Half a Year Old with an Ear Infection

Yesterday my baby girl turned 6 months old!! WOW I can't believe how the time flies when your having so much fun!! I absolutely love being a mom it is the best job in the world!! Avery has been pulling at her ears for a couple of weeks now and hasn't been eating very good over the past week so I finally decided to take her to the doctors and sure enough she has an ear infection in the right ear. I guess there is a lot of fluid in her right ear and it was bright red, so the doctor put her on an antibiotic and an ear drop. I think it is working because she finally slept through the night last night like she had been before and has been taking good naps in the afternoon, which she never does!! Does anyone know how to get your baby to take a good nap? Avery takes several cat naps (30-45 minutes) throughout the day and it would be nice if she would take 2 long naps throughout the day, I'm just not sure how to get her to do this? Any suggestions??

Home Again Home Again...Idaho That Is

We got home from our trip to Utah on Sunday and have been going non stop since then. We had so much fun in Utah visiting family and friends and finally getting my hair done!! I totally chopped it off but it looks soooo cute!! I will post some pictures of the new do sometime later this week. I can't really say we did too much while we were there, but thats whats so fun about going, not having any errands or things to do so we just hang out and relax. I did have a great time at the spa where I got a pedicaure. It was my 1st offical pedicure, I have had facials before but never a pedicure, so it was fun. We also had fun visiting my family at the annual pool party. My dad took Avery swimming in the pool and she had so much fun!! On Friday night Avery and I went to dinner with my good friends Shelly and Jodi to Rumbi Grill. It was so nice to catch up and visit with them. I completely forgot my camera at home in Idaho so when I remembered I took my moms camera with me, but I forgot it for dinner, so I don't have any pictures of my friends from dinner, but I just love visiting with them and Jodi finally got to meet Avery. I have known these girls since I was little and we are still great friends, I hope that Avery will have friends like that too, because truly they are wonderful!! On Saturday we went to visit my best friend Chantal and Avery's boyfriend Kian. She kept scaring him with her screaming and kicking, the poor boy would cry everytime she would squeal with delight. I love that she has found her voice, but she is so loud!! She just loves to coo and talk and now scream, it's hilarious!! The drive home on Sunday was ridiculous, because Avery won't sleep the whole time now and gets bored in the back seat all by herself, so she cried the last hour of our drive. Needless to say I was so happy to be home and out of the car, but she's a trooper. I'm not sure when we'll be back to Utah, but we will definetly be there for Thanksgiving. Below are some pictures I took, sorry there are only a few!!
This is Avery in her cute spiderman shades. Kyle took this before we left for Utah, but I wanted to post it because she looks so cute in them.

Here is Avery and my dad swimming at the pool party. She got to go in the shallow kiddie pool where the water was a little warmer...hmm I wonder why??

Here is Avery and her boyfriend Kian in there Bumbo seats. They are the exact same age, but of course Avery is still ginormous compared to him. They had fun grabbing at each other and cooing back and forth.
I loved this picture of Avery. She has the cutest grin on her face. She is such a ham for the camera. I have been putting tiny bows in her hair, because the big headbands keep rubbing her hair off around the front of her head so I want to give it a chance to grow in so she doesn't end up with a huge forehead!

Utah Here We Come...

(I just wanted to add this picture, Avery is now sitting up by herself, not for very long, but she can do it!! I wish she would slow down she's getting to big!!)

Thats's right we are leaving for Utah today!! I am so excited to come and visit friends and family, but I am especially excited to go to Sego Lilly Spa on Wednesday. I have been to the spa before (in McCall), but I am so excited to have an hour or so to myself without the baby!! My parents are wonderful, they are going to watch Avery for me so I can pamper myself. On Thursday night I am going to a pool party with all my dad's family. It's something my family does every year and this is the 1st time I've been in a very long time, so I am excited to go to that too. I will be in town thru Sunday so call me if you'd like so we can get together and visit!!

New House

Here are some pictures of our new house under construction. This is a picture of the fromt of the house. It is a 3 car garage with the one on the right being 2 cars deep. We also have a courtyard so what looks like where the front door will go there will be a gate there that leads thru the courtyard to the front door. The courtyard is where I will put my bench and my flower pots. Also in the path of the courtyard is a bedroom and 3/4ths of a bathroom (only has a shower, no tub) that is detached from the house. It's called a casita, but it is kind of like a guest room or office. We will be using it as our exercise room for our treadmill. This is just a closer view of the front of the house. I love the rounded center. On the main floor the rounded center room will be Avery's bedroom and upstairs there will be a window seat and the computer niche is directly behind it.

