The light at the end of the tunnel

This past week Andy finished all the classes for his bachelors degree in Sociology. He didn't walk for graduation, but he borrowed Chris' cap and gown to take a picture!! He is taking 2 classes in the spring term that are required for the masters program he is planning on applying for. So unfortunately he only got the weekend to relax and take a break from classes! He starts again on Tuesday. He's not planning on applying for the masters program until the fall of '08. So when he finishes these two classes in June we'll have some time off from student living (sort of!) to work and save for the next few years of schooling.
It's starting to feel like we will be done with all of this someday! We'll be staying in Provo until he graduates from the masters program (in Social Work). But after that who knows where we'll end up! It will be an adventure!
Right now I'm just looking forward to September coming and Andy having no classes! Work will still take up most of his time, but I can handle that!

Avery had his first ice cream sandwich this past weekend, and he loved it! Andy's Dad was intown for the graduation (Chris walked for his grad.) so we spent a lot of time hanging out with the other siblings here. Avery got spoiled eating lots of junk...to keep him happy at other's houses! I was very impressed though, that he actually ate the entire thing! And of course I got some cute pictures! Needless to say he was a little hyper after that!

We bought a small chest freezer from one of Andy's co-workers that is going on her mission. It was delivered to our house yesterday and I'm already loving it! I just need to go buy some otter pops now! The weather is perfect for that kind of summer treat! It was close to 80 degrees yesterday and today.
We tried out our a/c today and it doesn't seem to be working very well, or really at all. It was nicer outside than it was in our house! I just hope we can get it fixed so we're not roasting all summer. I could tell Avery was too hot, he's always extra fussy when he's uncomfortable. So for that reason alone I want to get it fixed! Imagine the whole summer with an unhappy baby!

Why do we buy toys!?

Avery discovered the kitchen cupboards this week. He neatly took all of my containers out of the nearest one and proceeded to climb in and out several times, he spent a good 30 minutes playing quietly in the cupboard. We'll be childproofing the kitchen this week!! Here's a slide show of all the pictures I took of him exploring!

Play time!

After a long day of hanging out at home doing nothing, we decided to take Avery to a play area at the Provo Towncenter Mall. It's a pretty cool place, especially for older kids, with a ton of things for kids to climb on, as well as little games along the walls.
It was no surprise to us that the first thing he was drawn to was a curvy mirror along one of the walls.
He enjoyed staring at himself, smacking the mirror, and yes, making out with himself in the mirror. In most cases, such a thing would be utterly disturbing. For Avery, however, it was just cute. Especially considering how vigorously he went after himself.
Eventually, he lost interest in himself and thus proceded to seek the affection of strangers (he seems to like and be comfortable with strangers far more than any child should be!). He crawled over to some nearby women, pulled himself up on one, and commenced to flirt and make some new friends; receiving stranger-praise all along the way.

We tried posing him for photo-ops in the various vehicles with mixed success. As you can see, we got a few. Many of our other attempts were thwarted by small children who kept coming over to play with him, and/or sit on him. (clearly, the latter was more troublesome than the former). All-in-all, it was a fun little excursion. It is always fun watching Avery play and interact with others. It is also good for our egos when people tell us how cute he is. :-)

Fangs...

Spring is here, the weather is beautiful, Andy is almost done with school for the semester, we're all healthy and Avery is as cute as ever! How much better can it get you ask? A lot, I'm sure!

Avery is teething again, and in a very unconventional way! He got his first two teeth in January, his lower front teeth (and he looks ADORABLE with them!). We were beginning to wonder if he was ever going to get any more! Well, today at church he was biting my finger (the joys of motherhood!) and I felt another tooth! This time on top, I was over joyed! (okay, maybe not really. It may have been a feeling closer to fear...) After feeling around a little I realized it is not an upper front tooth but the one that belongs next to the front tooth! I looked closer and realized the same tooth on the other side of his mouth is also about to break through! My adorable little boy will have fangs!! We're only hoping that it will not take 3 months for his front teeth to come in...
I'm sure he'll be adorable and it will just add character, it just isn't the way I saw this happening!!

Andy and I signed up for a Gym membership this past week. It's a totally new experience for both of us. But pregnancy is hard on a woman's body...and her husbands! :) I know this will sound silly, but we were both a little nervous when we went for the first time! But it was actually nice. Well, as nice as a gym experience can be!! They have a day care center, so it was nice to be able to take Avery with us. It didn't phase him when we left him with strangers, he loves it! Which could come back to bite us when he's older! But for now it's wonderful!!
We're looking forward(maybe that's the right way to put it...) to getting in better shape for the summer, and the rest of our lives I guess! :)

Tomorrow is Andy's last day of class and we're SO excited!!! There is sun light at the end of the tunnel and we're so looking forward to basking in it!!

Happy Easter!!!

Avery has shown very little interest in holidays so far, but it's still fun to dress him up and take pictures!! This year we took him to see the Easter Bunny at the mall, he was more interested in all the other kids there. We went to an easter egg hunt with Andy's brother and his family, again...more interested in the other kids. But we got some cute pictures that make it look like he cares!!

We also got together with my Uncle and his family for Easter dinner, it was fun to hang out with them. And the food was great!!

We tried to find a nice little easter outfit for Avery but were thwarted at every store! It seems that little girl clothes are much more popular than boys! I guess we could have bought him a lovely little easter dress and taken some pictures, he would make a beautiful little girl!! But that probably would be frowned upon and the pictures would never be shown! But, like I said, he would have been happy dressed in a onesie and put in the middle of a room full of other people that he thinks are all paying attention to him!
I'm so glad that it's spring time, all the flowers are starting to come up, the birds are chirping and there are ducks in the ponds!

9 Months and all is well

Avery had his 9 month check up this morning. He's weighing in at 18 pounds 15 ounces and is 29 inches long! He's gained exactly 12 pounds since birth and grown 8 inches. He crawls, he stands up to furniture, he walks along the edge of the couch and window sill, he claps, he waves, he can feed himself finger food, he baby talks all day long!! And most importantly...he sleeps through the night!!
I can't believe how bog he is and how much he's doing! It's so fun to play with him!
He didn't have any shots today, they did have to prick his toe to test for anemia, which he doesn't have. And the doctor gave us a prescription for fluoride drops to give him everday, since it's not in the water here and he doesn't get it from his formula.
All in all he's PERFECT!!! And we love him!

Last year at a glance

This is my first attempt at blogging, most of this entry is just stolen from my recent family newsletter article...it's WAY easier than re-typing things...and thinking about clever things to say! So....here's a glimps into what's been going on in our corner of Provo in the last year!

Our biggest news is that our little boy Avery was born June 25^th of last year, he’s growing so fast! We can’t believe he’ll be 1 in a little less than 3 months. He’s such a nice, sweet, social baby. He loves going to church or the grocery store just to “people watch”. He’s started crawling in the last month and he’s so fast! We’ve invested in a baby gate so he can’t knock the garbage over in the kitchen. He’s not a big baby gate fan! This week he learned how to climb the stairs, so far he hasn’t tried it too many times but I see another baby gate in our future!

It’s really amazing how fast he’s growing and all the fun things he’s learning to do. We love just watching him play, or even sleep. He’s such a nice boy, we’re really lucky he’s so good! I just wish we could stop him from getting older, he’s at such a fun age right now!

Lots more has happened this past year, Avery and I went to Washington and Missouri to visit family, some of the Missouri family came out here for Jeremy’s wedding (that was fun!!), our little family moved from our little apartment into a nice town home, we drove home for Christmas and on the way out there we got stuck in a HUGE winter storm in Denver forcing us to stay 2 nights in a motel 6…not fun! When we came home Andy started his last semester here at BYU, he will graduate with his bachelors degree in Sociology. (Still more schooling to come!)

Andy is really looking forward to being done with school for a while. He is planning on completing a master’s program in Social Work and hopes to start that in the fall of 2008. His days are pretty long right now, he gets up at about 4:30am and gets home from work/school around 7pm so I think at this point he’s looking forward to relaxing a little this summer.

