::watch out::

Avie's sittin' up and takin' names eatin' crackers.

(Ava- 6 1/2 months)

She's still pretty wobbly and falls over a lot, but I just sit her inside my legs or in her nursing pillow, and she's good!

Speaking of nursing, Ava and I only have about another week of it left. It's kind of bittersweet for me. I'm always a little glad to be done nursing, but this time I know she's my very last, and there will never be another! It makes me a little sad. Not in an I-want-another-one kind of way, but maybe in a more time-goes-by-too-quickly sort of way. She's growing so fast. They all are. I'm always so paranoid that I won't remember the little things about her (and all of the kids for that matter). Like her smell, for example. I LOVE how she smells, and it's not just the baby lotion. She has her own sweet baby smell. I burrow my nose in her neck a lot and give her kisses and take in a good whiff of her beautiful smell.

Her 6 month (and 3 week) stats:
weight: 15 lbs 12 oz (31st)
height: 27 1/4" (87th)
tiny little head: 41.8cm (20th)

In other news...
Port's teacher teaches a lot with songs (days of the week, months of the year, spelling, etc). You know that Mexican song that goes "ayayayay canta y no llores..." (Ricky Ricardo sang it on I Love Lucy). So, Port's class has one that goes (to the same tune) "I, I, I, I...Always a capital letter..."
hahaha

::tonight::

Outside...




Inside...


Pizza, a movie (Lion King-came out on DVD this week. Did you get yours?). This is Matt & Port's movie. Matt's Mufassa & Port's Simba or "Sindiba" as Bubb calls it. Portie sat cuddled up to Matt pretty much the whole movie. Avie ate a few graham crackers (and she was a mess after it was all said and done), Bubb got bored and wandered around pestering everybody, and Chloe just watched and sang the songs. It was a comfy, cozy night. I love nights like these, especially when it's nasty outside.

In other news...
Just because one turns 8, doesn't mean one won't throw a fit and scream and yell and stomp down the stairs, slam one's door, and yell loud enough so we can hear through the floor about how mean one's mom is. Just sayin'.

::eight::

Chloe

is

8

!!!!!!


Her birthday was Monday(where has this week gone??), and we celebrated with a few friends at Kangaroo Zoo.



It was SO fun! We invited 6 friends, and only 3 came (it's partially my fault. I forget how people around here are about driving 15 minutes). I was a little sad about that, but Chloe didn't care at all. She just had so much fun with the girls that came. They (along with Portie, Bubb, and Alyssa-Brianna's little sister) played hide and seek, raced each other down the slides, shot some baskets, had a dance competition, played tag. Our party room was, of course, the princess room. It was SO cute! There was a castle painted on the wall, bright green tables, and bright pink chairs, and even some rainbow colored lights above. We had some cupcakes (pink, of course), ice cream, and juice, opened some presents, and headed home. I drove Chloe and 3 other girls home, and OH.MY.GOSH! they were so funny in the car. The little gift/favor bags had nail polish, bracelets, and clip in hair extensions in them. So these cute girls were talking about colors-what goes best with their hair, which nail polish looks prettiest on whose nails, who had the cutest and smallest shoes, etc, etc. It was so funny!! Such girls!!

So after we took everyone home, and before it rained, we gave Chloe her gift from us.

It was a bike. A big one. Thank goodness! Now she doesn't have to feel like the only kid her age in the whole world with a tiny bike :) I'm not too sure if she likes it, though. :D

So we all know how I am about my kids' birthdays. This one was no exception. It's kind of a big deal. She's 8! In our faith, that means she can be baptized (that'll happen on November 5th). I'm so excited about it (and also a little nervous), and so is she. I want to make sure she knows what it's all about and that it really is a choice. I want it to really mean something to her, and I want her to remember it. I still can't believe it's upon us. I remember her blessing day in January of '04.

I just can't believe she's 8. I kept telling her at various hours throughout the day what we were doing 8 years ago at that time. I remember it so well. I remember waiting ALL day to have an epidural so she could be born naturally. I remember Jared and Matt playing the playstation for a while. I remember Matt's face so close to mine as she was being born. I remember him telling me how good I was doing. She was finally born at 9:46 pm. I remember not hearing her cry the very first second, but then she did, and I felt better. She was beautiful. She stuck her tongue out a lot. She turned towards Matt when she heard his voice. I remember her little mullet. We just stared at her for hours and hours and hours. We touched her fingers, toes, and feet. I always wanted to hold her-I never set her down. I even had her sleep in my room with me both nights. I wanted her with me all the time. I'm so proud of her and who she is. She's so smart, so beautiful, so sweet, so funny, so thoughtful, and SUCH a drama queen :) I'm thankful everyday for her, and I feel so blessed to be her mom.

