Avery's 15th Month

 This is such a late post. By now, she is actually 16 months old. Ugh. However, I did take these pictures during her 15th month and wrote this post at that time too but kept telling myself I'd re-try to take her 15 month picture because I was unhappy with how it turned out. She did NOT want to sit still this night and I thought maybe I'd try again to get a better picture. That never happened so I thought I'd better just get it posted and just deal with the picture I got, so here it is, a month late. ;-)

Avery,

On July 28th you turned 15 months old! 

Size:

At your 15 month check-up at the doctor, you weighed 23.6 lbs (74%) and you were 31 1/2 inches tall (71%). Such a big girl. :-) At this appointment you had to get 3 shots and you handled it like a champ. You didn't even cry during the first one but cried a little during the second and third shots. However as soon as the nurse said, "do you want a cookie?" you immediately stopped crying. ;-)

Clothing:

You are still wearing 18 and 24 month clothes.

Shoe Size:

Size 5

Diapers:

Size 4

Teeth:

You have your 8 front teeth (4 on the bottom and 4 on the top) and you've gotten all 4 of your 1st year molars.You are currently working on getting your incisors.

Hair/Eyes:

Your hair keeps getting lighter and lighter so I would say it's a very light brown and your eyes are a brown.

Sleep:

You usually go to sleep between 8 and 9 and you generally sleep until 7ish the next morning! You are such a great sleeper and Mommy and Daddy appreciate that. You usually take 2 naps a day that are usually around 1-2 hours long.

Eat:

You love pancakes, toaster sticks, peanut butter sandwiches, pizza, carrots, macaroni, yogurt, apples, grilled cheese and you love fries and chips. You've got feeding yourself down now and won't even think about eating off of a spoon/fork from us. You have to do it yourself (oh joy!). We stopped giving you that last bottle before bed time this month and you never missed it or complained about not having it!! You still get milk in your sippy cup or water throughout the day and you do great with that. You got to have your first popsicle from the ice-cream man all to yourself this month and enjoyed that very much! :-)

Favorite Toys:

Any toy your brother has. Ugh... and so the sibling rivalry begins.

Milestones:

You love to sing and dance and have been learning the movements to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". It is just too cute to watch you do the movements. You love the opening theme song to The Office and you can be in the back room and hear it come on and you come running out to the living room to dance. SO CUTE!! You also started "singing". It is the cutest thing ever. You blow kisses and love to climb. You can get on and off the couch all by yourself now and you can climb up on things we'd rather you not! ;-)

Vocalizing:

You say a lot of words once, and then you often won't say them again. You've said "juice" when you wanted your cup and you said "duck" when we were at the park and saw ducks. You also said "hi dada" when you and your brother were out on the patio and Daddy was taking the trash out. Jackson said "hi daddy" and you repeated what he was saying. You've been able to say "dada" for a long time, but you put hi and dada together for the first time and it was really cute. You said bubble the other day when brother was blowing bubbles outside for you and you said "up/down" but won't say it again.

Personality:
You have quite the personality these days. You are strong willed, very independent and pretty demanding, but you can be sweet at sugar too. You are very much a girly girl and love shoes, purses, chap-stick, baby dolls and brushing your hair. You love water... bath time and swimming in the pool are a lot of fun for you. You have quite the cute little tan from being at the pool so much this summer. You are on the move and into everything these days. You are wearing me out sweet girl.

I think that about covers your 15 month update. You are such a blessing and we love you so very much Pretty Girl!

-Mommy xoxo

Five on Friday

I'm linking up with April today for Five on Friday!

 I've been wanting a new watch for quite some time now and finally got a new one a couple weeks ago. I kept going back and forth on whether to go with gold or silver but ended up going with gold. I love the one I ended up getting. :-)

We close on our new house in less than a week and I can hardly believe it! Next Thursday we will once again be home owners and then the real fun can begin. I feel so excited and overwhelmed... but mostly excited. ;-)

This week, the weather has been perfect! The temps have been in the upper 70's to low 80's with zero humidity. I wish it could last forever! While I was off on Monday, we had a few errands to run in the morning, but for lunch we stopped and got some food and took it to the park for a picnic. After that the kids played on the playground for quite a while. It was a really fun time for them and it was great to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Jake and I have a date night planned for tonight. It's been quite a while since we've had a night out. With the move and buying a new house, it's been so busy and hard to find the time. We'll probably keep it low key and just do dinner and a movie. I'm looking forward to it. :-)

 Jackson will be starting back to pre-school on the Tuesday after Labor Day, so I took him to Target last week to help me pick up his school supplies and pick out a new backpack. :-) He thought it was pretty cool to be able to pick his own backpack and was very proud of his choice. ;-) I can't believe my sweet boy will be 4 already in a little less than 2 months. How is that even possible?

Happy Friday Everyone!! I hope you all have a great weekend!

