Victorious's Daniella Monet Opens Up About Nickelodeon, Surprise Pregnancy & Child Acting
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My first like four or five kisses were on TV. They kind of just like walked me through like what kissing is like. It was miserable. There are things that happen every day that you would not fly in another work environment. But it's like also part of like the beauty of the industry. You become so close with your cast. You become a family. Did you get slimed? Of course.

That's awesome. Does it smell good? Like, what is this slime? She gets a pregnancy test. It doesn't show pregnant. We freaking high five each other in the bathroom. We go back to the test. She goes back like 30 seconds later. Oh my. And it's like, boom, pregnant. What's up, dudes? And welcome back to the Unplanned Podcast.

Today we are joined by Daniella Monet Gardner and Andrew Gardner. Let's just give it up for them for making the trip out. Thank you for being here. Gladly. Look at this. Thank you guys. Very excited to have you guys on. How are you doing today? Oh.

So good. I'm doing great. How are you guys doing? Doing well. I'm excited to talk to you guys. I mean, you guys also have two kids. Yeah. I feel like you're a little bit further along in the journey of parenthood than us. So I'm excited to learn from you and just talk to you. And you guys have a really cool story. So I'm very excited. Yeah. I'm happy to be here. Is it cool if I intro you guys? Yes. Tell people a little bit about you. Please do. Okay. So Daniela Monet, VVIP.

who's best known for playing Trina Vega on the Nickelodeon TV show Victorious, is joined here by her husband, Andrew. Andrew is an ex-CPA, right? Yeah. Certified public accountant. I actually almost went through with that. Actually, I was going towards a CFA. So that's cool that you got your CPA. That's not easy to do. No, no. Don't do it. Oh, don't do it. That's why he's an ex-CPA.

That's right. Danielle has been in multiple different movies, TV shows, and she's even, this is, when I saw this in your credits, I was like, no way. This is so sick. You were in the Fred movie. Oh, gosh. Which always makes the come around this time of year because it's the Halloween element. Okay. Okay. I'll be honest. I haven't seen the movie, but I watched Fred growing up. And like when I saw it, I was like, no way. You were in the Fred movie. We got to watch it. They got a TV show too.

Oh, they have a TV show? They had one that I was on, but yeah. That's crazy. Are you going to show your kids the, the anything? Yes. All your, all your like films and TV shows? I'm like, when do I do that? You know? Cause they would, I don't know what they would even think. Like, I don't know if it'll register. Like, who is that? Cause I don't,

feel the same. No, they would. Didn't you show them the Chicago bit from Victoria's? This was when they were babies. They couldn't even really... This was a joke. Gio would be all over that. Our oldest now who's almost four would probably be like, what? But you look like the exact same. Doesn't she? Truly. She does not age.

Believe this. You guys, I was just thinking today, literally today, and I don't have this thought often, but I was like, wow, you know, I really committed to not like doing anything, you know, like cosmetically and really got to ride that one out. But there are things that I'm noticing that only happen, I think, in your mid 30s. Just saying.

I'm interested that you say you didn't want to get work done because I feel like living out here, there's probably like not that many people that like commit to not doing that. What was your like decision? The process, the thought process. And I have. I've done filler before and I had a really bad experience with Botox. So I learned from kind of having the experience and it was sort of like that I was influenced. Everyone was doing it like it can't be that bad. And then I came to this conclusion, I don't know, within like the last couple of years where I was like –

this is like, I'm such an open book, but I do not like take Tylenol. Like I never even, I'm not like a big, like nothing, nothing, literally nothing. Like I'm super clean with how I eat and how I like live that. I just was like, wait a second, where did I like stop disconnecting that? Like, what is this in the needle thing going in my face? Like, no thanks. So I just was like, no, I don't think it aligns with me. Wow. And that's, that's like really cool to hear. Cause I feel like

you as a you know child actress growing up in the limelight like I feel like you probably feel this pressure to you know fit the mold and to change yourself and Yeah, have this like perfect image cuz when did you start when like yeah? When did you start like doing films and like TV as a kid? I was probably about probably commercial wise around like five Wow, what was your first gig? Oh my gosh. I did a goldfish commercial

I did a Hanes commercial. I was on a lot of Barbie commercials as a kid, did a lot of fast food commercials. Yeah. Just kind of all those. And then eventually ended up getting into TV when I was probably about like 11 or 12. And so like starting at such a young age, like do,

Were you the one that was like really wanting to get into the acting thing? Because I remember when I was, I never was like a child actor. I never went down that road. We were aspiring child actors, but we were in Missouri. I love it. So what did you, what does that look like in Missouri then? Like school plays? Yeah. Community theater. Okay. We actually met at like a professional theater in St. Louis. That was like the, that was like the coolest, like the biggest thing in our area. So that's like how we actually met in like,

middle school high school but we would watch like the nickelodeon shows and be like mom drive us or fly us to la so like i'm just so curious what that life is like because like little little child matt like wished he could have done that and i feel like little abby wished for sure so i'm like so interested what that whole experience was like for you um it was interesting so i lived probably about an hour away from auditions because i kind of grew up

just on like the outside of la so i didn't like auditioning i hated getting pulled out of school early getting on the freeway sitting in the car this was before like game boys and things like that could keep you busy i just remember being in the car looking at a thomas guy trying to figure out where to park for this new audition place i didn't love that part but i loved performing like get me in the audition room loved it loved being on set my mom will even tell you if they called

cut or wrap or whatever, I would cry. So she would be like, just don't say, say see you again soon. Don't say like, we wrapped. Because at the end of any project, they'll do, that's a picture wrap on Danielle Lamone or whatever. And anytime I'd hear that, it was like the blood would rush out of my body. Like,

So I really just loved it. I don't know what to say. I got really lucky that my mom was supportive and that by the time I got my license, I was able to pursue it on my own and kind of stuck with it for a while. Wow. I mean, that's a lot of work for

for your mom, like as the parent to drive you around. Cause I even, yeah, we weren't doing like any, anything big, but like my mom would drive me all the time to auditions and to the plays and the show. So was your mom working or did she like fully like take you to every audition, take you to every rehearsal and, and shoot? Like, how did that all work?

She was a hairdresser at the time, and my dad built her like a little salon in our house, like turned our garage into like a little salon. And she would do clients around auditions. So she had a very flexible schedule. I got really lucky. My mom kind of is the same sort of thing. Wanted to be an actress as a kid, didn't have the chance to do it, and saw that I had that same sort of itch and just kept.

capitalized on it and luckily it was never like a forced thing like I will stand by that I really just loved it I needed a platform like it was either I was going to perform for my parents and my family until they were like bored of me or you know let's make a little money off this so

So she would have some flexibility. That's good to hear because I feel like there's two sides to that coin. There's really not a middle ground. People are like, I hated doing it as a kid. It was the worst thing ever. Parents took advantage of the money we made and then the opposite, which I'm so glad that's your experience. I think it really boils down to...

it either comes from you or it comes from the parent. If it comes from the parent, it could be unenjoyable, but it came from you completely. And honestly, nothing's changed. If she could just perform for us all day long, she would. He's so bored of me. That is her jam. Yeah, he'll look at me and be like,

Do you have like little concerts like in the kitchen just like singing to your family? Yeah, no, I am quite ridiculous. Like I never am. If I'm not being annoying, then I'm probably upset about something. And your main song, you're singing it. Yeah, of course. Yeah, no, I haven't really busted that one out in a while. But yeah, happy to, you know, on the drop of a hat. I bet your kids are never bored. Yeah, I think that we've gotten to that phase where they kind of just know that this is who I am. They don't know any better. They think everyone's mom's like that. Yeah.

