Walking Fool! -- By Andy

Avery is quite the entertaining man-child. He always seems to be doing some funny little thing to keep us entertained. Whether it is the head-bobbing or back-arching of months past, or his current obsessions with saying "hi" to every passer by (whether we're outside, in the car, or at church) and roaring at every little animal he sees. He's a little bundle of energy that always keeps things interesting.

As of late, he's really stepped up his walking efforts. He took his first steps a while back (perhaps about 2 months ago) but generally lacked the gumption to make it his primary method of transport. He would mostly walk around the furniture and occasionally venture off a couple steps over to the ottoman or to the middle of the floor before pouncing upon an unsuspecting toy, pillow, or parent. We knew that he would increase his walking efforts any day, so we waited with baited breath.


Finally, on July 4th, as a tribute to our great nation, and in honor of the multitudes of great men and women who have made freedom their cause, Avery arose to solute, increase his efforts, and lengthen his strides. At this time, he still primarily enjoyed the speed and ease of crawling, but, with courage similar to the great men and women of yore, he began taking 5-6 steps at a time, sometimes even turning along the way. He also stepped up the frequency of his mini-jaunts, from maybe 1 or 2 a day to more like 10-15 an hour (excluding sleeping times of course... as far as we know). This, of course, was merely foreshadowing his future developments.


Then, on Sunday afternoon, perhaps as an early tribute to our pioneer forebears, he made the great switch. No longer is he contented to dwell in such a lowly station: constantly graveling at our feet for attention and food-scraps. Furthermore, he was no longer happy with taking a few mere steps before sinking back to from whence he came; nay, there was a bright new world to be conquered. Suddenly, he started walking from room to room (generally carrying one of Kizzie's hair brush). He falls periodically, but arises quite quickly to press onward. This has led us to beef up our security to protect more of our stuff. Further action will be coming soon to thwart the boy from constantly throwing his toys in the trash (one of his new favorite pass-times). Despite the many inconveniences of this development, we have decided that we will still keep him. His unstable, Frankensteinesque walking is yet another entertaining trick for his ever-increasing repertoire.

Road trip!!

Missouri here we come!! We decided this week that we are going to take a trip back home in August! I'm so excited! We're driving, which is obviously cheaper, but scary because we have no clue how Avery will handle it! He traveled great when he was 2 months old and slept the whole way...! I'm way excited though! We're leaving the 22nd from Utah and we'll be there until the 30th. Yay!!!

That's pretty much my exciting news of the week.

I did kill my laptop this week however. Sunday morning Andy and I were doing some reading for out Sunday School lesson and I was drinking one of those slim fast breakfast shakes...apparently I forgot that I had shaken it and opened it already and I started to shake it all over me and my laptop! So that's dead. Luckily I got it to turn on long enough to get our pictures and my journal off, along with a few other less important things. I'm pretty sad about that. Now I have to use the desktop that's upstairs. Not nearly as convenient and it locks up about every 30 minutes! So now I need to convince Andy to get me a new laptop!

I finished sewing a ton of stuff for the Farmers Market that starts next Friday. I made 6 boppy covers, 11 I Spy Bags and 2 Nursing Covers (similar to Hooter Hiders). So we'll see how this one goes. Everything was fairly inexpensive to make, so at least I'm not spending a ton on just materials. We'll see.

Tonight I get to go out with girls! No baby!!! I don't remember the last time I did that. I'm looking forward to relaxing and not worrying about who's throwing food at strangers! :)

Pamper Kizzie day! : )

I deserve one right? Oh yeah...and boy did I need it this week!

I've been having some joint pain since February and I finally worked up the nerve to go to the doctor about it. So I went and they drew blood and said they were testing for rheumatoid arthritis (not cool!), I waited 4 long days to find out the results came back negative for that, thank goodness. But then I had to go in and get more blood drawn so they can test for lupus, also not cool. I should find out Friday what the results are for those tests, then we'll go from there.

So after having a bit of a hard week I decided to cut my hair off and get my nails done. Today. So I did, and I love it!
I am so tired of pulling my hair into a pony tail every day and telling myself I "did my hair today". I don't think pony tails should count as that at all. I was feeling pretty blah about my hair anyway, it's so straight and lifeless, so I knew I needed something that couldn't just be pulled back. And I love my new summer cut! I also lucked out that this week they were offering the complimentary head massage with any hair cut. That was a little slice of heaven! Wow! I could go back just for the massage!
Here's a before and after. I should have taken a before shot this morning, but I wasn't thinking. This is the only one I could find where it's not in the hated pony! :)

Before...

And after...

