The Heubergers

Fun Week

2012-02-10T20:34:00.000-08:00

We have been having such a fun week around here. The first few days were super nice and we spent a lot of time outside.
I am always asking Avery if I can curl her hair but she either says no, or stops me after only a couple curls. Tuesday I actually got through all her hair! It was so fun. She brushed it out with her fingers as soon as I took these pictures, but luckily I got the shots first.
Tuesday Aiden and Ireland came over and we played on the trampoline for a bit { video at the bottom } Avery always get crazy, staticky hair and loves to shock me.
Today is Matt's Mom's birthday. Before I left for work I got out some art stuff so Avery could make her a card. I started it with her then ran to the bathroom to get ready for work. When I went out to check on her she looked like the Joker! We called the card done and threw her in the tub. It washed right off :)

Hope you have been enjoying your week as much as we have!

Latest From The Cell

2012-02-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

Action shot of Avery taking on her lollipop! She barely made a dent in that thing, just licked some of the color off in some spots. It is still on the counter in wax paper. I better go throw it away while she naps.
The SyFy channel was here last week filming a movie. There was an open call for extras so Matt, Joe and my Dad went down, they got to meet all of the celebrities and get their picture taken. Well, not Matt, he didn't give a rip. I would have done it too but I was teaching my kid's yoga class. I can't believe these fools made it onto a movie set before me.
My sweet lil girl has developed somewhat of a potty mouth so anyone that swears is charged a fee. I think we might be able to make it to Disneyland pretty soon. See? I can find the positive in things.
Speaking of my yoga class, I made these flash cards. The kiddos loved them! I don't know how long they will last though. Why can't laminate be stronger?
These are so out of order it is almost hysterical. Oh well. Our little ladies layed 3 eggs for us today! It has been sunny and it has a positive effect on the chickens. Since it has been so cold we have had to break down and buy eggs a few times... So I love days like this!
Did you know that Matt can read while he sleeps?! He is so talented ;) Too bad I was laughing so hard when i took this that I woke him up.
Remember that sunshine I mentioned? This is from our walk today.
Sometimes when Avery is in a funk I will let her look at pictures on my phone to distract her. This day we took some silly pictures. I think it cheered her up real quick.
Ah, another ad for yoga class ;) Avery and Madi after a class a couple weeks ago. Avery is so silly, she will ask me to take pictures of her, then this is her pose, all depressed and forlorn looking.

Here are some of the videos I've been meaning to post. The first one is from a walk we took a while ago. Avery had her boots on so I was encouraging her to jump in this puddle. I earned some major points with that one.

The second one is from another rainy day where we were listening to music in our room and Avery was singing along super silly to the music. Her dance moves matched the sillyness of her singing.

The third one is Matt and Avery on the snowy trampoline the first day that it snowed.

The last video is Joe and Avery on the trampoline on about the 5th day of snow. Lots of fun to be had on a snowy trampoline :)

Life Lately

2012-02-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

Remember how it snowed? It was fun for a couple of days, but you know what happens, the fluff goes away and you are left with ice. Our power went out & we only have electric heat so we ran away { after about 24 hours with no power it is warmer outside than it is in the house } We got to have a sleepover with Jack though so Avery was thrilled!
I haven't really been taking a lot of pictures lately... Here are some of the things we did in January that I have no pictures of. Jack's 2nd birthday party, my Dad's 60th birthday party, lots of walks. I don't know what else actually, ha ha!
Matt's seasonal job with Costco was over 3 { 4??? } weeks ago. We still have high hopes that corporate will agree to bring him back but we are in limbo waiting to hear.
Avery's naps are so up and down right now that when she gets tired she just passes out. Every night I vow to get more diligent about her sleep schedule { especially those nights that she is up til 11:45pm... } but it is hard, some times she is up at the crack of dawn with Matt and some times she sleeps in til 9.
Today was an absolutely gorgeous day so we went up to Snoqualmie Falls, along with every other person within a 50 mile radius.
It was super windy, which Avery hated. But it was nice to get out and do something different, especially since we didn't have to go very far.

We had Sasha with us and I was afraid that she would literally blow away.
I was half tempted to throw her up in the air to see if I could fly her like a kite.
I obviously didn't, but the thought crossed my mind. Look at her poor little body!

Teanna is taking photography this semester and she has 2 rolls of film due on Tuesday so she was snapping away.

Before we left to go to the Falls, Avery snuck up behind Matt while he was getting something out of his car. She managed to get her fingers caught when he was shutting the door and it was awful. She never cries when she gets hurt so when she started howling in pain I knew something was wrong.
The skin on the inside of her finger got peeled off and her nail beds are bruised and bloody. Luckily nothing is broken, but trying to get her to calm down, let me look at her fingers, get them cleaned and bandaged was another story. She was inconsolable. While I was cleaning them I remembered she has some suckers stashed away so I was telling her if she could take some deep breaths and calm down, she could have a sucker when the bandages were on.
Then Matt remembered we never gave her the giant lollipop that was in her stocking so we let her have it. Her tears were immediately dry, ha ha. She says that her fingers still hurt but I just changed her bandages and everything still looks ok. As you can see, she carried her trophy around with her for hours. I took these pictures and was able to pry it out of her sleeping fingers.
I will try to be better about pictures and blogging, but who knows ;)

Winter Wonderland

2012-01-17T20:23:00.000-08:00

I am sure that I don't have to tell anyone that it has been snowing for a couple of days, I hear it is National News. Have you ever seen such cute little footprints?! My two girls are loving every second of this weather.
Sasha only gets a limited amount of time playing because the snow loves to stick to her fur...
Avery, on the other hand, gets to play until her clothes and gloves are soaked through and her face turns the same color as her snow clothes.
I took all these pictures on Sunday, the day it really started to snow.
This was the good kind of snow { unlike how it was on the Pass last Wednesday } we got to make snow balls!
She wanted to go sledding but there was no sled or hills. We suggested going down her slide with all the snow.
She liked that idea but insisted we removed the snow first.
The snow probably would have helped her slow down, since that thing is so slick all by itself.
I didn't measure the snow but I would guess we got 4-5 inches. The forecast is calling for 10 tomorrow, we will see. They already went ahead and canceled school.
This is the first snowman I have made in YEARS. I couldn't believe how fun it was to make a snowman. I wanted to build a full on fort for a snowball fight but I wouldn't stand a chance against Matt, and it would just be cruel to peg Avery.
See that fedora? This here is a classy snowman.
Avery and Daddy thought it would be fun to jump on the snowy trampoline { video at the bottom! } and they were right, they had a blast!

See how pink those cheeks were getting? Almost pink enough to get dragged back inside, almost.
She did not want her picture by the snowman and she would not stand in front so the arm would stop blocking her face.

She just wanted to walk down to the river to see how that all looked.

Eating some snow. Yum yum. And so silly.

Okay, here are all the scenery shots that you knew were coming. I was kind enough to put them all at the bottom of the post for any of you that could give a rat's @$$. This is the river, overlooking our swimming hole to be exact.
I love the snow on the trees.
River through the snowy trees.

Trees on the other side by the Girl Scout Camp.
Now for some snowy yard shots.
Our driveway.

