Hanging out with the children

Some days our "kids" are just extremely cute.

Modeling our new Pet Supermarket Tanks

They just like the chill on the coach all cute and posed like this.  I think it is just adorable.

We were also lucky enough to receive a few other free items from our event at Pet Supermarket one of which I made for our newest addition Sally.  

She truly is a Daddy's Girl... 

We love playing dress up in our house.. Can't ya tell :) 

Chi Fashionista's Day at Pet Supermarket

Chi Fashionista was able to have a table at Pet Supermarket's Grand Reopening event.  The day was super hot but lots of fun.

Chi Fashionista's Table 

Chi Fashionista had a great time marketing to the local Wilmington market.  Chi Fashionista was even lucky enough to have a couple sells!! It was very exciting.

  Unfortunately Parker and Oliver (the models) were not being very nice while at Pet Supermarket and were barking so much that they scared the customers away.. So they had to go home early.  

Overall the day was very fun, successful and HOT! I thoroughly enjoyed supporting Adopt an Angel and excitingly they made their goal and the event raised over $500 for the very deserving organization!! 

Our Day with The Kaufmans

Our day with our family from South Africa was a blast! We were able to spend more time with them on Thursday than we were expecting and able to have some down time to just hang out and catch up.  But on Friday morning we went out to one of my favorite breakfast places I hop and had fun with the kids eating out and enjoy family time.  After I hop we had the opportunity to go to the Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

Taken By Lindsey Kaufman (michaelandlindseykaufman.blogspot.com) 

My favorite exhibit was the alligators You were at a big open window and the alligators could swim up to the glass and the only thing separating you from the alligators was the two inch glass.  I had a lot of fun getting to show Isabelle the alligators and showing her that although it looks like they are going to come attach you that the glass won't let them get to you.

  Another one of those cute things with Isabelle was the bubble.  The bubble is a thick glass that dips into one of the larger exhibits which allows you to feel as if you are in the water with the fish.  As Isabelle watched the little girl in front of us in the bubble she was worried she was gonna fall in and was very nervous when her turn came that she was going to fall in.

 Ethan's face light up with some of the smaller exhibits and was super cute! Zach enjoyed spending time with his nephew and pushed the stroller around all day.

It was so much fun to be able to spend time with our family.  I only wish that we would have had more time together.  Another one of the fun parts of seeing our nephew for the first time was getting a glimpse of what we suspect baby Mr. Saulter would look like since our nephew Ethan looks so much like Zach! 

Photo by Lindsey 

Isn't he so cute!! We sure are going to miss our niece and nephew but were so grateful for the time we had together.  

Today's the day

Today's the day we've been waiting for for over a year... We finally get to meet our nephew from South Africa!!! Zach's sister Lindsey and her family have been in the states visiting and fundraising for almost a month now and we have finally come to the day we've been anxiously awaiting.  The day they arrive in Wilmington.  They won't be getting here until late tonight but we are so excited to finally meet Ethan and spend some time with Isabelle.  With the internet we've been able to communicate with them but to actually see them and spend a day with them.. we haven't had that opportunity in over a year.. We can't wait to be able to hold Ethan and see how big Isabelle has gotten.  To be able and spend an entire day off work with family is exciting in itself!! We are hoping to take them to the Aquarium in Kure Beach and maybe just show them around Wilmington.  It is going to a fun time to be a tourist in Wilmington!  Watch Out I may start driving like one...

Exhausted

Lately I've been feeling extremely tired and drained... I couldn't figure out why until I stepped back from my life and realized how many things I have going on right now.. I am constantly thinking about trying to get pregnant.. Don't eat this or don't drink wine.  Cutting back on the caffeine is defiantly taking its toll.  Then I have to think about my life itself, caring for myself, making sure I'm getting the right nutrients, taking my vitamins, getting exersise not eating things I shouldn't be,  keeping up my home, making sure laundry gets done each week and theres food in the house, caring for our 5 four legged children making sure they go out regularly and get fed, keeping track of our families finances and making sure our bills get paid and Chi Fashionista.  I'm have been working very hard to get Chi Fashionista a strong support and following so that once baby Saulter arrives I will be able to stay home and work instead of leaving the baby with someone else.  Some days I feel like my work is never done..and really it never is! There is always something else I SHOULD be doing.. I just am feeling so overwhelmed and my mental space is running low.  I have no more space up there for To Dos or NOT TO DOs... I need a life jacket... I'm drowning in my life's obligations!!  Oh and did I mention I have a full time job??

Am I ready for this?

So now that Zach and I have officially decided we are ready to become a family of 3 I have been thinking more and more about the changes that will become when we have a child.  I've been around a lot of young children and I absolutely love being with them but I've always had the luxury of giving them back to their parents at the end of the day.  But once the child is mine I will no longer have that.. I will have to be the person to hire a sitter to have some free time!

Then to think of having to constantly be aware of what the child is doing and where you place things and how safe everything is will be a whole new problem... especially with our dogs! I became extremely aware of some of these problems yesterday when I was sitting for the two young boys Conner(1 yr) and Aiden (3yrs).  As I was getting Conner ready for bed he was upset by the changing process so I was distracting him with a bunny then I hear Aiden playing the bookshelf.. So I asked him not to pull all the books down but naturally thats what he does.. and I can't stop him because I'm changing Conner so I just let Aiden do his destruction so when I finish with Conner I started to clean up the books Aiden had pulled off the bookshelf when I noticed that Conner had left the room.  When I caught up with him he was playing in the toilet!! After I had just got him into clean pajamas! I was just so frustrated! I was so glad when it was finally time to put them to bed and I could stop worrying about what of each of them was getting into!  The worst part was I was only there for 4 hours one of which they were sleeping!!!!

I only hope we are as ready for this as we think we are! I know there will be so many changes we will have to make but I also know it will be worth it!