Just like, this is how she is, right? That's so fun. Did it feel like work as a kid? Because the shows that I did, there was one stint that I got paid $300 to do 42 shows of The Music Man. 42? Yeah, it was $300. But to me, as a... I think I was 11. I was like, this is amazing. I'm making $300? I'm a paid actor. Are you kidding me? This is awesome. But when you're doing TV and film, there's like...

a lot more, significantly more money in that, you know? Sure, sure. And so as a child, like, are you, do you feel like you're working? Are you aware of like, oh, maybe I should like invest this? Like how, how does that all work as a, as a kid? Cause you're making all this money. Sure. There was definitely a time that I vividly remembered things shifting and it was on my first series. It was a CBS show and it was my first time being a series regular on a network show and

And the difference was that I was the only kid on the show. I had an older brother on the show, but he was like a few years older and kind of just more mature. And I was just the only kid on the show. And I had a big role on this show. Like it was a lot about this father-daughter trials and tribulations type dynamic.

And I remember feeling like because on sitcoms, we would have these run throughs for the network. First, we'd have a run through for producers, writers, like crew. And then the next day, we would have a run through for the network. So the network is like all.

all the big wigs from like CBS and at the time I think Fox was paying for our show it was basically anyone who was helping keep this show on the TV basically paying for the show so your job is to hit your jokes get the biggest laughs you can possibly get like hit your marks hit everything because in comedy like timing is so crucial so like one step forward at the wrong moment kills the joke so it's like there's a lot of pressure and I remember at that point I was like

Like I did not realize how much relied on this one network run because you would come to work the next day. You'd get a revised script from each network, from each show, each,

I'm jacking this up. Sorry. You're good at jacking this up. That's such a weird term. That's an inside joke. Okay, so basically every time you do a run through, the next day you have a revised script. So they'll see like what jokes land, what ran long, like what they didn't think really like landed. And then by the end of the network, you basically have the final script and you don't want your jokes to go away. Like if you didn't like...

have the best impression or you didn't get the biggest laugh, like your joke will go away or like a storyline might change or whatever. And I learned that and I was like, oh, there's a lot of pressure riding on this, you know? And that was when it kind of shifted for me. But then I just think I like honed in and I was like, all right, well, this is, I do better under pressure. Like I don't like to know a lot of details. I like to just read something, perform and then do it, you know? And that kind of taught me how to like act well.

Like have a quicker response. And how old were you at that point? I was 14 when I did that show. Yeah, I think it was like 13 to 15 years old around that time. And were you still like going to school at that time? No. I left school in the middle of eighth grade. Wow. Yeah.

And do you look back on that as something like you miss that you didn't get like a high school experience or? Yeah, parts of it I do. Like I think when it came to like things like dating, I realized, okay, I am a little bit behind. He's my first boyfriend. So like I just was like, okay, I don't know what I'm doing in relationship stuff. But I had a lot to learn. And then I think also like,

Just the idea of, like, experiencing things like going to a dance, like, walking on a stage and accepting, like, a diploma. Like, I just didn't have any of those experiences. But, you know, I traded it for something else. Was your first kiss, like, on set or off set? Oh, no. My first, like, four or five kisses were on TV. Yeah. Wow. What show or what movie was that? My first kiss...

When I think about it, I literally get chills because I was so nervous. I was only like 14. And I was not...

Because I kind of was in and out of school and I was also maybe just prude to begin with for some reason. I was really nervous about it. It was on 8 Simple Rules, an ABC show with Kaley Cuoco and Amy Davison, John Ritter. It was so great. And I luckily had been on the show a few times already. I was a reoccurring character. So I remember I was talking to the girls and I was like, Kaley was really supportive. Amy Davison was really supportive. And they kind of just like walked me through like what kissing is like.

And you guys, it was miserable. Like, I cannot even watch that scene. Yeah, that was my first kiss.

Wow. I was actually watching this like it was like a Nickelodeon rewind thing. And it was you like reviewing all these like past moments. Oh, yeah. You've been on and it was a Zoe 101. Yeah. Kiss or something. That was my second kiss. That was your second one? That was my second kiss. No way. I never thought that I like learned from the first like maybe practice in the mirror. I don't know. There was nothing I could do. There's nothing you can do to learn how to kiss but to kiss. Right.

And I was not. You can use your arm and stuff. There's nothing. There's no feedback. Right. You want to know something really embarrassing? Want to know something really embarrassing? So Abby was my like, like real first kiss. And I practiced. You mean you practiced? Let's go. I was like pretending these were lips. Yeah, good job. And like practice. I literally see you look at my YouTube videos. I looked up YouTube videos on how to kiss. Smart. Did you do that too? I wish I would have, but I was, I don't even know if YouTube was a thing back then, you guys.

okay? MySpace? I don't know. Maybe, but like then you might find something a little you don't know things, you know? So I kind of just, you know what I did, you guys, and I will never forget it. I remember thinking there's no way that tongues are going to come into each other's mouth. Like that was like, I couldn't imagine that for a second. So I think like I kind of told him or it got back to him that I was too scared to like have tongues go into each other's mouths. So what I did was I don't know that he was assuming that. Oh, I don't know, but that's

It was supposed to be like a real kiss. Oh, gosh. So I pressed the lips and I moved the tongue inside my mouth. Did you keep your teeth closed? Wow. Yeah, because I was so terrified. She's still doing that, by the way. Wow. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah, no, I just, I thought that would sell it. Because see, that is different because we, not that we did anything crazy, but we were doing theater. So like, there's a distance there. But like with the camera right there, you're like, that makes sense that you were thinking about the details because they can see the detail. Yeah. Which like, you know, community theater, Nickelodeon, like kind of the same thing, you know, pretty much like same level. I mean, honestly, like I would have been better.

off doing it on Nickelodeon. At least I could like make it a bigger like thing. But ABC was like a network, a same thing. You had to do it for a run through. Imagine doing that in front of all these adults that are just looking at you and you're like. Yeah, that's the weirdest part. Thank you to HelloFresh for sponsoring this portion of the episode. It's fall and HelloFresh has fall items or I'm sorry. Fall.

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50% off plus free shipping using the code 50unplannedpodcast at hellofresh.com slash 50unplannedpodcast. Thank you, HelloFresh. Now, back to the episode. Since you're a child actor and then one day you turn 18, isn't there like a thing, I've heard it's called a Cougan account? Yeah. We're like, are they just like, does someone just, I envision like someone in a suit just comes up to you like, all right, you're 18. Like a briefcase.

It was like cash. Full Monopoly money. It says Cougan account on it and they just hand you your cash. Like what exactly happens? Okay. I'm trying to flash back to 18. And to be honest with you, you guys, so here's a little backstory. I am talking about the investing piece. Yeah. So like I knew I was making some money and only I think 10% goes into a Cougan account. So it's not like all of your money goes into a Cougan account. There's just like a forced savings effect. Okay.

And they did that because of the reason that a lot of parents were taking their kids' money. And so...

When I was making money and I finally came aware of what was actually happening, because for a long time my parents would just deposit into an account. I just didn't know what I was making. I didn't care. I was like, "I love doing what I'm doing." But then around 15, maybe even earlier, 14, I was like, "No, what am I making? I want to know what kind of money I'm making." I started saving it myself and I bought a condo when I was 17 before I got the Coogan account.

And I ended up having to short sale that, a condo. And then when the money came in for the Coogan account, it kind of just helped keep me afloat. So it was sad that I like took a lot of what I made for all those years and like dumped it into a property at a time where the market just crashed. No. Yeah. So it was really nice that I did have a Coogan account because it was almost like it all just like went away and then I got a little replenishment. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Which year was that? 2007. It was like when all...

All of the loans. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. They were just like selling crazy loans. I was just watching the movie, The Big Short. Oh, yeah. Really, really good. Because I heard that Michael Burry placed like this crazy bet. Huge short on the S&P, I think. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And so like I was watching the movie again, like I'm so curious of like what this guy's doing right now. It's like $1.6 billion bet or something like that. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I don't understand finances. That whole movie honestly went over my head.

Abby hated it. Abby doesn't like the movie. But Andrew, now that we're chatting, what were you doing at this time? Did you watch Victorious? Were you also acting? No, no, not at all. Yeah, I was like the typical kid. Grew up playing sports. My parents were like really on me for academics. Always had good grades.

