I GOT IT! Video of Avery Walking Waddling!

FOR REAL! I finally got it on video! Finally.

Apparently ice cream just wasn't the right motivation. It was bath time! And look how far she walks! LOVE IT! And you get a peek into her chunky monkey chubbers. She also shows off her throwing skills. She puts her own toys in the bathtub. Love her.

New Mexico Museum of Space History (Outside Part)

We are very slowly doing everything you can do in Alamogordo. We have already hit the zoo, Cloudcroft (here and here), and White Sands (here, here, and here). Next up, the New Mexico Museum of Space History. And if we are being honest, it was a little sad. For several reasons.

1. We could only do the outside portion. We had a brain fart and forgot the stroller and the baby carrier. Meaning we were carrying around Avery. That little girl is HEAVY. And maybe not so little.

2. Avery was like, this is not interesting. Everything is rusted and in muted colors. Nothing is moving. I basically have the toddler ADD going. After about an hour of exploring the outside exhibits, she was over it.

3. There was a "rocket" there (and forgive me, I can't remember the name of it) and it was the first rocket launched out of the UK. It went about 5500 feet. Troy laughed. He was like, "I'm pretty sure I could build a rocket in my backyard that goes higher than that."

Now, lets be fair. We didn't go inside. Which is kind of a bonus for us. That's a whole other day of things to do for us :) It also costs money. So our excursion outside was free. And I love free.

Lets get to the good stuff. Pictures! The first thing we saw the the machine used in the 60's to test the effects of g-forces on animals and humans. Can we please discuss that I would not EVER volunteer for this experiment. Ouch.

This is the machine from the inside. It was pretty long.

This is the training cockpit for a F-117.

Baby Girl and I in front of the training plane.

Troy and Avery (squinting haha)

This is the Little Joe 2. The plaque with all in info about it is below. I thought this was one of the coolest things the museum had. And one of the biggest. Ah, the age old argument. Is bigger really better?? So to speak?

Trying to keep Avery happy while we look at the outside exhibits.

Overall, I felt like the museum was a history of what Holloman AFB has had it's hands in since the late 50's. Nothing super impressive, but very informative.

I think that Troy and I are spoiled with museums. Growing up in the DC area and both of us having parents who love history puts all museums at a disadvantage. The Smithsonian museums were right out our doorsteps as children and my stepdad works for the Air and Space Museum. We have high expectations. So we may not be fair judges or critics.

If Avery was a little older, I'm sure that it would have been pretty cool. But as entertainment for Troy and I, it was pretty eh overall. But a great way to get out of TLF. We are hopeful that the inside holds some jems. We think that maybe they are trying to protect the good stuff from the elements. Have I mentioned that it's hot?

I am an Instagram Fan - Like HUGE

It's official. I love my iphone. Yeah yeah, Troy. We should have switched 4 months ago. You were right. Moving right along.

My favorite app is Instagram. If you want to follow us on there, the user name is barnesdailycircus and Troy has one that is tbizzleecu.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures so far:

I LOVE THIS PICTURE! Everything about it. I love the look on her face. Like she is Godzilla crushing everything and having a great time doing it. Look at those fat little legs! BITE BITE! I could just BBQ them.

We went to a local italian place. It was pretty underwhelming. Like pretty much everything in Alamogordo. But I managed to get a pretty adorable picture of Troy and Avery sharing spaghetti Lady and and Tramp style.

Avery's mullet. Disguised as a ponytail.

I cannot say how happy this picture makes me. I laugh every time I see it.

We went to the indoor play place at McDonald's. It's awesome. Like amazing place place. Can you tell that Avery loved it too?? FISTPUMP!

This is some of God's handiwork on the way to Las Cruces. Gorgeous.

Troy and I have a tradition where we take photobooth photos about once a year. We have a bunch of them that we keep on our fridge. This is our first time taking them with Avery. Here is a sampling of that little gem. I LOVE IT!

And there you have it. Can you see why I am totally in love with instagram? I feel like a professional photographer. I can't say enough good things about it. You can follow me at barnesdailycircus :) Happy Friday!

