Licking the beater...

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! Every time I would sit down at the computer to write - I would decide I would rather go to sleep. I usually blog at night after everyone is in bed if I'm going to write or edit pictures.

Amelia is feeling much better. I can't remember if I wrote it on the blog or not but she got strep AGAIN. This is her third time with strep. When the doctor told me the test was positive - I started crying in her office. For some reason when she's sick...I feel like it's my fault. I try so hard to keep her well. The last time she had this I went and bought a cart cover so she doesn't touch anything when we're in stores. I switched out her toothbrush/medicine syringe, etc. This time I went and bought 4 toothbrushes and have switched it out every few days! I've been putting anti-bacterial on her hands like crazy. I don't know what else to do. The doc said it could be her tonsils and that if she continues to get it - they will have to come out. I hate the thought of this, but I also don't want her to be 29 like I was and have to have them out - it's a very hard surgery as an adult. Anyway, my girl is back to sleeping until almost 10am every morning. That's how I know she's feeling better. We Averitt girls love our sleep!

I made chocolate chip cookies this week and let Amelia lick the beater for the very first time. She sat there spinning it around, licking every bit of it clean! A bit messy but a mess worth cleaning up in the end. :)



My friend Kristin shared a post on baking with your little ones and it showed me that Amelia can actually do more than just lick the beater at this age. The next time I bake I'm going to let her help me pour in some of the ingredients. I know she will love that!



I don't know if you're familiar with Zulily but it has become one of my favorite sites. I try not to look at it every day because it could easily cause me to go broke! ;) They have the cutest stuff and all at a discounted price. Every day the inventory is different. Here's my link if you want to check it out! For those that have signed up and ordered for the first time under me - thank you!



We have a very busy weekend ahead. Our Saturday is packed full...not sure how I'm going to do it all. It's cold right now but it's supposed to be 80 by tomorrow. Yay for warmer weather!!



Hope you have a happy Thursday!

Love to all,

Recipe for a happy marriage...

I *heart* Lissa over at Humble Pie. When she writes about marriage - I just sit there nodding my head...saying out loud, "yes...yes." Her story is similar to my own so I feel a bond with her even though we've never met!

I encourage you to read her latest post - recipe for a happy marriage. One of my favorite parts of her post:

"The other day I was driving down the road and I said to God, "I'm tired of having the label of the girl that was in a broken marriage. I want to blog about cooking and cleaning and be just like everybody else" That's when God sweetly said to me, "That's not your label at all. Your label is REDEEMED."

I started crying when I read that. I don't know how many times I've thought that to myself. We've been asked to share our story or talk to couples that are going through a hard time in their marriage and when I start to share - it's hard. The enemy tells me that I should be embarrassed or that God could never use me because of my past. And that's simply not true. Like Lissa said, I am REDEEMED!!

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child, and forever, I am.

Head over and read her post. You will be blessed!

Love to all,

Cousins...

I've been meaning to post these pics since last weekend. We took a quick trip to my parents and Amelia was able to spend time with a few of her cousins. We headed out when Alex got off work. We put Amelia in some comfy pjs since it was going to be a late night drive. She did great on the way there...we only had to make two quick stops to change her diaper. :)



Amelia having a late night snack upon arrival.



She LOVES these squeezable fruit/veggie things. I love them too because there's no mess!



Having a little buttered toast and juice the next morning.



And here she is with her cousins. I love these pics. :)



Millie, Amelia, Jackson, and Joylyn



How cute are they??



Pretty darn cute if you ask me! :)



Sweet Millie Beth. Love this girl.



It was a quick trip but I'm thankful we were able to go. It was so much fun to see my parents/brothers/sisters/SIL/BIL/nieces/nephews. I miss them. A lot.

"Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children." -Proverbs 17:6

Love to all,

All About Amelia - 17 months old!

Amelia, you're 17 months old!!



You weigh 25 lbs and you're 32" long.

You wear a size 4 diaper.



You're wearing 18-24 month clothing and size 5 shoe.



You go to bed at 8pm and wake between 9:00-10:00 every morning.

You have several new teeth. You're finally getting your molars!

You love being outside. You ask all day long, "side???"



You've started "reading" books on your own, flipping through the pages. You won't sit still long enough to let us read an entire book to you yet. :)



Your favorite shoes are your rain boots. You bring them to me all throughout the day and ask me to put them on you.



You're a happy little girl. You smile A LOT. :)



Chicken and steak are two of your favorite foods.