I wanted to play football. I wanted to play college football. I wanted to play Division I football. That was my goal growing up. I didn't get there, so I ended up playing locally at a junior college in California. Then I transferred and I tried to walk on at Fresno State, which is where I went to school. My best friend was playing there at the time, who ended up going to the NFL and blah, blah, blah. Some personal things happened. I ended up not playing, so I just stayed there for school. I was just doing the normal person stuff.

Right? School, partying, work. I was working like five, six days a week through college, whatever. I used to go to this place called Lake Havasu all the time with a buddy who I've met at Fresno State who was from here in LA. Okay. We would go there all the time and ended up going one weekend and we met, we met up with some girls that were from LA that they knew and

And one of them in particular, who now my buddy is married to, she introduced me to her. But it was like so random. She just said like out of nowhere, she was like, I know somebody for you. And I don't even think that they were like that close. I mean, I left in eighth grade. So like I didn't do any of this partying stuff. She hit me up out of like the blue. Out of the blue. And then long story short, she connected us on Facebook because that's how old we are.

Hey, we had Facebook. Hey, yeah. I was on there too. But we're like old Facebook users. Are you guys still using Facebook? No, I don't even have it on my phone anymore. Really? It got to that point. We talked on Facebook for like three months. Really? Before we even exchanged numbers, right? Yeah. Or maybe not that long. Something like that. Doesn't matter. And did you know that she was this actress? Yeah, I knew. Once she connected us, I could connect the dots, you know? And I was like, well, that's super cool. You're like watching TV and you're like, oh, that's the chick I'm talking to on Facebook. Oh, there was that moment. Yeah.

So I didn't see the show actually until we had been talking for like three months and I left to go finish school abroad in Australia. Okay. Whoa, that's really cool. Australia. Why Australia? I just like I had never traveled and it was a program that Fresno State offered. And I was like, yeah, I want to do that. Did you see some kangaroos while you're out there? I did. Oh, that's awesome. And some koalas and all the things. But I was there and in my hotel room one night and one of like the 13 channels that we had was Nickelodeon.

And I caught the episode where she sung Chicago. Of all episodes. And I was like, okay, okay. That's what got me.

That's what got it. Is that the love at first sight moment? You were like, that's the one. No, I was already there. Oh, you were already there. She could have done no wrong. Sweet. Except for we hadn't really met in person. Oh, yeah. We had tried and she stood me up. I was nervous. And then while I was there, like I was on a full on bender. I was in college drinking, partying. I drank for 40 days straight there or whatever, right? Wow. So, but in between that. Offices attract. Yeah, we were still talking. I don't do that anymore, but.

We were still talking and I was super excited because what had happened was I decided to move to LA. So I came down, I dropped my stuff at my buddy's house and I flew to Australia. And then when I flew back and I was moving, I was living in LA as soon as I flew back. And so I was already expecting to meet her. We hadn't really met up yet, but we set up a video chat through Skype. That's how old we are. That's awesome.

I didn't even know how to get on it. I used Skype. I used to game with my buddies on Minecraft in seventh grade on Skype. We'd like all chat through Skype. So I feel that. Okay. I'm so glad we're there. I think I had to pay for it and everything. I had to put credits in it. And let me tell you, this guy's conservative. He spent any money on us. I'm so frugal. Yeah, yeah. That's the CPA. The CPA. Yeah, exactly. So we set up this Skype date and it's like,

10 o'clock a.m. my time in Sydney and I don't know what time it was for her and mind you like I'm going between all these days drinking I'm like full-on party mode at this time so I have to like be mindful about getting to bed making sure that I'm awake and like I've I've like set some time and I'm away from people because I think at the time I was sharing a hotel room with like six people so it was just like I had to work all these things out anyways

I do it and she doesn't show. I ghosted. No. Again, for a second time. This is your first time you... Wait, you ghosted on... Because we were going to meet in person once before. Oh, okay. And she stood me up. And then we were going to video chat. Did you think you were getting catfished at this point? That's a good point. No, I just thought like at that point, I was like, all right, she's not that into it. That's okay. It stung, but I was like, that's okay. That's okay. I'll keep trying. Then you fast forward and...

I came back. How long was I here for before we met? Maybe like a week or two. Maybe a week or two. Yeah, yeah.

And we had plans to meet up again. And she had her brother living with her at this time. And like her brother's been through a lot of stuff. And she kind of played mom for a little bit. And we had plans to meet up. And the night before, her brother decided to go out and do some stupid stuff. And so she had to kick him out of her apartment. And so it was a whole thing. And she wasn't in the mind space to come and meet me. And I said, I was just like throwing my Hail Mary. I said, just go.

Come out for a little bit. I'll make you laugh. And then you can go home. But it'd be great to me. To Australia? No, this was when he was back from Australia. Okay, sorry. I missed the point. So he came back from Australia with $16 to his name. So there was no way I was flying out to Australia. Yeah, zero money. Oh, wow. Okay, so you're back. But he came back. And then, yeah, we met in person. And the rest is really history. Sweet.

He's your first boyfriend. First boyfriend. Wow. First girlfriend? Yeah, right? Yes. Wow. Beautiful. Yeah. But you know what?

You know what? It's better that it wasn't because I really have leaned on him. And also I'm like, I'm so annoying because... She was my arm to practice kissing on at the start. That's so sweet. No, I've leaned on him for like insight, like how to navigate, like not that he'd ever been in a long-term relationship. We've now been together almost like 13 years or something. It was helpful. Yeah, but it was helpful that he had like...

been in one and kind of could navigate communication and things that I just never had any like experience with. That's really sweet. 13 years. Almost. Yeah, 12 years. 12 years. I always round up. Do you round up? I feel like since...

Early on in our relationship, we would literally celebrate every month. Yeah, I love that. So we have a foundation being very, very specific, I feel like. Yeah. Okay, so that's good. If you're going to round, I round up. I was specific for a long time, but then now I'm like, we're so, like it feels so, we're in there. And I'm like, round up.

- Yeah, we earned it. - 12, 13 doesn't matter. - We spent so much time together. - Yeah, it's really like in dog years, like 47. - Right, right. - For sure. - And you guys just made it official. - Yeah, that's right. - Like this past December? - Whoa. - Yeah. - Yeah, okay, so you were together 11 years before you got married? - Matt's blown away. - Wow. - Yeah. - Wow. - What? - That's a long time. - You just wanted to make sure? - Wait, it was the whole lease before you buy thing.

I don't know. Yeah. There's a portion of that. Yeah. So that was your decision. No, I'm totally kidding. In some ways it kind of was because I feel like the girl in a lot of cases like perpetuates the relationship like forward, like all these markers need to be done and pressures the guy most of the time. Right. Yeah. And I think for me, it was really important for me to be engaged at some point. Like I really did want to have that for some reason. Yeah.

I also liked the idea of like it's the one thing you can walk around the world and show that you're like in a relationship. Like it's something on your finger. I was nervous to get married. I came from a broken family and I really didn't have a lot of great examples of what marriage looked like. And I think I just didn't want to break it. I was like, no, this is like good. And I just am scared that it's going to change. And then at some point it was very apparent that I was like, no, it's

It's not going to change. It's going to get better. This is what I want. It's not going anywhere. Like we are a family. Like we need to feel like a family in every traditional way. And that was when we decided. Was it when you had kids that you were like. It took. Yeah. I think like.

