Mike and Rickie's Family

Toothless Medal Boy

2012-02-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

This boy is growing up so fast. He has lost 4 teeth in the last month. They just keep popping out. In fact, he doesn't even know where they go! One of them came out right after Christmas. We can't find it anywhere. He thinks he swallowed it. But, the toothfairy still came. She hid his money in a tricky spot, probably because she had to look extra hard to find his tooth :)

Daven is a little competitive. At least when he wants something.

Since school started he's been working toward an AR medal. (Reading Program at school) They have to read books and take comprehension tests. If they read a certain number of pages and pass the tests, they get medals. And he got one. He was really, really proud of himself.

At basketball, he watched some other boys get medals for being the game MVP. He decided he was going to work hard to get one. Basketball has been a challenge. The other kids on his team are like pros and this is our first season. But he has been working hard. In his last game, he got a rebound :) and made contact with the ball more. This was really exciting. He was so proud to win the medal!!

Way to go buddy!!

London's Run 2012

2012-02-03T09:46:00.000-08:00

London's Run 2012

Queen Creek, Arizona

1:49:56

Maddy, Michelle, me, Brenna

I love these girls so much. We were so excited that Michelle flew out from California to do this race. We had a carb party the night before at Brenna's house. It was delicious food and great visiting!! Then Saturday night, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. If only Michelle lived closer! And the race was so exciting, it was Brenna's first one.

I always look so dorky in running pictures. Maybe I run weird and don't know it :) I remember seeing this girl running one day along the canal and I thought, "she looks really funny when she runs." Maybe I'm like her.

This is my sprinting to the finish line. I had to laugh because my goal was to beat 1:50. I did it but by 4 seconds. Ha-ha. At least when I say something, you know I mean it. 1:49:56 was my official time. I think it was about 8:24 minute miles.

My sweet kids greeted me with a kiss after the race and they had made a really cute sign:

RUN MUM!! Loved it.

Well, Mike had a hand in the sign, too. Thanks for coming to cheer me on at the finish line.

Couldn't have EVER run this fast without this girl. She pushes me so hard. By the way, she finished in 1:44 Amazing.

I'm not sure what I want to do next. I don't have any races planned. Maybe some great cross-training?

Fun Christmas Memories 2011

2012-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Favorite Christmas Memories of 2011

We were so blessed and had a wonderful holiday season. So grateful that everyone was healthy and that we could be together. We also enjoyed our time in Utah after Christmas.

We made a "UTE GINGERBREAD VILLAGE." Wonder whose idea that was?

Kindergarten Gingerbread Houses

Logan was so excited that daddy got to come help him. He loves it when we come to his school. And I melt every time I see him in a paper homeade hat.

We have very intense cookie decorators in this family.

I bet Santa couldn't wait to get to our house. Ha-ha!

Papa came to stay for Christmas. It was so fun to have him here. The kids are getting ready to open their Christmas Eve present. They each got pj's and an ornament.

Daven: Super Mario pj's - music note ornament

Logan: Lego Batman pj's - "my first day of school" ornament

Avery: Pink snowman jammies - minnie mouse ornament

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Daven treated us to the reading this year. Both excaiting and cute to watch.

Mike and Avery reading the Nativity Story. Aves loved Mary.

Papa got a special Christmas Eve present for each of the kids. So sweet. Avery got this precious music box. She loves it. Thanks papa!

Bey Blades Spinning

This was the sound we heard all day long.

Mike trying out the RipStik the boys gave him. He's pretty good!

The boys slept in their new sleeping bags Christmas night. They are going to love these next time we go camping!!

And this is my favorite picture of the day. This is what Avery looked like most of the day. She had on her Dora dress-up, her bike helmet, and was playing with her toys. Super loveable!

2012-02-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

Layton Lakes, Gilbert, Arizona

November 2011

We asked our friend, Mike Sherwood, if he would be willing to make a trade. We are so glad that he was up for it. He is a fantastic photographer! I am good friends with his wife, Tia, and I am always admiring their pictures. We offered him a free night of babysitting and a gift card in exchange for a photo-shoot session. (I still feel like we made out like bandits).

PS Logan was sick this day, so there weren't many great individual shots of him. He is still loved...just in case you are wondering.

Running Against Yourself

2011-11-12T20:07:00.000-08:00

Running Against Yourself? What do you think?

I seem to hear this saying frequently. I have been thinking a lot about it. It applies to my experience with this past race. My last time was 1:59:24. I wanted to beat 2 hours...and I did. It was a great feeling.

But, I've noticed over this year that my pace has improved. I wanted to see how fast I'd be if I pushed myself and did some speed work. I don't think I'll ever be able to run a 6 minute mile....I'm too short for that anyways! But, it is fun for me to keep challenging myself. I love running, training, working hard, and then realizing that I have accomplished my goal. Maybe I am making up for lost time in my teenage years. Anyways, in August, I decided I wanted to run another race to see how fast I could be. I wanted my pace to be "in the eights."

*note: there is a huge shadow behind my thighs...I hope they aren't that big in real life*

Well....I am so excited because I did it. I came in at 1:51:19!!! Next time it is going to be below 1:50. My overall pace was 8:30 min/miles. I almost made the top 100. I came in 102. This was very exciting for me!

Here were my thoughts during the race:

Mile 1:

There are so many people. We were doing mostly canal running. I kept worrying that I'd fall in as I tried to pass people. I felt good but needed to push slightly. I didn't want to start out too slow. But I needed to conserve energy to burst it at the end.

First Water Station:

People came from the sides, cut me off, and then started walking. It irritated me!!! Threw off my pace for a few minutes. Overall, my cup grabbing technique has improved this year!! I don't think I got anyone wet this time, except for myself :)

Mile 3: I cheered....Yay! 3 Down!

Mile 6.5:

Turn-around time. I still felt really good. I wanted to hang in there for about 3.5 miles before pushing the last three miles to the end. It was hard to resist running too hard. I made this mistake last year and was exhausted at mile 11. But these miles went by fast. A lady with a bright pink tank top was in front of me. I tried to keep up with her. She kept waving and cheering and had great race energy.

Mile 9: Should I push now? Or try to hold off another mile? I started to push. But it worked out fine.

Mile 10 - 13.....

FASTER. Push!!! I was so excited because at the last 1/2 mile, I saw Maddy waiting on the corner with my kids (and a few cute ones of hers)!! They were cheering for me. I started to speed up and run as fast as I could the rest of the way into the stadium. It was a good spot for them to motivate me. It was so sweet of her to bring my boys so early in the morning. Thanks, Maddy! Wish she could have ran with me...it felt strange to not see her in front of me and have to find my own pacers.

Finish:

Sprint to finish. I haven't had the energy to do this my past 2 races. I was proud of myself for finishing strong. I was happy with my time, too!

I have been so hungry all day, though. I don't need a spoon, I need a SHOVEL!! I am not sure why, but even with my training I haven't been this hungry.

I am glad I did the training. But now what? I think I'll have to get another schedule to follow, even if I am not training for anything.

Until next time.......

A Great Halloween

2011-11-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!

We had a fabulous Halloween this year. The kids got so into it. They were excited about dressing up and trick-or-treating for weeks. It was so much fun. Here are some pictures of our celebrating.

Pumpkin Carving Time

Daddy is a fantastic carver. Daven and Logan got creative and helped draw their pumpkin faces. I offered to help carve, but Mike quickly assigned me to gutting the pumpkins. I guess it is an art form and I didn't get that talent :) Glad I married someone who has it.

Ward Trunk-Or-Treat

The Ward Trunk-or-Treat was on Friday, October 28th. The kids were SOOO excited to dress up. Daven was at a birthday party, so I took some cute pictures of Logan and Aves before we left. I love their little dancing in this picture.

We were waiting in front for daddy to come pick us up with Daven. Avery suddenly became so happy and excited. She needed someone to share the excitement with. She stretched out her arms and gave Logan the happiest hug ever. I made them stay there so I could take a snap shot! So CUTE!!!

Daven got dressed in the car and then the kids were ready to trunk-or-treat. Mike and I took off early to go to dinner with friends. Maya, our babysitter made sure they got lots of candy! Avery spent all morning Saturday taking one or two bites of everything. She had so much fun!

Minnie Mouse

Avery was excited because there were THREE Minnie Mouse's at the trunk-or-treat. She felt really special.

We put sponge curlers in all day for Halloween. She was a giant frizz-poof of tight curls. But they looked really cute!

Sparkly shoes!

Minnie Mouse kept saying she was tired. She fell asleep in this camping chair. It was really sweet.

BATMAN!!

Logan was super excited to be Batman. He wanted to wear his costume every day during the month of October. It was really sweet. He made a very adorable batman.

Passing out candy is almost as much fun as trick-or-treating!

NINJA!

LOVE this picture!

Dav loved passing out candy, too!

Halloween Street Party

Recycled White Trash Costume! I guess that is what White Trash folks do....recycle!

So the street behind us is the place to be on Halloween. My friend, Lisa, invited us to crash her street's party. It was so sweet of them to invite us. We brought camping chairs and sat in the driveway. We also had yummy soup and nacho-cheese dip. It was fun to see everyone. Since several people in our ward live out in the county, they came trick-or-treating on our neighborhood. So it was fun to see everyone. Wish we would have bought a house on their street :)

Baby Chloe...11 days old. This is Lisa's neighbor, Debra. They hung out with us and their baby was the cutest, littlest thing ever.

This is really the only costume I have.

The Jensen's came and visited us, too. Love the super girl costume!

Happy Halloween!!!

Firsts, Lasts, and New Beginnings

2011-10-11T22:29:00.001-07:00

This summer was a busy one for our family. It was filled with exciting firsts, some tearful lasts, and a new beginning for our family in our new house. Here are some highlights.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: I took the kids to Utah for the month of June. The thought of spending summer in HOT Arizona overwhelmed me. So I thought that if we went to Utah, it would be cooler. We would get a chance to see our family. I felt we outstayed our welcome. We also missed daddy a lot. But we did have a lot of fun times & made great memories. It was so great to spend time with the kids' cousins, Mike's sister, Grandmas, my sister, and lots of good friends.

The KAYSVILLE Parade:

How is it we've never been to this parade? It was amazing. I couldn't believe all the loot we came home with. My kids' hats weren't even big enough to hold it all. We went with my sister and her husband, Nick.

After the parade, we hit TACO TIME. Everyone gets most excited about the TACO TIME float. They threw out millions of balls. We came home with at least 20. Well, their business plan worked. It was packed after the parade. I actually love TACO TIME, wish there was one here.

2. It's a GIRL for Nick and Erica.

I was so excited because Erica invited me to her ultrasound when they found out the sex of the baby. It was even on my birthday!! I couldn't have picked a better way to spend the day. I felt so loved to be invited to this. Their baby girl is so cute. I can't wait to meet her. I'm going to fly out next month to visit them.

My mom and I threw Erica a baby shower. It was so much fun to see everyone. My sister looks so cute. She was hardly showing when I got to Utah and had the cutest little belly (very little) by the time I left.

All three of these ladies were pregnant and due around the same time. My cousin, JoDee on the right actually had her baby girl, Hailee about 2 weeks ago. That means Erica is getting close!

3. Daven learned to ride his bike!!!

My mom has a big park right behind her house with a giant trail. We kept going out to practice. One of the days, Daven told me to just let go. So I did. I was amazed at how far he went. He just took off and didn't fall for a long time. He had so much fun going around and around the track. Way to go, Daven.

And some Lasts:

1. Daven had his last day of first grade.

This was his teacher Ms. Vogt. She was one of those true angels. I can't describe how sweet and loving she was. Daven had a great year. We will miss Ms. Vogt and we will miss his old school!! He had 2 great years there. We are so lucky he had the chance to go there & have 2 wonderful teachers.
2. Logan had his last day of Preschool with Miss Heidi.

I loved her preschool, too. Logan learned so much and I really felt like it prepared him for Kindergarten. I loved that it was a small group of kids. He learned so much. Thanks Miss Heidi! And there were so many cute boys for him to hang out with. He's always been surrounded by a neighborhood of girls, so this was really fun.

3. We said good-bye to our old house...

And moved into our new one. Grandma and Papa were so sweet and came to help us move. I cannot even tell you how hard they worked. Sun up to sun down. We were so grateful for their help. They did so much!!!
4. We hosted our last playgroup at our swimming pool.

Sniffle, sniffle. I miss this so much. We have so many great memories in this pool..... with both family and friends. I miss the squeals I used to hear from the backyard. Maybe someday again :(

We are now getting settled into our new house. I will have to post some pictures soon. I still miss our old house, though. I had to get it all cleaned out for our renters. When it was empty I walked around from room to room and just cried. I kept picturing the kids in the tub, in the pool, in their rooms and it made me sad to say good-bye. It was our home for the last 8 years..the house we became a family in. I still love and miss it sometimes!

Only in Kindergarten

2011-08-21T16:07:00.001-07:00

Logan hopped off the bus on Friday wearing this hat! (It's a racoon.) He came running towards me with the biggest grin on his face. I thought, only in Kindergarten are you so proud to show your mom your awesome new hat! In fact, he was so excited that he helped Avery make one of her own.

