The Frid's

Frustration + Transition with a side of Patience PLEASE!!!

2012-01-20T15:33:00.000-06:00

Whew, since Christmas i feel like our world has been a whirl wind. As many of you know we have been searching for houses for quite some time. We decided to rent our house out and look into moving before this new baby boy arrives, and we thought the hard part would be finding a house when it has turned into a waiting game that requires a lot of patience. We found two houses in Cottonwood that we love, thanks to Uncle Puff and KK that is, but the only problem is that the people who currently own these houses have to find a place to move to before they can sell them. Thus the waiting game...

So since we have been driving over to Cottonwood like every other day to look at houses our lives have felt crazy, and its been extra hard to know if we should go ahead and start on baby boy's nursery in this current house or not. So all that to say, that is why i have not posted any pics of new baby stuff or plans for the new nursery because up until last week that room was a cluttered mess. And while we are on the topic we have finally decided on a name for this little dude...

SLOAN PERSSON FRIDRICHSEN

We finally decided right after Christmas and we really like it! Persson is a Swedish family name from obviously Jonas' side of the family, and Sloan was just a name that we both loved and agreed upon! We have been working with Avery on saying baby brother and knowing where he is, which has led to this...

It was so sweet the first couple of times she did this but now she proceeds to lift my shirt up at the grocery store...just as sweet but not quite as convenient.

Now back to today's title...little miss Avie has had a lot of changes over the past week. It started off with a super clingy and more on the babyish side kid and has now changed to a more independent toddler who plays great on her own, but gets super frustrated with the fact that we cant communicate clearly with words. Frustrated may be an understatement too because her version of this is laying face down on the floor, kicking, and crying for like 10 seconds. However, once she has done that she is normally done so i guess i cant really complain but its so weird how much her personality has changed this week. But, even though she has changed so much it hasnt changed her love for music and her love for doing this...

Luckily she has not gotten sick of her christmas toys yet so she still has a love for this guy..

Mr. Cozy Coupe has been a great gift thanks to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jan!!

Hope everyone is having a great week! So glad its Friday and we are having sunny weather with 60 degrees on Sunday!!! Arrington Vineyards in calling our name!

Baby Gizmo Giveaway

2012-01-06T13:34:00.000-06:00

Ok so Baby Gizmo is an amazing website that I recently became a fan through some friends of ours, Chris and Michelle Reis. Right now they have an awesome giveaway going on, and they are giving away the bugaboo donkey stroller that can turn from a single stroller to a double one!

Click on the link below to visit the website
http://blog.babygizmo.com/2012/01/baby-gizmo-new-year-bugaboo-donkey-giveaway/

Enjoy!

Merry Merry and Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T14:40:00.000-06:00

We had the best Christmas! We got to celebrate with all 4 families and we even got to go to Birmingham to see Jan/Lisa and The Spann crew. It was so fun with Avery this year because she was actually cognizant of what was happening and she even partook in her present opening, and oh did she have some presents. I think i am the most thankful for her new toys because for the past 2 months we have been just trying to make it to Christmas when we knew that she would get new toys to entertain her during the day.

Since i took like literally 300 pictures during Christmas, i tried to pick out the best ones from all of the family functions so that we wouldnt have a mile long blog post.

{sidenote: im learning to never say "i will never..." because i totally dressed my dog up for cmas, and i said i would never dress my pet up} im that person

Here is Miss A with her Christmas tree!

Avery with her GeeGee

Avery with Christian and Caroline on Christmas Eve morning

Baby Hunter's first Christmas!

Sissy and Debbie with all the grandkids

Avery with FarMor and FarFar

BeBe and Mister on Christmas day

Daddy surprised Avie with her own Uke!

face timing with Brian, Roch, and the twins in Mexico

In Bham with Jan and Lisa

Christmas with the Spann's

Now on to New Years! We had the best low key night with friends and pizza. El and Cherry brought Lo over to play with Avie, and Chad/Kater, Gav/Margaret, and Keith all came over to hang out too.

Love these girls!

A showing Lo her Alphabet toy she got for Christmas

Cherry and Avie bringing in the new year!

Avie and Puff Daddy

Hope everyone had a blessed holiday season with family and friends!

Decking the Halls

2011-12-20T15:16:00.000-06:00

Sorry it is picture OVERLOAD below...but maybe you'll enjoy it more than my rambling. We have had a very busy past couple of weeks. We had the birth of baby Amelia and trips back and forth between Birmingham were a must to see that little cutie, then we came home and finally got our house decorated for Christmas which you will see pics of below, and then yesterday we found out what this little baby bump is going to be come May! And you will just have to scan through all our pics and read to find out...

Avery got her very own manger scene for Christmas last year and she.is.obsessed.

Maybe we should get A a hair cut for Christmas?? I love how long its getting though...

Stoney got in on the festivities too.

We started off the night decorating with an entire outfit on and then ended up like this...

Avie getting to put the first ornament on the tree

Avery admiring her work...

Here is a finished picture of our tree and holiday advent ladder. Jonas helped me make this ladder, it was another crazy DIY from a blog i love and i like how it turned out!

And here is Jonas with baby Amelia. She is so cute a snugly and we had the best time seeing her for a brief 24 hours in Bham.

Big sister, Brooklyn, making sure Amelia sees her animals that are there for her entertainment :)

Avery and Brookie got to entertain each other/play around each other.

Avery has become obsessed with this blue ball and carries it around everywhere...im constantly tripping over this blasted thing.

Look how big she is getting, she still seems so babyish to me sometimes and it's so weird that she is going to be a big sister soon!

Sesame Street break

These little guys were fun to make and are super easy as im sure you can tell. I made them for Jonas' cousins who just had a baby in November and they have two older boys who loved these things.

And here are some more action shots of this little chick, she is so fun right now and keeps us laughing all day everyday.

And finally for the news you scrolled all the way down for...

It's a BOY!!!

When we went in yesterday morning, the second the ultrasound tech put the machine on my belly it was on the baby's bottom, and at first it looked like a girl but then when she barely moved it you could definatly tell it was a little boy! We were so excited/shocked, mainly just because we totally thought it was another girl, but we are very excited that we will be having one of each now! We went out to eat last night with our parents to Maggianos and told them with the dessert...

Thank you to all of you who prayed and thought about us yesterday! We definatly felt it!

Amelia Katherine Spann

2011-12-01T13:49:00.001-06:00

She's here!!! Born at 9:53 this morning and weighing in at 7lbs 3oz and 20 inches long! She is a beauty and everyone is doing great! Thanks for everyone's prayers!

Sister News

2011-11-26T13:22:00.000-06:00

So obviously i have been probably the worst blogger ever lately, i blame it on my work situation changing. :) However, i did just notice that i had not blogged about the latest exciting news that has happened in our little family...well ill just let Avery tell you...

That's right! This little monkey is going to be a BIG SISTER. It's so weird and in fact when we found out back in September we didnt really believe it or a few weeks. We weren't exactly thinking about or prepared to have another child yet but i guess that is why God gives you 9 months for preparation. We are at 16 weeks now and doing much better in the second trimester than we were in the first. We go to the doctor again on Monday for our 16 week checkup, and then we find out on December 23rd whether its a boy or a girl.

It's been weird how different this pregnancy has been. With Avery everything was all new, but now with the second its almost like i forget im pregnant most of the time! I do have two really good friends that are pregnant right now too, one with her first and the other with her second, so that has been really fun and therapeutic to have them going through it with me.

And we also have this little missy..

who is going to be a big sister THIS WEEK, and who is going to be a great example to Avie of what a big sister should be. Little Amelia is making her debut we think this coming Thursday! Ash is due December 4 but they are going to go ahead and induce on the Nov 30th thinking that Amelia will come the next day. We are so excited about her coming into the family and cant wait to see what she looks like!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Trick or Treat

2011-11-08T20:25:00.000-06:00

Last week on halloween we went trick or treating with this cute alligator...

and this cute chicken...

I was skeptical of how Avie would do with trick or treating but Cherry had the genius idea of taking their wagon to pull the kids in and it worked great! We went over to Fredericksburg where Aubs and Matt live cause the houses are close together and there aren't like a bajillion stairs that the kids have to walk up to get the front door of the house. We had the best time and the kids actually did really well. Lo had to help Avie out with her "Trick-or-Treat" since she hadn't quite mastered those words yet. What are friends for anyways? It was so fun and hopefully we can make it a yearly tradition.

Since we were over to Aubs neck of the woods we got to see her and her "little pumpkin"! She is starting to show and looks great! Oh, and she found out she is having a BOY!!!! we cant wait for Carter Naish West to get here in March!

Checking out each other's costume's...

Happy Halloween! Hope everyone had a fun time with friends!!

Thanks Lofty for letting us trick or treat with you!!