Yeah, a couple years into having kids, it made a lot more sense. A few years into having kids, a lot more sense. Wait, how many years were you acting on Victorious and then you were dating? And then this was after you moved back from Australia? She was probably still on the show for a year, maybe a year and a half. A year on Victorious, but I kind of was in the Nickelodeon family for probably like five, six years. And you won one of those blimps, like a kid's choice award, right? That's so sick. I know. Did you get slimed? I've gotten slimed, of course.

of course that's awesome that's so cool i love it what what is that does it smell good like what is this like it's it's magical it's a magical experience um there was a time where i was like okay i've been there done that like please don't slime me anymore like it got to the point where we were like i don't want to be slimed anymore but the first couple few times i was like this is an honor like basking in it oh so it happened like like yeah we would well i would be on so the nickelodeon

and family, there's so many different avenues of shows and things. So we were on a lot of game shows, all these different game shows. I would get slimed all the time. And then, yeah, the KCAs, I'm sure I was slimed. I honestly don't even remember now, but slime was a big thing. Wow. That's so cool. You've worked with some really...

people. Crazy. Well, Ariana Grande, right? I know. Wasn't she on Victorious? Yeah. That whole cast is ridiculous. I know. That's crazy. I'm lucky. To you, she's probably just like, oh yeah, it's like Ariana. You just text her up and be like, hey girl, miss you. Yeah, we keep in touch like not as much anymore. I mean, she's in London, I think, right now. Like she's been like living there for a while. But I have talked to her recently and I'm like so proud of her. I think like huge fan of her makeup. I can buy it.

I do buy it. Yeah, the whole cast is incredible. I'm really close with Liz, who played Jade on the show. And yeah, I feel really lucky to have had that experience. That's cool. I feel like that's a sign of a true friend when you see your friend succeed and you're like, you go. You have your own makeup too? Right? No, I actually have a beauty subscription box. Oh, okay. And we have our own products that we officially just recently launched, like serums and different things like that. But makeup I haven't dove into. I'm not like...

I'm not like a makeup connoisseur. I just sort of like know what I like. Doesn't need it. You know, she has the best skin in the world. So you do. Thank you. That's why I was like, I'm shocked that you haven't got any work done. Like you look amazing. Thank you.

But so a lot of people I feel like especially with like Jeanette McCurdy's book coming out like there's been a lot of criticism surrounding Nickelodeon. I didn't know if your experience was similar or you've had like moments where you could relate to that type of thing. Yeah I mean the business is

a weird world. Like I'll start there. It is like it's such a bubble in a sense that like there are things that happen every day that you just are like accustomed to and don't would not fly in another work environment. But it's like also part of like the beauty of the industry. Like you become so close with your cast and like

In a lot of ways, like if you were to do that with like an executive or someone in your office or a coworker, like people would be like, no, like we don't freaking hug and like sit on each other's laps or whatever. Like it's just like not allowed. I'm sure it's kind of like theater in a way where it's like you become a family. Yeah, totally. So like when you think of it in that way, yes, it's kind of like there are things that just maybe wouldn't fly. But like I feel really lucky that I got out unscathed.

Yeah. Like, sure, experiences, people I worked with, maybe not the biggest fan of in some cases, but, like, generally speaking, I'm so grateful for every experience I've been on. Like, so grateful of all the people that I've come across. Like, I've learned so much. And because I can, like, walk away and, like, continue on this path and look at it with, like, a good, like, through a good lens, like,

I feel lucky. Like I don't have anything to complain about. That's really cool to hear. That's really, really cool. Do you think you'd let your own kids do something like this? That's a great question. That's a good question. Thank you to Rocket Money for sponsoring today's episode. So I got a notification from Rocket Money last week and our spending was... Do you think it was up or down? Probably up. It was actually down. Wait, really? Yes. With these months at the end of the year, I feel like spending goes crazy because of just the holidays and everything. Yeah, which I really need to check...

our expenses. I've kind of like just been getting the notifications for Rocket Money and not like doing a deep dive into what we're spending in all of our categories. I've just been busy doing the music and writing new songs. So that's why I haven't done it. But I promise I'll get to it. I'll get to it like next week. Okay. Well, it's not just like our expenses, but even those like subscriptions, I feel like everything is a subscription nowadays. And I am always guilty of

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slash unplanned. Now back to the episode. Not to throw you on the spot. I would lean towards no. Okay. Yeah. The only reason I would say that is because in a weird way, it's like an

unavoidable now like with social media and probably me continuing to like we're eventually diving back into it like it'll always be a part of their life that I don't think that like they necessarily need to be a part of it whereas I'm really grateful that I became a child actor and was able to like bring this element into our family yeah but if they wanted to when they're older I

by all means. I just really want them to have like, I want them to play sports and do the things that like I kind of wanted to do because I did theater too. And I freaking think that the theater experience is almost the same in a lot of ways of like working on TV and film. Granted there's cameras and things like that, but like you get the same rush.

Especially with half hour because a lot of the half hour like sitcom shows I did were in front of a live audience Oh cool. So like you get sort of that same experience It's like if they want that then like they can have that and then at some point if they're you know Wanting more of it then they can figure it out. What's your fear Andrew with like your kid being a child actor? What what worries you? I think like

if you get a platform, it's quite a responsibility. Like, and it comes with elements that maybe a child isn't really ready for, which is why I think like, if you were to simplify it, why a lot of these people who are child actors have issues later on, right? Like imagine having that much attention, that much power, like,

from my experience with her, these kids have power over adults, right? And anybody they come across, which is cool, but it's quite a responsibility for a child. And I think...

I'm not a doctor or anything, but I feel like a child's brain isn't necessarily ready to handle that. And it creates issues down the line. That's a unique perspective. I mean, my brain just fully developed this year. I just turned 25. I'm still working on it. My prefrontal cortex is finally developed, babe. Is it? I'm like a fully developed man. That is science, right? Yeah, thank you. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree with him. I remember specifically like this is just a testament to how different our walks of life were. But I was doing the Fairly Oddparents movie in Hawaii. And of course, anytime I got to do some really cool experiences or shows where we got to travel, I would say come. So he was out there and I remember they were very, very attentive on this set at one point. And he overheard or saw them saying, let me get you a straw for your water. Let me walk you to the bathroom. And I saw his eyes look at me like, what?

And I told our PA at the time, I was like, or AD, I was like,

I'm good. Like, you know, I'm all good, you know, because I didn't want to. I felt embarrassed that like that was so normal for me. Yeah, it was so normal. They just dote on you. They dote on you if anything you want, like not to the point where it's like you can make your demands or whatever, but it's just very common. Like set etiquette is that the actor has their chair. They have what they need. If their feet are cold, they wear Uggs. If you need a heater or if you need a drink or whatever, like they're there to like make sure you're comfortable.

Do you get treated better if you have a larger role or you're a regular? Yes. It's like a tear. Yes, for sure. Yes, billing is very, very important. What's your best treatment you ever got? Good question. What did that look like? That's a tough question for you, though, because she's queen of making things easy for people. Yeah, I don't like all that. So she's never been like, oh, I need this and that in this special environment. No. Well, you know what? I will say...

So I've been vegan for like 24 years. Wow. And that's not rounding up. And I was doing Fairly Oddparents at a time where I was trying this raw diet. It was kind of a fad for a while before you guys probably even were old enough to know what it was. I remember hearing about it then. Okay. So I remember the executive producer caught on to me doing that and she had a raw vegan chef come and like make food for me every day. Wow.

Yeah, dude. A personal chef on set? Well, he could – or he or she, I don't remember who it was. I think it was a she actually. She would make food for anyone else who wanted raw food as well. But like it was an option. And I was like, whoa, dude.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's really crazy. We tried to be vegan for like two days while we were living in Hawaii. We watched the movie. We're going to have to check out your recipe. We watched the movie Sea Spearcy and it made us so sad. We're like, our oceans are dying. Like, I care about these animals. And then like we, yeah, actually, I feel like we did it for maybe a week. Vegetarian. I don't know what it was. We were vegetarian for a week. And so that, yeah.

