Happy Birthday Honey!!

Today Kyle celebrated his 32nd Birthday and Avery and I just wanted to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! And in honor of his birthday I am posting pictures of Avery in his favorite "outfit" on her, the Aggie hat. We all know how much he loves his Utah State Aggies even after they got there butts kicked by Boise State in Basketball. He's a die hard fan, through and through. We love him very much and hope he has a fabulous birthday!When she can't get the aggie hat off her head.......and when she can!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

New Job

I have decided to go back to work part time, we need a little extra cash as Kyle was laid off in October, but also because it is a great opportunity and they are paying me quite well. I will be working as a Social Worker for a Transitional Home in Nampa. It's only 20-25 hours a week with half the hours being on site and in the office and the other half in the comfort of my home on my laptop doing paperwork. It's also not a set schedule either, I set the schedule with the clients so it's really flexible. My husbands friend is the controller for the company and I guess he thought I would be great for the job, so here I am going back into the work field.
Kyle has been doing mortgage loans from home and keeps looking for a job (but what bank is hiring right now for a Constuction Loan Officer!) and so he will stay with Avery when I am working. The job is temporary right now as it is program that runs off of a grant from the State which is renewed every June, so then I find out if I will continue to work or not. But for now I am at least working until the end of May and I am super excited. Although I will miss being home with my little girl I know she is in good hands with her dad and maybe it will give him an idea of what I do everyday.
So wish me luck on my new adventure!

Happy Valentines Day!!

We hope everyone had a Happy Valentines Day, we sure did! We actually celebrated it the night before since the big game (USU vs. BSU, basketball) was on Saturday night. We went over to a friends house and had our annual heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, but I forgot to take my camera over there. We just ate our "elegant" dinner and hung out while the kids played, it was actually very nice! Below are some pictures of Avery with her gift from her dad and my gift from him too. Avery wasn't really in to posing, so I just snapped some as quick as I could. Here she is with her gift from her dad. He got her a cute little stuffed animal. She loves to play with her dogs, the live and fake ones.Here is another one of Avery with her gift and mine. I love rose bushes. In fact when we moved to our new house I was so sad I had to leave my yellow rose bush behind (it doesn't look like this one I'm just trying to explain) , it was given to me on my 1st mothers day from my mother in-law and it was so beautiful in the spring and summer. So this is my new "rose bush". Let's see how long I can keep it alive.

And here is just a picture of Avery's cute Valentine shoes. A friend gave those to Avery and they are just so adorable.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

Avery update

Avery is getting soooo big!! She is now almost 11 months old and such a handful. Avery has now mastered crawling and is pulling herself up on everything. As you can see from the picture Avery pulled herself up on the baby gate at my parents house and it looks like she is in baby jail. She is now also climbing our stairs and falling down them (I only looked away for a minute and she came tumbling down). I guess thats part of learning, for me and her I have to keep my eyes on her ALL the time. You can also see her teeth in the picture. Yes that's right she now has 6 teeth, 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. At the end of November her 1st tooth on the bottom came in and then they all started coming after that. So needless to say she's been a little cranky, but it doesn't seem to bother her much anymore. We've also had to baby proof our house. As you can see she likes to open the cupboards and pull everything out. Good thing this time it was only the tupperware and not the glass dishes.

In this picture you can see her hair is finally growing and getting darker. The other day I was finally able to put her hair in 2 pigtails. They aren't very long, but I was excited I can't wait until it gets longer so I can really start doing it. From this picture you can also kind of see she is now drinking from a sippy cup. She still gets a bottle at nap and bedtime, but for most of the day she likes water from her sippy cup, a sure sign of a big girl!!

In this picture you can see Avery eating her 1st dish of Mac N Cheese. She loves the baby food Mac N Cheese, but she didn't really like the regular stuff. She does however like mashed potatoes, grilled cheese sandwiches and Little Puffs baby snacks. She even feeds herself, it's fun to watch her try to find her mouth. What a cutie!!

In this picture you see Avery looking silly in her hat and gloves. She is getting ready to attend her 1st Winter Carnival at the end of the month in McCall. It will be so fun pulling her around in the sled and letting her play in the snow. We never seem to get much here in Boise so McCall should be a new experience for her.

I hope everyone is doing well I apologize for being such a blog slacker, but it gets busy chasing Avery around all day. How do you do it with more then 1 kid?? I will post some pictures of the house soon now that we're all moved in and settled. I do love all the extra space, but hate the cleaning that comes along with it!

Happy Anniversary!!

I am such a blogging slacker, things are just so busy these days and by things I mean Avery she is into everything, but I will talk about that later.
Kyle and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Sunday while we were in Utah visiting our families. We got to go to dinner at the Praire Scooner on Saturday night and it was so delicious, I hadn't been there in a long time and had forgotten how good there au grautin potatoes are!! It wasn't anything to excititng, but for us a night out without the baby is good enough for us!! I just want Kyle to know how much I love him and how incredibly grateful I am for him. He is such a wonderful husband and father, I couldn't have asked for better. He works so hard for our family so I can stay home with Avery and I truly appreciate that because not all mothers get to do that. He is so amazing with Avery and she has him wrapped around her little finger. She is such a daddy's girl and loves to play with him. I am so blessed to have him as my husband and love him with all my heart!
HAPPY 6th ANNIVERSARY!!

MeRrY ChRiStMaS!!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, I know we did. Here are just a few pictures of our Christmas day. Avery didn't care to much about opening her gifts, more with playing with the paper that was coming off the packages. She did like the little toy train we got her though. It is suppose to encourage crawling, although she basically is crawling. It's more of an army scoot and crawl combined. I'm just glad she isn't crawling on her back and pushing with her head anymore, we thought she was going to break her neck doing it that way. I apologize for not blogging much lately, but we have been really busy with moving into our new house and getting things ready for Christmas. I will post soon about our family and my little Avery that is just growing like a weed. She already has a tooth and 3 more breaking through, it's crazy how time flys. Avery with her toy train, mommy and daddy gave her.

Avery on Christmas night eating her dessert from her Aunt Lindsay.

VERY, VERY MESSY!!!

In Memory of Grandpa Thompson

My Great Grandpa Thompson died yesterday at the great age of 100. He wasn't suppose to even make it through November let alone until his 100th birthday on December 2nd. What a trooper! And he truly was during the past little while as his health had been declining. He was doing fair until he suffered a mild stroke in November and lost control of his left side, something he feared deeply. But we all knew he really wanted to make it to 100. In October he had began to plan the big birthday party to celebrate his 100 great years of life, but it had to be canceled after he had the stroke. But that stroke wasn't going to stop him from making it to the big day and so he did. Truly a man of his word. I have such fond memories of my Grandpa and I am so glad that my daughter got to meet him. My grandpa told my dad that this was the 5 generation picture he was looking forward to the most (see the bottom picture). I can't remember a time when my dad wasn't working for or helping my grandpa whether it was taking care of the horses, fixing things at his house, or in the last days getting him into bed at night. My dad had such a great bond with him and loved to take care of his grandpa. I will miss my visits to his house each time I came to town. But he was such a great man and I will never forget that. If your ever in Roy and are by the Aerospace Museum look for the Thompson Gardens right there by it, it's dedicated to my Grandpa. You will be missed by all!! Avery with her Great Grandma Meenderink and Great Great Grandpa Thompson.

5 Generation picture. Me, my dad, my grandma Meenderink, Avery, and my great Grandpa Thompson.