A Day in the Life...

Emmy's Babbles

2009-03-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since I posted. Imagine that! I have to apologize in advance for this post because I just got both girls down to bed and I am completely exhausted. Hopefully I'll be able to stay awake long enough to finish!

Well Emmy has now turned 7 months old and is now my little chunky monk. She is eating food and loving every minute of it! Still no crawling yet, but that's perfectly fine with me. She is moving around and loves to pull herself up to stand. She has also started saying "Ga Ga" and "Ma Ma", to my delight! Most babies say "Da Da" first because it's easier to say, but I guess all the secret verbal coaching worked. Just kidding, Babe.

Avery is having a blast being a big sister, going to preschool and learning new things every day. Some of her latest accomplishments include writing her own name, walking the balance beam at gymnastics all by herself, and swinging all by herself. Now, the writing her own name feat is still far from perfect but every time she does write it, I crack up. The "E" usually has about 12 lines going across...she just can't seem to stop herself once she gets started. And the "R" is a struggle but she's learning!

In my own news, I have started working part time, and when I say part time I mean VERY part time, for our church. I basically get all the materials ready for the toddler Sunday school program and make sure everything is good to go each Sunday. It's not much right now, but it gets me out of the house and using my brain! And it's so nice because if need be, I can take both girls with me while I'm working. Matt is continuing to enjoy his work, but has been stressed out to the maximum lately. He was in charge of a test that finally completely last Thursday. It will definitely be nice to have him home more often now.

OK, well for now I think that's about sums up what has been going on the last month in our house. On to the pics and videos!

Emmy's babbles on film.

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Me and my youngest baby girl.

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Fun with Daddy....Hmmmm....it seems the two sisters are already plotting against us!

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Eeeeeewww! If you look closely you can actually see Sammi's tongue all the way in Emmy's mouth. I just can't believe we caught it at the perfect moment. At least she loves her to pieces!

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Mmmmm..."coffee." (Or as mommy and daddy like to call it, hot chocolate)

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Hot chocolate mustache.

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How cute are they? ;)

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Emmy Update

2009-02-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

Well as all of you who are parents know, the first year of a child's life is full of accomplishments. The transformation that takes place is amazing, yet also bittersweet. I think we (parents) get so caught up in trying to savor the moments, that we forget to actually do it! I am most definitely guilty. Even as I write, I am sad to think that my newest babe is already almost 6 months old. I can still vividly remember bringing Avery home from the hospital. I blinked and now she is 3 years old and in preschool. Emmy is growing up faster than I could have imagined, but it is a wonderful thing to see your children grow. That being said, Emmy has had many accomplishments since we last left off. She is now eating cereal, sitting up all by herself and interacting more with her big sis. In fact, her new favorite feat, if you will, is to pucker her lips together and blow raspberries. She cracks us up! Enjoy the pictures and videos!

I can't believe I caught this one at the perfect time. Not sure who's she rooting for here....it was taken pre-Super Bowl so maybe the Steelers??

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More craziness...

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Can't forget Big Sis!

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Here, Emmy is experimenting what it's like to blow raspberries and eat cereal at the same time. If you look closely, you can actually see the cereal flying out of her mouth.

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OK, I'm not sure what's funnier in this video....Avery's giggling or Emmy's raspberry blowing.

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Look what I can do!

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Catching up...

2009-01-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

Obviously I have a lot of "Hlivko moments" to catch up with on the blog, but it will be a very slow process. We hope everyone is having a splendid new year! I typically don't make any resolutions, however I continually work on eating better, keeping in better contact with friends and family and getting organized. Those seem to be the staples year after year! Our New Year's Eve was a quiet one spent throwing Hershey Kisses in the air (an Avery request) and drinking sparkling juice. Well Avery drank the sparkling juice, Matt and I had the real thing. We celebrated with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin since CNN aired the live feed for the East Coast celebration. Avery wasn't any worse for the wear but I'm assuming one of these years she will figure us out! Darn the luck.

On with the pictures and video:

The first couple of pictures of of Avery and I before leaving for the Allan Hancock College performance of The Nutcracker. We really had a great time and now, as you can imagine, Avery is an aspiring ballerina.

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This is a picture of our cookie making fun. Avery loves to help in the kitchen...especially when cookies are involved. She iced and decorated many of our cookies...it's a good thing most of them were for us! She really enjoyed licking the knife each time she iced a cookie. Trying to explain to a 3 year old that that isn't sanitary doesn't go over so well. Oh well, I can always hope!

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And last but not least, here is the video of Emmy rolling over on Christmas Day. She hasn't done it since so it's a good thing I got it on tape!

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Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We certainly did and as usual, Santa was very good to us. Both girls were spoiled with many new and exciting toys. Matt and I are just counting our blessings that we were able to be together as a family for Christmas. We had some friends over for dinner and of course Avery couldn't wait to show Grant all the toys Santa left and ones her Grandparents sent. Emmersen also gave us a present of her own...she rolled for the first time on Christmas day! We really had a great day and are now looking forward to a new year. And as usual in the past few years, we are baffled that yet another Christmas has come and gone and a new year is about to begin.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello!

2008-12-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been longer than ever since I've blogged! I can't believe I've gone this long. Well, I'm sure you'll all be completely shocked when I say that one of my new year's resolutions will be to dutifully update the blog at least once a week. I am going to work diligently to accomplish this goal. With Emmy getting bigger and needing a little less of my attention, I hope to actually follow through with this resolution.

As you can imagine with a newborn around the house, much has happened since I last left you all. Particularly with Emmersen's health. After several visits to the ER and doctor's office, we've now discovered she is allergic to both milk and soy. She is on a very specialized formula (in fact, the most specialized there is) and seems to be doing well. However, her acid reflux is constantly a battle. With her allergies, we are now seeing a pediatric gastroenterologist so he has been closely monitoring her allergies and reflux. One of these days the poor kid might actually feel good! Thankfully, aside from the aforementioned issues, she is a relatively happy baby. Very smiley, except of course for the camera! Preparations are now underway for Christmas. It's such an exciting time as a parent. Avery is starting to understand the concept even more but definitely showed reservations when meeting the man in red. Her only request was to receive 5 presents. I told her Santa may be able to take care of that, but of course she'd need to be a good girl. So easy to please. It makes me dread the days when 5 presents of any kind will do. I have many pictures to post, of course as usual, but I will first start with Emmy's monthly pictures. I realized I missed posting her three month shot...mostly due to the fact that we were busy trying to figure out a diagnosis for her problems. Without further ado, here they are!

Three months...right about when she started getting sick and losing weight. :(

Four months...a much happier baby!

Proud Mama

2008-11-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

These photos were taken while my dad was in town a few weeks ago. I know I am biased, but I think these pictures turned out wonderfully. The dresses are a gift from Sam who had them made for the girls. They are such thoughtful and special gifts, not to mention beautiful!

Update on Emmersen since her last well baby check up: she's actually been to the doctor now twice in the last week. The first appointment was because of her acid reflux problem. It seemed to be getting worse so we packed up and made the trip in to the doctor. She had gained about a pound in a little over 3 weeks, seemed to be doing well aside from the spitting up. We adjusted a few things here and there and then Friday hit. She wasn't eating right and her diapers were becoming quite explosive. I took her to the doctor again today and she had actually lost about 5 oz. Of course, I started freaking out a bit but after I explained what was going on to our pediatrician he mentioned an intolerance to the protein in milk. I guess she is displaying the classic symptoms of this intolerance so we are going to try to switch her to a soy based formula. Hopefully that does the trick. If not, we will need to put her on a hypoallergenic formula which unfortunately is quite a bit more expensive. The doc said the symptoms don't show up until 2-3 months which would explain why we are just now learning about this. Thankfully she should out grow this problem by 6 months so we're keeping our fingers crossed. We are hoping the soy formula will also help with the reflux and help to make her a happier baby. Poor thing! Who knows how long she's really been feeling crummy and we just didn't know it. OK, that's the short version of what's been going on with little Emmy! Now on to the pictures.

My beautiful girls.

My dad and the girls. I have a ton of pictures to post (imagine that!) of all of our visitors but I had to get this one up because it was such a great picture.

Just a few more shots...

2008-11-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

Avery and her buddy Grant. By the time I got our camera working, they were off to bigger and better things...like CANDY!

And that's a pumpkin down her shirt...don't ask! Ha Ha

of our Halloween outing!

Happy Halloween???

2008-11-03T13:07:00.001-08:00

So I am a few days late in getting these pictures posted. It seems that's the story of my life lately....a few days late on everything! Our slew of visitors is over and now our life consists of getting back to a regular routine. We miss everyone and are so thankful for all of our family members who came to visit and help while we adjusted to having another little one around the house. Matt was also gone last week and I tell you, I can't believe I survived! Ha Ha I know, women (and sometimes men) do it all the time, but I was feeling a little disheveled while he was away. Anyway on the the reason for the post. Here are a few snapshots of the girls on Halloween. Avery is a fairy princess. I know, a shocker to those of you who know her. And Emmersen is, well, a baby! If you can read her shirt in any of the pictures it actually says: "This IS my costume!" I loved it!! We hope you all had a happy, safe Halloween and if your adventures were good, your teeth are probably rotting away as you read! :) Enjoy!!

My girls

2008-10-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken awhile ago now, but better late then never right??

Tiny foot

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Tiny Hand

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Tiny Baby

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My other baby...maybe she'll teach her baby "sitter" (as she calls her), how to suck her thumb. Isn't she beautiful?

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Doesn't she already have that "c'mon Mom!" look on her face? Scary! Ha Ha

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Tagged! I am it!

2008-10-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

I got tagged from Sam! Now you see how often I've been reading and posting on blogs lately. Still getting used to having two children! I know I can't use that excuse forever though!

10 years ago I was...

1. Starting my first year of college at Miami University. Wow that's scary to think about!

2. Trying to find all my classes and get to them on time.

3. Discovering all the advantages and disadvantages of being away from home.

4. Making new friends.

5. Pulling all nighters for exams! Thank goodness I don't have to do that again!

5 things on today's to do list..

