After I left my parents house, I got pretty busy.  I had a meeting on Thursday night with a bride for her September wedding.  Aubrey came down Friday afternoon to spend some time with us.  But I drove to Meadow Creek Bed and Breakfast in Pine for a rehearsal for a wedding the next day.  The rehearsal went well but it was so cold up there, it felt like it could snow.  I was home early enough that I was able to hang out with Aubrey and the kids for quite a while.  Then Saturday the 1st, I went back up there for the wedding.  The wedding went well, I did make one huge mistake (well it was between the caterer and I – the caterer setup everything for the reception and I didn’t check it well enough and something was missing).  I was able to correct it and put it out later but it still bothered me.  The bride and groom said it was no big deal but I have a feeling it was kind of a big deal but who knows.

On Sunday, we didn’t do too much just hung out.  Went shopping and made stuff. 

I started working on the 3rd, so that was not fun!  I am not a morning person at all so working for a school is difficult.  My day starts at 5:45am.  I get up and get ready for work.  Then I get Ava up and put her in the car to go to the sitter.  We leave the house around 6:20am every morning.  I get to the sitters house around 6:45am and then head to work.  But I do get off at 3pm, which is really nice and after picking up Ava, we are home around 3:45ish.  I love having the rest of the afternoon and evening at home.  I hated coming home late when I worked at the bridal store because I wasn’t able to see Ava for very long.  We put her to bed around 7pm because she has to get up so early.  It is also nice to have time to ourselves for a couple hours in the evening.

On Saturday August 8, we had Wi’ll first birthday party at the house.  It turned out great and a lot family came, which was very nice to see.  Aubrey had a sports theme, so we made two cakes – one soccer ball made by me and one softball made by Aubrey.  We were up pretty late on Friday night making everything and cleaning up the kitchen.  Saturday I had a couple meetings I had to go to, one was in Denver for a new bride and the other was in Colorado Springs, also with a new bride.  They both ended up booking, which is awesome!  So I have 30 weddings for 2009 and 4 weddings for 2010.  I am hoping that 2010 will be as big as 2009.  It has been an awesome year for weddings and I am thrilled.  Well…ask me after September, I have 7 in one month!!

On Sunday (before Aubrey went down to my parents house), Nick was outside cleaning out the cars and getting the Mazda ready to be sold.  We took all of the kids outside and had ice cream.  Well, Ava really didn’t get how to eat it…well she did but didn’t know that you had to eat it quickly.  So it started melting all over the place.  Then she said it was raining (which is what she does when she gets wet and is not in the tub), we told her no, it was her ice cream, and she needed to eat it.  She did not like that at all and soon she was a big mess.  Ice cream all over the place and crying too.  And what kind of mom am I?  I pulled out my camera and snapped some photos of her.  Finally we took the ice cream away and I took her inside to bathe her.

Nick and I both started working on the 10th.  We both had to work all week.  Aubrey left on Wednesday morning.  Monday she spent time at my parents house and then she came up on Tuesday with my mom.  We went grocery shopping at the commissary (since it is so much cheaper there) and then we came home.  We made asian food for dinner that include sushi (which I didn’t eat) and lumpia.  The lumpia was really even though it was not done until 8:30pm.  Dad came up later so he could take Aubrey to the airport on Wednesday morning. 

We just worked the rest of the week and we were so thankful when it was Saturday!  Saturday we spent the day around the house.  Nick mowed the lawn and all of that.  We really didn’t do too much but relax.  On Sunday, I have 3 meeting scheduled.  The first one was a phone meeting that didn’t happen.  She said they got busy and we are rescheduling this week.  It is for a wedding for next year on my birthday.  The second meeting was for a bride and groom for their wedding this September.  It went very well and I am going to make their timeline today.  The third meeting was for a new bride for next year but she also had something come up last minute so we are rescheduling for this week sometime.

