Separated at birth

Ava and Pebbles Flintstone

Ava and Flock of Seagulls


Ava and Kate Gosselin

Renaissance festival

Saturday we set out to take Ava to her first Renaissance Festival. Amanda and Dave were fresh back from Mexico so they came along too. We started our day by watching the Puke and Snot show. Graham and I have seen this before, by this year was different. Last August Snot passed away suddenly from a heart attack. I didn't have high hopes for the new Snot, but he did a great job. This is the only picture I got because as the show started I was distracted by a celebrity sitting near us in the audience....

Look, It's Kate Gosselin! I'm pretty sure this chick knew I took her picture because she spend the rest of the show glaring at me. And I spend the rest of it pretending not to notice. After that we watched some jousting...

Some fire eating...and Graham decided to try out a ride

Ava even got to meet the Queen!

Pull-ups!

I was in the office the other day checking my email. Usually when I do that Ava is on the floor crawling around, looking for trouble. Usually she occupies herself with the task of shredding my unread magazines. But today I looked up and caught her like this!
She stands! This is the first time Ava has pulled up on something! (don't mind my mess of crap) Woohoo Go Ava!

Friends in high places

Since my milk supply has totally tanked recently Ava has moved to formula. I still try to pump and give her what little breast milk I can but she is mostly formula feed now. She really doesn't seem to care was was weaning herself anyways.

Yesterday we got a little something in the mail from our wonderful Similac rep at work. Three Free cases of formula. Woohoo!

Thanks Angie!

A perfect storm

About 10:20pm Monday night Ava had just woken up for her first feeding of the night. Since we were still on vacation for one more day Graham graciously offered to get up and feed her. So I snuggled back into my covers and went to sleep.

I was awoken again 5 minutes later or so by a 'Ping' on the window. Before we went to bed the weather was calm, warm and quiet. Hm, weird. I thought and closed my eyes again.

PING!

I sat up and all of a sudden it sounded like the house was under attack! Hail pounded the windows, coming in sideways! I jumped up and looked outside. When the lightning flashed you still couldn't see anything because it was hailing so hard it was literally a white out! The wind was blowing so hard I was sure a tornado was coming. My second thought, was oh shit my car! I have a new highlander that I love dearly. it is normally garaged but we've been redoing our bathroom and painting in the garage so it was parked in the driveway. Graham ran outside risking life and limb and pulled it into the garage.

The noise of the hail was deafening. The wind was pulling trees sideways. It was crazy, I had never seen anything like it. Then, just as suddenly it was gone.

Graham and I turned off our T.V for the summer so I had no idea what was going on. The News websites were not yet updated. But we seemed to escape with our house and trees unharmed, minus the hail shredding the leaves off.

At 11:30 our phone rang. Apparently my oldest sister was out at an amusement park when the storm hit. She just got a little rain where she was but they decided to head home. On the way she saw a tree that was blown down. She decided to stop by my Mom's house to be sure it was okay. My Mom was at work and Angie called her on the way to tell her of the storm and how some trees in the neighborhood were knocked down, along with several power lines. As she drove down my Mother's road she couldn't see anything but flashlights waving around in the dark. The storm knocked out the power. As she got closer she saw it... the huge pine tree in my mom's front yard was down, completely blocking the road. Thankfully it didn't hit anything. But as Angie inspected the house and went into the back yard a huge branch off the massive tree in my moms backyard had fallen. Right on to the roof of her house leaving a car size hole. The whole house was flooded. My Mom left work and called her husband, who in turn called us. Mark was in Texas. So the next morning we went over to help clean up.

The hail near our house the next morning.Keep in mind this picture was taken about 10 am the next day. The temp was in the 80's and there was still this much hail piled up!

Here is the front yard tree. Most of it has already been cleaned up at this point.Thank goodness for the city workers. They came to help clear the part of the tree that was blocking the street. This was their third visit of cutting and loading tree to be taken away. They were a huge help!The tree was pulled out of the ground with the roots still attached. That's some strong wind!This is the neighbors house across the street. See that mound under the tree? Before this storm that ground was flat. It bubbled up from the wind trying to rip the tree out by its roots. This tree is over 100 feet tall. The fire department told the home owner that his home is no longer safe to stay in because its only a matter of time before the tree falls now. He is hoping he can get it removed before it comes down on it's own.

