Growing Up

It seems like babies really grow up when they hit 6 months. So many new things happen. And they are certainly happening around here with Ava Potata.

She started army crawling on Easter and has been moving around the room more and more. Her crawling terrifies me. We have way too many stairs for her to fall down if I'm not looking. But, none the less, she is moving and moving quickly when she sees something she wants.

Ava is eating baby food for all of her meals now. She has rice cereal for breakfast, a fruit for lunch and a veggie for dinner. She is good at eating and usually loves it, but her pickiness is shining through again. She will ONLY eat the food if it is heated. If it is cold she shuts her mouth tight and spits anything you try to put in right back at you.

Ava even got to have her own play date. My friend Maritza came over with her two girls yesterday. Brie loved playing with Jazlyn. Ava and Keanah had a good time rolling around and sucking on the toys.

CHEESE FRIES

Hooray! This week Scott and I both made it to a goal that we have been working toward together.

Some of you have noticed that we (mostly Scott has been noticed) have been losing weight. I gained weight being pregnant with Ava and then it didn't come off so easily after she was born. We then went right into Thanksgiving and Christmas and I just kept eating and kept not fitting into my clothes. I figured I better lose some weight or buy a whole new wardrobe (although that does sound good). Scott is such a good husband :) that he gains weight when I am pregnant too. How nice huh? He wanted to lose some Brie weight and some Ava weight.

Soooooooo, on January 3 we started Weight Watchers. It has been so great! I can not say enough good about Weight Watchers. We've done it together so that has made it a lot easier! We have been pretty good about staying within our point boundaries every day and I feel like we have eaten really good meals and never felt hungry or deprived. The major thing we have cut out of our lives is eating out or being REALLY careful when we do. Scott is so strict about accounting for everything he eats and getting up EVERY morning at 6am to work out. All in all, it really hasn't been hard and I feel like we have learned so much!

We have "weighed in" and reported to each other (and my sister Laura) every Monday since we started and as of this Monday, I hit a 20 pound weight loss and Scott hit a 30 pound weight loss! HOORAY!!!

We have said when we got to these milestones we would celebrate with Training Table Cheese Fries. They do sound good but I just don't know if I can bring myself to do it. We both want to keep going! Do we dare tempt ourselves with delicious, greasy, cheesy fries????

Easter

Easter Sunday was wonderful! It really was such a good day. It started early and ended late, but was a perfect Easter.

We had church at 9am, so we were all up searching for eggs and checking out what the Easter Bunny left by 7:30am. Scott filled the eggs with a couple jelly beans each the night before and made a path from Brie's room to the baskets. They followed the egg path and everyone was thrilled to see what was in their basket.
Scott and Brie finding eggs on the stairs on their way down.Ava eyeing that new toy and bibs in her basket.She grabbed the basket and it attacked her. Help!!
Finally, she had her new toy to play with . . . and loved it.
Scott got a movie and a new baseball game in his baseball basket. Oh, and a lemon??
I got a new Shades swim suit in my basket, but there will be no pictures of that.

We got ready for church and headed out (this picture is after church). We had such nice meetings. Scott taught Sunday School and I was asked to teach Relief Society.

The girly girls in their Easter dresses (we still have to dress them warm here).
We then started cleaning up the Easter disaster and cooking for a family Easter dinner.We had Scott's parents and Scott's brother, Brian, and his family for dinner. It was fun to have them. The menu was:

Broiled Salmon with Mango Salsa

Asparagus

Baked Red Potatoes

French Green Beans

Rolls

Fresh Strawberries, Pineapple and Grapes

We also got to celebrate Brian's 40th birthday. Hooray!

The Hunt

We have been looking forward to an Easter Egg Hunt at Thanksgiving Point. We invited some of our friends and their daughter Zoey who is Brie's good friend. I was so excited for it. They were going to have an egg hunt and then pony rides, train rides, games, inflatable jumping toys, petting zoo, etc.

We went.

It was freezing cold! I had just seen my sister's pictures from her egg hunt and they were all in sun dresses and came away with sunburns! It was probably 40 degrees for ours.

There were SOOOOOO many people that we didn't get to do one of the fun things, we just stood in line until we gave up.

The Easter Egg Hunt was a joke. They threw a bunch of eggs on a field and then all the parents ran with their kids and grabbed as many as they could. We wanted Brie to get to go find the eggs and pick them up on her own. She got two eggs.

We ended up leaving and playing on the toys at Carl's Jr.

We did have a GREAT time hanging out with Cory, Danae and Zoey.

