Long time NO blog!

Has it really been MONTHS since my last blog post? Where did I go you ask? Nowhere! I think the crazy day to day life, while raising 3 kids might have had something to do with it, but I don't actually have a good excuse:)

Since I last posted we have had Halloween, Christmas, New Year's, and many exciting regular days at the Dostal House. Lets start with Halloween.

The girls had plans to all go as vampires, but last minute (literally 3 days before Halloween) miss Zoe decided she wanted to be the little Mermaid-Aerial. So thank goodness for online stores, we received her "new" costume the day before Halloween! All of the girls had a great time trick or treating (we mostly spend the evening running from one relatives house to another, trying to give all of our family a chance to see them in their costumes before they "melt down" and the FUN of going door to door turns into a job. Here is a pic of all 3 girls prior to leaving the house

Although MaTaya looks a bit on the scary side, it wasn't that scary in person:)

I am going to work on updating the blog and getting through Christmas, dance recitals, and much more over the course of the next few days. (I keep promising that and haven't had a chance to follow through, but that is my hope!)

Girls, Girls, Girls

Last weekend we had planned to take a nice family trip to the pumpkin patch...but that idea was met with a few complications. We woke up Saturday morning to a cold and rainy day; and to make matters worse Jeramy wasn't feeling well. So the plans quickly shifted to a mommy and me day for the two oldest girls. I made a quick phone call and enlisted my mom to take a quick trip out of town with us (I thought I could use a little extra help).

We loaded up the van and headed out with a few INDOOR activities on the agenda. We discussed options of the science museum or painting and firing clay at a cute little shop called Clay Creations. The girls voices were heard loud and clear and they were screaming for some art. Us girls had a wonderful time laughing and giggling and making a mess. We spent neraly 3 hours painting and can't wait to go back again! We ended the day by grabbing some pizza at Space Aliens, playing games in the arcade, and the of course...dessert at Cold Stone Creamery.

The day could not have been any more perfect. I hope you enjoy the pics, and I promise to put up more pics once we pick up the finished products next week.

The Zoo Keepers (finally!)

Well, I have been promising pictures of myself and Jeramy...and I am finally getting around to it! This has been ALOT harder than I expected.

Having 3 kids, it's hard to find a picture of myself where I don't look like this-

Yep, that's me on the left just a few days before Miss Mylie was born. (We were at a co-workers wedding dance; hence the dress) Also in the picture is my dear friend Holly and my dad. This was our "belly" comparison picture.


And here is my sweet husband Jeramy. He truly is the BEST father in the world!

Notice the PINK glove! When you are daddy to 3 little girls, it seems that the excitement of taking you daughter out in the yard to play catch gets a little distorted when they insist you use one of their gloves:)

Well, in closing I would like to offer one of the few nice pictures I could find of Jeramy and myself. It was quite a task finding a decent picture of us together, which has led to a new determination in photography work.

Tonight we bowl!

A little family outing to the local bowling alley was on tonight's agenda, and the evening was everything a mother could hope for. Jeramy had one of his best bowling games ever, I was able to break 100, and Zoe and Taya both had a blast! Taya has started in a bowling league and needs a little practice..tonight she scored a 13, and this is a bit of an improvement! She is always a positive little spirit and was happy and excited every single frame. Zoe used the guides, and squealed (very loudly) EVERY time she hit even a single pin down. Of course big sister was there to coach her through every ball she "threw." I had my camera there, but somehow never took a single picture...this seems to be my downfall lately. I am setting a new goal to be more pro-active with my photography and to capture all of the little moments that make up our day to day lives. I am following and reading many little family/fun blogs, and I am inspired to "keep up with the Roses." (Yes Sara I am talking about your blog). I aspire to catch my kids making cookies, running in the yard, and of course-bowling!

I am also working on catching up some of the family with new and old pictures of my girls, and if I never take any NEW pictures, they may not recognize them the next time we see them:) TeeHee So tonight there will be 2 posts, and the next one will be mostly pics and captions for your viewing enjoyment!

