Nick is 26; Ava is 6 Months.

Ava will be six months on Tuesday. Can ya believe it?



She is starting to sit up.



And she's a pretty happy kid.




And I think she's pretty much the cutest kid that ever lived. Check out the blanket Aunt Missy crocheted to match her pineapple hat:



Nick continues to be awesome.


He is having fun taking pictures - he took this one at Pebble Beach with some funky effect and framed it for his parents to thank them for doing our taxes.



If anyone else wants an enlarged copy, he will sell it to you for $525,000 so he can buy this watch:



He won't let me take a picture of him with his new Skullcandy Skullcrusher headphones my parents bought him for his birthday (thanks guys), but they're awesome and he likes 'em.

Here are some pictures from the 26th birthday of Nicholas:

Cattlemen's - I told them it was his birthday (mostly to make them stop asking if we wanted dessert, because "we were going home to have birthday cake", also a plot to get him good and embarassed).

He got some free pre-birthday-cake ice cream...



...and I wore the birthday hat.


Fortunately there were not enough (willing) employees to sing to him, so I did not have to walk home from the restaurant.

I told him he had to wear the hat or he couldn't open his presents...





Mint chip ice cream with Double-Stuf Oreos. Can I get a YUM-YUM?!



Too much excitement for one day, I guess.


Nick also made him some sales and watched him some golf this week, as usual.

I made me summa these (yay frabric scraps):





My name is Jessica and I am a rosette-aholic. You can learn how to make them at
http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2010/09/fabric-rosette-tutorial-extravaganza.html.
Fabric flowers are too much fun. I put one on the dress I made for Ava:


I also made a headband out of some other leftover fabric. I think I'll put some of my flowers on it. And then I shall make a million more and sell them on etsy.com to pay for the ceiling fan light shade thing I broke the other day (don't ask how that happened, It was stupid) and a headlight (again, stupid).

I made Ava a dress!



Unfortunately, she had the audacity to gain a couple of pounds before I finished it. Look at these chunky legs! I LOVE it!



So anyway, I'll put a zipper in the dress. Or just hang it on her wall to look pretty.

Today is Nick's 26th birthday! We went to dinner at Cattlemen's. Nick's mom stayed at home with the sleeping baby.Check out the sweet blanket Aunt Missy (my sister) crocheted. Don't you love how Ava sleeps in the surrender position? Usually it's the "airplane" position, which is really amusing.



I LOVE when I get to go out with Nick. Of course I adore Ava and I love being with her, but it's extremely nice to get out of the house with Nick. It's amazing how nice that feels. Before you have kids you really take for granted the ability to just get up and run out and get food or a Redbox or something. It's awesome to get to carry a purse instead of a 50-pound diaper bag. It's way fun to get to go to dinner and just talk and not be worrying about what I should be cleaning. And then when we come home I can't wait until she wakes up so I can see her again.

Nick spent a lot of his birthday at home chilling with Ava.





And then he went out and worked for a bit before we went out to dinner.

After dinner we came home and did presents and birthday cake. I made ice cream cake out of Oreos and mint ice cream.

Someone tell me how I can do a thousand things in one day without doing crack. It is now going to be Thursday and I have made pretty close to zero progress in the way of cleaning, homework, working out, groceries, and guess what, it's time to do laundry again.

As soon as Ava can walk, she's folding laundry.

La La La

Whew. Screw my to-do list, I'm blogging.
I feel like venting right now, but I think it would be better to write some of the many things I'm grateful for. I need to do that every day.

1. I got to take a shower today!
Ava actually went down for a nap (I took a shower to avoid listening to the crying), and she finally went down. So I now smell like vanilla, my legs are de-pricklified, and I'm wearing my favorite new shirt from the Nike outlet:



You can actually see it better in the first picture.

2. Look how long my hair is getting! I'm so happy about that.

3. My husband is awesome.
Last night he grabbed a movie (Wall Street) and Papa John's Pizza. I was going to make pizza like I have the last couple of weeks, but I'm glad I didn't have to last night!

Side note: Wall Street was OK. The half I was awake for, anyway. Lots of talking about financial crap I do not understand, but a good depiction of snobby rich people who I do not want to become. Although, it would be nice to have some extra cash to hire someone to do my laundry.

Also, my husband is an awesome salesman. Since he started working for vivint. (formerly APEX/APX), he's been selling like crazy and is the top first-year sales rep in his region. I forget what states that includes but it's, um, a pretty big region. Anyway, he's really been bringing home the bacon.

Speaking of bacon, I love Jim Gaffigan.

ANNNND the baby is awake. YAY. This is why I am freaking nuts. At least I got a shower today.

4. My baby is freaking adorable. Here, since she's not going back to sleep, I'll take a picture of us:



Ava's Aunt noticed that our five-and-a-half-month-old is a much happier baby now. She smiles lots and no longer cries constantly. AND she sleeps good at night.

AND she is currently chewing on the computer table. Yum.

Ava Hungry Walters is finally gaining weight. 15.5 pounds! It's funny how heavy that sounds. Speaking of body weight, another thing I've very grateful for is:

5. What baby weight? I lost it all like, four months ago. I didn't think I'd get that lucky. It has been EXTREMELY nice not having to stress about losing weight in addition to taking care of a baby.


6. My Heavenly Father loves me enough to make beautiful things for me to see and experience. Like Pebble Beach:



7. Venus razors


OK, I feel better. Back to entertaining The Munchkin.

J