Update

Y'all.... I have been asked by so many people to please... pretty please.... with a cherry on top start blogging again. I'm not making any promises that there will be regular blog posts here BUT I am promising that I will try! 

The last time I blogged we were living happily in St. Louis where my hubby traveled ALL.THE.TIME. Insert an exhausted emoji here.  I started a photography business there, joined a MOPS group, became a part of the steering team of said group, jumped head first into being a dance/gymnastics mom, made friends...so many wonderful friends and did all the social things. It was exhaustingly wonderful and fulfilling. God's plans for our family in St. Louis were perfect. We found an amazing church there and started settling in very comfortably. 

Then the phone rang. 

I could here the muffled voice on the other end of the phone say to my husband, "How do you feel about Columbus?"

We were giddy with excitement. Columbus was on our "short list". You know, the list of places we'd happily go without little to no conversations. My guy knew exactly how I felt about Columbus. It was close to his cousin whom I adore and it was so centrally located to all the people we love dearly that we couldn't have hand picked a better location. The answer was "YES" without hesitation. 

Then we prepped and sold our dream house. Found a little faux farmhouse in the perfect up and coming neighborhood that backed up to a real farm and moved our little family to Ohio. It's seems like such a whirlwind reflecting on it all. 

I made a very intentional effort to slow life down once we moved. 

Slow down and enjoy every moment. It felt like life was slipping through my finger at a rate that was incomprehensible. 

Now we've lived in that little faux farmhouse that has the most incredible sunset views out the back windows for almost two years. It's the longest we've live in one house since our Zabies were born.

We've slowed down A LOT. 

Our focus has shifted and now we fill our hours and days with a lot of family time. Bike rides, swimming, gardening, playing outside, games, projects inside of our house and a NON-traveling hubby! I could still shout from the rooftops with joy about that! We still do dance/gymnastics and have social lives but the frequency is far less. We are still finding balance. 

So many things have happened and I will do my best to update.  In the meantime, email me about what you'd like to see here in this space.

natasha.zabek@gmail.com

Photo Dump

I have been doing some major slacking. 

Settling into a new house with twin toddlers is WAY harder than I expected... 

And we have SO MUCH stuff. 

I mean, no family of our age should have as much stuff as we do. 

It's a little excessive. 

So here is a photo dump. 

Slightly clingy girls on moving day. 

One of many Lowe's trips since being in our new home. 

Taking a break for some sister snuggles. 

Amen. 

Finding new favorite hang out spots. 

Checking out our new neighborhood Costco. 

The Zabies first Five Guys experience. 

First day of swim lessons. 

Asking to go back to the pool. 

Getting a sweet gift in the mail from their boyfriends in CNY. 

Mother's Day photos

One thing I love about this age is their ability to go on lunch dates and do well!

And a glimpse into our future! Lord, help us!

St. Louis

A week and a few days after we left our home in CNY we finally arrived in St. Louis. 

We drove from Cincinnati to St. Louis on a Sunday evening, after a long search for our car keys that my guy lost minutes before our departure. 

When we arrived, we stayed at Josh's parent's house. 

They were thrilled to see us!

We quickly got pack and plays set up and the girls transferred from car to beds. 

Sunday was a relaxing day spent visiting with one another. 

The rest of the week was spent having lunch with Grandma, visiting some of Josh's cousins, meeting a real-life turtle then setting it free, doing a final walk-tru on our new house, painting the girls new bedroom in the new house at 9 PM the night before closing, and then finally moving into our new home. 

We were so thankful to Grandma + Grandpa for housing us for a 

few days while we were technically homeless. 

They even baby-proofed the cabinets for us while we were there and brought out some old toys of Josh's and his siblings {all in preparation for being in-town grandparents!}

A picture taking tradition

While living in CNY we lived in a beautiful neighborhood on a corner lot that had a magnificent view of a small pond. 

When I was expecting the girls, I scheduled my maternity photos and had every intention to have them taken at Skaneateles Lake- one of the gorgeous Finger Lakes in Central New York. 

Sadly, I went into preterm labor and was put on strict bed rest just a few days before our session. 

Thankfully, our photographer was great and such a trooper to come to our home to photograph us.

I really wanted an outdoor photo or two so we drove over to the pond- all of maybe a football field away {remember, strict bed-rest!} so I could have a couple outdoor photos. 

This started a trend. 

When the Zabies arrived they were so tiny that we didn't want to go far for picture 

taking so we went to our good ole' pond across the street from our house. 

When we had our farewell photo sesh the pond was a must for picture taking. 

I have already blogged for today and don't usually blog twice in one day but today I am missing my home in CNY. 

I was going through our beautiful farewell photos- that I will share really soon, Promise!

Reminiscing about how beautiful CNY is this time of the year with my guy and wanted to share these gorgeous, breath-taking {if you're me} photos of my family and how it has grown in two short years. 

These photos are so special to me and remembering our home + memories there. 

I may insist on having photos taken next to this pond every time we go to visit. 

I'm sure one day the girls will be rolling their eyes and whining about Mommy wanting too many picture and "do we have to take a picture? We do this every time!"

I'm giggling at the thought of it already and can't wait!

