It feels like a Sunday... but it's only Saturday! Hurray!

We finished a couple more DIY ideas I got from Pinterest this past week:

DIY Headboard -- Just need to find a nail head trim kit to finish it off so it looks purdy... :) Now we won't have to worry about Nikayda smacking her head on the hard wall when she's hanging out in bed with us... this headboard is padded with batting and covered in a suede-like fabric.





Toddler Skirt -- Made from old t-shirts of
mine. It is too big for our little girly now, but she'll grow into it.. soon before we know it probably...








Menu / To-Do list board -- This is up in our kitchen and has been very helpful so far! And I can always change out the fabric behind the glass in the frame for a fresh look. It's kind of blah right now, but it works. I got the frame for $3 at Goodwill. :-)

and ... Yesterday = SNOW DAY!!! 

Snow day! 1/20/12

We got around 5 inches of snow on Thurs night/Fri am, so to our surprise, school was cancelled! That meant Justin only had a 3 day work week plus now a 3 day weekend (with no wrestling meets!), so we have been excited to hang out as a family and have a long weekend to ourselves! "I Love Snow Days!" -- I was wondering if I'd be able to finally put Nikayda in that cute little shirt... :-)

Watching dad shovel the sidewalk.

Justin's been finishing up a toy box for Nikayda -- he actually started it the Thanksgiving before she was born! He's been working on it little by little during his precious free-time and it's lookin' good! See the top of it HERE at his facebook page.

Nikayda is taking a nice long afternoon nap... while she's been sleeping, I have finished the weekly menu for next week, made a list for groceries, cut out coupons, ate some lunch, cleaned up in the kitchen, etc... And I even had time to write in the blog quick! 

2012 Resolutions update

We aren't doing too bad with our 2012 resolutions so far!

• I've been (attempting) to call each one of my siblings more often... But the middle child of my family apparently likes to text instead of talk. KamKam...We'll work on that! :-P
• We've been using the juicer more like, 80% of the time... not quite everyday, but almost. I've even gotten Nikayda to try a couple sips from her straw cup! She's not sure what to think of all the flavor that comes with it, especially the carrot juice!
• I've gotten a TON of (fairly healthy) new recipes to try lately... got a Special K healthy recipe book for xmas, tons on my favorite website: allrecipes.com, and TONS more on my new addiction = pinterest.com... OK, so SOME of the recipes are not all THAT healthy... in fact, half of them listed below are SWEETS... but it's still fun to try new recipes, darn it! :)
• Trying CrockPot Chicken Tortilla Soup today!
• Chicken Pot Pies -- tried that last week, not bad, but will probably find a different recipe for it next time.
• Cauliflower Soup -- this was amazing! I didn't follow this recipe totally, but used many elements of it for my own version...
• Swedish Baked Potatoes -- not bad, kind of time consuming...  Justin made these. :)
• Jalapeno Popper Dip -- Justin made this for New Years Eve! Good stuff, very addicting! 
• Nutella Cookies -- Amazing, and moist... made these yesterday! I added even MORE Nutella than the recipe called for... probably my new favorite cookie recipe!
• Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies -- Not bad... Justin liked these better than I did. They didn't really flatten out very well for me, and weren't as moist as I would have liked them to be... but still pretty good!
• Sweet Mini Monkey Bread Rolls -- Ooey, Gooey goodness. We had these as kind of a late-night  dessert/snack with vanilla ice cream!
• White Chocolate Fudge -- Pretty good, very sweet. I made these for xmas treats to bring to family gatherings. I put red and green mini M&Ms on top and black walnuts in the middle... and I quickly found out that black walnuts are NOT good... at least not for my taste buds anyway. I bought them assuming they were the same as regular walnuts, but I was WRONG -- they have a much more potent flavoring to them -- so I told people to pick them out if they didn't like them! :)
• Carmel Dip -- Easily made from boiling cans of sweet and condensed milk in hot water for a couple hours. Very good, but beware that the caramel doesn't heat up well in the microwave... I don't think it heats up very well at all actually, just have to eat it cold I guess. We like it on ice cream.

Nikayda turned 11 months old yesterday... and it was also my sister Kendra's 21st birthday yesterday! Time flies...

