Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!

This post is REALLY late, like three weeks late, but I was looking through my pictures and saw this one and wanted to write a little post about my sweet parents. I am so thankful for these two! Let me tell you why...

My Mama- She is the most gracious, compassionate loving person I know. I have learned so much from her and I still have so much left to learn! She loves the Lord and pouring through Scripture is as natural to her as breathing. One of my favorite qualities of my Mama is that she loves with her whole heart. She truly knows what it is to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. I love this woman!

My Papa- I've always loved and respected my dad. I always wanted him around to hang out with me and my friends, even as a teenager. I know in some ways, most children are embarrassed of their parents at some time or another. Not me. Not ever. I think my dad is the coolest. These last couple of years have really changed my dad. He went through some really difficult things and I watched him make the decision to fully rely on the Lord. Jona's and my respect for him grew and grew through this time and I am so thankful I got to watch and learn from him through that time of trial.

I love you both and I am so thankful I have gotten to witness your friendship and love for each other. Thanks for being honest with us and using your strengths and failures as an opportunity for your children to grow. Love you!

The Many Faces of Penelope at Disneyland

She's a bit freaked out

She doesn't wanna look

Maybe this isn't as bad as she thought

She kinda likes this!

She stinking LOVES it!

Penny's Room Redo

I have no idea what was wrong with me and my decorating tastes when I was pregnant with Penelope. I wanted a girl so badly but I didn't want the girl decor. I stayed far away from anything with rainbows, smiley faces and pink and unfortunately, for the first few months of Pen's life, you would have thought I had a little boy. I repented of my stupidity and fully embraced the joys of having a girlie girl, but that was after I did her nursery.
Since Penny is now potty trained, I could take the changing table out of her room and free up more space. I wanted to make the room more girlie but we also didn't want to spend much to do it. The Lord was incredibly kind and provided all of these little blessings along the way and I am really loving how its turning out! Here are some before pics- Confession- I may have taken these when her room was at its messiest, just so that I could have a more dramatic transformation. ;) (Sorry all of these pictures are so dark!)

Before: I know this is pretty bad and yes my daughter has a pregnancy pillow in her bedroom. 

It was actually helping her sleep to be in the "boat" :) You can see some of the polkadot stuff, it's cute and I would probably use it again if we had a boy but it definitely doesn't scream Girl!

We also never got curtains for her window. Oops!

 This is her closet, which was terrible both inside and out. The woman that lived here before us frosted the mirrored closet doors. We have no idea why and have had a really difficult time getting it off. 

Its a project that is still on our list. There's no excuse for how bad the inside looks except that it desperately needed to be organized.

 After: Looking at this picture doesn't look like a huge difference but trust me, its much better!

                                                                           

Here's the After: There were a couple of neat things here...

1. Bedding- I saw this bedding at restoration hardware a few years ago and of course, I loved it, but it also cost like $170! My parents have a RH outlet by their house and on my last trip up I found it for like $30! I folded it over to fit her toddler bed but it will fit a queen size mattress. I bought a $5 crib sheet from Target to match it & its perfect!

2. Little Car- A sweet friend gave this to Penny when she was born, I love this little thing and it fits her room perfectly!

3. The curtains come from Ikea and they were so cheap and a perfect gray for her room. They also make the room much darker so it makes it easier for her to sleep.

4. The print above the bed I got on Zulily* for like $5 and I already had a frame so it was perfect!

Here's a close up of the print, she loves naming all the animals!

This is a little embroidery project that I'm working on to frame for her wall

I found this quilt on Zulily* as well, it was originally $360! It was on sale for $100 and I had a $65 store credit so I got it for $35! The problem was that it is way cuter in the picture than in real life and I'm not sure that I love it. I can't return it and I don't really have any other place for it to go so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with it.

 This is what it looks like on the ground. 

It kinda looks like it has a Star of David theme,

 which wasn't exactly what I was going for. :) Thoughts?

We got this bookshelf at Ikea for $30 and these little wooden tags are also from Zulily. 

I think I got all of them for $5

 I'm not finished with these shelves, I just am not really sure what to put up there yet. 

They are also from Ikea and were $6 each

This kitchen is my favorite thing in the whole room! Our sweet friends, the Kims, gave it to Penny and she just loves it! Its also absolutely perfect for Pen's gray and pink room. The numbers were another cheap Zulily purchase and I had the frames (which need to be filled).

 I need to re-space the numbers out but its a start! 

The bookshelf was also an Ikea purchase that works perfectly for all of her books!

I still need to hang some pictures over her bed and I'm working on a pink quilt for her chair but its coming along and I think it finally looks like a little girl's room!

