date night

Happy Monday! How was your weekend?

Jimmy and I were able to sneak in a date night on Friday while my mother-in-law watched Sadie. It was so nice to spend some alone time with Jimmy! We went to a local pool and spa store to look at hot tubs. We’ve been wanting one ever since we stayed at my parents’ beach house last month and went in their hot tub daily.

Time will tell if we actually get one because we are going to be spending a good chunk of money here soon on a fence extension to keep our Houdini dog from escaping, lol.

On Saturday, Jimmy went to a work day at our church and Sadie and I did some cleaning and organizing around the house. She’s been getting into our snack drawer lately and running around with crackers while Niva chases her and it’s just a constant mess. I put all the snacks up high and hopefully it saves me from cleaning cracker crumbs 24/7 😉

I also filmed a vlog on Saturday because I realized I’ve rarely documented a Saturday at the Zottola household. In the evening, we had a bonfire!

Remember how I said I was really excited to decorate for Christmas? Well, I made a pom pom garland. I had some twine laying around the house and I used a hot glue gun to glue pom poms I bought at Dollar Tree to the twine.

Simple and easy! I promise I won’t hang it up until November 🙂

Well, I better get going and start my Monday. I hear Sadie stirring in her crib as I type up this post.

I’ll leave you with a funny occurrence that happened yesterday while we were at church…

There’s a family on our street that has a siberian husky that looks just like Niva. The dog escaped and was running around the neighborhood and a woman a few doors down from us thought she was Niva so she was throwing bologna into our yard to lure her in and even got her into our fence. Our next-door neighbor had to break the news to her her that the dog wasn’t Niva, lol. We have been blessed with some amazing neighbors!

Jimmy and I went on our first date since the onset of COVID restrictions! Whew did we need that time alone. My mother-in-law graciously watched Sadie for a few hours on Friday night while we went out to eat and walked around a few stores.

Sader Tot had a blast with her Grandma!

Of course with mostly came home with toys for Sadie (this animal set has been a big hit, as have these puffy stickers), but Jimmy also picked up spirograph and has been having a blast unwinding with it at night and reliving childhood memories.

On Saturday we picked up trash! Our church gathered together and headed to a local park with a bike trail and picked up litter.

I was thinking that we have so much fun with our church family that it doesn’t really matter what we’re doing together.

Sometimes there are hard things, hard work, and hard times, but fellowshipping with our family in Christ makes it all so much better. It’s such a blessing to have a community of believers to spend time with and share our joys, hardships, and everyday life. There’s just nothing like it.

Other happenings around the Zottola house lately:

I planted more mums to spruce up our front porch and literally every time I see them I smile.
We filmed another vlog and my favorite part is Sadie helping me plant the mums.
We are on week two of homeschooling and loving it so far.
Our garden is slowing down big time, with mostly tomatoes and peppers growing at this point (sad!).

How about a few photos?

Sadie is going to be two-years-old soon. She is growing and changing so much lately. I can’t wait to share her two year update.

Also, if you could say a prayer for her eye to heal, that would be so, so appreciated! I mentioned that she has a nasolacrimal duct obstruction and that we were trying eye drops for about a month before doing anything invasive.

Her eye hasn’t had any progress so we will be talking to her doctor at her yearly checkup later this month. I know the procedure to unblock the duct isn’t too bad, but who is excited for their child to go through that, you know? I watched a video of the procedure and totally shouldn’t have, LOL.

Here’s a look the mums I planted. It’s just a planter filled with happiness for me, haha.

My little garden helper ❤

When we went to clean up litter on the bike trail on Saturday we brought Sadie’s trike along and she was so happy to be pushed around and stayed in it almost the whole time (<– miracle).

I totally thought it would be a disaster to bring a toddler to clean up litter, but she surprised and impressed me!

Last but not least, our Niva girl has been loving the cooler weather lately. She stays outside longer when it’s below 60 degrees and just lays in the yard. It’s adorable and I’m excited to see how she likes the snow this winter.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but she truly is great with Sadie and we are so incredibly thankful for that. Case in point, Sadie put Niva “night night” by piling her with pillows and a blanket and she just laid there like “okay, sure!” haha.

Alright, I am signing off here. We’ve got a busy day ahead. Sadie is going to be learning the color yellow today, I’ve got real estate work and some cooking to do, and I’m taking Sadie to her first chiropractor appointment (outside the womb, lol) this evening!

Living My Full Life

Weekend Fun at The Zottola House

Much Needed + Trash

What are your plans for the day?