A Tid-Bit About My Childhood...

I had a fairly normal childhood, but I did get to experience things that most kids did not get to do. My dad is a grain hauler and has been for about 25 years. When my sister and I were children, we would go trucking with my dad while he was on jobs. We would ride with him into the fields and wait for the combines to come fill up his grain trailer. Sometimes several combines would be waiting to fill it up and it would only take an hour. Sometimes only one combine would be available and it would take 4 hours. We never knew what we were going to get, but we made the best of it. Brittany and I would climb into the trailer (after the combine filled it up) and play in the grain (milo or corn) We got to know the farmers really well and enjoyed seeing them year after year. After the trailer got filled, we would ride with my dad to the different ports and deliver the loads. Sometimes we would wait in line all night. I remember many nights where we would get stuck in a line of about 100 trucks (not exaggerating) My dad would not be able to pull out of line because he would lose his spot, so we would have to walk to the vending machines to eat dinner. Sometimes a honeybun hits the spot!! :) Anyway, I haven't been trucking with my dad since I was about 13 (about 15 years ago) but my brother now gets his turn. The other day, my mom sent me a picture that warmed my heart. It was a picture of my dad's truck in a field with a combine filling up the trailer. It brought back lots of memories that I wanted to share.

Greta At 2 Months!!

Greta will be 2 months old in 3 days!!! My little lovely is growing so quickly! I hate to do a post too early, but we will be out of town on the 31st, so I need to go ahead and record this post under this month.

Here are some fun photos of my darling baby:

I think it is funny that she is asleep in most of the pictures! Greta is certainly a sleepier baby than Ava was. I have been working really hard on a sleep schedule with her and I am realizing that she cannot tolerate more than 30-45 minutes of waketime after her naps. I have to consider how long she is, though. Greta is shaping up to be a much taller child than Ava, which means she growing faster (she was only 18 inches long when she was born) That could account for all the sleep :)

Here are some little things that are new this month:

• Greta is mastering rolling over. She started rolling over when she was 3-4 weeks old and has not stopped. She is now trying to roll from her back to her stomach. She has only managed to make it onto her side, but I have a feeling she will master that skill pretty soon.
• She is giving out more social smiles. I am so glad! I love this stage!
• She is in the beginning stages of cooing. It is so sweet to hear her voice!
• Her movements are beginning to make more sense. No more flinging her arms around when she is startled!
• She LOVES the ceiling fan! Ava did too! She gazes at it and smiles. I call it flirting :)
• She curls her toes just like me!! Both of my girls curl their toes under. It drives Jeremy crazy!
• She doesn't seem to have the spit-up problem that Ava had. I am knocking on wood right now, though.
• She is still waking up 1 time at night, but she can sleep for a 6-7 hour stretch. I moved her bedtime earlier (8-9) and that seems to help.
• Greta will take anywhere from 2-4 oz. of formula.
• She is settling into four 2 hour naps a day. I really don't have anything to complain about as far as sleep.
• She and Ava take naps at the same time every day. I moved Ava's nap back an hour in the afternoon so that they would sleep at the same time. WooHoo! I am able to clean our house and stay on top of the laundry! (You wouldn't know it to look at our house today, though!) :)
• She is learning to deal with her pacifier a little better. I am not going to force it on her, but I would like for her to take it a little bit to buy me some time before she starts wailing.
• She still HATES her carseat. Luckily, she is about to outgrow the padding. I think when I am able to remove the padding, she will be more comfortable.

As always, I know I missed a few things. When I think of new things, I will just make a new post :)

Ava At 19 Months!

I said in an earlier post that I was behind on blogging. Ava turned 19 months on July 13th. Today is July 28th. You do the math and figure out how many days late I am. I don't feel like doing math tonight. That sounded a bit rude and demanding. I don't mean it to be. I just really hate math :)

First, some photos of Miss Priss:

 Playing outside in the rain. She caught raindrops in her red solo cup :)

I took her to target one evening while Jeremy stayed home with Greta. I was looking through the accessories when I came across a display of straw hats. There was a really cute tan and orange one that I wanted her to try on, but she had to have the pink one. She pointed to it and got really giddy. I think it was the perfect fit! ;)

 Swinging

 Ava found Greta's pacifier and decided to give it a try!

My pretty baby girl!

Now for the information:

• Ava is now tall enough to climb on our dining room chairs. It is such a battle to keep her off of them. I could babyproof our table and just take off my centerpiece, but I refuse to. She has to learn to stay off when we say "no." Therefore, the centerpiece stays :)
• She can push the chairs all around the house. She climbs on them and turns the lights and fans on and off.
• She is just now beginning to get curious about the electrical outlets. Luckily, I babyproofed them a long time ago!
• She can climb in and out of the bathtub by herself.
• She can reach up in the bathtub and pull the shampoo and conditioner off the shelf.
• One of her incisors is finally coming through the gums!! Maybe the other 3 will follow suit!
• She is in a 5.5 shoe.
• She is still in a 5 diaper.
• Ava can wear 18-24 months clothes.