*Zulily- If you don't know about Zulily you are totally missing out! Its a deal of the day website (kinda like baby steals or woot) but it has everything from baby clothes to home decor to strollers to women's clothing. It's pretty awesome and I hardly buy clothes from stores for Pen anymore because these clothes are much cheaper. If you're interested in signing up, here's my link... http://www.zulily.com/invite/sjohnson492

The Mall

I have to admit that I love to shop. I have such a hard time having self control when it comes to buying clothes for Pen, kids clothes are just so cute! Thankfully, since they redid the Valencia mall there are now a lot of fun things to do other than shop and Pen gets so excited when I tell her that we are gonna go to the mall. Here are some pictures of various trips to the mall :)

She loves going on these little rides just so that she can hug these guys. 

Haha, she makes me laugh :)

This cracked us up, I was looking for a dress with Jona and Pen and she just started

rocking out to the store music. Then she got tired :)

We love the carousel!

Of course we stop in the Disney store to watch a Tangled clip and to color.

Thankful for these fun little moments with my darling girl!

Penelope's First Haircut!

Before we went up to Washington we decided to cut Pen's hair. It was kinda funny that she didn't have her first haircut until she was two and a half, but she was bald for SO long I just couldn't bring myself to do it! I was pretty nervous for it because sometimes she freaks out when people she doesn't know tries to touch her but she loved it! The experience was really great and the sweet hair stylist did a great job!

The best part for Pen was that she got to sit in a cop car! Her Dada was pretty excited about it too :)

She looks really somber but I think she was just concentrating on watching Tangled :)

The lady put Pen's hair in these cornrows (cuter than they sound) 

to show me how to try to train her to have a new bang line. 

Almost Done!

We couldn't get her to look up :)

Update on Pen! Two and a Half!

If we're friends on Facebook, or you follow me on Instagram then you are probably a little sick of Penny pictures :) Jona and Pen are obviously the two most important people in my life and Jona doesn't like getting his picture taken so that leaves the majority of my posting to Pennyisms :)

She is such a joy to us. I cannot believe that we no longer have a baby or an infant, she really is becoming a little girl! Multiple times a day I thank the Lord for this little person that can make me laugh so hard my face hurts. She has the craziest personality and I love seeing little traits of Jona and I packed into her little body.

We are in the process of potty training and hopefully coming to the completion. She's doing a great job and rarely has any accidents. I thought the whole thing was far easier than people can make it out to be but I am sure once I have a boy it will live up to the hype! There was only one day that made me want to repeatedly slam my head against the wall, but other than that she really got the hang of it!

She is talking ALL THE TIME. I love love love my little chatterbox. I don't understand about 20% of what she's saying but I can typically get the context. She LOVES making up names for us. I used to try to stop her and remind her to just call me Mama, but its so funny and I don't see any disrespect in it.
She has taken to calling Jona "Dragon" or "Honey" (which I love), and for some weird reason she has been alternating between calling me "Tyrone" (I HAVE NO IDEA) or "Fahder" (Father). Haha who knows!

I used to hate when someone would bring up the "terrible twos" because I thought they must just be last in their parenting. I think I am currently being punished for that arrogance. These last couple of months have been tricky with her. We have had to work a lot on kindness. This kid can knock you flat with a dirty look or a mean spoken phrase. I have often felt really overwhelmed, like I'm not doing this right but I have been reminded by wise moms in my life that I need to continue to pray that God would save her and change her little heart and just be faithful to train her and pray!

I don't know how this time passes so quickly! Sometimes I look at old videos of her and I have a really hard time getting through them without some tears. I have been so blessed to have her these last two and a half years!

Here are some pictures of my sweet little Pen taken over the last couple months.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Pen, 

taken by her sweet Grandma Darlene (Nana) at the zoo

Her sweet smile melts my heart ;)

Penny's best friend (and cousin), Ray

Every single night Penny asks to "snuggle buggle", 

which means go rough house in Mama and Dada's bed. 

Its our favorite time of the day

My beautiful girlie :)

Stephanie Graduated!

We'll just skate right by the fact that I haven't posted in an eternity and move on to a big event in the life of the Zimmer family! My youngest sister, Stephanie, graduated this last month! We had the privilege of going up to Washington to support her and watch my dad give the commencement address. It was such a precious event and I am so proud of Steph! She is an incredible girl who has allowed God to completely transform her life! 

Steph and her Bros

This picture kills me. I love Jona's face 

and that David is laughing so hard

The Siblings!

My precious Aunt Carol who graciously came to

 celebrate and fatten us up with her amazing cooking. 

She is so much fun and we were so blessed to have her with us!

Another picture of us kids. Unfortunately my sister in law,

 Julie, couldn't come because of work. We missed her!

Stephers and I

This was the best we could do :)

To watch Steph's relationship with my parents is really incredible. 

We prayed for her for so long and it is amazing to see how God answered our prayers!

Jona, David, Pen and I drove all night to be at the graduation. Pen was a total angel in the car and didn't fuss, whine, or misbehave. However, the second we arrived at graduation the kid was WIRED!! She wasn't disobedient, she just seriously needed to get some energy out. I have never seen her so hyper!

Beautiful Steph

Yep ;)

Brother and Sister

We had a great time! Proud of you Bird!