It's National Dog Day

I found out this morning that it's National Dog Day, so I thought I'd write a short post in honor of our sweet pups! 

We have two lab mixes... Hunter and Max. I used to post about them all the time, back when they were our only babies. Now that we have human babies, they have taken a little bit of a back seat, but we love them so much and enjoy having dogs in the house to love and cuddle with. :-) 

I've always been an animal lover and thankfully, I married one too, so I think our house will always be home to dogs. They are just so sweet and loving and I can't imagine our lives without them.

Happy National Dog Day to all of our Furry, Four-Legged Friends!! :-)

Stitch Fix Box #3

I just got my 3rd Stitch Fix box yesterday and I was very happy with a majority of the items that my stylist sent. I specifically asked for 2 things for this fix. 1 was a pair of work pants and the second thing I asked for was a short gold necklace. She sent one of each for me to try. Just another reason why I love this company!!

So here are the items I got.

Emer Jacquard Print Tall Straight Leg Pant

These were very nice and very comfortable. The color in this close up looks a little purple, but it is really more navy blue. I'm strongly considering keeping these, even though they're a little pricey.

 Timberlake Split Neck Top

This is a very pretty top and would be great for work. Very much considering keeping it.

Margerie Stripe & Dot Open Cardigan

I absolutely love this cardigan. It is so soft and comfortable and will be great for work or for the weekends. Perfect!

With this fix, I asked my stylist for a short, gold necklace. I'm not sure I really love this Tegan Beaded Leaf Charm Necklace that she sent me, nor do I really love this Colina Mix Material Knit Top. The top is just okay and I just can't see spending $58 on a casual top. So I will more than likely be sending both of these items back.

So what do you think about the pieces they sent me? I know for sure I'll be keeping the cardigan, I'm seriously considering keeping the Emers and possibly keeping the Timberlake blouse as well. The rest will more than likely be going back. I love this fun surprise every month and it's really helping me build back my work wardrobe after having 2 babies and putting shopping for myself on the back burner. I'm loving Stitch Fix!

If you'd like more info on how Stitch Fix works, you are more than welcome to ask me any questions you may have, or you can click below for more details.

Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My!

This past Saturday, we decided to take the kids to the St. Louis Zoo. We hadn't gone since Avery was born, so this was her first time! The kids both really loved it and the weather wasn't too terribly hot, so it was a really fun day. We waited til after Avery's morning nap to ensure she would hopefully be in a good mood. :-) We also brought Jake's mom along for the adventure. ;-)

New this year at our zoo was the Polar Bear Exhibit. I was super excited to see it because everyone was saying how cool it was. Unfortunately, we waited in line and then when we got up there, the Polar Bear was nowhere to be seen. I guess they must have taken him inside for one reason or another, so I guess we'll have to make another trip back... maybe in the Fall when it's a little cooler. But other than that, it was a really fun time!

I haven't been very good about getting my big camera out lately. However, I never leave the house without my phone, so I snapped a few pictures with it.

Here are a few of my favorites.

And just for fun and because I love a good side by side comparison photo, here is our first trip to the zoo with Jackson in 2012 and then our first trip with Avery in 2015.

Five on Friday

I'm linking up with April today for Five on Friday!

I'm excited to say, we closed on our first home on Wednesday of this week. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to our first home, but we're excited for a new beginning in our new home! We close on the new house on September 3rd, so it won't be long now. :-)

 Tonight we're going to a family dinner at my Mother-In-Law's house to celebrate my nephew who will be going off to NYC for college next week! I am so proud of him and can't believe he's going off to college already. When I met him, he was only about Jackson's age. It's so crazy how time flies.

 If your looking for daily encouragement, I highly recommend this daily devotional. You just sign up and they send you your daily devotional in your e-mail every weekday morning. They also have a new app called "The First 5". It has been such a blessing to me so I thought I'd share it with all of you.

 So I know several of you are signed up for Stitch Fix and are loving it. I am expecting my 3rd fix later this month. I thought I'd share a few of the items I'd like to see in my August fix. If you haven't signed up for Stitch Fix and want to know more about it, feel free to ask me any questions. You can also click here for more details.

I'd love to try these Houndstooth Emers.

 I'd love to try a cute blazer similar to this for the Fall. 

I'd also like to try a warm sweater like this for Fall.

I saw this on Pinterest and it instantly made me want to watch Friday Night Lights all over again. Such a cute pillow. I might need this somewhere in the new house. ;-)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

A Tour of Our New House

We finished up the inspection negotiations over this past weekend and all that's left between now and closing on September 3rd is just paper-work! So I thought I'd take you on a little tour, courtesy of realtor.com and tell you some of the things we want to do to update it.

First up, the front of the house.

 For the front: 

We want to paint the siding gray and the front doors will be replaced with something like this. We'll take the wire beams down and replace them with boxy, white pillars and maybe add some railing and woodwork to spruce up the front porch similar to this. Of course we'll spruce up the landscaping and hang a few flower baskets. I'd also like to add some benches or white rocking chairs to the front as well.