Manners:

• Ava has really come a long way in this area! She now says 'thank you' when we give her something that she asks for.
• She will say 'please' when she really wants something.
• We are still working on 'yes ma'am' and 'no ma'am' but she is learning.
• We are teaching her to say 'hi' to someone when they come up to speak to her. It is a work in progress. :)

Big Sister:

• Ava is a great big sister! She will stop playing with toys to walk over and kiss Greta on the forehead.
• She is just now figuring out how to hug Greta. A few days ago, she climbed onto my lap and just hugged Greta's neck for the longest time. She was so gentle and kind. It was really sweet!
• She still helps me burp Greta. She will gently pat her back to help ease the gas bubble.
• When Greta is crying, Ava will walk over and try to either give her a pacifier, or pat her mouth with a burp cloth.
• She is learning to whisper when she is around Greta. It is so sweet!

Word Inventory:

I was having a hard time remembering which words I have posted during which month. So, I "tested" Ava on her words to see which ones she knew. I am going to post most of them in this post. This will hopefully help me remember.

Animals: cat, dog, frog, meow, woof, moo, BIT (ribbit), bird, duck, bee, fish

Body Parts: eyes, mouth, nose, ears, hands, feet, toes, teeth, knees, hair, bellybutton. She can say these and identify them.

People: Mommy, Daddy, Jeremy (she just learned this one!), Greta, baby, Britt (beet), Gigi, Nana, Hadleigh, (we are still working on Pawpaw and Poppy) Bobby, Avery, Nathan, Joe (jojo)

Things: cup, flower, trees, outside (ou-shize), phone, meat, peas, beans, snack, milk, water, swing, bath, toys, book, diaper, seat.

Phrases: All done!, I see!, I don't know!,

I know I am missing some, but I think this is the majority--I just remembered! Her new favorite word is movie (meevee) Ha! She begs to watch a movie almost every day. Although I was a bit more lax with the TV while I was pregnant, I have gone back to a stricter routine. I turn the TV on maybe once a week. When Jeremy gets home, though, he puts a Disney documentary on almost every afternoon. I would say that she gets about 30 minutes of television per day.

Now that I am mobile and able to do more, I clean a lot. Ava is really a big help. She will help me load the washer, dryer, and dishwasher. She will also clean up after herself. I make her put all her books back in the bin when she is finished, and she also has to put her toys away before her nap.

Wow!! This was a long post!! If I think of anything I missed, I will post more :)

Date Night @ DePalma's

A friend from church (Judy Wilkerson) volunteered to watch the girls one night while Jeremy and I went out on a date. Of course, we took her up on the offer! Our plan was to go out and eat and then see a movie. We changed our minds midway through the date and decided to go to Barnes & Noble instead of a movie. We wanted to look at travel books together, but ended up buying a book of personality tests instead. We then went to Starbucks in Midtown and sat outside testing each other. It was a pretty fun date!! :) Oh yeah, we went to DePalma's to eat. I almost forgot to mention that! Ha! In 5 years of living here, we have never been. It was delicious and we will definitely go back!

This was really just a silly pose that Jeremy did because he didn't want me to take a picture of him. I posted it to my facebook and got a lot of response. It was funny because it was just a silly picture to me. Apparently, a lot of people got a kick out of it. A few days later, I got the picture below posted to my FB account! Ha! My friend Allison and her husband were at DePalma's and decided to do a copycat photo! Too funny!

 Allison :)

 Outside the restaurant

 Another silly pose!

At Barnes & Noble looking at Batman memorabilia. I forgot to mention that we bought Batman t-shirts on our date! We were getting ready for the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises.

 We bought this book :)

Sitting outside at Starbucks. What a fun date!

Pots & Pans & Crayons & Highlighters

Two weeks ago, Jeremy made the trip to Tennessee to pick up our new washer and dryer. Since Granny is going into an assisted living facility, she decided to divide her possessions between the family. Jeremy brought back so much more than just the washer and dryer! We now have lots of Granny's home decor as well as her very, very nice pots and pans! I had to completely rearrange our cabinets in order for it all to fit. Ava, of course, had a hay day! While playing with the new pots and pans, she came across my 216 tower of Crayola crayons as well as my stash of highlighters. You can imagine the devastation in my kitchen floor that morning. :) It was too cute, so I snapped a few pics:

Comparison

Sweet Sisters

Fire College

Two weeks ago, Jeremy spoke at the Central church of Christ's summer series. Since their building was destroyed in the tornado, they have been meeting in the Shelton State Fire College facility. We arrived a little early to meet and greet. We walked into the room where we would be meeting and saw a golf cart parked in a corner. Ava had such a good time climbing all over it and pretending like she was driving it! Too cute!

