Thank you DMV, I love a good run around...

So let me just tell you how much I despise the Utah Department of Public Safety. There are so many things that I would gladly do before I would ever want to renew my driver's license again. What? You need me to shovel horse poo in 90 degree weather? Done...
Let me explain. Renewing a driver's license shouldn't be that big of a deal right? Well ever since the state changed its rules of obtaining the renewal, it has been a big deal for a lot of people. Me in particular today. I did everything RIGHT. Or so I thought. I checked online and made an appointment. However, the only appointment available before my birthday was in Orem. Not a big deal. Driving to West Valley would have taken longer anyway. Online it tells you to bring your birth certificate-check, driver's license-check, two proofs of current address-check, social security card-check, application filled out-check, oh and marriage license-check, well sort of. Did you know there was a difference between a marriage license and a marriage certificate? I apparently did not. I grabbed the first thing that I saw that looked like a marriage license and headed on my way to Orem. Well everything went really well once I got to the office. I was seen right away because I had set up the appointment. Well after a few minutes the lady assisting me tells me that they need the original marriage license. What I had brought was the marriage certificate. Whoops. Like I said I didn't know there were two different pieces of paper. I was confused why they even needed the license to begin with. My driver's license has my married name on it. Do they really need to prove again that I was married? Well after a few minutes of pleading with the woman, I was still sent on my way to get the correct documentation. She tells me that I can take the certificate to the county building in Provo and get another copy. I tell her that I am from Salt Lake County and ask her if they will still give me a copy? She assures me that they will and off I go. Well I get to the building in Provo and go up to the third floor where the licenses are and see a sign that says, "Marriage Licenses are located at the other building West of here in room 3600". Of course she told me the wrong building. So I grumble and gripe and make my way to the next building over. I have to wait in line and watch BYU fresh, too young to get married couples gleefully show their IDS and pay their 50 dollars... You can sense I'm irritated by now... I finally make my way to the desk and explain my situation.
Woman behind the desk: "You were married in Salt Lake County?"
Me: "Yes."
Woman: "Well we can't print you off a copy here. This is only for Utah County."
Me: "Of course you can't.." (grumble grumble)
Woman: "You'll need to go to the Salt Lake County Office and here is the information," Bla bla bla
Well by this time I was IRATE. I leave the building and go out to my car steaming from the ears. I started digging through my glove box because I have this feeling that I had a copy of the license in there. Amazingly enough there was one! What are the odds? And why there was one in there, God only knows. I quickly called the DMV to see if they would accept a copy and guess what I found out? I didn't even need my marriage license! The woman at the DMV was totally incompetent. I asked the woman on the phone if a copy would work-just in case they didn't believe me that I didn't need the license. She told me that it would only work if it was a certified copy and had the state seal stampy thing on it. Amazing! It did! I was on my way back to the DMV. Anyway, it did work out. I got my freakin renewal, but moral of the story. Even if you think you did everything right, anytime you have to do something like renewing your license, you should just plan on it taking all day.

Two Months Already?

Wow I can't believe it has been TWO whole months since the most wonderful little girl came into our lives. Averie is growing so quickly and reaching new milestones every day! Here are her two month stats:

Weight: 10.8 lbs 50th percentile
Height: 23.03 inches 76th percentile
Head Circumference:15.2 inches 46th percentile

Two month appointment. SUCKS! It was so upsetting to watch Averie scream while I had to let this nurse stab her. I am so glad we don't have to go through that again for a few months.

Here are some of the latest happenings with Aves:

She is just about the happiest baby I have ever seen. She almost never stops smiling. She laughed for the first time on Father's Day at Brian. I guess I'll let him have that one.She has just started finding her voice. She will coo and carry on a conversation with me. This video is the absolute cutest. Ignore my dorky baby talk and about the last 40 seconds. She got sick of talking to me and started screaming :)

She is getting really good at holding her head up and does great sitting in the Bumbo.
She is sleeping through the night most nights! I put her to bed around 9-9:30ish and she sleeps until about 5:30-6:00ish and will sleep again until about 8. Such a good girl! Trust me, I realize how lucky I am! This picture cracks me up because first of all, who sleeps like this, and her eyes are slightly cracked open (Just like how her daddy sleeps). She looks like a doll.She has started being slightly more mobile. I have to be careful leaving her unattended in her bouncer or on the bed. Yesterday I put her in the bouncer and she fell asleep. I didn't buckle her in because I didn't want to disturb her. Well I left the room for about five minutes to go get something from downstairs and came back to her half way on the ground! I am so glad she didn't slide all the way out, but it made me realize from this point forward I need to be really careful.

She does a very good job following voices. She actually makes eye contact!

She FINALLY mastered breastfeeding (just in time for me to go back to work :( ).

She loves her baths.She has figured out how to "fake cry". When she feels like she is not getting enough attention, she will start crying and when I walk over to her she immediately stops. I could see how this is going to be a problem.

She still loves the baby gym. Best invention ever. Oh and if I am upstairs, the ceiling fan does wonders at catching her attention as well.
I can't wait to see how much she will change over the next two months.

The Best New Daddy

I am late posting this but I just want to wish my wonderful hubby a Happy Father's Day! Brian is the best daddy around. He is so good with Averie and she is so lucky to have him as her dad.
Brian always tries to spend as much time as possible with this little girl. She loves her "dance dance" time with him. He is great about taking her when I need him too and he is not afraid to change a diaper or two! I am so lucky to have such an involved husband. It is so cute to watch them together. She is going to be a total Daddy's Girl for sure! Happy Father's Day Babe, you are the Best!