October Madness

2011-11-01T11:42:00.000-05:00

So all the pictures below were stolen from my sis off her blog cause i just havent had a chance to sit down and download pictures from my camera onto our computer....or im just lazy these days.

We went to Gentry Farms a few weeks ago with the kiddos while Brookie and Ash were in town and it was SO much fun. They have a corn maze for the kids, a hayride, a petting zoo, and some kind of corn trough for the kids to learn about and play with corn. It was so fun seeing all the cousins interact with each other and play. Every time we get them together they seem more and more playful with each other and at some points delirious from all the fun.

We also had a day at Pinkerton Park with the extended fam while Ash was here. BB and JJ had a picnic planned for us and we had about 7 of the cousins altogether so that they could play. It's always fun to get together with our cousins, we were so close growing up and i hope our kids can continue that and play together throughout the years.

Ray fam minus Levi

Check our Avie's pose...she thought she was at Olan Mills

playing football with her cuzzies

the whole ray collins fam...crazy that next year little Amelia will be with us!

Sleepless in Seattle

2011-10-18T20:51:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, Jonas and I got to have an "adult" trip. We missed Avery ALOT but i will say it was glorious. :) Jonas was out west on business so i went out to meet him in Seattle and we did so much. We had always wanted to go there {me, for my crazy Grey's Anatomy obsession; him, for his crazy Pearl Jam obsession} So needless to say we were pretty happy. The city is beautiful and clean like Chicago/San Francisco, with mountains all around it

This was the view from our hotel room, which by the way was really nice and being on the 38th floor you get a view like the pic below, however i wasn't just being cute with the title of today's post...we didn't get great sleep cause our bed was super soft and squishy and we basically just rolled to the middle and sank every night...it was less than awesome.

Granted, it was foggy and rainy alot so we didnt see much of the mountains, but we did have a sunny day that we drove outside of the city and hiked in the mountains and saw a beautiful view of a gorge.

And we had a fun day in the city just driving around seeing some of the famous sights like the space needle, the Pike Place Market, the original Starbucks,Cafe Vivace, Easy Street Records, and the Music Project Museum.

These flowers were at the Pike Place Market which is known for the flying fish and its incredible Farmer's Market, and these bouquets were unreal how pretty they were and they were only $5!! I felt like i was in a different country or something because at home they would have easily been like $30. You constantly saw men carrying these bouquets around.

This is the original starbucks, we went inside but were already caffeined out so we didnt buy anything. Figured a $5 frappacino tastes the same at home as it does in Seattle.

Seattle was definitely a fun city, but i think ill take my 75* fall TN weather over 50's and rain any day.

Well hello, October

2011-10-04T21:04:00.000-05:00

Can it really be October?

Ok, so truth be told, the reason i have not been blogging is because we have this lady from corporate who has come in to help us at work for awhile and she sits by my side like all day. Annnnnnd since my work days=blogging days, i have no longer had time to update everyone on our life with someone looking over my shoulder all day.

So anyways, this is what we have been up to lately...

We are climbing all over the place

getting to know new friends...

Avery started walking...like everywhere. All she wants to do is walk around, chase Stoney, and explore every place we go.

she LOVES music and wants it playing constantly

we walk down to the park with daddy and stoney in the afternoons

and we watch alot of football...

ok this really isnt her saying "touchdown", but come on...it could work :)

Hope everyone is having a happy fall! Jonas and I are off to Seattle this weekend for a long weekend together with no avie...we 'll miss her but we are really excited to see a new city and have a weekend to ourselves of sleeping in, hiking, and exploring!

Blessings,

Happy

2011-09-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

Just a few words to sum up my title...fall weather, boots, pumpkin spice latte, football, and friends...

The weather has been amazing the past few weeks here in Nashville and me and Avery have been going outside every chance we can get. She is walking like crazy these days and so we take frequent, but really slow, walks down to the end of our street to look at the flowers and swing. And when i say slow i mean, stops every few feet to pick up a new leaf. :) I love this age though...she has been learning so much lately and its so great to watch her learn and change.

This past weekend me and Avie took a drive down to Birmingham to spend some time with Ash and Brookie. We had such a blast shopping, laughing,watching football, and learning how to crochet! Ash is so good at it and has been doing it for years so she taught me how! So maybe i will be able to make some baby sacs, hats, and booties for some of these new babies i know arriving in the next year! My little football player also helped with the crochet. I know she looks just like a little boy here but i LOVE this T shirt. It was Jonas' as a baby and she has been wearing it now for like a week. haha

Last night, Jonas helped out with Avery while i got to spend some much needed time with these two gals...

We have had so much fun the past three years hanging out and laughing at and with each other. I love these two and always have a blast with them. Thanks for making life fun and exciting you two!!

The Past Two Weeks

2011-09-01T12:42:00.000-05:00

Well let's see...

In the past two weeks we have

A. switched Avery from bottles to sippy cups, which went surprisingly well.
B. Levi had his surgery and after a week in the hospital, went home and he is doing well.
C. Uncle C and Aunt kookie moved into their new house in Cottonwood and Avery has already broken it in with her pack n play.
D. I have officially begun decorating for fall in our house...i mean its September 1st, just be glad i didnt do it August 1st :)
E. we have booked a trip to Seattle for the beginning of October which i am so beyond pumped about. I am a huge Grey's anatomy fan(so sad i know) but i have always wanted to go out there because it looks so beautiful. Jonas is going to be out there on business so i am flying out to meet him for a long weekend! who knew southwest flew out there for dirt cheap!?

And thats all i can think of for now. Hope everyone is doing great!!!

-Blessings-

Dooms Day

2011-08-17T07:54:00.000-05:00

So i woke up early this morning to clean up my house a bit and go to publix to get some cow's milk for Avery. That's right COW'S milk...no more formula for this little chickadee. We went to the doctor last week for her 1 year appointment and he told us the best way to take her off of bottles and onto sippy cups is cold turkey. Is there a patch for that? I wish...someone should totally invent that...maybe after these next couple of days me and Avery will patent a design for one of those because to get this little girl off bottles is going to be pretty rough. Probably more rough in the fact that we wont have our snuggle time like we have had for a whole year while taking a bottle. We have been using the sippy cup for months now and she has gradually gotten better but she would still totally prefer her bottle over the cup. So today is Doom's Day in a sense that it marks our first day to go 'cold turkey' and be done with bottles. Doc said she could go a few days without drinking milk and be fine and that she would eventually get hungry enough and figure it out. Here's to hoping...we'll keep everyone posted on this new change...

Poor girl...doesn't even know what's coming...

Levi's Surgery Week!!

2011-08-15T11:05:00.000-05:00

So one of my favorite little boys is having a big week this week. On Thursday we ask for your prayers for Levi cause he is finally going to undergo surgery to have his trach reversed. We aren't exactly sure what the process will be like for him because there are multiple outcomes and surgery routes that the doctors could take. However, we are believing God for a miracle of healing in his airway. God created Levi, knew what his life was going to look like and partake of, and He is our ultimate healer so we are trusting God to do something beautiful and miraculous for Levi. Please pray for peace this week for Brian, Roch, and both of the boys as im sure this can be a confusing and anxious time for all of them. We will keep everyone updated on Levi and his progress and we appreciate your prayers!

Bittersweet One Year

2011-08-09T16:23:00.001-05:00

WE MADE IT!!! A whole year!

In order to properly do this post i am going to have to refer everyone back to one of Avery's very first pictures when she was brought into this crazy world.

Now lets look to today as a ONE year old..

I really am at a loss of words to say for this post. I seriously cant believe that it has been a full year since we had Avery. She has brought so much love, joy, and craziness to our lives and has made both of us realize just how much God loves us. Not only because we see the resemblance of his unconditional love for us in how we love Avery, but for Him to entrust us with the well being of one of His children is one of the most humbling experiences we have both ever had.

We started Avery's birthday off with a song

Then we had a big birthday breakfast that daddy woke up early to make for us...

and of course thanks to The Wood's she has been reunited with her favorite monkey lovie so he got to join in on the birthday breakfast too.

We have been playing all day with some of the toys that she got from her party on Saturday and tonight we are going to celebrate with dinner and ice cream.

On Saturday we celebrated Avery's bday with a bunch of her favorite people. We had a big pool party over at FarFar and FarMor's to celebrate AP's big day. It was such a blast to have everyone we love come and celebrate Avery turning one. Thank you to all who came!! Here are some pictures from the day...

We did have a slight emergency with a food allergy after she dove into her smash cake, but it was nothing a ~~little~~ alot of benedryl couldnt take care of.

