We made it!

I know this blog post is long over due on so many levels, but I figured better late than never right? It also helps that I'm sitting in the airport at 5am waiting to board a flight to Denver to visit my sister....BY MYSELF! Yup the crazy train is staying home with Daddy, Geemye, and Papa so I can help my sister with her wedding dress fitting and I get a little break!

We obviously have arrived to America safely, but it has definitely been a bumpy road getting here. Selling everything you own is not something that I suggest anyone doing ever in their life. Not only is it a huge pain in the ass, but totally not worth it (obvi, especially when the Aussie dollar is .70cents to the US $1 OUCH). But we did it, and somehow survived it. I also made it through another 3 plane rides alone with both babies to America (Dad's work visa wasn't approved yet and I had a wedding to photograph). It was all pretty smooth sailing, well as smooth as you can have with two banshee babies. Our biggest excitement was Kyler falling head first into the aisle while we were waiting to get off the plane, mother of the year.... And Kynley dumping all of her juice on Kyky's head while she was sleeping on the floor during our flight from Hawaii to Seattle...Needless to say I was more than happy to be back and to not have to fly with them alone for a VERY VERY VERY long time.

Once we got back it took a few weeks for my Tex's work visa to come in, so I was single parenting with jet lag and a lot going on. We celebrated Kyler's first birthday without Dad, but had a ton of amazing family and friends to enjoy it with us! It was definitely a rough transition knowing we were back for good and not having a "home", but also a happy time knowing my family wasn't going to have to say good bye to the girls again. This living situation is so hard because no matter what someone is missing out. I was a hot mess for the first few weeks we were here. I almost couldn't talk about the move without bursting into tears. It was definitely hard saying good bye to our aussie friends and family and our life there. I am doing much better now as we have started to get our lives together.

Once Tex got here our first priority was a car. The ONLY bonus about moving back with nothing is that you get to buy everything brand new, start with a completely clean slate. Once we got our car it made it start to feel a bit more real. We are currently still at my parents house. House hunting is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It probably doesn't help that we still are unsure of where we want to settle. Washington & Arizona are at the top of the list still but trying to work out when to go where. Hopefully we are in somewhere by November 1st....fingers crossed.

In the mean time we are keeping very busy as I try to get back to work and Daddy works from home. We have a pretty good routine at the moment, but having Dad there all day has taken some getting used to. The best part about being here now is that we are here for all of the Fall festivities. Not living here for so many years and having to miss out on Halloween and Thanksgiving has been rough to say the least. The excitement of getting to finally celebrate it here with my family and my children is almost overwhelming. I have seriously missed it so much! The best part at the moment is getting to teach Kynley all about halloween. She is pumpkin obsessed and calls them "munkits". Her toddler talk is hilarious. She has also decided that she wants to be a witch for halloween....we will see how long that lasts.

Tex has found an Aussie rules footy team here in Seattle! He has played one game with them and is hoping to play another one in October. It's nice to have him find a bit of home here. Definitely not the same as sitting at the footy club having a few wines while watching him play, but we are making it work ;)

A very overdue Kynley and Kyler update are coming soon. Nw that are life is slowing falling into place I'm hoping to have more time to blog. We will see! Also, any friends/family in the Seattle area...I am officially back in business! I will be doing $100 mini sessions for the month of October and having special deals on my portrait packages just in time for Christmas cards! If you know anyone needing something done, feel free to send them my way ;)

10 months...Moving update

Can you tell she is over me taking picture of her!?! This is the face she pulls whenever the camera comes out. I had to take these photos 2 different times to get a photo where she was almost smiling! and thats only because Kynley was jumping out from behind me....

Our Kyky is 10 months old...well technically today she is 10 1/2 months because I'm a bit behind on the updates! Life is just absolutely crazy right now with trying to pack everything to get ready to move back to the US.

I just want to say THANK YOU for all of the love and support we received about our big move to the  US. It is such a bitter sweet situation, but we are so excited to start new.

