When Duty Calls

Dave has started taking call and working a different type of schedule. He has random days off during the week now and we're slowing adjusting to it. He had his first 24 hour call at the hospital and we all survived! It was on a Saturday so we ordered a pizza and took it to work to eat with him. We don't feel that bad for him since he has cable and a giant tv in his room:) The next day for church I got the girls ready and to church early! I was impressed with my mad organizing skills the night before. It was my first time teaching RS as well which I survived. It's definitely a different dynamic than running around in nursery and primary! I got the girls these really cute matching dresses and they of course looked adorable in them! I love having two girls close together that can match. I just hope they continue to let me dress them!

Summer's Almost Over

August is coming to a close and that means Summer is almost gone. These past few months seem to have dragged on so I'm welcoming cooler weather. We've been blessed to spend a lot of time together as a family this summer. For the past two summers Dave has had to do away rotations for school. Some of our favorite things have been bike rides, fishing, frozen yogurt, swinging in the back yard, roasting marshmallows, scooter rides, pulling carrots from the garden, way too many Sam Club pizza combos, building towers and lots more outdoor adventures. Addison is slowly snapping out of her really sad defiant phase since moving here. I think seeing friends on a weekly basis has really helped. Avery got to enjoy her first taste of spaghetti and it's always a fun time! Dave and I tried to pawn off cleanup on the other person. Addison is becoming a really big cleaning helper (and mess maker!) around here. She begged me to let her clean the toilet of all places last week. She loves to dust and spray the glass cleaner for me. 

New Calling

I got called to teach Relief Society once a month and be in charge of the activities. When I got called they asked if I could do them quarterly. Since leaving Buffalo I have really missed frequent relief society gatherings. I decided to commit to doing them every other month. We had our first activity a couple weeks ago and it went really well! A lot of prayers were answered and everything went smoothly. I don't really have a supportive committee yet, but am hoping in the next month to have a couple more ladies help. We put on a dinner and a nice program on service. I made a nice invitation to hand out that got people excited about coming. The dinner was a lot of work and I don't think that we'll be doing those very often, but almost 50 people came! The counselor that works with me decided that we should set 50 place settings. We were pre platting the food to cut down on time so I was worried about wasting a lot of food. When the night was over we only had 3 plates left. We collected school supplies for a local shelter and we only set up two donation bins. We were hoping to fill them both up, but ended up filling the entire stage! The representatives from the shelter were so grateful and I couldn't believe everyone's generosity. It was a testimony builder to me on faith and trusting that the Lord will provide when you put forth an earnest effort for his work. This calling seems like it's going to be a lot of work, but I'm enjoying getting to know more woman that I probably wouldn't get to otherwise. 

More Cousin Time

We were lucky enough to have Eliza and the girl's come over for a whole day a couple weeks ago. It was really fun to let the girl's have an entire day to play freely with each other. We ended the day with frozen yogurt and running around outside. These girl's are incredibly lucky to have each other so close in age. Now we just need to work on getting together more often! I had to take the girls shopping a few weeks ago and Addison did really well so she got some Frozen themed Jelly Beans. They were sparkly and she was on cloud nine. Now I just need to find them in a giant bag...:) Dave got Addison dressed one day and she chose her batman shirt and a tutu. Bless her heart she is a girly girl through and through!

Moving On...

One night when Addison was asleep the pull up fairy came and took ALL her pull ups away. We are completely in big girl panties from here on out! Addison filled out a Doc McStuffins potty chart in one week for each time she went and traded it in for a Belle doll. For the most part she is doing really well. This is probably the most frequent her bed sheets have been changed though. She has had a few accidents, but is doing a MILLION times better than our other 100 attempts. She is even going on her own and holding it till we get to a store if we're out. I finally feel like she might be able to go to kindergarten with her peers someday:) Now going number 2 is a whole different story, but we're taking baby steps with this potty business!

While we're on the subject of milestones Avery is now 100% finished nursing! She's taking it like a brave champ and even had her first babysitter put her to bed this weekend. She is taking bottles really well almost three times a day. I put her in her highchair with it reclined and she feeds herself like a big girl. She still pulls at my leg and says, "Mama Mama" mid afternoon, but she's holding herself together and moving on! Her first birthday is only 3 weeks away and she stills seems to little to me! We taught her how to point to her nose this week. Most of the time her pointer finger goes up her nose when we tell her to point to it:) After she does it we all clap and she gets really excited. Addison likes to remind Avery that she has a nose as well. 