When you get tired - you lay your head over on us. Even in restaurants you will lay your head down on the table when you're finished. So sweet.



When you see a camera you say, "CHEESE!!"



You've started bringing me a diaper to put on your baby and will say, "poopee."



You're a people-watcher. You love to watch other kids. When we're in a restaurant you wave at people and say, "HI!"



You have this new (borderline gross) habit of kissing and licking your toes. We put you in your car seat for a long drive to the Grandparents house and you quickly pulled off your socks and started kissing & licking your toes! Ewwwww. (LOL)



You stick your pinkie finger out when you're drinking something or eating a fry. Such the little lady...when you're not licking your toes.



Speaking of french fries...I can't go through a drive-thru without you thinking we're getting "fry-fry." We can go through the pharmacy drive-thru or the bank and you're in the backseat asking for a fry!



When it's time to take a bath you run to the bathroom and say "towel" the entire way. We get a towel and then you head to the bathtub.



You've started saying please when you want something. It's so cute - how will we ever tell you no again!??



A few other words you're saying:

"Scuse" (excuse me)
"Choo" (whenever you sneeze or we wipe your nose)
"Ee-Ee" (movie)
"Puppy"
"Ruff" (when asked what the puppy says)
"Moo" (when asked what the cow says)
"Nack" (snack)
"Toast"
"Ookie" (cookie)
"Alex" (whenever you hear Mommy say Daddy's name)
"Babe" (whenever you hear Mommy call Daddy babe)
"Bey" (obey - whenever you get in trouble)
"Chick-Chick" (chicken)
"WOW"

Amelia, we're amazed by you every day. You keep us laughing and surprise us daily with all you know and continue to learn. You're truly a sweet little girl and already have such a tender heart. We pray that when the time comes - you'll give that tender heart to Jesus and do great things for His kingdom. Never doubt how much He loves you!!

"You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God." Isaiah 62:3

We love you,
Daddy & Mommy

Master Bedroom Redo - In Progress

One of the good things about us being on a budget now is that we've set aside funds each month for me to finish decorating the rooms in our home that are incomplete. Which is pretty much every room. I like doing it slowly because it has caused me to really shop around, make a list of my wants, and then wait until we've saved enough for me to make the purchase. It also makes me think long and hard before making the purchase. I've even found things on sale because I've had to wait. There are pieces in my home that I love and will keep forever but for instance, I have zero curtains in any of the rooms. I have a problem with making a decision on things like that. It seems so permanent and curtains aren't cheap. I love to change things up on a regular basis (like with every season) so I don't want to spend a whole lot on things like that, but I want it to look nice.

God put something in us as women (most of us anyway) to want to decorate our "nest." I'm blessed to have a husband that will leave the decorating to me. He could care less what I do and wants our home to feel like me. I try to imagine what our home would feel like if Alex did the decorating and heaven help us - it would be all leather furniture, blank walls, and more than likely nothing would coordinate because he's color blind - bless his heart. He is the first to say, "I don't want anything to do with the decorating." When Alex and I were separated, one of the things he said when we got back together was that our home felt like me again. He missed that. He missed the personal touches that only I could give our home. If you're a husband and you don't understand your wife's need to decorate your home, move furniture, change paint colors, etc...just stop trying to understand it and realize that God made us this way! (LOL)

My "style" has changed drastically since I was a young, 19 year old newlywed. It has even changed a lot since we bought this home several years ago. I love color yet I love clean...lots of white. I've been working towards using more neutrals in our master bedroom for a while now. We have a sitting room on one side of our bedroom and our master bath on the other. I'm going to incorporate the neutral colors into the sitting room and then white and this color of blue in the bathroom.



So this is what I've done so far. The picture above the bed will be framed in a new/lighter frame soon and will go on another wall in the bedroom. I'm currently looking for something else to go above the bed. Any suggestions are welcome!



This is my side of the bed. I've started keeping fresh flowers in our room...it's lovely to wake up to these every morning. Last week I had pink tulips!



This is Alex's side of the bed. I'm going to re-frame these pictures as well. I don't like the dark frames. Maybe something silver...we'll have to see what Michael's or Hobby Lobby has on sale.



I found a lot at Target. I love some of the new designers they've started carrying and I don't feel like I've paid an arm and a leg if I want to switch it out later. I already had the polka dotted duvet and have a couple of others that I may try at the end of the bed. Alex says he likes the polka dots! :) Next purchase will be curtains. Just hope I can make a decision.



