The Zuniga Family

Our 4th of July was very laid back this year. It fell right in the middle of our move. We went out to the front yard and lit some sparklers and smoke bombs. Ava loved the smoke bombs. I tried to help her hold a roman candle, but it was a bit too noisy for her. The loud explosions going on around our house for those few days scared her. We were in the back yard on Sunday night and someone lit off a really loud one. Ava ran to me balling. She was terrified. Poor thing. :( Reese was totally unphased by all the loud fireworks.
I put gloves on Ava for the sparklers. I always remember not liking sparklers when I was a kid because sometimes the sparks would hit my hand and it hurt! I knew that would freak Ava out, so the gloves worked out good!

Run!!!

Jumping with excitement!!

Wow!!! I am behind on blogging! We have a good excuse though. We moved! It was hard for us to leave our little house, but the decision had to be made. It was too small for our growing family. The layout of the house was not good for a family. It was only 2 bedrooms and Ava's room was right downstairs by the front door. The master was upstairs. I was so tired of having sleepless nights worrying about my girl being so far away from us. When we bought our house in 2006 we had planned to sell it before having kids. With the market crash, that did not happen. We tried to make it work, and it did, but then baby #2 came along. It worked out for awhile while Reese slept in our room next to our bed. We knew it wouldn't last long though, and had planned to move to something bigger even before she had arrived!

We moved to Puyallup. Our new house is 3 bedrooms. YAY! The backyard is much bigger too! We absolutely love it here! We have been spending most of our time outside in the yard with all this great weather we have been having!

We got so lucky with a ton of help to get us moved. Our dear friends Andrea and Chad summoned the help of some of their friends, as well as a few of Rafael's friends. We ended up with 8 guys moving us! The move was quick and we pretty much were moved in one day! We have been making trips back to the old house this past week to tie up loose ends and get the last of the small stuff out. Now we are almost completely unpacked!

Thank goodness for my sweet Mom!! She came on Friday and stayed through Saturday night. It was such a HUGE help to have her here to watch Ava and Reese so I could help with the move! Thank you so much Momma!! The girls are a handful, with Ava wanting you to play with her 24/7 and Reese wanting you to hold her 24/7. Whew! I am so glad you made it through Mom!

We had been talking to Ava for a few months about how we were moving to a new house. She was excited and kept asking about when we were going. When we did our walk through of the new place, there was a rocking horse in one of the rooms that the other people had. Ava was under the impression that the new house came with a rocking horse. When we were in Idaho visiting my Grandma we found one for her. We bought it and got it back home to Washington without her seeing it. The first day we went to get the keys, we brought the new horse with us and put it in Ava's new room. She was THRILLED!! It helped make the transition a little easier for her. For the first two days she whined a bit about wanting to go home. She has not mentioned a word of it since!

We decided to get rid of our kitties too. That was such a hard choice! I have had my cat Foofa for 10 years! Rafael has had his cat Pike for 9. We love our kitties, but we definitely did not love the cat litter smell, cleaning up cat puke, and catching Ava a few times with a piece of litter in her mouth. YUCK! We tried to find new homes for them. We tried a no-kill shelter, but were told our cats were too old. I posted them on pet finder, but got no inquiries. The cat's are still at our old empty house. We have been going over every day to feed them. Next week we will be taking them to a shelter. I really hope they get adopted. They are great cat's. I try to not think about it too much because it makes me sad. I think it was the right decision for us though. Ava has only asked about them a few times. We have just told her that they went to go live at a new house. We try to quickly change the subject, which is pretty easy to do with an almost 3 year old. :) We plan to get a puppy in a few years.

Onto stuff other than our move, Reese!! Reese rolled over from her back to front a few days ago!! YAY!! We were coming in from the back yard. I brought Reese in first and laid her on the floor. I went back out to get the blanket, Ava, and her toys. When I cam back in Reese was on her tummy! YAY Reese!! She has done it a few times since then. Crawling here we come!!! That is the next step.
She is such a sweet little baby. She definitely loves her some attention. She is not content very long without it! She is such a happy little smiley baby. She laughs so much now, I love it! For our first 3 nights in our new house, she slept through the night. YAY! Since then, she has been waking up a TON at night. Ugh. I really could have gotten used to the all night thing. Hopefully she will start that up again soon!

Ava... she is so cute. She loves the new place. There are two little twin boys that are 3 that live next door. She played with them the other night for the first time. She loved them! When we were leaving one of the little boys ran up to Ava and gave her a flower he had picked from his yard. It was so sweet! She has been asking to go play with them ever since.

I walked in to the living room the other day and Reese was sucking on Ava's big toe. HAHA! It was awful, but I had to let her do it long enough to get a picture. Reese was quite content with a toe in her mouth. YUCK!

Ava hanging out while Mommy and Daddy unpack.

I love this picture! My Mom used to get so mad at my school pictures because I would push my tongue on my teeth like this. I don't know why, it was just part of my smile I guess. It cracked me up to realize that Ava does this too. A lot!