Smiles Anyone?

Starting to look pretty happy. Quick Mom, grab the camera!

Almost there...

There it is!

I am absolutely loving this stage of Averie! I am so lucky that I have such a happy baby. Here are a couple of my other favorites. Ignore the horrible photography skills, it is almost impossible to catch her smiles let alone have the picture turn out.
I had to include this one. Yes that is Vaseline in her hair. Brian thought that he would do her hair the other night and he thought Vaseline was the answer. It was SO greasy! It took me two days to get it all washed out.
And this one should probably get me the award for the Worst Parent. Yes she is on the bathroom floor. But seriously how could I disturb her? I had her sitting in her Bumbo and she started falling asleep. I put her down for 5 minutes so I could finish fixing my hair and she was out.One of these days I will find something else to blog about besides this darling little girl, but you have to admit she is pretty fun to look at and hear about!

Blessing Day

Yesterday was Averie's blessing day. It was the perfect day. The weather was amazing, and we had such a wonderful turn out for her special day. We feel so loved to have such supportive family and friends. Thank you to everyone who came. Averie looked so beautiful in her dress. Can you believe I actually caught her smiling?


However, this was her face for the majority of the day:I don't think that she liked being all dressed up. With all the ruffles and the tights, who can blame her? It didn't help that it was really hot too. As soon as we got home we stripped her down to something more comfortable. Here is a pic of our little family of three. Ignore my cheesey grin.

After sacrament meeting we all headed over to the park for some good eating. I think that it turned out pretty good. I was a little bit of a basket case. I realized how much I HATE being in charge. I guess the days of just showing up to a get together are over now that I am the parent. We had so much fun though. We had some good food followed by some bad mitten, croquet and lasso golf. Thanks again to all those that came and brought food. We love you all!
Here are the two babes. Caleb is growing, but Averie is still double his size. They were so pooped from being passed around all day.Some more eye candy just in case you forgot how precious she is! My little chunker girl.Oh and one more random piece of advice. If you have a bag of grass seed, make sure you close the bag when you are finished. I came accross this growing in the bag and I laughed for about five minutes straight.

Memorial Happenings

This Memorial Weekend was a busy one for us. Brian took his usual trip to the St. Anthony Sand Dunes and Averie and I decided that we weren't going to sit at home bored while he was gone. My best friend in the entire world, Diana, had her little boy 10 days after Averie was born. We really wanted to get together some time during our maternity leave so that the kiddos could meet each other and we could baby swap for a few days. Well lets just say, I definitely was not bored flying to Denver. I thought about driving, but 2 hour feedings would make an eight hour drive turn into a 12 hour drive. A 90 minute flight seemed like a much more suitable solution. I will be honest though, flying with a baby by yourself is not the easiest thing in the world. Going through security was a joke. I had to hold Averie, take off my shoes and belt, take the stroller apart from the car seat, get everything on the belt to go through the xray, and the security guy had the nerve to stop me and say, "Mam, you need to take off the babies shoes." Are you kidding me?!? Really?! It did help that I have the world's best behaved baby. Averie is so easy and this trip really made me realize how lucky I am. She slept pretty much the entire time at the airport. When we got on the plane I was totally preparing myself to be one of those moms who frantically tries to calm her screaming child while all the other passengers glare in annoyance. This wasn't the case though. Averie ate while we took off and slept the rest of the way to Denver. All the people around me kept commenting on how they couldn't believe how good she did. That's my Averie girl. I really wanted a picture on the plane with her, but you know that flying alone thing didn't really allow for me to dig my camera out and snap a picture. So I guess you will just have to believe me that I did indeed go on an airplane with a one month old.
Once we got to Diana's we of course had to lay the kids side by side to compare. Averie is huge compared to Andrew. We could not believe the difference in length, width, everything!
Her feet were so much longer than Andrew's as well. She would wrap her toes around his, it was adorable.It was almost impossible to do much of anything while we were there. I have a new respect for parents of twins. Any time we would want to do something, it would take hours to get ready. Just when we would have one baby fed and ready, the other would wake up and need to be fed. They never managed to stay on the same schedule. It was exhausting to go anywhere. We did manage to make it to the park one day though and go for a walk. The weather was so nice and I really think the kids liked it as much as we did.Well, at least they were content. We tried out swinging for the first time in a long time. Diana and I noticed almost instantly that our hips have changed dramatically since the last time we tried to swing. Ouch!Andrew of course fell asleep instantly as Diana started to swing. This kid loves to be rocked and snuggled.And then there is Miss Averie. Doesn't really like to snuggle. Of course is WIDE awake. And must be facing out so she can see what is going on. I do think she enjoyed it though.
We had so much fun visiting. I can't wait to see Diana, Sean, and little Andrew again!After the trip to Denver, Brian and I went up to Logan with Andy and AmyLyn for some Caleb time. Brian and AmyLyn hadn't seen Caleb yet and the rest of us were dying to see him again. Speaking of how huge Averie is. It is ridiculous to even compare her and Caleb.
I can't believe how fast Averie has grown. She wasn't ever as tiny as Caleb is, but she was still pretty small. I can't believe that she used to be almost as small as her cousin is now. He is such a cutie and I can't wait for them both to grow up and be the best of friends.