Back from my blog black out

Hello, it is nice to be back after a busy Summer! It has been crazy the last few months, but I can say that it was a good crazy....but only because I got an "A" in both of my Summer school classes.  :) We also went on our first vacation as a family of three (and lived to tell about it), our baby is now a walking toddler, and so much more.  I will try and go back and recap some of our Summer later.  For now, just a few alot of  pictures from last weekend.  We are trying to enjoy the warm weather while it lasts, and get the most out of our pool membership this season.

Friday night our neighbors invited us over for dinner on the deck.  We ordered from a local favorite, Luigi's.  It was a beautiful night, and Avery and Miles had so much fun playing together.

This is how we roll these days. There's barely any room for Avery. :)

Avery has once again found her love for the swing.

And here are a few pictures from the last time we got together for dinner on the deck.

Avery and Miles.

Checking under the hood.  They look so serious.

I'm not quite sure what is going on here.  But check out Avery going for a taste of the handle bars.

Miles likes to try riding all toys backwards.

Avery loves the Elmo chair that Miles got for his birthday.

On Saturday we had the Wolfe family over to our deck.  Look at this moment I captured of Miles and Jackson.  He did the same thing to our other dog, Franklin, but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of it.

Now for a few pictures from the pool. The pool is a completely different experience now that Avery is walking. She loves to go down the slide in the baby pool, and spend time in the play house and slides they have outside the pool, and most recently she loves the "spray ground".

She could slide all day.

Chasing after Avery.

Spending time in the big pool with daddy.

The weather is suppose to remain warm and sunny all week, which means Avery and I will be heading to the pool this week and over the weekend.  Of course we can't forget what Saturday is.....the start of college football!! Yeah!! Look who else is ready for football....

Go State!!

Happy Birthday baby girl!!

Look Whooo's One!!

Oh my, Avery we survived your first year!! It wasn't too hard, life is just a lot different these days. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love you so much! You make me laugh and excited to be your mom each day.

What are you doing at 12 months?

• You are back to a strict nap schedule...something you've done on your own. 930a and 330p every day.
• Bed time is around 8ish....but is so hard when the sun is out. Mom & Dad still want to play with you.
• You have finally started to clap, wave and shake your head no.
• You have 8 teeth. The last one to come in was the bottom left of center.
• Baby food is really no longer an option. You must be able to feed yourself. And goldfish are your snack of choice.
• Your volume is impressive. You yell so loudly. We're not sure how you don't hurt your own ears because ours are definitely ringing.
• You like toys that you can push or walk behind like your hippo. You enjoy playing with toys in the bathtub. But my favorite...you love to sit and look at books. I will read them to you, but you are very happy just to look at the pictures and read your own story.

What an amazing year we've had!! I can't way to share in the excitement of next year. You'll always be my baby!
Some pictures of Avery at her friend Kayla's first birthday. The car was hard for her to sit in and go anywhere, but she enjoyed pushing it. She also liked the slide in the background of this picture.





Sorry for my blog absence. Summer school is a lot of work!! I can't promise that things will get much better.

Busy Saturday

Our Saturday was so busy, I thought that it should have a post of its own. The day seemed so long, and I got so much accomplished as well as had fun with friends.

I started out the morning cleaning the deck, washing the windows and screens. It was so beautiful outside, that I didn't mind at all. Avery took the longest nap ever....which probably helped the productivity factor quite a bit. Once she was up and had some lunch, we were off to our first stop...Crystal's graduation party. Crystal is the daughter of our good friend Diane. She just graduated from the University of Akron. It was great to see Diane and Crystal, and we also got to catch up with our friend Nathan and his beautiful new wife. He came all the way from to Jamaica to celebrate Crystal's graduation. I know, I know....where are the pictures? We both spent the entire time chasing after Avery making sure that she wasn't eating mulch, rocks and finding any other sort of trouble. I make up for the lack of pictures later...read on.

After a few hours catching up, Avery started rubbing her eyes and getting fussy-sign it is time to make our exit. She was unhappy the entire way home, so we thought that there was no way we were going to be able to spend much time at Sophia's 1st birthday. We put her in the stroller and went up there to quickly drop off her present. However, Avery caught a second wind. Here are pictures....

The shirt says it all.

Avery checking out Sophia's new Elmo chair. I think Sophia was making sure Avery knew who the chair belonged too.

