The Slide

Catch up

So it's been a while since I've blogged.  Things over here at LWJR have been a little busy.  I guess we'vve been a little mini summer hiatus.  Theres been a lot going on!

Caution: this should be labeled the most boring blog post ever!

After our trip to Dallas, we decided to do a little make-over of Avery's playroom.

I finally convinced R to paint trim in at least one room of the house just to see how we liked it.

I mean look at that trim...it's horrible.  The color is fine but it's so beat up it needed a face-lift. We picked up a color somewhere between white and off white and went to work.

It already looks a ton better.  We picked out a great aqua color for the walls and it looks amazing with the white trim!  I was too lazy to go take a picture of the finished trim and walls for this post.  Not to mention my besties girls, Hannah and Chloe were over and the playroom is a mess.  When Hannah, Chloe and Avery get together, the playroom looks like a tornado went through it.  Pictures to come later.

I suspect that the trim in the entire house will get painted in the next year!  Yay!

We also made the decision to start sending Avery to a Mother's Day Out program.  It was such a tough decision.  Avery stays with my cousin that has 3 kids.  Avery LOVES her cousins-I mean LOVES her cousins but we also wanted Avery to have a little structure during the day.  We found a great Mother's Day Out program and signed her up.  She was excited to go to "Big Girl School"!

I had gotten some really great pictures of Avery that morning but someone forgot to put the SD card back in her camera that has no internal memory. Genuis.  At this point, Avery was tired of pictures!

We've also had our normal chores like laundry.

Surviving an avalanche of stuffed animals.

Weeding (that's R's job!).

But trying to have fun while keeping it all together!

Most importantly, we do it all while sporting some awesome shoes!

So, it's been a busy few weeks.  I'm hoping with summer wrapping up, things will begin to slow down and I'll be posting more regularly. 

This last picture says it all about Avery right now.

Cupcakes, Cupcakes!

The other day I got home from work and R and Avery were hanging out.
A: Mommy, I want my pancake.
Me: What?  You want your pancake?
A: I want my pancake. C'mon mommy.

At this point she is pulling me to the fridge.  I'm totally confused about what she is wanting.  At this point R joins us with a twinkle in his eyes.

A: Open mommy.

I open the fridge and see this glorious sight.

Those my friends are Sara Sara Cupcakes.  To be honest, it would not have mattered where they were from.  They were cupcakes and R brought them home for Avery and me! How sweet!  What Avery was saying is that she wanted her CUPCAKES not pancakes!

Mini Vacay

We took a mini vacay this week.  Just a few hundred miles south to Dallas.  Highlights of our weekend include:

An awesome place to eat.

It served food like this.

With fun order "numbers".

And had decorations that a 2 year old couldn't stop talking about.

We also went to the American Girl store.  Have you been here?

It's a store with 1 million "american girls" with stories, clothes, toys and books for each girl. There are matching clothes for your big girl too.

Avery got some major loot  a few things.

We went to the Dallas Aquarium.  It was pretty cool for kids of all ages.

Unfortunately my punk angellic child was not on her best behavior so I didn't get a lot of pictures of her cranky beautiful disposition.  Luckily we ended on a high note and didn't have to drag Avery kicking and screaming out of the aquarium.  I thought we were going to have to.  She had her moments. Traveling with a 2 year old ain't easy I tell ya!

Our trip also included a trip to Ikea.  R was so gracious and patient to walk around the store and let me look around. Avery was in much better spirits by this point and cooperated as well.  She even ate jumbo hot dog and 1/2 a regular hot dog.  Shopping works up a killer appetite!

All in all we had a great time.  It was a quick trip and had the weather not been so blazing hot, we would have had more outside activities on our itenerary.  Luckily Dallas is a few hour drive so it will all be waiting for us next time.

My favorite picture from the weekend.

Grateful

My heart can't handle much more.

This week two of God's children were called home.  Matt and Erma will be missed by friends and family.  They have both inspired those around them and may that legacy continue.

I also started reading this blog today by Sheye Rosemeyer.  Stop by and read her journey.  It's beautiful, tragic, inspiring and a story I cannot imagine living. It makes me thank God for this girl.

And thankful for all the posts, pictures and ramblings I've done throughout these 2 years of the love of my life.

The Work Never Stops

Lately I've been slightly obsessed with Goodwill and Thrift store shopping.  I'm constantly looking for things I can repurpose or spray paint.  A couple months ago I found a record cabinet for R.  I forgot to take a before picture but R has been working on it.

Don't you love this color?!  It's fabulous!

The plan is to spray paint dark brown over the turquoise color and then distress. Should be fabulous!
Record cabinet: $8
Spray paint: $15
Can't wait to have this awesome piece to put R's record player on.  He's been working really hard on this!

This is what i have been working on.

We have a Problem

First, my blog is a little bit under construction. Hopefully it will be pretty soon!

Secondly, when I named the blog Life with Jen and Ronnie, I really thought I would blog more about our life, what we were up to, what we did.  It appears that I've most blogged about Avery.  But you know what? Avery is our life right now.  She consumes our time in the evenings and on the weekends.  We don't do much with out her and when I've got the camera out, I'm usually snapping shots of her. 

I hope you don't mind but there probably won't be a whole of Jen and Ronnie in the blog.  That's alright with me.

We have a slight problem at our house.

It's called No Fear.  It's Avery.  She doesn't have any.

She loves to jump off the mailbox.  She eyes it first.

Then she climbs up on it.

 And jumps off into her dads arms.

The problem is it doesn't stop with mailboxes.

She will climb to the top of ladders.