Onto a Kyler update. This little miss decided to start crawling a week before she turned 10 months....it's not a full crawl yet, more of an army crawl, but she is currently trying to get up on her knee's so she can really go. She is also trying to pull herself up on things....am I allowed to knock her over when she does that??? KIDDING...kinda haha anyone who has kids knows what I mean. Once they start to walk your social life is over for awhile. Instead your days are spent chasing a toddler who is constantly into everything. Not looking forward to it.

On the plus side, Kynley and Kyler are really starting to play together a lot more now. They crack each other up and love to sneak into the bathroom and get to my make up and destroy life. My favorite powder got dumped all over the bathroom the other day while I was dressing....thanks ladies. As much as it drives me nuts, it is so much fun to see them with each other. I know its only going to get worse...but for now its cute.

Kyky is our little eater, she will eat anything put in front of her and then eat her sisters food which she usually refuses to eat...she is also super clingy at the moment which is exhausting and hard when you are trying to pack up a whole house. Kynley is also no help with that, anything I trying and organize stuff to sell or give away she likes to put things in different boxes or throw things around...being not so helpful saying "I heyp mommy, I heyp! There are lots of days I have to remind myself how much I am going to miss these times.  Kyler loves to say "Mamamamama" and is overall a pretty happy little girl. She is back to sleeping 13 hours through the night, sometimes 14 if I'm lucky. It means I usually get a coffee and some emails done before I have both crazies demanding food and wanted to be cuddled.

I can't believe she is almost 1. Slowly trying to plan her first birthday at the moment but its hard with this big move and trying to do a party in both places. Just keeping it low key...i think.

Kynley is hilarious right now as she learns new words. Her favorite thing at the moment is when she does something, like climbs up on the couch and says "I DI IT MOMMY, I DI IT" then gives you a big thumbs up. You have to acknowledge it with a thumbs up in return otherwise she keeps repeating it haha I love her little toddler talk. I have been sick for the last few days and today she was in our bed watching a movie while I was cleaning and she heard me cough, she came out of the room and said "You Otay mummy???" she is always making sure we are ok and checking our heads for a fever "Mummy you head hot".

On to the move...everything is going well...were currently waiting on the girls passports and social security numbers and then we will be good to go! We have a been super lucky that a lot of our friends have been purchasing our furniture from us and are allowing us to hang onto it until right before we move, so our house isn't empty and we still have couches and TV's! Im currently working on selling a lot of the girls things which is super time consuming and exhausting. Next is to sell my car... were at about 5 weeks until we leave which really doesn't seem real. Hopefully I get more stuff don't in the next few weeks because as of now were not even close to being ready!!! Wish me luck ;)

Back to the USA!

Anyone who knows Tex and I knows that it has always been our plan to move back to the US. When we got together from the beginning, we always planned on living in America. We made the decision to move to Australia for Tex's job back in 2009, and we always said it would only be for a year or two. Well 6 years later, we are still here. Now the time has come for us to explore the next chapter of our lives, and move our little family back to America to be with my family.

We have received a lot of mixed reactions from people about our decision, and let me just let everyone know, that this is the HARDEST DECISION we have ever had to make. I didn't take this decision lightly. I have spent so many hours awake at night going over all of the pros and cons in my head. Whether this was the right thing for our girls. I still don't know that it is 100% the right move, but we won't know until we go for it. We are taking our girls away from their Aussie family who all live with in a 5 min radius of us. They have been an amazing support system for me. It makes me running my own business a lot easier when I can just drop them with a grandparent or an auntie while I do a photoshoot. But as great as all of that is, it still isn't my family, not my sisters and my mom. Anyone who has children understands how much someone need their own family as a support system as well. I have been told by a few people that they don't think we realize what we are moving back to, that I will just think its a vacation like when we go back to visit. Just a friendly reminder to everyone, I lived in america for 21 years. I know that I am moving back to a real life and not our vacation life. I know that I won't have my family 5 mins away from me and friends being able to visit at the drop of a hat. I GET IT. I have thought about every aspect of  moving back and all of the differences we will have in our lives. We are ready for it, it might be a shock at first, but we are prepared for cope with it.