Avery at ONE year you are loving life and continuously smiling. You have discovered clapping and you like to clap at yourself when you discover a new thing or just when you think about it. hah You continue to be obbsessed with Stoney and yall have started playing your on version of fetch together. He seems to be growing more fond of you every day. You still love music and have started dancing now when you hear it.

you are still wearing size 4 diapers
you can sign 'all done' and 'more'
you say mama and dada real well. You are trying to say all done when you are done eating but it isnt very consistent.
when we ask you what a monkey says you say 'oh oh ah ah'
you are loving soft things right now (especially Jelly, your monkey lovie, and bobbo)
you love people and love to wave at anyone
you are wearing 12-18 month clothes
you love it when daddy gets home from work
you are an awesome eater. puffs are your favorite along with pickles
you have taken a few steps but kinda lack confidence and some balance to walk totally on your own
you still take 2 naps a day (hallelujah)
you are doing great in nurserys and have started playing well with other kids
you still crawl with your 'stanky leg' :)
you are talking ALOT
you are pretty obsessed with books, mainly bedtime books
we are trying to wean you off of bottles at the moment which makes us really sad because you LOVE them, but we are down to three a day and you are doing really well with a sippy cup
you have had two outbreaks with food allergies and we are still trying to pinpoint what it is...we think it could be eggs maybe?

Avery this first year has gone by crazy fast and we have enjoyed watching you grow month to month. Now on to toddler years!

Thanks to everyone who has helped us through this year with your thoughts, prayers, and advice! We could not have done it without yall!

H-E-double hockey stick

2011-07-28T10:05:00.000-05:00

If the title of this post isnt a throwback to the 3rd grade i dont know what is...

If you don't remember my post from almost exactly a year ago that you can read here, then the title of this post probably makes no sense...but basically today's title is to give you a little glimpse into the temperature of our humble abode the past few weeks. Its been up in the high 90's almost everyday for the past month so needless to say our 'little-engine-that-could' of an air conditioning unit has been STRUGGLING. Avery has been going to bed in just her diaper, Stoney prefers to sleep on the cold tile floor than his bed, and ice cream has been a staple at our house. However, i am not as miserable as i was last year because this year i am not 9 months pregnant and about to pop at any moment. All my prego friends out there who are about to pop or who have a few more months to go...you can do it!!! :)

Thoughts of football, early mornings of ESPN and starbucks, chili, and fall weather are the only things getting us through this heat. Avery and 'Bobbo' have already taken there positions for our early Saturday fall mornings...

Happy Thursdays everyone!

Dreading This

2011-07-19T09:30:00.000-05:00

For some reason i have been putting off and dreading writing Avery's 11 month post. Im not sure if it's because we have been ridiculously busy, or if i just really don't want to face the facts that she is almost a year old. However, if i wait any longer she is going to be a year old and this post will be pointless....so for my future reference im gunna go ahead and do this...

The 11th month was so much fun. We took her first major road trip to St. Louis to visit Gavin and Margaret which was a blast! Avery LOVES Gav and Marg, and its always a blast when we go up there. We also had a wedding, Avery's dedication at church, and a trip to Birmingham in this 11th month.

In your Eleventh month you are...

still walking along objects like furniture, Stoney, and my legs...and she also inherited a walker from cousin, Brooklyn that she has loved to use.
You love walking with us holding your hands but get pretty sad when we let go.
You will stand by yourself for a like a split second but then fall on your booty.
You are still obsessed with stoney and for that matter any dog. You scream when you see the dog from baby einstein.
Also Elmo makes you squeal like crazy.
You are talking like crazy...mostly dada, momma, and all done.
You love studying other people when we are out shopping
You do great in public cause you like to be with adults
when you play you HAVE to have a person with you. This has led to some of my madness but if you have someone to come up to and get a hug from while you play you are one happy little camper.
you are wearing size 4 diapers
you wear mainly 9-12 month clothes.
you weigh about 24 lbs.
you still take two naps a day which is heavenly :)
you are going to bed a little bit later now but sleep 8 pm to 8 am.
you eat really well and there isnt really anything you dont like
you are doing better with stangers...you warm up to them a little bit better now.
your favorite animals are still 'Jelly' and your monkey lovie.
your favorite books are the 'Going to Bed Book' and 'The Monster at the end of this Book

I can not believe you are about to be a 1 year old. It's scarry and sad how fast the time with you is flying by. Everyone always said it would...but there are some days that i would LOVE to go back to when you were a newborn and relive those days because even though i was a crazy person i still love the newborn stage and hopefully knowing now what i didn't know then would help me not be so crazy.

Anyways, on to one year and your birthday party!!! Love you Avie boo!

11 Months?

2011-07-09T23:44:00.000-05:00

This morning at Pets-Mart, the cashier was talking the normal baby babble to Avery and said "How old is she?" I said, "She was born August 9th last year so she is like a little over 10 months." Then the cashier said ,"Then isnt she 11 months?"

{Insert awkward moment and face here}

Ummm, wow i guess she is. If that doesnt give you a little insight into my crazy mind and how fast time flies for us i dont know what does.

Just wanted to let everyone know i do realise Avery is 11 months old today. It may have taken the Pets Mart lady to point that out to me but i am acknowledging it today but i am going to do my monthly post tomorrow with all her milestones.

One more month and we survived our first year!!!

Currently...

2011-07-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

So as most of you know i have become OBSESSED with pinterest...probably to an unhealthy point/could get fired for looking at it too much at work, unhealthy. But alas, it's where i find these beauties...

ok well i didnt find this little beauty on there but she was inspired by the fashion on pinterest too so she decided to dress up...

Happy Thursday everyone!

June and Everything Inbetween

2011-06-30T10:39:00.000-05:00

So here is a little recap of all that has been going on with us over th epast few weeks...it has been super busy, therefore i have not been as faithful to blog...

Avery Pearl was dedicated at church this past Sunday. It was such a sweet day with family and friends there to support us and Avery.

And we celebrated Mister's (dad's) birthday on the 26th with all the kiddos together...

This is my all time FAVORITE picture of my dad...

He normally does a posed smile but this one captures him perfectly.

And then we went to Birmingham to hang with Ash, Brookie, and Matt for a few days...

We had our first ponytail back at the beginning of June and ever since we figured out how to do this we have been doing it everyday...

We went swimming with Brookie

Avery did her favorite thing there is do to at the pool...sleep :)

And we had a fun day with little Lo from over at Camping at the Woods! This little boy is so stinkin cute and we loved spending the morning with him while his momma spent some much needed time in London and Paris... jealous doesnt even begin to describe it. But thanks cherry for leaving so we could play with Lo! :)

Lo and Avery had their first chaperoned date...it consisted mainly of avery chasing Lofton.

Lofton LOVES the water and is so good at sitting for hours and pouring the day away...

Then we head on over to Joe and Deb's for a father's day celebration...

and back to bham....sorry these pics are so rando

Avery is obsessed with dogs..especially Elle

We had a pillow fight...

Brooklyn is so into soft things right now...

whew....if you are still looking at this blog you must be bored out of your mind at work like me as i type this...

Hope everyone is having a happy Pre-4th of July week! Anyone doing anythign fun for the 4th? We are headed to St. Louis tonight to see Uncle Gav and aunt Marge and to have Eddie Vedder and Glen Hansard serenade us at the fox theatre!

Blessings-

4 Years

2011-06-14T13:29:00.000-05:00

4 years ago i made the BEST decision of my life and married this guy...

but yall probably know him a little better like this...

In 4 years we traveled all over, went to concerts, shaved J's head, bought our first house, got a crazy dog, witnessed some beloved family members going to heaven, and brought a sweet baby girl into the world together. I don't exactly know what life is like without this guy and i know i never want to find out.

Happy 4th Anniversary Love!

On to the next 100 years! :)

10 Months

2011-06-09T16:17:00.000-05:00

So here we are in the double digits and im wracking my brain as to how we got here so fast. This little chickadee is growing up TOO fast. A lot of days i think "man i wish you could walk" or "i wish you could just talk and tell me what you need." In reality though on days like today when im reminiscing...i just dont want her to grow up at all. I want her to stay this little and at this stage that she is in right now. I have loved every stage and this one right now has been by far the most fun.

Avery at 10 months you are...

still wearing size 3 diapers
you weigh around 22 or 23 lbs.
you are wearing 12 month clothing
your hair is getting really long, so long in fact that we had our first ponytail the other day
your eyes are the prettiest dark blue ive ever seen
you are babbling all the time, you can say ma ma and da da
you still love stoney but you care more about crawling up the stairs, which you do ALL the time
at the moment you love Adele's song, Rolling in the Deep...{one of my favorite things about you}
you still crawl with your 'stanky leg" :)
you are trying to walk when we hold your hands but you look more like Jack Sparrow cause you are still so wobbly
you eat anything and everything
you are still napping twice a day although i think you might be trying to cut out a nap somedays
you love the water
you have 4 teeth! and are working on two more at the moment
you are starting to be more cuddly...you always cuddle with daddy but you more so just like to laugh at me when i try to cuddle.
you are kinda obsessed with the 'Pick-a-Who" book and Grover's "Monster at the end of this book" book. I take the blame for the Grover book because i wanted you to be obsessed with it :)

Avery we love you to pieces and could not imagine our life without you. Thank you for always bringing me back down to earth with your smile.

