24 Hrs...

Here's a look at our Saturday (like you weren't secretly following us around).

We left early and took a trip to Amacalola Falls in North GA. There were some nice views and pretty pictures.

If I do say so myself, we have the cutest family ever:
Baby girl getting her feets wet:

So, she giggles like crazy whenever you put her on your shoulders. She thinks she's being tickled

Daddy and baby on the stairs up to the falls:
Mommy was holding her much more securely that this photo would indicate:
Daddy and his little girl. (Daddy carried her all the way up the trail...)
That night Reva played with her new Trio - Tres de Solei. Anna sat in that night on Bass.
A view from the back...

She danced up a storm while mommy played.

Pure glee!!
Today was "ride daddy around" day. We didn't get too far. Someone needs to learn to hold on.

Oh, and this little guy decided to finally drop by last week:

All done.

Potter-heads

Ah, I see the Floyd is still not posting. More of the same here, Solei is trying to eat every inedible object in sight and is still .4 seconds from taking her first steps. Oo, she has loads of hair, which is a relief seeing as just about everyone in Brasil would make the joke that she had my eyes and his hairline.

Yesterday the final Harry Potter came out and of course, I HAD to go get it. And then read the entire thing in one day. Hey, I hadn't planned on it, but I'm a really good speed reader and it just happened. I just want to say THANK YOU J.K. Rowling, for giving me such an incredible story to read and love for all these years!! For having to wait this long for the final installment (I've been reading them since book one came out, arg!), it was heavy, full of fabulous plot and worth the wait.

Saturday morning I woke up all a-flutter and grabbed Solei to head to go buy it ASAP - even before either one of us had showered or eaten anything, I was too excited. I hadthe nice lady at the store take this picture to document it - so that when Solei is old enough to read and love the Happy Potter books as much as I do, she'll know she was THERE on July 21st, a part of the history already!

*As I said, one of us had DEFINATLY not ha a shower yet, but who cares, we needed to capture the moment!

Solei, you can borrow this when you are old enough. But then I'll get you your own, this one is mine:)

Happy birthday America!!

* the shoutout to Solei's country of origin was his idea.

etsy fun

Its called an Apple Jacket. I can't remember the last time I ate an apple, but dagnabit I want one.

heehee

This picture is for Annie. If this was a dictionary entry, I'd say the word that fits this is She-Male.
I can't explain why, but it just makes me giggle and I can't stop. Thank you, pop culture!

new site

SO, first step to trying to get my life back to normal is getting back to teaching. I made a website today to advertise and make my name stand out when I post on different sites. It's pretty basic, and a work in progress. I'd appreciate any advice you can give me, internet world!

Click here please!

Merci much!

Its been 2 weeks since you looked at me

Sorry for the 2 week pause. I keep thinking Jared will write something, but alas, you are stuck with me.

Interesting things of note here: I told Jared he could buy a scooter if he found a deal and got life insurance. One trip later, he and his BFF Mike are proud owners of Italian import Piaggios - that in a former life were actually used as mail delivery scooters in Italy! Don't have a picture of ot yeat, but ask mom or dad, they've both ridden it and approve. I am still wary of it, since, Jared has the worst sense of balance I've ever seen, but his legs are as of this posting, still intact.

And Solei has not only figured out how to pull up and stand on everything, she also crawls all over the house (she disovered doorways) and last week at a wedding, she saw another baby climb some stairs, so she went ahead and tried it!

And now, some video proof of how she is indeed keeping her title as the cutest kid I have ever had.

(this one is her standing up )


This one is my favorite - laughing like a crazy person!

New house, same tools

Last week was Jared's 31st birthday and it was celebrated in the manner it deserved (he got a desk missile launcher for work and Simpsons paraphernalia). I would discuss it more in detail, but he has already been asked to blog and has declined. In fact, it looks like yours truly has written the last 8 posts.

Hmmmm... someone is slacking.

It may seem to us in the middle of the storm that not much is going on, but when you look at it from a distance, you realize we are going positively crazy. We bought a house, and are attempting to move into said house. No, you can't see pictures of the house. It's really uggo. Seriously, I wouldn't even go look at it for weeks after Jared found it because it was so freaking ugly.>

But the inside, man... well, it's cool. One of the big reasons I gave in is because there is a room in the basement for a teaching studio for me! And then the upstairs is a ranch layout, so no more running up the stairs to get a burp rag for Solei, it's just down the hall!!

We've also discovered we don't own any furniture, at least to fill up the big spaces in the house. Jared is beginning the planning on building a book case (and has also have to replace the dishwasher hose, replace tubing in the A/C system, cut a hole in the ceiling to facilitate said A/C repair, replace the shower head in our bathroom and convince me the washer isn't broken. And he hasn't even started on the poison ivy sanctuary that is our front yard - eep!)

Oh, and also Solei has learned to crawl now that there is carpet everywhere - we have footage of her desperately trying to crawl in Nana and Popa's house but she couldn't get traction on the wood floors. Her knees are well protected as well, as evidenced by my last Miss Cheapskate post. I'm proud of myself for that one:)

Okay, random picturitity:

Jared and Solei sharing a moment at the Atlanta Jazz Festival.

Solei pulling herself up for the first time on moving day!

The family room of the new house... it won't look this neat and clean until we move out again, methinks.
The way cool basement that I plan on turning into a bean bag sanctuary.
The new kitchen, sans the fridge Jared found on craigslist for $300, woohoo.