We are starting to get settled in our new house. It has been a big process. I seem to have forgotten all that's involved with a move.

We moved in on a Thursday and the kids started school on Monday. And a new school at that! I was so worried about them having to go through so many changes. It was hard the first week for them, but I think they are starting to adjust. I think we are going to like it here. We aren't too far, just about 10 miles from our old house. But in some ways, it feels really far! We miss the closeness to all of our friends. And we miss Daven's old school.
This little munchkin thought she was going to hop on the bus right along with her brothers. Every day she wishes! She kept saying "I go preschool.....????" One more year little girl. It has been such a great experience to have just me and her during the day. We have never had that. It does feel really quiet and lonely, sometimes though, too. I miss my boys. Avery misses them, too. The first day of school we were leaving a brunch with friends and she suddenly burst into tears, screaming "GA-GA, my GA-GA" (That is short for Logan). But I think spending time alone with her will be so great for us. It has already cut down on the tantrums.
Mike watched the boys get on the bus. Then I drove to school and met them. They are lining up in this picture and waiting to go inside. I was excited because our new school will let you walk them to their seats on the first day.
I can't believe this little guy is a kindergartner. He has a late birthday so I wondered how he was going to handle all-day kindergarten. Plus, he is my little sweetheart. But, he seems to be doing really well. The first week was exhausting for him. He had a melt-down around 4:30 each day from being so tired. But, I knew things were going to be okay when he told me he was excited for school last Monday. He has made a new buddy, Carter at the bus stop. They sometimes hold hands as they get on, which thrills me to death! It's going to be okay!!!

His favorites are library and P.E. I can't even describe how excited he was to show us the first library book he picked out. Finally he gets to be big like his brother, too!
This handsome guy is in 2nd grade. I think he is going to like his teacher. They haven't had many outdoor recesses since it is so hot here. But he has really enjoyed playing Legos at indoor recess. I know he really misses his best buddy, Nathan from last year. But we are hoping he'll make some more great friends.

Lagoon!

2011-07-10T21:48:00.002-07:00

I just got back from spending the entire month of June in Utah. We had so much fun even though it seemed like we were gone for so long. I kept telling people that every day was like a big party. Seemed like we always had something fun planned. I have more to say than I can put in one post....but one of the days, we went to LAGOON!

The kids had more fun than I think they could handle. The day started out like this:

My dad and I could not figure out if Avery was scared or happy. Shear screaming for the whole ride! My dad said, "That right there was worth the price of admission!"

I agreed wholeheartedly.

My dad was so sweet and drove up to see us and help me take the kids to Lagoon. Logan became his little buddy. Here we all are on the Skyscraper Ferris Wheel.

Avery does not look like she is having fun at all :)

Surprisingly, there weren't long lines. The kids went on these cars at least 10 times in a row. They would get off and go hop right back on. Avery thought it was so fun, because she always got to go with her brothers. And her brothers had fun taking care of her on this ride. It was really cute.

My favorite picture...Avery with her arms up on the roller coaster. That girl is a crack-up. The wild hair flying captures her personality quite well. Love it!

So the best part was the Colossus! We kept driving by Lagoon nearly every day before we went because it is right off the freeway. I kept telling Daven about the Colossus and how he should go on it. He was terrified, particularly because it goes upside down. He told everyone for 2 weeks....I AM NOT GOING ON THE COLOSSUS!

Well, we got to Lagoon and I told him he should do it. He was dead set against it. I told him he might not even be tall enough to go. He decided he wanted to at least check; which made me think, maybe there is some interested there? Well, he was tall enough...but BARELY! He said, I am NOT going on it.

We went and sat down for a minute. I told him how fun it was AND that I would give him $1.00 if he'd go. I literally watched his eyes perk up and he decided to do it. I couldn't believe it. I seriously did not think he would take that bait. Someone would have had to pay me $100.00 at that age. He was so nervous, but we did it together. We called Mike right away after. He was so proud of himself. But when asked if he wanted to go again, he said, "Next time." That was followed by, "Mom, if I go on the Colossus 50 times, do I get $50.00?" NO WAY! But way to go, Daven!

I'll have to post more about our trip. We had a great time seeing everyone, Grandma's, Papa's, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and friends. It was a great change of pace and we LOVEd the cooler weather. More to come!

Party of the Year

2011-05-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

We had the funnest time at Brunswick XL for the boys' birthday party this year. I'm sorry for going on and on about it, but they did a great job. I e-mailed the lady in charge and said that her boss should be paying her more! We were that pleased.

I've never done a party at a "place" before. But it was super reasonable. The staff was great. And the kids had a blast!! Worth every penny. The night before, Mike and I felt excited because we went to bed on time, and all we had to do was bring the cake and candles. We said it was our year off, and it was great!!

Brunswick bowling thought of everything. They had a live d.j., neon bowling, and fun dances for the kids to do. The party was 1 1/2 hours but the kids were entertained the whole time.

Okay, I was a little nervous when we first got there. The kids wanted to bowl and we had to help most of them out. I thought, this party is going to take a lot of energy. But, they quickly got the hang of it and were soon having a great time. They loved seeing their names and scores!

Annabelle's action shot!

Look at the face! Super into it!

McKinley

Logan and his friend, Kanyon from school. Kanyon was the most worried/proud of his score!

I'm sorry, this picture just had to be posted, it was so cute. She makes bowling shoes fashionable.

Even Avery bowled a few times. She was so shy and quiet the whole party.

Paige

We were so excited because Mike's parents happened to be in town. Grandma was such a huge help at the party. Avery loved grandma to hold her.

See, they thought of everything! Even the bowling mascot!

They had the kids to the cha-cha and the conga. This was so cute. They got really into it and burned off some energy in between bowling games.

My cute boys. Happy Birthday! Logan will get to keep celebrating when we go to Utah in June.

Can't believe I have a 7 and almost 5-year old! Love you boys.

Happy Birthday - Cha-Cha-Cha!

2011-05-13T13:28:00.001-07:00

Happy, Birthday, Cha-cha-cha! I guess that's how all the kids sing it now.....

Happy Birthday, Daven!!!

Our Daven turned seven years old! Isn't he a handsome kid? Look at that smile. I love this picture. He doesn't look like as "little" anymore! I asked him on his birthday, "Do you feel like you are seven, or do you still feel six?" He replied with a firm, "SEVEN." He seems like a seven year-old to me, crazy!!

Daven loves Super Mario Bros. Logan and Avery gave him a Mario keychain for his backpack. He brings home his work from school and nearly every day there is something he's written/drawn/colored about Super Mario....he loves it. If I didn't limit his wii-time, he would play 24/7 I'm sure!
One of Daven's grandma's sent him some Poke-mon cards. Aside from Super Mario Bros, Poke-mon is a new love. Can you tell by his face how excited he is?

Mike and I gave him a new bike. I think he was surprised but wanted to get back in to play with his Poke-mon cards. Some day, I think he'll be glad we got him the bike! We've taken him out on it a few times. Our goal is to get him riding this summer!

I asked if he wanted cupcakes or a cake. He requested chocolate chip cookies and ice-cream. I guess that means I make really good cookies? ha-ha. I'm glad he likes them. Plus, they were super easy!!!

I love my Daven so much. He is such a smart little boy. I am so proud of how well he is doing in school. He brightens our lives every day. I hope he never loses his zest for life, because it is contagious. We all love to be around him because of how happy and energetic he is.

And Now She's Two

2011-03-09T12:56:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to our fun, adorable, lively little girl. Avery turned two a few weeks ago. She was so excited for her party. She found the Elmo cake-pan I had made for Daven when he was two. She carried it around the house for a few days. I decided to make her an Elmo cake. Any time you would ask her, "Avery, is it almost your birthday?" She would say, "ELMO Birthday!" It surprised me she knew what was going on.

We celebrated the Saturday before. Our friends, The Sherwoods were so sweet to come over.

It was a very simple party. We sang Little Bunny Foo-Foo.

Avery loves to "bop them on the head!" This is one of her favorite songs she sings in nursery on Sunday at church.

Pizza Face

Presents! She is still good at unwrapping them!

She got 2 new pairs of flip-flops. She loves shoes, so it is fun to have a choice every morning as to which ones she wants to wear.

The cake....She stayed up with me the night before to "help" ha-ha. She sat right next to me the whole time. I gave her a little frosting to play with. Mike kept asking if she wanted to go to bed and she adamantly told us, "No, I wan help mommy!" It was fun to have a little helper and someone that was so excited about her cake.

I can't believe she is two. She's adorable. She pulled a classic two-year old stunt before the party. She had picked out a different party dress. We had her dressed and a bow to match in her hair. Five minutes before the party, she freaked out and had a wardrobe change. I have to laugh. How could she care what she wore to her party? She is the most independent thing I've ever met.

Sorry, Tia if the red frosting stained anything. I guess some of the kids liked the cake :)

And this is her new pink cup and tinkerbell plate from her grandma. We had to put them away as soon as she opened them. If they are clean, this is what she wants to use. I guess drinking from pink cups is far superior to other colors. We just roll with it.

All the Reasons I Know She's a Girl....Part 2

2011-02-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

It is almost lil' miss Avery Mae's 2nd Birthday. I have been thinking lately how much she acts like a little girl now. (And sometimes like a teenage girl!)

I did a post when she was a few months old about all the reasons I knew she was a girl. Well, it is becoming even more apparent every day. I think it is time for another one!

I catch little things she does every day that are so different from the boys. It usually makes me chuckle and catches me off-guard. Oh, how we love this little girl. I am so glad she is part of our family. And I don't know what we would do without her!

Here's to all the girly things about her:

1) She is the BEST time-out supervisor in the whole world. Ever since she could walk, if someone gets put in time-out, she's there! She sits by her brothers, comforts them, and most recently has started lecturing them in her jibber-jabber voice. Her new phrase - "no no ga-ga." That means "no no Logan!"

2) Avery is always the first one on the scene when someone gets hurt. She loves to comfort, kiss, and nurture her brothers. She'll squat down and say....."okay" as in "you're okay." We just laugh. It doesn't matter what she is doing, if someone is crying, she has to drop EVERYTHING and go investigate.

3) She thinks she is everyone's mommy. She likes to walk Logan into preschool. She'll walk inside and make him giver her a hug. As she closes the door behind her, she'll say, "Have fun, ga-ga." And the funny thing is, she really thinks she's being a mommy.
4. She is great at pretending there is something in her eye. This is her go-to pose if she doesn't want to talk or look at you. Usually if there is a male in the room, she'll look away and pretend to have something in her eye. Every time!

5. She loves the color pink! I think she is pre-programmed this way. One day she was coloring with her brothers. She found a pink crayon and brought it to me and said, "Look mommy!" I must have said it was a neat pink crayon because ever since then, she loves anything that color. And if she sees something she'll yell "Pink" just to let us know! She has these pink pants and a pink Notre Dame shirt. Every time I pull them out of the dryer to fold them, she won't let me. She'll strip down and put them on screaming about the fact they are pink. And if I happen to wash her pink socks, they go on, too. She looks like such a scrounge in that outfit but she feels really pretty.

6. She changes clothes at least 3 times a day. And she also takes forever to choose her outfits. I don't know why, I certainly don't change my clothes 3 times a day. And the outfits she comes up with are very interesting. How can a 2 year-old have such a strong opinion?

7. She loves to give fashion shows. Any time she feels particularly cute, she'll parade into Mike's office to show off her outfit/hair to daddy!

8. She loves DISPENSERS...soap, lotion, shampoo, tape. The other day I got out of the shower and it was really quiet. I could just hear a soft click-click noise. Well, lo and behold, I walked into our bedroom and there was Avery with the lotion click-clicking away. I cannot even tell you how much lotion she had on her legs.

On multiple occasions we've walked in and she's tried to shampoo her hair with the bathroom soap or clean the shelves in the boys room or make other types of dispenser mischief.

9. She loves backpacks. I'm sure this will translate into purses someday soon.

10. She is really good at opening presents. Once she figured this out at Christmas, she just went to town. Loved it.

11. She loves to help me in the kitchen. She thinks she is helping all right.

But here's the thing....as much as I know she's a girl, she has a sprinkle of her brothers in her, too! She loves to put on their dress-ups and pretend to have sword fights with them. She gets so excited every time she sees a fire truck coming down the street. And if baseball or any sport it on TV, she'll make sure her daddy knows about it.

We love this little girl....she is the perfect addition to our family!

Happy almost birthday, lil' Avery Mae!

Christmas Morn 2010

2011-01-30T21:33:00.001-08:00

"Did Santa Come?" Daddy went out to check while we waited to come out of mommy & daddy's room on Christmas Morning. We woke up around 7 a.m., so not too bad, but of course, much too early for mommy!! Mike's still like a kid, he wakes up around 4 a.m. and can't go back to sleep.

I guess Santa did come!!

Never mind she got a dream kitchen, the coolest present ever. All she cared about was the fact she got some Dora toothpaste and a Dora toothbrush in her stocking. She was amazed.

You can see Avery in the background trying to convince me to open her toothpaste so she can go brush her teeth. She spent a lot of time in the bathroom on Christmas. After the first 2 times, I had to pretend to put toothpaste on her brush, I was afraid she was going to stain her teeth! Is there such a thing as over-brushing?

