All about Ava...

I've gotten some cute pics of Ava lately that I need to post, just so Ava's Grandparents know what she is up to! Above pic is Ava enjoying snacktime w/ Dolly and sharing her Goldfish! What a good little Mommy. Below pic is w/ her Dolly & Baby, those are their names. And boy does she love them. Recently, she has been making sure one always comes to daycare or the store with her, fun.

So one night I was being a slacker mom and probably just checking out everyones blogs and facebook, while Ava brings her outdoor chalk in and colors my walls. Luckily she was more than happy to clean it up!

We are now in the middle of redoing our master bathroom, it's actually be torn apart FOREVER and won't be finished till like mid-late Sept. Anyways, we bought the shower insert walls and base, and of course they came with HUGE boxes. Well my "inventor/child" husband built Ava a good-sized play house in her bedroom. It's not the prettiest of things, but she love it, especially her little door and window.

Ava & Jeremy were playing in the hottub. I think it was only 90 degrees in there. Ava LOVES water, she could not hold still in there, just kept moving around. I like this pic of my two babes!

As for life, we are leaving to Seattle next Monday where Jeremy will be training the WHOLE month of August. I have off the 1st week, so I'll come bum around Seattle, go swimming at the hotel pool, and hang out w/ my family. Jeremy will come home one weekend in Aug. and I'll go up the last one. But my WONDERFUL Mother is going to take Ava the 2nd week because my daycare gal is off. Though I'll be working, I'll have the week to MYSELF and just the 2 dogs to take care of.....so nice! Thanks Mom, I know Ava will love playing at your house. That's our story for now, except we are cooking up here in the NW. I know we are sissies to all you Vegas/AZ people, but MOST houses don't have A/C, including mine. And it was 85 inside when I got home and 104 outside. Plus the A/C at work is old and doesn't do well over 90, so I've been sweating under my mask and gloves all day. But we'll be back to the mid-80's next week, hooray!

Girly craft!

So some of my blogger buddies have been showing off their fun crafts lately, I wanted to join in on the fun! I've been looking and trying to come up w/ a way to hold all Ava's cute hair clips- finally I scanned the homemade stuff on etsy.com and came up w/ an idea. I bought the cheap board at Micheal's, along w/ the "A" and Princess crown. They also had $1 ribbon there. A little painting and glue gunning and wallahhh....a clip hanger! My next craft is making some frames w/ scrapping paper & mod podge- my sis made some cute ones and even gave one to Jeremy for Fathers' Day.

As for current events, I've been released from my duties as Nursery Leader in Church. I was sad, I'll miss all the little, crazy toddlers... but I'm on to being the Enrichment Chair person (not exactly sure of the title name). To all the non-LDS followers of mine, it means I'm in charge of the Quarterly activities that are just for the women of the church. I do have committee members to boss around (not that I'm capable of bossing) and help me out. Should be interesting, plus I haven't attended Relief Society for more than a combined year since I become of age to be in it. I'm looking forward to expanding my knowledge beyond Primary level, cause that's where it's about at!
Otherwise, we are in the heart of BERRY season. Our Marionberry vines are MASS producing this year. I've made a marionberry crisp and oat bars w/ them and still have a few gallon size bags in the freezer and TONS more on the vine still. Plus we picked 2 ice cream pails of Raspberries last saturday. Ava is LOVING it all! Good times in Summer!

Weekend in UT

Ava & her pal Addie, they were SOOOOO cute together!

What a mess, especially after watermelon, a cupcake, popsicle and soooo much more!

Smart Ava & her Daddy, those are one of my step-sisters glasses.

The Okquerrh Temple! The black on Moroni's arm & trumpet are from it getting struck by lightening! How crazy is that??? Guess the are going to re-coat it or something.

We had a great 4th of July holiday surrounded by family! Jer, Ava & I drove down to Utah last friday. That night we went to the Okquerrh (sp?) Temple Open House near South Jordan. Very beautiful temple, inside and out! We stayed fri/sat with my cousin Rachel & her family, they have an awesome basement that we took over. Ava loved playing w/ their girl Addie who is 2 months older, too bad we don't live closer. Saturday we spent most the day at an extended Aurich (Dad's side) family reunion. I could name maybe 25 out of the 80 family members there. Lots of yummy food though and catching up. Sunday we visited my stepsister Ami & her family in Sandy during the morning, then off to a baby blessing in Eagle Mountain. Some friends of ours from our ward, moved to UT 2 years ago and now have a beautiful 4 month old boy. We invaded their luncheon after the blessing, then took off to the airport to get rid of Jeremy. Then my sister, Ava and I headed to Lindon (North of Provo), where my Uncle (mom's bro) and his family live. They put us up for 3 nights and we went swimming w/ them and played and just hung out. Then wednesday I made the LONG drive home w/ Ava, and boy was it LONG!!! She was not an angel the last 4 HOURS of the trip. I pulled over 3 times just to retrieve the binkie that kept getting thrown and then screamed for, not fun. But we survived and are so HAPPY to be HOME! Though we loved seeing everyone that we could fit in, sorry to any others that we missed. Unfortunatly I don't have more pics, dumb camera broke during our Reunion on Saturday. DON'T BUY KODAK, EVER! It's a pretty new camera, and has broken twice since we got it in November, ahhhhh! Back to life now....