We need to check out your recipe. We need to check out your recipes. I would love to help however I can. You know, my opinion on it has changed because I've been in this world for so long. And I think I'm like at a point where any effort is like incredible. Like I think for the longest time I so badly, it's like coming off the high of watching a documentary and you're like, the whole world needs to be veganized.

to be vegan. You're like, we need to fix this. Now I'm like, no, the whole world, it would be amazing, I guess, if that's what's right for the world and like right for their health. But like, we could also just make really great steps in a direction away from like being this very convenient, fast, like,

fast food nation where it's like the food system is certainly broken in my opinion but it doesn't need to be super extreme but I do think that we're almost on the extreme of like unhealthy right now like we need to find some sort of middle ground

Yeah. I think like a small change I was trying to implement. Um, I still, I'm not good about it, but like, uh, like replacing one, like making one meal or making two meals of the day, vegetarian or vegan, you know, to where it's like, okay, I'm, I'm eating less meat. So it's like better for the planet. And, you know, maybe it's, it's better that I'm eating more like fruits and vegetables and that's good for my body. Um,

And then it's also like less animals that are dying so I have to eat meat. So I feel like that's a small change that people can make. But it's not small because it's huge because there's so many statistics and I wish they just flew off the top of my mouth right now. Tip of my tongue, that's what I was trying to say. But there's a lot where it's like even one meal, they were doing this thing, I did this campaign like Meatless Monday where in schools they would implement like

vegetarian or maybe vegan monday cafeteria options and they showed like what the impact on this school or multiple schools would have on like a global way i'm so bad at this i'm like but it's no you're you're really good you're killing it yeah you guys are both very good speakers but by the way we got like sidetracked i'm so curious because you guys were engaged was it oh yeah five years yeah yeah was it a five-year engagement

I think so. 2017, right? Yeah. To 20, what was last year? 2022? We met in 2011. But we got engaged in 17? Yeah. And then married last year? Yeah. How was that? Were you guys just like, I can't decide if we want the wedding in Hawaii or Mexico? Yeah, that was the main concern. Yeah, can you imagine? We have 300, 400. No, I think like,

I just was never the type. I was not like a fairytale wedding kind of person. It intimidated me. I'm also like not even good at planning my kids' birthdays, so it makes a lot of sense. It overwhelms me, like big productions. I like being a part of a big production, but I don't like to be the one that's like the director or even like the star of the show, oddly enough. It's different when you're being paid to be there, but not when you're paying to have it. Like, no thanks. So what you're saying is Andrew planned the whole wedding? Yeah. Dude, our wedding

was so planned we showed up on a rainy day a rainy Thursday at the courthouse and we still almost bailed and we almost bailed and you almost bailed because I showed up and I looked it up online and it looked like this Spanish beautiful building oh this is the best

And we got there. It was a rainy Thursday. In between Christmas and New Year's, I was like, this is the time to do it. Every other day is closed, whatever. And we get there, and it's this... It almost looked like a prison. Actually, in fact, I think it was on the same campus as a prison. It wasn't. It is. But close, yeah. Just government buildings. Yeah, and I was like, I'm not walking in there. That's not where we're getting married. I was like, nope. The backdrop inside the room was pretty nice, though. The backdrop was like this...

What would you even call it? It was like a frigging mural that looked like you were on like a balcony across an ocean and it was not. No, it was a room. A small one with like folding chairs. Oh, they like painted it. Yeah, it was a mural. It was beautiful. Did you get a picture there? I did, yeah.

It was amazing because I came around to it and we really had to like reconnect on like why we were doing this again. And then I realized like now I'm doing what I don't want to do. Oh, yeah. Like that's not what this was about, you know. So I got to do this for all the right reasons. And that's why we're here. And so then we walked in. Was it just you two or did you have family? Our son came. Our daughter was like a little bit too young. And I was like, no, we'll bring our son. And he gave us our rings. Yeah, he loved it. Cute.

That's really, really sweet. I think it was amazing that we did it that way because we waited so long and it got to the point where like, if we're going to do it, we're going to do it only for us at this point. And it may not be how someone else would do it, but like this works for us. And we still plan on having a big wedding, but I think like actually committing in that moment, that was just for the two of us. Wow. You know, so it didn't really matter like where we were, what it looked like or whatever. Yeah. And I like,

I'm happy we finally got there. Yeah. Because I think we, what you're probably looking for is like, we're both just like non-traditional. We both come from divorced parents. Everybody's relationships are a little bit weird. I think we were both scared of commitment. We probably both questioned whether or not we had the right one for a while. I've learned along that journey that it's like, it's never going to be perfect. And it's more about like,

every day, right? And being willing to work on it. And for me, just transparently, like when I got to the point where I realized that we were both willing to do that, that's when I was like, that's enough for me. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah, it like took it to another level. But what's interesting is like I used to say that I'm like more non-traditional, but I think that was a trauma response to like wanting to like go against what I thought was supposed to happen because those don't ever end up well. And, you know, and now I would actually go on a limb and say we're actually both very traditional. I would say we're like we're definitely going back.

Yeah, we're going back in that direction. Maybe the structure wasn't broken, but just like the people trying to fit into that structure that you looked up to. Totally. Totally. Yeah, because I think a lot of this was done...

And I think we got in the way of like it a little bit, you know, like I think there is a reason for why these things exist, like marriage and these beautiful traditions and just this like family ordinance that like, I just think that's how, I don't know. I feel really good about it. I think you probably feel the same, but I think it took us a while to get to the stage of,

believing that we can choose to make it whatever we want, right? It's not just based on the examples that we've seen in our own lives. Yeah. So...

So that's really powerful. Did you tell your family beforehand or was it a surprise? It was a surprise for some. No, we told our parents, but like, it was tricky telling them because they wanted to be there, you know? And it was kind of like, and my dad doesn't live here. He lives in Idaho. And, you know, with people's schedules, it was like, it's not that we don't want you there. It's just more that we wanted nothing to get in the way of it being for what it's like, what we wanted it to be.

And so we promised that we would do some sort of like party or ceremony for our family at some point, but we just haven't gotten around to it. You still haven't done the party or ceremony? You're like, give us another

years you know what there's something about stretching it out like i understand why people renew their vows yeah because it's like this new little like life that you're putting back you're like reinvesting into your relationship again and for us like maybe we haven't renewed our vows we just did them but like we've spread things out in such a way that it's given us like another little pick me up and i like it that's sweet yeah go on another honeymoon yeah did you ever go on a

No. What? You guys need to go on a honeymoon. I know. Well, we've had two kids and like kind of been in the thick of it. Yeah, and it's weird. I mean, you know, like imagine leaving your kids little like – it's so tricky. She couldn't leave the kids for the longest time. Like she refused. We just couldn't do it. No. I remember the first date Abby and I went on after having our first son. I feel like it was like –

month after she gave birth? No, it was not even... Was it two weeks? I don't know. Whatever. We kind of are different. We were gone for an hour and like for me, I'm like, oh. I cried the whole time at an IHOP. I was like, we're gone for an hour. Like it's literally one hour. We're fine. But it was just like something in that, like that motherly instinct. They don't understand the hormones. I was like, he's lived inside me for the past nine months. Now you're expecting me to be separate from him? Like...

It was like two miles away from our house at an IHOP. I get you, girl. I cried the whole time. We were eating. Do you remember this? We were eating. It was the Despicable Me pancakes at IHOP. I hate those pancakes. They were so good. They're like banana cream. It was not even worth it. I think it was off the kids' menu too. Banana cream and tears. You went to IHOP for your first date. Because it was the closest restaurant to our house. That's great.

he could get me to agree to. Maybe that was the second one. No, that was the first. Are you sure it was the first? Yeah. Really? It's kind of amazing because I can see it from your point of view because there is at some point someone who needs to say like you're okay to leave. Yeah. But it's really hard to like make sense of it as the mom, especially in those like newer months. It's all foggy. Physically too, right? When you're feeding still. Oh yeah. And like you're feeling it all in your body. Oh, and then you're feeling a letdown. You're like, it's not worth it. Let's go home.

Yeah. Then you're mad at them. Mad. Even though all they wanted was just to spend time with you and it was like so wholesome. And then you're like, you're evil. Yeah. So I've got to ask. So being together 11 years, engaged five years, just getting married last year. Yep. And you guys, yeah, did things. I guess you're saying now you're more traditional, but you did things in an untraditional way. Yep. Like were your kids planned? Were your kids unplanned? We are on the unplanned podcast. Ooh, good point. Great question. Good point. Oh, I love this. You want to share? Yeah.

It's a pretty simple answer. I'd like to say that Gio was, he happened to us. Like it was meant to be. They were both unplanned, but...