To the next 13 years...

2011-06-06T10:57:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhhhh, you hear that?

What's that? You don't hear anything?

THAT'S RIGHT!!

No more Cicadas!!! Those pesky little guys are outta here, thank the Lord. For the past 4-6 weeks i have felt like a prisoner, purposefully not going to the mailbox until late at night, not laying out at the pool much, waking up EXTRA early to water flowers, and not going on walks outside because of these crazy bug-eyed things. Whelp, its over and this morning as i was reading i realized i didn't have that annoying loud buzz outside my windows. i could finally hear the birds chirping again.

sayonara Cicadas....im toasting to the next 13 years and summers without you guys.

Get Out of Jail Free Card

2011-06-01T10:47:00.000-05:00

This little jail bird was extra wiggly and curious yesterday morning.

{a.k.a. poured hot coffee over my blackberry}

And we have been teething like crazy over the past few days.

{a.k.a. super cranky and snotty nose}

Poor Ave's has red gums, a runny nose, sometimes a fever, and is somewhat clingy right now. It's hard finding a balance these days of letting her cry and wanting to scoop her up every time she cries because her teeth hurt so bad.

As frustrated and run down as i can get though with our phone mishap and the crankiness i can't help but let this picture be her 'Get Out of Jail Free Card'.

I love this drooly grin.

In other news, we had an awesome Memorial Day weekend with beautiful weather and fun with family and friends. We got to hang with some sweet faces we have missed from St. Louis and also celebrated some family birthdays at Joe and Deb's pool on Sunday.

Luke and Avery love each other. Luke is quasi obsessed with Avery which could be a good/bad thing for his momma who is expecting this November. :)

And Miss A got to taste birthday cake for the first time. To say she enjoyed it would be an understatement...

Hope everyone had wonderful Memorial Day weekend and are having a happy Wednesday!

5 Random Ramblings

2011-05-24T16:28:00.000-05:00

*After 5 months of what seems like daily cleaning-messing up-and cleaning our house again we decided to take it off the market due to ~~this crappy market~~ lack of interest and a realization of how much money we would have to lose in order to move. So we are now searching for a house we cant live without and then in that instance we will put our house up for rent and try to resell it on down the road.

*Tomorrow is Jonas' 27th birthday! Oh how i love him...

He has no personality does he?

He's a precious husband, hilarious & sweet daddy, & my favorite person in the world. Happy Birthday love!

*One of my friends just found she was pregnant. Oh and did i mention she just had her first baby in January? Of this year? Yeah.....I am excited/scarred for her. :)

*My child's bowels are finally working! Eww i know but if you have been reading and following me lately you know that Ave's hasn't exactly been able to go to the bathroom that easily on her own. So we have been phasing out miralax and introducing pinto beans and fiber one yogurt! Hooray for messy diapers and sorry for being graphic.

* I have quickly become obsessed with http://www.pinterest.com/ If you have never been to this website you should click and become obsessed as well! Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste. Pinterest is where i found these beauties {that i hope to either buy soon or create myself!}

I may just make these tomorrow for J's bday breakfast :)

How much of a lifesaver would this be in a playroom for your kids!

And this little beauty is a muffin pan sponge! How GENIUS is this. I have always thought 'UGH there has to be an easier way to clean this crazy thing!' And now there is...order it from casabella.com

New Beginnings

2011-05-17T16:41:00.000-05:00

Exactly 9 months ago we not only were celebrating the birth of our sweet Avery but only one week after her arrival we had to say goodbye to our Uncle Jan and aunt Lisa's house in Birmingham. On August 15th, their awesome Birmingham home was struck by lightening and burned down. Thankfully with a good foundation and great insurance they were able to rebuild the exact same house with some minor changes that they had always wanted to do. While the photographs, memories, and material possesions can not be replaced we are SO thankful for their lives and the fact that Jan, Lisa, and the sweet pups were not harmed in any way.

So this weekend, the four (stoney bones came too) of us drove down to Bham to help them move stuff back into the new house! Check out the new house!

It was weird being in there, it was like nothing had happened but thats easy for me to say because i have not had to face the countless decisions that J and L have had to face over the past fews months.

We had so much fun with them over the weekend and loved celebrating their new house to be filled with new memories!

Month 9

2011-05-10T12:08:00.001-05:00

Wait surely it can't be May already. Seriously?

These months keep ticking away and with them more days and days of memories with my little chickadee. Avery has changed SO much in this past month. She has really 'come to life' and seems to be showing off a new trick or sound she can make every day.

Here we are at 9 months...

Since we have last updated everyone about our monthly milestones we have gone from rolling around everywhere to crawling to standing to walking along her baby gate. Yep life has changed for us over here at the Frid household. I had been hearing that when this stage comes 'your life is ~~over~~ different' mainly because you cant take your eyes off of them. Well im actually enjoying it and love watching Avery crawl and explore. I'm sure that will change pretty fast but then maybe we will be on to walking and it will be a new exciting thing to watch.

Chickadee helped me cook our mother's day dinner for FarMor and BeBe, er clung to my leg the whole time and chased me around the kitchen in her walker.

Avery at 9 months you are doing the following:

wearing size 3 diapers
still only have two teeth but we are chomping around on lots of things
EVERYTHING goes to the mouth
you LOVE bath time
you still love singing, fave song of the moment is 'Little Bunny Foo Foo"
you are infatuated by guitars
your favorite animal is your lamby or better known as 'Jelly'
we are trying to get your bowel movements under control, or should i say 'not as explosive'
you want to stand up on everything
you can say da-da and ba-ba. There may have been a mmmmm sound in there but we are still working on ma-ma
you can be pacified with a wooden spoon or spatula for a LONG time :D
you still love stoney and spend your days chasing him around the house. He doesn't know what to think about you.
you take 2 two hour naps a day and you are still sleeping through thenight like a champ.
you love to wake up and play in your bed and pull the cords of your video monitor and speakers for the ipod off the side ofthe crib.
you dont really care for your toys right now
you love having soft things pulled over your face
you often sleep on your tummy with your legs tucked up under you or with one leg propped up on the bumpers
you love snuggling with daddy at night before bed
you are timid around strangers, well mainly men, but you sometimes warm up to them.

You are the sweetest and funniest little kid to be around and we love watching you change as you learn new tricks. On to your next month!

5.05.11 {Embrace the Camera}

2011-05-05T23:17:00.000-05:00

Today is 'Embrace the Camera' day over on a blog i like to follow, Emily's. I really don't know how i have found half of the blogs that i like to follow. However, i LOVE blogs. Despite them just being an escape from the ordinary/work, i love the creativity and inspiration they give me to keep on blogging.

I thought that since it's 11 pm, im still awake{which is so rare}, and since im still waiting on my husband to get home from work that i would share some of my favorite photos recently for 'Embrace the Camera' day...

I love these pictures...they remind me of all of our sweet blessings in life.

Friends.Family.Love

You can find out more about Embrace the Camera and see posts by others over on Emily’s blog…

Big Sister

2011-05-05T12:21:00.002-05:00

Surprise!!!!

That's right, look who is going to be a big sister

Gotcha! It's the Spann family over at Tying Knots. We are SO excited to be announcing the new "micro" Spann that is going to be joining the family on his or her debut December 4! Ash and Matt and B are so excited and we can't wait to see if B is going to have a baby brother or a sister! Wahoo!!!

{hahaha, you should have seen your faces :)}

{DIY} Coffee Table/Ottoman

2011-05-04T13:37:00.003-05:00

So as promised, here are the instructions for turning an ordinary coffee table into a fun pillow topped ottoman!

A few months ago i explained what i had in mind. You can read that here, and almost 3 months later here is the finished product with instructions on doing it yourself!

It honestly is a really easy process, it's just a matter of having all the materials that you need and the time to do it. :)

What you need:

Material of your choice big enough to cover the table once it is padded. For a 36" x 36" table u needed a yard and a half.
Square wooden coffee table
Upholstery thread
buttons of your choice {ones for the top and random big ones for the bottom to anchor}
paint or stain for the legs
staple gun
2" or 3 " foam from JoAnns

Ok, so first things first, you want to paint the legs of your coffee table whatever color you want them to be. I had some of this brown paint lying around from painting Avery's nursery last summer so i used that.

Then, you want to measure off how many tufts you want on the top of your ottoman.
***{You dont have to do this step, but it adds an extra fun element to the top of the ottoman and makes it look more pillowish}*** So mark off the tuft spots with a big 'X'. Then drill through each "X' on the top of the coffee table. Make sure you go all the way through to the back side of the coffee table so that you have a hole in the back to push your thread through.