Finally playing with her kitchen.

Santa is so smart, I wanted a water bottle just like this! I always love how the kids get excited about the big things but get just as excited about the little things, too.

Cutie in his Lego Head-Lamp.

She can sure open a present. She got good at tearing through that paper and FAST! She vacuumed for literally hours on Christmas with this little pink vacuum, in between brushing her teeth, of course.

Jengo-Fett's sleigh. Logan's proud Lego creation with Daddy this year.

Daven had fun playing with his new I-touch. On our way to Utah, we didn't hear from him for the first 4 hours until he said, "Mom, my I-touch is out of batteries." It was a big hit for both boys.

Christmas Eve 2010

2011-01-30T21:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some family pictures from Christmas Eve. We had a great day! The kids were so excited all day long for Papa Pehrson to get here. We were glad he could make it. He was feeling under the weather earlier in the week, so we weren't sure. The kids kept praying he would get better.....it worked!

I think it is so fun to hear about everyone's Christmas Traditions. These are our Eve traditions:

1) Make cookies for Santa.

2) Play!

3) Home-ade Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner.

4) Open one present from mom & dad. (PJ's & Christmas Ornament)

5) Christmas Story: Luke Chapter 2

6) Leave cookies for Santa. We've heard Santa likes chocolate milk :)

With Papa here, we all had a giant sleep-over in our room. Well, except for Avery. We were a little worried she might get out of her bed and find the toys at 4 a.m. but she did really good. I think she came in our room around that time, but it was too dark for her to notice any presents in the living room. Phew! Oh, Papa slept in the boys room, we didn't subject him to the craziness of the giant sleepover in our room.

Favorite Christmas Memories from 2010

2011-01-30T19:55:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year. I was so grateful that everyone stayed healthy during the holidays. I thought I would share some of my favorite memories from Christmas 2010.

1. Daven's Christmas Party:

Daven began talking about throwing a party for his friends in November. It started out as a Thanksgiving party, but we ran out of time for that. He kept persisting and his Thanksgiving party soon turned into a Christmas party. I thought it was really sweet but to be honest, I was mostly humoring him. "yeah, sure, that would be really fun....okay..." But, he kept bringing it up over and over. The kid would make a great lawyer someday :) I decided that he thought the party was really going to happen and he wasn't going to forget about it.

We set a date for December 18th. Well, it crept up on us really fast. I was thinking of ways to get out of the party. We were so busy. What a sad excuse, but that is what kept going through my head. A party was going to be a lot of work, how was I going to do that? Well, 5 days before the party, I woke up to take Daven to school. He had woken up early and hand-written invitations to ALL of his friends. They were very detailed. They even had our address and phone # on them. It was the cutest thing ever. I decided that we would throw the party together. How could I possibly tell him no?

Mike was a huge help. We pulled it off!! I think all the kids had lots of fun at our low-key party. Daven came up with some of the games. "Pin-the-Carrot on the Snowman." Then we played the m&m game, sherades, and decorated cookies. We did kill a little time by watching the "Polar Express."

Ten cute kiddos ended up coming!!

Paige

McKinley & Daven

Nathan James #1

Bailey

Logan & Annabelle

Nathan James #2

Little Sister even enjoyed the party!

2. Celebrating Our Anniversary

Mike and I decided to award ourselves with "coolest mom & dad" awards. We threw the party the morning of our 11th Anniversary. It makes us feel good about ourselves, we really aren't that cool anymore, but it is fun to talk ourselves up. We went out to dinner that night at BRIO. Oh-my..it is the most delicious Italian food I've had in a while. We had a great time that night. I can't believe it has been 11 years. It has gone by so fast & been filled with so many wonderful memories. But that is for another post, I'm sure.

3. Gingerbread Time

We found a "Gingerbread Train" at Target to decorate this year in lieu of our Gingerbread House tradition.

4. A Holiday Hay-Ride

Such a fun high-light for them. They absolutely loved and treasured it!!

5. Temple Christmas Lights

We invited our friends, the Staton's, to go to the Mesa Temple lights with us. They are so nice and were so sweet to go with us. We had a great time. They have the cutest family.

I'm hoping to get around to posting more pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had a good Christmas. I am so grateful for my kids, a wonderful husband and great friends. I am one lucky girl!

36 Seconds

2010-12-12T15:10:00.001-08:00

Shun The Sun 2010

This is my "Shun The Sun 2010" Half-Marathon.

I was super excited when I crossed the finish line. As Mike put it, I beat my goal time with 36 seconds to spare!

I wanted to beat 2 hours. Well, let me back up, I wanted to beat my time from my last half-marathon in January. That was London's Run. My time was 2:07:32. This was a 9:45 pace. But, word was the race was mapped a little short. So I was probably around a 10-minute mile considering the course was short.

My friend Maddy suggested we do Shun The Sun and work on our speed. She found a training schedule to help you beat 2 hours. Although, she didn't really need it, she is already super fast and was well under 2 hours in January.

And we did it!!! My time was 1:59:24. It felt so good!

The race went really well. The course is all flat and paved most of the way. I drove up w/ my friends Maddy, Meredith, and Casey. Meredith and Casey did so awesome, this was their first half.

Maddy and I stayed together for the first 4 miles. Then, she took off.

At mile 7, I was feeling great! I think the Olive Garden pasta I ate the night before paid off. They had a clock at mile 7 & I knew I needed to step up my pace. I turned on my i-pod and off I went. I felt like I was cruising. The endorphins must have kicked in. I felt like I could run forever. I was passing people. It was invigorating.

Then came mile 10. I started to feel tired, but I knew mentally I could do 13 at my pace if I kept pushing. Mile 11 - 12 was the worst, it seemed to take forever. I think I went a little too fast because I couldn't sprint towards the finish. But, when I saw the clock, I knew I would beat my time and that was all I cared about.

I look forward to doing another one. I want to beat my time again. I get crazy ideas that I want to run a full marathon whenever I am at mile 8 in a run. But, then when mile 11 comes on, I realize it might be too much of a challenge!!

I have to say I feel like I am addicted to running. I am amazed at what my new "norm" feels like. The human body has such an amazing ability to adapt. But, I still can't decide if where I'm at is healthy or not????? I feel like I need 2 six-mile runs during the week and a long run on Saturday to feel good. It is like my body craves it. I know I say this all the time, but I think if I drank alcohol I would be an alcoholic based on how addicted to the endorphins I am.

Mike teases me because I am burning through running shoes like crazy.......Am I turning crazy??? I still love the feeling nonetheless.

Family Photo Shoot 2010

2010-12-12T14:54:00.001-08:00

The pictures from our family photo shoot this year are in. It took me forever to get them up on the blog. I loved the way most of them turned out. It was so hard to get all the kids to smile at the same time - AHHH; hence why their aren't many family shots. Here are my favorites....

I just want to grab her tongue. This is my favorite picture of her from the shoot.

Love my little girl!

I think Daven is the photogenic one of our family. Mike is very photogenic, too. I love the way Daven's turned out, that is why I've posted so many of him. So if in 100 years, my kids are reading this, I love you all the same!!

My favorite family shot. Don't look too closely or you'll see Logan's red socks. I had everyone's outfits ready, just not enough clean black socks. oops..

I can't even tell you how in love I am with this picture of Mike and Aves. I think it should be sold in picture frames at the store. Just cut off the extra space on the side.

Happy Halloween 2010

2010-11-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

Here are our Halloween Happenings this year.

Saturday night, we went to the Ward Halloween Party. Mike and the youth were in charge of the spook alley. So I was in charge of this crazy bunch for the evening.

This was taken before the spook alley. After the spook alley, Avery was super scared of everything. It took lots of coaxing to get her to "trunk or treat" at our Ward's Halloween party.

The rest of these pictures are from Halloween Night. I love this one. Avery loves birds. I'm sure she's pointing one out for the camera.

Go Utes! Can you tell that Mike had a hand in picking out her costume this year? Mike's mom went to the U of U store and got this for her. It is so cute! We are so glad she did that for us. When we got it in the mail, Avery kept saying, "princess, princess." I know, I can't believe she knows what a princess is. But, she was excited about it when it came.

Jengo Fett...I can't remember exactly what he does or who he is. Daven knows, though. That is all that matters!

Last year it was Daven Vader, this year Logan Vader joined our family. He was the sweetest Vader I've ever met.

Aside from being excited when her costume arrived, Avery was hesitant to get dressed up for Halloween. She threw a fit. But, as soon as I asked if she wanted some lipstick on her cheeks, she perked right up! No.more.tears. Just like that! How does she know what lipstick is? And what am I going to do since she loves to wear it? I think that was her favorite part about Halloween. Is she starting a little early? Should I be worried?

This is Mike's favorite picture.

The weather was beautiful. Not hot, but not cold either. Gotta love the AZ trick-or-treating.

This face says it all....

Carving Pumpkins

2010-11-03T21:02:00.001-07:00

Avery learned a new word while carving pumpkins this year: "EWWWW!" It was hilarious, she kept saying it over an over as we scooped out all the guts.

The kids had lots of fun. I am so glad daddy is good at carving pumpkins. If it were up to me, there would only be circles and triangles on there. Mike made some good faces.

Our neighbor, Mike came over to say hello. Our boys LOVE him. Probably because he's usually in his driveway working on his car or motorcycle. They have been saying hi to him for the last 4 years every time we come & go!

My 3 little pumpkins!!

Go Braves!

2010-09-15T20:40:00.001-07:00

Go Braves! The first T-ball game of the season was on Saturday. This was Logan's first T-ball game. Daven has played 2 seasons before this. We are excited because Nate, Daven's best buddy is on their team, too!

I was so worried that Logan was going to be the smallest one on the team. He isn't. I was thrilled. But, he's still pretty small! His pants drown him. But, he is so excited to get to play. He is our Lefty and is a good hitter. Daven is starting to get the hang of things and even mangaged to get a few people out during the game!

Logan's friend, Sadie. She told him that he is the only boy she likes. I'm glad, because she sure is cute!!!

Little sister gets so excited to go to baseball, but then gets bored after a few minutes.

Go Atlanta Braves!! We'll keep you posted.

Reverently, Quietly

2010-09-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

Mike snapped these pictures of my sweet baby girl a few weeks ago before church. She is so precious. We love her so much!

Reverently.......

Quietly........

Doing Something So Naughty!!!

My darling girl decided to try and give herself a shampoo yesterday.

I guess she's figured out how to use the liquid soap dispenser.

I seriously have to follow her everywhere she goes. She can open all the baby-proofed cabinets. She can push a kitchen chair up to the counter to get things out of reach. And if you don't watch her, she likes to jump off the couch. I'm going to hide all the scissors. I'm sure a haircut it next.

Avery's going for a run!

2010-08-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

This week I was getting ready for the day. I heard Avery turn the treadmill power on.

(She can't get to the safety key to make the belt move, I put that in a separate spot). But, anyways, I heard it go on. I went to inspect. She had gone into my closet and got my running shoes. She set them on the treadmill and slid her feet in. I thought this was adorable. She looked all ready to go!

Logan Starts Preschool Again

2010-08-14T16:36:00.001-07:00

Logan started preschool 2 weeks ago! I can't believe he only has one more year left before starting kindergarten. Looking at these pictures, I think he looks more grown up to me.

He is going to Miss Heidi's preschool. He loved Miss Shirley last year, but she is not doing it this year :(. We were glad to find Miss Heidi.

One thing I'm super excited about is that there are 5 boys and only 1 girl in his class. Last year he was one of the only boys at school & at church he is surrounded by girls. Maybe it was meant to be. He seems to really like school so far. It is 3 days a week from 9 a.m. - noon. It has been strange to only be home with Avery during that time. But, I have enjoyed playing with her lots.

Showing off his new back-pack.

Little sister thinks she is a little mommy. She loves to help the boys get ready for school.

A Big Week for Daven

2010-08-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

To start the week of July 26th off, Daven started 1st Grade! I felt like this was a huge milestone. In some ways I was even sadder to see him go to 1st grade than I was to send him to Kindergarten. It seems like it is official that he is more grown up now.

Next year, I am going to take pictures at school. But, here he is all ready to go. This year I did walk him to the playground and waited until the kids lined up. So many people have given me a hard time for just dropping him off last year, but last year he didn't care. He was so excited to go to Kindergarten! But, this year he was a little more hesitant, had a different playground to go to, and a new place to line up.

I think he is going to really like his teacher. I have heard great things about her & she seems so sweet. I had a question for her already and she called me on the phone 30 minutes after I sent my e-mail. So, I think she is pretty on the ball. Daven's carpool friend, Bailey is in his class, as well as a few friends from last year.

And to top it off, he got his first loose tooth the night before. Having both milestones in 24 hours was a bit too much for me, kind of hard to believe.

He came running in Sunday night saying "I just bit a Lego and I think my tooth is loose." I was thinking, "yeah, right!" But, sure enough it was loose.

It wasn't very loose. I figured it would wiggle for a few weeks then fall out.

Well....not so....

On Tuesday night (2 days later), he came running in with blood dripping out of his mouth shouting, "I just forgot and bit another Lego and my tooth really hurts." It was SUPER LOOSE. It was hanging by a thread.