1. Do a new post to the blog (done!---ditto Tammi!

2. Take a nap. (dealing with a newborn who doesn't like to go right back to sleep after she eats at night)

3. Call the base pharmacy---done!

4. Start thank you cards from Avery's birthday.

5. Spend time with my Dad while he's here visiting.

5 snacks that I enjoy...

1. Ice cream---stole this from you again, Tammi!

2. Chocolate

3. Fruit

4. Peanut Butter sandwich

5. Chips

5 things I would do it I was a millionaire...

1. Pay off debt

2. Invest

3. Travel

4. Move closer to home and buy a house or property to retire in

5. Take care of my family and volunteer more

5 places that I have lived...

1. Hartville, OH

2. Oxford, OH

3. Canton, OH

4. Vandenberg, AFB, CA

5. Cheyenne, WY

5 jobs that I have had...

1. McDonald's worker...yes I'm one of those!

2. Grocery store cashier

3. Waitress

4. Student Supervisor at our University market

5. Admin assistant at the Wyoming Society of CPAs

Now I've done my part! I actually followed through and completed this! Even while holding my second born in a sling and dealing with a screaming toddler who doesn't want to nap! OK, well I will try to post some actual pictures at some point today. Right now, I've got to get Avery.

OH, the five people I'm tagging: Mae, Kim F., Jenna, Beth, and Debbie. Have a great one everybody!

Happy 2 Month Birthday Emmy!

2008-10-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

I know I've been a blog slacker yet again. Give me some time! We've had many visitors and are looking forward to my Dad coming to town Wednesday.

Emmy had her two month well baby last Thursday and is a happy, healthy little girl. She's now 12lbs. 1 oz. and is 21.9 inches long. She's growing so fast and believe me when I say the second child grows up even faster than the first! She has now started cooing at us and the smiles have started as well. It melts my heart every time. She's been such a good baby! She definitely has her moments, but over all she is a pretty mellow little girl. She is going to have to be tough to put up with her big sister's antics!

I'll post more details of Emmy's life later, but for now I'm signing off to spend some time with Matt's sister before she leaves!

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To our daughter with love

2008-09-14T14:16:00.001-07:00

We've watched you grow up these past three years and are amazed by how giving, kind and wonderful you are. You are such a big girl now and so many things have happened in the past few months to show us how big you are getting. You are now a big sister, going to preschool and learning all kinds of new things. Especially how to push mommy and daddy's buttons by asserting your independence! Our lives became more rich once you entered our family and we are looking forward to watching you grow up into a beautiful young lady. We love you so much and hope you had a terrific birthday!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Avery Grace!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Some of you may recall that my friend Joy made my baby shower cake. Well, we loved it so much that I asked her to make Avery's 3rd birthday cake. As you can imagine, we were absolutely amazed by how it turned out! It's absolutely perfect and we are so lucky to have such a talented friend.

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Mommy, Daddy and our first little girl.

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You'll have to bear with me because it seems that I took more pictures of the cake than anything else at the party!! I was so excited about it!

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Princess Avery

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Avery and some of her friends playing outside. There was so much going on that that's the only picture I snapped of the kiddos! I tried!

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That's Avery's 3rd Birthday celebration! We had a blast, but unfortunately Avery started getting sick yesterday and ended up going to bed while everyone was still here. Those of you that know her know that she definitely had to be sick because she would have never gone to bed while there were still kids to play with!! Poor thing. Not much better today either so we're just staying home, opening presents, ordering her favorite food, pizza, for dinner, and eating left over birthday cake. A very relaxed day!

First Day of Preschool

2008-09-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go? It seems that just the other day we were planning her first birthday party. Our little girl is growing up too quickly. I guess I need to say our first little girl now, don't I? Well today I took her to her first official day of preschool! She's such a well adjusted kid so I tried to prepare myself for the drop off scene. I guess I didn't prepare myself enough because I had to say goodbye to her several times just to get acknowledgement that I was even there! Ha Ha She just walked right in like she owned the place. Typical Avery. Her teacher is actually in our bible study group, so that puts my mind at ease since I am not there to watch her. She is going on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and next Tuesday can't come soon enough for her. We've been talking about school ever since she got home. I'm so happy she enjoys it and it's really something she needs right now. Time away from home to do something just for herself. But....I am torn between emotions of sadness and joy. Sad because my little munchkin is growing up so fast and joy to watch her enjoy and explore life. I'm sure I'll be posting much more about Avery's adventures in preschool. Somehow I foresee many, many, many stories to tell! For now, enjoy the pictures!

Getting ready to go!

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Avery and her teacher, Miss Melinda.

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One month old already!

2008-09-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

Happy one month birthday, Emmersen! I can't believe a month has passed since our second little angel entered the world. Bringing her home from the hospital brought back so many memories for us of when Avery was born. The two of them are identical so we are anxious to see what Emmy will look like in a few more months.

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P.S. Sam, I stole the stuffed animal idea from you. It's such a neat idea to see how they progress over the upcoming months. I hope you don't mind!!

Sleepless in California

2008-09-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd get a post in a little sooner, but being the mom of two little girls is definitely taking some getting used to! As I'm sure you can all imagine, we've been very busy here with our little girls. Emmersen is doing very well. She is such a mellow baby compared to Avery Grace! I hate to say it but is a welcome change. Avery loves her little sister very much but is giving mommy and daddy a run for their money. It's been a tough adjustment for her so temper tantrums have become a regular occurance at our house. I'm not sure if that's because of the baby or just because she's a typical 2 (almost 3) year old! We've already had family come out to visit and are currently visiting with Matt's mom.

We hope everyone is doing well. Right now I'm going to share some pictures of Emmy right after she was born. We've been trying to take snapshots regularly but it seems the days go by even quicker now with two! Enjoy!

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Introducing...

2008-08-09T20:13:00.001-07:00

Emmersen Reese! She was born August 6th at 11:29am and weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 1/2 oz. She is 20 1/4 inches long and is absolutely perfect. We couldn't have asked for an easier labor...after a wopping 2 1/2 hours she made her way in to this world. We are so happy to finally have her here in our home to make our family a family of 4. Avery is doing pretty well in her new role as big sister, but as expected, we are experiencing a few issues. Everyone is doing very well and we are so glad to be back in our own home. I have many pictures to post of our beautiful little girls, but for now here are just a few. Enjoy!!

The whole family!

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Emmersen Reese all dressed and ready for the car ride home. :)

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As I said more pictures are to come! I'll try to get them posted soon, but it may take a little while. Adjusting to our new family is going to take some time!

Date Night

2008-08-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is officially the last post before the Squirt is born! Our friends Jennifer and William took Avery for us last Monday so we could go to dinner and a movie before the baby is born. We had a wonderful meal and went to see The Dark Knight. Great movie! It was so nice to have someone offer to watch Avery instead of trying to find a babysitter! Thank you so much guys!!

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Bowling with Daddy

2008-08-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to the bowling alley on base for lunch. Matt and Avery had a blast bowling together, AND the manager only had to come down a couple of times to help Avery's ball go down the lane. Ha Ha

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Random Pictures

2008-08-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

These are just some random, silly pictures of Avery Grace.

I'm sure all of you, or at least most of you, remember the movie The Little Mermaid. Well, Avery loves the movie and we watch it on a regular basis. This picture is of her using a "dinglehopper" for her hair (a.k.a. a fork!). At first this was pretty funny, and it still is most of the time, but when she started doing this in restaurants, we had to draw the line! Ha Ha

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Pretty Princess

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Showing off her pretty earrings and pretty ribbon. What a ham!

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A Tribute to the Shunee Song!

2008-08-05T14:29:00.001-07:00

I thought this would be fun to post! It's always fun to go back and watch some videos of Avery when she was younger so I decided to do just that! I recently recorded her singing the "Shunee" song and thought it would be neat to compare this one to the one we recorded just over a year ago. It's pretty hilarious to look back at the old one, but amazing to see how much difference a year makes in a little child's life!! Enjoy!

And this time you don't have to listen to my singing!! Ha Ha

Then...

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And now...

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Eatin' Grapes

2008-08-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a silly video of Avery Grace eating grapes. It isn't the most exciting but hopefully they'll put a smile on your face. We certainly had a good time while we were filming! I do have another one that maybe I'll get to post soon but for some reason it is not working correctly. Enjoy!

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Baby Shower

2008-08-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

My friends Stacy and Joy threw a shower for me in July and it was absolutely wonderful. It is so nice to have met such great friends here! We had a great time and I am so grateful to have received such wonderful gifts!

Joy made this cake from scratch! I was blown away...she did an amazing job! And it even tasted better than it looked!

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Stacy put together the diaper cake. Adorable!

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Joy, Me and Stacy. I do have a picture of all the ladies at the shower, but for some reason it's not wanting to post! Ill try again later.

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I know I've said this a million times, but thank you so much Joy and Stacy! I had a great time!

Catching Up

2008-08-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

OK, well it's official! I need to put up lots of posts between today and tomorrow so be sure to keep checking back. We went to the doctor today and will be induced Wednesday morning! Yay! We're as ready as we can be, but still need to do a few things around the house tonight and tomorrow. Right now, I want to get some pictures/videos posted because I fear they never will get up once Baby Squirt is born.

Back in June, we headed to the Lompoc Flower Festival just to see what it was all about. It was pretty neat but unfortunately we weren't able to stay long. However, we managed to squeeze in a pony ride and face painting for Avery. She was in heaven after her face painting! It was hard to explain that it would have to come off eventually. Here she is hamming it up for the camera, as usual!

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Now that Matt's birthday has been almost a month ago, I thought I should post a couple pictures of his big day. We relaxed, did some shopping and of course headed home for some birthday treats! Cupcakes!

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1, 2, 3...Blow!