After the holes are drilled, you want to use spray adhesive to get your 3" foam (from Joann's) to stick to your table. It's important to have the foam on the sides of the table so that when you pull the fabric over the side to staple down you dont have a hard edge pushing through the fabric. Makes it more baby friendly so that if the little ones decide to walk around this they wont have a hard edge to bang their head on.

Using the 16 drilled holes as my guide, I adhered the tufting buttons (from JoAnns) with upholstery thread and a very long needle. Upholerstery thread is very important because its rediculously tough and doesnt break when pulled on.

I used regular plastic buttons to anchor the tufts on the underside of the table

Voila! There ya go. See, isnt is easy? Way easier than you would think it would be, and like i said once you have all your materials it doesnt take very long at all!

I know this little gal enjoys it :)

Go check out the DIY day on The Lettered Cottage! Her blog is so creative and fun!

26

2011-04-27T10:24:00.001-05:00

This past Monday was my 26th birthday and it was such a fun day. Jonas took me, Avery, and Stoney for a 3 milk hike in our favorite park.

Love these two

We tortured Stoney...

Then Jonas surprised me with these...

Then he went and got us take out from Buca Di Beppo and carrot cake from the one and only J Alexanders. We are celebrating my birthday tonight {babyless that is} at City House. It's a farm-to-table restaurant so it shoud be extra good! We love finding new restaurants around this city so im pumped to see if we like it.

Here's me and Avie on our birthday hike

It's amazing how much you love your own child. I mean i knew that motherhood was suppossed to be this unimaginable and sometimes crazy life change, but i had no idea until Avery was actually born how amazing it really is. Although motherhood can be hard sometimes, and the juggle of work vs. life vs. baby vs. friends can feel impossible to get right, Avery and her little chicken haired head, her wide open mouth smile, and her chuckle make me so moony every time.

I have had so many blessings in this past year and learned a lot of hard lessons too. Praise God for another year with my friends and family! God is good!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T12:02:00.000-05:00

"You are stronger, you are stronger.

Sin is broken, you have saved me.

It is written: Christ is Risen!

Jesus, you are Lord of all!"

"On Friday a theif, on Sunday a King."

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday with family and friends. We had a great morning at church and celebrated with the Fridrichsen's and Rain's after. We had an egg hunt with the Ray/Collins fam last weekend which some of the pictures are from below.

Easter has become one of my favorite weekends. I know it probably should have been ever since i became a christian, but growing up i didn't quite grasp what Easter was really all about. Let's just say we were way more concerned on what we were wearing on Easter Sunday, what the Easter bunny got us in our baskets, and if i could get my grandma to get me out of my spanking i was told i was getting if i didnt straighten up for the million pictures we took with our cousins. So all that being said, we are going to have a different approach with Avery. Dont worry, she wont be the only child without an Easter basket, but we aren't going to do it necessarily on Easter Sunday. We want Avery to grow up knowing the meaning of Easter with the importance of Resurrection Sunday and the empty grave and what that means for her in her life.

Hope everyone has a wonderful start to their week!

The things a gal will do for food...

2011-04-22T13:21:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's right! We have a crawler! Avery started doing this on Tuesday {April 19th}. She didnt really understand why i was celebrating so much, i guess maybe because she has been rolling and getting around to things in her own way for awhile now, but we were so excited! And the main thing you can get this gal to crawl to is food, gerber cheetos to be exact.

Hope everyone has a blessed Easter weekend celebrating new life and our salvation!

Revive me

2011-04-20T09:12:00.000-05:00

"Great are your mercies, O Lord;revive me according to your ordinances."

Month 8

2011-04-13T11:22:00.000-05:00

{im kind of obsessed with this outfit, and she will have it on a lot in the next few weeks because its 12 months and she is about to outgrow it. eek}

Oh month 8, how i will miss you/never hope to see some of the things you did to us again. The past month has been more fun than bad but it did have a few low points for Miss A. We started it out with 2 ear infections and brochiolitis and ended it with one stopped up {constipated} little gal. However, in between all that we got 2 teeth and started learning to crawl, so we cant say it was all bad.

We had an awesome weekend in Birmingham with Aunty Ash and Brookie. B and A played together great, and im pretty sure Avery thought she had moved to Disney World with all the new and different toys, and lets now forget the huge new version of her Stoney dog. Avery loves Stoney so of course she was infatuated with Elle, Ash and Matt's Rhodesian ridgeback.

We loved getting to relax and play with family and we also got to celebrate Em Sparks' upcoming marriage which ill post pictures of in the next post. On our way home Avery had some bounts of screaming like crazy and crying because she is SO constipated. It really was the saddest thing ever but we went strait to the doc and got you some stool softener so now you seemed to have regulated. whew.

On to the reminiscing...

Avery, in your 8th month you have done the following.

you roll everywhere, mostly crawl backwards
you wear size 3 diapers
you are fitting into mostly 9 month or 12 month clothes
you have learned how to make a lot of new noises and so you squeal non stop
you love making new faces, which mostly have you looking like some kind of chipmunk
you got 2 teeth, and you love the new foods that have come along with that
you love it when daddy comes home from work
you love the "eye winker" game
you got two ear infections and brochiolitis and your teeth all at the same time. you were a champ.
you spent your first week away from mom and dad.
you love your stuffed animals
you laugh hysterically when daddy bites your tummy
you talk ALOT
you started giving what seemed like kisses...slobbery ones
you have kinda gotten out of your "weird man phase" which was when you would cry and scream around men you didnt know. Uncle Cho liked it but we are personally glad its over. :)

Like i said, you LOVE Stoney, and you like to chase him in this...

We love you always Avie, and are excited for your next month!

Roly Poly

2011-04-06T13:18:00.001-05:00

So here we are at just about 8 months and we are rolling all over the place.

Aves is trying SO hard to crawl. She's got the arm part down, but basically just ends up going backwards, AWAY from the toy she wants so bad to get. That puts us here...

ticked.off

This snazzy little area is Avie's new play pen/mommy's sanity corner. We got the idea from Ash and Matt who geniusly put this together for Brooklyn when she started being mobile. Ash got us these gates super cheap at a consignment sale and we just bought two more sections to complete it.

As of right now Avery loves it and explores it all day going back and forth between her toys to the different gates {backwards that is}.

Also, new in Avery's world are her two front teeth! She got the second one while we were gone at the beach, and she has loved the different foods that her teeth have introduced her to.

In other news, our house is still on the market and a lot of people have come to see it in the past week, but no offers as of yet. Most frustrating part about this whole subject is that there really isnt a house we are interested in moving into right now. So who knows what will happen with that, we are mentally prepared to stay here as long as we need to i suppose.

Me, mom, and Avery are off to Birmingham this weekend to throw a shower to celebrate Emily Sparks who is getting married in a few months! And as a plus we get to see Brookie and Ash.

Hope everyone is having a blessed Wednesday!

Single and Broke {SEASIDE}

2011-03-29T17:01:00.000-05:00

{Out title today sums up a few of our days last week at the beach...Jonas lost his wallet and his wedding ring...someone found the wallet and is returning it to us but there is one lucky fish out there wearing a sweet wedding band. Therefore, Jonas was single/broke last week. What would he have done without his sugar momma to buy him all his souvies?}

Regardless we had a blast

We had the best time in Seaside...77 degrees with strait sun the entire time we were there, Avie did great with the grands, and after 5 months of a hiatus from the sun we are tan! Couldnt have asked for more.

Here are a few pictures from our week...

These two are in the car on our way down driving from 7pm to3am...er go our rediculous pictures with sunglasses {in the dark i might add}

Entrance to Alys beach

Our Fratastic hosts

Group shot on the beach

Great Southern Cafe round 2

pretty typical picture

It was a wonderful and restful week but we were super ready to get back to Avery. She had a second tooth by the time we got back and she still remembered us :)

Thanks to the Fusons for a fun week!

Who got her first tooth today??

2011-03-20T21:19:00.000-05:00

This Kid...

at least it happened before we went to the beach.

Hope everyone has a blessed week!

30-A

2011-03-17T13:57:00.000-05:00

Next Tuesday i will be here...

but i'm pretty sure my heart and mind will be here...

You dont need your mind on vacation anyways, right? Thats what i keep telling myself.

Yep, that's right we are leaving Avery for the first time and i'm not gunna lie, i have been having some inner-turmoil over this. I know it had to come sometime but i'm still kinda nervous/sad about it. She will be having a week with BeBe/Mister and FarMor/FarFar so i know she is in great hands.

Im also kinda nervous she will either A. get her frist tooth while we are gone therefore leaving the grands with one cranky baby or B. she will start crawling. We are right on the cusp of that so i may tell them to not even put her on her belly while we are gone :) Or if she starts crawling to not tell me. hah

So anyways, im super excited about having some away time with Jonas and friends but im still sad and will miss her A LOT.