Cincinnati Visit

On our trek from CNY to Missouri, we stopped along the way to visit my Guy's cousin, Cara,  and her beautiful, growing family in Cincinnati. 

We stayed for a few days and it was so nice to spend some one-on-one time with her, her hubby, her little lady + her baby bump!

They were all so welcoming. 

She went above and beyond to make the visit as relaxing and easy as possible for Josh and I. She had pack and plays set up and ready for use when we got there despite the fact that we brought our own, she grocery shopped for all of our favorite meal and snack items and had a hot supper waiting on us when we walked in the door.  

It was so enjoyable and easy. 

Easy, meaning that we mesh well. Nothing felt like work, it was fun!

I loved seeing these three little ladies play with and get to know one another. 

We can't wait until our next visit! 

Zafflie

Zabek + Peffley + Selfie= Zafflie?

After our entire house was packed up we stayed a few days with our sweet friends, Stacy & Paul, and their twin boys, Tyler & Dylan. 

They were so incredibly kind to let us stay with them. 

Not only did they open their home with open arms but they also gave us their master suite so that we had plenty of room for pack and plays. 

We had the best time staying with them. 

Four nights of adult hanging out and five days of kiddo fun. 

It was nice, relaxing and good for my soul to spend time with their family. 

I just adore them all.

Our Family Zafflie 

The plus is that Josh and Paul get along great!

They are both engineers and laid-back guy's guys with many of the same interests like eating wings over sports at a favorite wing joint {and I love that they get a long so well}.
I just wish we had more time in CNY for them to hang out.
Paul put a bug in Josh's ear that camping would be a fun Summer Zabek-Peffley vacation.
Looks like I may be sucking up my aversion to pesky bugs for my friends.
I will gladly do so for them.

If I could hand chose a sister, it would be Stacy. 

Stacy is my ocean in Central New York. 

She is deep, thoughtful, considerate, sincere, loving, kind and so many other things.
We understand each other in so many ways such as being twin moms, stay at home moms and being miles away from family thus doing life with twins frequently alone while our husbands travel. 

I'm so thankful for her and that she is still only a phone call, FaceTime or iCloud photo share away.

We are already planning a day meet-up trip in Cincinnati when the Peffleys do their annual family camping trip in Ohio this year and I cannot wait!!


We also scored these adorable photos while we were visiting.
How freakin' adorable!

Missing them all a lot these days!

Last Girl's Night in Syracuse

I just took a peak at the last month's worth of blogs to see what I have actually blogged about and what I haven't, boy do I have a lot to catch up on!

Rewind to Easter Sunday.
My guy was home all of 48 hours and departed with our fur babies for St. Louis Easter night.
Monday morning the packers arrived bright and early to start packing away all of our belongings and memories.
The girls were finally starting to feel better but Quinn started exhibiting major signs of separation anxiety. So despite the fact that I had hired help that week with the Zabies, I still had an appendage by the name of Quinn Harper.
Josh was scheduled to arrive back in Syracuse late Wednesday night, scheduled being the key word.
Bad weather in the mid-west caused his flight to be delayed out of St. Louis and he then missed his connection. Thursday was a day full of cancelled flights out of Chicago (where he landed around 3:00 AM). He moved his reservations around a few times and finally ended up getting a flight to Rochester, NY (that actually took off) and driving home to Syracuse, getting in around 7:30PM.

I had my last Girl's Night that night. We spent it in, in our pajamas to accommodate all of our tears.
It was a nice evening with the ladies I spent many of my days and nights with while I lived in Syracuse.
I love this group of ladies and I miss them terribly.
I just want to call them and schedule a play date.

Towards the end of the night they brought me this bag as a gift. It's a Wegmans cooler bag... a really nice cooler bag too! I had no idea what to expect inside of the bag but it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I could have ever gotten.

The bag was just the beginning of the trend of the items inside. 

The theme was Central New York. 

All things were special to Central New York. 

Such as Dinosaur Bar-B-Que sauce. 

Dinosaur is a local restaurant that is yum-o!

A Syracuse ornament was the perfect addition so I can add it to our tree this year.

And of course you can never have too many beer openers.

Lucky Goat is a local goat milk soap store in Skaneateles, NY. They have their own goats and make all of their own soaps. The store is super cute!

These Witty Wick candles are locally made and sold at the Farmers Market. They smell divine, are made of soy and their names are very witty. Your house or mine? When life hands you lemons, light up a jar of grass.  

Both appropriate candle names for the occasion. 

They also gave me a photo album of all of our play dates and family pictures of each of them. 

Syracuse Love.

This culinary flake salt is found at the bottom of one of the Finger Lakes, Seneca Lake. 

And my very own Syracuse Tee Shirt. 

I love this mug. I frequently refer to Syracuse or CNY as my home in New York but I lived in the Village of Baldwinsville and LOVED it. So this mug is very special to me. 

Terrell's is New York's only independent Potato Chip company. 

Potato Chips made by New Yorkers for New Yorkers. 

Very cool!

I loved my gifts from my girlfriends. 

I brought little pieces of CNY to St. Louis with me because of them. 

So sweet!

Last night I lit one of the candles that mirrored my mood.

When life hands you lemons, light up a jar of grass. 

I'm missing my friends. 

Is it too soon to visit?