Leslie Knope is my hero.

A few things are happening right now that inspired me to actually write a new post on my blog:
1. I'm watching old episodes of Parks and Rec, which is my favorite TV show, hands down.
2. I attepted finishing a Chipotle burrito. Failed. Now I'm eating M&Ms.
3. I scored some great deals at the Lucky Duck consignment resale event tonight.
4. My printer is low on ink, so I can't print anything. Which means I have nothing to laminate. (I puffy heart my laminator.)
5. My husband mentioned installing a soda fountain machine in our new house and I'm still giddy about the thought of that.
6. My husband updated his blog today, which inspired a friend of ours, Judd, to update his blog. So here we are.

I guess that's it, really.

In other news....WE SOLD OUR HOUSE! Boo yah. It was on the market for three stressful months. It was a crazy time of trying to prepare and clean our house for showings. Most of our showings occurred in the evening after we had 12 daycare kids here. We purposely put our house on the market in May so that we would have all Summer (we have very few daycare kids over the summer) for showings. However, our plan backfired on us because we had a bunch of showings in May and early June and then NONE over the summer and then a bunch of showings in August when our daycare load was full again. Sheesh! But we finally got an offer, found a wonderful house exactly where we wanted for our next house, and everything seems to be moving along towards our closing date. Yay!
Here is our new house!

This house has a fantastic floor plan for our family. Plenty of daycare space and plenty of family space. It has a fabulous wooded backyard, a full finished basement, and LOTS of personality inside and out. We are so excited to move in to this new house!
We have LOTS of ideas for this house. Oodles and oodles. I can't wait to share with you remodeling pics and home decor designs. Our current house has zero personality and we haven't really done much to it to reflect who we are. This next house will be busting at the seams with our personalities! You just wait.

This little lady had a birthday yesterday:

Classy, no? I think so. Happy Birthday, sweet girl.

Little Zoe is seriously the funniest little thing. Being a third-born child, she has learned SO MUCH from her older siblings. She says and does the funniest stuff for a new two year old. We love her to pieces!
We had a very small little party for her. It was supposed to be an Elmo theme....but this is what her cupcakes looked like, so....

I'll never start a cake decorating blog, thats for sure.

We still had fun, anyway.

can't get enough of this little lady!

Man alive, this little girl is all over the place! Between raiding the bathroom and trying to play in the toilet, emptying all the kitchen cabinets, pushing any button on anything electronic within her reach, darting out the door if left slightly open, climbing onto the table, and sneaking up the stairs, we are certainly worn out by the end of the day! And we have two other kids AND a house full of daycare kids everyday too! Zoe is at that age (almost 18 months) where she is into EVERYthing and curious about anything. She stays occupied with an activity for about 3 seconds. Basically, we can't really take our eyes off of her! We joke about how easier life will be when we're not constantly tracking her down and figuring out what she's getting into. But I dearly love this age too. As crazy active as she is, she's also a great cuddler and adorable chit-chatter. She hasn't reached those terrible two's, so she's not really defiant.....yet.

Chase down these little pig tails and jeggings??? You bet. Zoe loves being chased and she ALWAYS runs straight to this corner in our family room. She thinks she is so darn sneaky when she hides next to the couch while we say "I'm gonna get you!", pretend like we're roaring, and act like we're trying to tickle those chubs.

And then she makes her way to the couch, which she thinks is her own personal playground.

She thinks it is super funny to rip off her socks right after we put them on her tootsies.

And she wakes up with the most awesome bed head everyday. Most days I just leave the crazy hair as-is because I can't get over how stinkin' cute it is.

She is literally repeating EVERYTHING we say, which is just so much fun. She has quite a large vocabulary for a 17 month old. She gets that from Daddy. Neither of them stop talking....

Zoe loves taking a "baf" and spends most of bath time dumping water on her own head. She has yet to figure out she can dump that water out of the tub, like her big brother and sister seem to enjoy doing.

She isn't really afraid of much! She loves water, loud noises (she thinks the vacuum is hilarious) and when we jump out and "scare" her. But she isn't a fan of strangers....or the doctor, or even going to the toddler room for church.

She likes emptying all the kitchen cabinets. Over and over again.

This girl LOVES her some books.

And dancing. She can seriously shake her little rump. Her favorite is anything by Dan Zanes or this one particular Sesame Street song sung by will.i.am.

And did you know that one tiny little M&M can make this big mess?

