Hmmmm...

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/rd/50651/color/index.jsp?testname=colorogt&resultid=C

I'm actually still not too sure about these results, but I answered all of the questions honestly. So maybe I am just not seeing it. Anyway, everyone needs to do this because it is so much fun to read about others.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

I have struggled today as I have tried to sit down and gather my thoughts. I guess it was inevitable, and really, if I am being honest with myself, after watching the October's General Conference, I had a feeling he wouldn't be around much longer, but it still doesn't make his passing any easier. I have such mixed feelings about President Hinckley's passing. He lived such a full, long life and I can't think of anyone better prepared to leave this life. I can't help but think of how happy the reunion between him and his wife must have been. For completely selfish reasons, I am very sad because President Hinckley holds such a dear place in my heart, being the prophet that I grew up listening to and loving. I will miss his counsel, his sincerity, and his compassion. He was an amazing example of how to stand up for what you believe in while treating everyone with the upmost love and respect. His example will continue to be a lasting influence in my life. It is comforting to know that our church is being left in the hands of worthy and righteous men who will continue the legacy of our beloved Prophet.

All Tuckered Out!

I am beginning to think that Ava is not sleeping as long as I think she is. Lately when I go into get her up from her, what I think is a four hour nap, she is just laying there looking at her mobile, wide awake, and this morning only an hour after getting her up for the day, this is her on our couch, already ready for a nap. Guess she just couldn't wait any longer!

A New Year, A New Me

This year I have made a real attempt of making New Year Resolutions and actually attempting to work on them. One of my resolutions is to actually get 100% ready every day. I have always said I would never become one of the moms who never gets ready during the day, however I was finding that more and more often I would not get all the way ready.

One of my least favorite things to do is to blowdry my hair. It would take me anywhere from 20-30 minutes to blowdry. So I got in the habit of showering and then letting my hair air dry, which would mean that I would very rarely return to finish doing my hair.

Well, I am pleased to say that since I have made this resolution, I have been able to accomplish it almost every day because of my new blow dryer I got for Christmas. I had no idea how much I would appreciate this little gift. I can now blow dry my hair in around five minutes! It has opened up a whole new world for me. Now I can get completely ready in 45 minutes and I feel so much better throughout the rest of the day and for some reason, I actually get a lot more accomplished throughout the day as well.

It feels great to be back on track!

The Stats Are In...

Today I took Ava to her six month dr. appointment. I was so nervous because our schedule got off this morning so she was ready for a nap when we got to the dr. office. Well, she was such a good little girl. She was so happy until she got her shots and then she tried so hard to be sad, but her little cry just wasn't cutting it and she was fine seconds later. The doctor said Ava is doing great and for the most part is right where she should be developmentally. Now for the stats:

Weight: 16 lbs. 7 oz. (60th percentile)

Height: 26 1/2 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circumference 44 3/4 cm

which is...

95th percentile!

It just keeps growing!

I just keep telling myself that she must be one little smarty pants to have so many brains that she needs such a big head to hold them all!

Now we are home and she has actually had a really emotional day today. Getting shots has never seemed to be a problem for her before, but today, I can tell she is having a rough time. Maybe it was the flu shot? She hasn't wanted to eat very much and has just had this sad little whimper of a cry all day. It breaks my heart. I also love it though because it gives me an excuse to just cuddle with her and love on her all day.

These pictures are actually a couple of weeks old, but I thought they were so cute because she looks so tiny in our big bed.

1/2 Years Old!

I am a day late at getting this posted. Mostly because I had just finished the scrapbook page when I accidentally turned off the computer and lost the whole thing! I was so upset. Anyway, on a much happier note, yesterday was a big day. Ava turned 6 months old! I can't believe we have had her for half of a year already. It doesn't seem that long, but at the same time it feels like she has been a part of our family forever. Does that make sense? She is such a joy in our lives and Josh and I are the proudest parents in the world. Ava was pretty upset that we weren't able to make it to her Red Robin birthday lunch. She was really looking forward to it. But luckily for us, Josh has promised that we can go this weekend.

Warning!!!!!

The following blog contains a major overload of posts so be prepared. I finally got all of our pictures transferred over to my new laptop so I finally got around to posting all about the happenings of our lives in the past couple of weeks. Sorry, I will try to keep up on it better now that our lives are getting back to normal and we are finding our routine again. It was fun having Josh home for a few days, but it sure is hard getting back in the swing of things.

It Finally Happened...

Ava can sit up in her Bumbo! We have been trying to get her to sit up in it since she was three months old but her head would just keep falling back. So we put it away for a while and I decided to test it out the other day and sure enough, she could do it. I was so excited! Almost six months old, but she is finally doing it. She has also started playing with toys and it is so fun to watch her shake her rattles. Now if only we could get her to roll over. I know I shouldn't be stressing, but I think it is just that first-time mom in me that is just wanting to make sure she is doing everything okay.

