Do you think so?

I was told today that I look like Winona Ryder. Do you think so? I think the pointy chin is definitely there!

January Baby

Playing with her toys. Cutie pants.

Loving to roam the apartment.

Too cute! You can see her two bottom teeth.

She loves crawling under the chairs. Can you see her tongue sticking out?

Sweet heart.

LOVES to suck on carrots...

...and keep a hold of them wherever she goes!

The January baby is actually me. Happy 23rd!

They sure pulled this surprise off! I had no idea. I just thought Russ and Adri were going to come over last night to watch a movie, but look what they brought! Thanks for the birthday love, you guys!

First Word

Or close enough! Avery's vocabulary is full of the usual baby babble: bah-buh-buh, dah-dah-duh, pa-pa-ba & of course ma-ma-ma and da-da-da. Excluding ma-ma and da-da, which she has been saying for a while to beckon her parents, I will qualify today's new babble as her first real word!

"Beh-Bee"

(Baby)

She hears the word "baby" a lot because that's pretty much her name. We're reading a book called "All about me" which is a baby's guide to all things baby. I point to the pictures as I talk about the baby. She likes to point too. Today as she pointed, she distinctly said, "beh-bee" in that cute, innocent, high-pitched baby tone. She hardly ever uses the "ee" vowel, so I'd say this was a good attempt at her mimicking the word, "baby." Just the other day I heard her say "ma-mee" instead of the usual "ma-ma" and I thought it was the cutest thing EVER! Avery would like to say a few words now:

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...nevermind. I think she's just hungry and I took her carrot. Not in the mood for typing now!

Four words

I feel like I'm a good speller. I owe it to my dad who always made me look up words if I couldn't spell them. I'd call from the downstairs... "Dad??? How do you spell ___?" "Look it up!," he'd say every time. I don't think he was lazy. He probably figured I'd internalize the word better if I took the effort to look it up myself. In homeschool my mom always raved at how well I could spell and I was proud of that. Despite this talent, there are four words I can never spell (and more I'm sure)!

1) definitely (definately?)

2) it's vs. its (my pet peeve is when people mix up similar words like this, but the "its" combination seems to be the one I can never get right!)

3) exercise (excersice?... or some other version)

4) sentence (sentance? I didn't figure out this was the wrong spelling until last year!)

Here goes...

I'm almost ashamed to call it a "new year's resolution" because the term itself is overused and abused. I think it's an attempt for people to get really ambitious and serious about their new year's goals, but often the goals are neglected after the first couple months, I'd say. Regardless, I think it's healthy to be ambitious and set goals. I'm proud to tell you about our new goal.

Brian wants to lose some pounds and reward himself with an itouch once the desired weight is acquired. To do so, I'm on a mission to change our eating habits. Brian supports. Up until now, I've been afraid or uninterested in watching fat because I'm trying to become a marvelous cook. Everyone knows that the fat is often what makes your food so good. Since I've acquired a sense of confidence in my cooking so far, I feel ready to face a new way of cooking to improve our health. I intend to take this easy. One: I will go through my favorite cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens) and explore all of the low-fat labeled recipes I desire. Two: We're not going to "count" calories or fat, just start to make healthier choices and cut some of the fat we would normally eat by preparing food differently or using different ingredients. I'm torn over the issue of butter & margarine. I've heard that margarine sticks with you more (is harder to digest or something), but margarine is so clearly less in calories, fat, and cholesterol. Or would it be bad to start buying the fake butter that has like no fat? Anyone have an opinion?

In conjunction with eating better, Brian already has an exercise schedule laid out that he can do from home. Good for him. I plan to support him in this the best I can (i.e. kick him out of bed in the morning). For myself, I simply plan to look for opportunities to exercise more than I have been... which will be easy because I don't exercise at all! (Especially since I gave up walking when the cold weather hit.) I'm not setting a schedule yet because I still feel at the mercy of a good-night's rest (Avery does not sleep all night yet). I will simply seize any opportunity I can to be more active.

As I think of becoming more active, I'm already excited for summer!!! Here's to the summer:

Welcome another year

I'm really excited for this new year. No particular reason. There's something about starting afresh. The holidays leave me a little frazzled and off-balanced (not necessarily in a bad way, but I think you all know what I mean) and it's nice to take a deep breath of fresh air and say "ah," here's to a new year.

It's like the end of the previous year is left scribbled all over with highlights and cross-outs, but now a new document is opened and ready to be typed on. What's in store for this year? I feel like I'm in Italy, staring out over a beautiful pasture in the crisp morning, contemplating the day. Never been there, but I imagine it to be beautiful. This is kind of how I feel.

As with every year, I get to start it out with a birthday! I think this is convenient because I can associate each year with a particular age. 2010 will be me 23. Twenty-three. Hmm, it doesn't sound like a special age to be. Once I hit 21, I don't think any year is supposed to be all that thrilling, but who's to say? I'm learning that it's most fun to keep track of Avery's age and I'm sure I'll be much more preoccupied with my kids to worry about what age I am in the future. I like it that way. Getting excited about my kid brings a lot of life to me; I don't so much care about how old I am anymore because it's not important.

However, any cause to celebrate is more than welcomed! For my birthday, I tried to sleep off my sore throat this morning. I think it mostly worked! Brian gave me a huge massage! We went to Red Lobster for dinner (my choice!). I've been craving lobster/crab/shrimp lately... which is super odd for me. It was DELICIOUS! Wow. We then went to Target. Brian bought me some Ben & Jerry's! Ah, my birthday is complete! I am so satisfied!!!

Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for reading.

Wrapping it up

Monday: We watched two movies that night. I really like "Shadows of the Sun" (I think it's called).

Tuesday: It snowed nicely. This morning, Brian took Dad and Ben to an indoor archery target shooting place. It turns out my dad would love to get into archery! In the afternoon, we all got together down here in Provo for a scavenger hunt at Wymount (for the kids). Then we went bowling at BYU and had pizza. The adults took the longest time to bowl; poor kids waiting on us!

Wednesday: We took my dad to the Salt Lake City temple for a session. We spent the evening together at Steve and Jenn's! Mom, Dad, and Ben left early the next morning. It's been a good Christmas!