We have been extremely fortunate that the company Tex works for, Mollydooker, has offered him a position in the US. It is our dream scenario for him to continue to work for this great company as we make our move. It makes our decision to go a lot easier and more exciting for Tex, as he gets to take on a new role with them. For me, I will continue to do my photography. Weddings, families and babies working in the Seattle area starting August! I am so excited to get to do weddings in a new part of the world, and hopefully for more of my family and friends from high school/college. I am even more excited to be back around my sisters and parents. FINALLY! I am ready for them to get the opportunity to watch my babies grow and play active rolls in their lives other than over Skype!

It will be devastating when we leave Tex's family and all of the amazing friends we have made. I have the best group of mum's surrounding me with babies all the same ages as the girls. I will miss all of them and our play dates a lot. Like a lot a lot. It makes me cry just thinking about leaving everyone. It is definitely the hardest part of our decision. But, we will be back at least once a year to visit. And I am hoping to be able to do a month of weddings back here once a year since it will be the off season in America. And all of our friends are more than welcome to come and visit, Disneyland trip anyone? We will always have a spare room for all of our Aussie friends and family :)

So now we will spend the next couple of months selling EVERYTHING we own. We are only bringing suitcases with out personal items and then starting fresh and buying everything new. For the first month we will be with my parents in Seattle until we find a house. We are looking at the Seattle area, Vancouver, WA area and possibly Arizona...if my sister and fiance would decide to move there already ;) We have a lot to be done in a short amount if time, its a seriously daunting task. We will hopefully be back by mid August (I have a wedding to photograph on August 15th in Seattle so I will for sure be there by then with the girls).

No matter what, one of our families will miss out on watching our girls grow. That is the hardest part of this whole thing, its just not fair.  To all of our Aussie friends, we will be doing a going away party in August, ill keep you posted on the date. We hope to see as many people as we can in the next few months. We appreciate every ones support for us through this decision, we love you guys ;)

8 & 9 months

I really have sucked at this whole blogging thing lately. I know I am going to regret it someday when I want to look back on these memories for the girls, but life is so damn crazy right now writing is not on the top of my list! At least I'm keeping updated with the photos!

Well this little princess is growing up faster than I can handle. She has turned into the happiest baby I have ever met and is full of personality, constantly smiling and laughing at big sister, it is almost too much cuteness to handle. She has two bottom teeth and is currently working on getting a few more (lots of drool happening over here). At 8 months old she decided that eating baby food is for babies, and she is no longer a baby. She went from eating fully pureed food to eating everything that we eat. I have never seen a baby gum food as well as she does. I can literally hand her anything and she eats it without choking or gaging on it. It's hilarious to watch her work her way through each bite (she will destroy a sausage in a matter of seconds)!

Her body is FINALLY catching up to her head! Growing slowly but surely. She is still wearing 3-6 month size clothes, but I am confident she will be in 6-9 month clothes soon....ish. She isn't crawling yet, but is definitely starting to think about it. I would like her to hold off on that as long as possible. She likes so squeal at the top of her lungs and is very vocal, always having conversations with herself.  If she isn't on her belly, she is laying on her back sucking her toes, or biting them.

She had a really rough time adjusting to the time change on both sides of our trip. Kynley always time changes so easily, so I was very surprised out how out of whack poor Kyky was. On the positive side, the girls traveled extremely well, I wasn't even in tears by the end of the flight. They did even better on the way back to Australia. Honestly, I was prepared for the worst 24 hours of my life, and I was pleasantly surprised when it really wasn't that bad. I would do it again tomorrow! And I didn't even use sleeping aids for them on the way home.