She is not really a fan of the snow. In fact when she looks at snow she says "NOOOOO!" She gets that from me. But if we let her loose outside, she makes a run for it. She is going to love playing outside this summer!

But today? Well, today she's not feeling so well. She has a fever along with a cold and is slightly crabby and not content. I finally got her to take a nap with her favorite snugglers, her pink and white speckled frog and her green bunny blanket....both of which stay in her crib and she only snuggles with them when she's sleeping. Hopefully a good nap will help her feel better!

Love my little Zoe girl!

through the lens

I'm a big advocate of kids taking photos. With a real camera. (Not just a Fisher Price toy camera or my iPod camera or the camera on my phone.....) Its pretty amazing what kids come up with when you let them take photos. I can now honestly say that I am pretty comfortable with handing over my big bulky expensive nice camera to my two oldest kids, ages 6 and 3. I'm pretty sure they won't throw it. And its just about the cutest thing ever to see them holding a big digital SLR camera as they walk around taking photos at their level. Most of them turn out rather blurry, but that's ok with me. Tonight Jack and Macy each took turns taking photos around our family room. Very low lighting and the aperture was open as wide as could be, which tends to produce blurry photos if you don't hold the camera super still or if you don't have a good focal point. Taking those two points into consideration, I thought they did a great job!
Jack's:

Macy's:

Valentine's Day turned out to be pretty fun overall. Some highlights:
*My Valentine brought me a gas station donut AND hot chocolate this morning.
*There was chocolate candy everywhere we turned today. Although, those heart-shaped chocolate candy boxes usually disappoint me because I always take a big bite out of some nasty coconut-filled chocolate and then I have to scrape all the nasty coconut flavor off of my tongue. Ew.
*The kids had fun exchanging Valentines and there was one crazy 30 minute time period today where 11 little kids were all exchanging Valentine's and treats in our daycare room.
*Every time I tried to get Zoe to say "Happy Valentine's Day!" she would just say "diaper!"
*The snow is starting to melt (yay!) and it almost felt like a heat wave. It was somewhere above 30 degrees today, so at least it didn't hurt your lungs to go outside.
*Grocery shopping tonight was kinda fun because I got to see a bunch of last-minute shoppers running around buying cards, flowers, and stuffed animals.

Jack, wearing Star Wars PJs and reading a Star Wars book, of course....he's addicted right now:

Macy checking out her bag of Valentines:

Zoe just being squishy and sweet:

An attempt for one group photo of my littlest Valentines. Cute and uncooperative as always.

all from one photo

You know that saying "A picture is worth 1000 words?" Well, I was looking through some photos in my Photoshop program tonight and came across this little gem. Seriously, you can learn SO MUCH about me in this one little photo.

That's my youngest daughter Zoe. She's 13 months. Zoe doesn't walk independently quite yet, but she cruises around the house holding on to furniture and walls. And, she pretty much tears up anything she comes in contact with. Literally. So, it only makes sense that she is emptying out a cabinet for me while I'm trying to bake in the kitchen. Thanks, little lady.

That's my kitchen. I'm attempting to bake yummy banana muffins on a lazy Saturday morning. Zoe really likes to "help" Mama in the kitchen. And by "help" I mean get as much stuff in my way as possible.

Now lets talk about some minor details that you may not have noticed upon first glance at this photo....

Look at the counter. Its messy. That's how I like to cook and bake, which is TOTALLY unlike me when it comes to everything else. I'm organized and always have all my ducks in a row. Except in the kitchen. I pretty much throw everything on the counter that I think I will need for a recipe and just have at it.

The cabinets are open at the top of the photo. This is another Betsy-ism. I just open up all the cabinets till I'm done cooking or baking. For some reason my mind has decided that I don't have the time to re-open a cabinet over and over. So, I just leave them open till I'm certain that I'm done. This method fits right in with my "throw everything on the counter that I think I will need for a recipe" technique.

In the right cabinet you can see an bright orange container. That's one of my most favorite discoveries. Its our baking soda container. I have never been a fan of how hard it is to get baking soda out of those little orange boxes. So, now we use an old Parmesan cheese container. You can sprinkle the baking soda out of one side or pour it out of the other, just like you would for Parmesan cheese. Totally brilliant.

You can tell I'm making banana muffins because the only time I make banana muffins is when I have 3 bananas left that are brown and yucky looking. Good thing that happened on a Saturday, becuase otherwise I wouldn't have time to make them.

