My new love!

For my birthday this year I got spoiled with a SILHOUETTE SD machine!! After drooling over all the cool tutorials on-line, it was instant love!

Since we have had so many trips and I didn't want to bring it with on our summer adventures, I haven't as much time as I would have likes to play with it :(

But here's some of the projects I have done that I actually thought to take pictures of;

First I spiced up my kitchen aid!

Then I made some fun things for the nursery!!

I'm really loving this pottery barn inspired mobile!

This wall was already painted green when we moved in (notice the paint on the ceiling tsk tsk) and I am actually really loving the color!

This is one of my favorite rooms in the house because for one it is actually done (until I think of something else to do to it) and also because I had SO much fun making all the "art" for the walls!

And I FINALLY finished recovering this rocker!

It was actually very easy but took me forever to get around to the arms and the pillow

yes, this is a picture from my camera so excuse the poor picture quality I was too lazy to get my real camera

Here's a fun whimsical tree I made for Lydia's room

And a reading nook!

The wall colors look so different in both of those pictures... one with a flash and one without, although the real color doesnt look like either picture.

I do want to paint at least and accent wall in her room, if not all the walls, but I am completely stumped. Any suggestions?

This project is nothing that exciting, but what is exciting is how great this frame is that I found at IKEA!!

I'M IN LOVE!

Cheap and ohh SOO cute!

This is in my guest room so I didn't want to do a family picture of anything like that... I wanted it to be very simple

Right away I took the glass out of the frame and just had it hanging on the wall by itself, which I really liked

Then I cut out this vinyl and put it right on the wall

My guess is I will keep on switching it up...

I'm thinking maybe a collage of cool book pages or frame a cool piece of fabric...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU JEFF!!

This has opened a whole new word of crafts for me! I'm so excited to try all the millions of ideas I have for this little guy!

Does anyone else have any ideas or projects you have done with your silhouette machine?!

I would LOVE to hear!!

Disney Cruise!!

I haven't posted in FOREVER!! So if any one still reads this blog I'm so, so sorry! It isn't that I haven't had anything to post about in fact I think I have way too much to blog about that I've put it off.... So on to catching up....

We got to go on the Disney Cruise with Jeffs family!

We were all soooo excited and a little nervous about how we would all deal with being on the boat, especially since some of us have a history with motion sickness... but we all did GREAT and had an AMAZING time!!

This was Lydia's face walking onto the ship!

I don't think she could even begin to imagine the week that lie ahead of us!

Seeing the characters for the first time... ok actually everytime we saw a character Lydia completely lit up and wanted to "hug" them. We practically had to tear her away so that other kids could have a turn

Complete joy!

Of course it felt like we spent half of the time eating

(Jeff will love that I posted this picture of him...shhh don't tell)

Every night that brought Jeff a special ceaser salad since that wasnt a manu option

And every night Lydia enjoyed her favorite food, SOUP!

And Avery spent most of the meals in her car seat asleep! Love this age!

We all enjoyed that great pools! One was in the shape of mickey and Lydia spent most of the time in the shallow ears of mickey. The other pool played movies non- stop on a big screen!

We got to spend a day in Puerto Vierta and 2 days in Cabo

Of course no one does entertaining better than Disney! They even had a pirate party one night complete with fireworks!

This was one of the many amazing servers who would bring us Curry every night!

This is the view of cabo from our stateroom

Always a ton of fun when all the cousins get together!

We LOVED seeing all of the character!

Avery even enjoyed getting in on the action!

Lydia and Daisy had a special thing going on! The same people played the characters the whole time and Daisy really loved Lydia and of course Lydia loved her too!

The Disney cruise was so fun and something we will never forget! Lydia's already asking when we can get back on the big boat!

Firsts

Our house has been a ton of fun this last month with our sweet Avery!!

And we have had a lot of first going on!

First Bath:

Not sure at first and then warmed up to it and was able to relax!

First time sleeping on Daddys arm... now a favorite sleeping position

(looks like they're both about to fall asleep :) hehe)

First sister snuggle in Lydias bed

First pajama party in the living room

I layed Avery on the floor and when I came in I saw this! It makes me soo excited to have two kids who will hopefully be best friends!

We decided to join the party!

(don't mind the post pregnancy body and round face... this will hopefully disapear soon when I start me P90x!)

First haircut!

Man is she cute...

She knows it too!

We love our girls soo much and are so grateful to be their parents!

They truly are special little girls!

Our Baby Story

Welcome to the world

Avery Marie Galovan

Alrighty folks, here's our story of how our sweet little Avery came into the world....