What Works & What Doesn't Work

At the beginning of last week, Greta broke out in the most awful rash on her scalp and face. Part of it was baby acne because her oil glands started producing oil at about 6 weeks of age, but I wasn't sure what the other part was. At first glance, someone would probably diagnose it as severe cradle cap, but her bumps were not consistent with that of cradle cap. Last Monday was probably the worst. I almost took her to the doctor because I thought it could be something really serious. Then, I did a little thinking. The bumps were only on the parts of her face that had been touched with baby soap. I had been using the small bottle of Johnson's head-to-toe baby wash that we had been given in the hospital. I remembered it being too harsh for Ava's skin, so I decided to switch over to Johnson's Natural (which was the only thing we could use on Ava's skin) It worked! The next day, the bumps started to go away and her skin started to flake over. It stayed dry for about a week, but she is now totally healed!! Yay!! So, I guess my girls have expensive taste! I guess it could be worse, though! I hear of babies who can only use California Baby or Burt's Bees. So, Johnson's Natural it is!

Being A Good Girl For God...

This is really just a short blurb, but I had to add it. I hope that Ava will read this conversation to her children one day...

Me: (in a firm voice) Ava Catherine, get down right now.

Ava: (silently looking at me to test boundaries; eye contact, eye contact, eye contact; finally breaking away from my stare to climb back down the couch)

Me: (in a pleasant, proud voice) What a good girl you are! Thank you for listening to Mommy! You know that God likes it when you obey Mommy and Daddy! And don't you want to be a good girl for God?

Ava: (eye contact and thoughtful expression) ummm...no. :)

I know there are moments when, as a parent, I should hold it all together to make my point. But, this was not one of those moments! I threw my head back and laughed so hard!! She really is an obedient child (most of the time) When she gets a little older, I will use this opportunity as a teachable moment. My goal in mentioning God is to get her to realize who she really serves. It is good for her to obey her mommy and daddy because we are the authority in her life right now, but it is even better if she realizes that she should obey us because God said so. Not only that, but if she doesn't learn to obey us (who she can see) then she probably won't learn to obey God (whom she can't see) We are trying to be a little preemptive in our parenting. :)

Extreme Shutterfly Savings!!

There are just a few things I use coupons for: diapers, wipes, formula, cleaning supplies, and Shutterfly products. I am a picture-holic, so it is smart for me to use Shutterfly coupons. These things are kind of a luxury. I know that I don't HAVE to have them, but I sure do enjoy having memories preserved in a book format.

Last month, I was looking through our iPhoto library on our computer. I needed to delete about 2,000 photos because our memory on our computer is almost completely full (did I mention I am a picture-holic?) I had recently read an article in Ladies Home Journal on the best back-up plan for photos that are saved onto the computer. After reading the article, I decided to put my trust in Shutterfly. They are completely free, will never delete your photos, and offer unlimited storage. I went through our photos, edited them, and uploaded them to Shutterfly.

I then decided to go ahead and make a book. I have made several books in the past: Ava's First Year, The Best Father In The World, and Ava's Disney Extravaganza. This was going to be the MOTHER of all books because I took about 2,000 pictures on our last vacation before we had Ava. I had to carefully decide which pictures would make it into the book and decide how many pages I needed. It took me about a month and a half to design, but I finally finished it!

How I Paid For This Gigantic Book

With a debit card...duh! :) haha! No really, this book was going to cost $216. There was no way that Jeremy would ever let me order something like this for that much money. I had to get fancy with my couponing techniques. So this is what I did:

• I had over 4,000 Pampers points saved up. I cashed in 3,000 of those points for a FREE 12X12 hard cover Shutterfly book (a $54.99 value)
• I ordered the book when a sale was going on (30% off all books) Although I got the book free, I added a storytelling design to it ($4.99 extra) and added 90 extra pages ($1.50 for each extra page)  The sale brought the price of each page down to $1.05 each.
• I used a promotional code (SHIP30) to get free shipping and handling on my order (because it was over $30)
• Last but not least, I had a 10% off coupon for my entire order.

I paid $98 for the book and saved $118!! WooHoo! It was still an expensive book, but the only way I could have beat those savings was if I had waited until the books went on sale for 50% off. Since I did not know when that would be, and I had coupons that would expire, I had to settle for the 30% off sale. But, I am really proud of my 110 page jewel! I gave it to Jeremy last night as a "Just Because I Love You" gift. He was really excited to see all the pictures from our amazing vacation!

