Love Story meets Viva la Vida

Sid and I went to see Jon Schmidt last night. I had never even heard of him before - to you pianists scoffing right now, I am sorry but its true - until last week when Sid played this for me:



Its great that he is so talented and yet we were able to see him in Tooele in the back of an old family owned music store. Totally humble. The concert consisted of us requesting songs. He played Billy Joel for Sid and even played with his feet for some kids in the audience. Loved it! And if you ever have a chance, I really recommend it!

**Thank you Lisa for watching Avery! She had a blast and CANNOT stop talking about the carmel apple :)

my BIG baby

Yesterday Avery and I got to watch Vander, the newest addition to the Buckingham's. Avery and I had so much fun. He was such a good baby and did well being away from mom for the first time. I had dug out her old papisan chair for him to sleep in and Avery was a little mother makng sure he had his binky, blanket and even some of her toys to make him feel comfortable.

Well, I walked in on Avery reminiscing after lunch today with the music and vibrations soothing her afternoon rest. I was explaining to her that when she was a baby she used this chair all the time and started digging through pictures to show her. She thought about this for a while, then ran to sit in the chair and started gabbering about taking a picture...I didn't realize what the fuss was all about until I asked her, 'you want me to take your picture in the chair?' her eyes lit up and she gave me a big ole smile....so here you go! A before and after of our big baby...I can't believe how fast she is growing.

Craft Hope

I found out about Craft Hope on one of my favorite blogs I follow. Craft hope accepts handmade donations to share with those less fortunate. The current project benefits the little heroes preschool burn camp in Sacramento, CA.

Avery LOVED these little guys and was a little confused as she watched me tape up the box and leave her 'babies' at the post office, but once I showed her all the other monkeys on the Craft Hope site, explained that they are going to live with other monkeys she seemed OK with it.

Sid who?

Avery and I are going through husband/daddy withdrawls this past week. He's been so busy at work we are starting to forget what he looks like!

Last week he had to fix our gate that Ollie managed to wiggle out of, (she didn't get very far, just ran right around to the front door and cried to be let in) then he took off for Cedar to take advantage of his dad's shop to wrap up some projects he's been working on for the office. Since he came home Monday night, we haven't really seen him. I don't know how he's doing it. He got home at 10 last night and was gone before we were up this morning.

Thank you Sid for all your hard work!! We love you and miss you!!

Meet Olive

Well...we added another to the Nixon family a few weeks ago. We had been talking for a while about getting a dog. We visited every shelter we could find in the Salt Lake Valley, and found a 2 year old Beagle that Sid fell in love with. She did really good with all of us and seemed like a really calm dog for a shelter dog. We didn't realize until we were going to start the adoption paperwork that she had issues with her previous foster family. We couldn't chance it.

Sid was crushed. On the way home I ran to the store for some grocery's and saw a lady arms full of little Beagle pups. Well, sort of. She breeds Beagles and her neighbors Mini Australian Shepherd got to her. I called Sid and told him to come quick. I played with all of them...they were all adorable, but one kept coming to me and I was partial her too. When Sid got there, he went to the same one. It wasn't even a question at that point.

She's been a good pup so far. No chewing, digging...yet. I am crossing my fingers that she will just skip all of that. We found a trainer that works with Search and Rescue dogs and is POST (Peace Officer Standards & Training) certified that we start training with tonight.

Avery has a pretty interesting relationship with Ollie. She loves her, but I think she loves even more that she has someone to boss around. Everytime they play she is tattling on her or trying to scold her for some unknown reason only to Avery. We are starting to think that there's just as much training involved with a two year old than the puppy. Any tips appreciated!

G O M E Z

After 10+ years of following Gomez, they are still as great as ever!

We hung out after the show and visited with a couple of the band members - who were VERY down to earth and chatted about everything from vacations, honeymoons and -of all things- a little bit of guitar building. It was really neat to see that they are just normal people and truly love their fans.

They were on Conan Monday week check them out here and they are off to Lolapalooza for this weekends' show.