My cherry tree.
My Dad's truck from when he was in high school. As much of a classic as it is an eyesore.

The old treefort, that most definitely should be taken down sometime.

Hmmm, I thought that the video attached but it looks like I was wrong. I am too tired to worry about it now. I have a lot of other videos that need to be loaded so maybe I will just do a big video mash up sometime, since I am all caught up on pictures for now.

Hope you are all enjoying our Winter as much as we are! Take care, be safe and have fun!

Snow Day!

2012-01-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

Matt had Wednesday off so we decided to head up to the mountains to try and find some snow.
There wasn't much snow but this cute lil one thought that the little amount there was was fantastic.
For the first 20 minutes all she did was run around and yell "It's SNOW!"
I got her these snow pants last year, this is the first time she has got to wear them, in the snow anyway.
This is the parking lot of the Asahel Curtis trail. There was only snow { ice } in the parking lot and on the very tops of the mountains.
We didn't have a sled but that clever Papa thought to bring a couple of improvised sleds. Tupperware storage container? Sure, why not.
I'm not sure who was having more fun, him or her.
Possibly him...
Possibly her :)

When we were finally geared up, we headed for the trail. Which was beautiful.
We could hardly believe it is January { besides the frigid cold } it was clear, dry and perfect walking conditions.
We might have been a little overdressed but that's better than being under-dressed in my opinion.
The trees were enormous and so pretty. Can you tell I asked her to stand there? Her face says it all, "oh, mom."
She needed a little break so we could wait for Papa. Yes, a 3 and a half year old was walking faster than my Dad.

There he is, "Come on Papa."
Tree growing out of a rock, no big thang :)
This tree was HUGE. See that camera? That is what was taking him so long.
Snack break. Orange all over her face.
On we go!
We took a quick break so Matt could look for gold in the mountain stream.
Avery was getting a little sick of me asking her to sit/stand on rocks for pictures.

Back over the bridge. I don't think I like how disgusted her face is looking at nature... she was just tired.

We went to the top of the Pass where there was a bit more snow. I fell in love with this waterfall, icicle combination.
About to walk up a snowy, icy hill. Avery is suspicious, rightly so.
My Dad just slipped down a snow bank and almost died. Time to laugh it off.
It was pretty funny after it stopped being scary.
I have so many clothes on and I am still frozen.

While the boys were getting Avery in the car I ran up ahead to get pictures of the mountains, valley and river before the sun went down.
The sun kind of makes the snowy mountains harder to see, but they are as beautiful as you'd expect them to be :)

We all had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to get away for the day.

Christmas Day

2012-01-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

We have reached the last of the Christmas series photos! After we opened presents here at home we headed over to my Dad's house.
Avery got right down to business.
She got to open all of Matt and my presents.

The Grinch.
We were getting tired. And crazy.

As soon as the last gift was opened Avery crashed. You might { or might not } notice this is the 3rd dress of the day for her... she likes to have options.
Elisa got a hold of my camera and went a little Paparazzi crazy.

And then Joe took this gem.
I love Christmas but it is EXHAUSTING. It took me two days to recover. Hopefully I can find a way make next year even more low key.

Christmas Morning!

2012-01-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

I read all these tricks about how to take a great picture of your Christmas tree. Obviously I just skimmed the the list of tricks cause this was the best I got...
Someone lucked out and woke up just as Grammy was making chocolate pudding pies. I decided if there was ever a time to let her have chocolate pudding for breakfast, this was the time.
Obviously it was worth it. Look at that face :)

We were waiting for Sis & Ben to get there for the presents so Avery got to open a new Christmas outfit from Grammy & her stocking.

We were still waiting so I let her open a few that I didn't put tags on, just so there would be no confusion...
A new hat! That looks surprisingly like her other hats. She was happy though.
She was kind of on a roll after that so Ting Ting let her open the gift from her.
And Joe gave Avery one too.
Bullseye and Jessie dolls!
Elisa had the best Christmas entrance I have ever seen. She walked into the house with a portable music player BLARING Joy To The World. Then she proceeded to pick up Sasha and twirl her around the room. Yes, I got it on video.
Avery was playing with Bullseye so Jessie decided to ride Sasha for a while. Sasha got a lot of attention.

About to open their joint gift from us! Can you see how gypped they felt? Just kidding, they loved the Crock Pot I got them { Ben }.
Can you tell we had been wrapping pressies til late the night before? Lazy Santa...
Matt went out of his way to get a gift for Ben. And this is it. Matt doesn't even get anyone in his own family a gift but he made a special trip to get this for Ben. And no, he doesn't get anyone else { but me } anything. Can you say Bromance?
This is the stunned/confused response to opening the gift from Ben. The Asian Prince Ken Doll from Mulan. She has never seen Mulan. No one even knows his name. Elisa just loved how creepy the doll was. Surprisingly, Avery likes the guy.
Elisa got a little shocked looking when she opened her Snuggie from Joe.
I vowed not to get her any toys since she is practically drowning it them but this soft Rapunzel was irresistible. If I would have left the store without her it would have felt like I was committing some sort of hate crime.
And Avery loves her so it was worth one more dolly on the bed.
Not so great family photo. No one told me they were all staying in the jams. Awkward.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

We always head over to Matt's parents house to celebrate on Christmas Eve. There were so many presents and we were some of the first ones there so we let Avery and Jack exchange the gifts that they got for each other.
Avery was so excited to give Jack his gift. I found a complete set of Lion King figurines at the Dinsey Store and they were both pretty pumped up about it.
They both look pretty pleased :)
Ok, Jack was more than a little pleased :)
I was a little worried that once they started opening there would be no stopping them, but the figurines kept them entertained until they could open more. { can you tell how pleased I am with my find ;) }
Who can blame him? This is totally something I would have bought for myself 15 years ago. No joke.

Once she had the go ahead to open more pressies, she was all over it. I barely had time to see who gave her what before she was on to the next one. She had no idea how much stuff she even got...

I occasionally made her stop and say thank you. When she wasn't pretending not to hear me of course.
She ran out pretty soon, but she got to help everyone else open up their goodies too.
Jack was a little better about taking his time, next year I'm sure he'll be a hurricane though.
Dawn and her Mommy, so cute!
Almost all the cousins, just Zach couldn't make it. Eric got accepted to University of Idaho so Tana got all the kids Vandals shirts { Avery was being a diva and refused to put hers on } so that is why they are all coordinated :)
These two cuties had just got engaged so I got to take a couple of engagement photos in front of the Christmas tree.
We had a great time! We always have to leave a little early to get to Mass so we squeeze in as much fun as possible.

Uncle Paul's Birthday

2012-01-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve also happens to be my Uncle Paul's birthday. His birthday usually gets over looked because of all the Christmas excitement { by us, not necessarily his immediate family :) }
This year we decided to celebrate him with his favorite foods because it happened to be his 60th birthday, kind of a big deal!
These two were overjoyed to sing Happy Birthday and to hand him his presents.