It was so good to spend the time with my family and for them to get to see the girls. Babies change so much during the first year its almost like Kyler is a different baby every time they see her. The girls happily swam in my parents pool everyday, they are both water babies for sure. And Kyler enjoyed being fed pizza by Papa while I wasn't looking.

Ill give you a quick Kynley update while I am at it. She is as funny and crazy as ever. Her speech is really developing and she is saying new things everyday! She has learned how to copy what I say and has copied a few naughty words a few times now...oops. Every morning she greats us with a "Mornin' Mummy" or "Mornin' Kyky"! She loves her baby (a stuffed sock monkey) and he always has to sit with us "Baby it ere". My day is spent trying to translate what ever is coming out of her mouth, half of the time I have no idea, but I am slowly learning. She loves Kyler, but hates it when Kyler tries to touch her. She is a pretty good listener, but definitely has a naughty streak. She loves pointing her finger and frowning while yelling something at the cats as if they are in trouble...she must learn that from her dad! She still likes to speak at 1000 words per minute in her own language, all you can do is smile and nod and she will take it as your answer. Kynley is constantly in her own musical and is always singing and dancing by herself. She LOVES shoes and loves to wear everyone else's. Every night at bed time she has to make you touch fingers with her and say "boop" 3 times exactly.

These two girls definitely keep me on my toes, but I love every minute of it :)

Kyler- 7 months

Our littlest girl is 7 months old. Like usual, time is flying and I am in denial she isn't 3 months old anymore!!!

Our Little Miss Ky Ky is sitting up all by herself, which is a major accomplishment considering the size of her head. Im not being mean and making fun of my girl, but really she has a massive head. We spent a few weeks going to specialists and making sure that it was nothing more than a large noggin. Those were a few rough weeks for me with the words tumour and extra spinal fluid in the brain being thrown at me. After a quick ultrasound and the longest 20 minuets of my life, they confirmed that she indeed does just have an Edmonds head! The head circumference is in the 105th percentile with her body being in the 10th for height and 15th for weight. Just a bit out of proportion, but at least she is cute :)

Other than that she is a happy, easy baby. Sleeping 12 1/2 hours at night and still napping 4 times a day! (yay for mommy and her sanity!) I am pretty sure she is trying to cut her bottom two teeth which is no fun. She is finally starting to enjoy food. It has taken her a little bit. Lots of gagging and refusing to open her mouth. Girlfriend can definitely be difficult when she wants to be! (no idea where she gets that from...)

She is a mommies girl totally and completely! Kynley was so easy about who she would go to. I could literally hand her to anyone and she wouldn't bat an eye. Kyler loves mommy. And Daddy. But she has serious issues when either of us is not in sight! If I walk out of a room that she is in you can expect tears. It drives me nuts sometimes, but I know I should treasure it, with time, she won't want to have anything to do with me!

I am doing something totally crazy and taking both girls, by myself, back to america to visit the fam, and go to my sisters graduation in San Diego. My hubby can't go because he as to work...so it will just be me, with two banshee children on the plane...Help? It was such a hard decision to make, but I would be devastated if I had to miss it, or leave one of my girls behind. So I am sucking it up and hoping for the best (yes i am using drugs to help me out. For all of us haha) I am just crossing my fingers Kyler hasn't started to crawl at that point. If she has...I may be begging someone to book a flight an come with to help. Any volunteers?! Im just excited to see my family and have them see the girls. It is rough not having them here to watch my kids grow.  We will be in Seattle May 4-14th and then San Diego 14th-18th.

Kynley and Kyler are finally really starting to get along and play together. Kyler thinks Kynley is hilarious, and Kynley likes Kyler....sometimes. As long as kyler isn't touching her or pulling her hair she is ok with her. They love having bath time together. Kyler just laughs at Kynley most of the time.

Dad is in vintage so he hasn't been home a lot, so its just the girls and I most of the time. We will be happy when it is over and we get hime back...and I can have some time to myself.

Other than that we are enjoying our crazy chaos that surrounds us everyday. Very grateful to have two amazing, healthy babies to call mine :)