• Baby,  Riley

    Riley’s First Birthday + A Little Lake George Vacation

    July 20, 2021

    Hi friends! Long time no talk! Things got a little crazy around here and when that happens the blog is usually one of the first things to go. I want to write another post about what we’ve been up to the past two months but before I do that I want to recap Riley’s first birthday and party and a little vacation we went on.

    July 13th

    On July 13th it was Riley’s actual birthday and we got to celebrate together as a family of four. We baked Riley a cake and sang to him together. He enjoyed it thoroughly.

    Our Birthday Boy!

    July 15th

    A few days after Riley’s birthday we drove up to Lake George for a little mini vacation. Tommy has been going up to the lake since he was a baby (and so has his dad). It’s really fun to pass the tradition down to our boys too. Fun fact: If you haven’t been around here for a while, Tommy actually lived up at Lake George for a bit while we were dating. Here’s a fun post from back then. 🙂

    Tommy’s brother and parents were up at the lake too so the boys got to spend lots of time with their cousins. Tommy’s brother has two boys that are just about the same ages as our boys so its a lot of fun.

    Trying to get pictures of these boys together is quite the feat now. 😅 This was the best I could do!

    July 18th

    We came home from the lake on Saturday afternoon and had Riley’s party on Sunday! It was a lot of fun and as you can see, Riley thoroughly enjoyed his cake!

    I forgot to take more pictures but I did get this one. I did a safari animal theme and the decorations turned out so cute! We had a lion made out of peppers, carrots, and humus, ants on a log made out of celery, peanut butter, and raisins, animal crackers, “jungle juice” aka sangria, and bananas “money treats”. It turned out to be so cute and we had a great time!

    Even Noelley made it into the picture!

    So that’s a little bit about where we’ve been the past week or so. I will be writing a post soon about what we’ve been doing the rest of the time I’ve been off blogging. Hint: it’s quite a bit of home projects and also there was a big change to our work as well! Can’t wait to share more! Be back soon!

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  • Coffee Dates,  Life

    Let’s Have Coffee | Vol. 20

    December 7, 2020

    Hey friends! Loooong time, no talk. Sometimes when I’ve been gone this long without blogging, I just keep putting off writing a post for even longer because I feel like there’s too much to write about and I just don’t know where to start!

    But I’ve really missed this space so I’ve decided to just jump back in with a coffee date so we can catch up with each other. 🙂

    If we were having coffee, I would first want to know how you are?! We haven’t met for a coffee date since March (!), so I’d want to know all of the things that are going on with you now.

    If we were having coffee, I would share that Riley will be 5 months old in three days and Shane will be three years old in a month! They grow up way too fast! I am really enjoying this season with them so much though. I can’t believe how much Shane can understand and do now. I can’t wait to bake Christmas cookies with him soon. It’s going to be so much fun. We are also really enjoying having a baby in the house again. This time around has gone so much smoother, which means that we can fully enjoy the season of having a baby.

    If we were having coffee, I’d share that our Etsy shop has been doing really well lately and it’s been really fun to have that as a little side business to help with finances. Actually, speaking of finances I would also share that I started following Marissa’s Youtube channel this year and she has really inspired me take more control of our finances. I’m thinking about sharing more about this on the blog because it’s been really awesome and I’d love to share what I’ve learned.

    If we were having coffee, I would share that I’m feeling really excited to start blogging more often and have made an Instagram account specific to my blog. If you want to follow me over there you can click here or my name there is ashleyzinblog. I’m hoping to share more about our days over there soon.

    If we were having coffee, I would ask how you are feeling about Christmas this year. This year has been so odd and especially hard but I’m super excited for our first Christmas as a family of four. I’m just about done Christmas shopping too and I can’t wait to get everything in the mail and start wrapping presents!

    Thanks for spending some time with me and catching up!