What was left of the front yard tree when we left. I'm amazed we got so much of it cleaned up!This is the backyard tree. Here is where a very large branch fell off and onto the roof.Most of this was cleaned up too by the time we arrived. Thankfully my Mom has a lot of friends willing to pitch in.But we helped cut the branch into smaller pieces so we could get it out of the yard.The roof, with the hole covered by a tarp until the insurance people can get it assessed and repaired.And the debris pile when we left. This picture doesn't do it justice! This pile is HUGE! Each of those logs down there are several feet long. It's a massive pile!

Thank God no one was hurt!

Day 2- Excuse me. Mr. Giraffe? You're blocking my sun

Day two of our not in Mexico vacation we set off for Colorado Springs to see my sisters newly remodeled house and to go to the Zoo. Katie has just recently purchased her first home and has done some major remodeling to it. Not a single room was left untouched. Ava took it upon herself to check the durability of the new carpet, making sure it holds up to baby drool.

After picking up Katie we all headed to the Zoo.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is a neat place for many reasons. 1- because it's nestled in the mountains making it a little cooler on a hot summers day and 2- You can get up close and personal with the Giraffes. Very cool to be that close to them.

Ava is still very young so I didn't know if she would "get" the zoo. But she loved every second of it! She was so engaged and interested in every animal we saw.

But soon the sun took its toll on a little girl and while we stopped for lunch Ava went down for the count.But she caught her second wind just in time to finish the last half of the zoo and take a ride on her first carousel.She loved sitting on the horse, and even snuck in a little taste of the bar but once it started it went so fast that even I was a little scared! I could barely hold her on the horse with it spinning at warp speed so I had to hold her for most of the ride.

Day one of our not in Mexico vacation

A while ago our good friends Amanda and Dave invited us to go to Mexico with them this week. I was so excited at the prospect of going I scheduled the time off work (and made Graham do the same). It turned out we were unable to go but we both kept the time off anyways.

My Mom was off the first day of our vacation so she offered to watch Ava so Graham and I could spend a day doing Adult stuff. Unsure what to do with our free time I decided what;s more adult than gambling? So our destination was set!

We let Ava take her morning naps at home and then set off to Grandma's. I got Ava all settled with a full tummy and a blanket full of toys. We made sure she was happy and off we went.We made it about 10 minutes and a hundred "Do you think Ava's okay?" "What if she's crying?" "Should we turn around?" "We don't have to go up to Blackhawk today." 's before I finally gave in and called to check on her. This was the first time I was leaving her without in being mandatory that I left, like going to work so I was worried. Three more calls and one Starbucks later I felt okay enough to start trekking up the mountain.

We went over the mountains and through the tunnels....And arrived at our destination...Blackhawk!

We scooped out a few Casinos and settled at the old Hyatt (I can't remember what its called now).It was safe to say we were the youngest people in there at 3pm on a Thursday. I'm not a slots player, I think they are a waste of money and their not even that fun, but while I was in the bathroom Graham managed to find one and raked up 100 credits in one pull. I have a firm motto of cashing out while your ahead so that's exactly what we did and set out to find some real gambling.And ended up settling at a blackjack table with some super fun people. Four hours later we left the tables and set off to find the buffets where I gorged myself with nothing but crab legs and chocolate covered strawberries. MMmmm, it was good!

As hard as it was leaving Ava it made it easier that my Mom kept texting me pictures like this

and this. Safe to say Ava was in good hands and having fun.

After another pictures we set off for home and our baby with a little extra cash in out pockets!

Back to our regularly scheduled programing

It's 3am and I am up. DYING from seasonal allergies. I am a self proclaimed Zyrtec addict. I NEED it to get through the day. Yesterday I ran out. I think to my lazy self who doesn't want to go to the store, I can survive one day. Besides, I don't have allergies I just get a little itchy. Turns out I'm a big liar because my "itchiness" has woken me from my beauty rest and now I am a dripping, stuffy, swollen itchy mess. Like a true addict I tore apart our bathroom jonesing for something to fix my itch and came across some long forgotten about Claritin. An hour and 1/2, 2 pills, 6 goes at the Netti Pot and one blown ear drum later I am a little better but still itchy, stuffy and drippy. Claritin is no Zyrtec and since having snot running down your face puts a damper on sleeping so I figure what better time to update my blog?