I called Mike at YM's and said he'd have to pull it out when he got home. He kindly informed me that he doesn't pull teeth. So I called my friend Karen. She told me exactly what to do. It was much easier than I thought. It came right out, pain free.

I couldn't believe it.

The tooth fairy came and brought $5.00
I'm not ready for his beautiful smile to change. I guess he is officially more grown up now, even though he talks a little funny :)

Where's Avery?

2010-08-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

I came into my bedroom the other day to find this: Avery under the bathroom counter. Never mind that these cabinets are childproof. Oh, I love this little girl.

Love those brown eyes peering at me and those two cute feet sticking out.

There she is, mommy's sweet & crazy little girl.

Princesses & Pirates

2010-08-04T15:53:00.001-07:00

Hello again to Blogger. I haven't blogged in so long. There are a few posts I need to do so I won't forget these fun events.

Logan turned 4 in June! As I always say, I can't believe it. Here are some pictures from his parties. He had a friend party before we went out of town to Utah. Then he had 2 more cakes (one from each Grandma) while in Utah! What a lucky kid. Daven kept saying how next year he wants to celebrate his birthday in Utah. I wonder why?

Logan was already happy as a clam and the party wasn't until the next morning! Logan and Daven watched me make the cake the night before. They were both so excited. They enjoyed tasting lots of the frosting!

Our guests. Everyone looked so cute all dressed up as princesses and pirates. Logan's friends: Elise, Sadie, McKinley, Nate, and brother Daven. A few more friends arrived after we snapped this picture.

He had so much fun! I love the pictures of them opening their presents. The smiles are contagious.

What a cute pirate sister. Good thing she has two pirate brothers to protect her!

In June, Avery learned where her belly button was.

Party # 2 at Grandmas in Idaho.

Party #3 at Grandma's in Utah. We're obviously smiling for the other camera. oops.

Turning 30

2010-06-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. I turned 30 in June! I think I'm still in shock. I was so nervous about officially hitting this number. I dreaded it every day for a few months. I guess I just felt like I've done so many wonderful, fun, exciting things so far in my life. How can it possibly get any better than this?

But, after being 30 for a few weeks, it hasn't been all that bad. I've been thinking a lot about all the things I want to do in this next decade. Here is my wish list so far:

1) Run at least 3 more half-marathon races! Maybe I'll be bold enough to attempt a marathon, we'll see! If I could just beat my times each race that would be awesome.

2) Go back to Europe on a European cruise.

3) Spend lots of time volunteering in the kids' classrooms at school.

4) Travel to Canada. I really want to see the Canadian Rockies and Banff.

5) Enjoy the baseball games, soccer games, dance recitals and all the other fun stuff kids bring.

6) And maybe, maybe, we'll see....add one more baby to our family. Some days I feel like I have more than I can handle, but I think deep down I would like to have one more. We'll see :)

I'm sure there will be more I'll add to the list, but this is where I'm starting for now!

Before we left for our Utah vacation, Mike threw me a GREAT surprise party! I was so impressed at how well he pulled it off. It was so much fun. The food was delicious..Mike did ribs and chicken. Then, everyone brought sides. He coordinated it quite well I thought!

I wasn't suspecting anything until that morning. My friends had all casually informed me of all the FUN plans they had on memorial day that didn't include me :) But, they told me they wanted to go shopping that morning to celebrate my b-day before we left on our big vacation. As I was getting ready to leave, Logan asked what we were going to do when I got home. I told him that maybe we would go swimming. We always go swimming every memorial day in our pool. But, Daven overheard me say this and said, "LOGAN, DID YOU TELL MOMMY the SURPRISE?" It was at this point that I started to suspect something was up. But I didn't know for sure.

My friends did a great job of explaining their busy afternoons and why they needed to leave early from shopping. I didn't catch on. Then Brenna did a great job of getting us lost on the way home from the mall. She is so sweet and I know it was really hard for her to keep coming up with lies. She came to the door with me saying she needed a drink really bad since she is pregnant. A legitimate request, and I think she really was thirsty!! When Mike opened the door. SURPRISE!!!

Thanks to everyone who was able to come. I know it was so crowded, but it was the best day. I had so much fun! That is one thing I am very grateful for is all my wonderful friends that I have at 30 years old. I hope when we are 60, we will still be friends and will still be having so much fun!

Brenna, Karen, Maddy, me, and Michelle

The guys all trying to push Mike in the pool. Mike, Mark, Dustin, Mike and Craig.

See, all guys just LOVE this thing!

Cheers to everyone that is THIRTY!

MURDER

2010-05-23T20:39:00.001-07:00

Let the Party Begin! But....wait....there's MURDER involved!

Meet our characters: Detective Neville "the Knows" Nutella and Donna Wannabe

I hang around with movie stars. My brother, Don Wannabe doesn't approve of my friends but gives me my allowance. Someday, I'll be on the big screen, hopefully playing Scarlet! The cigarette is fake, by the way. I had to wear bright red lipstick. I learned that it is hard to wear, it gets on Everything!

The party was so much fun. The funnest part was getting dressed up & seeing everyone else's costumes. We got most of our things at Savers and a costume store. I totally want to do it again. I wasn't the murderer, nor was Mike. I don't have a picture of Michelle, the murderer. But, she stole my pearls and I'm still mad about it :) We had a blast!

The Sherlock Holmes Pipe.

We were encouraged to bribe, kill, blackmail...whatever it took. What a gang. We said next time, we are going to go bowling or something after, just to see what people think! It was such a fun night!

Trouble in Action

2010-05-23T20:30:00.001-07:00

You might be asking yourself, Am I Really Trouble like my Mom says?

How could a face as cute as this be TROUBLE?

Or a face like this?

Ha, Ha, Ha, let me just show you how I can be TROUBLE.

Just imagine my mommy is gone. Daddy realizes it is getting VERY QUIET in the house. "Where is Avery," he wonders? Hmm...Let's see.....

I LOVE MARKERS!!! What can I say?

It was really fun, even if I did get in trouble. Daddy was just glad I didn't draw on the WALL.

Sidenote: I think part of Avery's trouble is our lax parenting skills as she is our third. I'm sure we let her do way more than we ever let her brothers do. Plus, her brothers leave all kinds of messy things, like Markers, lying around. And, she is a born rock-climber. She's sees it, she goes and gets it!

Daven Turns Six - Star Wars Birthday Party!

2010-05-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

I am so behind in my blogging. My mom keeps asking for the pictures from Daven's birthday party. Sorry it has taken me so long, mom, to get caught up.

I can't believe I have a six year old running around here! I love our Daven so much. He has grown into such a handsome little boy. I am so proud of him for all he has been learning this year at kindergarten. He is a smart boy. Life is always more fun with him around.

Here is Daven on his 6th birthday. We take the kids out for dinner on their birthday. Last year Daven chose ARBY's. Mike and I decided to go with it, since, hey, he probably won't choose that again. This year he chose one step up - PETER PIPER PIZZA. The kids had fun using all their tokens and buying army guys with their tickets! It was definately fun and the pizza wasn't as bad as we were expecting! Maybe next year, we'll work up to Chuckey Cheese's.
I usually save the big cake for their birthday party. This is why Daven is blowing out a birthday candle from an ice-cream sandwich above.

This year Daven wanted a Star Wars party. He has been crazy about Star Wars all year.

I found a cake store on-line. I ordered these printed stickers to put on his cupcakes. They are made out of edible frosting. You put them on and they melt into place. It wasn't too hard. I was really glad that Mike's mom was here to help me while we initially tried to figure it out. They didn't turn out as great as I was expecting, but the kids loved them. Each cupcake had a picture of a different Start Wars character on them. We learned a lot for next time & it was fun to try something different.
Party Day. We played some fun star wars games inside. The kids had to pretend they were in Jedi Training. We put their senses of hearing, taste and touch to the test. They passed!
Then, we went outside for the Jedi Training Obstacle Course. The kids had the most fun doing this. Here are some cute shots! Amy from Daven's class jumping through the rings.

An Intense Jedi - Look at that!

Alex from Daven's class. Check out those cool sunglasses!

Next, we tested their light-saber swinging skills with the Pinata. We had to get something harder to get the box to break! I think we eventually used a golf club. Daddy had to give it a final swing at the end. I'm sure everyone's parents thought their kids came home with way too much candy...sorry!
Bless the girls' hearts. They were so sweet to come. Daven really wanted Mikenna to come, she is his friend that he met up at the Kunz' cabin a few months ago. They were inseparable. This was more of a "boy" party the girls said! But, apparently, according to Mikenna's mom and dad, she had a really good time at the party. I was so worried about the girls the whole time. They were a little afraid to jump in and try things. I'm really going to have to learn how to throw a girls party.

Nate, Daven's best buddy since they were like 2!

Bailey, she goes to Daven's school and we carpool with her.

We played a crazy-mixed up Dress-Up game. Here are the final costumes. We did it like musical chairs. If they were holding the bean bag when the music stopped, they had to put on a crazy dress-up item. The girls were especially nervous about this. What was I thinking? I didn't have ANY girl dress-ups:).

Present time is always so much fun.

Daven had so much fun. This was a fun party to give this year. We were excited to have Mike's parents there for all the action.

Here Comes Trouble

2010-05-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

She really is trouble. I just don't know what to do with her sometimes. Mike and I just smile and roll our eyes at all the things she does. Oh, Avery Bug, what are we going to do with you?You are everything we never knew we always wanted in a little girl. But, you are TROUBLE and nothing like anyone we've ever met or expected.

She loves to stand at the bathroom counter and practice combing her hair. Her brothers must have been here shortly before her, the sink was filled with bubbles.
And she loves cheese puffs. I bought a bag - the first bag since her birthday. They were gone in 2 days! The entire bag! She wanted them after every meal and for a snack. She seriously loves these. They are not good for her I know. But you just try to be the one talking her out of them. Then you'll understand why I let her eat them :)

Avery has mastered CLIMBING. I think Mike got his deepest desire to have a rock-climber for a daughter. She climbs on the kitchen table daily. She can also climb up her high-chair and nearly get in. You have to be with her every second.

Today I buckled her tightly 3 TIMES at Costco and yep, she got out within a matter of minutes each time. I have people approach me at the store all the time telling me to please buckle her in. They don't understand how many times I do this & she gets out of it. She is CRAZY. I have to keep one hand on her the whole time.

She HATES her carseat. It is a fight every time we get in. She is quick and always trys to run away from you.

But, as crazy as she is, she always makes us smile.

She does have a nurturing personality. Whenever someone is crying, she'll drop whatever she is doing to go and help. We love you Avery. Keep all these great surprises coming.

At the baseball game Saturday, someone had been watching her and said that if she survives infancy, she'll grow up to be very independent and determined. I guess these qualities will be good later on :)

A Few Happenings Around Here

2010-05-10T15:47:00.001-07:00

We have been keeping busy, although I'm sure it doesn't appear so according to my BLOG. I decided to make our blog public again. I figured maybe I over-reacted about the strange followers I was having. I'm sure there were some even stranger ones I didn't know about. I read an interesting Ensign article on blogging and thought, hey, maybe we'll try public again.

Here are some happenings:

Gila Valley Temple Open House

The temple was really pretty. We were glad we went, but very dissapointed. Our daughter cried through the ENTIRE open house. Cried, screamed, and was mad. We've concluded she doesn't like the temple. It was really embarrassing, and I felt so bad. Everytime the tour guide would start to talk in a new room, Avery would scream. He would stop and look right at me. Then I would take her out in the hall. I felt horrible. She didn't cry on the 2 1/2 hour car ride over to Pima, she didn't cry at the chapel next door. But as soon as we hit the temple grounds, she wanted to be somewhere else. We love you Aves!

On the way home from the temple, we stopped at a small town called Bryce, Arizona. It is in between Safford and Pima. Mike's ancestor settled this little community. (Great Great Great Grandfather - Ebenezer Bryce)

So, if you have been to Bryce Canyon, it is named after Ebenezer Bryce. He was living in Southern Utah at the time. He went looking one day for a missing cow and stumbled on Bryce Canyon....what a find!!! We are kind of proud of this claim to fame!

And here is Mike's new pride and joy. You've probably already seen it on facebook. He won it at AM/PM's grand opening a few weeks ago. He thinks it is the coolest thing ever. It cracks me up, but it does match the office furniture. What to do???

Aunt Erica and Uncle Nick

2010-03-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

Aren't they the cutest couple ever? We had such a fun week. My sister, Erica and her husband Nick came down to visit. We were sooo sad to see them go. I'm sure they were somewhat glad to leave the chaos here. But, we really miss them!

They are probably enjoying the extra sleep...My kids would ask every 5 minutes in the morning...when can we go wake up Erica and Nick? What can I say? They just love them to pieces.

We did some fun things. Erica took me to the mall & showed me what was in style now. Wow, I needed some help picking out clothes. We also went to the new Mesquite Groves Pool. It was a blast. We want to go again. Mike drove everyone to South Mountain on Friday while I worked. Here are some pictures overlooking Phoenix.

Can't wait to see you guys in a few months!