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New Bed for Avery

2008-07-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

So a little while back we got Avery a toddler bed since her current bed would soon be occupied by the squirt. Along with that we ended up getting all new bedroom furniture for the girls. The old stuff was great, but unfortunately 4 moves didn't do it justice. Avery loves her new bed and will not even recognize her old crib when Matt is done with it. It looks great and will match the cherry furniture we got. On to the reason for the post...for some reason, several months back Avery decided that it would be fun to take her naps on the floor. I believe I was at the point where I didn't care where she slept, just as long as she slept! We were going through a "no nap" phase and I was at my wits end. So I decided to just go ahead and let her. I thought once we got her new bed this habit might stop. As you'll see from the picture, it did not! Ha Ha

I'm sure you can tell from this picture, but she is sleeping so soundly that she is literally underneath her bed. She didn't even wake up when we came in to take the picture.

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These next sets of pictures are partly showing off her new bed and partly showing off her new hair cut. I've been trying to get her hair all one length forever. The back grows extremely faster than the front, so in order to avoid the "mullet" look my hairdresser cut her hair up to match the length of her bangs. I think it looks pretty cute, and maybe one day she'll have long hair!

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San Diego Zoo

2008-07-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

We didn't take as many pictures here as we did Legoland. I think it was because we were so overwhelmed with the size of the zoo. It was huge! And trying to see everything in one day is next to impossible. We did see a ton of animals and Avery really had a great time. We were all completely pooped by day's end but we still managed to make it to the gift shop for a small souvenir. The San Diego Zoo also opened a safari near Carlsbad which we would love to take advantage of before we leave CA.

Mommy & Avery posing in front of the giraffes. The giraffes and elephants were up close and personal as you can see in some of the pictures.

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Daddy & Avery with the elephants. Thank goodness they got out of the way because a few seconds later the elephant behind them decided to pee, and I don't know if any of you have ever seen this event, but it was crazy! Obviously elephants are huge and as you can guess, their pee matches their size!! Ha Ha I think if anyone was standing too close they would have gotten an unpleasant shower. :)

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Avery and the gorillas. Some of the exhibits had life size statues of the animals that the kiddos could play on and get more of an "up close" look at what the animals look like.

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Avery showing off her souvenir in front of the sign...a beanie panda bear. For some reason, Sammi has grown quite fond of this panda bear, out of all the other stuffed animals Avery has! Sometimes well just find it drug out in the middle of the hall or in the dog's kennel. She's strange!

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Well that's it from our little "mini" vacation! Next, I'll be posting some random pictures and videos of what we've been up to lately. Enjoy the weekend!!

Last of Legoland

2008-07-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Avery and Daddy on the ferry boat tour. It takes you a little closer to some of the creations on the water and the guide was able to give you more information as to how long each one took and how many legos were in each one. Of course I don't remember anything now, but it's insane how long some the pieces took.

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This one is of course the Sydney opera house and if you look really close you can actually see a little lego man hanging down fixing the roof. I do believe she said this one took a couple of years to build. Keep in mind these are exact replicas!

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Saying good bye to Darth Vader. This wraps up our day at Legoland. We had a blast and can't wait to take both girls when Squirt is older.

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More Legoland Shots

2008-07-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

Cheeeeeeeeese! Sticking her head in a lion's mouth.

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Luckily this shark was just made out of Legos. :)

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Avery's favorite part was the water park. I think we stayed there for almost 3 hours! It's really cool because it's interactive as you'll see in the following video. The kiddos have to actually learn how to make the water come up.

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Legoland!

2008-07-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm behind on posting. I was doing pretty well for a bit, but as usual fell behind. I'm trying really hard to get caught up with some of the fun things we've been doing before Baby Squirt is born!!! Only 4 more weeks to go and now we're going to the doc weekly for checkups. She's still very active and healthy so we are just anxiously awaiting her arrival. We've been working really hard pulling out Avery's old things and getting things washed and ready for her arrival. Matt has taken on a pretty big project with our old crib. Since we got new furniture for the girls' room, he's painting the crib to match the cherry finish on the rest of the furniture. It looks great so far and hopefully he'll be able to put that project aside soon. July 4th weekend was spent preparing for Squirt and spending time together as a family of 3. Matt took some time off to get things checked off the "honey-do" list and so far so good! What a great husband I have! He even did work on his birthday. I'll be trying to post daily for awhile until I'm caught up so please check back regularly.

After Matt's parents left, we took a family trip down to San Diego. We went to Legoland and the San Diego Zoo. Avery had a blast and sure was one exhausted little girl by the time we got home. Enjoy the pictures and as usual, I'll try to keep them to a minimum. However, I do have to show off some of the amazing Lego creations we saw while at Legoland. It was a really great, family oriented park and we'll definitely be taking advantage of its location while we're here.

Daddy and Avery at the entrance. I tried to get a good shot, but with a toddler, it's next to impossible!

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Mommy and Avery stopping to pose in front of some huge Lego creations!

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Avery's first theme park ride.

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On the choo choo train with my girls.

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Swingset!!

2008-06-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, they got Avery an early birthday present...a swingset! She was over the moon excited about being able to swing in her own backyard, and I was just as thrilled. Now I didn't have to go to the "park with swings" everyday, or at least here about how we couldn't go! We go outside almost every day to swing on her new toy. Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa!! These are the last few pictures of their visit as well. It seems as though I didn't take as many pictures as I had originally thought. Oh well, we did get some good ones just the same!

Today we are heading to a preschool in Orcutt for Avery (and daddy and mommy) to check out. She is so excited but my heart is aching!! I can't believe my little munchkin is ready for preschool. She won't officially start until the fall, after Baby Squirt is born, but we wanted to do some research on different schools in the area before making a decision. I think it will be good for her to have some time to play with friends and do things by herself, while baby and I get some quality time together as well. Hopefully all goes well! Right now, I think she thinks Matt and I will be going with her so when the actual day comes, I'm praying that she'll be all right.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures of Grandma and Grandpa's visit!

This is awesome!

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Look how big and strong I am!

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Grandma taking her turn to push.

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Going down the big slide.

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One last picture with Grandma and Grandpa. :(

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Mommy, Avery and Daddy. She looks much happier with Grandma and Grandpa doesn't she?? Little stinker!!

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Wine Tasting

2008-06-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

Needless to say, the day after the launch we didn't do much. We all took naps and then headed up to San Luis Obispo for the Farmer's Market that evening. We ate some yummy BBQ and bought all kinds of yummy things to bring home. On Saturday, we took Tom and Rose wine tasting. We had a wonderful time and I was at least able to smell the wine! We brought home so many bottles of wine, and once the baby is born I will most definitely be enjoying some. The first winery we went to was absolutely gorgeous. I'll try to keep the pictures to a minimum, but I can't promise!!

Avery was a trooper the whole day, she did so well. She kept cracking us up because every time we got in the car she kept asking if we were going "wine tastin". :) Thankfully that stopped after a few days.

P.S. I wish I could remember all the winery names, but I can't at the moment!! We went to four and they were all within a half hour of our house.

The ladies at the first winery adored Avery, so we ended up taking home a mardi gras mask and 3 bead necklaces! Here is Avery showing off her fancy new accessories. What a ham!

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Grandma Rose and Avery posing by one of the beautiful entryways to the winery.

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Mommy and me! Poor baby Squirt is probably getting squished while I posed for the picture. Ha ha

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Me and my Sweet Pea

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Smile!

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Grandma Rose and Avery, showing off the beautiful landscaping of one of the wineries.

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Just being a goof!

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The whole family. :)

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Missile Launch

2008-06-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

The night Grandma Rose and Grandpa Tom got in to town, there was a launch here at the base. Matt was on the launch team, so we all ventured out at 2:00am to watch the "rocket ship" (as Avery calls it). Avery was a trooper and actually stayed awake the entire time. Thankfully, as soon as we got back home at around 3:30am, she went right back to sleep. It was such a neat thing to see up close and am so proud that my husband was a part of it. It's one of those times when you get chills to think how wonderful this country is (even in the state it is today) and how proud I am to call myself a military spouse.

The missile launch.

What a little trooper. By the way, I forgot to mention how cold it was that night! I think it was in the 40's with the windchill. And to those of us in CA, that's cold!! I have already forgotten how cold cold can be from living in WY!

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The gang....on the left are our friends Stacy and Grant (I think they tried to avoid the picture!), Grandpa Tom is in the middle back and Grandma Rose and Avery on the right.

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Last of OH

2008-06-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

These are officially the last pictures from our trip to OH. Being in CA and WY where it is typically dry, we don't get the mass amounts of worms all over our yard. If it does rain, we will occasionally see some slithering across the sidewalk. With this said, these last pictures are with Meemaw and Papa exploring the underside of the sandbox. What do you think we found? :)

Wow, look at all those yucky bugs!

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Look what I've got, mom!

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Papa, Meemaw, Avery and "the worm".

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Papa and Avery playing on the swingset.

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Video of Avery and her friend "the worm". She's such a curious little girl, but what cracks me up is that one minute she'll want to play princesses and the next she'll want to play with bugs! She's a well rounded little girl, I guess. :)

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Almost done

2008-06-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

I promise, I'm almost done with our visit to OH! It's been a whirlwind these past couple of weeks. Matt's parents came to town and as soon as they left, we took a mini family vacation to San Diego. I have many pictures to share from that, but for now enjoy some more pictures from OH.

Since it's been so long ago now, I forget what day this is, BUT we were able to spend some time at Michelle and Eric's house for dinner. Avery, Alexis and Riley had a great time playing together and we also discovered that Avery can drive! Ha Ha Riley has a ride on 4-wheeler and much to our surprise, (oh, who am I kidding? It's Avery we're talking about here!) when we weren't looking Avery figured out how to manuever the vehicle. It was quite a comical site, after making sure everyone involved was all right. Of course, no one had a video camera rolling at the time but we all laughed hysterically.

Riley helping Avery drive the 4 wheeler.

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Very proud of herself.