I've got a cold beverage (Diet Coke, if you must know) sitting on the right side of the counter. I pretty much always have a cold beverage while I'm baking, and I always set it in the same spot. Normally, one of my older kiddos is helping me bake. And by "helping" I mean the opposite of what Zoe's doing. They actually DO help. So, they would be standing on a chair in front of the counter right next to the fridge. Naturally the only safe place to set my cold beverage is on the far right side of the counter.

See the empty milk jug, soda can, and coffee cup sitting on the counter next to the fridge? That's the recycling pile. Because we are too lazy to walk 5 steps to the garage where the recycling bins are located, we just start stacking recylables up by the fridge throughout the day. And, from the previous knowledge that I have gathered, I'm always the one who notices the pile and eventually hauls everything out to the recycling bins in the garage.

Another little detail, which is kinda hard to see, is the recipe book that is open on top of the stove. I'm HORRIBLE at remembering recipes. No matter how many times I've made banana muffins, I still have to get out the recipe book.

Okay, now looking in to the cabinet that Zoe is emptying, you'll see that there literally is no organization to it at all. That's because Zoe empties it 74 times a day. I don't see the point of stacking everything nice and neat anymore. I just throw everything back in there.

See that green pitcher with a yellow lid? That was the Kool-Aid pitcher my mom used when we were kids. And, now we use it. LOVE it.

Let's see, what else.....oh, back there behind one of the mixing bowls is a container of Shaklee soy protein. Because we've been using Shaklee supplements for a while now and love them.

I originally took this photo because I wanted to capture how little Zoe helps out in the kitchen. But once I realized how this little scene was capturing a moment in my life that I didn't want to forget, I HAD to write about it. I'm assuming that was about 1000 words....So there you go.

i'm here.

Yah, so obviously it took me longer than just a few days to get some more photos on here! Blogger has been acting weird for me lately and I’m having a hard time placing photos within my text, so its frustrating every time I try to update the blog. But, I decided to post something today…..

Everything here is going quite well! We only had 2 weeks off from the daycare after Zoe was born. That was a little rough! It has been going really well, actually, considering we have 12 kids here all day everyday. Two of them, including Zoe, are infants, so it’s a busy day around here for us. We’ve transitioned quite well though, I must admit! Zoe is quite laid back and go with the flow, so she’s an easy baby to add to our daycare. Plus, we have good group of daycare kids right now and they don’t get in Zoe’s face and smother her, so I’m glad for that! With the nasty flu season among us, we’re not taking any chances around here and we’re not letting any of the kids get in Zoe’s face or even touch her! The H1N1 bug has already gone through Jack’s school. There were 100 students absent one day last week (there are approx. 500 students in his entire elementary school). So far, Jack has not got it, but he does have pink eye right now, so he’s missed 2 days of school from that alone. He’s actually sad to be missing school, so that makes me feel good because he must really like it!

Macy is doing quite well too. She’s every bit of being age 2. She definitely loves her baby Zoe and even helps me out quite a bit too. I’m LOVING her age right now. She’s very vocal and chit chats all the time, which I just adore.

One thing that has simply amazed me is how wonderful Jackson and Macy are at being big siblings to little Zoe. If she starts crying, they get her a pacifier. They don’t smother her, but love cuddling and holding her. They respect her space and are quiet (for the most part) when she’s sleeping. Jackson loves telling other people about his sisters. I adore watching them all interact together.

Baby Zoe is doing fantastic. She’s on an awesome little schedule and she just fits right in to the flow of our family. I’m loving every little piece of her! Since I know this will be our last child, I’m soaking up her infancy, although I’m not a huge fan of the newborn stage, which she is definitely still in. She is still waking up twice at night, so hopefully in the next few weeks she will start cutting out one of those feedings. She is 5 weeks old now and is already growing out of some of her clothes! I can’t believe how much she has grown in just 5 short weeks! I went through all her clothes yesterday and put away half of her clothes that are already too small. Her little legs are even starting to get some chubs. Love it.

Fall is in full swing here and this is by far my favorite time of year. I need to get out and get some good Fall photos. We’ve gone to a couple Fall festivals and stocked up on pumpkins. This year, we’re planning on carving a couple, but I also want to paint some and see how that goes. I love everything about October. The anticipation of the fun holiday season is just around the corner and its not too cold outside yet.

we're home.

We've been home from the hospital for a few days now....and things are going pretty well! We're still trying to adjust to having a new member in our family, so give me a few days and then I'll add a bunch more photos and info on here....

welcome Zoe Campbell Beers!