This is a close up of the front door and those windows are to Avery's bedroom. It is suppose to be a formal dining or living room but we turned it into a nursery. I had to have Avery on the same level as us because in our house now her room is upstairs and our is on the main floor and I get all worried about her being that far away from us (and by me being worried I mean Kyle, he is such a worrier).
I didn't take any pictures of the upstair because it's pretty standard bonus room, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. We were suppose to have another bedroom but decided this weekend to remove the wall to make our bonus room bigger, Kyle wants to put a pool table in it, I tell him to keep dreaming!! I will take more pictures when they get it drywalled. It is coming along very fast so I have high hopes it will be done on October 31st. Time will tell!!

Fun Facts About Me!!!

My friend Chantal sent me this fun email and instead of forwarding it to people I decided I would post it. It's kind of like a tag so if anyone wants to join in the fun facts sharing, go right ahead.

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your Friends. Copy and paste or press FORWARD then change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you.The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!

1. What time did you get up this morning?
Well Avery finally slept through the night last night in her crib upstairs away from me, from 9:30-6:15 AM. YAHOO!!! I have been letting her cry it out the past week although there have been a few days I have given in and just fed her, but I hope this continues because it was nice to not get up until 6:15 AM. It was very hard to do, but well worth it!
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds, because after all diamonds are a girls best friend!
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Sex and the City The Movie, it was fabulous!! I loved how the story finally ended.
4. What is your favorite TV show? Right now it's Intervention, but I can't wait for Ugly Betty and Greys Anatomy to come back on.
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Cereal or oatmeal, depends on if we have milk or not.
6. What is your middle name? Don't have one, but now I go by Melissa M. Jones
7. What food do you dislike? Onions
8. What is your favorite CD at moment? I really like the new single from the Pussycat Dolls "When I Grow Up," Avery likes to dance to it and we jam out in the car to it.
9. What kind of car do you drive? 2005 GMC Envoy XL, had to upgrade to a bigger car when Avery came.
10. Favorite sandwich? Grilled Cheese or Turkey
11. What characteristic do you despise? Judgemental people, "To Each His Own"
12. Favorite item of clothing? Long shirts from Down East Basics, I think I have every color
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Paris
14. Favorite shoes? Brown Reef Flip Flops
15. Where would you retire to? McCall Idaho on the lake
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? On my 25th birthday I found out I was pregnant for the first time, although I ended up miscarrying on my 4th wedding anniversary.
17. Favorite sport to watch? College football, I love to go to Boise State football games with my husband. Although I only get to go when there not playing a good team.
18. Farthest place you are sending this? The worldwide web.
19. Person you expect to send it back first? Tiffannie is really good at updating her blog and leaving comments, I wish I was like her!!
20. When is your birthday? December 19th, and I'm sure everyone already knows this because I always start a birthday countdown. It's not as fun now that I'm getting old!!
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night person, but now that I have a baby I have been forced to become more of a morning person, but I am trying to train her to sleep in.
22. What is your shoe size? 8 to 8 1/2, depends on the brand
23. Pets? Cocker Spaniel named Oliver. He is terribly neglected now and I feel bad. I need to find him a friend.
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Well Avery did sleep through the night last night, thats pretty exciting to me!!
25. What did you want to be when you were little? I've always wanted to be a mom and I wanted to be a pharmacist at some point, but that changed when I figured out I sucked at chemistry.
26. How are you today? A little shaken from the break in, but for the most part pretty good.
27. What is your favorite candy? Anything really, I love candy!!
28. What is your favorite flower? I love geraniums. They always look so nice in yards.
29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? October 31, 2008, this is when our new house is suppose to be done.
30. What is your full name? Melissa M. Jones
31. What are you listening to right now? The baby monitor because I just layed Avery down for bed upstairs in her crib.
32. What was the last thing you ate? Shrimp at Long John Silvers
33. Do you wish on stars? Yes, even on fallen out eyelashes.
34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Red or Blue
35. How is the weather right now? Hot, still in the 90's at 10:00 PM
36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? The police to report the break in and theft.
37. Favorite soft drink? Pepsi
38. Favorite restaurant? PF Changs and The Cheesecake Factory
39. Real hair color? Dishwater blonde
40. What was your favorite toy as a child? Cabbage Patch Kids
41. Summer or winter? Summers in McCall are the best, although winter means my birthday is coming.
42. Hugs or kisses? Both, Avery likes to give open mouth, slobbery kisses. A little gross, but so adorable!!
43. Chocolate or Vanilla? Definetly Chocolate
44. Coffee or tea? Hot chocolate :0)
45. Do you want your friends to email you back? Of Course it's always fun to find out things maybe you didn't know.
46. When was the last time you cried? About a week and a half ago, when a comment was made and my feelings got hurt.
47. What is under your bed? 2 plastic tubs of maternity clothes and usually my dog
48. What did you do last night? Kyle and I took Avery and Oliver for a walk around the neighborhood and watched who won on "So You Think You Can Dance."
49. What are you afraid of ? Irrational things like my eyes being poked out or my teeth being knocked out, I know I'm crazy.
50. Salty or sweet? Sweet
51. How many keys on your key ring? 5, I still have a key to my parents house on it
52. How many years at your current job? My newest job is being a mother and I have been doing it for 5 months now. I used to be a social worker and I did that for 2 years.
53. Favorite day of the week? Sunday, your suppose to be lazy and not work on that day.
54. How many towns have you lived in? 4, Roy, Logan, Nampa, Boise and soon to be Meridian
55. Do you make friends easily? I think so, what do you guys think??
56. How many people will you send this to? Everyone on the world wide web, you count.
57. How many will respond? Hopefully not everyone on the web looks at my blog, but at least my buddies!!

