Our Trip to Indiana

Last week, my mom and I went to visit my cousin Laura in Rochester, Indiana. It was such a fun time. Alyssa and Averie were along on the trip as well and they both had so much fun.

I remember being Alyssa's age and doing almost everything with my cousins - Laura, Chris and Michelle...and of course my brother was there as well! 

We always had so much fun with our moms. They took us everywhere. Being the youngest, Laura and I had to do some crazy things on our trips. Let's just say we are happy the laws are more strict now for vehicles and kids! TOO FUNNY!

Anyways, I just hope that I too can bring as much fun to my daughter's life as my mom did for me. It was so fun being able to spend a week with my cousin and doing fun things with our kids. I am so blessed to have such an amazing and caring family. Thank you so much Laura for hosting us and thank you to my mom for all you do for me. You're an amazing mom!

Ok on to the good stuff. I wanted to share some photos from our trip! Check them out!

Audrey and her pirate dress!

 Audrey is such a good model...when she wants to be!

 Another pug lover. This is Deccy. 

She looks just like her mommy!

Love this shot!

Here is little Annabelle

 Averie having fun on the swing

Audrey is styling with her mommy's sunglasses

Annabelle and Averie were born just a few weeks apart

Styling with her sunglasses

Our sweet Alyssa had fun being the oldest kid

Annabelle and Averie

Alex and Alyssa

Alyssa, Alex and Audrey

I love sunflowers

Pretty little Audrey

Alex smiling for his mommy

Alyssa being crazy!

It was such a fun time. We will be sure to visit again soon. You have a lovely home and an even more lovely family. Love you Ault's!


Here we are at the Zoo!

Ate lunch at an Oasis on our way down.

We stopped at the Indiana Sand Dunes on the way home as well.

Vacation Recap

So the challenge to myself to blog everyday has OBVIOUSLY not worked out so well as you can probably tell. I commend all the people who do this everyday or more than once a week. I cannot seem to find the time.

I wanted to at least take some time to share some of our memories from our family vacation this year. We stayed at a cottage on the Three Lakes Chain in Three Lakes, Wisconsin near Eagle River. 

I wanted to be sure I got some pictures of Averie at our place, so we can always look back and remember our first family vacation. 

We really like this area and plan to look for a place to buy one day.

 Little stinker is a fast little crawler now, so it is hard to snap pictures.

Milo really enjoyed his time at the lake too. Although, he did not get a lot of sleep. 

He was very tired when we got home.

Justin and I were able to go out fishing one day together when my mom and Alyssa came for the day. 

 

Justin's cousin Zak came as well to visit one day. They went fishing and Justin caught a Musky. Then the next day, we were fishing off the dock and Justin caught another Musky!

 Alyssa really enjoyed her time up north as well. The girl loves to swim. Her and Justin were playing in the water for a while. It was pretty hot up there, so the water was very refreshing for all of us.

 Our place is located on Deer Lake. It was really nice. There was a small swim beach which was nice for Averie. I would totally stay at this place again. There are lots of lakes connected, so Justin had a lot of options for fishing. The sunset was absolutely beautiful as well.

 Averie loved being in the water too. She does not like floating by herself though. We figured out that she needs to be holding one of us at all times. We got a raft thing for her from her aunt Kerstin, but she doesn't seem to like it yet. She had a blast though playing in the water with her daddy!

Overall it was a great vacation.

Hope you enjoy!

Summer is Here!

Summer has finally arrived! I am so happy. The weather was starting to make me sad.
I love the heat!

We have been pretty busy with our little family. This week we took Averie out on the boat and she absolutely love it! Averie also ate her first spaghetti dinner and she loved that too!

Poor little thing has had the poopies though...I am assuming it is from that.

Here are some fun pictures from our adventures.

Love this shot!

She really works hard to kneel down!

Our adventures out on the boat!

Averie's Messy First Spaghetti Dinner

Averie fell asleep in the bike trailer while she was rubbing her eyes!