::6 months::

Look who's 6 months old today!!


She's such a little doll! We love her SO much! She's squeally, hungry, smiley, wiggley, drooly, fussy (when she needs something-diaper change, food, sleep), sleepy, and just plain cute.



(Ava & Port -5 years old)

She's a good eater. She'll eat 2 containers (plastic Gerber) of food at a time! She likes fruit best, but she'll eat squash if it's mixed with rice cereal. She still nurses, and probably prefers that over food, but only does couple of times a day. She fights her sleep (just like Chloe did), and gets a little fussy before she falls asleep. She almost always pulls her bows out/down (not like Chloe-but I guess Ava's are much bigger than hers were). She knows her name. She laughs a lot. She thinks Porter is hilarious! She loves to be held. She loves to look in the mirror. Loves when I talk to her in a high, soft voice. She still spits up all the time (even with baby food). She rolls back and forth all the time. She scoots backwards, and is getting up on her knees already-which I think is weird because she can't sit unsupported yet. But it's cute. She looks like she just wants to go somewhere. Her hair is getting longer and blows around in the wind. She puts everything in her mouth.

I love how she smells. I love her laugh. I love all her little goo-goos, and when she squeals and plays with her voice. I love when she gets excited and wiggles her arms and legs really fast. I love when she holds stuff and sort of flicks her wrist back and forth with whatever she's holding in her hand. I love her long, dark eyelashes. I even love her little girly cry. I love that she wiggles herself into a slumped, squished position in her swing, and then fusses so we'll straighten her out. I love that she smiles with her whole body, and that she does it when she sees me. I love that she has to stare at her da-da for a few minutes when he gets home from work.

I always think babies grow too fast, but I feel like Avie is growing WAY too fast. She's my last one, so I just want her to stay little!! She's beautiful and so much fun.

::high school reunion

"You may all go to Hell, I'll go to Texas."

-Davy Crockett

My 10 year high school reunion was last weekend. Matt, Ava, and I flew to Dallas for it. It was SO much fun to see everyone and everything. I'm not too sure if Matt thought it was all that fun. He didn't know any of the people, and just kind of had to sit and listen to memories and stories that he really didn't care too much about, but he was a good sport. He served his mission there, so he got to see his old apartment, and try to remember how to get places.


I scanned in some photos from high school days. This was our group. We had a group of about 6 girls who hung out together all.the.time. It wasn't only us, but it was pretty much always us.

(senior prom 2001. Sue, Liz, Me, Ash, Nat, & Clara)



(senior breakfast 2001. Me & Ash)


(Mrs. Gaskin's 4th period-Jeff Watts (he was such a fun friend) & Me & junior prom 2000-Sue & Me)


(senior night (after graduation) 2001-Nat & me)


(our graduating class of around 450 & a bunch of us girls. graduation day 2001)

And here we are now (some of us)

(Ash, Me, & Nat-Eno's Pizza, Dallas. 2011)

So we flew into Dallas on Friday afternoon. After we talked to the airline about our lost bag (I swear that always happens to us!), my dad picked us up and we went to lunch. Mexican. Gooood! We stayed here, at Dad's house in Arlington (right on the edge of Arlington & Ft. Worth-he works in TX, so he bought it so he'd have somewhere to stay).


We wanted to do a little driving around and sight seeing (and by sight seeing, I mean drive by our old houses, schools, visit old friends, etc). We got out to Sunnyvale (where I lived almost my whole life), and oh my gosh! It has changed! There's a middle school (separate from the elementary-used to be k-8th all in the same school), and a big, nice high school. There are TONS of new houses and subdivisions. We drove past my house...

(201 Manhattan Blvd. Sunnyvale, TX. -where I did most of my growin' up. I used to park my blue Jeep right out front-sometimes with two of the tires on the curb, just to look tough.)

We went to the North Mesquite game on Friday night (it was homecoming). We only stayed until half time because it was raining. Yeah! Raining! Texas hasn't gotten any rain in like 3 months. The whole state is in a major drought, the lawns are all dead, half the state is on fire, and it rained Friday night. Nice.