Our LARGE To-Do List

I sit in a very small room every day. I haven't lived in my house or had any of our stuff for almost 6 months. It has given me a TON of time to think about projects, decorating, cooking, and landscaping. Now that we have officially closed on our house and hotel living is almost to an end, pinterest is an addiction. The end is near and crafting is about to begin. I have a blank slate of a house. IT'S AWESOME! Sort of. Not on the budget.

The problem is, my head is exploding with ideas and excitement. I started to not be able to sleep because I was stressing that I was going to forget something. So I made a list. I am a list person. It helps me be sane. I wrote it all down. And I know I will be adding to the list or taking things off as I realize some things won't work or others that will. Here it is. Avery got excited too and kind of grabbed it and started waving it around. And crumpled it. And took a bite out of the top left corner. But it's ok. I can still read it. And now if something happens to it, it is now documented for all time via the internet. Go technology.

I just wrote things down as I thought of them, not necessarily in order of importance. While I was at the gym one day, Troy happened upon my list. I'm pretty sure he almost had a heart attack because I put a family room rug up higher on the list before getting a gas dryer.

Sidenote - Apparently, most of Nevada uses a gas dryer and very few homes have electric hook ups. WHAT? I have never heard of this. Maybe because I have lived on the east coast most of my life. Do you have a gas dryer? So yeah, we need to buy a gas dryer and Craigslist our old one. So sad. I love it :(

So Troy grabbed my list and numbered things so I was aware of where the priority of purchase lies. I know TROY! Many of the things on the list are DECOR choices not necessity, but things that down the road may be purchases for tracking down on Craigslist, thrift stores, or things that we DIY. And sometimes (ok lots of times) pretty trumps function. For example, jewelry. Doesn't do anything except look pretty. But everyone wears it. A watch does not fall in this category.

Here is the list as I wrote it:

- Blinds - buy from selectblinds.com
- Ceiling fans
- Family room
- rug
- sofa
- curtains
- buffet/sideboard (antique?)
- sofa table/coffee table
- Curtain rods for the whole house
- Patio furniture (adirondack chairs and I found a DIY dining table we are doing)
- Matching wingback chairs for the front living room (library area??)
- figure out something for the master retreat
- TV stand for the loft
- New TV for master or loft
- Furniture for the master (not a SINGLE piece of furniture matches, including the night stands)
- toddler bed for Avery (or go right into a twin bed?)
- Entry table by the front door?
- Bench to make the breakfast nook table a 6 person table?
- 2 bar stools for the island
- Gas dryer
- Backyard landscaping
- Deep freezer for the garage (costco?)
- baby gates

And here is how Troy numbered it:

1. Blinds
2. Ceiling fans
3. Gas Dryer (I actually think this should be first...but hey, he can wear dirty clothes if that is what he chooses)
4. Sofa for family room
5. Curtains and curtain rods
6. Family room rug
7. New TV for master or for loft
8. Backyard landscaping
9. Toddler bed for Avery

He didn't number anything else. He actually was like, "everything else is up for discussion. We don't actually need any of that other stuff on your list." Well you know what TROY, Momma hasn't had a house in 6 months and I can do a lot of this stuff on the cheap so BUCK UP! I'm gearing up for some serious Craigslisting and I'm hoping soon we can discuss a budget for either all of my projects or a room by room budget. We'll see.

In recent news, we bought a new dining room light fixture. The builder grade looked cheap. The lighting "upgrade" was the exact same fixture in ORB. But you know what? You can't fix ugly with a new color. Not in this case. It just looks small and chintzy in such a nice, big, new space. It doesn't have shades on it. It's just a few light bulbs. Ew.

Enter Joss and Main. HELLLLLO GORGEOUS! I love Joss and Main. They have some really really nice stuff for great prices. This is where I found our new dining room chandelier.

It is ORB so it matches the other lighting upgrades that we did in the foyer and breakfast nook. And look at the glass shades! They're pretty. We shipped it to Nate and Karen's house. They live about 100 yards from us. So it's awesome that I can still buy things as I find them for a great deal and ship them to our neighborhood. The chandelier retails for $279 and was on sale for $119 with free shipping. YES! So anyway. That is our official first home owner purchase.

