I'm Back

Okay, so I've officially had a call to action. For anyone who has been checking, life didn't end at Christmas for us, it just started moving a little faster, so of course I have some catching up to do, so this might be a little long... :) I have had this on my "to do" list forever, but I always save it till last because I end up looking at everyone else's blogs and I never get anything else done. Anyway, here's our overdue update :)

The pictures are totally out of order, but at least they are on here right? So, I'll try to explain as I go...

This wonderful picture is thanks to our tax returns, we finally upgraded to a King size bed and it is SOOO wonderful, I didn't think I could love sleeping more than I already did :) Our old bed was a hand-me-down and resembled sleeping on a trampoline. The box spring was broken and duct taped in one part and another board was broken so when you sat on the bed, you could see the board hit the floor, I'd say it was time for us to upgrade. So, I went on the prowl for some good deals and found some GREAT deals. We got pretty much all the furniture at the RC Willey Outlet Center and the bedding on sale at Kohl's. So, that's our splurge...we love it!

Mom R., this is for you :) Thanks to Matt's wonderful parents, we got some awesome storage in our garage. They are doing some major remodeling in their house and these cupboards were custom made by Matt's dad to go in their laundry room and they were getting rid of them. So we were able to get rid of our rickety old metal shelves and our garage has SO much more room now. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!


A week or so ago (time has kinda all blended together) we went to Jungle Jim's Playland with Nathan and Esther and their little girl Maddie. It was so nice to just get out of the house. I think next time we could plan a little better, we ended up getting there right as Ava was getting ready to take a nap, so she wasn't too thrilled about some of the rides, but it was still fun. The funnest part, and of course pictures don't quite do it justice, is that the people that ran the rides saw it as a major safety hazard to have me sit on top of the cars on any of the rides...Have you seen how long my legs are? So, that was fun! I think poor Ava ended up with a view of my knee on most of the rides. Matt never quite ventured onto one of the rides, most of them are spinning around in circles and he was getting sick just watching us.


Here's Essie and Maddie :)



One of Ava's new words, and one of my favorites, is when she says "shoes". She LOVES shoes, a true girl at heart. If my shoes are out (which of course, they rarely are, cuz I'm so good at putting my shoes away, huh Matt?) She'll walk all over the house in them, and if she's upset cuz she doesn't want her diaper changed, I can hand her one of her shoes and it usually appeases her until I'm done.
Rub a dub dub...



Now, here's where it gets sad. Just after new years, we were over at my sister's house, and they have one of those fireplaces with the glass front, and it had been on for quite a while and then they turned it off and Ava ventured over and put her hand on the burning hot glass. It still makes me ill to think about it. She doesn't have that reflex yet to pull away, so she just stood there while all of us in slow motion, tried to get to her. She ended up with second and third degree burns on her hand and we had to take her to the burn clinic at the "U". It really broke my heart! It makes me feel bad for anytime I ever got hurt, and put my mom through that, (and anyone who knows me, knows that probably happened alot!) Anyway, it's all healed now, but we have to take her in to make sure it healed the right way. The problem with where the burn is on her hand, is that if there's too much scar tissue it can make her little hand curl in as it grows. So, we're really hoping that's not going to be a problem. We had to do little stretching exercises with her while it was healing, and we're hoping that was enough! Anywho, here's a picture of some get well cards that her cousins made her. Apparently when my sister told her kids what happened they were really sad for her, so they decided to make cards to help her feel better, it was really cute!
She looks a little drugged here, but it's really just the flash on the camera making her close her eyes, I promise! And that is a bell pepper in her mouth, she just walked around forever with it in her mouth like that, never really eating it, but not wanting to give it up either. But, you can see her sad little bandaged hand in this pic. I didn't really take any pictures of her hand because I didn't want to remember how bad it was, it made me sick to look at it.
So, moving on to happier things...we took a trip to Temple Square in January, to see the lights. It was freezing cold, but there weren't that many people, so it was still fun!





This was our attempt at introducing Ava to the snow. After the first real snow we got, I bundled her all up and took her outside in this little sled, and whenever i sat her down, she would just say, No? No? I tried to convince her that it was fun by pulling her around in the sled, but then the "no's" turned to cries and I was wondering how long before my neighbors turned me in, so we went back inside.



This was on Christmas Eve at the Rigby's, we acted out the Nativity and I was a shepherd and Matt was a cow (well, our version of a cow at least) and Ava was a cow too, in case you can't read her headband :)




These were the beads she got from the Desmond Christmas party, I don't think she's taken them off since she got them.

Opening the stocking at Nanny's house :)


Doing crafts at the Desmond Xmas party

Every year, my mom picks out a book and my dad reads it to the grandkids at the christmas party and then she picks out an ornament to go with it. So this is my dad, reading the story.




Other things going on, Matt started working at the IMC (the new hospital in Murray) in the Respiratory ICU, which is really good, because after he gets a year in at an ICU he can start applying for Nurse Anesthetist programs, so we feel like we're moving toward something again.

Okay, and that's my update, I'll try not to wait for so long, then my posts won't be marathon posts. :)