What is everyone doing to enjoy this new and beautiful spring weather???

Seven

2011-03-10T11:22:00.000-06:00

Holy mackrel....these monthly milestones are really sneaking up on me. Miss Avie turned 7 months yesterday and man has she changed. Once she masters something she does it non stop and seems to progress fast to other things. We had a busy month with celebrating FarMor's, Brooklyn's, and Aunt Ashley's birthdays with two trips to Birmingham, and we just had 4 days with Brookie and Ash here in Nashville which was so fun and busy. I am pretty sure thats Brookie thinks of Avie as another dancing and singing Elmo, and probably vice/versa for Avie.

Avery is sitting up now like a champ and is beginning to try and reach for things and lunge towards things. She did push up on all fours once this past weekend and then proceeded to face plant onto the floor, but hey its progress! Im not sure if am ready for her to be mobile but it is fun watching her try.

Sorry for the lack of pictures lately but our home computer is so busted and so its hard to get on there and upload pictures...hopefully that will change soon.

Avery in your 7th month you are...

sitting up really good and beginning to reach for things around you
you have gotten up on all fours once and seem to be reaching for things like crazy
you roll all over the place
you are VERY vocal and love to talk to your animals, hands, and toys
you LOVE the grocery store and talk to everyone who passes by
you are eating so good and havent rejected anything we have given you yet (obviously you got this from yo momma)
you cry with men you dont know...uncle Brian and uncle Chad seem to get this the most but you have done it with other guys too. Hopefully you will get out of this phase soon and then maybe pick it back up in high school :)
you are wearing size 3 diapers
no teeth yet but you are chewing on absolutely everything
you sleep on your tummy quite a bit
last time you were weighed you were at 18.4
you dont get your spa days quite as much as you would prefer but its doctors orders, sorry kiddo
you favorite song is Jingle Bells :)
you continue to smile non stop and it continues to melt mine and daddys heart everytime!

Avery you are such a joy. You are my daily reminder of how faithful the Father is, and how much He loves us. On to month 8 and you becoming mobile!!!

these picture below are from my phone so excuse the blurriness but i wanted these documented because they just make me crack up.

Preaching to her puppy dog

at the grocery store, this was her first time in the shopping cart and she laughed the whole time.

Blessings-

I'm a Fan...

2011-02-25T14:18:00.000-06:00

Belieb it...

Look Who's 1

2011-02-22T11:25:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we celebrated this little girl's FIRST birthday!

I can not believe that she is already one! It got here so fast and its even weirder because I remember when Avery was born, Brooklyn was just starting to sit up and we said that at Brooklyn's first birthday that avery would be doing that. And she is...its so weird how fast time flys once you have a kid. It's bittersweet really.

The party was so fun and Ash did an amazing job on everything! Enjoy the pictures!!

Duckie bath tub doubled as a juice cooler

Yay for the first year of life Brookie boo!

We love you and are so happy you and your parents survived the first year! :)

The Big 'F' Weekend

2011-02-17T13:57:00.004-06:00

Ok, so i hope you don't take my title of today's post in a bad way. Let me clarify that the reason for the title is because a lot of our friends have a last name ending in 'F' just like us. {Fuson, French, Faison...} So when we do stuff with these couples we call it {on our end} the big 'F' weekend. Ok so let's face it, almost every week we have a 'F' night with our favorite Uncle/Aunt Fuson but we just dont document those with as many pictures. Now sometimes we probably play into the funnyness of the way it sounds to say this, but it's the truth too. :)

So anywho... a few weekends ago we have some of our favorite Birmingham people up to visit. Brittany and Andin came up on a Friday and stayed with us for a chilled out/relaxing weekend. We had Avie spend a night with the grandparents so that we could spend some quality time with our friends and not have to worry about baby stuff. So thankfully Joe and Deb kept her for us and we got to take Britt and Andin to some of the cool places here in Nashville. It was so nice to be able to relax with old friends and not have to have Avery in the back of my mind. Hope that doesn't sound bad..cause of course i still thought about her but you know what i mean.Right? Hope so.

Here's what we did on our 'F' weekend 'O fun...

Here is Miss A in our car ride to the Loveless Cafe. Andin had never tasted their biscuits...that sounded bad didn't it? Well he really hadn't so we went there first and waited an hour to eat. True story but well worth it :)

Me, Fanch, and Avie

Avie forgot her shades so she borrowed Aunt Fanch's

Uncle A with Avie

Auntie Fanch and Avie

The Frid's and The Faison's

Next stop was Joe and Deb's for the baby sitting

And last but not least...the Yazoo Brew tour. If you have never done this...you need to! It is a fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon. Especially if you have guests in town because it cost like $6 a person and you get a Yazoo cup to take on your tour. You get to walk around the brewery with a tourguide and they let you taste a bunch of their different beers while explaining the process to you.

Not sure who this was suppossed to be but apparently i thought he needed a friend.

We loved having you guys here and can't wait for you to come back! You made our month by giving us a fun and relaxed weekend with friends!!! Love you guys!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2011-02-14T10:31:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day with the one/ones they love!!!

6 months

2011-02-09T11:26:00.000-06:00

Holy cow i can't believe i am writing a 6th month blog post. This is SO weird and too fast! Life needs to slow down!

In the moments when Avery is tired and grumpy it can feel like longer than 6 months, but for the most part it blows my mind that she can be 6 months old. I remember in the beginning when we were all still trying to figure each other out that when Avery would cry after we did a certain thing, when she wasn't showing interest in her play mat, or when she hated tummy time, I would think "Oh crap this child is going to be like this forever" but man do they change. It's also fun to watch her learn things as she plays with her toys, and watch her become so entranced by something that she just can't stop looking at it or talking to it.

Avery in your sixth month you have done the following:

You love your toes
You squirm and move everywhere
You are exploring your crib and love to touch the birds and trees on your bumper pads
You have found your tongue and love sticking it out
No teeth yet {although we have blamed your moodiness at times on teething}
You drool alot. Especially when you are really focused on something
You hate being rubbed down with vasoline at night for your exzema
You LOVE bath time
You like to turn the pages and chew on your books
If you are ever in a bad mood, singing is the one thing that makes you immediately smile
You can be sidetracked by new things that you havn't seen which is a huge help to mommy :)
You are a good eater {your favorites are bananas, carrots, squash, and apples}
You talk non stop
You are rolling over like a champ
And you still love Stoney more than anything

Beginning to learn how to sit up

Loves her tongue

Happy 6 Months stinker!

Oh, and as a sidenote we need to send a birthday shout out to cousin Brooklyn! She is 1 year today! We love you Brookie Boo!!!

{DIY} coffee table

2011-02-03T12:59:00.000-06:00

So i have been wracking my brain lately of things that i can make/take something and transform it into something else, and i came up with an idea for a coffee table. I had seen this on another blog awhile back and thought i would give it a try...

This little steal i found on Craigslist...

will become this...

or something like it.

Now you may be thinkin..."Crazy, why aren't you just buying one instead of doing all this."Well friends, these bad boys cost WAY more than i can/want to spend on a stinkin coffee table, so im trying this route. We'll see...im not sure what fabric to use yet, and i think im going to put button tufts on top but thats a BIG maybe. Depends on if i can figure out how to do that. :)

stay tuned...not sure when im going to find time to do it so this could be interesting.

Day at the Spa

2011-01-24T11:24:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we found out that Ave's has eczema all over her body...

We were pretty sad to hear this news because my brother, Jonas' dad, and both of my nephews have suffered from this skin problem BIG TIME. It's worst in the cold months, but it seems pretty manageable as long as you do regular baths and skin treatment, ergo our title for today' post.

Bath time has become a lengthier process now that she has eczema. It feels like she is at the spa...

She got an upgrade to this luxury duckie tub

{This ducky tub is AMAZING. It's fun for her cause its comfy to sit in and helps her sit up. Plus it quacks when you squeeze his beak! It also has a sensor on it to tell you if the water is too hot.}

Made a few friends with "other" babies that were at the spa.

Complimentary rubber ducky for entertainment

soaking in the tub, err spa hot tub

complimentary masseuse

{remember the skin treatment i referred to? She has to get coated in Aquaphor, cortizone cream, and any other lotion i may have laying around. And then she gets her clothes on on top of that greasy mess. YUCK}

Wasn't a huge fan of her masseuse.

"Do you come here often?"

"I know i have seen you here before.."

"I wish this paparazzi would get outta my face"

"Tell me your name dangit!"

"I wish my skin felt like yours Mr. Cordy."

She even gets to play dress up at this spa

And so do her friends...

And free drinks all day...

Happy Monday everyone! Yay for no snow today!

The 45 Minute Intruder

2011-01-19T12:04:00.000-06:00

I hate this guy/thing.

