Week in Review – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Week in Review July 5, 2019

Our 2019 Summer Durango Trip

For the last six weeks, we escaped reality of sorts and spent time in our favorite home-away-from-home: Durango, Colorado. My parents bought a house there in 2012 – we visited twice in 2013, then spent six weeks there in 2014 when Isla was a newborn. Since then, we’ve tried to spend at least three to four weeks there every year. This past trip, with all three girls in tow, was especially fun, as Isla and Emi are now at fun ages to explore and play together in the most kid-friendly city.

Some highlights from our time in Colorado include:

Watching Sasha, Isla and my dad race in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic – all on varying courses, naturally. Isla was such a champ – we were so proud of her!
Spending days playing cards, feeding fish, going on walks and hikes, riding bikes, going to the park, getting ice cream, drinking lemonade on the front porch, swimming at the rec center, playing tennis, getting chai tea lattes and vegan/GF baked goods at Smiley Cafe, celebrating Sasha and Isla’s birthdays and Father’s Day, and doing scavenger hunts with the girls.
Hosting our best friends, the Thompsons, for a few days – it was so much fun having the kids all play together! We did not want them to leave!
Spending quality time with my parents for the first two weeks of the trip and lots of good Petrovic family time.
Potty training Emilia… or rather, having her potty trained. The three days of doing it weren’t my favorite!
Riding the D&SNG train through Cascade Canyon – we had the best time! It was such a memorable part of the vacation.

We cannot wait to go again – hopefully we’ll be back in the fall. I am so grateful that Sasha was able to use his paternity leave this summer. Six weeks with my favorite people on earth – it was truly the best. Here are a few (ha) of my favorite photos from our time in Durango!

Personal April 5, 2019

Week(s) in Review

It has been a hot minute since my last ‘Week in Review!’ Over a month, actually. I’ve actually stayed on top of photo editing but I’ve been struggling with the new blog interface (I used WordPress) and getting the photo sizes to be consistent without a ton of manual tweaking. I *think* I finally got it down, so hopefully I’ll be posting more regularly again soon. So, in the last month, Georgie has grown like a weed – all smiles now and pretty much want to eat her up regularly. I have a new nephew – Stefan Paul Hetz – who is tiny and the most handsome little man. The girls had a Rodeo Day at their school, we’ve been on a few park dates, hosted a ton of family dinners and friend play dates, eaten a ton of popsicles in the backyard, frolicked in the bluebonnets, enjoyed some spring-time weather, and lots of days indoors too. Life has been a bit crazy with Sasha gone (6 work trips in 8 weeks, yikes), but we’re adjusting to the crazy, laughing all the way and that’s all that matters. And now, for 200+ photos (not kidding!) from the past five weeks…

Personal February 20, 2019

Week(s) in Review

It’s hard to believe that two weeks have flown by already since Georgie was born. Given that she’s most likely our last baby (that was 100% our last baby 2+ weeks ago, now I’m way more on the fence! Ha!), I’m truly soaking up every single second with her. I was rocking her the other night and just started crying because I couldn’t handle how much I love her – those postpartum hormones are for real, y’all.

The days might be flying by, but they’re not passing without a good number of photos being taken (did y’all except anything less?). As I was uploading these photos, I was laughing at the fact I have about 140 edited photos from the past 12 days (first two days photos are posted in her birth story post here).

The girls are still doing so well with her! It makes my mama heart so happy to see. They love on her any chance they can – and Emi is adjusting about ten zillion times better than I ever expected. She’s a big time mama’s girl, but has transitioned into a daddy’s girl and it makes my heart swell seeing her run to him, wake up and call, “DADDY! WHERE ARE YOU?”, and want him to tuck her in at night. They’re so lucky to have Sasha.

We celebrated my 31st birthday on Monday after a family birthday dinner on Sunday at my parent’s house. They kindly watched the two big girls on Sunday evening, since there was no school for President’s Day on Monday. Sasha and I had a productive but relaxing morning (he surprised me with my favorite drink during my first morning feed!), then we walked to Escalantes for lunch – my first margarita in almost a year! Thankfully we shared it because hello lower tolerance (ha).

