4th of July and other stuff

 Last night we spent the evening celebrating the 4th at our friend's house. We had a great time relaxing and hanging out with our friends. The Erasmi (as we call them... Erasmuses plural, get it?) really know how to throw a party!

They had a little blow up pool for all the kids that became very popular all at once. Can you spot Avery in with all the kiddos?

Later on we caught Avery hanging out by the pool putting out the vibe.

Daddy gave her a 4th of July cookie with blue frosting. I don't think this picture really captures what a mess this was.

We watched fireworks on the beach. We were right next to where they set them off. I've never been so close! It was really loud. But they put on a great show and Avery was entertained the whole time. She kept saying "wow!"

She was a little nervous when they first started going off and wanted me to hold her tight, but once she got used to the noise she relaxed and really liked them.

And that was our 4th! We had a really great night and Teri and Jesse were great hosts for the party. Thanks guys!

A few other randoms from the last couple weeks....

Avery loves to watch me cook and always wants to help. I let her help me taste test the guacamole I was making and she couldn't get enough.

She's still working on her spoon-to-mouth coordination though...

I took this picture one morning after breakfast when she ate 4 scrambled eggs, a breakfast muffin, and a bowl of frosted mini wheats. How does one little person eat so much food?!

I signed Avery up for the summer reading program at the library.

Here she is with her certificate!

Avery really likes books, but mostly just so she can point out all the doggies and birds she can find in them.

 The weekend after Tyler finished up his last rotation from third year our friends invited us up to stay at their parent's house in west Houston. They had a beautiful home with a pool, hot tub, grill, entertainment room, etc. It was an awesome party house and we had fun hanging out with our friends on a little weekend getaway. It was the perfect little mini vacation to celebrate being done with 3rd year.

They also had an archery set that we tried out. Unfortunately these were the only pictures we took of the weekend because we were too busy having fun!

Our ward's theme for Girls Camp is Peppermint Forest and the girls designed their flag with a giant peppermint in the middle. I volunteered to make the flag this year since I am becoming such a proficient sewer (ha). This little pinwheel presented quite the challenge though. Tyler actually helped me quite a bit with the measuring, and he drew out the curve that we used to make the stripes. It ended up being kind of complicated, but we got it worked out and I think it turned out great! 

This is our finished product.

Yesterday I also laid out all my squares for the quilt I've been working on for Avery. I am pretty excited about how close I'm getting! I think I'm about halfway with getting the blocks done and when I finish working (next week!) I should have a little more time to work on it. I'm excited to get on to the next step of sewing the blocks together.

 What's up, doc?

One day while I was out walking around our complex with Avery I started talking with our Chinese neighbor who was outside with her little daughter. And when I say talking I mostly mean gesturing because she does not speak like any English at all. But she is a really cute young mom and we've gone to the park together with the girls and she invited us over for dinner one night so we could meet each other's husbands.

Dinner was crazy.

Thankfully the husband speaks a little bit more English than she does, but there was still a lot of guessing and gesturing. I thought it was kind of this fun, elaborate guessing game, but we were both exhausted by the time we left from trying so hard to communicate. 

They fed us some authentic Chinese food. I wanted to take a picture, but I thought that would be rude so I restrained myself.

They don't have a couch, just that rug you see behind the girls, but we did get to sit at a table for dinner. I thought it was awesome, but Tyler is not dying to have any more of their food...ha. We had them over for FHE the other day and played...charades! 

 Avery watching Cinderella in her little chair. I wish she would sit through a whole movie...

Tyler is taking the month off from classes to study for Step 2, which he takes in 2 weeks. I have my last week of work this week and then Girls Camp the week after. And then we have one week to relax before we head off to California for Tyler's away rotation at Loma Linda. Also... I have an ultrasound scheduled in 2 weeks so we get to find out what we're having!! So exciting! I am 17 weeks and last week I started feeling the baby kick! Super fun. We were laying in bed the other night and the baby was moving around so I had Tyler put his hand on my belly and he got to feel one good kick too! This pregnancy is seriously flying by. I can't believe I'm already almost halfway!