Yummy Yummy In Ava's Tummy

I decided that it would be fun to feed Ava rice cereal for the first time on Christmas morning. Unfortunately it didn't go as well as I had planned. She was not too sure about what was going on, however, by the end she was loving it and it has been a success ever since. I have now started feeding her rice cereal in the morning and baby food at night. She is loving sweet potatoes and I just started feeding her peas, which she is not too sure about, but we will keep working on it. The picture with me in it is totally embarrassing, but I loved Ava's expression. It is like she is saying, "Mom, give me a break, you don't have to pull those goofy faces at me to get me to eat this stuff." I have also found it funny that it is impossible to put the spoon to Ava's mouth without opening your own mouth. I wonder if we will ever grow out of that one. Overall, it has been a fun experience, but a little more time-consuming having to feed her food and then a bottle on top of it. It just makes her seem even more like a little girl now though.

Christmas 2007- Best Christmas Yet!

It is amazing what the presence of a child can do to Christmas. Ava is way too little to understand what was going on, but just having her there brought a little bit of that magic of Christmas back that I felt when I was a kid. I can't wait for her to get older because I know it will just keep getting better.

Christmas Eve we spent with Josh's brother, Jared, and his family. They came over to our house for a nice Christmas Eve dinner, and of course being the party-rific person that I am I had to have candle light, sparkling cider, cloth napkins, Christmas music playing in the background, etc. It was a really fun evening and the McDaniel family was so great to go with it and let me have my fun. We had the kids open their presents from us. My favorite is the picture of our nephew Cody, who got a book from us (Josh's idea). I can just tell that he is trying to act really excited about it, but he isn't quite doing it. We then put Ava in her Christmas pj's, after she peed all over Jared, because yes, I did it again, I forgot to change Ava since that morning. Give me a break, I had a lot going on that day. Then, we headed over to the McDaniel's house for a little birthday celebration. Jared's b-day is acutally Christmas day so we had a little celebration for him. We had the best homemade hot cocoa and Tiffani, my sister-in-law, made two pies and two cakes. It was quite the celebration.

Christmas morning, Ava and I woke Josh up. I, of course, couldn't sleep, I still get way too excited. Luckily, Ava was on my side and woke up around 7:00. We came out and opened gifts. Ava loved her exersaucer and she has been so much fun playing in it since. Sophie got a new toy, Buster got a rain slicker, and Lola (not pictured) got a nice new blanket for her kennel. Ava got an exersaucer, a few small toys, clothes (love the picture of Josh holding up the little skirt) and a new outfit and the set of stacking rings that we all had growing up from my mom and dad. Josh got the typical boring guy stuff, mostly dvd's. But, I was the spoiled one this year. Josh is so creative and always does little scavenger hunts for me, but this year takes the cake. He wrapped a poem in a box that he had written himself basically telling me that I was going to have to play "Let's Make a Deal" for my presents. He had put gifts behind eight different doors in our house and in order to get that gift I had to trade it for one I already had or answer a trivia questions (he compiled the questions by browsing my US Weekly Year in Review magazine) Of course I answered the questions 100% and was able to keep all of my gifts. The first door I opened contained a present from Josh and Ava, I was so excited to see what was in the box and completed disgusted when I opened a box containing a dirty poopy diaper. The smell was awful. Josh thought he was so funny. Behind the next doors were a new blowdryer, the dvd Hairspray, and a new pair of shoes. Then we went upstairs and in the bathroom was a gift from the puppies. Bet you can't guess what it was.... Yep, a box full of dog poop! Totally gross, yet so funny. In our bonus room was the x-box game Rock Band which is like Guitar Hero but has drums and a microphone. We have loved it! In our office was a brand new desk top computer (our old one was way old and outdated) however, I haven't even used it once because behind the last door was a brand new laptop just for me. I was so surprised and so excited. It is so much quicker than our other one, which is so nice for digital scrapbooking. Basically, I was majorly spoiled this year.

We had a really laid back rest of the day filled with Rock Bank and making food for our Christmas dinner we were having with a couple of other families.

Overall, it was a great holiday, it was so nice to spend some time with Josh. We saw three movies and Ava was perfect through all three of them. It was just so nice to be able to enjoy each other's company.

Boise Botanical Gardens

As I posted previously, I was pretty devastated by the fact that we didn't get to see the lights at Temple Square while we were in Salt Lake. I had the idea to go to the Boise Botanical Gardens because I had heard that they decorate with Christmas lights. I figured it would be an okay replacement for Temple Square. So we went the weekend before Christmas with our friends Zach and Cassie to find a little Christmas Cheer. Well, boy was I right, it was better than okay, it was GREAT! I could not believe how beautiful it was. There were so many lights! They had hot cocoa and cookies which were mighty tasty, as well as little fires in large bins throughout the gardens that you could stand by to warm yourself. They even had Santa Claus, which you can see Ava was thrilled about. Besides the fact that it was fah-reezing, we had a great time. We kept Ava bundled up in her carseat and she kept pretty warm and cozy. We had a really great time, so for those of you who live here in the Treasure Valley, you might want to think about going next year.