A Spring Family Picture

2010-03-28T21:29:00.001-07:00

March 28, 2010

Daven 5

Logan 3

Avery 13 months

Go Mariners!

2010-03-28T21:18:00.001-07:00

Daven had his first T-Ball game this season on Saturday, March 27th. He is on the Mariner's team. Daddy is his coach. Mike is a great T-ball coach! You can tell he loved baseball growing up. I told Mike that he'll probably get more opportunities to coach. I guess they were in desperate need of one more coach and just started calling through the list. Since our last name starts with "B" I think we were at the top. Mike has had several "I'm just going through the list and came across your name" calls lately. Hopefully it will work to our advantage more in the future. Daven likes having him as coach.

Daven's good friend, Nate is on our team, too. The only downfall....we are not the Boston Red Sox :(. Daddy's favorite team. Maybe next time.

Aunt Erica and Uncle Nick came for the game. We had so much fun with them while they were here. We had to say good-bye after the game was over. My kids love them so much. I don't know what we'll do when they start having kids of their own. Maybe their kids will love me that much. I can only hope!
And what is the best part about playing t-ball? The capri suns after!!! I thought this picture was darling of Daven and Nate.

I took some pics of Daven hitting the ball, but they were too far away. I'll have to use another lens next time. Daven played first base and right field during the game. We have some amazing hitters on our team. We even managed to get a few outs. The boys were very behaved for Mike. I just love watching them in their cute outfits. But, Mike reminds me they are UNIFORMS. Whatever they are called, they are cute, cute, cute. Bring on some more.

My First Pony-Tail

2010-03-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Avery muffin is walking. She cruises pretty fast around this place, too. Last weekend I decided to put a pony-tail in her hair. I don't know what I am doing with her hair yet. I am still learning. But, she looked so cute BOPPING around with a little tail sticking up on top. Love it!

Tid-Bits

2010-03-28T21:00:00.001-07:00

Here are some random sayings/happenings that made me smile. The above picture included. Mike must have snapped it & I ran across it while uploading photos tonight.

Conversation #1:

During a family home evening.

Me: "Logan, what is a Mistake?"

Logan: ....thinking.....thinking....."DINNER!"

Happening #1:

Daven noticed the grocery list I started the other day. In his INCONSPICUOUS Kindergarten handwriting, he added LUMUMADE and LEGOS to the list. Oh, if only it were that easy to trick your mom into buying you Legos.

Conversation #2:

In the car..

Logan: "Mom, I'm all done with my drink."

Me: "Put it in your cup holder."

Logan: "I can't. There's HAN TIZER in my HUP COLDER."

I don't know why, but I can't bring myself to correct him . Maybe I just don't want the innocence to end. It's my way of keeping him little. He still says, CHID (kid) and CHOUCH (couch) and GOOTER (scooter). I think I'll keep it that way for a little while.

Avery Turns One!

2010-02-23T21:11:00.001-08:00

Our sweet Avery Bug turned one today. It is hard to believe that one year ago today, she entered this world. It feels like it has been a few months. But not a whole year.

I'll never forget how surprised I was when they placed her on my tummy. I kept feeling her beautiful hands . They were so dainty. I knew I was holding a little girl. But, I had NO idea what other sweet surprises lay ahead of me her first year.

She has surprised us by being so full of energy and life. She is into everything & she likes to make trouble. She loves tape and markers. We have to watch her like a hawk. And, she always makes us smile. She is the most independent thing and wants to do everything all by herself. This includes standing up in her high-chair whether she is buckled in or not. The other day she hit my hand away when I was trying to hold onto her as she stood up in her chair. Stinker.

Here's the beautiful birthday girl.

This is the recycled ball-bopper. I think my mom gave it to Logan. It has been in the garage for about a year in storage. I figured she would love it & never know.

Markers from some friends that know her well!!!! She was so excited and wanted to play with them right away. I can't wait for tomorrow so she can color!! They're mess-free markers by the way.

It's huge. It didn't look this big on the box. Oh-well. decided to get her a cradle for her baby. She has no clue what it is, but its a long time until Christmas. She's not going to be getting a whole lot of toys between now and then. So, we decided to stock up on things she might want later.

The cupcakes had bumble bees on them. She is our busy-bee!

I love this look on her face, like why is everyone looking at me? What is going on?

Here she is trying to get out of her chair to get the cheese-puffs that are on the table. She LOVES cheese puffs. I don't buy them because, I also love cheese-puffs. But, I needed to indulge her for her birthday. And, she wanted them instead of the cupcake and ice-cream. Silly girl :)

Notice the cheese-puff crumbs instead of frosting. I cut them up into bite-size pieces with a knife. Never thought I would have a child that loved cheese puffs.

It was a fun little party for her. A few friends came over to join in the fun. Happy Birthday, muffin. We love you lots!

She's Got Fangs

2010-02-04T15:15:00.001-08:00

These were too cute not to post. Mike was trying to get a shot of her fangs. She got her incisors first, and it is so silly looking. Yet...very, very cute!

London's Run...My First Half Marathon

2010-02-04T14:47:00.001-08:00

This past Saturday, I finished my first half marathon. It was on January 30, 2010. I am so excited that I finished. When I crossed the finish line, I was speechless. I didn't know what to think, because it was REALLY HARD! The last 3 miles were brutal.

I've always wanted to do this. Well, about since I met Mike. I've always enjoyed running. I did a charity 5K when we were first married, but that doesn't really count. For the half-marathon, the timing just never worked out. I wanted to run one with friends and I was always either pregnant, nursing a newborn baby, etc. So you can only imagine how stoked I was when Maddy e-mailed me in August suggesting we do London's run. The timing was going to be perfect. Avery would be almost 1 when we raced!!

Back in August, I was running about 3 miles on a regular basis. I just tried to up my distance and pace little by little. I ran 4 miles for the first time in October. I did my first 5 miler on Halloween. They were tough. Then, we started training in November. Brenna, our friend joined us. I was so sad that she was unable to continue after our 8 mile run due to a lot of hip pain. She was amazing!! We missed her, it wasn't the same.

We did a training schedule from Hal Higdon. We basically upped our base run during the week from 3 miles twice a week to five miles by January. We added one mile to our long runs on Saturdays each week. Every few weeks we would back off on our long runs to give our body a chance to rest. We did our long runs together. Those were really fun. Maddy would always start out running with us, and then we had to try and catch her by the end. But, it was really great motivation. I teased her so many times about having motors or springs in her shoes!!

The most exciting part about it was our good friend Michelle flew in for the race. She moved to California almost 2 years ago. We were so excited to see her. The night before the race we went over to Brenna's house for a carb fest & catch-up fest with Michelle.

The morning of the race I picked up Michelle and Maddy at 6:30 a.m. and we drove to Schnepf Farms. It was COLD! We were all really excited. We started running a little faster than I was ready for, but I wanted to keep up with Michelle and Maddy as much as I could. I'm glad I did, I think it helped my overall time in the end.

The first 6 miles flew by. After 6 miles, though, Maddy took off. Michelle and I stayed close together for the next few miles. Then, I got behind her. Miles 10 - 13 were so hard. I was really tired and they felt so much longer than miles. I was so thirsty and loved the water station at mile 11! I opened my GU pack, but didn't think I could stomach it, so had to throw it away. My body was definately very fatigued. My hips started hurting. I kept thinking, only 4 more songs and you'll be done.....and counting down that way.

When I had about 1/4 mile left, it was so funny, Maddy came running around the corner. I thought, "What? You just finished a half-marathon and you came back to run with me and cheer me on? You really do have springs in your shoes, wished I had your energy." But then I told her, "You are a true friend, to come back and get me." She said I didn't have much longer to go and was making me try to sprint. She was trying to get me to keep up with her. I was trying to hard and I'm sure she was so frustrated with me. It did push me a bit. Thanks, Maddy. I'll always remember that!! Maddy did awesome by the way, finished in 1:56 and some change.

Here are some pictures from the race.

I came around the corner and kept looking for Mike and the kids. That was what I would visualize while training when I felt I couldn't make it one more mile. I would picture them at the finish line cheering me on. Here I am....right when I saw them for the first time!
Feeling so tired, you can tell I can barely pick my legs up. Just wanted to be done!
I think I am the first person ever to cross the finish line at such a slow pace, everything hurt, I didn't care about the few seconds a sprint would save me.
The kids were so cute. They had made some signs for me. I loved them. That was such a cute surprise. To see them holding their signs and yell go Mommy at the finish line. Mike was so cute to have them make these. And he had flowers for Michelle and I at the end, that was really sweet!
Here is my team! I couldn't have done it without them. Mike was the biggest trooper of all. Sacrificing 3 days a week to take the kids so I could run. Thank you, thank you, thank you, babe! I told him he needs to plan something for him now so I can support him. He was my biggest cheerleader!
Here's Michelle and I. I think Michelle got 2:04, she did so awesome!!! I finished in 2:07:32. I was so excited. My goal was to finish in under 10 minute miles. My pace was 9:45.
We finally found Maddy so we could all get a picture. She knew so many people at the race!

Thanks so much Maddy, Michelle, and Brenna for doing this together. I don't think I could have done it without you guys. It was such a fun experience.

Michelle asked me right after the race, if I would do another one. At that point, I was shocked and wanted to say no. But, what came out of my mouth was "I need a break." She agreed with me. But, now after a few days of perspective behind me, I think I would totally do another one. I think it would be fun to try and improve my time. We'll see.

Happy running! When's the next race?

I Get Around!

2010-01-24T17:01:00.000-08:00

Here's Avery taking off. Other than she hasn't figured out how to turn to avoid walls or back up, she's doing pretty good! Santa brought this cute stroller & dolly.

Christmas Morning 2009

2010-01-10T15:16:00.001-08:00

Christmas was such a great day for us. I must say, it was one of those days you just want to bottle up because everything went so well. I just had so much fun watching the kids get so excited about everything. It was nice to just relax all day and play, play, play!! I stayed in my pj's all day long. I got most of our packing done for Utah on the 23rd for that very reason, so I could relax and enjoy the day. I always feel sad when Christmas day is over, I want it to come sooner than 365 days later!

Daven was exstatic when he saw what Santa brought him. The Lego Star Wars X-Wing. He changed his mind a few weeks before Christmas claiming to want a DS. (I think a few of his friends were asking for DS's). But, he seemed really excited. Later he told me, "I think Santa must have known that some other kids needed a DS, so he brought me the X-wing instead. I'm really glad." Boy, Santa sure is smart.

Avery got the cutest little stroller/walker you've ever seen in your life and a baby doll.

Logan's still a bit groggy in this picture.

Here he's perked up. He got a fire station. And played with it All.Day.Long!

Papa Pehrson. For some reason, I don't have any pictures from last Christmas of him, so I had to be sure to get some this year!

Avery opening her first present. She was over-whelmed after the Santa toys. She didn't know what was going on. She was a little fussy that morning because of it.

Logan playing with his fire station. Serioulsy, Santa is soooo smart!!

Mike is the designated Lego person. I think the boys get tired of me helping them with Legos. They are always saying, "mom, you're doing it wrong." So I gave up a long time ago. Mike helped Daven put together the X-Wing. It didn't take 5 hours like the Police Headquarters Legos from last year. PHEW!

Ta-Da!

We took the kids out to ride their new scooters in the Moore's culdesac right by our house. Avery rode the little bike. She surprised us at being mobile on it. That girl is a wild woman.

The boys loved their scooters.

If you look closely, you can see Daven's toungue sticking out as he's concentrating so hard.

The Moore's came out to say hello. I had to take a picture of Ashlyn in her pink shoes, pink purse and cell-phone. Although, Shauna's girls kept falling down because my kids were getting them all riled up. I felt so bad. But, it was still fun to see them for a few minutes.

Kayla testing out the scooter. Sorry Shauna for all the bruises.

The day was a huge success. This is my favorite picture. Logan fell asleep around 9 p.m. on Papa's lap. He just couldn't stay awake any longer after a day of so much fun.

The Brooke's came over for dinner. But, somehow, I don't have any pictures of that. Sorry. But I am still feeling so thankful for such a great day.

Christmas Eve 2009

2010-01-01T19:57:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve was lots of fun. We started the day off by making some cookies for Santa. I love how the cookies always end up with mounds of sprinkles. I think Santa must really like those :)

She's just cute, what can I say?

My dad came in that afternoon. We ate chicken-noodle soup and rolls.

The kids opened up their new Christmas jammies. I was so excited about Daven's...they were Lego Star Wars jammies. Perfect for him. Logan got Lightning McQueen and Avery reindeer and polka-dots. What is it about jammies, I just love them so much. I think I could spend more money on them than clothes.

Ornaments came next:

Daven got a personalized ornament of a little boy going to school. It said Daven on the hat & his Elementary School on the front. His face lit up when he saw it.

Logan got a fire-engine ornament which pretty much sums up his focus this year.

Avery got a cute baby and a Stork.

Then, we did the flannel board nativity story that we usually do and sang some songs.

Here's trouble.

Santa gets chocolate milk at our house.

