Life is Peachy

Summer and House Project

The town is buzzing because this was the last week of school. The sun is bright and shiny. After months of anticipation, the summer has at last arrived and I get the feeling that it's going to go by all too quickly!

We're not planning a lot of trips; Brian will do camping with scouts (he's now YM 2nd counselor) and we'll probably plan day activities for the family-- nothing fancy. I look forward to getting out the bikes! Mostly, we're working on this good ol' house and it's coming along. We ripped out the carpet upstairs yesterday (*Can I get some angelic rejoicings?*)! We have some prep work to do before laying down the laminate wood, so this won't be a weekend project like I was hoping. Nonetheless, you get used to things dragging out longer than expected, so it's no biggie. While we got the floor up, we're going to access the ceiling downstairs and put in recess lighting (cool, yeah?). Brian began screwing the hallway subfloor down to eliminate our outrageously squeaky floor... it's WORKING and it's AMAZING!!!! I can't tell you how sweet that is!!

Shortly we'll be taking a trip to Utah/Idaho for my family's reunion and it's so exciting that it's just around the corner! We wish we could stay there much longer.

Avery

I love my "little mommy." Avery watches everything I/we do & say, and I smile every time I see her copy us (except when she gets a stern face and says NO when we've done something wrong...). She's becoming an excellent helper in the kitchen. She can stir without big spills, help pour things, throw away things, load dishes, etc. I've got my little protege.

We received a package in the mail and without thinking twice, Avery pulled open the silverware drawer, fished out a butter knife (without looking because she wasn't on a stool to see), and attempted to cut open the tape. She is obviously very observant when I do this; it's just a good thing she didn't fish out the sharper knives that I use for this!

• Avery is very concerned and loving when we hurt ourselves.
• She always wants to climb in her car seat by herself.
• She can unlock the car using the key by herself. (She even taught me that if you hold the key turned on the driver's side, the rest of the doors will unlock... who knew!)
• She loves doing dishes under the running water.
• She likes to use the water/ice dispenser on the fridge and will constantly get us drinks.
• Avery simply wants to try everything we're doing and she surprises me at how well she does them. She gets antsy pantsy and says "Avie do it!" all the time. :)

Aspen

She is a ball of joy! She loves to stare, smiles big, and follows you with her eyes like a hawk. I want to kiss on her like crazy. Since Avery was my first, I was more tentative with her in all I did... with Aspen, I just want to smother her with loves! I feel so much attachment to both of my babies and get really emotional when I imagine them hurt or gone- what can I say- I'm a mom now!

Garden

We had to replant our poor garden at mothers day, but as I see budding life, it gives so much satisfaction and happiness! Avery got to throw a bunch of pinto beans in a dirt-filled butter tub and hers are doing the best by far! :)

i draw

Avery is sitting here drawing and naming off what she is drawing. For each thing, she draws small circles and tight squigglies. Her dialogue goes like this:

"i draw.

a kite!

Q, P.

a car? k, a car.

eh (let's)-see-here...

a hole.

I-cream.

Boat? a boat.

kware (square).

see? (mom says: what is that?) righ-here. (mom: what is that?) kware. righ-here. see? (mom: oh, a square). yes.

eh-see-here....

cup o' juice.

Dowa (Dora)!

monkey? k, monkey.

swiper.

Avery.

mommy.

A_pen (Aspen).

daddy.

big balloon. (mom: big balloon?) yeah.

A horse? yes? K.

apples.

eh-see-here...

bear? bear. ok. a bear!

B."

Aspen 4 months

Sweet baby Aspen. Cooing, Smiling, and sorta Giggling. I love hearing her talk. She still has gas somewhat (sadly, it did not go away as I thought), but mostly she is teething. She likes to suck on her fingers to soothe her the best (which is something we try to steer her away from, but sometimes it's the only thing that helps her... and my sanity is at stake). We kicked her out of our room and she's sleeping in the office... so far it has not proved to be helpful (I was up at least 4 times last night, ugh), but I have high hopes for improvement. I might have to start giving her tylenol for the teeth.

She is in approx. the 33% for weight and height and 60% for head. (13 lbs., 23.5"). That's backwards from Avery's stats. Avery inherited her small head from Brian.

Irresistibly Cute

I have the cutest girls in the world!!! They are a ton of fun too. Aspen turned 4 months today (by gosh, in no time she'll be eating baby food, crawling and walking and I'll just scratch my head saying, wow).

I turned the following pictures sideways so you could see her better...

Quite the opposite from Avery, Aspen really did awesome on her tummy! I need to do it more often. It was sure fun taking these pictures- she was loving it! She's also got a good start on rolling over- I'm impressed.

