Yee-haw!

It has been a super long time since I posted and so much has happened, so time for a quick update.


It has become more and more obvious that USF was not a good fit, so Nick and I applied around this year.  Nick even applied to industry jobs.  He got a great offer at University of Houston - Clear Lake, so we will once again be moving.  It was a hard choice and is bitter sweet.  I think it will be best in the long run, but it is hard to leave my parents, our friends, my moms club, and this amazing city.  We will miss Lakeland terribly.  The current plan is for us to move late July, with Nick going out before I drive my mom and the girls.  We have our house on the market and we found a house to move into.  So we have been swamped with moving related stuff.  We had a very successful garage sale and I have been selling stuff on mom swap.

In other news, we are enjoying our last few weeks here.  The girls did well at swim lessons, but have both made huge strides since.  Sam takes breaths well and Zoey swims to me and back and can dive for toys when you give her a small shove.  Zoey completed her first run in ballet.  Zoey also started a piano program for preschoolers.

Sam really enjoyed her first season of flag football.  She always played hard and gave her all.  She was a very aggressive rusher.  We had one bad game with a coach who did not play fair.  We ended up beating them in the super bowl.  So the first time Sam played and Nick coached, they were super bowl champs!!!!

Another mom and I have been doing photo sessions for the moms club.  She took a few of Zoey and myself.  Zoey was not super cooperative, but I loved this one.

Sam had a lot of end of the year things.  I went for awards day.  She made me so proud!  She got so many awards.  She was even one of only 2 Kindergartners to get all A's and the other girl was not at Lincoln for the first of the year, which is when most kids got B's.  She aced a super hard school.

Here she is on first and last day.  She was so sad for school to end.  She loved her class and her teacher so much and is still sad about the move.  Unfortunately, the card in my dslr malfunctioned, so this was the only last day photo, taken with the point and shoot.

We also were visited by our good friends, Martin and Sarah and their kids, Seb and Luciana.  They actually live outside of Houston, so we are moving about an hour from them.  We actually saw them on a quick house hunting trip, but they had never met Zoey.  The last time we were out there was New Years 2011.

We had a great time hanging out with them.  Their was lego time, pool time, reading time and more.

We also made it to Gatorland.  Zoey wanted nothing to do with the baby gator.

Sam even sat on a big one.

I have never seen birds attack seed sticks so much.  At Zoo Atlanta, they are always overfed and hard to tempt.  Zoey freaked out, but Sam loved it.

The former roommates and their kids.  We are so excited to be close to them!

Wish us luck, send us prayers, etc to help us sell our house, pack, and make the big move.  We know it will be rough.  We are trying to enjoy every drop of Lakeland time, but I am looking forward to when this time is a blur and we cannot believe we have not always lived in Clear Lake.

Happy Easter!

My last update was right after Zoey's birthday, so I have a lot of catching up to do and LOTS of pictures.  We had professional pictures for Zoey's birthday.  A lot of great shots, but here are some favorites.

Nick's Aunt Tracy and Uncle Bruce came through again and stayed with us for a few days.  It was a blast!  The girls adored them.  They were such good sports, reading bedtime stories, playing games, even watching a flag football game.  We hope they will visit again soon!

I took another photography course, a 3 hour one.  So I have been practicing and trying to get better.

Sam has been playing flag football.  Her team has lost only one game.  Nick is the assistant coach.  Sam is a super fast rusher.

Doesn't she look fierce :)

Right after pulling a flag.

My friend (her daughter is on the team, and her husband is the head coach) caught this image.  Zoey plays with her son and wanted him to hold her baby, she yelled across the field.  She also made him sit down to hold the doll.  They both snack their way through the games.  My mom helps a lot in keeping them fed so I can watch and photograph.

Sam made a leprechaun trap for school.  We painted it gold, Nick (and Sam) made a ladder and we made a shelf with gold coins and she glued on a free gold sign.

Sam's Spring School picture.  They got to wear whatever clothes they wanted, but the background was so weird.

The girls tried astronaut ice cream.

We had bunny pictures done.  The last time Zoey was so young and ran away from the bunny.

Story time at the library.

Fluffy stuff.

A bubble playdate.

We also ventured back over to Hobe Sound to meet up with the Woods.  We even let Sam skip a day of school since our Spring Break did not line up and our weekend was so busy that we could not get over there until Sunday.  It was a blast.

Zoey and Charlie mainly stayed on the sand.

Sam and Izzy braved the waves and had a wonderful time.

Sammy the fish!

My sensitive girl watching Frozen.

Sam got a new bike, but it is a little big.  So we, mostly Nick, have been working to get her used to balancing.  Hopefully she will be riding soon.

Zoey has been zooming on the trike and once Sam is on her new bike, she will get the spiderman one.

We have had a few Easter events.  We did an egg hunt at the YMCA.

Sam was also in a live Easter/Resurreciton Eggs performance.  She wrapped Jesus in cloth.

And it was followed by an egg hunt.

 Zoey found a huge pile and picked only 3 eggs.  Maybe she heard you had to count them or maybe she just wanted as many as she is years old.

I hope everyone has an amazing Easter.  Love from the Southern Kellings

Zoey's birthday

We have made it through the holiday and birthday season.

Zoey had several chances to be celebrated.  She got presents at Nana and Papa's.

We went out to dinner at guess where, Red Elephant.

She opened presents from us and other friends and family.

 This picture cracks me up.  Sam wanted to read the beanie baby bear's tag and Zoey said no and made up something.  Sam is actually looking at me, but it looks like she is rolling her eyes.  Being a big sister can be tough and she may have felt this way.

Then we had a small party.  It was Doc McStuffin's themed.  There was a check up station. The kids also enjoyed our play structure.  Zoey was in near constant motion and would not pose for me at all.

We pulled out the roller coaster toy.

And of course there was swinging.

Zoey picked out a cake mix and a frosting kit with sprinkles.  She loved it even though I tried to sway her to a different one with less red food coloring.

Happy Birthday to an amazing kid.  We love you!  We also went to the doctor and she is 38 inches tall (73%) and 28.5 lbs (26%).  Sam is now 39th height and 35 weight.  Zoey is taller and heavier than Sam was at 3.

Zoey is impressive!

Zoey has been attending Nana school and is making great progress.  I have been trying to upload a video, but it keeps failing.  So here is a link of Zoey reading sentences.  

http://youtu.be/5IZfJjRIbCY

Also, a couple of cute Zoey stories.

We were waiting on Nick the other day and she called him Nick.  She told me it was his middle name, when I said it was not, she said yes, his name was Daddy Nick Kelling. 

And when Nick asked her if she liked being 3, she said no.  And he asked why not, she said 2 was comfortable.