The boys went to bed around 8:30 p.m. But Avery bug was wide awake. She was our little Christmas helper elf :)

Getting Ready for Christmas

2010-01-01T17:58:00.001-08:00

I am so sad that Christmas is over....There is something so magical about it. I just don't want it to end. But, now it is a new year & I thought I'd write about our Christmas celebrations this year. It was a great Chrismas. Perfect in so many ways. I was so grateful that we were all healthy and just got to enjoy the season together. Watching the kids have so much fun & get so excited was icing on the cake.

Here are the kids all dressed up for the holidays.

Avery's spunky red polka-dot skirt and red tights stole my heart.

Avery loves to help empty the dishwasher. I just had to put this one in here. She is pulling up on everything. She bonks her head several times a day because she gets into trouble pulling up on stuff.

The famous cookie exchange. I got invited to a fun cookie exchange. Everyone had to make nine dozen cookies. But, then, this is what we came home with. Crazy, I know. But, it was lots of fun.

Avery is all bundled up to go see the lights at the Mesa, Arizona temple. We must be getting too used to the weather here. It felt very cold to us. But, the Brooks family came with us. They showed up in flip-flops!

The kids loved the temple lights.

Hay-ride fun. Above are Daven and his buddy, Nate.

This is the first time ever the boys have wanted to ride on horses. We had to snap photos. Here are Logan and his friend Elise.

Family Pictures

2009-12-06T06:06:00.001-08:00

So we got our family pictures taken again this week with Liz. I was so happy with how they turned out. She goes to a church close by that has a grove of trees out back. It didn't look that pretty from the outside, but once you got in there, it was gorgeous.

Here they are, well at least some of my favorites. I will save the Christmas card photo for a surprise. The only thing was I didn't like many shots of our whole family together. My hair was doing something awful. I tried to fluff it right before, but in the pictures, it looks like I hairsprayed out the side like we used to do in the 80's. It looks so BAD. So, needless to say, I will NOT be going out on the Christmas cards. Oh-well, the kids are cuter anyways :)

10 years coming up on December 18th! I can't believe it. I was glad she had us do a few shots together at the very end. It's been a long time since we've done that.

My all-time favorite!!!!

Avery loves doing tricks with Daddy. This has been one of her favorites since she was a few months old. She laughs everytime Mike does this. As Liz was snapping this photo she started making monkey sounds. It was hillarious. Glad we captured it on film.

So That's What Bumper Pads are For

2009-11-05T11:51:00.001-08:00

To my credit, in the Baby Your Baby classes we teach at the hospital we always talk about bumper pads. We discuss how technically they could be a suffocation hazard, although in the beginning, baby isn't going to roll around so the risk is minimal. But, we suggest removing them once baby can pull themselves up for sure. I guess some kiddos use them as a stepping stool to climb out of the crib.

So, I'm just trying to practice what I preach. Perhaps this is why she has trouble sleeping???

Happy Halloween 2009

2009-11-05T11:41:00.001-08:00

Happy Halloween! Here is our clan.

Daven-Vater!

He drew his own face on his pumpkin. He said, "it has an infection in the eyes."

It kind of looked like it. But it was totally random, we were wondering where that came from.

Here's the cute face behind the mask.

Fire Fighter Logan.

Busy Bee

She doesn't even take time to stop and sleep at night. But, yes we still love her lots.

We did about half of our sub-division (about 4 streets) and the kids started to get tired. Busy bee wouldn't ride in the stroller so I carried her most of the way. I was really tired after this year's trick-or-treating. But, it was so fun to see the kids get so excited.

Bumble-LICIOUS

2009-10-29T22:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, she really is Bumble-LICIOUS. Here are a few pictures of my sweet Avery Bug. I can't believe she is 8 months old.

I couldn't decide between the Lady-Bug or the Bumble Bee costume for Aves. But, then I decided the bee is perfect for her because she is the BUSIEST BEE in the whole wide world.

Everyone said that having a girl would be so much calmer than having boys. They are supposedly mellow, have longer attention spans, etc. Well, I don't know what happened, but that is not Avery. She was a good newborn, but now she is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. She doesn't stop. She has to touch and explore everything, and RIGHT NOW! Here she is trying to turn around in her high chair. Yes, she can get all the way around and manages to play with the straps.

For Avery, the grass is always greener on the other side. She always wants what is OVER THERE instead of what is OVER HERE. And as soon as she has what is OVER THERE, she wants what is OVER HERE.

What am I going to do when she can crawl? I already can't leave her alone for 2 seconds.

I love how busy she is, it cracks me up. Perhaps it is in the irony of it all.

She learned to feed herself this week. I think she is going to be a good eater. And I think I've earned a good eater after my extremely picky Daven, and Logan's Doritos and Strawberries only phase as a baby. I almost don't know what to do with myself when I put BREAD on her tray and she actually eats it. It is kind of fun. Perhaps this will make up for her business.

The moral of the story is: I think life with Avery is going to be full of SURPRISES! Can't wait for more!

Daven's Surgery

2009-10-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

Daven had surgery yesterday. Here is a picture of him right before they took him back.

He had a birthmark (nevus) removed. It was on his buttocks. Because of the location it is hard for me to monitor it and there is a chance it could turn cancerous when he gets older. 3 different doctors told us they thought it needed to come off. We felt like it was the right thing to do. But, still, with general anesthesia, a mom just gets all worried about things like this. Unfortanutely, it is too big to take off with one procedure. So, we have to go back and get the second part taken off in a few months.

Daven was a very brave boy. He did cry on the way to the hospital. I think it was out of sheer frustration from not being able to eat anything all morning. He was sick of popscicles :). The surgery was at Phoenix Children's Hospital. We got all checked in & then Daven cheered up. They gave him a stuffed animal when he first got there. He named him Yoda since he was too little to be called Darth Vader :) They let him pick his jammies & socks. He looked so cute in them. They showed him the mask. I was glad Mike piped in, "Look you can breathe into it like Darth Vader." He wasn't scared about that at all. Way to go, Daddy!

Then, they had a big playroom in Pre-Op & let him play until the surgery. He was super excited about that.

The surgery went well, but was the longest hour of my life. I kept thinking, what if this was heart surgery and was 3 hours or something like that? I don't know if I could do it.

I am so thankful everything went well. He hasn't even needed pain medication yet. I am amazed at how quickly kids bounce back. Oh to be 5 again! The hardest part is keeping him down to rest. He has so much energy.

It's Official: Logan is a Preschooler

2009-09-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

Logan has been waiting almost his whole life to start preschool. I think when you watch your older brother go for two years and you CAN'T go, it makes you appreciate things so much more.

Logan relished his first day. He couldn't wait until preschool started. He was so excited to put on his backpack. When school was over, he came up to me. The first thing he said was, "I got a folder." He has always sat by my side the past two years, every day as I go through Daven's folder. So, you can only imagine his excitement that he now has one, too. He HAD to show me the minute he got in the car. Nevermind that there were several cars behind me. I loved it & was so happy for how happy he was. Logan is very thankful for things; I love that about him. His folder is already demolished from taking it out and putting it back in his backpack so many times because he's so excited to have one.

Logan is going to Miss Lisa's. This is where Daven went for his first year of preschool. I am super excited for him. He is absolutely loving it. And the best part is, Miss Charen (Karen) is one of the aides. Karen is one of my good friends and Logan LOVES her in a very special way. I was so exicted when we walked down to the preshool room the first day. It looked like so much fun down there.

I have to comment on his cute shirt. Take notice of it. It is a few sizes too big. We bought it in LegoLand, and it was the smallest size we could find. Well, it is his favorite shirt. He has worn it the Last Three Tuesdays! And school's only been in session for Three Tuesdays. Gotta love it.

And the picture with Daddy will always be a memorable one. It was his special request - to get a picture with Daddy. I asked if he wanted one with mommy, but nope, just daddy.

At dinner that week, he kept bragging over and over. "I go to preschool now."

All the Reasons I Know She's a Girl

2009-09-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

1. She is already great at throwing parties. This week she has woken up every morning at around mid-night and thrown herself a little party in her crib. Mike and I partially think it is cute. She lays there, kicks, squeals, and babbles. I am trying to teach her that I will not feed her before 3:30 a.m. So, Mike and I just lay there and chime in every few minutes, "Avery, it is time to go to sleep." She eventually does. It is oh-so frustrating & cute at the same time. Her paries last about an hour.

2. She loves to look at herself in the mirror. I nurse her on our bed. That is her "Special Spot" as one of my friends calls it. She has a very hard time nursing anywhere else. When we are done, I burp her. She sits up and ALWAYS looks at herself in the mirror for a few minutes. Whenever we pass the bathroom in the hall, she always turns to see her cute reflection.

3. She loves her clothes. Every day, I hold up her outfit. She always smiles, laughs, kicks her legs, and then flaps her arms. She loves to see her outfits, seriously. My boys NEVER did this. Logan practically hated getting dressed as a newborn...wait a minute, he still hates it.

4. She likes to watch me get ready in the mornings. The boys hated this. I would set them in their bouncer while I got ready and they would immediately protest. Especially when I brought out the BLOW DRYER - you would think the world was coming to an end. But not with Aves. She will sit there and hang out the whole time while I get ready. And, she doesn't mind the blow dryer one bit.

5. When she gets mad, she gets MAD. Overall, she is the sweetest little girl. And she is very patient. But, if you push her too far, then she does get mad. She can go from sweet to very mad in a matter of seconds. We laugh at the drama. It is quite cute.

6. She doesn't forget easily. If you do something to make her mad, she doesn't let go of it for a while. For example, the other day, some friends watched her for us. She was not a happy girl for them, she was very mad we had left her. Mike went to pick her up. She YELLED at him when he got there. She has this very distinct "Lecture Voice." She had apparently been crying, she was sniffling when he picked her up. Well, about every 3 minutes in the car ride home, she would burst out SCREAMING. Then, she would calm down only to remember a few minutes later that she was mad. I got home from work an hour later. She was asleep in her bed, but kept waking up every 20 minutes or so, yelling. She was mad all night long that we had left her! This kind of stuff happens a lot, especially if you hold her off feeding...etc. etc.

We love you Aves! We wouldn't have you any other way. You are such a precious little girl. No wonder your brothers & mommy & daddy love you so much.

Daven's a Kindergartener!

2009-08-03T21:59:00.001-07:00

Daven started Kindergarten 1 week ago. I am happy to report that his first week was a success. His teacher is Miss Keegan. We are on a modified year-round schedule here, that is why school has already started. They do 8 weeks of school, then get a 2 week break. I am really excited that he is in school already. It is so hot here that most of the kiddos were starting to feel couped up. I am looking forward to 2 weeks off in October, December and March when the weather is much nicer!!

I can't believe he is in Kindergarten. He was so excited to go. I did some crying the week before. I was so sad to think of him being so grown up now. Even Mike got a little choked up the night before. But, when the morning of came, I was surprised at how un-sad I was. But, I have to say my stomach was in knots for him! I don't think he was nervous but I sure was. We were driving to school and I was clenching the door handle. Mike just laughed and said, "You know, your son is not even nervous."

He was so happy to go. Mike and I drove him to school. We got to the kindergarten door. I got out of the car. He gave me the FASTEST KISS and HUG EVER. He ran through the door. He didn't even look back. So how could I cry? I ended up feeling really happy for him. He had a good first day.

I'm loving all the random tid-bits of info he gives me. If I don't ask for more information, I would seriously wonder what kind of school he is going to. It is hillarious sometimes.

Here is the low-down on his 1st week according to him:

Day 1: "We didn't have time to eat lunch."

Translation: I didn't eat my lunch fast enough :) He finished it in the car on the way home.

Day 2: "We didn't get to go to recess."

Luckily, I probed for more information. I guess it was too hot to go outside. Yes, it was 115 degrees that day. So, I was glad they stayed in. I guess they got to watch a movie in Miss DeHart's room. Phew!

Day 3: "Jimmy is in my class."

I had no clue who Jimmy was. But, apparently he colored all over his desk with crayons. He didn't get in trouble because the teacher didn't see it. Hmmm, very interesting.

Day 4: "I played patty-cake games with RAMONE."

I have no clue what patty-cake games are, but I'm still laughing at some of the unique names in his class. No offense if you have a kid named Ramone. I'm sure some of the other mom's are like, DAVEN? What were those parents thinking?

Day 5: "They only had chocolate milk for lunch."

What kind of school is this? This was the day he had hot lunch. I'm hoping they were just out of regular milk. He decided on a juice box.

Day 6: "Mom, our school went on Lock-down. We have to go into Miss DeHart's room."

How scary does that sound?? I guess they had a drill. But he continued to tell me that it was for sure really going to happen. They would have to stay in her room until they told them they could go. I certainly hope not.

"I lick my hand-sanitizer with Nicholas." We had a discussion about why you shouldn't like your hand sanitizer off. It sounds like he is having fun to say the least.

Way to go, Daven! You are growing up & I am so proud of you. You are such a good boy.

My Polka-Dot Dress

2009-08-03T21:52:00.001-07:00

Okay, I had to post these pictures. I can't believe how utterly in love I am with my little girl. Last Sunday she wore this darling blue and green polka-dot dress. A friend had made this bow. Up until now, the bow has been way too big. It is still gigantic, but it looked WAY too cute with this dress.