Pretty good sibling picture. If I had Photoshop I would stick UM in there too :)

Winnie

2012-01-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

When we got home from making cookies we noticed that Winnie was separated from the rest of the chickens and just hanging out by the porch.
We went to pick her up and she didn't try to run away { which was an indication that she wasn't feeling good }
She was all ruffled up so we thought she might be a little cold.
We got her situated in a box and got her to drink some water and eat some bread. After a quick photo shoot of course.
Avery was tickled pink that there was a chicken in the house, especially a chicken that didn't feel good enough to run away from her.
We let her stay inside for a couple of hours. She ate all of her bread and managed to relieve herself so we thought she was okay enough to go back out with the rest of the chickens.
Sadly, she wasn't better. She must have had some sort of internal parasite because my Mom found her in the chicken coop after she had passed away.
I am glad I got some pictures of her though, even if they are a little sad to look at.
RIP Winnie. Now we are left with The Pooh. Just like when Ozzie left Sharon behind. I think if we get more chickens we will have to stop naming them in pairs because that appears to be bad luck.

Christmas Cookies

2012-01-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

A couple of days before Christmas we went over to Tana's house to decorate some Christmas cookies. Avery & Jack also got to open an early Christmas present.
Avery got a super cute outfit, jeans, a shirt and a jacket.
Super styling :)
Then it was cookie time! Avery was under the impression that she got to eat each of the cookies she decorated. Jack must have been told the same thing because that was what thought too.
Avery liked the cookies, but what she really liked was the frosting, who can blame her?

Decorating the Christmas Tree { I am ashamed of how behind I am... }

2012-01-07T11:12:00.000-08:00

The past several years I have had a fantasy image in my mind of what decorating our Christmas tree would be like...

Fantasy Mental Image:: Christmas music playing or having a Christmas movie on in the background, sipping hot chocolate, eating a few too many candy canes, the entire family getting excited and nostalgic about their favorite ornaments...

What Actually Happens:: Avery is mad that I won't let her watch My Little Ponies, Matt is in the bedroom watching football and I decorate the tree pretty much by myself.

This year my Mom was there to help me with the lights but then she had to go and make my Grandpa dinner, so she is entirely forgiven and off the hook. I suppose I just need to make peace with our situation and let go of my silly little fantasy. For now :)

Cell Phone Dump

2012-01-06T18:19:00.000-08:00

None of these are in any kind of order. This first one was on Tuesday. We were going to watch Rango as soon as I made a "quick" call to CenturyLink because, surprise surprise, our internet went out again. After 50 minutes and 5 dropped calls I came back inside and found this. I took advantage of the situation and jumped in the bath.
This was the day we went to get Santa pictures. She would not sit on Santa's lap but she wanted to get a picture taken with this creepy mannequin. Go figure.
We've had a couple of nice days around here so we've been getting out and going for walks by the flooded river.
Out Christmas shopping. Just another shot of us being A holes, making fun of "celebrities."
Avery wanted me to take of picture of her and this rock...
I made a Christmas tree skirt. It took forever. Sasha would not leave me alone, she just kept getting on top of it while I was trying to get it put together.
While we were Christmas shopping Avery saw the PetCo sign and so we had to go in and look at the animals. She would not leave the store til she found the birds.
We had a lunch date with Ireland and her mommy then the girls got in the sled for a photo op.
More birds. Same day as before. I don't know why these things can't load in order.
Watching a movie with Uncle Joe.
Miss Torrence basking in her heat lamp. She is in our bathroom now. It was supposed to be temporary but I decided I like her in there and she seems to like it too. She gets a lot more attention and I have been told by my siblings "I gave her a little food" so she is getting spoiled :)

I am HOPING our internet is fixed once and for all. But if I go another week without posting then you will know that it broke again. Think happy thoughts for me please.

Firetruck Santa

2011-12-29T10:33:00.000-08:00

We went over to my Dad's house again this year to meet up with the Firetruck Santa that collects gifts for needy families.
We kept hearing the firetruck but couldn't see it so we stay all bundled up for a while :)
Luckily we had The Little Drummer Boy to entertain us!
Avery kept running to the door to see if she could hear or see the firetruck.
We played with Sasha for a while.
And played a little dress up, Christmas Style, duh.
Waited... pretty patiently.
A little more dressing up.

We decided to just eat dinner and chance them driving by. When they didn't come after dinner we just went outside, listened for sirens and tracked them down. We found them but I didn't get any pictures. We had to leave early because Matt gets up so stinkin early now. My Dad said the truck didn't even drive by his house until 9:15pm, so it was a good thing we got impatient and went out looking for them.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the sweet little picture I sent out as a Christmas card this year. Yes, I posed her like that. I tried getting her to wear a Santa hat, but obviously that didn't work. I lucked out though, this was the first shot I took, the other 19 are just bonus :)

New Best Friends

2011-12-28T15:49:00.000-08:00

Smokey's new favorite thing to do is to go in our bathroom and give Torrence the Stink Eye.
I know she would never do anything but it makes Torrence real nervous.

PS - I think our internet troubles are finally over *knocking on wood* so hopefully I can post all the pictures and adventures that we have been up to lately.

Bringerbread Man Candy House

2011-12-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

Matt has been wanting to make a Gingerbread house since Black Friday. I wanted to do it a little closer to Christmas so we decided to do it the other night.
We just got one of the pre assembled ones from Costco but it was perfect. I will definitely start doing this every year, maybe adding a little more candy like some M&M's or Kisses. Avery was so cute, she kept grabbing the box and saying "Let me check the birections."
She had the most fun decorating the 2 gingerbread men, sadly, they met an unfortunate end before the night was over.
Matt was on tree duty, Teanna and I were on house duty and Avery helped everyone.
This is the box, giving you a completely unrealistic example of how to build your house. Those icicles? Not possible my friend.
Here is a back view, unfinished. See my attempt at icicles? Avery kept swiping the frosting off on her finger saying that it was broken...
Front view, not quite done.
The Bringerbread Men { that is how Avery kept pronouncing it, check out the video at the end of how cute she says it & please ignore my annoyingness }
We could resist the little men no longer.
So wrong, yet so right.
Ah, we are complete. My frosting art could use a little practice. More frosting went in our mouths than on the house. I was in pain for several hours from sugar over load.
For some reason one of the gingerbread men's head didn't get eaten so I attached it to the back of the roof of the house as a warning to others to stay away. Complete with red frosting blood. Hey, what else was I going to do with red frosting?
You almost can't tell how demented it looks, it blends in beautifully.
Matt's sweet little tree, with no decapitated heads.
And the video from my phone. I think it is hilarious but maybe you had to be there, cracked out on sugar to find the humor.

This and That

2011-12-12T16:28:00.000-08:00

No, I did not forget about the blog, despite how it looks. I think we are finally all settled in, as settled in as one can feel around Christmas that is. Here are a few random shots and a tour of Avery's new room. These first two pics are taken in our room though, not hers :)
I was washing the sheets and Avery fell asleep on our bed using a pillow as a blanket.
I can't take enough pictures of her sleeping and I can't give her enough kisses when she is sleeping.
Here is her room! I think it is perfection and she seems to think it's pretty special too.
Most of this stuff was mine, the bed, posters, toys... you get the idea. It is all Avery though, she has claimed it as hers and whenever anyone comes over the first thing she wants to do is show you her room. Even if it is Mom or Teanna who also happen to live here.
Avery got these Princess stickers for her birthday and I hid them from her so they could go up brand new in her new room. It was definitely worth the wait, they were the perfect finishing touch.
Auntie Sissy gave her this Princess frame and we put a picture of her in it from Halloween, so now she is officially one of the Disney Princesses.
We took the door off of her closet to add a little more room.

