Dancing Queen

So, my little Ava has developed quite the love for performing arts. I usually try to give her some time at the piano every day, and she loves to sing songs and play the piano. Tonight, it was my job to play the piano while she sang songs out of my "All You Need to Know About Canning" book. Every time I would stop playing, she would stop singing, point to the piano and motion for me to continue playing. She can be quite demanding at times (ok, ALL the time) but it's fun to watch her sing and explore the piano. (We have a full sized key board that makes all different kinds of sounds and plays tons of different rhythms.) During church, whenever we sing the hymns in Sacrament, she grabs a hymn book and opens it up and starts singing and waving her arm like the chorister. It's so fun to watch!

Not only does she loves singing and playing the piano, but she loves to dance! We are big fans of Dancing with the Stars, and every Monday when we turn it on, she runs to her room and gets this pink sparkly dress my sister in law found at the DI. We put it on, and when the music comes on, she gets her groove on! When it's Latin dances playing, she likes to "swish" her dress back and forth just like the dancers, and when slow songs come on like the Waltz, she will come and grab my hand and make me dance with her. We hold hands and dance side to side and occasionally she will do a turn. It's been so fun to watch, that half of the time, I don't even get to see the Stars dancing because I'm too busy watching my little dancing queen!

Black Eyes and Big Girl Bed

It seems as if I am always trying to catch up on our life. Maybe now that I'm done with school, I'll blog more often. Can't make any promises though. We finished another semester! Wahoo! And now, the real work begins. This summer, my goal is to: 1. Get Ava into a big girl bed. 2. Potty train her and 3. Take the heavenly binkie away. I know, I'm such a mean mom, but I don't want to have a 3 year old kid going to Primary with a binkie. There's just something wrong about that. I am working on goal #1. And, here is a cute pic to show Ava's first night in her big girl bed....

Getting her to go to sleep was a challenge. I am used to just setting her in her crib and she'll go right to sleep. But as soon as I shut her door, she got out of bed and started crying. So, I layed in bed with her until she fell asleep. At 7 a.m. this morning, I am woken up by her bright and shining face grinning at me. Great. My freedom is taken away! I am used to her just babbling to herself in her crib while I get an extra 45 minutes of blissful sleep, but alas, I cannot do that anymore. Oh well. :) Tonight went a little better..... we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Around Easter, Ava fell and got a nasty shiner. And I mean nasty. She still has little traces of it.... And one day I was at Burger King and some guy says to me "Ran into a coffee table, huh?" And I said "Yes" and then some other guy has the nerve to say "Do we need to investigate that? Heh heh." I was mortified. People probably think I beat my poor child! Oh brother. So, here are some lovely pics of her eye about a week after it happend.

3 Years!

Today is our 3rd Anniversary and I can't believe how fast it's gone. I am grateful for my marriage and grateful for my cute husband. He teaches me so much and is so patient with me. I never dreamed that I would find someone like him let alone be lucky enough that he would want to spend eternity with me. Of course we have had our ups and downs and our disagreements, but we have been able to work through them because of our committment to this marriage and mainly because of our committment and love for the gospel. The gospel is the driving force in our marriage and we are working together to raise a family.

Last night we were talking about marriage proposals, and I love the way I was proposed to. Nate came to my work, and things didn't work out like he had planned, and he ended up coming out of a closet and getting down on one knee. There wasn't any fancy flowers or expensive dinners, but it meant the world to me.

When I first met Nate I thought he was weird. He started working with me and had just gotten home from his mission and was just awkward. I wasn't even attracted to him. However, as the months wore on, every day I would look forward to 1:30 p.m. when he would walk through the doors at work. My heart would beat fast and I would get really nervous. I am grateful that we became friends first. I learned random facts about him and we discussed our goals for the future, all at work. I knew I loved him and wanted to marry him 8 months after working with him. We didn't date for a long time, and got engaged about 2 1/2 months after officially dating and were married 5 months later.

So, here's to 3 years of wonderful marriage and many, many, many more to come.