But we were so ready with Gio. I know we were ready. Like, we were not being careful. Like, we kind of knew. We're kind of the type, Andrew says it so well, where he's like, we kind of need to be pushed off the ledge a little bit. Like, it's hard for us to make really big decisions. But if they happen to us, we're actually really good at figuring out how to make all that work. And Gio, our first was that. And I remember specifically a little TMI. But the next day after we...

we conceived, if you guys go there. Oh, we go there. Okay, cool. So I looked at my app, my like period tracking app, and I was like, I knew it. I was like, that was a baby making night. And I told him. So I knew literally right away, but I kind of forgot because like, I don't know if it was the same for you, but you almost think like, no. Whoa.

Thank you to Quince for sponsoring this portion of today's episode. I am so excited because I... First of all, I do all the shopping for Matt for his clothes. You do. Thank you for doing that, but I don't like to shop for myself. And it's not like I do anything special. Wait, did you get me some stuff from Quince? I got you some stuff. You did? Wait, what did you get me? First of all, I was on their site and I was like, how in the world did they have...

these fine like almost luxury items okay at such an affordable price they have cashmere matt i remember i taught you about cashmere wait that's like a sweater right it's a really soft get it in sweater they have it in joggers they have it in cashmere joggers i bet they have cash the cashmere scarves are a big thing does quince carry cashmere joggers they do

And they carry it for like 50 to 80% off what you normally pay because they partner directly with the manufacturer. So they cut out the middleman. Okay. Did you get me the cashmere joggers? No. You did not. I got you some nice pants for Christmas and a cashmere sweater. Matt, you're going to have a cashmere sweater for Christmas. I cannot wait for it to come in. It's supposed to come in very soon. And I also got you, drumroll.

Some undies. Some undies. No, truly they have. You always roast my undies. I always roast your undies. Well, yeah. I feel like you – because like my mom bought my underwear for a while and then – Yeah. It's time for an upgrade and Quince has the upgrade you need, Matt. Yeah. So often clothes just last a season and then they leave our closet. But with Quince, you can get timeless pieces that are going to last, have great quality, great staples, basics that you can wear season to season to season. So get affordable luxury with Quince. Go to quince.com slash unplanned for free shipping on your order and –

365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash unplanned to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash unplanned. That's awesome. Now, back to the episode. We actually revealed on our podcast where we conceived our child. I know. Oh my gosh. It was Thanksgiving, so we were staying with family a lot.

Yeah. I love that. Very thankful. Thankful. I love that. I love it. I think of our second baby the same way. We've been the first though, like for us, we knew we were wanting to have a kid, but like we just knew so many people that had like fertility issues. We weren't like tracking anything, but we were like, we want to have a baby with the first, the second. Totally. It was a shocker, but. But yeah, people that had like been trying for a year and it took them a year to get pregnant. So we're like, oh, it's not going to happen right away. But for us, it did happen right

way. So it was like, oh, this is meant to be. And with the second, it was a surprise. And at first we were terrified, but then it's just like, oh, this is meant to be. Now we get to have two boys that are so close in age. Um, cause you guys have an almost four year old and then a two and a half year old. Yeah. So ours are 16 months apart and it was the same. It was, um, since you guys are detailed, um, my first cycle back, like I hadn't had my period yet cause I was nursing and I had one. And then that cycle, uh, we got pregnant. This is the best story. Yeah.

Oh, God. Were you? Go ahead, tell it. Yeah, tell it. What is it? Gio, our oldest. He was like, he's amazing. He's so smart. He was hard in the beginning, though. He was a tricky baby. He was very loud. Sleep, really tricky. Yeah, a lot going on. We weren't ready. And somehow she had a cycle. I don't even know if you told me.

Well, I didn't know I was ovulating per se because I was trying to explain to him even just recently. I'm like, I get it now. When you have your baby, it's like when you do get your cycle, like it can come, it can go. I never got mine back. And that's how I got pregnant.

Oh, so it doesn't even matter. So it didn't even matter that you were... And you were nurse... Oh, no, you had just stopped nursing. No, no, I was nursing. I was four months old. So she broke all the rules. So that's what I'm saying. That's why we were shocked. You guys, it was literally two times. Wow. Literally two times. And we have so many friends that are like, oh, yeah, we had our two times too. Everyone has their slip ups. Oh, yeah, everyone has slip ups. And they didn't get pregnant, but we did. Yep, yep. It's different for everyone, man. So I'll just jump to the end. So she thinks that she might be pregnant. So she gets a pregnancy test.

We're in our back bathroom. Oh, you're together. Yeah, we're in our old house in the bathroom together. I can still see it to this day. And we're both super nervous. We're probably both sweating, like all the things. She takes it. I totally know the feeling. We wait for a second and it doesn't show pregnant after however long. It was supposed to take two minutes or whatever. And we both, it's like all the life came back into us. We freaking high five each other in the bathroom. Yeah.

We see the video. We're like, we're going to move. We're going to travel. We're going to do all these fun things and it's going to be fun. And then we go back to the tent. She goes back like 30 seconds later. Oh my gosh. And it's like, boom. Pregnant. And we didn't say one word to each other for like the next two or three minutes. We just sat in the closet together and cried. And there was a moment of like, okay. Yep. Okay.

And my goodness, you guys, like, again, when I say we have to be pushed off a ledge, like, nothing is more incredible than these two children, their bond, like, the just individualities about them. Like, I would not know what I would be doing without them. Traveling. Yeah.

to australia yeah but the thing is this like we said this earlier i'm like i just want to collect them all once you have one or two or three or four what's up it's like you got the whole pack you're never not going to be a parent you're never not going to have kids so you might as well just like throw them all into the machine and you know you got an operation that's how i feel is that how you feel i think andrew and i feel differently people always tell us they're like

Don't you think, or not always, but some people have been like, don't you not want your second to know that he wasn't planned or things like that? I'm like, no. He's always going to know that he's so loved and he's the perfect addition to our family. We just didn't know it at the time. We didn't know that timing. That's how I feel. I love that your story is so similar. I think unplanned is also similar to meant to be. Yes, exactly. Sometimes we don't even know what's best for us.

Oh, we never know what's best for us.

I don't want to live. I think those little moments are so crazy. Like I get a bit like philosophical at times and I can go too deep. But like when you think back to like you guys meeting, right? Maybe you made one little choice that was like, yeah, I'll go to this thing or I won't go to this thing, whatever. And then you meet and you fast forward. How long now?

Seven years. Seven years. And it's like you have this beautiful life, two children. You guys are traveling. You have a podcast, like all the things. And it's like sometimes from one little decision and it's crazy in life to think about how one thing equals like what's going on today. It's pretty wild. Totally. And you can't like plan – there's so much in your life that you have like no control over at all. Like even if you tried to plan it, it would just –

get messed up yeah yeah it's worse planning that's why i don't like details i'm like no just i like to just throw myself into it i know i can always land on my feet and i like the spontaneity and then you're not disappointed never there's no expectation it's just like oh sick that happened yeah i didn't even know it do you guys feel are you guys just like so much more in love now that you're married like did that yeah something crazy yeah yeah crazy there was something that changed for us i always say this because people are

Because people were like... Well, did anything change? You would assume after this long. No. But it did. Because for the longest time... I felt like we kind of operated financially very separate. Even though I was always like... What's yours is mine. And I think he felt the same way. But it was never concrete. And now, I'm like...

this is the account like you can operate check it out see what's going on like there's nothing it's just really nice to blend it all whereas before i felt like we were very respectful of each other's like financials and now i just like the inclusivity of it all yeah that would be the biggest difference for me is there a big difference for you there was like a moment where i feel like things have shifted for us it's it's been like once we've had two kids once we've got married i remember hearing something from this dude on instagram and he said

He was talking about how he approaches his marriage. And one of the things he asks his wife is, how can I love you today? And I heard that and I was like, well, shoot. He's never asked me that. I've never done that. I've never heard that before. I did ask you that one time. That one time? That one time. Okay, you're right, you're right, you're right. But yeah, I know it's like not significant, but it was like a mind shift change for me. And I was like, okay, like...