I plan on craigslisting the other fixture. But I might spray paint it and hang it in our master bedroom closet to make it fancy. I joked with Troy about painting it and hanging in the potty room in our master. Apparently that's not funny.

Once we get there and I see our stuff in the house, I'm sure the list will grow and we will have some things to do/change/buy for each room. Thus a budget for each room. And then if I come in under budget, it can roll into the next room :) That sounds like a win-win to me. We'll see. Especially since Troy's list for the backyard includes a pool. Ouch. I need a job.

Color Decisions and Art

I did a post a few weeks ago on our new house with the floor plan and plans for things we had changed, plans for things to do. Just to refresh your memory, here is the floor plan layout.



The upstairs loft is the lucky recipient of our current living room furniture. We love love love that furniture. We are putting it up there for several reasons.

1. The laundry room is upstairs. We need some comfy furniture to sit on and relax on because I am sure I will be spending a lot of time up there. Playing with Avery, doing laundry, hanging out during nap time.

2. The loft is going to be the playroom. I don't want our house to look like a daycare blew up inside of it so Troy and I decided that we are going to attempt to keep most of Avery's toys upstairs and rotate a few things downstairs in storage bins to keep her stuff from taking over adult areas. We'll see how that goes.

3. The size of that stuff is not appropriate for the family room downstairs. That room is HUGE! This house and it's general dimensions are significantly larger than anything we have lived in. It's almost 2700 square feet. The 2 houses we have lived in prior to this were 1400 and 1250 square feet. The general dimensions of EVERY room are larger.

4. We now have 3 "living rooms" to furnish. If you go back to the picture, we have the room directly to the left when you walk in. The dining room is just past that on the left, which we already have furniture for. Then there is the main family room right off the kitchen in the back of the house. Then there is the loft, where our current furniture will live. Here is the picture of our current furniture.

With that said, we currently have NOTHING for the downstairs 2 additional living areas. We that's not true. We are keeping our TV and media stand from the living room downstairs in the family room. Our TV from our bedroom is going in the loft. We only have 2 TVs and don't feel an urge to have one in our bedroom right now, especially since we have so many areas to choose from to hang out with the baby girl.

I have had a blasty blast exploring pinterest for ideas since we have so much freedom with this house. To avoid any arguments about colors or furniture, this is my current tactic. I pick out 3-4 things that I like and could totally live with. Then Troy gets to pick out of those things so that he gets to be part of the decision making process and I know I am going to end up with something that I'll love too. All images are from www.design-seeds.com. They take a picture and input the picture inside colortopia. Colortopia pulls out the main colors, accents, and a neutral and color matches it so you know which paint to pick or whatever. Which is awesome. I recommend everyone try it. Especially if you are color impaired. Like me.

So I pinned 3 images from the website and Troy got to pick out of the 3 which one he wanted. Here are his choices.

Which do you think he picked? He picked the middle one. I was excited because the rest of our house is pretty much shades of teal, green and brown. Adding in some red and grey seemed so bold and different. But totally doable. I read somewhere that to make your house flow, the colors of a room should be a bold, a bold, a neutral, and pastel. THEN you pick whatever one of the main colors in that room are and then use it as an accent in another room. So his choice worked perfectly for our house. We already have that same color teal in several rooms. So that is going to be our accent to give the room flow and tie into other areas.

Here are some colors I found:

I also have picked these as kind of "inspiration" pictures with colors and things that tie together our kitchen/family room area.

Here is the art that I bought. I tried to pick things that were meaningful and to help document our military moves. I LOVE this print. It's from Molly Mattin. The teal, red, green, and grey are perfect. And the other pops of color will be fun too. Some of the little cities in DE are awesome.

Troy and I never got a cutesy sign for our wedding. When I saw this, I was like, Happy 5th Anniversary to us :) The way the artist does it, you get to pick your background color and you give her all the info for what you want it to say. She was great and emailed me a couple of times. Her shop is Cedar House Keepsakes.

I found this by accident. I just typed in teal and red prints and let my eyes glaze over as I scrolled until I found something that caught my eye. I LOVE IT! The paper feels awesome. The colors are gorgeous and the artist was SO quick. Her shop is called Mandipidy. I also loved this because I was in the play "Guys and Dolls" in middle school (my first play) and this was my favorite song in the musical. So now we have a print of the song.