Have a loverly day!

reunited and it feels so goooood

Whew! So last week in Colorado was the first official "Kuzmich Sibling Reunion." A blast was had by all and Solei and I got to come in early and leave late just to play more with Grandma and Grandpa, although it wasn't nearly long enough. First, here is a video of Dallin being the sexiest brother ever:



Aaaand, in honor of the kajillion pictures we took, here's the video montage I so graciously slaved over:



Enjoy!

Our memory card is bigger than your memory card.

Solei is sleeping, and has been sooo insanely photogenic lately that today's entry is just going to be nuts, sorry. I don't know if anyone else enjoys checking out any one else's kid this much, but the side-effect of having a digital camera is 7 versions of the same picture that are just too precious to choose just one.

By the way mom - thanks for having me in 1979 so that I'd hit parenthod exactly when digital cameras came about abundantly. Mad props to you for timing that just right!

So, here is my gratuitous album of our hott kid lately:

First off, Nana Paget got Solei a bunch of Mardi Gras beads to play with, and she adores them! The are the best toy ever, always amusing and oh-so-portable. Here's a few happy shots of the kiddo and her bling...









Next, Grandma Kuzmich sent some adorable clothes for Solei, including a Skirt Of Many Colors and I couldn't decide (surprise, surprise) on just one photo, so gawk on...





Next, a few Sundays ago we dressed Solei up in this outfit that included this head/hair scarf thingy that we couldn't figure out and ended up giving ups way too much amusement. Sad, really. First was the traditional approach:



But daddy thought it was supposed to go more like this:



And after that, the obvious direction was of course gangsta style:



She was much happier when we just took the dang thing off:



Sooo, the other day I was doing something in the kitchen and Solei was happily running all over the house in her scooter=walker-thingy, when she went silent. I went looking to see what damage she'd gotten herself into, and the cherub had pulled Grandpa's electric guitar across her lap and was cheerfully licking the handle to the gig bag!! Maybe you had to have been there, but it made her so freaking happy I had to snap a picture:



We went to a company picnic last wek and Solei met her first dog - we think she likes them, she didn't mind at all when the dog licked all over her face!



This was a random pic that Solei smiled for that shocked the heck out of us - man, that chick is maliable:



I play dress-up with her way too much.. Grandma Kuzmich, note that this is one of your skirts again:



Now this was too good not to take - I found these boots on sale for $1.50. That's a buckfify!!!! Can't wait until she can fit into them, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to not make her pose with them NOW, naturally!



And um... this last one was Jared's doing, NOT mine.

Want to guess what she's doing in this picture? Hint - she's not crying.



Yeah, she's doing what you think she's doing. And yes, it makes us laugh at her. Lots.

Puffy the Car!

We have a new member of the family!!! We sold our house this week (we are officially homeless) and are still looking for a new home, but at least we finally got a car!! This one is for the girls to drive - I wanted a puffy car and good golly, it sure is a puffy one. But so dang fun to drive and I feel way less of a stuffy mom in it. It feels so good to have at least one thing on our checklist checked off!

Eastertime

Happy Easter!

This was Solei's first Easter and a blast for us. Here is a pictoral trip of a few of our favorite moments of the day:




Here are us and the parental units at church. Jared and I both spoke in sacrament meeting. Quite an experience - I wrote 6 pages of stuff to say, and ended up barely any of it. Jared was brilliant, as usual :)



After church we went by Grandpa John's place to say howdy. Howdy there!

At the end of our visit, Solei was ready to get out of that darn carseat. She's at the wiggling age for sure!

Here's the family portrait.
The gorgeous gals in our Easter finery.

Solei and her first Easter basket.

Oooo, what is this toy?

Being adorable takes it out of you!

Naptime with dad.

Easter Bunny!

Happy Easter everyone!!

baby baby

There is too much that happened in March to put in one entry, so for now, here's a video of our illegal Spanish nanny and Solei meeting a cruel baby in the Target dressing room.

back in the USSR... uh...

This post is being written from the good ol' US of A, in the great state of Georgia. After the oh-so-fun packing of all our earthly goods left in Brasil into 5 suitcases, then trying to pack those plus a double violin case a baby and 2 adults into a hatchback, and 14 hours in 2 different planes - WE'RE HERE! Yes, to those curious, there have been dangerus levels of cheddar cheese consumed. Now, to buy and sell homes, buy cars, buy phones, get our kid to learn how to sleep through the night again and hopefully at some point have a place to actually unpack before Solei graduates high school. If you want to get ahold of us, we'll be in bed. Hullo, America!

The Job

Hear ye hear ye:

Be it known that a certain Floyd (or Jared, or Jon, or Doofus as I am referring to him right now) has landed a job. The Job. In America. Atlanta-ish. For a nice little pile of money. So we can buy diapers. Or a car. Maybe not both, but it's a start.

Ye may now wish him hearty congratulatories and pat him on the bum. It'll weird him out for sure, but who doesn't like a weirded out Jared? Heck, most of the stuff I do is to annoy him just because his reactions are priceless and we don't have cable. YAY JARED!!!

And now gratuitous pictures of our child because he told me to post them. He's got The Job so he can tell me what to do. Well, not really, but if I do what he says, maybe I'll get that Jetta.

I love you Floyd!!!