It is a tight fit but for now it is the perfect size and if everything is picked up { which she is pretty good about } it doesn't feel too claustrophobic.

This is the only time she has actually slept in here and it was just nap time not night time. I don't care though. Until we get a new mattress pad on that bed I would feel bad making her sleep on that thing, it's worse than sleeping in a tent.
I will try to be better about blogging now that we are moved in. Ta ta for now!

Gobble Gobble

2011-11-30T20:38:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we lucked out and had dinner at Tana's house. She cooked an amazing feast and we all had such a fun time laughing until it hurt.
Jack and Avery spent hours playing "cool" :)

These two goofs also provided lots of entertainment.
Avery and Jack sat at the kid's table. I was nervous about it but Avery did fine and ate all of her turkey and monkey roll.
CJ, Zach, Jared, Jack, Avery and Eric.
We were all way too amused at how much Avery did not want to sit on Eric's lap. And being the sometimes horrible mom I am, I made her stay on his lap for more pictures. I did bribe her with a cookie though.
See her face!? I was crying I was laughing so hard. Oh man. Poor girl.
We threw Jack in the mix to see if that helped. It did not.

She was slightly better with Auntie Tana.
Matt had to get up at 12:45am to be to work at 2 for Black Friday insanity so we left kind of early. We got home and Joe and Rhiannon had come over so we had a Just Dance Off. Just the kind of thing you do on a full stomach. It was awesome and so much fun.

Moving Pictures

2011-11-12T20:56:00.000-08:00

We are slowly but surely getting everything packed up for tomorrow's big move. Things would move a little quicker if Avery stopped yelling, "Hey! That's mine!" everytime we put something in a box, but what can you do?
She is finding some great treasures. Like this bridesmaids dress from Kelsey's wedding. I am getting rid of it because of that giant mystery stain on it. There are others that she can play with though.
She played in box for close to an hour and a half. and did not want me to take a picture of her in it.

We Are MOVING!!

2011-11-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

I know that that isn't as HUGE of news as it seems. We have been talking about moving out of our condo for years... But, tomorrow is the long awaited day. I just got off the phone with the U Haul company and I have a 14 foot truck booked. { Side Note:: If you have nothing to do tomorrow, call me! *only 1/2 kidding* }

We have until the end of the week, the closing date is Friday. With Matt's work schedule things are a little trickier, he has Tuesday and Wednesday off but no one would be able to help us on those days so I convinced { begged } him that we should do it over the weekend. I just think it will be a lot easier with more help!

I thought that since this is the month to be extra conscious of being thankful, I would write up a little list pertaining to our living situation.

Things I Will Miss About Living Here::

:: This is the first placed we lived when we became a family. There are a lot of firsts here.

:: The sunrises over the mountains are breath taking.

:: I love being so close to Fred Meyer and the movie theater.

:: Having a Garbage Disposal in our sink :)

:: Having our own home as just our little family and our alone time together.

:: Our fireplace.

Things I Am Happy To Leave Behind::

:: Having a bunch of drug dealing neighbors. Having to keep jumping up to close the windows every time the neighbors go smoke on the balcony. Having random people running up and down the hallway at all hours of the day and night.

:: THE STAIRS!! I don't mind having to walk up and down them every day, I actually like getting the boost in heart rate. Here is what I hate about them~ Every time I am on them I have horrible visions/memories of falling and breaking my leg. Of laying there, helpless for almost an hour with a dog and a 7 month old baby. Also, I worry about Avery every time we walk up or down them. Good riddance!

:: The Homeowners Association. Those people are a royal pain in my ass. I will be so happy to stop sending them a check every month.

:: The Train and 522. I do not believe I need to go into further detail on either of those items.

:: Our toilet has been making horrible noises for months. We have to keep the door shut at all times, and even then it keeps me up at night.

Things I Am Really Excited About Having::

:: Actually getting to live with our chickens, compost bin, garden, play set and trampoline!!

:: A yard!!

:: Being close to family, friends and work!!

:: So many more opportunities when boredom arises!!

:: Strengthening our relationship and bond with my Mom and Teanna!! Roomies, ha ha.

There are so many other things but you know how it is, when you go to write them down you can't remember them. Plus, Matt just got home from work so it is time to finish our packing. I could cry right now I am so happy.

Pretty As A Princess

2011-11-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

Here are the sweet couple of pictures we took of the princess before we went Trick or Treating.

I wish I would have taken more of us when we were actually out, but that didn't happen. Here we are at my Dad's, he is taking a video of Avery.

This one is funny, they all look worried/scared of something.
There, that is better :)
Girlfriend sure enjoyed her first time out Trick or Treating. She got lots of candy. I had planned on going to one of the bigger neighborhoods but I didn't know what time we were supposed to go out and we ended up being a little early, so we ended up just going to places where we knew people. Avery didn't love getting in and out of her carseat each time, but she kept asking to "please go to one more house."

Pumpkin Time

2011-11-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

Since Avery only wanted to get a little pumpkin we decided to let her paint it because carving it would have been ridiculous.
I put her in clothes so she wouldn't be nude in the pictures but then I didn't want her to get paint on her clothes so we took them back off again.

She was pretty proud of herself and her masterpiece.
This is her covering her face so I will stop taking pictures of her.
I had got a little pumpkin to carve but Matt accidentally dropped it & it had a gash in it so if we cut into it to carve the thing would have just split up the side. So this one got painted too. I did a face, took a picture then let Avery do her thing.

Matt was the only one that carved one and it turned out great. I loved it. It was only outside a couple hours and then a squirrel or something ate the nose and tongue...
I wasn't going to let Avery paint the gourd but I caved.
After pumpkins we went over to Grammy & Papa's house for Sam's birthday party. Papa watched Beauty and the Beast with Jack and Avery for a while until Avery passed out cold.
She also got a special Halloween cupcake from my Auntie Julie, but of course she only ate the frosting like the little stinker she is.

Trees

2011-11-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

I am sure no one will care about this post. It is just some pictures of where we will be moving soon. Avery was sleeping in the car and I was sitting in there with her waiting for her to wake up and I was just blown away by how pretty the trees were with the light hitting them.
My photography skills are no where near good enough to capture how pretty everything really was.
It was a gorgeous and cold day out, but I walked my Mom's dog up to the top of the driveway in search of more pretty trees and colors.
This is my Grandpa's house, so cute.
One of the horses that I can never remember their names. Avery calls them Tree and Nemo. These are not their real names and I have no idea where she came up with them. But they have stuck.

Sissy's Birthday Party

2011-11-06T15:44:00.000-08:00

After our trip to the pumpkin patch we headed to Ixtapa for Elisa's birthday dinner. I didn't take a ton of pictures because my camera battery was close to dying. And I have a lot of pictures of us at Ixtapa so....