This cracked me up. She can't even move to go find the easter eggs because she is shivering too much. We were all freezing. I guess that's an early Easter in Utah for me.

Play Date . . . . Gone Bad.

So, I am new at this whole "play date" thing. We never did play dates when I was little. We just ran out the front door and played with all the neighborhood kids up and down the street until we heard my dad whistling for us to come home. It was great. Brielle has reached an age when I guess play dates begin. Another mom from church called me last week and asked if her daughter, Marissa, and Brielle could have a play date. Sure. I offered for them to come to our house and kind of expected that the mom would come too and would just hang out while the girls played. Yesterday at 10am Marissa was dropped off and her mom went home to paint.

We were excited to have Marissa come play. I think it is good for Brie to play with kids her age and it's especially good for her to have to learn to share her toys. The girls played very well together for awhile. We made little chicks in an egg for Easter/Spring. Brie showed Marissa ALL the toys and I do mean every last toy. They had fishy crackers and apple juice for a snack. Sounds good huh?

It was all down hill from there. Soon everything Marissa touched, Brie would try to take away and tell her, "That's mine!". I was getting Brie in trouble for not sharing every 5 seconds. She started hiding everything by me so I could protect it or something. Then there was yelling. Then there was pushing. Then Brie said, "I want Marissa go home!" Marissa felt the same way. She headed to the door and started trying to put on her shoes and coat. They both ended up sitting in front of the door (fighting) in the hopes that Marissa's mom would come and take her.

The fighting at the doorway was exactly this over and over and over:

Marissa: You stinky! (She can't talk well though so it sounded to Brie like she was saying, You Winky!)
Brie: No, I mad!
Marissa: No, you stinky!
Brie: No, I mad!

I was trying to help them to be nice and not fight, but was eventually laughing so hard that I got out the camera and started filming them.

Disney Princesses on Ice

Saturday we got to go to Disney Princesses on Ice! Scott bought the tickets for Brielle and we have been talking it up and getting excited ever since. Brie wore one of her princess dresses and was absolutely thrilled. She kept telling everyone (and continues to tell everyone) that she is Cinderella, Scott is the prince and I am the Fairy Godmother. (I used to always be the "mean mother" until I complained, now I am the Fairy Godmother.) We had a lot of fun. The show was great and definitely had all the Disney magic to it. My favorite part though was seeing all of those little girls in their princess dresses, shoes, crowns, bows, magic wands, etc. It is so cute. Brie was so captivated by the show that she couldn't take her eyes off of it for the picture. She really was quite amazed when she saw Tinkerbell and Mickey and Minnie for the first time. She is still telling me how pretty Minnie looked in her "new dress". You think this girl is ready for Disneyland or what?Brie watched and waved at each new princess.

St. Patrick's Day!

We are having a festive day of doing the laundry, staying home after many busy days and napping. We are all wearing green though. I learned the hard way to get some green on. My pajamas that I put on last night had no green in them and I got pinched 20 times this morning by Scott before he left for work. Yea, not so funny when you're still asleep in bed. Nice huh? We are ready now though.

Brie and I did make a fun St. Patrick's Day shamrock to celebrate. I told her about Leprechauns and pots of gold, but she just isn't getting it and really doesn't care. We've been talking about the Easter Bunny lately and he wins out over Leprechauns because he will bring candy. Santa Claus is still the most talked about of all though, and for good reason.

The shamrock had a song to go with it. Here is our St. Patrick's Day tribute to you and yours.

Scott came home from work and made us corned beef, cabbage and red potatoes. I have to be completely honest here and say . . . it was TOTALLY DELICIOUS! I'm serious. I was a little nervous. It was sooooooo good. I love cabbage and it went perfectly with the saltiness of the corned beef. Who knew? The Irish I guess.

Easter Party!

We had our much anticipated Easter party! It was so fun. I was kind of nervous to do an Easter party for 10 little kids (2 - 3 yrs. old) and their moms. I honestly have never hosted a little kid event. I've never been in primary. I felt a little new at this. But it was EASY! It turned out so great and with as much candy as there was, everyone had fun. Yahoo!

Brielle was so excited preparing for the party. She got to help go to the store and buy the plastic eggs and candy for the hunt, she helped make cupcakes, she helped decorate the house. She cracked me up the morning of the party because she wanted to wear a dress and have a "pretty flower" in her hair. I got her all ready and when I walked in the room a little while later I heard her saying, "scrunch, scrunch, scrunch". She was scrunching her curls so she would be all ready for her friends to arrive.

