Avery Morgan

Of course I couldn't do Ashby Jane without doing Avery Morgan too. When I look at my girls together it seems shocking to me that they are sisters. Avery looks like the baby that I often dreamed about before I was a mother. I mean dream like literally would see a baby in my dreams at night and she looked like Avery. I thoroughly enjoy being Avery's mother. It's hard sometimes to talk about her and not compare her to Ashby. I will do just that, but only for a moment. It was apparent to me from the get-go how different Avery would be from Ashby. I could tell when I was pregnant with her that she would be much more active than her sister. When she was born, she really had little interest in just sitting and eating. She would rather look all around. For this reason she was a much smaller baby than Ashby. I also knew early on that Avery would be a force to be reckoned with. Where Ashby was and is rather easy going, Avery wants her voice to be heard about everything. It's this quality that I feel defines Avery at this stage in her life.

She wants to be independent about everything. Unfortunately for Roger and I, we forget sometimes. What happens when we forget? Tantrum city. I get yelled at once or twice a week because I forget to let her get out of her car seat by herself. I also love that quality. She is able to do a tremendous amount of things for herself. She will always try to do something by herself. She is quite adventurous and will try anything once!

The other thing about Avery, anyone that knows her can testify, she LOVES and I mean LOVES candy. There was a time a couple of months ago where candy was the first thing she would say in the morning. What's so sad about that is that it's all my fault. I like the candy too and since I'm pretty sure Avery can't get it by herself, it must be my fault!

Sometimes Avery's independence overshadows some of the other great things about her. There really are so many wonderful things about her. She is very smart. She could count to 15 when she was 18 months old. She loves to read books and she is quite a talented little artist. That's our Avery, we love her so much!

Ashby took this picture. That's Avs just relaxing.

Roger took this picture when we were hiking the other day. See that mouth full of Twizzlers?

Kid's Day 2007

I tried my hardest to make today a good kid's day, but I don't think it turned out as good as I would have liked, or as good as kid's day in the past. Anyway, here's what we did.





First was a trip to the park. They rather enjoyed the tire swing. It was hot. Actually the first task of kid's day was for me to bite my tongue when they chose their clothes. Flowers and leopard print, really?



Second, was lunch. I let them choose where to go and of course any kid would choose McDonald's. Thank goodness for the Asian chicken salad and the dollar menu, it makes it bearable for me!










Then on to the carousel. The girls had a great time on it, I wanted to throw up a little bit!













Next was the play place at the mall. It worked out pretty well since it was just down the hall from the carousel. The girls enjoyed climbing on Big Bird and I enjoyed watching a lovely interpretive dance from Ashby and some running around and posing from Avery.






And last, was a few episodes of The Pink Panther. I took them to Hollywood Video today and they chose the classic collection of Pink Panther cartoons. They had seen a few episodes on TV quite a while ago, but I wasn't sure how much they would like it. Surprisingly enough they really enjoyed it. They were very very tired though. Cute little kids!

All in all it wasn't too bad of a day. I look forward to fun kid's days in the future. What's the one thing that would have made kid's day even better? Roger. He's in Orlando for work and we missed him lots!

Ashby Jane

I felt so proud of my Ashby this week that I wanted to share a little more about her. She is such a great joy in our lives, she truly is such a good girl. The primary sang in sacrament meeting on Sunday for Father's Day. It melts my heart to see her up there. What is always so great everytime she sings with the primary, is that she is one of the smallest, yet she still knows all the words. She loves music. I wish I loved it more than I do so that I could give her more exposure. She catches on quickly to words in songs. She loves to sing in primary and at home.

Another rather amazing thing struck me while I was watching her on Sunday. For the first time ever I realized how much she looks like Roger. People say that to us all the time, but as a mother, I think it's hard to see that your children look like anyone other than themselves. I could have sworn though, that it was Roger up there in a lovely purple dress with his hair in a ponytail!

While she may look like Roger, she is exactly like me. It is startling sometimes to see so many characteristics of yourself in someone else. I don't worry for a second about how she will behave once she starts school. I know exactly how she still. She will be mortified if her teacher has to tell her to be quiet. I always know when she goes into a new environment that she will be good, whether or not I am there. I really love that about her.

She loves to learn and really likes math. Roger has been working some simple addition with her and she really enjoys it. I hope that will continue throughout her life.