Afterwards we went to Mom's and played on the trampoline.
Took a walk to see all the dead fish at the river.

Played on the monkey bars { Elisa is the only one besides Matt that is tall enough to lift her up there }

And played in the fort.

It was a fun day to say the least :)

Two Week Phone Dump

2011-11-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

Welllll... I might have forgot the do this last week so here are the last 2 weeks of things from my phone. I got brave and attempted to make cinnamon rolls from the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook, they were a pain in the ass and I thought that I ruined them but Mattie saved me. They look unattractive but tasted amazing. I didn't use her frosting though. I made it. It smelled like hobo piss { it had a cauliflower base...} Luckily I had some vanilla frosting in the fridge that worked great.
Even though we will be moving { HOPEFULLY } soon, I asked Matt to turn the pilot light on so we could have fires in the morning. I like to sleep with the window open all night even though it is 34 degrees out then wake up and turn the fire on. I know, cuckoo bananas.
One thing I will miss about this place is the gorgeous winter sunrises over the mountains. I know you can't see the mountains so great in this cell phone picture { the Nikon was in the car } but trust me, they are there and they are great.
I had Avery come to work with me yesterday. Matt got off at 10:30 and I started at 10:30 so she was only there 35 minutes. I had a station all set up for her with coloring, snacks and a movie. She sat through the opening credits, turned the movie off and wanted to sit on the counter to chat it up with me and Te.
The past 2 Thursdays we have gone over to Madi's house to play { nanny } We have played dress up, colored, painted, had dance parties, all the fun stuff toddlers are into these days :)

We also stayed a couple of nights in Avery's new room at my Mom's { soon to be ours too } house. Avery had our mattress set up for fun and I got a short video of her before she made me turn it off. So bossy :)

Jubilee Farm

2011-10-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

We had planned on going to Jubilee Farm last Saturday but it was POURING out, which would have been fine, if I had a rain coat. I decided to gamble { there is a first time for everything :) } and go on Sunday. We lucked out because Sunday was perfection.
Matt had to work Sunday morning and we were meeting my family at Ixtapa for my sister's birthday at 3 so we had exactly 45 minutes to go pumkining.
The place was packed! I was so surprised and happy to see how many people had come out to the valley for a taste of farm life. The farm was so cute, I wish we had more time to walk around and explore everything they had there.
We got to ride out to the pumpkin patch on a tractor ride. Well, the tractor pulled the thing we were on. My brain is failing to find the right word right now... embarrassing.
Avery was having another day where she did not want me taking pictures of her. I was relieved to see that the pictures that I did manage to get turned out pretty stinkin cute.
Of course, the second we got out to the pumpkin patch Avery said she had to go potty. There were no pottys around so I hauled her over to the river bank and let nature take its course.

This is the point where she was really over having her picture taken and she refused to look at me.
See Matt laughing as she is yelling at me not to take her picture?! Such a butthead :)
I wanted to be in a picture but this was as close to me as she would get. I swear, some days this child makes me want to scream/laugh/cry all at the same time.
Waiting for the tractor trolly to come pick us up again. They also had a couple of horse drawn carriages that looked super cool, but we were on a tight schedule :(
Every pumpkin Matt picked Avery said it was too big. She just wanted a little gourd. You know, something she could carry around with her :)

We usually go to Two Brother's Game Haven for the pumpkin picking, we probably should have this time since we had a time limit, but I thought it would be fun to check out Jubilee Farm. I am glad that we did, it is such a cute place and we will be back again for sure. The owners come into Blake's a lot too and they are such nice people, I was so glad to see how popular their place is. I am thinking next year we will get our pumpkins at Two Brothers and go to Jubilee for some pony rides, fresh apple cider and the pumpkin tossing :) Expect, I also wanted to go to Bob's Corn Maze because that place looks like a lot of fun too. Maybe I can convince Matt to hit up another pumpkin patch either today or tomorrow :)

Bastyr Trick or Treating

2011-10-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

Avery would only let me take one picture of her last Friday when we went Trick or Treating at Bastyr { hint: it is the last picture } Luckily she wasn't being quite so silly when Auntie Sissy wanted pictures so the first 3 are from her camera :)
She is so stinking cute. I can't wait for the real deal on Monday!
I am still a little bummed we didn't get pictures of her with the other princesses, but oh well, this is better than nothing!

Cell Phone Saturday

2011-10-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

I uploaded these in order, but then mysteriously were re-arranged. I am just going to go with it though. Bear with me! Monday was a gorgeous day so we went to Lake Tye Park to get some fresh air and Vitamin D. The ducks were out begging for snacks and I got all up in their business. I love how this picture turned out.
Avery had some wounds on her face this week, although now I don't even remember how they happened exactly. The bump on the forehead was when she slipped off the curb, I didn't see it happen so I didn't know she even hit her head until Matt started freaking out, more than Avery I might add... The lip thing is from her sucking on her lip and then picking at it, gross. It has thankfully cleared up now though.
Back to the park! I would have liked to have the Nikon but I forgot it, so these cell picks will have to do. What did we do before cell phones with cameras?!

As usual, she did not want to leave the playground. There was another little girl there with a lolly pop so we told Avery if she left like a big girl she could get a lolly pop at the store. Fred Meyer didn't have any actual suckers that you could just buy one of so she got this sickening push pop thing that Matt picked out.
Another out of order picture...
Tuesday after our yoga class we went and had lunch at Blake's. She got an awesome dinosaur toy from the vending machine.
Last night we went Trick or Treating at Bastyr. Avery loved getting dressed up like a princess. She is going to be a princess for Halloween { completely her idea } and I will curl her hair and put some glitter on her, but last night we left right after I got off work so I didn't have time to get her all gussied up. Everyone absolutely adored her anyway, duh :) I remembered to bring the Nikon last night but I only got one picture... she would not let me take any pictures of her with the other costumed folks. Then when we were in the car she asked if she could get her picture taken with the princesses but I wasn't turning the car around. She's such a silly goose sometimes. We did go to Red Robin for dinner and she did get to wear this in the restaurant, which she loved. The hostess asked if it was her birthday, I should have lied and said yes, but I want to set a good example for her. I tried to get another picture of her there, but again, she refused. So spirited that one is.

Bellevue Botanical Gardens

2011-10-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the sun was shining and we had cabin fever so we racked our brains for something outdoorsy { and free } to do. I have always heard great things about the Botanical Garden but have never been so we drove over there to check it out for ourselves.
It was the perfect day to walk around and explore, I was over-dressed but sweating a little is a good thing!
At first I was thinking that we had picked the wrong time of year to come because we walked and walked and walked and only saw some native plants. But we must have walked the loop backwards because there were a lot of flowers where we came out.
I just ended up taking a lot of pictures of Avery to make up for the "lack" of flowers :)
She has been hanging out with her Dad too much who always says "Don't take my picture!" so now she isn't as thrilled about getting her picture taken...
If I snap enough, fast enough I can sometimes still get a cute one though.

I love the waterfalls :)
See, these are the pictures I get of Matt. His butt.

