Hello!

Hello!  Welcome to our little slice of blog-heaven. I contemplated starting a blog, mostly because I never follow through on things like this.  I make a plan, I start it, I write a couple of posts and then I forget about it because somehow kids, work, life... get in the way.  This time I'm determined to make things a little different.  In the past year we have welcomed a new family member, a new furry family member, moved from one apartment to another in Florida, are in transition to a new church, celebrating a first birthday and going to Walt Disney World in two weeks.  With that said, we have a lot going on and a lot we want to document.  You'll see posts from me, Nicole and my boyfriend/fiance/significant other for 7 years+ (Maurice) posting on this blog.  Ramblings from both of us as they come.  I'll have product reviews of things we've tried, current events and Maurice will likely write about cooking, gardening, collecting (things), video games and his new adventure.. Disney Pin Trading!

So now that I've explained why we're here and what our not-so-set-in-stone plan is, let me introduce us.  I'm Nicole -  I work F/T for a large online sports retailer [If you've purchased sports apparel etc.  it has likely been from the company I work for] as a Quality Control Coordinator.  I've been with said company since April 2012 with a small 8 week break between February 2013 and April 2013 to have a baby.  I enjoy graphic design, photography, dance (I was classically trained), raising awareness for Multiple Sclerosis and Congenital Heart Defects (CHD), books, movies and lots 'o other things. 

Maurice is a F/T SAHD. Yup that's right - he stays home full-time with our nearly 1-year old son.  He enjoys cooking, gardening, video games, the outdoors, books, rebuilding/revitalizing furniture and exercise.  

We have three children.

Kayla, our oldest is 12.  She loves arts and crafts, animals of any kind - even the gross ones, dirt, fishing, hunting, four wheeling and anything else that would require her to be muddy or out in nature.  Kayla is without any doubt...a tomboy and will argue even on Sunday to wear a dress to church. (She believes she should be able to wear jeans under her dresses.) She is in 6th grade, involved in Girl Scouts and Young Womens (with church).  Nicknames Kayla-bug and Skeeter.

Tristan, our middle child is 8.  He loves anything Lego.  If it can be built, he can do it and within record time - at least by 8 year old standards.  He's very outgoing and loud but very cuddly.  He's my "poopy" - to be explained later, I promise! - and is a very social child. Nicknames include Poopy (only by me), TBone, Buddy.

Blake, the baby is almost 1.  He's not walking yet but he either army crawls, crawls-crawls, or cruises anywhere he needs to go.  He is a sweet baby and rarely disappointed with how things are unless of course his diaper needs changed or we're not on a schedule with feeding.  He's very silly and has been the *perfect* pea in our pod.  He has many nicknames - Blakey Boo, Bake Bake, BD (his initials pronounced as they are), Baby Bear, Baby Bee, Chunkers.

In addition to 5 people in our home we also have 3 cats and 1 additional cat who doesn't technically belong to us but I've claimed his as "our stray".    

Our cats include Aveeno - a 15 year old Norwegian Forest Cat.  I got him when I was 18 years old from a farm with his sister Lavender which my roommate kept. I like to refer to Aveeno as my "roll dog".  He's almost as big as a dog but he went through the end of my teens with me, all of my 20's and now early 30's.  He's been around for a long time.  For awhile I wasn't able to keep him because I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and unable to go up and down stairs to change his litter or feed/water him so he stayed with my mom and sister, then spent a short time with another owner entirely who fed him table scraps and called him Tom. He doesn't respond to Tom and per the friend of the friend who owned him for that short time, he never did.  He's my Beaner cat.... I adore him.

Then there's Conor (which is what Maurice and I call her) or Prissy (what the kids call her).  She's 4 and a tan long haired super-soft cat.  Maurice and I have affectionately named her "Baby Kitty".  We couldn't initially agree as a family what her name should be so she ended up with two and answers to two.  Right before we moved to Florida, she got out of our house and was gone for several weeks.  We spent every hour of daylight we could searching for her because it was snowy at the time.  She finally did come home, not pregnant, very skinny and only a little scratched up which we quickly resolve with a trip to the vets office.  The month or so she was gone was M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E for our family and I remember looking for her everywhere I went, even illogical locations.  She's now happy and healthy! 

The third and most recent cat we've acquired is Oscar.  He's gray... The kids and I got Oscar from the shelter in our city.  We went one day to the shelter to bring dog biscuits to the dogs in the shelter and when we were through the kids asked if we could go look at cats.  I was adamant about not letting them add to our ridiculous brood of animals, and we did well to pass up kittens or cats with missing limbs (so heartbreaking!) but the last room we went to was off the beaten path and according to the worker there, not many people came into the room we were in - it was sealed by sliding glass doors at the end of the hallway.  Oscar was in there... well "Carlos".  He wasn't the most friendly but he was the softest and with nearly the saddest story.  He was 7 years old and had spent his entire life in a shelter.  All of the other cats cost money to take home but Carlos was FREE! In addition to that he was scheduled to be euthanized that same week.  I couldn't let that happen. We signed papers, got his information, officially changed his name to Oscar (because he randomly bites/scratches in play.. he's grouchy) and were on our way.  He's been with us a year and is pretty content.  He's not as skiddish as he was, no longer hides on top of our kitchen cabinets and nearly forces himself on you to be pet.  He's awesome.

The other cat we don't technically own is Shadow, who I've named wholeheartedly because he's completely black.  Stereotypical, right?!  I feed him outside of our apartment occasionally and sit outside petting him from time to time.  He's beautiful... I wish I could keep him. 

As a family we love the beach, travel, busy schedules (sometimes), YouTube, and we are "investigators" for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We're LDS "investigators"aka transitioning to become Mormon. (Upcoming post!) We are five/fifths of a group hug,  we are Five Peas in a Pod    - new again on the interwebs. :)