This week is going to be busy as well.   I have a wedding on Friday that I have to leave work early for -  I think I am going to leave at 1:45pm.  I also have their rehearsal on Wednesday afternoon at 4pm.  It is great that it is on a Wednesday because Nick’s mom will watch Ava.  Then on Saturday I am volunteering at Brides Against Breast Cancer from 2-8pm.  I am looking forward to it!  Nick is also starting tryout this week so he will not be home until 6:30pm every night this week. 

All in all, a busy week!  I am typing this at work so I don’t have any pictures but I will post some later on tonight when I get home.

Yesterday I had a final walkthrough at a venue in Pine so Nick went to pick up Aubrey and her kids from the airport.  When I got home, they were sleeping on the couch.  Apparently, Aubrey did not go to sleep the night before because she waited until the last minute to pack…that doesn’t sound like Aubrey does it?  ::insert sarcasm here::  Nick also told me that Will have been sick and thrown up 6 times that day.  So after Aubrey woke up by a phone call from a doctor in South Carolina, we took Will to the hospital.  Luckily, they were not busy at all, so we were able to take him right back.  As soon as we were called back, Will threw up in the  waiting room and I was holding him.  So I got a little puke on me…gross. 

We ended up staying for a few hours and they gave him Zofran.  He felt better and was able to nurse and have it stay down so we were discharged.  We went home and packed so we could come down to our parent’s house. 

Today, Opa came down and we were able to catch up with him.  Unfortunately for him, Will decided to get sick again!  So Aubrey took him to the ER again and they told her they would probably do just the same as the other ER so she was back quickly.  She gave him another dose of Zofran, and has seemed to be better, at least no throwing up.  He is a very happy baby.

Watching Will has made me realize how quickly time passes…I can’t remember what words Ava was saying when she was a year old or what she looked like when she walked.  I wish I would have taken more video of her doing things throughout the day or wrote in her baby book more.  I want to document her life, so when she is older I can remember how things were when she was little.  My mother in law remembers everything about Nick and my brother in law…or at least she seems too.  I don’t want to forget about this experience or my little girl.  It all moves too fast and I am sad about that.  Maybe that will be motovation to blog more (although I do have a journal I have been keeping since December and I know I wrote about Ava in it).

That all said, I am trying to remember if Ava did anything out of the ordinary for today…well she did not have a nap but she did really well despite that.  She fell asleep in Pappy’s arms after her bath.  She wanted to play outside all day and we did the best to accomodate that.  She played in the dirt with Kylee and loved it!  She ate almost a whole burrito with meat on it, which is great considering she hardly ever eats meat.  She let Aubrey put all kinds of bows in her hair this morning and didn’t make a fuss, which is sometimes out of the ordinary too.  What else…she ate almost a whole sandwich for lunch, normally she just has a half.  Will and Ava were “talking” to each other today, she would say something to him and he would scream and then she would scream back, it was pretty cute.  She still is trying to stay everything you say and does it pretty well.  She is talking so much now, it is crazy everything she can say.  I should try to make a list of things she says  on a regular basis.  Oh and Monday night (the 27th) she peed in the potty all by herself which is a pretty big deal.  We made a big deal about it and she got a treat.  Hopefully this will continue.  We also gave up her bottles this week.  We told her that Alannah and Will needed then, it has been going well so far.  She really has not asked for them.  We have just give her a cup with milk in it for nap and bed time, she hardly drinks anything out of it though, so we know she doesn’t need it.

Wow, that was a lot of rambling…sorry.

Anyway, we have been busy!  Nick coached the girl’s soccerteam in the Spring and they did pretty well.  They were not able to go to playoff’s because this was their first year and they were not in a good league but hopefully they will be able to go next year.  Nick will also be teaching at Palmer Ridge again.  Last year was his last year as a probational teacher so now he is considered a professional teacher in the district.  This means he will basically have a job as long as he wants in this district.  This is great news for us, considering the ecomony and the cuts that happened at his school last year.  He is gearing up for another busy year with coaching the boys and girls soccer teams again.  He starts works again on August 10th.