Her friends came and we started by coloring and then making easter bunny ears. They all went outside to hop around and have hopping competitions while I hid candy filled eggs all around the house. They then came inside, got their easter baskets and went looking for eggs. After the hunt, they decorated cupcakes and then just ran around and played while the moms talked. It really was so fun.

Spring Forward

The changing of the clocks last Sunday has been rough on us. It is certainly harder to adjust when you have small kids. We all felt it, but I think we are all on time now.

Ava had just figured out her 7pm bedtime when it was all switched up on her. She's right back to 7pm to 7am though. Good girl.

Scott has put Ava to bed every night this week (Monday I took Brie to see the play Cinderella at the library, Tuesday I took Brie to Little Gym and last night was Enrichment). I've asked him to try and see if she can possibly stay awake until 7pm to get her back on schedule. He says she laughs and plays and then by 6:55pm she can't keep her eyes open anymore and just konks out. One night he left her playing on the floor to go get her pajamas and this is what he found. Poor tired girl. Sound asleep.Brie was fighting taking her nap because, of course, she just wasn't tired yet. This meant she went to sleep late and then by 5pm I was trying to wake her up and she just couldn't come out of it. Which then turned into putting her to bed and her not falling asleep for hours. She sat in her bed with her little lamp on reading books until 11pm the first night.

First Hair Cut

Brielle had her first hair cut. We realize now that it wasn't a necessary thing to do. Often times she won't keep the clip or hair band in her hair when I do it. Her hair then looks so messy and scroungy and is in her face and eyes. So, we thought that maybe it could be cut to be cute even when there is nothing in it.

We went to a cute place called "Cookie Cutters". It's a hair cutting place just for kids. The kids get to choose a cartoon movie to watch, sit in a car or plane and then they get a sucker and balloon at the end. The lady only snipped a couple snips and then she was done. Brie loved the experience though because she thought she looked "so pretty" with her new hair cut afterward.

Sweet Potata Pie

Ava, or "Ava Talata Manada" as Brie calls her, "Potata Bug" as Scott calls her or "Sweet Potata Pie" as I call her is now 6 months old. I absolutely can't believe she is already 6 months. So many big things happen now that she is 6 months old - she eats baby food, she'll sit up, start crawling, etc. etc. We went in for her 6 month appointment with Dr. Brian today and she looks great. Ava weighs 13.1 lbs. and is in the 3rd percentile, so is following along exactly as Brie did. She is 25 1/2 inches long and her head measured 40.5 cm. She got a lot of shots today and I can tell her legs are hurtin'.

Ava is so cute and so happy. I love the girl to pieces. I honestly can not get enough of her. She laughs so hard when I kiss her all over and is EXTREMELY ticklish. She has certain spots that if you get just right make her laugh uncontrollably. When I get Ava out of her crib she is so excited that she buries her head in my shoulder and cuddles up as close as she can and gives me a huge smile. I love it. She is starting to like baby food, especially the fruits. She'll never take a bottle, we've given up. She is starting to be a better sleeper. (The girl has been so hard for me after Brie was such an easy, perfect sleeper.) She goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up around 7am. She gets up usually once to eat. She loves to be rocked to sleep, but has learned to be put in her bed and fall asleep on her own. Having a monkey to hold onto has helped with that. We noticed that when she was trying to fall asleep she was trying to hold onto something (hoping I was there). She ended up sleeping with her arms wrapped around the bumper of the crib, clinging to it. So, Brie picked a monkey stuffed animal for her to have in bed and she is much happier. She has only ever slept for 40 minutes at a time during the day which just about drove me CRAZY!! Seriously. She is figuring it out now though with a 1 1/2 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Yahoo!!!

Ava loves watching Brie and is always focused on following her around the room. She is thrilled to have Brie stop and play with her. She also really loves Scott. When he comes home from work she stares at him in amazement. He is the one that feeds her her baby food and she seems to love the entertainment he provides as he is trying to get the food in her mouth.

We love our Sweet Potata Pie!

Easter Party. . . . Help?

We have a little play group from church for the preschool age kids. I am in charge of the Easter party next Wednesday. There are usually about 8 moms and 12 kids. Most of the kids are age 2 - 3 years old. I need help. This will be the first time that I host a little kid get together or party EVER. I don't know what to do. Please, please share your ideas.

I know most of you have been doing kid Easter parties, etc. for a while. Do you have any fun ideas for crafts? I want to have a few games. And what about snacks? Any and all ideas for a fun party are appreciated. Thank you. Thank you.