By now she wanted me to take her picture... on every rock and bench she saw. And this is the fake smile she gave me.

Avery absolutely insisted I take this picture, even though all that was behind them was a fenced in condominium. And this is the face they make. So ridiculous.
We made it to the flowers!

On our way back we decided to stop at Marymoor Park to let Avery play a little bit. When we left we had no idea what was going to be at the Botanical Gardens and we mistakenly told her we were going to a park... so the whole time we were walking around the gardens Avery kept asking us where the playground was. She had fun at Marymoor though and keeps asking us to take her back to "The Dinosaur Park." It is a little far from Monroe though and we had to pay a dollar to park there. We'll go back I'm sure but I'm in no rush.
Although the dinosaur was pretty fun :)
I think we will also go back to the Botanical Gardens in December. I hear they do a really cool set up with Christmas lights. I also bet it is amazing in the Spring!

Cuteness Overload

2011-10-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Miss Ireland came over and played with Avery on the trampoline.
Megan and I were laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our faces.
They chased each other...

Sang silly songs...

Pretended to be airplanes...
But their favorite thing to do was yell "It's a Trampoline!!!" and then throw themselves facedown onto the trampoline. Then erupt in hysterical laughter. And repeat :)

Playing at Grammy's House

2011-10-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to try and make jam FOREVER. I really wanted to make raspberry jam because that is my favorite { ahem... the only kind I like } but I missed the boat on picking raspberries. Luckily there are a lot of yummy blackberries at my Mom's house. Avery and I love to pick them, we usually just freeze them so we can use them all Winter long but I decided I would try to make some jam with them since there were so many. I really wanted Matt to take a picture of my hand when I was elbow deep in it but he said we didn't really have time to do that { borrrr-ing! } it looked like I had murdered someone, it was awesome.
I can't remember how many jars we got, 10ish? I was terrified to try it for some crazy reason but after a couple days of Matt telling me how good it was I sucked it up and tried some. It is ok. I am still eating the jar of raspberry jam I have from the store... BUT when that is gone, I will eat the blackberry jam. I will also be sure to get my butt out to the raspberry field next year so I can make a jam I will actually want to eat. I know. I am ridiculous. Oh, we also canned peaches. I have no pictures of that and I have no intention of eating those either. I more of a canned pear kind of girl.
I made a hell of a find a few weeks ago. A huge bag of Barbies out in storage. Some used to be mine, most of them are Teanna's though. Avery absolutely loves them. Ting Ting and Mama had a grand ole time playing with her too. I'm not sure Baby Girl was as thrilled about the discovery as we were though :)

mobile uploads

2011-10-15T19:40:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to get pictures from my phone onto the blog since I got the phone { back in February...! } I still haven't figured out how to do it from the phone, but a combination of loading them to a private album on Facebook and importing and resizing them here has seemed to work. Hallelujah! The first one is part of Avery's new obsession, picking up Sasha and carrying her EVERYWHERE. I feel so awful for Sasha but don't really know what to do about it. Anyway, the other night Avery kept taking the dog into the bathroom, after about the 4th time I went to see what she was doing and they were sitting in the hamper. Avery told me that Sasha was being bad and needed a time out, it was pretty funny but I could tell Sasha was hating it so I called it quits after a few more rounds.
Most of our stuff is in boxes waiting to be moved right now. While we were packing Avery thought it would be fun to play with my cowboy hat. I love that cheesy grin.

A couple weeks ago Matt wanted to go to his nephew's football game and he took Avery with him. I stayed back with the dogs & Te came over and we watched some True Blood. It was magical :)

Avery wanted me to take a picture of her and Baby Gaga. I don't know if she realizes that she is choking her baby or not... I think she does not.
Avery found this teeny cowboy hat at my Mom's house. She had it on Sasha { I have other pictures of that that will come later } I just really love the position of Matt's hand in this picture. I will let you guess why for yourself ;)
I just love them.
Here is me & Avery with the tiny hat. This is an AWFUL picture but Avery's bug eyes are just too hysterical.
We painted Avery's new room on Tuesday, the color is Sassy Lilac { or Violet, I honestly can't remember } I love the color and so does she. She "helped" us paint a little.
I have been working a couple of days a week back at Blake's. I worked yesterday and dropped off Avery to play with Jack and Grammy & Papa's house til Matt could pick her up. They were so excited to see each other & wanted to watch a movie together. I put on The Little Mermaid for them and they cozied up in the same seat. It was pretty hard for me to leave them, I could have sat there and watched them watch the whole movie together.

Ahh, now that I have figured this out I will hopefully being doing a weekly post of phone pics. A couple of blogs I follow have a link up called "Insta Friday" where they post pictures every Friday from their phones. I don't know if I will link up but I will be copying the idea for sure :)

Our Last Pool Day

2011-10-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

It was more of an indoor pool kind of summer than outdoor pool weather so we didn't even bring this thing out until the end of August. Avery probably only played in it 3 or 4 times but she had fun each time so that is all that matters. She also spent so much time at the river over the summer that she turned into a real River Baby, but the pool water isn't quite as frigid on her soft little skin.

Our Trampoline!!

2011-10-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

Ok! Here it is folks, pictures from our first few days with our new { to us } trampoline! I would like to start by saying I have wanted a trampoline my entire life, so this is a dream come true for me :)
Little Miss Avery is very pleased as well. She had her first experience with a trampoline at about 20 months and I have been wanting to get her one ever since.
I love these first pictures of her playing, she was so scared to do anything on it, just like a little baby deer learning how to walk, so cute.
There were a couple of tumbles but she is a seasoned professional now.
A family friend was getting rid of her trampoline and I took it sight unseen. I didn't care what it looked like, it was free. If it was unusable then we could just junk it. Lucky for us it is in perfect working order.
These pictures are from the same day, the swimsuit ones were in the early after noon and the shorts ones are from the later afternoon.
I love her face in this one :)
She is starting to her her bouncing legs under control.
She doesn't have a lot of hair, but the hair she has flies all over the place and gets filled with static electricity.

See those silly chickens in the background? They wanted to see what all the laughing was about. They also like to try and sneak into the neighbors yards, they are so naughty sometimes.

Here she is gearing up for her favorite trick, bouncing onto her bottom.

Static Hair!

Ahhhh, I am so happy I am finally able to load these. I'm sure you can tell by the swimsuit/tank top & shorts/sunshine they were taken a while ago! I finally just swallowed my pride and paid for more storage on the blog. After searching other alternatives I just decided that I am comfortable with this format and that $5 a year really isn't that much to pay for something that I love doing :) More blogs to come! I have some pictures to catch up on!

I'm. Going. To. Cry.

2011-10-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well, this was supposed to be a very happy post about how much fun we are having with our new { to us! } trampoline. Filled with way too many pictures and pithy captions. BUT apparently I have exceeded my photo storage limit with Blogger and they will not be allowing me to upload any more photos to the blog without paying them some money. I would like to know when this was enforced and who came up with this blasphemy. I was able to put the pictures into a Picassa Album, scratch that, two Picassa Albums because technology doesn't seem to be throwing me a bone today. You can see them here. I did not know that I had a Picassa Page but I guess I do... I would love some counseling about what to do here. I want to keep blogging but with pictures. Duh. Any advice would be helpful. Well, any helpful advice would be helpful. Ok, bloggers, share your secrets with me.