I am still doing my wedding business and this has been a great year so far!  I have 27 weddings this year and it is my best season so far.  I was a bit concerned because of the economy but it has turned out to be great.  I am really loving it and hope that sometime soon I will be able to do it full time.  I also work in the same school district as Nick does.  This is another huge blessing.  We were unsure about my job situation because of some financial issues within the district, but they were able to keep me on.  So we know for sure I will have a job until next May and will be paid through next August.  We are hoping there will be a spot for me somewhere  next year as well.

Ava is now 20 months old and is growing like a weed.  She says at least 75 words and will repeat anything she hears…that can be a bad thing.  She definitely is developing her own personality and it is not always a good thing.    She will be going to the sitter this year again while we are working but we will have family to help us out again two days a week.  We are having a ton of fun and can’t believe our summer is almost over.

At the beginning of July we had some family pictures taken by Ross with Elegant Images.  I have put a pictures below, if you want to see the rest let me know or if you want to have one printed for you!

We just got  back from our vacation to Maui!  We were there for a week in the middle of July and it was awesome.  We went with Nick’s family.  We stayed in a gorgeous condo right on the beach in Wailea.  Ava had the best time!!  She loved the “o-show” (ocean)…she could not get enough.  When we got back from vacation, Nick had a soccer kickaround with his boys and noticed a light come on in one of our cars.  So needless to say, we just bought a new car, well new to us car.  It is a Honda Accord V-6 6speed with 47,000 miles on it.  We got it from Nick’s cousin and she gave us a sweet deal!

The next week or so is going to be crazy!!  Tomorrow we are picking up Aubrey from the airport.  I have a meeting so Nick is going to get her.  Then when I come back we are going to Jenny’s (it is Aubrey’s favorite place in the whole world, I think) then we are headed down to Pueblo to visit the parents for a few days.   On Thursday, I have a meeting in Denver in the late evening so we are going to have to leave in the afternoon from Pueblo.  I have a wedding this weekend so I have a rehearsal on Friday night.  Are you still with me??  Then I have a meeting on Saturday before the wedding in the afternoon.  All the while, Nick is playing in a soccer tournament at the Air Force Academy.  We are lucky Aubrey is going to be here, she can watch Ava for us.  Then I start work next Monday, while Nick has the week off.   Aubrey is going to Breck with the parents Wednesday through Friday and then on Saturday the 8th, we are having Will’s birthday party at our house.

Well this is a long enough post, so I will leave you with a few pictures.  And I will try to be better about this, but who knows who is reading this anyway, right?

So this weekend was pretty quiet.  I didn’t have a wedding and Nick didn’t have a soccer game. 

I went to Denver on Saturday for a meeting with a bride and she is going to book me, yay!  So Nick stayed home with Ava while I did that.  Then we went everywhere looking for a costume for Ava and couldn’t find what we wanted.  When we got home, we had a bit of dinner.  Then Ava threw up on me, ewww – seriously gross!  I also noticed on Friday that Ava is getting a tooth – so we don’t know if she is feeling sick or what, but not a fun experience!  She seemed to be fine afterward though.

Sunday morning we got a call that Nick didn’t have a soccer game so we were all able to hang out again.  We went to breakfast at Ihop then we went to look for a costume again.  We ended up with a pumpkin, sorry Aubrey!  There was really not too much of a selection anywhere, I guess next year we will have to start earlier.

On Tuesday, Nick’s boys have their last soccer game.  I know Nick is ready to have the season over with – it will also be nice because then we can drive to work together and save on gas.  Friday we are going to pick some pumpkins at a pumpkin farm.  I also have a wedding on Saturday the 18th.  We are going to have some fall pictures taken on the 18th too. 

Just to update you on Ava too.  She can crawl like a champ and go up the stairs.  She is now walking when holding your hand and along wall, furniture, ect.  She can say up, mama, dada and baba (bottle).  I think she is looking more and more like Nick, but everyone says she looks like me too, I don’t see it.  At her last appointment, she was 18 lbs and 27 inches. 

Here are some pictures!