We welcomed the newest member of the Beers’ clan on 9/14/09! Zoe Campbell was born at 1:03 PM and weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. She’s beautiful and just perfect all over and we’re enjoying getting to know our new daughter.

I had scheduled my c-section for 12:15 on September 14th. We arrived at the hospital at 10:00 for all the lovely pre-surgery admission stuff. I walked into the surgery room at 12:20 PM to get prepped and my doctor started opening me up at 12:50. It takes half an hour to get a spinal block as well as get everything prepped and ready to go! She was born just 13 minutes after the first incision! As she was being pulled out, I heard two nurses say “That’s not a little girl!” and I immediately thought that they meant that it was a boy! But they actually just meant that she was a big girl, not a little girl. So, all was well =)

After she was born, Matt went with her and the nurses to the adjacent room as they cleaned her up and weighed her. Then she was all set and Matt got to hold her for the rest of the surgery. He sat right next to me so I was able to look at her and talk to her while I was laying there. But, let me tell ya, I as SO uncomfortable for the rest of the surgery. My eyes itched horribly and I could barely keep them open. The oxygen tubes in my nose were driving me crazy. My hands (my arms were laying straight out to the side) had fallen asleep and I couldn’t feel anything. After the doctor delivered Zoe, he tied my tubes, cut out a bunch of scar tissue from previous c-sections, and inserted a pain pump tube into the area of the surgery. I had to lay there till 2:15 PM as he did all that! It was a long process, especially when all I wanted to do was hold my newest baby girl! After everything was sewed up, they wheeled us back to the recovery room and we stayed there for a full hour. I was able to nurse Zoe a couple of times in there and Matt started making some phone calls. We were finally able to get back to our post-partum room at about 3:30 PM.

Zoe has been amazing! She is nursing and sleeping pretty well and also enjoys being held. She is quite the little cuddle bug. The craziest thing about her is that she looks exactly like Macy did when she was born. Exactly. We keep calling her Macy because she looks just like her! It will take us a while to have “Zoe” ingrained in our brains as her name!

The first full night was extremely horrible for me. I literally did not sleep at all. Zoe was fine and she was not the problem at all. I was in a ton of pain, I could not get comfortable (hospital beds are just not the best), my butt and legs kept falling asleep from being in a bed all day long (I was unable to get up quite yet), my hands had fallen asleep and were numb and tingly, and I was hooked up to quite a few different IVs, tubes, and catheters. So, anytime I even attempted to move positions, I had to move about 8 tubes or IVs and get everything situated. Not fun. But mostly I was just in a lot of pain. I had a great nurse who was trying to keep me comfortable, but nothing was working. Matt was here, but he slept most of the night on the couch unless he was helping me feed Zoe. I wanted him to sleep because he had to take care of Jackson and Macy today and its not fun being a tired daddy! Finally, at 3:00 AM my nurse suggested that I go ahead and try to stand up and walk and sit in a chair to make me more comfortable. Standing up was extremely painful and not fun, but I managed to make it to a comfy chair. I tried falling asleep in the chair, but was even unable to sleep there. Basically, it was just one crappy night! At 5:00 AM I was so upset with the tubes and catheters sticking out of me, that my nurse went ahead and quickly finished my IV medications and unhooked me. She also gave me two Percocet pills and within 15 minutes I literally had no pain. Plus, I was a happy camper because I was unhooked from all the tubes! I was able to take a shower and change clothes and I immediately felt much better. I took a long nap this afternoon in between visiting with friends and family. Zoe has been perfect all day! Right now is the end of day #2 and I am having a lot of abdominal pain again. Plus a lot of bloated gassy pain. It really hurts to stand up/sit down. I’m just hoping I can sleep better tonight.

Jackson and Macy have been busy little bees these past two days. They got to spend a lot of time with Grandma! Jackson has gone to school everyday and has had fun telling everyone about his newest sister. Both kids have really enjoyed seeing Zoe and touching her. They get a little crazy and wild in the hospital room, so they haven’t stayed here for very long each day. They have both held her a few times and seem to understand that there is a new baby! Macy has been quite a little pistol for Grandma and daddy these past two days. She’s thrown a few more fits than normal and has had quite an opinion lately. I think she is just being a typical two year old and also she is sorta confused about where I have been these past two days. I’m hoping they both transition to Zoe well when I come home on Friday.

More later!