Random/End of August Photo Dump

2011-09-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

I started this post on Thursday, it is now Monday. This is how our life is lately {hence why I am doing a photo dump instead of a few individual posts } These first pictures are of one of our many projects going on lately, fixing the roof of the addition at my Mom's house. See my Dad? See his video camera? He likes to document these things/interview Matt while he does work.
I'm not going to say that it slows things down... that probably could go without saying. It is kind of amusing though.
About 5/6 weeks ago Matt left his job at FSA. He had been wanting to for a long time and he found a new job that seemed like a great fit { read:: Too Good To Be True } After two weeks at the new job and being lied to about his hours/schedule, he ended up quitting/getting laid off. So we have had more time to pack { oh yeah, we are moving, can't remember if I have mentioned that... } and nap.
I saw a great tutorial on how to build a compost bin so I got on top of that.
The project cost absolutely nothing, my favorite amount of money to spend on a project.
We just found 3 free palates and staple gunned them together. When it was upright Avery thought that it was her new garden fort :)
We have since nailed a front piece of wood to the open area and have started filling it with leaves and table scraps. Soon it will be a big stinky pile of fertilizer for the garden, yay!
Here is the silly girl using this pillow case as a sleeping bag. I kid you not, Matt had his sleeping bag on the couch for 3 weeks and my OCD went into hyper overdrive. He refused to put it away { I can't reach where it goes or trust me, I would have done it! } until I cried. Yes, I am that person that cries when they don't get listened to for 3 weeks.
We met a new puppy friend. One of my brother's friends brought over this sweet little unnamed critter.
Teanna and Avery were in love.

Joe came over and helped clear blackberry bushes at my Moms. We kept him company and cheered him on, ha ha.
All tuckered out.
On one of the last swimsuit days, Ben came over and I gave him some amazeballs cornrows. I think I braided everyone's hair this day, good times.

Blueberry Picking At Blue Dog Farm

2011-09-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

Evergreen State Fair - 2011 Edition

2011-09-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

We went to the fair on Two For Tuesday, which means we got in before 2pm so admission was only $2 a person & Avery was free! Since it was Tuesday, it was a lot less crowded and a lot more enjoyable.
It was the first year Avery was tall enough to ride on rides { besides the merry-go-round } so we kicked things off with the swings.
As usual, there are a lot of photos. I wish I knew how to combine them into a collage type thing, but I don't, so you just get to enjoy all of the ones I couldn't bear to delete :)
Avery's face in these is priceless, she is SO Excited.

After her first ride, she was ready for the next one! Gotta love their matching fake smiles!
This one was no adults allowed, and since it was only her second ride, we were all a little nervous about it.
There were other kids in the train car with her though.
And it was topping out at about 3 mph, so it was all good.
It was nice to give her a little taste of independence, ha ha.

After the train came the cars. She was having so much fun I could barely get a shot of her face.

Not to mention, she was chatting up the young gentleman behind her most of the time. It was so cute. I love little people conversations.
I got a wave! I wish my lens zoomed in farther.
I didn't want to blow all of our tickets right off the bat so we went and got some gut bombers for lunch. Avery wanted a hamburger, which is a first. She chowed down on it though. We had some corn dogs that were not up to par and some curly fries that were tasty, all for the sum of $30! Good thing admission was so cheap :)

After food it was time to look at the animals. These draft horses were massive.
New baby pigs! It was a struggle for me to walk away without shoving one up my shirt. I want one so bad.

Avery thought they were just okay.
She didn't know what to think about the big pigs.

The medium pigs were her favorite.
Gotta love the glare!
Once we got to the sheep and goats she wanted to do some petting.
I told her she could touch their ears if they were poking out of the wire. I didn't want her to get nibbled on.
My Mom made quick friends.
A little too friendly, too quickly... So hilarious.
The one ride I got to go on was the worst! The teacups are just torture - all that spinning. But Avery saw a purple teacup and wanted in on the action. I had a death grip on her the whole time. She told me "I getting dizzy" and I could sympathize.
The only ride Matt wanted to take her on was this mini roller coaster. She refused and refused but he finally broke her down and talked her into it.
The angles of these pictures aren't so great, but it was the best I could do.

A little family photo. Can you tell we are all beat?
After we saw all the animals, spent all our tickets, we bribed her with ice cream to get her in the car without a fight. She was ready for a nap so I was hoping her exhaustion would override the sugar.
She looks like she is in absolute heaven.

I got two little videos on my phone. The first one is Avery & Grammy on the swings. The second one is Avery in the little car.

We had a blast, like always. I can't wait for next year when she will be even more opinionated about what she wants to do :)

Naptime

2011-09-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

I am so grateful that Avery still takes naps, even though they seem to be getting shorter, it is just long enough for me to either be completely productive or completely lazy. I just love to watch her sleep. She is always so sweet and cute, but I think she is purely angelic when she sleeps and she makes the cutest noises and sometimes she will even talk, which is priceless! A lot of the time she wakes up quoting movies, so she must be dreaming about her favorites! Lately she has been quoting Toy Story and waking up and saying things like "You are a toy! A child's play thing!" and "Andy!!" it is hilarious.

The first 4 pictures are actually all from the same nap, this was the day that she fell asleep at 3 in the afternoon and slept until 8 the next morning. Matt and I were dumbstruck. We had no idea what to do with ourselves, don't worry about us though, we survived :)

Avery's New Favorite Activity

2011-09-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

I had a really cute video of them playing Candyland but it was too long to load :( This particular game I was not allowed to play... Avery has been doing this lately, where she says that only her and Daddy can do something. Lucky for me, it is not all of the time, sometimes she just needs some Daddy Daughter time, which is fine because sometimes I need some Mommy time to myself :)

21

2011-08-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

A week & a half ago, this one turned 21.

Her new { asian } drivers license.

She got more than a couple free drinks, as it should be :)

We were all so excited to celebrate with her.

With UM, her Godfather. Avery snuck into as many pics as she could.

Proud Mama.

Proud Sissy. I held off on the drinks til we hit up the casino, good thing too, I hit a deer between dropping off Avery & Matt & picking up Mama & sisters. True story. All is well, except my side mirror.

These ones still have a while before they can hit up the casino. I will not be going ever again though. I seriously feel like I have lung cancer now from all of the second hand smoke exposure, so gross.

Instead of churros or fried ice cream Te got a double shot of tequila with a side of whip cream.

The whip cream was just to hold the candle up though :)

Here goes nothing!

