be that supportive wife when I don't see him very often and then church takes a lot of time away from each other. But I always know blessings come from trials! He is loving being a dad to two kids. Zayden was a blast when he was an only child, but now Zoey and Zayden play with each other and giggle and laugh all the time! Most of my day is either filled with laughing and playing and happy noises or someone is crying because they were playing too hard. When Justin comes home from school the squeals of joy get louder and usually the wrestling and tickling begins. It's magic, if you sit on the floor that's an open invitation for you to be jumped on!
We finally had our own Christmas at our house since we've been married. Oh, and in December we celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We've been together 6 years and married 5, 2 kids and a dog later still doing great! Lived in Idaho, Montana, Illinois, and Iowa. 2 Bachelors degrees, a masters, and working on a Phd. We cram a lot of things in a few years.
Anyways, back to Christmas. It was so nice to be home and finally start some of our own traditions. My parents came up from San Antonio and they loved spending all the time with the grandbabies! I knew it was going to be hard when they left because the kids got so used to LOTS of attention all the time. But it was a lot of fun!
A few days before Christmas, Zayden started getting really ancy so we let him open up a gift from Aunt Julie. TRAINS! Oh my goodness, you'd think we gave him the world! Non stop since then we have had trains be our life! He sets up and creates new tracks daily and loves his Thomas the train. There are days where I have to take away Thomas because he is the cause of a lot of meltdowns. Because Thomas is electric, we can't put him in the bathtub so bath time is distraught without Thomas! We try not to let Zayden take toys with him when we leave the house and that causes meltdowns in the doorway and the car. So we take Thomas away for a few days to get emotions back under control and realize that Thomas is just a toy. Then when I bring the box of tracks and trains out, I became the world's greatest mommy again! His face lights up like Christmas EVERY time. So Thomas is a real part of our life here. But actually living in a train town is great. In the fall, Thomas the Train comes to Boone, IA and this year we will take Thomas to ride the train since he will be old enough to appreciate it! I think we will have to do a Thomas the train birthday party for him. He would love it. Every time we drive somewhere there is train tracks, HE KNOWS! For being 2 1/2 he is very good with directions and knows exactly where we are at and if there are train tracks coming up. So from his car seat you'll hear," there's the twain twacks!" And then he smiles and waits until we drive over them. We also will take different routes through town and wait for a train to go by so he can watch. Absolute heaven for Zayden.
My little Zoey is now 10 months old and pulls herself to standing and will walk with a walker or toy. She is such a doll! I have never encountered such a happy baby in my life. She loves to play with toys, people, pets, blankets, anything! She only will cry when she's very hungry, or sick. Other than that, she charms everyone! I can't go through the grocery store without someone making a comment on how cute and smiley she is. She is my cheesy grin, center stage girl. I have a feeling she will be like me. Oh, and quite the dancer. She stands on her tip toes and then will point one foot and put it to the side. I am thinking ballet might be in her future.
Overall, Christmas was wonderful! Everyone was spoiled and had a great time! Oh, one more little train item. On Chritmas eve we opened a package to the family with pj's and hot chocolate and treats for the kids and...The Polar Express! We watched that Christmas Eve and Zayden has loved it ever since. I am debating putting it away for the year until next Christmas or letting him continue watching it since he loves it so much.
Winter in Iowa has been super cold! But it's been cold everywhere! Or normal winter weather has been in the -20's. So staying inside or going to other friend's houses has been our saving grace! But occasionally we do go outside to play in the snow. Zayden used to be against gloves until he realized they kept his hands warm. Now he will let us put them on him. I tell you what, the terrible two's are real! Not a day goes by that he isn't crying over something or refusing something. But then he will ask so politely for a piece of chocolate and say Thank you for everything that it melts you and you forget the 20 minute tantrum before. He also says bless you if you sneeze. We didn't teach him that one, he picked up that one on his own.
I have been extremely busy as Primary President and Zoey usually comes with me. And since she is miss adventurous and crawling everywhere she usually gets into the primary closet and is playing in the back of the primary room with the chairs or toys. It's hard to keep her distracted enough to not bother the children. The kids love her and always want to play with her. As soon as I get to church I am swarmed with kids, teenagers, and adults wanting to hold her. She never wants for attention at church.
I can never resist buying cute church dresses! It's a shame she only wears them on Sundays!
Recently I have loved buffalo wings! Usually I am a BBQ kind of person and couldn't handle buffalo style wings. But we have loved having date nights in Ames at Buffalo Wild Wings. Plus it's fun to watch the Olympics and have all the kids enjoying food and tvs. Zoey loves the french fries and celery sticks! Zayden loves the french fries too. In fact, that's all he would eat there besides drinking a huckleberry lemonade.
We've even tried to make wings ourselves. Sweet Baby Ray's has a great buffalo wing sauce, in case any of you are curious! Delicious, not too hot but yummy!
Since I have discovered one of our grocery stores has these fun shopping carts, I will continue to do my shopping there! The kids loved it! Zoey is finally big enough to sit in it on her own and she has a blast! Plus it leaves an entire cart for my groceries instead of only partial because I had to put the carseat in the basket!
Bath time is play time! Zoey is my water baby! Both of them LOVE the water, but she is the queen of splashing and not caring what temperature the water is or what parts of her get wet. We can hold her under the shower and she doesn't care if her eyes get water in them or her hair gets wet. She is so happy! She has started to become a toy hoarder in the tub. She must have watched Zayden too many times. He does that also. So now she takes all the toys and then laughs at Zayden. I'm really going to have to watch her when she is a toddler.
-20 lbs 5 oz. at 10 months old!
-Eats EVERYTHING! but especially loves adult food. She is not a huge fan of baby food. She likes to eat what mommy and daddy are eating.
-Sleeps great! We can put her down at 7:30 and she will sleep until 8:30 and I will still have to wake her up so we can go work out at the gym. However, to get that sleep schedule, I have to knock her down to 1 nap a day, which coincides with Zayden's nap so that is nice. Or do 2 really short naps. But I would rather get my night sleep.
-Almost walking! She will stand on her own for a few seconds but won't take any steps without support.
-Says Da a lot!
Zayden
-will turn 3 in July
-29 lbs. (He's my skinny child!)
-Very picky eater, his diet is pancakes, waffles, German Pancakes, oatmeal, greek yogurt, fruit, pb &J sandwiches, corn, juice, granola bars, french fries, sometimes chicken nuggets (but they have to be dino nuggets), and cereal. His favorite is Raisin Bran with the granola. I wish I could get him to eat other things but if you force him, he makes himself throw up. So I limit the snacks and try to get him to eat in bulk the healthy stuff he will eat. I hope he will grow out of it soon. It doesn't even help to have him watch Zoey eat something, he will still turn it down.
-Loves Thomas the train, Cars cars, tractors, books, balls, he is starting to get into riding toys like scooters. He is an all american boy.
- Says please and thank you for almost everything. He is still hard to understand sometimes because his pronunciation isn't great but it's getting better.
-We are hoping to start potty training this summer so he can go to preschool with one of his best buds in the fall. Wish us luck!
I think that about wraps it up for the Maughan's! I should be able to keep up a little better now!
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