A California Cowgirl

While we were in Georgia, my niece Brittany wanted to do a fun cowgirl photo shoot. She just turned 16 and is such an amazing young women. This girl is going places in life! I just wanted to show her off :) Love you Britt!

The SLIMCADO???

Have you guys seen this? The other day I was at the grocery store and needed an avocado for dinner that night. All of the avocados were rock hard, and after squishing every one I was about to give up when I saw this strange avocado-ish looking thing.  The sticker says that it has less fat and calories than a regular avocado. I LOVE AVOCADOS and I thought, how different could it really be? Well, let me tell you, they should not have messed with the avocado!!! The slimcado is weird, watery, bland, and basically a waste. The Avocado is full of the good kind of fat anyways, so just enjoy the real thing :) Anyone else tried it? What did you think?

Going, Going, Gone!!

Avery asked Andy to take her training wheels off last week. I didn't get the video camera out because I figured we had a few days of learning to try to get on camera. Andy helped her go up and down the street just a few times before she took off on her own. It only took her about 10 minutes to learn and she was riding like a pro! That night we took Avery's bike to Andy's softball game so she could ride around. She yelled over to the dugout "Look Dad, I don't need you any more!" So sad, no parent ever wants to hear that. They grow up way too fast!

Drew asked if he could take the wheels off of his bike too :)

Avery was SO PROUD of herself!!

The Beach

we took a little detour on the way home from Atlanta and went to the outer banks of North Carolina. The beach was beautiful and the water was SO warm. A guy was fishing next to where we were swimming and caught a baby shark. It was cool, but kind of freaky at the same time. I wish I had gotten a picture. I had my camera out for just a few minutes before I got sand in it, so I put it away. But here are a few to show we were there!

Ingersoll's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Can someone send a little luck our way? I thought bad things were supposed to happen in 3's, but we've had a few more "Unfortunate Events" than that. All of which happened in a 2 week time period. And remember how my last post was about the world's itchiest eye? Watch how the theme continues.

It all started with my car being hit in the Target parking lot while I spent way too much time and money in the dollar section :). Luckily it wasn't a hit and run (had a few of those here in Cleveland). Got my car back from the shop and that same night around 10:30 I heard a strange crunching noise outside. Our neighbor was backing out of her drive way and hit Andy's parked car. The next day I stepped on a bee and had a bad reaction. My foot swelled up HUGE and I couldn't walk on it for days, and it ITCHED LIKE CRAZY!!!! The day after that we headed to Georgia to spend some time with my family at a Lake house. It was a lot of fun but the unfortunate events continued. I counted 30 bug/mosquito bites on my arms and legs...itchy, itchy , itchy. Then, in a 2 hour time frame Andy fell wakeboarding and got a bad concussion, Avery forgot she didn't have her life jacket on and jumped off the dock into the lake and almost drowned (SO SCARY!!!! Every time I closed my eyes for the next few days the scene replayed in my head. not fun), and I walked into the laundry room where a Costco size clear liquid laundry detergent bottle had spilled all over the floor and slipped and fell really hard (don't forget I'm almost 8 months prego). It hurt! As if that is not enough, on the day we were leaving the lake house I stepped in an ant hill and got bit 25 times on one foot and about 5 on the other foot. They look something like this

Don't be dissapointed but, this is not my sexy hairy leg. but can you see how the bites blister? Not pretty. It has been 2 weeks and they STILL itch! Between the bee sting, bug bites, and ant bites, I have gone through an entire tube of hyrocortisone cream. I am so tired of itching all the time!!!

Despite our misfortune, I know it could be worse, and all in all we are doing well :) Here are some of my favorite pics from the lake house, most of which were not taken by me which was really nice for a change!

My sister took Avery out for a tube ride 

Andy before the concussion

The girlies

Andy and Avery got to go to a Braves game with my BIL Kent and 2 of his girls. They had a blast

Some of the cousins hanging out on the "Hippo Rhino" as Drew called it

This is Drew's "life's not fair" pose. We see it quite bit these days :)

Drew LOVED the "Hippo Rhino" 

Me and my baby girl

Hope you are all having a relaxing and less eventful summer than we are!!

PINK USED TO BE MY FAVORITE COLOR

Last week I had the world's itchiest eye ever. It was SO intense and driving me nuts. I thought it was allergies but couldn't figure out why it was affecting just one eye. On Saturday night I was talking to my mom on the phone and my eye was itching so bad I randomly said "Mom, what would make my eye itch really bad for 3 days straight." She said it was probably Pink Eye. But, my eye wasn't really red. I went to bed and looked it up on the internet on Sunday morning. Sure enough, you can have pink eye with out the redness. SO RANDOM! How the heck did I get Pink eye??? It spread to my other eye too, and we were worried that the kids might have it and be contagious, so we decided we better stay home from church. :(  We went to the Holden Arboretum instead and took a little family stroll. It was Beautiful! If you are in Cleveland and haven't been there yet, you should go! (if you have a pass to the botanical gardens, it is free)

Here is a picture of Avery and Andy in front of Blueberry Pond

Calling all Creative Blog-maker/Digi-scrapper type People

I wanted to make my pictures bigger (which I did thanks to Staci and Andrea), so I tried out a new Blogger template. But, I'm not really feelin' it. I can't decide what to do to make it cute. Anyone have any ideas, or have some free time and want to make me a header?? :) I promise I'll pay you back some how.

Cousins!

My Brother Reed and his cute family came to stay with us over the weekend. They did the Church history tour on Friday and then on Saturday we all went to Amish Country. It was POURING rain on the way down and it ended up taking us 3 hours to get there. So, all we had time to do before heading back was eat and take a buggy ride. It was still a lot of fun and the kids had a blast with their cousins!

Cleveland Indians

Avery just finished up her T-ball season and she had such a great time! We were really worried because she cried at every practice, but once the games started she was SO excited! She is still a total girlie girl, but she did an awesome job and we are so proud of her!

Avery had been waiting for this moment all season. Each game, the last batter gets automatic "home-runs".  At the end of the game the coach gives the game ball to the player who hit the most home-runs (a.k.a the last batter). After every game she would tell me that she was never going to get the game ball. Finally at the last game she was MVP and got the game ball!!

The guy sitting next to us let Drew listen to a few tunes during the game. He thought it was pretty cool

T-ball buddies Avery and Talmage. Avery would not step foot on the field unless Talmage was there. I'm glad they had so much fun together

Swing batter batter batter

Baseball ready

The pre-game pep talk

fOuRTh oF JuLy fuN

I hope you all had a great Independence Day! Here are a few random pictures from our weekend. We went camping with some friends and then watched the fireworks in Mentor. Good times.

4th of July Cuties Bailey and Avery

My Mom made Avery this adorable skirt and she loved it so much she wore it for 3 days straight!