Once again, Avery did a number on the whip cream, hmmm, wonder where she gets it?? { Usually this would be a jab at the hubs but I have an unhealthy obsession with whip cream. Seriously. I like it better than ice cream. }

On an unrelated note, my apologies to anyone that frequently checks for new posts. I just haven't been taking so many pictures lately and I have a feeling that no one really cares what I have to say when there are no pictures :)

me :: A-Z

2011-08-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

A. age :: thirty!

B. bed size :: queen. need to upgrade!

C. chore you hate :: scrubbing the bathtub

D. dogs :: Sasha

E. essential start to your day :: I like a glass of juice, but I would survive with out it

F. favorite color :: pink & blue

G. gold or silver :: silver

H. height :: five feet and a fraction of an inch

I. instruments you play :: none well!

J. job title :: mama <3

K. kids :: Avery

L. live :: Monroe - NOT for long :)

M. maiden name :: Bergquist

N. nicknames :: Mur, Murlinka

O. overnight hospital stays :: when Avery was born

P. pet peeve :: so many! ha ha

Q. quote :: "Be careful with me, I'm sensitive & I'd like to stay that way." -Jewel

R. righty or lefty :: right

S. siblings :: 2 bros, 2 hoes {kidding!} all younger

T. time you wake up :: 7ish

U. university attended :: Carroll College

V. vegetables you dislike: none that I know of, maybe baby corn.

W. what makes you run late :: my sweet lil one

X. x-rays you’ve had :: left arm, left leg, right leg, dentist, ultrasounds {not sure that counts}

Y. yummy food :: Mexican!

Z. zoo animal favorite :: penguins, otters, kangaroos.

I didn't really have anything new to post but I felt like blogging, so here you go :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2011-08-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my Grandpa's 85th birthday! Avery and I made him some yummy treats in the morning.
Then we headed down to my Mom's house to get things ready for a small bbq for him.
Auntie Sissy playing with Avery in the Dora tent.
Grandpa dishing up!
We bbq'd some of the salmon that Te and Jeff caught on their fishing trip the week before. We were lucky to score some, they only caught 150 pounds of fish :)
These goofy girls and their prom poses.

Avery loved singing Happy Birthday!
She can sing the whole song, it is so cute.

I finally got a picture of Jeff in his shirt I made him for Christmas! It is a cheetah :)
Te wanted a couples picture but Avery insisted on being in it too.
Then she wanted a picture of just her and Jeff.
And another one with Teanna.
We had fun, I am glad we were able to get together to celebrate such a special guy!

ps - do you see that Avery wanted to wear a sweater and a sweatshirt? In August? SO silly.

Videos

2011-08-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple random videos from my phone. The first one is Avery playing on her playset at my Mom's house. I thought it might take her longer to try and climb the rock wall but she is not afraid of it at all, such a big girl.

The second video is from today at her 3 year check up at the doctors office. We had plenty of time to make a video because they keep you waiting so.freaking.long. She is a nice child when I bring her in but after making us wait forever she is a lil stinker by the time the doctor finally gets to us. She is healthy as can be, just tiny { surprise surprise } 35.5 inches tall, 16th percentile for height and 26.04 pounds, 8th percentile for weight. I just hate how they act surprised every time her statistics come it, like I starve her and keep her locked up in a tower all day or something. Look at her records, hell, look at me! If I'm not mistaken, height is hereditary... Whatever, she is healthy, that is all that matters.

Hello Kitty Trike

2011-08-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Our present to Avery was a trike. After she got a taste for bikes on our camping trip we knew she was ready for one. Unfortunately we didn't order it in time so it didn't get here til Monday.
She is SO funny. I had the video camera out to tape reaction { thinking it would be sheer excitement } but when Matt walked in the door with it she just calmly said, "Daddy, you brought my Hello Kitty Bike home?" like she had been expecting it or had had it her entire life. She is such a character.
She loves it... but... she may be a little too big for it, her legs are so long! We were kind of wishing we had got one of the ones you push from behind because she had a hard time pedaling forward. She will get it, it's just our backs will hurt until she figures it out :)

A little off-roading.

She wanted to push it a little bit.

Yesterday we had to leave the house for a while so some people could come look at the condo so I packed up the bike, the dog and the toddler and went to the park. I knew it would be hard to walk Sasha on the leash and push the trike at the same time so I tied a jump rope to the trike so I could pull it with Avery on it. That worked for the first half of the track but then she decided that she wanted to pull the trike instead of ride it. I think she was just wanted to play at the playground more than ride her bike. I was hoping to get a video of her riding her bike, but this is the video I got, of my very strong willed little one.

Yes, she is wearing fleece pants, NOT my idea. She thinks she needs to wear pants under all of her dresses and she has pretty much grown out of all her stretch pants and I haven't been able to find any in her size.

After this video was taken we went to the park and she played for a half hour but it was getting late so we packed up and headed home to dinner. She threw the mother of all tantrums and ripped my hair out at the roots, it still hurts today. When we got back to the condo she refused to walk and picked her trike up and threw it against the garage, so it now has it's first scratches and war wounds, that didn't take long.

Birthday Party Time

2011-08-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

We had Avery's birthday party on Sunday and she had a great time. I picked Saint Edwards State Park because they have THE COOLEST play area for kids that I have ever seen. I did not know that a new law went into effect this year and you had to pay to park there... again, my apologies about that one.
The days leading up to the party were gorgeous and sunny. The forecast for Sunday was a gloomy morning that would clear up, that happened but it drizzled on us for most of the party. If only I hadn't listened to my husband's request to have the party at noon :) I can blame the rain on him, right?
Gracyn was fresh off her birthday high and was Avery's assistant for the presents and cake.
Although Avery has more than enough material goods I refrained from requesting no presents this year like I did last year. 1) because no one really listens to that request anyways 2) because I don't like having people think that I am a horrible monster bitch of a mom 3) because she knows better! She knows that you get presents on your birthday and would have been sad if she didn't get any and 4) because I loved seeing her eyes light up at each gift she opened.
I have every intention of hand writing some thank you cards, but sometimes life happens and if you don't get one then please accept this THANK YOU from Avery, me and Mattie. She truly loved everything she got.

Avery didn't want the "special" chocolate and vanilla 3 cupcake I made her, Auntie Ting Ting really wanted it though!
Giving cousin Jack a kiss goodbye, so sweet. He was the only person she would say bye to, the little turkey.
Kelsey and Baby Elias, he had a party the day before that we had a blast at.
Avery, Gracyn, Carter and Blake.
Proudly wearing the shirt I made her. She loved it and talked about all week, then the morning of her party she threw a fit that I was making her wear it, she loves to test me.

They were so cute talking to each other.

There was even a swing for Daddy!

I wanted to try and get a family photo...
This was the best one, ha ha.

She wanted me to take this one :)

See all that water at the bottom of the slide, yuk.

I am glad she had so much fun, she won't remember the rain, just the fun she had and the joy of being surrounded by loved ones. Thanks again for coming out!

Cinderella Barbie

2011-08-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

I tried to get her to wear clothes for this... but, I will let you guess how that showdown ended. My Mom had picked up this Cinderella Barbie for Avery a month ago and has been dying to give it to her so she came up on Avery's actual birthday to give it to her. Avery is obsessed with Cinderella, for no apparent reason, what.so.ever. She had never even seen the movie until Sunday after her party, her other Grammy got her the movie for her birthday. Anywhoo, Avery loves her Barbie, it is sitting on her lap naked, with no accessories as I write this. Avery likes her dolls to be free of clothing, just like her.

Fakers

2011-08-03T19:59:00.000-07:00