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Safely riding on the back while Riley drives!

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Changing gears a little (no pun intended!), Avery and I met up with my dad for lunch one afternoon before we left. Between the 10 bathroom visits, we were still able to enjoy a nice lunch with Grandpa Randy.

Same expression. Can you tell they are related? :)

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Me and my ham.

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Back to OH

2008-05-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

With Matt's parents coming in to town today, I figured I'd better hurry up and finish my trip to OH since we will be taking many more pictures with Grandma Rose and Grandpa Tom!

Monday and Tuesday of our visit were pretty relaxing (aside from Avery getting sick Tuesday night). We spent all of Monday with Meemaw (my mom) and Tuesday we were able to hang out with Mae and her daughter, Lily. It was so great to spend so much time with them since I'd never met Lily! We usually only meet for dinner so to spend the whole day was a treat. Avery absolutely loved Meemaw and Papa's swingset and wanted to show Lily some tricks when she came to visit too! I'm so excited to see her reaction to her little sister's arrival in August. Yes, I can't believe I forgot to post this on our blog earlier, but we did find out last month we are having another little girl. Matt has already conjured up ways to ward off the boys! Ha Ha Anyway, enjoy the pictures! We'll be back with more from OH and then our visit with Grandma Rose and Grandpa Tom this week.

Meemaw helping Avery up the slide.

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Going up the right way "all by self"!

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My mom and Jeff have an oversized Elmo and Lily couldn't get enough! Of course Avery had to join in on the fun too. :)

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Avery and Lily enjoying the nice weather.

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Trying to be a big helper.

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Extreme close up of the cutie!

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Mae and her little Lily-bug (as they affectionately call her)! She has the most beautiful blue eyes!!

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P.S. Yes, most of the pictures on here are date stamped 2004. Sometimes my old camera did that, but thankfully my husband bought me a new one for Mother's Day and we shouldn't have that problem anymore!!

Happy One Year Birthday Lily!!

2008-05-19T15:52:00.001-07:00

WOW! I can't believe you are already a year old, Lily! We had such a great time playing with you last month and we miss you already. You are such a beautiful girl!!

Break from OH Trip

2008-05-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

I have a ton more pictures to post from OH, but I wanted to take a break real quick to show off my new toy. Matt and Avery got me a new camera for Mother's Day and I love it!! I've taken it on some of our recent adventures. The first one is at the "park with swings". We only have about three parks on base that have actual swings and lately Avery has been obsessed with swinging. I think we've finally decided to get a swing set for our back yard so we don't always have to go to the park. She had a blast swinging while Daddy pushed (apparently he pushes way higher than Mommy).

The next adventure we had was at the base bowling alley. I thought it would be fun to take Avery bowling so we invited a couple of her friends to come with us. Aside from the "Surf Lanes Police" as my friends Stacy and Joy and I called them, we had a great time. The older gentlemen who ran the alley were apparently not so used to have little kids bowl...I'm pretty sure we all got yelled at for some reason or another! This was Avery's first time bowling and I have to say she didn't do too bad. She had a whopping score of 43! Ha Ha Other than battling with housing maintenance issues and power outages, we haven't been up to a whole lot. We've been enjoying the wonderfully nice weather this week. Hopefully it lasts while Matt's parents are out so we can take them to the beach without having to bring our heavy jackets.

Enjoy the pictures and videos!

Avery enjoying the swings. She actually says, "Oh my golly!" this time instead of "Oh my God!". She cracks us up....not even sure where she heard that one.

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She's probably asking "Big one, Daddy?" right here....meaning she wants to go higher on the swing.

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Her next favorite thing...the slide.

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Avery and Alec, waiting patiently to roll their balls down the lane.

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One technique used by Avery.....let's just drop the ball from really high up and see what happens. I'm pretty sure the men who ran the place cringed! Ha Ha

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After seeing her drop the ball, I decided to step in and show her to roll the ball between her legs. That didn't work so well either because the ball was a little too large to fit between her legs. It was a comical sight!

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The proud bowlers; Avery, Alec and Grant.

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Avery's attempt at bowling. I kept telling her to blow on the ball to make it go faster. At one point, one of the balls she threw ended up stopping half way down the lane! Ha Ha

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Visit with my Dad and Grandma

2008-05-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we were able to spend time with my dad. He treated Avery and I to lunch at his yacht club and since it was such a beautiful day, we took Avery to the little park by the lake. She had a great time climbing and swinging with Grandpa. That evening we met up with my grandma and great aunt for dinner. Avery was super excited when we sat down because Grandma Poochie (as she is affectionately called) brought cookies for her. She still talks about that! The little things that amaze a child, I tell ya. Here are a few pictures from our day with my side of the family.

My dad brought my old hobby horse from his basement for Avery to try out. She loved it!! It was so funny to see my daughter playing with something I used as a little girl her age as well. :)

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Playing with Grandpa.

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Climbing the pseudo-rock wall at the yacht club park.

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Peek-a-boo.

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Her face says it all. We desperately need to invest in a swing set for her...she enjoys them so much!

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Me, my grandma, and sticker head Avery at dinner. She was so tired from her fun filled day that I wasn't able to remove all the stickers from her hair until the next day.

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Visit with Matt's family

2008-05-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Since it has officially been a month since our last post, I figured I should probably update the blog! Avery and I had a great time visiting our family and friends in OH. As always, the trip went by far too quickly, but with Baby Squirt on the way, hopefully we'll be seeing our parents again soon. Traveling this time was just a little stressful. All of our flights, both to OH and from, were changed. Very long stories on both ends, but we arrived in both OH and CA safely. It was wonderful for Avery to spend time with her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Speaking of, here are some pictures of Avery hanging out with Matt's side of the family. Avery cooperated for most of them, but some photos were hard to come by! Enjoy!

Avery and Riley...what a cute picture of them both!

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Avery and her cousin Devon. This was about the best picture I could get with them both. He was a little scared of Avery for some reason. Ha Ha She is a little crazy!! :)

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Alexis, Riley and Avery goofing around at Grandma and Grandpa's.

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Michelle, Eric, Alexis, Riley and Avery quickly pose for a picture.

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Trying to get Avery to get a picture with Grandma and Grandpa proved to be very difficult! This was the best shot I could get. They will be coming out to visit in a few weeks so hopefully we'll have plenty of photo opportunities!

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Jon, Jen and Avery. They brought Avery the biggest sidewalk chalk I have ever seen!! It was great...the kids had a blast playing with it at grandma and grandpa's house.

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Alexis and Avery on WWE! Ha Ha They were having a great time wrestling!

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Easter Egg Hunt

2008-04-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

So I meant to get this up last week, but here are a couple of pictures from the Easter egg hunt we had for the kids on Easter Sunday. They all had a great time and enjoyed the candy even more. Our friends' Stacy and Steve hosted and we had a ton of yummy food.

Now, Avery and I are off to OH to spend some time with our family and friends. We'll be back with lots of pictures to share. For now, enjoy the Easter pictures.

Look at all my eggs!!!

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All the kiddos showing off their prized possessions. Pictured L to R:
Emma, Anna, Grant, Alec and Avery.

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Happy Birthday Beth

2008-03-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

We hope you are having a wonderful birthday, Beth. You are such a talented and caring friend, among many other things! Enjoy your day!! :)

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Happy Easter Bunny!

2008-03-23T12:55:00.001-07:00

We just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter (or Happy Easter Bunny or Happy Easter Egg as Avery calls it!). We had our Easter one day early this year as Matt left today for Boston. He seems to always get out of spending Easter with us! Ha Ha I know it is just as hard for him to leave us today as it is for us to spend it without him again. We still did all the Easter fun while he was here though. And this year, Avery as actually able to help dye her own eggs. I think at Tim and Tammi's last year, she and Evan spent most of the time playing in the dog kennels! Today, Avery and I are heading to our friends' Joy and James house for Easter dinner and a little Easter egg hunt for the kids. We hope everyone has a wonderful day. Enjoy the pictures.

Before

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During (well, after the eggs have already been dyed. I thought it best not to have a camera out during the egg dying process)

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As you will see from the following pictures, my DAUGHTER picked out a Spiderman egg dying kit. Yes, my DAUGHTER LOVES Spiderman. Go figure?!

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Close up

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Daddy and Avery with the finished product.

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After eating some candy the Easter bunny brought...of course it's always great to give your child candy at 7:30 in the morning!!

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All dressed up for church.

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There's that smile. :)

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Seeing her basket for the first time. Happy Easter bunny! :)

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I can't catch it!

2008-03-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned numerous times before, my daughter cracks me up. Much like other 2 1/2 year olds I'm sure. Well this next video doesn't capture the funniest moments in her flashlight escapade. As usual, when I went to grab the camera it was almost too late. I did catch a little bit of the comedy but to fill you in on what is going on: I bought Avery an Elmo flashlight at the BX and she absolutely LOVED it. On a side note, it's a good thing we bought it because the very next day we had a power outage here and that was the first flashlight we grabbed! In this video, she is attempting to "catch" the light from the flashlight. At one point, before the video was rolling, she was spinning around so fast she ran smack in to our couch! She doesn't quite grasp the concept that the light is coming from Elmo's mouth. I hate to compare our daughter to a dog, but much like a dog chases the light from a flashlight, well, so does Avery Grace! Enjoy our little goof ball!

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A Big, Not so New, Announcement

2008-03-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get back on track to the blogging world! Here's a little update on what we've been up to these past few months (aside from moving!):

As many of you already know, Matt and I are expecting our second child in August. We tried to contact as many people personally as we could, but it seems word spread like wild fire! Thanks to all of you who sent us warm wishes and congratulations. I am currently 19 weeks along and due on August 12th. We are currently trying to prepare little Avery for the role of big sister. Since we won't find out the sex for quite a few more weeks, Avery has nicknamed her new baby sister/brother "baby squirt". She cracks me up! And she also keeps changing her mind as to which she would prefer, a baby brother or baby sister.