Chicken Soup

Mmm, we've found an easy way to stretch your Progresso chicken noodle soup or just do it all from scratch. Easy and delicious dinner. We've already made it twice in different ways, here's the general idea:

• Bring to boil 6-8 cups water with 4-7 chicken bouillon cubes, add a real can of chicken broth if you like (or use all chicken broth)
• Throw in some (I use lots) sliced carrots and celery and onion and boil these 4-6 minutes. You could also add milk or more water. Make sure there is enough liquid for the noodles to cook in and still be soupy in the end. Brian put in homemade dumpling batter at this point, too (we were both in the mood).
• Add 3/4 of a bag of noodles (or heck, the whole thing!) and cook until almost done.
• Near the end add canned chicken and the progresso chicken noodle soup. (Last time we actually left out the soup b/c we already had made plenty!). Be sure to season with parsley and pepper and more salt if you need. You can also try adding a can of cream of chicken soup and/or sour cream, cream, blah blah blah. You can't really go wrong! It all depends on your likings and what you have on hand. If you make it once, you'll figure out how you might like to adjust it for the next time, but it'll always taste good. Use your intuition and enjoy!!!

Mom's Day

Yesterday was a Bonnie day! We went to church for a breakfast, then straight to Santa Fe to buy me some shoes and do other shopping. I LOVE Ross!! Did you know that? We ate lunch down there and went to the mall and target. Brian even let us do grocery shopping all together (which I always appreciate). Brian bought me expensive chocolate. :) Dinner from Papa Murphys (YUM YUM YUM) and once Avery was in bed, Aspen also took a good long nap so we could finish getting our ceiling painted upstairs. I think Brian was pretty wasted, but I'm so glad he indulged me so we could get that done! Thank you Brian!

That's my kind of day: No cooking, no dishes, Shopping, Chocolate, Pizza, and finishing up a project. I hope you all have had a lovely mother's day... full of lots of chocolate and loves.

A Million Bucks

Is How I Feel!!! Aspen slept a straight 6 hours last night... AMAZING!

Avery is cute- she can pretend a lego is a bowl and a sticker is a spoon and she can have soup and share with mommy.

Here are a couple pics just because:

Dancing together

Taking a nap

Funny Avery

• We went to the duck pond and Avery threw a cracker in before we were anywhere near the ducks. She yells to the ducks: "Duck! Duck! Kacker- Gi' Em'!" repeatedly. Ha. Ha.
• Avery just made "natural bubbles" in the tub and laughs.
• She finished her dinner plate, threw her fork down and shoves her plate toward me saying "More" with a very expectant look. It was just so funny the way it happened. She's been eating a lot lately- especially if its a good meal.
• Today she yells to dad, "Dad! Wher Ar you? Huh? Dad! Wher Ar you? Huh?"
• She yells to mom, "Mom, Wher you go, mom? Mom, Wher you go?" I just think it's neat and cute that she's forming sentences.
• She's starting to say "You're welcome" instead of just "welcome"
• She likes to say prayers and can repeat one word at a time.
• She can sing the entire alphabet.
• After Apsen's nap, she says, "Seep well, baby? Seep well?"
• She still has the funniest expressions which cannot be put in words.

Mom's Advice

So after writing that last post, I decided to call my mom about the issue. She said she never really struggled with this problem (even with 8 kids... guess we were angels :) but she still had the most excellent advice that helped me.

She said it doesn't necessarily mean that Avery is jealous (which I agree), but that maybe she is trying to adjust with less one-on-one time and venting by being more disobedient- especially towards Aspen. Basic advice: try to do more things with Avery and involve her with anything I'm doing. I think this seems to get to the heart of the matter (which is hard to recognize sometimes). My mom is right; we've been pushing ourselves to work on the house and I'm trying to do better at meals and cleaning that I'm losing touch with Avery.

My mom admitted that she wasn't great at house cleaning and it got worse with each child, but she was okay with that in order to spend more time with us. I don't like the idea of giving up daily house work (although that'd be nice, right?), but I need to stop badgering myself about it to the point that I can't have fun with my kids and neglect their true needs while trying to multi-task. They are more important than the house work. First things first.

I now have a shout-out to all stay-at-home moms: GO YOU! Being a mom takes TIME and SACRIFICE! I think there's no better way to becoming like Heavenly Father. I can't imagine how some can do both mommy and work and still meet their childrens' needs because it's hard enough just being a mom full time. I'm glad I have the opportunity to be a mother and I'm grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow. It's hard, but I know it's worth it.

Thanks, mom.

*sigh*

I'm having difficulties with Avery. I'm starting to raise my voice at her and borderline yell. Okay, yell. This is not the way I want to handle things, but in the moment, that's the only thing that feels authoritative enough; yet, it still doesn't produce the desired results. In fact, now she's starting to do her own yelling and pointing fingers. I don't like her picking up this habit and I especially think its silly for a mother to yell back at her kids: "No! You do not yell at mommy like that! ... um... only mommy can yell like that.... uh... cause I'm in charge?" That's not really what I call being the bigger person and handling the situation- it usually makes me feel more helpless like I'm giving in to yelling. How do I handle this?

The only reason I ever get after her is when she is being too rough with Aspen, especially after we have repeatedly told her not to head-butt and hit (she thinks its only play). *sigh* I used to think I wasn't for spankings, but now I'm not so sure. I think she needs something quick and that gets the point across (I really don't think "okay you have to the count of 3 to stop abusing your baby sister or we're going to time out" seems right). I just don't want her to start giving spankings to her parents when we've not obeyed her... She wants to copy everything we do.