Miles taking his turn pushing the baby stroller around. All the kids loved this toy, especially Avery.
Avery did so well with the clown, Gumball. I was afraid that she was going to freak out, but she didn't even for one second. She did love Gumball's hair!!

They were playing "this little piggy". One of Avery's favorite games.

Gumball hooked me up with a little ink.

Avery spent quite some time on this Little Tikes gym. I was amazed at how quickly she could climb up it.

She was content on this toy for quite some time.

Avery being a spectator of the corn hole game.

Miles doing more than spectating... His leg is through the hole.

Avery is always fascinated with baby Mason. Isn't he so handsome?

Makenna and Avery hanging out. Makenna is the sweetest little girl.

This is after eating a little cake. I had to go home and change my pants, because I think more of it was on me. There was red frosting everywhere!!!

Lastly, a picture of Sophia with her birthday cupcake.

We are lucky to have such good friends and neighbors. We had such a great time.

Blog absence = Not much going on

Sorry that it's been awhile since my last post, however there just hasn't been that much going on around here. I'm sure that it won't last too long, so I'm trying to enjoy it!

The weather has been hot, might I say "Summer-like" here in Ohio. I'm embarrassed to say that we already have our air conditioning on. Growing up in Arizona, I remember seeing how long we could go before we had to turn the a/c on. I can assure you that it wasn't when it was 80 degrees outside. Either I've have become a terrible wimp when it comes to heat, or 80 degrees feels different in Ohio than it does in Arizona. I will go with the second option. Side note....when I lived in my apartment in Phoenix I set my air conditioning for 82 when I was home and 85 while I was at work. Hey....I was a starving college student!!

Here are a few pictures that I took at our most recent play group get together. Avery would ride on this toy, and Miles would push her around. It was so cute to watch!!

And here is Miles taking a ride on Avery's beloved pig.

Last Summer I bought this pool on clearance. It is so much cuter than the picture on the box makes it out to be. So cute, that I can't bring myself to put it outside to go swimming in. So it is currently in our front room. Avery and I have had a good time reading and playing in it. I have thought about buying balls to fill it up with and make it like a ball pit. Greg thinks I'm crazy...what do you think? Is Avery too young to enjoy the fun of a ball pit? I did go to Target today, and bought a smaller pool for Avery to play in on the deck. I think the dogs think it is just one huge water bowl for them :)

The pool even has four detachable butterflies. One on each palm tree trunk.

We started our holiday weekend a little early with dinner out at our favorite Mexican food restaurant with our neighbors Alicia, Chuck and Miles on Thursday.

Here is a picture of Avery with beans all over her face.


This would be a better picture if we were both smiling.

Alicia and Miles

I'm so excited for the 3 day holiday weekend!!! It should be full of birthday and graduation parties, and just getting things done around the house. Hopefully I have lots of great pictures to share with you all. Have a great weekend!!

Yeah for Garage Sale Finds!!

We such a busy weekend. This was Greg's golf weekend when he and his brother and friends play a lot of golf over two days. It is something that they look forward to for weeks. It was also the weekend of our neighborhood garage sale. We had a few things to try to get rid of, and our neighbors brought some of their treasures down as well (so that we had enough for a descent garage sale).

I think the best part of the weekend started Thursday night with the neighborhood "preview" night. Which means you get a head start on the garage sale fun. So I left Greg home to man our sale and Avery and I went shopping!! Here is Avery with her favorite garage sale find...



I thought about saving this for her birthday, but she loves him so much I couldn't keep him hidden away.

She loves to be pushed around the living room.

In addition to Piglet, I also bought two baby gates and a bike trailer. If I didn't find gates at the garage sale, I was going to have to go buy them at the store. Avery has quickly become an expert at climbing the stairs! And the bike trailer is something we have always talked about, and for $30 I couldn't pass it up. There is a similar one on the front of Target ad this week for $149!! I love knowing that I got a good deal!!

Besides garage sale fun, Avery and I went to a birthday party, out for a few walks and even tried out the park. Here are some pictures from the birthday party.

The party was at Pump It Up. A little old for Avery, but she and I did a little jumping together. She also enjoyed watching the big kids....and of course the cake part too.

Avery trying out the obstacle course.

Avery waving to the camera.

It was nice to get some family time in on Sunday after the boys headed back to Michigan. We grilled some brats and then ended with a bike ride (in the new bike trailer)!! It was my first time back on my bike since I was pregnant. It was a great feeling...but my butt doesn't this so today :)

Avery helping Dad!

Out on the Metroparks trail.

Looks like she had a good time!