Mike called it her satellite. He said his cell-phone reception improved when he held her. She seriously looked like you could pick her right out of the garden.

I had to put this last one in. We call this her ace-bandage headband. She loves her saucer.

Camping in Mt. Rainier

2009-07-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

We were able to go camping in Mt. Rainier National Park as part of our trip to see Mike's parents in Washington. Mike's parents came along with us, which was super special. We had such a great time. We camped in the "Ohanapacosh" campground. Mike and his sister have great memories of camping there when they were kids.

We did tent-trailer camping. Mike's parents brought their trailer & we borrowed Mike's sister's trailer. It was so nice of them to let us take it. As a little girl, we did lots of camping in our tent-trailer. I loved it. I think I want to invest in one and go camping every summer like Mike's sister does with her kids. It would be a great way to make memories. It was so much fun!!

The first night, the boys had fun roasting marshmallows. Thank goodness Grandma likes burned ones!! Actually, after a few burned ones, Daven started perfecting his roasting skills. He made me some pretty delicious ones.

I just love the squat in this picture. He looks like a pro doesn't he?

The best part about camping are the "wake up" pictures. Here is Avery in her bug suit as we called it.

I just love this picture. She looks so adorable all bundled up & in pink, no less. It was about 90 degrees when we arrived, but the next two days were cool. It was so nice to be able to wear sweat shirts and long pants in July. HEAVEN!!!

This is a river right by our campsite. I loved going to sleep to the sound of the river & waking up to it each morning. Could sit there and listen to it forever.
We went on a hike to some very old trees. Here are the boys sitting in the roots of a tree that was probably 800 - 1000 years old before it died. This is Mike's favorite picture.

The boys loved finding sticks. Here they are fighting this tree in a pretend battle.

Here is another wake-up picture. The second night was really cold. Avery has on so many layers. It was kind of funny because she kept trying to put her fists in her mouth, but she couldn't move her arms far enough. It was like Ralphie on the Christmas story. I just wanted her to be warm, especially with SIDS and not being able to put bedding on her.

On our last day, we took a short hike to Silver Falls. It was very lush and pretty. I'm glad the boys got to see what other parts of the world look like without cacti and rocks all over. Avery loved being in her Bjorn. We created the term, "should we bjorn her?" every time we got out of the car. She just looked around and napped whenever she felt like it.

Grandma and Papa at the falls. It was a huge drop-off, so we held on tight to the kids. Isn't this a beautiful picture? We are so glad they decided to come with us!

I wanted to get a Christmas Card picture. But, the one I like best you can't see the falls in. Oh-well. Here is another of my favorites.

I want to go back.

Avery Muffin

2009-07-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture for Grandma Pehrson and Grandma Bryner of Avery muffin. Mike snapped this of her today in her swing.

4th of July

2009-07-18T12:12:00.001-07:00

We just got back this week from our trip to Washington state to visit Mike's parents. We had such a great trip. I'm going to try and post some pictures from our favorite happenings. We kept very busy. One special highlight was that Mike's sister, Michelle, was there the same time we were. The kids had a blast hanging out with all their cousins again. Cousin time is the best. I have the best memories of spending time with my cousins as a kid, so I was super excited they get to start creating these memories with their cousins now.

It was around 100 degrees on the 4th. Everyone thought it was so hot, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. It was so nice to be somewhere where it actually cools off at night & the mornings are pleasant.

We started the 4th of July by painting rocks in the backyard. Papa gathered a whole bunch of rocks & grandma brought out all her paint. The kids had so much fun. The adults spray-painted some rocks red. Then, Papa put some U of U decals on them. Of course, Mike enjoyed this!!! We brought home the Utes rocks and the boys proudly have them displayed in their rooms.

Logan, my little lefty. He uses his left hand for everything, even eating. Kind of surprising to us. Logan was very focused the whole time. He only used RED paint. To Mike's dissapointment it was not because he likes the U. It was because he wanted the rocks to look like fire engines.
These two were inseparable. Mekenna took Logan under her wing and took care of him from sun-up to sun-down. Logan was eating up all the extra TLC. Mekenna was so sweet to him!
After lunch, we went boating. The Columbia River is right by Mike's parents house, but it was too cold for skiing. We took a small drive to the Snake River. BEAUTIFUL! It was so fun to be on a boat again. I loved boating as a teenager & still do. Here are the kiddos with their cousins, just having a blast on Papa's boat!
This is a nasty picture of me. But, I had to post it. Daven loves boating. He surprised us by being very comfortable on the boat. He loved being the flag boy. He would hold it up really high while we were all skiing. The water was super cold when you got in. (Hard to imagine how cold the water on the Columbia must have been). But it was fun to ski and be on the water. I have to say, Mike and I found muscles we forgot we ever had the next day. We are getting old!!!
That night, we drove down to the Columbia River and watched some fireworks. It was a great day. Above is Daven driving the boat, he loved to honk the horn. Fun memories!

A Good Laugh (or Two)

2009-06-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

Laugh #1:

Today we went to Kohl's. I got a gift card from my mom for my birthday. I am in desperate need of shirts. I took Logan into the dressing room with me because Mike had already wandered off with the other 2 kiddos. Logan wasn't super excited, so I told him to tell me if he liked the shirts I was trying on.

He didn't say much. But as I tried on the final shirt....he said:

"When I grow up and get bigger and turn into like a mommy, then I can wear a shirt like that."

The lady in the dressing room next to me busted up laughing!! I was laughing, too and explained that when he grew up, he got to wear shirts like daddy.

But, Mike said, hey at least I knew he liked my shirt. I bought it!!

Laugh #2:

We have been doing swim lessons through the city. Logan HATES his swim lessons. On Wednesday, he was crying. He told me that he needed to go stinkies. I freaked out and got him out of the pool, worried he had already gone. Luckily, he hadn't. But, Avery was asleep in her carseat. Daven was done with his lesson. So, I asked Daven to stay right there while I ran with Logan to the bathroom. I had to hurry fast. (but really I should have taken them both with me).

Daven was the best big brother. He didn't leave her side. The lady sitting next to us said he did a really good job watching her and entertaining her after she woke up.

Well, later that day, I told Daven how appreciative I was for his help watching Avery while I took Logan to the bathroom. He said:

"Your welcome. And if anyone said they wanted to take her, I would say she costs ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS."

I think he was trying to think of some HUGE amount that nobody would ever be able to pay. But, yes, I have to chuckle because he would have sold his sweet little sister for $100.00

Mike said, next time make sure you take her to the bathroom with you.

Swine Flu hits our household

2009-06-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are pretty sure we all had the swine flu. It was YUCKY!!! Thankfully, we are all feeling better. Somehow, Avery didn't get it. Thank goodness! Our family came into town for Avery's baby blesssing. My sweet niece was the first to come down with symptoms on Saturday night. But, it was a mild cough...so we thought nothing of it. But, by Tuesday Papa had it, Mike had it, and my nephew. When Mike spiked a fever and had the chills, we started thinking it was the flu. Well, 6 more of us came down with it that week. It was awful, we felt so rotten. Daven was the swine flu winner, conquering the virus in 1 1/2 days. I was the looser, taking 8 days to get over the bug. When Mike's sister got home, she found out that the day before they came, several 5th graders at my nieces school tested positive for the swine flu. I guess the majority of the 5th grade got infected. My sweet niece is in the 5th grade. So, although none of us were tested, we are pretty certain that is what we had. Our pediatrician seemed to think so as well. Just hope none of you get it, it is so yucky. Sorry to Chloe..I know we passed it to you.

What is crazy is we just got back from California this weekend. I found myself not worrying as much about the boys' hands being clean. Usually I am a freak. But, I guess in my mind, I was thinking, we'll we've already had the worst possible thing. Anything else would seem pretty mild.

Logan's Birthday

2009-06-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Logan turned 3 years old on June 11th while all of our family was still in town for Avery's baby blessing. We decided to hold a family party for Logan. He was so excited. A few days before, I told him it was going to be his Birthday soon. He looked at me with those blue eyes, and said, "It's going to be my turn?" Poor little guy has been so patient. He patiently supported Daven during all of his birthday festivities. His eyes lit up, he was so excited that it was his turn. Seeing how happy he was made me so happy, too!

We began the party by looking through his baby book. We only got 3/4 of the way through before he was off to play. But, mommy really enjoyed looking at all the pictures of her sweet little Logan Jamers.

Logan requested a fire truck cake. My sister-in-law helped me. I think it turned out really cute. Logan's face just lit up when he saw it. Usually I spend several hours on a cake & then it just gets devoured. But, not this time. Logan was so thankful & I could tell it made him feel really special. So, it made the work TOTALLY worth it!!

The party was so simple. Just a few games, pizza, ice-cream and presents. But can you tell he doesn't care how simple it was. He was just in seventh heaven that it was his day!

Cousins sharing in the fun!

The funniest thing was when we went to open presents. Logan said, "Okay, now Daven is going to open all of my presents!" We were like, "no buddy, YOU get to open all of your presents." Even better, but he is so easy-going he seriously wouldn't have minded if Daven opened them. I'm loving the tongue action in this picture.

Happy Birthday, We love you Logan!!!

Avery's Baby Blessing

2009-06-10T21:06:00.001-07:00

We blessed Avery this Sunday at church. I know, she is 3 months old. But, if we did it this month, then all of Mike's family, plus our nieces and nephews would be able to come. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Sunday.

Mike's sister Michelle and her kids. I know, Avery looks almost like she belongs with them. But we won't let them have her! We are so grateful that she made the long drive to Arizona with them. Especially since Uncle Curtis wasn't able to make it. We have had such a good time having them here. My boys are loving their cousin time.

Grandma and Papa came, too and drove such a long way! We are so thankful for them and all they do for our family. We feel very loved.

Mama's girl!

My fave picture from the day!

It was a beautiful blessing, short and sweet. Mike did a great job. She was pretty good, just fussed for a few seconds. We love you Avery bug! You are such a blessing to our family.

Chatter-Box

2009-05-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

The highlight of our morning is waking up and getting Avery ready for the day. She is full of things to say. She especially loves talking to her bear mobile above her changing pad! But, sometimes, she is ready to get up and chit-chat at 5:30 in the morning, and we're just not ready to get up yet! Enjoy this video grandmas!

Really Good Blackmail

2009-05-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

SWITCH, PULL, PULL........Stretch your arms LONG and LEAN.

You'll get a kick out of our boys doing pilates. This will make excellent blackmail someday.

Avery Goes Swimming

2009-05-26T13:25:00.001-07:00

We had a low-key Memorial Day weekend. We did go swimming on Monday & invited Mike's friend Mark over to swim and have dinner. He just moved here from Chicago. The boys LOVE Mark......

We got Avery all dressed up to swim, then this is what happened. She fell asleep. Look how cute those rolls are on her thighs, not to mention the belly! We call her our chunky monkey sometimes.
To our surprise, she woke up after a few minutes. Mike wanted to bring her in so bad. I was worried she would scream....the water is still quite cold. It takes me a few minutes to work up the nerve to get all the way in. But, she LOVED it. She didn't cry once. I was so surprised. Way to go Avery!
It was a challenge trying to keep her out of the sun. I stayed mostly in one shady spot in our pool & we didn't stay in very long.
Even though she is so little, I think she is the oldest Bryner baby to have her first swim. But, she gets the bravery award because she definately had the coldest water for her swimming debut. The boys both got July swim water, which feels much like the bathtub.

Just a cool shot of Logan. Doesn't that look like so much fun! Wish I could still do that!

Avery Bug

2009-05-20T21:19:00.001-07:00

The newest pictures of Avery Bug.

This one looks like a mug shot but it is still cute.

The Energizer Bunny

2009-05-20T21:12:00.001-07:00

The Energizer Bunny lives at our house. His name is Daven. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and keeps going....and going.....and GOING. At 8 p.m. he is still going strong. I am amazed at all his energy.

I think he got the early bird gene from my dad. I don't think my dad has every slept in a day in his whole life, always up with the sunrise. I think Daven got the energy gene from the Bryner side of the family. All good things, wish some of his energy would wear off on me.

We were amazed on Saturday because Daven woke up at 5 a.m. He was busy all day. We went to a baptism, played with friends, went swimming, then went to the stake fair. At 9 p.m. we thought he would show some signs of fatigue, but nope, he started running laps with his friend Nate at the fair. Amazes me!

I never thought I would say this, but I am getting ready to send him off to kindergarten. He needs somewhere to direct all of his energy. It is going to be so good for him. I always looked at this time and thought I would be too sad to send him off. I have always enjoyed having him around. I still enjoy having him around, it is just that he needs more. I've been trying to arrange lots of play dates for him & that helps tons. I am glad in some ways that school starts in July! I'm sure, though, that once he is in school I will be so excited to go pick him up when the day is over. Bitter sweet.

Swim Season Has Begun

2009-05-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

Mike and I took the boys swimming in our pool on Saturday. Mike's been in a few times with them, but this was my first for the season. The water took my breath away for a second when I first got in. But, in a few weeks it is going to be perfect. We had so much fun.
Doesn't Avery look like she is having a great time? Actually, she was an angel for like 40 minutes while we swam. She sat in her bouncer and played with her hands and blankie in the shade. I just snapped this picture at the very end because she looked so cute all mad.