It's a work in progress. I'll post more pics as I add things.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. It's another weekend of beautiful weather here!!

Love to all,

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Amelia had a play date with her cousins this week. She always has the best time with them. They had CFA for lunch and then played for a few hours.





By the time our company had to leave - Amelia was worn out! I needed to do something in the kitchen so I sat her in her highchair with a little snack. I looked over and she was sound asleep. She has never fallen asleep in her highchair. Ever. She took a 15-minute cat nap and was ready to go again.



Amanda came over to keep Amelia for a few hours yesterday. She's coming again today. Having a babysitter twice a week has changed my life. I'm serious. I'm so grateful to Alex for letting me have this time to take care of myself and to run my errands. Yesterday I was able to go to the chiropractor, to the post office, to Hobby Lobby, to get an oatmeal cookie & iced tea (this was the most important of the errands), to Hallmark, to the grocery store, and then headed back home.



I've pretty much bought everything for Amelia's Easter basket. I've been picking up things for a while and I only have one more thing to buy. I found several cute things in the dollar bin at Target! I always loved waking up to an Easter basket full of candy! My Mom bought one HUGE basket - filled it with each of our favorite candies - and would have it on the dining room table on Easter morning. Amelia doesn't really get candy in her basket but she'll get some other fun things.



We went out to eat last night. Alex took us to Outback Steakhouse. After we finished dinner - a couple (about the age of our parents) stopped and asked how old Amelia was and then told us that she was very well-behaved. We've never had issues with taking her out to eat but this is the first time strangers have stopped to comment on her behavior. It's always nice when someone older tells you that you're doing a good job. Whenever my Momma brags on me as a mother - it means the world to me. I think we (new/younger parents) need encouragement like that. Parenting is hard and it's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to tell someone what they're doing wrong and more than likely (in my opinion) we already see where we can improve. I don't know of anyone who thinks they're a perfect parent or that their children are perfect. It's normal for me to feel like I don't know what I'm doing on a regular basis! So if your kids are grown and your on the other side of the sleepless nights/fits in the restaurants/etc...encourage a (new/younger) parent this week. I think that would be nice.



We ended the evening with a trip to Walmart. Alex bought Amelia a ball pit for her birthday and it popped this week. He wanted to replace it since she plays in it every day. He chose one - brought it home - blew it up in her room - and then we realized it took up half her bedroom! I think we're going to have to make it an outside toy. If we can get it through the bedroom door. :) She loves it.



Speaking of outside toys. Our backyard is completely empty. Nothing. Nada. Amelia asks to go outside now that she's older and I have nothing for her to do out there. So what are some of your favorite backyard toys for this age? She'll be 17 months old this month.

Happy St. Patty's Day!!



Love to all,

You belong in the ZOO...

Saturday was BEAUTIFUL. I immediately thought we should take Amelia to the zoo and Alex loved the idea. It was really cute how excited he was to take Amelia to the zoo for the first time.



There was a long line when we arrived...we ended up buying a family pass for the year and I think we'll use it a lot. Buying the family pass also allowed us to bypass the long line - SCORE!



Amelia was cracking me up. She just sat back and enjoyed the ride!



After seeing several cool animals, we shared a fresh squeezed lemonade and a funnel cake. This was Amelia's first funnel cake. She was a fan. We put the lemonade in her sippy cup. I've never seen her drink anything that fast.









We wanted Amelia to ride the carousel while we were there. My M-I-L was telling me that she and her sister used to ride this same carousel when they were little girls. How neat is that?? Amelia LOVED it. Every time she would circle around and see me - she would smile so big and laugh and wave! I was laughing so hard! I probably took 100 pics of her on that thing. It made my heart happy to see her enjoying it so much.









We took our time and ended up only seeing half of the zoo. Not a problem though because we now have a season pass! :) It really was the perfect day. We loved every minute of it and can't wait to go back! We of course bought Amelia one of those cheesy t-shirts that says "My First Trip To The Zoo!" You can't leave without buying a souvenir. Seriously. They make you walk through the gift shop just to get out of the place.



Amelia was worn out and fell asleep within a few minutes in the car. Bless her happy heart.



I also wanted to say thank you to my blog friend, Charne. She sent the Valentine shirt that Amelia wore in her Valentine card picture and also this outfit that Amelia wore to the zoo. She sent us this sweet package all the way from South Africa. These clothes were made right there in SA and are just precious!



Love to all,