camping

This year was our third anual Morgan/Shideler camping trip. My brother and his wife and Chris and I go camping together every year. Our usual spot is rainy and cold so with Ava only being 6 months old, we decided we'd better try somewhere new. We went from really cold camping to really hot camping. It was still a lot of fun. We were able to stay cool by going to a water park and haning out at the lake. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The first day we got there it rained a little and I was pretty upset. We came to this new spot to escape the rain! But luckily a pretty rainbow came out, and it really never rained again.
Coming back from the lake, I was carrying Chris's fishing pole so he could carry Ava. Cute picture huh?
Since my brother Keith decided to post a picture of my butt, I decided to post a lovely picture of him too. (I had a yoga one, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped!) Sorry Natalie!
Chris fishing in the lake. He did cath a nice Pike.
The smoke from the fire made this picture a little blury. But it was the only one I had of Chris and I.

One day we went to this place called "Bishop Castle". This guy built himself a castle over a 40 year period. It was pretty cool. Chris actually made it all the way to the very top. And even Chris said it was a little scary. Apparently there are some broken peices up there. I wasn't quite that brave. I only made it up the first steps and onto the balcony. And even that was scary for me.

This is Bishop's throne. I wanted to put Ava in it alone, but even his throne is falling apart. she would have falled right through the seat.

Ava at the water park. We had a really fun time there. They had couple of slides and a lazy river pool ( a very small one) and a fun diving pool.

9Video of each of our flips off the diving board will come shortly.)

Aunt Natalie put Ava to sleep for me. She is so sweet and peaceful when she sleeps!

Sold!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks around here. We sold our house. It only took 11 days and 6 showings! And, not only did we sell it, but they are in a hurry and want us to close on July 18th. Yeah, as in less than two weeks from now! So the next couple of weeks are going to be even crazier than the last two. I wanted to post a few new pictures of Ava though before things get too out of control. I feel like she's getting huge, but at her 6 month appointment she was only 14lbs 14 oz. Only 25th percentile. For height she is only 10th percentile. She still seems big to me though. She got her first teeth last week. The bottom two. And she can sit up on her own now. Oh, and she finally decided she likes water after all! Anyway, here are a few fun pictures.

Still not trying to get on all fours yet.
Wow, she is really happy! It's rare to capture a picture like this.
Ava hanging out with Grandma Shideler
Ava is always trying to drink from our cups. Of course if I finally give in and let her have a drink (only if it's water), she hates it.

At The Ranch

Here are just a few pictures of us at the ranch. This is where Chris and I will be moving to as soon as our house sells. Ava loved the trampoline!
Ava with Grandma, Uncle Joey, and cousin (2nd cousin) Paul.
Ava riding in the gator with Grandpa.
Ava, Grandpa, and cousin Bennet.
Ava and mom on four wheeler. (Aren't I a natural!)

Chris and I took a four wheeler ride so Chris could show me around the ranch.

It's A Miracle!

Ava has started sleeping through the night! I can hardly believe it myself. It wasn't even a gradual thing. She was still waking up once or twice a night (sometimes more) and then all of the sudden one day, she didn't. It's been three nights in a row now. She goes down at 8 and wakes up at 6 or 6:30. (A little early for my taste, but I'll take what I can get.) And because Ava is sleeping through the night I'd like to say a special thanks to my friend Jenna who helped me get Ava there. She is really into this book called babywise and some of you may have heard of it or have already read it, but it really worked for her. (she has two kids and one was sleeping through the night at 12 weeks and one at 8 weeks). So for the past 3 or 4 weeks she has been encouraging me and helping me to put Ava on a schedule and follow the advice of this book. She said "I'll bet we get her sleeping through the night in a month". And we did! So thanks Jenna! And for anyone who is having trouble getting their baby to sleep, I recommend this book!

Thanks, but....

Thanks for all of the wonderful compliments on my decorating skills. I can't take all of the credit though. I briefly mentioned in my last blog entry that my realtor had someone come in and "stage" my house. So although I'd like to take all of the credit, I have to give credit where credit is due. The decorations are mostly mine, but not all. And, the arrangement of a lot of things is also the realtor. It does look amazing, and I absolutely love it. So thanks Medra, and thanks Rachel.

Before & After

When Chris and I bought our first home it definately wasn't the house of my dreams. In fact, I cried. You see, I was in Oregon visiting my family and Chris was here in Denver. We had been looking at houses but hadn't found anything yet that we really liked. So Chris was at his sisters house visiting her (here in Denver...Aurora actually), and this houe was for sale just a couple of houses away from her. Chris looked at it and called to tell me about it. "It's so big", "the master bedroom is huge", blah blah blah. Long story short, Chris really wanted to make an offer so we did.....without me having ever seen the house. Of course, you can always get out of it later so I knew it wasn't the end of the world, but still a very scary and risky move. So we made an offer, they accepted, and I came home. And I cried!
The pictures below don't even do the house justice. It was so awful. The carpets were disgusting! Animals had definately done their business on the carpets, spills everywhere...it was just horrible. The paint/wall paper was also awful. It's an old house so things were falling apart, closet doors missing, etc. Needless to say, I was not happy. At all.
We had an inspection done on the house and after that I said "sorry, no can do." I definately didn't want this house. The seller was already going to give us several thousand dollars for fix ups, but after I said no, they came back with a much larger amount to give us for fixing it up, and after careful consideration I felt like with a little paint, new carpet, and some all around TLC, we could make it work. So we accepted.
Now we are moving. The house isn't perfect by any means. There is still a lot of work that could be done, but it's improved so much. I am very sad to be leaving my home and ironically, I cried when we decided to move. But I'm very proud of it, so here are the before and after pictures. (One note, some of the stuff in the pictures isn't mine. our realtor had a decorator come in and "stage" my house and she brought some stuff of her own. A good portion of it, and all the big furniture is mine.)

notice the nasty carpet and lovely paint. oh, and don't forget the shutters in the archways.

Aahhh....much better.

Again, carpet!!

I'm pretty sure that microwave was one of the first ones ever made!!

And my favorite room, before and after. The wallpaper on bottom was actually fuzzy and the top was shimmery. Yikes!

Now, it's my favorite room!

this room was the worst "animal business" room. It smelled horrible.

Now it's a cute guest room.

I don't even know what to call that color. The mirrored shower door was also not my favorite.

I went a little crazy with the green color, but no regrets. I've enjoyed it.

I LOVE my master bedroom. It is big like Chris said. So they got something right I guess.

5 Years!!

Happy Anniversary sweetheart! I hope we have an eternity of "who can make the craziest face" contests!! I love you!

P.S. I totally won this one!

Strawberry & Spinach Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing

Strawberry & Spinach Salad w/ Honey Lemon Dressing

5 oz bag spinach

1 lb strawberries

1/4 C. Sugar

slivered almonds

1/4 + 1/8 C. Sugar

1/4 C. Lemon Juice

1/4 C. Honey

1/4 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. mustard

1/2 tsp. finely shredded onion

Slice strawberries and mix with 1/4 C. Sugar. Toss with Spinach and add 1-2 handfuls of almonds.

For Dressing: Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.

The strawberries give the salad a little bit of a glaze and make it unnecessary to have dressing, but the dressing is delicious and I recommend trying it. It's so sweet you won't even know you are eating a spinach salad.