I FINISHED IT!!!

Okay, I'm soooo not my Mom when it comes to talents- she's amazing! But I'm trying to learn, that's how it starts, right? So Jeremy gave me a sewing machine a couple Christmas' ago and I've attempted a few things. So far the only ones that have turned out good was a baby sleep bag (has arms and just a big opening for baby's body and zips up) that I made for my niece and this dress Ava has on. It was a little harder than I should have tried, but it turned out pretty dang cute, I'm shocked w/ myself!!! The machine is lucky to still be in one piece, many times I've been tempted to chuck it at the wall--not too mention a few bad words have slipped my lips. Then last night I made my first hair clip to match her outfit, pretty cute too I must say, though I have a big blister on my finger from the hot glue gun!

And if all that crafting wasn't enough, I'm making two scrapbook frames today. We might do them for a Super Saturday at church. Which leads me to ask all you fellow crafters out there, I need some ideas for our Super Saturday. Any good holiday (Fall/Christmas) ideas, or just something fun & cute???? I'm so not going to be good at this calling (Enrichment Leader), still wondering WHY I was called. I've got lots to learn-I'm such a procrastinator.

Ava was crafting w/ playdough tonight while I was making my frames. I'm amazed at how long it kept her content. Though she is LOVING having Daddy home to play with, she even got upset and made him sit by her while she ate her Ice Cream tonight. Jer was just trying to watch some football. Very much a Daddy's Girl!

Speaking of which, she trailed Daddy around the garden yesterday while he finally got to work out there. Dad hooked her up w/ some raw corn and she chowed away, she LOVES corn on the cob.

Yummy, Yum!

Goodbye to Seattle.....

This coming Friday, my hubby FINALLY comes home for good! Well, I guess not. In a year he has another training to attend for 4-6 weeks, not sure where that one will be, though Seattle would be nice. We've had fun playing up there and seeing lots of stuff my family there never takes us too, so it has been good. This past weekend Ava & I went up and Saturday night we took a 1/2hour ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island. We walked around their small street of shops and resturants till we found somewhere yummy to eat. Do NOT order Filet Mingon(can't spell) when you have a toddler w/ you!!! It took FOREVER to cook and we had to pull out all the stops to entertain the beast. But it was YUMMY!

Earlier on Saturday my Sis-in-law Shanda and niece Kiera came to Seattle and we all went to the Children's Museum. They are soooo cute together when they play nice, which they did at the Museum, just not at Grandma's house the next day.

The BEST part about the hotel for Ava was the POOL-boy did she love it! Love all the protective gear- crazy dad!

I was bad and had to take this pic while I was driving to Seattle. Ava was having a rough trip up, as she had thrown her binkie out of Mom's reach and I wasn't pulling over to retrieve it. Instead I listened to her cry and whine for about an hour. Funny part is just before I took this pic we kept passing this horse trailer and Ava could see the horses inside and was all excited. Well the final time we passed them, Ava just burst into tears and crying out "horsies gone, horsie gone", it was just sad. I tried to cheer her up telling her we'd see Grandma's horsies soon (they have a horse pastor behind them), but didn't work well. Until of course we got there and she ran out to see them. Crazy monkey!

Ava is becoming a shoe queen, not quite like my cousin's Audra's girl, but it may happen. She was so happy to be strutting around in this high heel. Finally a good pic of her smiling, except she's half naked, wet and in one shoe! Cute chic!

Hurry home Jeremy...I can only last so long by myself w/ the Beast! :)

Sillyness in Seattle

We spent the 1st week of Aug up in Seattle while Jeremy started his month long training. They put him up in a nice hotel that has a kitchen, living room and seperate bedroom--not to mention they a HUGE complimentary breakfeast every morning. So I got to spend lots of time w/ my family that lives near there and also time wandering around downtown Seattle. I did LOTS of walking and Ava was a pretty good sport about it all. I came back this past Monday, leaving Jeremy in Seattle and Ava at my Mom's for the week!!! It's been a great BREAK from them, though I can't wait for them to get home tonight! My sweet Mom has sent me a couple emails w/ pics of the fun stuff her and Ava are doing, and Ava's talked to me on the phone a couple times. But here are some pics of when I was up there.

My Mom came w/ Ava & I to the Seattle Aquarium one day, despite all the pics of a non-happy face, Ava had a blast. We even saw Nemo & Dori and she kept repeating "Nemo" over and over! We are going to the Portland Zoo tomorrow for a "Family Reunion" for our Fertility clinic- I know Ava's going to enjoy it more than the last time we went.

I asked her to smile, this is what I got instead!

One day we went to the park w/ my Mom, Shanda (sis-in-law) and her 2 kids. Ava & Kiera (who are 7 months apart) had soooo much fun chasing after eachother. Kiera's the one at the top w/ the cute pigtails.

We were waiting outside the Federal building for Jeremy to get off so we could go to dinner at P.F. Chang's. Going to that resturant had to be the worst part of the whole week. Ava had had enough of sightseeing and she was tired, so she cried & screamed till the food got to us. Then she picked up the bowl and ate like a dog out of it. Oh my!

Some crazy water spray near the Space Needle. Ava's not one for running in spraying water though, she kept her distance.

I'll have Jeremy & Ava home tonight, then Jer leaves us again on Sunday. Then next friday we'll drive up there for the weekend. He comes home the 28th, HOORAY! Poor boy has to spend his Birthday up there w/ out us! It's tues the 18th, but one of his coworkers has the same birthday, so they can go party together w/ all food allowence for the day (they get $64/day for food--crazy). Sorry for the long updates! Love ya all!

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!