Help me pick a new background!

I am trying to pick a new background for my blog, I have narrowed it down to 3 choices from this great FREE site called http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/. This site has so many cute designs, I am so excited to see what everyone says. Please vote to let me know which one you like. Here are the choices:

Number 1 http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/background.php?id=273


Number 2 http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/background.php?id=217 (I have this one up as a sample)


Number 3 http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/background.php?id=326

Girls Night Out!!

Tonight Ava and I had a great time going to the Otsego County Fair.We had so much fun seeing people that we know that we don't get to see very often. It seems like the Fair is the social event of the summer! The Otsego County Fair always makes me a little bit homesick because it is exactly the same week as my fair back home in Illinois. The White County Fair is this week. I absolutely love the White County Fair, when I was in high school my friends and I had the best time at the Fair. My sister Shelby and I were both Miss White County Fair Queens! Tonight at the Otsego County Fair, it was wristband night so we got to ride all the rides we wanted after we bought the wristbands. Lucky me, Ava is exactly 48 inches tall so we got to go on all the "big" rides. We had a blast going rides named the Cyclone and the Twister. I forgot to bring my camera tonight but believe me we had a great time!

A busy day and a county fair

I woke up early this morning to make cookies for the summer Orientation Leaders. Today was the last day of summer Orientation and I wanted to make them a special treat. Even though I only have a very small part in Orientation I love working with the students and this group was really great. I am going to miss them.

Here is a picture of the cookies that I made them

I just got this new pan and I used it to make the cookies. It has air vents on the bottom of the pan and it makes the best cookies. I highly recommend it if you need a new cookie sheet.Ava and I ran to k-mart in the afternoon to get a trampoline for our backyard. Brock and Ava have been begging for one so Graig and I broke down and decided to get them one. I will post pictures when we put it up!

Tonight was the opening day for our County Fair. My friend Allison and I go every year to watch the parade. We had lots of fun~we watched the parade, ate tons of fattening fair food, toured the animal barns, and we each got the cutest Christmas Tree skirts (random I know but they are really cute and they are going to look perfect under our trees~the best part is that they were only $3!)

Ava and Allison watching the parade

The grandstands at the fair

Allison's Dad (holding the flag) in the parade. He is a volunteer firefighter for his town

Ava in the rabbit barn

Summer Swim!

This afternoon Brock, Ava and I went to the pool. They swam and I sat and read a book. It was pure heaven. We love going to the pool in the summer.

I love this picture of Ava, I wish I centered it more

Don't they look cold? You gotta love summer in upstate NY

Brock doing a twist jump

Ava loves to pose for pictures. She said "Mommy take a picture of me on the ladder"

Guess what we had tonight??? Little League, Brock pitched for 4 innings and then played 1st base.

I am working on painting this antique cabinet I bought for only $25! When it's done it's going to go in the Sunroom. I am going to use it as a bar.

Welcome baby Eliza!

Our friends Shawn and Sabrina had their baby Eliza June today! This afternoon Graig and I went to see her. She was so cute! Shawn and Sabrina told us the whole story of her birth (including the part where Shawn almost passed out!) Their son, Ethan, is so happy to have a baby sister. They are such a cute family and we are so thankful that she is here and that we got to see her right away!

Eliza June

Graig and I with Eliza June

After we left the hospital Graig and I went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants Mama Nina's. I had a chicken roll-it was delish! After that, I dropped Graig off and I picked up my friend Allison we went for a pedi. We stopped and picked up a few magazines and candy bars for Sabrina (she loves magazines) and we took them to her in the hospital.

Saying Goodbye, a lazy evening, and a new baby!

Brock and his friend Trey (who moved to Seattle last summer) spent the day together yesterday. They had lots of fun playing baseball in the morning and swimming in the afternoon. After swimming, they came over to our house to take pictures and say good-bye until they visit again next year.

Brock and Trey

After Trey and his family left, Graig took Brock and Ava to his mom's house for the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction weekend. Brock, Ava, and Grandma Jan will be selling hotdogs and sodas to the people that are visiting for the Hall of Fame weekend. Brock and Ava are so excited to spend the weekend with their grandma.

Last night my friend Allison came over to hang out. We made cookies and also made cute little magnets for a sorority conference that we are going to attend.

Here are the cookies we made, (yes-we ate all but 3 of them and yes-they were break and bake)

Here are the magnets we made for the sorority conference

Here are all the magnets in basket. Don't they look cute?

Our good friends Sabrina and Shawn had their baby early this morning. They had a girl, Eliza June, she was born at 5:50 this morning and weighed 6lbs. and 3 oz. and was 20 inches long. Graig and I are going to the hospital to see them this afternoon. We can't wait to meet her!!

Baseball, Baseball and more Baseball!!

I haven't written in over a week. Our life this past week can be summed up in two words: Baseball Games. Brock has played a game almost every night (all day on Saturday and Sunday-lucky us) for a week. He has been in a tournament and tonight was the final night (thank goodness, we have the weekend off) anyway tonight Brock had many fans to cheer him on including his Grandma Jan, his PaPa Larry, his Uncle Gary and our good friend Allison. Brock's team won 9-2 and Brock was named the MVP of the tournament! He is so excited. The best part of this day wasn't about the game, his best friend, Trey moved to Seattle last summer. Brock hasn't seen him in a year. This week Trey is visiting his grandparents that live near us so today Trey came over to spend the night with Brock tonight. Brock is thrilled! They are having so much fun together. Brock also invited two other friends to spend the night so we have 4 stinky, rowdy boys in our basement.

