Westover weekend o' fun!

Last week Andy had a few extra days off of work so we decided to go up to Salt Lake for some good clean fun to celebrate his new job (which he started this past Monday).

We went to the Gateway Mall and walked around, it's HUGE! There was a fun fountain that Avery played it, it was so cute! I think he was scared of it at first, but after a couple times of the water shooting out of the ground he thought it was a fun game! We also treated ourselves to some yummy Ben and Jerry's ice cream!

We also made a quick stop at the Clark Planetarium, it was really cool. And had the biggest elevator I've ever seen! Avery liked all the things on the ceiling and the over sized marble works!


We tried to watch the Joseph Smith movie at Temple square but the parking situation down town is horrible!! So we passed on that and went to Gardner Village to walk around and eat dinner. It was a lot of fun! The little shops there are so cute and they had fun witches all over!



They also had a petting zoo there, which Avery loved! He seemed to really enjoy chasing around the little pigs! It was so cute!

Mommies little guinea pig!

Isn't he cute!? I really need a girl!!!

At least this pair of leggings isn't pink!! :)
(though I do have a picture of him in pink ones!!!)

New job and other exciting family happenings...

So, here's a little update on the last couple weeks in our world.

1) The Car situation: Still no news on our beloved Taurus unfortunately. Surprisingly, not a whole lot has changed for us. As Kizzie mentioned in her last post, my brother Jon let us borrow his car as long as we needed and my other brother Chris gave me his old car. It's a stick, which I had ZERO experience with, so he taught me how to drive it, and I now I use it for work. Meanwhile, Kizzie used Jon's car for about a week until we bought a lovely 1990 Honda Accord. It may not be as powerful or fancy (by our standards) as the Taurus but we bought it for it's reliability and longevity rather than frills. So, when all is said and done, we've been pretty fortunate with family support and have really enjoyed having two cars, even though their combined value is probably about $3000!

2) Andy's job: I don't remember what Kizzie has posted on here about my recent job history, so here we go. So, I started working at the Respite program at Wasatch Mental Health working with troubled kids in the spring of 2006. I really enjoyed my job, but learned in late June that the program was being closed due to budget cuts.
Fortunately for me, because of my time there, I was offered an equivalent position in the Vantage Point program (which is a residential crisis center for teens) while continuing in the short term to work with some of my one-on-one Respite individuals. I have really enjoyed my time there over the last couple months and the associations I have with the kids and my coworkers.
However, since Vantage Point is a residential program, it is open 24/7 which means that I've had all kinds of crazy hours including evenings (usually 3:00-11:00), weekends, and holidays. Also, since I am just in a part-time position, I've had to do all kinds of crazy/creative scheduling to be able to get 40 hours in. To make a long story short, it's been really annoying and stressful trying to wrangle shifts with crazy hours. Luckily, there have been some full-time positions opening up in other programs and I was able to interview and get one.
We are pretty excited about the new job. I'll be able to work normal hours (8:00-5:00) at a closer location, and have benefits. My understanding of my new job is that I will coordinate the shuttle that picks up adult clients for their appointments, and have a caseload of 15-20 that I will meet with and help them live on a budget. This will definitely be very different from Respite and Vantage Point, but should still be interesting and good experience.



3) Avery: I guess there isn't anything amazingly new with him... he's just really cute. He provides us with tons of good entertainment every day. Lately, he's been trying to copy things we are saying (with varying degrees of success). He now can tell us that a car goes "vroom vroom", he still growls at every animal he sees, is increasingly liberal with his kisses, and says other new words like car, hat, ball, shoe, more, and whoa. We'll try and think of some specific stories to put on here.
(Avery wearing the leggings as a layer under his t-shirt!)

4) Kizzie's crafting: As you probably know if you actually read this thing, Kizzie has been involved in all kinds of craft fairs and boutiques this summer and has experimented with many new items. In general, I think it has been a fun experience for her, and we've even made a little bit of money. However, I think her most fruitful venture to this date has been her favorite new craft - making baby leggings. She makes them from kids socks and has probably made about $40-50 of profit in just the last 3 or 4 days. She really likes and feels good when other people like the things she makes and actually buys them.

So... all in all... life is pretty good for us right now, despite our stolen car and all that mess.
Have a jolly good day.

Dude, Where's My Car?

No, I never saw the movie...but I've asked that question every day this week!

Last Friday morning we woke up to find that our car has been stolen! We called the police right away and someone came over to file a police report. The officer that came said the usually stolen cars are recovered within 72 hours...it's been way more than 72 hours now!
Luckily, besides the car itself, there wasn't anything in it that can't be replaced. Avery's carseat is probably the most expensive thing in the car.

We've been really fortunate though, Andy's brother Jon has been letting us borrow their second car, so we're not stuck at home and Andy can get to work. Also, his brother Chris bought a new car a couple months ago and hasn't been able to sell his old car yet(a little Mazda). He gave it to us to do what we want with it, which is so great! So we went and got some minor repairs made and got it licensed, the only down side is that it is a 5 speed, so Andy had to learn how to drive a stick shift. We're VERY grateful for having family that can help us out!
If the car doesn't show up we're going to have to buy something that is more family oriented. (the Mazda is a 2 door hatch back, which isn't ideal for carseat use!) I think we'll probably try and sell the Mazda at some point and use the proceeds to get something qith 4 doors. But for now, things are alright.
Every time the phone rings I hope it's the police! And every time we go anywhere I'm always looking, hoping that we'll stumble across our poor car! We're still hopeful that we'll get it back, I just hope when/if we do it's in one piece! I actually really like my car...and we just bought it 3 months ago! So that's pretty crummy!

Other than that...nothing much is going on. I had another Dr. appointment yesterday, for my joint stuff. I got some more prescriptions and we're hoping over the next couple months everything will resolve itself. If not, it's on to a Rheumatologist for me. I'm really hoping that everything will work itself out and that won't be necessary!

Avery has developed a love of books! Which is great. most of the time. I think I can recite from memory every book that we have! He wants to read them each about 10 times, and if I don't he stands next to me whining until I read it again! Some days I think about hiding all the books...but that seems like a mommy no-no! :) but I may do it for a day!
He's a pretty cool kid though, so I guess I can re-read a few more books to him!

Here are a few pictures, just so this isn't so boring!

Avery loves to sit in the little corner on top of that lamb (that Andy named Milton...), he sits and and reads books, or he'll just pull the table over with him, he also discovered that the table doubles as a fun little seat! We think he's pretty cute.

Here we are, chillin' during conference (and between sessions). Avery loves his uncle Chris!

Avery in his replacement car seat. Thank goodness for Craigslist, car seats aren't cheap! He had fun sitting in it after it was call cleaned up! He's watching Veggie tales in these pictures.

Av

Bill Gates?! Come on!!

I did this for fun...then Bill Gate's was the closest match...and that's NOT fun!
At least the other 4 are girls...!

And I can't get this to center, oh well!