Nana Time...

Nana, Papa, and Brett came to visit in September, and Zoey falls in love with Nana everytime she comes..

E.A.G.L.E.S! Eagles!

Cutest Cheerleader EVER!

Preschool Peer Pressure....

Anyone that knows our Zoey, or has seen her for more than 30 seconds, knows that she is a thumb sucker, has been since utero! And it was always the left thumb.. for whatever reason. She even has a rash on her left thumb because it is so frequently in her mouth. I feared a thumb sucker before having a kid, mostly do to the horror stories of kid's teeth after they sucked their thumbs for so long. But what is a mom to do... I can't take away her thumb.. and besides it a pretty cute thing to see a little girl sucking her thumb...


But like it or not Zoey is a thumb sucker...




Enter Preschool..

Zoey has been in preschool for almost two months. She loves school and often doesn't want to leave when we pick her up! When Zoey does get home from school she plays, she snacks, and then bedtime.. a typical day. Then last week she starts wanting a pacifier. She has done this before, but always plays with it and then puts it down ultimately preferring her thumb to the 'paci'.

Not last week.

Zoey wanted her 'paci' and wouldn't back down until she had a 'paci' in hand and mouth. So when it came to bedtime, she didn't have one, until she saw it on the dresser. I handed it to her, and figured it would go to the 'paci' dumping ground like all other paci's to date(behind her crib, after she had played with them enough to satisfy her interest).

Not this night.

About ten minutes after putting her down she screamed! I went in to check on her and low and behold the now beloved 'paci' had fallen to the floor. I handed it back and she went straight to sleep...



The next day I brought one to preschool, fearing that the same thing would happen at nap time and Zoey wouldn't sleep and wake up the other kids. When I spoke to the teacher, she said, "All the other kids have one at nap time."

PEER PRESSURE! Zoey has succumb to the peer pressure of preschool of a pacifier! Now I have to remember to find all the pacifiers in the house, and take them with us wherever we go! Nothing is worse than a 18 month breakdown in the middle of Target! I know I have seen them happen.

So now we are a pacifier family.... What's next jumping off the playground equipment, cause all the cool kids are doing it??

Tiny Dancer...

You gotta love a girl in a tutu!

Pig Tails...

I have been waiting and waiting to get Zoey's hair like this....

because let's be honest there is nothing cuter than a little girl with pig tails!

Big Girl Spoon

Zoey is trying to use a big girl spoon...





She received a bath immediately after...

17 Months...

Someone reminded me that I hadn't updated with Zoey's 17 month page.. I was surprised anyone read it..

Here's our girl at 17 months...

Zoey can...
- say a ton of phrases like.. 'oh no' 'i know' 'love you' 'thank you'
- repeat most words we say to her.. or at least try
- say everyone in the family's names
- sign a bunch of words.. new ones- halloween, candy, cracker, cookie
- say two syllable words
- run faster and faster
- climb...
- say her abc's (repeating after me)
- do the hand motions to a lot of songs
- tries to sing the songs
- recognize a ton of new objects from books and life.. she knew the sky the other day
- understand most commands like 'go get me...'

Zoey likes...
- playing
- reading books
- eating - carbs! lots and lots of carbs and mcdonalds.. go figure!
- milk
- being a ham and the center of attention
- singing songs
- doing buckles (car seat and high chair)
- playing outside

Zoey doesn't like...
- not getting her way
- going to sleep.. she has recently boycotted naps.
- getting dirty
- getting stuff on her hands

Oh the places we have gone...

September has been a CRAZY month for the Mattes household. We have put 3000 miles on my car in that span of time going to Gainesville TWICE, Missippi, Tampa, Orlando TWICE, Richmond and finally home! We even had a family visit in there as well! So.. needless to say we are exhausted! but had a TON of fun...

Gainesville - Gary surprised me with tickets to University of Florida football! We bought two separate games, so he went to the first game and met Darrin in G-ville. Then the next weekend we went to the FL v. Tennessee game! We enjoyed an awesome game and got to meet up with Kurt! After we met up with Brett in Tallahassee for a couple of hours! All-in-all definitely worth all the hours in the car!

Mississippi - Gary once again surprised me with tickets to KENNY CHESNEY! so we drove to Biloxi, Mississippi for the concert which was amazing! We were sooo close to Kenny! It was AWESOME!



Tampa/New Port Richey/Orlando - This was insane.. but the things you do for CHEAP flights! Last week we drove to NPR to drop off Zoey with Papa, Nana, and Abuela for the weekend, so that we could DRIVE to Orlando to take a flight to Richmond!

Richmond, Virginia - Gary's cousin Becky got married this past weekend to Mike Iaconelli! SO we went up for the wedding! It was awesome! We got to see family we hadn't seen since our wedding, and thanks to Josh and Courtney got to stay there for FREE! We had a blast! and returned on Sunday!

The 'beautiful' bride, Mike- well sort of, gary and I


Mike, Mom and I


Gary and I


Like I said, CRAZY MONTH! but we are soo thankfull that we have been able to have fun and see family!