I've had two checkups and, aside from the dreaded morning sickness, everything is going very well. Thankfully the morning sickness subsided a few weeks ago and now I'm eating everything in sight! Avery and I are just enjoying our days together before baby Squirt's big arrivel. Now that I finally feel well we are definitely taking advantage of our nice weather. Enjoy the pictures! I'm going to do my best to post pictures and videos more regularly now. Our house is mostly in order and I am feeling much better, but getting back in the habit of posting has been a little more difficult than I thought.

Thanks for checking in on us.

Baby Squirt at 11 weeks 2 days. It looks like a blob to me, but apparently his/her head is on the left, body on the right. Go figure?!?! Ha Ha

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Me at 17 weeks. :)

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Fun in the Sun

2008-02-12T14:28:00.001-08:00

I know I'm still behind on so many posts, but I wanted to get at least something up on the blog since it's been so long! We are pretty well settled in the new house, just a few small things left to do. We have upgraded in the sense that we can now talk on the phone and browse the internet at the same time! What a concept! I still don't have access to my computer, so for now I'm using Matt's. Hopefully this issue will be resolved in the near future. But for now, I wanted to get some pictures up of Avery!

We have had the most beautiful weather the past few days so we have been trying to take advantage. I really sympathize with those of our family and friends still in the dead of winter....BUT we are so thankful to be able to enjoy the outdoors year-round while we are out here in sunny CA. Enjoy the pictures and for those of you with snow on the ground, you are all welcome to come visit and share the sun!

The shirt says it all. :)

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What a ham!

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Getting ready to run through her Elmo sprinkler.

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Splish Splash

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Slip Slidin' away

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After a long day of playing in the sun, it's time for a snack!

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MIA

2008-01-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I just wanted to do a quick post to let you all know that we are still alive! I apologize because there will be no pictures on this post. I know I have a million posts to catch up on but right now, our house is in shambles. We've been without internet for over a week (I know, how did we survive!!), but thankfully we are up and running now....sort of. We are currently sharing our phone line with our DSL so we can only get on a few times a day to check things out. We moved last week, and it seemed to sneak up on me quite quickly. Thankfully it's all over with and now comes the fun of painting, decorating and finding everything the movers misplaced. Sometimes I think they do this on purpose as a funny trick on the people they move. However, most of the time I just think they don't care and want to go home. Everything is starting to come together but we have a long way to go. Hopefully we will get our internet situation figured out soon and I can start to post some pictures.

We hope all is well with you!

Love,
Kim, Matt and Avery Grace

Happy New Year!

2008-01-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the beauty and wonder of the Christmas season and may this new year be prosperous for us all! We are still enjoying my dad's company...but only for a few more days. He leaves on Saturday so I thought I should start posting pictures of his visit now in order to try and stay ahead of the game. I have a ton to post (imagine that) so I will do my best to condense them.

Here are just a few snapshots of Avery and her Grandpa spending some time together.

"Grandpa lap"

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We headed to Solvang, the usual place we take visitors when they come. It's such a neat little town with many different and unusual shops and restaurants. There are also the cheesy, typical tourist traps, but we enjoy the atmosphere.

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Stories before bedtime.

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Merry Christmas Eve. Avery "hamin' it up" with Grandpa under the tree.

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Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T16:27:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a wonderful, plentiful, blessed Christmas day. Santa certainly didn't miss our house this year...Avery Grace was one spoiled little girl! We've had a wonderful day spending time with my Dad, relaxing and enjoy the 24 hours of A Christmas Story. :)

We miss all of our family and friends dearly. We are so happy that we have family out here with us, it makes the holidays that more special! Enjoy the pictures! There will be more to come. :)

I forgot!!!

2007-12-13T14:29:00.001-08:00

We also went to see the Grinch at the BX on Friday. At first Avery was scared of him, which is why mommy had to be in the picture too. But by the end of our visit, she had warmed up to him a little more. What did she care? She got to eat cake before lunch! Ha Ha

Busy Busy Busy

2007-12-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

Here I am, the blog slacker again. Just when I get caught up, I slack off! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. We certainly are doing our part to get in the Christmas spirit! These past couple of weeks have been quite busy for us. And we leave tomorrow for San Diego for the weekend. As I type, I really should be packing and getting ready for this trip but I wanted to share some of the things we have been up to before the trip!

Last weekend we went to the Lompoc Christmas parade. Even though we'd always make fun of Cheyenne for the amount of horses in the parades...I really did enjoy them. Not one horse was in the Lompoc parade and we were quite disappointed! We had a good time, but Santa took a very long time to arrive. And as you can see from the picture, it was very cold...it also rained on us. We were troopers and stayed all the way to the end.

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On Saturday, we headed to the Children's Christmas party through Matt's squadron. The spouses group put it on and I helped out with a few things.

Avery needed to sit on my lap and help me call out bingo cards for the Christmas bingo. I think she really just got chocolate on most of the cards more than anything. She thought it was a great seat because Mom had all the chocolate! Ha Ha

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Here she is patiently waiting with all the other kiddos for Santa's lap. :) Amazingly enough, she actually went willingly to sit on Santa's lap this year. I was in shock! But we did capture it on film!

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Telling Santa she would like candy for Christmas. Hee Hee

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Here she is with her buddy Grant. I thought it was so cute that she put her arm around him...I had to sneak a picture of course. Eventually they both were doing it. Of course, as with Tanner in WY, Grant is a much older boy...4 years old! Ha Ha They have a great time together though.

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And last but not least...I ordered Avery some big girl bedding since we've now converted her crib to a toddler bed. It's taken forever to get here but it finally arrived on Tuesday. Here she is showing it off...

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We hope everyone enjoys the weekend!! We are off to San Diego!!!

Elf Yourself!

2007-12-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

Mae and Anson posted this on their blog and then Matt created one at work. This is hilarious!! Click on the link to view a funny holiday video. You can do these all free at www.elfyourself.com...I couldn't stop laughing!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1135554333

A Day in the Life is right!

2007-11-30T14:36:00.000-08:00

Most of you would expect me to post cute pictures of Avery on our blog, and for the most part, I do. Except this time! Below you will see a picture of a window in our living room and as you can see, it is not quite normal. I have two "Avery stories" to share with you from this day, but I'll start with the first.

How hard is the human head actually?

Well, I found out on Wednesday. As we are getting ready to go read stories before Avery's naptime she decided she just wasn't ready yet and would rather watch The Polar Express (or as she calls it "the Christmas Tree" movie). Of course, what comes out of my mouth? It's a very familiar word with parents and children alike...NO! Avery's temper tantrums have gained intensity lately and as you can see this one went a little awry. As she was banging her fists on this window, I was standing in the background telling her to stop "right this instant" (it's what I usually say when she's doing something wrong!). Apparently hitting her fist on the window was not doing enough to show her anger so she decided that banging her head might just do the trick. After two or three times, the glass shattered and as you can only imagine, mom (that would be me) freaked out. Thankfully, Avery didn't have a scratch on her but I can't say the same for the poor window with whom she took out her frustrations. I should have taken a picture before maintenance came to board it up. It's not tempered so it basically cracked completely and left jagged edges sticking out. I'm not quite sure how it didn't shatter and fall into a million pieces but I am thanking God that it didn't or else this would not be such a comical Avery story. Now she looks at the window all the time and says "Broke it head!". See picture below of what a 2 year old with a bad temper can do to your house:

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Adventures in the Bathroom

As many of you know, we've moved Avery in to a toddler bed now and so far, she has done pretty well. Of course, except for the first few weeks where she thought, "Wow, this is great! No bars to keep me in!! I can do whatever I want! My mom and dad are so stupid!" Ha Ha This week she has decided it's fun to get up and come out to the living room to see what Mom and Dad really do when she's asleep. Normally, she comes right out to the living room without any side tracking. But Wednesday night (remember, this is the same day in which she broke the window with her head), she thought she'd go on a little adventure. Matt and I got ready for bed and sat down to watch some TV, unbeknownst to the activity that was really taking place in our house. So we let about an hour go by and all of a sudden, I hear something. It sounded like the faint footsteps of a certain little girl. Matt opens the door and completely freaked out. She had what looked like blood all over her face. As I came in for a look, I realized it was lipstick!!!!! I ran to the bathroom to see the damage and it was good. I do not have any pictures of Avery's face or the bathroom as we were more concerned about her having eaten anything she shouldn't have and cleaning her up to go back to bed. Thankfully, she did not ingest anything but she sure had fun putting on my lipstick, blush concealer and writing with eyeliner all over! It was good times. Below is a picture of Avery with lip gloss all over her face...not from this same evening. Didn't she do a fabulous job? Hee Hee

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Happy Birthday Mae!

2007-11-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday, Mae! As always, I wish we could be there to help you celebrate. Enjoy your day, and hopefully little miss Lily will sleep through the night tonight if she hasn't already started back to her routine. :) We miss all of you dearly.

This is a Mae and her husband Anson on their honeymoon about 2 1/2 years ago in Maui. I've been friends with Mae for over 13 years and Anson for about 11. Thinking about that makes me feel old! Ha Ha Now all of us are married and have children. Life couldn't get any better, right? Maybe if we lived a little closer to them. :)

This is their beautiful daughter, Lily Anna. I posted a picture of her when she was first born back in May and couldn't resist putting this one up. Isn't she absolutely adorable in her Christmas dress???

Happy Birthday Tim!

2007-11-29T08:28:00.000-08:00

Happy day-after-your birthday Tim! We are thinking of you and hope you had a wonderful day. :)

Reagan Turns 1!

2007-11-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Reagan!! We are so happy we got to see you on your birthday this year. You are growing up to be such a beautiful little girl. It has been wonderful to see you so many times over the past couple of months while your Daddy was here and we look forward to many more times while we live in CA together. :) We love you!!

