Avers and Cammers

Name: Camryn Olivia Smith
AKA: Camy, Cam-Lamb, Cammers, Cam-Cam...
Age: 6 months
New This Week: Sitting up on my own, eating Cheerios
Still Learning: How to crawl, trying new baby foods
Guilty Pleasures: Anything electronic - phones, remotes, cords (thus yet another nickname: "Camcorder")
Favorite Things to Do: Taste new things (edible or not), laugh with Avery, jump in my Johnny Jump, play with daddyq



Name: Avery Elizabeth Smith
AKA: Avers, Aves, Avery Girl
Age: 27 months
New Phrases: "Thank you SO much!" (I say this ALL the time), "Go away!" (I say this when someone catches me doing naughty things), "Help me, Mommy, Help Me!" (I say this when I get stuck)
Accomplishment of the Week: Going poo in the potty for the first time
Guilty Pleasures: Playing with Mommy's foamy hand soap, making messes like a tazmanian devil
Favorite Things to Do: Play at the swingset outside, laugh with Camryn, watch Dora, take a bath

Image Tag

Thanks to Jenni for tagging me. This one was kind of cool. Basically, you search for the answers to a few questions using the Google/Yahoo Image search. Then, you have to post an image from the first page of the results with your answer.

My Favorite Vacation: Our honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean. Totally awesome.

My Favorite Color: Red. It took me until I was 20 years old to pick my favorite, but I finally did and it was my wedding color.

My Current Age: 25.

My Favorite Treat: Oatmeal Cookie Chunk ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. No longer in scoop shops but occasionally you can find it in pints in the grocery store. The closest location for me is 70 miles away. :( You know, it would be worth the trip, though!)

The Place I Want to Travel to Most: The Pacific Northwest (Portland, Seattle, the coast, etc.) I was born in Portland and lived there til I was 12, Merrick lived in Portland from age 6-16, and he served his mission in Everett, Washington. We're dying to travel there together.

The Place I Grew Up: Ohio. I always say Cleveland, but technically it was Concord Township, which was right next to Mentor where I went to high school. Plus Mentor was right next to Kirtland, a church history site. So I guess I claim all those as my hometown.

The Place I Live Now: Wisconsin. This is a picture in the middle of July. Just kidding, but really it's cold!!!! in the long winters.

My Last Name: Smith. It was either this picture or Will Smith.

My Middle Name: Lin. I like it but the spelling always reminded me of an asian name. So I thought it was fitting that most of the images that came up were of Chinese people.

My First Name: Vanessa. I was surprised how the majority of the images were of Vanessa Hudgens. And can you believe how much we look alike? (haha)

Something I Used to Love: Snow. Well okay I still LIKE it, but don't LOVE it. It's nice the first week or two but then the 5 foot brown mounds of it that stick around in the parking lots for 6 months aren't so loveable.

My Favorite Animal: Snow Leopard. Okay, I don't really have a favorite animal but this is the one I did a report on in 5th grade. I remembered that the cubs are way cute.

I tag Amber, Nicci, and Michelle.

I Get Around

Camryn is quite the mobile girl these days. She's 5 months, 3 weeks old but she can already "crawl" around the room. Here's a quick video of her latest skills.

We can't believe how quickly she's growing up!

(By the way, I thought the music that happened to be in the background - from Sleeping Beauty - was kind of cute and fitting.)

Hooray for more space!

I finally finished getting a picture of each room in our new place. So here is your grand tour:

living room shot #1
living room shot #2

dining area in the kitchen

kitchen and backdoor
downstairs half bath
upstairs full bath
avery's bedroom
camryn's bedroom
our bedroom

Some of my favorite features of the house:
-outer screen doors in front and back
-magazine racks built in the bathrooms
-custom wood valences above most windows
(perfect to keep knick knacks away from the kids)
-gas stove (way better cooking than electric)
-full unfinished basement (not shown)
-super huge yard (7/8 acre) and neighbors with swings
-within walking distance of post office, library, grocery, dentist, etc.
-built in shelves in the master closet

Happy Birthday Stephen!

I tried to get Avery to sing Happy Birthday for her now four year old cousin, Stephen, today but she was too interested in the camera (and keeping Camy out of it). So here's the best shot we got.

Happy Birthday Stephen! We love you and wish we could be there to share your special day with you!

I want a birthday party.

I haven't talked about the girls too much lately so I thought I'd share what's been going on with them.

CAMRYN is exploring the exciting world of baby food, including rice, oatmeal, applesauce, squash, and pears. She's liking them all pretty good and is getting increasingly better at swallowing. Her biggest development lately has been her manuever ability. At 5 1/2 months she can already "skooch" forward a few inches at a time, mostly by pushing on her tippy toes. To supplement, she rolls back and forth and pulls her body around using her arms. I wouldn't say that she is technically crawling yet but if I put a toy a six inches from her reach, she can usually get it. Pretty impressive. She has no teeth yet but is showing some early signs of teething, although I still don't expect them to make their debut for another month or two. Eye color is still inconclusive, but her daddy and I suspect hazel as a possible end result.



AVERY is our little talker girl. She constantly amazes us with her vocabulary and the sentances she constructs. The other day after finding the crown she wore on her birthday, she came up with: "I want a birthday party. A Dora one... I lost my Magenta one." (It'll be a while, kid.) We're in the process of acquiring a toddler bed for her so that the crib can finally be passed on to her younger sister, but we're a little nervous about getting her to stay put (any advice?). Potty training is still far off in the horizon since she hasn't ever had any success with her potty seat. Oh well, we've got time. Some of her favorite activities of late have been: ripping packing peanuts into tiny little pieces and scattering all over the house, pretending to go shopping at Walmart with her purse, eating the corners off of library books, bouncing Camy in the jumper, and playing with her friend Elizabeth. She's a good kid, very smart, and only drives us crazy a few times a day. :)

Labor Day Weekend

Well this weekend has definitely been full of labor for us! We're now official residents of Sussex, Wisconsin and really like our new place. We've almost got all the boxes in the right place, but now the task is opening them up and putting them somewhere.

The move went well. We started loading the truck at 9am and it was unloaded at our new place and back to our apartment by 11:30am. We had some great help with everything and were checked out by 2:30pm Saturday. Then the REAL work began!

So we're pretty pleased with it here and the kids have been enjoying their new rooms. And we're enjoying not having Camryn in our room anymore. It's also definitely cool to have this unfinished basement to fill up with all those storage boxes we've shoved in closets, etc. the past few years.

No pictures yet but I'm sure I'll have things in order enough to give you some views of the inside by the end of the week.