What's New With Us

I feel like I have been devoting all of my blog time over on my other blog, The Budgeteer, and have been neglecting my family and friends on this end. And that is absolutely no indication on the stories our daily life produces. Some days (ok, all days) it just goes by so fast after awhile I just sit back, amazed that I have forgotten to tell you all about it. So thank you for the reminder emails and phone calls demanding some news. Ha ha!

Where to begin? Lily had her 9 month doctor check-up last week and is still fit as a horse. 90th percentile (meaning she is bigger than over 90% of other babies her age) and almost 22 pounds. She is quickly outgrowing her 12 month clothing; today I actually busted out some 18 month onesies and they worked great. She has a total of four teeth coming in up top, but only one is actually visible. We call it her fang, as it one of the teeth that is off to the side a bit and she looks endearingly lopsided. She tries harder and harder everyday to try and walk on her own, thanks to her daddy's tutelage, but generally she just gets so excited that she forgets to take any actual steps and simply falls forward at you. She does love to use her push-walker though (as well as the high chair, which rolls around the kitchen) to practice her mobility. Her sleep at night is better too, although she routinely wakes up at least once. She is back sleeping in the office, as she goes to bed earlier than Ava and this is just the easiest way of solving this issue. She is 100% a momma's girl right now. She can find me wherever I am (which happened to be using the potty one day) even if I have hightailed it to the other end of the house. She will be perfectly content if hanging out with daddy until mommy shows up, and then all bets are off. Fortunately Elliott is unfazed by it and is still grateful that she is more cuddly than Ava ever was.

Ava is full of precociousness. Full of it. The other afternoon she and I basically had a screaming match at each other (Should I post that here? Will Child Services come and get me?); what can I say but I was tired and could not scrounge up a more appropriate response. She likes to tell me no to whatever it is I have told her to do. Ava, you need to stop whining. No, I no stop whining. Yes, you have to stop whining. NO, I NO STOP WHINING!!!, etc., etc., etc. On the flip side she can turn on a dime and be the sweetest, gentlest creature God ever made. I was having an emotional moment the other day and she was utterly concerned. Mommy crying, she kept repeating to Elliott; Mommy sad. Then when I emerged from the bedroom she ran to me and I picked her up and hugged on her (which I needed) and she kept giving me sweet little kisses on the cheek without prompting, saying, Mommy all done crying. Melted my heart away! She continues her love of singing, now adding dancing and pretending to use the microphone to her performance. Seriously, I am not sure where she picked up the microphone aspect of her routine but the funniest thing about it is that her microphone are pacifier clips. She adores the Veggie Tales CD her Aunt Tracy and Uncle Matthew gave her for her birthday (although Tracy and Matthew, I am personally growing a bit weary of it as Ava refuses to listen to anything else in the car - anything!) and sings many of the songs now, including Peace Like a River, I've Got the Joy Joy Joy (Where?), and There's Nothing Our God Can Not Do. It is however a little disconcerting to have a temper tantrum from her and then hear her singing from the time-out corner Jesus Loves Me (when mommy is not so sure she has that much love at the moment; talk about convicting).

I have been busier blogging over at The Budgeteer blog because I am really focusing on this whole coupon, saving-people-money game. I was head-hunted (I just want to say I was head-hunted once in my life) by a company called Grocery Smarts here in Las Vegas. Grocery Smarts is a free website which matches coupons up with the sales ads in Las Vegas (and Utah). On top of that they have instructors which teach home-party type coupon classes for free, teaching people how to combine their service with coupons from the Las Vegas Review-Journal to slash lots of money off their grocery bill. Heck, I've been doing that for free because I get a kick out of it and now I have the opportunity to make some extra money? Sign me up! I attended an instructor training class last Friday and am excited to start teaching classes as soon as I attend one regular class and then get the green light from the area manager. I feel very confident about the subject matter; in fact, I think my weakness may be learning to curb all of the couponing ideas and schemes I have and break it down to the very basics for people who don't know that the Sunday paper has coupons. I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime feel free to pass my info along to all of your Las Vegas contacts and I can set them up to start saving lots of money.

I also am almost all done with the Christmas shopping and wrapping. It isn't feeling too much like Christmas this year with the absence of a tree (Lily learning to walk + tree = disaster waiting to happen) and the Little People nativity scattered throughout the house. Oh well, I can enjoy other people's Christmas light displays and know that someday the activities will be more prominent as they will mean more to Ava. But even though she is little she does recognize snowmen and Santas, sings Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells, and is very excited about going to Utah for Christmas. I had to come up with some way to deflect her millionth whine about it so I created a calendar for the fridge and we are marking off the days until we leave. So when she starts to whine about Christmas I simply say Let's go look at the calendar and see how many days we have left, and the counting process plus the time spent running to the kitchen usually helps the moment to pass.

Whew, OK I am going to end this post for now. I have lots more to tell you, including pictures and videos (which will hopefully upload), which I will post in a bit.