It's nap time right now and all that has been happening for the past 30-40 minutes is crying. You think naptime is going great and you are getting so much done around the house and then BAM. After 45 minutes of blissful quiet with a happy sleeping baby, you get slapped in the face by this guy. I don't know what causes it, but it's one of those things that makes you want to pull your hair out/eat your feelings/curse/drink. OR all of the above.

For those of your who don't know what i am talking about...congrats! But for those of you who do...any help here? I have tried everything, and i even chalked it up to the possibility of her getting teeth but i feel like i have been using that as an excuse for like weeks because there are still so signs of red gums or white nibbles anywhere. ugh.

I mean, seriously what the heck is this thing and why does it keep happening!

Wait? Is she cold?

2011-01-18T12:24:00.000-06:00

I tried so hard not to like this...

2011-01-13T11:28:00.000-06:00

...but i just can't help it!

I don't know why i fought it so hard, because everytime a new single would come out i would secretly listen to it in my car and loved singing along, but when i would hear her live like at an awards show or something she was AWFUL. I thought "poor girl they must be dubbing over her." But alas, dubbing or no dubbing, i think she is adorable and i love her music. This newest album that has come out is making my drive to work much more bearable...especially since my favorite morning DJ, Gerry House, is no longer on. So if you haven't checked her out, do so!!!

Happy Thursday!

It's Official

2011-01-11T13:52:00.000-06:00

Our house is officially for sale! Here is the website below with all the pictures and information if any of you know of someone who is looking to move!

http://www.8331stdanasus.com/

Snowy 5 Months

2011-01-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

Happy snow day Everyone!!! We have been getting so much snow this year and way earlier than we used to. I decided to take little bit out in the snow and get some pictures for 5 months!

If you havn't noticed Avery is gainging weight like CRAZY. She is making up for lost time since we were apparently starving her back in November. Her 5th month was fun but pretty stressful with me going back to work, Christmas, and then getting organized to put our house up on the market. I feel like everyday she is different and learning new things.

we.love.peas

Avery with Aunt Lisa

Avery in your 5th month you have...

tried green beans, carrots, and peas. You LOVE carrots
discovered Stoney. You always watched him walk around you but now you laugh at him and reach out for him.
been way more vocal
started squealing when daddy wakes you up in the morning
HATED tummy time
discovered your toes
discovered putting your toes in your mouth
put almost everything into your mouth
started to love books. You love watching us turn the pages and have started to look back at me while reading like, "Are you seeng all this?!"
you still absolutely love it when we sing. You can't get enough of it. I will be old news once you discover Ray Lamontagne.
you roll some but not a ton
you are trying so hard to sit up
begun the 4 hour schedule and are taking two 2 hour naps a day {mom loves this :)}

Stoney loves his life

I can't believe that in one month you will be 6 months old! Much less that your cousin Brooklyn will be 1 year! Time.is.flying. Hope yall are enjoying the snow and staying cozy!

Oh right. Resolutions

2011-01-04T15:20:00.003-06:00

1. Run/Exercise more

I found that since giving birth my hips and thighs are not quite what they used to be.

2. Stay Organized

If i could keep my house even half way as organized and clean as it is right now for selling and listing it, i would be a happy lady all year long. Once we started fixing things, doing work to our backyard, and de-cluttering our house it didn't look half bad. I thought "Hey i would buy this house." We did...3 years ago!!!

3. Read More

I want to start waking up early in the mornings and reading my Bible, because i have realised if I don't wake up oober early and set apart time for it, it just doesn't get done. And so far i am 0-4 on waking up early this year. I also want to read some of our books we have on our bookshelf, after organizing them for the sale i realised i didn't even know we had half of them!

4. Lose some LB's

So i know this one probably goes hand in hand with numero uno up there but i wanted a space for this picture. I saw it on someone's blog and had myself a giggle :)

We had a wonderful 2010 with a lot of craziness, and 2011 is looking crazy too! We have 3 weddings we are in with a 4th in question, 4 or 5 trips planned, one Bonaroo ticket bought, and possibly a move in store!Happy 2011 everyone! Hope everyone is starting the year off beautifully!!

You Serious Clark?

2010-12-30T13:35:00.000-06:00

O.K. so this is picture OVERLOAD below...just a warning to my 4 readers. :)

This was our attempt to get a picture of Avery with her first snow back a couple of weeks ago. Excuse my crazy bed hair.

Brooklyn and Avery with Aunt Mai Mai on Christmas.

Avery and her GiGi

So i know there is a lot going on in this picture but we wanted to get a picture of A on her first Christmas morning.

Opening gifts

Sweet Caroline

Little Peyton

The newest twins to our family

Avie was in shock of all the Christmas craziness.

Christian and Caroline opening their gifts

Little Benjamin

BeBe started a new Ray/Collins tradition with the 12 dogs of Christmas book/song. Avery and Brooklyn wont know a Christmas without it.

can't.get.enough

"Mom why do you look like you just got outta bed?" - Avery

Because i probably did baby girl :)

Festive booties

I totally look like the adopted special needs child in this picture...

Ray/Collins Christmas

such a HAM

BeBe and Mister

Now on to the Fridrichsen fam!

The Tompton elf brought some gifts by for the kids.

FarMor and FarFar

Lukey Duke with Avery. He kept following me around asking me when Avery was going to get her milk/passie/nap. Christmas, crazy? Nooooo

AP with her stocking

This was our attempt to have a memory of Avery's first Christmas being white but we forgot to turn our camera off sepia, sooo oh well

That's our Christmas in a nutshell! Hope everyone had a Merry one!!!

Little Lucy

2010-12-28T09:52:00.001-06:00

Isn't she a doll? I can't wait to go see this little bundle.

Our friends David and Amy Sowers just gave birth to Miss Lucy Naysa Sowers this morning after being in labor for almost 24 hours! She weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and is 19 inches long. Amy was a champ and had a C-section late last night. Her due date was the 17th so she was trying to let Lucy come on her own and she finally did! We couldn't be more excited for you guys!

Some Bunny's...

2010-12-27T21:56:00.001-06:00

...sick :(

Yep, its all sniffles and coughs over here...i guess we havn't quite recooperated from our first Christmas. First baby Christmas and first white Christmas this century i might add!! It was such a fun weekend and AP handled all the driving around like a champ. I will post about Christmas later when i get a chance, but i got to go check on my little sleeper!

Hope everyone has a happy tuesday!

It's Contagious

2010-12-23T13:37:00.001-06:00

Glory in the highest
Glory in the highest
Glory in the highest
To You, Lord, to You, Lord

All the earth will sing Your praise
The moon and stars, the sun and rain
Every nation will proclaim
You are God and You will reign

Glory, glory Hallelujah
Glory, glory to You, Lord
Glory, glory Hallelujah
Hallelujah

I was belting this on my way to work this morning with the windows down i might add (hot flash), and a homeless man selling newspapers on the corner started singing it with me. I.LOVE.CHRISTMAS. :)

4 Months

2010-12-12T13:24:00.000-06:00

Wow, another month has come and gone. I can't believe that it is already December, snowing outside, Christmas time, and Avie cakes 4 month mark...ahh bittersweetness. Is that a word? I think I just made that up. Who cares, anyways, we have been very busy the past few weeks with Christmas shopping, work parties, going back to work, and decorating the house. It's funny how this Christmas season has snuck up on me oober fast, and i find myself almost in tears sometimes while im trynig to keep up with Celine Dion on 'O Holy Night.' This being our first Christmas with Avery has made me more aware of the awesome gift of baby Jesus. Something about having the presence of a sweet baby in your house,getting to snuggle with it, watch it grow and learn new things, and finding that you love it with your entire self and soul makes you realize just how amazing the gift of Jesus really is and how precious the sight of baby Jesus must have been. Giving gifts and being with family is such a fun aspect of this holiday season but realizing the sacrifice and the love that was shown to/for us through a baby so many years ago keeps me in awe and wonder this year.

In other news,happy 4 months to Avery! Avery in your 4th month you have done the following...

Started eating rice cereal and you can't get enough of it
You wake up with a smile and sometimes laughing
Reaching for things in front of you (you are obsessed with you blue elephant teether)
You may or may not be teething and about to get a tooth,we cant really tell but you are drooling a lot!
Rolling over from your tummy to your back
Talking a lot
You LOVE Stoney
You love singing and can't get enough of it
You love eating and are holding your bottle at feedings

StAy MeRrY!!!!

I Got Nothin...

2010-12-06T16:55:00.000-06:00

Sorry Kids, no fancy or creative title today...just thoughts...random thoughts...