We can totally control what we want this to be for the most part, right? You can't control everything. Like we can make this to be whatever we want it to be. And I just feel like there's been a shift. Like I can't pinpoint it, but there's been a shift of just exactly that. It's like, what can I do for you? What can you do for me? Like, how can we build together kind of thing? Yeah, it's great. That's cool that you say that. I was going to ask, was it super cool? Like finally calling each other husband and wife or was it just like,

That freaked you out. It took me a minute. I liked it. I still like it. Yeah. I still like it. Well, maybe for like a couple years before, I would refer to him as my husband once in a while to like a plumber or, you know. Yeah, I was going to ask, did you ever just say it? Yeah, just to say. Yeah. It always felt kind of silly to say it. It still feels a little silly now, but...

It's the truth. So that's so funny. Yeah. How about you guys? Well, when we, so when we got married at 20 and 21, it was a big shift for us because we didn't live together beforehand. And I was nervous. Cause like, I thought people would judge me for being this young guy. Like, Oh, he's so stupid. He got married at 21. What an idiot, you know? Yeah. So we would do the opposite. We'd be like my husband.

Yeah, it felt really weird to say it though. Yeah, because you're like, people are going to think we're so weird. What? You hold yourself so... You don't come off as like, as young. And I would imagine even back then, like you were more mature than like the average LA maybe person who's 20. I feel like... No offense LA, but you know. Maybe. I think we were both kind of old souls in that way. But we both, I mean, different experiences. Our parents are still together. Our grandparents, like we... So I think for us...

It was, I don't know. We had really good examples and still have good examples to look up to. So it was very, we weren't scared. We just like jumped right in. Well, yeah, like my, well, my, both sets of my grandparents split, but my parents have always been together. So I guess like that was a good example for me, I guess. So we weren't as scared. Like, like we didn't have as many, I didn't really know my grandpa that well. We were living literally in the Bible Belt at the time. So like, it wasn't as, like, imagine we were in LA at that time.

at that time. Yeah. It would have been a different culture. But even then still, especially we were going, we had a public university. People were like, this is odd. Yeah. Of our friends, like none of our friends were even dating. And like we got married. But yeah,

We skipped the party stage. Listen, it's better together. But no, that's really cool. I could, when you were saying that thing you saw on Instagram in our marriage books, I mean, that we read was talking about how just showing gratitude to your spouse is so important. And even when you're like so mad at each other, like find, you can think of one thing that you can be grateful for that they did. So we were like practicing that this past week. Like, hey, I'm grateful for you cleaning the pumping parts that day. Oh.

Abby would say like, I'm grateful for you, you know, waking up to do this feeding and just like, just by expressing gratitude that was helping us like, you know, find, find ways to. Get over the issue at hand. Yeah, exactly. That's amazing. Yeah. Have you guys always been pretty good at communicating with each other? No. No.

Not at all. I feel like... What about you guys? Are you guys good at communicating? No, that's not a strong suit for me. Yeah, we're learning. Do you guys... No, we're still learning, yeah. Do you guys do like therapy at all? Or have you like... We have. We have before. Yeah, there was like a noticeable shift, I think, for me personally this last December. I was like dealing with some family stuff and it kind of like pulled me in this interesting direction I had never gone into before. But I ended up in a friend's Bible study. And it was like the first time that I felt this like...

I don't know, like this warm hug, but like I was curious about it, but a little like nervous about it all. And it was around the time when we decided to get married. And I felt like I had like this interesting support system and it helped me like communicate better with my, like my understanding myself. And I don't know, I think from that point, there's been a lot of little things that's happened personally where I just feel so much more in the driver's seat of my own life and

Yeah. And I don't know if it was just coincidental or what it was like. That's really cool. Yeah. I think I think having community around you is like really important. Like no matter, you know, what stage of life you're in, no matter like what your, you know, beliefs are or whatever. But because like for us, when we've when we've felt like very alone and didn't have like friends, like when we've moved, we've moved around a good amount. It's like hard when you don't have like people around.

backing you up. What do you guys do to create community in the different places you go? We've had that conversation a lot recently because we've been feeling like we are lacking it in a lot of ways. Yeah, we try to just like schedule hangouts with friends. And it's also been good with Abby's parents moved in with us so that's been good to have that community of like family. My parents, oh nice. That's great. Living with us, we get to hang out with them. We hang out with them all the time, honestly. Yeah, and finding people that are

in like similar stages of life whether that's like same like do they do the same job or they have kids the same age or you know been married for a few years how is having a two and a half year old and an almost four year old like what is that taught you has it has it gotten easier has it gotten harder no it's the best yeah it's gotten a little bit easier it's the best in the world like I love it every second of it I love it I wake up just bouncy and ready to hang out with them

I love it so much, but it wasn't like that for a while. Like in those earlier days, especially with our first, I felt really foggy. Like you said, like I was in a, just a complete fog. And then my second got a little bit easier and then I'd say, yeah, it's just gotten easier and better, more special. How did that affect you, Andrew? How did it affect me? You could be honest. Yeah, it was, it was hard because I, she was in a weird place and I would be in a weird place at times. Um,

And like, I was trying to figure my own personal stuff out at the time. And it's just challenging. It's you kind of like always up against a roadblock. It feels like, yeah, I mean, that's all that comes to mind. I will say though, what's changed for us recently is it just feels like things have lifted a little bit and it's gotten easier. And, and one of the things for me for a while with when they were a little bit younger was like,

this is just not enjoyable enough. Yeah. Right. And now it's like crazy enjoyable. It's so much fun. We still have our hard moments, but we're just like all getting into a better flow. Like she and I, from a relationship standpoint, like we still fight, but we get through that stuff way faster. We still have problems with the kids, but we get through that way faster. And we're just like finding our way back to the surface level way quicker these days. And we're like living there versus like always like,

swimming upstream if that makes a sense yeah that's really encouraging yeah maybe that means it's time for another baby you're getting comfortable you're getting too comfortable you saying that you saying that is exactly why i'm like hey i'm content with two yeah i don't want to get into it but like but you say that's like that it's like man there's light at the end of the tunnel because it is hard it is hard in the early stages and um i don't know i'm gonna stop talking i feel you and i will say this

Up until like maybe a month ago, maybe two months ago, it was a hard no for me. It was I'm absolutely done. We're not doing it again. And like because things have changed, my mindset has shifted.

And then you're going to be right back there again. Right? Like, aren't you going to be like right back where you were though? That's what scares me. I don't see, I don't like the newborn phase very much. But it was so different the second time. Like you just know so much more, even though yours happened so quickly. Like, do you feel like it was at least easier? Oh, we were way better equipped. Yes. So imagine the third.

the fourth then you have a kid that can eventually get you your water we need to have my parents move in with us too and then we'll be fully equipped to they should just move in with us why do we have so much fun with us I actually love the idea of communal living like I'm dying for that we actually love it people ask us all the time it's just my parents but like people are like that's crazy and I'm like

No, it's actually very natural. It feels normal. Especially now that working from home is so normal and that's like what we do with the nature of being creators. Like you need to see people. You need to talk to people. You need to have a conversation with an adult. People are too isolated. That's not a one or two year old, right? So it's so important. And then it's, I feel like it's also been really good for our marriage too because I put too much on Matt as like to meet all my needs. Like you need to meet my needs as my husband, but also my social needs.

Your friend. My friend, everything. Like you need to listen to all of my thoughts of the day. And he's like, I cannot possibly sift through all those. And it's nice to just have other ears to listen to and other people to fill other needs. Who care about you, who like love you and look out for your best interests. It's like, that is the best. I get it. I'm the boring one that's gone back to like a regular job recently.

Oh, no way. But in a certain way, like it's been so nice to be back around other adults. Right. Wow. And like have that totally different part of my life. And then I come home to the family who I already spend like enough time with, you know. Yeah. But it's just so nice to have that separation. It's kind of the most amazing thing because I now feel like I am the CEO of operations, like COO. I'm an operations officer.