The last print I bought was to document our short PCS to San Antonio. I didn't want all the prints from our moves to be the same, although I considered getting one like the Delaware one, but for Texas. However, Delaware is small and Troy and I pretty much saw the whole state. I don't know if you know this, but Texas is HUUUUUGE! And we only saw San Antonio and went to Dallas for a weekend in the 6 months that we lived there. So a print just of the San Antonio area seemed more appropriate. I really really like it. It's very graphic and contemporary. It's just the skyline, but it's really awesome. It's from DB Artist. There are TONS of skylines to pick from in different large cities AND you get to pick the color background that you want your print to have.

Troy really wants me to find something from New Mexico, but I am kind of on the fence about it. When it comes down to it, Troy will have lived here for almost the same amount of time that we lived in San Antonio. BUT IN A HOTEL ROOM!! Isn't that crazy?? That's also kind of the reason I don't want to get a picture to document our time here. Because we are staying in a hotel room. And Avery and I have only been here since June 11th. Troy was here for 2 months by himself before we arrived. What do you guys think? Yay or nay for the New Mexico picture?

So those pictures are the jumping off point/inspiration for our kitchen/family room space that you can see in the floor plan up top. We are looking for a big sectional and fun rug in there too because the floor in there is tile. Not fun for toddler knees and mommy bottoms. And if you didn't already know, when you have young kids, you spend A TON of time on the floor playing and crawling around.

We have a HUGE list of things to do/buy. Well I have a ton of stuff. Troy has a few priority items. And lets be honest, they are really important. But craigslist and I are super friends and I think I can get a lot of the "we don't need that right now Natalie" items for a slamming good deal. I'll be back with that tomorrow as well as a recent purchase for our house was made that my Dad will be helping us install :) YAY for some progress. Even though we aren't there yet. So sad. Catch ya later!

"The Q-tip is Napping" - Direct Quote from Troy

Avery is currently walking. I will get a video soon. Like when she starts walking and I have time to get a video camera. I wanted her to walk for so long. It's seriously adorable. However, with more mobility, comes more speed, comes more mischief.

With that said, she is completely obsessed with trash. Like Oscar the Grouch. We have the dirty kid. She is like Pig-Pen on Peanuts. We go out for BBQs and she is filthy. She is at this awkward age where she MOSTLY crawls, like 90% of the time. All the other kids are walking or very small, like less than 6 months old. So she tries to keep up with the big kids and winds up SO DIRTY! And we just let her be dirty. Bath night is every night.

Anyway, she is into EVERYTHING! She opens cabinets and takes stuff out. She figured out how to open doors. We are in the handicapped unit and have the lever openers rather than knobs, so she can just get on her tip toes and crack the door open. While you are going to the bathroom. Or showering. She's like a ninja. You're all warm and cozy in the shower and all the sudden there is a gush of freezing air and a tiny little ice cube touches your leg. Or so you think. But it's a filthy baby hand. I think we have officially entered the "toddler" phase."

The following is an actual conversation Troy had with Avery. I was washing my face or something. Aka not available for redirecting. Troy was getting dressed and watching Avery whilst she toddled around. (I really wanted to use whilst. QUICK english teacher was that correct???)

Avery reaches into the trashcan in the bedroom and pulls out all the trash and chooses a q-tip as her nasty weapon of choice.

Side note - We DO NOT buy off brand q-tips. They do not clean the inside of your ears as well. They bend when you scrape the inside of your ear or do not have enough fuzz on them. You can quote me on that. DO NOT tell me that cleaning the inside of your ears is bad and causes more wax and all that other stuff. Troy and I are addicted I tell you. WE NEED IT!

T: Avery, no ma'am. Yucky, yucky trash! (takes the q-tip and cleans up all the trash and then walks over to pick up the phone in the room that is not plugged in) OH you want to talk to Avery?? She's right here. AVERRRRYYY! The phone is for you!

Avery continues to pull trash out of the trashcan and waves the waxy q-tip at him. And Troy walks over to her carrying the phone and snatches it away again.