 Again we'll update the landscaping and paint the siding gray.

 The Back:

We love the big patio off of the walk-out basement, but we'd like to take that upper deck down and build a new one that covers the lower patio entirely. We will more than likely move the stairs to the right side of the deck so that they aren't as steep and don't come right down into the driveway. We also will spruce up the landscaping, paint the back siding gray and probably replace the very old garage door and 2 exterior doors.

 The Living Room/Dining Room:

We plan to have the hard-wood floors sanded and re-stained a walnut color. I'd like to paint the walls a light gray, add new white baseboards and I'd eventually like to add crown molding. We'll need new light fixtures and window treatments as well. 

 The Kitchen:

The kitchen will be gutted first thing, before we ever move into the house. :-) I plan to keep the kitchen in it's basic shape, but everything will be brand new. My dad is going to build us dark gray shaker style cabinets and I'd like to have light colored counter tops, a marble subway tile back splash, pendant lights over the sink and peninsula, built in cabinet pantries around the fridge that's on the opposite wall of the sink (not shown here but that's where it is) and my dad is going to build floor and wall cabinets on the far right wall where it's just empty now. We will do either new hard-wood (it's a horrible laminate now) or ceramic tile (I'm leaning more towards ceramic tile right now). I'd like to add stools (the same way they did here) to the peninsula so that the kids can still eat in the kitchen or do their homework there someday while we're cooking. I'd like to paint the walls a light blue color, similar to this.

Master Bedroom:

We plan to have the hardwood floors sanded and re-stained the same color as the living/dining room, take down the wallpaper border, repaint the walls a light gray, add new white baseboard and possibly crown molding and a new light fixture. I'm thinking of going with a light gray. navy blue and gold color theme for our bedroom. We plan to get a new king size bed and new furniture as well and of course new window treatments and decorations.

The master bedroom has his and her closets on the left side of the room and that doorway in the far left upper corner is the master bathroom. They didn't take pictures of it, but believe me when I say, it needs some serious updating. Can we say blue tile everywhere? Lots of blue tile! We will also need to replace all the bedroom and bathroom doors with new white, six panel doors.

 Jackson's Room:

Jackson's floors will be sanded and re-stained to match the rest of the house. We'll take the wallpaper border down, paint the walls the same color that we had in his room at our old house and we'll add white base-boards and crown molding at some point. 

 Avery's Room:

They didn't take a picture of the 3rd bedroom, but it's a little smaller than Jackson's room and has the same wall color and border in it as well. Her room has carpet that we plan to tear out and replace with new hard-wood. It will be the walnut color to match the rest of the house. I plan to paint her walls the same color that was in her room at our old house, add new white baseboard and crown molding as well.

Hallway to the Bedrooms:
The hallway going down to the bedrooms and hall bath has the same terrible laminate that the kitchen has. This will come out and be replaced with hardwoods, stained to match the rest of the house. I'd also like to do something like this down the hall.
 

The Basement/Family Room:

They don't show pictures of the stairs, but they are right in the kitchen on the same wall as the fridge. They are open which is nice. They need new railing and I'd like to add new pendant lighting and a photo collage all the way down, both very similar to this. 

We plan to build built-ins on either side of the fireplace, cover all the brick with drywall, hang a t.v. over the fireplace and hopefully make it look very similar to this. We will also paint the walls and add new white baseboard and a new door.

 There is a bonus room in that door-way to the left of the fireplace. It needs some new drywall added, a new window some new trim, paint, a new closet door and new entry door. This will probably be an office/playroom/spare bedroom. 

There is a small hallway that has a wet-bar (pictured here), a half bath behind it, and an unfinished laundry room across the hall. The hallway dead-ends into the tuck under two-car garage. We plan to remove the wet-bar, gut the half bath and make it a full bath.

 The door that leads out to the patio from the basement, also leads to the very nice-sized back yard with an in-ground pool. This back-yard is in serious need of some work. It is really grown up (even more so than in this picture). We plan to clean it up, tear out the old wooden fence, replace it with a white 6 foot vinyl privacy fence, add a black wrought iron fence between the house and the pool (to prevent little feet and paws from getting into the pool unsupervised) right above the stairs and put in a new stone walkway. We'll also be replacing the concrete around the pool (it's in really bad shape) with new stone pavers or new concrete. I'd like to do something similar to this.

The brick paver patio shown here needs to be cleaned up for sure. It is nice and level though, so we don't plan on replacing it, just cleaning it up. It will be nice when it's covered by the deck above and we can sit out here in the evenings. :-)

So this concludes the tour of our new house. There is so much work that needs to be done, but we're excited to get started on it and start chiseling away at our to-do list. Of course this will all take time and money and will have to be done over the course of a few months/years. So now all we need to do is win the lottery. ;-)