A few pictures

I just wanted to post a few pictures of the girls. They helped me paint shelves for a closet in the kitchen. They did such a good job, I was very impressed. We went to the pool again the other day and I was so happy to see that they both found their sunglasses. Love those cute girls!

Is it funny?

I often waste time reading this blog. She had a link to a rather humorous quiz today. You can find it here. My number was $4775. What's yours?

Summer fun

This little pool is by one of the parks near us. We went for the first time a few days a go. The girls had a pretty good time. Avery wouldn't go near the sprayers. We had been there for about 45 minutes when this little girl came right up into Avery's face and was trying to talk to her. She was saying hello and asking if Avery wanted to be her best friend. Avery was hiding in my shoulder. I had to explain that Avery is shy. The little girl was not deterred. She moved right on to Ashby and started saying the same thing. She kept asking if Ashby wanted to be her best friend. It was rather humorous to watch. Ashby wouldn't say anything, she just stood there. Looking back, I don't think that Ashby even knows what a best friend is. The experience changed both girls' moods for the rest of the day. We had to leave right after that because they were both so cranky. I thought to myself "Yikes, are we starting this already!"

A few of my favorite things

Yesterday was haircut day. Ashby's turned out very cute. I love how much her curls spring up after a cut. I didn't cut as much off of Avery's as I could have, but it's still cute. They both are suprisingly good at sitting still for a cut, that's a huge help.

I also just wanted to share one of my favorite things. I love when my kids draw people. Ashby started drawing them while we lived in Virginia and Avery just started a couple of weeks ago. I love the big round heads with arms and legs. I will definitely feel sad when they start drawing people how they really look. Avery's picture is on the left and Ashby's on the right. Ashby drew our house and each family member. Apparently there is one extra family member, no this isn't an annoucement, just wishful thinking on Ashby's part!



We have part of our wall in the playroom painted with chalkboard paint. The girls don't use it a ton, but every once in a while we get some great pictures. I took this a few days ago, it's Avery's interpretation of the family. I love it so much and will cherish these pictures forever!

What's more disgusting?

I had two what I consider to be rather disgusting experiences in the last couple of weeks. Which was was worse? I don't know... you decide..

About three weeks ago we had several days of heavy rain. Roger and I had left our kiddie pool out on the patio where it filled with water. We are lazy and didn't empty it immediately. I finally went out about a week later to empty it. Keep in mind that Roger was out of town by this point. We had left various toys in it so I was just pulling them out so I could squirt them off with the hose. As you can imagine the water was pretty slimy and there were all kinds of leaves and apples in there (from the tree just above.) I was moving the beach balls around to grab the last few things. I went to grab what looked slightly like a shovel, but was in for the shock of my life to see that it was not a shovel, but a dead animal. That's right a dead animal. I was so unbelievably grossed out. I had just been digging in the water with my hands like nothing. Yikes. I didn't really know what to do. Roger was gone, I couldn't really leave it another 4 days. So I sucked it up, got the big shovel, scooped it out and threw it away. I think it was a squirrel or something, it didn't have a fluffy tail and it wasn't small like a chipmunk either. Really I didn't investigate too much. After that I doused everything in bleach. I threw away all the toys because I couldn't bear the thought of the girls playing with them again. Pretty gross right?

I purchased some peaches about a week ago, I love them. I got one of the last ones to serve for lunch on Saturday. It was ripening quickly so I knew I needed to use it. I was surprised when I looked at it that there seemed to be kind of a natural hole where the stem was attached. I proceeded to cut it apart and get the pit out, but when I put the knife into it, the pit split in two and a live earwig came out. Yep still alive. I was so shocked and disgusted.

I don't know if I could take anymore..... so which is more disgusting????

So Close....

It's soooooooooo close. Yes, I meant all the o's. I'm talking about the kitchen. I can't believe it, it's almost done and it's beautiful. Roger's parents came last weekend and stayed until the fourth. Roger was off all week. What did that combination produce? Well see for yourself!

There are just a few finishing touches to do. I need to paint the base boards, clean out and paint the closet, then we are rolling. There are a few things that will remain unfinished for a little while. Our plan is to get an island, but that will wait. We will also probably wait to get hardware for the cabinets, until we can afford it and until we are sure the doors open on the side we want them to. I can't believe honestly how beautiful it is. We have never undertaken a project of this magnitude before and I was so unsure and nervous. I didn't know if the things we picked out would all come together and look good. The great news is that it is better than I could have imagined. Thank you so much Grant and Margaret and Roger for all your hard work.

I also decided it was time to update my top five. I find in my life that I slowly become obsessed with things. By obsessed I mean spending more time thinking about and reading about things than is probably normal... It happens when I have a lot of time on my hands. It may be slightly embarrassing, but that's ok, it is what it is! Why can't I be obsessed with cleaning or something?

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?