Also, NEWS FLASH!!! We got SNOW yesterday here! Finally enough to keep the ground white for a little while maybe! :-)

Justin has been uber busy with school since it started up again ... teaching middle schoolers, coaching junior high wrestling, and last night was the 1st night of his Spring DWU night class that he's teaching, and also the first night for two of his USD online courses that he is taking. He says he may have to switch to only sleeping 3 hrs a night to stay caught up... and probably drink more coffee... :-P

I have been working on some little sewing projects, cooking, cleaning, organizing, keeping Nikayda out of things (she took 6 steps on her own the other day!), etc... and planning the little munchkin's 1st Birthday Party -- it's set for Sat, Feb 11th in Canby. 

Our New Years Resolutions

Justin and I came up with a quick list of ideas last night for our new years resolutions. Some of these things we are already doing, but we just want to make sure we keep up with them!

Daily: 

• Sit down for supper as a family, turn TV off and chat about the day (as long as Justin's schedule permits).
• Allow for at least 30 mins of "me time" (separately for both mom and dad) to relax a little each day without the wild child.
• Use juicer at least once per day.

Weekly:

• Try one new (healthy) recipe per week. And try to eat a little more healthier in general.
• Set aside time to call all of our siblings once per week.
• Skype/email/call the grandparents more!
• Set aside some quality "family time" on the weekend.
• Blog once per week!

Monthly:

• Travel to visit family 1x per month at least.
• Date night once per month or more!
• Try one new home DIY project per month! :-)

Summer:

• Garage sale!
• Summer family camping?
• Visit Justin's mom "up north".
• Tackle house projects:
• Shingle party!
• Paint kitchen cupboards.
• Paint front porch cement.

Year:

• Family shared calendar, so we're all on the same page!
• Develop "Team Z" Etsy store more.
• Justin = finish degree! :-)
• Wean Nikayda/sleep training... :S
• Develop better organization systems for simple things.
• Become more of a green/natural/earth friendly family.
• Homemade gifts for birthdays, xmas, etc.

We had an enjoyable Christmas time with family back home! Nikayda got lots of cute toys and books!

Christmas 2011

However, we did NOT have an enjoyable New Years. We managed to catch a nasty flu bug and got stuck having a family puking marathon at Justin's brother's house. I'm sure we caught the same thing they had 4-5 days before, but we were hoping the germs would be gone from the house by then... But oh well!

Actually, Friday and most of Saturday were enjoyable before we started the puking marathon. We had made plans a while ago to hang out with Justin's brother (and his family) and his sister for a little Christmas gathering since we didn't get a chance to get together on the actual Christmas dates. But boy, when little Nikayda started puking up everything on New Years Eve, it was just downhill from there... next it was mom... then dad... Good thing Aunt Merissa and Uncle Jake didn't mind us staying another night to get over the sickness... and Aunt Merissa was a saint and helped us tend to Nikayda while Justin and I were miserable... which included cleaning up some of her puke, washing blankets and clothes, bringing us whatever we needed ... water, 7-up, pillows, etc... and now she is probably disinfecting her house!

Needless to say, I did NOT get a picture of us on New Years... but we are definitely feeling better today. We made the drive back home successfully this morning.

Now we should start thinking about some new years resolutions I suppose... :-) I think healthy living and healthy food is on my mind lately... especially with the sickness we are just getting over, one forgets how GREAT it is to be healthy.

On that note, since my favorite Christmas present (from Justin) was a new Breville Juicer, I know for sure that one resolution for Team Z is to use it at least once a day. It makes such fresh and healthy juice out of pretty much any fruit or vegetable!!! I LOVE it so far, and it's so easy to use and clean!

Hopefully more to come on some of Team Z's new years resolutions later...

Mom stuff: the expected and the unexpected

Here sits Kacie typing with one hand (holding Nikayda upright as she sleeps with a stuffy/runny nose) and contemplating... Mom stuff.