ROBBED!!!

So this morning at 7:30 AM Kyle gets a phone call. I thought it was his boss calling, but it happened to be some random nice neighbor from down the street. Kyle came out of the bathroom after the phone call and said "I think my car got broke into last night!!" I proceeded to say, what in the...??? We always park our cars in the garage, but as we opened the house door that leads to the garage Kyle realized that after our nephew came to mow our lawn last night he forgot to pull his truck back in the garage and left the garage door open ALL NIGHT!! Our kind neighbor had found what we thought was just the belongings of Kyles wallet thrown on his lawn, turns out there was stuff from my car all over his lawn too. We walked out and looked in the window of his truck and sure enough the middle comparent was wide open and his wallet was missing. He searched around some more and couldn't see anything else gone, not even his IPOD. Then we realized my car was unlocked too, because I never lock it in my garage because it's usually always closed. Sure enough my middle compartment was wide open too and my IPOD was missing along with my Chanel sunglasses case (I lost the real sunglasses a few months ago) and my $5 Walmart sunglasses. I didn't realize it until after my neighbor brought over everything that he found but I also had a baby outfit I was going to return to Old Navy in there too they initially took. I guess the thief(s) decided they didn't want the stuff after all, because all they ended up with were Kyles drivers license and my IPOD. When we called the police to report it we found out another neighbor had there car broke into last night too. We are guessing it was just some stupid kids looking for cash, because none of his credit cards were missing although we canceled them just in case they wrote the numbers down. I'm just glad we remembered to lock our house door to the garage because really it could have been much worse. It's also really good Kyle had one of his business cards in his wallet because since his license was missing our neigbor wouldn't have known how to get that stuff back to us. What a good samaritan, he even took pictures of the stuff all over his lawn in case the police needed it. There are not many people in the world today that would go to all that trouble to return a few things, but we are so incredibly grateful to him!!! THANK YOU!!!

Lazy Days of Summer...

I can't believe how lazy I have been since I got home from McCall. I feel like a bum and have totally neglected my blog. SORRY!! My family came to visit us this weekend and it was great fun. When they got here on Friday I had just gotten home from the ER, yes thats right another hospital trip!! I have ULCERS, again!! About two years ago I was scoped and the doctors found I had eight large ulcers in my stomach from taking to much Advil. Now I'm sure your wondering why in the world was I taking so much Advil, but I have TERRIBLE cramps (thus the reason I had such a hard time getting pregnant). Well I made the stupid mistake of taking it again because I have bad cramps still and have had some tooth problems. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!! So I woke up Friday morning with terrible abdominal pain and we ended up in the ER, I think they know me a little to well there!! So they are pretty sure it is recurrent ulcers and they gave me some meds to take. I think they are helping, because the next day I was already feeling better, so I could entertain my parents although they were just happy to see us and little Avery!! We took my parents and sister to our new house, our at least the construction of our new house and everyone seems to like it. They are almost done framing it so when that is done I will post some pictures of it. Yesterday we did a walk through with the cabinet guy and tomorrow I have an appointment to start picking things out. The only bad thing is that I have a hard time making a decision, so I'm sure it is going to be a long process deciding on things. Our walk through of the cabinets took 2 hours out in the 98 degree heat and I didn't even change that much, but when I start hearing options I get all flustered and can't make a decision. So this house is definetly going to be an experience, good and bad. My family left on Monday and it's always sad to seem them go, but I'm trying to plan a trip down there soon...I really need my hair done Buffie!!
Here are a few pictures I took of Avery in her swing. She LOVES her swing and has since the day she came home from the hospital. I can't believe how fast she is growing and how big she is getting, I miss my tiny baby. But she is at a very fun stage with her giggles and exploring. She can roll to one side, but hasn't quite figured out how to get to her belly, all in good time I guess. It's probably good she's not mobile yet, I like being able to put her in bed with me in the morning and if I doze off she won't fall out!!
Is she the cutest baby or what??
Finally I have a picture of my dad with Avery. On Friday Avery didn't make it out of her jammies because she spent the day at the ER with me and Kyle. What a trooper!!