I miss my wedding ring . . . .

  Remember that one time a few years ago when Jeremy gave me a pretty ring to wear on my finger?  Well I miss wearing it!  No, I haven't lost it, it just STILL won't fit on my finger!  I try it on every few days to see if by some chance that day is the day it will fit . . . but unfortunately that day hasn't come.  

(That fun night. . . . Don't we look so young?!  Or by young do I just mean skinny?!)

 Before I got pregnant my goal was to lose weight.  So last spring I signed up for Weight Watchers and successfully lost weight every week.  I got pregnant and they promptly kick you off the program stating that they don't have a weight loss program for pregnant women (yeah . . . I figured that).  

  From day one of being pregnant I was already worrying about how I would lose the baby weight.  I voiced my concern to a couple coworkers who responded with things like "oh don't worry, if you nurse the weight will just fall right off."  (ya. . . I wish . . . that has not been the case for me at all!)  I have also heard other things like "Well it takes 9 months to gain the weight it should take you at least 9 months to lose it."  I think that is what skinny moms tell chubby new moms to make them feel better. 
   I have been working the past couple months to try to lose weight and just haven't seen the results I would like to.  I am trying to track everything I eat on myfitnesspal.com.  It definitely helps!  Also, I don't eat sugar during the week.  When I feel like I need a snack, I grab fruit (man . . . I am going to miss our fruit trees!) or a yogurt or just drink more water and put a piece of gum in my mouth.  I have also been walk/running (is that called jogging?!)  I am up to going about 4 miles in an hour.  Avery loves our walk/runs in the morning and ends up falling asleep while we are out every day.  I track my route each morning on my phone through mapmyrun.com which is awesome!
   Not only do I want to be able to wear my ring again, my back hurts in the morning when I wake up (like it did when I was pregnant) and my knees are sore and "snap, crackle and pop" during the day.  I know that by losing weight that will help these problems!  
  I feel like I don't have any reasons why I shouldn't be able to get back to where I want to be.  I don't work, I am able to be at home all day, this is a perfect time of year to be outside with a baby (not for much longer though!) and I only have one child to take care of!  So there, I have said it in the blogging world . . . now maybe something will happen!
  I feel so blessed to have a wonderful husband who takes such good care of us, a nice house and a sweet, healthy and happy baby!  Life is pretty perfect right now, it would just be a little better if I could fit into some more of my clothes and be able to give Avery a bath without groaning like a old women as I am trying to get up from being on my knees.  So there you have it.  I don't just sit at home and watch soap operas and eat bon bons all day.  :)

Help from dad #2

Thanks to Jeremy for putting his socks on Avery, she is now sporting some pretty jazzy leg warmers!

Naked Baby

Avery had a huge blow out at the store yesterday.  I came home and was getting her cleaned up to get her in the tub and she was being oh so cute!  I put her changing pad on the floor when I went to fill up the tub and snapped these cute pictures!

Rice Cereal

Avery's first experience with Rice Cereal.

She got the hang of eating from a spoon pretty quick and seems to like it! 

Looks a little concerned!  

All done!

A few days later we got her high chair set up.  She didn't love it at first but now she does good in sitting in it to eat and will sit there and play with toys for a little while!

Playing then sleeping after a full belly!  Yum Yum!

 

Venable Family Reunion

We got together with Jeremy's family (cousins, aunts and uncles) for the Venable family reunion.  We had a great lunch and played fun games.  Avery and I enjoyed relaxing in the shade while everyone played different Olympic games.  Jeremy brought home a few medals for his wicked throwing skills!  

 Avery playing before we left

Yummy finger

Playing Bingo!

Grandma, Levi, Robin, Charlotte and Jeremy

Big Girl!

When did she get so big?!

Wasn't this just yesterday?!

My Birthday

For my birthday a few weeks ago we headed down to Mapleton.  We celebrated it on Saturday since you can't do much on Sunday birthdays.  Grandma and Grandpa watched Avery while Jeremy and I went to lunch and a movie!  For dinner Nate's clan and Abby, Chad and Tessa came over for dinner and cake & ice cream.  It was a perfect birthday!  Here are some pictures to prove how awesome it was!

Two cute girls

Cold Stone ice cream cake.  Delicious!  Yep, I am the youngest and still pretty spoiled. 

 There isn't anything better than ice cream and Mapleton summer nights.

We got home pretty late that night.  Avery had a rough ride home and of course fell asleep about 10 minutes from being home.  I got her out of her car seat and just laid her right in her crib without waking her up.  I went to check on her a few minutes later and this is how she had positioned herself.  Bum straight in the air!  She slept for another few hours like that then woke up where she got a midnight snack, a new diaper and clean pajamas.  What a cutie!  This is my last year in my 20's . . . . . . weird.

Lisa's Wedding

One of my best friends since I was born (it sounds funny saying that but it is really true!  We grew up in the same ward so we have known each other our whole lives) got married in Pennsylvania so they were able to come to Utah in August and have a reception.  It was so fun to see the happy newlyweds and visit with them!  The reception was held in a beautiful back yard and the weather was just perfect!  Aren't weddings just the best?!  We are so happy for them!

The cute couple Jon and Lisa!

Avery, Me, Lisa and Emily

Do you see that table behind us.  It was full of candy in dishes that you could scoop up into a little cute jar.  Talk about fun and yummy!  Happy wedding!

Millions of Peaches (and tomatoes, tomatillos and plums)

When we bought our house one of the things we loved about it was the yard, garden space and the already 5 fruit trees that were planted (apricot, plum, pear, and 2 peach trees).  Jeremy had such motivation to get things ready to plant a garden and has done so great in taking care of it the past few months!  It was a lot like the Little Red Hen story where I just benefited from all his hard work since I mostly just stayed in the house and took care a baby!  But I got my turn to work after it was all picked and we needed to do something with it all!  Thanks to my moms help (and Jeremy's help on the weekend) we bottled tomatoes, peaches, peach jam and salsa.  We have been enjoying fresh plums every day too (unfortunately our apricot and pear tree didn't produce this year).

Avery was a real good helper!

The dang birds started eating our peaches so we had to put netting over the tree.  Can you spy Jeremy in the tree?!

The peaches were beautiful and big and oh so yummy!

I look pretty terrible in this picture, but after a long day of working in the kitchen it was nice to cuddle with this sweet thing!

Peach Jam!

Tomatillo Salsa

A perfect peach

Life is just a bowl of peaches!

Crazy tomato

Even crazier tomato

I went to enrichment night (or whatever they call it now) and they taught us how to make bread so I thought I had better try.  It turned out ok, I need to perfect it though.  I think I need to improve my kneading skills!