I also got my nails done, I went to a lovely little Asian place called "New Nails", clever name I think. They were so speedy, I was in and out in 30 minutes! That's what I call service! Those Asians are quick! (I'd like to add that because my sister-in-law ,and nephews and niece, are Asian, I can make Asian jokes. Really.) I haven't gotten acrylic nails since my sister Selissa got married almost 3 years ago, it makes me feel so girly! And I like it! :)



Also, on Monday Andy bought me 2 dozen roses. I just thought that was so sweet! So I have one dozen in the living room and the other in the kitchen. I'd keep them together, but I don't have a vase big enough. I just think Andy is the best thing since sliced bread! :) But seriously, he's really great. He's always doing sweet things for me, and he knows just what to say when I'm having a hard time. The roses were perfect. I just have the best husband ever! Sorry girls!!! ;)

I must be crazy...

So...the boutique I did last month was a total bust, they didn't advertise for it very well at all! I sold a few things, but it was a long day. Totally not worth it. (I actually came home and listed some stuff on ebay and it sold with the buy it now option within a couple hours for more than I had hoped to get!) I'd made my mind up to never do it again. But...I changed my mind!
The girl I shared a booth with rented a booth at a 10 week farmers market and invited me to share it with her. This one will be much busier, so hopefully I can sell some stuff. I'll be doing less scrapbook things and more baby things. about a year ago I bought a boppy cover pattern on ebay (one that someone made themselves, sells and lets others sell the finished product. I just can't sell the pattern) so I'm going to make a bunch of those, and also some Eye Spy bags. I think those will do better than scrapbook stuff, I'm still taking it all with me so I can get rid of it though! :)
I think I'll also make some rag quilt burp cloths, they're easy to make, cute and very useful!
The Farmers Market starts Aug. 3rd and is every Friday from 3-7 at Thanksgiving point. So I need to get started on sewing! It's outside, so that's the only thing I'm not looking forward to. But it should be fun. And it gives me something to look forward to and work for.
I was telling Andy that I'd like to do it because I need a project, and since Avery's birthday party and the last boutique are over I've been feeling a little bored. He made the comment that the house looks a lot better since I don't have much else to do! Sad...but true!!

So hopefully I don't just lose a bunch of money and then have TONS of stuff left over! I'd have lots of baby gifts!

4th of July

I forgot to write about the 4th...so almost a week later, here it is!


We had quite the full day planned, since Andy had the day off work I wanted to do as much fun stuff as possible!! :) So we woke up at about 6am to go to the hot air balloon festival, it was so cool! We didn't get there in time to see them blow the balloons up but we got to see them take off. I've never been that close to a hot air balloon, they're huge! And there were tons! Avery loved it. I'm not sure what he liked more, the balloons or all the people! He loves
watching people, it's hilarious!




After the balloons took off we came home and made a pancake breakfast, Mike and Heather and their kids and Chris came over for it. It was a nice little visit and meal.

Then we took off for the parade. We had originally planned on just going the morning of and trying to find a place to sit and watch it, but we quickly realized that that would be very hard! On Monday people were already setting up tents and chairs, roping off areas and settling down for the long haul! So Monday night we went and tried to find a place to put our two little camping chairs, even that was hard!


When we got to the parade Wednesday morning it seemed like it took forever for it to start, and when it did I was a little dissapointed. I think parades have too many non-floats in them. I wanna see the fancy big floats! most of the parade was trucks with people sitting in the back, high school bands and cars with magnets on the side blasting music. Boooring...When some floats finally started to emerge they were spaced about every 2 blocks. Anyway, it was a fun experience, we ended up leaving early because it was so hot and Avery was cranky!

When we got home we let Avery play and then layed him down for a nap after an hour or so. Chris came over so Andy and I could go to a movie. It was nice to get out and go see a new release! We went and saw License to Wed. It had some funny parts but it wasn't my favorite. Though I have a crush on the guy who plays Jim Halpert, and he was in it. So that was fun. :)

After Avery's nap we walked from our house to the freedom festival on center street. It was so crowded and hot! but it was fun walking around seeing what people are selling. There was music too, it was a little weird but at least it was shaded!


That night we went and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks show from a couple blocks away. It was awesome! I love fireworks, I think they're so pretty! Avery liked it too. Mostly I think he liked crawling around on the grass, but he was happy. Then we came home and lit some dinky fireworks we got at Walmart. It was fun, this time Avery wasn't so impressed. But we got some pictures, and that's what it's all about! :)

Digital scrapbooking

Someone told me about free digital scrapbooking stuff you can download, so I got a free program and TONS of free backgrounds and embellishments. It's a lot of fun, and pretty easy too! I don't think I'll give up paper scrapping, but this is a nice alternative.
Here are the first 2 pages I've done.
What do you think?