Ava and Grandma Jan during the game

Brock and his team after they won the tournament

The coaches Graig, Shawn, and Chris at the Pizza Party after the game

Brock with his MVP trophy

Brock with his friends Sean, Trey and Thomas

Summer Fun!

Today was a day filled with summer fun! To start off, we went to lunch with two of Graig's friends from college, Liz and Steve, they are vacationing with their families near us so it was great to catch up with them. They have two adorable girls, Lauren and Ella. We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Brooks chicken!

Graig and Steve with the girls, Lauren, Ella and Ava

Graig and Steve haven't seen each other in a couple of years but they still dressed surprisingly similar

Liz, Steve and their girls Lauren and Ella

Later in the afternoon we went swimming with our neighbors Mickayela, Anika and Dakoda. Ava has so much fun with them they live right down the street. Brock's friend Kevin came along with us too. After swimming, we went to Mama Nina's our favorite pizza place for dinner. The kids were soooo hungry and ate tons of pizza, baked ziti, and garlic knots!

Ava and Dakoda after swimming

Summer Fun at the pool!

Brock with his friend Kevin at Mama Nina's

My Quote and two birthdays!

My favorite quote ever is at the top of our blog "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." Since I started this blog several people have asked me why I choose that quote to put at the top of our blog, I chose it because I think it's true and it's how I want to live my life, and it's how I want Graig and I to parent our kids. For me it's so hard to balance everything: family, work, our home, and friends. Most days, I feel like I am being pulled in 1000 different directions. This quote helps me to remember to slow down and take a deep breath and look around and enjoy what's happening around me. I am the Sorority and Fraternity Advisor for 300 Greek students at the College where I work. Things are dead in my office before lunch. I get sooo much work done in the morning. Then I usually go home for lunch to hang out with our little dogs, Daisy, Cotton and Ellie, for a little bit. When I get back to work in the afternoon I have an office full of college students waiting to talk to me about everything and anything. I loved being in a sorority in College, I didn't realize I could get paid to do such a great job! But when there are about 10 students waiting to talk to me, it gets stressful!! At home, when Graig and I are in a hurry to get Brock to practice and Ava to gymnastics, and our house is a mess. I try to stop and enjoy the craziness because they are growing up so fast! That's why I love this quote so much. I hope you like it too!

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."

I have this quote on a shelf in my living room

Two big birthdays today...

Our dog Ellie, she's a yorkie-poo turned 3 today. We took her to the vet last month and we have to put her on a doggie diet because she is a little on the chunky side. I like to say she is "big boned." Anyway, she is the sweetest dog ever. I will try to get a good picture of Ellie and post it soon.

My friend Sabrina celebrated her birthday today. She likes to say she's 29 but really she's 36. She looks great! She is going to have her second baby anyday now. I gave her a candle from Bath and Body Works.

Here is a picture of the gift I gave her

Of course, I had to put a picture of one of them in today! Here's Ava . She loves being on the blog.

Little League Tournament

Graig has been coordinating the Little League tournament for our town, it finally started today! Thank goodness, he has been working so hard getting other teams signed up, working out the tournament brackets, organizing the umpires and the teams, and getting his own team ready for the tournament. This morning he left the house at 7:30 to get the fields ready. All day terrible thunderstorms were forecast for our town, luckily for us it didn't start raining until the last game of the day got over. It poured and poured. I have never, ever seen so much rain in my whole life! We were going to go out to dinner but we were soaked from all the rain so we just came home and I made chicken fingers and french fries.

Ava and I before the game in our Little League t-shirts (Ava is showing off her cleat, she is the bat girl for the games)

Graig and Ava

Graig working on the book

Ava listening to her I-pod, her favorite song is "Our Song" by Taylor Swift, it's so cute when she sings it

Graig talking to the team after the game, we won 8-7Brock wasn't at the game today because he had his Gus Macker tournament, his team came in 3rd place. Since we were at Little League I don't have any pictures from the games, but Brock took these pics of himself

Eating Breakfast and playing sports!

Ava saw me doing the other post about our home and she wanted pictures of her on the blog so here are pictures of her eating her breakfast, so exciting I know!

Here's some pics from Brock's little league game on Friday. Brock is one of the pitchers.

Today Brock is playing in the Gus Maker tournament, here is a picture of him with our sweet dog Cotton

Home Tour

With two kids it's so hard to keep our house clean! Luckily, this past week Brock and Ava spent the week with Grandma Jan so instead of doing something romantic with Graig I decided to clean our house from top to bottom. It won't look like this again until they go for another week with Grandma Jan in August, so here's a little tour. I hope you enjoy it!

Our front door-welcome

Window seat by front door

Look inside this door, I cleaned out our entryway closet

Sunroom

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Office

Our teeny, tiny downstairs bathroom

Flowers in our backyard and back deck

Stairs going up to the second flooor