Paul "Blackie" Blackburn - Bass/Guitar

Ben Ottewell - Vocals/Guitar

Congrats Denny

I have to brag about my little brother. He graduated on Thursday from the National Polytechnic College of Science in Marine Technology to be an underwater welder. He was one of 15 in his class and made the deans list. We couldn't be more proud!

Way to go Denny! We love you!!

It's hot!

Here in Utah - it's finally summer, and it's HOT! We were so used to cooler temps all June so now that it's 100 degrees outside, it feels much hotter than that.

Avery has had fun in her little pool and Sid's even jumped in with her to cool off. I found some random pictures that I haven't blogged yet and thought I would share.

Happy Summer! Avie and Jessie at Uncle Mont's. She didn't ride the 4 wheeler,
was content just sitting on it in the yard.

Cammie and I attenpted to find the Mysterious Kanarra Falls while I was in Cedar. We hiked for about 4 hours and all we found was a little stream and LOTS of frogs. We still had fun.

Now what's wrong with this picture?

Aw.....

At the Utah Arts Festival they have a whole section of the park dedicated to toddlers!

Avery and I have been SLAVING away at my humble vegetable garden. It's not doing as well as I'd hoped, but I for sure we will get some pumpkins, squash, peppers and tomatoes. I don't know about the other stuff. I will keep you posted.

Giddy up!

We spent last Sunday with Sid's Uncle Mont and Aunt Terri in Mt Green. It is so beautiful up there. Sid and I decided that we want to live there...until we timed the commute to Salt Lake which took us about 45 min at night with no traffic. Oh well, I guess we will just have to visit often :)

While we were there, Mont brought out a pony for Avery to ride and I am proud to say is was a success. She loves horses, but from a distance, so I wasn't sure how she would react. I took a ton of pictures and none are of her smiling - riding a pony is hard work!

Mini Vacation

Sid had a couple days off of work so we took advantage of the time off and headed to Cedar for the 4th. We had a great time with our families and Avery was super happy to be the center of attention.

Earlier in the week, Naomi (Sid's mom) had back surgery, so I decided to stay through the week and help where I could. I didn't feel very productive while I was there felt more like a vacation for me - mainly we played with Avery and helped Annie with her wedding plans (Check out her wedding website, it's super cute.) http://www.ewedding.com/sites/AnnieAndMikey/

In the evenings I was able to spend time with Cammie and my ma. All in all we missed Sid, but we did have a good time while we were away. :)

We love you guys and miss you all ready! See you soon.

2009 Music at the Mill

We pulled it off again! This year we had some set backs, like POURING DOWN RAIN!! But we still had a great time and listed to some awesome music.

One band that we didn't get a single picture of was "Blue-Ize" Sid and I found them last year when we went to dinner at a little restaurant up immigration canyon. They were the entertainment, and we stayed well after dinner just to listen. We were honored that they came to support our Academy. We hope to hear from them again!

The local paper drew in a little of a crowd, but mainly it was followers of our students that made it happen. Sid wanted me to post the article, but they have removed it from their site...so here's the best I could do...

We did our best to cram into the pavilion to stay out of the rain...

Paul Arnold is a good friend of Tony - Sid's brother - While he was here for the X96 BASH in May, Sid discovered that he is an amazing performer! We were so lucky to have him as a guest performer.

Thanks Paul!

One of our students won the guitar! Congrats Caleb.

Hunter Casey was one of our students that we promoted this year.

Thanks everyone for another great year with the Academy!

rain, rain...GO AWAY!

It has just about rained every single day this month...it was OK the first two weeks or so, but now we are ready for summer! Poor Avery is cooped up in the house and driving me a little crazy.

We had the Clarke family reunion last weekend. (Sid's grandfathers mothers side of the family) It was a little chilly, but we still had a good time catching up. Sid's aunts and uncles were able to come visit us at home for a while before going over to the picnic and Avery just loved that! She really took to Abby and Travis (Sid's cousins) and was asking about them all week.