(Memorial Stadium. Looks EXACTLY the same! It was the wildest thing walking in there. I remember doing that with all my girls when I was in high school. This time I walked in with my husband and 5 month old baby)

Then, on Saturday, we went shopping. Northpark mall is a vision of pure beauty! I can't believe the expansion and all the new stores! It was amazing. It made me completely happy-right down to my soul! :) We drove back to Arlington with expectation of touring Cowboys stadium...

...but (DUH!) they were having college games that day. Why didn't we think of that and go on Friday?? Ugh! We were kind of bummed. We (well, I-hopefully I can get the Mr. on board) are hoping to go back next year with all the kids, so hopefully we can go in and maybe watch the 'boys play!

That night, we got all prettied up to go to the banquet. How'd we do??


(all us girls together again (minus Sue-she had a baby 4 days ago. I went and visited her after the party. He's a doll!) & all our alum in attendance)

Avie-Mavie stayed home wiss Papa.

(Ava-5,almost 6, months old with Papa Guitar in Texas)


I'm SO glad we went! I just love Texas, I don't know what it is. It's just Texas. I can't even count how many times I told Matt how much I love it there. I heard the locusts, I smelled the air, I heard/felt the bumps on the road when you change lanes, I ate some Blue Bell ice cream, saw the sideways traffic lights, I felt the humidity (!!!), saw the beautiful Dallas skyline, I drove in the traffic, even caught a mild thunderstorm, and I loved every second of it.

Matt was such a good sport. He just went where I said I wanted to go, and didn't really complain about it. I'm sure he was bored out of his mind, especially since we didn't get to go into the stadium, but he was so sweet about the whole thing. I haven't seen any of these people for 10 years, and since I don't live there any more (or even close), I don't get to drive by our old school or run into people, or anything like that. It was so fun to catch up with my girls and hear all about their lives, and see others that we went to school with. Everyone looked beautiful, and were completely wonderful to visit with!

Thanks for babysitting the teeny girl, Dad. She loves her Papa. And thanks for watching the big kids, Grandma & Papa Snowman. We didn't worry a bit about them (other than Chloe missing her Mama).
Love y'all.

::crash::

Remember how Portie learned how to ride his bike without training wheels??


He crashed.

It was a bad one.

He went to the top of our street so he could ride down the hill really fast. He scraped almost every part of his little body-knees, elbows, forehead, chin, nose, hands.
And he cut his lip open. Like completely open.
He had to get stitches.
We both cried. It pretty awful.


I don't know how in the world he didn't knock his front teeth out. There was asphalt ground into them. He chipped another one of his teeth (the little one right next to one of his front teeth), and he ripped up his gums pretty good. He cut his lip from the top where it attaches to his gums (that little stretchy tissue) all the way to the pointy down part of his lip.

He got 3 stitches.

He did really good. He was really scared. So was I. We both tried to be brave. I tried so hard not to cry before they started working on him. After they started and gave him the shot (we covered his eyes so he wouldn't see the needle) I cried. It was so sad. My poor baby boy!

Hopefully the stitches will stay in. Hopefully he won't mess with them with his tongue-it's hard not to when you've got something like that in your mouth. Hopefully it'll heal up quickly and everything will be okay. Until then, he's pretty swollen and sore. No school for that boy today.

In other news...
I went for a run yesterday. All by myself (Amberlee was getting her hair done). It was a longer one (about 7 miles). I really wanted to run down the canyon, but Matt won't let me. He thinks I might get hit by a car. So I ran from Matt's mom & dad's to the lake, around the lake, and back to their house (Matt was up there to help with some sprinkler things, but it was done when we got there because we were at the dr. with Port for so long). I just felt like running...a long ways. You know the feeling? Anyway...it was SO nice! It was dark when I got back. Matt was just getting on his 4 wheeler to come look for me when I walked in the door. I was thinking when I was getting close to done that he's probably getting worried and would come look for me. He did. I love that about him.

Also...
Matt's mom and dad left this morning for a 3 week road trip to Minnesota (to visit Adam (Matt's brother) and his family) with a few stops along the way. We'll miss them.

::reunited and it feels so good::

We went to Dallas over the weekend (more on that later).

It was fun.

We're back.

I'm glad.


(my new necklace from the Mr. Isn't it beautiful?? Don't you just LOVE Texas??)