HAPPY SUMMER!

Where are you summer?

 This is starting to get a wee bit ridiculous. Summer please come back to us....we miss you.

All I want to do is sit outside in the warm sun. Today I was so cold that I actually turned 

the heat on for a little while. If everything is behind, I sure hope that 

means summer will last until mid-October!

At least we can still get all bundled up and go for a walk with Milo!

Nothing that special, but I thought it was so cute when I hung Averie's coat next to ours. 

Averie was standing all by herself yesterday.

I was able to snap this picture quick of her talking on the phone!

Milo doesn't seem too interested in the book. Averie finds it hilarious!

Hypothyroidism

So last week I found out that I have hypothyroidism which means I have an under active thyroid. This is very confusing to me because my symptoms align more with hyperthyroidism than hypo. Very weird, but I have now started taking medicine that will help my hormones balance out.

These were my symptoms before medicine: feeling cold, exhaustion, restlessness, some weight loss, and increased appetite. Now this is how I would feel on most days. When I look at the symptoms of each, I feel I align more with an overactive thyroid.

So now I am on this medicine, levothyroxine. I have no idea what to expect. Has anyone else gone through this? I like feeling cold more than feeling hot. I love being able to deal with the heat better than most people.

I have heard that women can go through this after having a baby. Averie is 9 months though, so would I still be experiencing this from that? I am still nursing, so my appetite might still be increased from that.

I don't know. I just don't want to take medicine just to take it. The nurse told me that this is something that I will have to be on for the rest of my life.

In July, I will go back and get more blood work done to see how the medicine is working. So far I have not felt that different from the medicine.

Looking for any information you can share.

Shopping Fun!

Yesterday nap time seemed non-existent in our house. Averie likes to stand up in her crib, but she has not yet figured out how to lay back down. Since she didn't feel like napping in the afternoon and I didn't feel like going in there ten million times to lay her back down, we decided to go shopping.

Milo needed dog food, so we went to Fleet Farm. Who knew it could be so much fun!

We tried on sunglasses...don't worry, we did not buy these.

 

We tried on baseball hats. Did not buy, but need to!

  

These are the shades we bought! LOVE THEM!

Back at home, I set Averie down for a second. I came back to the living room to find this little escape artist trying to get out of the house! She really crawls quite quickly now. Little stinker!

She is very proud of herself as you can tell!

Weekend Recap

Friday evening after Justin got home from work, the three of us took a long bike ride. Averie loves being in the bike trailer. The first time she fell asleep in the back I almost had a heart attack. All of a sudden I looked over and she was slumped over. I yelled at Justin to stop, threw my bike down and ran over to her. She opened her eyes and looked up at me like "what, what, what. what did I miss." Hopefully I will only be a spazzy mommy for a little while longer! We love the bike trailer. It is a perfect way for us to get exercise and gives us a little break from playing with baby toys!

Saturday I went to Minneapolis to visit one of my BFF's for a fun adult's only girls weekend. I still am not ready to be away from Averie for more than one night, but it is nice to have a little getaway once in a while. It was such a fun weekend. Saturday we went wine tasting at Surdyk's. I absolutely love this shop. Back at Kelly's house we had a nice time just talking about anything and everything. We had a champagne and cheese sampling for dinner. Later in the evening Kelly and I went out dancing at the W Hotel Bar. Kelly and I love dancing. We always have so much fun together.

Kelly was hosting a baby shower Sunday. She made basil lemonade and had me try some of it...AMAZING! Basically she made basil infused simple syrup. Squeezed lemons for fresh lemon juice. Mix that with ice and water...and some vodka of course. It was delish.

Here is a recipe I found, but change to your liking.

I was so excited to come home to my three loves (Justin, Averie and Milo of course). Since Averie sees me all day every day, I love how excited and happy she gets when she sees me after being away from her. She had so much fun with her daddy while I was gone though. 

 Look at these two...Averie certainly is her daddy's little girl.