Packer Fan

I'm at that stage in the packing where all I have is odds and ends lying around. There's some in every room and closet so I can't cross hardly anything off my list as being totally done. I feel like I'm at a standstill with a mountain of things left to do. So why am I a fan of packing? Here are a few things that made me smile this week:

1. I love gallon sized ziploc bags. I rarely buy them. In fact, I can't think of the last time I bought them. It has to be years. But I bought some the other day because I had a coupon and I thought they would be helpful as I pack up the house. Man, if I could fit everything in my house into nicely labeled gallon sized ziploc bags, I would be a happier woman. Wouldn't it be nice to have the remote controls all in one bag with the words "Remote Controls" written across the front in a nice black sharpie? Okay maybe I'm going a little crazy but really, they are nice for organizing Avery's toys, random junk drawer finds, and, well, you name it. I should buy these more often!

2. One of our bathtubs has had this nasty black mildew in the grout that I once tried to clean unsuccessfully and have kind of been putting off until we move. The other day some people came over to see what will need to be done before the next tenants move in and they noticed that the tiles needed to be redone and they'd have to do it before we moved because it's a two day process. So this guy came and took all those mildewy tiles off, replaced the sheet rock behind it or whatever, and hung up fresh clean white tiles back up. Mildew gone. No more stressing about having to spend hours cleaning that tub! Yay!

3. Saturday night, we were emptying our car of some trash and as the car lights shone on the dumpster I noticed something brightly colored sitting next to the dumpster. I asked Merrick to check it out since he was the one getting out of the car and he said it was a little play kitchen but it looked dirty. The next day Avery and I walked over there to get a better look and it was a little dirty, yes, but nothing was broken so we cleaned the thing really good and voila! An awesome new toy for Avery's room! (By the way, I understand if you're disgusted with me but hey, it was free!)4. Lastly, can I just say that having 3/4 of Avery's toys in boxes is really, really nice. Way less mess for me and Avery probably can't remember which toys are missing anyway. She's probably having way more fun with what I left out than she would have if she had all her toys cluttered in her room like normal.

So maybe I don't know very much about the Green Bay Packers (yet), but packing up my house this week has had its perks.

We're Moving!

Well we've lived in Milwaukee seven months now and we've been in a two bedroom apartment in St. James Place the whole time. We're getting cramped, having Camryn in our room. So we're moving to a duplex in Sussex (on Silver Spring) that has three bedrooms, a huge backyard, and an unfinished basement.

Here are some pictures of the outside. We'll show you the inside when we're moved in and set up.
We get the right side.

We get one garage space plus half the back patio.The backyard is so big because it's right next to a creek (in those trees to the left) so it becomes a floodplain when it rains too much.

Anyways, we're excited. We'll still be renting because we're not ready to buy a house yet, but we're excited to have some extra space. We'll be moving on Saturday, August 30th (so anyone willing to help won't be turned away!). We'll miss our little place here since it's all we've ever had since we moved here, plus Camryn's first house. But it will be fun to experience a new place and a new ward (Parkway).

5 Months

Camryn is five months today! Her newest trick is rolling all over the place. She mastered rolling back to tummy at 3 1/2 months and tummy to back is coming along pretty well now for the past week or so. She can now roll about 5-6 feet away from her original start position, but she still has to master the actually getting where she wants to go.

We also tried rice cereal a couple more times and today was our first success! She ate a whole tablespoon. Not a whole lot, but past attempts resulted in more cereal in the folds of her neck than in her mouth. So we're excited to continue with that more consistently now, as well as introducing baby food!

Camryn loves toys lately but has become such a whiner when she drops her toy, it's the end of the world. I guess that's normal. I don't think she's teething yet but she sure loves to put anything and everything in her mouth. It's like a magnet - once she grabs something you can see it in slow motion almost just moving straight to her mouth.

Anyways, that's her in a nutshell. She's pretty much the cutest baby in town. At least we think so. (Oh and don't you love her little bow in her hair? I could never have done that with Avery but Camy still has some long baby hair left).

Negligent Mother

Today poor Camryn got a little neglected. I lugged her around the house while I talked to my mom on the phone for an hour an a half, then I made cookies while I let her whine in the high chair for about half of the process. Then I knew she was dead tired for a nap so I tried rocking her a little and got interrupted by Merrick calling me. I held her while we talked for 5-6 minutes and then I had to do another batch of cookies and so I just laid Camryn down on the floor for a minute and when I finally finished my craziness I looked down at her and saw this:

Poor kid. Sound asleep on the uncomfortable carpet, feet dangling onto the kitchen floor. What a good baby, though.

Signs your kid watches too much TV

10. Her first song she learns to sing is her version of a lullaby from JoJo's Circus ("Close your head, No peep, No baby, Go sleep").
9. One of her first two-word phrases is "Oh Man!" (it's what Swiper says in Dora)
8. She can easily count backwards 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (always followed by "Blast Off" from Little Einsteins) almost better than she can count forward.
7. She breaks into the "Mailtime" song from Blue's Clues whenever you get the mail.
6. She'll only let you put pigtails in your hair if you remind her that "Boo" from Monsters, Inc. has them too.
5. She starts dancing to "Mickey House" (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) whenever she sees a Huggies diaper with Mickey on it.
4. She can sing the "Ah-ah-ah" song from the Little Mermaid pretty impressively.
3. She randomly starts counting in Spanish without you ever having taught her the word cinco or ocho (Dora).
2. One of her longest phrases she can say is "No touch da boat, Nemo!"
1. She knows who Randall, June, Periwinkle, Isa, and Dinky are (all obscure characters on her favorite shows. Can anyone name which shows they're all from?).


(This is all about Avery, by the way... guess we need to go to the park more.)

4 Year Anniversary

Today is Merrick and my four year anniversary! We were married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 14, 2004. It's been a long four years with so much happening: Me getting a full-time job offer in the BYU Registrar's Office on our way home from our honeymoon, Merrick getting accepted into the Business School at BYU, me graduating in April 2005, having Avery, Merrick working at Franklin Covey, Dentrix, and Podango, Merrick graduating in December 2007, Merrick getting a full-time job at Kohls, moving to Milwaukee, having Camryn. We've come a long way!

And yet, we've come a lot longer than that if you count the fact that we met before Merrick's mission in December 2001. We hit it off instantly and spent two months getting to know each other before he left for the Washington Everett Mission. Here is a picture we took together December 2001:

We wrote almost the whole time he was gone once every week or two and then when he got home in February 2004, we started dating again a few weeks later, got engaged on my birthday May 7, 2004, and got married 3 months later.

It's been a fun four years with lots of challenges and lots of wonderful memories. We have no idea where the future will take us, but no matter what we do, I'm glad it will be with Merrick. He's pretty dang awesome.

The Cereal Trials - Take 1

We tried giving Camryn her first bites (or slurps I guess is more correct) of rice cereal this week. It was not very successful. Of the 15-20 spoonfuls we tried to get in, only a small percentage actually stayed in. So, we'll wait another week or so and try, try again. Some funny faces though!

You can't NOT smile at these!

Finally, some pictures to fully capture the CUTENESS that is Camryn Olivia Smith. This is what I wake up to every morning (and in the night too). She is all smiles and just melts peoples hearts. I'm so glad I'm her mama!

AMFPICY?

The other day, Avery got a hold of my "AMERICA" board I made a couple of years ago at an Enrichment night. I didn't realize what she was doing until an hour after she was done. It now says "AMFPICY" and that's after I pieced it back together as best I could. Look at that face. Does she look like she's sorry to you? .... maybe.