And I love it. I love that I can like manage most of like the stuff with the kids. And then when Andrew's done with his work, he can play with the kids while I make dinner. And then I get that time and it's just the best balance. The other day I took both boys and we went on a walk and like played in the grass and I had one strapped to me and then our oldest Griffin was just like running around in the grass, like having the best time. And I come home and Abby had gotten to like

clean alone. Clean the whole house. Like a tornado because there was no one stopping me. Yep. And she was so happy. The best. And I was like, I would have never known that this woman. It was joyful. Joyful. Just cleaning. Because how often at this point in life do you get to be in your own home by yourself? I have not been in my own home by myself.

Since June at that point. Yeah. So you just felt – I was like, I could do this every night. I need a moment. I'm like, dude, my wife is so happy right now. This is great. I just got to spend time with my kids and now she's like so happy. Yeah. I love that. I'm just realizing why I'm always overstimulated because I had not been alone for so long.

for months at that point. And returning to work, are you back being a CPA working in that field? No, no, I'm in sales. I sell software. Oh, cool. So yeah, just continuing the boring part of me or all of me. But no, I was a CPA and I left to go do sales for a little fintech company. Nice. And then when Gio first was born...

I was home for two weeks and it was like life smacked me in the face. It was like, this is where you need to be right now. So I resigned. For like all of Gio's life so far up until just recently. Yeah, I just went back like maybe five months ago.

And do you think you're going to stay as COO of the home or are you wanting to get back into it? Oh, um, yeah, I think I'm going to be the COO of the home for now, but I'm going to be going back to like traditional, like acting work soon. I just thought, yeah, not anything like planned, but it's probably going to move pretty quickly. Now I have like,

I'm acquiring like my little team around me and I feel so good about it because going back to like navigating the business and how to like stay in the light is how I like to say it is like now I feel like I'm old enough and wise enough to really attract and align with the people that are of that and

I know that I can have it all. I know that I can be in this industry and have an impact and do things that feel good to me. And I don't have to like sacrifice morals or ethics and still make family friendly content. That's what really aligns with me. And now I feel like the right people that can help me do that are coming into my life. So I'm like, okay, now I can hit the gas a little bit. Did you ever feel like you had to sacrifice? Yes. Really? How so? Yeah.

Oh my gosh, the amount of auditions I would just turn down or do it to people please because I felt like I had to. Like I did like an independent movie that I kind of just did for fun where I would play this girl on house arrest who like smoked weed and cigarettes and was like flirting with this older guy. And I in my body, like literally can make me feel cringy right now. Like,

I just, it's not for me. And I've done other projects where like, I knew it wasn't for me, a horror movie. And I ended up having to leave that set. And like, literally, like the whole cast ended up leaving. It was not a safe environment. There's just too much weird, kind of like dark stuff that can happen. Really? And I'm just like, no, I know where I belong. And I know that I can do it all. And like, I can make beautiful, fun TV. And I don't have to like...

Yeah. Was there a financial need in that moment? Because you're like, I need to make money. This is my profession. Like I need to like almost sacrifice to pay the bills to keep the lights on because this is what I do for my job. And these are the roles coming in. Little bit, but also there's just such a big ego attached in this business. Like it's something I'm constantly having to keep in check because like

I've just put so much of like my, I don't know, my importance in what I do and what I'm a part of. And if I'm not constantly a part of something, even if it's not the right job, like I feel lesser about myself. Yeah. But that sense has changed because I haven't really worked in traditional acting for like four years, maybe even longer. Wow.

So it's like I've really gotten the time to like shed that idea that I need to just work to work and really just do the things that I know that I can be really good at and not sacrifice anything else. Was having, was getting, like becoming pregnant, was that part of what made that shift happen? No, it was like that before.

Oh, really?

And I had to like go against the grain of a lot of people who thought I was supposed to go in one trajectory. And I took a different lane and I'm really glad that I did. And then it was just a matter of me finessing like that, like staying on that track. And now I feel like I've had the opportunity to look at it from the outside and go, okay, no, that track's there. It's Great American Family Network. It's Hallmark. It's like the places that feel really like safe and cozy and sweet. And that's where I want to be. She loves a cozy moment. Love a cozy moment. So much. Cozy is my favorite.

That's her favorite word. What's next? Oh, sorry to interrupt. Yeah. What's next for you guys? Oh my gosh. Great question. Hopefully more babies. And then making work and life just like finesse into that. That's my answer. What's yours? That's it. That's it. Her answer is my answer always from now on. Say it with your words. Manifest it. Say it. Which part? What do you want next? I think we want more children. Whoa, that's big. No way. Yeah, I'm fidgeting. I'm fidgeting.

Matt, there's hope. That's crazy. It gets easier. I'm terrified right now. I'm so excited for you guys. That's awesome. We'll stay in touch and we'll support each other in our faraway communal living. I feel like I really connected

you guys. I'm bummed that we live so far away. It's, it stinks. It's not too far and we'll come visit. Hey, we drove here. Yeah, we did drive here. Oh, cool. Good for you. We live in Phoenix. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Not too far. I didn't know where you're coming from before that. How long have you guys been in Phoenix? We've lived there for a year and a half. Okay. Do you like it? Uh,

Not in the summertime, but when it's not summertime, yes, because the weather's nice. You guys just had like 30 days of 100 degrees. It was wild. It was like 150. Well, nine months pregnant is crazy. Oh my gosh. Have you guys thought about moving to California?

Matt would do it in a heartbeat. I would like to get like a second home here one day. I think that'd be awesome. If you do really think about it, hit us up because we really understand the pockets that I think you'll really love. Ooh, okay. I told Matt, I was like, I just want a sleepy town with like, it's like 60 plus. Yeah.

What? But we can get to the water still. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. And it's mom and pop shops. Does that exist? Oh, yeah. That's like, well, that's kind of where we live, but no, yes. Also, like, on the way to Carpinteria, what's that area called? Right past it. On the way.

Whatever. In the area of Carpinteria, she would love it. In Santa Barbara? Yeah. Where everyone says there's like the antique shops and the cute coffee shops. No, but over there. I know where you want it. I want it to be somewhere where no one knows. So this is perfect. I don't even... Yeah, I couldn't even remember the name, but apparently it's like perfect. And you guys are also starting a podcast? Yes. Well, I am starting a podcast. We had a podcast together that we...

really loved for the first like three years of Gio's life and then we kind of went on hiatus he's gone on to doing his career but I have a podcast that I've been you know very cool and when does it launch no idea okay just be looking out for it we don't even have an episode in the can but it's in my brain and it's

I'm so excited. Where can they follow you to find out when the podcast launches? Oh, thank you. I'm on Instagram. Just my name, Daniella Monet. I also have an account called Daniella's Digest. That's where I share a lot more of my home and healthy living type content.

Very cool. Yeah. Very cool. And we're okay. And is that where we can find the vegan recipes? Yes. So danielasdigest.com is this like membership and there's also a blog and there'll be other like free eBooks and stuff available, but there's a membership for $99 a year. You can join and get access to like meal plans, thousands of recipes, tons of deals. Like I think our deals now are up to over a thousand dollars in savings on like really great products that I love, like things that I just love.

Yeah, that I got really good deals for. And there's coaching. So you can go on and there's like health coaches, food coaches that can really help you figure out like what's best for you. And the way I like to describe it now is, yes, it's all 100% plant-based.

But you don't have to be 100% plant-based to be a member. I think that a lot of people should eat a lot of variety of foods. And I think the only way that you can have access to a variety of fruits and vegetables in a diet is by cooking with them. So if you use my membership for that and then maybe have whatever you eat on the side or however you like to transition, like that's what I think it's really best for as well.

I love to cook and so I need to broaden my horizons and try some new options. So I'm excited to check that out. Thank you. Well, thank you both for coming on. I know you guys have places to be. You guys have kids. You have, you know, so many things happening, but we appreciate you guys taking the time to come out here and really feel like we connected with you guys on this podcast today. So likewise. Well, this is where we say peace out, dude. You guys ready? Let's do it. Peace out, dudes.

And in three, two, one. Peace out, dudes.