It was so fun to go, but so nice to be back. I missed my babies SO much! They stayed with Grandma & Papa Snowman Thursday (night), Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. When we pulled up, the kids were outside on the swing set (which you can see from the road). Matt honked the horn. Chloe looked over, and screamed "It's Mommy!!!" All 3 started squealing and running towards us. They all hugged me. Chloe started crying. Then they moved on to Da-da. Chloe, Coop, and I went to the backyard to play on the swings for a bit. Portie went in with Da-da and Ava. He spent a good half hour (probably) by her side. He missed her a lot. We talked with Matt's mom & dad for a bit, packed up the kids' stuff, and went home.

(all our stuff! Ours and the kids')

And it's nice to be home. It's even nicer to be all together again.

(Chloe drew this picture of she and I)

It was a pretty fun trip. Anyone who knows me and our family knows we don't separate too often. I don't handle it all that well. I only left them overnight for the first time (other than when I'm in the hospital with a new baby) last year. It was a little rough. I was worried about everything. Everything! I cried a lot when I would think about it. Even the night before, when we were tucking them in at Grandma Snowman's (our flight left SO early, so we had them stay the night rather than wake them up at 2 am) I was so sad to leave them that I almost didn't want to go. Chloe had a rough time. She cried a lot. She called me at 6:30 (5:30 Utah time) in the morning on Saturday crying telling me she misses me and wants us to come home.

But we're home, and all is well!
We had school this morning. I overslept and Chloe had to get ready in like 15 minutes to make the bus on time, but we made it! She was excited to wear her new Texas necklace (looks kinda like mine), and also her pink Toms, to school today. Bubb is driving his trucks all over my arms and the computer right now, and I love it.
:)

::dressed::

Today, Bubba picked out Ava's outfit.

How'd he do??

Bubb: "See wanna weah huh fishy shuht (shirt)"

Me: "Her jeans are dirty, and she doesn't have any shorts to match"

Bubb: "She wanna weah deez ones (pink, orange, and purple plaid)."

Me: "But they don't match"

Bubb: "See wanna weah deez, mom!! Heeuh (here), Ava, put zuh (your) leg inneuh (in there)"

So then I told him to pick out a hairbow. He picked a bright pink one. I said "you like that one?" He looked at it, then at Ava, then back at the bow, and said "it doesn't match." Then he picked out a big red one and the white one (2 bows!).

She still looked cute though. Good job, Bubb!!

In other news...

So, Port learned how to ride his bike without training wheels, and all he ever wants to do is ride his bike! He loves it. I told the fam I was going running tonight, and Port piped up and said he wanted to go. I kept trying to talk him out of it (it's a long run (5 miles) for a little guy), but he got pretty upset. So we just went on a little short run (probably not quite 2 miles). He LOVED it! He thought it was so fun and awesome that he got to come with me on a run. Sweet little Portie.

::3 things::

Okay, so earlier in the summer, I told Portie that there were 3 big things he had to learn before school started...

1. learn how to tie your shoes (more on that later)
2. learn how to read without any help (that's a work in progress)
3. learn how to ride your bike without training wheels (check!!)



(Portie. Age 5. No training wheels.)

I tried to teach him earlier in the summer. I tried again when Matt was deer huntin'. I tried every sort of bribery too. I told him it'd be the awesomest thing ever if we could surprise Dada with it when he got home. I told him I'd buy him a bigger bike. I told him he could come on our runs around the lake in Mantua if he'd learn. He could go faster. He could keep up with Chloe and Brianna. No dice. He kept giving me all kinds of excuses "you know how 'cause you're older. Chloe's older. Our driveway isn't flat (which I took care of by taking him to an empty parking lot-a flat empty parking lot). It's hard." blah blah blah

Then, the motivation...
We looked at Cousin Addy's blog the other day, and her mom posted about how she learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. I said "Portie, look! Addy doesn't have any training wheels!" He was all kinds of upset about that. "WHAT?!!?" He wanted to go out and learn right that second. I convinced him to wait 'til Da-da got home (which was pretty soon). Matt taught him. He did awesome. I guess when it comes to teaching him things, our personalities just kind of clash. He's so resistant to learning new things, and I guess I'm not a good teacher for him-except for reading. We do okay together with reading.

Anyway...look at him go!





And the tying the shoe thing....check!!

PS Thanks, Addy, for being so awesome and learning how to ride your bike without training wheels! If you hadn't learned, Portie might've grown up and had to have a 10 speed with training wheels!!
:)