Sound Machine

Someone suggested buying a sound machine to try and help Avery sleep better and it worked!! She is the worlds lightest sleeper and it has helped a ton. We used to always go in and kiss the girl's goodnight, but had to stop with Avery because she would wake up. I would crack open the door and she would bolt up. Then it would take her almost an hour to calm back down. Now she listens to the ocean really really loud all night and sleeps for the most part a lot better. She is still getting up a couple nights a week, but is also sleeping in a lot later as well (like 7 instead of 5:30!). Avery has really developed a little personality in the past couple weeks. She is learning to walk behind her push toys and is getting really good at it. Addison likes to cheer her on as she does it. Avery loves bananas and her favorite thing to do while eating them is to smear it in the sides of her hair. It makes her hair really crusty and stick straight out. It makes us all laugh when she does it. We've taught her sign language for the word more. She is catching on how to do it and it is really neat to see. She gets really excited when I say, "More" to her and she will do it back at least once a day. Avery has finally found her voice. For the longest time I thought she was going to be really quiet and reserved. Now she blabbers and calls all day long! She says, "Ma Ma" the most, but has said, "Da Da" as well. It's mostly when she wants to nurse or be held though. Today when I was helping Addison brush her teeth Avery was trying so hard for me to pick her up she pulled my pants down! She started giggling and it was really cute. Avery gives me hope that I'll have a good eater in my family. This girls eats and she eats good! She'll eat almost anything that I give her and eats double what Addison eats. It funny how different they are. Avery now how almost three teeth with the third one being her top tooth. She just discovered eating watermelon and loves it! Avery is almost 11 months and is changing so much every day. She's entering that wild woman phase at church now that she's much more busy:)

New Friends

We just hit the 4 month mark of moving here and we are all making new friends. Poor Addi is surround by pretty much all boys! We have been going to a different park each week for playgroup. We meet up with some nice little friends and they run wild and have fun. One of the things I have missed the most about Buffalo is Addison having friends. It makes me so happy that she is starting to remember friends names and ask if she can play with them. One of the parks we went to had a tall tower that reminds everyone of Repunzal. I took all the kids up the tower and the view was beautiful. Turns out I'm still scared of heights, but Addison didn't inherit that trait! I organized a ladies night at the yummy Melting Pot on night last week. We had a really good turn out and of course the food was delicious.  We've started to go to the library once a week and we love it! When Addison was a baby I used to take her a lot and then we kind of stopped. The library here is amazing! They have a really big children's area that is sectioned off so if they are loud it doesn't matter. Addison brings her library bag and she gets to take home 2 or 3 books. Somehow we always end up princess books:) Avery enjoys throwing all the books Addison hands her on the ground and watching her pick them up over and over. We discovered a local grocery store called Dorthy Lane Market and they have an amazing bakery. We like to go there every once in a while and get a really big treat! Addison picked out this giant snow cone decorated cup cake. It took almost a week for her to finish it. Dave started working call and longer shifts now. This means that sometimes he has to spend the night at the hospital. We brought him dinner on Saturday and we got to see where he works. Addison enjoyed toughing everything and playing with the heart listener as she calls it. Dayton is becoming more and more like home!

Dirty 30!!

Dave turned the big 3-0!!! He wasn't very excited and said that he didn't feel any different, but I was really happy for him. We've been wanting to meet up with the Quinn's for a while and Dave didn't have to work on the weekend of his birthday. We meet them in Pittsburgh which was about 4 hours for each of us. We broke in our new swagger wagon and the ride was a breeze with the dvd player and lots of space. We stayed in the same hotel and had a really nice weekend catching up and celebrating Dave. We went to a state park called, Ohiopyle that had a natural water slide. Dave used the excuse of having to hold Avery that he couldn't go down the slide:) We played in the hotel pool, ate yummy food and played games. We miss the Quinn's and Addison was on cloud nine playing with the their kids again. Dave used his birthday money to buy black powder supplies for his new riffle. We all went down to Bass Pro Shop for him to pick it all out. Addison picked out a shirt and pair of pants that sadly didn't fit. She colored him a picture and then cut in into 100 pieces to make a puzzle. We picked out a big butterfinger for him that Dave was nice enough to share with Addi. Happy birthday Dave we loved celebrating your big day and are glad you gave us a reason to celebrate!