Things I expected and already knew that came with motherhood:

• Lots of love and strong feelings of protection towards baby
• Little sleep
• Lots of smiles and cuddle time
• Some tears, too
• Eat, sleep, play, poop & pee
• Some frustrations of course...
• Way too many pictures taken all the time
• The need to constantly keep an eye on a crawling toddler -- they get into stuff FAST!
• Whatever is on mom's plate is always better than what's on baby's plate! 
• An amazing husband will become an amazing dad :)
• And we knew that this baby will be the most precious, beautiful creature we've ever laid eyes on, and she will be a hybrid mix of characteristics from both mom and dad...and probably will have the most striking blue eyes ever! (I was right!) :)

Things I didn't totally expect with motherhood:

• How elusive an actual "schedule" can be for said eat, sleep, play, poop & pee; seems like its always changing!
• Babies are really good at dodging Kleenex and wash cloths for a simple wipe.
• Babies really DO grow as fast as everyone says
• And how soon you forget what it was like when they were "little"
• The excitement that comes with each new skill baby learns (no matter how simple)
• Hormones...frustrations often taken out on the husband ... Sorry Justin!
• And little things that never used to irritate me so much will randomly irritate me A LOT, but that's getting better :)
• Losing weight with breastfeeding...totally didn't expect that... Have had to buy smaller jeans than I had before... But a good problem to have I guess!
• And my body actually hasn't changed as much as I thought it would have after pregnancy, luckily... not so far that I can tell anyway! :P
• All the fussiness and crying during the first few months...ugh.
• How heartbreaking my baby's cries can be...
• Didn't think it was possible to learn how to do so many things -- make a meal, type, do laundry, clean, etc -- with only one hand.
• How much this baby hates sleeping in her crib...
• How much a baby can fight sleep... Stubborn little turkey... LoL
• How little free time a mom has.
• How good a hot shower feels (and usually only one every other day... or two! Don't judge me! LoL)
• How much baby gear and toys one accumulates...
• And how much of that you think you need beforehand, but actually don't use much.
• How hard it was to dress a newborn...and how easy it quickly becomes after much practice.
• How easy cloth diapering is -- once we got a good system going.
• How easy it was to wean this baby from a bottle (hasn't had one since around 7 months old, just sippy cups now!), but how hard it is/will be to wean from the breast...uffda. (Actually didn't expect to still be breastfeeding at 10 months old...but don't regret it!)
• Didn't expect myself to want to be a stay-at-home-mom.
• And didn't expect the decision to change from working-mom to stay-at-home mom to be so hard.
• How stressful a simple 2 hr car ride would be for this baby...
• How different all babies (and moms!) can be from one another.

As you can see, there's much more on the unexpected list... But what a fun, exciting, breathtaking, overwhelming, challenging, momentous, rewarding, etc (the adjectives could go on here!) journey it has been thus far!

And as much as I hated it then, I'm glad I had 4 younger siblings to babysit to "practice" on first before having my own little one! ;)

Back as "Team Z"!

Now that we've had Baby Z added to our lives, a lot has changed. It would make for one really long blog post to list all the changes and updates that have taken place since little Nikayda's birthday... so for now, we'll just pick it back up from where we are now! We are happy and loving life. We are Team Z!


I forgot to explain the meaning behind our daughter's name in the last post announcing her arrival...


Nikayda
-- We designed it from the name "Nikita" (unisex name), which both Justin and I liked.
-- Origin: Slovakian, Slavic, Russian, Greek, Macedonian
-- Meaning: Unconquerable, Victorious People, Victory of the People
-- Derived from Greek νικη (nike) meaning "victory".


Claire
-- Variant of "Clara" after Kacie's Great Grandmother -- Clara Cleveland, she lived to be over 100!
-- Origin: French, Latin
-- Meaning: Illustrious, Clear, Bright, Distinguished, Famous Bearer
-- Derived from the feminine form of the Latin adjective 'clarus' meaning bright or clear.


Zajic
-- Czech (Zajíc) and Slovak (Zajac): from zajíc ‘hare’, hence a nickname for a swift runner or a coward, one quick to run away. -- http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/
-- We'd like to think our last name is more from the "swift runner" part! Afterall, Justin is the all around track-star!! :-)

Updated Family Picture --  Nikayda at 8½ months old here.

Baby Z has arrived!

Baby Z has arrived! :-)

1st family picture

 Nikayda Claire

BORN

February 11, 2011 at 3:17 PM

WEIGHT

7 lbs 4 oz

LENGTH

19.5 inches

Family picture with Kacie (mom), Grandma & Grandpa & Aunts and Uncle :)

Great Grandma & Grandpa Cleveland came to visit!

Strong little girl holding her head up to look at dad!