Jumping to Daddy is a favorite for both boys. They like jumping to me too, but I was trying not to get my hair wet...I know silly of me. But, we had somewhere to be right after. My hair kept getting wet w/ Daven's splashes, so I decided to let daddy have a few rounds of catching them.

Swimming to Daddy, Daven is starting to remember everything he learned last year.
Logan likes to sit on the side of the pool and fill up his dump truck with the watering can. He's perfectly content just playin' with all the water.

The Final Three

2009-05-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

Daven's 1st Soccer season came to an end over mother's day weekend as well. Daven was so proud of his trophy. Mike has issues with everyone winning, and we've had many conversations about his. But for successfully hanging in there, we both thought the kids deserved trophies. It was fun to see how proud they were.
Here is coach Mike with the final three kiddos from the team. David, McKenzie, and Daven. By the 2nd game of the season, these three were all that were left. One player broke her elbow (not during a game), one didn't want to play when it was game-day, and so forth. They got pretty tired since we didn't have any subs to use and it was SOO hot outside. They were troopers for playing the whole game.

Way to go TIGERS!!

Aunt Erica and Uncle Nick

2009-05-20T20:48:00.001-07:00

My sister and her new hubby, Nick came for a visit over Mother's Day weekend. It was so much fun! We are so glad that we have Nick as a new brother-in-law, he is so good to my sister and they make the cutest couple. We probably wore them out. They played and played with our kids. They boys wouldn't leave them alone. We were so sad to see them leave and miss them. It was so sweet of them to drive all the way down to see us. Nick even watched the boys for me so that Erica and I could go get a pedicure w/ a friend.

We kept hinting to them......see how wonderful having a baby is?? Our kids could use some cute cousins. These two are going to make adorable kids some day, that's for sure.

My Logan looks like he could be one of theirs.

Our Cheerful Cherry

2009-05-05T21:49:00.001-07:00

Look at those chunky cheeks on our cheerful cherry. She weighed in at almost 12 pounds yesterday at the peds office. These are her cherry jammies. Daven loves them. I was taking some stuff to goodwill the other day and he's like, "mom are you not going to take Avery's cherry jammies?" He knows I get rid of stuff frequently & must really like these.

We had a family home evening about positive attitudes a few weeks ago. We talked about being a cheerful cherry, grateful grape, etc. A friend of mine made the packet. Anyways, I put these jammies on Avery the other day and the boys were like, "look mom, she's a cheerful cherry!!" I thought, she really is. They were actually listening.

Party Time!

2009-05-05T10:09:00.001-07:00

Daven turned 5 years old last week. I can't believe I have a five-year old that will be starting kindergarten in July. The night before his birthday, we looked at all his baby photos. It was just a reminder that time goes by so fast. He still has the same personality he had as a little baby. I am so amazed that each child can have their own distinct personality traits that are noticeable from birth. (well, the womb, actually). He was a happy, energetic, silly, fun-loving, determined, very smart baby. That still describes him today.

The night before the party, I did my usual preparation - decorate the birthday cake. We copied Daven's cousin who had a LEGO party a few years ago. The cake is supposed to be little legos. I have to say it looks so much better in this picture than it did in person. It was a truly flawed cake. I decided I had 2 good excuses this year. 1) I have a newborn baby and I wanted to be in bed by 10:30. I didn't frost the back of the little cakes. & 2) The boys coming to the party were only 4 and 5 years old & they wouldn't care.
When the party came, all the adorable little boys arrived. I kept wanting to eat them up. There were 8 little boys all SO excited about Legos the whole time. When they first came, they put together some creations using all of Daven's thousands of Legos. Can you tell he likes them? Perhaps a little too much!

Showing off their creations.

Next, we gathered around the table. Each little boy got to put together their own mini-Leog set. It was a small 4-wheeler. They were seriously so excited & so focused the whole time. This was the part of the party that I became somewhat useless, however. Glad Mike and my dad were able to help them put everything together.

Next we gathered round the kitchen table to eat pizza, cake and ice-cream. A little crazy with this many little boys. This is where I thought eating would take at least 20 minutes. Nope, they were done in like 5! Boys for ya! We had to think of some last-minute games to keep them occupied the rest of the time. Usually I plan way too much for the party and we run out of time. This time I planned too little. So, I felt bad they were kind of bored towards the end. I'll remember how fast they eat next year!

Opening presents....lots of LEGOS of course and a gift card to the Lego store. Pure excitement.

By 5 p.m. that day, Daven had successfully assembled each of his Lego sets. I have to say he is very smart, he uses the instructions and got them all put together.
And here is Papa holding little Avery. I love this picture because she is reaching for his mustache. Every time he held her she would smile and try to grab it!! Never seen one of those before :)

PhotoTag - Really Fun I Promise

2009-04-23T20:31:00.001-07:00

Karen photo-tagged me the other day...it is really fun, so if I tag you, you have to do it!!

The thing I like about this one, is it makes you feel like you are in preschool again and it is SHOW & TELL. The best part about preschool, of course.

The way this tag works is you have to go to your 6th folder and post the 6th picture in that folder. Fun, huh?

So here is my sixth folder, sixth picture. That is Daven being held by Great Grandpa Hatch. Daven was 8 1/2 weeks old. What's cracking me up is his face.

Well, he has grown to love his great-grandpa. When he was a toddler, he started calling him Grandpa GREAT Hatch. Well, the name stuck. My sweet grandparents are so good at sending cards and letters to keep in touch. Now, they usually sign them, LOVE Grandma and Grandpa GREAT Hatch. So cute & it totally fits them because they are great and wonderful.

Okay, so I had to post another picture from that folder only because I was shocked when I saw my hair. It used to be so curly. Holy Cow! I had ringlets. Where have they gone? Now my hair is wavy at best. The things kids do to your body. Yes, they are all worth it. I guess I can't complain considering half my life was spent wishing for straight hair. Be careful what you wish for.:)

Okay and one more because it was just so sweet.

All right, I tag anyone that is reading this blog post. Can't wait to see your pics! It is so fun. You seriously have to do it.

For Grandma's

2009-04-20T20:42:00.001-07:00

Both Grandma's keep telling me that they check the blog for pics of Avery to see how she is doing. So, I know I promised to keep posting pictures of her every week. I'm under strict orders to keep her little until the next time they can see her. I am really trying my best.....

Easter Bunny came to our house. Logan informed us that the Easter Bunny can open the Garage. Not sure where that came from, but glad he figured out how to get into our house.

After finding eggs and baskets, we headed off to church. The boys got recycled outfits from last year, but in this economy, I figured they would be perfect, especially since they still fit. And, you know what? The didn't even remember that this is what they wore last year, so it was perfect. I don't think little boys really care about getting all dressed up for Easter. PHEW!

Daven just seems so much more grown up this year, though. He has really become more independent/responsible. Look at how tall he is getting.

And, my sweet little Avery.

These were taken yesterday. She grew out of her 0 - 3 month clothes this week. They were either too tight, or getting rather immodest around the neck-line. It seems like 2 weeks ago I had a baby, not 2 months ago.

But, oh I love her and just can't get enough. This outfit is so adorable. But I was thinking, I don't think any of us grown-ups could pull something like this off. We would look ridiculous, but she looks so darn cute!!

Daddy of the Year

2009-04-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Mike is AWESOME at LEGOS. Logan asked him to make a fire engine. Mike promised him when he got home from work that he would make him one. All day long Logan kept asking, "Is Daddy on his way home?" "Will he make me a fire engine?" So as soon as Mike got home, I told him that he HAD to help build a fire engine for Logan.

They spent an hour together and this is what was created. There are doors on the side that open up and Mike even put Lego tools in there. There is a ladder on top. Doors that open, and a seat for the LEOG fire-fighter. He didn't even use instructions.

Yes, Daddy of the year. And I guess that comes with Smile of the Year, too. Look how happy Logan looks. Doesn't get much better than that.

Letting go of Expectations

2009-04-09T12:40:00.001-07:00

So Daven started soccer this past week. This is the first time I've signed him up to be on a team. Last year he did these little soccer clinics. He loved those. They just practice soccer skills like dribbling and do fun drills. But he was getting kind of bored with the clinics, so I thought it would be fun to have him be on a team and actually get to play games. I have to say it has been a learning experience for me, too.

The season officially began 2 Saturday's ago. I dressed Daven in his team shirt. But, his black shorts were dirty. (There is no requirement for the shorts) I put him in these red ones. Daven could have cared less what he looked like. But, he was the ONLY and I mean ONLY child in red shorts. I, of course, felt bad for him and started to re-live my childhood years, thinking, I would have felt bad if I showed up for my soccer game and I was the only one wearing red shorts. I would have been embarrased & suffered a major blow to my confidence I'm sure. I decided that the next week I would make sure that he was dressed in BLACK shorts. What was I thinking?

Here is Daven with his coach. Mike said he would be interested in being an assistant coach. But, I guess they didn't have enough coaches. Mike gets to be Daven's coach now. I have to say, he is wonderful with the kids. They all love him. There are 5 kids on the team. He is so good with them. Logan, as you can tell, thinks he is part of the team. We had to break the sad news that he wasn't going to get a blue shirt. We said you have to be three. He woke up last week one morning and said, "mom, I'm four now." I think he just wanted to be able to play soccer. He will be soon enough.

So, here is the story of the game. Daven was just having fun. He was not interested in the game at all, or the concept. Even though we had gone over what to do during the week. He would kick the ball when he was told, but other than that, he was just running around being silly. Their team is the Tigers - Daven kept running up to the other team and saying, "ROAR!" He would then proceed to run around the field in a silly manner by over-exxagerating his arms, almost like he was dancing and running at the same time. Did I mention he wasn't into the game? No, he was far more interested in the fact that him and MacKenzie had twinner shin guards.

Oh, yes, it was hillarious. But I couldn't help but feel a little blow to my own expectations. I thought, maybe soccer is not his thing. I kept yelling encouraging things from the side-line. But, you know, I think as mom, I just want my child to do well. It wasn't like I wanted him to be the best one on the team. But, I wanted him to at least get in there. I imagined everyone on the sidelines was thinking, Mike and Rickie, what kind of parents are they? Their child is being so silly. Look at him "ROAR" at the other players. Can you believe I was thinking that? How terrible of me.

Of course, I didn't tell Daven that. We just went over what to do at a game and told him what an awesome kicker he was. We tried to help him know what to do the next time.

But, then after the game I was talking to my friend Brenna and she made me feel better. She's like, it just takes them a long time to get the hang of it. She told me stories of kids that didn't ever want to play that were on Kyla's team. And, of a boy that "skipped" to the ball all the time. I just laughed. Then, I realized, that even though I didn't care if my child was the star player, my expectations were WAY too high. It should be all about having fun at this point and making him confident in himself so that he would want to keep trying.

So, I just decided to relax and let Daven have fun. That was the most important thing at this age, right?

Here is Daven on week two. Notice the BLACK shorts. I wasn't expecting anything. But, Daven totally started to get the hang of it. It was so fun to watch. He got in there, watched the ball, took the ball away from the other kids. Then, he started dribbling the ball. He is a good dribbler and dribbled it then kicked it in the goal 3 times. He was doing so good.

Just thought I would share my learning experience these past few weeks.

She Did It!

2009-04-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

My six-week old baby girl. Cute little Avery Bug.

Daven loves her so much. He has been a good helper this week. If Avery is fussing, he'll go over and talk "mother-ease" to her. She calms down for him. She loves him, too. Avery reminds me a lot of how Daven looked as a baby. I went back today to compare pictures of Avery w/ Daven when he was this age. They look similar, but not as identical as I was thinking. She doesn't look like Logan's baby pictures at all.

I want to take a picture of her in every one of her cute outfits because they are all so cute. And, she is probably going to grow out of some very soon. I don't want to forget how cute they were or how cute she was in them. I asked Mike to take a few pics this morning. Then, she just started grinning like crazy! She must have thought the camera was silly or something. But, it was adorable. These pics don't do justice to how cute she is, though, or how beautiful her smile is.

This post is dedicated to my sweet baby girl. Oh, I love her so much. I was so excited the other night when she almost slept through the night. I fed her at 7 p.m. She fell asleep at 8 p.m. Then, didn't wake up until 4 a.m.!!!! HALELUIA. I have to say I felt like a brand new woman. I had gone to bed around 10:30 p.m. So I got like 5 STRAIGHT hours of sleep. I was so excited that after I nursed her, I couldn't go back to sleep. But it didn't matter, I felt very refreshed. She didn't do it again the next night, so I think she is getting there but just not quite ready to take the "full night sleep" plunge. But, last night, I fed her at 9 and she slept til 4 a.m. again. I'll take it. Maybe she'll be like Daven. By 8 weeks he spoiled me and was sleeping like this every night. One can dream.

Did I mention she's smiling? Love her.

My Adorable Stinker

2009-03-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, she is the cutest baby ever. I love her eyes. I love her smile.

Yes, she is the worst sleeper in the world. (But, she gives me one smile in the morning and I forgive her).

Yes, she can Poop with the best of them. A blow-out several times a day.

And I love her!!!!!

She is the sweetest baby.