When I was in eighth grade I decided to wear two t-shirts. It was something I did everyday. I don't know why, but it was a habit that continued until after I got married. Ashby came into my bedroom this morning dressed in two t-shirts. I had to laugh!

There are of course qualities of Ashby's that do not come directly from Roger or I. She is incredibly stubborn. I'm not sure if that's an age thing, but it truly astounds me sometimes. I am not that stubborn, nor is Roger. I first noticed it when she was potty training. I could not believe that she would not go to the bathroom in the toilet, no matter what. It was the most frustrating couple of weeks of my life! She also didn't walk or crawl until she was good and ready... stubbornness? Probably! I do hope though, that she will continue to be stubborn when it counts. I hope we can teach her to always stand up for what she knows to be right.

I love Ashby so much. It will truly be a joy to watch her grow and experience many firsts with her!

Can you see the two shirts? The ruffly sleeved one is under the printed one.

We happened to be in Virginia at the beginning of the month for joy school graduation. Ashby loved joyschool, we were sad to leave it. Thanks Brooke, Brenda, Kim, Marci, Erica and Jenny for such a wonderful time!

The most unfortunate realization

I was driving in our little blue car yesterday listening to some of the Cd's in the changer and I had the most unfortunate realization. Something I have feared and thought would never happen, is slowly, slowly happening. I realized that my music preferences are starting to become outdated. I often wonder how that happens. Growing up it was always apparent that I didn't like all of the same music as my parents. Up until yesterday I always thought I would be far hipper and like whatever was popular. While there still might be truth to that, I realized I prefer what I know. When we lived in Utah there was a radio station that I loved. I realized that it was my gate to knowing what was cool in music. However since we moved in December of 2005, I haven't found any radio station that I like. So now I reckon I only listen to what's in the CD player. I can see the days of arguing over the kids music choices more clearly than ever before. So RIP hip, cool Chelsea, that knows what's up in music, it was a good ride!


If you are curious what's usually in the CD changer, here are the staples. What's in yours?

Always 1 or 2 Dave Matthews Band Cd's
Jack Johnson (Roger likes more than I)
Smashing Pumpkins
Pearl Jam
Counting Crows
The Backyardigans
Primary Songs
Jason Mraz
Sarah McLachlan

See all the awesome 90s bands, sad for me isn't it???

Note for post:
I realized about 30 minutes after I wrote the above post, that people don't really listen to Cd's anymore huh? Everyone has an i-pod, hmm how much more dated am I?

Pictures from our hikes

The top 5

I've decided to add a top five list to my page. I will update it periodically with various things I like or don't! It will be a good exercise for me to think of things as a definite like or dislike, I sometimes struggle with making decisions and forming opinions. Hopefully it will also let everyone know a little bit more about me!

We went hiking with the girls yesterday and it was a rather humorous experience. There is a park near here with several easy trails. We went last week on a hike that was just over half a mile, yesterday's trail was just over a mile. Needless to say, the girls were done about halfway through. They quickly lost patience with the grass that was as tall as they were and all the walking. It's something Roger and I would like to continue doing though, hopefully they will learn to appreciate the outdoors a bit more! I'll ask Roger to post some photos of the excursion.

The first post

Well I finally decided to join in. I hope I will have the patience to figure out how to make this work and make it worth while. Today was a good day to start because something so exciting happened today. I did dishes in my dishwasher. What? People do that all the time? Well I haven't since the third week in March. Roger worked his tail off this week and got our bank of base cabinets in, which includes a dishwasher. The remodel has been going relatively smoothly. Without the help of family and friends we would not be to the point we are now. We are so grateful that Grant and Margaret were here for a whole week helping out. He is the master of electric work! Our plan for the week is to see how far we can get with installing the counter top. After the counter top is installed we can put in the sink. I have never been so excited about any single fixture in my life. The sink in question is the Domsjo double sink from Ikea. I love it and convinced Roger of his mad skills... enough that he agreed he could install it in a non-Ikea base cabinet. It will really be like heaven to have a sink, I can't wait! Posted are some pics of what I'm talking about.

This is the before shot of the kitchen. Yikes! Yes yes that is plastic tile ALL over the place.

This is the current state of affairs... with the functioning dishwasher! Roger has done a tremendous job.

Pictures for my Blog