Canada & Portland

Another crazy month has come and gone.  Ryan, Jaxson, Avery and I flew up to Canada for my Grandpa's funeral at the end of March.  It was a beautiful funeral and it was great to be with family.  Ryan flew back home for work, and I stayed an extra week and then flew to Portland to visit my sister and her family (so I was gone for 3 weeks!).  We got back just last week and are trying to get back into the swing of things.  This post will be a lot of photos, not much writing (the best kind right?!)

 

This is the night of Avery's birthday - I didn't have these photos uploaded when I did her birthday post.  We are a chic-fil-a family, so naturally we went there to celebrate her birthday!  She was feeling better towards the end of the day ... thank you Tylenol and advil.



Mmmmm waffle fries. 

There's a happier girl eating her cake!

Thanks for Guh Goh and Papa Low (my parents) we bought Avery this fun pink elephant ball popper for her birthday.  Jax and her both love it!  Athough I think we need to buy more balls soon because they seem to disappear really easy... 

We also dyed some Easter Eggs the Sunday before Easter.  Jaxson loved it.  He wanted to put all his eggs into the blue dye.  He also liked to re-dip eggs in different colored dyes - made for some funny looking eggs :)

Yaaa for lots of colorful hard boiled eggs! We threw them out before we left for the funeral so they didn't stink up the fridge while we were gone.

Made it up to Canada and enjoying some time in the hot tub - its one of my favorite things to do there. 

PJ time and cartoons for the kids in the morning. 

After Grandpa's funeral service, we all went out to the cemetery for the other service.  This is my 5 brothers and 3 cousins (Grandma's and Grandpa's only 8 grandsons) carrying our Grandpa.  What handsome men showing their last respects. 

There they are.  Can you guess which 5 are my brothers??

This one breaks my heart.  My grandpa was a twin.  His twin brother Dick (Richard) is the white haired man sitting on the left in the chair.  He and Grandpa both have dementia and had a hard time communicating with everyone.  But they still were with each other every day, chatting with each other.  It was so cute to see them chatting by the fireplace at the assisted living home at Christmas time.  When I came up to visit, Grandpa said "Joanie."  Which if you knew how bad his mind had deteriorated, it was quite impressive that he remembered.  I love my grandparents so much and I am grateful for the opportunity I will have to see them again.

Jaxson and his cousin Zach waiting while we sang, and my uncle dedicated the grave.

An failed attempt at getting all the kids, spouses, and grandkids to look at the camera.

My family

My dad (third from the right) and his siblings. We aren't sure when we will all get together again, now that G&G are gone ... sad!

After the funeral dinner, my aunt had an Easter egg hunt ready for all the kids.  They both thought it was pretty fun. 

Jaxson actually missed the first egg hunt, so we gathered up a few more eggs, restocked them, and hid them again.  The second time around, Jaxson only grabbed one, threw it at Zach, and then helped Zach snatch them up at lightning speed.

Bath time with cousin Addi

Easter morning was the day after the funeral.  The Easter bunny brought up most of the candy ....  Just check out how happy Avery is! haha

Ok, now there is a really excited face! (actually Jaxson was somewhat upset that Avery had different things in her basket, and wanted the same things.... but that's typical for a 3 year old right?!

I have had this pretty Easter dress picked out for Avery for a while now  - it looks darling.  However, I couldn't get a good photo of her to save my life.  Anyone who has tried to take a photo of my kids can relate - the are so wiggly!

The rest of the week we played inside, jumped on the tramp, and played on the playset out back.

Avery learned how to climb up on chairs (and shake it back and forth (no hands) like a surf board - yikes) and how to go down the stairs (on her stomach)

Aunt Leslie was great about going outside with the kids!

Jaxson and Avery both loved the tramp. 

An attempt to get a good photo of Jaxson and Talia before they left.  Yep, this is the best one I got.

Monday night, we went to the movie theater to see "The Croods."  It was a cute show and Jaxson actually sat through most of it - this was his first movie theater experience.  It probably helped he just kept eating popcorn and candy throughout the show :)

We drove up to Waterton one day to look at the falls, play at the park, and throw rocks in the lake. 

Ninja Jaxson

Guh Goh and Avery

Crack Cousins - haha!

Down by the lake it was super windy and COLD.  Most of the kids lasted a couple of minutes, but Jaxson just stayed there forever throwing rocks in.  He kept saying, "I am winning!"  I think he thought you had to throw all the rocks in the water... 