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These are some pictures that are way past due in posting! Go figure! HA HA This was from our weekend with Sam, Beth and Reagan right after Halloween. We had such a great time with them and sad to see them leave for their permanent residence tomorrow. It's been so nice to have them here with us! Reagan and Avery play well together and of course we had fun visiting with Sam and Beth. This same day, Beth took photos of Avery for me on the beach and they turned out wonderful!! Thanks again Beth!! :)

Avery and Reagan playing.

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Cuddling up with Sam.

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What a beautiful baby...and she has one hot mama! ;) Hee Hee

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Sam, Beth and Reagan in our kitchen. They were so wonderful and cooked us an extremely yummy dinner that night! What a treat!

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Avery thought it would be fun to run around the house in her diaper after a little while. Ha Ha

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From Our Little Turkey....

2007-11-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

Happy "Thank You Giving"! Or as the rest of us call it Happy Thanksgiving! We are blessed and thankful for so many people and things in our life. We are sad we cannot spend this holiday with our family and friends but hope everyone has a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving.

Enjoy the video!!

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Happy Birthday Nolan!!

2007-11-16T11:17:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday big boy! We can't belive you are already 2 years old. We miss you so much and wish we could be with you and your mommy today to celebrate your big day. You are growing up to be such a handsome and loving little boy. We are so happy we got to spend some time with you last month!!

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You may be wondering...

2007-11-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

why I am such a blog slacker sometimes. Well, I was thinking about this the other day and this is what I came up with. I have this goal, and have had it for a long time, to organize all of our pictures...even the digital ones. Since I don't trust our computer, I'm hesistant to delete all the pictures from our camera and put them on the computer until I have made CDs for all of them. That being said, I have about 500+ pictures on the digital camera that need to be organized/put on to CDs and every time I go to load new pictures on to my computer, I am reminded of this HUGE project! Ha Ha This is why I always put off loading new pictures on to the computer to post on the blog. I don't usually like to make New Year's resolutions, but I think this coming year, I will make and exception. I will do my best to get this done so I will not have this project lingering over me every time I go to blog! :)

OK, enough about my life's projects and reflections. Here are a few pictures and a video of Avery in her "tap tap" outfit. If you remember from the previous post she got this outfit for gymnastics and for some reason has to wear her brown "tap tap" shoes with it. It's so darn cute. :) The pictures and video are from the first time she wore her new dance outfit. Gotta love the little girl! :)

We hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. With the Veteran's Day holiday being yesterday, Matt gets a three day weekend so we are trying to enjoy every minute of it. Thank you to all our past and present veterans for fighting for our country's freedom! Thank you to my brother for serving over seas and thank you to my husband for serving us here in the U.S. I am proud to be an American and am very proud of what my husband does for this country.

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Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween! Here is a picture of Avery all dressed up...let's just hope she is still enthusiastic about putting on her costume this evening for trick or treat! I had the hardest time getting her to wear her costume so I tried a trick that Sam did with Nolan. I had to resort to bribing her with a Nemo snack (gummy snack that she loves!)! It worked!

I also put a video on here of Avery dancing and singing to a Halloween tree that Grandma Rose sent us. It's hilarious! She's wearing her gymnastics or "Tap Tap" outfit we got her and gardening gloves and she just got up from a nap so her hair is a total mess! She's also trying very hard to sing along to the song. Hee Hee Who knows what was going on in her little head but I couldn't resist taking video of the moment!

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, Matt, Avery and I headed to a pumpkin patch for some fall fun. We picked out some great pumpkins and enjoyed all the pumpkin patch/barn had to offer. Avery fed the animals, played on the pumpkins and tried her luck at a mini corn maze for the little ones. We had a great time! It was a beautiful fall day.

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Bye Bye Florida :(

2007-10-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

One last picture and video from our Florida trip....then it's off to the pumpkin patch. I figured I should probably get the pumpkin patch pictures up since Halloween is tomorrow! Avery is going to be Elmo this year...at least we hope so. Right now, she wants nothing to do with her costume so I hope to get one picture of her with it on. I'm also hoping that once she sees all the other little kids dressed up that she'll want to get it on the fun.

Enjoy the last of the Florida trip!

Avery and Nolan enjoying one last TV show together. :( They were both so cute in the little chairs.

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Nolan and Avery doing "Ring Around the Rosey". They were both so darn cute!! Poor Nolan kept wanting to do sing and play and Avery just liked to fall down. :) P.S. her skirt is not suppose to be up to her belly...it just happens when she's playing! Ha Ha

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Playing at the Beach

2007-10-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sam took us to a beach on base while we were there and the kiddos had a blast! It's in a bay so there are virtually no waves and the water was the perfect temperature. Both Nolan and Avery ventured in to the water more than I thought they would. I thought we'd be spending most of our time on the sandy shore building sand castles...they proved me wrong!

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All cleaned up and ready for bed...I love this picture of Sam with the kiddos. They are more interested in what's on the TV but at least they cooperated long enough to take the picture!!

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Now Showing...

2007-10-26T20:08:00.001-07:00

Florida pictures! Avery and I went to visit Sam and Nolan in Florida last week. We had an absolute blast and cannot thank them enough for their hospitality. :) Avery and Nolan got along like best buds. We did so many fun things...went to the beach, played at the splash park, went to gymnastics. We took lots of pictures and videos so I'll try to keep them to a minimum and get it done in 2 or 3 posts!!

On another note...has anyone had trouble trying to load up our blog page??? Please let me know because if that's the case then I'll have to do some research on how to fix the problem.

Enjoy the pics!

Avery in mid-run at the splash pad in Destin

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Nolan slidin away

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Being silly

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I see London, I see France! Ha Ha I guess that skirt is a mini skirt...good thing it's cute on toddlers! Avery had so much fun playing on Nolan's swingset. Maybe we'll be investing in one of those soon too.

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What a cutie!

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Nolan just cracks me up!! Trying to get both of them to pose and smile for the camera just wasn't happening. We tried to catch them on a juice break!

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OK, Nolan's facial expressions are just hilarious!

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Two pooped out kiddos! They played hard!

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California Fires

2007-10-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

I've had several people ask where we are in conjunction to the fires here in CA. Fortunately, we are no where near the most devastating fires in San Diego. The Sedwick fire that was burning in Santa Ynez was closest to us and thankfully only 700 acres burned. We could smell the fire here on the base as well as see the haze the smoke created. The air quality has been bad so for the past few days we were told it was best to keep our doors and windows shut and stay indoors as much as possible.

They have arrested a suspect in one of the San Diego fires...they believe two of them were caused by arson. I just cannot believe a lot of this devastation was caused by some sick person/people. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families who have been effected by the fires.

If this works, here is a link to all of the fires that are burning down here. You'll have to scroll up to see the Sedwick fire in Santa Ynez.

California Fire Map

I lied

2007-10-24T12:46:00.001-07:00

I forgot I wanted to post some pictures of the fishing trip where they caught 12 sharks...one of which was appx 10 feet long and took 2 hours just to reel in! They did throw it back in...Jamie being the novice fisherman, said it was not a shark you could eat.

Here they are:

Brotherly love....just kidding! Jon is actually helping Matt (you can only see his arms) reel in the shark. They each had to take several turns to get the thing in!

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Eric going it alone.

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Jon helping his dad, Tom.

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Jon trying to pull the shark out of the water.

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After 2 hours....here's the fish that gave 'em hell!

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The fishing crew: Eric, Jen, Jon, Tom and Matt

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And here's a pretty view of the Portland Headlight from the water.

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Avery's first boat ride

2007-10-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

Matt's friend, Jamie, owns a boat which is used for his business, Reel Action Charters. But when we were in town he took us for a little harbor cruise before dinner in downtown Portland one night. Avery was a little weary about putting her life vest on, but once she got on the boat and we started to go she had a blast. She even helped Jamie's wife, Lisa, catch a fish. (Not really so much helped as watched but we'll let her think she helped! Ha Ha)

These are the last of the Maine pictures. Up next...Florida!!

Capt. Ben (Jamie), Lisa and Avery. Avery was a little scared of Jamie for some reason so that's why the picture is the way it is. ;)

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Matt, Avery and I

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Lisa, Avery and I

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Our friend Ivan (who also happened to be an usher at our wedding!) and his friend Ashley.

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Avery fishing

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Reeling in a HUGE mackerel (ha ha ha J/K)

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Jamie, Ivan and Matt

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More Maine

2007-10-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

There are going to be a ton of pictures on this post from Maine but I want to get them finished up so I can start on the pictures from Florida.

I hope everyone had a great Fall weekend. We went to the Avila Valley Barn to pick some pumpkins, feed the animals and grabbed some fresh fruit and apple butter as well. We had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather. Unfortunately for our friends in Wyoming it looks like winter weather has finally started to arrive. Watching the football game last night in Denver definitely made us thankful for our weather out here. However, I guess it wasn't our weekend for sports. The Steelers lost to the Broncos, the Indians lost and won't be in the World Series this year, and our Alma Mater, Miami University lost against Temple! Ya can't win 'em all right?? The good thing was we got to watch the game with one of our very good friend's, Sam D., who is out here doing some training. We've been able to see him several times and we were even treated by being able to see both Beth and Reagan right before I left for Florida. Now we're back to the hum-drum of the week...no more trips for us for a long time.

Enjoy the pictures.

Matt's friend Jamie and his wife Lisa had a little brunch for those of us still in town from the wedding. It was at his Aunt and Uncles house in Cape Elizabeth. Matt and I have been here before but I had to take a few more pictures of the view from their backyard to share with all of you. It's gorgeous!

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Avery enjoying the open space and fresh air.

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Avery and Aunt Jen.

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Avery, Alexis and Riley playing on a hammock in the backyard.

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Avery admirin (and also eating!) Alexis's shirt.

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Michelle, Rose, me and all the kiddos went to the Portland Headlight on Monday while the guys and Jen went fishing with Jamie. As soon as I get some pictures of their trip I'll post them. They caught 12 sharks....one being about 10 feet long and taking 2 hours just to reel in!! Here's a picture of the Portland Headlight.