As my sister in law so lovingly pointed out I have been a bad blogger. Who knew people besides my Mom actually miss my blogging (Hey, SIL's count!) So here ya go Claire, lots of stuff to keep you entertained at work. All backdated so I can claim I never failed from my posting. Your boss can thank me later.

Tanner's 1st Birthday Party!

Today was Tanners Birthday party and it true Tessie fashion everything was so fun and so good! When we first arrived I was too busy stuffing my face so I didn't pull out my camera until cake time.


Check out Tanner's cake! Could it be any cuter? It was super yummy too!

Tanner had a little smash cake of his own. He started a little slow.I think he might have felt on the spot with 20 cameras on him.But soon he was digging in and totally enjoying it! But always an Edwards he stayed pretty tidy.Tanner also had a life size monkey pinata for the bigger kids. It was a hit! (Get it? a Hit! Hee hee!) He got a ton of gifts too! Ava sat well for a while before she couldn't resist any longer and had to peek at Tanner's loot.

So she went up to hang out with Dave to keep her out of the way.

And to think he is only 3 months older then Ava. This will be us soon. Where does the time go?

Hand-made for Tessie

My good friend Tessie has a friend who is having twins. Boy/Girl twins. She asked me if I could make some of my baby stuff for her to give as a gift. I was so flattered I whipped up some super cute stuff that I'm going to have to try to make for Ava now too!

Strollin' with Logan

Ava and I finally got a chance to meet up with her friend Logan and his mom Courtney again since it had been a while since our last stroll together. This time we picked out a park in between both our houses. The kiddos all strapped in!

We walked around a few times catching up on each others life and the newest gossip at work but little Logan decided he had enough of being tied down so we stopped to let the kids play on a blanket for a while.

At first they kept their distance...

But soon were playing like old friends.

Nice hair clip Ava! Can I see it?

Shortly after this Ava started getting really crabby, scheduling play date too close to nap time will do that to a girl so we headed home for a long nap!

Happy Birthday Tanner!

Today is not only a special day because Ava is 9 month old, but also because it's her good friend Tanner's 1st Birthday!

My how time flys!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Every 4th of July for as long an I've know Graham, which has been a long time, he goes to a party up in our old neck of the woods thrown by the family of an old high school friend. I rarely go. Mostly because I've worked almost every 4th of July for the last several years and before that I had horse shows on the 4th (which was very cool watching firework displays from horseback. But it's never been a big holiday for me. This year Ava and I tagged along and trekked up to the mountains eager to see old friends and Ava's first fireworks.


A rare Mommy and Ava pictureDaddy with Ava nomming on his beads
Luke and Kari

Adam and Cat, all the way from SeattleMommy and Ava and Heidi and Cayden and AydenMost of this party involves a lot of drinking. I've been to this party back in my college days and don't remember a moment of it. Now it has taken a turn to be more family and child friendly. they even rented a jumping castle for the kiddies this year. So of course Ava had to take a bounce.


I'm liquor free since '93 (okay that's not true, but name that show) but I wasn't drinking so I got to sit back and watch the IQ levels drop.Bouncy Castle + beer+ Men who think they are still teenagers= TROUBLE!It started out innocently enough. Even Ava and I were in the castle watching every one bouncing around, but it took a turn when Cat lost her balance and crashed into a support beam. Cat and Adam both went down taking the roof of the castle with them!** Insert a panicky Amber here**



I wish I would have kept taking pictures but all I could see was this huge plastic ceiling crashing around us, more importantly my precious baby! Turns out Graham, who was holding her at the time, was standing diagonal to Cat and next to the other support beam and was never near the roof or any danger.

Cat and Adam were able to untangle themselves from the wall and all was right in the world again.then the rain came.... and came and came. Everyone retreated to the garage where we all remained for a while .

Until Ava needed to be able to move around so Heidi, the babies and I went into the house to let them stretch and play.

Unfortunately we missed the fireworks this 4th of July. We all got sleepy and headed home where we were in bed by 8:30 (boy how things have changed!)

Hind sight

I don't know what's out there...

But it must be pretty interesting.