Sincerely,
The Zoo Keeper

Mylie's big post

What can I say about the littlest woman in the house? Mylie is our little sweetie, she always has a big smile on her face and is really just a happy girl. Having two older sisters who talk...ALOT...has made it difficult for her to start verbalizing. Although she CAN say numerous words, she chooses to just point and say "ageeeeee." And one of her big sisters will reach up and give her whatever she wants! We are working on getting them to help a little less, so Ani can have a chance to spit out a few words:)

Myleana is growing up way too fast for me! It is bittersweet to have your last child and know that this is the last time you will watch first steps, first words, first everything. And even though daddy loves having his little baby, I think he is most ready for her to be a toddler...you see he is the overnight crew and Mylie is getting worse instead of better with her sleeping habits! We try letting her cry, but after soooo long you just want to sleep yourself, and give in and toss her a bottle. I try to get up with her, but I am such a hard sleeper that half the time he hears her long before I ever do. So, we are definitely open to any great sleeping tips you other mothers may have!!! And yes, I know we have created this monster ourselves by giving in.

Here she is at her Auntie Amy and Uncle Kevin's house, when we went to visit them in Minneapolis.

We wish we could live closer so the kids could play with their little cousin Ellie more often, but we love every minute we get with them!!

And here she is on her first birthday! Her uncle Brock made her a special cake that looked like a barbie dress...she obviously loved it, and we love that Brocky was there to help mommy out:)

My turn!

Today it is Little Miss Zofia's turn to be the center of my blogging!

Yesterday was Zoe's first day of going to AWANA (Wednesday school at our church). She was more ready than I would have thought, and loved every minute of "school." When I asked her what she learned; she said, "we played with playdough, I played with red and some people had green....then we sang songs-I did really good at singing." And that is the story we have heard non-stop since yesterday:)

I couldn't believe how well she did, she was like a social butterfly when I picked her up! She was not ready to leave, kept hugging all of her new friends, and was chatting up a storm with anyone who would listen. Go figure, my 3 year old likes to chat (couldn't have gotten that from me).

I was not on top of things yesterday and did not get any pictures of her first day of class, but her are a few other pics of Zoe.....and hopefully next week I can snap a few pics of her 2nd day of class.

This picture really captures my little sweeties personality:) She is just a riot and makes the best expressions to define her mood or attitude for the moment! I say moment because she is quick to change her mind these days.

Proof positive that she has some girly girl inside her, I think she could spend hours in front of a mirror putting on makeup.

Pure JOY!

So, she may kill me for this one day, but this is one of my favorite pictures!

Zoe and her cousin Kelsey have birthdays pretty close together and this picture we took to put on top of the cake this year, probably the last year she won't throw a fit if we have a joint party. Once again you have to love her expressions:)

MaTaya's first concert

OK, so I have been trying to figure out what to post next and when I asked Maty she said, "did you put up any pictures of the Taylor Swift concert yet"? And thus the concert post was born!

For MaTaya's 7th Birthday present I went a little crazy and decided to take her to the TS concert at the state fair. It was also the first concert I had been to in about 8 years:) We were BOTH pretty stoked when the big day finally arrived...we spent the whole day together at the fair, took in tons of rides, and hung out with my cousin Stacy and her daughter Jordan (who were also attending the concert). All in all we had a really amazing mother/daughter day and I can't wait to do it again!

This is Maty waiting in line for the gates to open....we were 6th in a line of about 20,000 people! We were maybe there a bit too early, it was around 100 degrees outside and we were both hot and extremely tired at this point. Luckily she was a real trooper and we had no melt downs that day; except for my makeup:)

We were in the arena early enough to get a T-shirt and a Sprite to help cool down before the big show finally began. Here MaTaya is sporting her new T-Shirt (which is now worn at least once a week).

And once the show began little miss Maty was completely entranced! She was shocked that there were dancers and a big production. I guess when you have gone to a concert or 2 before you know what to expect...I hadn't even thought to mention this part to her. She of course new every song and still can't stop talking about how COOL the concert was!

And here she is after the concert. Does she look a tad wore out??? We still had the long walk back to the van; but she made it through the entire night and was sleeping before we were even out of the parking lot!

Now the only problem is what are we going to do for her 8th Birthday???