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  • Baby,  Life

    Currently, September 2020

    September 3, 2020

    appreciating: this season of life so much. Transitioning from 1-2 babies has been a million times easier than our transition of 0-1 and I am just so thankful for that. If you don’t know our story, after having Shaney I struggled immensely with breastfeeding which just completely shaped the first year of becoming a mom. I can look back now and realize I definitely had a touch of PPD because of it. We prayed so much for things to be different this time around and God showed up big time. I can’t wait to share Riley’s birth story soon. I seriously could not have asked for a better birth or postpartum experience this time so I am just appreciating this season to the best of my ability!

    anticipating: our first vacation as a family of four! We are headed to the beach next week and we are all just so excited!

    collecting: new (health-ish) recipes. I’m excited to try this one this week. During pregnancy I really didn’t care too much about eating health so now that I’m not pregnant anymore I’d like to at least start to change that ha! If you have any good ones, please send them my way. 🙂

    starting: to think about taking the (very scary) leap of organizing my photos. Emily from Em for Marvelous just posted a three part series of how to organize your photos and I think I’m ready to attempt this. I have 4800 photos on my phone all the way back from 2012 to now and there really is no organization to them. I’d love to pick my favorite ones and have them printed into photo books. (This may take many years!)

    finishing: not much in this season of nursing a newborn and having a very active two year old 🤣 but that’s okay! It’s all about appreciating the season I’m in right?!

    linking up with anne. come join us.

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  • Life

    February 2020: Whats Up Wednesday

    February 27, 2020

    Or Thursday… whatever! 😉

    1. What We’re Eating This Week:

    source

    Lots of cake and takeout, haha! We’ve had a very busy week and have been celebrating finding out the gender of sweet Baby Zin #2. It’s definitely time to start reeling it back in though! Tonight I think were making our one of our staples, quesadillas.

    2. What I’m Reminiscing About:

    Our gender reveal with Shane! We just went to Baby Zin #2’s anatomy scan yesterday so it of course made me remember the day we went to Shane’s and had his gender reveal after. I can’t wait to share with you guys what baby is this time around! I’m still waiting on pictures from last night but will have the post up ASAP. I will most likely share on Instagram first though so if you want to know sooner follow me there!

    3. What I’m Loving:

    I’ve been starting to slowly start to get the house ready for the baby and last week or so I moved things around in the house and created this little “playroom” and I love how it turned out. It’s still a work in progress – I want to get little bins to put the toys in so it’s a little less messy looking and hang pictures and/or shelves above the cube organizer. It’ll be perfect for when we have two little ones wanting to play together to have a space for them.

    4. What We’ve Been Up To:

    Thankfully lots and lots of Etsy orders! We are so thankful for this little side business we have and are really looking forward to growing it more this year and adding new products hopefully soon. It definitely keeps us busy though!

    5. What I’m Dreading:

    Going food shopping! 🤣 We really need to do a big grocery shop and I just hate going lol I need to get my act together in this department.

    6. What I’m Working On:

    Getting the house in order for the baby, staying on top of Etsy orders, trying to be consistent with blogging. It definitely all keeps me busy.

    7. What I’m Excited About:

    Our new baby! Knowing the gender now really helps to try to picture how our lives will be once he/she is here. I’m so excited to meet our new little one!

    8. What I’m Reading/Watching:

    I’m still watching the same show as last month, but have been reading a lot more! I finished Truly, Madly, Guilty after like three days. It was super good. In a Dark, Dark Wood was also really good but predictable. And I just started The Girl on the Train so I can’t really say too much about that.

    9.What I’m Listening To:

    Lots of the Frozen 2 soundtrack and Disney movies to keep the toddler busy lol. Shane has been loving Lion King and Brother Bear lately. I’m also still listening to the same podcasts as last month too.

    10. What I’m Wearing:

    I finally bought some maternity clothes! I literally had nothing to wear haha! I got these tops from Old Navy and also a pair of maternity jeans. And I also bought a pair of maternity leggings from Pact.

    11. What I’m Doing This Weekend:

    We had a busy weekend last week and weekend so I think this weekend we will probably have a nice and slow weekend and recuperate from the business. Lots of resting and reading!

    12. What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month:

    This is probably a boring answer but I’m really looking forward to getting the house more in order and getting more things ready for the baby!

    Thanks for joining me this month friends! I’m linking up with Shay, come join us!

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  • Baby,  Life

    My Biggest Struggle With Being a SAHM: A Part of Me Is Missing

    November 18, 2019

    I think it’s time I finally write this post. I have been struggling with being a stay-at-home mom since Shane was probably around six months old.

    So a little backstory for you if you’re new here: I got married in May 2016, quit my full-time job in December 2016, got pregnant in April 2017, and had my son in January 2018.

    A Dream Come True

    I quit my job in 2016 to pursue trying to make money from home. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Things have not gone quite how I thought they would though. I got pregnant only four months after I quit my job and that turned everything on it’s head.