A Conversation Between Daddy, Mommy, & Ava

We were sitting at Northport Diner last week eating breakfast. I had Greta in her carseat on my side of the booth and Jeremy had Ava on his side of the booth (no more sitting on the same side of the booth!) To keep her busy, Jeremy handed Ava a fork and knife wrapped up in a napkin. Ava quickly disassembled the napkin...

Me: Jeremy, would you get the knife from Ava.

Jeremy: I gave it to her.

Me: But, it's a knife.

Jeremy: A butter knife.

Me: (stunned look) Are you for real?

Jeremy: That knife is no more dangerous than the fork she has in her hands.

Me: (look of disbelief; wondering if he is being sarcastic) Jeremy she could poke herself in the eye with either one of those. She doesn't need to have those.

Jeremy: (turning to Ava) Ava, don't poke yourself in the eyes. Do you hear Daddy?

Ava: (looking at Jeremy) mmm...(shaking her head back and forth) no.

Me: [silence].....

:) I sure do love my husband!

Nicknames

This is probably a silly post to start off with, but I want both of my girls to know the nicknames and terms of endearment that I have used for them since they were born. Some of them are extremely ridiculous and silly, and they will probably make me look like I am ridiculous and silly, but I am just a sap at heart. What can I say?

Ava:

• Stretchy
• Squirmy
• Snuggly
• Snugs (they all start with "s" so far!)
• Sugar Plum
• Baby Doll
• Love Bucket (don't ask me why) :)
• My Love (this one has stuck, I still call her this)

Greta:

• Gwetawizabiff (yes, I talk baby to her) :)
• Wittle Gwet (I say, "Hewhoa, Wittle Gwet!")
• Widdle Baby
• Lovely

I know I will definitely come up with more as Greta gets older :) These are just the 4 that I have come up with in the past 2 months! Ha!

Blowin' Up The Blog...

I have not blogged in over two weeks! It has been driving me crazy because I have a list of about 15 things that need to be recorded in July. I am cutting it really close, but I think I can get it all recorded by Saturday ( I won't be able to blog on Sunday or next week)

A few months ago, I was in the same predicament. I had about 15-20 things that needed to be blogged by the end of the month and I only had three days to do it. I sat down to do it and ended up doing 9 posts in one day! My friend Maggie and her husband Nathan called it, "blowin' up the blog." I thought it had a cute ring to it, so that is the name of my post!

So, expect about 15 posts within the next three days...(hopefully!!)

The Fourth Of July

Our family celebrated Independence Day this year by eating homemade enchiladas, refried beans, and salsa. After that we set up chairs and quilts down by the river to watch the fireworks display.

It was nice to have my whole family in town (minus Eric, my brother-in-law) this year for the 4th. We made our Independence Day party a little bigger by inviting the Moore family and our friend, Ray Coast. My mom made 3.5 9X13 pans of beef enchiladas (Tex-Mex style) along with all the other accoutrements that normally accompany a Mexican feast. It was delicious! We only had three enchiladas left over! I was so glad, because I was able to eat all three of them for breakfast the next morning...cold!! :)

After we all ate, we packed up three vehicles and drove to downtown Northport to get a good spot for the fireworks show. We were able to snag three parking spots right next to each other (even though a little silver sedan tried to pull in front of us! Sorry, but a little 4 door piece of junk is not going to get in the way of a mini-van, an SUV cross-over, and a Ford Duel Wheel truck!) Anyway, we set up camp and had a great time!

Ava was scared of the helicopter that circled overhead.

Avery cheesed it up!!

Eli was content to suck on his fingers! He has teeth coming in :)

And Greta needed to fill up her belly!

Gigi got some time with Greta

Brendon was pretty much bored the whole time he was in Alabama!

Ava and Aunt Beet (Britt) had some one-on-one time. Ava would not look at the fireworks that were being shot off around us. It was too loud!

Poor Baby!! She was scared!!

Ava and her Aunt Beet again!

Nathan and Eli

I love this picture! Jeremy is in the middle of saying, "WOW!" Avery is looking at the helicopter that is flying right over us, Ava has her head buried in Nathan's shoulder, Eli looks caught off guard by the flash, and Nathan...poor Nathan!

Gigi, Uncle B (as he prefers to be called) and baby Greta! Greta slept right through all the fireworks.

Uncle B and Ava. So sweet! :)

Avery was so funny!!! She was laughing so hard at all the fireworks that went off! The louder the blast, the harder she laughed!

Ava finally settled down and watched the fireworks. She walked over to Avery's little lawn chair and took a seat.

On the way home from the Fireworks Extravaganza! Both of my babies slept so hard that night!