Chuck E Cheese

Grandma Jeri took us to Chuck E Cheese last week and we had so much fun! The girls could play there all day. One funny thing that happened was while we were eating, Chuck E Cheese came out to visit the birthday kids and we noticed Abbey was missing. My mom and I looked all over to try to find her. We asked the employees if they had seen her, and no one knew where she was. I went back over by the tables to see if she was laying in one of the booths, and I saw her under our table. She was hiding from Chuck E Cheese because she was scared of him! It was so funny! She stayed under there until he left. Thanks Mom for the fun day!

Alyssa's first day of school

Alyssa started 2nd grade on Monday. She was so excited to start school. She loves her teacher and she seems to be having a great time so far. Today when I picked her up she told me she had an AMAZING day! I hope this contiues all year!

Abbey will start kindergarten next week. She met her teacher on Monday and she is really excited to meet her "new best friend" at school this year. When we met with her teacher, she told us that where Abbey is now is where she should be by the end of kindergarten. She is a smarty pants! Her teacher told her that she can help her friends in her class so she was really excited about that.

Cabela's

The girls wanted their picture with the guy who was missing a hand.

On Saturday we went to Cabela's. The girls love that place.

6 months old!

Our little Avery is 6 months old now! She is such a sweet baby and I can't imagine life without her. She is starting to sit up on her own, though she is still a little unstable. She loves to roll around and she is happiest when she is on her tummy. She smiles all the time and she rarely cries. She sleeps about 9 hours at night so I get plenty of rest. We had her six month check-up last week and she is now up to 14 lbs (15%). So she is a small fry! I don't remember her height or her head size, but they were both in the 50%. She had to get two shots and she only cried for a couple minutes. She ended up just falling asleep as soon as we got in the car. One thing I found out at her appointment though is that they changed the car seat requirements, so kids now have to be rear facing until they are 30 pounds instead of 20. At the rate Avery is going, she might be two years old before she reaches that size.

I also had an MRI done on my wrist because it has been bugging me for a couple of years. Just over a year ago I had a cyst removed (sucked out) from my wrist and I thought that was the problem, but I still have weakness and sometimes it hurts. I figured since I have already met my out or pocket amount (from having Avery) for my insurance that this would be a good time to get the MRI since it wouldn't cost me anything. The cost of an MRI is about $1000 for each body part that gets scanned. One of the doctors I work for thought I may have a torn ligament and having an MRI would show that. Luckily, nothing major is wrong with my wrist, but there is some fluid in my joint. My boss (Dr. Fotheringham) said that he could do an injection of human growth hormone and that should help. I will probably have that done next week. After an injection you have to take it easy for a couple days or you could make the damage worse, so I need to have it done close to the weekend so I will have David around to help me.

Our Anniversary Weekend

David and I have been married for 9 years! This past weekend we were able to celebrate even though our actual anniversary isn't until the 19th. David took Friday off, so we took the girls to Raging Waters for a few hours. The girls had a blast! We could have stayed all day, but Avery needed to be home.
Every year for our anniversary David and I book a room at a bed and breakfast. We have stayed at lots of different places and we have some favorites. This year we booked a room at The Alaskan Inn. We stayed there a couple years ago and we loved it so we thought we would go back. I called Friday morning to make sure they had our reservation and they said they had us booked for Saturday night instead of Friday. We were really bugged because we made the reservation over a month ago. The room we wanted was booked for that night and the only room available was $300 a night which is way out of our price range. So we called around to a couple others and we were able to get a room at the Armstrong Mansion downtown. We haven't stayed there before so we were excited to stay somewhere new. David's mom came over and stayed the night at our house to be with the kids. We went to Cafe Rio for dinner (romantic, huh?) and then headed to the hotel. We payed a little extra and they brought us a banana split for two to our room. It was so delicious! On Saturday we were going to see a movie, but we decided to do some school shopping instead. We went to Jordan Landing and went to Old Navy, Kohl's, and TJ Maxx. We found some really good deals on clothes for the girls so we felt good about what we got. We had lunch at Chili's and then did some grocery shopping at Walmart. We got home and my house was so clean! My mother-in-law did all the laundry and dishes. She is amazing! It was so nice to be able to get away for almost a full 24 hours!

Lately...

We have been really busy this summer! It feels like as soon as we get home from somewhere we have to pack up to go somewhere else! We went to Reno/Lake Tahoe in June, Sigurd for the 4th of July weekend, Bear Lake for the 24th and then David and I are going to stay a night at the Alaskan inn for our anniversary next weekend. Yesterday was David's 31st birthday! We got him a BYU watch, t-shirt, and golf towel. He also wants to get an IPOD, so he is saving his b-day money for that. We went to Winger's for his birthday dinner and enjoyed the asphalt pie for his birthday dessert.

It has been a crazy week for us, Abbey got the "24 hour" bug that was going around the neighborhood and was really sick most of Friday and Saturday. Alyssa got it from her and was sick last night. They are both really anxious to start school, but I am not because I am not looking forward to taking them and picking them up multiple times during the day since Abbey will be in kindergarten and Alyssa in 2nd Grade. It will be a rough year. Avery is just about 6 months old and is getting big way too fast! She is rolling over and she does some kind of back crawl where she scoots on her back to get places. It is really funny to watch. She hasn't mastered sitting up yet, she is still pretty wobbly. She will have her 6 month check-up next Tuesday, so we will see how she is growing. I am concerned about her spitting up though, so I am going to talk to the doctor about reflux. She spits up every time she eats. I have tried 3 different types of bottles and even switched her formula to soy. Nothing seems to be helping, so I am going to ask the doctor about that.

I also got to take Alyssa to the Oquirrih Mountain Temple open house. Abbey was sick, so David stayed home with her and Avery and I just took Alyssa. It was so pretty, but a lot of walking. We went around to the front and took some cute pictures. Alyssa told me that I should put them on Facebook! I must be on there too much! It was pretty cute. Thanks Alyssa for the mommy-daughter date! I had a great time!

Check Mii out!

The girls thought it would be fun to make a Mii for Avery. This is how it turned out!