We also drove into Lethbridge and visited with my Grandma and Grandpa French.  It was great to see them and chat with them. 

Jaxson showing great-grandpa his purse full of toys (the purse and toys found at grandpa's house).

Of course, Avery pooped through her pants (because she knew I didn't have a change of clothes) so we washed it and let it dry for a bit.

4 generation photo! 

Love this photo of Grandpa and I. 

How cute is this one!

We went to McDonald's after to meet up with the cousins and to let the kids play for a while.  Addi and Avery. 

The next day was Zach's 6th birthday, so we went 5 pin bowling (harder than 10 pin!).  I love this photo of the cousins!

Jaxson was a nut.  It is hard to control/manage him when he gets really excited.  He wanted to keep throwing all the balls down the lane and take every turn.  I can't blame him, its just when you grow up, you learn that taking turns and sharing is the nice thing to do :)

We finally got a ramp for him to roll the ball down after he kept PURPOSLY placing the ball in the gutter and rolling it down (or rolling it so slowly down the lane that it stops).

After bowling, we went to Justin and Amelia's house for a delicious breakfast supper - waffles, hash browns, eggs, sausage - yum! 

Amelia is great at making fun cakes -  This year, Zach wanted a rainbow trout fish - fun!

It was Conference the last weekend at my parents house, and after having the kids watch the first Sunday session with us, we decided it would be better to turn on a show downstairs so we could get more out of the talks.  They all had fun snuggling.  Jaxson loved it!

We flew to Portland on the Monday and loved spending time with my sister and her family.  Claire is 2 months younger than Jaxson - they played well together and had a lot of fun. 

We were wondering if all the kids and their car seats would fit in Julie's mini van, and somehow we made it all fit. 

The first day there we went to "Out of This World Pizza"  - it was a pizza buffet with a bunch of fun bounce houses and jungle gyms.  The kids loved it. 

How cool is this?  The parents were allowed to play on it too :)

They had a little kids area too - Avery loves slides!

At the park.  This is Faye and behind is Annie.  They are about 3 weeks younger than Avery.  It is so fun that they are all so close in age.

This little seat just spins (something about the angle and momentum) and Jaxson asked me to give him a little push.  I gave him a little push and walked away.  After about 30 seconds, I hear him yell to "stop" - I guess it just keeps spinning and spinning - yuck! I hate being dizzy.

She is fearless - loves to climb and jump off things.  Sounds familiar ... I dove off a chair (with a bucket on my head) and broke my arm when I was 1.5 yrs old.

Food time! These girls can throw down food.  Annie loves the bread and Avery loves the chicken nuggets and cheese.

Out for a walk on the twins 1st birthday. 

Cute family photo! Look how pretty and green everything is!

We saw some duckies coming out of the water.

I love this photo - these kids had a blast playing together!

Brownies for the birthday girls!

Jaxson and Claire wanted to be swaddled like babies.  Wish granted.

Another day we went to "pump it up".  Jaxson and Avery both loved the bounce houses.  Avery had fun sliding down by herself. 

We went to the Children's museum.  It is so fun to see Jaxson interact with our kids.  He is always so friendly and says "Hi, will you play with me?"  He loved playing with the fake food and pretend to go grocery shopping. 

Rock climbing wall

They had an awesome digging pit with tire pieces.  Jaxson and Avery loved this part.  It was neat, but I still have this OCD thing about dirt, kids being dirty, etc... lol

They also had a stage where the kids could dress up or play instruments.  One of the kids started opening the curtain, and I told Jaxson to quickly go up there and start dancing.  He did and it was awesome! 

Jaxson and Claire entertaining the crowd with music. 

Then we painted the kids faces - they wanted to be tigers. 

The last part was the water area. Children's museums are so neat - Jaxson loved it. 

On the way out the door, Jaxson had to brush the alligator's teeth one more time. 

We had a great time in Portland and when we got home, the Easter bunny delivered the rest of the goodies and clothes.   It was a great trip and fun to see everyone but after being gone for 3 weeks, it is nice to be back at home in a semi-regular routine!



