A few of my favorite things!

I'm taking this idea from my sister Britney. Here are a few of my favorite things lately:

1. American Idol. I've been faithfully watching all season but it's starting to get down to the really good stuff. I think all of the guys are awesome, except Scott (sorry). Lil and Allison are good at times, but they'll have to step it up to stay in. It's only a matter of time for Megan, in my opinion. But really, I think they have an awesome group and I really enjoy watching. Several years ago I would have been embarrassed to say it was my favorite show but this year I'm really proud of what they're doing.

2. Homemade pizza. About 6-7 months ago I started making homemade pizza regularly almost every Friday night. I love it! It's fun, I can make a double batch of sauce and dough ahead of time and freeze them so 3/4 of the time I'm just assembling. Plus it really curbs our Friday night desire to go out to eat.

3. Enchanted. We checked this movie out from the library last week and Avery loved it! We actually went to see it Thanksgiving 2007 when it came out but I wanted to see it again, and Avery LOVED it! I was surprised because like 85% of it is not a cartoon, but she has been really into princess movies lately so it totally appealed to her. We watched it like every day for 5 days straight ("Giselle! Let's watch Giselle, Mommy!"). I really like musicals like this and very much enjoyed watching it with her.

4. iPod Touch. We got one of these for Christmas and it has been so nice! Not only can I listen to music on it, but now checking my email, my Google Reader, and Facebook is only a touch away! Merrick has also loaded a bunch of games on there to appease his desire for a gaming console or new computer game. One of the games he's loaded is called Whack-'Em and it's like those arcade games where you bop the weasel on the head when it comes out of the holes. Anyways, Avery loves it! So funny to see her playing an ipod game.

5. Free stuff. This past year I've been enjoying the benefits of being a Freebies4Mom reader and so I've been getting 2-5 free samples in my mailbox consistently every week. I've also been getting the Sunday newspaper for 6 months and have been matching my coupons with sales to get free stuff at the grocery store. This week I got free salad dressing, not to mention all my great steals. The biggest "freebie" I've gotten recently was actually through Merrick's connection at work. I got to participate in a stroller test for cookiemag.com and I got a free evenflo travel system out of it!

I'm a Big Girl Now!

Avery's potty training officially began on Friday. We've been preparing her for this day for months by getting her accostumed to the idea of sitting on her potty seat, wearing underwear, etc. But Friday was the big day. She has done really well!!! Ok, she has had her share of accidents, but I really didn't think she would catch on so quickly! Within three hours of her wearing underwear, putting up our first ever sticker chart, and me making her "try" every 15-20 minutes she did it! And we've been making progress ever since. The sticker chart was basically a curvy path with squares in which I put a sticker each time she tried. The goal was a new tub of green (her favorite color) Play Doh, which she had earned by Monday and now we're onto a new chart with a new prize. Yesterday we stayed home the whole day and she went 7 times in a row with no accidents. I guess all she needed was a little consistency and clearcut motivation. We've still got a ways to go - night time, leaving the house, and just more practice in general - but I'm really proud of my "big girl".


Side note: Haha she just tried to put a pair of her new panties on Camy... Hmm... Not quite ready for that one yet! (Camryn is undergoing her own big girlization right now - weaning from nursing to whole milk!)

What kind of advice can you give to a mom just starting to potty train?

Fun Year Old!

We had a great day yesterday celebrating Camryn's birthday. She woke up early at 6:30am, dying to see her cake and open her presents right? :) Well we did end up opening most of the presents before Merrick left for work. I just didn't think they'd stay unwrapped until 5pm. We did a Tinkerbell theme for her party. It was cute and easy to find lots of stuff. She got lots of fun toys, clothes, a book, some cards, etc. Avery helped her open the presents. We left a few but at about 9:00am I hear paper ripping and Avery had opened up one of Camryn's presents. Oh well!

Merrick left work a little early and we went to Chuck E Cheese. Avery almost immediately got lost in the overhead tube tunnel. We couldn't find her anywhere so we finally realized she had to be in there somewhere and then we saw her. She didn't know how to get out! We spent ten minutes trying to direct her to an exit to no avail and finally a kid helped her get almost there and then Merrick crawled in partway to rescue her. We were exhausted before we even started playing games!