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Catching Up

2007-10-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Before I can get to the pictures from Florida, I've got to finish posting the ones from Maine. Hopefully I can get that done soon....there are so many! Quick recap of the Maine trip:

Matt, Avery and I headed to Maine for his friend Jamie's wedding. Well Matt's whole family was invited so we all decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. His brother, sister and their families along with his mom and dad all met us in Maine. His parents rented a beautiful home for us all to stay in and we really had a great time hanging out. It was so great for Avery since we only see family once or twice a year at best! Now all of us are back home and we miss everyone already!!

We are hoping to head to the pumpkin patch this weekend since Halloween is quickly approaching and we haven't done anything for it. We still need to get a costume for Avery and decorate (or at least attempt!) the house. Other than that, nothing much is going on in our household this weekend. Avery and I are going to try and get some much needed rest from all our recent trips!

Enjoy the pictures and we hope everyone has a great weekend.

Avery and Aunt Jen

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The whole family at our house in Maine. Matt's cousin, Dave, his wife Shannon and their daughter Madeline, came up to watch Alexis, Riley and Avery for us the day of Jamie and Lisa's wedding. Well, Shannon is also an amateur photographer and wanted to take some pictures of us while we were all together. They are so awesome for coming up to watch the kids!! Avery had a great time playing with them.

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Dave, Shannon and Madeline

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Lisa and her dad walking down the aisle

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Matt and I after the wedding. Matt was one of Jamie's groomsmen...doesn't he look handsome?? :)

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Jamie and Lisa's first dance.

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Now the night is getting a little crazy as we are all enjoying the refreshments! This is my brother-in-law Eric and I...not sure what we are doing but at least we're having a good time!! Ha Ha

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Jon and Jen....Jon was a trooper and drove all of us home that night. Unfortunately for him, he had to deal with all of us!! Thanks again Jon!!

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Eric and Michelle

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What?? Ha Ha

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Extreme Close up!!!

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Tom and Rose dancing for the anniversary dance. :)

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Craziness...

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Just before we left the wedding...

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Back from FL

2007-10-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

I know I've been a blog slacker lately, but we are finally back from all our trips this fall so I should be able to get some posting done! No pics for this post yet....lots of unpacking and uploading of photos to do. They will come soon though!

Avery and I just got back from visiting Sam and Nolan in Florida. We had an absolute blast!! Words can't describe how wonderful it was to see them; we've missed them so much. It was like no time had passed at all since the last time we saw them. Avery and Nolan instantly got along while Sam and I reminisced about old times. Thank you so much for being such gracious hosts, Sam and Nolan. Avery and I truly had an incredible time visiting you both and hope that not as much time passes before the next time.

I have to say, saying goodbye to some of the best friends you have ever had is one of the most difficult things about being in the military. The good thing is that we have friends wherever we go and most likely our paths will cross again someday.

Thanks again Sam and Nolan. We miss you so much already!!!!!

Look A Like Meter

2007-10-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

I've seen this now on Tammi and Sam's blogs so I thought it would be fun to try for us. Well, as you can see, it came to the same conclusion that I, along with our many friends and family, have known all along. She's a daddy's girl!!

Maine Pictures (at least some!)

2007-10-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

I have many pictures from our trip to Maine so I am going to spread them out a bit. We had a great time while we were there. Avery was able to spend a lot of time getting to know Matt's side of the family more...aunts, uncles, cousins. She had a blast with Alexis and Riley (and of course Michelle, Eric, Jon, Jen and Grandpa & Grandpa too!!).

I apologize for the short post today but I wanted to get some pictures up so some people, I won't mention any names ha ha, will stop bugging me!!

Avery opening up her birthday presents from Aunt Michelle, Uncle Eric, Alexis & Riley.

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Awe, how cute! :)

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Off to New England!

2007-09-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get one last post in before we take off for Maine tomorrow. I think I am actually pretty well caught up with what's been going on here since we left WY. WOW!! That's probably the first time I can say I'm caught up with posting since I started this blog. Ha Ha

These are the promised pictures and video of Avery at her Moms and Tots Gymnastics class. She has a great time and her teacher is wonderful. Matt has been able to come to some of the classes as well.

Enjoy the pictures! We are headed to Maine tomorrow for a wedding and to spend time with Matt's side of the family. I know I will have a ton of pictures to post after we get back.

TTFN

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Mid-flip!

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Miss Allison helping her climb the ladder...of course she alwasy cooperates with Miss Allison!! When me or Matt try to help she doesn't!! Typical 2 year old!

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Running down the tumble track...this is her favorite thing to do. It's basically just a really long trampoline.

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At the end of class, the teacher blows bubbles while the kiddos run around trying to pop them. They dance to music and then get stamps on their hands and feet when class is over. Miss Allison is great and I am so glad our neighbor gave us the information for this program!! Below is a video of Avery with the other kids in class popping bubbles.

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Fun at the Beach

2007-09-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

Matt, Avery and I headed up to Pismo Beach over Labor Day weekend...we hadn't been to the ocean since moving here so I figured it was high time we head out to see it! Avery saw the ocean for the first time last year here, but was much too little to have fun. This time we brought our towels, buckets, and lunch so we could enjoy a day at the beach. It was more like a couple of hours but we had a great time anyway! However, Avery was not as fond of the water as we thought she was going to be. She was perfectly fine hanging on to mommy or daddy while we got our feet wet, but as soon as we put her down, she got scared. She did get a little too close once and while trying to run away from the water, tripped and fell face first in the water/sand. :( All was OK and we continued to enjoy our time at the beach.

After the beach, we headed out to a family barn where they sell fresh fruits, veggies, pies and all kinds of stuff. When we lived here before, it was really just the barn, but now they have expanded their little operation a great deal. Adding public restrooms, a sweet shoppe with ice cream and candy, a petting zoo, a hayride and a corn maze in the fall! We had a ton of fun here as well and Avery got a kick out of feeding the animals vegetable scraps. However, we were all pretty beat from our busy day so after getting some fruit and veggies, we headed back home. We really enjoy this part of the country so I'm very glad we have a much longer time frame to get out and enjoy the area.

Oh yeah, I should probably mention that for some freak reason, this was one of the hottest days ever in this area of CA. I belive it was just above 100 degrees. Yikes!!

I also forgot to mention that the water is FREEZING!! I would never even think of swimming in it...maybe with a wet suit but that's as close as I would get. It's almost hurts is so cold!!

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Avery playing with the sand while Matt set up our mini cabana.

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You can actually drive on this beach...you'll notice a truck in the background pulling some ATVs. There are sand dunes all around the beach so many people bring up their toys to play in the dunes.

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Goofball :)

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Another picture of Avery...Geesh!!

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Running away from the water

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It's getting harder and harder for me to get her to look at the camera!!

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Mommy and Avery

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Feeding the donkeys at the barn.

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Birthday Bash

2007-09-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had a birthday party for Avery at our house. She had so much fun playing with all the little kids and we are so grateful to everyone that came to share this special day with us. As most of you know, we have recently moved to CA and not knowing many people here made it difficult to figure out if we'd have a party for Avery. We decided to invite some of our neighbors, and of course the guys from Matt's work and their families. We weren't sure who would come, but to our delight most everyone came. They treated us with such warmth and welcome. It's just so wonderful to know that we have such a great support system in place! Whether you've been here for 2 years or 2 months, you are treated like family. We had a great time and can't thank everyone enough for coming and spending time getting to know us and celebrating Avery's 2nd birthday.

Thank you also to everyone who sent emails, texts, cards, gifts, etc.. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

Here are some pictures from her big day, opening presents, as well as pictures from her party. Enjoy!!

Sorry about the wind in this video....here is Avery playing with one of her new presents. :)

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Yeah, Wiggles videos!! :)

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Hmmm...what could this be??

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New wheels!

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Dollhouse for tots.

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Yummy birthday cake (or as Avery calls it "Happy ca-cake")

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All the kiddos playing in the yard

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Make a wish!

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C'mon...just a little taste! Ha Ha

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Mmm..yummy!

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Finger lickin' good

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I'm pretty sure she at all the icing and none of the cake!

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Two Years Old Already???

2007-09-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

How can two years go by so quickly? I'm sure if you ask any parent it's because of our children. I have heard from many parents, including my own, that time goes by so fast when you have children...it is absolutely true! It seems like just a few days ago that we brought Avery home from the hospital in Cheyenne...we both looked at each other like, "what are we suppose to do now?". Ha Ha

What an experience we have had so far. Avery is like no other child I have ever known (I know I am slightly biased!!). She is my angel baby, as I affectionately call her sometimes. Other times, I am yelling at her to stop hitting! :) But no matter how mad she makes me, I still just want to pick her up and hold her when she's crying. She has enriched our lives so much and makes every day more exciting. It's totally true that seeing the world through a child's eyes is absolutely amazing. Being a parent is the most rewarding, exciting, difficult and challenging job I will ever and I thank God every day for giving us little Avery Grace. She is the coolest kid!

Happy Birthday my little munchkin. I love you.

Now on to some pictures and video.

Since most of you cannot see Avery in person, this is what she looks like right before she is about to hit me! She didn't really want to cooperate with me this morning while I tried to take pictures of her on her birthday. Two year olds...I tell ya!

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She's calming down a little here....

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Still no smile, but she's at least saying "Cheeese!!"

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The birthday girl herself :)

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What would we do without it?

2007-09-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

The internet that is. Well Matt and I found out...we unexpectedly had our internet turned off for about a week and a half. What did we do before the internet? I couldn't believe how handicapped I felt without being able to surf the net 24/7! For those of you who have been bugging me via email or phone about putting up a new post...here you go! ;) Ha Ha

This is actually the video I was talking about in the previous "Going Away" post with Tanner, Avery and Evan in the kiddie pool. Avery was having a blast with Tanner in the pool...and then as you can see at the end of this video, she had enough. She and Tanner always have so much fun.....Evan too but he's usually doing his own thing! Just before we were getting ready to move it was like Avery and Evan finally discovered each other and started actually playing together. It figures!!