I’ve been enjoying staying at home with Avery; I stopped working a couple of weeks before he was born last year. Since staying home I’ve been able to work on scrap booking a lot more, and I’ve experimented with several other craft projects. My latest project is planning Avery’s first birthday part! A little early you say? I want everything to be perfect! J Really I’m just so glad I am able to stay home with Avery.

That’s just a glimpse of what we’ve been doing this past year. We’re looking forward to the coming months when Andy gets a “real” job and is able to spend a little more time at home. We’re also looking forward to exciting summer activities such as garage sales (we love finding good deals!), camping and swimming! Everything seems so much more fun now that Avery is around.

Blogs I like to Read

Family Blogs
*private blogs

Mom and Dad
Sasha and Bryan
Sis and Phil
Brittany
Heather*
Jon and Jacque*
Maren and Ryan
Mishka*
Silas and Robyn

Friend's Blogs

Jordan and Amelia
Karen
Cari-Ann
Lindy
Denita
Sam
Megan and JD
Rebecca
Hillary
Jake and Misty
Jess
Lil
Mable and Zak
Natalie and Erinn
Sarah and Seth

Craft and Sewing Blogs
Crafting in Laymon's Terms
Make It and love It
Creativity Shared
LollyChops
Mrs. D. Lightful
Missouri Star Quilt Company
The Long Thread
Crafter-Holic

Blog Backgrounds
LeeLou Blogs
Simply Yours
Cutest Blog on the Block
One Cute Blog

Giveaway Sites
Giveaway Today
Tip Junkie giveaway list

Home Stuff
Nesting Place
Tip Junkie
Lazy Moms
Organized Moms
Small Red Kitchen

Andy's MSW Friends
LaDawn
Leishman Family
Winder's
Kerianne
Cory and Karrissa
Brittany Hofman

Email me!

If you have any questions about crafts, recipes, info on my blog...or praise...shoot me an email

Kizziew@gmail.com

About our Family

Our Family was established December 21, 2004. Andy and I dated for about 3 weeks before we were engaged, and married about 4 months later.
We have since added 2 adorable boys, and 1 precious little girl to our family. Avery in June 2006, Jack in July 2008 and Nora in December 2011.

Andy is graduated from BYU with his Master's Degree in Social Work in 2010 and is currently working at an agency about 1 mile from our home. He also serves as the Elder's Quorum President in our ward.  He loves Star Wars, The Portland Trailblazers and San Fransisco 49ers, and listening to audio books.

Kizzie (Me!) gets to stay home and hang with the little's. I get to craft, sew and organize to my hearts content. I love blogging. I try to get out of the house for a little bit everyday. And I love my little ones more than anything. Ever. I also serve as a counselor in the primary presidency at church.

Avery turned 6 this year and is in 1st grade. He loves his brother and sister, school, playing video games with Dad, helping mom make meals. He's such a big helper and always has a hug and an "I love you" for everyone in the family. He loves making new friends at school and playing with his cousins that live close to us. He is also quickly developing his Dad's love of all things star wars, Harry Potter, and Super hero.We love our happy, helpful, funny big boy!

Jack is 4. He is going into preschool very soon and so excited about it! He is our crazy, energetic, happy, silly boy. He loves baby talking to Nora and playing rough with Avery. Even when Avery doesn't want to :) He still tries to copy everything Avery does, with great success. If Avery eats peanut butter and honey, Jack does too. He is very much his own person though, he always has a silly song to sing, or a funny one-liner for us. He is so sweet and loving to all of us, we love having him around for comic relief and a good hug. He also has the love of Star Wars, super heroes and Harry Potter, Dad is proud :)

Nora is our little princess. She is spoiled and happy and very well loved. She is perfect and always has a smile for us when we walk into a room. She sleeps well, crawls and laughs when we want her too. She's a very friendly and calm baby and we (obviously) love her! We love watching her grow and learn new things, but wish she would slow down just a little. :)