The only nice thing about this weather is that I have been able to do some sewing that I haven't had time for. I decided to make some gifts for birthdays coming up, and I really like how they turned out! I will have to post some pictures after they get to the birthday girls so I don't ruin a surprise :)

Avery and Great Grandpa Forsyth

Avery LOVED Abby and Travis. She couldn't stop asking about them all week. I think they loved her too...

Avery loves to smell flowers, weeds too. She's not picky.

Towards the end of the day everyone was a little wet and cold. Avery was well taken care of when we could get her to sit still long enough.

Travis caught a few grasshoppers and shared with Avery. I don't think it lived too long after this.

Avery and Great Grandma/Grandpa Forsyth.

Avery's favorite spot.

Catching up

Hi Everyone! I didn't know we were so popular! I have had several friends and family ask why I haven't been updating our Blog as I have in the past. We truly have been quite busy.

Since I last posted, Little Miss Avery had a birthday! We had a great time. She loved all the friends and family and especially blowing out the candles. I can't believe my baby is two!


Memorial Day weekend we made the trek to Cedar City for Cameron's HS Graduation. We had a blast visiting with family from California and watching the kids run and play. On the way home we had the opportunity to visit Holden, Utah and see Sid's grandma/grandpa Nixon's graves. We have stopped there several times to drop off flowers, but we actually ran into Sid's great Aunt Betty and she filled us in on all kinds of family history.

We also attended the annual x96 BASH. It was a lot different this year, but I knew a lot more of the bands, which was nice. Cammie and his entourage also came up that weekend for a different concert, so everyone was cozy camping out in our basement. I think Sid counted 10 people at one time, (not including us). It was fun.

Sid and I started our own little business when we moved here just about two years ago - The Stansbury Park Guitar Academy - and we have had lots of success with it. We started with 10 students and now have an upwards of 60 give or take and a second instructor that we hired on 6 months ago. We never thought it would grow to what it is. A couple months ago we were notified that our rent we were paying to the local Club House in our neighborhood felt it wasn't enough and told us we had three months to get out or pay three times the rental fee we were currently paying (Which is 20% of profit). Through lots of meetings and several pleas from students and parents, the board disregarded our requests and stood by their decision. Since then we have had two other facilities that we thought we could make work, both of which had fallen through. We were all but sure our little business was going to be no more...BUT! I am happy to say that as of a week ago we have a space and we are back in business! What a relief! Sid and I have sacrificed a lot for this business and we were sick thinking that some self proclaimed "board members" could take that away from us! From the looks of it, it will be a much better suited space for us anyways, so I think it will work out for the better.

Other than that, we have just been busy with all the normal stuff - cars acting up, never ending sprinkler fixes, Avery with her back to back stomach flu that lasted almost three weeks, home repairs, and all those little things that seem to gobble up your day...I have said it before, but SERIOUSLY I will be better at keeping up. If anything to avoid the onslaught of demands to do better from all of you that love us so much! :)

Here are some random pics from the last couple months.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our little talker

In literally the last month Avery has really taken off with talking. We were starting to get worried when she wasn't really communicating with us, but now she is doing great! I ran out of time on my camera, but she says a lot more too! Her favorite is "no, no!" and "dog". Every animal that isn't a bird or a cat is a dog. Even when we see cows she will "moo" but then point and say "it's dog" and anytime we even walk past the bathroom, she runs for her stool and says "teeth" so she can brush. It's so fun to hear her chatter. I love her little voice

Time flies when you're having fun!

Life has just flown by these past months. I can't believe November was the last time I posted.
There's too much to cover - so here's a few pictures to sum it up! Hope everyone is well. And I promise to do better at keeping up!

Avery was so fun this year at Christmas...She didn't really know what was going on, but tore right into all her presents.

Sid was pretty proud of this one. All ready grooming her to be a snow boarder.

Her new thing is walking around in my shoes. I think it's the cutest thing ever.

We had the chance to see Brad wrestle this year. He did awesome! Made it to state and he's only a sophomore! Avery loved running around and copying the cheer leaders.