T: Avery, yucky yucky. (puts trash back into the trashcan) Look at this!! This is fun (while walking her away from the trashcan and towards the phone)

Avery has now picked her feet up off the ground, with them bent up all the way to her chest and Troy is carrying her by her arms, which are extended straight over her head. I am laughing. Or snorting. Whatever.

He sets her on the ground and she immediately regroups and Flash Gordon crawls back to the trashcan and starts pulling stuff out before Troy can get his shorts zipped.

T: Avery, yucky yuck. The q-tip is napping. Sleepy q-tip. He doesn't want to be woken up. Put him in his bed.

I was dying. Really? Sleepy q-tip? The things you say to redirect your children from things you don't want them to touch. Have you ever lied to a child to get them to do something? Or not do something?

YES! More pictures of White Sands!

YAY! Got some more pictures and some of them are HILARIOUS! And awesome. Go Kristen. You also have mad skills.

I am overloading y'all with pictures from one day. Sorry. Not really. My blog. Avery just makes me smile.

Here are the boys and the babies. I love dads using baby carriers. It's just precious.

Helping baby girl walk in the sand. This was before I gave up and decided that she could go ahead and roll in it.

Really cool pictures of the sand.

It's uncharted territory. So pretty. This is what I would imagine the moon would look like. Before the astronauts landed. Maybe. There's no wind on the moon. So maybe there wouldn't be dunes. Anyway...

Family photo! Nice work Kristen!!

No baby punching here! She's hugging Bella. Bella loves Avery. It's so sweet.

I LOVE THIS! I busted out laughing when I saw it. Kristen looks so happy and Bella is like "WHAT IS THIS ALL OVER MY FACE!?!?!"

Avery eating sand. Attempt at family photo 1. And Optimus is missing.

I think I am probably jiggling Avery to get her to smile. The camera caught me in mid "YAY white sands!!" And Troy is trying to keep happy dog from running away. Awkward strain in his face. You may not see it, but I do.

This one is ok too. Awkward underside of my neck. I think my favorite one is the above one. Any votes for which one should go in the house?

This might be my favorite. Avery looks SO happy. And they look like a professional cheerleading team. So cute :) Troy saw this picture and was like "Whoa. I didn't realize I was throwing her up so high. I'm a good parent I swear." He caught her every time. Don't worry.

Ok I'm done with White Sands 4th of July pictures. For real. But aren't they precious??

Troy and Natalie Have More Fun on the Waterslide than Avery

We go to the pool several times a week. It's hot. And we literally have nothing else to do. Alamogordo rules. Did you see the sad zoo? We still went. And we knew it was going to be bad. But it was better than looking at the sad sad walls of TLF for another MINUTE!!!

Avery has recently discovered how much she loves the slide. It doesn't look like it in the video, but she points at the slide, grunts, and then pats her chest. Which is baby sign for "please." And she does it over and over with increasing insistence and irritation if you don't take her on the slide. Troy and I try and take turns. That's a lie. Troy takes her. Mostly. Because I'm vain and clumsy and cannot manage to go down the slide without completely dunking at the bottom. And then I come up sputtering like an idiot because I cannot figure out how to gracefully land at the bottom.

Some friends of ours, Stephen and Becca (we went to Roswell with them) have this awesome waterproof video camera. We decided that we would take full advantage and took video of us on the slide with Avery.

I would like you to notice several things about this video:

1. Troy's fun noise is "weeee" like the pig on the Geico commercials. I can't stop laughing because that's all I can think about while I watch this.

2. Natalie's fun noise is "yay"

3. In my video, Avery looks like she is gritting and grinding her teeth so hard it hurts.

4. I really need to give her hair a trim. She had like 6 strands of hair when she was born. They have all grown at an alarming rate and all of her other hair is still filing in. Troy keeps saying that he will clean the toilet with my toothbrush if I cut her hair. But seriously. It's like a mullet for the most part. With 6 really, really long strands in the front. So weird.

Ask and You Shall Receive!