It all starts with Jeffs parents coming into town on Wed night. They arrived right after I went on a long walk/jog with lydia. I started feeling crampy but wasnt sure if it was because I was hungry or in labor. Thursday morning I had an apt. with my doctor and he informed me that I had made a lot of progression but didn't tell me any exact numbers of where I was at, which was kind of frustrating. He said that I was about ready but that he wouldn't induce over the weekend so I would have to wait until monday morning. I was so bummed out because Jeffs parents would be leaving on monday so they would even be able to see

the baby if we stuck to that plan.

So thursday and Friday I had contractions and cramping all day but not enough to really think I was in true labor but I felt like the baby was ready to come soon. So I did the desperate move and took some Castor Oil in orange juice and we all felt certain that the baby would come sometime the next day. I went to bed not feeling any different, then woke up and had to go to the bathroom. Then Lydia woke up not feeling good

and cried forever! Jeff was going to have her sleep in bed with us but I thought that wouldn't be a good idea because I was certain we would be getting up to go have a baby. So he got her to go back to bed and sure enough at about 4:45 I felt something a little funny so I jumped out of bed and water gushed down my legs! I ran out of the room and called for Jeff and then realized he had been laying in bed with me all along. I told him my water was breaking and that we needed to get going! He showered and I changed, we got some things ready around the house and had a snack and we were off! My contractions were already 4 min apart when we left the house and by the time we got to the hospital and I was monitored they were 2 min apart!

When they asked if I would

be getting an epidural I declined and decided I was

going to tough this one out on my own. I did fine breathing and concentrating through all the contractions and thoroughly enjoying the break in between. The nurses decided they wanted to speed things up a little bit for me even though I felt like they were moving plenty fast enough so they have me some pitocin. Once I got that the contractions got a lot less managable and I had nobreak in between. Once I started to feel the need to push I thought I could NOT possibly do this anymore! I told the nurse and she made lay on the bed

so she could check me and sure enough I was a 9 and the babys head was right there. At this point I was asking for an epidural because I thought without it I might possible die! But, it was too late of course! She ran to call the doctor and cameback to inform me he was at Home Depot but he would try to wrap in up and be there

soon. I tried working through the contractions and trying different positions to mke me comfortable so that I could concentrate but the nurse kept insisting I lay on the bed and kept wanting to check me! I think she was nervous about having to deliver the baby on her own! I got to a point that I could not wait a second longer and begged for anything to stop the pain! So they had someone come in and give me a shot in my spine to help numb me and just as he was finishing the doctor came in and I was ready to push.

5 minutes later our little baby was out and cute as can be!!

(Born at 12:22 pm)

I'm a little sad that I wasn't able to go the whole way without any drugs, especially because I only had about 5 minutes left! I had heard that as soon

as you think you might possible die thats right when the baby is about to come out and then your done and I was there! Oh well! I think if I had someone to coach me and let me do it my way instead of trying to make me lay on the bed I could have gone all the way!

Avery came out weighing 6Lbs 14Oz! Almost a whole pound lighter than Lydia! She was 19 in long, the exact same as Lydia was!

We stayed at the hospital for a short 24 hrs and after we all checked out fine and feeling good we got to come home to our sweet Lydia! We missed her so much while we were at the hospital and I think she was a little confused as to

what was going on in her life!

Lydia has been a bit of a handful but I think she's starting to get used to the idea of having a baby in the house and she's forgetting the fact that we left her for a couple of days.

Avery has just been perfect! She is sleeping basically all the time and eating like a champ!

We love our two sweet girls more than words can say and I know they will grow to be the best of friends!

This is definitely a very special Christmas that we will never forget!

Halloween festivities!!

Halloween is getting to be such a fun holiday because Lydia LOVES dressing up!! Every day she asks to wear her "pretty"

After Disney Land Lydia has a slight obsession with Minnie and Mickey Mouse so this costume suited her perfectly!

Here's a picture of her in her full gear next to the pumkin she painted!

Saturday was a pretty yucky day with lots of freezing cold rain but we made it out to a couple houses and Lydia talked Jeff into putting on the Pooh costume!!

Its pretty hilarious and I think our neighbors thought he was crazy haha

We got to go to the cornbelly corn maze at Thanksgiving point and I highly recommend it!

There were so many fun activities for little ones!

They even had face painting which made it even more exciting! Now Lydia points to her face everyday wanting to get it painted!

Silly girl with her face painted and chewing gum

We had a fun night painting pumkins, drinking hot chocolate and decorating carmel apples with Chris and his cute wife Jill and Lacee or "Sadie" as Lydia calls her

And another face painting at Garnder Village! Can you tell she feels like a princess!?

We can't wait for more Halloweens with this little girl and next year she'll have a sister to tag along with her!

Hopefully next years Halloween doesn't get rained out!