And now, a bajillion photos from the past 12 days!

Personal January 28, 2019

Week(s) in Review

How is already January 28th?! My resolution (or perhaps more of a goal) to keep up with weekly posting has clearly not gone so well, but I will blame that on being very productive in the last weeks of my pregnancy. I’m 38+ weeks now and have my appointment today to check on progression. I was 1cm dilated last week, which is normally not significant but I’ve always had issues dilating and never been dilated outside of L&D. So we’ll see how the next 12ish days go! Praying Georgie stays in until after Emi’s birthday (tomorrow), then it’s fair game!

I cannot believe that in just one day, our sweet (and also very toddler-esque) Emi Girl turns two. I cannot handle that. We threw her a small birthday party on Saturday, which was so much fun. We had immediate family there and both of the girls’ Godmothers (or “fairy Godmother” if you ask Isla!). There was a moonwalk, some party games, and some delicious desserts (vegan cupcakes from Crave are my weakness!). Lots of photos below!

The party would not have been quite as cute without the help from a few very talented and sweet ladies – Monica of Paper Flour Ink, who made the invitations and the cake, Sarah of Sarah Savory & Sweet who made the cookies, my mom, who made the meringues, Tiffany of Glamfetti, who made the balloon garland and my lifelong best friend, McKenzie, who spent Friday night setting everything up with me (and running to the grocery store on Saturday!).

Other highlights from the past month are our regular bike rides through the neighborhood (with Emi joining us on her Strider bike), a trip to the Houston Polo Club, ice cream runs (for the girls, of courseee) multiple visits to our new local park, Sunday family dinners, Destiny’s visit to Houston last week, McKenzie’s sleepover this weekend, and lots of time spent with our close friends. Trying to check off all boxes before Georgie arrives.

Below are some of my favorite photos taken over the past few weeks. I need to go and update my Artifact Uprising book now! Hope you have the best week. xo, Ailee

Week in Review January 2, 2019

Month in Review

Happy 2019, friends! It’s been a minute since I’ve done a review post. I’ll blame it on a few things – for one, life has been crazy since we moved house last month. I can’t believe we’ve been in the new house for 3.5 weeks already! There is still lots to be done, but it definitely feels like home. Then combine that with lots of photo sessions and the holidays, and time has been sparse! But perhaps most significantly – the backend interface for the blog, which has been the same since I started this ol’ thing years ago has changed, and it’s been a nightmare to get used to (mainly with regard to adding photos). So below, you’ll find a TON of photos from the past month – there are most likely a bunch of missing photos that I uploaded, a lot of duplicates, and zero chronological order – but *sigh* I gave up after spending hours (that I didn’t have) trying to figure it out.

Some highlights from the past month include:

A surprise baby shower thrown by my sweet friends in honor of baby Georgie. I have never ever been so surprised and am so grateful for these amazing ladies and their generosity!
Christmas with my parents in Katy – we had the best time celebrating with them and loved all of the festivities that led up to it!
A trip to the Zoo with Sydney, Cam and Phil – the girls were loving all the animals they saw – and a trip to the Natural Science Museum with my dad and Auntie Aileen a few days before Christmas. That butterfly exhibit is really incredible!
Holiday celebrations at the girls’ schools, including a chapel performance and class Christmas parties!
A field trip to Dewberry Farm for Isla’s class!
Two doctor’s appointments to check out Georgie’s growth – she is growing like a weed and causing me lots of pain, but I know she’ll be worth it!
Finally, after over two years of house-build-process, moving into our new home!

I hope that your 2019 is off to a great start and that you had the best time this holiday season too. Cheers to another wonderful year. I’m going to be more consistent in posting again now that we’ve settled in and the holidays are over! Can’t wait to ‘get back to it!’ as they say. xo