FUN IN THE SUN!!!!

Just posting some pics of our fun summer days so far! We got out the little kiddie pool and Ava LOVES playing in it. Of course she had to poop in her swim diaper the first day....crazy girl! I should have posted the pic of Jeremy going down the kiddie slide, suprised it didn't break. The pics above were taken at a park we just discovered, it was fun. Now we are packing and getting ready to make the long drive to UTAH! We are having a Reunion type gathering w/ my Dad's side and lots of extended family I don't know, should be interesting, but fun I'm sure. Jeremy is helping me drive there, but he flies back sunday and I'll drive home wednesday. My sister & I need lots of time to hang out and spend all my money! :)

In other news, Jeremy started his IRS job 2 weeks ago. He went to Seattle for a week of orientation, then started at the office in Portland this week. He had to go back to Seattle for the MONTH of August for training though, ouch! But I have the 1st week off, so we'll come hang out w/ him and my family that's nearby, then I'll go up on the weekends. He's excited about his new job though, which is great. Hope all of you bloggers are enjoying your SUMMER!

Our recent happenings....

This post isn't going to have any pictures, because it's not a fun post. But I thought I would share some things because I wrote in a previous post that I was going to be trying for a baby soon. We started the whole process back in April, it takes lots of drugs and shots to get the body ready for the embryos to be transfered. Mid-May we thawed 3 embryos, 2 survived and were transfered in. 9 days later we found out we were pregnant, but with a very low hormone level, so we were discouraged about it working. Then I re-tested 3 days later and the number jumped up quite a bit, then we had a 3rd test 2 days later and the number was strong. Well, we went for our 6 1/2 week ultrasound and it showed that one baby had implanted but stopped growing at 5 weeks. We found this out 2 weeks ago. We are very sad and disappointed, especially with the process it takes to get pregnant. We have 2 left to go back for, probably in the Fall. My bum is still healing from all the shots, poor thing! We appreciate any prayers on our behalf, not that I have to ask since I know you are all wonderful! I'm just thankful to have the beautiful daughter that I have, she means the world to us. I just hope we can get her at least one more sibling. We probably won't go through the whole IVF process again, so this next cycle may be our last try. I'll be praying REALLY hard this time!!! Don't worry about us though, we are enjoying life right now and Jeremy is about to start a new job next week, lots of new changes. Love you all!

New Bathroom & New (used) Car!!

One down, one to go! Jeremy just finished installing all the new stuff for our guest/hall bathroom- it looks AWESOME!!! It is amazing how it kept adding up in cost, I thought we got lucky w/ Jer doing the tile for around $60ish and got the pedestal sink on craigslist for $50, but then there are all new accesories and hardware, etc......oh well. We still saved a bundle! This is the only good pic I have of the before, and this is even before we bought the house & moved in. It was ugly and the linolium around the toilet (that got a leak) was soggy and gross.

The new look, very relaxing I think! Though I having a hard time towel color matching or finding a good contrast color. The wall color is called Sahara, something like tanish/greenish/?, back to the store tomorrow....

Jer's lovely tile job. He wants me to buy a couple big rugs to cover his floors and hide some "tiny" flaws. Not happening, I like the look.

It's weird how the mirror is reflecting on the clock, hmm. Now that this is finished, Jeremy is actually ready to go rip out the shower in the next bathroom, crazy man. And he starts his new job in a week, he'll be going up to Seattle for a week of Orientation on the 22nd. What will I do all alone w/ Ava???? This will be a 1st! We'll eat out every night! :)

Oh, and to the new (used) car.....Daddy found this for his princess at a garage sale. She LOVES it, she'll get in and say "vroom, vroom" over and over. Then practice climbing in and out about 10 times over. Silly girl!

COASTAL DAY TRIP!

Poor guy, that is a 30lb Toddler on his back and the hike up was all UP HILL!

Rugged little cabins w/ 2 sets of bunk beds for those that want to camp out!

The Oregon Coast! Sooooo beautiful...

Ava fell and got her pants wet, she was not happy about that! Plus its freezing cold water!

We got out of the house! Sometimes I have to beg Jeremy to do fun stuff, and since he finally had a weekend off, I got what I wanted. He spent all day Friday slaving in the bathroom & other projects, but last Saturday we took off to the Coast (about a 1hr45min drive there). The weather NEVER cooperates for us when we visit, so of course it was overcast with a light drizzle on and off, and a high of 57! Thanks! Oh well, we still had fun hiking and playing on the beach. Then we went to a little coastal town and got salt water taffy and Ice Cream. Ava got to ride on the Carousel twice, lucky girl. The funniest part of our day out was Ava falling down and getting dirty, then throwing a tantrum because her hands were DIRTY. So sad! :) I should have recorded it though, people were walking by laughing to Ava crying out "dirty, dirty." Good times!