Camryn had fun there - she ate the pizza and rode some of the little kid stuff. I think she was just excited to be out and about seeing new sights. We stayed there way too long so we were all really tired by the time we left. We got home and Camryn "blew" out her tinkerbell candle with mine and Avery's help.

I had too many pictures so I made a slideshow. Enjoy!

One Year Old Camy

Today our sweet little girl, Camryn is one year old! It has been a great year and we can't imagine our family without her cuteness!

She loves to play with her big sister Avery and follow her around everywhere.
She's a great walker.
Her favorite words to say are "dis" and "dat".
She's turned into quite a picky eater and commonly throws her food off her high chair when she's full or doesn't want something.
She has five teeth - 2 on top, 3 on bottom.
She's quite a happy girl most of the time.
She loves her daddy but is definitely a mama's girl.
She is so excited to be in her new big girl car seat and face forward just like Avery!

We love her so much! Happy Birthday "li'l bella" (Avery loves to call her this- isn't it cute?!).

Park Fun

Merrick took the kids to a park on Saturday and he figured out that Camryn can go down the slide all by herself now. He set her down at the top and she scooted her little bum forward until she slid down and LOVED it! I took the kids again on Monday to see for myself (and plus the weather has been SO GREAT). She did it for me and it was so cute! I tried to capture it on video but then I wasn't able to catch her and she almost fell of the slide! We also discovered she has a ton of fun on the swing too. Look at this happy face!

For Avery, the park of course is still her favorite thing to do in the world. She's so excited that the snow is melted (for now) enough for us to enjoy the swings and slides again. She has no fear and loves to go down the "steep" slide.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Avery got this book, The Night Before St. Patrick's Day from her Grandma Smith a week or so ago and we have been reading it several times a day in preparation for this really cool holiday that has leprechauns!! She's been trying to spy a leprechaun all week - at Walmart, during sacrament meeting, all over our house, etc. It's been pretty fun. We had green eggs for breakfast:

Although no one really ate very much of them. Then this morning we went to a little St. Patrick's Day party with some friends. We brought some cupcakes with green frosting. It's amazing how much excitement these little holidays generate. St. Patrick's Day is definitely more fun with kids!

Caught Red Cheeked

Avery is a champion mess maker. She loves to destroy things, and fast. Today she emptied every book, toy, and stuffed animal in her room onto the floor in less than 2 minutes flat. Instant disaster! Here's another example:

She put her booster seat on top of the closed toilet, used a dining room chair for a footrest and unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper and when I found her like this she said, "It's just my seatbelt!" She was pretending to drive a car. Hey, at least she knows her safety rules.

Sidenote: To clean that mess up, I ended up just shoving all that TP into the cupboard under the bathroom sink to deal with later. A few days pass and when I come home from the gym, Merrick tells me he wants to show me something. We go into the bathroom and see all that paper ripped into tiny pieces and scattered all over the bathroom floor. Apparently Camryn had her own heydey while he was distracted! Guess who got to clean that one up too? :) Well, "come what may and love it" right?

Name-O

When I was little girl this was my favorite song to sing with my older sister Britney. It helped us learn how to spell everyone's names. I've been singing it to Avery for a while now but she recently learned how to sing it all the way through, spelling her own name. Here is my attempt at catching it on tape:

She missed the "A" a few times but you get the picture. Here are the actual lyrics in case you didn't make them out:

There was a girl who had a swing

And Avery was her name-o!

A-V-E-R-Y, A-V-E-R-Y, A-V-E-R-Y

And Avery was her name-o!

(Set to the tune of Bingo). You can change it to anyone's name. Isn't my little girl growing up?! This week she also drew an "A" for me without any prompting and was able to spell her name with some alphabet letters all by herself.

Walkin on Sunshine

As featured in the video clip in my previous post, Camryn has been learning how to walk for the past few weeks. This week she learned how to consistently stand up in the middle of a room, which has greatly helped her walking process. If she falls down, she can get right back up! She has also enjoyed carrying things around with her while she walks - purses, pens, teddy bears, books, anything she can carry. The other day she tried picking up a scripture bag over and over to no avail - a little too heavy for her little legs! Here is another very short clip of her skills: