Mommy I'm a big girl now!

That is a song title from Hairspray - and lately I feel like that is what Avery is telling me! haha, I still call her my baby and sometimes treat her that way, but she definitely is no longer a baby!

Avery turned 2 on the weekends, I can barley believe it!

She is growing and learning so fast! She has become quite the good talker, basically says everything and pronounces it words quite well! She also knows almost 1-10, a few of the Alphabet, and all her colors! She loves to draw, play pretend, be outside, play in the water, pretending to sing, dance, parks, books, climbing, play "night night", fruit, french fries, milk, nursery and her buddies there, animals and making there sounds, helping dad with reno projects and yard work, helping mom clean and she has quite the sense of humor.

She does not like posing for pictures, being made to do anything until she chooses to do that thing (she is very stubborn and independent), still not a big cuddlier (but has realized hugs and kisses aren't so bad, and being woken up from a good nap (sometimes 1:00 church forces us to do that.)

Her favourite TV characters / shows are Dora and Curious George. I could go on and on about this girl! I just love the little person she is becoming!

I've been looking at lots of pictures of her over the past 2 years and missing those ages, but still loving the ones shes in. Here are some pictures of her over the past 2 years!

Newborn - cannot believe she was once this little!

6 months! She chunked out real good!
18 months, Avery is a bit of a Tom Girl - basically a girl version of Jordan!

2 years old! Like I said before, she is the hardest kid to get a good picture of! Right when the camera comes out, she basically runs or turns away! So this was a couple weeks ago at the zoo - best one I could find recently!

I love her and feel so blessed to be here Mommy! Happy B-day Avery!

Wallpaper wall... COMPLETE!

Quick Before - note right wall, this lovely wallpaper went through the living room and dining room.




Thanks to my hard working / handy husband out wall is done!!! Our house is starting to feel like ours! We still have baseboards and a closet door at the front entrance to do THIS YEAR... and then a break for the rest of the year! Still plenty more to do over the years!





Anyways, I was so impressed with Jordan's handy work. I finally found the wallpaper I wanted and got a deal from our supplier. And Jordan found these real 8" wide pine boards off kijiji. This girl was renovating her house and ripping them off her wall, obviously didn't know what they were worth. So we got all the pine boards for $60 ALL TOGETHER!





It was a lot of work for Jordan to get them on the wall. Wall needed to be prepped, boards were cut, boards were nailed on wall, the sanded to cover up big knots and nail holes, and then Jordan routered all the finishing peices from scratch from those pines boards! I was so impressed, he bought a couple peices for the front entrance.





Then was the painting, more wood filling and sanding and more painting. Oh yes, wallpaper was done before all this. Phew!!! I was just support staff...and this project was exhausting. But we both are so happy its done and could just stare at the walls all day long! Anyways, IT'S DONE!!! Enjoy the pics!

Front Entrance

Front Entrance - without light on (new light too!)

Big wall between living room and dining room!

Beloved plate wall - I've been collecting these plates from everywhere over the last few months. The smaller green one, my wonderful friend Tara knew I was working on this project and saw it at Crate and Barrel in Calgary and brought it home to me :) Thanks Tar!

I will put up a bunch of Before and Afters once baseboards and closet door are done!

Giggles in the Sun :)

First - a couple back yard projects. This area was weeding over and just needed help. So Jordan cleaned it up, cut out the shape and put the border down, put the landscaping paper down, I planted a couple perennials, and then Jordan layed the cedar mulch. Yesterday we placed the rocks and lanterns, pretty nice hey!

Jordan found this patio set on Kijiji.We got it for $40. It was very worn and like a brick red color stain, but the stain was pretty much all worn off. So I wanted to do a different color - I want our back yard to be fun but have some resemblance to the mountains. So I picked this greyey / blue color and stained it. The set came with chair pads, but they were in a ugly hunter green. So I got some outdoor fabric from Fabricland (really cute outdoor fabric right now.) And with some help of my mom made cushions for over top! Cute hey! So with stain and fabric the entire set came to about $100. Were just looking for a umbrella right now, probably tan color.

Oh and that is the pretty fence Jordan put up (we had none on that side it was just open.) And he also painted the back fence (it was a brick color.)

Well FINALLY in Edmonton we've had some nice summer! And it couldn't have come at a better time! Jordan and I have about 10 days off together. We went camping this past weekend in Lake Louise which was great (I'll put pics up soon.)

But mostly we've just been enjoying our yard! We didn't get to do this last summer with moving and our frustrations with getting possession of this house. One of the reasons we wanted this house so much was because of the big back yard and huge potential! It was a little neglected over the past few years because it was a older couple that owned the house. But Jordan (and me sometimes) has been working our butts off! And its looking so great! Our yard is finally all fenced in (no more worrying about Avery running on the busy street) and its coming together!

There is still lots to do, but we put the pool up last week and that is pretty much all Avery wants to do!

Avery enjoying some lunch outside after playing in the yard all morning!


Avery playing with Uncle Mike, that day Jordan and Mike finished that back corner behind them. It was all dirt and weeding over, so they ripped it out and we planted some perennials and put some cedar mulch down.
I invited some friends over and little buddies for Avery to hang out with. It was a beautiful morning and so much fun! These 2 are adorable and about the same age (10 months.)
Bennett took a little spill - he was not impressed, but also didn't get that upset.
Bennett - what can I say about this boy! He is just so cute! Just a little story about Bennett and Avery. So I don't know if you see it, but to me and Bennett's Mom Kay, Avery and Bennett look alike! And we've had other people tell us that, haha! They are not related at all, but we do have a little connection. Kay's sister Megan is my sister-in-law because she married Jordan's brother Cole! So there is no blood relation between me and Kay, so its just a weird thing that Bennett and Avery resemble each other! But I love this kid, he has the best personality and of course I think hes adorable - I feel like my son will look like him! haha!

Bennett (Easthope), Avery, Dylan (Smith), and Zachary (Wolff) Avery's little boyfriend! They were all so cute!

TIMMMBEEERR!!!!

Well among the millions of projects we have going on around our house, this is the newest. My wallpaper was WAS next, but our neighbor who hates these trees in our front yard even more than we do changed those plans!
So we've had these 2 HUGE spruce trees that are dangerously close to our house in our front yard. They are also so dirty and take over our whole front yard! So, our neighbor arranged (payed for) a bin to be delivered, and he helped Jordan take these trees down! Jordan has lots of expirence with falling trees because when he worked as a forest fire fighter for a few summers in BC, he was the chain saw guy who fell trees.

So they came down sucessfully! Jordan stressed so much about it, he got like 3 hours of sleep the night before! It was very close to our house, so I don't blame him. But I knew he would do a great job!

So they are down! Now our front yard is pretty bare and ugly... haha, but I'd rather have that than those trees. Just another thing to add to the list, the front landscaping. But that is okay, now we can move on to other things... like my wallpaper wall!

Cole helping out

HUGE hey! So glad those are done. Its all cleaned up now, landscaping in the front yard may have to wait until next year though, lots more to do!

Grads!

This year in our family we had 2 highschool grads! My youngest sister Paige, and Jordan's youngest brother Michael. It was really neat to see them all grown up and looking so awesome! Paige's of course was here in Edmonton, and then last weekend we travelled to Vanderhoof for Michael's ceremonies. Both we really nice events. Here are some highlights.

Paige after getting her diploma!

Me and Kamry with Paige (taren was out of town.)

Mom and Dad with Paige

Paige and her handsome date Cody, they looked sooo good together!

At the banquet that night - doesn't Paige look beautiful!?

Me and my Mom after the banquet.

Michael's grad after the ceremony, it was like 10:30... Avery was sooo tired! Hence... her face!


Mikes grad class

After the Grand march where the grads are introduced with there date.


The family cheering Mike on :)


Michael and his date, isn't he a stud!

I AM ALIVE!

Hi blogging friends,

I've been a horrible blogger, and I'm not necessarily promising I will get better. It seems with work and summer events starting, there is not a lot of free time! And that free time is spent with my favourite people... being Jordan and Avery :)

Work is great... but busy! I'm still part time, but I find myself taking work home lately and preparing presentations and working on clients files during Av's nap time and after she goes to bed. That then leaves my "nap time duties" to be done some other times... not sure when that is?! I also like to spend as much time with Avery when I am home from work! But I know this is many working mothers dilemma, this is just me ranting and still adjusting. But I sure am productive when I'm busier!

Anyways, reno projects are still on the go. Until our fence is done, in house things are on hold. More pictures to come! We've had lots of fun family gatherings lately, which I will post pics of once I get them (I hate forgetting my camera, thankfully my sisters and Mom didn't forget.) And I had a baby shower for my dear sweet friend Tara and her son Boston on the weekend which was lots of fun, hes so darn cute! Well here's some updates of my cutie pie lately!

Before church, she loves wearing her dresses.

This is Avey's tome boy side, she loves puttig her daddys hats on!

Oh and please Mothers out there who have had kids addicted to there soothers... this is a bad picture of Avery, but it shows her crazy addiction to soothers! I have a goal that by the time shes 2 I will be rid of that thing! But its going to be no easy task, any tips you mommas have are much appreciated!

Fun on the Farm!

This week we had such a great little play date with some of my girlfriends and there kids. Lisa invited us over to her parents house who have a acreage outside of Sherwood Park. Her dad was a Rancher his whole life and just retired and they bought a smaller place closer to the city. Even though it was a little chilly out, we all had such a great time! Thank you to Lisa and Mr. Conrad for there hospitality!


Dmitri (Lisa's son) and Zach (Rachel's son) on the horse, they were both very brave! You won't see any of Avery on the horse, although she really enjoyed looking and touching them, she was too nervous to sit on them.

I love this little guy, Cori's son Dylan! His face was precious, it was like "should I cry or laugh right now? I'm not too sure?!?!" Pretty brave for a 13 month old!

Such boys these 2, they LOVED the tractor!

Me and Avery going for a quad ride with Lisa and Dmitri

We had a awesome pot luck lunch after, lots of good food, here is the kids enjoying from fruit after lots of playing outside.

Sleepy heads on the way back home, we caught ride out with Zach and Rachel. These 2 just love each other! When I'm at work Rachel watches Avery, so they are best buddies! So it was fun for me to see them together playing!