Cake Smash and St. Patrick's Day

I was planning on writing this post over a week ago, but we had another death in the family.  Grandpa Low passed away just 13 days after his wife.  It was sad to hear the news, but happy that he is with his sweetheart now.  We were joking that Grandma figured out who to talk to in Heaven to get Grandpa there asap.  I really didn't want to miss another funeral, so we headed up to Canada last Thursday.  Here is the photo of Grandpa and I at Christmas.  Even though he had dementia, he did say "Joanie" when I came to see him -- which is pretty neat considering he has lost most of his memory.  He was such a sweet and loving grandpa.  He was always making jokes and making us laugh.  I appreciated it when he bore his testimony of the gospel to his grandchildren.  I miss him already, but am looking forward to the day I can see him again.  Love you Grandpa!

Now here is some catch up from the last 2 weeks. It has been starting to get nicer in Texas, so we have been taking the kids to the park.  Jaxson and Avery thought this swing was pretty fun together, although it was a pretty tight fit.

Love those eyes!

Ok, so these pictures crack me up.  One night after bath time, Jaxson said "Let's put Avery in my clothes!"  I don't think really appreciated it, but we all got a laugh out of it.  Kinda look similar eh?!







There is the Avery I know and love.  Has a sweet tooth like Mommy - Chocolate chip cookies being my favorite!

Must have been a pretty tasty cookie - just look at that face. 

Jaxson asked me to tie him up with this blanket.  Done.  After about a minute of trying to get out, he got pretty mad :)

Happy St.Patrick's Day!!  I don't have a lot of green clothes for Avery, so she was sporting a green shamrock headband. 

A leprachaun left us a box of lucky charms and green milk for breakfast.  Jax thought this was pretty funny!

We also ate key lime cookie sandwhiches with key lime frosting to help celebrate the green day. 

She still loves crawling into the toy basket and playing. 

Then as soon as Jaxson see's me pull out my camera, he jumps in too BUT will not look or smile at the camera. Nice one buddy! (not)

Another day Jaxson was excited to show me his "rocket ship"  (or maybe it was a boat or a car?)  He made the shape and tucked himself in all by himself.

Birthday Girl!  Avery was actually running a fever still on her birthday, so she was cranky for quite a while.  We ate sprinkle pancakes anyway.  Normally she shovels them in her mouth, but she didn't eat very much - poor girl!

I tried so hard to get a good photo of her wearing her b-day shirt/outfit.  These 2 are the best I got - this girl is hard to take photos of!



I had been looking foward to doing a cake smash with her ever since she was born.  Because the photographer wanted several hundreds of dollars to do it, and we already had family photos/picture people photos set up, I decided to do it myself.  Once again, SO HARD to take a photo of this girl.  She wasn't feeling super well, she wouldn't look at the camera and smile, and she wanted to sit in my lap instead of eat the cake (which was frusterating, but cute). 

Here is the set up

She didn't do much eating of the cake.  She touched the frosting a couple of times and put it in her mouth, then walked over to me and plopped in my lap.  I put her over by the cake probably 20 times. 

Wish I got more photos like this one.  She only smiled in a couple of them!

The "eating" of the cake.

Not too bad.  But then she got obsessed with the candle and wouldn't touch the cake...

Love this one.  She is actually kind of smiling at the camera!  Happy 1st birthday Avery Girl!

Blowing out the pretend candle?  Or she just does this "oo oo" noise once in a while - it's pretty cute actually.

Then she got obsessed with the balloons and kept batting them.  Also pretty funny (and annoying cuz I wanted her to eat the cake) to watch.

This is when I forced her hands in the cake a bit. 

Finally I called for backup.  I thought maybe if Jaxson came and started eating cake, Avery would too.  Well, Jaxson just played with the icing, and Avery kept getting up and walking away. Lame!

I thought maybe if I gave her a slice in her high chair, she would eat it.  Nope!  I am thinking if she wasn't still sick that day, she probably would have been more responsive (but I didn't have a better day to do the shoot).

She didn't want the cake, so I gave her some cheese.  She loved it and went to town.  Guess I should have made her a cheesecake :)

Another attempt to get a photo of the b-day girl in her outfit.  Unfortunately, I had to leave the paci in, and give her something to play with in order for her not to scream.

We are so glad when Daddy comes home!  Jaxson is learning that song right now.  That night we went to Chic Fil A to celebrate Avery's big day (will post those photos later - I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet and am unable to do so right now).  We are very grateful to have her in our home and we just love he to pieces!!