    I kind of decided to put making money at home on the back-burner either temporarily or possibly even permanently because I was going to be a mom! That’s all I really cared about and felt that once my son was born I would feel fulfilled and wouldn’t care about working from home anymore.

    Moral of this blog post: that didn’t happen.

    Part Of Me Is Missing

    I love my son to death and am so incredibly thankful that I get to stay home with him but it just feels like part of me is missing.

    So another little backstory for those of you who don’t know: I grew up in a home where I had to fight hard for the things I wanted. My family didn’t have much and I realized at a young age that if I wanted my life to be different then I had to put in the work to change things.

    I went to college and worked full-time during the last two years before I graduated. I got lucky and my uncle’s work hired me as a part-time worker, which later turned into a full-time job, which later turned into me being the supervisor.

    I graduated, became supervisor, and really learned that hard work pays off. It became a big part of me. I learned a lot about myself through that process and I was proud of who I became and where I had gotten myself.

    That’s why I was so confident in trying to make money from home. I learned that I could do what I set my mind to.

    Shifting Gears

    But all of that changed when I found out I was pregnant. I was ready to fully embrace this new role and expected it to fulfill me the way that working hard at a full-time job did. But honestly, it hasn’t and I hate that. I want to be fulfilled with being home with my babies. I love my son and want to stay home and be the one to love on him throughout the day.

    I just feel like part of me is missing though. I love having a schedule and being able to see the results of my hard work. Being a mom is wonderful in a lot of ways but there definitely isn’t the same rewards for doing a good job.

    I know it may seem like the solution to this might be going back to work but I honestly think I would be more unhappy leaving my son and going to work than I am staying home with him.

    I don’t have a happy ending or a bow to tie on the end of this story. I guess I just wanted to let you know that if you feel the same way, you aren’t alone. I see a lot of voices out there sharing how they absolutely love being a stay at home mom or others who are struggling with being a working mom, but I haven’t come across many who are struggling with staying home. It sometimes makes me feel guilty because I know how fortunate I am to be able to do this. I don’t take it lightly. But that doesn’t make it easy for me either.

    Going Forward

    That doesn’t mean that I’m just going to just leave things as they are. I’m still going to be trying to find a work/home life balance. My husband and I did start an Etsy shop last year, so that has helped a bit, and I am thinking of starting a Youtube channel as well/maybe just working hard to blog more consistently. But whatever the case, I am and will forever be grateful to stay home and raise my babies – no matter how crazy it may make me. 🤣

    If you’re a mom, please leave a comment and share your story about when you became a mom and if you are fulfilled with either being a SAHM or working mom.

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  • Home,  Life

    We Bought A House! + Life Update

    November 1, 2019

    You guys, is anyone still here? I have barely blogged at all this year and I honestly am having such a hard time even starting this post because it feels so awkward!

    So lets just jump right in then shall we? We bought a house! Actually we bought a house over a month ago 🤦🏻‍♀️. It was a crazy stressful process, as I’m sure you already know if you’ve ever bought a house. There were a few things that happened where we thought we would have to back out of the house. Like the seller wouldn’t do anything at all to fix the house (which there was a lot to do) and then the well water failed for bacteria 😱! It was quite the adventure.

    But we overcame all of those obstacles and are officially homeowners! Like I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot to do here. Mostly minor renovations though. But add in an almost two year old and it gets quite overwhelming as you might imagine.

    But we are slowly working on the things we want to get done (we’re putting up a fence this weekend!) and maybe if I can get my act together enough, maybe I can even blog about some of the projects we are doing. No promises though. 😉

    Oh and another big thing… I got my wisdom teeth out! One week after closing on our home! Womp womp. That was not fun at all, and it’s actually been something I have been straight terrified to do for like my entire life. But I did it! And it really wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. Not a fun experience, but not the worst thing in the world either.

    Also, Shane is going to be two in January! Totally not okay. I don’t understand how time goes so quickly. He’s learning and growing so much and it’s both awesome and so very sad. We watched all of his baby videos the other day and it just made me so emotional. I wish he could stay little forever.

    So those are basically the big things that I haven’t written about in months but things are finally starting to settle down here so maybe I can keep this space a little more updated over the next few months. We shall see!

    Thanks for reading! I’d really love to know, how have you been lately??

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