So last Tuesday i went back to work for the first time since Avery was born and it definately was not as bad as i had thought it would be. I had a lot of people thinking about me and praying that day which i totally felt and am so thankful to all of you who did and called/texted me that day. It seems to silly to need prayer on an issue of going back to work but i think that was the only way i got through the day without having a mental explosion. I am so very lucky that i have my mom and my mother in law to keep Avery for us while we are both at work and i know i have it WAY better than a lot of moms who work, but still it was weird to be away from Avery. I had not been away from her like that since she was born, and i don't like the feeling of dependency that i have on our moms now. I have always been a pretty independent person and to now have to depend on our moms again, made me feel like i was in high school with a baby. But we made it through and Avery did really well with it so here we come week two!

In other news...our neighbors probably think we are the biggest scrooges ever because we still don't have our Christmas lights up on our house. We just got our tree yesterday and decorated it last night but i am having the biggest case or procrastination this year with Christmas decor. I mean, with fall decorations ...i am always TOO early with those...i normally have pumpkins out and a wreath on my door by end of August, but for some reason this year i can not get my act together for Christmas.

I LOVE this old book Christmas tree idea...i got it from Real Simple magazine last month

This is one of my set of three Williams Sonoma cooking snowmen..i broke one of them when our tree fell over 2 years ago...RIP snowman with the mixer

We were slightly dissapointed with our Christmas tree this year. I think because our room has such tall ceilings that any tree we get looks dwarfish but this one is still kinda scrawny...or maybe because we have an insane amount of ornaments

No mantle for us, so we make due with our kitchen hutch...the red matches my dishes so perfectly, don't cha think? hah

Surfs up Santa from Key West

And today was little bits 4 month check-up and she is growing like a weed! She weighed 13lbs 8.5 oz and is 26 inches long. We got the green light on Rice cereal and baby foods so we will be starting that in the coming days. Avery has changed SO much lately...here is a picture montage of what she has been up to.

I.LOVE.THIS.FACE

She's gunna be like her Aunty Ash suckin on thos two fingers!

Happy Monday everyone! Hope your week is fabulous! Only 19 more days til Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-01T16:03:00.000-06:00

Hey there! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a very busy weekend celebrating our first Thanksgiving with Avery. It was so fun but pretty stressful trying to cook, get a newborn ready for driving around all day, going to both family's houses, and eating so much yummy food. Oh and may i add stopping up our garbage disposal to that list...yep Jonas had to break away from the Macy's day parade and take apart our sink because i thought it would be a good idea to push all of my sweet potatoe skins down the drain at once...not.a.good.idea. but nonetheless we had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute with family and being thankful for all that the Lord had done for our family this year.

We also celebrated these little guys 3rd birthday last week with all of the festivities. I can't believe that they are 3 years old. Its crazy what all has happened since they were born and how far they have come! Levi got a good report from the doctor last Monday about his airway so we were so thankful for that! We celebrated with a fire truck cake that me and Ash made for them. It wasn't glamorous but we thought it turned out pretty good!

And for the first time ever, me and Ash went out at 3 am on black Friday. We always made fun of the people that did that and we mainly just wanted to go out and see what all the craze was about. It was pretty rough at first but after we woke up it was pretty fun and we got TONS of stuff!

And last but not least, i would like to send a shout out to my best friend, Emily Sparks, who is soon to be Mrs. Emily Palmore!!! Her and Justin got engaged the day before Thanksgiving and they will be married next summer! Em was one of my bridemaids back when we got married and i cant wait to now be in her wedding! Congrats you two, we love you!

Shutterfly Shoutout

2010-11-23T20:35:00.000-06:00

So i want to give a blog shoutout to one of my favorite websites that i give a lot of business too around this time of year. Shutterfly.com has always come through for me during the Christmas season with tons of different options for gifts for anyone in your family! We always use them to make my mom her calendar for the next year with every month sporting a bunch of family photos. They help us out every year with Christmas cards ( http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery ), coffee mugs( http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mug), ornaments, and photo books. Even everyday use such as stationary (http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/5x7-folded-greeting-cards ) and prints of our favorite photos. It's free to sign up and they always have awesome deals no matter what time of the year it is.

And to really say Merry Christmas, this year Shutterfly is giving away 50 free holiday cards to anyone who blogs about how much they like shutterfly! Go to http://bit.ly/sfly2010 and then you will get an email telling you the details of how to get your free holiday cards! So sign up now and save money!

Skinny Minny

2010-11-23T17:02:00.000-06:00

Ever since i came home with Avery i have wished she had come with an instruction manual/questioned everything i did/wondered how in the world i would ever get the hang of the whole parenting thing. And everyone kept telling me that parenting is a little learning process...understatement.

Last week me and Avie headed down to Birmingham to see Brooklyn and Ash for a few days. While we were there i started noticing just how little Avery seemed to be looking. Her diapers were huge on her when a few weeks ago they seemed to fit, and she wasn't going to the bathroom as much as i had thought she would (mind you i had NEVER had a blow up or had to change her diaper in public). I figured i was justr comparing Avery too much to Brooklyn who is 6 months ahead of her but still i wanted to call teh doctor and see if i could bring her in for a weight check. SO me and Jonas went to the docs office last Thursday and while we were waiting i told Jonas how crazy these people probly think i am because Avery just has a small frame and she is probably going to be fine. Well i was wrong...way wrong. The nursecame back in and said "Well she weighs 11.4" My jaw dropped. 11.4! Like 11 lbs and 4 oz1?! "Yes", the nurse said. She weighed that when she was there at 8 weeks and she is almost 15 weeks! The nurse told us to wait for the Dr and he would talk to us about it. So the Dr comes in and basically asks me how much she is eating a day...i said 4 x's a day and sleeping all night. He stopped me right there and said that Avery should be ewating at least 7-8 times a day. I went pale. I felt like he wanted to call child sevices on me and lock me away. Anyways long story short we talked about where we had gone wrong and he put Avery on a Thankgiving diet basically where she eats every 3 hours even during the night just for this past weekend. Sooo we took the little turkey back in yesterday to be weighed and thankfully she had gained over a pound! Since we have started to feed her so much she has gained weight, goes through diapers like crazy, AND has had several blow ups in public. I never thought i would be happy that my child poops and pees as much as she does.

So anyways, all that to say...we are learning alot over here at the Fridrichsen house. We havn't seens any child service/social services cars outside our house yet. Everyone keep your fingers crossed :)

We had so much fun in Bham with Ash and Brooklyn. Here are a few pictures from our visit!

Love you all and hope you all have a Happy Thankgiving with your family and friends!!

3 months!

2010-11-09T13:46:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it but this little girl is 3 months old today!

Time is flying by and we are loving and soaking up every minute of it with Avery. She has grown so much and seems to be doing something new everyday.

Avery, at 3 months you are...

-holding your head up like a pro
-beginning to enjoy your activity mat. I was determined to get you to like it and you are finally reaching for and pulling on the animals!
-you are talking and making new noises everyday
-you LOVE faces
-you LOVE music and people singing to you
-you tend to freak out if you dont have something moving in front of you or entertaining you( but i have realised i should love these moments you want me in front of your face because sooner or later youwont want me in your face, hah)
-you sleep from 8 pm to 8 am with no interruptions (hallelujah)
-you take 3 good naps during the day
-you are beginning to laugh out loud
-you have rolled over from your stomach to your back a few times
-you love your wubbanub
-you do great in the car
-you blow bubbles all the time with your spit and drool ALOT
-you love bathtime too!

Avers we love you and enjoy seeing you learn new things everyday. Happy 3 months baby girl! Thanks for making life different and entertaining everyday.

A Very Hungry Caterpillar

2010-11-08T07:16:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we celebrated a ONE year birthday with some of our favorite people. Lofton Wood turned one this past week and we had so much fun celebrating with them yesterday. So many people came yesterday to see this little dude turn one and smash some cake.

He was pretty interested in his cake until he saw how many people were singing and looking at him. :)

Cherry did an amazing job on his birthday party. Lofton loves books so Cherry wanted to have a book theme. She had someone make this maazing cake with the theme of "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" The cake and the cupcakes all resemble different things that the caterpillar eats in the book and it was so stinkin cute! She also gave party favors to the babies and kids that came to the party and it was that book! How cute of an idea was that?

We have loved getting to see little Lofton grow this past year and cant wait for more years to come with him! He is such a sweet, lovable, and cuddly little boy and is loved by so many people!

One Year Ago

2010-11-02T10:16:00.001-05:00

Holy Cow i can't believe that it's already November! Lately i have been thinking about how so much has changed since last November. This time last year we were getting ready to go on our trip to Europe, which seems like FOREVER ago. We were getting ready for the holidays, contimplating selling our house(crazy), and our good friends Cherry and Elliott were fixing to have Lofton who is about to turn 1!!!

Its so weird what all can happen in a year, especially since Avery wasn't even a thought this time last year and here she is at almost 3 months old and growing like crazy. Even though life has changed dramatically for us this past year we couldnt be more thankful or happy for the way God has blessed and changed our lives. Here are just a few pictures of what has been going onlately here in the Fridrichsen household...