Enjoy the video....I will post more soon. Avery and I have been doing a mom and tots gymnastics class for about 3 weeks now and she is loving it. I took some pictures and video today and will get them up soon.

TTFN

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Going Away

2007-08-29T16:43:00.001-07:00

I decided since it's been about a month since we left WY that I should probably post pictures of our going away party! I do have a pretty cute video of the kiddos in the pool that I'll have to upload later.

Sam and Beth were our gracious hosts for the day......Thank you so much guys! You really let us take over your house...the whole clan came over: me, Matt, Avery and Sammi! We are so blessed because really all of our friends offered to host a party for us, it just was a matter of when and where. We had a great time and thanks to everyone who came out to say goodbye. :) We had so much yummy food...as seems to be custom with our get-togethers!

On to the sappy part...

We made so many great friends in Wyoming....those friends really ended up becoming family. We spent so many holidays together; many of our families grew in size, whether it was little bundles of joy or little furry friends; we all "borrowed" each others husbands while our's was away on alert...and of course that's when EVERYTHING would happen; if someone called in need of help, whatever it happened to be, no questions were asked just a "we'll be right there"; new friends were added while old ones moved on to other parts of the country. We had so many parties and BBQs together that I cannot even count. When you were in our homes, you were family. I am talking in past tense because most of us have left, or will be on their way soon. Even though we are now scattered throughout the country, you all will be in our hearts forever. We will see all of you again I know, some sooner than others. It's really not a goodbye, but rather a "see you later!". How do you say goodbye to people who have really become family??

I really could go on and on and on about how much we will miss all of you and how much you were like family but as I'm in tears writing this (because I'm a dork!!) I need to stop and post some pictures.

Some of the gang hanging out.

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Tanner, Tim and Matt (Tim was actually Matt's sponsor when we first got to WY! We've been great friends ever since!)

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Evan striking a pose in his soggy diaper. :)

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Little Miss after a splash in the pool

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Being "CHEEEESY"

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Tanner being goofy as usual

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One of my favorite pictures of Evan....I seem to have a lot of pictures of the kiddos and not a lot of us!!

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Debbie and Tammi :)

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Happy 2 week (plus one day!) Birthday Braylon!

2007-08-27T16:14:00.001-07:00

Debbie and Braylon...what a sweet picture

David and his little buddy. :)

Wide awake!

Sleeping peacefully (at least that's what it looks like!)

My computer has finally let me open and save some pictures of Braylon, our friends' David and Debbie's new baby boy. He turned two weeks old yesterday! He is absolutely adorable. We miss you guys terribly and hope to be able to see Braylon one day soon.

Sing and Dance

2007-08-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

I was going to put pictures up of David and Debbie's new baby boy, Braylon, but for some reason my computer is acting up. So here's a goofy video of Avery singing and dancing with her little music table. If you can't tell in the video she's "playing" the piano. :) She cracks me up!

There isn't too much going on with us right now. We're just still trying to get setlled in....before we have to move again probably!! Sammi is enjoying our yard, as well as the rest of us. I think she mostly enjoys running up and down the fenceline barkin at other dogs or leaves or whatever she thinks is going to come in our yard and take over her territory. Matt seems to be enjoying his job so far...I'm definitely enjoying the schedule. He's home just about every night for dinner and Avery gets to see him so much more. It's been great. Avery and I have been enjoying our time together shopping, dancing, walking, whatever we decide to do for the day.

Well that's all for now folks...enjoy the video! P.S. At one point in the video, if you can understand her, Avery says "picture" because she thinks that's what I was doing. She's learning so many new words and talking up a storm lately! One of our favorites (extreme sarcasm) is "give me!". Love that one! :)

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Bon Jovi

2007-08-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

The weekend before we moved to CA, Matt and I went to see Bon Jovi in concert. We had dinner with Dave, Debbie, Debbie's sister, mom and their friend John...then headed to the show. We had a great time but the concert barely last an hour and a half. We were disappointed in that but life goes on!! Thanks again to Debbie for being DD....she was very pregnant and tired but she was a trooper for putting up with us!! :)

P.S. Debbie's sister is also pregnant with a boy and is due in September. Don't they both look great????

Matt and I before the concert

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Debbie and I

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The girls: Debbie's sister, me and Debbie

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The guys: David (new daddy!), Matt and John

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Congratulations Dave & Debbie!!

2007-08-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Our friends David and Debbie had a healthy baby boy on Sunday August 12th! His name is Braylon Asher. Weight: 6lbs. 8oz and was 21 inches long. Braylon, Mom and Dad are all doing great, very tired but everyone is healthy which is the important part! :) Congratulations you guys...I'm so sad we were not able to be there to welcome him but you are all in our thoughts and prayers. So far I don't have pictures, except the one that is on Matt's phone so here are some pictures from Debbie's shower last month. :)

P.S. I just uploaded a whole bunch of pictures, so I'm hoping to get caught up on the blog soon!!

Beautiful Momma-to-be Debbie

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Debbie and her friend Jyl from work.

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The Wonderful Miss Tammi. :)

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Debbie opening a few gifts

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Self explanatory...

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Some of the girls...

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And last but not least, ME! :) That cake was awesome!!

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Congratulations again Dave and Debbie!! Can't wait to see little Braylon in person. Miss you guys!!!!

Happy Anniversary and more info...

2007-08-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th Anniversary sweet pea! It seems like just yesterday we were hanging out together at Miami and now here we are, 6 years later, married with a beautiful baby girl. I guess she isn't such a baby anymore, but until we have another she's all we've got. :) Love you bunches!!

On to more house info...

I haven't uploaded new pictures to our computer yet, so please bear with me. This picture is from a long time ago when we were in WY but I thought it was cute and wanted to get a picture on the blog!!

Things here are still going well....this base is going to privatized housing soon so we are dealing with that mess. It's going to be a good thing in the end but we are in the transition phase and are most likely going to have to move at least one more time while we're here. The house we are currently living in will eventually be torn down. Pretty crazy huh? I'll have to get some pictures up of our beautiful sea foam green bathroom...don't be jealous!

Enjoy the picture.

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We're Here!

2007-08-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hi there from sunny (sort of!) California!! We finally arrived on July 29th and it's been a whirl wind ever since. We are officially moved in to a new home and still unpacking. We didn't plan on moving in this quickly, but it's best in the long run. Avery and Sammi did very well on the drive, but they are both definitely glad to be out of the car!! (As well as Matt and I!) We have a nice, big backyard but the house is nothing to write home about. Nothing like the house we just moved out of in Wyoming. It's a nice little ranch though, and there's nothing that a little TLC can't take care of.

I have a ton of pictures to post (not from our trip out here....couldn't find the camera!) and hopefully I'll be able to do that soon. We are getting settled, but still have the most difficult task to tackle. The garage!! Coming from a huge house with a huge basement and a one car garage, we have to slim down a lot!! We do not have a basement here so the garage is our sole place to store anything. It's a good thing it doesn't snow out here since we will not be using the garage for a car!

On the Road

2007-07-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! We're saying hello from wonderful Lehi, UT. We left Cheyenne officially this morning around 8:30 and drove until about 5:30 this evening. We stopped, got our hotel room, ate some dinner, swam in the pool, and are now getting ready for bed. I'm making this very short, but wanted to update everyone while we have internet access. We are hoping to make it to Barstow, CA tomorrow so hopefully that goes smoothly.

I will write more about our time in Cheyenne, but I just wanted to say a very quick thank you to all our friends! We were able to see most everyone before we left and cannot believe we are actually leaving. We made the best friends anyone could have while we were there.

OK, enough gushing....more later.

Bye!

Kim, Matt, Avery and Sammi

Splash Park

2007-07-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind (as usual) with posting these pictures...I try! Our town built a splash park and it opened a few weeks ago. I thought what a great place to take Avery this summer since it's been so hot. So while my mom was here, we took her to this fun and exciting place. However, at first she didnt' think it was so fun and exciting! They have a little jungle gym in the area so we spent the first little while on this. Avery wasn't too sure about the water thing but after we got her used to the little fountains, we couldn't get her to come home!! She had a blast!!

I'm hoping to get a few more posts in before we leave town. We are officially leaving next Friday, but after Monday I will not access to a computer for a little while. I can't really talk about our move right now because I'll get too upset, so I will post on this later on.

Enjoy the pictures and short video!

P.S. In the video, Avery is drinking from the fountain. I guess she assumed it was water, what's the big deal?? We drink it all the time at home, this is just a much more fun way to drink it! Ha Ha

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Shuneeee!

2007-07-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite sure how you spell it, but Avery LOVES when I sing "You are my Sunshine" to her. So much so that I can't stop...sometimes singing it for 20-30 minutes at a time! Ha Ha And while MeeMaw D. was here, she had to be involved as well. Avery will make you sing, even if you don't really want to. :) Well, she can't say Sunshine very well, and it has now turned in to "Shuneee"...every time she says this, we must sing. We have sung it so much lately, that she has started to learn the words and sing with us. I was able to capture it on video. Enjoy!!!

P.S. You'll have to put up with me singing in the background. :)

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Avery's First Haircut

2007-06-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's her first haircut and she's almost two! :) She actually didn't even really need this one either, mostly for sentimental reasons. I wanted my hairdresser to do it before we move to CA. Avery did very well...hopped right up in the seat and let Dena do her thing. She did want to keep turning her head to find out what was going on, but all in all she did awesome for her first time. Since she doesn't have much hair to begin with, Dena just did a little evening up and trimming. No layers or highlights for this crazy girl yet! Ha Ha

Enjoy!

P.S. In just a few hours I will get to see Matt! Yeah!!!

Before the fun begins...

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I caught Avery at a bad time. Hee Hee Not sure what she is thinking here.

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All done! Doesn't she look beautiful? ;)

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