Blogging is awesome. In my 4th of July post, referring to photos, I said "Kristen took a bunch and I will hopefully be getting them soon and will post them on the blog when I get a chance to pick one where Avery isn't rubbing sand in her eyes, my legs don't look fat, Troy isn't wearing sunglasses and Optimus isn't slinging drool everywhere and making crazy eyes." No Kristen pictures yet. BUT I have discovered the awesomeness (is that a word because if not, it is now) of blogging.

One of the other girls who went, Karen, the mommy of squishable baby Zack (seen here and here) read the post and thought to herself "I took pictures of Avery too!!" And she texted me and I ran right down to her TLF and picked up her flash drive. And some ketchup. I was making meatloaf for dinner and forgot the most important ingredient. FOR SHAME!

Anyway. She took some gorgeous pictures of Avery. I just love how the shirt baby girl wore contrasts with the sand and really pops. Gorgeous!

She's inspecting the individual grains. She's my little scientist.

Look at those teeth! She looks so mischievous.

This is a great scenery shot. You really can't appreciate the sheer SIZE of White Sands without going there. This picture does a pretty great job. Well done Karen.

Sand hugging. Her new favorite hobby. She's going to be a mess when we take her to the beach. No idea when that will be. We live in a desert and are moving to Las Vegas...another desert.

LOVE HER! And yes. I am holding her arms down. She's a flailer. Again with the making up words. I'm the author. Pish posh.

ADORE HER!

*Sidenote - as long as I can remember, my mom has been getting me cards for birthdays, Valentine's Day, Easter, whatever. I always thought it was weird that she never signed "I love you." She always writes "I adore you." Always. I get it now Mom. I adore her. And you :)

This is my FAVORITE picture of her. I think I'm going to frame it in my house in Las Vegas. I LOVE IT!

Thank you Karen for sharing your talents. And your awesome camera. I love the pictures. They are great :) And for reading this silly blog. Otherwise I may not have gotten these pictures.

I try not to share so many pictures but I just can't help myself. She's so cute. I just want everyone to feel the joy that I feel when I look at her. Anyone else feel that way? About anything? I mean, furry babies count tooooo!! Or your favorite outfit? I get excited about school supplies. Lame. True.

Deceived. By Sesame Street.

Sesame Street. You pulled the wool over my eyes. I should have known.

Now, I am aware of the duplicate voices of characters done by the same actors (is that even what they are called??) on adult cartoons like South Park and Family Guy. I know. I am naive, but not that naive (I mean, I see credits sometimes). NEVER did I think they would try to fool kids. Ok, they definitely would, but at least try and disguise it a little better. Maybe I just am too gullible. Lets be honest, I know I am too gullible. Ok, watch this clip.

Now watch it again with your eyes closed. DO IT!!! DO IT NOW!!! Try not to be fooled. Whose voice is this? You already know that it is Grover's voice. But who else's voice is it? I. Was. Shocked. Who are they trying to kid? They didn't even change the voice AT ALL to make it sound like the other person! LIARS! DECEIVERS! Here I was, heating up Avery's breakfast of apple mush and all the sudden I'm like, MISS PIGGY IS NOT ON SESAME STREET!!! Are they doing a cross-over episode like when they try to get people to watch Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice to increase ratings??? What is going on!!? So I turn around and there is Grover...with Miss Piggy's voice. So THEN I look it up on IMDB. The voice is A MAN!! His name is Frank Oz. A gazillion points to the reader who knows another voice he does OTHER than Grover and Miss Piggy (there are many to choose from).

YODA!! I feel very dumb. And naive. How did I not know this??? He also does Fozzie Bear, Animal, Cookie Monster, and Bert. Any of those answers would have been acceptable. Kudos to you if you knew any of this. Maybe I am just not enough of a Star Wars geek to know this. I bet they know this :( How dumb am I? Don't answer that.

As a side note, Avery LOVES Elmo. We watch Sesame Street on Netflix for a bit in the morning and then before bed. She was having a bath the other night and the "Elmo's World" segment of the show came on. She heard it in her bath and started dancing and made her "O" face when the theme song came on. Adorable. Everything she does is adorable. Except when she wants to eat my dinner. Or doesn't want to get dressed. Or any number of things. But her Elmo dance is adorable.